Star-marked youths from a destroyed town band together with other hunted magic-users to mount a rebellion against the tyranny of Tyr Isendel, the Inquisition, and the Painted Swans. Along the way, they gain glimpses of a wider threat the Baroness was seeking power to defend against.
Spanned from Y216 - Y218 on the Isendel calendar.
The Conspirators
Cards deck
The Survivors
Deck row
Bax Demir
Monster hunter, occasionally sexy werewolf and defender of the common folk. It got complicated.
Danica Thorne
Theravyn’dralin, the Last Hand of the Stars. The last aasimar. Prone to kidnappings.
Ethan Fairchild
Assassin, schemer, instigator of the witch conspiracy against Tyr Isendel.
Roux Faux
Fighter, music-maker, lover, alcoholic. Died once (but he got better).
Talith Elinasti
A charmer and a haunted man carrying the darkness of the Suffering.
The Newcomers
Deck row
Astarael Belree
Morathi witch, groomed by Tyr Isendel, haunted by voices and a darker past than she knows.
Athelia
Siren and captain of the Beauty, later the Tide’s Song.
Carter Blackwood
Daughter of a noble house, (not-so-)secret revolutionary.
Sav
Street urchin, genius scavenger of magics.
Skau Vanja
Jorungun healer and fighter, traveler of the River. This also got complicated.
Sylas Remnant
Started as what remained of Bax, quickly became a lot more. Speaking of complicated.
Warbler
A gentle, half-mad halfling out for vengeance on the Swans.
The Lost
Deck row
Lumotu Musket
Perennially optimistic teller of stories and imaginative dreamer. Disappeared under the influence of Vanja’s River travel.
Paloma Shale
Former member of the Swans, who fought alongside Ana against monsters from beyond the stars.
The Story
Year 217
Autumn
The rebels and witches join forces.
Many come for ties of previous friendship and trauma:
- Ethan, the mastermind of the plot;
- Bax, the hunter, grown tall and strong;
- Roux, alcohol- and scar-ridden;
- Talith, playing the kept man with the Petriars;
- Lumotu, as cheerful as ever;
- Paloma Shale, a former comrade of some of the older generation of Aelorean’s Crossing;
- and Danica, the surprise addition, returned from Jorung.
Some join from a desire for company or safety:
- Vanja, a Jorungun healer and fighter, driven from her home by Swans seeking her magic;
- Sav, a friendless nerd also driven from her sewer-nest of ancient aasimar ruins.
Some, for justice against the actions of the Inquisition:
- Astarael, haunted by what she’d done for them and what they’d done to her.
The initial joy of reunion and camaraderie is quickly dampened by a string of failures and draws, and the realization of just how fragile the conspiracy is against the Swans. A manifestation of the Suffering is defeated, however — though perhaps simultaneously fully realized in driving it away from the sewers it haunted — and they snatch an aasimarrelic from right under the noses of the Swans, albeit a broken one. Rumors begin to rise of a dreaded Yeti haunting the area around Northgate.
Winter
Pursuing reports of an ancient ruined civilization and letting the heat in Northgate die down, the conspirators plunge into the Torbjaer Mountains to seek out the city of Rog Hodun. They find it, and discover along the way that Bax is the fabled Yeti. The power of friendship restores his mind to him in that form.
Rog Hodun itself is a disaster. The city is overrun by frost monsters of all kinds and riven by earthquakes. Roux dies in the attempt to pass by the Frost-Forged Dragon, and Vanja attempts to bring him back from the beyond. Instead, a woman with pomegranate hair draws them into a pale, misty land, where Bax offers her his soul in exchange for allowing them to retrieve Roux’s. Roux returns, but what is left of Bax is only his living body and a lost, fragmented consciousness.
On top of that, the Inquisition, having tracked them to the back of beyond, ambushes them and kidnaps Danica, Lumotu, Talith and Paloma. They recover Lumotu, but the rest are lost as the Wolf and the Grand Inquisitor face the witches down. The witches win the day, killing the Grand Inquisitor and the Wolf, at a cost.
Noting their strength and magic, the half-mad halfling druid Warbler joins them, seeking revenge against the Swans. His first significant battle is against a scorpion. His second, against the Suffering, as they track Talith to a Swan fortress that the Suffering has already cleaned out. Along the way it is revealed that the boy that was Bax now automatically absorbs the souls of those killed near him and is playing host to quite a few deceased Swans.
When they reach the Swan fort, the Suffering has already taken over Talith and slaughtered everyone there, achieving full embodiment for the first time. After a gruesome fight, they’re able to return Talith’s mind to himself for a brief moment, and he and Astarael acknowledge their love for each other, before the Suffering snatches him away into the darkness.
Having discovered that Captain Kelwin is heading south toward the capital city of Galoring the slow way with Danica, as his magic is unable to teleport her, the conspirators return swiftly to Northgate courtesy of Vanja and engage in a high-stakes card game to win a ship, in order to pursue Kelwin and Danica at a speed greater than on foot. The ship is won, but shortly thereafter a magister of Northgate dies, whose cause is pinned on witches, causing the city to be closed down and go into a frenzy. Ethan is nearly killed via poison as the money behind the conspiracy seeks to clean up their trail. Vanja is caught, tried as a witch, and executed. The rest of the conspiracy is barely able to escape the city.
Year 218
Spring
Traveling to where their new ship is docked at Portsmouth, they board the Beauty under the wheel of the new captain, Athelia, and her first mate Avarian. Unfortunately, an Inquisitor, by sheer ill fortune, commandeers passage on the ship. The boy who was Bax takes care of this by devouring the Inquisitor Sylas’ soul, name, and life. In the process, he fuses all the souls together and forms a new consciousness, Sylas Remnant. He’s not quite sure why he’s here, but sticks around out of curiosity to see what the odd crew gets up to.
Vanja is discovered doubled over and bound in the chests the Inquisitor and his Swans had brought with them. The execution had been a sham, Vanja instead trussed up and carried downriver to be delivered to the Baroness in Galoring for reshaping, much like Astarael had once experienced. Trust is thin, especially once Vanja reveals that she had told the Swans everything under threat of innocents being killed, everything except for the reason they were heading south.
As they travel down the river, they encounter evidence of aberrant creatures and destroyed towns from monster attacks. After Athelia and Roux join together in song one night, an enormous serpent, a natural guardian of the river waters who looks to have been twisted and corrupted, rises and says their waters have been tainted by some unknown force, their children possessed and turned against them. It offers them unhindered passage on the river if they find and destroy the source of the taint. They decide to accept the offer of the giant serpent that could destroy the ship in one blow.
Talith returns, but it is actually the Suffering using Talith as a puppet. Vivian sacrifices herself so that Talith might be free, and he returns to himself while Vivian becomes the new avatar of the Suffering. She immediately begins hanging around Vanja.
Summer
Leaving the crew and Ethan behind to secure the ship, the rest track rumors of a fallen star inland. They fight and clear strange parasitic monsters like the ones afflicting the river, as well as one the Aelorean’s Crossing children had heard horrifying legends of: the Fade Beast. Athelia releases her charges into the Feywild, accidentally taking everyone else along for a brief ride.
At the site of the “fallen star,” they find what looks like an escape craft of the aasimar and Kelwin with some Swans, clearing out the find. They’re able to drive them off and claim the last power orb from the craft, powering up the aasimar relic once storm from a Swan caravan. It turns out to be a construct, and the moment it powers on it starts blinking and warning of enemies and danger coming to the Citadel. Sylas goes on a vision quest into the history of the aasimar, teaching them about some of the deep history that few of them had any idea how to connect.
While they’re away, Lieutenant Deren Lake, a Swan that had fallen in love with Vanja before she revealed herself as a witch, and Imago Weygarde, the former captain of the Beauty, caught up with the ship and captured it. Ethan escaped and was able to warn the team ahead of time, but Vanja also warned Deren via magic of the coming of the witches. Battle ensued after Weygarde attempted to kill one of the crew as a hostage, wherein Athelia and Roux told the River Guardian that the Swan ship was the source of the taint, which made the Guardian destroy the ship and all on it in a matter of seconds, including Vanja’s former lover. Vivian offered to bring him back to life, if Vanja would give herself to the Suffering, but Vanja hesitated and refused, trusting Talith’s warnings more than Vivian’s blandishments.
Imago nearly kills Avarian as he is cornered and reveals that Vanja had warned them of the witches’ return. Sav, driven to a rage by the betrayal, attempts to kill Vanja before she is stopped by Ethan. After hours of discussion and questioning, they eventually exile Vanja from the ship on an oath to return north and find the long-lost Lumotu.
Astarael is struck by lightning and sent on a vision quest into the past, where she learns that she is the bearer of the hopes of a shipful of maidens, sacrificed to ensure victory for Lord Vikarn Salendir, who now only wish vengeance on the man and have cursed her bloodline to achieve it.
Autumn
They finally catch up to the Long Winter, Kelwin’s prison ship on which Danica is stashed. Along the way, they pick up Carter Blackwood, a noble-born lady who is the only survivor of a small fleet of Briarbird Rebellion ships that had attacked the Long Winter and been wiped out by Swans bearing constellations on their hands. After a fierce battle, they manage to finally kill Kelwin, just before he sets everything alight to explode (again). The witches join forces with the existent Briarbird Rebellion and continue heading south, determined to take the fight to the Baroness and find out what she’s been up to.
In Pashat, what should have been a simple resupply and touchpoint with the Briarbirds there instead turns into an accusation of sedition, two prison breaks, a plague of spiders, the throat of a rich man slit, two ships exploded, one ship slaughtered, two bodies stuffed into a Bag of Holding, and a stolen horse. And at least two lives saved. (A lot more taken, but, oh well.)
They’re barely a day out of Pashat when they elect to turn around to beat up Inquisitor Blackwood, who they know to be nearby because of accidental vision-contact with him, Tyr Isendel, Sylas and Danica. In trying to aggro him off of Danica’s unconscious body, Sylas instead accidentally makes him angry enough to just Disintegrate her. In an inexplicable miracle, the remaining wing feathers from Ana burst, and Danica returns from dust. The death experience impels her to confess her feelings to Ethan, finally.
With the newly-acquired knowledge that the former heir of the Baron, Alistair-Lin Isendel, is still alive in Galoring, the crew proceed onward. Some wrinkles in their plans occur when a) the Tide’s Song gets flung into the Feywild, losing two weeks of plan progress; b) they lose Sylas for the second time when Danica exchanges him for Bax; c) Ethan’s sister Ellie is discovered to be engaged to an important baric, and then promptly murdered by the Baroness as part of a wider effort to clean house of her opponents. (They also discover the Inquisitor Sylas was Sav’s father, but that isn’t a wrinkle so much as a strange fact.)
Nevertheless, they persist and infiltrate the Cathedral, rescuing Danica’s father Eirlys along the way and fixing a teleportation circle that permits them to teleport in Briarbird forces. The Suffering proves to have moved on to the Church of the Kindled Flame, but abandons the High Templar for Tyr Isendel the first time she’s killed. Roux goes on to kill her a second time. In the cellar, they discover many strange creatures, kept captive and researched on to try and extract their powers, as well as a machine the late Baroness was attempting to use to reach the Octurne.
Sav fixes and finishes the machine, and most of them ascend to the Octurne. There they discover the place abandoned but for an enormous tower being built by swarms of Nurie’te-like constructs, at the top of which sits what remains of Aluvyn’dralor, corrupted by the illithid into something as terrible as he is awe-inspiring. They flee as the Octurne starts to crumble, the tower loosed from its shell and spearing into the earth, far to the north.
The Episodes
Season 12 Chronology has the episodes and fiction interwoven in chronological order. There’s so much writing that I thought it might make sense to separate off the episodes by themselves, though.
| Date & Episode | Synopsis | Played |
|---|---|---|
| 68 Autumn S12 E01: The Autumn Festival | The conspiracy meets (and in most cases, reunites) in catacombs and a closed-down tavern. | Sep 4, 2020 |
| 70 Autumn S12 E02: You Can’t Go Home Again | Some head into the sewers to try to get to Sav’s home. It goes badly. | Sep 11 |
| 80-83 Autumn S12 E03: I’ll Fix Anything | Vanja, Ethan, Roux, Lumotu and Astarael travel south of Northgate to steal a wagon of items from some Silverun guards. | Sep 18 |
| 84 Autumn S12 E04: Hampton and Goldfairy | Sav, Astarael and Talith investigate the sewers beneath the northern slums, finding the Suffering at the heart of some shenanigans, and help a band of orphaned children. | Sep 25 |
| 1 Winter S12 E05: The Aasimar Relic | Ethan, Talith, Sav, Vanja and Astarael steal an Aasimar object from a caravan heading from the northern mine to the Painted Swan headquarters. | *Oct 2 |
| 11 Winter S12 E06: Another Man’s Treasure | The group meets to discuss the aasimar artifact and decide to head west to find out what kind of ruins were discovered in the mountains. They make preparations to leave. | Oct 9 |
| 20 Winter S12 E07: Scorpion Meat | In which they fight frost scorpions. | Oct 16 |
| 26 Winter S12 E08: Lair of the Hunter | Vanja, Bax, Ethan, Lumotu and Astarael discover Bax’s yeti cave and learn he is indeed the yeti. They fight and slay some ogres and travel on the River thanks to Vanja. | Oct 23 |
| 29 Winter S12 E09: Onsen Nonsense | The boys decide to discuss leadership amongst themselves. A mock battle ensues, snowballs are thrown, and a hot tub is built. It’s a good day. | Oct 30 |
| 33 Winter S12 E10: The Yeti of Jorung | The team gets caught in a blizzard, and Vanja dreamwalks. They watch Bax’s transformation into the Yeti, but Ethan brings him back to himself. | Nov 6 |
| 39 Winter S12 E11: Spiders and Backpacks | Ethan, Sav, Roux, Vanja and Astarael encounter frost spiders, recover some backpacks with information on Harvey’s Digsmen, and collect a bunch of gems. | Nov 13 |
| 45 Winter S12 E12: Rog Hodun Revealed | An earthquake reveals an entrance to Rog Hodun. | Nov 20 |
| 48 Winter S12 E13: The Legend of Fun Jelly | Sav, Ethan, Vanja, Bax and Talith enter Rog Hodun to see what they can find (mostly a lot of trouble). | Nov 27 |
| 51 Winter S12 E14: Digsman Samsel | Astarael, Roux and Vanja go into Rog Hodun to try to find a way to the frost forge. They find Digsman Samsel instead. | Dec 4 |
| 54 Winter S12 E15: The Frost-Forged Dragon | The group tries to find the remaining Digsmen, but find the Frost Forged Dragon instead. Roux dies. Vanja tries to Revive him, but Bax ends up trading his own soul for Roux’s life. They return to find the main camp raided and Paloma, Danica, Talith and Sav missing, presumed captured. | Dec 11 |
| 57 Winter S12 E16: Kelwin Returns | The remaining party pursues the wagons to rescue their friends. The wagon explodes, Sav appears, and Kelwin, the Grand Inquisitor and the Wolf appear through a golden portal, along with many more Swans. | Jan 8, 2021 |
| 58 Winter S12 E17: The Wolf | A brawl ensues. It ends with the Wolf and the Grand Inquisitor dead. Kelwin appears just long enough to take in the scene. No sign of Talith, Danica or Paloma. | Jan 15 |
| 61 Winter S12 E18: The Mole and the Scorpion | The party encounters Warbler. They make plans to move towards the Swan fort to see if any of their friends are held there, or if they can get info on their whereabouts. | Jan 22 |
| 63 Winter S12 E19: Yarm and Tethir | They interrogate and accidentally kill two Swans. Bax proves to be sharing his body with several personalities. The group arrives at the fort to find it seemingly affected by the Suffering. | Jan 29 |
| 64 Winter S12 E20: The Black Sun | They find Talith in the fort, and almost immediately lose him to the Suffering. | Feb 5 |
| 70 Winter S12 E21: Between the Toes of Giants | Astarael parts from group. The rest use Vanja’s magic to fast travel back to Northgate, but Lumotu, the Boy Formerly Known as Bax and Roux get split from party. The rest have a battle and make it into Northgate. | Feb 12 |
| 75 Winter S12 E22: The Lady Lace | Ethan pulls one over on the house of Chance and all his friends. Astarael wades through a freezing river. | Feb 19 |
| 77 Winter S12 E23: The Price of Bacon | Warbler, Roux and Vanja try to find Ethan and get into trouble. They return to the inn to find him with Bax, poisoned. Astarael converses with Vivian. | Mar 5 |
| 79 Winter S12 E24: Join the Army, They Said | Ethan recovers. Warbler and Tarth bond and go bar hopping. The gang tries to leave the city. Vanja gets captured. Astarael has her meal stolen by a horrible beast and her horse dies. | Mar 12 |
| Interlude: The Fall of Vanja | The Majestic is burned and Vanja is captured and executed in Northgate after Ethan’s failed rescue attempt, which results in the wounding of Deren. | |
| 79 Winter 216 – 47 Spring 218 S12 E25: Reunions (Part 1) | Ethan, Roux, Warbler, Bax, Athelia and Avarian travel with a few crew members south to Portsmouth, where they reunite with Astarael and Sav. The party boards the Beauty. So do an Inquisitor and a few Painted Swans. | Mar 19 |
| 54 Spring S12 E26: Reunions (Part 2) | The boy who was Bax plays a game with the Inquisitor Sylas, eats his soul, and starts a fight. Vanja is discovered, bound and doubled-up inside a chest. | Apr 2 |
| 55 Spring S12 E27: The Remnants | Vanja reunites with her friends. The lone remaining Swan prisoner is interrogated, roughly. Sav kills him. | Apr 9 |
| 56-57 Spring S12 E28: The Broken Garden | Warbler and Vanja garden. Vanja tells everyone what happened during her capture, and confesses she told them everything. The ship arrives at the next port town to find it destroyed, and investigate. A fish-man invades. | Apr 16 |
| 58 Spring S12 E29: The Kelp Herder | Vanja and Roux talk. The fish-man gives Athelia eggs. A gross veiny serpent attacks and kills the fish-man before being killed in turn. Sylas discovers a parasite in its head. Astarael has a vision of a ship named the Belree. | Apr 23 |
| 68 Spring S12 E30: Treading Water | All talking, all feelings. | Apr 30 |
| S12 E31: The Sovereign Tide Must Rise | The Beauty finds Safeharbor abandoned and somewhat damaged. Athelia and Roux play a song and attract the corrupted möther sërpënt. They bargain for safe passage in return for help. Athelia is also revealed to be lugging about a cask full of fey folk. | May 7 |
| 75 Spring S12 E32: You Are Worthy | The return of Talith, but in actuality the Suffering. They fight, and win. Actual Talith returns. | May 14 |
| 77 Spring S12 E33: Parasite | The Swan fort is discovered abandoned and ruined. A corrupted child sërpënt attacks them on the way back to the ship, while a dead Swan attacks Astarael and Talith on the ship. | May 21 |
| S12 E34: The Lobster | Swan-zombies prove to be adept at dodging lightning. Warbler is eaten by a sërpënt. Sav goes after him into the gullet of the sërpënt with a poison, but forgets she has it. | May 28 |
| S12 E35: Surface Tension | Another serpent appears, but both are defeated. Talith wakes and talks to Vanja. Astarael discovers them and they start to argue. Talith tells Ethan and Roux that Vanja is in danger from the Suffering. | Jun 4 |
| 78 Spring – 3 Summer S12 E36: Behind the Veil | They make preparations, and most of the party except Ethan departs the ship, chasing the Swan trail and the traces of the fallen star from the Octurne. The Feywild encroaches. Swans flee from the Fade Beast. | Jun 11 |
| 3 Summer S12 E37: The Fade Beast | The Fade Beast is defeated with Greased Lightning. They find aasimar weapons in its gullet. | Jun 18 |
| S12 E38: Constellation of the Swan, Part 1 | Roux helps Nancine die. Sylas and Bax talk. The party finds Kelwin has beaten them to the fallen star, which turns out to be an aasimar ruin, and they scheme about how to defeat him. They narrowly avoid a trap. | Jun 25 |
| S12 E39: Constellation of the Swan, Part 2 | They battle Kelwin for the aasimar ruin. Kelwin and Samwise escape. An intact power orb is found to awaken the Aasimar Relic Sav has named Nurie’te. | Jul 2 |
| S12 E40: Grim Psychometry | Sav speaks with Nurie’te and Sylas uses his strange powers to peer into the history of the Aasimar. Astarael tries to mend her relationship with Vanja. Ethan is on the Beauty when Imago Weygarde and Lieutenant Deren Lake arrive on the Trident. | Jul 9 |
| 3–13 Summer S12 E41: River of Blood | The party destroys the eggs in the Nest of the Fade Beast. Vivian, now the avatar of the Suffering, is revealed by the magic of Talith’s Puresilver Longsword. Vanja rebuffs the party’s comfort and strengthens her bond with Vivian. Ethan reunites with the party. | Jul 16 |
| 13–15 Summer S12 E42: The Buddy System | Vanja tries to escape, but is thwarted. She warns Deren about the party’s approach. Imago dumps a hostage into the river, goading the party to attack. Roux and Athelia get the möther sërpënt to destroy the Swan ship and Deren Lake. Vivian offers Vanja the chance to restore him to life, as well as everyone else important to her, if she but only give herself over to the Suffering. | Jul 23 |
| 15 Summer S12 E43: War Bler | The group continues the battle against the Swan Soldiers and Kharakhan mercenaries, resulting in the rescue of all 3 captive members of the ship’s crew. Warbler reveals his giant gecko form, the terrifying War Bler, rampaging among the soldiers. | Jul 30 |
| S12 E44: Reckoning | Imago bleats, shoots and leaves. … a.k.a. he’s interrogated and reveals Vanja warned Deren of their approach, shoots Avarian, and is killed by Ethan. Avarian is saved from the poisoned bullet. Athelia gently confronts Vanja about the betrayal, and Sav attempts to kill her. Nurie’te reveals more powers in an attempt to help. | Aug 7 |
| 16 Summer S12 E45: Follow the River | Ethan finds Deren’s diary. Vanja is interrogated and exiled under an oath to find Lumotu Musket. | Aug 13 |
| 17 Summer S12 E46: The Belree | Lightning strikes the ship, spiriting Astarael away. She learns why she’s cursed and what the curse is about. Sylas gets twitchy from lack of sleep until he’s forced to sleep, where he fights spirit beings. Ethan and Sav talk about Swans and battles that left no survivors. | Aug 17 |
| 20 Summer – 9 Autumn S12 E47: Revelation | They get repairs and fresh clothes in Delk, and spinny time skip forward most of a season. Sylas has handy loredump visions. They catch up to the Long Winter, Danica’s jailing ship, and rescue Carter from the wreckage the Swan ship left behind. | Aug 27 |
| 9 Autumn S12 E48: The Long Winter, Part 1 | They find a few survivors from the attack of the Long Winter and catch up to it. Warbler and Ethan fly invisibly to infiltrate the Swan ship and find Danica already out of her cell. The others catch up and start the attack. | Sep 10 |
| S12 E49: The Long Winter, Part 2 | The fight continues, forcing Kelwin to start retreating as Danica goes angelic to pursue. | Sep 17 |
| S12 E50: The Long Winter, Part 3 | Kelwin appears to escape, but is found at the bottom of the ship, preparing to explode it, true to form; he is stopped, with finality. | Sep 24 |
| 10 Autumn S12 E51: Fragments | The disparate forces are introduced to each other. The state of the Briarbird rebellion is updated and the magic-users put on a show. They decide to join forces, at least to get back to Galoring. | Oct 1 |
| 10 – 15 Autumn S12 E52: Planning | The team sails toward Pashat, divvy up people among the different ships, and plans are made. | Oct 15 |
| 30 Autumn S12 E53: Planning, Part 2 | what we always do | Oct 22 |
| S12 E54: Hemlock | The crew enters Pashat. Astarael commits sabotage. Carter notices somebody rich she used to know. The birth of the legend of the Goof Troupe. The Swans discover Astarael’s sabotage and, indignant, close the port for a few days on a witchhunt. | Oct 29 |
| S12 E55: Vethrir Estate | An innocent is scapegoated for the blame, but the team decides not to intervene. Astarael confesses she did it to Talith and Roux. Ethan and Warbler team up to investigate Amon Vethrir’s mansion and kill him. | Nov 5 |
| 31 Autumn S12 E56: Nemra | Sav smuggles a body in her bag for (probably?) the first time. Talith goes rogue and breaks the innocent woman out of jail, who turns out to be a not-all-that-innocent Briarbird. Alarms go up as Swans realize their prisoner escaped. Astarael attempts to leave and turn herself in, which Sav cockblocks. | Nov 12 |
| S12 E57: Inspector Ringeld | Half the party hides while the Swans arrest the other half of the party. Carter enjoys the privileges of rank. A second body is stuffed into the Bag of Holding. A plague of tiny spiders invades the prison. | Nov 19 |
| S12 E58: The Death of Warbler | The water-party concocts a plan and split. Warbler dies. Athelia learns an Inquisitor has been called to investigate all these reports of witchcraft. Carter enjoys the privileges of rank some more. | Nov 26 |
| S12 E59: Prison Break | Ethan and Sav explode two ships to signal the prison team to escape. Carter does not enjoy the privilege of rank when it means kidnapping. Talith, Roux and Avarian retake the Tide’s Song. Astarael wrecks the Swan warship on the river. | Dec 3 |
| S12 E60: Prison Break, Part 2 | Escaping is still underway. Astarael and Sav continue to wreck the ship. Danica and Nemra help a Briarbird and get information in return. Carter kills her kidnapper/rescuer and joins the Briarbird team. | Dec 10 |
| S12 E61: Prison Break, Part 3 | Astarael and Sav finish wrecking the warship. The Tide’s Song casts off. The prison team escapes. The Briarbird team rescues a Briarbird leader and Vengeance. Everyone reunites, to Talith’s regret when Sylas stabs him. | Dec 17 |
| 31–32 Autumn S12 E62: Shallow Wounds | Roux beats up Sylas for stabbing Talith. They make contact with the Briarbirds in the mountains. They realize from Sylas’s memories that the Baroness probably launched her wars to gain access to aasimar ruins. | Jan 7 2022 |
| 32 Autumn S12 E63: Turn Around | Sylas and Danica share visions pulled from Ana’s feather. They see Omen. They also accidentally connect with the other bearers of a feather, Tyr Isendel and Inquisitor Blackwood. Oops. Later, Roux and Athelia bring a shred of the Feywild into this plane when they play beautiful music together. Oops x2. | Jan 14 |
| S12 E64: Bishop | Ethan’s secret man is revealed (only to Astarael). Sav conducts anti-magic tests. Sylas fights a spirit in his head and learns he willed himself into being. Aloysius finds a ship flying Inquisition flags not far away. | Jan 21 |
| S12 E65: Blackwood | They attack the ship, and Carter’s not-at-all secret but certainly unexpected brother reveals his dragon form. | Jan 28 |
| S12 E66: Omen | They taunt happy fun Holland Blackwing, and just make him mad enough to kill Danica. She gets better immediately. | Feb 4 |
| 33 Autumn S12 E67: Bucket | Sylas rants drunkenly to Danica and vomits in her closet afterward. Danica confesses her love to Ethan. Holland’s papers reveal Alistair-Lin Isendel, the true heir to the Barony, is still alive and in Tyr Isendel’s power. They have a funeral for Holland Blackwood. Bax reads Sylas to filth. Sylas realizes and tells Sav that Adelard Sylas was her father. | Feb 11 |
| S12 E68: Seals | Sav sinks a Swan warship and shows Ethan, Warbler and Astarael the correct elements for the teleportation circle (learned of from Kelwin’s journal) in the basement of the Cathedral. | Feb 18 |
| 33–34 Autumn S12 E69: Ash | Sav scouts the docks of Galoring, visits her mom’s grave in the cemetery, and stalks an old acquaintance. Warbler asks Athelia to be godparent to his garden. Ethan, Warbler, Avarian and Astarael have a secret meeting about secret tunnels. Carter and Athelia enjoy the sun. | Feb 25 |
| 34 Autumn S12 E70: The Gardener | stuff happens, wasn’t here and there’s no recording I know of | Mar 5 |
| 33–36 Autumn S12 E71: Coming Home | Sav, breaking and entering, finds letters from Adelard Sylas indicating he sent funds for years. Ethan, Warbler and Grisham meet with Miriam, who proposes a deal: help for theft. Danica and Sylas talk about Bax, but Sylas doesn’t tell her Bax is still around. Carter grills Avarian. The team decides terrorism and kidnapping is the logical next step. | Mar 11 |
| 35–36 Autumn S12 E72: Eavesdropping | Sav breaks into the Spindlemark Theater and finds evidence of embezzlement, then magically scouts the Cathedral until she can’t. Ethan and Warbler are given their target for the theft. Talith and Sylas talk and come halfway to agreement. Carter and Danica talk, but Danica evades talking about Ethan. Nemra asks Astarael about Talith. | Mar 18 |
| 36–51 Autumn S12 E73: Welcome to Glenhollow | Warbler and Ethan investigate the hospital and refuse the job. Ethan flexes on Miriam. Carter grills Astarael on her plans and tries to get her on board her side. Danica thanks Athelia. Roux plays Athelia a song and sucks them into the Feywild. Sav is left bewildered when nobody shows up at the rendezvous point. | Mar 25 |
| 36 & 51 Autumn S12 E74: Spindlemark | Warbler finds out the fate of his beloved hometown. The Tide’s Song returns to this plane. The Galoring team extorts Reis out of his ill-gotten gains. The team decides to meet up with the Briarbird forces on an island. | Mar 31 |
| 52–53 Autumn S12 E75: The Feywild | A Templar invites Warbler for tea. Reunions happen on the Briarbird islands. Roux figures out how to get back to the Feywild, and a rescue mission is launched. Sylas gains some inches. | Apr 8 |
| 53 Autumn S12 E76: Cake | Scouting happens and the ability to conference call is debuted. Plans are made. Sylas has some realizations. Warbler witnesses Worthiness. | Apr 15 |
| 54 Autumn S12 E77: Discourse | More family reunions happen, to Ellie’s confusion. Sylas and York swear an oath, and Sylas is almost immediately yeeted into the ether when he tells Danica that Bax is still out there. Found family reunions happen, to Bax’s confusion. | Apr 22 |
| 55? and 63 Autumn S12 E78: The Autumn’s Turn Festival | the one in which I was not really here and drunk when I did show up, but also ended with the Baroness killing Ellie in an Autumnal Harvest Wedding | Apr 29 |
| 63 Autumn S12 E79: The Gifts of Moraeth | Lots of planning. | May 6 |
| 64–65 Autumn S12 E80: Infiltration, Part 1 | The beginning of the end. | May 13 |
| 65 Autumn S12 E81: Infiltration, Part 2 | Eirlys is rescued, and the alarm goes off. Opening shots are fired, and a Teleportation Circle is fixed. | May 20 |
| S12 E82: The Briarbird Rebellion, Part 1 | 1.75 rounds of battle pass. Sylas and Bax talk a bit. | May 27 |
| S12 E83: The Briarbird Rebellion, Part 2 | Enormous slaughter happens, and a staircase is collapsed. Power sources, machines, and research is found, and general regrouping happens. | Jun 3 |
| S12 E84: Kill-Stealing | They take the final fight to the final boss. | Jun 17 |
| 65–68 Autumn S12 E85: Her Final Form | Wait no this is the final boss. Recoveries and discoveries happen. So does behemoth-on-behemoth action. | Jun 24 |
| 68 Autumn 218 S12 E86: The Fall of the White Tower | … wait no this is the final boss. Unfortunate discoveries are made. | July 1 |
Notable NPCs
The Baroness Tyr Isendel
- Unscrupulous power-hungry leader of the Barony of Isendel. Now she dead from Roux.
The Wolf, Grand Marshal of the Painted Swans
- Roland Fairchild, killed by the Grand Inquisitor.
- Big and inquisitive, killed by Ethan.
- Unscrupulous Swan captain who’s fond of explosive traps and kidnapped Danica at least twice.
- Once fought alongside the parents of the AC kids, now hunting their children down, until Sylas Remnant killed him.
- Carter’s brother, Baric Blackwood, who turned into a black dragon and Disintegrated Danica before being killed.
- Formerly known as the Bandit Rye. Oldest son of Baron Hein Isendel and was his heir, until he disappeared in an accident when Tyr was a child. Rediscovered later and imprisoned by Tyr until the rebellion overthrew her and found him in her dungeons. Was the new Baron of Isendel at the time of the Breaking.
- Rebel movement against Tyr Isendel’s reign. Eventually succeeded with the help of witches.
- A member of Harvey’s Digsmen, rescued from ice jellies in Rog Hodun who told the party about the Frost Dragon blocking the way to the Frost Forge. Last seen (this season, at least) making her way deeper into Rog Hodun.
- Second mate of the Tide’s Song and Athelia’s lover. Formerly Alistair’s bodyguard.
The Crew of the Tide’s Song
- A stout and not particularly merry lot of five men.
Eirlys and Consus Thorne
- Danica’s dads.
- Talith’s dead sister, who is sometimes his sword and sometimes the Suffering.
- Sav’s familiar, first seen as a rat, then taking the form of an owl much of the time.
- An aasimar construct, eight-sided oblong like the Octurne in gold-chased white stone, powered by a glowing blue orb. Found in the fallen star, was repaired, then left behind in the Octurne and later found broken by Sav, just before the Breaking.
Places
Isendel
The barony the season was set in.
Aelorean’s Crossing
Oh no! My beloved peasant village!
Galoring
Capital city of Isendel. Where Sav and Mosrael are from.
Glenhollow
Oh no! My beloved peasant village (Warbler edition)!
Northgate
Where the Witch’s Rebellion against the Swans started.
Pashat
A port town where one of the major rivers debouches onto the Lake of the Lost Pearl. Saw a lot of upset by witches and Briarbirds in Y218.
Portsmouth
A river town in the north of Isendel.
Rog Hodun
An ancient dwarven city, uncovered by Harvey’s Digsmen. Overrun and depopulated by ice jellies and elementals. Where Roux/Bax died to the Frost-Forged Dragon.
Jorung
Before the Whiteout, the frozen tundra country to the north of Isendel, populated by tribes of barbarian Scandinavian dwarves, humans and giantkin. Where Vanja is culturally from.
Moraeth
Land of undead.
Maiden’s Drink
Astarael’s hometown.
The Octurne
So high in the sky.
Playlist
The playlist on YouTube. More vibes than anything else.