Tales from Etheraz: 1/28/26 Guild Night recap
Greetings, scoundrels, scallywags, and squabblers!
I, ATLAS THE BARD, am back in Arancis and out of the good-for-nothing Vault of Karna!! Yes, both I and the group of young Coalition soldiers known as the PC Party have touched foot back on the solid but probably cursed land of Arancis. Though I immediately left to visit my grandmother in the Bowers (what? Some of us have families!), I still have a duty to report to my good readers what the PC party has been doing (as their exploits are many and incredible!) so my vast network of spies (read: two guys I bribed), have kept me updated so I may continue to report. (However, I did not pay those guys very WELL, so any errors are my own, and also theirs). Though the time in the Vault was fraught with danger, the real intrigue begins now that we’ve returned home. What has happened since the party was stuck in the Vault? How has Arancis shifted and morphed, and what are they coming home to? What, now that they have returned, is beginning? And, what shall we expect as they forge into the future, returning to old enemies and facing new ones? Perhaps returning home is more difficult than surviving the Vault…
Upon arriving back in Arancis, presumably the party cried and kissed the ground, relieved to no longer be in the magical Vault full of monsters. There, they found that the Coalition had set up camp outside the Vault, and they were welcomed home by some familiar faces — most notably, Gurney Blacksteele, longtime leader and military strategist of the Coalition. He explained to the dismayed party that months had passed since they had disappeared into the Vault. The last the Coalition had heard, the Lodge members at the Ebony Masquerade disappeared under strange circumstances. The party, having been invited to the strange party as honored guests, disappeared into the Vault alongside them, where they had to survive Void Elves and fight their way back home. All the while, Valens Corvis, Sanari Simoon, and Arren Luv quested for the Heart of Karna, an arcane artifact found deep in the Vault.
Recently, Valens, Sanari, and Arren emerged from the Vault, but those three were not particularly inclined to share what had happened to them, they made enthusiastically (and perhaps manically) clear that they had found the means to “save Arancis.”
What?? Save Arancis?? But those three were the ne’er-do-wells that took the Heart of Karna from the Vault, an ancient artifact of (alleged) significant ability. (To me, it seems like they stole a calcified hunk of rock… Don’t we have bigger things to worry about than their bizarre souvenir??) Their ambition was so great, so reckless, that even the party could not stop them when in the Vault. What did those three wackos think they could do to “save” it? Besides, Arancis, though desperate and horrifying, was already undergoing positive changes due to the brave actions of the people who lived there. Gurney explained that following a group of noble volunteers from the Coalition to take down House Blakka’s Southern Barricade, it had been renamed the Gate of Hope. The sacrifice of these volunteers, according to Gurney, permitted those who stayed to work for a better future ahead. It was not a magical solution that fixed everything and now everything is amazing, but now that a horrible death is no longer (immediately) imminent, the Coalition can regroup, roll up their sleeves, and try again.
The changing of Arancis lay not in the magical solution of three distant, powerful people, but in the young, brave individuals who decided that together, they could make a difference.
But, the party were not the only people coming through the portal to the Vault this evening: Duncan Luv and Truett Whyryot stumbled through the portal, confused and angry. The two of them were members of the Lodge and (former) associates of Sanari, Valens, and Arren. They wanted to know, how did those three manage to escape the Vault with the Heart??? Wasn’t there a group of organizers who were meant to stop that from happening?? (Hint: the PC party, despite their best efforts, could not stop Sanari and Valens from stealing the Heart from the Vault.) Though angry at the PC party, Truett and Duncan vowed to assist them in locating the Heart, and putting things to rights. The weight of the task ahead settled onto the shoulders of the party: the work was not complete. There was still a world here, a world that needed them, a world that did not end while they were away. And importantly, a future that could be changed. Though the party saw a vision while in the Vault of a doomed future, nothing is truly set in destiny and fate. After hearing of this potential future, Gurney decided to send the party up north to warn Judge Sable of this future, and work to change it.
What a homecoming! The party has a long, difficult journey ahead of them, it seems. There is no great prophecy, no twist of magical fate that will allow the party to fix Arancis instantly. No, it seems the party must keep going, and choose to keep going in a way that will build the world they wish to live in. Perhaps with these everyday actions, this tightening to community and emergence of leaders, the party can truly build Arancis into a better world (and do it without some stupid thing they found in a haunted Vault).
And, in this humble bard’s opinion, they can’t do it alone. The party must choose to work together — and perhaps with enemies, frenemies, political allies, and the like — and embrace responsibility to build a better world together. After all, as the saying goes: fight together, or die alone.
Signed,
Atlas the Bard
