Current Job | The Shadowtwist Dossier

Spooks · Eyes Only

Memorandum: State of Play

From: B. Shadowtwist, Spook · To: The File

The world: Three Abyssal Anchors exist. Two are deployed: Gap Shadow (aligned to the Chained Oblivion) and the Vecna temple. The third we cut out of a cult mutant and locked in the Cobalt Reserve vault in Westruun. Anchors cannot be teleported; they travel on backs, and backs leave trails. Somebody with a hag, a dead Illithiliche, and a smiling three-eyed sponsor wants the planes cracked open.

The job: Reach the Remnants beneath the Shadebarrow at Ebonroot, the crew that can place our anchor where it must go, and may be able to recover Alorah Vasorin's stolen soul. We hold Buddleia Austan's cursed signet ring, one of the keys to the barrow's iron gate.

The complication: Blaine Kraverrogg is en route to excavate the same barrow and almost certainly holds the second ring. This is now a race, and the finish line is my childhood.

Location

Westruun

Post-townhouse cleanup. Murder ghosts: zero. Reputations: enhanced.

Next Waypoint

Shadebarrow, Ebonroot

Iron gate, one ring in hand, one in enemy hands.

Treasury

0 gp

Investment posture (see: Gilmore). Morale unaffected; sarcasm elevated.

Party Condition

Operational

Grai: cursed echoes, 4d10/morning, undeterred. Ki: molting. Bohdi: excellent, as usual.

Consumables

18 → fewer potions

Vex's gift. The count decays; the gratitude doesn't.

My Standing

Spook, Inner Circle

Black cloak. Fine one. Zeloah sponsoring; Fetch owing.

Threat Ledger

Descending order of how much sleep they cost

Graz'zt. At large since the Bastion. He marked Grai; the debt runs both directions now.

The unnamed sponsor. Hag correspondence, a paid-off Illithiliche, a 9th-level memory edit on Ana, and a forged Spireling signature. Different fingers, one hand. Finding the hand is the real job under all the jobs.

Blaine Kraverrogg. Second ring, head start, and a shovel pointed at my home region.

The Iron Authority. Trying to raise Bane. Calmyros the Unbroken opposes them; the Council wants us to turn his forces to our side. Pending.

Zarissa & the Mawl remainder. Leaderless is not the same as harmless.

Next Moves

Reach the Shadebarrow before Blaine Kraverrogg. Use the signet ring on the iron gate. Beat the other key to the lock.
Contact the Remnants. Terms: placement of the third anchor, recovery of Alorah's soul. Negotiator: me, obviously.
Work the forged signature. Whoever framed Fetch can frame any of us. Spooks jurisdiction; personal interest.
Calmyros the Unbroken: the recruiting trip the Council keeps mentioning and the road keeps postponing.
Revisit the Bastion of the Fading Dawn in strength. Determine Father Abraham's fate. Settle the Graz'zt account when (and only when) the ledger favors us.
Write to Mama Mara. Confirm the Tap Room reopened. This item is not for the file but the file can mind its own business.

Personal Addendum

Not for distribution

I left Ebonroot a nobody with borrowed magic and a talent for not being noticed. I go back wearing the inner circle's cloak, with five friends, a dwarf, a paper dragon, and the fate of several planes in a bank vault behind me. The barrow under my childhood holds either the way to save the world or one more thing that should have stayed buried. Knowing Ebonroot, it's both.

The official record will say the party went home. The accurate record, this one, will say who opened the gate.