Session 46: A Week on the Barrow Shard Report

After their adventure with the Spawn of Tambanokano, the Patrol takes a week of relaxation on the Barrow Shard until the next full moon when they can fly back down to the Kirinal Concordance Zone. D’Wat, Thirteen, T-R01D, and Noctus explore Lokorn and the Sarch na Thaya.

D'Wat inquires about the beetle farm that his family had on the great tree, but discovers that they had sold it years before to finance their move to the Zone. Lucius reveals that he has been on the Shattered Moon before to make the pilgrimage to the Tomb of Thaya. Noctus took that opportunity to buy a property on the moon, a small dwelling that has been accumulating rental income for him. He collects 4,000 Bilog and they use it as their base of operations that week.

A Visit From the Syren

During the week Seraphena Syren comes to visit them. She is on the moon to visit her vampiric associates, notably including Santiago, who dwell on the bottom of the Barrow Shard. They discuss their findings about Valentine, King of Vampires and she makes clear her intention to release him from his imprisonment in Valentine's Statue.

However, they all know that releasing him could undo the ritual that transformed the body of the Bakunawa into the great balete tree. They must find "A king, a sage, and a beast." To replace the king held in silver and mithril.

Noctus attempts to flirt with Lady Seraphena, and to everyone's surprise (including Noctus), she finds him charming.

Attack of the Crabs

On their last night on the Shattered Moon, the Patrollers are awakend by alarms and the sound of fighting. They look out the window and see a swarm of monstrous crabs crawling up the trunk of the tree right to Noctus' dwelling. The mark of the Tambanokano on T-R01d begins to glow and he says, "I wonder what they're looking for?"

Once they deal with the initial onslaught of crabs, they are horrified to see that the corpse of the embryonic spawn has come looking for T-R01d. It hopes to return to life by consuming the last essence of the Tambanokano within the soulforged. It has been joined by a beholder lord and its cloaker minions. The beholder is a holdover from the War Against the Far Realm. It fights for the return of its Great Old One masters.

The beholder holds the Patrol off from a distance, floating out of reach and peppering them with magical beams while they are stuck on the tree's platforms. The dead spawn of the glutton saps them of energy when they get too close to it. The Patrol has all of their spells wiped out by the beholders anti-magic ray and they fall prey to random beams that begin to down them one by one.

After a long combat, they finally outlast the storm of magical rays and manage to get the upper hand. They destroy the undead glutton and defeat the beholder lord. T-R01d's link to the Tambanokano is finally destroyed and they prepare to return to the Zone.