Researching Recent Events (Anyone May Chime In!)

As you start gathering in the Proper, I am sure you have noticed a missive about Captain Jackdaw missing. Unfortunately, we have not located him and the threat of what took him is growing. The 'hands' in the Spirit Realm are here and what potentially summoned them still lurks in the shadows and must be stopped.

This is a list of compiled information provided by others with the missive regarding Jackdaw and other sources into a simpler list. There are many scholars working on this project and we would love to hear the questions that you want researched.

Following the actions of our mysterious writer, Count Winterdark has kindly bound the main page so it cannot be damaged, stolen, or scryed to the Scholar's Table. All questions submitted will be answered to the best of our abilities and the information will be added to the public document.

-You may leave your questions at the table with the page and I will make sure we all give it a look
-You may leave them here and I will add the questions to the list.
-You may send the questions anonymously. Notes will reach me at the Darkwood Academy or at the Adventurer's Guild building across from the inn.

Thank you all for reading. Together we will defeat these monstrosities through wit and force.

Dame Ilana Darkwood
Knight of Pendarvin
Head Mistress of Darkwood Academy

P.S. There's another group of papers specifically regarding the cards. If anyone is interested in more information regarding that, keep an eye out!

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OOG:

docs.google.com/document/d/1R9esA0dvV-b_...onM/edit?usp=sharing


For those unable to read Google Docs but are interested in what's going on:
This document is considered IG but cannot be damaged by anyone IG, the official document protected by the magic of the Scholar’s Table. Will update as questions are answered.

The scholar's table, as usual, is covered in an assortment of books, a stack of papers in binders a meek attempt at some order. A cleared space has a piece of paper left in the center, scattered with a few pieces of paper around it of various questions and notes.
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What We ‘Know’ (Compiled from accounts on the Dragon’s Claw board)


‘Temperance’ - There was a catacomb located underneath a farmhouse just outside of the Proper’s limits. It was haunted by a White Lady referred to as Temperance. She was once an Andorran Priestess who was murdered and transformed into the monster the town dealt with. The catacomb collapsed and her part of the puzzle is completed. We have her shard of the Lich’s phylactery

The recent ‘Hierophant’ potentially is the one who created Temperance.

‘Devil’ is another member in this cabal. (Lich?) Chaz ‘sold his soul to him.’

‘The Fool’ is either trying to help us or is trying to trick us. They leave notes with sigils against scrying and demonic influences. But, this is the information they provided:

-‘Death’ (the ‘Reaper’) leads the cabal. He is trying to abuse the power vacuum recently created with Necrophitus’ defeat.
-His Phylcatery is currently in about 12-15 pieces

-"haunts" this legendary creature is said to be able to create. Undead entities that may seem harmless, but can warp reality around them and will attack when you least expect it.
-The cabal is an entire cabal of negative energy creatures that each have a piece of the Lich’s phylactery. They refer to themselves using the names of the Major Arcana.
- He said that the town was on the right track for what they were looking?
Specifically said: ‘good places to start looking’ in response to questions.
-The Catacombs were only for Temperance and her part of the Puzzle
-There are many more puzzle pieces
-Oakley knows more (‘Every legend has to start somewhere’ )

Oakley’s information (she condensed it for me. My thanks Oakley)
I guess the important bits are that Chaz told me this super lich fellow, th’ first to dress as the grim reaper...and he’s gotta crew of negative energy creatures each holding a piece of his phy-lakter-y. Each creature has a weakness I believe, and we gotta find them befer we kick the lich’s arse. Something about tarot cards too..? It’s been awhile so I can’t remember too clearly.... Also, there’s gonna be ghosts and demons wanderin’ about, gettin’ closer to Travance with each day and if we don’t clear things up it might mean the lich gets resurrected completely and we’re all screwed!
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Mantel’s Information
-Book entitled ‘How to Buy Your Soul Back From the Devil’ acquired from a gate that Chad Whitman/Chaz Whimun/Chase Wiseman went through.
-He might turn on us while his soul is in possession of the Devil.
-He is clearly trying to deflect information about who he is and what he does.
-Chaz says he is a skilled carpenter (he makes coffins and reinforces cellars), pie-maker, fisherman, and scholar of necromancy. (Per Mantel/Starling)


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Talaniel’s Information on the Granfalloon
-Folklore/Secondhand accounts. Hold elements of truth.
- It is an undead creature that is difficult to summon and looks for a place to nest (it was mentioned a battlefield like Travance was fitting)
-The ‘Bone Spiders’ (Skeletal creatures that look similar to spiders (fist-sized rib cage, eight legs) were found brief within the catacomb and remains have been found during searches for Jackdaw. Kestrel has pieces of the creature to be examined) are scavengers that follow it around.
-The ‘thousand of hands in the spirit realm’ indicate one is nearby.
-Once nested, its presence empowers undead/potentially all negative energy creatures in the area.
-The Body of the Granfalloon is in the Prime Material, but seems it's presence is affecting the Spirit Plane

An Observation
-Khala and I did a little exploring and couldn't find the nest.
-There are more spirit hands coming out of the ground in the proper than outside of it.
-She tried to summon an undead, but the hands grabbed it and turned it against us.
-All negative energy summons were infected.
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Cara’s Vision
-A lich performing an intricate ritual, attempt to transcend lichdom.
-Became a dark, shadowed being with a skeletal face. Very conscious and aware.
-Started as apprentice in Evernight
- His ‘teacher’ cutting him down. The lich’s phylactery separated into 22 Major Arcana cards.
- Lich wanders unable to be harmed and kills everything he touches. However, the more he kills, the more tangible and easier to destroy he is. (Too many lives would be lost this way)
-Various light-aligned warriors destroy the lich. They thought that he was stopped permanently, but one or two of his followers seem to have escaped with pieces of his phylactery.

Ephrem’s Investigation
-Undated scrolls have the Church note defeat of ‘The Reaper’.
-Mentions one of the clergy being an ex-member of the faith (not specified which). He gave up on faith and the concept of good/evil. He found the Reaper and became a lich in his service.
-This ‘Hierophant’ was destroyed (it is mentioned in several documents) But, nothing about the phylactery piece being located.

(This story helps research prove The Reaper replaces members and grants them the vacant title over time.)

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Jackdaw
-Cannot be found in the material or spirit realm
-Cannot be contacted by psionics on material or spirit plane.
Does anyone else have any ideas on where else our friend may be?

Nesterin’s Information
-Ivory tower apprentice. Focused too much on detail and less on committing to action in rituals.
-He got frustrated very easily and, promised an immediate source of power by a ‘philosopher lich’, left the Ivory Tower to learn from them.

Lorelai’s Information
-A Reign named Gaston was looking into an entire cabal of negative creatures.
-Gaston set out to stop them from turning someone into a Lycan and went missing.
-Normally a very private Hunter, he is reliably on time, but no trace of him has turned up

Donny’s Information
-Visited Lore Keepers of a Hibernian clan.
-”The Executioner”: Needed for two rituals to create two more member’s of Death’s Cabal.
These rituals, once started, cannot be stopped.
-Not much information on the one member was given by them but they spoke of ‘The Dullahan’.
- The Dullahan: Once a brave warrior, tortured into neverending fear and then beheaded before being raised as an undead.
-A warrior of these folk has been missing for a few months after a strange/dodgy priest visited.


Ilana's Information
Ilana’s Information
-Nordejar gravesite raided by 'tall, powerful undead' that escaped before the warriors arrived.
-The deceased's body was stolen along with his axe.
-Was an Executioner for King Mardux. This Executioner preferred following orders blindly so they could fell people by their axe.

I decided to reach out to the local Northmen.

A grave site was recently raided, a place they bury dishonored dead that they keep outside where they generally tend to the pyres for their funerals. The body and weapon of the man were taken. He was an executioner that worked for King Mardux, never caring who fell to his ax, only following orders blindly. ('Executioner' is referenced in the table notes.)

The night his body was taken, a 'tall and powerful undead' was seen in the graveyard. The creature was gone by the time the warriors came to destroy it.
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I'm realizing that the bulk of our research cannot start with books but word of mouth is working quite well so far. Please, if anyone can think of anyone they can speak with, no matter how long you've been here, it'd probably be helpful.

If you have a new friend you know is travelling to the Proper, perhaps send word to them to keep watch and listen for anything strange going on.

I'm going to start going through these notes and figuring out what groups have been spoken to. If you're interested in talking to people, please reach out and see if they've seen anything.

Our web of information is expansive and reaches across the continent and beyond if we try hard enough. Let's see what we can catch.

Dame Ilana Darkwood
Knight of Pendarvin
Headmistress of Darkwood Academy

I was recently asked if a researcher needed to speak to individuals to learn more information and not just someone curious in listening to a story and willing to share it with all of us.

That is not the case at all. When I say anyone may chime in, I mean it.
When I suggest you find out if you have new people to the Proper arriving or if you are newer in town yourself, I think it's a brilliant idea.
You're allowed to speak to anyone even if they don't fit your 'walk of life' (I'm a Selendrian priest that seeked out the Nordejar warriors)
I do not know if everything will get an answer but even no information is information in this case: It's one less potential problem we have to worry about.


Examples:

If you're interested in seeing if the myriad of Costadori tales may have a legend or two hiding, perhaps go to Port Valandra and see if there's anyone who has heard something. (this'd be a good place for Londwyns as well possibly?)

(I could rattle off several types of people to speak with and places to find them, this example just serves to explain you do not need to travel very far if you want to help. Also, if you want help trying to figure out who to speak with, send me a message and I'll be willing to assist!)

The Witch Hunters Lorelai spoke with helped me realize that another example for an information source is groupings of various professions. There's public and discreet groups that may have heard something along the grapevine that we can use to our advantage.

I know of several Shamans who were wild mages before the shift in magic that work together around Valdalis and perhaps someone could speak to them? That'd be a cornucopia of stories there because the variety of sources their magic may come from now (a pair of them, unfortunately, are still bound to demonic ties but until that can be fixed, at least they can possibly take advantage of the bad luck?)


I hope these examples and the clarification helps!


Dame Ilana Darkwood
Knight of Pendarvin
Headmistress of Darkwood Academy

As a request to everyone, keep ideas to this paper and perhaps quips at each other more private.

The guard politely cleared out the offending messages since reading was difficult for an individual.

I've seen more information added to the other thread of notes and will update the information from there to here and the Scholar's table as soon as I can.

Thank you for time and effort so far everyone.

Dame Ilana Darkwood
Knight of Pendarvin
Headmistress of Darkwood Academy

I promised a more thorough report on the connection the Major Arcana may have to this cabal's activities, members, and possibly victims. I've copied out notes that many of us who have some passing knowledge of the Major Arcana have been working on—it includes a few theories, suppositions and editorial comments, as well as all the information we concretely know about which phylacteries/cards are or have been in someone's possession. This exists with particular thanks to Cara, who compiled many of the meanings.

For those less familiar with tarot, many readers hold that each card can be read one of two ways: upright or reversed. Reversals are often read with alternate meanings—either the opposite of the upright meaning, or taking the energy of the upright meaning to extremes, or moving away from the upright card's meaning. Their meanings are, in either orientation, complex, multi-faceted, and depend on the other cards they're in context with. But when we look at Temperance, the only card we have positive confirmation of connection with a negative energy creature, many of us have seen a much stronger connection to the reversed meaning of the Temperance card (extremes, excess, lack of balance, departure from calm) than its upright meaning (balance, patience, calm). I think looking at the reversed meanings and trying to utilize them to connect cabal members to cards could be a fruitful endeavor.

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Fool- a young man, embodiment of innocence, a free pure spirit who is just beginning their life’s journey.
Fool Reversed-recklessness, foolish naïveté, someone who has been tricked, insanity.

We know the Fool is conversing with us via letters on these boards.

I strongly suspect this is our acquaintance C.W. (---he seems to keep changing his name) - if not, it is someone with the same knowledge base of runes and necromancy and a very similar handwriting. - T. Starling
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Magician- magic user, connection between the spiritual, mental, emotional, and physical. Someone with unlimited potential. possibly a white sorcerer?
Magician reversed- struggling to progress, unfocused, misdirected. Can also represent greed, manipulation, trickery. Perhaps a black sorcerer?

Nesterin mentioned an apprentice at Ivory Tower that got influenced by a philosopher lich. Likely Hierophant. -Kanas

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High Priestess- sacred knowledge, divine femininity, intuition and the subconscious mind. It is about balance, the masculine and the feminine, the dark and the light. In imagery she is a woman with the power of the divine, both in mystical knowledge and as a divine ruler. She could be a spiritual leader, a teacher, someone with access to knowledge and the unknown. One of the most common associations with Chronicler.
High Priestess reversed- secretive, hidden agendas, gossip and rumors. Withdrawal from the people around, silence.

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Empress- femininity and beauty. Nurturing. A mother or matriarch, typically very in tune with nature or a creative soul. Often associated with Gaia and childbirth.
Empress reversed- creative blocks, giving too much energy to other people’s needs above your own, becoming codependent or controlling.


______________________
Emperor- a male authority or father figure, someone who demands respect. Rules with a fair but firm hand and likes to have the final say. Typically rational and logical.
Emperor reversed- dominating, overbearing, rigid. A tyrant.


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Hierophant- masculine religious leader, a spiritual guide from a position of power. The balance between the conscious and subconscious. Someone who follows tradition.
Hierophant reversed- breaking the rules and changing the status quo, questioning the way things are.

We know they wrote a letter to “Devil” regarding Temperance. Does anyone have a copy? - T. Starling

From Father Ephrem- found a passage mentioning one of this creature's followers being an "ex-priest of our faith" though there is no mention of which faith (the notes are not dated). In a separate, undated scroll there is reference that this ex-priest had given up on faith and became a philosopher, having become disillusioned with the concept of religion and good and evil, eventually finding this reaper and becoming a lich in its service. In the same scroll there is a reference mentioning that this Reaper's lich was known as "The Hierophant" and was destroyed. Other scrolls also referenced The Hierophant being destroyed. However, in all of the documents there is absolutely no reference on whether or not his phylactery was ever found.

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The Lovers - a harmonious and perfect relationship. Someone who has created a deep intimate emotional bond with another. Not necessarily romantic though it can be. Can also represent choices or duality.
The lovers reversed - disharmony, one sidedness, obsession, a break in communication, blaming others.

Rupert was talking about a true warlock by the name of Ozomdarth. According to him, it falls in love with it's hosts, and then cries over their passing. -Kanas

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The Chariot - overcoming opposing forces or challenges to reach a goal. Perhaps a warrior or military leader, as it relates to maintaining control of your surroundings and keeping an ordered approach to a situation.
The chariot reversed- aggression or a lack of willpower or control. Obsession with achieving your goals no matter what.


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Strength- inner strength and fortitude. Patience and compassion. Bravery. Someone who can have control of a situation without being heavy handed, who can take everything in stride without hurting those around them.
Strength reversed- anger or fear, self doubt or even depression. Jealousy of others happiness.

Donny said that they made a Dullahan. Whatever it is it must be a dangerous warrior. -Kanas

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The hermit- Most often depicted as a wise old man, someone who has reached the peak of their knowledge and journey in life. He finds knowledge in solitude and wisdom in his inner journey.
The hermit reversed- finding madness or danger within. Trapped in an unreal world within your own mind, lost in his dreams.

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The wheel of fortune- Life is full of goods and bads, ups and downs, the cycle we cannot control. Destiny, fate, prophecy. Random chance. Luck .
The wheel of fortune reversed- down on your luck, unlucky. Blaming oneself.

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Justice- truth, fairness, law. Accounting for your actions. The imagery on the card is usually a woman bearing a sword and scales to show impartialness. Someone who focuses on the truth and bringing clarity of the truth to light.
Justice reversed- dishonesty, denial, unwilling to make up for wrong actions or deal with consequences.

Ilana found mention of the body of an infamous Nordejar executioner having been recently stolen. It’s certainly a literal interpretation of the reversal of Justice, though I’m open to other interpretations. Maybe Judgement? — T. Starling

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The hanged man- Sacrifice, martyrdom, repentance. Time to reflect on decisions.
The Hanged Man Reversed- fear of sacrifice, stalling.

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Death- change. The end of one phase and the beginning of another. Purification. Metamorphosis.
Death Reversed-resisting change, regret, stagnation

The Fool indicated that death led the cult -C. Tartaros

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Temperance- balance, harmony, patience.
Temperance Reversed- out of balance, stressed, anxiety, turbulence. Excess.

In life was an Andorran Priestess who was killed/died in such a way that her soul was unable to pass to eodra and she became a white woman. -C.Tartaros

Fairly sure she was tortured and killed by Hierophant and/or Devil directly for the purpose of making her Temperance. As horrid as that sounds. - T. Starling

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The Devil- a powerful being with dominion over others. The more time his followers spend with him, the more like him they become. His followers don’t have individual power, it has been taken away from them to give him power but they are addicted to what they get from him.
the Devil reversed- hiding deepest self

Hierophant wrote letters to them, right? - T. Starling

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The Tower: Sudden upheaval, broken pride, disaster. The destruction of underlying foundations.
The Tower reversed: Disaster avoided, delaying disaster, fear of suffering.

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The Star: Hope, faith, rejuvenation.
The Star Reversed: Insecurity, discouragement, faithlessness.

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The Moon: Unconscious, illusions, intuition.
The Moon reversed: Confusion, fear, misinterpretation, deception.

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The Sun: Joy, success, celebration, positivity.
The Sun Reversed: Negativity, sadness,

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Judgement: Reflection, reckoning, awakening. To face the Judgement card is to face our honest self.
Judgement Reversed: Doubt, self-loathing, lack of self awareness.

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The World: Fulfillment, harmony, completion, unity.
The World Reversed: Incompletion, no closure, emptiness.

Several of us, I think, have expressed the theory that this card may represent the Granfalloon. - T. Starling.

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As a final note (my apologies, this document is long and I am making it longer still) — the Major Arcana tells a story, the Fool's Journey, in which each card is the next step. A character the Fool meets, or an event that befalls him, on his journey to understanding and fulfillment (represented by the last card, the World). In this story, the Fool is the main character.

So I ask this, Messere Fool: what path lead you to that title?