Current Red Glove Research and Information

For those not in the know,. The Obsidian Raptors are a fanatical Galmachian Assassin Guild. Mostly murder for hire, but they take a dear amount of pleasure in their work. Notably, they have attacked in the past under service of demons and other groups who just want easy killers to push in a direction. We haven't heard from them in a while, but they are very dangerous. Sometimes they have been escorted by creatures that appear as floating skeletal hands that rip the souls out of the nearly dead. The only solution to dealing with those is simply keep our allies off the ground.

They have also used a cypher in the past. I will see if I can dig up the specifics of the cypher when I find the book I wrote it all in.

To all whom it may concern,

Over the last night and day, we’ve learned a great deal about the artifacts that the Red Glove have set their sights on, and I have organized and transcribed my notes for any who wish to read and learn:

The Weavesmith, whose given name was Delleras Sol, was a Quinarian sorcerer who lived and worked approximately 700 years ago. They crafted a wide variety of objects that were crafted with, and now somehow contain, weave strands of various colors.

Their goal was to provide the effects of sorcery to those who could not practice it themselves; it seems they did their work in a demiplane known as the Arcanist’s Forge. To our understanding, nobody has been there since Delleras.

These objects are very delicate - being jostled, dropped, or, for instance, kicked, can damage them and render them inoperable.

Known Weavesmith Artifacts:
(all of the following have been proven or conjectured to have been produced more than once)
Iron Cage Configuration: uses a red strand. Seals an object within it, or seals a container closed. Travance has an operating Iron Cage Configuration in our possession.
Unwound Clock: uses an orange strand. Halts aging and entropy.
Eyes of a Thousand: uses a purple strand. Allows scrying.
Arcane Crossroads: uses a green strand. Creates temporary relocation of one space to another.
Name Unknown: strand used unknown. A small gem that wards a fairly large area in the way a Sanctuary might.

The Lock Eternal and the Gauntlet Eternal:
These two artifacts, unlike the others, appear to be one of a kind each, and until recently have only been rumored to exist.
The Lock Eternal is exactly what it sounds like - a lock that seals off another demiplane known as the Tower of the Blinding Glory (n.b. I think this is the accurate name - it was at this point in taking my notes that a bar fight broke out with those who we discovered were hired or sent by Bloody Bess, so if someone can corroborate that I’d appreciate it - my notes are quite messy after that).
Nobody seems confident of what, exactly, is in that Tower, aside from a general agreement that it’s something quite bad. It seems that legend holds that it can only be opened on the twenty-ninth day of the second month of the year. (Which, if you’ll recall, is a date only recognized once every four years.)
The Lock Eternal sealed this place off - and then someone (perhaps the Weavesmith?) split the Lock into many pieces and scattered them, to prevent it being opened again.
The Gauntlet Eternal is, as I understand, the key to the Lock, and we can confirm it is in possession of Ser Osric.

---

This afternoon, we ventured into a temple in northern Coasthaven, wherein was buried an Iron Cage Configuration in working condition, and sealed. Essvale Verrain and Isablle Baker accompanied us, and proved that their aims align with ours as far as countering the Red Glove’s attempts to secure more of the Weavesmith artifacts. A member of the Red Glove, Dr. Tara Seigfried, arrived, along with a member of the Obsidian Raptors and quite a few of Bess’s thugs. Dr. Seigfried was chased off before she could try to take the Configuration for herself. We successfully opened it, and found inside two objects - one, we strongly believe to be a piece of the Lock Eternal, and one is a stone tablet that appears to be a map that leads to this temple, an Arcane Font that can be used to repair the Arcane Crossroads, and two other destinations we are as of yet uncertain of. (One looks suspiciously like a tower, though.)

With Essvail’s help, we will be attempting to repair the Arcane Crossroads as quickly as we can, well before the twenty-ninth of February. The piece of the Lock and the stone map are under close protection.

Please do not hesitate to ask any questions if I have omitted something or you wish for a point of clarification.

Aiki, I have a fast question - is there a reason you place Ser Osric's name in quotation marks? Is there something about the man's identity that we should know?

The obsidian raptors use a simple cipher.
The cipher follows a substitution pattern, where each letter is elevated by one, except for O and R, which remain the same.
ie. A = B, B = C, N = O, O = O, P = Q, Z = A, etc.

Sir Nesterin - that might well be useful - certainly, if you have a perfect memory of all the symbols inscribed upon it and can look into them, that might prove useful. Your understanding might also help in our attempt to restore it, if you are able to travel.

Tari - forgive me, should it be Dame Tari? - your expertise in these matters will be invaluable, wherever you choose to share it in the days to come.

Generally speaking: goodness, that's a simple and quite egotistical cipher.

Kleidin (Kleidin) wrote: Btw, the unknown item may be of one of the ‘missing’ strand colors.

Those who study sorcery would know what color protection would be.

Wards were set with Red before the World Curse.

Though, honestly, all of these had to have been done with Blue. This makes me incredibly interested in this... Arcanist's Forge, and its connection to the Blue strands. I would not be surprised if there is a literal forge & set of "pour" molds made up entirely of Blue strands in there.

I'm also wondering about the wording on the Arcane Crossroads - does it actually transport places? As in, not just you, but the entire area you're standing in? If so, what happens to the destination area? How big of an area? Is it a temporary swap? How long is "temporary"? is it set by the user, or does it have its own timer? If I were to try and recreate this object as the description reads - and I might, for the fun of it - I would use a Yellow strand in part of this. I'd be curious to see if this one does.

And why would someone who was capable of this level of sorcery split the Lock Eternal, instead of just destroying it completely, if their intent was so that the Lock could never be opened again? Would destroying the Lock remove whatever separation exists between our plane and the Tower of the Blinding Glory? Does the Tower actually exist entirely within the Lock itself?

Also, judging by the incredibly boring simple functions & delicate nature of the multiply-produced objects, they were likely made to fund greater research. These are cheap baubles that play to the base vanity & paranoia that we all (particularly the kind of people who have money to throw at these sorts of things) have. I'd bet my blue hat that he made some kind of disguise kit, too. I wouldn't be surprised if the Weave Smith created more powerful, more stable versions for himself - nor would I be surprised to find that he's still alive and hiding using more stable configurations of these things, either.

What a glorious set of questions to look into! I will begin researching immediately, though I'd be more than happy to join up with another group, if someone wants to tell me where one is (or I suppose I could just wander around Sagewood and see if I run into any of you).

Lois, some of what you're questioning and positing is positively thrilling. If the Weavesmith is still living somewhere - and if they had access to an item that stopped aging and at least two confirmed different demiplanes, well - I'm sure I am not the only one who would love to meet them*.

On the matter of the Arcane Crossroads - apparently it stops if it's kicked, I can say that much is verified. I've never personally seen it work, but would love anecdotal evidence from those who have. If you are able to join this expedition to try and get it repaired, you might get the chance to test and validate some of these theories.

Re: the Lock Eternal, and why in the world one would make it something that could be reopened - that is one strong possibility. Or possibly, while the Tower is dangerous, the Weavesmith also believed it was necessary to have access to it in case of some eventuality?

* As a note, every piece of scholarship or contemporaneous reference I have yet seen uses exclusively "they" and "them" for the Weavesmith.

I recorded the markings on the Arcane Crossroads before it was sent for repairs and I also currently have the key stone/map to research. If anyone is interested in symbology, stars, and maybe a bit of adventure, please seek me out. This may be confined to some books and looking over the symbols for the gates of passage and not much else, but we will see where the path leads. The end goal is to see if we can cross reference a handful of these to get an idea of how to utilize the device properly when its time to try.

Also, we successfully captured an Obsidian Raptor to question. I... was unsure what to properly do with him. If anyone has questions for him and wish to try, he is very secured with the baronial guard currently. I warned them of everything I watched him do ahead of time.

Ilana Darkwood
Lady of Pendarvin
Head Mistress of the Darkwood Academy