Before Turner could finish making his way down the stairs to the deck of the ship, time began to slow. Duma Van, Amy, and Gale noticed the waves began to slow, the falling rain take longer to reach the earth, Turner coming to a near halt. In short order, everything around them had frozen in time, even most of their allies. Before much investigation could occur, a red tear in the air began to appear on the deck of the gargantuan ship. When it tore open, a burst of dark feathers flew from the glowing maw. Clearly, they decided, a sign from Morrithana. The three were unsure of first, especially given some of their allies seemed frozen by her spell, but they decided to step through, nonetheless.
They found themselves cramped into a small, dark room with only a sliver of glowing light shining through the bottom of a door. They reached around, trying to find the doorknob, but clumsily kept bumping into one another. Eventually, Gale was able to find the handle and slide the door open slightly. Outside was a grand hallway with marble pillars, dark red carpet, and levitating crystals filling the hall with warm light. The crystals seemed reminiscent of the Magerony, but before they could discuss it further, they heard footsteps. They kept the door slightly cracked and saw an elven servant walk down the hall toward a grand stone door. She was carrying a tray of drinks and had glowing red manacles around her wrists. When she pushed open the grand stone door, the group saw a glimpse of a balcony and heard a voice echoing within, seemingly presenting something. The three decided to avoid that direction and journey toward the direction from which the servant woman came.
A window stood ajar at the end of the hall opposite from the stone door. They glanced outside and spied the ever-present moon glowing above. They knew now that they were in the Magerony, but they could not see the clock tower they saw from Morrithana’s tower. Before they could continue down the left fork of the hallway, a raven perched on the windowsill and began to caw loudly at the group. The bird had golden, glowing eyes. Since the bird seemed unhappy about the direction they had chosen, they decided to head toward the stone door. The bird waited quietly, watching them as they went. It continued to stare until they broke the line of sight by entering the balcony to which the servant had gone.
Inside, they found themselves inside the clock tower itself, somewhere near the top. They could see the inner faces of the clock on each face of the building above. The balcony seemed to hold only a sparse amount of servants that paid the three Rectifiers no mind. Below was an amphitheater of sorts. There were several witches and warlocks of the Magerony lounging in finely cushioned chairs being waited upon by their servants. They wore strange hats, some tall, some wide, and coats and dresses with high collars. The shoulders of some were sewn or crafted in a way they resembled dragon wings. The man in the front presenting had the logo of the Founders upon his coat. They saw Morrithana sitting in one of the chairs, her arm covered by her dark sleeve and feathers.
The group could not understand the presenter, but noticed what looked like Morrithana casting a quick spell. After the spell, the man’s words began to warp to the Mataran language they could understand. He spoke of the Temple of the Founders, and that his sect of Magerons and Mageronesses believed they found traces of the temple upon the face of the moon. His group was planning on crafting a flying vessel like Icarrion, the man who did the same but failed. He explained they had kidnapped a master craftsman from Matar while they were being ravaged by the Doom. He paused when mentioning the Doom, and some of the Magerons and Mageronesses began to laugh as if he had just told a joke the three of them did not understand. Once the presenter offhand mentioned that the vessel was being worked on in the harbor house near the lighthouse to the south, the three Rectifiers found themselves instantly pulled forth from the clock tower by a red spell.
They were outside in the cool night air of the Magerony at the base of the clock tower. A plaza to the north had a crowd beginning to form to spectate a Mageron magic duel. They noticed Morrithana’s raven fly off the tower toward the south. They assumed they should follow it. The three ducked around smaller streets to stay relatively unnoticed.
Before they could get too far toward the southern coast, a masked Mageroness garbed in a fine dress stopped them. Her elven slave held her staff, a pink and metallic creation with carved flowers adorning the tip. She apparently thought Amy was some kind of lesser magess, as she could sense the magic of “One of the Seven” from her. She demanded to know why they were leaving the clock tower and what house they served. They told the Mageroness they worked for the Agianile Mageroness, Morrithana, and that their lady’s raven had sent them on a task. The woman seemed to not believe them, as she grabbed her staff from the elf. It made no sense for Morrithana to not give the order herself, she said. Once the three had told her Morrithana was already engaged in the meeting at the clock tower, the woman seemed surprised. It seemed the Mageroness was late to the meeting herself. She rushed away, urging the three Rectifiers to be on with their task, else she would inform Morrithana. The three wiped the figurative and literal sweat from their brows and continued to the widening street toward the lighthouse.
While on the large, downhill street leading to the lighthouse by the dark sea, an older mage and his strange, horned human slave stopped the group. The old man wished to pit his slave against the Minotaur “filth”, Duma Van. The two sides agreed, and a hand-to-hand bout began. Though he suffered some blows in the scuffle, Duma Van subdued to the human-like creature into surrender. The old man said that his slave needed some more work and gave Amy some Mageron coins for winning. Again, another mage thought that Amy was some lesser magess.
At last, the group reached the moonlit courtyard in front of the lighthouse and harbor house. The harbor was massive, obviously housing an immense vessel. The group spotted Morrithana’s raven waiting at the top of the lighthouse, resting near the large, rotating crystal serving as a beacon for ships. Finding no luck with the two guards in front of the harbor house, the group following Morrithana’s raven, which had flown down to the left side of the harbor house.
On this side of the building, they spotted a small stairwell leading to a door that would enter the second floor of the harbor house. It held strange magical locks that followed some procedure Magerons and Mageronesses knew. Through some clever thinking and spells, the three Rectifiers dispelled the locks and made their way inside.
Inside they found the beginnings of the flying vessel bobbing up and down in the water, magical crystals lining its wooden body. It held no masts or sails yet. There were some slaves working on the ship, two mage guards, another slave leaning on the railing nearby, and a Mageron standing by a makeshift workshop set up near the vessel. Since they were on a wooden balcony, it was quite dim, so none of the inhabitants noticed their entrance.
Duma Van approached the nearby slave, seemingly on a break. Once the slave realized the group was working for Morrithana, he seemed to light up with hope. He told Duma that he wished to help and to give him a signal when they were ready. He walked to the two mage guards on the balcony and waited. Once the three gave a nod, the man made a break past the guards to the door that led to the front entrance. The two lesser mages leaped up, grabbed their staves, and began firing spells after the man as they chased him down the stairs to the courtyard. As the group concocted their plan above the workshop, they heard two thuds outside.
Duma Van waited near the stairwell leading to the first floor while Gale and Amy planned to rappel and leap down, respectively. Amy prepared some of her sleeping poison, hopped to the roof of the workshop, then leaped onto the Mageron. She quickly slashed at his neck, rendering him unconscious. Gale jumped from her rope perch to greet the dwarven craftsman, who was quite in shock at what had just happened.
Inside this open air workshop were several papers, plans, and tools. They noticed full scale plans for the flying vessel. One had yellow sails, a slash through the schematic, and a “1” in the corner, seemingly his first attempt. A plan with blue sails was crumpled in a corner, a “2” written upon it. His apparent current plan had red sails and a “3” in the corner. The Dwarf introduced himself as Vellir and explained that he had been exploring the desert near Selina’s Blight when he was kidnapped by a strange red portal. The craftsman quelled further questions and explained he had been preparing for something like this. He explained there was a navigational orb in the captain’s quarters of the vessel. It was meant to navigate the stars. Should the three knock upon the crystal three times, it would rotate to show an armed explosive the Dwarf had wired. He told them they needed to cut two wires, but before he could finish explaining, the Mageron began to stir. He ushered the group to get on the vessel, and so they did.
In the captain’s quarters, they found the orb embedded in the wall, just like Vellir said. They knocked on it three times, and it rotated around. It revealed a white-hot, glowing catalyst attached to three wires. The three were immediately alarmed, as they did not know which wire had to not be cut. They brainstormed before deciding the wires to cut. Eventually, Gale came to the realization that perhaps Vellir had told them after all. The three wires matched the colors of the sails on the plans they had seen in his workshop. They decided to follow the order of the plans. Gale sliced first the yellow wire, then the blue wire. They began to hear a ticking and humming noise. The orb rotated back around as smoke began to waft from the orb. They rushed back outside to flee.
Above deck, they emerged just in time to witness Vellir slam the head of the Mageron with a wooden tool, knocking him out yet again. The group only had one other way out, so they ushered Vellir and the four slaves to the door leading to the lighthouse. As they rushed through, the two mage guards returned, immediately shouting and casting spells at the fleeing group. Gale was the last through the door, returning shots as she backed through.
The slaves and their rescuers rushed up the spiraling staircase to the top of the lighthouse, lights of spells and gunfire lighting up the cylindrical building. They reached a standstill at a shut wooden door. Duma Van shoved his way through and barreled down the door, pulling it from its hinges. Inside, the rotating crystal was still shining its light, and Morrithana’s raven was now flying above a freshly opened red portal. Gale stood guard by the door, firing shots as Vellir ushered the other slaves through first. Once clear, Vellir, Duma Van, and Amy rushed through as well. Gale let off one last quip to the mage guard, who had now reached the threshold. With that, she leaped backward into the portal, firing one last shot. The shot pierced straight through the skull of the mage, sending him falling back down the lighthouse.
The last sight they had as they barreled back onto Turner’s ship was that of fiery ruin exploding in the Magerony. They noticed they were now wearing black shoulder capes topped with a cloth pauldron adorned with raven feathers. They readied themselves for battle as the waves began to flow and Turner continued his path toward their bloody section of the deck…