The Dragonguard drew their weapons and disembarked to brave the ghouls shambling toward Talla and her Blades. As they neared, they noticed the ghouls were drawn to the closest source of blood. They used this to their advantage to keep the creatures away from Talla. Once the creatures were dispatched, the group secured Talla and all three surviving Blades aboard The Answer.
While settling back aboard, the party noticed one of the patrolling Mageron ships turned toward them. Mirina advised them that it was a ship of Navitas pact-bound Magerons, all bound to Diligence Spirit. She explained that the Diligence Magerons would be relentless busybodies. They all agreed that their plan would be to try and pull noble family rank using House Inquisitor, but Mirina warned that their disadvantage about the true purpose of The Blood Fog may cause it to come to blows.
The Navitas ship set down and the captain and three crew members came aboard to speak. The captain introduced himself as Marco Navitas, greeting Mirina with the respect befit her House. The conversation quickly turned sour though, as Marco questioned their rescue effort. Mirina explained she was running short on slaves and had decided to acquire more. Marco explained they were disrupting the “One of Two”, and that they would have to be escorted back to the Magerony to be questioned by Primarch Durata himself. Mirina replied that that wouldn’t happen, and The Answer’s crew drew their weapons.
Not only was the Navitas crew dangerous, but they also had a strange, levitating silver eyestalk aboard their ship. Amalia could sense that the eyestalk was part of a larger network of magic, but that it was currently disconnected. The Dragonguard focused on Marco and his crew at first, but the eyestalk began to flee northward toward the Magerony. While some of the Dragonguard cleaned up the rest of the Navitas crew, the rest sprinted toward the eyestalk to slay it before it could return home. After a long battle, the Navitas crew and the eyestalk were slain.
While they discussed how to deal with the ship and bodies, the group noticed that more ghouls had emerged and were already swarming the Navitas ship. It seemed the strange Blood Magic construct would clean up the evidence for them.
The Answer returned to the skies to finish the voyage. They eventually passed over the core of The Blood Fog, the destination of all the blood. It was a large orb glowing with an intense red. Amalia could sense the soul fragment within. With little to go on as to what the orb was or how to destroy it, the party continued northward.
The island housing the Magerony eventually came into view, their destination in the bend of the crescent, the queen city of Immemoria. The city was filled with mage’s towers, colorful flashes of magic in the streets, finely dressed Magerons being tended to by slaves, and the looming clocktower in the distance. The moon overlooked the entire city, the only celestial body that rose in the Magerony.
The Dragonguard and Mirina left The Answer to keep to the skies to avoid the crowded docks, while they took a flying rowboat to the city itself. Mirina spoke past the dockworkers, gaining their group entry into Immemoria. She commented that the Loyalists once kept to the shadows, but now they were bold. Many Magerons wore the symbol of the Founder Loyalists openly. More silver eyestalks also lurked throughout the city. Mirina led them away from the docks, winding through streets and bridges spanning over popular canals.
While crossing a large bridge filled with merchants, a Vanite Mageron named Stefano stopped Mirina and challenged her “slaves” to a duel. Aksell gladly accepted the challenge, and Stefano allowed Aksell to choose the champion he would duel. Aksell opted to face off against the doom-elf altered with demonic features such as horns. Mirina advised Aksell to not use any magical abilities, as that may break their cover.
Aksell engaged the doom-elf in hand-to-hand combat, each landing intense blows on one another. Both fighters were down to their last scraps of energy, but Aksell landed the final blow, sending the doom-elf off his feet. Stefano and the spectators that had bet against Aksell moaned in disappointment. Stefano immediately berated his slave and accused Mirina of cheating, but Mirina knew how to deal with the man: by simply ignoring his claims and gloating in her victory. Stefano stormed away, and Mirina graced Aksell with an enchanted, blown kiss that enhanced his vitality.
Next, the group stopped by an overlook nestled above the largest amphitheater. A concert was in progress, and the group spotted a luxury section atop a stone arch at the back of the amphitheater. Sat atop the stone was a green-and-gold scaled dragon among other Magerons. Several silver eyestalks lurked on the balcony as well. The group agreed that the dragon was likely the shapeshifted Dante Agianile, Corvus’s father. Mirina spoke of the man, explaining he was always a Founder Loyalist and only accepted Morrithana into his home on the condition Corvus pursue her for marriage and children. All Corvus ever was to Dante Agianile was a tool to extend his own legacy. More eyestalks began to float up to the balcony, and Mirina grew uneasy. They left the overlook toward the Clocktower district.
A newly opened museum caught Mirina’s eye, as it was not open when she had last visited only weeks ago. It was called the “Museum of the Founders”. The party decided to venture inside to see what they could learn. Inside, they found regalia, decorations, and exhibits all centered around the Founders. While perusing the exhibits and timelines, they learned many things. They learned very little of the first age depicted, the Age of Parasites from years 0 to 1191. In 1191, an exhibit explained six powerful figures learned to form symbiotic pacts with demons and spirits. These six were installed as the new Magistrates of a more-unified Magerony, in all but name.
In the next age, the Age of the Blood Moon, the Founders seemed to have met the seventh of their order, the strange chromatic Founder, in 1192. This seventh member taught the other six Blood Magic, but even the curators of the museum only referred to them as “The Forgotten One”. With their seventh member, they crowned themselves the Founders of the Solstice Magerony, in the same year. They then began to spread their knowledge of Blood Magic to a chosen few families. As Blood Magic spread, they began to use Matarans as stock and fuel for those spells.
In 1205, the Founders learned to break their own pacts, only relying on their own, mysterious power. The curators noted that this process is still unknown to the current day.
By 1300, the Founders began to modify the Matarans, warping them into new species to fill more specific, magical needs. This step toward godhood was realized in 1355, when the seven joined together to cast the Drop of Creation, creating Aurion and Ager. The two were bred by the Founders to form a fleet of dragon companions for themselves and other noble families.
In the same year as the Drop of Creation, the Founders created their own, personal domains of power through unknown means, fusing them into their bloodlines. Some of the Founders also gifted this process to noble families, such as the Duratas.
In a dedicated section for each Founder, the group learned the specifics of each of their bloodline powers. Nizima mastered the powers of the Infinite Insight, granting him powers such as peering across the worlds and foresight, among other abilities. Aladoro mastered the powers of the Impossible Rapidity, granting him powers such as teleportation and flight, among other abilities. Allunaris mastered the powers of the Starless Midnight, granting him powers such as imposing sleep and impenetrable darkness, among other abilities. Stasia mastered the powers of Dispelling Negentropy, granting her powers such as deep freezing and spell-breaking, among other abilities. Corvux mastered the powers of the Relentless Legacy, granting him powers such as body replication and memory alteration, among other abilities. Artlatta mastered the powers of the Mythical Grasp, granting her powers such as telekinesis and enhanced strength, among abilities. And finally, The Forgotten One possessed profound knowledge of Blood Magic, and certainly a litany of other specialties. The exhibits also had space reserved for possible Descendants, though the ones listed were already known to the party.
The next sections spoke of some of the viler actions of the Founders, such as the Fall of the Sunrise Kingdom and the Morning Fae in 1392 and the Fall of the Midnight Coast and Night Fae in 1395. The Morning Fae were warped into mind-breaking servants, while the Night Fae were transformed into strange figures that could forge weaponry and relics.
The penultimate age was listed next, the Age of Schisms from 1459 to 1759. This age seemed to depict the splitting of the Founders, whether by accident or their own volition. The exhibit simply stated they “Abide their Return in the new Age”.
During the Age of Schisms, the two successful Doom events took place, the first in 1500, the next in 1602. The exhibit explained The Second Doom was nearly unsuccessful, and that Allunaris lost many Doomlords, forcing him to retreat into the Void to regain his strength, the last Founder to vanish.
The First Matar-Magerony War, where the Ancient Dragonguard pushed the Magerony out of the country, took place in 1610, paving the way for Matar to begin stable cities and governments from the ashes of their twice-destroyed country.
The last and current age was labeled the Age of the Founders, from 1760 to the current day. In 1760, the exhibit had The Third Doom listed, explaining that King Korrin and the Bloodied Heroes performed a profane ritual to kill Allunaris, thereby stopping the Doom. In response, the Founder Loyalist Party was formed to strengthen the Magerony to truly strike back against Matar in the future.
And finally, the last exhibit was that of Nizima himself. It was labeled from the year 1820 to the current day, and had the title “Nizima Returns and the Second Matar-Magerony War”. The exhibit recounted the events the Dragonguard had experienced themselves, thereby placing 1820 in Mageron history with year 60 of Mataran history. A curator for the museum just finished installing an additional plaque next to the exhibit, and the party found that it read, “Visited by Founder Nizima in 1820”…