After a night of revelry, the party rose early to find Maxim and Kog Wobblesprocket fixing one of the two main engines at the rear of the Rhemoraz. As Griff handed off the bag of Frigid Woe cure to a Myriad ryder for delivery to Palebank there was a large disturbance marked by a very large flash of light originating from one of the peaks of the frozen Eiselcross mountains. Since the Rhemoraz was worse for wear (and Maxim was extremely insistant) the Rhemoraz descended and moored halfway up the mountain in question.
Maxim and Acerack, without missing a beat, parted from the Rhemoraz with the party at their heels and made a path up a recently travelled trail to a cavern. Using his keen sense for geology, Dwimmer was able to note this cave was recently excavated and was not a natural formation. As the party pondered this, they realized they’d been stalked by a Yeti and were now cornered. The beast let out an awful roar and the party was blasted with a wall of frost which nearly killed Berte. Sensing the beast was hungry and not purely malicious, Dave the Druid had the quick sense to offer the beast some jerky he had on his person which was enough to send the Yeti back into the blizzard.
Once the party healed up they realized Maxim had found and entered a rear annex to the cave, shrouded by a royal blue curtain. Upon entry Dwimmer’s armor sensed the evil in the air and glowed brightly. In the center of the room Maxim stood entranced before a glowing hovering crescent shaped white gem. The gem was suspended above a shattered altar surrounded by burnt Cerberus Assembly cloaks and symbols written in blood - one of which was the symbol of The Abyss. When the party pressed Maxim to break his trance he fell to the ground as did Acerack but Berte managed to catch the glowing gem.
After returning to the Rhemoraz, the cleric on board decided he was not sufficiently skilled to aid Maxim and suggested the party travel to Balenpost to find respite and a more skilled cleric. A storm was brewing and it became too powerful for the Rhemoraz to continue safely and Griff brought it down next to the Balenpost Tavern. The party entered with Maxim to get him out of the cold and met a new friend who beckoned them to follow quietly.
The party followed Fedir Bayuk, their new hooded companion, into the dark between the tavern and the silence of the forest just as Luther from the Cerberus Assembly arrived; his intentions aren’t clear but if Fedir is to be believed they’re nefarious at least. Fedir unfolded a strange contraption and flipped a coin revealing a portal. On the other side of the portal was Saloon the transdimensional speakeasy.
As our companions tried to come to grips with where they were, when they were, and why they’d been brought there they came to learn what was happening. The leader of this group known as The Rite of Aegis, Aife McClagnahan, explained that the gem they’d found was a piece of a Luxon Beacon: a mystical artifact that wove the strands of time together like a loom. She explained the Cerberus Assembly had been seeking such an artifact and having found one and subsequently broken it was troubling - doubly so because the other pieces went missing. She enlists the party’s help to find the other pieces once the Rite of Aegis is able to determine where they may be.
In the meantime, the party was given some new items to aid them on their journeys through time:
- Dave the Druid was given the Chronologist
- Rupert DuMont was given the Armorer’s Band
- Dwimmer was given the Hematic Cartographer
- Berte gained the Masque of Seeming
- Gender obtained a Neuralizer
- Wizard Bob was granted the Clasp of the Wraith
- Oh yea, and Rupert fround a Colt .45