The clan at St. Osyth’s Warren accepts visitors but four times a year—strictly during the brief hours of lunar convergence, when both of Sorneith’s moons share the same night sky. The seer Shalim claims her visions to be most precise under the competing glow of the two sister moons, and dragons flock from all over the Sunbeam Ruins to cross her palms with silver in hopes of gaining divine insight into their futures.
You’d be a fool to seek Shalim’s wisdom without invitation, for the Sorceress Caieta, ruthless matriarch of the ancient fortress, does not take kindly to strangers.
Tales of the spellcaster’s blasphemy are a favorite subject among the pub-goers of the Hewn City, and each one proves more unsettling than the last. Some claim she sacrificed her own children to harness power from deep within the Fortress of the Ends. Others whisper that she was once a favorite disciple of the Icewarden, cast out for performing unspeakable horrors in misguided pursuit of spiritual enlightenment. All agree that, whatever the truth may be, there is no dragon more cursed or more reviled than the sinister Lady of the Warren.
You’d be a fool to darken Caieta’s doorstep without invitation—particularly on a chill, moonless night with neither a lantern to guide your journey nor a shawl to keep you warm. You’d be a fool to push past the (curiously, ominously) unbolted gate and wander into the open courtyard. You’d be a fool to quell the sinking feeling in your gut that urges you to turn tail and flee.
Fool or not, some invisible force has lured you here, to the meticulously pruned garden that separates you from the entrance to the fortress. The garden, fragrant and lively even in the unseasonable cold, contrasts the neglected, crumbling stone of the Warren’s outer walls. How strange, you think, to care for the greenery but not the home.
The massive doorway is flanked by two curtains of overgrown ivy, which trail along the cobblestone floor like tendrils of unwashed hair. You pause, uncertain for the first time since you were compelled to leave the comfort of your bed in an inexplicable, unwarranted hurry. Somehow, by instinct, you know your fate waits beyond a different door.
As you ponder your options—leave? Barge in anyway?—you feel a leisurely breeze sidle by from behind the curtain to the left.
You’d be a fool to seek Shalim’s wisdom without invitation, for the Sorceress Caieta, ruthless matriarch of the ancient fortress, does not take kindly to strangers.
Tales of the spellcaster’s blasphemy are a favorite subject among the pub-goers of the Hewn City, and each one proves more unsettling than the last. Some claim she sacrificed her own children to harness power from deep within the Fortress of the Ends. Others whisper that she was once a favorite disciple of the Icewarden, cast out for performing unspeakable horrors in misguided pursuit of spiritual enlightenment. All agree that, whatever the truth may be, there is no dragon more cursed or more reviled than the sinister Lady of the Warren.
You’d be a fool to darken Caieta’s doorstep without invitation—particularly on a chill, moonless night with neither a lantern to guide your journey nor a shawl to keep you warm. You’d be a fool to push past the (curiously, ominously) unbolted gate and wander into the open courtyard. You’d be a fool to quell the sinking feeling in your gut that urges you to turn tail and flee.
Fool or not, some invisible force has lured you here, to the meticulously pruned garden that separates you from the entrance to the fortress. The garden, fragrant and lively even in the unseasonable cold, contrasts the neglected, crumbling stone of the Warren’s outer walls. How strange, you think, to care for the greenery but not the home.
The massive doorway is flanked by two curtains of overgrown ivy, which trail along the cobblestone floor like tendrils of unwashed hair. You pause, uncertain for the first time since you were compelled to leave the comfort of your bed in an inexplicable, unwarranted hurry. Somehow, by instinct, you know your fate waits beyond a different door.
As you ponder your options—leave? Barge in anyway?—you feel a leisurely breeze sidle by from behind the curtain to the left.
You part the branches to discover a passageway hidden in the ivy.
Do you take it?
LEAVE WHILE YOU STILL CAN
ENTER THE WARREN
FOLLOW THE SECRET PASSAGE
Do you take it?
LEAVE WHILE YOU STILL CAN
ENTER THE WARREN
FOLLOW THE SECRET PASSAGE