The Wandering Isles: Session 89
In Anbudon, the group begins the day under the shadow of the mistake Dash made the previous session, when he accidentally revealed the location of his family to the King’s Guard. That reality lingers heavily over everything that follows. Dash wonders aloud if the safest course of action would be to bring his mother to the bastion, believing that keeping her close might offer the only real protection now that the guards could be searching. Eos, however, responds in her usual absent-minded fashion, worrying instead about whether the bastion is even tidy enough for a guest. Her comment reveals how completely she misses the gravity of the situation. Amaedrianna, still thinking about the circumstances of Dash’s escape from jail, asks what he owes the people who helped him. Dash explains that he promised them a favour. Amaedrianna immediately warns him how dangerous such an open-ended promise is, especially when it’s owed to a network like Vale’s. With that tension hanging in the air, the group begins planning their day. They discuss priorities, weigh what matters most, and start preparing for the heist ahead while also considering Weslyn’s mysterious meeting and whatever path it might reveal.
Amaedrianna takes the first step toward the heist preparations by scouting the museum. Using her dagger, she carefully cuts a small hole in the structure, just large enough for Albi to slip through in spider form. The tiny familiar creeps inside and descends into the vault system below. Clinging silently to the back of a guard, Albi is carried deeper into the secured interior. The guard eventually enters a mechanical box, and grinding gears begin to move. The machinery lowers them toward the vault chamber itself. Later, Amaedrianna meets Dash on a rooftop and shares what she learned. They have located the vault, but it is heavily secured. Access requires passing through complicated doorways, and once inside, the vault chamber itself appears completely impenetrable. There are no visible locks or mechanisms to manipulate. Amaedrianna assumes the protections are magical seals rather than physical security. The realization unsettles her. She worries the job may simply be impossible and begins wondering if they might need to find the money elsewhere. At one point she even considers whether poisoning the guards might be a viable way to bypass the defenses.
While Amaedrianna investigates the vault, other plans begin forming elsewhere. Eldrin removes his armour in an attempt to become less recognizable in the city. Hatsu stores the armour inside his Rift Satchel, a backpack that opens into a strange void with seemingly endless space. Before leaving, Eldrin informs Eos that they are heading out, and she decides to accompany him and Hatsu. As they prepare to leave, Hatsu asks where Weslyn is. When neither Eos nor Eldrin shows any real concern about the question, Hatsu grows irritated and snaps that they seem to care about nothing but themselves before storming off.
Eldrin continues with his own preparations. Following Amaedrianna’s earlier advice, he establishes a false identity in the city. About ten minutes away from their base, he finds an inn and rents a room for several nights under the name Derek. Although he has removed his goggles, which normally conceal his glowing golden eyes, he uses magic to disguise them so they appear ordinary. After renting the room for four nights, he climbs back out the window and runs toward the ship to regroup with Hatsu and Eos.
Meanwhile, Hatsu sets out to find his brother, Boreal Paleclaw. Boreal is deep in meditation when Hatsu arrives. Hatsu explains that he, Asuka, and Ayame need to move supplies to the bastion and that he will join them soon. Boreal immediately questions why stealing should be their burden simply to pay for those supplies. He presses Hatsu to explain exactly what they are doing. Hatsu describes the plan in simple terms: they will take an item and deliver it to someone else. The explanation only confuses Boreal further. Boreal reflects on the story of Hīrō Toshitsugu, the first of their family name, who stole only from evil and gave to those in need. In Boreal’s eyes, the morality of the act matters more than the act itself. Giving to good is righteous. Giving to evil is not. Anything uncertain or morally ambiguous is wrong. He reminds Hatsu plainly that stealing itself is wrong and asks if there is any way to buy the object instead or perhaps create a convincing fake. Hatsu insists there is no other path.
During this conversation, Hatsu realizes that Eos has quietly arrived nearby and invites her into the discussion. He asks for her opinion. Eos admits she is unsure. She does not even know what the egg they are meant to steal looks like, making replication impossible. Given the circumstances, she concludes that stealing may indeed be the only viable option. The needs of many outweigh the needs of the few. Afterward, Hatsu leaves to find his sister Asuka.
While Hatsu is gone, Eos remains behind and speaks with Boreal. Boreal talks about his life and how he loves training with both sword and book. Eos asks which he loves more. Boreal replies that his sword is reserved for a single purpose: the head of Thrakgar, the man responsible for killing his father. Eos offers her condolences.
Hatsu eventually finds Asuka, who is busy organizing supplies. He explains everything that is happening and apologizes for losing her sword earlier. Asuka responds with dry sibling humor, telling him that he now owes her one legendary weapon. Hatsu accepts the debt and entrusts her with something else: a strange artifact he recently discovered, a gemstone cub that is ornate, beautiful, and warm to the touch. He asks her for a favour as well. Within the next twenty-four hours, can she discover where the egg they are being paid to steal is ultimately going, and whether delivering it would be honorable? He provides her with information on where to begin investigating. Before he leaves, Asuka tells him that Amaedrianna’s allies who had arrived with them earlier have now departed.
Alarmed, Hatsu runs to inform Eos. Exhaustion creeps into his voice as he explains that nothing seems to move in a straight line anymore. There are no quiet days, no steady progress, only chaos. The crew has left. He cannot send the ship alone. He promised Weslyn he would meet him in the woods. Dash is wanted. Eldrin is wanted. The entire plan feels like it is unraveling.
Elsewhere in Anbudon, Weslyn visits the museum to meet a lore keeper named Isolde Thorne. She questions how he knows the things he does, and he leads her privately to the top floor. There he begins explaining that the law has existed since the earliest dust and will remain until the last. When Weslyn asks why the museum researches the stones, she suggests that perhaps those relics wandered the world during the age of dragons. Curious about how he knows these ancient stories, she presses him further. Weslyn answers that the knowledge passed through generations of his family. He tells her plainly, “I am springborn, born of the Theiwyse clan.” Quietly, through telepathic communication, he confirms details of his origin.
Isolde reveals the truth in return. She is herself a descendant of the Theiwyse line. The name Thorne was adopted generations ago when their people were forced into hiding. Her grandmother believed in a legend about a lost son of the Kin who vanished into the forest. That legend points directly to Weslyn. She warns him not to speak the name Theiwyse openly in this place. Here, he must remain a Thorne. As the conversation continues, Weslyn realizes that they are relatives.
Isolde then explains the political reality surrounding the stones. Long ago.. The Sun King had become the sole Law Speaker, the only individual permitted to interpret the ancient stones. Weslyn insists that this is wrong, but Isolde explains that centuries ago the first monarch was granted the authority of all seasons. Over time the monarchy consolidated that power entirely, leaving the Sun King as the single voice allowed to read the stones.
She reveals something even more alarming. The Sun King intends to claim an artifact known as the First Return, currently kept in the museum vault. The egg that the group intends to steal is actually the Stone of the First Return itself. The vault contains many relics—eggs, tablets, and other stones—but this one is the most dangerous if it falls into the wrong hands. The king intends to take only the egg, but the artifact is incomplete without the other stones that once formed the system of Kin law. She secretly directs Weslyn toward another researcher who holds the rest of her collected information. In her view, the artifact should belong to no king, rebel, or noble. It should be returned to the lost stone of the Kin somewhere deep in the wilderness.
Isolde also shares the strange omens she has been observing: blood moons appearing more frequently, unfamiliar patterns forming in the stars, and the forest behaving in unnatural ways. The lost stone of the Kin, she believes, may actually be embedded within the throne of the Sun King itself, given to the monarchy centuries ago. Once the stones represented the seasonal law of the Kin. Now all of that authority rests in the hands of a single ruler. Among the stones referenced in ancient texts are a stone of naming, a stone tied to seasonal law, and references to something called the Corrupted One.
Then Isolde reveals a tattoo. The image depicts Weslyn standing beside Chicken the Fox. The moment Weslyn sees the tattoo, something impossible happens. Every person connected to him is suddenly pulled into a shared space.
Inside this dreamlike environment, Weslyn attempts to reassure Isolde that everything will be alright. The forest is speaking, he thinks. Around them the others appear in confusion. Amaedrianna demands to know what the hell is happening, but Weslyn has no answer. Dash checks if everyone is conscious. Amaedrianna dryly replies that she never sleeps. Eos immediately prepares a fireball while Ekdikisi readies a hex. Weslyn tries to calm everyone as he approaches the table at the center of the space.
Each of them now bears one of Weslyn’s blue markings transferred from his own body, with the sole exception of Chicken the Fox. Everyone eventually sits at the table except Dash and Eldrin, who take a moment to embrace their families. Hatsu nods silently to Ayame and Asuka before sitting beside Weslyn. Dash whispers to Lysa, instructing her to find Elandor and move Dash’s mother out of Palperroth immediately. Amaedrianna insists she wants nothing to do with this place and scolds Weslyn when she cannot find any exit.
As the confusion settles slightly, Weslyn speaks in the ancient tongue of root and stone, calling for the host of the space to join them. Amaedrianna refuses to sit, pacing restlessly. Weslyn encourages everyone to take their seats, suggesting that doing so might help them leave. He explains that the rituals surrounding this place predate even his understanding. Amaedrianna counters that it is rude to take people somewhere without asking. Frustrated by the lack of exits, Amaedrianna eventually smashes her chair, only to watch it restore itself instantly. She roars in fury like a caged lion. Hatsu studies Chicken the Fox, but the animal simply sits quietly.
Tensions rise. Ekdikisi angrily calls Eos an afterthought. Amaedrianna accuses Weslyn’s “stupid squirrel friend” of causing this, though Weslyn insists it is not Chicken’s doing. Amaedrianna demands to know who Isolde truly is and what power surrounds Weslyn. Lysa wonders aloud if they might already be dead. Weslyn swears that neither he nor Isolde performed any rites and questions why his markings have spread onto everyone else. Ekdikisi even suggests that killing them might free the others. Dash and Eos trade thinly veiled threats. Amaedrianna searches for invisible entities while Dash checks for hidden doors, but they find nothing.
Amaedrianna eventually notices Eldrin embracing his parents with deep emotion. She sees a young man who has clearly been separated from them for a long time and is reluctant to let go.
The room itself slowly reveals more clues. It resembles an ancient Kin meeting hall constructed using traditional methods of Weslyn’s people. The table holds offerings of berries, bread, wine, and iron—traditional gifts for the spirits of the forest. The chairs reshape themselves to match the culture and identity of whoever sits in them. Time behaves strangely here. Food replenishes after being eaten. Destroyed objects restore themselves moments later. The room seems to be waiting for someone to occupy the final empty seat.
To summon whoever that host might be, Weslyn makes a desperate decision. He cuts himself and sacrifices a large amount of blood onto the table as an offering. As he begins to collapse from the wound, a figure suddenly appears in the empty chair: Remington Wilhelm. Eldrin quickly heals Weslyn before the wound can claim his life. One of Weslyn’s remaining blue markings transfers onto Remington as well.
Weslyn explains that he wants answers, particularly about why Isolde bears the tattoo and why she seems so important. He reminds everyone of another moment when they sat around a table in a grove and suggests that this situation feels similar, though he does not believe the same entity summoned them. Amaedrianna repeatedly invites the host to sit down in every language she knows. Dash continues trying to determine who the final seat is meant for. Hatsu suggests that perhaps the purpose of this place is simply conversation.
At that moment another chair manifests, and Weslyn’s mother appears. With her arrival, memories flood back into Weslyn—childhood memories, memories of his parents and siblings, memories of life among the Kin before he vanished into the forest. She heals him using living green vines while consuming some of the offerings on the table.
She explains the truth of the space. This is not an illusion. It is Weslyn’s childhood home, recreated through his own power. Without realizing it, he created a pocket of time anchored to that place. Everyone present has been brought here because they are important to him or connected to his fate. The gathering resembles an ancient communal rite of the Kin, where families share food and offerings together.
The revelation does not sit well with everyone. Frustrated and overwhelmed, Eos leaves the gathering entirely and rides into the forest alone, following Ekdikisi. Remington is given bread, wine, and iron so he can follow her safely into the woods. The rest remain behind in the strange meeting hall, trying to understand what they have been brought into.
Weslyn’s mother explains that this moment is not an ending but a crossroads. The purpose of the gathering is not to trap them or judge them, but to allow each person present to discover what they must do next.
