Academy Anthology: Tales of Home

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====== Taking the Wrong Road ======
**Session Date**: 10/11/2025 \\
**Game Master**: Rew

===== Player Characters =====

  * **Lith**, Shadar-Kai Druid (Bridget)
  * **Valorion**, Dragonborn Fighter  (Tim R)
  * **Hadrian**, Tiefling Bard (Tony)
  * **Rotheon**, Aasimar Clockwork Sorcerer (Ace)
  * **Yuna**, Human Cleric of Isva (Jenny Beth)
  * **Dane**, Tabaxi Shadow Monk (John)


===== Named People and Places =====

  * [[Ashriel]] - A disgraced daeva and a leader of the Shadowfell Fascist movement.
  * Kimbel Cutter - A Shadar-Kai judge from Flaygallows who sentenced the original [[shadowfell arises|Shadowfell Fascists]]. 
===== Major Plot Points =====

  * The Homeshard Heroes arrive at a haunted shard, once the home of the Cutter family of Shadar-Kai. Long ago, Kimbel Cutter ruled against Ashriel in his war crimes case, sentencing him to eternity trapped within the Vault of Regret. See the Prolog below for more details. 
  * Yuna and Dane have made the trip to learn more about what vexes the orphan Kymbel Cutter, a young Shadar-Kai woman who was found far from this shard that they learned was originally her home. 
  * They are attacked by a pack of undead dogs who emerged from a cave in the nearby wooded hills
  * The party travels to the small village. There, they are menaced by several undead villagers. There is evidence that these simple folk were celebrating some sort of "ceremony" when they were perhaps turned into mindless undead menaces. 
  * The Homeshard Heroes arrive at the manor house where they are attacked by invisible vampires in Shadowfell Fascist uniforms. 
  * They find that several of the old materials that were recorded about the criminal trials against the Shadowfell Fascists are missing from the collection left from the original Kimbel Cutter. 
  * When the heroes venture downstairs, they realize that the current Cutter family used these materials to try to create an army of undead monsters to serve the resurgent fascist movement. Kymbel's father and mother, now firmly in the grasp of undeath had promised the entire shard's inhabitants a wonderful "celebration" but instead took their lives and unsuccessfully tried to mobilize an army of undead. 
  * The Homeshard Heroes defeated the Cutters, and saw that Kymbrel was cared for in the future. 




===== Prolog =====

NARRATOR: The scene is the Tribunal Pit deep within Flaygallows shortly following the devastating cosmic event known as the Sundering. Ashriel, the Mourning Saint, once a triumphant leader of the Shadar-kai fascist movement, stands in heavy, arcane chains. His failed war against the Feywild and the Prime Material Plane has led him here to face the judgment of the Shadow Mother, Eilac.

KIMBEL CUTTER: Ashriel, your campaign of total annihilation is concluded. The ruin you visited upon the planes was paid for tenfold in the lives and resources of our people. Your ambition outstripped your ability, and your claim to be an instrument of the heaen is now exposed as blasphemous vanity.

ASHRIEL: Vanity? I gave the Shadow a true form! I gave the masses a purpose beyond their dreary servitude to your pathetic aristocracy! You speak of loss? We struck fear into the hearts of the mortals!

KIMBEL CUTTER: Your final punishment has been decreed by the Oracle-Council, with the full and unquestionable blessing of Eilac. It is a fitting end for a failure such as yourself.

NARRATOR: Kimbel Cutter produces a glowing, obsidian key, which he holds over a patch of floor that appears to be pure darkness. A vast, non-Euclidean opening begins to form in the stone beneath Ashriel.

KIMBEL CUTTER: You are being cast down into the Vault of Regret, a prison buried in the eternal depths beneath Flaygallows. It is not designed to inflict pain, but to enforce absolute non-existence. You will know only eternal silence and the perfect darkness of your defeat.

NARRATOR: Ashriel strains against his chains, his voice rising in fury.

ASHRIEL: This is a temporary measure, a delay! You think this pit can contain an ideology? You are a fool, Cutter! I taught them! I led them!

NARRATOR: The chains jerk violently, pulling Ashriel toward the swirling, silent void.

ASHRIEL: You cannot extinguish the fire I kindled! I have students, followers, those I cultivated in secret! My vengeance is already assured! One of my protogees. A faithful adherent to my righteous wrath will one day breach that Vault! They will not rest until I am free! And your head will be the offering!

NARRATOR: The chains pull Ashriel into the darkness of the Vault of Regret. The black opening snaps shut instantly, leaving the hall exactly as it was, save for the solitary figure of Kimbel Cutter.

KIMBEL CUTTER: (To himself, quietly) We shall see.