Session Recap
Sera Dain led the party from Ilyr toward Solspire along a route visible only when evening light reflected through buried glass towers. The city lay beneath the Wastes rather than above them. Mira found recent Eclipse tracks entering a collapsed avenue, and Tomas identified supply marks consistent with Selvara’s expedition. The party descended expecting another guarded reliquary and instead found an ancient solar engine spanning several mirrored chambers.
The engine redirected light through moving walls, forcing the party to change routes as the mirrors turned. Nyra recognized some geometry from Ilyr but could not determine whether Solspire had been an observatory, a defensive installation, or both. Corin found inscriptions describing Radiant as the shard associated with revelation and exposure. Aster kept Ember and Tide separated because both reacted unpredictably whenever the engine aligned toward the central chamber.
Selvara reached the Radiant vault shortly before the party. She did not immediately attack. Instead she identified the Eclipse Regent: Prince Caelum Auriel, Queen Maelin’s brother, missing from public life for twelve years. According to Selvara, Caelum discovered suppressed astronomical records while still at court and concluded that the black star fed on concentrated solar magic. When Maelin and the council refused to act on evidence they considered incomplete, he disappeared and built the Eclipse Court around a plan to reduce Aurelis’s solar output before the next approach.
The plan was more extreme than the party expected. Caelum intended to use ancient infrastructure to impose prolonged twilight across the realm, weakening solar beacons, temples, and relics he believed could draw or feed the black star. Selvara argued that the Crown of the First Dawn would be the strongest beacon if restored. Nyra challenged the claim using Ilyra’s statement that multiple ancient defenses existed. Selvara accepted that fact but interpreted those structures as evidence of earlier failed attempts. She could not prove the Crown itself had caused the prior catastrophe.
Negotiation ended when Selvara attempted to remove the Radiant Shard while the party was still debating. The resulting struggle moved through rotating mirrored chambers. Mira used the changing reflections to track Selvara’s position, Tomas disabled a control that was sealing exits, and Corin kept the party moving through bursts of concentrated light. Aster reached the vault as Nyra disrupted the final ward with Ember and Tide. The party secured Radiant.
Selvara was defeated but alive. Aster argued against discarding the only available witness who understood Caelum’s calculations. Corin agreed that knowledge mattered more than punishment in the moment. Tomas took copies of Selvara’s charts while Nyra questioned her about the black star. Selvara remained certain restoration was dangerous but admitted Caelum had never observed the Crown during an actual approach; his conclusion came from historical correlation and models.
With all three Dawnshards recovered, the party faced the decision postponed since Ilyr. They could return to Dawnwatch and attempt restoration, continue searching for other ancient defenses, or try to reach Caelum first. News carried by Sera’s contacts settled the immediate choice: Eclipse forces were moving toward Dawnwatch. The party returned with Selvara in custody, the Radiant Shard, and a more complicated truth. Caelum was not inventing the black star, but his willingness to transform the entire realm rested on an interpretation that remained unproven.