As they finally approach their destination, Ephthalas, the battered and exhausted group prepare to set up camp before facing the Sarexian Eclipse. As they begin to settle down, they spot a faint glow in the distance and discover a man with his animal companion sitting at a campfire. After delicately investigating, they approach the man and introduce themselves. The stranger, Phineas Moon, is a fellow traveler who mostly keeps to himself and his panthex companion. One thing we do know is that he is light-touched, someone whose family has spent generations under the light of the Ithelion in Piln. This sort of exposure has turned their skin pale and tinged with blue. He warns us of the unspecified dangers of the Sarexian Eclipse before he invites the group to share his campfire for the night.
During the night’s rest, the players and audience are pulled back in time to witness Whisper visiting his Gram in the prison called The Reef. We see him walking down a hallway past cages holding humanoid shapes, the cold sea air blowing mercilessly down the corridors. Whisper interacts with a number of the guards and prisoners. Some appear to give him mysterious messages to pass to his enigmatic thieves’ guild, while others accept coin in exchange for looking after his grandmother. He reaches his destination with a “Hi Gram” before we find ourselves back in the campsite.
Halfway into the night, Vyr and Helena exchange a few words with Phineas as he begins to pack up and leave camp. Phineas gifts them a bottle of ruby red wine, apologizing for not being more hospitable. In exchange, Vyr hands over one of her mushrooms and Helena offers a small symbol of her Light. As Phineas leaves, Vyr and Helena hear a crash from the campsite and realize they once again left things unsupervised.
Rummaging around in Bjorn’s bag is a small goblin-like creature, colored blue and speaking a strange language. It tries to run but is coaxed back with food. It introduces itself as Th’Marck and admits to following the group ever since they found Rue’s box. He was charged with protecting the contents of the box, but doesn’t remember who gave him that order. He has protected it since it was created. The friendly if strange creature stays with the group for now as the rest of the evening passes without interruption.
At first light the group heads out for the base of Ephthalas, committed to the idea of scaling the mile-tall feature before the eclipse. Aggie hands over a small gold medallion for Normandy to bury at the top and the party begins the treacherous climb up. They complete their journey just in time for Sarexis to begin covering the sun. As it gets darker, they are drawn to the cave where the waterfall emanates, as there is a strange glow from within. Purple runes begin to etch themselves on a wall at the far end.
The group enters the cave and begins to follow the river to its origin, their surroundings becoming impossibly and oppressively dark as they proceed. As the Sarexian Eclipse reaches totality, there is absolutely no light in Nabell. They reach the runes at the end of the cave, seeing the etchings in what appears to be a stone doorway that has no hinges or handles. As Rue touches it he hears an ominous foretelling informing him that a light beyond the mountains is about to go out, and the world will burn. The voice also tells him that he is of a race called the Vey. As the eclipse begins to lose its hold on the world, the party goes back out to finish what they came up to accomplish and bury Aggie’s amulet.
After climbing back down they rejoin Aggie and set up camp for the night. An evening of drink and conversation is had, and they are once again joined briefly by Phineas Moon. After a discussion about their next steps, the group sleeps and heads West the next morning en route to Gavra.
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