The following takes place after Episode 3 of The Coming of Twilight.

After the events of The Breaking of the Fellowship, the party splits up. Several months pass, and many things occur, both to the PCs, and to the world around them.

Anastasia

Ani heads to Eltabbar to be apprenticed to Zahl. She has explained that the two of them came to an understanding, that day when she was captured, and she realizes she needs the wisdom of an elder witch as she faces the growing dark power within her.

Zahl's teaching style is rather different than her last master's. For the most part, she directs Ani to study independently, giving her impossible challenges, then berating her when she doesn't exceed expectations.

In fact, she has actually spent longer learning from Radduk, who has retained his position in the Collegium of Necromancy, but lost his seat of honor amongst Zahl's privy council. Radduk was a hard teacher once, but his heart seems to have softened; he encourages Ani to strive despite Zahl's harsh words, he lauds her for her successes, and expresses pride at her accomplishments.

But Zahl knows things he doesn't, things nobody knows. To her, the dark side of magic is all about endurance and grace. It is the side of the Goddess that curses women with all the pains and tribulations of their kind, yet demands they keep a smile and pretty face.

Among her teaching techniques are:

• Forcing Ani to conduct complex and challenging rituals while chained to the roof of a tower, nude, in the cold, driving rain. Her body's weakness is no excuse; she must either complete the spell or die.
• Feeding Ani a poisoned brew, making her vomit blood, while lashing her with spells she could barely counter at the best of times.
• Cursing Ani's body to feel unbound sexual pleasure at the slightest touch, then making her concentrate on a fragile and subtle spell while her servants tantalize her nude body. If the spell should falter, the pleasure turns to gut-wrenching pain.

All the while, Ani's nerve is tested, and many times, she threatens to leave, to give up, cursing Zahl's name and her sick desires. Zahl never contests, reminding her to go ahead and let the door hit her ass on the way out.

Radduk helps her through some difficult trials, and, at times, nurses her back to health when she would otherwise have died.

After months of torment, Ani's will is stronger by far, her black magic threefold more powerful. She can handle the full extent of her powers, and has eagerly taken to more dark knowledge, the knowledge of life and death, of which both Radduk and Zahl are grand-masters.

But she hasn't lost her heart. Throughout it all, she has pursued knowledge of the Shadovar, staying vigilant against their wickedness. She has learned a few things about the nature of the Cult of Twilight, tantalizing clues about the background of its founder, Caliban, and his lackeys, including Valik.

Every so often, she is visited by Samael Arcosian, Aleric's apprentice, who always has some perfectly valid excuse, but is obviously being sent to check up on her. In later visits, he has taken up the custom of bringing her a gift, some souvenir of whatever exotic place he'd last visited. They trade much information on the Shadovar, and indulge in plenty of commiseration about harsh teachers, a conversation Ani always wins. Throughout it all, he is charming (but not smarmy), eloquent (but still a little bashful), and a perfect gentlemen (obviously burning with admiration and desire for the beautiful, devilishly intelligent, and cute-as-hell witch).

Talrendis

Immediately after the destruction of the Machine and the probable assassination of the Shadow Lords, Talrendis reported, as instructed, to Regent-King Aleric, accompanied by Ani. (Everyone else was too mind-blown or too busy reveling in Raynar's techno-glory; more on that later.)

They spoke for a time, in private (Ani occupied herself talking to Sam), and came to an understanding.

Forthwith, Talrendis was honorably discharged from duty, though not before receiving a promotion to Colonel, and several illustrious medals of service.

His true duties, henceforth, would be as a direct agent of the King, operating in foreign territory. He would patrol the entire region: Thay, Rashemen, Thesk, The Great Dale, the Wizards' Reach, and even perhaps parts of Unther and Mulhorand. He would report on his findings to Aleric, but would also have free reign to act in the best interests of peace, life, and justice, where those otherwise responsible had failed to do so.

Aleric made his goals clear:

• To ensure peace in the region
• To ensure Zahl's rule remains reasonably just
• To ensure Thay does not oppress or meddle in the affairs of Rashemen
• To ensure the total eradication of Shadovar presence everywhere in the region
• To keep an eye on any new developments, seemingly unrelated, such as Thay's attempt to harness the power of Magnar's Barrow

Talrendis has taken to the task with aplomb. He moves about the countryside, impossible for armies to stop, if they had a prayer of noticing his movements at all. Like a cowboy, he appears with the sun, and goes out with it.

In his time since, he has done plenty of simple, good deeds, like:

• Helping a Thayan village with a suspiciously high death rate learn not to drink waters from the river within a week of a nearby volcano's frequent eruptions. He dispelled their long-standing myths about demon spirits, and introduced them to the concept of toxins. For those parched times when the volcano didn't want to stop, he recommended beer.
• Hunting down a near-mythical monster who had long terrorized the southwestern coast of the Ashane. It turned out it was a plesiosaur, a simple animal that wanted only to hunt and eat, but had not learned that wooden boats weren't food. He lured it to the far north, to a place where men didn't fish, and everyone was happier for it.
• Defending a Theskan village from marauding ogres, including their leader, the so-called "King of the Ogrimagi". It turns out they weren't barbarian monsters, but mostly displaced workers, ejected from Castle Ashanath when it was conquered by Veldanthir. He found an abandoned hunter's lodge in the Forest of Lethyr where they could make their home in peace.

In the intervening months, he has begun to realize that the ordinary people of Thay are little different from those of Rashemen or Aglarond, and that those who wield power in the latter are little different from those of the former. He has had many assumptions challenged, and a few affirmed, but overall, he is wiser for the experience.

There has also been another aspect to his wanderings. Through it all, Talos has been with him, increasingly manifesting as a visible force. He guides Talrendis to interesting places, otherwise insignificant tracts of forest, or hidden caves in cliff walls, throughout the region, but far more than Talrendis expected, in Thay.

He has uncovered many tantalizing clues about Talos' past, and the past of the entire region. He has wrestled with confusing feelings of familiarity in ancient sites he'd never even dreamed of before. And Talos has been, at the best of times, cryptic about the meaning of it all. The spirit seems almost to have gained the ability to venture off on its own, returning only when Talrendis has gone too far in the other direction, it seems.

His travels haven't been all through the back country. He has visited towns, and even Eltabbar once or twice. He has met with Inwen, who is keen to hear about his exploits, and has been helping him with a curiosity of his, researching the true cause of the disappearance of his father and half the armies of Myth Drannor. She knows more than she lets on, but she seems to say all she is at liberty to say.

She has been doing a lot in diplomatic circles, trying, at the urging of her liege, to urge Thay to become more open and sharing with its magical secrets. It seems the Coronal of Myth Drannor would like to extend a hand to all the great wizarding colleges of the world, in an effort to create something unprecedented: a universal, international system of magical academia, an overarching organization that would connect all those who study the Art. Thay, obviously, has been dragging their feet, but Inwen is being quite persuasive with the Provosts.

He tries to visit Aglarond as often as he can, checking in on his mother and his sister. He has had a few dalliances with Ilmaryn, who is otherwise buried in druidly duties. He has had a chance or two to start a quest he'd long dreamed of as a child--tracking down his birth parents. So far, he's found only the vaguest hints of their existence, but he believes he's zeroing in.

Raithen

Raithen had set off to wander wherever Fate had in mind to take him. He searched his feelings, and could think of only one thing.

He arrived at the mansion of Natasha von Durzig, drunk on rice wine and scuffed up from a fight with some cheeky guardsmen. It wasn't too hard to recognize him, even without the disguise. She took him in, cleaned him up, and, well, one thing led to another.

Natasha, it seems, has a thing for heroes, and a deep interest in Shadovar technology. In the wake of the Machine disaster, she bought the land the Zulkir's Citadel had once stood on, and had a hired army taking the wreckage apart for her analysis.

For one of her talents, Titan lore is no mere hobby. She has twice her father's intellect and tenfold more ruthlessness. She inherited more than it seems of his magical ability; what she lacks in the raw power of evocation, she makes up for with her knack for artifice.

Like her father, she also has a thing for elves. She has asked Raithen to be her escort on a trip to Myth Drannor, a lovely vacation she seemed genuinely to enjoy. She showed her talents as a businesswoman and a diplomat, representing Zahl's side of the negotiations on the Coronal's mad academic ventures. She wasted no opportunity sightseeing the city and the great forests of Cormanthor, particularly the magical ruins.

Hobbies notwithstanding, her day job is as an advisor to Zahl, and so she--and Raithen--have spent much time in Citadel Thay, spending more time with the empress than even Ani. Raithen has been the belle of the ball in court, the new favorite bard, entertainer, and all-around Most Interesting Man In The World. Zahl doesn't mind the distracting effect he has on her courtiers.

He's learned that Natasha likes to indulge her liege in every way she can. Zahl, it seems, leaves little time in her schedule for a personal life, but entertains a few vices that keep her lower mind satisfied enough to stay out of the big decisions. In particular, she likes to watch.

Raithen and Natasha have performed for her, many times, and many creative ways, as she's watched from the shadows. She's even invited other advisors and courtiers in to watch, forcing them to stand and observe the "art" in progress, as much a kinky sex act for her own amusement as a form of domination over them.

She has intervened only rarely, overcome with lust, beckoning Natasha to her, and doing something apparently painful, but exciting, behind closed doors. Always Natasha. Never Raithen. He took it as a challenge.

In recent weeks, he has become a different man entirely. He is boisterous, obnoxious, and crude, but somehow always charming and fascinating to the nobles at court. He has snubbed the empress, in daring ways, cutting in as she speaks, offering bold opinions of her policies and her personal tastes, seducing her ladies-in-waiting to the point of making them tardy and unprepared to wait upon their mistress.

In the end, when she finally confronted him directly, the trap was sprung. His warrior's fire, tuned to an altogether different purpose, burned her icy heart. She'd become obsessed, so flustered by him that she just couldn't stand it. And when the time came to punish him, the punishing was twofold.

Of course she likes it rough. People in power usually do. He's literally the only man within a thousand miles who could get away with the things he did, and the only one perhaps on the planet who would make her want this. There was more than a little hatred there, more than a little honest desire to punish her, but plenty of self-loathing as well. There would have to be.

The true victory came the next morning. She said nothing. She wouldn't even speak of it. He'd won. He felt like a shit for liking it so much, but he let himself have the victory. She was ashamed. She wouldn't punish him, or exile him, or have him killed. In fact, she'd invite him over, again and again. They shared a strange intimacy, a moment of finality in which they both were to die, a special bond they would always share, and no one else would ever understand.

It would sick, twisted beyond belief, to call it love. But it wasn't hate. It wasn't apathy. It was just...weird.

Eventually, too weird. Zahl wasn't one to indulge her own fancies, and once it became apparent she was enjoying it, she cut him off. It seemed to bring things back to balance. Raithen had spent his rage, though who he'd originally intended it for, he didn't know. Zahl had scratched her itch. The only one it seemed to truly hurt was Natasha, who, despite hating herself for it, didn't turn Raithen away.

Though he wastes his days in song and wine, he isn't entirely useless. He's been interfacing with the court's many excellent ambassadors, trying to keep talk of the Shadovar alive, to keep interest in mutual security concerns against threats both real and surmised. He has sought to keep tabs on the goings-on of the elves, who seemed to be very much interested in politics these days, even to the point of sending an actual, honest-to-god ambassador from the court at Evermeet. Their first meeting was a bit awkward, as everyone still thought it had been him.

Through it all, he's been dreaming, every night. He's scarcely had a moment of Reverie these past months, instead journeying to distant worlds, fantastic times, other realities he never imagined. The newness of it hasn't wavered, even after all this time, but lately, his dreams have been plagued by doubts, by repressed fears...by her, with her broken heart, the words she couldn't say, and the words he wished he had.

He has resolved, of late, to extricate himself from this crazy situation, and to make something positive come of all this nonsense, if he can help it. He has some shame for what has transpired, at that, it seemed, was what he was looking for. But it'll take more than a bit of shame and a few soul-searching dreams to get himself ready to apologize to Keket. But then, should he? Was he not right? Would she ever forgive him for what he'd done, especially all that had happened in the intervening months? He hoped she wouldn't, that she would cast him away, and harden her heart. But some part still yearned for her, unable to be quieted by cold logic, and he feared that part would betray him.

Better to move on, it seems.

Assuming Fate doesn't play any meddling trump cards to bring them back together.

Keket

Necessarily, the very day the Machine was destroyed, Raynar had to return to his secret base in Aglarond. After all, the battlecruiser Daedalus had nothing left after its brief battle with the Shadovar, and would need to be reconditioned, rearmed, and refueled.

Finally breaking the veil of secrecy, he invited Keket to join him. At first, she was amazed enough by the ship, and its hundreds of crewmembers, who seemed less a vast army of servants, and more like an actual army, all under the banner of Raynar himself.

But when the ship descended through a massive opening in what had seemed to be the solid ground of his estate's back yard, she began to understand.

Beneath Chateau Raynar is a massive underground complex, big enough to house Daedalus, Icarus, and lots more besides. Hundreds--maybe thousands--of workers, technicians, soldiers, and artificers move about, servicing his weapons of war. Beyond the ships, he showed her machines, not simple golems, tied to the will of an equally-powerful master, but titanic suits of powered armor, designed to empower mere men to become as giants.

He showed her rooms full of officers in his private army, huddling over maps, arguing over budgets, and coordinating the surely massive complexities of his operation. It was a whole Big Fucking Deal, and it had obviously been in the works for quite a while.

"My dear, I give you: The Prometheus Initiative."

For the first few weeks, Keket was simply stunned. The sheer amount of Artifice he commanded was enough to get her juices flowing, but the scope of the program, and its lofty goals of single-handedly facing off against the Shadovar, were just too much to take in.

He shared much along the lines of salvaged Imaskari goods. He was a master of implementation, making broken things work, and duplicating them. Where she'd been content to search the ruins of Raurin for knowledge, he had sought primarily things, working things, preferably things that make Shadovars explode.

But none of it, besides the two ships, and one or two of the prototype armor suits, could be said to be merely cribbed from Imaskari technology. These machines were original creations, the fusion of ancient Imaskari lore, the dark secrets of the Shadovar (from captured machinery), and Raynar's own mad genius.

He offered her the chance to lead the Initiative with him, but she turned him down, not for lack of interest. She did insist that Kara be allowed to help him; he let her in on Keket's word, and it probably helped that she's ten times better with Imaskari technology than either of them.

Of course, Raithen's departure, and the rapid evaporation of her erstwhile family, had caused her much distress. Raynar was there, to comfort her, to distract her, to commiserate with her on the evils of heroic men.

He lavished her with gifts, insisting upon them when Keket refused. He impressed upon her the need to indulge herself, to allow herself to be happy, even when none of her friends and lovers would. Eventually, he got through, and she let go, reveling in a sea of positive reinforcement.

Pride or no, she sorely needed the money he lavished upon her, as she had a promise to fulfill. Over the intervening months, she began to erect a great school upon her expanding lands. Raynar's neverending tide of money helped grease the wheels of politics, and it didn't hurt that the King of the realm owed her a favor or two.

By now, the foundation of the school has already been poured, and it has vastly exceeded all original designs. Some are comparing it to Citadel Thay in scope, much to Zahl's imperial irritation. Its grounds have moved, as it has grown too large for the tiny village it would eclipse, and now finds itself nestled in the hills at the eaves of the forest, on lands gifted to her by the Hierophant herself, with special dispensation from the Queen of the Ten Tribes.

The "school", if such a word does it justice, is on track to be a towering castle, complete with massive dormitories, no shortage of classrooms, and facilities sufficient for the instruction of every topic magical and mundane.

Its construction couldn't have come at a better time. The Coronal of Myth Drannor accepted her suggestion to have the multilateral talks on her grand Faerunian academic alliance hosted in Keket's home town, and, with her influence, it seems the zeitgeist is beginning to favor a large investment in her school as a model of the future, a benchmark by which others will be judged. Dozens of renowned instructors in every field have shown their interest in teaching there, and the list of potential students has eclipsed all possibility of fitting them all in, assuming they'd even be alive when it was finally completed.

On that note, there has been some recent and unexpected progress. The Empress of Thay, in a rare show of support for the idea of unified collegia, has dispatched Royal Architect Bronn Ironcrest to assist the building efforts in whatever way he can, as well as a modest gift of a hundred thousand gold crowns in a show her good and abiding faith.

Such a gift demands some show of gratitude, and she has been steeling herself now for weeks, trying to avoid the inevitable. Traveling to Eltabbar means more than eating humble pie at Zahl's table; it means running into Ani and Raithen.

And as if things weren't complicated enough, she's hearing word of troubles brewing in Mulhorand, both in their war efforts, and in Skuld politics. Her brother, it seems, may finally be getting in over his head.

Wonderful.

Raynar

Raynar has been working on The Prometheus Initiative pretty much non-stop, which is no change from the last 5 years of his life. Whenever he can, he's been hanging out with Keket, taking her to nice places, showering her with gifts, etc.

He's made it clear to the Initiative that the incident on Thaymount doesn't mean their job is done--on the contrary, it's an incredible opportunity to delve into lands and holds that were previously defended by the Shadovar. He has been mounting archaeological expeditions to all corners of the globe, to the limit of his resources.

Rumor has it, he's located something particularly amazing, something top-secret, even amongst the Initiative. And he's contracted one of the greatest bounty hunters in the world to track it down and return it to him.

Logan

Logan did not go to Thay with Raithen, though he's checked up on he and Ani from time to time (unseen). When he left Aglarond, he said he was traveling on a mission of mercy to the north, to try to quell the violence and tension amongst the Nar tribes, to advise Queen Dragonsbane on how to survive the cold winter, and to look into reports of strange monsters arising from the sleep of millennia.

He hasn't been seen in months.

Kara

Kara has been working at the Initiative, helping them unlock the secrets of the Imaskari goodies they've dug up. In particular, she's taken an interest in Daedalus, helping Raynar's engineers comprehend its complex systems.

She has earned much admiration from Raynar, if not the purest form of trust, and has risen to prominence in his organization, leading several expeditions. She's particularly interested in something she calls "The Eye of God", something referenced in some of the databanks only she seems to be able to read.

Though she is, as ever, a product of an alien culture, she has begun to show a more human side. She is aglow, delighted to be neck-deep in artifacts of her lost civilization, and adapting well to being the center of so much attention. She's begun to develop a taste for the human delights, nurturing an almost Raithen-like zeal for life. She has been trying, thus far without success, to seduce Raynar, heedless of his infatuation with Keket.

On the rare occasions when Ani has had a chance to visit Aglarond, Kara has insisted she and Keket make the most of their time, hitting up the circuit of fancy clubs in Velprintalar. Seeing the girls slinking through the festhalls, like a pack of lionesses, dressed to kill, is quite a sight to behold.

• Rewards: Coming of Twilight, Interlude 1