The Fireball Gazette

Marina’s Shadow Trial
Marina was the first in the queue to step forward, recounting how her village had been consumed by flames years ago. She spoke with great pride of saving many lives amidst the chaos, though she did mention, with much sadness, the loss of her twin sister, Valerie, who had perished in the blaze. But Matt’s piercing questions, aided by his rather dodgy eldritch connection to Nalzagoth, unearthed some doubts. Was Marina telling the whole truth?
With a snap of his fingers, Matt conjured Valerie's shadowy form from Marina’s own. The figure was an imposing specter of anger and betrayal. “How dare you take credit for my sacrifice?” the shadow hissed, brandishing a cutlass. Marina’s denials faltered as the shadow lunged, delivering a rather nasty gash. Though Marina fought back, Valerie’s shadow parried her blows with far too much ease.
Deva leapt to Marina’s aid, summoning her Flame Blade to slash at the shadow. The fiery attack weakened Valerie enough for Marina to finally decapitate the shadow with her own axe. As the shadow dissolved into nothingness, Marina stood bloodied and quite embarrassed. Tearfully, she confessed that on the day of the fire, she had actually hidden while Valerie heroically rescued the villagers. Valerie’s death had left a void, and Marina had filled it with a bit of a lie.
The revelation left the party feeling rather unsettled. Dingo remarked that in his travels, he’d met people without shadows and heard tales of how fighting one’s shadow could rob a person of their soul. That Marina still cast a shadow after the encounter seemed, to Dingo, a stroke of uncanny luck.

Deva’s Encounter with Runa
Next was Deva, who shared her past as a mercenary with the Ironhearts, led by the formidable Runa Ironheart. Deva admired Runa - until the group came across a village ravaged by orcs. Runa had ordered the Ironhearts to take what little the villagers had left. When Deva refused and defended the villagers, Runa expelled her from the group, calling her “too soft.”
Matt summoned Runa’s shadow by splitting the church ceiling with an ominous crack (which was quite a fright). Shadow-Runa landed before the group; her steely gaze fixed on Deva.
“You still talk to animals and worship the dirt,” Runa sneered. “You’re too sentimental for this world.”
Deva transformed into a bear, a defiant roar shaking the church walls, but Runa was thoroughly unimpressed. Deva proclaimed that her new companions were a much better family than the Ironhearts ever were. Runa countered by asking whether Deva had considered the context of the raid - supplies were running low and the Ironhearts were starving. The mercenary group took out the last straggling orcs and saved the remaining villagers from impending death. From this perspective, the villagers were in the Ironhearts’ debt and had to surrender their remaining possessions as compensation.
However, Devan remained steadfast in her convictions. The shadow left through the ceiling as abruptly as it had arrived, but Deva stood firm in her beliefs, her bond with the party reaffirmed.

Tiyana’s Noble Legacy
Tiyana stepped forward quite reluctantly, the weight of her noble heritage clearly visible in her demeanor. She explained how, as the younger child of the influential Wythynghall family, she had been overlooked for much of her early life. Her parents, consumed by the political machinations of Fort Murray’s triumvirate, had focused their attention on grooming her older sibling for leadership. Tiyana was left to her own devices, largely forgotten until tragedy struck.
Her older brother, Simon III, whom the family had pinned their hopes on, met an untimely death after falling off a cliff. With his loss, the responsibility of the Wythynghall seat in the triumvirate fell squarely on Tiyana’s shoulders. Unprepared and unwilling to shoulder such immense responsibility, Tiyana fled, leaving her family and their political sphere in a bit of a muddle. Her decision to abandon her post only intensified the already fractal internal struggles within the Wythynghall house.
When Matt pressed her to identify the turning point in her life, she hesitated before admitting it was Simon III’s death. As she spoke the words, a knock echoed through the church, reverberating from a side door. “Do come in,” Tiyana said warily, and the door creaked open. A shadowy figure of Simon III entered, his silhouette sharp and polished, and his attire refined to an almost exaggerated degree. He handed his hat to Deva with a charming nod, then embraced Tiyana warmly, as though no time had passed.
“You’ve done well for yourself, I see,” Simon III remarked, his tone dripping with wry humor. He cast a judgmental glance at her companions. “Though I must say, these friends of yours seem a bit… rustic for Wythynghall standards.”
Tiyana, unflinching, retorted that while they might lack noble titles, they possessed qualities of loyalty and bravery far beyond anything her upbringing had taught her. Simon’s shadow raised a skeptical eyebrow, his gaze lingering on the modest church surroundings. “And yet, here you are,” he quipped, “far from the family palace. I can only assume there’s been a slight hiccup in the succession line?”
Tiyana stiffened but maintained her composure. She explained that while the Wythynghall seat would eventually pass to her, it would likely take decades, given their father Arthur’s outstanding health. Simon chuckled darkly, casting doubt on Arthur’s longevity with a knowing look.
Simon’s shadow softened momentarily, offering a farewell laced with both affection and expectation. “Take your quite sufficient time, little sister. But eventually, you’ll need to come back. A family legacy is not something one can simply run away from.” With a tip of his hat - retrieved from Deva - he exited the room as gracefully as he had entered, leaving Tiyana to reflect on the unspoken truths of their conversation.
Though the encounter had shaken her, Tiyana stood resolute, reaffirming to the party that her choice to stay with them was one she would never regret, no matter the cost to her noble inheritance.

Selah’s Encounter with the Demon
Selah opened up about her long-standing connection to the Sun and Moon Monastery, explaining that her time there had been spent on a quest to retrieve sacred religious artifacts. When Matt probed deeper, asking what led her to join the monastery, she hesitated before revealing a harrowing truth: her family had perished in a fire engulfed by eerie green flames. Despite Matt's encouragement, Selah admitted that she avoided thinking about her parents’ deaths, as the memory was too painful to revisit.
Intrigued by the mention of green flames, the party speculated on their origin. Matt and Tiyana theorised that such flames could only mean demonic influence. To investigate further, Matt invoked Nalzagoth’s power, summoning a towering pillar of green fire. As the flames shrank to the size of a small teacup, a diminutive demon stepped out of the flames, adorned with small horns and sharp claws.
The party demanded answers about the fire from 15 years ago. The demon, speaking with casual nonchalance, admitted to burning villages regularly - four just this week alone. He explained that he was part of a larger network of fire demons who divided destruction tasks among themselves. His unique selling point? He offered the cheapest rates.
Angered by his role in widespread devastation, the party accused the demon of senseless cruelty. The demon, however, claimed he was merely fulfilling contracts and that every inferently had a summoner behind it. Unfortunately, he had no proper paperwork from so long ago, as he only kept records for ten years - which was, frankly, quite unprofessional.
Deva pressed him on the economics of his destructive work, but the demon laughed off the notion of currency in gold, reiterating that souls were the only meaningful payment. Tiyana advised Selah to destroy the demon, but before she could act, it vanished of its own volition, leaving the group frustrated and quite lacking a proper conclusion.

Dingo’s Turbulent Past and Stormy Trial
Dingo recounted his life among the bird people of the Tree Temple Lorian, a sprawling community nestled high in the tree’s ancient branches. His family was large and tightly knit, their days filled with rituals and camaraderie. However, everything changed a decade ago when a ferocious storm struck without warning, obliterating the village. The branches that had supported their homes for centuries splintered and fell, and countless lives were lost. Although most of his kin chose to stay and rebuild at the tree’s roots, Dingo couldn’t shake the dread that another storm might come and ruin everything once again.
Haunted by the fragility of life, Dingo left his homeland, vowing to never stay in one place too long. Over the years, he had traversed the world, a perpetual wanderer, always seeking but never finding a true sense of safety. He admitted to the party that he hadn’t seen his cousins, Mako and Derryl, in years. They, too, had left the village, but he suspected they might have returned to help with the rebuilding efforts. Still, he wasn’t quite ready to face the ruins of his past.
Compounding his unease was a deep-tseated frustration shared by his entire species: despite their wings, bird people like him simply could not fly. Watching the skies he longed to soar in, Dingo carried a sense of inadequacy that weighed heavily on him. Even the new village, constructed at the roots of the once-great Tree Temple, felt like a testament to their limitations, both physical and spiritual.
Mad Matt listened intently before urging everyone to hold hands in a group summoning circle, claiming it might help Dingo confront his fears. As they complied, the weather took a turn for the worse; thunder roared, and rain began to fall in absolute torrents. The group climbed to the top of the church building as a colossal storm cloud with a face appeared above them - just what one needs when it's already drizzling. The cloud spoke in a rumbling voice: “I AM THE STORM.”
Dingo, trembling yet resolute, demanded answers. “Why do you destroy? Why do you kill?” he asked. The storm’s response was simple and unsettling: “I AM THE STORM. NATURE HAS NO FEELINGS. PEOPLE DIE ANYWAY, WHETHER BY STORMS OR BY THE SUN.”
Before the group could react, lightning struck the church, shaking it violently. Tiyana and Deva scrambled to find safety (and a bit of shelter), while Marina devised an audacious plan. She grabbed Dingo and hurled him with all her strength toward the storm’s face. Mid-flight, Dingo brandished his greataxe, aiming to disrupt the storm’s currents by swinging the flat side of the blade.
The storm, however, was thoroughly unimpressed. A bolt of lightning struck the axe, engulfing it - and Dingo - in a massive explosion. In an instant, both seemed to disintegrate into dust.

When the party opened their eyes, they were back inside the intact church. Rain still fell outside - as if it wouldn't stop at all - but there were no signs of the storm cloud or its destruction. Dingo sat silently, unable to speak, his fear now etched deeper than ever before.
Though the experience may have been a bit of a hallucination, the physical evidence of the rain suggested otherwise. Mad Matt declared the summoning a success, but Dingo’s scarred expression told a different story.

Aftermath
Though the party emerged with new insights, the trials left a heavy pall over the group. Mad Matt declared the session a success, asserting that while their fears remained undefeated, they had at least begun to confront them. Each member carried a deeper understanding of their own struggles, but it was clear that the emotional wounds inflicted by the session would not heal easily - much like how one's trousers never quite dry after a walk in this weather. For Dingo, however, the experience had only deepened his terror, leaving him silent and visibly shaken.
As the group stepped out of the church, the lingering rain seemed to mirror the somber mood. They turned their attention back to the towering ziggurat, the weight of their revelations casting long, uncertain shadows over the path ahead.
The trials of the temple awaited - and quite frankly, everyone could use a nice cup of tea after all that.