Keepers: Sam, Tilly, Toryn, Sasha, Bella
Objectives: Head to the Eldeen Reaches and find out who Sylar Brassk is and his interest in the Cyre medical records.
Outcome: Sylar Brassk was an operative implanted in House Cannith as a spy for Breland, operating out of a lab in Cyre. What he saw led him to join the Gatekeepers in the Eldeen Reaches. Daelkyr from Xoriat (the realm of madness) have been intruding on the realm, and they are associated with the birth defects seen in Cyre before the Mourning. Their connection to the Mourning is unknown, but the Gatekeepers are working to keep them at bay in this part of Khorvaire.

I have never met a man as fascinating as Bill Brasskey. We met him in Passage, on the eastern shores of Lake Galifar, at “Bill Brasskey’s Jungle Adventures”. For the low, low price of 60gp per person, he offered us a personal escort to the shifter tribes in the Eldeen Reaches so we could meet someone of lesser importance. We were supposed to be on a mission for the Keepers, but that paled to being in the presence of Bill Brasskey. He played Karrnath Roulette with a fully-loaded repeating crossbow and won. The thousands of criss-crossing bridges in Sharn weren’t built for its citizens; they were built to deter Bill Brasskey from simply jumping all the way to the top. Bill Brasskey doesn’t ever go to the Gold Dragon Inn; House Ghallanda just builds them around him whenever he’s craving a beer and a Dragon Burger. Dal Quor never manifests on Eberron anymore because the Quori remember what happened the last time Bill Brasskey had a bad dream. The Draconic Prophecy doesn’t actually predict the fate of Eberron; it just tries to guess what Bill Brasskey is going to do next. Some have said that Bill Brasskey has already died, but he simply chose not to go to Dolurrh and no deity has been brave enough to challenge him about it.

On the boat ride across the lake, a Kraken attacked us. Bill Brasskey defeated it with a machete and a glass of whiskey. He didn’t spill a drip of whiskey. After camping, he led us through the Duskwood, so named because the sun doesn’t quite penetrate through the canopy. This is for the best, as Bill Brasskey once had a staring contest with the sun and the sun lost. A giant venus flytrap tried to eat our fearless guide, but he easily punched his way out. We reached his cave for the night, and he punched out an owlbear mother so hard she didn’t even want to return for her eggs.

The next morning brought some concern though, as we awoke to find Bill Brasskey had not returned from his daily 10 kilometer run, and we found him entangled in a strange fungus that not even his muscles could free him from. Fortunately, the fungus was sensitive to light and heat. Bill Brasskey was able to vibrate his muscles until he was hot enough to hold the fungus at bay while we used Bill Brasskey’s smooth, oiled-up scalp to reflect the sunlight into a laser beam to free him. 

As we approached our destination, we discovered more fungus and several dead animals that had been entangled in the web-like mycelium. At the edge of the shifter village, Aramachi, Bill Brasskey sadly left us, but told us to find Heliana, the elder of the village. We noticed many of the villagers were lethargic and emaciated-looking and learned of a rot that was decimating their crops. 

The rest of the mission details are less important, as Bill Brasskey was not with us, but I will try to briefly summarize as best I can.

At the watering hole, we identified Heliana and overheard her talking to Sylar Brassk, the aforementioned less-important individual we were tasked with locating. He was the intended recipient of the Cyran medical records we intercepted in Regalport. He was tight-lipped but agreed to exchange information if we could locate the source of the rot that was plaguing the village. We followed the fungal infestation along a creek until we reached a cave. Tilly and Torwyn went mad, hallucinating the deaths of the rest of their party and seemingly unable to perceive us. Inside, a creature known to us as “The Veiled Lady” attacked. We used radiant and fire attacks to dispatch her and returned with her head to Heliana and Sylar.

Sylar begrudgingly told us he was a Gatekeeper and that what we fought was a Daelkyr, monsters that bleed through incursions from Xoriat. Before the Mourning, he was a spy for Breland and was inserted into a House Cannith lab in Cyre. He says that when a Daelkyr incurs on Eberron, it affects the surrounding area, and the birth defects are one of the effects. With Daelkyr showing up in the Eldeen Reaches, there have been similar birth defects to those seen in Cyre, though not on the same magnitude of scale. It seems there may be a link to Xoriat and what happened on the Day of Mourning, though we are not sure what. We asked him to share any new information that he discovers, though he seemed reluctant to agree to such.

I don’t know why Sylar Brassk thinks he’s so important. After all, the Gatekeepers didn’t actually seal Xoriat away; Bill Brasskey just told the plane to stay out.

Thankfully, we were finally able to return to Bill Brasskey to guide us back to Passage. Fun fact: the Lightning Rail doesn’t need conductor stones when it leaves Passage; it just runs because it’s afraid of Bill Brasskey.