Episode 14 Glossary
Characters
Helena / Heli Nam-Nirah: Remembers stealing Tel'Dorath's entire reserve of Ithelion light and being banished by Vanis. Her vial later saves the party from the mine's living darkness.
Stefon Tevras: Helena's missing brother and presumed future leader of the Vanari. His empty vial receives the stolen Ithelion light and shows Helena a sequence of possible destinations or warnings.
Vanis: Ancient lord of the Vanari, considered akin to a god. He banishes Helena and proclaims the Age of the Dark Moon.
Baglin Birken: Surviving member of Birkenstock's founding family, rescued from beneath a pile of black glints. He admits accepting Yore and Gander's money in return for looking away.
Kaglin: Baglin's apprentice, found dead by his own knife in the warehouse office. His diary records missing miners and a warning sent to the Arcanium.
Piccolo: Kaglin's son, who escaped the mine before the massacre and previously returned to Gavra.
Captain Solomon: Yore and Gander captain named as the commissioner of Shipment 212 in the secret mining records.
Bjorn's Father: Appears in Bjorn's recovered memory after Bjorn kills the infected miner. He teaches that strength requires controlled rage, tempered in both fire and ice.
Infected Miner: Sixteen-year-old survivor with necrosis and black moss spreading through her body. She describes shadows and a cavern of dark stars before asking Bjorn to end her life.
Ernan: Remains wary of the infected and the darkness, while Whisper privately tells Bjorn about Ernan's chain scars and hidden past.
Gods and Religion
Vanis: Revered by the Vanari as an ancient godlike ruler whose conclave controls access to their sacred lights.
Sarexis: Dark Moon whose light is collected at Tel'Dorath. Vanis's declaration ties Helena's theft to an Age of the Dark Moon.
Lunaris: Pale Moon whose light is collected with Sarexis's into the Tears of God.
Ithelion: Pure prismatic light Helena steals from Tel'Dorath. It is distinct from moonlight and overwhelms the creatures in the mine.
Eth: Goddess of New Beginnings worshiped in Birkenstock. Her town statue has been violently torn apart.
The Tangled One: Sea goddess associated with the lower temple's weeds, vines, green oceanic flames, and hostile architecture.
Tangle War: Ancient religious conflict that the party associates with the mismatched temple built beneath the mine.
Kavosh: Dragon of Caves invoked by Bjorn as he attacks one of the shadow creatures.
Organizations and Societies
Vanari: Ancient people of Tel'Dorath. Ten warriors loyal to Stefon help Helena defy the conclave and abandon her home.
Conclave of Tel'Dorath: Sacred Vanari complex that gathers moonlight into Tears of God and once housed the stolen Ithelion reserve.
Yore and Gander: Shipping company responsible for moving black glints through Birkenstock and named in both warehouse and mine records.
Velpa Trading Company: Gavran civil house whose marked warehouse stands beside the sabotaged structure in Birkenstock and whose business is entangled with the mines.
Arcanium: Recipient of Kaglin's warning that mine shipments needed closer inspection.
Dread Stalkers: Shipboard force that remains aboard Lily's Song while the smaller adventuring company investigates ashore.
Birken and Stock Families: Founding families from which Birkenstock takes its name.
Creatures and Nature
Shadow Creatures: Faceless, light-eating attackers resembling black echoes. They use many stolen voices, hunger for flesh, and can leave human corpses when destroyed.
Winged Horrors: Numerous creatures circling in the mine's magical darkness. Helena concludes that they are not the same beings as the humanoid shadows.
Black Glint Infection: Produces necrosis, black moss, bodily corruption, and eventual transformation. The young miner recognizes what she is becoming.
Great Black Wolf: Beast from Bjorn's memory that he kills in an uncontrolled rage, ruining its pelt before his father stops him.
Seaweed Grain: Edible but unpleasant grain stored in one surviving warehouse rather than black glints.
Items and Technology
Stefon's Light Vial: Necklace now revealed to contain the entire Ithelion reserve once held at Tel'Dorath. It creates a vast sphere of palpable light in the mine.
Tears of God: Small vials of collected Sarexis and Lunaris moonlight traditionally worn by the Vanari.
Kaglin's Ouroboros Necklace: Taken by Vyr from Kaglin's body and bearing Yore and Gander's symbol.
Kaglin's Three Keys: Recovered by Vyr and then passed to Whisper, adding to the keys Ernan already gave him.
Kaglin's Diary: Work notebook taken by Vyr. Its last entries mention missing miners and a request that the Arcanium inspect shipments.
Uncut Emerald: Heavy green stone taken from Kaglin's office and given by Vyr to Helena.
Warehouse Shipment Ledger: Record found in Birkenstock and handed to Normandy for later study.
Mine Maps and Notes: Records taken by Normandy showing the lake, black-glint chasm, secret foreman area, hazards, and a goat-head mark.
Mining Kits: Masks and assorted rope, pickaxes, hooded lanterns, and a compass gathered before entering the mine.
Shipment 212 Records: Secret documents naming Captain Solomon of Yore and Gander as the commissioner of a glint order.
Pure Glint Temple Crystal: Enormous pure glint suspended above four ritual slabs in the lower temple. It remains installed.
Newly Forming Black Glint: Darkness extracted from Whisper by the temple slab and gathered beneath him immediately before it erupts.
Magic and Cosmology
Tel'Dorath Light Collectors: Devices that condense moonlight into liquid-like drops without wetness or residue.
Helena's Guiding Vision: The Ithelion vial shows Stefon, a chain wielder, green obelisk, familiar door, pulsar-like beam, black sea kingdoms, and rescuing hands.
Age of the Dark Moon: Era proclaimed by Vanis as Helena flees and a shadow falls across Tel'Dorath.
Sunlight Transmutation: Baglin reports that the attacking shadows became solid black glints when daylight reached them.
Light-Eating Darkness: Magical darkness in the mine defeats darkvision, snuffs flame, consumes spell-light, and weakens glints held near Vyr's shadows.
Impure Glint Light: Distributed black or impure glints brighten inside the mine and repel or wound the transformed shadows.
Magic-Suppressing Threshold: Crossing into the lower temple severs the companions from magic, leaves Normandy's book blank, and silences Matthias.
Darkness Extraction Slab: Ancient device under the pure glint that removes Whisper's darkness and creates a new black glint from it.
Locations and Realms
Tel'Dorath: Secluded Vanari homeland hidden by impassable mists and composed of two isles, one of which has been lost for centuries.
Conclave of Tel'Dorath: White, elevated temple complex where Helena steals the Ithelion light and receives Vanis's banishment.
Birkenstock: Small fishing and mining port in the Shattered Isles, found burned, bloodstained, and emptied of almost every resident.
Shattered Isles: Cold volcanic archipelago where green life struggles beneath snow and ice.
Birkenstock Mine: Abandoned guarded labor camp containing maps, infected survivors, black-glint caverns, living darkness, and an older buried temple.
Cavern of Dark Stars: Name used by the infected miner for the black-glint chamber opened by the company.
Forbidden Workroom: Sealed mining chamber containing ledgers, Yore and Gander missives, and an uncharted stair into the lower temple.
Lower Temple: Magic-suppressing sanctuary with conflicting architectural layers, seaweed motifs, a wrathful goddess, four slabs, and a suspended pure glint.
Binto: Rough settlement on a larger Shattered Isle, mentioned by Baglin as unsafe for women or sensitive men.
History and Lore
Theft of Tel'Dorath's Light: Helena intended to take guidance for Stefon but unknowingly removed the conclave's entire Ithelion reserve, extinguishing every sacred light.
Birkenstock Massacre: Shadow beings descend through the settlement, spill blood, remove or transform the victims, and leave almost no bodies behind.
Mine Outbreak: Workers open a cavern of dark stars, after which miners disappear, become ill, flee, or transform into light-eating creatures.
Shipment Network: Birkenstock's records connect the mines to Yore and Gander, the Velpa Trading Company, Captain Solomon, and the Arcanium's research.
Warehouse Sabotage: An explosion begins in one corner of a Velpa warehouse and spreads the fire through Birkenstock, suggesting a deliberate blast.
Bjorn's Lesson of Control: Bjorn's father teaches that rage is useful only when tempered and controlled, a memory triggered by Bjorn's mercy killing.
Layered Temple: Mismatched construction suggests that one sanctuary was built over another and that later worship altered an older religious site.
From the Darkness There Is Light: Inscription on the temple's sole intact slab, echoing Helena's culture while activating a mechanism that purifies Whisper.
