SolomonV2 Recap Page

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here is a recap page for ST:EM2 (4th iteration), separated by DATE, newest bottom. This is meant to be a running narrative, and a holding place until categorization later

9-11-2025

Family Expectations — Fire, Legacy, and the Name "Merlin"

The world opens on a quiet renewal as Solomon Waystone and his father, Hector Waystone, speak of the boy’s uncertain future. Hector insists that Solomon is meant for more than soldiering—his intellect and promise belong in the family gem business. They share talk of youth, temptation, and Solomon’s friend Joshua, who once boasted of a non-human brothel near Four Rivers.

Later, father and son work together in the sheds, burning away remnants of old projects. Among the papers marked for fire, Solomon finds a piece of vellum written in elegant hand. On its reverse lies a short note: Meet in the usual place Thursday. – Merlin. Over dinner, Solomon shows it to his parents. Hector remarks that Merlin was “an old friend… knew your grandfather, too.”

9-24-2025

The Shepherd’s Cross Incident — The Voice Beneath the Earth

Solomon joins a caravan bound for Toth Wynnd and takes a scout’s assignment alongside Jeffrey. They ride ahead to inspect the trail and watering hole at Shepherd’s Cross, only to find it dry and muddy. Jeffrey turns back to redirect the caravan while Solomon seeks the spring’s source. After hours navigating narrow canyons, Solomon discovers a high valley with a flowing spring that feeds into a hidden cavern below. Climbing to investigate, he glimpses a cabin and grazing cattle before slipping and falling into the cavern itself.

Inside, the space proves to be an ancient cistern. Solomon salvages driftwood to make a fire—evidence suggests fires had burned there before. His father’s sword is gone, lost to the depths. He cannot climb back out. Praying softly, he follows the current through flooded tunnels and over cascading falls, losing nearly all his possessions. Exhausted, he finds a ledge with stacked stones diverting the flow of water. When he removes them, a calm voice warns, “Brace yourself.” The released torrent nearly sweeps him away but restores the spring above.

Emerging into the late afternoon light after a full night underground, Solomon hears voices approaching. Instinctively he hides—just as men’s shouts pierce the air: “Find him and kill him!” A desperate chase follows. Cornered, Solomon fights one attacker hand-to-hand before Jeffrey and Bucephalus arrive, arrows felling the man. Kneeling beside the dying foe, Solomon asks quietly if it hurts—his voice filled with pity, not malice.

10-2-2025

Roads and Revelations — Wittich the Mage and the Family in the Dale

On the road beyond Emberton, Solomon seeks food and encounters again the mysterious musician he’d once noticed at a roadside club. The man, Wittich, strikes up conversation, bluntly asking if Solomon is attracted to men. Solomon declines the notion; Wittich only smiles, saying there is something unusual about him. Across hours of talk, Solomon confides that he heard a voice in the cavern. Wittich immediately recognizes this as the likely cause of the strange attention surrounding him. He names Franklin Flinch as a real and living person, then demonstrates his own power—retrieving a newspaper from Deepdale through a shining doorway. The revelation of true magic leaves Solomon stunned.

Wittich soon departs with another caravan. Solomon, weary, falls asleep on Topaz, who wanders from the road. He awakens in late afternoon to startle a bear, then spends hours regaining his bearings. Spotting what he believes to be his caravan in a dale below, he rides to it and finds instead a friendly family who know his parents. They feed him and offer shelter. That night, while he sleeps, a young woman enters his tent unannounced. By morning, Solomon realizes with unease that it was not the elder daughter he had been flirting with, but her younger sister. He departs soon after, finding Bucephalus waiting for him. The two ride together, Solomon confiding the strange and unsettling turn of his journey.

10-23-2025

The Crossroads Massacre and the Mage’s Door

Solomon Waystone and Bucephalus rode to catch up with the caravan, knowing they had one more night’s camp before reaching Toth Wynnd. The evening passed without trouble, but at dawn Bucephalus and Eddert, one of the hired hands, rode ahead to scout the way through the Bloody Hills—a stretch of valley descending toward the great clearing outside the city. For ten miles in every direction around Toth Wynnd, the forests had long been cut down to deny raiders and bandits any cover. The southern crossroads was their planned camp for the night, a common meeting point for caravans entering the city.

By the time the Barrickea Gem and Mineral Caravan reached the crossroads, the place was strangely empty. As dusk fell, theirs was the only camp on the flats. Uneasy, Bucephalus and Stoja, the second-in-command, rode out to survey the treeline, agreeing to return within two hours. Solomon, left in charge, ordered the others to stay alert. Stoja returned alone—nothing amiss, he said—but Bucephalus had not come back.

Solomon took rest before his watch, but sleep was short and troubled. When Bucephalus remained missing, he sent two riders to look for him, warning them not to go deep among the trees. They found nothing. When Stoja proposed a full search party, Solomon refused: “Bucephalus would never leave the caravan undefended to chase one man in the dark.” His steadiness impressed the others, who quietly praised his decision.

Moments later, the horses went tense, staring toward the eastern verge. Solomon turned to shout a warning—“Hey, somethi—” —and thirty riders in black erupted from the treeline. The camp dissolved in screams and chaos. Solomon ducked behind a wagon as the bandits butchered his men. Running would mean crossing open ground; staying meant death. He crawled through brush until he found shelter beneath tangled roots, watching helplessly as wagons were looted and driven away. When the raiders began counting bodies, they realized one was missing and fanned out with torches. Solomon’s mind fractured under the horror of it.

He watched as Topaz was struck and roughly saddled. A massive man tried to mount and was thrown hard, arguing with another who seemed no more in command. When the second man moved to take the horse, Solomon gathered his courage to rush them. He rose—and pain exploded in his chest as an arrow struck him through the ribs, another through the abdomen. One of the searchers had seen him rise and fired. As the world dimmed, Solomon heard a name spoken among the bandits—McLean. His fading thought wondered if they meant the ranger of legend.

Scene for the Audience

In a tavern at Toth Wynnd, Wittich sits with his companions Ossian and Riva, exchanging jests and stories of recent travels. Between laughter, Wittich remarks that he now understands what others mean when they say they can see potential in a person. As he speaks, a rider arrives outside and ties up a horse Wittich recognizes instantly. “That’s the horse of the young man I told you about,” he says.

The rider, pressed by the mages, confesses he was paid several hundred silver and a handful of gold to sack a gem caravan and vanish with the cargo. The three mages exchange grim looks and ride for the crossroads. By the time they arrive, buzzards circle the sky. Other caravans have stopped to bury the dead. Following a trail of scorched grass, the mages find a burned hollow and a body among the ashes.

Ossian kneels and turns the young man’s face toward the light. “It’s him,” Wittich breathes. They share a moment of sorrow—until fresh blood wells from the wounds. In a heartbeat they move: arrows drawn free, hands blazing with power. A doorway of light blooms open. Wittich, Ossian, and Riva carry Solomon through, disappearing into the forest beyond.

The Witch of the Forest and the Factor of Wynnd

Solomon awakens in agony, gasping as his head strikes the table beneath him. Voices surround him—urgent, commanding, foreign. Fingers press into his wounds; pain surges, then dissolves into the wild confusion of magical healing. Emotion floods through him: terror, ecstasy, grief, and wonder all at once. When it is done, his clothes are soaked with blood. A woman named Vordai offers him a fine shirt that once belonged to her daughter’s father, the cloth worth more than Solomon dares guess.

In the candlelight he meets his rescuers: Vordai, called the Witch of the Forest, the mages Riva and Ossian, and a quiet youth named Aerin. Vordai teases Solomon about giving her a granddaughter—or perhaps she isn’t entirely joking. Soon after, he travels by a mage’s doorway for the first time while conscious, emerging within the walls of Toth Wynnd to recover his horse. Bucephalus, however, remains missing, and Wittich departs to search for him.

The next day, Solomon meets the Factor of Toth Wynnd, Malachi Brunswick. Malachi offers perfunctory condolences for the loss of the caravan but is chiefly concerned about the missing cargo. He hands Solomon a parchment addressed to Hector Waystone. “If you don’t find your father,” he says dryly, “I suppose you can read it yourself.” When Solomon asks what he means, Malachi shrugs. “Caravans disappear, people die. Things happen.”

Determined to reach his father, Solomon pays a silver coin for passage on a river skiff bound for Toth Safira. The vessel rides low, heavy with cargo, and soon grounds on sandbars. Solomon helps the crew lighten her, earning a meal among them. During their talk, the captain and first mate, Janni, reveal that a crate was loaded aboard this very skiff the morning after the massacre—a revelation that fills Solomon with dread and resolve.

Upon reaching Toth Safira, Solomon goes to his uncle’s mansion but is refused entry by a servant. Through a window he sees his grandmother, Hemetia Waystone, matriarch of the Waystone gem empire, who tells him where to find his father. Solomon races to the warehouse district, where he discovers Bucephalus and his uncle in tense conversation with Hector. Reunited, Solomon embraces them both and recounts all that has happened.

Together they read the note from Malachi Brunswick. It contains only five words: “You owe me 350 gold.” The implication is clear—Brunswick arranged the attack as an insurance fraud, and the massacre of the caravan was collateral damage in a debt unpaid.