AEHU/Plot/Plot Sketch Chapter 11

"Bearing the Frog"

Queen Leene gives Wittel and Slash freedom in exchange for tasking them to find the Magus and take Frog to him. Frog suffers from the amphibian strain of a plague spreading like wildfire throughout the known world and Leene believes he will recover if he attains human form again. Finding Raqh is an intermediate goal to locating the Magus because Raqh can find out about faraway events via spirit channelling, which Wittel has witnessed during his travels with Raqh. Leene joins as advisor and Frog's on-the-road caretaker.

[Behind the scenes, King Guardia XXI hires Edmund to retrieve the queen once it is discovered that she's missing.]

Somehow Leene and Frog end up lugging the Sacred Mirror around with them, and it acts as a handy mid-dungeon save point.

With Flea's charming assistance, Wittel and Slash convince Toma to show them the way into Giant's Claw. They find Raqh inside, then Magus, who had been searching for Raqh himself on Belthasar's advice. Magus and Raqh would appear to be adversaries at first but they team up once they realize it's in their mutual best interest. Raqh found an Angelus Errare in Giant's Claw and his spirit channelling abilities give him the power to find out how to manipulate the dimensional distortion. Magus, meanwhile, has acquired the ability to create Time Gates. It is theorized that by opening a Time Gate with some catalyst in the presence of the Angelus Errare, the Angelus Errare will transform into a path to the Darkness Beyond Time. Magus and Raqh leave via a spatial distortion, obscuring their movement from the party.

The party takes Frog to the inn in Choras to recuperate from the journey's toll on him thus far. Flea and Slash agree to continue searching for Magus, both invigorated by the possibility Magus might decide to reclaim his throne and provide strong leadership in Medina.