The Fireball Gazette

Marina’s Shadow Trial
Marina was the first to step up to the plate, recounting how her village had been wiped out by flames years ago. She spoke with all the pride of a survivor, claiming she had saved many lives amidst the chaos, though she mourned the loss of her twin sister, Valerie, who had perished in the blaze. But Matt’s interrogation-style questioning, fueled by his eldritch connection to Nalzagoth, began auditing her conscience. Was Marina telling the whole, unfiltered truth?
With a snap of his fingers, Matt conjured Valerie's shadowy form directly from Marina’s own silhouette. The figure was an imposing specter of pure, righteous indignation and betrayal. “How dare you take credit for my sacrifice?” the shadow hissed, brandishing a cutlass like a weapon of justice. Marina’s denials faltered as the shadow launched a full-scale assault, delivering a deep gash. Though Marina fought back with everything she had, Valerie’s shadow parried her blows with effortless precision.
Deva leapt in to provide backup, summoning her Flame Blade to slash at the shadow. The fiery strike weakened Valerie enough for Marina to finally execute the shadow with her own axe. As the shadow dissolved into nothingness, Marina stood bloodied and stripped of her pretenses. Tearfully, she confessed that on the day of the fire, she had played it safe and hidden while Valerie heroically stepped up to rescue the villagers. Valerie’s death had left a void, and Marina had filled it with a convenient lie.
The revelation left the party unsettled. Dingo remarked that in his travels, he’d met people without shadows and heard tales of how fighting one’s own shadow could strip a person of their very soul. That Marina still cast a shadow after such an intense encounter seemed, to Dingo, a stroke of legendary, uncanny luck.

Deva’s Encounter with Runa
Next up was Deva, who shared her history as a rugged mercenary with the Ironhearts, led by the unapologetic and fearless Runa Ironheart. Deva had admired Runa’s strength - until the group crossed paths with a village ravaged by orcs. Runa ordered the Ironhearts to take what little the villagers had left in the name of survival. When Deva refused and stood her ground to defend the villagers, Runa expelled her from the unit, labeling her “too soft” for the frontier.
Matt summoned Runa’s shadow by splitting the church ceiling with an ominous crack, like a thunderclap. Shadow-Runa landed before the group; her steely gaze fixed on Deva with total authority.
“You still talk to animals and worship the dirt,” Runa sneered. “You’re too sentimental for this world.”
Deva transformed into a bear, letting out a defiant roar that shook the church walls, but Runa remained unimpressed by the display of raw power. Deva proclaimed that her new companions were a better family than the Ironhearts ever were - a choice based on loyalty rather than mere utility. Runa countered by bringing up the bottom line: supplies were running low and the Ironhearts were starving. The mercenary group had essentially neutralized the last stragglers and saved the remaining villagers from certain death; from this perspective, the villagers owed the Ironhearts a debt of gratitude and had to surrender their possessions as payment for services rendered.
However, Deva remained steadfast in her individual convictions. The shadow exited through the ceiling as abruptly as it had arrived, but Deva stood firm in her beliefs, her bond with the party reaffirmed like a binding oath.

Tiyana’s Noble Legacy
Tiyana stepped forward reluctantly, the heavy weight of her aristocratic heritage clearly visible in her posture. She explained how, as the younger child of the influential Wythynghall family, she had been overlooked during her formative years. Her parents, consumed by the political maneuvering of Fort Murray’s triumvirate, had focused all their resources on grooming her older sibling for leadership. Tiyana was essentially left to her own devices, largely forgotten until tragedy struck.
Her older brother, Simon III, the family’s golden boy, met an untimely end after falling off a cliff. With his loss, the heavy responsibility of the Wythynghall seat in the triumvirate fell squarely on Tiyana’s shoulders. Unprepared and unwilling to accept such a rigid, predetermined destiny, Tiyana fled, leaving her family and their political empire in total turmoil. Her decision to abandon her post only intensified the already fractional internal struggles within the Wythynghall house, as external adversaries moved in to exploit the instability.
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. “Come in,” Tiyana said warily, and the door creaked open. A shadowy figure of Simon III entered, his silhouette sharp and polished, his attire refined to an almost exaggerated degree of prestige. 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 elite 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 managing of your own path, 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 pursue her own life 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 theorized that such flames could only mean demonic influence - an unregulated, chaotic force. To investigate further, Matt invoked Nalzagoth’s power, summoning a towering pillar of green fire. As the flames shrank to the size of a goblet, 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 like a well-oiled machine. His unique selling point? He offered the cheapest rates on the market.
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 inferno had a summoner behind it. Unfortunately, he had no paperwork from so long ago, as he only kept records for ten years.
Deva pressed him on the economics of his destructive work, but the demon laughed off the notion of gold currency, reiterating that souls were the only meaningful payment in this economy. Tiyana advised Selah to destroy the demon, but before she could act, it vanished of its own volition, leaving the group frustrated yet more aware of the predatory forces at play.

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 the rituals and camaraderie of temple life. 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 destroy everything again.
Haunted by the fragility of life, Dingo left his homeland, vowing to never stay in one place too long - a true wanderer on the move. Over the years, he had traversed the world, always seeking but never finding a true sense of permanent security. 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 ready to face the ruins of his past.
Compounding his unease was a deep-seated frustration shared by his entire species: despite their wings, bird people like him couldn’t 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 head-on. As they complied, the sound of thunder roared, and rain began to fall in torrents. The group climbed to the top of the church building as a colossal storm cloud with a face appeared above them, looming like an unstoppable force. The cloud spoke in a rumbling voice: “I AM THE STORM.”
Dingo, trembling yet resolute, demanded answers. “Why do you destroy? Why do/kill?” he asked. The storm’s response was simple and unsettlingly blunt: “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, while Marina devised an audacious, high-impact 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 like a blunt instrument of disruption.
The storm, however, was unimpressed by the maneuver. A bolt of lightning struck the axe, engulfing - 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, 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 mass hallucination, the physical evidence of 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 with enough grit to keep going. 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. 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.