The first book is a full family history, and leads right up to before when Gwen and Maverick became popular. Lesigha expanded the family, brokered trade deals in their favor, and never took hostile actions against the Whiterose family. The presence of her sigil is absent from this book. Violet reads the next book a week later, and learns that Maverick was married before Gwen, but they were divorced. His prior wife was Isabel Jensen, a woman from Aurezia, south of Sentinel Mountain. He was also from Sentinel. They were trying to form a political union.
The party goes to see the lower levels and check how much the water has receded – they notice an odd silence on the floor where Matron's room is. They pass through to the sacred space and hear dripping. The ring is still in the container, and there is no noise in the hallowed area. WHen the door opens, the party sees that Antonias has killed himself by hanging and cutting his wrists. He wrote a letter. Hove reads the letter, and Raziel cuts his body down. He explains that he's done horrible things and can't recognize who he was. He killed himself because he continued wanting to put the ring back on. Holly comes downstairs, cleans the room, and has the party leave so she can issue his last rites. Overall, three steps of water is removed.
The new foreman at the keep is Havel, an ildera. Ward was taken away for bridge repairs to Shardfalls, as it was recently struck by lightning. Veil and Violet create forged papers for Veil's new identity to deposit the scary ring into a safety deposit box with the Antares Templar Bank. Hove and Raziel are digging out the foundations for the blacksmith and library – they have basements, but are currently filled with dirt. The buildings were destroyed by a flood, and when they get to the bottom of the blacksmith they find raw iron ore, an anvil, and other such items.
The party heads to Anchorage. Halfway there, the road becomes cobble, as the ildera are building a road to the keep. Evara is commissioning this road. When the party passes into Anchorage the guard Felix gives Hove a high-five. Veil heads straight to the Antares Templar, where she deposits the ring. She pre-pays for the box multiple months ahead of time. With this type of box, the item can be transferred to other banks.
The ground shakes and a loud bang can be heard from the north. Raziel flies up and sees a black cloud of smoke rising in the distance, where Dewdrop was located. The people and guards to the north panic. Raziel goes to get his full plate – Warwick says that Raziel will need to look for someone who can specifically craft for a vasar. He knows someone called Corinth in the city of Dragonheart who could do it.
Veil pickpockets some gold off of random people in Anchorage. While in the market square she notices a man with a telltale black ring buying meat. She follows him at a distance, noting that he appears well-to-do, though in a servant's outfit. He heads back to a house of lesser nobility – The Denmont's, who own a fleet of merchant ships that travel between Isild and Aurezia across the solar sea. She gets a good look at the ring and confirms that it is, indeed, the same type of ring the party has been looking for. Veil lets the group know, and they write a letter to Luca to warn him of the individual.
They head back to Felix Silverstein (25 years old), who talked to his buddies about the guard situation. For three months the party can give him 2,600gp – 600gp for him personally, and 2,000gp for him to hire other guards. They write a letter to give to Felix to forward on to Holly, which explains the situation.
The party heads to Shardfalls. The city is not that large. Everyone is friendly – it appears that the city did not suffer any damage during the Darkest War due to it's relatively small size. The party stays at the Gilded Lily, which is ran by a friendly woman named Lily. The construction team is working on the bridge that was damaged. There is an eldric facility to the west of the city.
The city has 30ft walls of stone, and an eldricsteel bridge. There's an eldric refinement facility. The wall here seems unscathed, as if the city was too small to gain notice from the Shattered Hand. Bad weather is on the way.