Open Questions
This is the list of things the party knows it does not know. Some of them are errands with an address; some of them are holes the size of the campaign. They are set down here rather than guessed at.
The sabotage
Who is breaking the ward stones, and why? The Duke is certain someone inside the city is doing it deliberately, and the party has the method now — cloaked figures in the Undercroft for weeks before the fog, a route bought under the Warrens, two sweepers gone the night before. What they lack is a name. The Eighth District has agreed to sell the identities of whoever bought that passage; the price is being set, and the answer is due in about two days.
Where are the other six stones — and which are already broken? The party has seen exactly one of the seven, the Warren Stone. The Duke says six more ring the city and one sits beneath the Citadel. Their locations, their condition, and how close any of them is to failing are all unknown.
The forest
What is "the forest," really? The Duke called it an ancient, hostile, living thing, and the party believes there is something specific behind that word — one big, dangerous thing the seven stones were built to hold. They have the shape of it and not the name.
What are the bowls of water? Across the Warrens, people are setting out bowls and polished mirrors, and something is answering them — showing a baker her lost ring, showing Kaelen a missing ranger. Kaelen judged it fey. Mira would not: fey should not be able to work inside the walls, and the fact that something can may mean it is not fey at all. The Grove offered the only mechanism anyone has — reflective surfaces can be used for scrying, or as a gateway. Nobody has yet said out loud what is actually on the other end of the water.
Where does Verdanthis lair, and what does she want? The Poison Scale worship her as a god and guarded her relic — but she was not at Harrow Keep. She left the Tess-Kydra and went elsewhere. Her name is the only thread the party has that reaches past the sabotage toward whoever is behind it, and it points into the dark.
The people
Is Edran Holloway alive? Kaelen was shown him in a vision — older, healthy, asleep in a moonlit clearing among standing stones, under the same moon as the night sky. Kaelen has now told Mira. Whether the man is truly alive out there, and whether the vision can be trusted at all, is open.
Is there a pattern of missing rangers? Holloway's medallion turned up in a kobold's chest; Mira's mentor vanished into the forest years ago; Kaelen has started counting. Nobody has proven a pattern — but nobody has ruled one out.
Is Kaelen right about Lord Brennan? He suspects Brennan is behind the city's troubles, and Mira and Sera share the distrust. It is a suspicion, not a fact, and Lyrique does not share it.
The party's own
Where does Quill's curse come from? He forgets everything every two years and has perhaps six months left. Lady Oona knows why he is cursed and refuses to say. The Duke has offered to turn the city's resources to a cure in exchange for service — and whether that cure is possible, and what learning it might take, is part of why the party is going to Celindara.
Where is Celindara? The lost elven city is the Duke's commission and the party's next road, and the maps disagree about where it actually is. The Archive or the Grove may be able to place it.
What are the Great Vow and the Duke's vial? Two phrases from Kaelen's vision — "the Great Vow" and "the South Stone is lost" — remain unexplained. So does the small vial the Duke wears and says is one day meant for Sera.
What is the second amulet? Two amulets came out of the chest at Harrow Keep. One was identified as a protective charm, which Lyrique wears. The other has never given up its purpose.
What is stirring, that the High Priest keeps dreaming about? Davian Goldscale has dreamed for weeks of darkness spreading from the forest and chains corroding around something imprisoned that is beginning to move — dreams that began around the time of the fog. He does not know what it means. Neither does anyone the party has asked.