The Eightfold

The Eightfold is a drow-led mercenary order commanded by Lord Cedric, devoted to restoring drow power in the former Dottenland. Its generals were Cedric's champions, whom he had manipulated into helping him. Its eight generals are tracked by the stones of The Rosary: Arion Earth Sentinel, Brond The Colossus, General Ilyana Sorn (the Silent Echo), Thalira The Weavesword, Brenor The Storms Fury, Sir Malric The Shattered Shield and Lysara The Inquisitor, with the artificer Jorim The Tinkerer as eighth. Through 2024 and early 2025 the party killed Brenor, Lysara, the Silent Echo and Cedric himself.

Jorim's protocols, decoded by the party in January 2024:

• Protocol Theta: Scrubbers, engineered beasts that devour evidence and vanish after 48 hours.
• Protocol Kappa ("cappa"): remote explosives.
• Protocol Nu: captures expended magic, like a Shadowfell veil siphon, marked with a figure-eight sigil.
• Protocol Delta: tags a target and moves them through time and space.
• Protocol Sigma: a time stop on a stick.
• Protocol Beta: a binary bind; two people share all effects.
• Protocol Omicron: a crop blight to displace people.
• Protocol Mu.

Cells met in a teahouse in the Fogsteps and at The Mistveil Pavilion. The Nocturnal Loom planted at least one general (Brenor) in the order. Lieutenant Porlank's diary records an Eightfold unit dying at a crystal tower grown over a pit (Fel Tower Dungeon). In April 2025 a second party came to Fort Obsidian to hunt the Eightfold (Return To Fort Obsidian). After its fall, Kael Sunstrike built The Shadow Archive from its remains.