Quick facts
Role: Healer · Home: South of the Saline Coast · Old party: Bran’s Old Adventuring Party · Status: Unknown, last seen going out to fight the VTC (as of C2 Session 83)
Sylas Riverstride is a mute healer who lives south of the Saline Coast and speaks through a parrot. He healed Mayor Eliza Windrider, led The FAM into The In-Between to bring back Wilbur, and is one of Bran’s old adventuring companions.
Overview
Sylas cannot speak. He communicates through his parrot, and a man who serves as his “voice.” He is a powerful healer and knows the ritual for entering the in-between.
History
Finding Sylas (Session 20)
When the party needed a trustworthy healer for the poisoned mayor, Bran told them about Sylas (Session 13). The party traveled south, where a parrot led them to a man who said he was the “voice” for the mute healer. Sylas healed Steve, heard out the party’s mission, and took them back to the Saline Coast by portal. At Beachside Books, he healed Windrider and brought her back to lucidity. The party learned that Sylas and Bran had a history of betrayal.
The fate-changing artifact
Sylas had once gone with Bran to find an “object that changes fate,” and he suspected the mortician Victor Blackwood of pocketing it during their failed quest (Session 25). That quest ended at the Obsidian Spire, where Bran hesitated at a chasm and Elara Sunshadow was lost. Sylas blamed Bran for years.
Raising Wilbur (Sessions 30–32)
After Tobias Blackwood killed Wilbur, Ellery called Sylas for help. He explained that souls pause in the in-between before passing on, and that something was keeping Wilbur’s soul from returning. Using a large diamond, he sent Ellery, Escher, Nelda, Kip and Arghen into the in-between, and they came back with Wilbur.
Afterward Sylas told them it was his second trip into the in-between. His first, an attempt to save another adventuring group, had been a complete failure, and no one survived.
In Session 33, Arghen woke from a days-long sleep demanding that the party call their “magic friend” to bring someone back from the dead, tied to his guilt over the death of the Prince of Bureetoe.
Reunion (Session 83)
When Elara turned up alive at the Mercenary’s Rest, Sylas stepped out of a tree that grew in the middle of the tavern and embraced her. He was one of Bran’s companions who went out to fight the VTC so the FAM could escape.
Relationships
- Bran: Old companion. Sylas blamed him for losing Elara.
- Elara Sunshadow: Old companion. Sylas loved her.
- Victor Blackwood: Old companion, whom Sylas suspected of taking the artifact.
Appears in
Session 13, Session 20, Session 21, Session 25, Session 30, Session 32, Session 83