10/23/2026: The Ashes of Dean Valentin/Strixhaven Campaign Log

The fire elemental has been guarding the volcano for decades. Nobody told it to stop. Debbie relieves it of some ash, thanks it for its service, and the party begins the long walk back to campus, feeling briefly accomplished.

The feeling lasts until the forest path.

There are scorch marks. There is a neat pile of ash. Beside it lies a fountain pen engraved with a single elegant V.

Dean Valentin has always had excellent taste in stationery.

⚔️

The tracks tell the story with grim economy. Two sets of footprints walk side by side. A pile of ash. Only one set of prints continues. The survivor's trail vanishes on rocky ground.

Alistir casts the spell  Message  into the void, addressed to Professor Valentin: Are you alive? The empty void, being a void that is empty, does not answer. The group cannot quite bring themselves to believe that Murgaxor has murdered Professor Valentin.

But the evidence rests at their feet. They scoop some of what was once a Strixhaven Dean into Debbie's empty potion bottle. They leave a stick and a rock to mark the spot. Valentin, a vampire of considerable refinement, has this as his monument. For now.

⚔️

The campus police office is staffed this morning by one Captain Awl, a muscular dogeral with a basset hound face. The Hexmates lay it all out. They are time travelers with alternate selves in this version of Strixhaven. Murgaxor had kidnapped those counterparts. He wants revenge for the death of another-dimensional Murgaxor, who was killed in self-defense. 

“You’re confessing to murder?” asks the captain, suddenly very alert. His ears are cocked forward to face Debbie.

“He has six iron golems shaped like us!. And now he has murdered the Dean of Witherbloom on the path to Mount Strix!” Debbie presses on. 

The captain listens politely, brows raised, and refers to it as a "purported murder," complete with air quotes. He concedes that the letter from the duergar altar shows that Murgaxor has been under strain since losing his father, despite it being half a century ago. 

“He defaced a priceless relic! A duergar statue that he turned into a frog! This is proof of his mental instability.” Debbie explains. This is less persuasive than she’d hoped.

"What were you doing in a place clearly marked 'forbidden' to Strixhaven students?" demands Captain Awl.

Debbie is ready with the answer. "We've been watching Murgaxor."

No enchantment clouds the captain's judgment. He simply does not believe them, which is somehow worse. He assures them he is on it.

He is not on it.

⚔️

Professor Thenn, Chronomancer, is packing in a hurry. This is never what one wants to see from a man who can jump through time.

"Ah, Ms. Slightfeather,” he says, over his shoulder, ‘you've saved me the trouble of finding you." He folds a cloak into a trunk. "This timeline has become dangerously unstable. I doubt it will last the day."

Before the Hexmates can take this in, Thenn adds that Murgaxor came by earlier and asked him for a time-travel scroll. A sensible request, Thenn says. It shows Murgaxor knows the timeline is collapsing.

"The trouble is that every trip adds another Murgaxor to the world," Debbie mutters to the others quietly. "Two are already in the past. One more makes three, and three is alot."

Professor Thenn, unsure what Debbie means, keeps packing.

Out of the professor's hearing, Alistir announces that they will find Murgaxor and kill him. The fey slips out. Nobody stops them.

The conversation with Thenn continues until the furniture begins to shudder. Then the building. Then the grounds outside the window. An earthquake.

Professor Thenn advises them to make plans to leave this timeline soon. He is.

⚔️

Before Alistir goes looking for Murgaxor, they check on Squid. As they come up the brick walkway to the tidy cottage, the Votress spots them through the window, waving them in. She is handing them a cup of tea when the ground begins to shake violently. Squid and Ayan rush, squealing in fear, from the back of the cottage. Ayan wraps themselves around the Votress. Squid attach themselves to Alistir.

"In all my thirty years living here, I have never known this place to have earthquakes," the Votress says. "How odd."

Alistir does not waste time. "I want to talk to you about murdering Murgaxor." The children both look up at the tall, dour fey.

The Votress steers Alistir out onto the front porch and closes the door behind them. "I don't wish the children to be alarmed by your talk, Alistir."

The tops of two small heads are clearly visible in the cottage's front window.

"Has Titania changed their mind about leaving Squid here? No? That is good." She looks away before continuing. "Then I am going to have to ask you and Titania to stay away from the child until you can—how to put this—pull yourselves together. What Titania is doing is not healthy, and Squid should be protected from it. She is drinking far too much, and that is not a healthy environment in which to raise a child."

She sends Alistir off with the warning ringing in their ears. But least the Votress agrees to keep the children home from school today.

Reluctantly, Alistir starts back to the dorm to rest before confronting Murgaxor. They cast Message to KFC to say they are returning to the Hex.

⚔️

Before Alistir arrives, there is heavy talk in the Hex.

"I've talked with the other Hexmates," Alternate Reyna says, "and I gotta tell you, what we saw last night is really messing with me. The others and I—look, I feel bad about this—but we think it would be better if you all just go. When are you leaving?"

The group agrees that moving on is best. But out of the alternates' hearing, Hester whispers, "This timeline is ending! We can't just leave them to die! I can't abandon Hester!"

No one can think of anything to say that will comfort her. Hester leaves to talk with Professor Thenn again.

"And I'm going to get Squid." KFC sets off for the Votress's cottage.

The others begin packing the few things they have acquired in this timeline.

In his Hex bedroom, Diro realizes that he, too, has very few possessions to take from this world. His world. 

And his world is ending. 

This is huge.

Diro carefully places his Strixhaven transcript in his pack, alongside the few things he is bringing to a new timeline.

⚔️

KFC spots the two children in the tree house. They scramble down to say hello, and the barbarian chicken tells Squid that Titania needs them.

"What'd Titania do this time?" Squid rolls their eyes. "Can Ayan come?"

"No, I don't think so, Squid."

The children step away and she can hear Squid whispering, “I’ll be back soon, Ayan. Don’t worry!”

Squid slips their small hand into KFC’s.

"I feel bad about leaving Ayan behind." The child goes quiet, walking side by side with the chicken barbarian.

KFC nods. "Everyone feels bad, a little, about something."

⚔️

Back in his office, Professor Thenn will try stretching Hester's scroll to carry eight passengers. Maybe nine, if two of the passengers are small.

While he works, Hester browses. The office holds racks of clothing from several centuries, a leathery stuffed pterodactyl that looks a little too real, and a bowl of what Professor Thenn calls ‘M&Ms.’

"Those are great," Thenn calls over his shoulder. "Try some!"

As Hester crunches, he finishes the scroll and returns it to her. "I'm leaving, Ms. Slightfeather. You and your group should as well. Keep in mind, no one here is dying. They simply cease to exist."

"But can't we do anything to prevent that?" Hester begs.

"Maybe. There might be something in the past you could change to prevent all of this." Thenn regards her closely. "This is very noble of you, Hester. Very brave."

He slams the lid of a trunk. "Take anything you want. Good luck, Hester!" He unrolls his own scroll, whispers the spell, and vanishes in a flash of pink light.

From the back of a drawer, Hester pulls a wand that rewinds its target five seconds in time. Behind it, deeper in the drawer, is something else. Something darker. Hester takes that, as well.

It is one in the afternoon. This world may end by dark. Murgaxor could be anywhere, or anywhen.

And Alistir is planning to go after him alone.