The campsite chosen by Aoko's party was at the northwestern foot of Mount Belen, near the Neverwinter River, and very close to Neverwinter Wood.
Early in the morning, she walked out of Leomund's Tiny Hut, sat beside the extinguished campfire, gazed at Neverwinter Wood shrouded in mist, and pondered everything she'd seen and experienced since arriving in Faerûn.
Aoko's reaction was due to something she'd just witnessed during her meditation in the Tiny Hut—she seemed to see a glowing, hazy humanoid figure deep within the Weave.
The figure spoke to her intermittently, but Aoko couldn't understand a word, nor did she recognize the language, so she had to give up for now. After preparing her spells, she came to the camp to think on her own.
She wasn't some holy-text deciphering champion, but she could make a reasonable guess about the figure's identity.
Aoko's greatest secret was the fragment of the Weave embedded in her soul.
Ever since she arrived in Faerûn, her connection with the Weave had grown much closer, and the power and effectiveness of her Weave spells had increased significantly. In a land filled with monsters and gods, she didn't believe this was a coincidence.
If someone could communicate with her through the Weave, Aoko figured it must be a deity of magic—perhaps Oghma the Lord of knowledge, Azuth the Lord of Spells, or even Mystra herself.
The last fellow who had a Weave fragment in their heart suffered a lot... Aoko recalled a certain magic goddess's lover and felt a bit worried.
Why would the goddess of magic seek her out? Surely not just for a family reunion?
Oh well... there was no point overthinking it now.
Aoko abandoned those thoughts that might affect her mood, took out her notebook, and casually flipped through the various scenes and noteworthy details she'd recorded with magic over the past few days.
When she turned to a certain scene atop the Spine of the World, she suddenly remembered—what exactly were those ice blocks in her notes, jutting out of the earth like blades?
Aoko remembered that when she and Edgin and Holga passed by that area, they sensed some strange magical energy from the sharp ice blocks.
But at the time, she was worried about possible pursuers, so she didn't stop to study them.
Hmm... this could be a place to explore in the future. Once she dealt with Sofina, she planned to check it out. She was sure that locals like Holga and Edgin wouldn't refuse to be her guides.
As Aoko doodled and wrote in her notebook, she used a cantrip to reignite the campfire, then summoned Mage Hand to toss on some firewood,
letting the flames dispel the mist. Then she cast Unseen Servant to fetch rations and water and started preparing breakfast.
Besides the strange ice blocks on the Spine of the World, Aoko used her past life memories of playing Baldur's Gate 3 to identify several other targets to keep in mind.
But these goals wouldn't be easy to achieve; most would require careful long-term planning.
First was the Arcane Tower in the Underdark—a wizard's tower built by a now-deceased archmage. Though its owner was long gone, some of the tower's devices still functioned, and a self-aware construct guarded the top floor.
To bypass the tower's traps, brute force was one way, but acquiring a Whispering Tree flower was an important method.
This rare Underdark plant creates a small anti-magic field around its flower, which can disable the tower's defenses.
But for a spellcaster like Aoko, this was a double-edged sword: holding the Whispering Tree flower would also deprive her of her spellcasting ability, making her utterly vulnerable.
So, using this to disable defenses would require a non-caster teammate or a familiar to carry it.
But she wasn't sure if familiars would be affected by the anti-magic field, and didn't want to risk it—after all, Stark was very important to her.
There were still many details about the Arcane Tower, and some parts of the solutions in her memory were already fuzzy. She'd need several deep meditations to recall specifics, so she'd wait until after dealing with Sofina to plan further.
To Aoko, the most valuable things in that long-dead archmage's tower were the magical scrolls and arcane knowledge stored within; the enchanted equipment wasn't nearly as precious as it appeared.
Second, Aoko had her eye on an artifact-level staff—the strongest mage weapon she could remember as relatively easy to obtain since arriving in Faerûn.
The staff, called Markoheshkir, was created and imbued with power by Kereska, the dragon goddess of mystery and knowledge.
It had two main powers: first, Arcane Battery, which lets the wielder cast any spell they know for free each time it's used, effectively granting a periodic free highest-level spell slot.
Second, a special 4th-level evocation spell called "Kereska's Favour."
Its effect is to attune the caster to a specific element, increasing spell damage of that element and granting a free spell of that type.
Aoko vaguely remembered that attuning to lightning gave a free "Chain Lightning."
This artifact staff was also kept in a wizard's tower. Compared to the game, the real-world location was even safer than the Underdark, so Aoko had marked it as a must-visit.
She didn't know if the Faerûn she'd come to was the same as in Baldur's Gate 3, but if she could achieve any of these goals, it meant the rest were also likely to exist in this world.
Thinking this, Aoko's treasure-hunting spirit ignited—her earlier gloom vanished, and as the morning sun dispersed the thick mist, a new day began!
"You know what I admire most about you mages?" Edgin emerged from Leomund's Tiny Hut, stretched, and said to Aoko, "Self-discipline."
"Yeah," Simon emerged, still bleary-eyed, "Getting up early is torture for me. If you can treat yourself that harshly, what can't a mage accomplish?"
"It's not hard once you're used to it," Aoko shrugged and put away her notebook. "I had the Unseen Servant prepare breakfast. Go wake Holga, let's eat together."
"That's great!" Simon grinned and sat by the fire, cleaning himself up with a Prestidigitation cantrip. "Honestly, I always wanted to learn that spell. I even have an Unseen Servant scroll, but maybe I'm just not cut out to be a mage—I've never succeeded."
"I can teach you when there's time," Aoko told Simon. "A descendant of Elminster shouldn't be stumped by a 1st-level spell. You just haven't found the key trick."
Edgin, who'd lived with Holga for years, didn't say anything but went back inside to wake the still-sleeping Holga.
A moment later, the four of them sat around the campfire, sharing hot food and discussing their route into Neverwinter Wood.