Chapter Six: Catacombs 2

7/9/19

{8th Denta 6737}

Markku and Oor explain their plan and meeting with Naydor to Rangrim and Broxx (and companions). Rangrim is uneasy working with Crimson Codex (and associates) but isn’t willing to divulge more than “suspicions and unanswered questions, not enough evidence”. Broxx, during the conversation, is scowling, arms crossed, and says “I’ve had bad run ins with the Crimson Codex, and do not care for them, but I suppose I have no choice to follow and keep you all alive”. Oor suggests this is a chance for Broxx to make up for those bad run-ins. Broxx continues by implying the Codex are not exactly honourable men.

Our time in the city has revealed that there are several groups that may have armies or enough power to take over the city: Crimson Codex (Wizard/School/House Orion), House Deneith (Mercenaries), and House Kundarkak (Merchant Guild/Artisans – wealthy - automatons). Bubbling possibilities of bloody civil war. There are 4 other houses but they aren’t very important right now.

The Lucid Dreamers eventually decides to go underground and explore for a path to the Thebilum Empire, but will not sell the artefacts they find to House Orien (or Crimson Codex). We will talk to other explorers/adventurers to better understand Orion/Codex and their plans/workings.

Markku goes back to the tavern to gamble and earns another 16 gp. Everyone goes to bed and wakes the next morning ready, finding a rather inebriated Oor downstairs. Broxx dumps a bucket of dirty mop water on his head.

{9th Denta 6737}

The party tries to decide where to enter the Catacombs – Markku consults the orb and is directed to a heavily trafficked entrance, specifically in the Temple District. Eventually the party is led to a quite showy and elaborate entrance where a reasonable number of people are running around – something is happening. Many people are present from House Kundarkak, trying to repair something or putting on armour; 8 clockwork golems are standing in a formation. There’s a sense that the entrance is currently busy. Eventually another group of Kundarkak people arrive, led by an old dwarf. He’s holding a massive poleaxe with a giant blade. The dwarf is told that 8 clockworks were prepared to go down with him, but he gets mad and yells that he doesn’t want them. He raises his hand and uses a purple energy of some sort to destroy 7/8, then smashes the last with his weapon. Markku recognizes this kind of magic, which is not commonly practiced by wizard/sorcerer, more by warlocks, but it is a very powerful incantation (force damage) that Markku cannot clearly identify. He shouts for flesh and blood instead.

Oor walks towards the dwarf and tries to offer the assistance of the party. The dwarf looks over and sneers “maybe when you’ve proved yourself to my house!”  He calls out several other Kunderkak’s and yells at them to join him. He is clearly much higher level than us. The dwarf takes off with his entourage into the catacombs. Korbek Kundarkak is his name, it turns out, head of the House. He is known as the strongest person in Old Vashton. People are heard arguing about whether Korbak K. or Greigur d'Deneith (head of House Denneth) would be stronger. Gregor is known to be speedier but Korbak is stronger.

Before the area clears up and people are still milling about, Markku and Oor learn that Korbak doesn’t really like being head of the House, and would rather be out adventuring or in battle, like he was before his father died and he became head. He goes into the Catacombs whenever he needs to blow off some steam (politics, meetings, etc).

The party heads towards the entrance and sees people from House Jorasco offering services as healers, Deneith’s as warriors, etc. We pass by and see 14 shrines, 7 on each side (Seen/Unseen gods), which we haven’t seen at other entrances. This may be more common in the Temple District. At other entrances there are sometimes shrines to Nivi Rhombodazzle, Gorum and Desna.

Entering the catacombs, there are lots of signs and messages, people all around, and we soon come up against forks in the road. Markku tries to ask the orb in advance which direction to go, but it still takes a while to get through the maze. Plenty of signs and messages appear, warning of dangers up ahead (avoid statue, watch for the trap, etc), many of which have been crossed out as the dangers have been dealt with. The warnings are often vague but it doesn’t really matter since most of them have been taken care of. Words of warning often are accompanied by symbols of deities or important Houses.

Eventually the party reaches a large pool in a cavernous dome, about 30’ high, with a waterfall into the pool, which is about 4’ deep. Looking for signs, the party is just able to make out a sign saying “Hold On Tight”. The walls appear to be climbable but not easily. The pool is only on one side – the other side is dry (room is not level). The magic orb indicates we need to climb the wall. Oor starts poking around the pool with a javelin, discovering something hard beneath the silt and water. He finds an old, rusty grappling hook, which is a bit bent and tattered. He also finds bits of frayed rope and climbing equipment, and old boot, all of which is junk. Oor asks if Rangrim can mend the grappling hook. Markku uses his Mage Hand to smack against the dry side of the room, but nothing happens. Rangrim checks for zombies and undead but detects nothing. Oor decides to give climbing the wall (quickly) a try. He manages to climb from the dry area up to the entrance (where the waterfall is coming from). Markku confirms this is the entrance (exit) the orb is leading us through. Markku uses Mage Hand to give Oor some longer rope so no one has to enter the water and everyone starts to climb up the rope.

Broxx attempts to climb the rope, failing miserably, sliding straight into the pool, covering himself in water, splashing Rangrim and Markku, and stabbing himself with another grappling hook. Rangrim also slides straight into the water, but not as miserably as Broxx. No one takes any damage from the water or suffers other apparent ill effects. Markku manages to climb up, and Broxx and Rangrim eventually make their way up as well. Once everyone is at the entrance, we notice the signs of grappling hooks, used to get up. There are also lots of grooves from failed grappling hooks along the edge. Markku also sees that the slickness (where water is depositing) of this passage extends about halfway along even though the water is only 3” or so deep. This implies there is often much more water in the tunnel. Broxx doesn’t believe there is a specific reason why the water level or flow would change, naturally at least. There may be an arcane reason for this, however.

The party moves slowly along the tunnel with difficulty. Nothing happens until about 40-60’ along the tunnel, when the sound of water intensifies. This is almost certainly not a water elemental, it’s most likely the stream intensifying. Around 75-80’, a waist high wave of water strikes Oor and pushes through the party. Oor, Rangrim, and Broxx hold onto the wall successfully, but Markku gets smashed along the wall and to the floor. The stream continues in a torrent, and the party pushes through it as it strengthens. Rangrim is pushed to the floor next, falling to Markku’s feet. The water grows stronger and more members fall and struggle along. The work is long and hard and involves plenty of falling being pushed back. Oor reaches the end first, discovering elevated platforms of dry ground below which the water is flowing from. The water stops getting stronger, but it is quite tiring. Eventually, everyone makes it up to dry ground but finds nothing there.

''[Markku is trying to fulfill his motivation of earning gold to raise an army by playing cards. A better way to make money is to copy spell scrolls and sell them – Matthew to provide specific details, work most of this out in private Discord. Army can be raised through other means than just gold – still fulfills character motivation. Use downtime as appropriate – long breaks = complex scrolls, short breaks = card games].''

8/3/19

Once the party makes it to dry ground, Oor manages to find some rope and deems it strong enough to keep. Continuing on, the party soon discovers a statue of a Halfling adventurer with a bow and a leg missing. There is also rather bad erosion to the face. The party searches for the missing leg but only find broken pieces and fragments. Continuing on, the group comes upon another room with a written warning: “Don’t stay too long”. Inside the room is a soft blue glowing light coming from a pedestal on the ceiling. There is a gem lodged in the pedestal and on the floor is a table with 4 dog statues sitting around. Markku sends Tori into the room to investigate the gem; at the same moment, Oor blunders into the room. Tori manages to see some arcane runes written on the pedestal before turning to stone, falling 30 feet, and shattering. Markku is returned violently to his own senses and the party sees the dogs turning from stone to flesh and blood.

There is one very large dog, which is actually a warg. The other three turn into 2-headed extra-planar “Death Dogs”. Oor immediately casts Shatter and the battle begins. The warg surprising starts fighting the Death Dogs as well; after he is bitten and returns to his elf form, the party realizes he is a druid. Rangrim uses his spiritual weapon as usual, and Broxx tries out his new greatsword to great effect. Markku sends out a few magic missiles and retreats 30 feet to see if the halfing adventurer was still stone – turns out it was. Looking around, Markku sees that there are some drag marks leading away from the other room; likely someone dragged this adventurer away from the stone gem room.

The gem flashes a light blue and suddenly most of the Death Dogs are turned back into stone. Oor turns to the nearest stone dog and cleaves it right down the middle between his two heads, killing it. The druid is bitten again in the butt and looks like he’s about to throw up. Rangrim attacks and then he seizes up and turns to stone. Markku drags the stone adventurer about 10 feet before tiring, turns around and tries to shoot a fire bolt at the nearest dog but misses. Oor gets poisoned and immediately misses with his Warhammer. Broxx bisects another dog, killing it. The druid attempts to remove himself from the mouth of the nearest dog. He breathlessly thanks the group and responds when asked that he has nothing to help with the poison.

Markku drags the stone adventurer to the edge of the room, asks the druid if he knows her, and finding out he does not, asks his name, which is Hensil.

The gem flashes again and Rangrim and the last remaining dog return from stone, though the poisoned Oor begins slowly petrifying. The Warhammer slices through the dog and, just before the hammer hits the floor, Oor is turned completely to stone. Broxx takes a gash out of the dog and surges into action, slicing into it once more, killing it.

Hensill cures some of his wounds and Rangrim attacks the gem with his spiritual weapon, chipping away some of the pedestal. Markku suffers indecision about whether to bring the Halfling adventurer fully into the room; he asks Rangrim, who says it is unnatural to leave her in the stone state of neither death nor life. Markku quickly places her in the room and just before he jumps back out of the room he sees the gem flash again. Markku manages to escape, but Rangrim is petrified again. Oor reawakens and casts shatter again on the gem this time. As a result, parts of the ceiling break and nearly fall on him, but the gem is completely shattered.

Rangrim rushes to the now dead Halfling, casts gentle repose, and prepares to be turned to stone forever as he feels his joints seize and his limbs freeze, but with the gem gone, he realizes he can still move and feels the effects slowly break and fade away. Broxx and Oor quickly remove the barricade from the other side of the room and Rangrim searches the Halfling Ranger, trying to identify her. He can’t identify her but sees a healing potion, some gold, and other miscellaneous items.

Markku searches the room and finds various mundane cutlery, bowls, nothing special. He does also find 2 arrows with serrated edges and what looks like a funnel coming down the centre. The arrows are called Arrows of Bleeding. There is a magical aura over the arrowhead that will stop coagulation. When it pierces into something, it causes the blood to run through the funnel adding extra damage. Markku pockets the arrows.

The druid keeps saying “Blessing of the King be upon you” which is a phrase that is at least 6 years old in this area, but is still common in Duthgar. Rangrim asks if he knows what year it is. Though the year is 6736, he responds 6729. He is amazed to hear of the political changes but is also worried about his wife. He thanks the group and offers 100 gp for rescuing him from eternal stoneliness. He also says he will return the Halfling to the surface to try to return her to her family. Oor tells Hensil to seek out Naydor if he has time and can help restore what has been broken.

Continuing on past the rubble, Markku leading the way with his magic orb, he comes to an intersection and hears a sound of metal clashing against stone to the left, though the orb says to go right. The party agrees to go right and avoid whatever clashing sounds those were. Continuing on, going slowly downhill, there is a manmade wall which looks like it belongs on the outside of a fancy building, with ivy growing up the side. The wall takes up the whole height of the cavern (12-15 ft) and stretches across the whole tunnel as well. The wall has been plastered as well, in a posh way. There is a small crack which Oor investigates. He sees a fancy home interior and goes through the crack. Oor waves the rest of the group on and walks down the fancy corridor, coming upon a door. He pushes open the door and sees a room which is dully lit by a yellow light, coming from the centre of the room. There are 16 pillars in the marble-floored room. The walls are covered in pictures of birds and eagles and all sorts of flying creatures, including beetles, sprites, imps, pegasus's. There is also a mural of a landscape location. There are no vases. Across the room is another double door with golden writing across it.

The writing on the door reads:

(Elvish)            	First from the land where I reside,

                        	Then from the land that has no tide,

(Orcish)          	Next you come to my domain,

                        	But linger not lest here you remain,

(Dwarven)      	One is known to fly by night,

                        	Another flies by fire’s might,

(Draconic)      	One flies only under the sea,

                        	Another speaks only to me.

There are four landscapes painted on the four walls. To the north is an elvish city in Mer-Rein. To the east is a city in the Thebilum Empire. To the south is a landscape of Scandar and includes a river, snowy mountains, and an orcish city. The western wall has a landscape of an old dwarven city.

Broxx begins tracing his hands along the map and touches a blue finch, which glows and suddenly a black birdlike creature pops into existence, screeches, and attacks Broxx before disappearing. Broxx is unharmed then and also after touching a few more birds. Rangrim touches a phoenix and hears a soft clicking noise. The group deduces the order to solve the riddle: Phoenix, Owl, Draconic creature, and Penguin. After touching all 4 birds on the wall, Oor kicks down the door and it opens.

8/10/19

The party enters another room with a table, a fancy painting of a dude holding a metal, gem-encrusted ball, and various other fancy items. Before the group has much time to look around, Oor runs towards a door on the [DIRECTION] and squeezes through a narrow passage, muttering to himself the whole time. Rangrim and Broxx pursue him while Markku glances quickly around the room, noticing a golden bracelet under the table, a couple of diamonds giving off dim arcane light, some fine plates and cutlery, and the aforementioned painting. Markku grabs the diamonds before running towards the door and just about makes it through the rubble and small gaps in the wall to a fine hallway.

He sees that Oor ran straight towards a door at the end of the hallway but before he made it there was entangled in a magic carpet on the floor. Rangrim had blasted the rug with divine flame and forced the rug to release Oor. There are also two suits of armour next to the door that moved but Markku hasn’t seen. These are effectively barring the way to the door. The rug is a “rug of smothering” and any damage to the rug will do damage to whatever is trapped inside. It is indistinguishable from a normal rug until it attacks which makes it great for guarding places. The best way to fight one which has a friend trapped inside is to try to pull them out, but carefully so not to get trapped inside oneself. Markku yells out not to attack the rug and to try to pull out Oor; Broxx tries but fails to pull out more than just part of his head. Oor continues to be crushed by the rug so heals himself, then tries jumping out of the rug but crashes to the floor, still trapped and now prone. Rangrim rushes forward to aid Broxx with his next attempt to save Oor. Markku tries to stand on the edge of the rug to help but is knocked back by the rug’s violent motions.

Markku looks around the hallway and sees the room appears to be very unused. The armor has actually moved recently because of the dust patterns. The door is heavy and wooden, with metal barring attached, a big metal bar, chains, all sorts of things to prevent the door from opening. There is damage on the door – cracks on the wood, splinters, something the size of a human head has been hit on the other side multiple times. On the other side of the door appears to be about 15 feet before there is another wall. Possibly a corridor or just a dead end. The rubble isn’t too special other than a couple of bolts mixed in; there was probably a trap there before the room caved in.

Broxx, with Rangrim’s help, pulls out Oor and he gasps for breath, looking rather worse for wear. Oor stands up and backs away from the rug, breathing heavily and saying “thank you”. As the rug rises up before him he swings at it with his mace, damaging it. Rangrim attacks the rug with The Flayed Lash, also doing damage. The rug wraps around Rangrim’s arm but is quickly torn off. While Rangrim is distracted with the rug, the armour rushes towards him and slams his greatsword right into his back, striking him once. Rangrim dodges out of the way when the armour swings at him again.

Markku attempts to remove himself from the dangerous proximity of both the rug and the other suit of armour, but in turning to run is swallowed by the rug and pulled inside. Even from inside the rug with dim light he does not learn anything new.

Broxx rushes the armor that attacked Rangrim, striking it with his own greatsword. Oor tries and fails to pull Markku out of the rug. The other suit of armor steps forward and raises its sword, ready to strike Broxx, but stops with greatsword in the air, poised for attack but unable to strike. Rangrim, clearly unable to listen to Markku’s warnings, lashes out at the rug, cutting it slightly, revealing Markku inside. Markku takes damage from being crushed, but now able to see through the cut in the rug, teleports out and immediately slings a ray of frost at the still standing rug, freezing it and shattering it into pieces. Broxx pulls back his sword and tears apart the front of the first suit of armor. Oor pulls out his Warhammer and attacks the 2nd suit of armor, but, still poisoned and winded from the rug hug, cannot summon enough strength and his hammer bounces off with a loud “bong!”  The armor Oor attacked strikes back, hitting and hurting him. Rangrim Tolls the Dead and destroys the first suit of armor. Markku targets the remaining suit with 4 magic missile darts, but it manages to hold itself together. Broxx turns, laughing maniacally, and swings towards where he thinks the last suit of armor is, but stops himself just before accidentally hitting Oor instead. Oor, realizing he is not in great fighting shape, casts Blade Ward as a defensive measure. The suit attacks both Oor and Broxx, managing to barely hit them both.

Rangrim and Markku both take off another small chunk of the armor, but it stays standing. Broxx makes a critical hit, but even that is not enough to fell the enemy. Oor strikes out with his hammer, finally succeeding, smashing open the armor’s chest and opening a window straight through, before smashing down on the helmet, lodging it right into the lower chest and finally destroying the creature.

Oor immediately starts smashing up the locks on the door. Rangrim tries to hold him back but can’t contain him. Oor manages to smash all the locks and devices off before Broxx can restrain him. The door starts to open, but Rangrim shoves it shut and lodges his weapon where the bar used to be.

Now that the door has been torn apart a bit, the party can see through the holes that there is a pedestal with a vase, which Oor is ranting and raving about. He keeps trying to break free from Broxx’s grip. Markku tries to knock him unconscious, smacking him on the head with his staff, but unfortunately Oor goes into a rage and it takes a few more seconds to knock him out. Markku casts Detect Magic, trying to find anything affecting Oor, but instead is blinded by an incredible burst of light from beyond the door. Oor then somehow stands up and throws a javelin through the door. Broxx crushes Oor, knocking him out once again, and Broxx is able to take his time and tie him up. Markku’s eyesight returns in about 30 seconds, and is finally able to see that there is a very small amount of magic affecting Oor, but it is enormously outstripped by the magic coming from beyond the door, with possibly some other magic in the area. There is one point of divination magic on his forehead, and one point of enchantment on his chest. The enchantment on his chest is likely from the group’s encounter with Sara(?), and it’s unclear what kind of divination spell would cause Oor’s erratic behavior.

Looking through the door, there is a bright, blinding light, coming from something on the floor from the right hand side of the room. It’s impossible to tell what it is because it is so bright. On the left hand side of the room is a skeleton wearing chain mail armour, with a shiny magical maul on its side. The vase on the pedestal has transmutation magic. Asking Broxx and Rangrim to look through, they can see the incredibly magical object on the floor is a helmet.

Markku consults the ‘quest orb’ and determines none of the magic items will make a difference in the search for another orb, except the incredibly magical helmet which turns the orb green. Rangrim heals everyone in the group (except Oor), Markku brings back Tori, and the whole party goes to sleep.

About an hour twenty after we fall asleep, we are awoken by the sound of Oor screaming out as he opens the door, grabs the maul, and smashes the vase, yelling “I am reborn!”  Apparently the group was foolish enough not to set up a watch.

When Oor smashes the vase, Markku sees a large dark cloud emerge from the vase, swirling around the room, which then morphs into the shape of a skull. Markku’s vision goes black, then he wakes up on the floor, sore as if he had fallen, and Broxx is gone, and Oor looks flustered. The room is quiet.

Oor is swinging around the Thirsting Edge. Markku doesn’t understand why.

9/14/19

Broxx is gone, Markku has lost some time, Oor claims he doesn’t remember anything since the waterfall, and Rangrim said Broxx was overtaken by the smoky cloud and possessed by some evil spirit before he disappeared. Though the area is messy with the aftermath of battle and much movement, Markku can just tell that Broxx likely left the room to the left. The party takes a long rest, setting up a watch this time, but no one sees or hears anything during the night.

There are no items left in the room with the pedestal and the room is a dead end, so the group decides to head back to the main room and continue the quest from there. There are a few doors, one of which leads to the kitchen. There is nothing edible, only incredibly old food that has rot on the dead rot. There is a pantry off the kitchen, but only has pots and pans.

Markku takes a moment to reexamine the golden bracelet under the table. It has fine markings but there is nothing magical about it. The clasp is broken; Markku takes it. The painting has a name at the bottom: “Lord Sandrin”. Some of the plates and cutlery are chipped and damaged, but upon closer inspection these plates have been made by the House Ghallanda (merchant guild) and are quite old, would be considered some of the first creations. Should be valuable to collectors or museums, likely over 100 gp. Markku grabs these and packs them up.

The party takes the second door and finds a chamber with a runic circle, another pedestal, some scorch marks in the corner, another corpse (burnt), a messy corner with a desk and some books, and a large glowing orb. Oor, on his way to go immediately pick up the orb, is stopped by Markku who demands reassurance Oor isn’t about to do anything stupid. Satisfied, he allows Oor to go investigate the orb, who finds it is warm and then is struck by a crossbow bolt, sprung by a trap from the pedestal. Markku tells the party we should investigate for other traps, and in the process fails terribly and is sucked into a mirror in the corner of the room, though not before discovering that most of the books are leftover garbage from previous pilfering of the room.

Markku suddenly finds himself in what appears to be exactly the same room, including being able to see Oor and Rangrim, though they are somewhat grey and transparent. He can also see some giant blue-white spiders, though one is also grey and transparent, and another unidentified object near the pedestal. Markku sees the transparent spider take a bite out of Oor, who tries and fails to retaliate, though Rangrim is able to blast it with necrotic touch. Markku recognizes that these creatures are not from the material plane and seem to be able to pass through planes. He also sees that he is in the ethereal plane. Markku strikes the spider with a ray of frost, yells out to Oor and Rangrim, though they can’t seem to hear him, and tries to pass through the mirror again to no avail. There are several scratches but the mirror appears undamaged. Markku can see the others through the mirror.

Oor and Rangrim move towards the mirror. Markku casts Mirror Image and is unable to move. Staring at the other creature, Markku sees that it looks human, but it looks gnarled and old and undead. It is wearing what used to be a very fancy robe. This creature strikes out but hits one of the mirror duplicates which is destroyed. Suddenly, Rangrim appears solid and next to Markku on the ethereal side of the mirror.

Markku strikes the undead human with the Sliver of Roekosan and knocks some teeth out, before using Misty Step to get out of the corner and flank one of the spiders. He learns nothing new about the spider but Rangrim can hear him now. Rangrim is struck by the human and a spider but hits back. Oor moves toward the mirror and casts Shatter. This appears to destroy the mirror and brings Markku and Rangrim back to the regular plane of existence. Markku attempts to strike a spider but fails. Rangrim’s spirit guardians (which he cast early) destroy the zombie and one of the spiders as well. Oor destroys the last spider and the battle is over.

10/5/19

“This may be the first time I’ve broken something and you guys were grateful” says Oor. Rangrim begins searching the room and Markku investigates the only intact book. Rangrim finds a hidden drawer beneath the book and, pulling it out, finds several vials filled with red dirt/rocks, a dried leaf, a clear liquid, brown dirt, and one is empty. Markku begins reading the book, which is in Elvish, which seems to be an experiment journal. “Day 1, did this trial… gained access to ethereal realm… attuned materials required for focus… Essence was successfully captured but was highly unstable…”. Towards end, begins talking of creation of more permanent portal, discussing very complex magical formulae which are beyond Markku’s comprehension. There is a charred body at the entrance to the room, which is hard to distinguish characteristics about, but is of the elvish/human type and was wearing leather armor. The body appears to have been flung from the area of the explosion to land where it is now. The last entry in the book, talking about creating a permanent portal to the ethereal plane, could have been in reference to the mirror, or to the last experiment which caused the explosion. Investigation of the runic circle indicates it is vaguely related to defensive magic, but it is hard to decipher more beyond that.

Investigation of the dead humanoid (with taut skin and fancy robes) reveals he is not a zombie, but there are necrotically powered (though not necrotically made) undead creatures. Sometimes undead (like ghosts) can create themselves through the circumstances in which the creature died. Searching the body, we find a belt that can hold 3 vials. One is still full of a red liquid (healing potion), one is broken, and one is empty but still intact. Markku takes the belt and the two intact vials.

Rangrim decides to speak with the crispy dead guy, who cracks back to life and answers Rangrim’s first question, what was the last thing you remembered?

“I came here to see what I could find, and as I lifted an orb, I was shot with an arrow and I dropped the orb.”

Did you see any ethereal creatures?

“I saw movement behind me on my way here, but that was all.”

Oor asks what were you hoping to find here?

“Riches and Glory”

Markku asks what he knows of the Thebilum Empire

“It’s to the north. They only allow elves to enter. They are not humans.”

Oor asks is there a path beneath the wall in these catacombs.

“Not that I know of”.

Then the corpse goes back to being dead.

Markku knows that about 60-80 years ago, the Thebilum Empire officially closed its gates to the country of Mer-Rein. The wall is thousands of years old, but used to trade with Mer-Rein through a single point. The end of trade and closure of the gates was sudden – the gates are still there but are nigh impassable. Since the Thebilum Empire used to trade only with Mereen, that may be why the crispy guy thought they only let elves in.

There is a short discussion about the defensive runes on the floor, which would take about 3 days to copy, so it is probably not worth staying to copy them down.

The glass spherical orb has perpetually roiling and moving fire within, which makes it hard to tell what it is doing. We get the impression that man holds sphere – man gets shot – man drops sphere – fire and explosions.

Seeing not much else to investigate, the party is ready to leave back through the entrance, but consulting the orb, continuing to investigate the room comes up green.

Oor and Markku do an experiment with the defensive ruins, where Oor stands in the center and Markku shoots him with fire. It appears to reduce the fire damage by 1 hp.

Playing 20 questions with the quest orb, Markku narrows it down to the party needing to take the 5 vials from beneath the book. Markku decides to take the book as well.

The party heads back to the main room to decide where to go next. We stop for a moment to try to get our bearings and figure we’re probably somewhere below the city still, but it’s hard to know for sure.

Markku checks the quest orb one more time before leaving but finds that it has stopped responding. In fact, the mist within is gone. Markku figures the party has found what they need and it is time to head back to the surface. One more glance around the room reminds him there is still a large valuable painting on the wall, which Oor pulls down and rolls up to carry back. Markku tries to pull apart the frame to take as well but ends up destroying it instead.

The party returns to the inn, expecting to find Teft and Sigzil, but instead finds a ransacked room and a heavily damaged window. We decide to seek out Naydor and not stay in those rooms.

We find Naydor at an inn in The Cross, “The Rumble Rooms”, a gnomish built inn. It’s designed to be large enough for non-gnomes as well, but as it is in the poor area of The Cross, it is a haphazard shanty town area packed with chaotically built structures. There are a lot of gnomes in the area, so the area is likely safe physically, though the party should be aware of thieves.

Naydor is sitting in the common area speaking with a gnome when he sees the party arrive and calls them over. The gnome excuses himself (he and Naydor were discussing the finer points of cantrips vs level 1 spells). Oor informs Naydor that the orb has stopped working, which doesn’t surprise Naydor. Markku suggests the group find a more private place to discuss the last few days and Naydor leads everyone to a small library inside a temple to Desna in Southwatch. In the dark, windowless rear of the library, filled with shelves upon shelves of books and manuscripts, Naydor explains that the librarian at the desk is a friend of his.

Markku pulls out the journal and the vials and shows them to Naydor, who seems puzzled and asks where they came from. Oor pulls out a sheet of paper upon which he copied down a few of the runes. Naydor doesn’t really understand these either, but flipping through the journal, says this is clearly a strong arcane user experimenting with new magic. We explain our adventure to arrive at the sunken house, and when we get to the night where Broxx disappeared. Oor explains that he was very sick from the wolf bites, woke up the next day feeling better but Broxx was gone. Oor claims he doesn’t remember much, though Markku relates all that he remembered. Rangrim just comments that Oor was quite unstoppable and that Broxx appeared to be possessed. Then we recount the rest of the adventure, especially the ethereal room. Naydor says he believes these were phase-spiders, which are attracted to anything that messes with their plane. He also says there isn’t much he can understand from the runes. He suggests there may have been other tests we could perform to understand the runes, but having the book is incredibly useful and may be key to creating a new fey orb. Naydor is intrigued and asks if we get a sense of any sort of magic from the items in the vials. The items in the vials remind him of the concept of the elements (i.e. fire, earth, water, air, and ethereal/fey/cosmic).

At this point, Oor divulges to Naydor the groups relationship with Sariel, but Naydor isn’t familiar with this name. The group explains how she helped us stop Quibeck’s dark dragon summoning ritual and left marks upon Rangrim and Oor. Rangrim’s mark is there so that Sariel can contact him, when she chooses, and request a favor. For Oor, she left her mark on him as part of the deal, but it is different from Oor’s mark. Sariel somewhat implied that she would make another deal if we met again, but not that it meant she was at Oor’s beck and call. Markku knows that summoning magic is possible, but doesn’t believe that the marks have the capability. He doesn’t understand Oor’s mark as well, but knows that Rangrim’s mark allows her to spy on him whenever she wants. She could also use it to get to him much more easily. Oor asks Nador what he thinks of the mark, which just looks to him like a bruise. Oor also pulls out his special stone but to no effect. Rangrim says he will try to send her a message in the morning.

Rangrim pulls out the fire orb and shows it to Naydor, who, after consulting the book, says that when this orb is shattered it’s as if a small portion of the fire plane would be released into the world, through a contained and very temporary portal. Naydor is going to do some research and consult with the Crimson Codex to see if anyone is doing research in this area.

Oor asks where we could sell some of the items we found in the house. The fine china could be sold in Silverwall, though Naydor is curious about its origin. The party confirms that this was Lord Sandrin’s house (as that is the name of the painting). Markku, from another country and born long after the house was sunk, doesn’t really know anything about Lord Sandrin, but knows that arcanists who don’t fit in with broader society might find themselves working as a house mage. This is still happening today, where the richest families have servants who are essentially mages, though really powerful mages will probably be employed at an academy.

Naydor takes the journal and the five vials and plans to take them to the Crimson Codex to do research. The group agrees to this and decides not to stay at the hostel-like rooms in the temple, opting instead to find a room at an inn, still in Southwatch. Markku also gave him back the spent scrying orb.