1151/03/04 Zell Under the Dome

3/4/1151 – After three days of travel through the Drakewind Forest, they arrive unmolested at the road to Zell. They see up ahead the tower that previously housed some mercenaries who were watching the dome around the city. In the distance beyond it they see the silvery glow of the dome of energy.

As they approach the tower the sharp-eyed among the party spot a figure up on the top. They believe it is occupied, then Lughausen remembers that he cast animate dead on the corpse of the leader and left it at the top of the tower to make it look like it was occupied.

Relaxing a bit, they stop in front of the tower and decide they better check it out anyway. Berg, Peril, and Khragg enter the tower, seeing the door open and the room damaged from the elements. Two doors on the first level are closed. The first leads to a room with a number of beds. When Berg opens the second door, he is immediately attacked by a bone devil. Lughausen and Yannic rush up to the door to assist while Elowynn stays in the wagon outside. Yannic only makes it to just outside the door, which is unfortunate for him because a few moments later, black Abishai swoop down from the shadows of the tower parapets and attack him. His life flashing before his eyes, Yannic is fortunate in that the Abishai are unlucky with their attacks and only do a few wounds.

With the power of Nuath, Berg smites the bone devil and swiftly kills it. They exchanged some insults in infernal while they dueled. Berg had asked who its master was, and it replied, “My master will be pleased with your head.” Khragg drops back to help Yanni with the Abishai. Yannic with draws into the building, escaping more wounds. Then the Abishai start casting magical darkness, making it extremely difficult for anyone to fight them. They have to guess where the enemy is, while the enemy had no such difficulty. Then Lughausen dispelled the darkness long enough for two of the Abishai to be killed. Another puts up darkness again, but Yannic dispels it this time. Then the last two Abishai are killed.

They search the tower some more and find nothing interesting. They talk about the master the bone devil mentioned. Was it Karzhad? Or are these fiends a third party with another master? They think the latter since last time Goroth, the leader of the mercenaries here previously, had fought the devils. They believe this master might know Berg.

It is time to get to the dome. After only another hours travel, they reach it. With little hesitation, they try using the magical arcane focuses that they found in the vault under Gyswyl to see if it will let them pass. Yannic is first, boldly riding forward on his horse. And indeed, he is not prevented from passing through. The others follow.

They ride for maybe 20 feet and emerge on the other side.

The sight on the other side is not what they expected. Before them unfolds rolling fields of farmland. They see freshly planted rows of barley, wheat, and oats. All around them the silvery glow of the dome is transparent on this side, revealing the clear blue spring sky. Only a slight silver haze can be seen at ground level. Beyond the farmland, they see a large lake, perhaps 3 miles in diameter to their right. On the other side of the shore is a forest. Another smaller forest is on their left side.

Straight ahead is a single hill rising from the ground on the shore of the lake. Sprawled across this hill is a massive city larger than any they had ever seen or conceived of. Walls surround it as it sprawls away from the base of the hill, and more walls are like terraces climbing up level after level on the hill. On the top is a huge fortress flying banners. Rising up from this fortress at the very center of the hill, and presumably the dome, is a golden pillar of light and energy, swooping up and dispersing to the top of the dome – its source.

The haze of smoke and the hints of motion reveal that this city is thriving and well-populated. They start riding towards it along the road which is now well-maintained. As the city gets closer they see more details. Banners flying from the battlements and the fortress are that of Ap Wys - a gray fortified castle with a glowing yellow sun rising over the battlements on a white background. Other banners are soon revealed to be that of the priesthood of Duath – a single white shield.

They see that the lake has many boats on it, presumably fishing. Docks can be seen on the eastern side of the city. A smaller lake is on the top of the hill, flowing down in a series of waterfalls down to the larger lake. Trees and vegetation, well maintained and lush dot the hillside in between the buildings and walls.

Having seen that, Khragg then tries to turn around and ride back outside the dome. As a precaution to know that they can leave at any time. He hits an impenetrable wall. Their way back has been cut off. They are trapped inside. Nothing they try works – the other magic items, the vestments, nothing. They must ride forward.

About halfway there, they observe the gates open and a series of riders gallop out towards them. Roughly 25 soldiers all wearing smart armor and sporting tabards that also have the banner of Ap Wys upon them. The leader, on the other hand is wearing a simple white tabard with the shield of Duath on it. He is a giant of a man, over seven feet tall with a shield on his back and a sword at his hip. He smiles warmly, dismounting and greeting the party.

He is Sergeant Bennet of the Zell City Guard. He was instructed to meet the party. Apparently, they were expected, and this takes the party by surprise. How did the leaders of the city know they would be coming? Precognition?

Sergeant Bennet is friendly, answering a few of their questions, telling them a bit about Zell. He asks politely if he can escort them to the city, and they agree. His men encircle them easily but not threateningly. Sergeant Bennet laughs and thanks them for not killing him and his men. He had no illusions – he was sent to possibly die if the invaders had proven hostile. This outcome is much better. He will take them straight to the High Lord Protector, who is expecting them.

As they get closer, Sergeant Bennet points out the features. The lake is called Lake Lindosa. The city is divided into districts, each encircled by walls with gates to travel from district to district. Each like a mini town. An attacker would have to go district by district to get to the top fortress which houses the High Temple of Duath and the government of Ap Wys.

The outer gate is closed but the guards open it when Sergeant Bennet gives the all-clear signal. Closer now to the city, the party sees that the walls are extremely well-manned. Beyond the outer wall is the district of Hayford. It is definitely the lower-income area and shanty-town of the city. It is crammed with makeshift buildings from scraps, people in peasant’s clothes and so on. It is a hustle and bustle. The guards must part the crowds to get the horses through. Sergeant Bennet is friendly to all these people, calling some out by name and asking after their family, handing out biscuits to some children that run up, and so on.

The next district is Sergeant Bennet’s district of Southtown. It is slightly better of economically with better buildings, but still a low-income area. The gates here are closed, but opened at his signal.

After Southtown, passing through many market squares, they enter Oldtown. The gates from here on out are already open allowing commerce between the districts. But they could easily be closed if needed for defense. Oldtown is a much older part of the city and very definitely much wealthier. There are estates here with grounds, mansions, and opulent buildings. Ivy grows on the very old walls and buildings in this district.

Next is Westtown, a more middle-class residential district. The road turns south, back down the hill next, taking them into The Green. Here, true to its name, are parks and villas again with a good amount of money and quality. After that is Mistborough, which is definitely a middle-class district. Then comes Greenhorn, another middle-class district with parks, small villas and many market squares. The gates out of this district to the Castle District are closed and Sergeant Bennet must call out for them to be opened.

Then the party enters the final district at the top of the hill. From here they can see the whole city. A few features catch their eye. They mostly see banners of Ap Wys flying everywhere, but their sharp eyes see a few exceptions. They see a banner from a mansion and small keep that they recognize as Gwynyth Raius, flying under the Ap Wys banner. In that district they also see an arena and a building flying a banner of a spear for Nuath.

Entering the fortress, stablehands in clean livery take their horses. Sergeant Bennet takes his leave and wishes them luck. Other guards escort them inside. Traversing rich corridors, they get a feeling that this is a busy place running the government for a massive city. They pass many guards, clerks and scribes hurrying along on tasks. The building is old, very old, but the stonework looks to be excellently maintained. There is also great wealth here in that the materials are very unusual and beautiful.

They are met in an antechamber by a man who says he is the herald of the Lord Protector. He takes their names and allows them a few minutes to freshen up. Yannic changes into his good masterwork robes. Then they are led into the throne room of the Lord Protector where the herald announces them just as the names they had given him.

The throne room is huge. A large dais is at the back where a long table sits. Behind that table sit six figures in rich clothes. Behind each is an aide, sometimes whispering in their ear, other times talking with runners who bring papers from scribes working at small desks on either side of the room. On the far wall behind the dais is a gargantuan shield. The shield of Duath. Upon it is again the banner of Ap Wys.

The party is waved to the base of the dais. They are presented to High Lord Protector Dando Terrelion. He tells them that they are welcome and it is a momentous day when visitors have come to their city. Before they begin the conversation, he requests that they permit him to cast a zone of truth spell because he is concerned about what threat they may pose to the city. He says that they are welcome to do the same. However, Lughausen does not have that spell prepared today. They acquiesce to his request and even deliberately allow the magic to affect them.

High Lord Terrelion is in his fifties, with thinning dark long hair pulled back and a grey, neatly trimmed beard.

He does not wear armor in court, as he is confident in his guard and safety in his own halls. His clothing is opulent yet not ostentatious. Somber serious colors. He wields no weapons, except for a dirk for eating. He wears a platinum shield amulet which is the ceremonial holy symbol of the high priesthood of Duath. It has large bold chain links that spreads out broadly, draping more around the shoulders than the neck. Every other link connects to a castle medallion. The whole effect is one of a large fortification spreading across his chest with the large gleaming white shield in the middle.

To his right sits Chancellor Ewen Lawrence, an older half-elf perhaps in his 70s, thin and gaunt with white hair and beard. Has a reedy voice, but a hawklike stare.

Next to him sits High Marshal Thaugot Silverhand, a half-orc. Unlike the High Lord Protector, Thaugot does wear full plate in the throne room, and at all times. He also is never far from his shield and warhammer, which is quite ornate. His hair is dark and long, his countenance serious.

Next to him at the end of the table sits High Justiciar Tiso Parron. He is a fat human, wearing opulent clothes that seem brighter in color than that of the High Lord Protector, today a bright blue. A sharp eye can see some food stains on the collar. But otherwise not slovenly in appearance. He looks to be only in his late 30s, with brown hair somewhat short on the sides, but long on top and pulled and tied in the back. A short brown beard frames his jowly face.

To the High Lord’s left sits Seneschal Piran Trenowith. He has thin graying hair, long to his shoulder and greasy. He wears a beard and mustache and favors dark clothes. His nose has acne and a large mole on it. He looks quite malignant and oily in appearance. Does that reflect on his personality as well.

Finally, next to him is Chamberlain Aldina Branco, the only female and a dwarf at the table. She has a pronounced scar across her right eye, dark hair. She wears no armor, but a fine knee-length coat with large collars. She wears a choker with a bright gem on it that sparkles in the light.

The High Lord then asks simply why they have come. The party explains that they have come here, through the dome, because they heard of a vault that is here. They also fear that an enemy of theirs, Karzhad is coming here and they wanted to do what they could to thwart his plans.

They also explain that the world outside the dome is extremely dangerous – a wilderness with rifts and creatures that include dragons, fiends and strange aberrations. They talk a bit about the Confederation of Cities, those that have banded together for defense and survival.

They did not expect to find a well-populated, maintained, and defended city. They are a bit of a loss of what to do now because they had thoughts of having to search ruins or something. The council begins questioning the party now. Chancellor Ewen and High Marshal Thaugot have questions about the outside world. What sorts of armies does the Confederation have? Are they used for conquest? Tell us more of the world outside, and things of that nature.

When the party mentions rifts and devils just outside the dome itself, a lady in purple in orange robes who had been to the side of the room comes forward. She is Prishia Vabanise, Master of the Arcane, and older half-elf with gray-white hair curly to her shoulders and freckles across her face. Her ears poke up just a bit from the hair. Yannic recognize the robes of abjuration and mentalism, but is surprised to see them mixed like that. She has some questions about the fiends, and nods at what the party tells her. She is also allowed to answer by the High Lord Protector when the party asks about how they were expected. It turns out that the dome notifies when it has been breached. So no precognition after all. Just an alarm that was responded to with alacrity.

The High Lord Protector seems quite confident that they will handle any threat, especially from a single man like Karzhad. He is somewhat dismissive of the party’s concerns about that. The party brings up their departure. They will leave now.

Then the bomb drops. The High Lord Protector is apologetic, yet firm. They cannot be allowed to leave. This will be their home now. He has the lives of countless thousands to protect. Allowing them to leave is just too risky. It is Duath’s will that they be kept here.

Naturally, the party is livid. That is totally unacceptable to them. Khragg is angry enough to attack, but there is no way they could survive such a bold move now. The room is filled with at least 50 guards, not to mention the powerful people up on the dais.

Chancellor Ewen signals to the guards and an elf woman is let in. The party is told that accommodations have been set aside for them in the city, their new home. This lady, Lyndis Miralee will be their liaison and guide. She will take them to their new home. She wears studded leather armor, a rapier at her side and a dagger at her belt. A shield is on her back with the customary Ap Wys banner on it. Her armor also has a spot on the chest devoid of studs that has been emblazoned with the Ap Wys symbol with Duath's shield in the middle. Her hair is dark brown and very long, pulled in a wavy ponytail which she tends to wear across her shoulder to the front. She has silver chain jewelry in one ear that braids into her hair.

While waiting for her to arrive, some of the party notices the reaction of some of the council members as the news of their incarceration is revealed. A few of the council are uncomfortable with this. This includes Seneschal Prian, Chamberlain Aldina, the Master of the Arcane and her aide, and at least one of the aides to the High Lord Protector. Peril also notices that the other aid, a dwarf, seemed quite interested in their talk of the outside world.

Lyndis leads the party from the throne room and back out to the courtyard. She explains that they have free reign through the city. She will be available to them for the foreseeable future. She tells them that she does what she is assignd, and right now her assignment is them. She answers a few more questions on the subject of what there is to do here. How can they fit in and earn a living? She mentions the Emerald Exiles, a mercenary company that might be of interest. There are some more questions about law and order and the situation in the city. Is there a criminal element? Indeed. The city is large and there are people of all kinds here. The prisons do have occupants. Do the mercenaries do the police work? Not so much, but instead if they encounter criminals while they are working a job, then they will do what they must instead of waiting for the guards.

The trip back through the city is as they feared. She leads them exactly back to Hayford, the slums and shantytown. There to a small run-down shack. There is no stable, no furnishings, nothing at all like the estate that they had just built back in Wohlen. They are even more angry now.

She suggests that if they have money, perhaps better accommodations can be purchased. But the party is indeed broke now because of the estate. They must make do here. They consider the stable that she suggests ten blocks away, but instead elect to treat this area as a hostile camp. They will keep the horses here and sleep in shifts with watches.

Lyndis tells them that she will return in the morning. They explore a bit. The downstairs is just two rooms while the upstairs is just a single open area. Outside is an entrance to a cellar. When they go down they all notice an acrid smell. The sharp-eyed see some broke glass in the corner. Lughausen identifies it coming from maybe a beaker. The glass has some residue. He examines it and believes that it might have come from narcotics. Their basement was probably a drug lab.

3/5/1151 – When the sun is rising, they find that they have been undisturbed in the night. The sounds of the city are new and different. Much louder and condensed than what they experienced in Wohlen, which for some is far more than they have ever had before. The city seemed to never be totally asleep. As Peril and Berg are on the porch as the sun rises, they see the activity increase as people get up to start their day. Then through the crowds, they see a squad of soldiers in the livery of the Zell City Guard marching their way. Leading them is a man with wavy brown hair and large sideburns. His armor bears the insignia of captain and he walks like he owns the place. When he reaches the party’s house, the other guards fan out, clearing the way for him.

He has a toothpick in his mouth, which he takes out and gestures with when he addresses the party. He is Captain Roland Baumstein, and this is his district. He heard that he had the newcomers in his demesne, and he wanted to come introduce himself and see who they were. The others come out, except for Lughausen and Yannic and introduce themselves. He nods and gives them a once over and in no uncertain terms declares that he doesn’t want any trouble in his district. They should stick to the laws and keep their noses clean. Then he leaves, his guards making way through the crowd. It wasn’t lost on the party that as they were speaking, the crowds gave the captain and his men a wide nervous berth.

Shortly after he leaves, Lyndis arrives, and the party tries to decide where to go first. Lyndis sketches out a rough map of the city in the dirt to help them. After some discussion, Berg is very eager to go to the Temple of Nuath that he saw from the hill. Lughausen wants to do research, and Lyndis suggests that he see the Temple of Epolde since he has their insignia. It turns out that the Temple of Epolde is in the district of Oldtown, which would be on the way to the district of Military Town where the Temple of Nuath is. Their route decided, they head out.

The streets of Hayford are crowded and bustling. But first, Lyndis warns that their horses shouldn’t be unattended, and she would prefer that all of the party accompany her. She makes it fairly clear that her job as liaison works both ways. She is there to be the eyes and ears of the High Lord Protector and his council as much as she is there to assist their transition to their new life. She suggests that a nearby stable might be suitable to keeping their horses. Especially since riding horses throughout the crowded city is impractical. They take the horses there and pay the stablehands and then set off.

They pass through many market squares filled with vendors selling all sorts of things, including food. They buy some breakfast on the way. There is a few incidents as they push through Hayford. A group of street urchins, five perhaps all pre-teens, that push through the crowd and pass them. As they do, a couple of them turn and stick their tongues out at the party, perhaps even Yannic in particular.

In one square they pass a beggar who asks for money for food. Lughausen stops and asks the man to go out and gather as many other beggars as he can and return. About 10 minutes later, there are just about a dozen other beggars standing around, looking at Lughausen expectantly. Lughausen creates food and water with the blessings of Epolde and hands it out. The beggars don’t look the least surprised at this demonstration of priestly magic. They quietly line up as if they have done this many times before.

Then a young woman slips and drops her packages as the last beggars get their food. Berg goes to help her. Peril notes that no one else seems to help her and are actively avoiding her. As she bends over to get her things, Berg notices a tattoo on the lower part of her neck, that was covered by her shirt until it shifts with her movement. It shows chains wrapped around a rose.

They finally make their way to the gates to Southtown where there are a number of other people waiting. Lyndis signals to the guards who open the gates and they pass through. Peril keeps an eye out for anyone following them but sees nothing suspicious. It appears that the guards were waiting for enough people to open the gates. Oldtown, as they saw yesterday is still a lower-class district, but a step up from the shanties of Hayford. Next, they reach the gates to Oldtown where the procedure at the gate repeats.

Oldtown is a much wealthier and older district. The trees here are large with a covering canopy giving shade. The buildings show an architecture that indeed is reminiscent of older times. The cobblestones of the streets are worn by countless years of traffic. Lichen and ivy grows on most of the stone buildings.

She takes them through a number of streets until they come to a stone building that is clearly a small temple. The temple is not all that old looking. Made of stone most likely quarried from the Broken Hill Quarry only a few decades ago. It is not a grand building, but clearly a temple with raised steps leading up to modest wooden double doors. Inside is a small antechamber or vestibule, then more doors that lead to the nave and sanctuary where the altar is. There is perhaps seating for 30 or so. A large lectern dominates the sanctuary holding a massive book.

Doors to the sides lead to other meeting and study rooms and of course the library. A priest meets them and takes them to one of those studies and retrieves an old half-orc woman. She has long, curled, black hair with gray streaks and brown eyes. She has soft green skin and stands tall and has a massive build. She has an edgy face. She is easily out of breath when she huffs into the room. She is introduced as the ranking priest of Epolde, Murbol. Lyndis knows her. After some discussion with Lughausen, she is very excited to have a fellow priest of Epolde from the outside in her temple. She is easily convinced to make her library available to him and to answer some questions. Lughausen is interested in the time of the Cataclysm, specifically how the city knew it was coming and was prepared for it. Murbol suggests she tell the entire history of the city, for it is all germaine. She begins, with Lyndis adding some thoughts from the priesthood of Duath’s perspective from time to time during the narration.

After her story, the party had few questions for her. Lughausen requested that he do his research anyway, and she granted him that permission. He would return later however. Berg was eager to see his Aspect’s temple.

They return to the main road of Oldtown and continue on through Westtown (a middle class district), The Green (with its parks and grand buildings of art), Mistborough (another middle class district), then Greenhorn, and Oldhill. This last district is again wealthy and showing older architecture. It overlooks the neighboring Military Town and grants a spectacular view. They see that Military Town is aptly named. Dominating it is a huge palatial estate. Lyndis points out that this is the Archduke’s palace. Now it is inhabited by a Duke of Gwynyth Raius. When they were here yesterday they had seen the banners of Gwynyth Raius flying there.

The next grand building they see is a very large arena or colosseum. The roar of a crowd rises up as it appears there is a horse race competition going on. They pass through the gates and immediately there is a change in the demeanor of the city. The streets in this district are straight and orderly. The squares contain many statues showing warriors in various scenes and poses of heroics, most of which look to be Gwynyth Raiun in origin. When passing through the district, one often passes training fields in use, or squads of armed men of various sorts marching to some duty or another. The sounds include the work of smiths repairing or creating arms and armor.

They approach the Temple of Nuath and see that is quite large. The training fields could hold a hundred people if necessary. The building is fairly large, containing barracks for about 30 priests. They see a couple of priests sparring. Berg stops and waits patiently until they end and one of them comes over. Berg introduces himself and asks to see the priest in charge. The priest asks if he means the Prelate Commander and Berg agrees. He takes them inside.

There is an atrium there with racks upon racks of weapons, some blunted and not a shield in sight. Other priests nod to them as they pass through to a side room that is a study or lounge of some kind. He asks them to have a seat and wait. Some time later, a number of priests enter the room to take up guard positions. Then the Prelate Commander arrives.

She is a female tiefling. She has extremely long, straight, black hair shaved on the left side and golden eyes. She has rough, pockmarked, black skin. Horns curl from the top of her head, around framing her jaws to her chin. She is in her late 30s and wears half-plate decorated with sinister looking designs, wielding a spear with a wicked barb upon it (which technically makes it a harpoon), but one's inclination is not to challenge her on technicalities.

When she smiled at the party, they felt like a fly looking up at a spider while trapped in a web. Berg considers using his divine sense, but rules against that. The Prelate looks everyone over, her eyes lingering on Lughausen a bit longer before turning to Berg. She introduces herself as Prelate Commander Fridorius.

They introduce themselves and she is a bit surprised to hear they are from the outside. Apparently, word hadn’t gotten to her yet. Berg says that he is in the Order of the Spear, established by Gurreg Isengard long ago and brought back again by Coldar Ashburn. She looks confused as to why he would bring up a long-defunct order of paladins. Berg realizes his mistake as they would know nothing of what happened outside the shield with the other members of the priesthood.

Tensions escalate as Berg asks how they feel being kept prisoner by priests of Duath. She just laughs and calls it a challenge. Berg speaks of the greater challenges that they are all missing out on in the outside world because they are being kept sheltered. She laughs, a bit evilly, and agrees that it would suit her well to face them. She is quite willing to help the party escape, but she asks what their plan is? They have none of course. She mentions other times there have been uprisings to escape the shield, and the temple of Nuath was always a part of it. But those never amounted to anything of course.

Her offer of aid is accepted of course, but certain members of the party are certain that she has a hidden agenda, and that makes them nervous. Is she evil? She suggests that they see the competitions in the arena, for their boys are part of it.

They leave, promising to meet at another time to plan their escape. They pause outside to consider their next move. One of the priests comes out, chewing on some food and casually leans in. He lets the party know in a nonchalant manner that Prelate Fridorius has held the commander’s position for 6 years. She has been undefeated, barely breaking a sweat in her battles. They sense a bit of fear from him.

On the way back, they consider stopping at the Duke’s estate, but change their mind. Lyndis suggests as dusk approaches that they maybe eat at the Dapper Dagger Inn in The Green on the way back if they want to make themselves known in high society. They decide against it and after Khragg mentions he’d rather just fight someone, she says that there are places where there is pit fighting. One in Easttown, and one in Hayford down by the docks. They decide to go there.

Once back in Hayford, they head east to cut through to the docks. Berg notices a building off a ways with a number of scantily clad women smiling and gesturing to passersby. When they reach the docks they see right away that this is a sketchy part of town, even by Hayford’s standards. The docks are warped and cracked. There are small boats badly in need of repair. Some even half sunk and abandoned. They cut back through some alleys to a building with a sign of an Eel on it. They have reached the Old Eel Bar.

They go inside and see some seedy clientele. Behind the bar is a harried looking man with slicked-back hair and a mustache. He is scrambling around serving behind the bar, yelling for plates of food from the back and bringing them to tables and cleaning up empty dishes. He nods to the party and gestures them to an empty table. It is a long time before he can get the drinks they ask for. When he is at their table, he is muttering about that girl not showing up.

The order for food is even later, perhaps 40 minutes. As they are waiting, a dwarf at a nearby table gets up and goes through a pair of double doors to the back. When the barkeep serves their food they ask what’s back there and he says “the pit”. After they finish eating, Khragg, Berg, Peril go there. The pit is below with two ladders leading down to a sand-covered floor. Stools line the edges. Patrons are here at small tables chatting it up. Two men, one a human and the other a half-orc look bruised and beaten and are catching their breaths, having just finished a bout.

Khragg calls out that he wants to fight, and that same dwarf looks him over and agrees to take him on. Berg and Peril take an empty table. The dwarf introduces himself as Gindomi Coalgrip. They agree to bare-fisted fighting without armor. Khragg asks what the rules are, and the dwarf simply says “no killing”. Khragg goes down one ladder and Gindomi the other. The dwarf speedily gets up to Khragg and lands a couple of good punches. Khragg dishes out more and harder. The fight is over in just a minute with the dwarf laid out. Khragg has a few bruises, especially one where the dwarf landed a critical hit.

His friends drag him up while Khragg gets a drink and catches his breath. The patrons cheer and pass coins to settle bets. Peril gestures him over and points at the table. He noticed that someone had carved some graffiti on it, including a chain wrapped around a rose. Berg had told them all what he saw on that girl this morning. Khragg grabs a nearby drunk and asks him about the graffiti, but the old guy knows nothing.

When Gindomi regains consciousness, he suggests that Khragg face Hem, the other half-orc. Hem declines tonight, but says he’d be ready for a fight tomorrow.

They return to the main room and again seeing the owner struggling to keep things running, they go to the bar and ask him about the missing waitress that he has been muttering about. Turns out Lucetta Yordy hasn’t been in for three days. Just didn’t bother to come in. They offer to find out what happened to her, and he said he’d be grateful if they would. She lives at Ella’s boarding house and you can’t miss her because she has striking naturally violet hair and is very beautiful.

Rather than waste the night, they decide to go there straightaway. They knock on the door and Ella greets them. She is an older, overweight lady with gray hair. Very kind and concerned, it turns out that she hasn’t seen Lucetta for days either. She really hopes that Lucetta hasn’t run off like Jola Petrum did a few months ago. A beautiful tiefling she was with brilliant lustrous red hair and cute pointed horns and teeth. Just up and left without a word, leaving all her belongings and owed rent behind.

Ella points out that Lucetta shares a room with Jamileh Barber. She takes them to the door. Jamileh is very shy and nervous answering the door and seeing a group of heavily armed people. Berg calms her and only he and Elowynn enter to speak with her. They see two twin beds separated by a sheet hanging from the ceiling. She tells them that Lucetta left for work one evening on the second, and never came home after her shift. Lughausen suggests through the cracked door that Berg ask for some possession of Lucetta’s and Jamileh offers a basket of ribbons that Lucetta wore. They promise to find her friend and leave.

Out of options for now and daylight, they return home. On the way, Peril notices a building off down an alley that has graffiti on it, including another instance of the chain-wrapped rose. Back at their new home, Lyndis bids them goodnight and leaves. Before going to sleep, Lughausen decides to scry for Lucetta.

His spell succeeds. He sees her and three other girls bound and trapped in a dark room with stone floors, and an iron door with a barred window. The only light is from a torch outside the room shining in through that window. Beyond that window is only a corridor that goes for a bit and turns out of sight. She is alive, but clearly in a bad place as a prisoner.

They now know more but have no idea where that might be. They must go to sleep and search more tomorrow.

3/6/1151 – This morning is warmer but raining steadily when they awake. Lyndis arrives with two assistants. She explains that should the party wish to split up, she is now ready for it. They want to continue their search for the missing woman. This morning they will walk the path from the boarding house to the bar, the route she would likely have taken, and see if anything comes up.

A few steps away from their house, they see a man in smart, good quality apparel approach. He snaps his heels and bows to the party, asking if they are the newcomers. They agree, and he hands them a note. It is an open invitation to the Epoch Arena by its owner Kaanhaaldir. He wants them to feel free to come to the arena and his box, free of charge at any day they choose. The messenger tells them that they should simply present themselves there to be escorted in.

After he leaves, they go back to the boarding house. Walking the path, they see very little that would indicate what might have happened. Near the bar, they spot a couple of old-timers sitting outside their home people-watching. They decide to ask them about Lucetta. They are friendly folks, offering up that yes, they know here, but no, they didn’t see anything unusual. They do suggest that perhaps now that the party brings her, and also Jora’s disappearance up, that yes, now that they think of it, a number of girls might have gone missing these past few months. Oh yes, and they sure were lookers, they were!

Lughausen continues to consider his magical options but finds them lacking to the task. They come up with the idea of hiring an investigator of some kind. A local who has expertise in the area. They ask Lyndis to find one, and she doesn’t know anyone off the top of her head. She sends one of her assistants off to learn where one might be. They return home to wait.

When the assistant returns, he tells her about a half-elf named Thomas Mournhall who lives in Southtown. They go there at once. He meets them at the door and invites them into his house after learning that they want to hire him. He has a bulbous face, overweight build, and a hesitating way of talking. They describe the girl and tell him what they know about her. He takes out a scrap of paper and a piece of charcoal to take notes.

Then, having seen that chain-wrapped rose symbol in a few places now, they mention that and ask if he knows anything about it. Immediately, he changes his mind about helping them. He “suddenly remembers” that he has a prior commitment to help someone else with a task and can’t look for the girl after all. The party has not missed his sudden change of heart and know that the symbol has frightened him. They get a bit threatening, but back down when they notice that Lyndis isn’t happy about threatening an innocent.

They keep pushing him, saying that they know he knows something. He is evasive, but then blurts out at the end. “I really can’t help you find that girl. Much like I couldn’t find those other five girls, no matter how many brothels I visited.” He then shoos them out and they let him.

Both Lyndis and Berg have caught on, though it takes Lughausen a minute to do so. They must start looking at brothels. Berg knows immediately where to start since he saw one just yesterday. They decide that Peril will case the place first, carefully, while the others first stay in a nearby market square, and then go home to wait for word.

Peril circles the building looking for a vantage point to watch. He spots the back of the building and recognizes it from last night. The graffiti with the chain-wrapped rose is there. Peril watches for hours, easily evading the assistant that Lyndis tasked with watching him watch the brothel. He watches the rear, and then the front. He considers trying to slip in as a servant but rejects that after he notices that only one person is going in and out of the back door. The place is small too. As dusk approaches, the girls come out to do their enticing as a regular day of work begins for them. He then works up his courage to enter.

Inside, the place is indeed small. A hand-made plaque just inside names the place “The Horned Hen”. He goes to the bar and just as he starts asking about a girl with purple hair, a woman comes up and asks how he is this evening. The barkeep tells her that Peril is looking for purple hair. She apologizes and says that none of the girls working here have that. But maybe she can interest him in a blonde. Lidia is available upstairs. She steers him there, and he goes reluctantly.

Lidia is there in a hall outside the rooms waiting. The lady from downstairs introduces him and they both do their spiel to get him to pay for Lidia’s services. Lidia takes him into her room and closes the door, and again tries to convince him to spend 5 gp for an hour with her. He politely declines, asking again about any rumors of a purple-haired girl. He then gives her 5 sp for her time and is about to leave. She puts her leg up on the bed, pulling her skirt up in an obvious attempt to entice him one last time as she puts the coins on a purse tied to her thigh. Peril’s sharp eyes notice the chain-wrapped rose tattoo on her hip.

He says he’s changed his mind but starts asking her directly about her tattoo and what it means. She gets evasive and dismissive, saying that it was just a silly old thing she got when she was young. He points out that the same tattoo is in graffiti on the building. She dismisses that again suggesting that perhaps someone who really enjoyed her put it there. Peril can tell that she is holding back, but he can tell that she’s a bit frightened, so he pushes no further and departs.

Back at the house, Lyndis leaves after Peril’s return. Then Peril tells them what he found. Before going to bed, Lughausen suggests he cast legend lore and see what he might learn about the rose and chain symbol. He prepares his spell for 10 minutes and casts. Then shortly after, he collapses in shock.

He tells them that he saw his vision from the Tree of Death again and that there is a spirit from a prison that was released by the name of Gomory whose symbol was a chain and a rose. It was indeed a legendary symbol. This ancient evil goes back thousands of years and had something to do with a slave trade. There has been an ancient fiend trapped here under the Dome with the priests and people, preying on them perhaps.

Lughausen is also reminded of one of his first adventures back in Wohlen for Wodemar Blum. He had investigated an old cult temple in the city of Venlo. There they found that the cult worshiped a being by the name of Barbatos who had also escaped from this prison called the Lemegeton. He asks if anyone else recognizes that name and no one does. Perhaps he should investigate it further.

Suddenly, the stakes have changed. Their priority is no longer simply escaping this place. There is something horrible going on and they are just scratching the surface. They need to find this girl and uncover what is going on.

At the mention of a cult, Berg asks for more information. His job before he left Nenn was investigating and clearing out old cults to Gaal. Lughausen suggests that they may be related. And this new evidence of Gomory might suggest another cult.

They turn in for the night thinking about their next move.

3/7/1151 – This morning is overcast but not raining. Uncertain of where to go next, they decide that maybe they will visit the arena today. They debate the best time and after Lyndis arrives, she suggests that the arena holds events almost every day in the afternoon. Sometimes other things happen in the morning. They will play it safe and go in the afternoon.

In the meantime, Yannic wants to visit the wizard school. It turns out it is in Oldtown, not far from the temple of Epolde. Yannic is disappointed that the wizards haven’t reached out to him yet. He expected an invitation immediately after their meeting with the High Lord Protector.

Lyndis takes everyone into Oldtown again. This time to a different section. They see a complex of buildings that have seen better days. That complex was once open to the street. Now, a hastily constructed wooden fence about 10 feet tall obscures it. Graffiti adorns the fence with negative sentiments scrawled all over: “Wizards are to blame!” “You suck!” “Die!”

A simple, and poorly constructed gate is held with a simple latch. Yannic knocks but there is no answer. He opens it and they enter. The complex of buildings has seen better days. Once it was very grand, with sprawling steps, plazas and grounds, and four buildings. All but one look abandoned now. Even that one has clearly been neglected. One building in particularly looks to have been gutted by fire. And another bears the clear evidence of vandalism.

No one is outside. They go to the building that looks lived-in and knock on the door. A young boy answers, looking nervous. Yannic introduces himself and asks to see the Master of the Arcane. The boy runs off calling for Master Campbell.

The young man arrives a moment later, clumsily. It is the man who was at the High Lord Protector’s interview who supported Master Prishia. He looks surprised and pleased to see Yannic and takes him back. As they go through the building they can see that this building was once a classroom and lab building. But many of the rooms have been converted to living spaces instead.

In the back they are brought to a study and given a place to sit. He gets Master Prishia. She looks harried and also glad that the party has arrived. The questions begin. Yannic is concerned about not being contacted. Why was he neglected? He is a wizard from outside, aren’t they the least bit curious?

Prishia’s frustration explodes. She would have loved to invite him, but she has been kept in the dark about a great many things. She tells them a bit more of history where it concerns the wizard school.

The school has about a dozen students at the moment. Sebastian Campbell does most of the teaching, though many of the students do independent work as most wizards do. With the library destroyed in the Cataclysm, they have managed to rebuild as best as they could from private work from the few surviving wizards. Though they lost much in the riots that followed the Cataclysm.

The school has no funding or support from the government. They have never been able to rebuild the school because of public sentiment. Wizards are largely blamed for the destruction throughout the city. The seat on the council was never filled since it was vacated 68 years ago. And though Prishia is invited to advise the High Lord Protector on occasion. like when the party arrived, she is most often kept in the dark on important events and decisions in the city. She is very bitter about this.

Historically, the abjurers and mentalists of the city had quite a lot of influence. The magic shield was an important part of what made Ap Wys what it was, and the wizards played a very large role in that. The party asks about that, very curious now considering they may have to consider destroying it.

The original shield, it was said, took active and constant attention from wizards to maintain. Probably because of its size. It would follow that the Dome follows suit. However, no wizards from her school have ever been asked to do that. Could priests fill that role? Maybe. She doesn't know enough to say. She has been kept out of the loop. She believes that perhaps it is an artifact of some kind keeping it up.

Following the Cataclysm, wizards were involved in restoring the shield. But later, public sentiment turned more and more against the wizards. In 1097, a crowd of rioters rushed the school and killed many of the wizards who had risen to power after the Cataclysm. Only a few escaped because they simply were not here at the school.

Prishia herself was trained on the sly by a wizard who in turn was trained privately. The school itself was only reopened when the public resentment had faded from its previous levels over time: only 30 years ago or so. Still, it is very hard.

She will be very happy to assist them however she can. But she is watched, and she looks meaningfully at Lyndis for the first time. There is only so much that she can do. And she states unequivocally that she will not jeopardize any chance of restoring her seat, the wizard’s seat, to the High Lord Protector’s Council.

The party departs.

After leaving the wizard school, they have a short discussion in the street about their search for the missing waitress, Lucetta Yordy. They decide that they need to know the extent of the reach of this cult with the chain and rose symbol. Peril starts drawing a city map and marking places where he sees the cult symbol.

They continue on to Military Town, passing through numerous districts along the way. They do not see the symbol on the main thoroughfares. As they are passing through the gates of Military Town and descending down the hill they once again have a view of the grand arena in the district.

The Arena is a large stadium, partially cut into the ground as a bowl, and then rising with stone walls. It seats perhaps 10,000 spectators, and the battleground is 100 yards in diameter.

Colorful flags and pennants flutter all along the top. Some of these are standards of past champions interspersed with just solid colored ones. Lyndis points out one for Emil Klus (blue and white vertical stripes with three red crosses), a well-known champion of the arena whose height of renown was 10 years ago. He has since retired.

When they enter the arena, they find a large area ringing the entire building that is in shade with columned openings. Vendors with their carts are set up here selling fruit, drinks (one is expected to bring their own mug), and grilled meats wrapped in pastry. Mostly foods to be eaten with one’s fingers while sitting and watching the event. They see stairs with attendants taking admission. They approach one and show him their invitation. He calls over a replacement and leads them up.

On the upper areas are walkways on the outer edge of the arena that go all the way around. Lanes lead down to the lower seating. On one side are the boxes and balconies with the best view for the nobility that are willing to rent them. The largest balcony is the one that they are being taken to. Inside are five figures, plus four guards. The one in the center catches their attention. He is a dragonborn with white scales and showing some age. He is dressed in armor and looks quite strong and able. This is Kaanhaaldir, and he rises and shakes each of their hands as they enter his box. He appears jovial and open.

He introduces the others in the box. First is Bishop General Aredhel Nalllithe of the temple of Nuath. She is an older elf with long, wavy, gray hair shaved on the right side and blue eyes. She has rugged green skin. During the course of the conversation with her, she tells Berg that he should report to her. She has questions about the religions of the outside world, and they tell her what she wants to know. Apparently, she has an interest in that sort of thing.

Next is Enereg Aldaviel, a half-elf martial type. He has cropped, straight, black hair and blue eyes. He has rough, pockmarked, copper skin, and he is wearing dented and well-sued half-plate armor. Apparently, he had been known to compete in the arena to some renown. He doesn’t speak much at first.

Then there is Leofrick de Mowbray, a human martial type as well. He has short, straight, blond hair and green eyes. He is the guildmaster of the Emerald Exiles, a guild of warriors and fighters that exists to form camraderie amongst the martially inclined who have been displaced from the outside world in Zell. Many of the guild members fight in the arenas in the city.

They can be hired out as guards as needed, and so on. Typically, they hire out to merchants who want extra guards for shipments of goods. Need extra hands on their estates for events. That sort of thing. Some of the nobility are always having some sort of ball or what not that they want extra guards for. He looks Berg and Khragg over and suggests that they are Emerald Exile material. Aredhel lets Berg know that there would be no conflict if he were to join them. However, they do not seem overly interested in joining.

The last occupant of the box is a dwarf whom they recognize. He was at their interview with the High Lord Protector when they first arrived. He was standing behind the Lord Protector.

Conversation starts off with Kaanhaaldir inquiring about dragonborn in the outside world. They tell the story of Illadara who spoke of New Draconia as continuing on. He is heartened by that. There is much that is told about the outside world. The occupants are all interested in their own topics. All ask questions except for Enereg who just listens.

The insightful in the party notice the gleam of glee in Protector Vaniak’s eye as they talk about how good the people of Zell have it here compared to the outside world. They could bring their light to the dark world outside if the Dome were down.

In a lull of the conversation, Enereg speaks about the weather, and then about the food that they sell in the arena. He raves about the meat pies and even gets up to show everyone. This convinces Khragg to go get some for everyone

A horse race is about to start, and an attendant comes in asking about bets. Kaanhaaldir and Leofrick put down money but none of the party does. The odds-on favorite wins the bout. Then comes the grand melee that Khragg is interested in. Warriors of all sizes and races enter the arena after teams of men swarm the field to convert it from horse racing to the next event. They range in sizes from large half orcs to little halflings and gnomes.

At the end, a halfling named Posco Mugwort has won the melee, apparently a repeat winner according to those in the box. Khragg inquires about competing to the apparent approval of all there. They suggest he could straight up register, but it might be more fruitful to test his skill and build a name for himself in smaller venues about the city.

With the last even complete, and the conversation mostly over, the party leaves. Kaanhaaldir suggests they return any time they wish.

As they are leaving, they ask about a place to get a girl and the Misty Helmet is suggested with a grin by Leofrick. The party follows the directions, and the crowds and arrives there. It appears that the place is positioned for grabbing the attention of the arena-goers when the events are over. The girls are out waving and calling in those that are interested as they walk down the lanes from the arena. Lughausen enters, with Khragg shortly behind him. Peril elects to do a walk around searching for the symbol, while Berg, Yannic, Elowynn and Lyndis wait outside. Lughausen is approached by a girl named Merily and he agrees to go in with her and have a conversation or whatever in a private room for 3 gp. Khragg goes to the common room and gets drinks. The two attendants of Lyndis come in to keep an eye on things.

In the private room Lughausen wastes no time getting to the point of asking questions about the missing girl Lucetta. He shows her the chain and rose symbol, and asks about missing girls from here. The girl Merily is no help. She knows nothing and Lughausen leaves.

Khragg has had enough time to watch the crowd and finish his drink. He sees nothing unusual and they leave. When they regather outside, Peril reports that he found the symbol on the building on one side under a window.

They decide they will return to Hayford, but this time take their time taking side roads instead of the main thoroughfares. This will allow them to look for more brothels that might have the symbol, and to sight see and get more familiar with the city. Lyndis obliges them.

They find several brothels along the way home. In Oldhill they come across the House of Secrets. They find none in Greenhorn, but in Mistborough they come across the Purple Pixie that has the symbol. Next in The Green they see a very grand building that could have been a museum or large noble’s estate. Lyndis says, “Ah, I heard about this place but have never seen it before.” It is the Pink Pearl, a house of ill-repute of the very richest nobility. It has opulence etched all over it. Peril does his circuit but cannot get too close to the building because there are guards on the grounds. He does not see the symbol on it.

In Westtown they find the Hall of Flowers that has the symbol outside. They find no such building in Oldtown. In Southtown they must go far off the main roads, and as they are doing so they run across a patrol of the Zell city guard led by Sergeant Bennet, the man who had met them at the dome edge when they first entered. He is friendly and attentive when they describe their mission to search for the missing girl. He takes notes. They show him the symbol and he does not recognize it. The insightful in the party believe he is not lying. They carry on.

On the opposite side of the district, they find another brothel, this one called the Dancing Dryad. Peril makes his circuit and finds not only the symbol, but a crack in the foundation has an unusual canine smell, like from a basement. They decide to go in and investigate.

As this district is lower class, the place reflects it. The place is small and the clientele are sparse and poor looking. Khragg goes to the bar while the others take a table. Peril starts going down the back hall, noting the curtains for the cubbies where the girls work. He is looking for a way down to the basement and spots a likely door. But before he can open it, a girl approaches him. He agrees to go with her, and she leads him to a cubby opposite the door. He pays her, then leaves saying he forgot something. He goes and gets Khragg and sends him to her as a distraction. In the cubby, she starts removing his armor. Peril, now that she is behind a curtain sneaks to the door. He must carefully time his way down as another girl comes into the hall and looks around. He successfully sneaks down, finding the basement and a closed door. Behind it he hears men’s conversation, and some unusual sounding dog noises.

He gets up the nerve to try a ruse. He will burst through the door drunk, pretending to be looking for the bathroom. When he does, he sees several men in armor with weapons and a number of men in robes sitting at a table. In the distance he sees animal cages. The men in robes tell him he can’t be there, and the armed men rush forward to intercept him. Peril backs out, acting innocent and two of the guards follow him up the stairs declaring that the area is off limits and he shouldn’t have gone there.

Once at the top and again with the party, Peril loudly announces that he saw priests and cages downstairs. At those words, the guards suddenly go on high alert and reach for their weapons. They are met by Khragg, half out of his armor who threatens the first one saying if he draws his sword he will die. The other guard retreats back downstairs shouting warnings about armed intruders. The first guard reluctantly refrains from drawing his weapon. Lughausen tries to get past to go downstairs, and the guard grabs his arm to stop him saying that if he goes, things will go bad. The party, of course, has their own attitude about things going bad for the occupants of the basement.

Lughausen uses a command to make the guy let him go, then Khragg and Berg go down. Peril threatens the first guard and tells him to drop his weapons and then he can go. By this time, the occupants of the brothel are beating a hasty retreat except for a few girls. Elowynn has jumped on a table with her bow drawn ready to fire.

Going down the stairs it is Khragg, then Berg, Lughausen, Elowynn, Peril and then finally Yannic who had been outside at the start but came in once the occupants started running out in fear. Khragg bursts through the door at the bottom and is immediately met by crossbow fire and then two-headed dogs. These dogs had been in cages and were released to fight. The men in robes are at first not seen, but then appear casting spells. Spiritual weapons in the form of spiked chains appear and the battle commences.

The cult leader appears and casts a flame strike upon the party, getting almost everyone. However, Khragg’s, Berg’s, and Elowynn’s weapons are taking down the enemy quickly. The spellcasting cultists are unable to affect the party with their magic except for a few lucky hits of radiant power with sacred flames. The cult leader is the last to go down.

They search and find nothing except some coins. The four robed men have tattoos of the chain and rose while the guards do not. The two headed dogs are disturbing monstrosities but were not fiending according to Berg who had used his divine sense during the fight.

They call Lyndis down. She is not happy with the party at first. The occupants of the basement were defending their place and the party attacked first, invading. However, when she sees the dead dogs, she is relieved for this is evidence that something nefarious is going on. She sends on of her assistants out to get the guards and after a short time Sergeant Bennet arrives with his patrol.

Like Lyndis he is not happy with the party for what they did here, especially when their story accurately depicts their role in initiating the attack on this place. He says that laws here definitely favor homeowners and business owners acting in self defense of their property. But he too agrees that something bad is going on once he sees the dogs.

There will be an investigation. The party is not under arrest, but Lyndis will escort them back to their home. They should expect to be visited soon about all this. They freely admit that they are not officers of the law acting in an official capacity, but are vigilantes doing the right thing when the officials drop the ball.

They leave the Dancing Dryad. They are preparing for retaliation. They know the first guard upstairs was let go, as were all the others in the brothel who might know what is going on. The cult is sure to be warned about the party. They have hit the hornet’s nest.

Once back in Hayford, Lyndis sends an assistant again away. She tells them that she is informing Captain Baumstein of what occurred. After they reach their house, she leaves.

Inside, Peril changes the subject and tells them that while they were in the Epoch Arena and talking about weather and food with Enereg, he was secretly using thieves cant to pass messages on to Peril. He had asked if Peril was interested in earning money and how he felt about the priests of Duath. Peril had conveyed that he was interested and he wasn’t too thrilled with the priests. Enereg then passed a note saying to meet him at the Vulgar Master in Easttown in midnight.

Khragg will go with him as a bodyguard, but when they reach the gate, they find it closed now that the sun is down. The guard looks at them and tells them that he has been ordered to keep them in the district. He cannot let them through. Also, as they had approached the gate, they spotted two men tailing them after they left their house. They return and go through an alley where Peril separates from Khragg, much to the consternation of their trail. Peril easily loses them and looks for ways to get to Easttown. He examines the walls, then the docks. He sees water taxis and asks to be taken across, but the man tells him that he can’t do that after dark. Even when Peril shows him gold, the man says he can’t risk his business by breaking the law.

Peril then remembers his hat of disguise. He changes into a different humanoid and gets through the gates without difficulty. On his way through the districts, he enters in some new ones that he hadn’t been to before. In Greyside he sees the large prison. In Northbank, he spots another, very large brothel. It has grounds around it but no guards this time. He circles around and spots the symbol etched into one of the stones on the side. It has frosted windows so he can’t see inside. A sign on the front shows an Open Purse. As he is leaving, some girls come out, saying goodbye to clients. He can’t help but notice that these girls are very beautiful and have unusual features. One is a girl with bright orange hair, and the other is a tiefling with long horns and bright red hair of an uncommon color. He remembers that the missing girl has purple hair and perhaps that is the theme of this brothel. He takes note.

In Easttown, he finds the Vulgar Master, but he is quite early. He goes inside and sees that it is indeed a seedy place in the seedy part of town. He gets drinks and watches carefully. After some time he learns the patterns. There are a set of tables that probably house some thieves guild members. People come and go, seeming to talk to the people who remain the entire time. He decides he has stayed long enough and starts going out to use his hat to become someone else every half hour or so.

Midnight approaches and he leaves in disguise once last time and returns fifteen minutes later as himself. He sees that in that time, Enereg has arrived and somehow claimed a table to himself. Peril approaches. Enereg has an unusual box that he places on the table but ignores. Then he shows Peril a pouch of blue crystals that he calls Axilia. It is a grade A, and a drug that will make you feel good. What is in the tiny pouch, about the size of a sugar cube, could be sold for 500 gp. He offers to hire Peril as a dealer, offering 100 gp per pouch he sells.

Peril asks why him, and Enereg responds that being so obvious has advantages over some anonymous nobody. Peril is a celebrity and will soon be receiving invitations from the upper class of the town, much like Kaanhaaldir. These present opportunities to make sales and reach new clientele that Enereg could not.

Peril declines, then asks about the chain and rose symbol, showing the map to Enereg. Enereg clearly recognizes the symbol and withdraws his offer. He says Peril has no business tangling with the likes of them and offers a friendly suggestion that he drop it. Peril refuses and proudly says that he isn’t trapped with the cult, they are trapped with him. He boldly uses the hat of disguise to change his appearance right in the doorway of the tavern in full view of all the patrons and the perhaps-thieves guild members.

He returns back to the party in the late hours of the morning. They discuss some more of what they could expect from the cult’s response after Peril tells them of his encounter. He calls it a dead end, but they did indeed learn that the cult is known by the common man if not by the authorities. And that surely, they might indeed hear from the cult soon. They go to bed with watches in place, ready to be attacked.

3/8/1151 – The party has an uneventful night and wake up to a rainy morning in the city. Shortly after they wake, and before they can decide what to do next, Captain Baumstein arrives with a number of guards and Lyndis in tow. He gloats a bit that they broke the law just as he feared, causing trouble not even three days after arriving. He is there to escort them to a hearing in Southtown at the District Tower. The tower is a fortification in the Southtown district with walls that can be walked, and a double portcullis (now open) as the only way in. It is like a small keep, and it appears that here is where the Zell City Guard have their headquarters for the district, including hearing rooms.

They are met by Captain Edmund Morningfall, an older soldier in full plate bearing the usual Duath symbols. He explains to the party that they will be going in for a discovery of facts hearing to learn what course of action must be taken in this matter. It will be presided over by Justiciar Rowan Stonesworn. He takes them to a room which is not what they expected. It looks like a courtroom, and there are a great many people present. There are commoners on balconies who have been let in to observe the proceedings. There are some people from the Dancing Dryad, Sergeant Bennet, and a great many officials of the city guard. The officials of the hearing are at tables, and there is in fact a witness stand in the middle for questioning and testimony. The party feels like they are at a trial, even though it is repeated again that this is a discovery of facts.

The crowd’s attitude shifts the moment Yannic walks in. The party can hear hostile whispers of “Wizard!” and many making signs against evil, spitting, or just outrightly averting their gaze so as not to look at him.

They are introduced to Zane Duststone, a priest of Vodethyn, who will be doing most of the questioning.

Justiciar Rowan reads the names of the deceased – seven men. Leofrick Drake, Haroldas Paliokas, Pavlos Mariou, Caleb Fox, Brody O'Leary, Luiz Amaral, Freoc Miller. These people were slain in the brutal attack by the party while minding their own business in the basement they had lawfully rented for the month. So says some of the witnesses.

Zane speaks about the tenets of Duath:

“Let's consider the teachings of Duath. A principle tenet is the protection of the innocent, the persecuted, the downtrodden - those that cannot defend themselves. Lives must not be taken unless there is no other recourse. Fortifications, homes, abodes, or any structure that can be used for safety and cover of any kind are to be built and used for protection. These places are sacrosanct. Thus, expectations of privacy and defense of such places is paramount in the Duath religion.”

One by one, witnesses come to talk about what happened the previous night. First is Alys Wheatflow, the prostitute that Peril and then Khragg talked with at the establishment. She describes how Peril brought her back but had no interest in what she offered and very quickly left “forgetting something” and brought back Khragg and then disappeared. She said that she saw him go straight for the door to the downstairs. When Peril returned from the basement, she had Khragg’s armor half off, but he charged out drawing his axe when Peril started shouting. She says that the party was itching to fight. Super willing.

They hear from Victorin Sydney, a boatman who was in the common room when it all began. He too told a similar story as Alys, but he emphasized that Peril was very definitely pretending to be drunk because he wasn’t acting drunk until he left Alys, and then the party clearly was the aggressor, drawing weapons first, long before the guards did. The questioning went something like this:

He was in the main room, sitting at one of the tables. He had a clear view down the hallway. He saw Peril go back with Alys, then a moment later come out acting all drunk and then going down to the basement.

Q: Have you been to the basement?

A: Nope, never been there. I been told that's a private place and off-limits.

Q: Was Peril drunk?

A: Not that I saw until he came staggering out of the curtain. He never took a drink here and walked fine back there.

Q: Anyone else go back?

A: The big guy went down the hall after the little guy went downstairs.

Q: What happened then?

A: He came running back yelling with them two guards right behind him. Then the big guy comes out with that big axe ready and threatening to chop off the guards heads if they draw their weapons. Clear as day, "Draw that sword, and you die!"

Q: Do you know who drew weapons first?

A: Oh, easy them's over there did. The two guards never drew theirs. One ran downstairs, and the other, him over there (pointing), they kept up top and then eventually let him go. Looked to me they only did that because they's were all itching to go downstairs and didn't want to stay behind and miss what was going on down there.

Forthwind Rowntree is called, and he is the surviving guard. He speaks of having been hired by the owner, Yosston Traser Warmorn Brijin (a gnome who is present in the room) for the past year to protect the establishment and the girls. He was told to assist in guarding the men who had paid for and rented the basement. He was just doing his job. The questioning went something like this:

Q: Were the other guards in the employ of Yosston?

A: Two were, me and Brody O'Leary, the one that came with me up the stairs. The other two came with the others.

Q: What about the two-headed dogs?

A: They were always in their cages. They were just there one night about two weeks ago. We weren't told how they got there. Crazy looking, but they behaved. That night was the first night they were let out of their cages. We were under attack after all!

The party has contributed to the questioning thus far, having been given an opportunity to do so. The questions the party asks focus mainly on the unnatural dogs. Where did they come from? None of these witnesses know.

Lughausen draws the rose and chain symbol and holds it up. The party tries to see if anyone in the crowd reacts to it. Lughausen and Peril observe the gnome, whom they later learn is Yosston the owner, scowl at it. Lughausen mentions that the cult is about an ancient evil, but no one else recognizes it. He questions Alys about the graffiti that is repeating on other brothels, and she has no answer for that.

Sergeant Bennet speaks next. He tells about having met the party earlier and speaks somewhat favorably about them. They were truly trying to investigate a missing girl. He repeats that he doesn’t know about any cult, but he had taken notes of what they told him and they seem very intent on dealing with it.

Yosston is called next. The party is eager to hear from him. He stonewalls, telling that the dogs are certainly unnatural, and must have been created by magical means. For what purpose? That is unclear. Yosston begs ignorance on this and puts the blame on the conveniently dead men in the basement. The owner is not privy to all that happened there. Further questioning from the party has him backtrack a bit when it is revealed that the guard did report the dogs to him some time ago, and he did nothing about it. He said he was going to investigate, but again, they paid for the safety and security of the room, so he hadn’t gotten around to it yet.

Lughausen interrupts and requests that much like there was a zone of truth used in their meeting with the High Lord Protector, why isn’t one in place now. The Justiciar replies that this isn’t a formal trial, but a hearing of discovery to discover what happened and to inform where the investigation must go. That option will certainly be considered later into the process.

After Yosston, Lyndis gives her account. She did not witness the attack firsthand, having been called down after the battle was over. She repeats that her orders were to observe and not interfere or participate, and those orders come from the High Chancellor. She corroborates both Sergeant Bennet’s story and what the party has maintained was their purpose for doing what they did. She can only talk about what she found below: the dogs, and she reminds the court that they found shackles in one room.

Yosston speaks up again at this point, having been granted permission to speak by the Justiciar. Those shackles are for certain customers who request them. There weren't any people prisoner there, where there? Those shackles are used when certain customers make requests of certain activities - they have exotic tastes, and the Dancing Dryad aims to please.

There is more discussion between the party and the officials about Duath’s law regarding protection within fortifications. Were the cultists granted that protection if they fight back? The answer is yes. Zane responds, of course, as guests they must be accorded the right to defend themselves against attack. If a refugee comes to a house for a single night, should they not defend themselves if they are attacked within that house? But what if that refugee is evil and has ill intent. Well, that’s different if it can be proved, and that is the crux. Can it be proved that these people in the basement were up to evil?

Justiciar Stonesworn renders judgement. There are seven dead men, and the party has freely admitted that they died by their hands. Six of those people have families that have been found already. One is a baker, another a wood merchant, a third a mason, and the guards are known. The only one that they have not been able to learn more about was the leader, Leofrick Drake. The Justiciar pronounces that the party is responsible for paying a wergild of 1,000gp for each man. Should the weregild not be provided, the accused will be sent to prison until the wergild is paid, or a gold a day not paid has passed. The total is 7,000gp. Since the party acts as a group, they are all accountable, and in addition, it is not clear which of the party is more responsible than the others. They argue amongst themselves about paying it or not. Both Lughausen and Berg argue strenuously that it is a just judgement, and the others are brought around. They pay the gold after having to scrape it up between them.

The Justiciar also pronounces that the investigation into these matters must continue. There are too many unanswered questions about the men and the fiendish dogs. If it is later determined that they were indeed criminals who deserved their death as a righteous punishment in Duath’s eyes, then the wergild will be paid back to the party. The party asks about their own investigation and it is implied that they may continue, but that they should strongly reconsider their methods.

They are free to go. Captain Baumstein, who had stayed to watch, spits at the ground and walks out. The commoners also give one last boo and hiss at Yannic as he leaves.

The party returns to their hovel in Hayford. They discuss what went on in the hearing. They are not happy that they are now in this situation, being put on trial for doing the right thing. But they decide that they will forge on searching for the missing girl, because that is important. They remember the unusual girls that Peril had seen at the brothel in Northbank the night before, and decide to head there. However, just as they are leaving their place, a messenger comes up with a message for them.

It reads, “Please come to our guildhouse in Oldtown as soon as you possibly can. We have a dangerous and urgent matter that should be of immediate concern to you.” It is signed the Gold Prestige. Lyndis, when asked, tells them that the guild includes very wealthy and influential merchants. They decide to detour there first.

The guildhall in Oldtown is opulent and magnificent. Serious money went into this building creating a very prestigious place. They see a sign below the main one that has a wagon wheel on it, and the historically inclined in the party recall that it is reminiscent of the old pre-cataclysm country of Krewald and the merchants.

Inside, they state their business and are led to a meeting room. They pass more opulence along the way, peeking into empty offices that have rich furniture and loads of books and ledgers. Yannic requests food and the assistant agrees to fetch some.

In the conference room they wait only a short while until their hosts arrive. Two much older humans come first, and they are later introduced as Ayleth deGrey, the owner of a lock business, and Cedric Cornwallis, a jeweler. Behind them comes a high elf with white hair cut into a mohawk and golden skin, who is Elurir Lantaththar, the owner of the Dapper Dagger inn in the Green district. Last is the guildmaster, Walter Cleves, a human goldsmith in his 50s.

After introductions, Walter lays out their proposal. They are excited to hear about lands outside of Zell. They wish to sign contracts with the party giving the Gold Prestige exclusive rights of trade with the outside world. They don’t really care that the party can’t really speak for whomever is out there. They want the party to introduce the Gold Prestige and facilitate their negotiations. For every contract that is successfully signed with the Gold Prestige that the party facilitates through introduction or influence, the Gold Prestige will pay the party 1% or 5,000gp, whichever is higher.

The party says that they will consider the offer, and they take the proffered contract to read later. Elowynn then brings up the fact that the message they were given spoke of urgent and dangerous matters, yet they are just talking mere business.

Obviously, this isn't urgent and dangerous. Guildmaster Cleves turned to Elurir, "You were in charge of procuring the messenger and write the message. Why did you write it like this?"

He replied, "Oh dear, I do apologize. I wrote it so hastily, perhaps I shouldn't have used such language" However, the perceptive in the party can tell that he is lying, but he clearly didn't want the other guildmembers to know. They see that he looks haggard and has beads of sweat on his brow.

Just as the party is getting up to leave, the assistant arrives with the food Yannic requested. They all agree to have lunch together and converse about the outside world. The party talks a bit about the Confederation, the Free Cities of Hemelsyn, and so on. Lughausen creates an opportunity to talk to Elurir privately, but Elurir just hisses, “Not here, not now!”

When it is over and it is time to leave, Lughausen asks about the messenger that Elurir hired. Could he have information about where to meet them, and Elurir volunteers to show them the place and take them to it. Outside, they agree to go to a park and take a stroll and walk. In a semi-private place, when asked what is going on, Elurir breaks down and a horrible story tumbles out:

"You're my only hope! I cannot believe the trouble I have caused. I cannot go to the authorities, what I have done is too terrible. Too awful. You are strangers, and you seem to be men of action. I heard what you did at the Dancing Dryad. You saw evil and you tried to stamp it out. I need your help!"

The Lantaththar family has been in Zell for centuries, pre-Cataclysm. His father died during the cataclysm, so his grandfather raised Elurir and ran the Dapper Dagger. He died last month, and Elurir has taken over the inn.

"He had a chest. He kept it hidden and locked always. I never saw him open it. When he was near death, he told me to burn it, destroy it without opening it when he was gone. I should have listened to him. But I was curious. What harm could there be in opening it first to see what was inside. I never asked him why he did not destroy it himself. I wish I had asked him."

"So, I opened it, and inside was a book. An old book. Centuries old. I had to read it, and I know I did, but if you ask me now what it said, I could not tell you a single word of it. I read that book, and I do know that I became obsessed with it. And then I heard the voice. Speaking to me. Assuring me that if I just did what the book said, I would have success and riches beyond anything I could imagine. It told me that it had helped my grandfather get the Dapper Dagger, and it would help me get more."

"I did it. A ritual. I must have had some sense because I kept it to myself. I went to the basement of the inn, and I did it there. And it came! Ar'ith. It was the most horrendous fiend out of nightmares, and it looked at me hungrily. I knew I was doomed, but then, my assistant Samuel quite unknowingly came down and the fiend fell upon him and slew him in an instant, devouring him. I fled and locked the door! I took that book, and I threw it into the fire! Destroying it, but it did not matter. Ar'ith was here."

"But then later as I agonized over what to do, I heard his voice in my head, tantalizing me, taunting me. He told me it was good that I provided it sustenance, for it would need to grow its strength back to grant me what I wished for most. It was so enticing, so convincing. As it talked to me soothingly, I felt my will crumbling. I could barely trance, haunted by dreams and visions of alternating magnificent wealth, and horrible nightmares both."

"The voice silenced for a time, but I knew it was lurking there. I forbid the rest of the employees go into the basement. I kept it locked. I thought it kept in and away while I tried to figure out what to do. Then, the voice spoke again, and bid me come down and Vodethyn forgive me, I went. And there I saw a horror, I had forgotten that Samuel had a spare basement key on him, and now there was another body below! It was Magda, one of my waitresses. And I knew it was my fault and now I was truly damned. Ar'ith told me that it could fix this. That I would never be arrested and imprisoned, but now I was his. I was truly his. And he bade me to leave the door unlocked and I did!"

"I am sure that he enticed the others down, and I am complicit in their murders! They are on my hands. I still told the others not to go down, but they are suspicious now. It has been 5 days and we need the supplies that are down there to run the tavern. I have scrambled to have deliveries made and kept in the kitchens, not brought down, but I see the questions in their eyes. I wonder which of them I will allow to be murdered next."

"I am in too deep now. I still cannot bring myself to go to the authorities. Perhaps it is Ar'ith in my head making me do this. But I see the opportunity you present, you can do this discreetly, quietly, with no one the wiser. I will pay you handsomely! Please, please destroy the fiend!"

The party immediately thinks that this is a trap and talk amongst themselves about this possibility. Yet they cannot turn away. They must help this man if it is indeed a real thing. At first, Elurir is eager to take them to the Dapper Dagger right away, but the party begs off. They are not prepared and will come the following morning.

Elurir pulls out a contract that he had prepared, and a quick glance indicates that there are nondisclosure agreements. Elurir clearly wants to keep all this quiet. The party refuses to help if that clause is not taken out. He does, desperate for their help, and they sign. He rushes off.

The proceed from here on to the Open Purse in Northbank. Peril had seen girls there with strikingly unusual features and it seemed like a promising lead to find the missing girls. They arrive to find a very building with open grounds set back unobtrusively apart from other buildings. It is on a slight rise with a manicured gravel drive through immaculate grounds and trees. The walls are stone with ivy growing upon it and weathered to indicate that is has been here for some time. There are many windows, but the glass in them is frosted.

They go inside and find an entryway with a striking woman behind a velvet draped table with a ledger. She has short blonde hair that fades to violet at the tips and wears a black robe with polished metal pauldrons. She might be wearing armor underneath. There are four other guards in the corners. Two arches lead from this entry to a large common room and another door to the side is closed. They go to the lady and she welcomes them to the Open Purse. She hopes that they find something to their liking. They are free to go in and have a drink if they wish, so they do. Inside are all sorts of patrons and ladies.

The ladies are all exceptionally beautiful in their own way, yet many have very exotic features. There is a dark elf with white hair, several tieflings, a half orc, a dragonborn, and many women with just something different about them. The color of their eyes or hair, their build, the shape of their face, and so on.

Immediately one tiefling catches their eye, sitting at the bar. She has red hair and cute curled horns. She fits the description of Jola Petrum, the girl who disappeared from Ella’s Boarding House the previous month. Berg is convinced to talk to her. He approaches and she does the usual offer of payment for services, or even just conversation. He takes her offer, and she leads him to a small room just off the main barroom that are set up just for this purpose. A room with a door, a table, and two chairs.

He asks her about Ella’s Boarding house, and she gives him a blank look. He asks about Lucetta Yordy, and she does not know who that is. When asked about anyone missing, she says that she does not know of anyone missing from this area. She does answer to the name Jola Petrum, but as Berg questions her, he becomes convinced that her memory is only good for the past couple of weeks. She has offered other services in an even more private room, and for 50gp, Berg agrees because he wants to see if she has the tattoo of the rose and chain.

As they leave that room to go to a room with a bed, Berg uses his divine sense on her and on the room but finds nothing evil. She leads him to a hallway and then down to a room. There, he disrobes her in a very businesslike manner and inspects her while she giggles and smiles and offers something more – after he has given her the money of course. He finds the tattoo on her back hip, just above the left buttock.

He thanks her and leaves, and she shrugs and starts putting on her clothes. Going down the hall to the main room, Berg sees two more guards, much like the guards in the entry chamber, and the guards who had been in the main room. He takes note of them.

The others have meanwhile mingled and gotten a drink or two but are just looking around for anything odd. Berg returns, and they opt to step outside to talk instead of staying the main room where they might be overheard. Berg recounts what he learned.

After some discussion, and clearly discouraged and mindful of the consequences that occurred from barging into the Dancing Dryad last night, they are overly cautious about their next steps. Yannic decides to cast a true seeing spell, and first decides to walk the perimeter of the building. The spell allows him to see through the frosted windows just a bit better than the rest of the party, and when he gets to the very back, one window in particular catches his attention. There is something inside that he cannot quite make out, but it just raises internal alarm bells.

When they make it back to the front, they try to figure out how they can get back there to see what it truly is. A long discussion is had, and many plans are tossed about. Such as casting invisibility on Peril and having him stealth around back there. Yet, that will not help as much because he does not have the true seeing spell on him.

Meanwhile, many of the other party members not directly in this discussion have wandered back inside. Elowynn just goes through the door to the hall and ends up walking to the back rooms. She finds a bathing room with a guard inside, who politely makes her leave since she did not come in with one of the working ladies.

After long debating, Lyndis wanders up, hears what they are planning and suggests quite plainly that they just try walking back there. The guards have not stopped anyone yet, so why not try. Yannic agrees to try with Peril following invisibly. He, too, finds the bathing room with one guard outside at a corner, and one guard inside all by himself. The guard also politely asks that Yannic leave and return with one of the ladies if he wishes to use the facilities. However, Yannic has realized that this is the room he saw from the outside and what caught his eye was the fact that the guard is standing on a magically concealed trap door.

Yannic tries to entice the guard off the trap door by ignoring him and heading to the back of the room, acting confused, and trying to goad him to leave his post so he can get on top of the door and “accidentally” discover it. He finally gives up when the guard clearly is not biting. Peril lingers behind and tries other things, such as tossing objects to make a sound across the room that might need investigating, but again the guard is too disciplined. When Peril’s invisibility spell fades, he times it with a distraction to turn the guards gaze and opens the door just as he appears. Again, the guard suggests that Peril come back with a girl. Peril leaves.

Having learned all that they could with this visit, they return to Hayford. Lyndis takes her leave for the night, and the others get their rest for the encounter with the devil in the morning.

3/9/1151 – The party awakes and prepares their spells and equipment for a battle with a devil. As they travel to The Green where the Dapper Dagger is, they have no difficulties with the guards at the district gates. The inn is very much intended for the wealthy. It is lushly decorated, on beautiful grounds, and the people they see inside are richly dressed.

Elurir meets them, looking relieved. He immediately takes them back to a door in a hallway, saying that the fiend is beyond in the basement. He stutters and sweats as he fervently wishes that they are successful, then he beats a hasty retreat.

The party opens the door and heads downstairs. At the bottom is a large stone cellar with casks of ale, wine, and crates of food. There are two sets of double doors, large enough for the largest casks to pass through, both closed.

This time Lyndis comes down with the party to directly observe what transpires, unlike what occurred at the Dancing Dryad. She stays in the back on the stairs. Khragg opens the set of double doors on the right and they immediately see blood on the floor, a magic circle of some kind, and five shambling undead ghouls heading straight for them. Combat begins.

Yannic uses a slow spell to hamper them instead of a fireball spell in respect for all the flammable material down here including the building itself. Khragg tries to hold the door, but the ghouls are too fast and, in a moment, have engaged almost everyone in the party.

As they are dealing with the ghouls, the other double door opens and the fiend, Ar’ith, leaps to the attack, falling upon Elowynn with claws and bite that does incredibly serious damage. It gazes at Yannic and he feels his soul shrivel.

The ghouls are dealt with fairly quickly, but the devil is tearing up the back of the party. Khragg and Berg finally manage to engage it while Elowynn retreats. Yannic and Elowynn suffer its gaze a couple more times as the rest use all they must kill it. It takes magic missiles, sneak attacks, and action surges and the most powerful divine smite to finally slay it as Lughausen tries to keep up with the healing necessary from its great claws and bites.

When it goes down, its body is consumed with fire, leaving behind an ashy outline of where it lay. The battle is over, and the menace is dealt with. They return upstairs to give the good news to Elurir, and he is beside himself with relief. He opens his coat and pulls out a nasty looking dagger by the tips of his fingers. “Here! Take this as payment. It was in the chest with the book, and I cannot keep it. You must have it!”

He looks hopeful that this is the end of it, and discretion will be kept so that he won’t lose his business, but the party turns to Lyndis and asks what must be done, and she says it must be reported to the authorities. Exactly what Elurir was hoping to avoid. The families of the dead cannot be bereft of closure and recompense. Elurir’s hopes are dashed and he stumbles off to the kitchen crying desperately, knowing that he must face the music.

Lyndis goes outside and talks to her assistants. One of them hurries off to get the guards. The party decides to stay in the dining room and get the breakfast that was promised to them while they wait. The servers are confused and afraid, seeing the wounds and maybe even hearing what had transpired downstairs. They bring a sumptuous meal.

When the guards arrive, they are of course different ones from the ones that came to the Dancing Dryad, this being a different district. The Green is a wealthy district, and the competence of the guards reflects this. The guards ask the usual questions, and the accounts are given. They all go downstairs to see the evidence, and with Lyndis here, sometimes whispering to the captain to the side, this will go very differently for the party. The bodies of the ghouls are unmistakably undead, and the ashen outline of the fiend is also indisputable as is the word of a high-ranking priest of Duath who witnessed it all.

They are certain that Elurir will be paying wergild to the families of the dead at the very least. They expect that there will be a hearing much like they had yesterday, but they aren’t as concerned about it this time. After the guards are done with them, they decide to return to Hayford.

Lughausen, however, feels restless. He takes it upon himself to go, with one of Lyndis’s assistants tailing him, through the city looking for more brothels and signs of the symbol of Gomory as graffiti. For the rest of the afternoon, he goes from place to place. He steps into the the Cliffs district for the first time but finds none there. None too in Breadmill, but he does find the Rigid Spear in Military Town, the House of Secrets in Oldhill, and the Shrieking Clam in Fisher’s Well. He gets an awfully bad vibe from Dogtown, the highest crime area of the city, and the assistant warns him that going in there is a bad idea. He does not. He also finds one or two establishments that do not have the symbol on them.

Ultimately, he returns to the hovel in Hayford for the night.

3/10/1151 – The next morning, they wake up to find a strange creature sitting on their porch, keeping dry from the rain. It looked like a humanoid cat, complete with a tail swishing against the floor of the porch. It was dressed in regular clothes, had a few weapons on his possession, and was clearly waiting to meet the party. He introduced himself as Jikaris and suggested that he might be able to help the party.

He is an investigator, and like the party, he is a stranger to Zell. He arrived ten years ago as the leader of an expedition that quested for a means to enter the Dome and has been trapped here ever since just like the party is. But that did not seem to be something that was bothering Jikaris. The party asks about his past and this is what they learned.

Jikaris comes from an extremely far away land, to the south of the known realm. He said he met the prime minister of that land, Lucifuge Rofocale, a nasty looking fellow with tusks, horns, drinking an unhealthy drink. Lughausen attempts to recall if that name means anything to him, but it does not. This fellow sent Jikaris magically to just outside the Dome of Zell, apparently having been curious about it for the past 1,000 years. Jikaris too immediately became interested in this dome, and he made it his purpose to figure out how to get inside.

He explored from there and found a ruined city by name of Rafz to the northeast of Zell. Living there were people, but more interestingly, a large wall which he later learned was not a Reyman ruin like he expected, but something called the Great Wall of Ap Wys, a Gwynyth Raiun artifact. Down here he came from, Reyman ruins are apparently more numerous. He gathered some companions, a gnome wizard named Grapip, a dwarven cleric of Duath named Aznar, and a fighter named Bryce.

They quested and found that the means to enter the Dome is finding old pre-Cataclysm holy symbols of Duath, which they did, and they entered the Dome. They also found that they could not leave. This did not sit well with Bryce, who had family back at Rafz and started drinking. Later, he started fomenting unrest which eventually led to rioting. Unfortunately, their companion Grapip was caught by an angry mob and lynched. Grapip never hid that he was a wizard, and it seemed that the people of Zell do not like wizards. Aznar drifted away and Jikaris has heard that she got married.

Ever since, Jikaris has been on his own investigating things. He heard from an acquaintance, Thomas Mournhall, that the party was investigating the cult with the chain and rose symbol. Jikaris knows a bit about that cult and he thinks he can help. Also, Jikaris is extremely curious about the party and wants to learn more about them.

They ask him what exactly he can tell them about the cult. Jikaris told them that he knows that they are brazen enough to put their mark everywhere and worship a being called Gomory who delights in building a lavish slave trade, profiting from it, and gaining power and influence. They also delight in creating monstrosities with their magic. He hadn’t gone to the authorities with any information because he had no real proof which is something that the priests of Duath are real sticklers about.

His offer of help is sincere, and the party agrees that he can come along with them and see if he can be of use.

In the meantime, Peril has woken up on the wrong side of the bed this day. He is despondent about their chances of ever leaving this city and so angry about it that seethes in every word and deed. Jikaris warns the others that he reminds him of Bryce. Jikaris looks at Yannic and suggests that he not dress so obviously like a wizard and Yannic reluctantly puts away his fine red wizard robes and dresses in his traveling clothes.

They came up with a plan for the Open Purse. They would return there and attempt to use a greater restoration spell to try and restore Jola Petrum’s memories. Then, if she remembered what had been done to her, she could be brought in as a material witness to crimes perpetrated by the cult.

At about the time the party is wrapping up with Jikaris, they see that the city guard is approaching their house again in the rain, led by Captain Baumstein with Lyndis at his side. Much like two days ago, it appears that Captain Baumstein is there to escort them to a hearing. This time to discuss the events of yesterday at the Dapper Dagger. Captain Baumstein is angry and disgusted with the party for making him come out again so soon. They just cannot leave well enough alone. Both the captain and Lyndis recognize Jikaris and just sigh at his presence there with the party.

They arrive at the Green District Guard Tower in short order, noticing that it is a better-maintained and older guard tower than the one in Southtown. It is also smaller, and the stone walls are covered in moss, making it fit in nicely with the woodland feel of the district. Inside, they are met by Captain Larentansel, a handsome and friendly wood elf. They are led back to a hearing room set up the same way as the one in Southtown. This time, they are shown to the wooden benches for witnesses. They see other people here they recognize as having been at the Dapper Dagger yesterday. There are spectators on the balconies, and one caught their attention.

He is wearing full plate armor with a blue cloak and a shield strapped to his back, also blue. He looks to be in his late 40s, but the most striking thing was that his armor has a soft white glow to it. They identify him as a paladin of Hysor, the first many had ever seen. They resolve to speak with him after the hearing.

Elurir is brought in next, escorted by two guards, and he is brought to sit on the raised benches on the side of the hearing room where last time they were made to sit. Clearly, those seats are for those most involved in whatever incident is being discussed. Elurir looks miserable still.

Justiciar Enwenen Laranonel is introduced and she is a high elf with long curled gray hair and rough silver skin. She starts the proceedings and reads the names of the dead as the previous hearing had: Asmart Bisliev (a tailor from Oldtown), Magda Irwin (waitress at the dapper dagger), Petrion Zumrel (a cook's assistant at the dagger), Samuel Weaver (assistant and maitre'd at the Dapper Dagger), Tannivh Urisalor (a weaver from Mistborough).

Witnesses are called first to tell their stories. A few speak about the disappearance of the employees of the Dapper Dagger. One spoke about Elurir’s strange behavior during this time: nervous, shaky, uncharacteristically hysterical over the smallest mistakes of the staff.

Lyndis gave her testimony next, speaking about the meeting with the Gold Prestige and Elurir’s behavior there. Then the private meeting where Elurir revealed his error and his pleading with the party to help him. She described the visit to the Dapper Dagger the following morning after everyone had prepared to do battle with a fiend. Then, since she was a first-hand witness, she gave an accurate recounting what they found downstairs, including the five ghouls who attacked them. Which turned out to be the dead townspeople.

Captain Larentansel asked Lyndis why she did not report the problem to the guard tower immediately. They did, after all, have a delay from when they learned of the fiend and when they went to deal with it the next morning. There was plenty of time for her to report. She responded that she did in fact report it – to her own superior, the Chancellor. Captain Larentansel is clearly upset that the word was never sent down from that office to the Guard Tower.

The party is given a chance to add more, and they corroborate Lyndis’ account and add a few more details. They do not have any more questions.

The other guards also give their report about their arrival after the battle and what they found there.

It was now time for Elurir to be questioned. He breaks down and confesses to the whole thing, however, he tries to make excuses along the lines that he did not knowingly summon the fiend and he was just trying to protect his family and business.

Justiciar Enwenen makes her judgment. Elurir is guilty of consorting with fiends, though the circumstances indicate it was not willful. Elurir must pay wergild of 1,000gp to each family of the dead. He did not, however, go to the authorities immediately and tried to cover it up. For this crime of willful deceit and negligence, he is sentenced to 50 years, considering his long elven life, in jail. Ten years for each victim.

No further investigation is necessary. Case will be closed.

Justiciar Enwenen had a word to the party, "A word of caution. You are making waves in our city. Tread carefully. Though you did what you must in this situation, we would have preferred to have been notified immediately, if not even before you took this on. You handled this threat, yes. But what if you hadn't been able to? The patrons of the restaurant were still upstairs, were they not? Their lives could easily have been added to this list. Still, we are grateful for your intervention in this particular case."

The party is surprised, wondering if that was a “Thank you” or not. As they are leaving the hearing room, Captain Baumstein again stands up and gives them a warning and a spit on the floor before he stalks out. They lose sight of the paladin but hope to catch up with him. Captain Larentansel gives his farewells and seems open to dialog with them in the future.

They are relieved to see that the very paladin they were looking for them is just at the door waiting, looking to meet with them as well. He introduces himself as Sir Aiden Powell, aide to John Rowntree, Duke of Arhus. He extends an invitation to meet with the Duke at their earliest convenience. At first, the party suggests that they go right now, and Sir Aiden looks pleased at this. However, one of the party reminds the others that they were on the way to hopefully free Jola from the Open Purse. They discuss a bit about their goal of dealing with the cult, not keeping their conversation away from Sir Aiden.

He interjects when it seems like they are going to prioritize a trip to the Open Purse to visiting with the Duke and suggests that the Duke might be able to offer some unique help if they would meet with him first. At this, they agree to go directly to the Duke from here. They stroll along the roads to Military Town and chat. They learn that Sir Aiden has lived all his life in Zell and has served the Duke and the Duke’s father before him. Sir Aiden’s heraldic symbol, now seen on his shield, is a white stag sprinting on a field of blue.

In short order they arrive in Military Town and again see the palatial estate of the Duke. This was once the estate of the Archduke of Gwynyth Daius when it was still a province of the kingdom of Gwynyth Raius. It is an exceptionally large castle with fortifications. It clearly supports an armed force of perhaps a hundred men, maybe more in its heyday. There are three wings, a center and a left and right that sprawl across the hillside. There are large gardens, which seem to be growing vegetables and fruits now, but perhaps were more decorative long ago. Armed soldiers bearing the livery of the Duke and of Gwynyth Raius smartly patrol the walls and train in the yards. Large stables can be seen to one side of the courtyard that house perhaps 50 or more horses.

The banners flying from the towers bear the colors of Gwynyth Raius, Hysor, and the Duke of Arhus: diagonal fields of brown and white with a red wolf's head on the white field. The gates open to Sir Aiden’s nod, and they are led to the estate where servants open the doors and lead them to a meeting room.

Sir Aiden suggests that they get comfortable and take refreshment while he has a word with the Duke first to brief him about the hearing so the Duke can be informed of it before they speak. They agree, finding places on the many couches. There is a contingent of other people in the room off to one side, and it appears that they intend to stay away from the party until the Duke arrives.

The first one is a male human in his fifties dressed as a priest of Hysor. Next to him is another priest of Hysor, this one a human woman in her forties whispering impatiently with the others. Next is a dragonborn female with black scales, also surprisingly dressed as a priest of Hysor. Then they see an incredibly old man who must be in his nineties sitting in a comfortable chair, also probably a priest. Finally, the last is a dwarven woman who is obviously the one that the others are deferring to. She has a calm yet intense air about her, she wears a blue vest and prefers brown and grey shirts. Her boots appear to have been at one-point steel toed but are quite worn down. She has white hair with lingering red streaks in it. Her eyes are milky white and sightless.

The party speculates that she is probably a seer of some kind.

The doors to the study beyond open and the Duke is announced as he strides in. He is young, perhaps in his mid to late twenties with long, wavy blond hair and rough sunburned skin, probably having spent much time outdoors. He looks eager and alert. He has his aide give introductions of the others.

The blind dwarf is introduced as the Primary Priest of the Temple of Hysor in Zell – which amounts to the highest-ranking priest of that faith in the city. Her aide is the first man in his fifties, Favian Cleves. The other human woman is the Primate of Arms, Helewys Lunadream. She oversees the military aspect of the temple. The dragonborn is Kothar, the Primate of Vows, and thus is responsible in recruiting and making sure priests follow the laws of Hysor. The old man is Ronald Hillless, the Primate of Devotions who is responsible for organizing the holidays and spreading the word of Hysor to the people.

The party does their introductions next. The discussion that follows starts with the duke saying that it is outrageous that they were treated as they were at the first hearing. He is happy that they were afforded some measure of dignity and presumption of innocence in the second hearing. In fact, what happened there confirms his good will towards them. He wishes to help.

First, he wants to hear about the world outside as do the other priests. They tell him what they can about the Confederation and the Free Cities of Hemelsyn. Yannic and the others start to relate the tale of Gwynyth Raius told to them by Zachary Dennington under the High Temple of Arawn, but as they are speaking, they realize that a lot of the tale is spotty and inconsistent – it may not be all that reliable. Berg and Khragg realize also that while they were living in Hemelsyn, there was no contact with Gwynyth Raius to the north, which says something.

The Duke is very strident about having the Dome down so that he can return to Gwynyth Raius. Yannic and most of the others promise to help him any way they can. Yannic wants to see Gwynyth Raius, and the others are curious too about what has happened to it. There is no concrete plan, however, at this point. The Duke many times during the conversation talks about showing the High Lord Protector that keeping the Dome closed is the wrong thing to do, and it is also clear from how he talks that this is probably an argument that he has had with the High Lord Protector many times before.

How then, can the Duke help the party? He says that he can put his authority and backing to the party’s efforts, especially if they run into the law again. He repeats that he finds it outrageous that they were treated as they were on the first incident at the Dancing Dryad when they clearly saw monstrously unnatural creatures there. The catch being that the Duke will only extend his backing if the party behaves in a manner consistent with the teachings of Hysor.

The obvious start would be for them to convert to Hysor, Kothar interjects. They all decline, Berg and Khragg emphatically so. The conversation then turns to the relationships between the priesthoods: Hysor and Nuath, and Hysor and Duath. The priests reply to this. Hysor sometimes questions the honor of the priests of Nuath, who seek out conflict. This of course does not always work to the benefit of those involved. Hysor thinks Nuath is thinking more about the conflict itself instead of why the conflict is there, and what the end goal is.

As to Hysor’s relationship to Duath (and that follows to the two priesthoods), they are both lawful good. But follow the laws, but each has different ideas of the primacy of certain laws above others. Duath would say the sanctity of home and the right to protection is the highest ideal, while Hysor would say doing a good deed and helping others is the highest ideal.

Yannic asks what the ideals and rules of the priesthood of Hysor are. Then Thodris takes over the discussion, and this is what she says:

“The faith of Hysor is concerned with honor and good deeds. A member of the faith in good standing is one who always has remarkably high moral standards, conducting himself in such a way as to be truthful, humble, and helpful to others and the greater good. It is important to Hysor and his followers that one’s actions and deeds be of a good nature, and that the means used to perform them have no regrettable points when under scrutiny.

The faith believes that one can attain true perfection of the soul by this pursuit. And if everyone in the world conducted themselves thusly, then the world would very nearly become heaven. The price for this lofty goal is negligible, they believe. One should be willing to lay down one’s life in the service of the greater good, or if one’s honor would otherwise be compromised. Fortunately, the ultimate price is rarely asked by Hysor. There are ways out of most situations that will satisfy honor and support the greater good.

Defining what would serve the greater good is one of the trickiest parts of following the faith of Hysor. It can be open to many avenues of interpretation for any given situation. What might benefit one group of people could be a detriment to another. Measuring just how much good is generated by any action (or inaction) can occupy priests an awful long time. One must weigh actions and opportunities very carefully inside oneself if there is any question at all the outcome’s worth. In most circumstances, one can ask several questions to help figure this out: Who benefits? Who will not benefit? If someone will not benefit, how will they be affected if at all? What is the nature of the benefit? Are those who will benefit truly deserving of it in the eyes of Hysor? For those that will not benefit, should they? If someone comes to harm when the others benefit, are they deserving of the harm? What is the nature of that harm? Is that harm as small, and affecting as small a subset of people as possible? Is there another avenue? Have you explored the consequence (benefits/harms) of all other avenues of pursuit that will attain the goal? Is the goal itself good? In the eyes of Hysor? Is the outcome sure? Could the outcome result in accidental harm if there is some mishap that waylays the original plan (and good intentions of it)? Is this risk minimized and acceptable when weighed against the nature of the benefit? When weighed against the possible harm? When weighed against the outcome of no action at all?

Similarly, defining “honor” and “high moral standard” are difficult and could be open to much interpretation. The modern phrase “the ends do not justify the means” is quite apt when applied to the faith of Hysor. A follower of Hysor never lies. Never cheats. Never double-deals. Never betrays. Never slanders. Never speaks ill. Never strikes from behind, figuratively, and literally. Never deceives in the pursuit of a good deed. He always has respect for others. Deals fairly with all friends and foe and shows mercy to the fallen. He always has dignity in himself and his faith.

It is a bit easier, then, to define what is a sin to the faith. Any act which causes undue harm to anyone is the gravest sin possible. This is the act of an evil person, and atonement for the sin can be a lengthy and involved process within the faith. It is also a sin to allow undue harm to come to others through inaction. To sit by and allow someone else to commit an act of evil is unthinkable to the faithful. One must always act to eradicate evil from the world. It is a sin to commit an action through dishonorable means, no matter how good the action or how large the benefit to a person, family, community, or even world. At no time is any means “acceptable”.

The priesthood of Hysor cherishes all life. It has set itself up as protectors of life, for everyone should have a chance to achieve the lofty goals of goodness and perfection of the soul. No greater good can be accomplished than the saving of lives that have the promise of promulgating the good of the world. Such commitment could snowball and launch the world into the paradise envisioned by the faith and Hysor.

Unfortunately, evil also exists in the world. In the form of men and beast, demon, and spirit. There are forces which delight in causing chaos and harm just for the sake of doing it. For their own personal pleasure and gain. They think nothing of others. Of the overall effects of their actions. At times, it may even seem like people and forces of this nature outnumber those that follow the faith and precepts of Hysor. But one of the teachings of Hysor is that hope can always be found for one who is good and honorable at heart. The faith will always work to lessen if not eliminate the acts of this evil. To oppose evil and fight it wherever possible. To never, ever fall to the same methods as those who commit evil, for one can only truly win when one commits to the methods and teachings of Hysor.”

The party agrees to do their best to follow the precepts to the best of their ability and earn the patronage of the Duke. The Duke signals that he will have some paperwork prepared for them to show to the authorities should the need arise, and a scribe hurries to obey. Everyone takes their leave. Sir Aiden escorts them to the door where they are met by the scribes who hand over that paperwork before they depart the estate.

From the estate in Military Town, they proceed to Northbank and again to the Open Purse brothel. It is time to see if they can free Jola Petrum. They arrive in short order just a short time before dusk. The same lady, Alice Dmitriyev meets them in the foyer behind the ledger and table, dressed as before in her black robe with pauldrons with plate armor underneath. The same guards are in their positions. When they ask for Jola, they are told that she is busy for the moment.

In the main bar area, they take positions around the room and wait. Other girls show up from time to time to try and entice various members to their wares but are declined each time. Finally, Jola returns to the main room behind a patron who leaves, his business done. She sits at a table to chat with the other girls, and Lughausen wastes little time and approaches her.

She looks tired but is willing to go to one of the conversation rooms after he pays her. These rooms are just off the main room so the rest of the party can watch and be ready. Inside, Lughausen chats with her for a moment, then takes her hand and casts the spell greater restoration. For a moment, she looks confused, then as the magic heals her mind, there is a dawning horror and terror in her eyes. She leaps up and into the corner of the room screaming uncontrollably.

The guards rush up, and the nearest one opens the door to find her screaming and Lughausen trying to calm her. She points at the guard and screams even more, saying things like “No! Don’t! I have to get away!” Berg comes behind the guard and loudly offers his protection and sanctuary to her, suggesting that she come with him to the Zell City Guard Tower where she will be safe. It takes a while to calm her enough and convince her to accept.

Meanwhile, the guards have been saying that no, she is an employee of the Open Purse and they will take care of her. Alice, the matron of the establishment, comes around the corner and orders the guards to take care of her and not to let her leave the premises. They are equipped with dealing with the girls best. The party is not having that. She calls for everyone else to get out. The patrons flee through the front door, and all the working girls run to the back rooms.

It becomes and interesting conflict. No one is pulling weapons and drawing blood, but it is yet a very intense situation. As Jola tries to go with Berg, the guards surround her, trying to prevent her from leaving. There is pushing and shoving as Khragg tries to clear the way, and guards push back to keep the way blocked. The party is clearly trying to do the right thing and not start bloodshed in the brothel, but tensions are becoming razor thin. Peril clearly thinks it is all going to go downhill, and his talk becomes disturbing to the rest of the party.

Alice has had enough, and she suddenly casts a banishment spell on Jola, sending her to another plane of existence. Lughausen reacts by casting the same exact spell on Alice, and it works. She disappears and her concentration is broken and Jola returns. Yannic casts a mass charm person on the guards, getting six of them. Three of the other four attack Lughausen, hoping to break his concentration on the banishment spell. The last uncharmed guard rushes for the front door to keep the party from leaving.

In the confusion, Jikaris has cast a silent image of the door to the back hallway, and then slipped through invisibly. He wants to get to the bathing room where the last guard is, and where there is a trap door he was told. The charmed guards, now magically friendly to the party, continue to insist that Jola is under their protection. They bunch around her and go with her as she timidly shuffles to the exit with Berg.

It is a slow and tense progression, and now that the party is defending themselves against the uncharmed guards with lethal force (at least Peril, Elowynn and Khragg are), they have a greater chance of breaking free of the magic.

Lyndis has been carefully observing the whole affair and has agreed that they must get the girl to the proper authorities. The party asks her several times if they are doing the right thing, and much of the time she is just silent and watching.

Jikaris has reached the bathing room and sneaks in. The lone guard is alert and ready, standing on the trap door – his post. Jikaris first uses an invisible mage hand to pick his pockets, then casts a charm person on him, and learns that the guard is truly on extremely strict orders to never leave his post.

When Jola reaches the foyer, the magic on the guards starts to break, and more of them start to fight along with the others. Peril has gone nearly stark raving mad and has killed a guard outright instead of subduing him. Khragg and Elowynn too are not holding back with their attacks either. Yannic again casts a charm person spell and again gets nearly all the guards again under his influence.

Lughausen, still under attack by the remaining uncharmed guards makes a dramatic escape by running and crashing through a closed glass window, landing perfectly outside just moments after Jola, Berg, Lyndis and the charmed guards shuffle as a group outside. The charms break again, and this time Berg casts a fear spell that makes the guards run away from him. Lyndis has also cast a sanctuary spell on Jola to protect her from the guards. They elect to run back inside to where it is safer. Especially after they have noticed that there is quite a crowd outside watching, having been alerted to the disturbance by the fleeing patrons of the brothel moments ago. There are too many witnesses to carry on an attack.

Lyndis now offers to take Jola to the District Tower and suggests strongly, and even a bit reluctantly, that the party should stay here to secure the building. She is afraid that the guards, and Alice when she returns, will begin destroying or removing evidence. The party agrees.

Inside, Peril is ready to fire his crossbows the minute Alice reappears. The guards are now all hostile, but still not fighting. Khragg and Berg get into position where Alice was banished. Lughausen takes the ledger from the foyer after glancing through it and seeing that is all about which girl went with which patron and how much they paid. Yannic has cast greater invisibility on himself and has joined Jikaris in the back. He casts an otiluke’s resilient sphere on the guard, encasing him and allowing them to effortlessly roll him away. Jikaris searches for the trap door, finds it, and discerns that there are no traps.

Lughausen stops concentrating on his banishment spell and Alice reappears. The fight continues in earnest. The guards are ordered to attack, the party unleashes their most potent abilities against her, and she suddenly exhibits astonishing abilities. One of her guards winces in pain and her wounds close at the beginning of every round.

Opening the trap door, Jikaris finds a stone stair leading down. He sneaks down to find a stone chamber with four closed sarcophagi and another hallway leading to more stairs going down. Yannic follows a moment later and they are both too nervous about undead to continue. They return upstairs and head back to the main room.

Alice unleashes a flame strike spell just as Yannic and Jikaris return, inadvertently getting Yannic in the spell despite his invisibility. The room catches on fire. Jikaris starts going into the rooms in the back screaming “Fire!” to get the working girls to flee out the windows, which they start doing.

After a couple of rounds, Khragg remembers that his frostbrand longsword can douse fires, and he draws it to do so to save the building. The combined attacks on Alice are enough to knock her unconscious, but then they learn that her power is so potent that it still draws health from her guards and revives her more than once.

Peril has gone mad and is intentionally trying to kill everyone he can, screaming that it will not matter what they do, they are all screwed anyway. The others in the party are attempting to subdue the guards and Alice instead.

They manage to tie and gag her after she goes unconscious the second time. When her power wakes her, it is enough to kill one of the guards that they had subdued. Worried that she is a vampire of some sort, they decide to blindfold her and remove her from the downed guards, and that is finally enough to prevent it from functioning and the battle is at last over. Five of the ten guards have been killed, and the rest are bound and ready for the guards.

After a few moments, the party discusses their next move. They have been told to secure the building and they are eager to see what is down the mysterious stairs, or at least Yannic and Jikaris is. Peril volunteers to guard them, but Berg does not like the look in his eye. Berg wants to wait for the guards and is not too keen on leaving the Open Purse guards and Alice unguarded. Therefore, Lughausen, Yannic, Jikaris, and Khragg go downstairs while Berg stays above with Elowynn and Peril.

Khragg goes first and finds two chambers with four sarcophagi each. They are nervous about those, expecting undead to appear. They wonder why the brothel has this underneath. Through the next door is a slightly larger room with another sarcophagus in it and five statues of robed figures holding chains in outstretched hands. On the southern door is a glowing glyph of a chain wrapping a rose. Even more nervous now, Khragg sends Jikaris to convince Berg that he is needed. They are even more worried about undead and evil influences, and they want the paladin nearby. Berg reluctantly leaves just Elowynn and Peril above, hoping that Peril does not do something stupid. There has been no sign of the district guards.

After Berg joins the rest, Jikaris, Yannic, and Lughausen look at the glyph. They learn that it is indeed a glyph of warding, but it has not been charged with a spell. It is just there for effect. The door is locked but Jikaris has no problem unlocking it. They stand back while Khragg opens it.

The room beyond has an altar in the back with a trough that pours down to a bowl on the floor. Blood stains it. There is various amphora in the corners that have also been filled with blood. Two cages on the west wall hold bodies of young women. Neither recognizable. In the room at the altar is a marilith worshipping at the altar. The party was not ready, and she was. She immediately successfully summons six vrocks that appear in this room and the previous room, able to attack the unprotected spellcasters in the back.

Berg is well-positioned in the middle offering his aura of protection to all members of the party and able to reach the enemies with his longspear. Khragg holds the door. They are not at full strength because of the previous fight and are seriously worried that they will be overwhelmed, but they are surrounded so there is little choice for retreat. The next time the marilith takes her action, she teleports to the back of the party to threaten the casters as well while Khragg must hold the door from four vrocks. Fortunately, Berg is there to help defend. The vrocks, however, shriek several times and stun Berg, Yannic, and Lughausen on separate occasions, but they shake it off quickly. The marilith attacks incessantly at Yannic however Yannic protects himself with an otiluke’s resilient sphere spell so she turns the rest of her attacks at Lughausen. Yannic must drop that spell to attack, so later she grapples him with her tail after nearly killing Lughausen. Berg must use his lay on hands ability to bring Lughausen back from unconsciousness.

Finally, the vrocks start to fall and the rest attack the marilith. Jikaris gets the final blow on her with a shadow blade sneak attack, and she goes down, disappearing in a puff of black smoke. The four other remaining vrocks disappear as well. They take a breath, and consider a short rest, but instead decide they had better look down the hallways first before they are surprised with something else. Khragg finds two short hallways that lead to two cells. Through the barred window he sees two unconscious girls in the first cell, and in the other he sees four girls bound and gagged but awake. He tells Berg to free them while he checks out the only door out. Behind it is a hallway leading further in and down. He just watches it.

When Berg and Yannic come with light, they see that of the four bound girls, one has brilliant purple hair, just like the girl they have been searching for: Lucetta Yordy. Jikaris easily picks the lock and they release them and escort them upstairs to join the others. Berg sees that they are made comfortable and given food and drink first before returning. Coming back to the other cell, Jikaris opens the door again. Yannic and Berg go inside while Khragg continues to watch the door and Lughausen stands far back in the entry room.

Berg touches the first girl and finds that she lives, and in fact wakes up at his touch. She gets up, looking scared and reaches for Yannic, telling Berg to help her friend. Berg goes to the other girl who similarly wakes up quickly and stands. Then… the girls get a hungry look in their eyes and transform into hideous frog-like fiends – slaads.

Berg calls for the rest as they engage. The first slaad drops a fireball, not caring that it injures its companion. Their claws and bite are nasty, and with three attacks each, they make short work of first Berg, then Yannic, and finally Khragg. Towards the end of the battle, the slaad casts a cloudkill spell even though he was slowed by Yannic’s magic. The spell is quite devastating, nearly killing Yannic. He escapes only because of a healing potion and a successful dispel magic cast by Lughausen. Lughausen’s heals are key to surviving this battle, and it comes down to using a potion of supreme healing from Khragg to live and finally defeat the two creatures.

They know that they cannot explore further. Fortunately, the two bodies of the slaad creatures do not disappear, so they decide to take them upstairs as evidence. They take the four former prisoners and put them into a private room off the main room. They then take up the two bodies and just plop them on the rug in the center of the room for all to see, hoping the guards will come soon.

They start a short rest, still hopeful that help will come soon. However, the hour passes, and no one arrives. They feel much better after that rest. They are worried, so Khragg goes outside. He sees that the roads are very sparsely populated now that they are further into the evening. He also sees that there is a flickering glow in the distance, which he deduces could be a large fire. He is about to start out to investigate when the others suggest that Peril go too. Peril reluctantly agrees. Just as they are starting down the path outside, Lyndis appears with three Zell City Guard. She does not look pleased.

Once inside, she instructs one of the three guards to watch over Alice and takes the other two to start watching over the Open Purse prisoners.

She tells them that the Northbank District Guard Tower and Captain de Bolbec could only spare these three guards. They are dealing with multiple emergencies at this moment. A brawl and near riot at the Crowded Rabbit tavern. A fire at Hollybrook Stables. Guards are dealing with panicked animals and horses causing havoc in the streets, freed and scared, as well as trying to put out the blaze itself. Finally, there have been two bodies found within the last hour, one each on the west and east sides of the district. Preliminary reports indicate that they were quite brutal and the result of some sort of creature, not a weapon. The district guards not fighting the fire or dealing with the brawl are on high alert combing the areas for a potential creature.

These three are it, perhaps for many more hours, that can be spared. The captain has put the guard tower on lockdown, keeping the rest of the guards there to keep it secure – it cannot be unmanned. Assistance has been requested from the neighboring districts.

The party makes no bones about it – this is very convenient for the enemy that all these events are happening coincidentally right now. They discuss many options including escorting the girls to the tower, to the High Lord Protector, or other places. Lyndis asks if they have secured the building and they talk about exploring the basement, freeing the girls, and dispatching these creatures. Lyndis looks at the creatures, then is taken to the girls. She speaks with them four about ten minutes, comforting them, then comes out to take the party aside to speak with them privately.

She has some words for the party. "We must speak about my role with you. During this past conflict, numerous times you looked to me to give you permission to do or not do certain actions. You asked if you were doing the right thing. While this is all commendable, make no mistake about my role here. I am not an official representative of the government or priesthood able to offer official sanction for your activities. My orders are to observe and report, as you have no doubt ascertained by now, as well as be your guide as you are newcomers here. My own personal beliefs and opinions may compel me to offer more, like I did this evening with the young lady. But again, do not misunderstand that what I do or say is the final word on the priesthood's views and how the laws of the city are to be applied to any given situation."

She also admonishes them about their constant referencing the views of the priesthood of Duath and the city guard as being one view or opinion. Lastly, she asks again if they have secured this floor to which they reply that they have not. So, they go about correcting this oversight.

They find Alice’s office and quarters. There is a dragonborn employee sheltering here, and she apologizes and flees as they begin searching the room. They notice a magnificent longspear on the wall above the fireplace. A bit later, Berg retrieves it and will hold it to make sure that it does not disappear.

They find a shelf with books, but a search does not reveal any important information of criminal activity. These are the proper books of the business. In Alice’s bedroom they find a chest of coins and valuables. The earnings of the brothel.

In the other rooms they find cowering girls and patrons who were caught in the back during the battle. They take the men to the common room to wait with the others while the girls are permitted to sleep in their rooms.

They decide to just settle in for a night’s rest right here to await the arrival of the guards, however long that will take. They barricade the trapdoor leading down in the event something tries to come up. They will wait until morning, taking watches and sleeping and if they must, they will go down again in the morning refreshed.

They work out a plan to sleep safely. They gather all the patrons and employees and put them in the main room. The three guards from the Northbank District Guard Tower are on duty and will stay on watch at the front door and foyer. They will keep an eye on Alice. The party will have three watches and during that, one person will stay in the main room and the other will watch the back room that has the trap door. They also pile up heavy and loud stuff on top of the trap door to give alarm should it open.

As the night passes, the guards rotate out every couple of hours, one going to the tower to check in and another returning to take up duty. The fire rages on until well past midnight when the glowing lights in the distance finally go out. Even as morning approaches and arrives, the air is smokey.

Also, during the third watch it is Jikaris and Berg. Jikaris is in the back room and he hears a sound and a rattle on the trap door. He calls Berg in and they examine it. They believe someone tried to open it, but then stopped. They decide they will not stir things up and will wait until everyone is rested.

3/11/1151 – As morning finally arrives there are still no guard force coming from the tower. The party decides that they must finish investigating on their own. Before that, however, Lughausen prepares a sumptuous heroes feast in the kitchen. He feeds the entire party, Lyndis, and the Zell City guards who are on watch. They will leave Peril and Elowynn with the guards to watch the people who had not been permitted to leave while the rest go down, including Lyndis this time.

They remove the barricade on the trap door and proceed. They study the other side but are unable to determine who or what happened last night down here. No handprints or anything obvious is found. They find nothing of note again as they continue down the hallways past the sarcophagi to the first room that had the five statues of cultists holding out chains. The door out of the room still has the glowing glyph showing the chain-wrapped rose and the door is closed. Easily opening it with Jikaris’ skill, the room beyond with the bloody altar is as they left it, as are the cells that held the girls. Jikaris has been continuously and carefully searching for traps as they walk through the hallways, and as they leave the last unexplored hallway, he finds a magical glyph of warding trap at the top of a set of stairs.

Lughausen studies it and deduces that it holds an alarm spell. He uses a dispel magic to eliminate it and they quietly go down the stairs. The hallway ends in a stone door that they open, revealing a furnished room. There is a man here in cultist’s robes busily stuffing documents, valuables, and other things into a crate. His eyes widen when he sees the party. He calls out, “Intruders! Raise the alarm!” He slaps a piece of the wall which opens a secret door just behind him and slips through it.

Jikaris takes note of that spot, and Khragg tried to do the same but could not remember it right. Khragg misses the trigger and must break down the door before Jikaris gets a chance to correct him. Beyond is another furnished room with tables and more crates that three more men had been filling. They are ready, however, having cast shield of faith spells and ready to defend themselves. The party attacks. From the south door a moment later after Berg and Khragg have engaged, more cultists arrive to attack. They use hold person, inflict wounds, and sacred flame spells, but because of the boon granted by Lughausen’s heroes feast, the party easily shrugs them off. Berg takes the brunt of the attacks, advancing to the south room where still more cultists arrive through side doors.

The enemies do not pose much of a threat to the party. As Khragg, Berg, and Jikaris are handling the cultists to the south, a hidden door to the east opens. Another cultist sees all the bodies of their fellow cult members, and sees Lughausen, Lyndis, and Yannic in the back while the others fight in the adjacent room. He cries out and runs back the way he came, notifying yet more beyond that they are losing the battle.

Once the cultists in these rooms are dealt with, the last being subdued rather than killed, Berg and Yannic proceed down that hallway that one cultist had fled, with the others shortly behind. Berg enters a large chapel that is filled with cultists, including a leader. They are ready for the party. Each has cast shield of faith and has a hovering spiritual weapon in the shape of a spectral chain. The leader shrieks, “How dare you defile our sanctuary!? You will fall to the might of Gomory!” They launch their attacks upon Berg who is just on the stairs in the room.

These attacks are more successful, and their necrotic inflict wounds hurt Berg badly after he moves further into the room. Then the others arrive. Khragg’s axe and skill kills cultists quickly, but there are many of them. Yannic casts a dawn spell, declaring that he will bring light to the evil deeds of the cult. The bright light damages most of the cultists, taking down the already wounded ones, reducing their numbers greatly. The cult leader answers with a flame strike that gets most of the party, breaking Yannic’s concentration on the dawn spell.

The cult leader declares that it is time to show them to power and might of Gomory, and then three large fiends appear. They had been biding their time while invisible waiting for the moment they would be needed. One has a massive arm, and a smaller withered arm. He appears first and casts a lightning bolt spell that hurts the back half of the party. Then come two other monstrous fiends who attack with brass crossbows and infernal daggers. The moment after their attack, they vanish again.

Berg is knocked unconscious by the attacks from the cultists and the new threats. Khragg goes to meet the large-armed fiend while the rest try to hold on. The cult leader drops spirit guardians spell to cast a silence spell to prevent Yannic and Lughausen from affecting the battle. As it had progressed, Yannic’s damage and Lughausen’s healing had kept the party with the upper hand. This all changed with the fiend’s appearance.

The cult leader’s concentration is broken, fortunately, dispersing the magical silence and allowing Yannic to destroy him with a well-placed disintegrate spell. This is extremely fortunate because this cult leader exhibited the same astonishing power to draw the lifeforce from his allies to heal himself, and those allies included the new fiends.

That fiend with the arm reached over Khragg and Berg to attack Lughausen, dealing massive damage and stunning him for a moment. Yannic re-casts his dawn spell, killing the remaining cultists also the invisible assassin demons. Then Khragg and Berg take down the uneven-armed fiend, leaving only the invisible crossbow demons. They focus their attention on Yannic because of his magic and knock him unconscious. Lyndis’s arrival and her healing magic bring him back more than once during the battle.

Khragg and Berg pin one of the fiends in a corner, deducing his position and swinging blindly until he is so hurt that he activates some sort of explosive retribution. That blast is enough to knock Lughausen unconscious. Now there is only one, but everyone is nearly dead, fighting with their last breath. A game of cat and mouse follows, and Yannic has time to cast see invisibility to direct his comrades. At last, they bring him down and his retribution nearly kills the rest of the party. Yet they are victorious.

They take an hour to rest, noticing for the first time the chapel they are in. The mosaic floor has rose and chain designs, and behind the altar on the wall is a magnificent fresco. It depicts a regal duchess sitting upon a throne. She is otherworldly beautiful, and she glows with holy power. In one hand she holds a spiked chain and the other holds a rose. She has her arms outstretched in a beneficent gesture. Her crown has sparkling gems upon and she gazes at a throng of kowtowing worshippers.

They are all women, naked and chained upon the ground, groveling at the duchess. Their faces, however, are all adoration. Not a single bit of fear. They look like they are willingly there.

Jikaris later takes a closer look at the altar but cannot help having his eyes drawn to the fresco. He takes in some more details noting that the woman's skin is dark and her hair black with odd green eyes. Berg wonders for a moment if it could be Fridorius, the woman who leads the temple of Nuath here in Zell. But concludes that it is probably not her. The woman in the fresco is not a tiefling at all.

They begin their search. In the library they eventually find a secret door to a small room with two chests in it. After checking for traps, Jikaris opens it to reveal mounds of gold and platinum coins and a few other valuable objects. Yannic, Lughausen, and then Jikaris look through the books in the library. Yannic finds a book with a firsthand account of a cultist’s visions and adoration for this Gomory figure. Book after book describes visions of her coming to the men and giving them women for their pleasure, and from there the accounts get quite graphic.

Lughausen finds a pornographic comic book that keeps his attention from seeing anything else of value, while Jikaris discovers a different kind of book hidden between all the others. This book is evidence of the slave trade. It lists numerous girls that have been distributed over decades to various brothels all through the city. At least 9 in total:

The Horned Hen – Hayford

The Open Purse - Northbank

The Nasty Nymph - Dogroad

Dancing Dryad - Southtown

Hall of Flowers - Westtown

The Rigid Spear - Military Town

The Misty Helmet - Military Town

Purple Pixie - Mistborough

House of Secrets - Oldhill

The Shrieking Clam - Fisher's Well

This will be very useful to them indeed come the investigation.

They continue searching the underground, looking for other exits and things of value or evidence that will help them continue to root out the cult. However, they find nothing other than another secret room that holds alchemical and ritual supplies. There is no other exit that they can find. They then discuss the treasure they had found in the vault. Should they take it? They decide against it, doing the right thing, but at least intending to put a claim on it with the city guard.

Returning upstairs, they take the one living prisoner they had taken amongst the cultists. In the main room, Lughausen goes round asking the patrons if anyone recognizes the cultist. One man does and chimes in that it is Destrian Stonesworn, a farmer who lives in Northgate and works the farms to the north. Lughausen takes a note of it.

they learn that the guards from the district tower have still not arrived. The guards that remain are not the same three who first arrived but have been spelled regularly during the night in shifts. The guards tell the party that the fire was contained in the early hours of the morning, but the forces are still stretched thin dealing with the aftermath of the fire, the people that have been displaced in a two-block radius from the fire and searching the district for the creature or creatures that was clearly responsible for the murder of the two people.

It is midmorning when they finally arrive. Captain de Bolbec leads a force of men from the tower. He has clearly had little to no sleep, with bags under his eyes and a clearly harried attitude. He does not engage with the party directly, but instead talks to his people and gives orders to secure the premises and see to rounding everyone up and bringing them back to the tower to get sorted out.

They are taken into one of the hearing rooms, but this time it is clearly different than their other two previous hearings the days before. There are no spectators on the balconies, and they are made to wait with the other patrons and employees, and even prisoners in the hearing room for quite some time before things get underway.

When Captain de Bolbec arrives, he is harried still and distracted by a constant stream of guards and runners interrupting him and taking his attention away from the proceedings. Fortunately, he has brought a justiciar much like the other captains had in the previous hearings. This time it is Justiciar Cristiana Hilless, a human woman in her mid-fifties. She takes the lead and starts the questioning.

However, before she can get far, two more people enter the hearing room. It is Sir Aiden Powell and Priest Favian Cleves of the Temple of Hysor. They quietly let the party know that they have been watching the party, knowing that they were going to the Open Purse and were ready to come speak on their behalf if necessary.

Lughausen volunteers to begin and recounts their attempt to restore Jola’s memories and the subsequent events that occurred. Notes are taken, but very few questions are asked before they move on to interviewing the women, starting with Jola Petrium. She tells her tale:

“I left Ella's Boarding house after a full day of work. A messenger arrived from the Magic Rags told me that I was needed for an off-hour’s cleanup at the Blackbender residence in Mistborough. I was tired but could not say no, so I got ready and left shortly after - already into the dark hours of the evening. I was walking through Southtown, when I was suddenly surrounded by three men dressed in dark clothes. I could not make out their faces, but they forced me into an alley, grabbed me, gagged me, threw a hood over my head, and bound me. I know I was put into a cart, but it felt unusual and muffled, there was a loud wooden bang and then the street noises got very quiet. They took me out a while later. I have no idea where and took me to a smelly cellar. They took off the hood and gag long enough to give me water but left me there re-gagged for hours and hours. Then they came and put the hood on and took me to the cart again. It must have been the dark hours of the night or morning by now. I had passed out for a while. The cart stopped and started many times, but I never heard anything except the muffled hooves of the horse and sometimes voices, but I could never tell what they said.

Then I was taken out again and brought into a building, I guess, and then led down to another cellar. This one seemed big because we walked through hallways, and there was this stench of death. It was awful! Then they took off the hood, gag, and ropes, and locked me into a room with a dirt floor. There were two other girls there. One was Louise Fawns, and she had been there for a few days. The other one just kept staring and staring off into space. She never responded to our questions, but she did eat when food was given to her. Louise had the same experience I did, being brought here against her will. Taken by men.

I was there for days. They came for the other girl two days later and I never saw her again. They took Louise away the next day, and she was screaming and fighting them. She did not tell me what happened when they took her, but I could tell it was awful and it had happened before. But they brought her back at night, and I did my best to comfort her.

Then they started coming for me...<she cries and sobs for some time before calming>

They took me to this chapel and laid me on the altar. All I could see was this mural of this woman. She seemed so magnificent, so in charge. They stripped my clothes! All of them! And then they performed these rituals, and I couldn't move! I heard the name Gomory chanted over and over again. I could never see their faces. They wore hoods and the light was just a few candles. They chanted and droned that name on and on, and I felt like I was losing my mind! When they took me back to my cell, I would hear that name all night long droning in my head.

This went on for I do not know how many days. Each time it was horrible, but then I started becoming numb to it and I was losing myself, my memories. All I could hear and think about was that droning, the chanting. Nothing else mattered.

Then there was one last time, and one voice chanted louder than the others and I felt this icky presence in my head. It felt horrible at first, and then good. Like a warm blanket wrapping around me. I was comforted for the first time and I knew I had a new life, new beginning, and I knew in my heart that Gomory was responsible for me. I owed her everything. After that, they took me to a new room with a comfortable bed and the next morning when I woke up, I met Alice and she trained me in my new life and new home at The Open Purse.”

The other prisoners tell remarkably similar tales, including when Lucetta Yordy is given her chance:

"I was going to work at the Old Eel Bar just like any other night. I had walked the same way every night without ever having trouble before. That night, though, three men in cloaks surrounded me from out of nowhere. I did not recognize them at all, and I was so scared because they did not look like they were friendly.

One growled at me to go into the alley, off the main street, and the other two came up behind me and grabbed me to push me along. One put his hand over my mouth and before I knew it, I was in the alley and I could not scream! The first man pulled out a gag and tied it on while the other two held me and blocked the view from the street. I saw a cart, but the bottom of the cart was opened like a trap door. I remember seeing a pile of bags of grain pushed aside.

Then they put on a hood and tied my hands and feet, picked me and I guess put me in that compartment in the cart. They must have taken the long way to wherever it was I ended up because it seemed like I was in that stuffy place for hours and hours. I must have passed out, because when I awoke, I was in that cell you took me from with the hood and gag removed.

They have been taking me to this room with an altar and tying me upon it, stripping me naked each time. Just like that other woman said. The chanting never stopped. I could never move nor cry out. When they untied me when it was done each night, they would drag me back to the cell and then throw my clothes in after.

They did bring us food and water, but they never talked to us, they barely looked at us. We were just things to them!"

Next, several of the patrons who were present give testimony. Surprising the party, most of these men tell of how the party were only trying to rescue the girl, Jola, and it was the guards who were trying to keep her on the premises rather than let her leave to the guard tower. What they say is in the party’s favor.

This gets under the skin of Captain Roland Baumstein of Hayford who had come to witness the hearing, just like he had been at the other two. He stands up and says, “They have been a party to three incidents of lawbreaking and violence in less than a week! It is unheard of! They should not go free! Throw them into jail and let us sort through this mess that they have caused and let things calm down!" He then spits on the floor in front of the party and stalks out.

Favian Cleves takes this opportunity to speak himself, “These heroes are on the trail of something sinister. Something so cruel and evil that has been festering in this town for far too long. At last, someone has found the thread to unravel the whole tapestry and expose what lies underneath! We must give them our support, lend them whatever aid we can, and allow them to follow this to the end! You see the evidence! We have the bodies of unnatural creatures, woman have been taken from their lives and forced to servitude, murders in the streets at night! Now is not the time to put our heads down! We must strike! And if we do not know how, then we must let these lightning rods be as they draw the evil to them and vanquish it!"

It then becomes the turn of the madame Alice. She was unbound and led up to the questioning platform. However, she elects to say not a single word. Many questions are asked with no response. Justiciar Hilless then orders her taken to a cell for later questioning. The guards and the lone cultist repeat that performance. Destrian, the cultist captured downstairs just stares at the floor in silence when it is his turn. They, too, are removed from the room.

Reports have continuously been coming in, and one of these now is a report about the bodies of the slaad. The justiciar comments that clearly, they are fiendish in nature and evidence of malfeasance that is indisputable. The party also turns over the evidence from the library they confiscated listing all the women and brothels that have participated in this slave trade.

The proceedings by this point have taken almost the entire day. The party and other witnesses have been fed. The people who have been questioned have been permitted to depart. The rest, including the party, are not necessarily prisoners, they are able to leave the room briefly as needed, but they also have not been dismissed and it is clear that they should stay.

Then the door opens and a large contingent of Zell City Guard come in that look different than the ones already here. These guards are polished, not tired, and have a more professional and seasoned air to them. Leading them is a half-orc with an air of command. They recognize him as High Lord Marshal Thaugot Silverhand, who sits upon the High Protector’s Council. He was present at the very first meeting the party had when they arrived inside the dome. At his side is Commander Thikdrat Flatmantle, a dwarf who was apparently the High Lord Marshal’s second. Captain de Bolbec is alarmed, and it is written all over his face that he believes that his career is over.

The High Lord Marshal commands the room and states “There has apparently been an attack in my city. I want a report now.” The Captain, Justiciar, Commander huddle up for a few minutes, talking quietly in the front of the room. Lyndis leaves the party and joins them after a moment. They notice that the Marshal gives her a respectful nod, but there is no kindness or warmth to his look at her.

After a few minutes of talk, he turns to the party and commands them to tell him what went on last night. Again, Lughausen takes the lead and tells the story to him again. Afterwards, the Marshal commands that he wants to see all the evidence, including a visit to the Open Purse. The Captain falls over himself to comply. Lughausen continues his story as they go first to the room with the bodies of the slaadi where the Marshal grunts and acknowledges that these are sinister fiends, and then on the way to the brothel. Sir Aiden Powell and Favian Cleves accompany them.

The Marshal asks questions, with Commander Flatmantle murmuring in his ear from time to time, along the way and continuing once they reach the site of the previous evening’s activities. He notes the fire damage in the main room, the destruction, and then they go downstairs to see the cult lair.

The party sees that there are guards everywhere now, cataloging, gathering evidence, inspecting and so on. They have secured the basement further, propping open doors and such. In the first room that had the bloody altar, the Marshal notes the two bodies in cages. The party also takes a closer look and Lughausen identifies that something is wrong with the bodies. It appears that they were once women, but there had been some kind of transformation. Perhaps the cause of death. The two prison cells are looked at then, then the rest of the lair is inspected. The Marshal asks pertinent questions, especially in the chapel with the mosaic, and then ending in the library where the evidence book had been found.

The party cannot help noticing that the vault is now empty of the treasure chests and asks outright about it. Captain de Bolbec answers to the Marshal that the chests were confiscated and returned to the tower as evidence for processing as per standard procedure.

The Marshal and his command staff talk more on the way outside, and then once in front of the building, which by now is bathed in afternoon light, away from the party for some time. This includes Lyndis, who the party believes is putting in good words for them.

When the Marshal returns to them, he says, “I do not like plots or scheming. I am not pleased that trouble has followed you since you have arrived. But there can be no dispute that evil has been done and must be stamped out. We will raid the brothels on the list and get to the bottom of this.” He indicates the party, “I find no reason to detain you. You may participate in the raids, or not, as you wish. But make no mistake, I do not trust you. You may yet be behind this.” He then stalks off, dismissing them.

The party is not sure how to take this. They understand, however, that the presence of Sir Aiden, Favian Cleves, and Lyndis have probably factored into the High Lord Marshal’s decision. They give their thanks and Sir Aiden and Favian take their leave, letting them know that if they are needed, they can be found at the Manor and the Temple of Hysor, respectively.

They decide that they want a drink and end up deciding to return to the Old Eel Bar in Hayford. It is somewhat familiar, and there then can tell the owner that Lucetta has been found.

Along the way they converse about the day’s events. A conversation that continues after they have arrived, gotten drinks, the first round of which is free courtesy of the owner of the bar, and sat down. They discuss their next steps. How can they find more about the cult? They are certain that there will be retaliation. They worry that they will be attacked in their sleep by assassins sent in revenge for what they have done.

They also discuss the origins of the cult, and Lughausen has some insights. Would the leadership of the cult really put down in a neat list all their holdings? Wouldn’t they keep themselves out of it and instead put sacrificial things that they did not mind losing? It gives them second thoughts about the effectiveness of the raids on the other brothels. Lyndis tells them that the High Lord Marshal is a man of action and the raids are probably going to happen immediately.

It is time to rest. Tomorrow, they will do some research to figure out their next steps. They return to their hovel, seeing it as they left it and Lyndis leaves, bidding them good night.

3/12/1151 – The party has a good rest and they have leveled up to 13. Today, they are going to split into two groups. Yannic, Berg, Jikaris and Lyndis will go to the Wizard School to see what they can learn in the library there. Lughausen, Khragg, Peril, and Elowynn will go to the Temple of Epolde for the same reason.

At the wizard school, Yannic and company are met by Sebastian Campbell, the second wizard. When he is asked about the library, he sadly points to one of the burned buildings on the school grounds. The library was destroyed in the riot years ago. They are doing their best to rebuild the collection of knowledge, but they are quite limited having no access to outside sources. He takes Yannic to the room that holds their books, and he gets to work for the next few hours. His topic is the Lemegeton and Gomory, and the best he can learn is in an old Reyman archaeological history book. In it, he finds mention of the Reyman criminal justice system. He reads that for criminals that were too powerful or dangerous to be contained by normal means, they resorted to magical prisons. One such prison had the name of the Lemegeton. This all took place thousands of years ago.

Yannic speaks some more with Sebastian and offers to help them rebuild their library. He asks if they have any critical needs spell-wise. Perhaps he has them. Sebastian says he must speak with Prishia about it and will get back to them. They take their leave.

Meanwhile, Lughausen and his company have met Murbol the priest of Epolde at the temple and his request to access the library is easily granted as well. His topic is about researching the criminal records of missing people and unsolved cases in the city over the years, including those years before the Cataclysm.

Lughausen knows, and Murbol confirms, that while the library here at the temple has collected records of such things, a better source might be the High Temple of Duath, and Zell City Guard, records in the castle district. Lughausen decides to research here first and then go there.

He learns disturbing things. The number of cases of missing persons is much higher than normal in the city, almost double what one would expect under normal circumstances. The disappearances and unsolved cases related to them have been going on quite steadily since the Cataclysm and go even further back. In fact, there is a definite surge in cases that happened in the year 942. The same year that Nuath was slain and the Sword and Armor of Nulfid were recovered. This is during the time of the Gwynyth Raiun civil war with Myrddin. This also coincides with the vision that Lughausen received at the Tree of Death showing the destruction of the red gem that contained the souls imprisoned inside of it. He now believes he has a time to match with the event.

Furthermore, he learns that most of the disappearances in the city occurred in the lower-class districts, which is to be expected. There were some surges during the various riots that occurred in the city once the Dome when up. He looks for patterns in the investigation reports to see if there is evidence of a cover-up or cultists within the ranks of the City Guard. He finds no evidence of either.

Yannic and the others with him now go to the Castle District. He wants to learn more about the Dome and the source, which is clearly the High Temple of Duath on the center of the top of the hill. He makes a circuit around the building studying the shining golden light that rises from the center to the sky. He cannot easily make out what rooms it would be emanating from because of how the fortress that is the High Temple of constructed. It is a super-impressive fortress.

Lughausen also goes to the Castle District when he is done at the Temple of Epolde. His research has taken much longer, however, and it happens that they arrive at the Castle District just as Yannic and his company are leaving. They agree to discuss their findings over dinner at their residence.

Lughausen and Lyndis note that he should go to one of the outlying administrative buildings in the Castle District instead of the High Temple since that would be where such records that he is interested in would be. Lughausen uses the papers given to him by Duke Rowntree to gain access to the library.

He continues his research here, focusing on identifying trends and getting the names of living city guard who conducted recent investigations that went unsolved on disappearances. He decides to focus on the district of Dogroad since it is the lowest-class district in the city. He comes across the name of Justiciar Cristiana Hilless, who just so happened to have overseen their proceeding yesterday. Also, the current captain of the city guard in Dogroad: Simon Cloudfang who had signed the investigations in his official capacity as the captain.

They return to the hovel and talk over more about their plan of action. They are still unsure of how to proceed to deal with the cult. They decide that they will turn their attention to the other incidents that occurred last night in Northbank: the fire, riot, and murders. There is still some time left in the day, so they head over to Northbank.

However, as they are passing through Westtown, they pass a building just as a group of dwarves are exiting. The dwarves get excited and approach. They are led by a young female dwarf, in fact, they realize all the dwarves are quite young, who introduces herself as Turi Blackbender. She is the leader of the Order of the Mountain guild and asks if they have time to talk. Or, if not, would they consider an invitation to their guildhall later. The party agrees to talk now, and they go back into the unassuming building they had been passing.

Inside they see that clearly this is a guild of miners and smiths. Decorations and shelves hold tools and other implements. Older versions of tools adorn the walls. They are led to a meeting room and are given refreshments: ale, fungus, and bread.

Turi and the other dwarves question them about the outside world. Do they have any knowledge of Dun? Of places where good ore and mining could be had? They are frustrated at the current situation. In Zell, there is only the hill that can be mined for resources, and there are … restrictions. The priests of Duath do not allow unrestricted digging. There are areas where they are not permitted to dig, and the priests, often accompanied by priests of Dunay, but also quite often without, inspect their tunnels.

Yannic shows them the map of Ap Wys that they are carrying and talks about the Confederation and Venlo and the hills and river there. The dwarves are young and were brought here by their families as children when they were escaping the wars. This is all they know, but they dream of having the freedom to dig when and where they will.

They speak to the party about perhaps one day, having their help to establish digging rights in Venlo’s hills. Yannic, having grown up in a family that belonged to the Venlo Guild of Miners and Quarriers says he will help as he is able. However, there is no way out of the city now.

They take their leave and continue to Northbank to see what they can learn about the other incidents. If that turns out to be a dead end, Lughausen wants to follow up with Destrian Stonesworn the cultist and what may be uncovered in his past about how he joined the cult.

First, they reach Northbank and go to the site of the fire. It is a large 5-block diameter of burned buildings, so it is not hard to find. They make their way to the center, passing by people picking through the debris and guards helping and keeping the peace. At the center, they find the charred remains of the stable and find the owner trying to get the animals cared for by her employees. She is a half-orc woman trying to recover what she can of this disaster. When they question her about the fire, whether she knew how it start, she blames it on a group of kids that she has caught hanging out behind the stable numerous times. She did not actually see them set the fire, however. The party takes note to perhaps question the kids, assuming they could figure out who they were.

Yannic scans for magic and looks to see if there is any evidence that it was started by magic, like a fireball spell. He finds no such proof.

They return to the Northbank District Guard Tower to ask the Justiciar, Cristiana Hilless about what Lughausen discovered on his search through the records. She had signed many missing persons cases. She is working from the hearing room again, and they lay out their theories about the missing person cases since before the Cataclysm. Why did she sign off on so many unsolved cases? She has no other answer except that they just ran dry of leads and clues and had no other choice.

Lughausen asks her if there are any cases where a missing person was found, and she does remember a case from a few years ago, maybe 3, where a priest of Mac Lyr went missing for about 2 weeks and then reappeared with no memory of what happened while he was gone. His name is Gorvenal Duststone. They take note to investigate that later.

The Justiciar tells them that the raids on the other brothels did in fact produce something. They found underground lairs under three of them: The Nasty Nymph in Dogroad, the Rigid Spear in Military Town, and the Shrieking Clam in Fisher’s Well. However, they were abandoned and cleaned of evidence before the raids.

From here, they ask about seeing the bodies of the two murder victims from the previous night. She agrees and sends a guard to take them there. They find that one body, found on the west side of the district was an old elven woman. The second, from the east side of the district, is that of an old half-elven man. Their wounds are claw marks, deep enough to scar the bone. In these wounds they notice a bad smell and blackness indicating a venom of some kind. But this is odd, because they cannot think of any kind of animal that has venom in their claws. Just fangs.

Lughausen then decides to cast a speak with dead spell. First, on the elven woman. His questions:

Who killed you? – Lionerdhon, how could you do this!

What did Lionerdhon do that caused this? - He transformed into a hideous green creature with claws!

Who is Lionerdhon? – Husband of 150 years? Why after all this time do you do this to me?

Where did Lionerdhon transform? – The alley, why were you in an alley?

He then casts it on the other body and gets a remarkably similar series of responses. For the man, the person is Zane who they learn is his son who also transformed into a green creature with claws. He also asks who Zane’s friends are and gets the name Milo O’Kearney. The last question is where Zane would go with his friends, and they get the name of a place: Ye Olde Fly in Dogroad because the drinks are cheap.

They have many theories that fit this evidence. That these relations were unwittingly possessed by a creature, or that they have been replaced by one by the cultists. Or that perhaps some creature used illusion or magic to become the other person to lure them to their death.

Now they have several names of people to question further.

They leave the guard tower and go to the Crowded Rabbit to eat, ask questions, and plan. This was the site of the brawl that turned into a riot. The place is damaged with broken furniture, windows, and even some small bloodstains splattered about. There are patrons here and business appears to be going on as usual. They are left with one of the damaged but serviceable tables.

They overhear patrons talking about the fight and see evidence that they took part of it in the form of bruises, bandages, black eyes, and the like. Behind the bar is an older gnome who appears be in charge. They order food, getting roasted venison, and Khragg buys beers for a nearby table of patrons whom he overheard talking about the fight. He asks questions about it and learns that the fight started quite suddenly. No on there knows why really. Most unusual is that they do not recall anyone trying to stay out of it. Everyone was taking on everyone else. The owner, the gnome, was stuffed in the pickle barrel, and every time he tried to get out, someone would stuff him back in again. They are all laughing about it now.

The party takes note of this. It is strange indeed that no one was trying to take cover and stay out of it.

Now dark, they return to their hovel expecting once again to be attacked by assassins during the night. Yannic works on stoneshape and the wall of stone spells to secure the place further, and they set up alarms and watches. However, they have an uninterrupted night.

3/13/1151 – This morning after Lyndis picks them up, they decide to head to Fisher’s Well and question the priest of Mac Lyr about his disappearance. After the long trek across the town, they ask directions and reach the Temple of Mac Lyr. The building is old, and there are several people hanging outside, including a priest who welcomes them inside. The altar is made of driftwood and the sign of Mac Lyr, a large scallop shell, is on the wall above it. The priest allows them to do their devotions, which they do briefly, and then Lughausen asks about the priest who went missing. Turns out, it was this priest.

About 3 years ago, he was going home from the temple and then woke up in a boat in the middle of the lake the next morning. At least he thought it was the next morning. However, it had been two weeks. His friends and congregation all reported him missing and investigations had been undertaken to find him. He was surprised because he could never remember what happened to him. He just assumed it was alcohol.

Lughausen asks permission to cast a greater restoration on him and the priest agrees. He drops to the pew in shock as memories are recovered. He tells them that he was abducted by men who put him in a cart and taken to an unknown place where rituals were performed. The name Gomory was chanted repeatedly, and they kept asking him what is under the lake. “Is it the way in?”

He is in shock, and the memories are not good ones. He has no idea what the cultists had wanted to know and why they asked about the lake. He excuses himself to recover, not too thrilled to have these memories back.

The party’s next stop is the residence of one of the murder victims, Ingon Falavaul is nearby. They speak first with his wife Alexandra, and she tells them that Zane had come home after being at the tavern with his friends. They waited for Ingon before going to bed worried. Then the guards came the next morning. They ask about Zane coming home to change clothes or anything like that, and she says no, they go from work to being out in the same clothes. No chance there to hide evidence of blood splatter.

Zane and Ingon work at the same mill, and Zane often goes with his friends to taverns in Dogroad instead of coming home through Northbank. It is in the opposite direction from the route that Ingon took on the fateful night.

The party go to Breadmill next to find and question Zane. He is in the mill working, and they get pretty much the same story. He said goodnight to his father and went to Dogroad with his friends. The party takes note of his friends’ names and take some time searching the mill. They find nothing unusual.

Next, they visit the other victim’s husband, Lionerdhon in Northbank. He had come home from Clearharbor to find that his wife Elyel had not returned from the weaver’s shop that night. He stayed up late worrying about her until the guards came.

Lughausen had used a true seeing spell on both visits and found nothing unusual. These people are not fiends in disguise. They feel that the theory about illusions and disguise are probably more on target. They find a nearby inn to talk about their next move.

While they are eating, Lughausen remembers conversations he had had with Wodemar Blum in Wohlen about Karzhad and what they were searching for: The Vaults of Zell. Could it be that this cult is looking for the same thing? These vaults? Is that why they took the priest?

This was one of the main reasons for coming to Zell in the first place. They party had gotten too obsessed with escaping the city and had forgotten their original reason for coming. To warn about Karzhad and his intention to come here with his evil ambition.

Is Karzhad already here and part of this cult? Peril joins in with the conspiracy theories and the party worries about his sanity.

After lunch and armed with new theories and information, they decide it is time to investigate the cultist. He worked at the farms to the north of the city. Perhaps the cult’s headquarters is not actually in the city, but outside it? Maybe they could learn more this way.

They leave Northgate and get to the farms, questioning many groups of farmers along the way. They learn that Destrian Stonesworn was a nasty piece of work, hating women and at the same time wanting to have a girlfriend.

He was raised by his aunt, who is a very unpleasant woman herself. His mother died in childbirth, and they learn that the aunt probably blames him for her death. She belittles him and calls him a good-for-nothing. They find Destrian’s father, a full elf albeit a young one, drinking behind the house. He Is much melancholier about the whole situation. He regrets marrying Destrian’s mother, but there was the child that kept him around. The father seems to have an elf’s perspective. He has patience that Destrian will mature and get over all this, perhaps in decades.

He passes on the names of several inns that Destrian frequented: The Dazzling Hag Tavern in Northgate, the Frozen Apples Pub also in Northgate, and then the Merciful Hog Tavern just inside of Breadmill from Northgate. He also tells him that Destrian did not have many friends, but perhaps Yestin and Loi would be ones to question.

They go to the Dazzling Hag first, and a serving boy points out that Destrian did come there sometimes. He points out Yestin, a fat man gorging himself on chicken in the corner. From him, they learn that Destrian really had a bad attitude when it came to women. When asked about brothels, Yestin tells them that Destrian talked about saving up for the expensive nice one because maybe there he would find better women. About a year ago, he suddenly stopped talking about it and had a smugger attitude. He also started paying for drinks a lot more often than he ever did before.

They visit the other two pubs but get no more information. The other friend, Loi, is never found on this expedition. They speculate whether Loi was one of the other cultists that they killed during the raid.

On the way back to their hovel, they consider again that list of brothels they found in the cult lair. Surely, the important places would not be on that list. Lughausen remembers his casting of legend lore that gave him information on Gomory. He learned that she was obsessed with slavery and subjugation of women. Why not visit the brothels that did not have the cultists mark on it. An expensive one that perhaps was the one that Destrian visited.

The first one they find is in Oldhill, by the name of the Woodsman’s Wife. The ladies there try extremely hard to get business from the party, eager to have 8 people arrive all at once. But only Lughausen goes back with a girl named Lily to talk to her. She does not have any recollection of someone like Destrian visiting the establishment. Lughausen departs after giving her some money for the time.

They continue, now that it is after dark, to go through the districts back to Hayford.

They enter The Green and see the magnificent building, The Pink Pearl, and Peril reminds them that he looked at this brothel before and found no graffiti or marks upon it. It is the most expensive and exclusive brothel in the whole city. It is time to visit it.

They approach and see that the building is incredibly old made of some dark stone that has a reddish pink hue to it. The building looks like it was once a temple in the past. The doors to a rounded atrium are massive, and a frieze surrounds it with stone carvings of erotic but tasteful scenes. Guards are there, and they merely nod and open the doors for the party. Inside is the rounded atrium with columns and potted trees. Some patrons sit at small tables chatting. Ahead are two more double doors, smaller this time that leads to another grand room with more people. They are sitting at banquet tables with small sampling dishes brought from the kitchens. All the patrons are dressed in extraordinarily rich, lavish clothing, and the girls are beautiful and polished. The two girls at the table nearest the entrance wave the party over and start chatting and flirting with them while dishes are brought out. One is named Della, who flirts with Khragg. After a time, he agrees to go to the back with her. He wants to question her about the cultist Destrian and whether he visited here.

Khragg is stopped at a room by the bookeepers, who require him to pay 100gp for his coming time with Della. In her room, he questions her while they do their business. She has no recollection of a person like Destrian coming to the establishment.

Meanwhile, Berg has used his divine sense on the room and found no fiendish presences. Yannic and Jikaris are reluctant at first to enter but come after Khragg leaves. There is some confusion about whether Yannic should secretly cast true seeing, but he decides not to.

Lughausen is inspired to sing a song, which he does very well. Halfway through the song the madame of the establishment enters the banquet hall with two other ladies. She goes to a different table that is full of other people, but she, like all the others pay attention to Lughausen’s performance. He sings about the good people of Zell and how they must protect themselves from evil influences in their midst.

Genuine applause comes at the conclusion of his performance. He gets up to examine one of the statues, which turns out to be one of Dianc, the mother. But depicted as a young woman instead of the usual middle-aged, dressed in armor holding weapons more in her role of protecting the young instead of bearing them. This is a much older depiction than the more current modern-day ones.

One of the ladies approaches him and invites him to the table of Lady Mit-Aten, the mistress of the Pink Pearl, and he agrees. The Lady turns out to be incredibly striking in her appearance: She has beautiful dark cocoa-colored skin, smooth and tempting to touch. Her hair is jet-black, rolled in thick braided tubes with jewelry laced within them that cascades beyond her shoulders. Her eyes are a startling green, unusual for one with a complexion so dark. Her eyebrows are perfect arches. She wears black eyeliner with cat-eye points, and her lips have a pouty plum color.

She wears a sleek form-fitting white dress with exposed shoulders which is also slit up the side to just above the knee. She wears sandals exposing plum-colored painted toenails that match her fingernails. With so much exposed skin, it is noteworthy that not a single blemish or wrinkle can be seen, though you would judge her to be middle-aged. Her voice is a deep alto and she speaks with no accent.

She thanks and complements him on his performance. She asks if this is his first visit because she does not remember him coming before. He indicates that they are new to Zell, and she remembers that visitors had come through the dome recently. Lughausen gets frank about his inquiries into the cult in the city and the trail that has led him here. Lady Mit-Aten is very cooperative. She calls over girls to get the books and they look up to find if Destrian had indeed visited here.

It turns out that he had, over a year ago, and that he had visited an employee named Milena who works here still. The lady summons her, and Milena remembers Destrian as being unpleasant and unhappy after his experience here. She has no other memory of anything that would be helpful like where he went next or who he might have talked about. They search the book for more names, such as Loi, but nothing else comes up.

Khragg has returned by this time and joins the rest of the party at the other table while Lughausen speaks with the Mistress of the Pink Pearl.

They are approached by a richly dressed man who introduces himself as Ketsu Erugovy, a rich spice merchant. He suggests that if they need rare herbs and spices, he is their man. His visit does not last long.

He finally takes his leave and he and the party depart the building. Just outside, they stop to speak quietly. Lughausen tells them that if he were the leader of a cult like the one they are pursuing, then this place is exactly the place he would choose as his headquarters. He bets that there is a major lair under their feet right now. It all fits, even that the building was once a temple to Dianc so that the cult could thumb its nose at her and her protection to the innocent young.

He wants to return to the hovel to cast some more spells he has planned. Lyndis says her usual goodnights after escorting them home.

Lughausen casts three legend lore spells. The first is about the Lady Mit-Aten that they have just met at the Pink Pearl. He receives no information about her from the spell. Either she is not legendary, or she is shielded from divination magic.

The second casting is about the Pink Pearl, the building. He learns that it was a very old Temple of Dianc built in the 2^nd century.

Yannic has been talking about using magic to explore the bottom of the Crystal Basin, perhaps looking for a way to enter the Vaults of Zell. Since the cultists were interested in the lake bottom and kidnapped the priest of Myrcon, perhaps this is the key.

So Lughausen uses his third casting to learn what he can about Crystal Basin. This produces a more meaningful result. Crystal Basin is its name for the past 1000 years, but before it was known as the Eye of Duath. Three thousand years ago, Duath stood upon that spot and held off the demon hordes during the War of Maaluk side-by-side with Nuath, Hysor, and Foersyn. It is indeed a very holy place of Duath.

This is exciting information, but it is not enough to clarify their next course of action. Yannic wants to explore the lake under the cover of night, but he does not have the right spells prepared today. They will wait until tomorrow evening and turn in.

3/14/1151 – This morning they are uncertain of how to spend their day. They have two plans. One, Jikaris will sneak back into the Pink Pearl and do some stealthy scouting, and two, Yannic will scout the lake. They decide they will wander through the city on a roundabout trip to find somewhere to eat lunch. Lyndis suggests a place in the district of Greenhorn and they agree. They also think that maybe this inevitable retaliation will happen if they go out and wander and draw attention to themselves.

They leave their hovel in Hayford and instead of making straight for the gate to Southtown, they head northwest, deeper into the district. After a few squares, they notice a crowd of kids and urchins huddled up. A moment later they break and scatter around the party, hurling rotten fruit, rocks, and insults at Yannic. After a minute, their courage breaks and the kids scatter. The party just ignores it, while Yannic wipes away the fruit stains. He is dressed as a normal person, but apparently that did not matter. They knew who he was.

They make it to Southtown and then through Oldhill and on into Westtown. A short time after entering the district, and taking side roads instead of the main thoroughfare, something catches the attention of Jikaris and Elowynn. Down an alley they see a crowd of people gathered, dancing, singing, and playing music. Something about it does not look right. The dancing looks strained, and the alleyway seems dark and ominous despite it being a bright sunny late spring day.

They decide to walk down the alley to investigate. A moment after entering the alley, another crowd follows them. Lughausen is in the back and he hears some of those people muttering about how the first group shouldn’t be celebrating on a day like today.

When Khragg, in the front, reaches an open area at the other end of the alley where the people are, he can see past a corner and spots three figures. Two are old dwarves, unmistakenly twin brothers. They are huddled with a taller figure, staying in the shadows. All three are cloaked, hooded, and keeping their faces mostly uncovered. Clearly, from the shape of their cloaks, they are wearing armor underneath. The tall figure’s face is cloaked in shadow even more than is natural. Khragg’s face shows a dawning recognition and before anyone can stop him, he is screaming that it is Karzhad and his cohorts.

He draws his great axe and attacks. The three respond in kind, dropping their cloaks revealing ornate armor. The first dwarf in front draws a greatsword and yells in rage and is suddenly wreathed in lightning. The second dwarf behind him also chants, casting a spell and is wreathed too in lightning, though it looks different than his brother’s. Karzhad, drops his cloak and is surrounded by shadowy darkness that takes the form of spectral bat wings. He readies a shield and an ornate battleaxe, and casts a defensive spell.

Khragg lets loose with his best attacks, striking at Karzhad myriad times. Most of his blows land, and remarkably Karzhad drops to one knee, cursing. Khragg’s last swing is directed at the dwarf, and it too strikes, and the dwarf collapses to the ground. Yannic starts screaming that this must be a setup, it just is not right. Let him cast a dispel magic, but Khragg is not listening.

Berg uses his divine senses and detects the presence of three fiends in the crowd of people in the alley. Two here where they were dancing, and one walking with the other group. He leaps to attack the closest one here, noticing when he is up close that the figure is cloaked and not exactly natural looking. His spectral spear is summoned which strikes it.

Elowynn, taking her lead from Khragg lets loose with arrows that squarely land in the chest of Karzhad, who crumples to the ground, and then into the final dwarf. A solid hit, he too flies to the ground. Yannic arrives then and uses his dispel magic spell which disperses the illusion, revealing three dead common folk. Berg is yelling about fiends hidden in the crowd, and the rest of the party does their best to assist him on the first that he is in front of.

In a moment, it is revealed to be a green Abishai, a fiend that is known to use illusions and subterfuge to deal with its foes. It tries to cast confusion on the party, but Berg’s aura of protection keeps them safe. Suddenly, Elowynn turns her bow onto the people fleeing the scene. Then, Peril too turns and starts firing his hand crossbows at helpless bystanders, killing them instantly.

Khragg and Jikaris attack the second Abishai after Berg points him out. After their blows land, it disrupts the spell that he was concentrating on and Elowynn snaps out of the domination effect that was causing her to shoot at the people. However, two lay dead with arrows in their backs. Peril, on the other hand is going on a rampage. With his two hand crossbows, he quickly kills six civilians before snapping out of it. The third Abishai was never revealed, and apparently escaped in the crowd that was fleeing Peril back down the alley that the party had traversed.

The two other Abishai are soon dead at the hands of the party, yet at a horrible price. Eleven civilians are dead at the hands of the party. Tricked and dominated as they were, Khragg killed three, Elowynn two, and Peril six for a total of eleven dead.

Fortunately, they have two dead fiends to prove their innocence, though they are very dismayed that the last one escaped. They are surprised that the bodies of these two fiends did not disappear. Lyndis kneels in shock next to the three people that Khragg had killed. They know that they must once again face the justice of Duath and the Zell City Guard. They do not flee the scene but wait for the guards. Yannic takes a few moments to investigate the bodies of the two fiends.

He finds that they are both female and have tattoos of the chain and rose on their shoulder blades. One of them has a pouch that has two vials of sticky black venom that looks remarkably like that found in the wounds of the murder victims two nights ago in Northgate. Furthermore, he notices that the features of these devils has a decidedly human-like cast to it. Were they transformed people? Peril swears and mutters over and over that this is it, they are done for now. They have been set up to kill innocents. And he killed six!

When the guards arrive, it is the usual chaos. The alleys are cordoned off, reinforcements are called, witnesses are gathered. The party is under arrest this time, and though they refuse to surrender their weapons, they willingly go with the guards when ordered. They also carry the bodies of the fiends themselves, afraid that evidence might mysteriously disappear.

When the reach the Westtown guard tower, they are locked in cells instead of taken to a hearing room. Lyndis is locked in too. They gather their wits enough to ask that a message be sent to Duke Rowntree explaining that they are in trouble again and need help. They examine the bodies more and are even more convinced that these are not normal fiends. Lughausen wants to cast speak with dead on them, but Lyndis suggests that they wait until they have witnesses to the questioning.

After several hours of waiting, they are taken from their cells to the hearing room. It is crowded this time. On the balconies are dozens and dozens of spectators. The lower area has a great many witnesses, which they recognize from the alley. They are made to sit on the benches of the accused.

Presiding over the hearing is Captain Edmund Writingham, a young human in charge of the Westtown District Zell City Guard. There is a justiciar again, this time an old man probably nearing his 80s, by the name of Benedict Wheatflow. Order is called, and the events of the incident are recounted, and the questions begin. However, just moments after the names of the eleven dead are read and the party is seated, many of the spectators in the balconies start pelting the party, and Yannic in particular, with rotten fruit and insults. The guards are quickly summoned and sent up to clear the gallery.

A short time into the proceedings, the door opens and Sir Aiden Powell enters with Thodris Rakankrak, the blind dwarven primary priest of the Temple of Hysor. Behind her is Favian Cleves, who spoke for the party at the last proceedings.

The party recounts what they saw, and how suspicious it was to see the dancing in the darkness. The other witnesses corroborate that they saw the dwarves and shadowy Karzhad, but it was their friends and family that were cut down by Khragg and the others. Berg tells of how he is a paladin of Nuath and that he sensed the presence of these evil fiends, which they dispatched.

Thodris asks to speak and she confirms that these fiends are Abishai and it is known that they work by subterfuge, charm, domination, and illusion. Lughausen suggests the speak with dead spell, and Thodris volunteers to cast it as an impartial person. The justiciar agrees, and she does. These are the questions and the answers that are given:

Who are you – I am a faithful servant of my mistress.

Why were you in the alley – We were minding our business when we were attacked.

Who is your mistress – She who commands us, she who will command us all.

How did you become the creature that you are – By the will of our mistress, we were ascended to this beautiful and wonderful form.

Did you command these men and women to attack the civilians of the city - no, no of course not.

It is noted that the spell does not compel the body to tell the truth, and a zone of truth will not works since the bodies are no longer living creatures.

After more questioning the picture becomes clearer, however, it appears to the party that they will not be getting off scott-free. They assume that they will have to pay wergild again, but they are broke. Peril speaks up, repeating again that he did it. He killed six of the people and he knows it. He shouts out, “Send me to jail! I don’t care! Send me away!” The rest of the party shushes him.

They are escorted back to their cells, and this time Lyndis does not stay with them. She will plead their case more, she promises. They are made to wait a couple more hours, and they wonder what their fate will be. Khragg and Berg seethe with anger over this treatment by the priests of Duath and the Zell City Guard. They are about done with this city and Khragg is on the verge of going down the same road of instability that Peril seems to be well along.

When the guards come and take them back to the hearing room, the rest of the witnesses have been removed. Instead of Justiciar Wheatflow sitting at the table, instead there sits are large man that they recognize. High Justiciar Tiso Parron himself has come to sit in judgement. Also in the room sits Duke Rowntree along with Sir Aiden and Thodris.

The High Justiciar declares that the party will not all be thrown into prison for this incident. However, he notes that there was a volunteer. Peril speaks up again, “Yes, me! Throw me in jail, I did it. I don’t care!” The High Justiciar nods, and says, “So be it.”

The party is not surprised but is angry that they are being separated now. Duke Rowntree stands up and speaks for the party. He will pay the wergild to the families of the slain people. He calls them heroes and says that he will speak and stand for them in this. There is great evil here that must be sought out and destroyed.

The party also speaks plainly about this fact: there is at least one more Abishai loose in the city causing havoc. They have killed, they have caused chaos, they have framed the party, what are the guards going to do about it? Throw innocents in jail?

The High Justiciar pronounces again, “That may be the case. The investigations that High Marshal Thaugot have started will continue. The party will be free to go into the custody and care of the Temple of Hysor and Duke Rowntree. You may continue your efforts, but know that what was done today, striking down civilians, will not be tolerated. This proceeding is over.”

He gets up and leaves, and the guards escort the party out. They are seething with anger. So the priests of Duath let them go, know there is evil, yet lock up Peril and tell them they did a bad job by killing the fiends? Some in the party want to wash their hands of this whole affair, while others want to continue on and see this to the end.

Outside the guard tower, they speak with the Duke and Thodris. They ask what it means to be in the custody of him and the temple. He says that he is now responsible for their actions. But he is behind them 100%. He says that if it is acceptable to them, Sir Aiden will accompany them on this mission. The party may choose to have him with them or not as they see fit. Yannic asks if Thodris can do any special divinations at the temple to find the fiends and cultists, but she replies that really Lughausen would be far better at such things because he has seen them and had firsthand experience. But they will pray, and if the party needs anything from the temple, they merely need to ask.

The Duke and Thodris take their leave, while the party debates their next move. What happens if they move on the Pink Pearl and they are innocent? What happens if they try to find the Vaults of Zell, and they do find them, and the priests discover them there? It will be a crime, of course. They debate about contacting the dwarves who approached them, the Order of the Mountain, and map out the areas that they were forbidden to dig. Surely that outline would indicate where the vaults might be. But what then?

It is decided that Jikaris will scout out the Pink Pearl stealthily, while the rest will go to The Lawn and the Crystal Basin. It is almost evening now, but not too late to go to that park and talk further. Jikaris sneaks off. When the others reach the lake, Yannic excuses himself and once out of sight, casts several spells upon himself: darkvision, water breathing, and invisibility. He sneaks into the lake and starts walking along the bottom. He reaches the center and finds nothing. He walks in the direction of the castle, searching, but finds nothing out of the ordinary. He is not happy with this result, but rejoins the rest, damp and dripping.

Meanwhile, Jikaris has successfully reached the Pink Pearl, cast invisibility also, and snuck in behind a wealthy patron. Once inside, he appears undetected as he starts to look around. It appears to be dinner time, and the main banquet hall is full of people including the Lady Mit-Aten. He listens at a couple of doors, noting the room that Khragg had gone through with the lady the previous day, then a door that has the sounds of running water behind it. As he goes to the next door, he passes by the table of Lady Mit-Aten just as one of her assistants says,

“My Lady, the heroes were arrested by the Westtown guard tower.”

“Indeed, I had heard that too.” Lady Mit-Aten responds.

“They were released by High Justiciar Parron.”

Lady Mit-Aten nods, “A pity.”

The conversation then turns to how the previous nights earnings were and which of the ladies had earned a rest for tonight’s activities.

A moment later, a different assistant gets up from the table and goes through the door Jikaris had been waiting near. He follows her and finds himself in a hallway with many doors leading to bedrooms. He finds a few of them unoccupied, so he enters and conducts a search. In the first, he finds a diary and he reads from it. The author is one of the lady employees of the brothel, and her pages are filled with gushing words praising “The Mistress”.

In the other unoccupied rooms, he finds nothing else as interesting and proceeds to find down a different hall, a door that leads to an outdoor walled courtyard with fountains. He finds two other women sitting at a table speaking quietly. Listening to them, he hears them talking about “The Mistress” as well, and ways that they can do things that will please her. He returns to the first door and waits for an opportunity to return to the main hall.

Fortunately, the same woman that he followed before is returning, now with a book. He successfully sneaks through after her, and back in the main hall, listens at two more doors. At the first, he hears a chanting.

“The Mistress is all… The Mistress protects us… The Mistress is all… The Mistress protects us…”

Very suspicious, but he does not see how he could enter that door without arousing the guards who are standing nearby. He waits, hoping that someone will enter or exit, but no one does. He goes to the last door of the room and hears the rustling of paper and the unmistakable thump of a book being closed.

Noting that the duration of his invisibility spell will end soon, he exits and returns to the hovel to report to the party.

After Jikaris’ intelligence, the party is convinced that the Pink Pearl is an important place to the cult. They speak of different ways that they can enter the place and surprise them. They find it of utmost importance to get through that door where the chanting was.

3/15/1151 – The next morning is hot and muggy. A heat wave has arrived in the city, perhaps exacerbated by the Dome, many speculate. The party discusses plans for the day. Their number one concern is dealing with the aftermath. They do not want another hearing and more accusations of breaking the law. They want to do this as correctly as possible, but still do what they want to deal with this threat. They feel that their priority should be gaining access to the room where Jikaris heard the chanting. They are convinced that they will find evidence there that will prove the existence of the cult. There must be something nefarious taking place behind that door.

Many plans are hatched, and most are discarded for various reasons. They decide that they must procure a good lawyer before they go in, and so they will go visit the duke and see if that can be arranged. Plus, they want to inform him of their plans in case things go awry.

As it happens, Sir Aiden and Lyndis arrive shortly after, bringing pastries and other baked goods for breakfast. They inform him of their plan, and he says it should be no problem to gain an audience with the duke with his help, so they head to Military Town.

Once there, they are escorted to the same study where they met him previously. Sir Aiden steps out to see if the duke is available. The party is concerned that the cultists have infiltrated all levels of government and important entities, which would include the duke and his staff. When the duke enters, they request the door be closed. They do not ask the duke’s assistant to leave, but they give him nervous glances as he takes notes of their meeting.

They outline their plan, and the duke is onboard one hundred percent. He is a young man of action, and a frontal assault, which is their best plan for the moment, appeals to him greatly. He already has lawyers and scribes ready to deal with the aftermath of the attack. In fact, they were already put to work with the previous day’s events.

The party returns to planning, and the duke takes his leave, telling them that he will give them three men to go with them. After more discussion, they decide that Jikaris should scout first while invisible like he did last night. They worry that now that it is morning, there might not be that chanting that he heard before. They want to catch them red-handed in the act of worshipping.

They leave the duke’s manor, and head straight to The Green and the Pink Pearl. As they are leaving the grounds, Sir Aiden rejoins them with three men outfitted in plate armor, greatswords, and heavy crossbows.

Once at the Green, they find a nearby park to loiter while Jikaris does his scouting. They use the heat and humidity as a pretense for rest while they wait for him. Jikaris sneaks in as before, behind a well-timed patron entering the brothel. He has no difficulty sneaking in and reaching the door. Again, he hears chanting just like last night. In addition, he hears grinding stone momentarily. A secret door?

As backup, Lughausen has cast an arcane eye spell to follow Jikaris and watch the main room to make sure that Jikaris is not caught. Or if he is, that they are aware of it and can come to his aid. The main room is set up for brunch. All the tables are filled with platters of food, and there are many people in the main room. The building is a bustle of activity.

Sitting at the same table as last night, Lady Mit-Aten has her attendants and assistants surrounding her as she eats and converses. Everyone there is unaware, apparently, of Jikaris and the arcane eye. However, no one goes through the door while Jikaris’ invisibility spell lasts, and he must retreat outside.

The party gathers and goes en masse back into the building. When they reach the main room, Berg, Elowynn, Lyndis, Sir Aiden and the paladins stay at the main doors while Khragg, Lughausen, Jikaris (still invisible), and Yannic make a beeline for that door.

There is a nearby guard whom Lughausen demands that the door be opened. Jikaris is ready next to it. The guard refuses, politely at first. The room is off-limits except by invitation of the Lady Mit-Aten. Would they not join the brunch and discuss it with her?

Lughausen and Yannic are not so polite and demand repeatedly, ever more heated each time. Khragg loses patience and just kicks the door in.

The conversation in the room had been growing quiet as this altercation had unfolded, and the moment the door exploded off the hinges, become completely quiet. Inside is a small room with a ring of chairs around a fireplace. Seated in each of the chairs is an assortment of men and women holding hands and chanting. Nothing looks too out of place here, really.

However, the fireplace is the only thing of stone in the room, and they know it must hide a secret door. Khragg and Jikaris go to it but see nothing obvious to open it. As they do this, a man in the room demands that they leave. The Lady in the main room has stood and is asking that the party leave the room and come sit down. Berg starts moving towards her.

This time it is Yannic who loses patience, and he casts telekinesis and uses the magical force to shove the fireplace to the side revealing a stone stairway leading down. At this moment, the Lady says that they are under attack and that their home must be defended. Words that are clearly in line with the teachings and protection of Duath – the law of the city.

The moment of battle has arrived. Weapons are drawn and spells are cast. What is clear now to the party, however, is that every single person here in the building is a cultist. There are no innocents, and they are vastly outnumbered. Each cultist uses their magic to inflict wounds, but that requires that they successfully land a touch on their target, which they rush forward to do.

The Lady Mit-Aten shows that she is indeed a force to be reckoned with. She gazes at Yannic and takes control of his mind the moment the battle starts. The rest of the party is oblivious at first, but then Yannic casts disintegrate and aims it at Khragg instead of an enemy dealing great damage to him.

Sir Aiden joins Berg while his men and Lyndis hold attackers that were in the atrium area to keep them from flanking everyone. Jikaris, Lughausen, and Khragg battle in the room with the fireplace. There are three cult leaders in the building, and it so happens that one leader is with each of the battle fronts. One with Khragg in the room, one in the atrium fighting the knights and Lyndis, and one near Lady Mit-Aten, defending her with the other cultists. Unfortunately for the party, these cult leaders exhibit the same ability as the one they faced before in the Open Purse. They can pull the lifeforce from their followers to heal themselves every round, and they can cast spells.

One casts a flame strike that deals great damage to the knights. The battle in the atrium goes very poorly for the heroes and their men. Khragg and Jikaris are surrounded by enemies as are Berg and Sir Aiden. Eloywnn manages to stay in the back against the wall shooting with her arrows. Meanwhile, Lughausen tries to break the magic compulsion that connects the Lady with Yannic. Lughausen also uses the magic item the coin of choices to learn whether the information they seek is indeed below down those stairs, and the answer is yes. However, they must deal with this battle first.

Lughausen’s attempt to free Yannic fails, but Yannic naturally breaks free from the domination and then swings down to catch a crowd of enemy with a prismatic spray spell, including the Lady. Not long after, Lughausen catches the same group in an insect plague. But the sheer number of enemies is making this battle extremely difficult, and Lughausen must resort to healing several times to keep the party going.

The enemy forces are fortunately not connecting with their inflict wounds spells with a few very notable exceptions. When they do strike, the damage is severe. The party cannot kill them fast enough.

Meanwhile, the Lady has not been idle. She uses her enslave power again to dominate Yannic, and subsequently uses his magic to enclose Lughausen in an Otiluke’s resilient sphere, sidelining him.

As they battle, they taunt her and try to get the Lady to tell them about the cult. She responds at one point thusly.

"You know nothing. Here you sit like children at play while the adults are in the same room deciding the fate of kingdoms. They give you a toy, a puzzle to solve to keep you quiet while they talk, and your attention is fixated and you feel so good about yourself when you solve it. You show them, and they say 'Oh, that's great! You did so well! Now here's another puzzle for you, go on, sit over there and work on it so we can keep talking.’"

"You have no idea about what is. What was. The glories that were lost, and what lies hidden. Hidden beneath your very feet. Plain to the eyes of one who sees and knows."

Fortunately, they soon learn that Sir Aiden is a paladin of devotion, and he has an aura that makes those close to him immune to charm. Immediately, this turns the tide in the party’s favor though it does not seem like at first. The knights are unconscious, and Lyndis is maneuvering to escape, Khragg is heavily wounded, and Yannic is dominated and Lughausen is encased in a sphere.

But Yannic gets close enough to Sir Aiden to be free of the domination, and drops the sphere, freeing Lughausen. Berg has not been wounded too much by this point. Everyone starts moving towards Sir Aiden, but the way is difficult, and the cultists continue their attacks.

Lughausen gets creative with his equipment and abilities. He uses a healing word to keep people alive, and then uses magic items, including the time bomb he got a while ago in one of the dungeons to kill a few cultists.

The Lady uses her enslave ability on those who are not protected by Sir Aiden, which includes Lughausen, Jikaris, then Khragg, Lyndis, and finally Berg. Everyone has felt the power of her dominating will at least once during the battle.

She calls for reinforcements twice when the number of cultists is diminished. When Berg is finally able to reach her with his weapon, her followers dive in between his strikes and take wounds intended for her. She teleports across the room several times to keep distance between her and the heroes.

When things seemed lost for the party, Lyndis cast sanctuary upon herself and started making for the door. She also casts a sending spell to her superiors to call for help, but that would take time to arrive. She made it to the front doors, but that was the time when the tides started turning, so she returned to the conflict, using her powers first to heal the fallen knights, which Lughausen was also keeping alive with his healing too. Unfortunately for the knights, they were attacked repeatedly and knocked unconscious and brought back to fight on more than once.

The Lady used Lyndis to heal her, then got into Berg’s mind to defend her, but finally, after what seemed hours, the last of the cultists were killed and the Lady’s time was up.

Yannic’s magic missiles, Elowynn’s arrows, Berg’s spear had done their damage. She used her power to command them all, doing damage and charming those that were not within Sir Aiden’s aura, but it was a last desperate attempt. She falls at last to Yannic’s magic missiles after trying to teleport away.

Across the room, the party witnesses her fall. She screams and her form shimmers to briefly show the duchess with her crown and aura of enslavement that they had seen in the murals in the temples confirming that this is indeed Gomory.

Her body suddenly starts turning to fine black ash which slowly swirls about. Her face, that of Gomory, rises in a dark gray, angry cloud that hovers in the room.

The party’s first thought is to escape, but they realize that they must witness this. They are fearful that this battle is not over, and that Gomory is unleashing a terrible attack or perhaps vengeance. Yannic and the others have never seen anything like this before.

Lughausen, however, having experienced his visions at the Tree of Death of the Lemegeton, and having used legend lore to learn about Gomory and the Spirits of the Lemegeton realizes what is happening.

He realizes that THIS is the Spirit of the Lemegeton that they just defeated. IF he just had a Lemegeton gem on his possession, he could imprison her while in this form. However, they do not, so this opportunity will be missed... and because it will be missed, she will be free... Lughausen does not however, believe that she will be able to be a threat for some time, maybe years. But she WILL be back one day, in the future, and quite angry at the party....

Lughausen worries that she will be free, but can it escape the dome? He does not know, but he is certain that this cloud will only last a few rounds.

They witness this until the body of the Lady completely turns to the swirling black ash and the cloud suddenly drifts down into the floor. They are determined now that they be the ones to explore the staircase down, no matter who should come and claim otherwise. However, that should happen tomorrow because they are spent from this battle and their near destruction at the hands of the Lady and her cult.

After she has disappeared, the party has resolved to stay in the Pink Pearl and rest, securing the building as best as they can. They move the fireplace back to cover the stairway leading underground, so that it won’t be so easy to come up without them noticing. They will set watches in that room and in the main room. They at least want to recover for an hour and catch their breaths.

A few minutes later, as they are going to bar the front doors, the door opens instead and a bloody guard stumbles in. He is wounded. "My comrades attacked me! We were on our way here, sent by our commander to get here with utmost haste, when just down the road they drew weapons and started attacking me and the other new guys.”

Then he grabs Lughausen’s shirt, for he and many of the others had run over to this guard, and cries out, “The sky! What's wrong with the sky?” He then collapsed unconscious.

Alarmed, the party steps outside and look up into the sky. The Dome is flickering. Like a water hose spraying that has air bubbles that makes it sputter, the Dome appears and disappears in quick succession. Also, in the distance, they can see fires and smoke. Distant screaming comes to their ears. They see the bodies of the guards just a short distance, so they investigate.

Two of the bodies are normal looking, but the other seven are shocking. Their eyes are burned out, and a closer examination reveals that they each bear ligature marks upon their necks that Lughausen identifies as being caused by a spiked chain.

They take the two normal bodies and one of the burned-eye ones and retreat to the Pink Pearl, barring the doors. The course of events with the guards is pieced together. The three guards new to this district were attacked suddenly by the other seven, and the one survived only because those seven suddenly died instantly as their eyes burned. The party speculates that surely the cult of Gomory must be responsible. A sleeper command? During the time it takes to get the bodies inside, the Dome still flickers, but after about 15-20 minutes, it stabilizes and there is no more change. Does this indicate that the priests of Duath have regained control of an insurrection? How much of the priesthood has the cult infiltrated?

Inside, Sir Aiden suggested that they must learn more. He will send two of his men back to the Duke’s estate to find out what they can, and to get reinforcements regardless. The party agrees. After the men leave, the party recovers for an hour. Then they gather the bodies of the cultists in the atrium and search them, but there is nothing of value or note that is found. They settle in for the long rest.

After a few hours, there is a banging on the door. They cautiously open it to find about twenty of Duke Rowntree’s men led by a lieutenant. He reports to Sir Aiden, and the party: The city is in chaos. There are bodies everywhere with burnt-out eyes and strangulation marks, including a large portion of Zell City Guard. Many did not die right away, but went crazy, attacking and burning. The city is under martial law, all gates are closed, and travel is prohibited. The guards of the Duke had special dispensation to get back here, but can go no further. The Duke is attempting to reach the High Temple and the government to see the state.

The guards insist on securing and searching the rest of the building. They find plenty of food, beds, and two rooms that hold documents. The first appears to just have rosters and payrolls for the employees and customers. The second is a well-stocked library. Yannic spends the next few hours there researching. He learns that there are a great number of writings about the vaults of Zell here, but mostly in the realm of speculation. However, the amount is surprising and could indicate that it was collected. He also learns some facts about the magical shield around Ap Wys, and how it was created in the year 420.

An hour after the arrival of the Duke’s men, Lyndis receives a sending message that she shares with them: she is to stay put and to not attempt to come to the Castle District and to watch the party closely. There is apparently an uprising or civil war in the priesthood.

They rest uninterrupted, though Lughausen takes a few minutes to conduct a ritual identify on the longspear that Berg recovered from the Open Purse.

3/16/1151 – The next morning, they prepare to descend. Sir Aiden and Lyndis will accompany them while the rest of the Duke’s men will guard the building and send for help if necessary. They open the secret passageway and descend the stairs.

At the bottom is a ten-foot-wide hallway that ends in a pair of double doors upon which is the symbol of the cult: the rose wrapped in chains. Jikaris determines that it is not trapped nor locked, so it is opened. Beyond, the hallway continues with double doors on the left and right and at the end. This stretch of hallway is filled with chains hanging from the ceiling to just within inches of the floor. They are tightly packed leaving little space. They must be disturbed to be traversed. Some of the chains are rusted and others have clumps of dried blood on them. Each of the other three doors also has the symbol of the cult upon it. They carefully enter, prepared for the worst even though Jikaris could find no sign of a trap. The chains make noises as they pass through, but nothing comes. They open the first door on the right to reveal a temple much like the one they found under the Open Purse. A full mosaic on the wall behind the altar shows Gomory again with kow-towing naked women in their multitudes, chained together while Gomory glows in glory in the sky.

In the room are dead cultists in pews. A leader is at a pulpit, slumped over a book. They died instantly just like the guards with burned out eyes and strangulation marks on their throats. There was no fighting here, though. They all died quickly and suddenly. A search turns up nothing useful, and they go to the door across the hall. Here is a meeting room with a long table, and more dead cultists. They were seated at the table, apparently talking when whatever happened struck them. Another search turns up nothing.

Beyond the final doors, the hallway continues. After a time, there is a door to the side, this time a normal size. After it is deemed safe, it is opened to reveal an unusual, shaped room filled with cages. Six of the cages hold ragged young women who cower in back. Yannic, Khragg and Berg enter. The girls, after a moment and realizing that the party are not cultists, begin begging for help. The party debates about whether it is safe to free them and escort them up to the guards. Berg is suspicious, however, and uses his divine sense. He knows he is in the presence of evil and declares so. The demeanor of the girls’ changes, and battle begins.

The girls are revealed to be evil creatures known as lamias, and they were not truly locked in the cages. They attempt to use magic on the party, but the protection of Sir Aiden’s aura is helpful again. However, they do curse Yannic and Berg before they are collectively slain. The party has no way to remove the curses currently, so they continue. However, Lughausen remembers that he had intended to prepare a heroes feast this morning, so they take a break to eat the magical meal and gain its benefits.

The next room along the main corridor reveals offices with desks and bookshelves full of documents. Six cultists are dead here just like in the entryway. Sprawled across the desks and slumped to the floor in front of the shelves, all papers that they were holding at the time scattered about the floor. They investigate the paperwork and find that they have hit the jackpot. Here is evidence of the cultist’s infiltration of the priesthood of Duath and citizenry throughout the city. List after list show who is in the cult, or at least its pocket, and if used in a hearing will surely unravel the whole mess. They take these documents for they are extremely valuable to their cause.

They look for names they might know and learn that Seneschal Piran Trenowith on the High Lord Protector’s Council is a cultist. As the master of coin, he would be very influential as a cultist. He oversees the payroll after all. They also see that the High Lord Marshal’s assistant Thikdrat Flatmantle’s name is also on the list.

The next room they encounter is likewise oddly shaped and the first that has been locked. On the is a shallow pool of water. The bottom is done in a mosaic showing a female eye made up in a very archaic style on top of a pyramid shape. Sitting on the floor, tied up, is Peril. They rush over to release him, and he tells them what happened.

After he was taken away by the guards from the courtroom of the Westtown District guard tower, he was taken to a cell for a while. Then the guards took him and were transporting him to the Grey and the prison. He heard them talking about it. But along the way, the wagon stopped in an alleyway. He wasn't sure what district it was in. The guards took him out and just before they hooded him, he saw some people hand over a bag of gold and lead up another person wearing a hood. He can only assume that they exchanged him with an imposter who is now in the prison. The others kept the hood on his head and took him through buildings and stairs and so on until they shoved him in this room and locked the door.

He has no weapons or armor, so he asks if anyone can spare a crossbow. Out in the hallway, Lughausen gives him his, but again, Berg is suspicious, so he uses his divine sense. This Peril emanates an evil that Peril never did before. Though he is certainly going insane, he does not radiate supernatural evil.

Berg declares this fact and attacks. Peril defends himself, casting a spell (an ability he never had before) and confuses Khragg. In short order it is revealed that this is not truly Peril, but the last green Abishai that had escaped the alleyway. He is no match for the collective might of the party. Clearly, the Abishai had hoped to turn on the party while they were engaged with something else, but Berg saw through the ruse too quickly.

In the next room is a large dome of crystal or glass, it is hard to tell which. It is hazy, and not perfectly translucent, which may be a result of the material as well as the fact that the crystal material is riddled with cracks. There is a pulsing purple-bluish light coming from the dome. A close inspection revealed that something was moving in there. However, it was not possible to tell exactly what or how many.

The party debates what to do. Is this something that the cultists wished to imprison, and therefore could potentially be an ally. Or is it just something too dangerous even for the cult? They go back and forth for a while, but ultimately decide to break it to see. Khragg uses his maul to smash the glass revealing glowing floating tentacled horrors that immediately attack.

The tentacles are twenty feet long and the bodies of the creatures’ crackles with electricity. They grapple with Elowynn, Khragg, and Berg, attempting to suck their life-force. Yannic successfully casts a slow spell that catches all three of them. This keeps their ability to harm the party at a minimum, and in short order they are killed.

Moving on, they find another room that Jikaris enters first. He immediately sees that it contains another statue to Dianc that a fiendish woman in plate armor is currently defacing. Across the room is a marilith with six arms, armed to the teeth. They attack Jikaris before he can react. The Erinyes, the first fiend, summons four bearded devils that attack Jikaris, severely wounding him. Khragg and Berg rush up to hold the line while the rest do their best to damage the fiends. The marilith fails to summon help like the first one did back at the Open Purse. The bearded devils are soon slain so the party can focus their attention on the marilith who falls next, and finally the Erinyes.

They must rest for an hour to recover before they push on. The next two rooms hold no more foes. The first is a room that the cultists have been using as a dump. It is filled with trash and broken crates and bones. The next room holds a summoning pentagram in the middle. Yannic uses his arcane knowledge to disrupt and nullify it.

Looking at the map they have been creating they realize that the rooms form the shape of a rose. Very diabolical, they think, and wonder what they will find at the flower.

They will soon see as they reach the last door at the end of the main corridor. Opening it reveals a very large room with a pool in the center and numerous statues. These statues include six trees along the walls. These trees look incredibly lifelike. The other statues in the room also look very life-like and they are in various poses, some are on their knees in supplication, others are bowing their heads. Most are facing the pool.

Jikaris, Khragg, and Berg enter the room. From behind the trees step six medusas, armed with bows and shortswords who attack. Jikaris is unable to resist meeting one of their eyes and his feet become rooted to the ground as he starts to slowly turn to stone. The medusas shoot poisoned arrows and swing with poisoned blades while their snake hair bites venomous bites. The magic of the heroes’ feast protects them from all this poison, making them immune.

With six medusas attacking, however, it became extremely difficult to avoid the petrification gaze. Jikaris shook off the first petrification after a moment and spent the rest of the combat looking down and swinging wildly. Berg did not bother looking away and unfortunately also started to turn to stone, but he too successfully fought it off.

Elowynn and Yannic were not so lucky. Elowynn is turned to stone instantly, and Yannic is first rooted to the ground as his legs turned gray, and then the rest of him followed suit a few moments later. He was unable to fight off its power.

Khragg almost succumbs as well, but his indomitable will fought it off. His blade is instrumental in killing the medusas as he stood next to Jikaris, Berg, and Sir Aiden as they battled the medusas. Lyndis and Lughausen hid in the corridor and stepped out to cast distant magic as they could. Finally, the last two medusas were killed.

Now, they must find a way to turn Elowynn and Yannic back to normal.

Now that the battle is over, they have time to take a closer look at the room. The statues are very lifelike, and now that they know that there were medusas here, they were clearly people at one time. Jikaris notices that the statue standing right next to Elowynn is in fact another tabaxi (a female), which is very unusual. Jikaris looks around the room carefully and finds an unusual patch of wall behind one of the tree statues. At first, he is unable to figure out what is going on with it. When the others come over to look, Lyndis sees the false brick and finds a secret door.

Beyond is a rough-hewn stairway leading down. This tunnel is freshly and roughly cut into the dirt and rock, which is completely unlike the rest of the underground structure they are in. They know that they must explore this tunnel, but not right now. They figure that they should wait until tomorrow, when Lughausen will be able to cast greater restoration to remove the petrification from Yannic and Elowynn.

They go back upstairs to tell the guards of their plan. However, when they arrive, they find that there is an argument going on. The lieutenant is speaking with an old man, who when he sees the party, addresses them directly. It is Ronald Hilless, a ranking priest of Hysor. He was present when the party spoke with the Duke about the nature of Hysor.

“Bah, something horrific happening all through the city. I must do my part! The others, they can go to the Castle district. I had a hunch I would be needed elsewhere! Here! You need to let me go down!”

There is a young acolyte assisting Ronald, who is probably near 90 years old and has trouble moving about. The young boy is introduced as Rene, and only recently signed on as an acolyte to the temple. They and the five guards who came with them have little new news about the city outside. Lughausen questions Ronald about his urgency and need to be there. He tells them that he was napping and had a dream. When he woke up, he just knew that he was needed. He cannot remember the dream. When he got up, everyone was running around acting crazy. The city was in an uproar.

He went to the duke and demanded assistance in getting over here. And here he is now. They mention their two companions petrified downstairs, and he says that he has greater restoration prepared. So, they go down. They reach Yannic first and Ronald fumbles for some diamond dust. It turns out that he has enough for a single casting. He casts the spell and Yannic is restored.

They go to Elowynn next and Yannic offers some of his diamond dust to the old man. He shrugs off the help of Rene, insisting that he can do it on his own. He casts the spell, but when he reaches out to touch Elowynn, he loses his balance, stumbles, and accidentally touches the female tabaxi statue instead.

Immediately, she comes back to life. She is wearing a red patchwork traveler’s coat, studded leather armor, and a rapier at her belt. She was kneeling with her hands tied behind her back. Stands up and asks in a thick accent how long she was out. She introduces herself as Solaria, and she says that she only came to the city a month ago… but that was only two months after the Great Cataclysm. She has been petrified here for all this time.

She arrived with the refugees, transported by a fiend from her homeland after she stole from him. She was born in a faraway land and had been exploring ruins searching for mysteries of history. She came upon an ancient temple of Dianc there and entered it, finding the fiend.

After she was transported to Zell, she made do as best as she could, learning the language and getting food where she could from the priests. She witnessed the raising of the Dome a month later. Then, she saw another temple of Dianc, and had to see if it had anything to do with the previous one and her transportation. But it was mostly abandoned. She found a secret door behind a fireplace, entered it, and unfortunately, ran afoul of the cult of Gomory. It is the same temple that became the Pink Pearl. They captured her, brought her to the medusa, and petrified her.

They agree to let her travel with them for now.

The party offers more diamond dust to Ronald to restore Elowynn, but he is out of 5^th level spell slots now. They decide again to rest until tomorrow, but Ronald insists that he was needed now. This convinces Lughausen to cast an augury ritual and ask if it is a good idea to wait until tomorrow. After the ritual is complete, Lughausen says we must go now.

So, leaving Elowynn behind and taking Solaria, the party descends. The way is too steep and dangerous for Ronald, however. He very much wants to go, but the acolyte Rene insists that he must stay behind, and Ronald agrees reluctantly. He will stay put in the room until they call for him.

Down the rough-cut stairs at the bottom, they must descend pitons that have been hammered into the rock through a hole in the floor to another very rough-cut tunnel. They can see tool marks. There is no sign of finishing in this passageway. Just haste.

The tunnel goes in a straight shot in one direction. It meanders a bit here and there, but always returns to the original direction. It is not clear why it loops around certain areas. Perhaps there is something underground that they were going around? They realize that a lot of the tunnel was done with magic such as the stone shape spell.

After about 20 minutes of travel, they come to a dead end, strangely enough. The sharp-eyed Jikaris notices, however that on the floor, in an area of about one foot in diameter, the cut and shaped stone of the tunnel changes. There are fitted stone blocks sealed with mortar. One of the exposed joints has had a small hole cut into it, just enough for one to put an eye to.

Jikaris does so and sees that beneath them is a crossways corridor of this finished stone-and-mortar construction. He can see no occupants but does see doors at either end. He also hears a faint moaning, as if someone in pain.

It is quick straightforward work to break through and enlarge the hole so they can drop down. They use a stone shape themselves for the job and even fashion the stone in such a way as to make it easy to get back up again. Carefully, they approach the end of the corridor where they heard the moaning. Everyone can hear it now that the hole has been enlarged and they are down.

The doorway is a double door made of stone. Carved into the face is a shield. As Jikaris checks it for traps, the moaning stops. Khragg opens the door. Beyond is a large rectangular room. On the far end is a defensive fortification of spikes around a second double-door, also with the shield carved upon it. There are bodies of a eight priests here. Two of them are propped up against the far doors, one of which is ajar. The other priests’ bodies are arrayed around. All have their weapons out, evidence that they fought each other. Six of the priests have the same burned-out eyes and ligature marks around their necks as the party found before on the cultists.

The story is clear, the two priests held the door with their last breath against the other six but were killed in the process. The moaning came from one of the priests, who has the look of the freshly dead, blood trickling from a wound on his neck. Berg decides to cast a revivify spell upon the priest, but the soul does not wish to return. Perhaps the guard believed that he did his duty, or perhaps he could not bear to return to the world.

They go through the doors into another corridor that travels a short distance, turning along the way slightly. It too ends with another set of double doors with the shield design upon it. Jikaris checks it for traps. It is not even locked. Khragg opens it to find a larger room than the previous. The ceiling of this room extends up to twenty feet. Along the right way is another set of double doors, but these are much larger and more ornate. A mosaic on the floor in front of these doors shows a much more elaborate shield of Duath.

However, there are guardians here. Four iron golems awake when the party opens the door and advance menacingly. The party tries think of a password, and they also brandish the holy symbols of Duath that they found in the Wizard School of Abjuration. But the golems appear to need a different key to allow them to pass. They attack.

Solaria rushes into the room, along with her familiar raccoon Nova that she re-summoned before descending. She underestimated the danger, however. The golems smash Nova to fey dust, sending the animal back to the Fey realm from whence it was just summoned. Solaria takes many wounds and must retreat to the corridor using her magic.

Khragg, Berg, Sir Aiden hold the front line while the rest of the casters use their magic to fight the golems. Yannic traps one in an otiluke’s resilient sphere, reducing the number of foes they must face at once. One by one, the golems are broken to bits of metal. Khragg takes the brunt of the damage once Solaria retreats, and he must be healed several times before he can be knocked unconscious. At last, the final golem falls.

Jikaris checks these large doors and finds that they are locked with an extremely elaborate lock, but it is not trapped. It takes the utmost of his skill to open the lock with his tools, but he succeeds. Beyond is another corridor ending in more double doors, but these are not locked.

Beyond is a massive natural cavern, some 300-400 feet in diameter. A pool of water is in the center, but there is plenty of room for walking around it. Rising out of the center of the pool is a gargantuan pedestal of old yellowed stone about 30 feet in diameter. Surrounding the pedestal are seven large stones about chest high out of the water. Each of those seven stones has a flat face pointing outward from the center towards the shore. On the far side of the cavern can be seen three altars, framed by two large pillars.

The main thing drawing everyone’s attention, however, is what is upon the large pedestal in the pool. There is a body on the pedestal. He is gargantuan, standing 25 feet tall, with features that are quite human despite the size. However, his skin is flame red that changes color subtly through the red spectrum from his chest downward to his feet, which are bare. On his forehead are two black horns that curve backwards like a ram, polished obsidian with thin veins of gold in them like marble. His nails are likewise the same color scheme of black and gold. His hair too is jet black, slicked back and short to the nape of his neck.

He wears nothing but a kilt of brilliant white, loose-fitting, and simple. His chest is bare and ripples with muscles, perfect and chiseled like out of stone, much like his entire body. One is reminded of a Greek wrestler. He wears no adornments nor jewelry.

He lays on his back, yet his upper torso turned somewhat with one shoulder on the ground and the other above, both arms on one side.

At his heart is an open wound perhaps from a thrust blade or spear that is clean through to his back. It bleeds slowly, black blood, and as each drop slowly travels down the side of his chest one can see that there is a golden nimbus about it. When the drop hits the stone, it sizzles and vanishes.

Is he freshly killed? Does he live? The wound bleeds still, yet there is no sign of life.

Everyone racks their brains to see if they can remember or recognize this being from anything they had been taught or read. Until Lughausen remembers the legend lore spell he cast a mere few days ago from the top of Crystal Basin in the Castle District. There he identified that lake as once being known as the Eye of Duath, and that this hill was the site of an important battle during the War of Maaluk where Duath, Hysor, Foersyn, and Nuath fought demon hordes. This body here, is that of Maaluk himself.

Lughausen looks at him with a medicinal eye, and from all indications, this is a dead body, but the bleeding says otherwise. The gold nimbus suggests that they are in the presence of divinity, further confirming his vision.

Some in the party think that this here is the source of the Dome.

Carefully, the party begins to walk around to get a closer look at the altars in the back. However, as Khragg, who is in the lead, takes a few steps that take him closer to the pool, the nearest flat stone begins to glow and form pictures upon it. He takes another step, and the picture gets clearer still. Emboldened, he gets closer until the picture is crystal clear and magically everyone’s perspective changes. They are not viewing pictures on a stone but are transported to a living scene of history.

A black cloud shimmers in the center of a circle of flame. Three figures stand outside the circle at equal points of a triangle. The first's face is cloaked in shadow, his clothing nondescript and forgetful. He holds his hands at his side, yet one is turned slightly, revealing a palmed dagger - perhaps intentionally showing you that he had you tricked, yet chose not to. It is Loghi.

The second is bald, clothed in silver robes. Swirling about him is a cloud of dust, pulling at the robes perpetually. His eyes shine with eerie silvery light. This is Modil, the Dustbringer.

The last is a form wreathed in flame. Not made of flame, but his form is constantly surrounded and outlined by billowing and swirling fires. Hair the color of ash, eyes that burn red and angry. He wears no clothes - the fire serves this purpose. This is Surgyth.

Their focus on the black cloud intensifies and golden light erupts from each and blasts towards the black cloud, and you instinctively shield your eyes from the sight of raw divine flux. The cloud writhes and coalesces until a figure emerges, stepping forth upon the ground. It is the figure that lays upon the pedestal, though at a time before the wound. The name reverberates in your mind. Prince Maaluk, a demigod.

The vision ends, and the stone no longer glows. Khragg, with the party following, moves to the second stone clockwise, and the glowing repeats and a second vision manifests in the party’s minds.

Maaluk at the head of an army of fiends, dragons, undead horrors that number in the millions. They lay waste to beautiful city after beautiful city. Soaring buildings of an alien architecture that seems to be one with the land that is recognized as Reyman. This is the War of Maaluk that nearly consumed the empire three thousand years ago.

The third stone reveals:

Surgyth surrounded by flaming fiends, those demons and devils that thrive on fire and elementals of fire and a conflagration unending. The wildfires spurred by the army of flame consume entire country sides without any way to stop them. The point of view for this vision goes up into the sky until one can see that the conflagration consumes a region the size of a country. It is not clear where this is.

The fourth vision is this:

Modil raising his hands at a mountain in the distance that shakes itself apart. The entire side of the mountain collapses into an avalanche the size and scope of which is incomprehensible. There was a city there, sprawling across the peaks and cliffs, but no more.

The fifth stone shows this:

A battle on a large hill surrounded by a forest. Atop the hill is a crystal-clear small lake that cascades down a waterfall to a much larger lake at the base of the hill. It is the same hill that Zell now sits upon without the city. The hill is surrounded by legions of fiends that writhe like a living organism as they fight armies of elves, dwarves, birdmen, lizardmen, frogmen, goliaths, and even celestial winged angels, and multitudes of dragons that hold the hill. In the back of the attackers stands Maaluk, resplendent and issuing commands.

A bright fey general uses a gleaming bow formed from a single tree branch to slay two of Maaluk's lieutenants, while Duath, in his perfect armor holds back an entire flank with his shield, Hysor leads the dragons astride a golden dragon that glows with light. They rain fire, lightning, acid, thunder, and cold upon the ranks. Vodethyn, fully armored and wielding a massive glaive sweeps aside whole platoons of devils. In the middle of the defenders, stands another Aspect, clothed in a brown and blue toga holding aloft a gleaming talisman that shines, emanating some sort of power over the area. This is Foersyn. The tide turns against Maaluk, and he must pull his forces back from the hill. Yet, they must stride over fallen legions of the forces of light as they do so. This is the Battle of Souls Despair.

The sixth vision is this:

A battle in a black forest. The trees are gnarled and close together, growing a canopy so thick that the sun rarely shines upon the ground. Maaluk leads his forces of darkness against an army of defenders of light. Elves, dwarves, centaurs, metallic dragons, and others can be seen. Standing with that army is Duath, in his perfect armor, Hysor, gleaming white and mounted upon the golden dragon, a bright white banner unfurled, and Nuath, a spear in each hand. The Aspects participate in the battle, yet it is not enough.

The bright fey general from before uses the gleaming bow to slay the Behemoth of the Nether Regions - a nightmare horror the likes your mind cannot comprehend - you all see it, but words fail to describe it. But Maaluk directs a cadre of pit fiends to the general's position, and they rip him apart, stealing the gleaming bow. The battle is lost for the forces of light, and they must retreat or be consumed. This is the Battle of the Black Forest.

The final stone shows the last moment of history:

The point of view swoops in from the sky. As it does, you see a massive sprawling city across numerous hills, miles and miles covered by buildings, plazas, spiderwebbed by countless roads. You each thought Zell was big, but many cities the size of Zell would fit in this city and still not cover it all. Glimpses are caught of sprawling villas, fountains of fire, water, and ice, gleaming doorways standing in mid-air, and all manner of magnificent building of white marble.

Atop one hill is a magnificent single building that must cover a mile all by itself. Gleaming white stone towering above all other buildings, it must be a palace, but unlike any you have heard of, grandest of all. Two wings surround a courtyard, with polished steps leading up to grand 50-foot doors. Two fountains stand at the ends of the front wings, each surrounded by majestic statues. From these structures of white marble spires fly thousands of banners all depicting various symbols of heraldry that go by too quick to see.

The city is ablaze.

The armies of Maaluk swarm through the streets, including the usual fiends, undead, chromatic dragons. They face off in a chaotic battle with the usual fey, dwarf, giant, and metallic dragon. Vodethyn can be seen again, hewing at the tide of darkness with his gleaming glaive. Surgyth can be seen in the background leveling whole neighborhoods in conflagration. Hysor flies above astride the gleaming gold dragon once again, rallying the forces of light, waving his banner.

The courtyard in front of the palace is held clear by Duath, holding his shield, and keeping a dark tide from engulfing it. Next to him stands Foersyn again holding up his talisman of natural law. In the courtyard stands Maaluk, facing off with Nuath in single combat. Maaluk wields a black trident that pulses with power and drips ichor while Nuath dual-wields his two spears, Might and Right. It is the eye of a storm, titanic forces fighting all around them through this magnificent city, the city of Reym.

Nuath's spear ends the battle and ends the war as it pierces the breast of Maaluk through the heart, and he falls to be still.

The party’s eyes focus on the fallen body again, noting the wound, the wound from Nuath’s spear some three thousand years ago.

Khragg immediately asks, “How did the body end up here?” They do not know. They review what they know of the High Temple of Duath. Lyndis tells them that she has never been here, never seen this place or heard it even existed. She and Sir Aiden are as wide-eyed as the rest of the party about these revelations. She tells them that the High Temple was built upon this spot because it was here that Duath revealed Himself to the first High Lord Protector, Garrold Selig in the year 18. Duath bade him to build the temple here upon the hill.

Was the body here already? Or was it moved here? No one knows.

They decide to take a closer look now at the three altars. As they approach, they see that there are also three chests against the back wall. Upon the first altar is a delicate balance of scales made of the purist silver, made by a master craftsman. The second altar holds a twelve-foot simple wooden pole with a pure white banner furled upon it. The last altar has a small plinth upon which rests a palm-sized hexagonal shaped disk of silver. In the middle is the raised relief of a mountain with a river cascading down it in a waterfall. It moves as one looks at it, the water flowing.

They recognize the banner that Hysor held from the visions. They recognize the talisman as well, held by Foersyn. They also easily associate the balance with Vodethyn.

They do not touch them. They decide to investigate the chests, after Jikaris checks each for traps. None are trapped, and none are even locked.

Each chest contains a single item in a velvet-filled interior. The first contains a magnificent gleaming longbow made from a single tree branch of unknown wood that has a soft silvery veining. No cut marks of any kind can be seen. They immediately recognize it as being held by the fey general from the visions. The second chest holds a magnificent suit of half-plate armor fit for a priest. Oddly, the area on the chest where a holy symbol would be placed is blank. The last chest holds a staff, with a polished surface of black wood completely covered in runes.

More discussion follows. Are the three items on the altar replicas or the real thing? The actual possessions of the Aspects? Lughausen settles the question by casting his last legend lore spell upon the talisman upon the plinth. He learns that this is the Talisman of Foersyn, fashioned thousands of years ago by the Dwarves of Dun at the behest of, and for Foersyn. The Aspect owned, carried, and used this exact Talisman during the War of Maaluk and beyond.

They are dumbfounded. What is it doing here? Does it keep the body in place? Contained? Does it have anything to do with the Dome?

After more discussion, it is decided that they must know more about these items. Lughausen will use an identify ritual. First, he will learn about the three items in the chests.

He learns that the bow has been named Spitter, bestows enhanced powerful magical accuracy and damage, and each arrow fired from it deals additional acid damage to its target.

The suit of armor is magically enhanced with powerful protections to keep the wearer safe from wounds. After he finishes his ritual, he notes that the symbol of Epolde has begun to appear on the chest plate. The suit clearly aligns to the Aspect of the wearer.

The staff is a staff of power that contains many powerful wizard spells that use some of the charges the staff accumulates at the dawn of each day.

Each of these are the most powerful magic items ever made for mortal hands.

He then turns to the artifacts on the altars.

First, the balance. He learns that this is Justice’s Balance, a holy relic of Vodethyn. It has the power to detect evil, reveal truth, and the power to magically imprison a criminal, provided that the imprisonment is just in Vodethyn’s eyes.

Next, the talisman. He learns that it is the Talisman of Foersyn with the power to dispel magic and erect a field of pure anti-magic.

Last, the banner. He learns that it is the Banner of Hysor. While this banner is unfurled, the army that follows or is allied to the bearer is immune to fear. If the banner is planted in the ground, all allies that can see it have advantage against spells and magic.

After all this, Lughausen is also certain that none of these objects contribute to or affect the body on the pedestal’s condition, nor do they contribute to the Dome of magic around the city. It would be safe to remove them.

A serious discussion follows. Should they take these items? Risk the anger of the priesthood of Duath?

They decide that they must. The Vault has been breached by the cult of Gomory. It is safe here no longer. They remove the items. The staff is given to Yannic. Lughausen puts the suit of armor on. Khragg takes Spitter for now, intending to give it to Elowynn. Sir Aiden is given care of the Banner of Hysor. The Talisman of Foersyn is given to Jikaris. Justice’s Balance is given to Berg.

Now, it is time to rest. A few go back to update Ronald, then they return to camp in the Vault itself. The safest place they can think of.

Several hours later, during the second watch, Khragg is in front of the large doors when they open. There stands High Marshal Thaugot Silverhand in front of a column of guards and priests. He is heavily wounded, his shoulder wrapped in bandages, his arm in a sling, and bruises and cuts upon his face. There is a look of complete shock on his face.

“I did not expect you!”

He takes in the scene, notes the body on the pedestal is undisturbed and thinks for a moment. Khragg quickly tells him that it was the cult that breached the vault, and that they just followed the tunnel. The High Marshal gestures back and tells Khragg that he has already sent men down the tunnel to investigate where it originated.

At last, he tells Khragg, “Wake the others. You are all coming with me. We’re going to the High Lord Protector’s Council. Now.”

Khragg does not argue with the High Marshal and the sixty or so men behind him. The others are awakened. No mention is made of Lughausen in the armor, or the missing items. They are simply escorted out of the vault. The path is straightforward through the first room with the dead priests, and then six more just like it. Each room has a fortification of spikes and a cadre of guards that had the duty of holding it against someone trying to get to the Vault.

In each room, they see bodies of the faithful holding the doors against the bodies of the revealed cultists – burned out eyes and strangled necks.

As the High Marshal leads the party up to be brought before the High Lord Protector’s Council, they pass hundreds of guards swarming these rooms, dealing with the fallen. The party realizes that if they had come tomorrow as they were planning to before the arrival of Ronald, these guards would have been between them and the Vault. The guards would never have let them see it, much less take from it. They would have been turned away at the least. More likely, they would have been arrested for entering through a tunnel breach.

Especially assuming that the party would have no stomach for killing hundreds of loyal priests of Duath to reach the Vault, it was a vital choice that they went immediately instead of waiting to gain the knowledge that they have now.

Lughausen at least, and perhaps the rest of the party, sees Roland’s mysterious urgency and Lughausen’s augury in a new light. They have seen the secret of the Vault. Now, they will go before the Council and have an opportunity to ask for forgiveness instead of permission.

As they walked upwards through the corridors of the High Temple of Duath, they passed a lot of activity. There were priests bustling everywhere, some stopped to give a brief report to the Lord High Marshal as he led the party upwards. Soon, they saw signs of more battle. Sheet-covered bodies were seen through the doorway of a room here, bloodstains in the corridor there, and sometimes damage that obviously came from divine magic being used offensively.

At last, they reached corridors that were clearly aboveground as the light streamed in through stained glass, and eventually they are led down larger corridors that they recognized from their first trip to the High temple. In short order, they were brought into the same throne room where they had their first meeting with the High Lord Protector and his council.

The guards led them in and directed them before the great table up on the dais. The High Lord Marshal ascended the steps and went behind the table to slump in the seat to the left of the larger chair. However, that chair, the one the High Lord Protector occupied before, was vacant. On the other side was seated the older elf gentlemen. Lyndis whispered to the party to remind them that this was Chancellor Ewen Lawrence. Next to him sat the High Justiciar Tiso Parron whom they had recently received judgement from. There were two other empty chairs up there. One for the Chamberlain, and the other for the Seneschal.

Seated on the near side of the table to the party’s right, opposite the chair that was occupied by the Chamberlain, sat an older man, apparently human, though with a goatee. He was present in the first meeting. Lyndis whispered that it was the Honorable Arash.

Standing on the left side of the table on the near side were two others. The first was a woman probably, in her thirties or forties with blonde hair, outfitted in immaculate armor with the symbol of Duath on the breast plate. Near her paced a dwarf, similarly attired, with long blond hair pulled back into a ponytail. When he saw the party enter, the perceptive in the group saw him flash, for a moment, a broad excited grin.

The Lord High Marshal quickly informed the others that the Vault had been breached, and the battling had reached all the way down to the guards there. He found the party in the Vault to his surprise. The Chancellor looked concerned and started to address the party to ask them to explain themselves. Both Yannic and Berg started muttering about doing the priesthood’s job, but Sir Aiden stepped forward and made a formal request that Duke Rowntree be summoned before they give their story. The others in the party agreed and put their words behind the request. The Chancellor looked to the others and said, “Very well, he will be summoned.”

He nodded to the guards and runners left the throne room, while others brought over several chairs for the party a good distance away from the table out of earshot. Here, the party caucused in hushed whispers. Sir Aiden admitted that his request for the duke had two purposes. Of course, the duke should be present, but the time to summon him also lets the party strategize their story and response to the questioning to come. Sir Aiden had noticed the heated retorts coming from the party and begged that the party be reasonable and consider their position and the position of the High Lord Protector’s Council. He cautioned that the party should not antagonize them because this is their opportunity to make a good argument for the lowering of the Dome. It should be a good, well-reasoned plea.

Khragg surprisingly seemed much more level-headed than in previous confrontations with the priesthood, and agreed with Sir Aiden, as did Berg, who visibly calmed himself after the reasoned words of the paladin. They planned their words, and it was decided that Lughausen, with his bardic training and seniority, would begin the narrative and the argument. Speaking of Lughausen, he noticed that many glances from those present at the table were directed at him, or more specifically, his armor. He and the others wondered how they will convince the priests that they should keep the artifacts, including the armor, that they recovered from the Vault, for they had no intention of surrendering them. A few moments later, when Lughausen caught another glance from the Chancellor at him, he realized that it isn’t anger that he was seeing on their faces, but fear and ill-ease.

A short time later, the door to the throne room opened and guards escorted Elowynn in. She told them that a priest freed her and then the guards escorted her here immediately after. They quickly filled her in, while Khragg immediately passed the great bow Spitter to her. Yannic also passed his wand of the war mage over to Solaria because he now had the staff of power.

Some time after that, the doors opened again, revealing Duke John Rowntree and Thodris Rakankrak, the prelate priest of Hysor from the temple of Hysor here in Zell. As he strode forward, Sir Aiden murmured a few words in his ear as the guards indicated that the rest of the party should approach the dais again with the duke as the Chancellor beckoned them forward.

The Chancellor addressed the party first, “Much has happened in the last day, and we are sorely pressed. As you can see, we have vacant seats. Seneschal Trenowith attacked and killed the High Lord Protector, and he was in turn slain by the High Lord’s guards. His assistant, the Honorable Emerton lead an attack on the priests that maintain the Dome and was nearly successful in destroying them. The High Lord Marshal’s second, Commander Flatmantle, attempted to kill him. We are fortunate the High Lord has lost little of his old prowess. Chamberlain Branco was killed in the fighting. Honorable Arash has not been named to the council in her place, though he sits with us. We must wait for the decision of the new High Lord Protector, when he or she is named.” He glanced at the other lady and dwarf, “But now is not the time to name a new High Lord Protector, though Protector Fathi and Protector Vaniak might think otherwise. First, we must secure the city. Now, tell us how you came to be in our Vault.”

Lughausen began to talk, telling the council the story of how they had found the source of the very ancient evil that had been trapped under the Dome in the city from the very beginning, unbeknownst to the very council they were standing before. Lughausen gave a very good oratory performance with his budding bardic skills, explaining the fight with Gomory and the secret tunnel from the Pink Pearl to the Vault itself. He used a tone that was only a little accusatory of the failing of the priesthood to deal with this threat until the party did it for them. Instead, he focused on the argument that it was time for the Dome to come down so that the priesthood of Duath and the city of Zell could show its light to the world again, now having been cleansed of evil. The Confederation of Cities was located nearby and could use a partner, perhaps a leader, to join with and rebuild the world outside.

The duke stepped forward and agreed that the Dome must come down. It did little to stop the evil that was in their midst and does not protect them from anything but makes them ignorant of the world outside. He reminded the council that he has always made his intention clear – to march in force northward to Gwynyth Raius to discover the state of the kingdom and give aid if he must. They could be partners in this, and some in the party, such as Yannic, agreed with this course of action. He too wanted to see what has happened to Gwynyth Raius.

Protector Vaniak added his voice to the argument. He thinks it is time to drop the Dome once and for all, and to take charge and lead the priesthood to glory. They could hear and see the excitement in his eyes. The party spoke again after, saying that the Dome does not necessarily need to be dropped entirely. Perhaps it could be put just around the High Temple. After all, it was once around the entire country and its area was reduced once to include Zell now. It could be moved again. It should be kept around the body of Maaluk at the very least, for that must be protected at all costs. The party casually mentioned the name in this company and wondered afterward if they should be speaking so openly about it, but the council did not appear to react negatively to the mention.

Protector Fathi spoke next, agreeing that the Dome should be kept as a necessary defense to the city and the High Temple, but perhaps as a tool when it is needed instead of an ultimate permanent barrier. She reminded them that they still know nothing about the outside world and its threats because they are blind.

Chancellor Ewen spoke next, admitting that they weren’t as blind and ignorant as everyone assumes. As spymaster his job is intelligence, and it would hardly make sense to know nothing of the outside world. He admitted they have sent groups out beyond the Dome from time to time, and even nodded to the Honorable Arash, saying that he was one such agent of his many years ago. The party asked how long he spent out there, and he answered only a few weeks, but enough to learn much of the area.

The Chancellor changed the subject, suggesting that decisions such as the Dome must also be made once a new High Lord Protector was named. Again, this was not the time for such decisions. “We must now talk about the contents of the Vault. Yes, of course, the body of Maaluk must be protected, but there were other things there as well we must consider. It is an ill-omened day indeed when the armor of Andreas Juhl is worn again.”

Lughausen recognized the name from his religious teachings, but Yannic asked the immediate question, “Who is that?”

Chancellor Ewen explained, “The High Priest of Modil, who led an army of destruction against the High Temple in its early days, in 241. They sacked Zell but were unable to penetrate the High Temple. He was slain and his armor put in the Vault. An ill-omened day indeed, though I see that the armor now bears the symbol of Epolde, so I am unsure what this means. The other things in the vault I see you have taken.”

The party spoke up individually, making arguments as to the wisdom of keeping powerful tools locked up that could otherwise be used in the fight against evil. The High Lord Marshal nodded, while the High Justiciar shook his head in disagreement, much like he did during the discussion of dropping the Dome. It was clear he is a traditional man who believes that the protection of Duath in the form of the Dome should remain.

Chancellor Ewen spoke again, “It is late, and we are all weary. We have much to consider, and we will resume this discussion tomorrow. You will be given rooms here in the High Temple.”

A clear dismissal, the guards led the party, the duke, and the prelate out to another part of the High Temple. This was a corridor with barracks filled with beds in separate rooms. The party split in two rooms across from each other, while the Duke, Sir Aiden, and Thodris took another room. They were heard talking within after they closed the door.

The party was exhausted but decided that they must remain alert and have watches. Those on watch would stand in the corridor outside the two rooms so they could see if anyone or anything approached.

Sure enough, shortly into the first watch, Yannic and Lughausen were standing outside when Protector Vaniak approached them. The dwarf spoke to them of the exciting world outside and what must be done to convince the others that he was the right choice for High Lord Protector. He would lead Zell out and join the Confederation, taking charge of it and reforging a new kingdom from them and Zell. He openly asked for whatever support they could give him to get him named to the position.

After he left, Lughausen and Yannic felt that Protector Vaniak’s views aligned well with their goals, and he would make a good choice.

During second watch, Khragg, Elowynn, and Jikaris were outside when Protector Fathi approached. She spoke with them about her concerns for the people of Zell. What will happen to them, the innocents, in all of this. This battle, the dropping of the Dome should that occur. She disagreed with the High Lord Protector on his strict rule, which is why he never named her as his successor. She did not ask directly for their support at all in being named the High Lord Protector but was instead restless and wanted to speak more to the party about her concerns for the future. She came across as more thoughtful and cautious, but genuinely willing to protect the innocent first and foremost. She did not linger long and went to bed after the short conversation.

The exhausted party was finally able to rest after a very long day.

3/17/1151 – The next morning, the party felt a renewed and increased strength as they leveled to 14. Khragg continued to be more thoughtful that morning, and practiced maneuvers with his blade. From now on, he would be thinking more tactically. Lughausen had decided to focus on his bardic abilities and had joined the bardic College of Lore.

The duke, Sir Aiden, and Thodris entered their room to discuss yesterday’s meeting and what they would plan for their next meeting with the Council. They party told the duke about the visit from the two protectors during the night. They discussed which candidate might be the best choice for High Lord Protector. Lughausen and the Duke wanted to support Vaniak, while the others thought the caution of Fathi was preferred. The young duke is just as impulsive as Vaniak, and he let the party know that he has had many discussions about expeditions north with Vaniak in the past. They discussed it for a while and reluctantly, Lughausen and the Duke went along with the others’ decision.

When they were called back to the throne room, the same people were present as the day before. However, Arash now sat in the Chamberlain’s seat, temporarily the Chancellor states, but they needed to make certain moves to keep the government running. Vaniak again made his case for dropping the Dome and naming a High Lord Protector, and the duke stepped forward and very subtly glanced at Fathi while suggesting that they be cautious but consider all options for the next High Lord Protector. Vaniak’s face reddened as he knew the duke and the party had put their support behind Fathi.

The Chancellor again repeated that they will not select a High Lord Protector just yet but must first consider the implications of Gomory’s near success at infiltrating the priesthood and reaching the Vault. They must discuss the items in the party’s possession, and the Council had not yet decided that they should or should not be put back.

However, before the meeting went much further, a priest came running into the chamber raising the alarm. Multiple groups of people had just penetrated the Dome from the outside. Small groups of less than ten each, six in total had crossed the Dome from all directions, surrounding the city. The High Lord Marshal leapt to his feet, looking much better than he did the day before, and shouted, “Who dares attack my city!”

The party immediately assumed that it must be Karzhad coming for the Vault. Yannic made another leap of logic and suggested that Karzhad and the others must be heading to the Pink Pearl. However, the others wondered how Karzhad could possibly know of what had transpired in the Dome. There was no possibility of communication through it.

The Chancellor asked the party if they left any of the holy symbols or casting focuses behind in Gyswyl, and they assured him they took them all. He also revealed that one of the missions of the groups sent out from the Dome was to collect these things so that fewer people would be able to cross the Dome to begin with.

They decided to go to the tower to see if they can observe the forces that had crossed over. The nature of the multi-pronged crossing seemed too deliberate and coordinated to be peaceful. From the top of the tower, they used spyglasses to search, but did not see any details. The Council decided that the city guard must be mobilized and sent to each of the districts in the direct path of each of the six groups. The duke volunteered his forces to meet one, so the guard was not spread so thin. Likewise, the party volunteered to assist in the same way. The Chancellor and High Lord Marshal agreed and the decision about the equipment from the Vault is tabled. The party would be permitted to take the equipment with them to meet the threat.

The duke would deploy to Military Town, while it was decided that the party would go to Hayford. They descended to the courtyard where the priesthood and guard were mobilizing. Runners preceded them with orders as they started to make their way to Hayford.

As they passed through the Green, however, Jikaris suddenly wondered if Yannic might have been on to something with his remarks earlier. Wasn’t Karzhad known for using distractions to direct his enemy’s attention elsewhere while he worked? He brought this up, and Khragg and the others absolutely agreed that Karzhad’s modus operandi was exactly that. Jikaris then pointed to the Pink Pearl, which they were passing, and asked where the guards were? The party immediately redirected and ran towards the brothel.

A few hundred feet away from the building, a rip in space opened at ground level. A portal through which they could see a purple sky. Floating in that sky was a large island of black stone. And upon that island was a black fortress. Stepping through the portal were six figures, and after the last placed their feet upon the ground in front of the Pink Pearl, the portal closed.

Both Lughausen and Yannic were certain that they just witnessed a planar portal open, and they realized that only divine power could create such a thing that could bypass the Dome. How had Karzhad gotten access to that? Further, Yannic got a good look at the island floating in the sky and immediately remembered the vision he received from the Tree of Death at the High Temple of Arawn. It was the same place, and he wondered again at what power is caged there and who ruled it.

They had no further time to contemplate large questions like that, because the six figures were readying themselves to attack.

The first through was a goblin surrounded by a swarm of black files. He wore fine leather armor and wielded an exquisite crossbow. They later learned his name was Cor.

The second was a race they do not recognize. He had blue skin and hair that rises and sways in the air like it would if it were underwater. His dress was of a culture alien to them all, with brightly dyed fabrics, and he has white eyes that stare malevolently at the party. Floating about his head were seven glowing stars of energy. His name they would learn was Faadil al-Hassan.

The third is a creature they had encountered before – a githyanki. A woman of that race who was clad in beautiful plate armor. As soon as she stepped through, she cast a spell and vanished from view. She would be named Sessa.

The fourth and fifth were a pair of dwarf twins. They were very old with gray hair but emanated power and skill. They looked alike, twins, and lightning shrouded them in different ways as they prepared for battle. The overcast sky took on a darker stormy cast as one of the dwarves prepared to cast spells, while the other was wreathed in lightning as he raged, drew a greatsword and charged. These were Vrenig and Wenig Platehorn.

The last figure was shrouded in shadow, hooded, and cloaked, though they could see fabulous plate armor, a brilliant shiny shield, and a wicked battleaxe in his hand. He stood on the grass for a moment, then shadowy wings rose from his back, and he rose slightly in the air. The shroud of necrotic energy wreathed him, and it was Karzhad, their foe.

They had come to find the Vault, Karzhad, the dwarven Platehorn twins, and the rest of his evil party. The party rushed to the attack.

Solaria and Yannic moved closer and Yannic unleashed a fireball to the distant enemy using his new ability to overchannel the fire to do maximum damage. He caught all the enemy in the blast, including the invisible Sessa.

The enemy advanced, Karzhad casting a spell and blinking out of existence. Faadil attacked Yannic with a bolt from the crown of stars, then fired eldritch blasts at him, wounding him. He was clearly a warlock. Khragg and Elowynn moved up and she shot at Faadil with her bow.

Yannic was exposed and a target after blasting the enemy with fire, so Lyndis tried to protect him with a shield of faith. But it was no protection against the invisible Sessa who cast a chain lightning at Yannic, Berg, Khragg, and Lyndis who lost concentration on her protective spell.

Jikaris immediately knew that he must use is new blindsense to deal with the invisible Sessa, so he cast invisibility himself and started to make his way carefully through the battlefield to deal with her.

Yannic was nearly done, and the goblin Cor shot at Yannic, knocking him unconscious, and then shot at Lyndis. Wenig Platehorn moved up and cast a fire storm engulfing Berg, Solaria, Khragg, Lughausen, Yannic in raging flame. Lyndis was knocked unconscious.

Lughausen cast heal on Yannic, getting him back up and into the fight. Solaria cast ray of frost on Vrenig as he approached wreathed in his lightning rage. Yannic, back on his feet, cast another fireball at Faadil, Wenig, and Cor.

Vrenig used his storm aura on Berg and swung his greatsword at him with a critical hit, nearly taking his arm off. They saw that his greatsword was supernaturally and magically sharp. Karzhad blinked in, cast haste on himself, moved then blinked out of existence again.

Faadil tried to feeblemind Yannic who resisted, and then used another star from his crown of stars, damaging the freshly healed Yannic.

Khragg swung at Vrenig a few times now that they were engaged, using some maneuvers to allow Elowynn to shoot at Faadil, and action surged to gain more attacks at the raging dwarf. Elowynn shot at Faadil again, taking him down to unconsciousness. Lyndis miraculously woke up on her own, rolling a 20 on her death save. Then she stood up and cured her own wounds.

Sessa moved into position while invisible still and cast a distant cone of cold with her sorcerous abilities getting Lughausen, Yannic, Khragg, Berg, Solaria, Elowynn and her ally Vrenig in the blast. Berg was knocked unconscious. Jikaris moved closer to Sessa’s last position, but the battlefield is large, and it was taking time.

Berg also miraculously rolled a 20 on his death save, waking up on his own and then laid on hands upon himself. He also cast spiritual weapon and attacked Vrenig with it. Cor moved and shot Yannic, knocking him unconscious again. Then he started shooting at Elowynn since she was being very dangerous with the bow, Spitter.

Wenig healed the wounds on Faadil, bringing him back up and into the fray. Lughausen answered by casting a mass cure wounds on Solaria, himself, Lyndis, and Yannic. Yannic had enough of being a clear target and cast greater invisibility and moved away, much like Sessa had been.

Solaria used her booming blade to attack Vrenig. Vrenig responded by turning his attention to her, a mage. It was obvious that his specialty is dealing with casters. He swung at her, nearly taking her arm off with his sharp greatsword.

Karzhad blinked in, moved, teleported with an arcane charge right behind the group adjacent to Lughausen, unleashed on him with his battleaxe of wounding, and then action surged with six attacks nearly killing him outright. Lughausen’s wounds bled deeply. Karzhad did not blink away this time, but stayed adjacent to Lughausen and threatening him.

Faadil used the crown of stars on Elowynn, then threw three eldritch blasts at her. She had been hurting him seriously and he turned his attention to her now that Yannic was no longer in sight. However, Elowynn shot back at her next opportunity and took him down once again.

Khragg stayed on Vrenig, even though Karzhad, his sworn enemy, was close and attacking his companion, Lughausen. Sessa cast another distant cone of cold, damaging Khragg, Berg, Solaria, Lughausen, Yannic, Lyndis, and Vrenig. Solaria went down. Jikaris had now finally gotten close enough to sense Sessa and attacked her with a sneak attack. She was surprised but kept her concentration on her greater invisibility spell and was hurt badly.

Berg attacked and smote Vrenig with divine power, finally knocking Vrenig to what should have been unconsciousness, but he relentlessly raged and kept his feet. Berg hit him again, and still Vrenig stood despite wounds that should be mortal. Cor shot at Elowynn, knocking her unconscious on his last shot.

Wenig cast another mass cure wounds on himself, Vrenig, Cor, keeping his barbarian twin on his feet. Lughausen’s wounds bled, knocking him unconscious, but his death ward fired and saved his life, keeping him alert and in the fray. Lughausen cast a mass cure wounds again on himself, Berg, Solaria, Elowynn, and Lyndis, bringing two back from the brink. He moved out of the way as best as he could.

Solaria attempted to move away from Vrenig, but he used his sentinel feat to attack her and keep her close, knocking her unconscious again. Yannic cast another fireball at Sessa and Wenig, Sessa lost concentration on her greater invisibility and appeared for the first time since she entered from the portal. Vrenig attacked Berg now that the bladesinger was down.

Karzhad attacked Lyndis, knocking her unconscious yet again. Then he tried to move away to go after Lughausen, but Khragg and Berg swing at him as he tried to leave their reach. He shrugged it off, however, Khragg’s new sentinel feat kept him in place. Karzhad then attacked him back instead, causing three bleeding wounds. Khragg bled from these and used his second wind, and still decided that tactically, the larger threat and easier target was the nearly dead Vrenig. Khragg took him down at last, the barbarian’s relentless rage unable to keep him on his feet any longer.

Elowynn shot Sessa now that she is revealed, knocking her unconscious, then she shot at Wenig, the healer. Unfortunately, for the third time in the battle, Sessa miraculously rolled a 20 on her death save, and rose to her feet. She tried to immolate Jikaris in flame since he was in her face, but he evaded. Jikaris swung back and knocked her out again.

Berg unleashed a series of attacks on Karzhad but was unable to land any. Cor shot at Elowynn, knocking her down yet again, then turned his attention to the nearby Jikaris. Wenig cast heal upon himself to keep himself in the battle. Lughausen cast heal upon himself as well, both clerics now much healthier than they were before. Yannic tried to disintegrate Wenig, who resisted.

Karzhad stayed toe-to-toe with Khragg, landing more bleeding wounds upon the half-orc. Khragg fell unconscious from the bleeding wounds, but he used his relentless endurance to keep his feet and drink a supreme potion of healing. Jikaris engaged Wenig and swung at him with his shadow blade but missed. Berg attacked Karzhad, unleashing divine smites, but he seemed to resist the radiant damage. Cor shot at Jikaris, but it wasn’t enough to take him down, though Jikaris was heavily wounded. Wenig cast call lightning from the sky, which darkened into thunderclouds from merely being overcast, and sent a bolt at Jikaris, who evaded.

Lughausen pulled out the wand of binding he had been carrying and paralyzed Cor with a hold person then cast a healing word on Solaria, bringing her back up. He moved away from Wenig who swung his hammer at him, cleric to cleric. Solaria, now recovered, cast polymorph upon herself and became a Tyrannosaurus-Rex, gaining lots of hit points and melee attacks.

Yannic cast another disintegrate spell, at Cor this time, who while paralyzed failed his save, but somehow, he resisted the force damage and survived with little damage, astonishing Yannic.

Karzhad swung at Khragg, causing more bleeding wounds again. Khragg attacked back, hitting Karzhad, but it was not nearly enough to bring Karzhad down. Berg also focused his efforts on Karzhad, and even with his divine smites, Karzhad still stood in his dark shroud.

Jikaris snuck attacked the paralyzed Cor but was unable to finish him. Cor shook off the paralysis but was unable to act. Wenig cast another battle-changing mass cure wounds on himself, Karzhad, and his brother Vrenig, once more bringing the raging barbarian back into the fray. Solaria tried to bite Wenig and swept her tail at Cor, missing both times.

Yannic cast another fireball, using the staff of power, getting Vrenig, Wenig and Karzhad, but still they stood. Vrenig, back up again, raged and tried to move away from Khragg and Berg towards Solaria, but the opportunity attacks wounded him, and sentinel kept him in place. He instead swung back at Khragg and knocked him unconscious again. Karzhad attacked Berg, leaving bleeding wounds on the paladin for the first time. Berg bled and attacked Vrenig, knocking him out of the fight for the last time. He missed his last attacks on Karzhad.

Jikaris snuck attacked Cor again, because of the flanking distraction of the T-Rex form of Solaria. Cor retaliated and shot at Jikaris, wounding him severely, but still the tabaxi stood. Wenig decided to melee the T-Rex with his hammer, unleashing lightning blasts with each strike. However, in this form, Solaria was quite healthy and robust.

Lughausen used a healing word to get Elowynn back into the fight since she was so effective with Spitter, and then he used the wand of binding again to paralyze Cor. Solaria as the T-Rex smashed Cor with her tail, knocking him out.

Yannic used the staff of power again to launch a fireball at Wenig, Vrenig’s body, and Karzhad. Wenig and Karzhad were the last foes standing, even after the flames subsided. Karzhad used his healing hands and second wind abilities to heal himself instead of attacking. Elowynn, back up again, shot at Wenig, missing twice. Jikaris also swung at the engaged dwarf and missed Wenig, unable to land another sneak attack to take him down. Berg continued to swing at Karzhad, only hitting and smiting once.

For the fourth time this battle, Cor miraculously made his death save and woke up on his own, yet he was paralyzed still which he shook off at the end of his turn. Wenig hammered Jikaris into unconsciousness. Lughausen used another healing word on Khragg, getting him back up and tried to paralyze Wenig with the wand but he resisted the effort.

Solaria finally managed to bite and grapple Wenig in her mouth and smash Cor into the ground with her tail, knocking him down for the final time. Yannic cast another fireball from the staff, shaping it around Solaria and blasting Wenig, Vrenig’s body, and Karzhad. Vrenig was incinerated. Wenig finally went unconscious.

Karzhad knew that this was the end. He snarled at the party in a deep sonorous voice, “You may have defeated me. But my master will come and destroy you. I will be avenged. All will fall to his power…”

He then swung his battleaxe at Khragg, taking him down, then swung at Berg twice, used his second action surge, and knocked Berg down as well. Then he moved over their unconscious forms to Lughausen and hit him. Lughausen rebuked that hit with fire and Karzhad went down at last.

One by one, those that were conscious assisted the party members who were unconscious, casting healing word and cure wounds as they were able, though some bled still from the wounds of Karzhad’s axe, making it a close thing for a few moments. They noticed that several the enemy were not quite dead, including Karzhad. They debated about binding and capturing these for questioning, but there was a risk. What other powers might they have in their arsenal that the party does not know about that might allow them to escape?

When Khragg awoke from the healing while this discussion was going on, he was adamant that Karzhad must die by his hand. There would be no capturing him, no questioning him. There were a few moments of tension as the knowledge that might be gleaned from the enemy was weighed against Khragg’s need for vengeance. Jikaris refused to just kill Wenig, and Sessa had stabilized on her own. They had no problem finishing off the goblin, Cor, however. After more arguments, it was decided that the risk was too much. Khragg took the axe of wounding and beheaded Karzhad, slaking his vengeance at last. They finished off Cor, Wenig, and Sessa too and then at last, the enemy was no more, and the party was no longer in danger.

They were out of magic that might bring back Lyndis from the dead, so that must wait until a later time. In the meantime, they started to strip the fallen foes of their belongings, searching for valuables, intelligence, and of course magic items. They used the detect magic ritual after creating a pile of loot and separated out the magic items from the rest. There were several noteworthy items, including Karzhad’s armor: The center of the breastplate of this armor has the raised relief of a fortress with a bulbous face superimposed on it. Radiating out from the chin are waving tentacles. The dark armor has bands of adamantine throughout. His shield was brilliant, made of gold, yet somehow magically practical with encrusted gems, and a rune in the center. They also discovered that Karzhad was wearing a signet ring: This signet ring had a small lord's crown over a mountainous vale shrouded by wings in the background.

They looked around, wondering where the guards were that they sent a message with sending to at the beginning of the encounter, when they realized the Pink Pearl was threatened. Then, they saw the head of a guard pop out of the door of the Pink Pearl, then duck back. They investigated and found that only two Zell City guards were inside the building who looked nervously at the party and the aftermath of the battle. The guards told the party that the other guards were recalled back down the tunnel about 15 minutes before the battle started, long before the party sent their messages.

They dragged the bodies inside to the atrium after convincing the guards to let them in at least that far, along with the pile of loot that they were sorting through, and took a short rest, catching their breath. They looked at the signet ring and the name of the Onyx Vale came to their minds. They inspected the scroll that Karzhad was carrying and saw that it bore the seal of the Kingdom of Arkhosia, a dragon holding a shield with a crown on it. It named Karzhad as Lord of the Onyx Vale in the Kingdom Arkhosia, and it was signed and sealed by King Urthlanti I of Arkhosia. They were unable to learn much more beyond that. However, Lughausen recalls the dragonborn Illadara that they had rescued in Wald. She had mentioned that she was from the kingdom of Arkhosia, but she died only a few days later so that knowledge was lost.

After their short rest, a group of Zell City Guard arrived led by Captain Larentansel, who told the party that they were sent to retrieve them. The party asked them to carry the bodies back carefully because they were of very high value. The captain told them that they would be brought to the High Lord Protector’s Council. The captain informs the party that the fighting was over, though he heard that many districts fared very badly. The city was still in lockdown, and the party was handed over to different guards district by district, relayed all the way back to the Castle District and back into the High Temple once again.

They were led back to the throne room, where the guards deposited the bodies to one side, Lyndis separated from the rest. Duke Rowntree and Sir Aiden were there already, and they exhibited signs that they had been in the battle with wounds and sweat. The High Lord Marshal also looked like he had been through battle. The same people, otherwise, were present as during their earlier meetings. The others, however, had remained here during the battling.

The Chancellor spoke, “You have returned. We have been here some time now that the battle is over. Who are those? What has happened?” as he pointed to the bodies. Lughausen and the others explained their realization of the vulnerability of the city at the Pink Pearl. They speak of their diversion from their path to Hayford to check it out and had arrived just in time to see the arrival of their enemy. It was the toughest fight that they had survived thus far, and it was a close thing, but they were victorious. However, Lyndis fell, and the party told the council that they intend to see her raised. The Chancellor replied, “If it is the will of Duath that her work is not done here, then she will be raised.”

As the discussion continued, Yannic brought up their observation that the portal that Karzhad and the others stepped through was only possible through direct divine help. Who could have done that and how? They do not delve too deeply into this question at that time, however. Instead, they asked about what the rest of the city guard faced during the attack. The High Lord Marshall replied, “It was several groups of very powerful undead, including in some places undead beholders. Each was equipped with these.” He opens a box on the table and pulled out a handful of necklaces that included several purple focus crystals very similar to the orange ones that the party had retrieved from Gyswyl. Mixed in were some more familiar holy symbol shields of Duath.

“These most likely came from the School of Illusion in Buchs. The holy symbols probably were scattered across the realm, lost to us, unrecovered by us since the Fall, though it was tried over the years as the Chancellor mentioned before. We knew they were more out there, but it is surprising that these were gathered and used in such a coordinated assault. These undead did great damage, especially in Hayford because you did not get there in time. Although we understand that this was a higher priority target.”

Lughausen said, “Yes, and we assumed that their target was the body in the basement.”

The High Lord Marshal said, “And I assume that you found that there were not enough guards at the Pink Pearl.” He pulls out a sheet of paper and holds it up, “The order was given to recall those men, though I did not give that order. A forgery.” And he threw the paper down on the table. “I use purple ink, and this was written in black. It is unfortunate that Captain Fama failed to notice this discrepancy, the added security we use in times of war. He will be disciplined. He was given charge of the Pink Pearl, and he was given 50 men. The orders had him return to this throne room to guard here instead.”

The party realized that this was a very well-planned and coordinated assault. They had force enough to win to the vault and gain entry, and these false orders just made it even easier. How could that happen with such short notice? It also meant that there had to be a traitor on the inside. Could it be someone in this room, they speculated? Yannic suggested that a zone of truth be used right then to discover if someone there wrote those orders.

The Chancellor stroked his chin thoughtfully, “A zone of truth is not absolute, but it is a start.” The party gave their consent since they had nothing to hide. After more discussion about what to ask, they carefully observed the occupants and noticed that the Honorable Arash, Protector Vaniak, and the High Justiciar Parron all looked somewhat nervous.

The Chancellor cast the spell, and the questioning began, “Do you know anything about the orders about withdrawing the men from the Pink Pearl?” The party happily answered the questions truthfully first, that they had nothing to do with the forgery or the attack. The party carefully watched the three aforementioned people, worried that there might be more fighting. Aram Fathi stepped into the zone next and proved her innocence, answering truthfully. Protector Vaniak answered next, “I was here the whole time! I am no traitor!” The Chancellor nodded to him.

The Duke, Sir Aiden, and Thodris went next, making their statements. They were clearly out in the city at the time. The High Lord Marshal stepped in next, and made his statement, again making it clear that this was not his orders. He would not deceive. Then High Justiciar Parron stood up and said, “This is all well and good, however, I see a flaw in this process. The Chancellor himself is casting this spell. What if he is the traitor?”

Lughausen said, “Then I will cast the spell as well.”

He replied, “You are not yet in good graces with us.” He then stepped into the circle and said, “And now the Chancellor knows that I had nothing to do with creating that the forgery. However, he could have.”

Arash said, “I agree with this. We should indeed cast the spells ourselves. I will cast one. The Chancellor was out of the room himself several times during the time of crisis. And he is taking charge of this questioning as if he were the High Lord Protector. This concerns me as it should concern us all.”

Arash had not stepped into the zone yet, and the party pointed this out. Then, finally, he stepped inside the zone. “There is little to be gained from this. I… I… I… “, they could see the sweat on his brow as he stumbled over his words. “I cannot answer any further until we know more about the Chancellor…”

The Chancellor looked concerned, and the High Lord Marshal put his hand on his weapon, both looking at Arash. Arash saw the situation, especially the hostile looks on the party’s face. “Very well, I did write the order. I thought it prudent that we protect ourselves. It would be a tragedy if the High Lord Protector’s Council be attacked again.”

The Chancellor pointed out that Arash failed to bring this up at first when the matter of the forgery was uncovered. Arash became silent, speaking no more. The Chancellor agreed that they have perhaps uncovered a traitor that they would deal with later. The guards escorted him outside.

The Chancellor pointed out that Arash was one of those that went outside the Dome in the past and was perhaps compromised during that time. Then, he realized that the Chamberlain was killed during the fighting a few days ago. Could Arash have been involved in that as well? The implications were serious.

Now that that had been dealt with, the High Lord Justiciar cast a zone of truth and the Chancellor spoke of his innocence, and the High Justiciar said he was satisfied.

The Chancellor summed up the situation, that they had much to discuss, a new High Lord Protector to select, and wondered if the party had more to report. They then relayed that Karzhad, their foe, appeared to have a superior that he worked for. This affair was not over. The threat remained to the city, the High Temple, and the Vault.

They are quite concerned that the entrance of Karzhad and his party was assisted with divine power, and not only that, but the magic also that permits them to perceive when the Dome is entered did not warn them at all that the portal at the Pink Pearl had been created.

The duke took the opportunity to again make his case for the need to drop the Dome and seek out allies, Gwynyth Raius, of course, to help protect them even further against this new foe. They must unite and know more if they are to face it. The party brought up again the name of the kingdom of Arkhosia, saying that Karzhad came from there given the signet ring and scroll. The party continued to assume that Karzhad was in league with the Cult of Gomory. How would they have known about the Pink Pearl? The Chancellor, however, pointed out that they had a spy in Arash. The two foes may not have been in contact, but neither fact had been proven yet. The level of planning and coordination would indicate that Karzhad knew about the tunnel from the Pink Pearl for some time. The Chancellor indicated that they would be questioning Arash closely on all of this. These were questions that would be to be answered.

The party was then sent back to the same rooms they had occupied before while the council deliberated. It was time for the party to rest and recover. They would be summoned back in a few days. As they were leaving, the duke was looking over the bodies, and wondered what kind of creature Karzhad was, or Faadil, or even Sessa. The party looked again, and Lughausen realized that Karzhad had something decidedly unnatural about him. Lughausen told the party that Karzhad was part celestial, an aasimar, and Faadil was part elemental, an air genasi.

The duke spoke with them more in the hallway. He told them that the undead were quite fearsome. They faced zombies of beholders, undead creatures that could kill with a glance, and they were led by a skull lord. The city was in bad shape from this. His reports showed that they held their own, but many died and much of Hayford was destroyed because the forces were thin. He told them that they shouldn’t feel guilty for not helping. He believed that they did the right thing. The duke also shared a concern that while many of the keys to the Dome were used, the enemy must have kept many in reserve. He repeats again that the Dome has outlived its usefulness.

Yannic once again points out that a divine being had to have been involved, and that question of who must be answered. Thodris and the duke agreed with that assessment. She said that it should be the most important question that should be asked and answered. They stepped into the rooms while the party described again the portal and what they saw through it. The dark fortress on the floating dark rock in the purple sky. Yannic also described the symbology on the equipment that they recovered from the enemy. The signet ring, the scroll, the symbol on the breastplate of Karzhad’s armor, and the tentacles on the greatsword hilt.

Collectively, they recall these were the symbols of the ilithids, the mind flayers. The illithids are the ancient enemy of the githyanki, who were slaves of the mind flayers for some time before they allied themselves with dragons that allowed them to escape their enslavement. They fled to other planes of existence according to legend. The fact that they are here is concerning. The fact that they have these artifacts could mean that the enemy illithids have returned, or perhaps these artifacts had been with them since their escape long ago. Thodris implied that they should examine these things closely.

The party believed now that the illithids could likely be the masters of Karzhad. They thought back to the visions of the War of Maaluk and realized that they had not seen either illithids or githyanki in either army in those long-ago battles. Why would they want the body of Maaluk? Did they look at the Realm and see easy pickings for invasion?

Together they considered what kind of divine beings could have created the portal but have no realizations.

Thinking about the origins of New Draconia and Arkhosia, they remembered that the dragons appeared out of nowhere in 976 and set up their empire after they found what was here lacking. They had come to fight evil, but the kingdoms of the realm were not doing enough to help. This led to immediate conflict with the Alliance of Peace and the Empire of New Yrvil, which led to the three-way war up until the Great Cataclysm. Was the emperor of New Draconia considered a god? Not exactly, but the first emperor, Halcilof I was a silver dragon. There were dragons on both sides of the battles in the ancient visions of the War of Maaluk, with metallic ones on the side of good, and chromatic on the evil. Silver dragons were generally considered good beings, but also arrogant.

They realized from the document that Arkhosia was the capital of New Draconia in ancient times, but now there is a Kingdom of Arkhosia. They believed that now the Kingdom of Arkhosia is no longer a good and beneficent place because Karzhad came from there. Thodris pointed out, however, that one cannot judge a kingdom based on one person.

Does this Kingdom occupy Arhus? The duke thought it inconceivable, and said that if it is, then it must be liberated.

After that, the duke, Sir Aiden, and Thodris retired to their room. The party relaxed in their rooms, calling for baths and alcohol. The servants appeared with these things, and soon the party began to unwind from the difficult morning.

A short time later, Lughausen started many identify rituals on the equipment they took from Karzhad and his crew into the evening. Since they are being kept in the High Temple, they can go nowhere else, so this is how they spent their time.

From the dwarf barbarian, Vrenig Platehorn, Jikaris receives his ring of protection, Solaria his bracers of defense, and the greatsword of sharpness +2 was taken by Khragg.

From the genasi warlock, Faadil al-Hassan, they found that the carved ivory statuette is magical, but the identify ritual reveals that it has no powers. It has potential and looks old but perhaps Lughausen’s ritual is not enough to learn its purpose. They decided to look at it tomorrow with more spells, so Yannic took it. The rod of the pact keeper +2 was of no use to anyone in the party, so Jikaris put it in his pack along with the scimitar of speed and the studded leather armor of radiant resistance +3 that was also taken from Faadil.

From the githyanki sorcerer, Sessa, the adamantine half-plate +2 was given to Lughausen who decided to put that on instead of the half-plate that he took from the Vault. He intended to return it to the priests of Duath on the morrow. Her greatsword was very interesting. It had tentacles on the crossguard and wrapped around the hilt, but at the pommel, they are swallowed by a dragon head. The mind blade greatsword +1 is powerful but can only be attuned by a specific githyanki. That made it useless for the party, so Berg put it in his pack to figure out later. She carried a bloodwell vial that was only usable by a sorcerer, but Solaria took it. The last item Sessa had was an ioun stone of greater absorption that went to Khragg.

From the goblin ranger, Cor, the quiver of ehlonna, the vicious light crossbow +2, the ring of fire resistance, and the bolt of slaying (humanoid) were identified and passed to Jikaris. The studded leather of force resistance +2 that he was wearing went to Elowynn.

From the dwarf cleric, Wenig Platehorn, they found a dwarven thrower, but it could only be used by a dwarf, so Khragg put it in his pack along with the +2 shield that the dwarf was using. The amulet of the devout +2 was dedicated to Vidyar, so Lughausen put that in his back. The suit of armor, however, was a spectacular find. It was a suit of dwarven plate which had a +2 enchantment to AC and allows the wearer to reduce and resist forced movement by foes. Berg took that and put it on.

Finally, from Karzhad, he carried the fateful battleaxe of wounding +2 that was used to kill his master, so Khragg claimed it for himself, perhaps to destroy it later. The spellguard shield +3 was an amazing find, because is brilliant, made of gold, yet somehow magically practical with encrusted gems, and a rune in the center. It protects the bearer from spells, spell attacks, and other magical effects. The only person who uses a shield is Lughausen. Karzhad’s plate armor was just as magnificent. The center of the breastplate of this armor has the raised relief of a fortress with a bulbous face superimposed on it. Radiating out from the chin are waving tentacles. The dark armor has bands of adamantine throughout. It was named the Fortress of Karzhad +2, and it was plate armor made of adamantine that gives protection to attacks against the mind and makes the wearer immune to fear. Khragg claimed that armor and put it on.

They settle in after a long evening of rest and rituals and sleep.

3/18/1151 – On a new day, the party woke up to a clear beautiful morning with a clear blue sky. Lughausen cast the legend lore spell on the carved ivory statuette they found on Faadil. He knew immediately that the statuette was created by the Great Caliph of the Djinn, Master of the Clouds, Son of the Breezes Husam al-Balil ben Nafhat al-Yugayyim, the brilliant but flighty ruler of the djinn. It was given to the warlock Faadil al-Hassan by this djinni lord as his genie’s vessel. Lughausen sensed a great presence in his mind. Everyone noticed that suddenly that the room darkened, and a great clap of thunder was heard. Dust swirled in through the window and started to coalesce into a giant humanoid form, reaching to the ceiling. The torso and below of the form disappeared into a point at the floor, like a tornado. The arms were crossed, and the eyes regarded them, as it unleashed a booming laugh. Then just as quickly, the dust scattered about the room and the figure was gone. Lughausen felt that the powerful spell that he used attracted the attention of this ruler of the djinni who resides on the Elemental Plane of Air. A powerful almost God-like being.

The party did not know what to do after that visitation. They know now that the statuette could be used by a warlock who has the djinni lord as a patron. Lughausen tried to downplay the significance of the visit, and the rest of the party almost shrugged it off since they did not have to defend themselves and there was not much else to be done with it. Lughausen jokingly suggested putting the statuette in a box and putting stuff on top of it. They have the idea of putting in the extra dimensional space of the quiver of ehlonna, so Yannic gives it to Jikaris to do that.

They discussed how they should approach the council. Should they just simply ask to be let out? Or will the Council need to choose their new High Lord Protector first? What kind of relationship could the party forge with the new High Lord Protector? They considered making the argument that the time for the Dome is over, and the best defense is now a good offense. Their argument that they are safer behind their walls has been totally debunked in the last several weeks. They have been breached in ways that they did not even know was a possibility. If the party hadn’t been where they were, then things would have been much worse. The only reason they knew that the tunnel even existed was because the party found it. They would have been ruled by puppets if not for the party.

The party realized that this time in Zell was worth it, however. They found new equipment, faced a powerful evil in Gomory, and Karzhad basically just came to them. It was a close thing, but many objectives were met. Khragg told the party of the final fate of Ulfgar at the hands of Karzhad and the battleaxe of wounding. How Ulfgar was kept alive to bleed to death just for the fun of it.

Berg suggested that they go home, to the north, in the Free Cities of Hemelsyn to report the death of Karzhad. Lughausen suggested that they must visit the Kingdom of Arkhosia. Of course, the duke still wants to go to Gwynyth Raius, and Yannic is interested in that destination as well. However, they all know that they must go to Wohlen first and foremost.

A short time later, Duke Rowntree, Sir Aiden, and Thodris knock on the door. They heard the disturbance from the djinni and asked about it, and the party explained briefly that they attracted the attention of that being. The duke and the others looked taken aback at the strange occurrence, but there was nothing more to be said about it. The duke noticed that Lughausen had changed his armor and asked if he intended to return the other to the priests of Duath and the vault. Lughausen asked if he should, and the duke pointed out that doing so formally in front of the Council would be a good idea to gain favor.

The duke pointed out that they have not been invited back to the High Council yet, so he asked that they take time now to plan their next moves. He repeated that all know his intention to march on Gwynyth Raius. Yannic asked if perhaps he should stay behind to help the city in this time of crisis instead of abandoning it. The duke answered that they have not heard the official death counts and they can hope that it was not too high. Yannic said that if he were the leaders of the city, the last thing he would do would be to allow able-bodied men leave the city at this time. The duke pointed out that at most he could muster only 250 men, and in fact was going to ask if the party could help to augment that number before marching to Gwynyth Raius. Lughausen suggested that perhaps help could be found in Wohlen and the Confederation, and they would make every effort to call on them for help. There are, after all, paladins of Hysor in the Confederation, and the party would imagine that they would be interested greatly in this mission to Gwynyth Raius.

They pulled out the map of Ap Wys that they had from the Tower of Salinga Penne, and they also sketched out roughly the known Realm. They saw that what they know of New Draconia and the city of Arkhosia, which is now a kingdom, is in the far southeast of what was Gwynyth Raius. The capital of Gwynyth Raius, Arhus, is on a peninsula straight north of Ap Wys.

Looking at the map, they proposed going to Wohlen, back to Zell, then up through Hemelsyn to Arhus, and then from there venture to Arkhosia. They considered sending emissaries to Wohlen and the Confederation while the duke and his men muster in Zell and then march from Zell. At least, they might get to Hemelsyn and decide there about going on to Arhus or venturing to Arkhosia.

Could they find allies in Arhus?

The discussion turned again to what was in the Vault, Maaluk, and why Karzhad wanted it. And what divine being created that divine portal that allowed them to get in past the Dome. Also, since the information passed to Karzhad by the traitor was up to date, and it was known that the party emptied the Vault, that indeed the target had to be Maaluk. Furthermore, the master of Karzhad and the divine being would probably not give up and try again in the future. For this reason, perhaps the priests of Duath will keep the Dome up.

Lughausen is determined to make inquiries to get Lyndis raised today.

Lughausen stepped outside to speak to a guard, and even took a moment to ask his name, Carrack Montague. He asked him about Lyndis and reminded the guard that she fell, and they would like to see that she was tended to. The guard nodded to a runner and the message was sent to find out where her body is kept. Lughausen cast arcane eye and follows the runner with it. The runner made his way to the throne room, speaking with various people along the way. He stops outside the room, spoke to another person who then went inside with the message. Lughausen followed him with the eye. The room was busy with various scribes and clerks, but there is only one high official present, the High Lord Marshal. Eventually the message was conveyed to him. Lughausen is unable to hear the conversation nor read lips. Lughausen follows the messengers back with the eye instead of lingering in the room any longer.

The guard reports that her body was in one of the meditation rooms. Lughausen and everyone else decided to go along to the room indicated by the guard. They are escorted to a new area, to them, of the temple that they had not visited yet. They pass many guards and rooms, and many priests. The people look weary, and the impression the party got from these people is a feeling of “when will this thing be over,” referring to the sudden conflicts that have occurred over the past few days. Many are tense with hands near weapons.

They reached the meditation room to find another guard outside. The two guards confer, and Carrack said that apparently the High Chancellor was inside, and he would like to speak to the party. They entered to find a room that would under normal circumstances be a quiet meditation room. There is a small shrine and altar with candles and incense, clean cloths, and the like. There are no pews where they’d be holding services. Instead, the room is just a quiet contemplation room. Now, the room has several, perhaps ten, wooden biers set up, each with a body upon it, covered with a white cloth. The High Chancellor Ewen Laurence was kneeling alone before the shrine. He finished his prayers, stood up, and faced the party with a small bow.

“Ahh, I have been expecting you. So, you have come to see what may be done about Lyndis?” He looked contemplative as he walked over to a particular bier and drew back the cloth to reveal Lyndis.

"The power to raise the dead is a miracle that some have been granted, it is true. You wish to raise Lyndis, a worthy servant of Duath. I would welcome her back, indeed. But should we stop there? Why her and not say, the High Lord Protector? Or the Chamberlain and the Seneschal?” He gestured to several other bodies, still covered by the sheets. “There are those who would advocate such a course of action, that we beseech Duath, who must then parley with Arawn for their souls. Would you want the High Lord returned, with his viewpoint on the Dome and your place in it?"

Lughausen said, “You raise a very significant philosophical issue. My answer to such has been and always will be quite basic. Lyndis traveled with us and she’s one of us. We protect our own. The others…eh, they are dead.”

The Chancellor responded, "Ah, so now it is not a question of worthiness, but of convenience to the wielder of the power.”

Lughausen replied, “It is not even a question of convenience. It is quite inconvenient for me to raise Lyndis from the dead. She was our keeper, our minder as it were, and she fought alongside us, so she has earned every effort to bring her back.”

Yannic said, “We owe her our lives. We are in her debt.”

The Chancellor nodded, “Indeed but as I said, the power to raise is more a matter of your own personal views as opposed to general worthiness. Who is to say that the fate that has transpired, that they have died, is not their true fate? You? It would seem so, if you are willing to perform the ritual for one, and not for all. Should we attempt the ritual for every single fallen priest or innocent in this tragedy? What price would Arawn exact in return for the souls?” He shrugged, “I am no theologian of death to know or suspect what might follow should we use the power of the Aspects to bring back the dead en masse. I have heard theories that careless use of the ritual could lead to the rise of dark, powerful, undead. Or others would theorize that if one returns another needs must die in their place, perhaps chosen at random, perhaps not..."

"These thoughts trouble me, and the High Lord Protector's council. We pray to Duath for guidance. It is our thought to let fate be fate, and tamper not with what Aspects had fated for the fallen."

"However, I will not interfere if it is truly your desire to bring her back, yet neither will I condone or support it."

Lughausen responded, “Interesting questions. I would argue that if the Aspects had made such conditions upon it, then they should not have granted their followers the power to make the choice themselves, which they have. They have purposefully put the decisions in the hands of mortals who follow them and have not reserved their wisdom for themselves. So they must inherently trust us to make this decision. However, I do not wish to go against what Lyndis would wish. She may be having a pleasant afterlife. So my first intention was to speak with her with the speak with dead spell that all clerics tend to have. And find out her own wishes before proceeding with attempting as you say to wrestle with destiny itself to bring her back.”

The Chancellor raised an eyebrow and said, “Well, you know that speak with dead only speaks with the material form, not with the soul.”

Lughausen replied, “True but I must entrust that her material form carries forth the wishes she had in life which is what I am concerned with. As her soul has journeyed beyond perhaps it has experienced different things that are unknowable to us living beings. But it is the living Lyndis that I wish to communicate with, and the remnant of her mortal form here will suffice.”

The Chancellor shrugged, “Well, if that is what you wish.” He stepped aside and observed as Lughausen cast speak with dead. His first question, “Lyndis, do wish us to attempt to restore you to life. Speak now.”

The corpse answered with a raspy yet definitive, “Yes.”

Lughausen grinned, “Good enough for me. Everybody else?” They all nodded in agreement. But he continued with a few more questions.

“Are you aware of any traitors in the temple of Duath or the government of Zell?”

“None that we have not yet uncovered.”

“Do you support opening the barrier to Zell and rejoining the world?”

“Yes”

Lughausen began the ritual to raise Lyndis from the dead, which took an hour. The rest waited, until Lughausen completed the ritual with a crescendo plea to bring her back. It succeeded, and Lyndis drew in breath and her eyes fluttered open. She looked weak, but alive. Her last memory was the battle in front of the Pink Pearl against the powerful Karzhad, and the party reassured her that they succeeded, and he was slain.

She noticed the High Lord Chancellor and deferred to him when he suggested that she return to her quarters to recover. They would speak later. Lughausen attempted to give her a hug, and the moment was very awkward as she was quite surprised. He also said that they would speak later with the party, and she and the Chancellor left the room. The door is left open and Carrack asked if they were ready to go back. Lughausen said, “Not yet.”

Lughausen took the opportunity to look under the rest of the sheets to see what other bodies were in the room, much to Carrack’s surprise and discomfort. They found two unknown priests of Duath, the dwarf commander Flatmantle, then the body of the Seneschal, the body of the Chamberlain, and then under a better-quality sheet, the High Lord Protector Dando Terrelion. The rest are also more ranking priests that they did not know.

Carrack escorted the party back to their rooms. He confirmed that conditions in the city were still very bad and martial law remained in place. He let the party know that his duty was to escort them where they wish and are permitted to go. Servants brought them food.

For the next two days, the party was left to their own devices. The guards would occasionally let them know that the High Lord Protector’s Council was still debating, but for the most part, the party just stayed in their rooms and rested. The Duke and the Priest of Hysor Thodris came in occasionally and they discussed plans to leave. Solaria summoned her familiar again, Nova, in a new form – that of a bat.

3/20/1151 – This morning, the guards woke them up as the servants brought in breakfast and Carrack said that he had news today. “Aram Fathi has been named High Lord Protector. No word yet of when you guys can get out of here, but at least something has happened!” He was all smiles that morning. The party was happy that the lady they wanted to support was named to the office. They continued to speculate about what might be waiting for them outside of the Dome.

After lunch, there is another knock at the door. Standing in the doorway was someone new, a female half-elf in gleaming armor that does not look like priest, but rather reminds them of Berg. Her surcoat has the shield of Duath on it but is different in that it is colored red. Behind her stood two other armed people, both human and wearing the same surcoats.

“Good afternoon, I am Commander General Aloth Gwamiel of the Aegis. I would like to speak with you if I may. May I come in?” They waved her inside and she took them all in with a piercing gaze. One of her escorts stayed outside, and the other came in with her.

She sat down and said, “As I said, I am Commander-General of the Aegis. High Lord Protector Aram Fathi has created the Aegis today, a new arm of the Priesthood of Duath. We have been given authority over the sanctity and security of the priesthood of Duath in Zell. One of our first tasks will be to learn all that we can about the corruption that was discovered in the priesthood that led to the civil war. I have come to hear your first-hand account of what transpired in the Pink Pearl with the Cult of Gomory. It will be my sacred task to keep the priesthood pure. We are a new arm, and I take this duty very seriously. It will be my task to exact vengeance on those who put this corruption into the pureness that is Duath and the priesthood.”

Berg looked enthusiastic, “Oh, you are sounding dangerously useful.” Her eyes brighten when she turned to him and appraised him carefully.

She let them know that she had visited the Pink Pearl, viewed the bodies of the strange races – the githyanki, the genasi, the goblin, and the aasimar. Has heard the accounts from the High Council and their scribes. But it would be a dereliction of duty were she not to hear the first-hand account from the party. The Aegis has taken possession of the evidence, but they are a small force, but they were ready because of Aram’s previous preparations for the day she was named High Lord Protector. They cannot suffer a repeat of the corruption. This an order of paladins.

Lughausen and the others debate and first pointed out that a lot of the corruption started with those that were permitted to leave Zell and the Dome outside. It seemed that many of them were recruited. She agreed that those should be looked at first. Including Arash, who she said had already been given over to her custody.

On the other hand, Gomory had been in the city since the Cataclysm and the raising of the Dome.

Yannic says, “As to Karzhad, he is a secondary player in my opinion, maybe an ally, who made big friends. So, I think that connection only happened with the people who were sent out and did not know who they were talking to out there.” Yannic pointed out to her that they knew about Karzhad and the vaults and this was why they came here – to stop him. The cult was a discovery that happened while they were here as they were searching for the missing waitress.

They fill her in on what they know about Gomory, the Lemegeton, and everything that they had learned during their adventures here under the Dome. Her assistant took copious notes as she asked pointed questions from time to time during the tale.

The party in turn learned that she and the other dozen or so members of the Aegis are paladins of Duath who have sworn an oath of vengeance. They expect to be recruiting more to grow their ranks in the coming days, weeks, and years. They surmised that she was probably a priest so stricken by events of the past few days that she took up the mantle of paladin and swore the oath.

They reminded her about the evidence collected under the Pink Pearl and she promised to review it very carefully to ensure that none evade justice.

Yannic asked a pointed question, “How will you determine who is corrupt, and what is your definition of corruption.”

Aloth answered, “My definition of corruption would be that which turns the faithful away from the true teachings of Duath. The protection of the innocent, that wars only be fought on behalf of those who cannot fight for themselves. The good ideals. Duath is a lawful good Aspect, whose intent is to protect those who cannot protect themselves. Those who are seeking power and glory and whatever else the cult wanted, like what was in the vault. Oh, and I have been apprised, today, of what is truly in the vault. The High Lord Protected wanted me to convey to you a reminder that what is in the vault is not to be public knowledge, for obvious reasons.”

Berg nodded emphatically, “Absolutely not.”

Aloth continued, “Nevertheless, the cult had clear goals in taking over the city, taking over the priesthood, and it is quite clear from their behavior and how they treated women – made them slaves – that they had no interest in protecting the innocent. This goes against every ideal of Duath.”

Berg pointed out that the biggest problem they ran into was the complacency and reluctance to believe the party’s warnings, and she will likely run into that problem as well. Aloth agreed but believed that the events of the last few days would do a lot to kick everyone in their complacency. She was hopeful that the party will now see a change in attitude with the new leadership.

Berg admitted that he is impressed with the new order. It was a good first step. Yannic asked her if the Aegis would be working outside the city, and Aloth said no. Their concern was with the priesthood and the security of it here in Zell.

Lughausen had even more pointers for Aloth, looking his most arrogant as he recited them to her. “I was able to immediately determine that there was a conspiracy within Zell simply by looking at the historical records which exist within your own libraries.” He pointed out the statistical and trend analysis he performed.

The servants brought in dinner as the conversation continued throughout the rest of the day.

For the following two days, they were not taken to any meetings of any significance. They train, exercise, study, talk and so forth as the guards permitted. They noticed that the activity level in the High Temple increased, and the sense of defeat and wariness began to fade. The despair that laid upon the people here slowly faded. They had one more visit from Aloth, and she asked about Arash, getting more details of their interaction.

3/22/1151 – The guards came about an hour after breakfast and summon the party to the High Lord Protector and her Council. In the throne room, the new High Lord Protector Aram Fathi was seated in the proper chair now, outfitted in new raiment befitting her office. All the other seats were also full, filling out the new council. The two newcomers are an older human woman in rich clothing, Emeline deGrey who has been named Chamberlain, and a halfling woman named Marger chilly, the new Seneschal. The chair for the place of the wizard remained empty. The High Lord Marshal Silverhand, High Lord Chancellor Laurence, and High Lord Justiciar Parron remained on the council.

The eager dwarf cleric Vaniak Heartbrew, the one who could have been named the High Lord Protector, was also present, standing behind the table.

The Duke was also escorted into the chamber along with Thodris. Once everyone was settled, the High Lord Protector spoke.

“Welcome, we will speak today of the future of our realm and what it holds for you. I have many things to say to you. First of all, let me introduce the new Seneschal Marger Chilly. And to my left is the new Chamberlain Emeline deGrey. They have been named to the council as my advisors and they will do their duties well.”

"First, it is clear that the purpose of the Dome, and the effectiveness of the Dome at fulfilling that purpose are no longer in congruence. It is time for a change. I have decreed that on the first of the fourth month of this year, in nine days, the Dome will be lowered.”

Khragg and Lughausen let out hearty, “Hear! Hear!” chants.

“The Dome will be brought forth again when it is deemed by myself and this council that the need for it outweighs the cost. With the Dome lowered, we will treat with our neighbors and once again participate in world events. We will need the resources that are found outside to rebuild our city and our society. The people of Zell will be encouraged to stay within our walls for their safety, but they will not be prevented to leave if that is their desire. We will not brook the truth - the world outside is dangerous and could prove to be their demise should they venture too far unprotected. But we know there will be those who wish to explore and perhaps settle far afield. We will not stop them any longer."

Duke Rowntree immediately stepped forward and said, "Then I wish to formally declare my intention to withdraw the forces of Gwynyth Raius from the city of Zell and return to our home. However, I wish to also formalize and rededicate our alliances of old. The country of Gwynyth Raius will always come to the aid of Ap Wys should the need again arise, and it is my fervent hope that the High Lord Protector of Zell would feel the same should Gwynyth Raius find itself in need."

Aram responded, "Indeed, we shall always consider Gwynyth Raius an ally. However, do know that we shall continue to recover from this current crisis and our attention shall be here until we feel secure once again. I regret that we will be unable to send forces with you on your northward journey, for by our estimation, a full third of our military has been lost."

"My lady, so be it. We will depart when we are mustered." the duke responded and bowed low before stepping back.

The High Lord Protector looked at the party and then said, “Before we speak more, we should hear the report from Commander General of the Aegis. Commander General Aloth, please step forward and give your report. We wish it to be known before all present.”

Aloth began, "My High Lord Protector, I have this report of the activities of Arash, once-assistant to Chamberlain Branco. We have learned much from the wretch under stringent questioning. One, Arash was not a true believer in this cult of Gomory, though he knew of them, spoke with them, and paid them lip service to serve his own ambition and ends. Everything this one did was to further his own rise to power. Two, he admitted to actively sabotaging the work of the Chamberlain during his time as her assistant, with the intent of discrediting her so that he could be named to her position. Three, when the Cult initiated the civil infraction within the priesthood, Arash took the opportunity to kill the Chamberlain himself in the confusion. He has confessed to her murder. Four, Arash admitted to being an agent of this being Karzhad, having contacted him years before while he worked for the Chancellor and was given access to the lands outside the Dome for reconnaissance. However, his loyalty to this individual was no more or less than his other loyalties - he only had his own self-interest in mind. This Karzhad desired the contents of the Vaults, and he promised Arash power, even so far as to suggest he could become the next High Lord Protector, in exchange for it. At the time of their communications, however, Arash was ignorant of the contents of the Vault, or how one would achieve its robbery."

"Five, during the civil uprising, when the keepers of the Dome were under attack, their concentration broke at times, weakening the Dome. Arash recognized this moment, and ever the opportunist, admitted to sending messages to this Karzhad via the spell of that name, informing him of the recently-exposed tunnels from the Pink Pearl to the Vaults by these individuals.” She pointed to the party, then continued, “The limits of the spell are well-known, and thus only the essential information was conveyed, but that person Karzhad indicated that he would attack shortly and Arash should assist as able. There was little further coordination except, quote, 'You will know when the time is right...' Six, Arash admitted to falsifying orders from the High Lord Marshal to remove defenses in the tunnels to make the way easier for Karzhad to reach the Vaults, and then it was Arash's intention to assist in an assault on the priesthood leadership now that a new enemy would have reached the heart of the city. That is the end of my report."

The High Lord Protector then said, “So, this explains a lot. It does not change my intention. You have defeated this Karzhad, though it seems that he has a superior of some kind, and that must still be investigated. Martial law, as of today, is lifted. You are free to leave the High Temple and go about the city again as you wish. We will look to rebuild; we have lost a full third of our military and there was great damage and loss of life in the city from Karzhad and his undead. You undoubtedly see it for yourself. The duke has made his intentions clear. What are yours?”

The party indicated that they will be returning to their home first, then venturing east or north, or even both, but that had not been finalized. The High Lord Protector then formally asked the party to carry word of their existence and intention to treat with the Confederation of Cities, which they agree to. The city of Zell will send a formal delegation after word is returned to them that it would be accepted and met by the Confederation. Letters of introduction and documents will be drawn up by the Chancellor and given to the party for both the Confederation of Cities and also for the Free Cities of Hemelsyn since both Khragg and Berg said they will be going there as well (probably on the way north to Gwynyth Raius).

Lughausen requested that the party be present when the Dome is dropped, presumably to see the function of it in progress whether it be a ritual or ceremony. He was denied that. The Dome will drop on the first day of the new month at dawn, and they will witness it like the rest of the populace. Though formal declarations will be made in advance to prepare the people.

In addition, the priesthood will be recruiting heavily to rebuild the forces that were lost in the crisis. Also, to be prepared for what might be waiting for them when the Dome drops. Duke Rowntree also promised to have his forces ready for what might be revealed.

Yannic asked about the other petrified people in the basement of the Pink Pearl. The High Lord Protector indicated that they would not be returned to flesh without forethought and investigation first in all caution. Yannic then formally asked that the government re-engage with the wizard school, perhaps employ them, and even look out for them. He suggested that they forget about the past, and like was said earlier, they are forging a new path. That path could include the wizards once again. He said that they will need that magic now that the shield is gone. The High Lord Protector said that they will take that into consideration. It is hard considering the history. But with the Dome down, things might change.

The party is then escorted out along with the Duke, Sir Aiden and Thodris. As they walk through the hallways, the duke is excited and said that they must plan and speak more in private. Yannic advised caution and not to leave immediately. The duke agrees that while he has been prepared for this day, the logistics of moving the men would take time. He also revealed that he could probably only muster about 250 men to go north. In his heart, the duke does not believe it will be enough, especially with the High Lord Protector indicating that no forces from the city can be spared to go with them.

The duke asked the party to see if they can find more forces. Perhaps from the Confederation, or anywhere else they can think of, perhaps here, for example, the Emerald Exiles. Considering that the party is from the outside with experience, they will be in a unique position to do that kind of recruiting. The party agreed.

They left the High Temple through the gates and returned to the city. They have nothing important left at the hovel, but they will continue to stay there until the Dome comes down.

From their vantage at the top of Castle District, they saw the damage that had been done to the city during the attack. The districts of Hayford and Northgate had seen significant damage. The north gate has been destroyed. Hayford was a complete mess, and the south gate was also destroyed. Major fires have raged through neighborhoods, including the small dock area. Breadmill, the other docks in Clearharbor, and large swaths throughout the city have fallen to the coordinated attack of Karzhad’s minions.

As they passed the Pink Pearl, they notice that it is now sealed with 30-40 guards outside. When they reached Southtown, the devastation started to get worse until they reach the gates to Hayford which were clearly breached. They passed many work crews, but all the bodies have already been removed. The route to the gates suffered much collateral damage, and the party passed many wailing families. Their own hovel survived since it was set away and was protected by the stone that Yannic had shaped. They know that they have a place to sleep tonight. They also realized that they have no escort or minder for the first time in the city. Lyndis has not been seen since her resurrection.

Lughausen examined the battleaxe of wounding, searching for maker’s sigils, to determine how it might be destroyed.

Solaria and Yannic went to the wizard school in Oldtown. This is also where the temple of Epolde, which Lughausen will visit in an attempt to research how to destroy the axe at Khragg’s request. Oldtown was spared damage from the fighting. Sebastian Campbell answered the door when Yannic knocked on it with his staff. Solaria is introduced and they stepped inside, and she briefly told her story about her arrival in Zell. Sebastian said that they had not known about Bladesingers, or even tabaxi except for Jikaris.

They passed a few apprentices who had braved the scorn of the common folk and met with Prishia. Yannic asked about the recent strife and wanted to know how the school fared. The school was not directly attacked, and the wizards helped in Clearharbor. When the undead breached the walls and destroyed the Hayford docks, they continued to Clearharbor, so the wizards responded. They hoped that some good will come for their actions in the city’s defense. Yannic told the wizards that he petitioned the new High Lord Protector on their behalf. Prishia was very grateful since she had been excluded from all the events in the High Temple. She stated again that she is hopeful that the chair on the council might be theirs again.

Yannic relayed their intention to return home and passed warning about how dangerous the outside world is. Prishia is hopeful that even more students might come to the school from the outside. Yannic said his goodbyes and made it clear that he would be available to them via magic if they need him. Yannic asked them if they know how to destroy a magic weapon. They responded that it really depends on the weapon and how it was created. They suggested a tried and tested way would be to throw it in a volcano. A disintegrate might work in some cases, perhaps in conjunction with other powerful magics that might disjoin the magics of the item within. They suggested that they might want to learn more of its history.

Lughausen visited the temple of Epolde where he was greeted by Mirabol, the old half-orc woman who presided there. Lughausen pointed out that there would be opportunities for the temple with the Dome done, to gain knowledge. Including a visit to the smaller temple of Epolde in Wohlen. She agreed to speak with the younger priests who might venture out. She herself would stay here. Lughausen used her library to research how to destroy a magic weapon. Unfortunately, Lughausen got distracted by a fascinating book of wheat for hours and turned up nothing on how to destroy the axe.

Back at the hovel, they met again. Lughausen cast legend lore on the battleaxe of wounding. They learn that Endinwell Mithanmae was a Yrvillian enchanter who created the battleaxe in 264 for General Zane Montagu who served under Vald I, the glorious emperor of Yrvil, who attacked Gwynyth Raius. It was captured by Sir Tristan Writingham who killed general Montagu. He served under Beldyn I and took the axe back to his ancestral home in Gwynyth Raius where it was on display for centuries until it was looted during the time of the Empire of New Draconia, when it was taken to the village of Emelle and buried with the looters. There it was discovered by Vrenig and Wenig Platehorn who gave it to Karzhad.

Solaria, after that, cast legend lore on the suit of armor that Karzhad wore and that Khragg had put on. However, she is unable to learn anything about it for some reason and came away with a headache. She just went and laid down.

Over the next few days, the party did a few things. One of those was a visit to Military Town, which was quite active as various groups recruited and trained. This is a center of preparation for the city. The duke’s palace was a very big bustle of activity as he also prepared to muster and move out.

They visited the guild house of the Emerald Exiles and met with Leofrick de Mowbray. Berg takes point on the discussion. Times are good for the Emerald Exiles. They have taken on many contacts, noted by Leofrick’s good mood and a meaningful glance at a nearby strongbox in his ostentatious office. Leofrick found the idea of an expedition all the way to Gwynyth Raius quite interesting, but also maneuvered to get a healthy payday in their discussion. Favors did not interest him, but money did. Berg persuaded Leofrick into committing a hundred men to the duke, but it would not be cheap because of how far and dangerous the trip would be. He suggested 100 gp per man, so that would be 10,000 gp. Berg agreed to act as a proxy to settle the deal.

From there they went to the duke’s estate amidst the flurry activity. They spoke with Sir Aiden about the price suggested, 10,000 gp and his eyes widened. He does not know if the duke can afford that, and throws out other suggestions, perhaps the party could chip in to help pay for the men. The duke could part with 2,500 gp at most, Sir Aiden said.

The party remembered that they were supposed to get back the money they paid for wergild once it was proven that they were innocent. Lughausen used his skills with paperwork to deal with the bureaucracy to get back the money in the Southtown District Guard tower. A few days later, a strongbox with 7,000 gp is returned to them. So, their name was cleared of this incident.

Back in Military Town, they visit the duke. He agreed to the price and passed 2,500 gp to the party and went with the party to visit the Emerald Exiles and sign the contract. Lughausen asked permission to speak first, as he had an idea with how to deal with Leofrick. He is a bit more formal in the presence of the duke. Lughausen offered the wand of binding, embellishing its importance and its role in killing Karzhad, the leader of the attack on the city. He also offered a strongbox with 5,000 gp. Together, materially it is the 10,000 gp that was needed, but reputationally, a lot more with that “famous” wand. Leofrick is persuaded, and mentioned he has a couple of people on staff who would be interested in it, plus a couple of others he might entice to join the exiles were he to have it. However, he counteroffered with 6,000 gp and the wand. Lughausen accepted the deal, and the contract is signed after an hour’s worth of dickering.

Lughausen generously only takes 500 gp from the duke, puts 1,000 back in the party coffer, and pays the Emerald Exiles with the wand of binding and the rest of the money. Yannic suggested to Sir Aiden that he visit the wizard school and see if any wizards might travel with them, perhaps even to see if the wizard schools in other cities might be discovered. The duke agreed that Sir Aiden would visit the school.

4/1/1151 – The day arrived for the Dome to come down. The party went to the city gates for the moment, as did much of the populace, in the predawn hours. The Zell city guard had worked around the clock to get enough repairs in place just in case there would be an attack the moment the Dome came down. The party talked their way to the top of the city wall to get a good vantage point. They are reminded of the recently learned news that Captain Baumstein, their nemesis, had died during the attacks defending Hayford.

There was a disturbance in the city behind them, Jikaris noticed. A wagon escorted by ten guards, coming to the gate. The wagon had barred windows, and maniacal laughter could be heard within. One of the guards came up to the party and said that they had orders to deliver this guy to the party, would anyone sign for him. They could hear the voice calling, “Today is the day we die! I told you! I was right!” It was the voice of Peril, and Yannic agreed to sign for him. He was released, and he joined the party on the wall to await the moment the Dome dropped. After signing, the party watched as the guards release him, and bring out a small chest which was opened. Peril pulled out his equipment that he quickly donned, all the while saying, “You’re going to die first. And then you! They are going to come for you next! Its going to be a whole horde of demons and dragons! They are going to be flying through the as soon as the Dome goes down. I get to see it! Oh yes, I get to see it!”

The party is wary, of course, and they look at each other as if to say, what are we going to do with this guy?

The light on the horizon brightened until the sun crested and shone on the city walls. At that moment, the golden light that was shooting up from the highest tower of the High Temple of Duath just stopped. And like how water would cascade through the air for a moment when a hose is turned off, it shimmers and fades away. The Dome came down. The grayness disappeared, and everyone could see beyond.

There was nothing there but the open fields. No armies. No foes. The crowd looked at each other in wonder. The guards waited at least an hour, nervously. Uncertainty held them back. Zell city guard riders carry messages back and forth, as the leadership waited for the shoe to drop. But there was nothing. The word finally came, and the gates were open. The people are hesitant, then the party descended and exited the city.

Lughausen cast a word of recall to take some, while Yannic cast a teleport to take the rest. They left the city abruptly and without delay, vanishing in front of the crowd.