Adventure 7

**Real World Date: 2/5/2017**

**In Game Dates: October 18th, 5000 M.E. - November 4th, 5000 M.E.**

**XP: 390 (Total: 2171)**

## Charging In

 **Location** | Duke's Palace - Basement

The party rushes into battle with the Specters from last adventure. They manage to destroy them without getting too damaged, then inspect the room. Only moldy books and dusty shelves seem to fill this room. The continue exploring the basement until they find a set of stairs leading even further downward. It doesn't take a Dwarven expert in stonework to see that these set of stairs are newly installed.

The party descends down into a new extension of the basement. In the middle of the room is a dais with a pool in the center, filled with a strange green ooze. A half naked Elven woman, Merilin, relaxes next to it, waiting. She recognizes that they are the ones killing all her henchmen upstairs. She hints that she has been coaxing Duke Thurin Goldpetal into some evil deeds, and she may be responsible for this mess. Suddenly the Duke emerges from the pool, an undead skeleton at this point, and two of his bodyguards, now skeletons as well, emerge from hiding.

## Dark and Gooey Dangers

 **Location** | Duke's Palace - Secret Chambers

The party begins battle and defeats the skeletons and the Duke. They aren't sure what the **green ooze** is in the center of the room, but they surmise it was once flesh or some bio-matter. They also defeat Merilin, whose illusionary appearance fades to reveal a Green Hag. They recover a Hag Eye from her corpse, which means she belongs to a coven with two other Hags. They also recover the Crown of Olum from the corpse of the Duke, which is the source of all the evil. Wrapping it with a cloth, they stick into their bag of holding.

With the help of Erevan's wand, they find a secret door in the lowest room which leads to the sewers, or the alternate route they could have taken into the Duke's Palace. Rather than go back the way they came, they decide to head down into the sewers and find their way out that way. They emerge from the sewers northwest of the Duke's Palace without incident, though slightly smellier.

## Everything Went Better Than Expected

As the party heads towards Melnora's Cove to escape the Veryd Forest, they become surrounded. Undead are everywhere, though they all lack that blue color in their eyes and seem to walk aimlessly. As the party is about to prepare for battle, riders on horseback charge towards them, killing the zombies as they go. Also, Erevan sees in the sky **Thaumaturgic Bursts**, basically Elven fireworks, signifying that the forest has been retaken. The riders turn out to be Verydian Elves that aren't taken over by this mass enchantment and clear the battlefield of zombies. They all have a red scarf to signify they are in control of their own mind to each other.

One of the riders gets off his horse and greets them. He is Ularion Moonbrook, Erevan's younger brother. He surmises what the party has done, and tells his allies to take care of them, heal them, and feed them. Ularion leads his brother to their house, however, as he has something to show him.

## Yes, But At What Cost?

The party is lead back towards the Duke's Palace where a makeshift camp has been set up for the wounded and weary. The party is treated fairly and fed and healed. As they relax, Wrax is told by his patron, **Korbeth**, that he must use the Mysterious Map now. Looking around, he sees that the vague landmarks match up with the map. He follows the map to a tree where there is a secret stash. He is instructed to only take one item, a breastplate from the stash, and leave the rest. He is told to return to Sanye and someone will take it off his hands.

Meanwhile, Ularion leads his brother to their childhood home. He tells him about how their parents were affected by the charm. They resented taking anything from nature, even food, and they starved themselves and the servants. They arrive at their home to see it in shambles. As they enter, dead bodies of the servants that starved themselves were scattered around the home. Their father, Quarion Moonbrook, survived and is being looked after by healers. Sadly, their mother, Caelynn Moonbrook, died with most of the servants. Her body is being prepped for transport their family plot in Rylbin. Together, the brothers get shovels and give all the servants a proper burial.

## Working Quickly

They party reunites at the camp. They meet Ramona, a Halfling druid who seems to have some authority around here. Aluvera Jemblossom, the leader of the rebellion, emerges from the Duke's Palace, already having been elected as the new Duchess. Flanked by her head of security and Ularion, she speaks with the party about the Crown of Olum. She summons a magical chest that can temporarily lock the item up and nullifying it's abilities for now, keeping it safe.

The Verydian Elves need to heal, regroup, organize, and they will finally send word to the outside world about their retaking control of the Veryd Forest. Until then, they will stay within its borders until they feel it's safe the reemerge. The party decides to follow suit, and they head back to Melnora's Cove and the Green Lady. The sail back to the city of Xon safely.

## Making Their Way Downtown

The party quickly make their way south, selling some loot as well as doing some research. Erevan runs into Tariq Akhallah again, who presents him with a work of fiction about and Elf traveling with a group of Dwarves, who comes to appreciate their customs, their ale, and their lifestyle. Erevan is touched, but has nothing to give him in return. Tariq doesn't care, but says he is leaving to head west to return some of the books he found to his monastery. The Dwarves upgrade their armor as well as augment a set for their purposes.

Eventually, they return to the city of Sanye. The party heads immediately to Rathas Jelmoor to turn in their quest. He gives them a sizable reward as promised, and he had recently received a letter from Aratha Stormbrand, which he gave to Wrax. The letter simply stated that she foresaw his victorious return and included the info about the location of the information he seeks somewhere in the Eres Wasteland.

## Exposition City

Wrax gets a room at an inn and starts a bar fight. Aust goes to buy more ink for the purpose of copying more rituals into his tome. The Dwarves head to the inn to report to Ambassador Kildrak Firebeard. Waiting for them are three Dwarves from the Rondat military who have come to see them.

One of them, Vorik, is a member of Thorgrim's clergy. He snuck here with the soldiers to speak with Thorgrim. Apparently, Arom Stonebreaker is obsessed with this prophecy, and it's putting his judgment into question. Some of the members are nervous that Arom is working with someone from the Dark Catacombs. Vorik wants Thorgrim to return and stop Arom from going too far. He gives him a **coin** with specific instructions on how to use it to contact him when he returns home.

Meanwhile, the leader of this trio of soldiers is Tharak Understone, an old military buddy of Rhagnar. Apparently Rhagnar's father is being stubborn about rumors that a threat from the Dark Catacombs is real, and that this time they might have help on the inside. Rhagnar agrees to speak to his father when he gets a chance.

While Aust returns from his shopping, he finds himself getting weak and passes out mysteriously...

## Closer to God, er, The First

...and wakes up chained to a slab. Servants of **The First**, led by Avar Pelegrin, are preparing a ritual. As Avar explains, it's a sacrificial ritual to steal power for Avar, and Aust is the sacrifice. Before he can object, a strange concoction is forced down Aust's throat. Avar claims it will make him closer to **The First** and ripe for sacrifice.

It works, and suddenly Aust is floating out of his body and he slowly begins to zoom around space and time and begins to see visions. He sees...

...a small Dwarven baby is delivered to the steps of an unmarked house, a shadowy figure walking away. A Dwarven woman emerges from the front door and sees the baby...

...a younger Wrax is seen, collapsed to his knees, holding the body of a woman in his arms. He is wailing at the top of his lungs in despair, with his ice breath shooting into the sky...

...the whole group is on the wagon. It is flying somehow, the wheels having tucked themselves up underneath the wagon. Erevan is lying in the back, seemingly dying. His veins have turned purple, apparently having been poisoned. Wrax suddenly remembers something, reaches into a nearby bag, pulls out a dagger, and slams it into Erevan's chest...

...Thorgrim and an Elven woman warrior are battling on a sinking ship. It is storming and the waves are taking the ship. It lurches, causes Thorgrim to lose his footing. The Elven woman goes in for the killing blow...

...two figures, hooded, inside a dark cave. One wields a greatsword that glows black and another wields a quarterstaff that glows green. Their eyes glow brightly the same colors as their weapons. They charge at each other and begin battle...

...a shadowy hooded figure meets with the Dwarven woman from the previous vision, though she looks older. He says something about her asking too many questions and throws several small orbs onto the ground, which creates a cloud of poisonous smoke. The woman begins to cough and fall over...

...on some fiery ash-filled plane of hell, a large pit fiend, sword in one hand and a fiery whip in another, hovers over the beaten and mostly unconscious members of the party. All except Wrax. Suddenly, he appears, flying into the room with a glowing holy greatsword in his hands. It has a hint of black mixed within it. The fiend turns, smiles at the new foe, and moves to attack...

...we are on another boat, but it is sailing fine. Erevan is in the middle of the deck, surrounded by what looks like an entire crew of pirates. Erevan puts on a large, really large, pirate hat. The whole crew cheers as he does, their new captain grinning...

...then Aust wakes up. He is still shackled to the slab, but the members of the Cult of the First are missing. Out of the one doorway out of the room, which leads to stairs, one of the members stumbles down the stairs, dead. A holy warrior emerges, looking around for more to kill. He sees Aust and frees him, assuming he was just an innocent bystander. He then runs off back upstairs to find Avar, as he has been pursuing the man for quite some time.

## Deal With It In The Morning

Aust returns to the inn, saying nothing. Wrax is visited in his room by a man who claims to have also let his soul fall into the hands of **Korbeth**. He collects the **breastplate** to take it where they are collecting the other items and leaves just as mysteriously as he came. Wrax sleeps an uncomfortable night's sleep, his body bruised from the bar fight, his mind uneased by what evil he's been forced to help with. Erevan stays up late working on his Verydian Puzzle Box. The Dwarves stay at the same in that the Ambassador is staying at. They stay up late discussing the dire news they have heard about their city.

Night comes, even if rest doesn't until much later...