Now its a ghost town

Autumn year 720

Erevan, Kargrimm, Nephrus and Valrith having survived the fight against the automata found themselves in the early morning of their twelth day of this adventure.

They left the headquarters relatively trouble free, and emerged into a city much changed. Stonegate was plagued with the spirits released from the crystals, and many of the buildings of the city destroyed by the explosions. The noble house of the Barker family was destroyed and sunken into a huge pit. The heroes walked through the city to the citadel, where they found the Marshal, Lord Burntleaf, the lady mage Penelope and Darius of House Zar. The Lich had broken *'The Great Band of Frederick II'* on the use of these magic crystals.

The Marshal gave the heroes an amulet of his authority, they seem to have perhaps gained his trust despite their chaotic methods. The group needed rest after their fight in the headquarters so they head to their favourite inn.

After some culinary experimentation the next day the heroes set off into the city to find and fight monsters as was their task. First a stop off at the market, to stock up on potions and sell off some found treasures.

While there, Erevan and Kargrimm heard that now familiar voice in their heads, they were summoned to the cliffs north of the city. Once there they were visited by the Lich Artaxerxes, who asked their assistance in his plans, the two heroes discussed the merits of helping the villain.

Meanwhile Valrith and Nephrus have a second breakfast, this time with booze. Nephrus is a one dark lord man! He claimed you don’t double dip the dark contracts.

The party reunited set off with their mission and decided to venture down the sinkhole by the manor house. Once below the city they found an ancient structure, guarded by mimics, traps and a large monstrous creature.

Nephrus had knowledge of this creature, it was a Beholder. The party advanced into the hallways of the ancient underground complex, triggering another pressure plate that activated some sort of magnetic ceiling, that attracted metal items upwards. Kargrimm detached his newly found breastplate and was able to fall to the floor with minimal damage. Valrith resorted to the magic of Sylvanus and attached herself to the ground with vines.

In a further room that was nicely decorated the group found more corpses, though these seemed to be sculptures made of meat, to check this was true Nephrus poked a corpse with his dagger. This caused the entire room to shift into its mimic form trapping the party within its mouth. With repeated hacking and stabbing the party killed the mimic and could escape.

Outside the mouth of the room was a greasy hallway that Erevan had discovered, Kargrimm set fire to the grease with his torch, burning off all the slippery surface but filling the halls with thick smoke. Further in the heroes found arcane runes on the floor, unable to decipher them, they left to find another way.

On the way round Kargrimm attempted to retrieve his breastplate but again the magnetic ceiling was triggered.

Another dangerous trap was triggered by Valrith's heavy foot. While entering another room, Erevan received a slap to the face and was expelled from the room, the door itself told him to mind his manners. Nephrus asked permission to enter and was pleasantly accepted by the door. Nephrus enquired about the Beholder, the door explained that the Beholder was named Ralakor and that he was reasonable.

In the large room the party encounter fierce beasts that appeared frozen in time, though they bled when they were cut. At the Eastern end of the room was an archway, Valrtih experimented with this archway, first throwing a rock through, then her sword, then her arm and fianlly she walked through herself, all seemed to not have any result. Meanwhile Erevan used his immense strength to pull a glowing bejewelled sword from a stone in the Western end of the hall.

The group explored the hallways further, they found a pool of mercury that formed a river flowing to other parts of the dungeon.

Behind a locked door the heroes found a large flaming mechanical being, this was the butler the earlier door spoke of. The butler offered to go find the master and left. The party loot the room of interesting items.

Nephrus and Kargrimm investigated a bedchamber, finding a diary written in deepspeech, which Nephrus translated frequent mentions of someone named 'Old Arthur'. After the door of this room politely declined the pair to leave the chamber.

Valrith pulled the lever of a large machine, from the ceiling fell thousands of rats, the group fled the rats, and found what appeared to be an arcane workshop. Erevan's careless exploration found himself teleported within a chest and he became trapped. Valrith decided to reach out and touch the floating orb in the centre of the room and was vanished from existence.

Leaving Kargrimm and Nephrus exasperated and needing to free the others.