(Once Upon) A Flame in Karrnath

## Introduction

*You can hear the clamour of noise, even all the way up in the House Lyrandar enclave. Sharn truly is the city that never sleeps. The docking ring holds a few other ships, but only one captures your eyes.* Zalantyr's Kiss *is a fine vessel, with silvery tracings extending along the hull. You can see visible burn marks on the port side of the ship, and there is a hum of activity in the air as cargo and passengers are loaded on and off of it.*

## Expedition Summary

The adventure starts with our crave adventurers waiting for their airship, *Zalantyr's Kiss*, to arrive at the Lyrandar docks in Sharn. They meet each other, many for the first time, before they embark on the ship on their way to Atur via Korth. Their mission is to investigate the disappearance of Arello ir'Bordan, who had an important package for Boroman ir'Dayne himself, founder of the Wayfinder Foundation. He'd been last seen in the Hare and Gorgon in Atur five days ago, and was supposed to have been in Fairhaven three days ago.

There was a brief stopover in Korth before they could board the lightning rail to Atur. Drago was a Karrn born and raised, and so he actually knew someone in Atur - Brother Patches, the man who had raised him from the dead. They arrive into Atur station after duck, and follow Drago past the eerie crimson *everbright lanterns* to a small, but well kept, shrine to the Blood of Vol s dozen blocks away from the Crimson Monastery, the primary temple for the Blood of Vol in all Khorvaire. The massive brass doors to the shrine are knocked upon, and in a haze of cinnamon and palm wine, a warforged wrapped in a heavy linens opens the door. Drago asks for and is granted shelter for himself and his companions. Ivello has a conversation with Brother Patches about his faith, while Relic engages in shenanigans with Zord, Powers' faithful juvenile triceratops companion. The others drop in on their conversation and discover that Brother Patches wishes to become a Reforged, sacrificing some of his construct nature to become more organic. They set out to find the Hare and Gorgon, the last known location of Arello. They find it with no issue and once they enter it, they find themselves in a grim bar full of serious drinkers. Drago looks for and finds the drunkest person in the bar, a changeling who can no longer maintain a solid shape, and convinces them to talk. Ivello manages to see a trio of young noblemen having a few drinks, and manages to charm his way into their acquaintance. They're considerably more helpful than the drunk, and they reveal to Ivello that had in fact seen Arello, that he'd left with his sister a few days go. They also dropped the name of Dorrus, a local street rat who has an ear to the ground, who happens to live in the sewers near the Crimson Monastery.

They find three sets of footprints in the sewers, and decide to follow the set that look like they're wrapped in something, as if to conceal some detail about them. They follow them, and eventually come to beneath the Crimson Monastery itself, though the way forwards is blocked by a heavy iron grate. Autumn transforms into a small rat and scouts past the grate, where she find a room off the main corridor that has bodies hanging from the walls, and something about a ritual called the Sacrament of Blood. She rushes back just in time to Relic attempting to dispel the *glyph of warding* that had been cast upon the grate, and it caught in the ensuing hurricane of frosty air with everyone else. They eventually force their way past the grate after Autumn tells them of her discoveries, and head down the hallway. Drago sees the same verses about the Sacrament of Blood as Autumn did, but as a Seeker he knows that the Sacrament is a voluntary donation, and this version talks about draining victims of all of their blood, and is furious. Ivello goes and takes a look at the bodies, but all of them have been dead for too long to be Arello. They decide to abandon this set of footprints, but not before making a note to tell the Press about what they'd discovered. They follow a second set of tracks to find a ramshackle hut built out of wood. It was indeed the residence of Dorrus, but he barred them entry, forcing them to ask their questions through the rag that served as as door. He claims to know something of Arello, but demands a price: something bloody and fresh. Autumn manages to hunt down a sewer rat, which a skeletal hand quickly grabs through the doorway. He reveals that Arello's sister took him into the hills south of Atur, that there was something he "just had to see".

The party heads off through the cold night and into the hills, where Drago remembered that the undead armies of Karrnath would often gather for offenses against Cyre or the Talentans. Ivello and Powers manage to find a pair of tracks heading south quickly, but more ominously, they find an additional half dozen tracks following the original pair. They hurry, and soon find a field that is greatly disturbed in a clearing, almost looking like it's been tilled recently, except for the blood and limbs scattered everywhere. Ivello moves in to investigate the bodies, when a gaunt, but crazed bulette leaps from beneath the ground. It's a brief yet fierce battle with the Karrnathi bulette, and Ivello, Drago, Powers and Zord all come out diseased from the malignancy clinging to its foul body. Ivello finally gets the chance to search the bodies, and while he cannot confirm that Arello isn't among them, the number matches exactly to the second party that was following Arello. They rest for the night before continuing on the path the next morning.

It takes another day and a half of hard travel, but they finally catch up to him in a small, wooded glade. Drago, as the local, is elected spokesperson and heads into the glade, though the others are not far behind. Arello seems to being led around by a stunningly attractive woman, who demands to know why she's being accosted. Relic spies that package that they'd been sent to help retrieve attached to Arello's wrist by some sort of band of pure force. She identifies herself and Arello as war historians looking for a specific battle site, and Drago attempts to bluff his way as a Captain in the Karrnathi military. He succeeds, but she seems to have a strange aversion to Powers. She convinces Drago that everything is alright, even shows him her identification papers, and he lets his companions know that everything's alright, her papers check out. She even permits Relic to check Arello's bag, but Relic discovers that he cannot open it. They discover that the bag is keyed to be opened only by Arello's hand, and only in the presence of Lord ir'Dayne himself. The woman and Relic have a short conversation, after which they announce that they are to be allies. She abruptly drops the illusion that she was concealing herself behind and reveals herself as Russelkiss, one of the shulassakar (a race of yuan-ti that revere the Silver Flame). She claims that Arello has in his possession a artifact from the Age of Demons, and that she cannot risk it falling into the wrong hands. The artifact, translated into in Common as *That Which Guides the Planar Movement*, has been tracked by a merciless demon called Malazant as well, who'll stop at nothing to get their hands on it. The party offers to escort her back to her people, but their trip back is interrupted by the demon Malazant. She yells at the party to bring Arello back to the Wayfinder Foundation and to bury that artifact as deeply as they can as she holds off the demon. They run for two days, finally stumbling in Vedykar, exhausted beyond all measure.

They purchase a lightning rail ticket to Fairhaven and head to the station, but not before shooting out a quick *sending* spell to warn ir'Dayne of the situation. The train ride is uneventful for most of the trip, but shortly before they would disembark to cross Scion's Sound there is a loud noise on the roof of the train at night. Powers, Drago and Autumn bring Arello to the rear of the train with Zord, while Relic and Ivello meet up with Pierce d'Orien, a Blade of Orien, who's going to investigate the strange noise. The three of them head up on top of the train, where they encounter a pair of shadowy winged humanoid tigers. As the three warriors battle the shadow demons, the others have an encounter with Malazant himself. The demon, cloaked in the form of a cat, drops a globe of magical *darkness* just as the party rushes to engage. A blind scuffle ensues, and a few heartbeats later Arello screams in pain. Drago pulls him out of the darkness, and Powers and Autumn quickly apply healing spells, but it's too late - his hand has been removed, and, with it, his mysterious package. Ivello and Relic, having just burst onto the scene after defeating the shadow demons, charge straight through the darkness. They see the demon for a brief moment before the entire car is suddenly filled with radiant light and knowledge. Ivello, Zord and Autumn are immediately knocked unconscious from it, while Drago is merely blinded. Powers and Relic however, see everything that unfolds. A small cube is the artifact in question, and the bright light also burns away the substance of the demon, and revealing Arello's savaged hand lying in a corner. An orrery of light if projected into the car shows the movements of all 13 planes for a brief moment before the light dies and the artifact drops to the ground, inert. The party is interrupted by Pierce d'Orien, who came to investigate the source of the bright light. He questions them, and then they spend the rest of the night in the Orien staff cart. As the Wayfinders leave, Pierce tosses Ivello a House Orien medallion for luck, and with the reassurances that it'll get most any Orien employee to stop and listen if they need it, before they head to the docks to continue their trip in Thaliost.

The rest of the trip back to the ir'Dayne estate is quiet, except for a slight altercation in Thaliost when they disembark the elemental galleon in regards to a baggage search. They meet with the inestimable head of the Foundation, Lord Boroman ir'Dayne himself. He debriefed them himself, and shared what he had learned about Malazant. He revealed that there was a report from an adventurer 250 years who identified Malazant as a rakshasa, a fiend native to Eberron. He personally gave them their reward, and offered to let them stay for a few days as he arranged fro transport back to Sharn.

## Epilogue

*It’s late, and Lord ir’Dayne is napping sleepily in his chair.  He’s woken abruptly by his butler, indicating that it’s time to retire for the evening.  Having sent out the package containing the artifact earlier that day with a half dozen of his best men after the Sharn Wayfinders left, he was reasonably confident in its security.  His butler escorts him to his chambers, and*
sets the magical prestidigitation effect to heat the chamber well beyond normal, as Boroman can no longer sleep in cold.  He also settles down to sleep when he hears a rapping on the window.

*Looking out, he sees a pitch-black cat with shining green eyes.  He shouts for his butler, who bursts into the room wielding a lantern.  For a split second, Boromans eyes meet the cats and the cat’s mouth stretches into a grin completely unnatural for a cat, and the light cast by his butler’s lantern reveals that*
the cat is completely soaked with blood.  He blinks his eyes, and the cat is gone.  He sends his butler to the window to check, and the butler finds tiny paw prints in blood lying on the windowsill, but nothing else.

*Sleep comes slowly to Boroman ir’Dayne that night.*