Eldermourne Episode 21: The Crux

**The Crux** is the twenty-first episode in campaign 2.

The Third Mates learn about some strange happenings under the mountain from Losgrar, then venture off to investigate. Fia gets a scare, Zirk gets in deep, and Henry gets some disturbing news.

## Plot Synopsis

In the deepfolk outpost of Zelbuldar 7, Zirk wanders off with some hooligans to “find a place to shoot some cans” with the gun he took off of Quick Blast Cass Calloway’s posse. The 40-year-old deepfolk “teens” lead him to a cave then proceed to beat him with lead pipes, taking everything he has on his person, including a vial of Batilda’s blood.

When Zirk returns to Henry and Fia and tells them what happened, Fia is desperate to find the vial of Batilda’s blood, horrified at what may become of Batilda if her blood finds its way into the hands of a magical enemy. The party is able to hunt down one of the teens and convince him to hand it over, only after a talk with his mom. With the blood retrieved, the group goes to bed.

The next morning, they are awoken by Losgrar telling them that he is in need of a Blade. A deepfolk cleric named Grez had recently gone off on a dangerous mission all on her own and hasn’t returned. Grez had been having prophetic dreams of a sentient horror that she was supposed to meet, deep within the ruins of an old deepfolk outpost. To accomplish this, she traveled to a place called the Crux, a dangerous underground town with a network of rivers leading to various old mining sites and outpost ruins. The Crux is currently occupied by a group called the Scrappers who supposedly recycle old supplies from these sites to make enough money to get by. In actuality, Losgrar believes that the Scrappers are raiders and thieves who are responsible for some of the ruins they “stumbled upon.” Losgrar speaks about one such outpost, a successful mining operation called Zelbuldar 3, that suddenly collapsed under strange circumstances, leaving no survivors.

The Third Mates agree to help to find Grez, since they owe Losgrar a favor. but upon agreeing, Losgrar tells them that finding her would be beneficial to them as well, because she has the ear of Sienna, the autumn fairy and could potentially answer some of their burning questions.

With a sketch of Grez in hand, they head to the Crux via a teleporter, and once there, they visit the various merchant tents, and obtain a newspaper from West Precinct. Hank learns through the paper that his ex-wife's new husband, Carlisle Lachnamoore, is in the running for new Petty King of Outerborough. Even more concerning, his son is not featured in the family portrait accompanying the article. Concerned, Henry mails a letter to Izzie, asking about Hank Jr (“Where is my son?!”) before the group heads off to a tavern to ask around about the missing Grez.

At the tavern, they meet the leader of the Scrappers, Hutar Gunnerbold. who tells them that he had seen Grez. She had come through recently and asked about a passage to a particular ruin. Hutar had supplied her with guides in exchange for her dealing with a haunting there, but she hasn’t returned. Hutar offers the group the same deal: get passage into the mountain in exchange for dealing with the haunting at the ruin. The Third Mates agree, deciding to follow Grez’s footsteps into the mountain. Before they head off, Fia trades Madame Whitlocke's umbrella to Hutar in exchange for some armor.

They then join their guide, Craggle, on a wet and wild log flume ride through the mountain before pulling up to the ruins where Grez and the others had apparently gone off to deal with the haunting. As they traveled on foot through the half-collapsed mining tunnels, they begin to suspect that this was the same outpost destroyed under mysterious circumstances that Losgrar had told them about earlier. As they approach the ruins, they feel the chill of a thousand angry spirits in the air before seeing the source: prowling through the wreckage of the town is a huge, spectral ghost dragon.

## Music and Sound Effects

* "Club chatter, London" by mlteenie at Freesound.org.
* "A Wizard's Tournament" by Emily Axford.
* "The Red Fen" by Emily Axford.
* "The Lonely Autumn" by Emily Axford.
* "Kingshammer" by Emily Axford.
* "Zirk" by Emily Axford.
* "Henry" by Emily Axford.
* "Spooky Shafts" by Emily Axford.
* "Friend for Life" by Emily Axford.
* "Baroness" by Emily Axford.
* "Blackthorn Hall" by Emily Axford.
* "Cursed" by Emily Axford.
* "Soul Coins" by Emily Axford.
* "Into the Planar Pool" by Emily Axford.

## External Links

* Headgum
* Spotify
* NADDPOD Subreddit Thread