The Plunge for Knowledge I: Into the Unknown

One of the students of the Leodis' Mages Tower went snooping around the depths below the tower archive and discovered a hidden entrance leading deeper down into the unknown. The mages of the tower have contacted the Guild to explore the deeper reaches of the tower to make sure it's safe and hopefully uncover some long forgotten knowledge. What will the gang find, treasury, treachery or maybe just a nice hat?

*Part of the The Plunge for Knowledge story arc*

## Adventurers Attending

* Tas
* Io Aerkeryrm
* Grrder
* Horatio Hammerfell
* Xerxes Kaalahdiil

## Mission Notes

The Adventurers Guild received a request form mages of the Leodis Mage Tower to head the tower and explore the newly discovered level. An Archivist by the name Natalia Penelope Chestroot, a tall elvish woman who has overseen the archives for the Mages Tower for quite some time but says something new was discovered down in it's depths by a student who had been sneaking around down there. As the student was sneaking around they tripped over into a wall revealing a hidden door that blended in to the wall, behind it were a set of spiraling stairs leading into the unknown depths below.

The group travel to the Leodis Mages Tower via a Teleportation Circle that Natalia casts. Leading the group through the library and to the back where the archives are. On the long walk to the new found entrance lots of questions are asked about if there are any books on particular subjects such as magical agriculture and folk lore from the Black Swamp's Dragonborn of Fort Adaar. Xerxes was hoping to see if there was any more information on Marrukh The Grimm but Natalia sadly informed him that most of the Dragonborn of Fort Adaar's legends are oral and books don't usually survive the environment within the swamp. If he is lucky there may be accounts written down by anthropologists but it is unlikely. Letting the group know that there will be plenty of time later to research after they have explored.

Showing the group to the entrance it becomes clear why the entrance had remained hidden so long. Pressing on one particular brick, a large section of brickwork pulls back and swings back revealing a staircase going down as far as the eye can see. Stepping through from the unassuming corridor the group climb down the stairs until they start seeing the bottom, about 30ft above the bottom, the stairs have given out and collapsed. Driving piton into the stone stairs the group have an anchor point for Grrder to use his rope of climbing on.

Lowering down the group find themselves in a large 40ft room covered in sand with a corridor leading out of sight. Io sends Asco, her myconid cat familiar off ahead to scout until Asco sees a bunch of reliefs in a corridor just out of sight. The group move on and discover a 20ft wide corridor with every 10ft section of wall having a 9 foot high, 4 foot wide, 3 inch deep door shaped recess containing a bas-relief carving. Each one very different from the last, between Io, Grrder and Tas they sus out the identities of all the demons in the reliefs. The reliefs that align the walls of the corridor depict a balor, a barlgura, a chasme, a dretch, a glabrezu, a goristro, a hezrou, a marilith, a nalfeshnee, a quasit, a shadow demon, a vrock, and a yochlol. Io takes the time to investigate all the reliefs and discovers the Marilith has peephole where the eyes should be and doesn't connect with the wall. Choosing to leave it till later the group continue investigating the statues in the reliefs and discover on the opposite wall a barlgura which is holding a tiny banana that looks like it can be twisted.

Deciding to investigate the Marilith relief first, the group looked to see if there were any marks on the floor but couldn't see any. Horatio tried to push the relief in, which has a little give but felt like there was great resistance on one side. Getting a crowbar offered to him from Xerxes, Horatio used it to pry the hidden door, revealing a small corridor and hidden room they couldn't see fully from their current spot. Deciding to see what was hidden behind the Barlgura relief, the group hid around the corner while Tas used mage hand to turn the tiny banana. The group expecting a trap were until the pleasant smell crept from within the room, with the acceptation of Grrder who can't smell.

Deciding

Grrder checks out the room seeing shark man statue glowing faintly purple

Going i there as a group HHH is attacked by a gooey beak, gooze attack

heading in room, suit of armour is impaled by sword with skeleton in a pile at the bottom.

Io grabs sword and she can't release it from hand HHH tries to disarm her with his sword and just ends up hurting her

heading out the other door a t section is explored and turns back to the pillar room

io finds a stone in the central pillar and finds it empty, she puts message inside the pillar

heading south down a long tunnel turning the corner a goblin is seen with its head caved in next to a bunch of mining gear.

they were boring a tunnel lil pom is sent through to explore and it comes out in a room goign back as not wanting to advance too much without the group

Heading down the mirror corridor with Io leading many forms of her come out of the many mirrors

heading to the end the group are feeling a bit worse for wear so scout out ahead then go back to the pillar room to rest. seeing a room with a couple of bugbears

grrder checks out a room by himself and stands still there for way too long.

Io tries to contact one of the bugbears and it talks back, going to rest it talks back without io opening up the link. this creeps out Io

After rest the group go to talk to the bugbears who are working on a statue that is broken into 12 pieces Pinky and Bubbles are working on. they thank grrder and io for helping fix the statue as their boss will be pleased. warned that avoid the goblins as they are assholes

Going to the room

HHH joins the gang and gets a tattoo everyone else thinks Jym the #goblin and his friends are dicks.

boop

boop

**Io's Letter for Da Boss**

>
> *Dear Sir,*
>
>
> *I hope this missive finds you well. On our exploration of these recently discovered archives we came across Pinky and Bubbles, we of course decided to aid them in their task fixing a statue. To your satisfaction I trust?*
>
>
> *As one who is well versed in wandering archives of this kind I wondered what your purpose is here? And whether I could be of further assistance?*
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>
> *Your people told us little of you or your motivations, and I find myself intrigued by both your presence and the space itself.*
>
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> *Please write back at your earliest convenience, I have requested the Leodis Tower staff keep an eye on the entrance from their side. Only to aid in receiving your response of course.*
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> *Yours Faithfully,*
> Lady Aerkerym of The Library of Ürs.
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>
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> *Post-Script: The goblins we met soon after seemed to have forgotten the task they had been assigned. Hopefully this was not of too much import.*
>
>

## Loot

* Standard Session Xp & Gold
* Leodis Mages Tower Library Card - Everyone
* Cursed Moontouched Shortsword, Curses the holder to be unable to let go of the handle until a remove curse spell is cast upon them. - Io

## Rumours

* This place seems endless how much further does it go?
* Who is the Boss and how many eyes do they have?

## Expedition Journals

#### **Tas' Expedition Journal**

> Pomp and I were called to the office by a lady from the Leodis mage tower to explore the lower floors of their archive. It’s always fun to get to explore different places. It’s my first time hanging out with Horatio and Xerxes, they’re cool. The lady needed us to map the dungeon out too so I fashioned a blank canvas and carrier for lil Pomp and the lady gave one of her feathers to him for a quill to map it out. Spoilers but poor boy scribbled a bunch of gibberish and it was Io who mapped it in the end.
>
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> We were teleported to the tower and the lady led us to the archives which took about 2 hours. The place is huge, I hope there’s no loose liches running around like Ürs. We descended to the first level and began our exploration! There was a hallway lined with statues of various beings from hell, Pomp and I didn’t like that. Io found secret doors behind two statues, the gang went in to investigate while Pomp and I stood guard in the hallway, too many cooks in the kitchen and all that. One of the rooms reeked and I could hear loud bangs from Horatio’s guns and quacks and Io’s cries for a Gabriella. They came out with a jar filled with ooze and lil eyes bobbing around, a dead gooze they called it, not sure if I was glad or sad that I didn’t see it.
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> At some point Io got stuck with a sword in her hand. After that we fought a bunch of Ios that came out of mirrors. Absolutely tiring day! Well, I complain but Xerxes’ arms at some point shrivelled up like old carrots and I never heard him complain, good chap. After that we were contacted by some bugbears, Pinky and Bubbles. It’s a bit suspicious, I’ve not heard of bugbears who could initiate telepathic communication. Anyway they were having a hard time piecing back a broken statue and they’ve been here 4000 sleeps, however long that is. Io and Grrder helped them out and we found out their boss is a few floors down and they have goblin coworkers who were dickheads.
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> They were not kidding, the goblins were absolute dickheads! They kept calling us dweebs and kept flipping the bird with their poorly constructed marionette. Horatio seemed to like them and joined their little crew, I don’t know how he does it. After a little tour of their place we left them, went back up and reported our findings. I don’t mind coming back but hopefully I never need to see those goblins again.
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#### **Xerxes' Expedition Journal**

> ***This was dictated to a scribe of the Guild, as Xerxes lacks the capacity for writing.***
>
>
> More Wizards today. This one seemed much less useless, and knew what she spoke of. The Archive underneath the school she teaches at was found to have an opening to more below, and we were to investigate. I was joined on this mission by more experienced Guild Members, so I mostly deferred to their expertise. I was a soldier before, so I know when is best to follow orders from your betters. This had mixed results, though.
>
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> The team today was a Giff called Horatio (who had interesting, but loud, weapons called guns); Io, an Elf with magic like Hralden's, as well as her robotic companion. Grrder an Autognome with holy magics, and Tas, another Elf with magic that seemed similar to my own. They had an Imp with them called Little Pomp. It is funny, my role is supposed to be a psychopomp, and this little creature had the name of that role. The Common Tongue is a strange one. I think I shall talk to Tas more if I see them again. We may have some things of shared interest, and I could learn from them. We were teleported to the library and quickly got to work. I also asked the library people if they had information on Marrukh, the Grimm. I need to learn more about my role's predecessor.
>
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> The dungeon below had many paths, and progress was a bit slow. I was starting to get a little bored, as much as I tried to follow the more experienced Guild Members. Maybe I need to learn some patience? Anyway, we fought an acid goose, which was cute but aggressive. Reminded me of that large frog from my first mission in the way it acted. We killed it, though, because we had no choice. I was right next to Horatio when he fired his gun, and my ear-fins rang for a while. I did not like it. The weapon was very effective though, and he wielded it like an expert.
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> Next were a few more rooms. Io got a glowing sword stuck to her hand (it stayed that way), we saw rooms with lots of statues, and then a hall with mirrors. Many Io's came out of them and attacked us. Horatio was as good as ever with his gun, and Tas unleashed a powerful spell that seared the copies with light. I tried to be useful, and I was, but the copies also drained my strength away. By the end of the fight, I felt weak and sluggish, so we took a short break to heal.
>
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> Afterward, Io used something called Telepathy and talked with a Bugbear called Pinky. He sounded very different when he spoke in my head to when we met him. It was odd. We thought it might be a trap, and Io had clearly been getting into lots of trouble, as confident as they were, so I suggested that she fix the problem she made. I think my own tongue gets me in trouble, it was rude of me, and she is more experienced and smart than me. I should apologise if I see her again.
>
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> They were trying to fix a statue, so we helped them. I was feeling tired and the Bugbears were confusing me with their vagueness about their boss, so I left the experienced Guild Members to do the rest of the exploring for the day. I was a bit out of my depth, and I did not feel like dying, so I returned to the Library upstairs and then head back to the Guild after.
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> Another mission down, and the more I explore, the more I feel I must learn. But the experiences have continued to help me grow, and I am becoming more comfortable with the power given to me by Marrukh. I hope to contact him soon, though I know I would not be his first choice when it comes to the service of this role. I will try to rise to the challenge – even if I am not worthy of it yet… Though I fear I never will.
>
>

#### **Io's Expedition Journal**

> A mage from Leodis came asking for assistance charting a recently discovered section of the archives. Naturally I accepted, a chance to wander undiscovered sections of the Mages Tower? How could I pass up.
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> After being teleported there and entering the new section I almost immediately became attached to a cursed sword. Grrder was able to remove it from me eventually, but it proved to be little inconvenience.
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> After discovering secret passages behind some demon statues we progressed though the archives, drawing a map of the area as we proceeded.
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> We ran into the most adorable Gooze, unfortunately killed by Horatio. Grrder collected the remains for me to inter in my own Library.
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> The most fascinating mirrors brought shadow reflections of myself to life, which were quickly slain.
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> After sending Asco out to scout the area they found Bugbears and a group of goblins. After communicating with one of the Bugbears telepathically I found that Pinky had a similar ability. An oddity for most of their kind I think.
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> Going to meet them we found they were working on repairing a statue. Grrder, Tower and I made short work of repairing it for them. I kept a small bit of its core, so as to make it look complete externally, but leaving it incomplete. I do not know why their Boss had requested they fix the statue, but held some omen of suspicion. If it were for some form of ritual magic hopefully the incomplete statue may hamper efforts if put to sinister use.
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> I also wrote a letter to their shadowed Boss, to attempt to learn more about their goals before we return at a later date.
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#### **Grrder's Expedition Journal**

> The mission started when a teacher wanted us to investigate some newly found underground chambers under a tower. Teleporting there we found the secret entrance. Statues which Io particularly found fascinating were along the walls. He got stuck to a sword by touching one.
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> A weird acidic goose tried to be friends so the others killed it. I rescued the remains as a present for Io. Weird architecture and statues were of more interest to Io.
>
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> A lot of Io (plural) appeared from mirrors. I didn't get closer to these. The front line fighters seemed to be weakened by them. I found an empty room. It was empty. I checked. Twice.
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> Io messaged me about 75 minutes later and we found some bugbears trying to repair a statue. Io, Tower and myself mended the statue but Io did take a piece for herself. Some goblins had a puppet made from a former human. They convinced Horatio to join their dweeb organisation. Which had a boss which was described in many ways that didn't make sense.
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> We left so I could uncurse Io of the sword. She had made a map so we could find our way back. I gained a library card for the mission. Which I intend to use to research monstrosities and other things that tend to attack me.
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