Ep 38: Returning the Artifact

Current Secrets tracks the progress of story-level secrets.

Relevant locations:

* Redwood’s Rest
* Blackleaf Vale Wizard's Tower
* The Tomb of the Tyrant King

## Start of Episode

As they were tracking through Blackleaf Vale, the PCs investigated a ruined Wizard's Tower. There, they found a summoning gone wrong and decided to summon the demon again to see what happened. Mozol, the demon they summoned, was very informative as they realized the "Tyrant King" is Orcus, the Demon Lord of the Undead, and the tomb they are searching for is his place of binding.

Mozol also offered the team a very valuable artifact—The Book of Vile Evil—to retrieve an artifact from Iriedhen Redwood and gruesomely murder her. With some hesitation and dissent, the PCs took the offer and quickly completed the task.

Now, the PCs have woken up after the murder to find Redwood’s Rest in chaos.

## Murder aftermath

Iriedhen was last seen heading out of the inn alone. One of the barhands, Rebecca, is being comforted from her hysterics and rambling. She says they were attacked by three unknown assailants, then she was sucked into a great swirling mist where she floated and saw nothing but vast emptiness and expansiveness for a month, and then she was back outside the murder. She is gibbering and some doubt her sanity as a witness.

There is a lot of controversy around the caravan leaders and guards, as the latter learned that Iriedhen was responsible for organizing the raids against caravans. The guards are mad because their friends were killed or captured in these raids.

## Scrying Secrets

Scrying secrets:

* The Cult of the King has not yet found the tomb
	+ Kidnapping dwarves in the mountain mines and forcing them to dig through the caverns to find an entrance
* *Alsom is preparing Urm Brau defenses against a dragon attack*
* *Vhondyl is dead—PCs see a fairly decomposed skeleton in the sewers of Urm Brau*
	+ Phyrra receives a summons as Vhondyl to meet at her quarters & puts the armor on before answering it
* Edito Varna is in a business meeting deciding which weapons to sell to which side of the war (profiteering)
* *Adriasta is bribing a harbor master*
* Professor Axekson is researching in Tastow
* Izumi, Hayama's old master at the Delian syndicate, is trapped in a prison
* Wendell, the previous manservant, is assisting the Molodes
* Phil, the hired help, is running a restaurant

## Happenings/To Do

PCs start the next morning to a Redwood's Rest in chaos.

* Pack up and leave first thing in the morning
* Immediately return to the wizard's tower
	+ Along the way, scrying on people:
		- Vhondyl is dead! Who killed her?
			* PCs think Alsom or allies, or the Delians
		- Alsom is preparing Urm Brau defenses
		- Izumi, Hayama's old master, resisted the scrying attempt
		- Adriasta is bribing the harbormaster in Urm Brau
		- Lord Aered / Harden Varna (Edito's son) is arguing with his dad about their deals with the Cult of the King
			* Harden wants to continue
			* Edito wants to find a way to scale the deals back
		- Mordai is still dead underneath the rubble of the Half-Moon Temple
		- Aervulth the dragon resists the scrying attempt
	+ Baron does more research and finishes the ritual he was working on
		- Empowering enchantment raises all stats by +2 for a week by sacrificing a friend or loved one with an object of shared significance
		- Further research will find notes about the duration changing based on the relationship & object
	+ They summon Mozol & return the crystal ball. "I will remember this in the future. You have been very effective."
	+ PCs loot the room, Baron keeps decoding (lich ritual)
* Set off for the Tomb of Orcus
	+ Three days of travel
		- Baron translates the ritual to become a lich
		- Begins reading the next one (etched into a hide): binding of powerful creatures in an area
* Arrive at the Tomb entrance
	+ Opened the gates with the compass as intended, then recalled they'd promised the key to the dragon Aervulth
	+ Arrive at the door of the temple
		- Eli hosts a Heroes' Feast for everyone in front of the temple statue
		- Read the note, notice a missing body, open a sarcophagus (empty, never been used before)
	+ Go into the hall of warning
		- Notice the 13 beds in the acolyte's quarters
		- Wander the catacombs, attack some boneclaw
	+ Karyn leads the group into the catacombs and towards the Sealing Chamber, bypassing the further catacombs