Inverted Sky

"Inverted Sky" (C1.S08.3) is a one-shot in the first campaign of The Vanguard.

## Synopsis

The players were sent out by Lt Mog and an Archivist, Riga, because Riga found something that he thought could locate Naraxus: the Mirror of Melisra. According to some records Riga found, the mirror would be found near the Fountains of the Crystal Halls in ancient Hastarl, – which was the capital of ancient Athalanta . Fell 4000 years ago, give or take. Hastarl’s ruins are below the current town of Secomber. So, Joan, Bullin, Algol, Cherish, Jefferson, Amazi we sent to go and fetch it.

When they got to Secomber, the guards at the gate scoffed at them, and asked them what they were looking for? The sword? The mirror? Later the party contacted the sage of Secomber, who confirmed the mirror had been looted maybe 5 years ago by a party out of Cormyr. Joan refused to pay the entrance tax. Bullin paid for her behind her back.

They stayed at place called the Seven Stringed Harp. While there, they encountered a kobald, who stank something awful and who immediately got kicked out of the inn, and vowed revenge. Later, as the party was ready to bed down, they heard something outside. They investigated, and the kobald, Kvetch, had returned leading 2 skeletons and 2 zombies to wreck havoc in the inn. The party slew them all. One zombie was ID’d by a local as a recently buried relative. They followed the trail left by the zombies out of the city and a few miles through the countryside to an abandoned hamlet. There were signs the place was frequented by hobgoblins (Uthani tribe). The trail went into the fallow farm fields where they found a gated sinkhole down into the ground.

The went down a long, slimy chute and used the broken unholy symbol of orcus that they got from Kvetch to bypass the glyphs of warding at the bottom. As they left the tunnel, shriekers began to shriek. Bullin chopped it into mushroom salad. They had entered into a sunken world that had folded on top of itself thousands of years ago, like someone folded a village into a taco. In the distance, they saw a small reddish light. As they got closer, they could hear some kind of ritual happening, but could not understand the language. They recognized undead so decided to attack. As they approached a small shrine they were attacked by a sheep and horse zombie dropping down from above. (Yes, they beat a dead horse.) Inside the shrine area was a priestess in the middle of a ritual, complete with swirling purple vapors wrapping around her in a sick embrace, and sacrificial victims. A wight and several skeletons were outside providing cover using bows. They attacked the priestess and her zombies, and shot arrows at the wight and skeletons. Jefferson freed one dying victim while attacked the priestess. When the priestess died, the spell continued until Bullin kicked over a blood-filled ritual basin and the party freed the other victims.

## Guild Dispatches

The following are messages from the guild members who participated in the mission. They contain valuable information the guild can use to piece together clues.

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> *To: Spark Ascendant, Sentinels Grace*
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> *Copy to: Valetta Valbis, High Seeker of Gond, House of Inspired Hands*
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> *Report on trip to Secomber*
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> *Lt Mog gathered a group of new and experienced Vanguard members, Amazi, Bullin, Cherish, Jeff, Joan and I, and introduced us to scholar Riga, from the Vanguard archive, who had identified a powerful item, the Mirror of Meliserim, that might help us find Naraxas. His sources indicated that the mirror would be found near the Fountain of the Crystal Halls in the ruins of Hastarl, which are under and around the modern town of Secomber. They recommended consulting the Sage of Secomber, Amelior Amanitas, for guidance on where to search.*
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> *We travelled to Secomber and soon learned it was common knowledge that the mirror had been found by a group of adventurers from Cormyr 5 years ago. This was confirmed in a conversation with the Sage, who provided details of the event (specifics available if needed).*
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> *Late that night, while discussing whether to return to Waterdeep immediately or address some of the problems afflicting the inhabitants of the town, a kobold who had been ejected from our inn, The Seven-Stringed Harp, earlier in the evening, returned with a group of undead (zombies and skeletons) to attack the inn. Fortunately, Amazi detected their approach, and we were not surprised, quickly defeating the kobold and his undead minions. In the aftermath, we discovered that the Kobold, who stank of death, carried a holy symbol of Orcus, Master of the Undead.*
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> *We backtracked the kobold and undead to a sinkhole in a field outside Secomber. Descending a steep slope into the earth, we used the Kobold’s holy symbol to safely pass a magical glyph and found ourselves in a strange underground area with ruins both underfoot and overhead. Following a glimpse of reddish light in the distance we found a mostly intact building where a priestess of Orcus was conducing a ritual of some sort. After a contentious fight we defeated the priestess and several undead, including an undead cow and horse, although an intelligent undead who had attacked us with a bow escaped. We also rescued three people from Secomber, a young couple who had been reported missing, and a child.*
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> *We recovered a Periapt of Wound Closure and a potion of Firebreathing from the priestess. We diced for the Periapt, which went to Joan. No one wanted the potion. We also got some Oil of Sharpness from the kobold, which I took, as no one else wanted it.*
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> *Other news of interest from Secomber:*
> *A recent visitor, who praised the goal of removing magic from the world, was thrown out of town.*
> *Secomber is paying tribute to a huge tribe of hobgoblins who live south of the town, and this is having a notable negative effect on the town’s prosperity.*
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> - Seeker Algol Underwood
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> (Original Source)
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> *Sirs,*
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> *Lt. Mog addressed a group of guild members at breakfast and ordered us to go to Secomber to look for a missing artifact, the Mirror of Meliserim. Our group consisted of a priest of Gond, Algol, two Paladins, Joan and Amazi, a Rogue named Jeff, Bullin the Barbarian and myself, a Warlock. The trip was uneventful until we arrived, when the gate guards charged us 4 silver each to enter. Joan argued with the guards while the rest of us paid. The guards eventually let Joan pass. We made our way to the 7-string Harp inn and got rooms.*
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> *The Sage is a regular at the Inn but wasn’t there, so I paid the barkeep 2 silver to let us know when he arrived. While we were having dinner a waitress came to our table and pointed out the sage to me. I told her to give him his usual on us. That cost me 5 gold – he has expensive tastes! Later the sage came to our table, thanked us for the drink and confirmed the info we got earlier from the gate guards and innkeeper – that the Mirror was discovered by a group of adventurers from Cormyr 5 years ago.*
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> *Later that night Amazi detected undead heading our way. It was a Kobold who had been denied service and ejected because he stank. He came back with 2 skeletons and 2 zombies. Turns out he was a cleric of Orcus. Needless to say, we took care of that problem.*
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> *We backtracked that group and found that they came out of a hole in the ground – so we went down the hole. We eventually came to a large room containing undead, including another cleric of Orcus. We killed them all except for one smart undead, who got away. We also saved 3 people from the room – 2 of whom were missing from Secomber.*
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> - Cherish
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> (Original Source)
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1. ↑ Be aware that this is told from the player’s perspective of the adventure. Details and happenings may have been presented with some liberties taken to fill in the blanks from poor memory and scribbled notes. Other players should be asked about their views of what happened, and are also welcome to type their stories to share.