Arc 4

Arc 4 is the fifth story arc of the Malice Campaign.

## Synopsis

With the bounty on the artifacts explicitly excluding the Staff of Flow, Olivia suspects that Josephine has been behind all of the misfortunes that have befallen the artifacts thus far. She sends the Malice Party to investigate the Thoroughspring Pyramid, which Josephine resides under. Unfortunately, there is also a massively tense slaveowner occupation in the town, so they must enter the pyramid by hiding inside one of the icebergs floating down the Thoroughspring River into the pyramid.

Victoria catches wind of this plan and sends her own team out, with the objective to stall the Malice Party in their adventure so that Victoria can capture and interrogate Olivia while they are gone. Her team (Ham, Roy, and Daniel) ascend up to the top of Malus's mountain range, where the icebergs originate from. They also find Ezra and Dotsy up there doing alchemical experiments with the pure water.

The Malice Party reaches the peak a few days later by airship, and floats down the river by iceberg. Upon reaching the interior of the Thoroughspring Pyramid, Mauder floats up in ghost form to scope out the area, accidentally alerting the slaveowners above to his presence. The party then goes down a shaft and finds a web-infested ravine occupied by a giant spider, which Menira befriends with an Animal Friendship potion and Aveeno dubs "Berry". There are drow corpses around the area, who the party discover originate from an underdark city closeby.

Berry has been terrorizing the tunnels the city used to mine coal, forcing them to purchase charcoal from a third party. This third party is later revealed to be the slaveowners - Berry's true owners - who the Malice Party meet later on in the dungeon. The party has a tenuous alliance with the slaveowner party, which is broken pretty quickly, and the slaveowners are defeated. In the process, they discover an old lab of Josephine's that has been long abandoned, and meet Ezra, The Riddlemaster, and Dotsy, who came down to find the party and deliver critical information.

While the Malice Party has been exploring the area, Victoria has taken Olivia hostage, and the details of your adventure have been made public, save for the most critical information regarding the artifacts. Victoria has used this to justify a contest against Liam, the Malicious Order king, for power over the order. Ezra joins the party and they discover Ham, Roy and Daniel, who had been sealed in a massive pile of foam for a few days. Together, they descend further into the dungeon, where they find a massive artificial environment that is the true residence of Josephine.

The party finds Josephine, but quickly realize this is her simulacrum. They explore multiple small buildings in the artificial environment before finally finding the real Josephine, who is dealing with a puddle of slime forming at the bottom of the artificial orb-shaped environment. Josephine and the party has a pie break, and they learn that Thanatos was working with Victoria, that there are two other artifacts (the Magic Eraser and the Book of Truth) being held by Elton and Julian (2), that Josephine helped construct Elton's Demon Orb, that Arcane Faltering is probably caused by manipulation of the two aforementioned artifacts, and that Julian (1) and Josephine are married. (At this point in the campaign the difference between the two Julians has not been discovered yet).

Josephine trusts her husband more than the party, and because Julian (2) has the Book of Truth, he must have known about your quest. The discovery Julian (2) did not help you in your quest implies that he and you have differing motivations, and since Josephine loves his husband, implies that she should not trust you. This mistrust is cut short when a third Josephine - a shapeshifter hired by Julian (2) in disguise - manipulates the simulacrum Josephine into breaking the alkaline dust line that is keeping the puddle of slime from increasing in size. After fighting this third Josephine, the shapeshifter shapeshifts into a slime and merges with the puddle of slime in the bottom. The slime leaves the bottom of the orb but begins shaking the orb from the outside.

The party and Josephine escape via Teleport back to Grainsboro, where they learn several of them are wanted for crimes and that Morrigan died defending Olivia. Sheila, a slaveowner who had been following the party to try and regain control of Berry, is imprisoned. Mauder also talks to Aristov about some of these events, who is the new Grainsboro Librarian; Belaros was removed from power after Olivia's testimony brought her incompetence to light. Before Josephine can reach and talk to Julian (1) about all of this conflicting information, Ham talks to Julian (1). Julian (1) reveals he is a simulacrum, that the artifacts have caused countless extinction events, and that the Fogged Ones are responsible for this. After Josephine realizes Ham took away his chance to talk to Julian (1), she attacks him, has a mental breakdown, and then gives Mauder her spellbook.

Aveeno and Roy teleport to Greencliff temporarily to investigate Morrigan's death and magic dust solutions a bit more. Thanatos leaves the party due to his extreme status as an outlaw.