November 2nd, 2024

Terra, Artis 16th, 1195 (Continued)

We discuss our next moves with Morgra and Ralzer returns the soul trapping dagger to her. According to Morgra we are still on the same plane, not a demiplane, and are still somewhere in the swamp that we were exploring.

This complex sounds like the one mentioned in the Architect history documents. Ty’s book is back to being completely in the Architect’s language and Sigmund takes a look at it. Ty’s theory about it being the Tome of Sharean seems to be correct. Sigmund focuses on details about mythic power theory and finds names of individuals known to possess it. It states that Kaajh’Kaalbh can grant mythic power, but it not the only source. Beings may have this spark, but no way to ignite it, so to speak.

We’re going to spend a few days waiting here to see if the Cabalis Nocturnum visits.

Forte, Artis 17th, 1194

We discuss our options for dealing with the artifacts. With each item that we pick up, the unveiling gets stronger; putting one back decreases the effect. We pick them all up and nothing extra triggers. Splitting up and moving in other directions does not decrease the effect. It seems that the act of us, mythic entities, picking them up creates the effect.

Ralzer makes a concoction of Eldritch Insight.

Bellum, Artis 18th, 1194

We are able to leave the complex without incident and stop by Rowan’s hole on the way back to Hallendren’s Deep.

In Hallendren’s Deep we sell some things. As soon as we arrive in the city, Sigmund suggests that Ishtar leave to find some flower that he thinks he saw back in Ironwald Downs that may, or may not, be around here. Godspeed, Ishtar.

The town is more bustling since we were here last (Artis 2nd). a new adventurer’s guild has reopened in town, the Wayfarer’s League. They used to be popular here when doing swamp exploration, but left about 80 years ago. they’re holding a big feast tonight and everyone’s invited. Bruce, the one in charge, was really determined to start it here and he arrived in town about a week ago. He’s from Harvest Glen, a fighter, and likes to hunt strange being and cook them.

Ishtar is successful in finding some of the correct flora.

We go attend the party; the feast is delicious and the town is happy. Bruce is very approachable. he came here to hunt the color out of space. Graynor talks to Bruce about set items and it turns out he has the gauntlets of might and will sell them to Graynor. He says that he heard the last piece is in a black dragon’s horde in Kundrukar. We heard of this dragon while exploring the dwarven ruins near the Gannet Mountains.

Later that evening, Sigmund will cast raise dead on the Cabalis wizard that assisted us. It works and his name is Theron. The Cabalis was originally here because of the rumor of Architect artifacts hidden in the compound in the area. He doesn’t suggest giving all of the artifacts to Sabrina and Olaf, as it might be too many.

We then discuss about whom we should hide these artifacts with:

• The Courts of Inequity (Sarama)
• The Temple of Salvation (Madri)
• The Inevitable Order (Nissa)
• The Parish of Everlasting Knowledge (Avarra)
• The Cabalis Nocturnum

the best course of action may be to destroy them, but we don’t know how. The Cabalis Nocturnum might be our best change to learn how.

Iustitia, Artis 19th, 1194

We prepare for our trip to Jasper. We want to meet with Olaf of the Cabalis and maybe Bethany Swan. Our first plan is to destroy the artifacts and consult the Cabalis in Jasper on how to do this. We start travel after Ishtar gets his magic item finished,

Mors, Artis 20th, 1194

We travel some more and then arrive at Jasper.

The first stop is the Black Oak Barrel for Olaf, but we’ll have to come back later this evening.

In the mean time, Sigmund will gather general information on the city with hopes of getting a lead to Bethany Swan. Ty visits the Blackstone Monastery.

Graynor checks out the local Temple of Salvation. He asks about the pillars and they’re hesitant to release information. After he mentions breaching two of them, they’re a bit more open, but still don’t have much to tell him. They’re a little surprised at how much he’s accomplished.

Ishtar is looking for either a druid grove or a temple of Namas. He finds the Assembly of the Four Corners (Namas) and asks about details from his year, 4719, and finds someone knowledgeable. There were nasty storms in the area during that time. Silverpine, his town, is a known small thorpe.

Ishtar asks about the strange storms. There is a little bit known; bad electrical storms and rumors about the dead rising. Ishtar didn’t see the dead rise though. The calendar reset in 6280, due to a governmental change. This change was also around the time of the Silence in Heaven.

Ishtar tells him a bit about his time travel situation and is given some references at other temples.

October 26th, 2024

Mare, Artis 15th, 1194 (Continued)

While searching, we hear a scream from the south and head that direction. We find Morgra choking someone to death; they are aging rapidly in her grasp. She mentions some of the wizards here are from the Cabalis Nocturnum and that they would not be an enemy should we encounter them. One of them reported seeing the Celestial Attendants’ High Magus with a mythic troll bodyguard. She gives us two potions to restore some mythic power and asks that we use a dagger that she loans us to kill their High Magus, to “make sure he’s dead” the dagger will bind his soul. She thinks he’s in the southwest.

We continue on towards the southwest and encounter another group of monks and spellcasters. After killing the monks, one of the spellcasters plane shifts the other one. He then identifies himself as one of the Cabalis Nocturnum. He tells us the rest of his order has retreated and gives us better directions to the High Magus.

Following the directions, we encounter the High Magus and his troll. He is holding a beaten, unconscious Morgra.

During the battle, the Cabalis wizard from earlier makes an appearance and slams a piece of broken metal into the group while incanting something in the Architect language. The only word that a few of us recognize is Stharras, an old dead god. Upon finishing, chains erupt from the plate and tether the room. The High Magus doesn’t look happy about this. After dropping both of them, Ralzer uses the dagger that Morgra loaned us to coup de grave the High Magus. The dagger gets warm afterwards.

Ishtar checks on Morgra—she has reduced strength from poison and is immobile. He also thinks that there is something affecting her mind, probably feeblemind. Sigmund finds a cache of hidden items in the room where we fought the High Magus. Touching any of them creates a strong unveiling sensation.

We begin to search the rest of the complex and find evidence of battles; blood, limbs, etc. Once we finish exploring the rest of the area, we go back to the High Magus’s chamber. Ralzer identifies several of the items we found here and they are all immensely powerful. Ty posits that the collection of these items is the beacon that we are looking for. We spend time reading some of the material that we found.

Terra, Artis 16th, 1194

Morgra is no longer paralyzed, but her mind still seems addled and distant. We spend more time searching interesting rooms, but find nothing of note. We once again try dislodging the floating stone, but it won’t budge.

On the body of the Cabalis wizard that assisted us we find a ciphered note, which seems to be orders on keeping watch, and some random, mundane trinkets.

Sigmund sends a message to Rowan and Mikhail, inquiring about contacting the Cabalis. Mikhail doesn’t know anyone in it, but informs us that a bunch of kobolds and a black dragon are there looking for us. Rowan doesn’t know anyone either, but suggests that we try the Magic Circle.

We know that Laern is in the Magic Circle, so Sigmund sends to him. His reply is, “They are in St. Serena, find Sabrina Jask at the Wild Boar. In Jasper, find Olaf Narsk at the Black Oak Barrel. Mention me.”

Sigmund then sends to the kobolds to see what they need. The response is, “Dragonfriend Sigmund! Bad things have happened! We need to call a council of the Empyrean! Human town is not helping!”

Ralzer brews a potion of Eldritch Restoration, a recipe he found in one of the books we researched, in a laboratory we found with ingredients the Celestial Attendants had on hand. He administers it to Morgra and she recovers.

October 12th, 2024

Mare, Artis 15th, 1194 (Continued)

We reenter the giant statue room and find it unoccupied. While walking down the next hallway we begin to feel an unveiling effect. At the end of the hallway is a large room with a gate. A single skum is here and he dies swiftly. During the brief combat he chanted something in a language we don’t understand and he stabbed himself.

Afterwards, in an enormous basin, the shul’thar’queth emerges. It retreats after only a few rounds, but not before giving Ty some affliction that is similar to an aboleth’s curse, turning her skin jelly-like. The large basin is actually a portal and we take it to a new, non-aquatic area.

In this area the unveiling effect is stronger and none of our magic functions; after walking about 300ft. down the entry hallway, the magic returns. The ceiling is decorated with a starry motif and the area seems to stay magically clean as well. One of the rooms has a lot of new runes carved onto the walls, this is probably the work of the shul’thar’queth.

As we explore deeper, the runes show up less and there is more Architect writing. Ty’s book is now completely in the Architect language. Farther in the writing disperses and more the motifs are of portals, gates, and water. There is a turquoise stone floating above a basin in a room. It’s pretty large, about the size of a person. Ishtar can tell it is covered in engravings that look like more of the Architect language; the script is so small that it’s probably not meant to be read. We attempt to dislodge is with no success.

While exploring, Sigmund gets a sending from Morgra letting us know she disabled the traps here and to let her know if we plan on resting in this area. We take a short rest with Morgra’s protection (miracle)—She makes a temporary demiplane for us to recuperate.

This used to be the main research facility for the Architects. Originally the they were not evil and more of a gathering of powerful spellcasters. Eventually, some off shoot members started to get into the evil stuff that we know them for.

During our exploration we encounter a group of monks and one wizard. The wizard manages to escape, via invisibility and maybe teleportation effects. There are lots of books and documents in here. We can’t spend the time to peruse them now and will have to return.

September 21st, 2024

Mors, Artis 13th, 1194 (Continued)

We make camp about 15 minutes from the shore. At night, a larger than normal marsh giant assaults us. It’s very powerful, has a form of regeneration, and he warns us to stay away from the temple. During the fight, everyone but Ty begins to hear a voice in their head asking if we want assistance. This being, Morgra, eventually shows up and convinces the giant to leave, stating that she’ll take care of us. She is a swamp hag and had been following the giant and used telepathy to talk to us. She tells us that the giant has a mythic spark and that his name is Gormungarth. He was sent by the temple to persuade us to leave and we can use fire to overcome his regeneration.

Morgra used to work with the Architects, but they no longer exist. Now she doesn’t want the outer god to show up, because she enjoys not being dead. She’s willing to help us, but to do so we must pretend to not know her and act like we haven’t seen her before when she assists us in the temple. She’s currently pretending to follow the Celestial Attendants’ dogma. She asks for one of Graynor’s spare holy symbols as proof that she dealt with us.

Morgra tells us there is a Shul’thar’queth working for them. It’s an ancient race of outsiders from the void; gargantuan aquatic creature with a breath weapon that causes confusion. He’s adept at runic magic, like symbol spells, and she will be deactivating these for us.

We transport via plants to Rowan’s and spend the rest of the night there.

Vita, Artis 14th, 1194

Ralzer notices that Rowan casts spells in an arcane-like manner that is not typical of a druid. When he asks about this, Rowan doesn’t give a straight answer—explains it is just how he’s always done it.

We spend the rest of the day healing.

Mare, Artis 15th, 1194

We head back to the temple. We must endeavor to get to the location where Morgra can assist us, as Ishtar points out, if the Celestial Attendants realize that we are not dead it may compromise Morgra.

We encounter an arcane tradition spellcaster merrow; his skin appears rotting.

August 10th, 2024

Iustitia, Artis 12th, 1194

Ishtar uses transport via plants to get us most of way to the underwater temple and Rowan’s snake, Poppy, guides us the rest of the way.

Ishtar scouts the temple area as a small fish. The ruins look like a sunken city, but is inside a cave and doesn’t make much sense in how it got there. The ruins are inhabited by merrow (sea ogres). Upon their scales and the walls are etched Architect runes. The merrow just seem to be lounging around here. Deeper in, Ishtar finds a very large statue toppled over; it’s too large to fit in the room while standing. He then investigates another entrance that is more actively guarded, but doesn’t get close as to avoid suspicion.

Mors, Artis 13th, 1194

We begin our investigation starting with the guarded cave entrance. The ruins look almost as if the cave were superimposed upon them. There are more Architect runes on the walls and guards. One particular room has “fresher” runes which are magical. We are unable to find anything else here.

We head over to the area that Ishtar first scouted and battle through more merrow in the statue room. We don’t find anything of value or interest in the room and can’t determine what this room is commemorating.

July 27th, 2024

Mors, Artis 6th, 1194 (Continued)

We ask Lanart about the Cabalis Nocturnum; he is not familiar with them, but the Comyn Council in Thendara might know more. He also shows us a map of the area. Graynor asks about which religions are present in Carcosa and Avarra is the most common.

Vita, Artis 7th, 1194

We start traveling to Thendara, which will take about 8 hours.

We arrive in Thendara and Sigmund gathers some information while we are in town. Comyn Tower, where the Comyn Council and the only library is, is not open for visitors. Within a couple hours of our arrival, rumors of us have already spread.

We walk around looking for temples and find that Avarra, Cassilda, Dorylis, and Hastur are all represented, as well as one which we are unfamiliar with, Aldonis. Aldonis is the god of light and father of Hastur. He used to be worshiped where we are from, but faded away and Madri took up his title as god of Light. Graynor spends some time at this temple.

Mare, Artis 8th, 1194

We visit Comyn Tower and present our writ of introduction. The guards here have matrixes and he eventually takes us to a waiting room with the Hastur of Elhalyn. We fill him in with much of the same information that we gave Lanart.

He has heard of the Cabalis Nocturnum, but says that they are rare and he doesn’t believe that they would work with the cultists. Carcosa used to be a full world, but, as part of becoming Thaluzoth’s prison, it became a demiplane.

He discusses laran with us some more. It resides in many people, but it doesn’t always manifest. When it manifests later in life, it could cause threshold sickness, which can be deadly. Pollen from the Kireseth plant can trigger the manifestation and wanton orgies. The current kind of matrixes that are utilized are not the kind that could control someone, unlike the really big ones that are now outlawed. After the Age of Chaos, where Carcosa was fractured and warring with itself, the Comyn Compact was agreed upon in which the large matrixes were banned. Only Aldaran did not agree to it. There is a very large matrix in Carcosa related to Sharra that is worshiped by the forgefolk. The Ardais laran can awaken the ability in others, and can be just as dangerous as the flower, but in a controlled environment.

After our meeting he treats us to lunch in the great hall, during which there is entertainment.

After lunch we get supervised access to the library. Ty finds some books on martial arts, but no Investigator Vale novels. The Aldaran house may be the most likely candidate for what she is looking for. Sigmund researches the kireseth flower. The flower releases a large amount of pollen when in full bloom, which is called a Ghost Wind, and is dangerous and generally avoided. Ralzer looks into enhancing his gun and finds that the Serrano house can make small constructs and could be a good lead. They think that with the help of Comyn Tower, his gun could be enhanced how he wants. Ishtar does some general planar research.

Graynor looks for set items, but can’t find information on the ones he’s looking for. He does find the Whispering Shadows for sale.

Tomorrow morning someone from the Darriell house of Alderan will spar with Ty and an Ardais will attempt to invoke an awakening around lunch.

Terra, Artis 9th, 1194

In the morning Ty spars at the Darriell house and learns a few things.

After lunch we have our meeting with Ardais. The process feels a little strange, but nothing awakens. Our mythic spark must overlap, and not stack with, laran.

Later in the evening we help with Ralzer’s ritual, which is successful.

Tomorrow we will leave for Hali.

Forte, Artis 10th, 1194

We arrive at Hali during the night.

Bellum, Artis 11th, 1194

Ralzer will finish enchanting Graynor’s sword before we head home.

We make plans with Lanart to take two people from Hali back with us. We make sure that they have laran and are strong enough to lift the lid.

We are able to find the portal back and it has not been resealed. Once back on our home plane, we head towards Rowan’s place and send the Carcosans to Hallendren’s Deep..

We arrive at Rowan’s at night and catch him up on what we’ve been up to. He knows about the Cabalis and doesn’t think that they would be helping the cult. He suggests talking to a powerful wizard to find out more about them.

July 20th, 2024

Iustitia, Artis 5th, 1194 (Continued)

After killing the snake woman, she dissolves into the ground. One of the cultists has a scrap of paper with a Cabalis Nocturnum watermark on it. They are an ancient secret organization that collect and imprison powerful objects and creatures. There might be some hidden, coded messages on it, but we can’t make it out.

We talk to Ishtar a bit about his circumstances. The avian creatures that he encountered near his village were the same that we saw on the plane out of time, the Kaajh’gor. We then hunker down and build camp in this room, since it’s pretty fortified.

We identity the magical items that we found and after the delay poison spell wears off, poison wracks most of the party.

During the night, Ishtar does not wake up for his watch. This could be whatever was keeping him unconscious coming back.

Mors, Artis 6th, 1194

Ishtar wakes up in the morning. With this mask we found that allows us to see through fog, we will try the crypt portal again.

Back at the barrow ruins, the crypt room is once again sealed. We take a quick look around and notice that the library is missing books and there are more bodies in the central bone room. We then head through the portal.

There are no structures or anything, but Ty sees what could be a school of fish in the distance, so we head that direction. The ground begins to slope up, like we are entering a beach. Ishtar says it is reminiscent of the realm of Carcosa, which has a lake of fog. Ty heard that name while eavesdropping on the cultists that she was stalking. Once breaching the fog, everyone can see. There is a tower in the distance and we approach it.

The tower is not in great shape. Near the entrance is a stone inscribed with a message:

Along the shore the cloud waves break,
The twin suns sink beneath the lake,
The shadows lengthen
In Carcosa.

Strange is the night where black stars rise,
And strange moons circle through the skies
But stranger still is
Lost Carcosa.

Songs that the Hyades shall sing,
Where flap the tatters of the King,
Must die unheard in
Dim Carcosa.

Song of my soul, my voice is dead;
Die thou, unsung, as tears unshed
Shall dry and die in
Lost Carcosa.

Sigmund looks for tracks around the area, but only finds small animal tracks. Ishtar communes with nature to learn about our environment in a nine mile radius. He finds that there are people nearby, there is the presence of powerful unnatural creatures, and nature is in a healthy and peaceful, but melancholy general state.

When we enter the tower, we constantly hear an overlapping din of many whispering voices; it’s hard to pick up any specific words. Ralzer figures the building to be several hundred years old, the battle wear is about that old as well.

By the third floor, Ralzer notices that the fire damage appears to be unnatural; it looks as if the stone burned as well. The damage gets worse as we go up and the 6th floor is completely sheered off. Maybe something blew up on this floor. Embedded in the stone are some blue crystal flakes. Ty manages to find a large piece and it has an overwhelming magical aura. Ralzer is able to identify it; it’s called a matrix and it enhances arcane power. While he was identifying it, he felt it encroach on his mind. He does not share this with the party. Ishtar can see a town several miles inland from up here and we find nothing else in the tower.

We spend some time discussing our options and decide to stay here and investigate the town. Ishtar will first scout it as a squirrel. It’s not a large town, humans and elves, mostly. He sees people armed with guns like Ralzer.

As we all approach, we are “greeted” by a human in a green tunic with a gun. His tunic has eagle heraldry very similar to the crypt we were in. He immediately asks us to halt (compellingly so) and asks which house we belong to. When we couldn’t answer that, he asks which domain we are from. When we can’t answer that, he tells us to wait. Graynor detects evil on him and he notices. He warns him not to do that around here.

When he returns, we try to truthfully explain where we are from and how we got here. They are unfamiliar with the portals and the city that we came from. They detect magic on us and notice that Ralzer has a Matrix. They ask him to hand it over as they are very dangerous—they can corrupt people. Ralzer admits that he felt a presence and hands the gem over. The men take us to their elder, Mikhail Lanart, whom he refers to as the Lanart. He welcomes us to Hali. The town was attacked about the same time as the tower. He is from the Lanart House, Alton Domain. The eagle heraldry is part of the Alton domain and the houses have variations of it.

Kaajh’Kaalbh’s brother, Thaluzoth, is imprisoned in Carcosa. There are 37 other cities, villages, and towers here; Thendara is the largest. He shows us some very detailed star maps he has and gives us a better sense of where we are in the multiverse. Carcosa looks “closer” to the Dark Tapestry.

We ask him about the stone epitaph near the tower. Lanart believes it is about how Carcosa was chosen to imprison Thaluzoth. He thinks the king refers to King Hastur, who may or may not be related to the Deity Hastur.

There is an ability present here called laran, which is related to the matrixes. It sounds similar to our mythic spark, but not completely. Their great kings of the past naturally had this ability and people can artificially enhance their weaker version of it now via matrixes. These matrixes also respond to people with laran and responded to Ralzer, suggesting the two could be the same.

While speaking of our journey to find the beacon calling Kaajh’Kaalbh, he suggests that so long as he is continued to be worshiped, that might be all that is now calling him. He requests that we take one of his men with when we return home to the prime material. We warn him that the portal we accessed Carcosa from is in a defiled crypt bearing eagle heraldry.

We show Lanart the strange coins we found in the illithid lair and on the gun wielder that fell out of the obelisk, but he is not familiar with them. Gold is not used as a coin here, but iron. Lanart is also completely unfamiliar with halflings; apparently such races do not exist here, so Ty will look pretty out of place. While there are humans and elves, there are no gnomes, halflings or dwarves. There are more races here that we haven’t heard of before as well that Lanart informs us of.

June 22nd, 2024

Bellum, Artis 4th, 1194 (Continued)

We take a closer look at the decagram and it looks as if some of the symbols have been repaired recently; after whatever caused this mass destruction, another person visited and repaired some of the things. Channeling mythic energy into this structure does nothing. We then leave the area and head back to the shimmering portal outside.

Channeling into this portal has an effect, but it doesn’t open the portal. The other side might be jammed physically, perhaps the fallen mountain? Since we have no other leads, we leave through the mechanical dais portal.

Once outside, there is a raven watching us again, from much farther away. We try to communicate with it and it caws something that sounds like “follow”, so we do. It leads us west, away from the city.

It leads us three hours to a big sink hold, then it says to enter. Climbing down isn’t too difficult and leads to a natural cavern, where a halfling is waiting for us. His name is Rowan and he knows we were looking for him. He tells us that the skum have a submerged temple deeper in the swamp and that he knows of other locations that may be of interest to us; one being an underground temple. This cult has been in the area for about 12 years, but they have become more bold as of late. There are also other cults in the swamp, but not the kind we are looking for. We stay the night as his place.

Iustitia, Artis 5th, 1194

It will take about half a day to get to this underground temple. Within this temple are several statues of remarkable quality; they could be petrified people, due to some kind of magic. They are sporting heraldry featuring an eagle.

While traversing a small pool, we are ambushed by a riptide horror; it’s weak to electricity and has a paralyzing venom. In another room, there is an ornate snake statue that has a moderate magical aura. Zandru is the only god associated with snakes. When Sigmund approaches it from the serpentine path before it, a green mist bellows out from the statue. We’ve been warded against poison, but it could be poison.

The next room is a narrow path above a deep pit– it is littered with traps. There is also what turns out to be a fake treasure chest. After that, we enter the room that we saw earlier through the wall. There is a very large snake molting and an ornate snake motif on the floor. As we enter, we hear spellcasting and a cloud of fog appears in the north, which is the only way forward out of this room.

We then head back to the entrance and take the other path. It’s just a small campsite with a manacled man. He has a strange collar inscribed with architect runes. Both the collar and the manacles are magical. Ty is able to pick the manacles lock, but the collar doesn’t have any such mechanism. Channeling mythic energy into the collar does remove it, but he remains unconscious. Casting delay poison wakes him up.

His name is Ishtar-Nam and he says he’s from Silverpine, which is a lost town. Based on his description, it sounds as if he was exploring the Cave of Unreasonable Ice. He’s unaware of the current year and thinks it is 4719. This would place him in either the distant past or the far future. He thinks he may have been here for several months.

He was exploring an ice cave hear his town where he found a rift. His description of the place inside the rift sounds a lot like the void realm that Graynor visited long ago. It was there that he may have gained his mythic spark. When he came out of the rift, people looking like Architects captured him. One of the people that captured him bears a striking resemblance to Tolm. Time may have passed at a very different rate when he was in that void realm. We invite Ishtar to travel with us as we explore the rest of the complex.

Past the wall of fog we find some stairs going down. The stairs have two moderate auras on them. Sigmund dispels one and we go down. Below is a door that has another magic aura; we trigger it and people are wracked with nasty pain. The next door puts people in a very deep sleep and we have to wait an hour for them to awaken.

We return and make it to the final room. A serpentine woman with snake hair and bird wings assaults us. She is joined by more cultists and we eliminate them.

June 8th, 2024

Bellum, Artis 4th, 1194 (Continued)

We head to the original barrow and investigate the sarcophagus room. Sigmund removes the spell on the door and we enter. Nothing detects are evil, but there are three magic auras; the two purple lights and the sarcophagus, the strongest is overwhelming. The broken statue in here has the eagle symbolism from the previous users.

After applying some mythic energy to the sarcophagus, Graynor is eventually able to push it open. Inside is a really thick, non-poisonous mist and it seems as if it’s much deeper than it looks. Ralzer tethers himself using the rope and enters with the fly spell. He definitely went through a portal and the area on the other side is full of the mist and difficult to breath. It’s about an 8 to 10 foot drop to the floor and he can’t see too much else, so he returns.

We formulate a plan to explore this area and Ralzer goes back with a spell that allows him to breathe in that environment. There is no ceiling within 80ft of the entrance and the ground is a mix of gravel and sand. There are no noticeable sounds or anything else of note within 80ft of the entrance. The lunar amulet does not function here either.

Graynor channels mythic energy back into the sarcophagus to properly seal it and we head back to the mechanical portal dais.

The three auras are back and we find new tracks that suggest it was skum that cast them; they came from three different directions. There is a raven in a nearby tree that looks as if it is watching us. Ralzer shoots it and it flies away.

The spells in place now are of a weaker potency than before (faint instead of moderate). We decide to just trigger the traps and enter the portal; nothing happens and we enter without issue.

While investigating a small cave that was sealed with a couple castings of wall of stone, it looks like something else already physically bored through it. At the end is a dead human male. He has a journal and his name may be Halzar.

The journal details how he and his wife, Arianne, created something called a Timegate that would allow travel to other points in time. Upon its activation, a horde of creatures that he calls “timewights” burst through, killing his wife. He collapsed his mountain fortress as he escaped to contain the horde and hide his research. He then fled. The mountain fortress’s collapse could be the Red Mountain from the prophecy.

Sigmund casts speak with dead on him and asks the following questions.

• Where did you want to go with the Timegate? Just testing.
• Who, besides your wife, knew of your Timegate? The Temple of Expeditions (Kel’Quey).
• What made you believe you breached a prison with the Timegate? A hunch.
• How did you die? Monsters killed me.
• What did you have on you when you died? Did not answer.

We continue to search the area and find a shimmering effect that sort of looks like the portals that react to us. While moving there, three ethereal looking flying creatures attack it. They shoot lots of fire. We continue down the path to a stone door. Behind the door is an enormous laboratory in poor condition. It looks to have something to do with astrology and has lots of strange green fluid in tubes and vats; we take samples.

We find books about imprisoned gods and lots of symbols and runes, but they do not look like the Architects. There are many magic auras here, necromancy and abjuration, but they are all of faint strength. There is a large desk that has a hidden compartment that contains the Oracle’s Insight set. After searching the desk, we feel an unveiling effect.

We then investigate the central decagram and arcane tentacles emerge and attack us. One is a tentacle of isolation that has an aura of sluggishness and another is a tentacle of decay, which has an aura that rots flesh. These are the names that Investigator Vale attributes to them, based on the sensations imposed by their respective auras. In The Darkened Stars, following the events from The Stranded Prisoner, Vale encounters these foes while pursuing Artorious Balen. Vale has begun to unravel the machinations of Balen’s plot to erode the sanity of an entire city by subjecting the citizenry to “madness, from the darkened stars”. The tentacles emerge as a surprising side effect of Artorious unleashing the Darkened Star curse.

June 1st, 2024

Terra, Artis 2nd, 1194 (Continued)

We head back to town to rest the night and Ralzer buys a fly spell.

Forte, Artis 3rd, 1194

We head back to the portal in the ruins and find the mechanism to open the dais is jammed closed. Ty unjams it and finds some new writing within. There are three magic auras on the writing, the most powerful is of moderate strength (level 4-6). We determine that they could be explosive runes, glyph of warding (and greater), and symbol of ____. Sigmund dispels the strongest effect and we settle on using a scroll to summon a pony to trigger the other runes; the pony takes some massive sonic or force damage. There is now one magic aura left (moderate), but this one covers a much larger area.

The existence of these wards indicates that there is someone who does not want us to use this portal, so we will try to track the last person from the original meeting several days ago to find out where they came from.

Sigmund is able to track this individual to the ruins of a thorpe, which is similar in age and style to the other ruins. Atop a hill is a circle of six stones and a large pentagram; a lingering aura of overwhelming magic and evil is present, indicating either a powerful magic spell was cast or an artifact was here within the last several days.

As Graynor approaches, six babau emerge from the stones and attack. Judging from their extra power, we believe that they were mythic. One gets away via teleport, and the rest dissolve upon death.

After the combat, we have a chance to take a closer look and find evidence on the stone slab in the middle and on each pillar indicating that a sacrifice was performed here within the last two days. The pillars also have some Architect-like runes. Perhaps another Rite of Six Shadows was performed here, based on the presence of the babau.

We then head to revisit the barrow chamber that we explored on Artis first. We find the sarcophagus room resealed, the attendant is gone, the incorporeal hosts are gone and new, fresher bodies are stacked in the center of the pillar room.

We return to town to gather some information. We don’t find anything definite about more ruins in the swamp, but they may be deeper in. We find out that there used to be a fairly local druid, but they haven’t been seen for a few years. Their last down residence was about 50 miles southwest.

Bellum, Artis 4th, 1194

We sell and buy stuff with a traveling merchant. Graynor asks him to keep an eye out for the Warlord’s Valor set.