February 24th, 2024

Bellum, Ignis 29th, 1194

Tharivol visits us in the morning and is interested in what we were doing on two specific dates. The first is Ignis 11th, our first night back from the Plane Out of Time. On this day the prophecy paths on the calendar began to diverge. The second is Ignis 26th, our first day back in Ironwald Downs. On this day the calendar suddenly went silent.

We get a message delivered about our meeting with Judge of the Eye Balefrost tomorrow. Another message is delivered about our meeting concerning speaking with the dead tonight at the Temple of Enchantment (Adira).

Later in the evening, we make our way to the Temple of Enchantment. Coyle, a Holder of the Blue Key, meets with us, looks over our questions, and will deliver them to the caster. We are then ushered to a nice waiting room with many other priests. The churches of Avarra, Barnabas, Breen, Madri, Nissa, and Sarama are all represented. Sigmund and Graynor engage in light conversation with the others while we wait. Later on Coyle returns and takes us to a different small waiting room and we are informed of the results of the questioning; not all of our questions could be answered.

• Both replied no to our divine spark questions.
• Neither know anything about the vessel/obelisk that they fell out of.
• The illithid worships an unknown entity; the dragon worships Sarama.
• The illithid is from the plane/planet Prismeus; the dragon didn’t give a legitimate answer.
• The illithid works for an elder brain; the dragon said Thundercaller, which is likely himself.
• The illithid died in battle at a place called the Hallow Vale; the dragon didn’t give a legitimate answer.
• The illithid and dragon didn’t know or wouldn’t talk about Kaajh’Kaalbh.

We are then given a chance to inspect Lukas’s gear; a priest of Barnabas and Sarama are also present. The gear includes the Thunderstrike Duo, a +2 pistol, elemental bullets, and a +2 dex belt. There is nothing else interesting about the gear. As we leave, the priest of Sarama (Cleric of the Eye Moonriser) asks which piece of gear interests Ralzer the most–to which he replies the Thunderstrike Duo.

Iustitia, Ignis 30th, 1194

Our meeting with the Judge of the Eye is today. Balefrost knows a bit about Stormrift’s work in fighting Kaajh’Kaalbh and says that the best way to fight him is to keep him from arriving. The mindstone dagger would have been strong enough to grab his attention, but something else could still be generating interest for him; maybe the mythic spark? He assures us that Ziggs is still working for Kaajh’Kaalbh and that removing the heralds may prevent him from arriving. He looks through Ty’s book and asks about the group that besieged the monastery; the pages have been slowly going blank for about a month now. We mention how we may investigate the star god cult in the western marshes of Halbrook and Balefrost says that he may be able to provide transportation.

After our meeting, we discuss our next course of action. We decide to visit the Hallowed Cliff monastery, since it’s not too far and we may find information on mythic power; it’ll be 8.5 days of travel.

Mors, Lux 1st, 1194

During travel, we finally identify Tolm’s staff–it only functions for followers of Kaajh’Kaalbh.

Forte, Lux 5th, 1194

Graynor had a strange dream, similar to the one when he wasn’t able to wake up when we were on the Plane Out of Time.

Vita, Lux 9th, 1194

We arrive at the Hallowed Cliff monastery at about noon; it’s been almost 7 months since Ty was last here. There’s about half as many people around as when she was here last. Ty’s family is still alive, so she has a reunion.

We ask around about the night of the attack. The assailants did not spend much time here, but they did kill everyone they came across. They were dressed as mercenaries, but were clearly much more regimented than that. They took several older books with them.

We visit the library and find that among the stolen books are subjects on the founding cities, the outer planes, the nobility of Ironwald Downs, Vallyn, and Halbrook, and many old books on arcana. Ty checks the remaining books in those sections, but none have Architect writing.

We get a book on Blackstone’s research into mythic power. One way to gain mythic power is to become a mortal herald. Unlike a deity’s true heralds—ancient and powerful extraplanar beings (such as pit fiends and solars) who live only to serve—a mortal herald has the free will and basic nature necessary to inspire others to act, for good or for ill, with that deity’s will in mind. If someone manages to gain a deity’s attention and proves their worth to said deity, that deity may visit them—appearing in person or in her dreams, teleporting her to its domain, and so on. The deity may then make them an offer to become a mortal herald. For a non-mythic person, this is a moment of ascension; for one already mythic, this could be at the end of a trial that grants another tier. This offer is not made lightly or with subterfuge. Deities watch carefully before choosing a mortal herald, for investing such power also means creating a new liability if the mortal is not up to the challenges ahead.

The benefits of being a mortal herald vary from deity to deity, and are personal: a gift of a powerful relic, recognition from worshipers that you are a direct conduit to the deity, access to some of the deity’s ability, and so on. However, there are drawbacks to being a mortal herald as well: the god’s ever-watchful eye is on you, as you hold a portion of its presence; foes of that deity can also recognize you as a direct conduit; and your soul is undeniably your deity’s in the afterlife. The trials capable of garnering a deity’s attention are both harrowing and personal to that deity. Accomplishing such a trial usually puts one in the good graces of that deity while also earning them the enmity of those who oppose that god or goddess. Not every trial necessarily results in the subject becoming a mortal herald, as the deities show gratitude in a number of cryptic and mysterious ways.

We visit the headmaster, who is unaware of the writing in Ty’s book and cannot see it. In private he confides that a surviving guard was able to see a tattoo of a dagger dripping blood on one of the assailants; this is a symbol of Uunas.

February 3rd, 2024

Terra, Ignis 27th, 1194 (Continued)

We discuss our next moves while waiting for our meeting with a Judge. Breen is the chaotic good goddess of heroes and dragons, so they may know about mythic powers. First, we investigate the demon kill squad.

Degraded ones are semi-intelligent bipedal mounts (often ridden by debauched ones) that have a perverse beauty. They constantly detect magic and have spell-like abilities of blur, mirror image, and teleport. They attack with their long tongue and are able to pounce. When they drop a creature with their tongue, they experience a bout of ecstasy. They are immune to electricity and poison, while being resistant to acid, cold, and fire.

Debauched ones are seductive and alluring with soft, flawless skin. They have an aura of sensuality, which lures people in (will vs fascination). They have spell-like abilities of charm person, confusion, enthrall, and suggestion. They have spell resistance, damage reduction: cold iron or good, and regeneration: good or silver. They are immune to electricity and poison, while being resistant to acid, cold, and fire.

Fiends of exalted excess are moderately intelligent human/reptile/scorpion hybrids with a subtle, alluring musk that makes them harder to hit in close combat. They constantly detect magic and have spell-like abilities of confusion, fear, irresistible dance, mirror image, and teleport. They have many attacks and the stinger can deliver a paralytic poison. They have spell resistance and damage reduction: cold iron and good. They are immune to electricity and poison, while being resistant to acid, cold, and fire.

Not much is known about the demon princes that normally lead these groups. They are known to have an aura that grants their allies “advantage” and have similar defensive capabilities of the rest, including spell resistance, damage reduction: cold iron and good, immunity to electricity and poison, resistance to acid, cold, and fire, and likely regeneration.

We head to the Order of Thought (Breen) and meet with Touch Seeker Kyle to learn about mythic power. He doesn’t know which elder god it was that the heroes fought, but he knows about the architects. Apparently Hoarse Blackstone had other monasteries across Moravia (Blackstone, Jasper, Vallyn) and gathered information about mythic power. Most theories treat it as a skill that must be honed and cultivated. Kyle doesn’t know of Stormrift. We then retire for the night.

Forte, Ignis 28th, 1194

In the early morning we are awoken by the sounds of a large crashing noise. Many guards are running around the city delivering information. Graynor is first to arrive on the scene via a detachment from Madri.

A giant monolith has appeared just outside of the city to the northeast and looks as if it has displaced a lot of earth. It has a repulsion effect that prevents most people from getting too close; Ralzer and Luna can’t approach closer than 200 ft, while the rest of us, plus Champion Valorian, can walk up to it.

The monolith has a very smooth finish and seems to be made of stone. Ty knocks on the stone and a human, an illithid, and a huge blue dragon corpse falls out of the stone. The human has coins that look like the ones that we found in the illithid lair. He also has some firearms too, along with other magical gear. When Sigmund touches it again, nothing happens.

Ty uses empty body and takes a look around. Everything appears as normal, but above the monolith, in the sky, is a hole of purple light about a mile wide.

Sigmund utters Kaajh’Kaalbh’s name, but nothing happens. Sigmund then uses speak with dead on the human corpse and finds out that his name is Lukas, an illithid killed him, and Falkirk is his hometown. Ralzer has not heard of Falkirk. We advise Valorian that he may want to find the most powerful mages he can to cast this spell on the illithid and dragon.

We then channel our mythic power into the monolith and are pulled inside it. Wherever we end up, it’s very cavernous. The walls are worked stone and there are very tall columns, all in unadorned marble. The lunar amulet does not function here.

We follow the hallway to a gigantic room. Between the pillars here are unadorned stone boxes, about 10 ft. by 10 ft. in size. We manage to open one of them and find inside a creature of vaguely humanoid shape. It has no features and is suspended in some kind of thick liquid; it does not appear to be alive.

There is a mural on the wall that is very reminiscent of Tolm’s star map. Was this a vessel using this as a navigational tool to arrive at our planet? Sigmund begins to copy it down as best as he can and it becomes apparent that Tolm was seeing just bits and pieces of this larger mural. His journal only has areas with dark stars present in them, but he did not have all of the areas with dark stars recorded.

We try all sorts of things to find more information about this mural. When mythic energy is focused in the center of the room, the stars illuminate. Nothing happens when Kaajh’Kaalbh’s name is uttered. We try many other methods, with nothing of note occurring.

While leaving, we take one of those strange bodies with us. We are able to use mythic energy to leave, just how we entered.

Upon exiting the monolith, we are escorted to a guard station and speak with Captain Lodekiller. He is accompanied by two Keyholders (priests of Adira, the goddess of magic), and they ask a lot of questions about what we saw and did inside the monolith. We don’t have much concrete information to provide. While we were inside the monolith, they were able to confirm that other monoliths appeared near Derth (28), Bremer (20), Silverdale (24), and Oakfield (11).

Afterwards we head to the Temple of Salvation to meet with Valorian and schedule a time to be present while the bodies are investigated.

A page delivers us a note from Nadal asking for our presence. We meet with him and he tells us that a few days ago the calendar has gone completely blank; it’s still magical, however. We then tell him our story about entering the monolith.

January 13th, 2024

Plane Out of Time, Day 5 (Continued)

We head back to the Tavern Out of Time and catch Stormrift up on our meeting with Ziggs. Stormrift is pretty interested in our metal orb. While using detect magic, he can see a new magic tether that is on everyone. He then confesses to being a dragon and tells us his true name, which is like some melodic harmony that we can’t accurately pronounce. He recognizes the name Ziggs as a herald of Kaajh’Kaalhb; one of the five heralds that the ancient heroes fought. Stormrift was part of a group that was hunting heralds in the Dark Tapestry before the time of those heroes.

Stormrift gives us a coin and tells us we need to contact the Court of Inequity (Sarama) when we get back home. We should ask for a Representative of the Eye and tell them about Kaajh’Kaalbh. He also mentions that the Temple of Conquest (Barnabas) could also be of assistance– they are a militant church, sort of an evil version of the Temple of Salvation (Madri). Both churches helped hunt Kaajh’Kaalbh back when Stormrift was active.

Ralzer investigates the orb some more and finds that it has a plane shift effect keyed to the city of Nightengale. We then inform Nehu that we will be trying to leave tomorrow.

Plane Out of Time, Day 6 – Mare, Ignis 11th, 1194

Ty goes ethereal one last time before we leave. It looks the same as before and he can’t see the tethers. Sigmund makes a couple of attempts to dispel the tethers with magic, but it doesn’t work. We then channel our mythic energy into the orb to activate the plane shift.

The spell goes off and we are in a desert with Nehu– the tethers are no longer present. Ralzer determines that the closest settlement, Hearthstone, is north and we head that way, uneventfully.

Mare, Ignis 12th, 1194

We arrive in Hearthstone and find out that it’s actually Ignis 12th– only two days have passed since we entered the last portal.

We spend two days in town shopping and crafting, then catch a boat to Aldtown Crossing, and spend 8 more days traveling to Ironwald Downs.

Mare, Ignis 26th, 1194

We arrive back in Ironwald Downs and visit Nadal to catch him up as best that we can. We muse on how both Stormrift and ourselves are agents against Kaajh’Kaalbh and ended up being trapped there. Ziggs also seemed like he was trapped; was he, too, against Kaajh’Kaalbh? Nadal asks about the elder brain and wonders how it didn’t seem to notice us at all. It should have been able to detect us within 100ft. Something similar has happened a few other times; a strange pattern. Maybe our spark makes us harder to notice. Nadal wants to borrow the Pnakotic Manuscripts and he’ll take point on allying with the Temple of Conquest.

We visit the Church of Inequity and get an appointment for tomorrow around luncheon. We then sell stuff for the remainder of the day.

Terra, Ignis 27th, 1194

We visit the Church of Inequity for our meeting. At first they try to foist us off on a lower level priest, but we make it clear that a Representative is needed. We are taken to the largest library that we’ve ever seen to meet with the Representative, Halver. We know that gifts are appreciated, so we give him the draconic book that we’ve had for months.

Halver is aware of Kaajh’Kaalbh’s calling signs, specifically the plant growth, spellgorging, purple light, and the mindstone dagger. We talk about our meeting with Ziggs, which is a name that he recognizes, and he asks about the plane we were trapped on. Ty mentions her book and it’s origins. Halver says he will look into getting us a meeting with a Judge.

We head to the Parish of Everlasting Knowledge (Avarra) to visit Mikail and catch him up on what we have been doing. He knows of the five heralds of Kaajh’kaalbh and tells us what he knows about them, as follows:

• Alistar – minotaur, buffer
• Blitzcrank – construct, has very long reach and can pull towards him
• Nasus – controls wind, steals life force, tanky
• Yorick – shepherd of souls, summons unique shadows and banshees
• Ziggs – creates alchemist-like bombs that function better than normal, can create minefields

January 6th, 2024

Plane Out of Time, Day 3 (Continued)

While we go talk to Stormrift, Nehu will leave and return tomorrow. We reveal our mythic power to him and he is intrigued. We talk at length about how we got this power and what led us here, then settle on finding and talking with Boomspark while Stormrift does some research.

Plane Out of Time, Day 4

Ralzer and Graynor do not wake up. Ty and Sigmund try all sorts of things to wake them– nothing works. We rule out disease and poison and eventually ask the caulborn to read their minds in exchange for some food.

Ralzer is dreaming of arcane tentacles coming out of a prismatic sky and engulfing the land, along with musing on his guns and our predicament. Graynor is enveloped in a bed of tentacles in a prismatic hue that Ty has seen before. He seems very content in his dream within a dream as he slays evil.

Ty uses empty body. The strange prismatic hue is present and tendril-like appendages are in the sky, as if around the plane, but nothing on Ralzer or Graynor. Inside the bar, there is no prismatic interference. After dragging both of them into the tavern, they wake up. We catch them up on what transpired and then head to the goblins.

Boomspark is still not in and has been gone for over three days now. Ralzer shows off some of his explosives and impresses the goblins. He will make them a gun in exchange for entry to their complex. For the rest of the day we try to find Boomspark, based on his last bearing according to the goblin guards. We travel for as long as we can before making camp.

Plane Out of Time, Day 5

During camp, four Kaajh’gor attack us. Ralzer recognizes this kind of creature; chaotic outsiders that are the creation of the outer gods. They hit pretty hard and have some magic defenses (mirror image); we kill all four.

In the morning we continue trying to track Boomspark’s group. Sigmund gets a sending from Stormrift, “Boomspark was seen entering a cave system about seven miles east and five miles north of the tavern. He was seen carrying a large object.” With these directions we are able to find the cave.

Inside the cave Ralzer feels a subtle unveiling effect. The goblins within will not let us past to see Boomspark. Sigmund attempts to negotiate, but the goblins will not budge. After a few minutes of non-lethal combat, we finally convince the conscious goblins to let us go see Boomspark.

Deep in the caverns we find Boomspark tinkering with a temporal anchor. Sigmund tells him that messing with that could destroy the plane and kill everyone; Boomspark is not concerned and says that won’t happen. Using a strange gauntlet he can draw energy from the anchor.

We detail our situation and desire to return home to him. He is not willing to engage in much conversation, but we do confirm that he is not from the same place as us. With his gauntlet he draws out some more energy and places it in a small metal sphere that he passes to Graynor, saying, “Give this to the dragon and tell him it’s from Ziggs.”

Soon after we get a very strong unveiling sensation. Ziggs, upon questioning, says he knows the feeling and refers to it as “the calling”. He also admits to having a mythic spark. Then, an enormous mass of tentacles erupts from the water. Ziggs recognizes them as arcane tentacles and begins using his gauntlets to siphon energy from the anchor and channel it into the big tentacles.

After about half a minute, three medium sized tentacles emerge and engage against us. One drops Ralzer, but Sigmund gets him up and we are victorious.

Eventually Ziggs says, “uh oh”, spikes the anchor, dimension doors to the center of the tentacle mass and then disappears with a blast of energy. The tentacles also disappear, but the unveiling feeling remains.

Sigmund uses stone shape to bury the anchor and we leave the cave without incident.

December 16th, 2023

Mors, Ignis 10th, 1194 (Continued) – Plane Out of Time, Day 1

[Time functions differently here. The days tracked are the sleep cycle that the PCs are using.]

We eventually settle on traveling east along the road and it leads to a busy tavern, the Tavern Out of Time. There is a wide variety of races present, including a babau, a caulborn, a debauched one, some derro, some drow, an erodaemon, a fetchling (shadow), some hobgoblins, some svirfneblin (deep gnome), a sylph (wind), some tieflings, a vayuphak (asura), and lots of goblin-ish people that look darker and more stoutly built that normal goblins. Caulborns can read and consume thoughts and have a hive mind, while erodaemons can read thoughts.

Sigmund heads to the bar while the rest of us take a table. He chats with the bartender, who is a humanoid with bronze-black skin named Stormrift; it sounds like sometimes people get caught here. While the rest of us chill, Sigmund works the room to try and learn more about where we are. He finds out that it’s eternally night here and that, while no one knows of a way out, some seem certain that there is, as people arrive and then leave. The tavern is considered neutral ground, seemingly out of respect for Stormrift. The goblin-ish people are dark goblins and they really like it here. The fetchling is eavesdropping on the conversation– Sigmund notices and approaches him when his conversation is finished. The fetchling is Nehu and he is also interested in getting back to the Prime Material. Before Sigmund leaves, Nehu slips him a note, then we head outside. The note just says, “Spark?” and Ty thinks that Nehu is hitting on him. Sigmund believes that it’s referring to our mythic spark. We then head down the road eastward.

Sigmund finds us a suitable camp. During the night we are surrounded by three kinds of boilborn. Ty recognizes one of the types as infernal boilborn, which spread disease when they hit you and also explode on death. Investigator Vale encoutered a legion (no pun intended) of festering boilborns in The Phlegmatic Wail. An oozemancer, Bloubus the Unformed, lives in the sewers beneath the metropolis of Seeras. He unleashes his boilborns on the poorest district in town in an attempt to infect the populace. Bloubus wants to enforce Nature’s will and trim the weakest and most vulnerable members of society.

Plane Out of Time, Day 2

We keep following the road eastward and it leads to a dark goblin encampment. Sigmund talks to a guard, but he won’t let us in without their leader’s, Boomspark, permission and he is not present. The guard gives us directions to a couple of caves to explore and rest in. We travel to the “rest” cave and fortify it before turning in for the night.

Plane Out of Time, Day 3

We revisit the dark goblins on the way to the other cave, but are turned away by a guard. Ralzer takes a closer took at the structure, deducing that it’s older than the tavern. We walk the structure and take a closer look at the outer walls, noticing that a worn symbol is repeated in a few spots. Sigmund tries to read it with comprehend languages, which doesn’t work and he suffers feedback similar to how the Architects protect their secrets, but nowhere near as severe. Sigmund things he may have seen this symbol before, back when the well in Delanshire had issues with the church of Neith.

We head off to the other cave and begin exploring it. The water inside is glowing strangely and we find evidence of recent mining activity, looking as if something was extracted. Ty uses Empty Soul and feels an unveiling sensation; it looks prismatic, like the room with the calendar. Sigmund uses stone shape to dig into the walls of a partially excavated area. He finds something large and metal. After a couple castings, he is able to remove it. The item is a large sphere made of a some mithral composite with a sharp point. It has an overwhelming aura, but Ralzer is able to identify it as a Temporal Anchor, which are used to attract and contain certain magical attributes in a plane. Its presence may indicate that this place was created by someone who then used these anchors to contour it to specific attributes.

We head back to the Tavern Out of Time. Sigmund ask Stormrift about Boomspark, but all we learn is that he doesn’t come from around here and is not a goblin. We have a longer talk with Nehu outside the tavern, learning that he and his companions are from Vallyn and came here through a torn portal, like the others we have encountered. Nehu can sense out sparks and he has encountered this power before. We confirm with Nehu that we do have that power and he suggests talking to Stormrift about it. Stormrift is more than he seems; Nehu thinks he may be a dragon.

November 25th, 2023

Iustitia, Ignis 9th, 1194 (Continuted)

We continue exploring and find a large room with an altar to Heltrex. Graynor notices that the area is haunted and alerts us, resulting in us being unaffected. On the walls, written in Abyssal, are descriptions of all kinds of nightmares.

Within a secret room are two incorporeal undead that Graynor identifies as haunts. Without a powerful spell, dispel evil, we can only disperse them for a few days. We disperse them and search the room. According to Sigmund, the Covenant of Tribulation (Heltrex) would drug and torture people and leave them in a room like this until they are scared to death.

When we take stairs down to a deeper level and Ralzer notices that the building is not in as good repair; whatever was preserving it is not present here. Most of the rooms down here look as if they’ve been abandoned for 50-60 years. We encounter more haunts– it seems that only apparitions of church victims remain down here. Even the furniture was taken, as if whomever left wasn’t in a hurry and may have just found a better place.

We venture back out of this structure to rest the night.

Mors, Ignis 10th, 1194

Each one of us had an uneasy sleep due to nightmares.

We head back down and find a shimmering portal that looks like the tear to the plane of water and the desert. This one doesn’t react to us like the prismatic strand on the first floor and Ralzer goes through to explore. It looks like he’s underground; it smells like a cave and there is some minor luminescence from flora.

Ralzer returns through the portal and tells of us of a statue that he saw, which is identified as an mind flayer illithid. Illithids are dangerous, very smart spell casters that use mind control to enslave people. Ty knows of them from The Souls of the Revenged, in which a mind flayer (Zyllyzx) enslaved the priest of a the Home Foundation (Cassilda) to convince his congregation to pledge their afterlives to the service of another evil being, Bartandalus. A paladin of Cassilda in ages past defeated Bartandalus and, upon retiring, founded this church.

We all enter the portal and find that sounds in this place are a little muffled; it’s most noticeable on loud things, like Graynor’s armor and Ralzer’s gun.

In one area we find a phase spider, as identified by Ralzer. We convince it that we are not a threat and leave. Ralzer says that they have a potent and dangerous venom and it’s best to not get involved.

In another alcove is a gelatinous cube. Ty remembers them from The Sapient Hypotenuse. An insane cabal of ridiculed mathmagicians is attempting to discover the Sapient Hypotenuse in order to restore the reputation among their scholarly peers. In one attempt to contact the Sapient Hypotenuse, the cult sacrifices a gelatinous cube and fails to draw the attention of the Sapient Hypotenuse. Investigator Vale was hired by this cabal to capture the gelatinous cube for their ritual, as it has “an abundance of right angles”.

Amongst the gelatinous cube are some coins; they do not look like any of the coins we are familiar with. They contain images of landscapes that none of us recognize.

We explore the rest of the complex and it looks as if we are circling some kind of structure, but cannot find a way in. We find more illithid statues, some of which are holding glowing orbs.

Ty uses Empty Step to breach the walls of the structure. Inside is clearly an elder brain, lord of illithid colonies. It doesn’t appear to notice Ty at all. We then decide to leave this area back through the portal.

We go investigate the prismatic strand portal. It takes us to a shore under a night sky (it should be afternoon), in which does not hold our stars or any moon. The lunar amulet does not function at all here and the sky doesn’t seem to be the same alien sky from Tolm’s cave. After a brief moment, the portal closes behind us. There is a small fishing boat nearby and what looks to be the remnants of a road.

November 4th, 2023

Terra, Ignis 6th, 1194

We sell the loot and recuperate. We are unable to sell the scroll of binding and will have to try selling it in Ironwald Downs. While shopping we find a merchant selling the Stormwalker’s Attire. Mayor Heggry has arranged nice accommodations for us while we stay in the city.

Forte, Ignis 7th, 1194

We discuss our next moves and return the mithral sword to the Eldreen family. We are pretty certain that Crove’s cabal, the Keepers of the Oldest, is not what the calendar was portending.

Ralzer researches the city records and comes up with the following timeline.

• Before 950B – Independent city – Followers of the Old Cults
• 950B-568B – Independent city – Kel’Quay worshipers, farmers, hunters, woodworkers
• 568B-546B – Independent city – Mercenaries, barbarians, warmongers
• 546B-348B – Independent city – Kel’Quay worshipers, hunters, soldiers
• 348B-305B – Independent city – Bandits, mercenaries, slavers, thieves
• 305B-118B – Orc city – Barbarians, slavers
• 118B-338 – Undead city – Minions of the Undying Conqueror (lich warlord)
• 338-705 – Independent city – Eliaz worshipers
• 705-743 – Abandoned – Ghosts, scattered plague survivors (bubonic)
• 743-1194 – Blackstone city – Current occupants

Sigmund talks to the mayor and Rupman. Rupman gives us directions to the derro city and he doesn’t believe that the derro pose a threat to the city; as far as he knows, they keep to themselves. He doesn’t know any more about the Old Gods than we already know and suggests that Crove may have secret rooms in the basement of the asylum that we didn’t find.

Ty and Graynor gather information around town and hear rumors of a black market in the undercity.

We settle on doing a thorough search of the asylum basement. We investigate the morlock’s cell, which just leads to another cell. The morlock has no useful information for us. We find a secret library near Crove’s quarters– inside are 4 magic scrolls, research notes, nasty poetry, and a spellbook. The books in this library are quite old and we find some tomes on the Great Old Ones.

Bellum, Ignis 8th, 1194

We finish search the asylum, finding nothing else of note. We release the morlock into the undercity.

Ralzer starts reading the Pnakotic Manuscripts and Sigmund will try and read more of Ty’s book. He finds a passage about how He seeks for those with a spark and will send armies out to find them (just like the one we saw briefly). It mentions debauched ones, degraded ones, fiends of exalted excess, and refers to the leader figure as a prince of demons. We should learn more of these creatures to prepare.

Ty goes to the library to read recreationally. While there she overhears an Investigator Vale book club meeting; they meet on Bellum’s in the evening. She starts reading The Crimson Rite and finds a passage in which Vale must outwit four spawns of the Dark Tapestry; they sound very similar to the beast that the Keepers of the Oldest summoned. They deal extra damage to structures, have tenuous natural invisibility, are very intelligent, and some can cast spells spontaneously. They have many different appearances and vary greatly in size, some even look humanoid. There are old stories about how they were created to destroy life on planets. Ty checks out the book; Sigmund is dismayed.

Iustitia, Ignis 9th, 1194

Ralzer finishes reading the Pnakotic Manuscripts and gains insight into conjuration magic and the Outer Gods.

We try and trace Crove’s steps in the undercity, going to the derro town first. When we encouter some derro, we introduce ourselves with the names we provided earlier. They will escort us to their settlement and we will meet with Chief Sadek. Unfortunately, Sadek does not know what Crove was looking for down here.

We leave the town and begin retracing Crove’s exploration. We start with a route that Crove took to an area in which he did some thorough exploring. The area is at least 1,000 years old, which puts it in the age of the Undying Conqueror. There are statues of rats with their paws wrapped in chains; the rat is the favored beast of Heltrex and this could be related to her.

Ralzer notices that the stonework here is in very good condition. We feel the same sensation that we felt just before the arcane tentacles attacked or when we saw that marching army. Going forward, we’ll call this sensation an unveiling.

In one room there is a thin, prismatic strand that is very hard to see. When we approach, it expands and looks like a portal. It retracts about 30 seconds after we leave it and does not respond when Luna approaches by herself. Perhaps it’s keyed to our sparks? We’ll continue to explore the complex before interacting with this portal.

We encounter and kill a cacophonic echo, an incorporeal undead of auditory themes.

October 28th, 2023

Mare, Ignis 5th, 1194 (Continued)

We continue our search of the premises– finding a library focused on ancient cults and savage rituals, another related to astronomy, astrology, and eldritch knowledge, and a third with books on torture, mental illness, and old gods. Rupman looks genuinely horrified by this asylum.

We clear the ground floor and begin exploring the basement. We find a row of cells, the first of which is empty, containing only blood and filth. The second has a morlock and a small passage that the morlock moves into. The third has a man named Ploog, who asks us for help and says he was captured recently and lobotomized. The fourth has a large emaciated, unconscious man. At the end of the hall we find a room with a chaos beast and kill it. Rupman confirms that it is not what they summoned.

In a laboratory we find a small blue person performing an autopsy on a lunatic. After a quick battle, he surrenders to Graynor, as if he knows Madri must accept. Sigmund uses a spell to communicate with this creature, finding out that he is a derro and wants to return to the undercity. Crove made a deal with the derro to provide him bodies to autopsy in exchange for unmolested travel through the undercity. We try to make a similar deal in exchange for his life. He says he will bring it up to the chief and asks for our names to provide to his chief for our safe passage. Sigmund gives the derro a fake name, Ian Goodfellow. Ty’s not sure why Sigmund gave another name, so she follows his lead and gives the name Mackenzie.

We encounter Crove and kill him. While fighting Crove, it sounds as if something very large is moving towards us. The beast breaks through the ceiling and attacks us. During the fight with the beast, Sigmund casts spiritual weapon, which manifests as a chakram, the favored weapon of Avarra. It’s a horrid battle, but we prevail.

Crove has a holy symbol with the same image as that blood pattern that we saw yesterday. Among his belongings is a crude map of the undercity; it looks as if he was exploring it.

We try to drag the beast out, but it’s too heavy, so we just take the head to show the mayor. Mayor Heggry is happy to hear that we have dealt with his problem and awards us the remainder of our payment. He informs us that Hyve was killed by the beast after we left him in the custody of the guards; that makes Rupman the only surviving member of this group.

Mayor Heggry ponders Rupman’s punishment and we vouch that he was cooperative in our investigation and assisted us. We return his bonded ring and he’ll get his spellbook after Ralzer spends a few days copying some spells from it. We’ll spend a couple days resting and selling loot.

October 14th, 2023

Vita, Ignis 4th, 1194 (Continued)

We try to interrogate Rupman, but he only talks to Graynor at first, ignoring everyone else. He begs for help against that monster and says that it’s a spawn of the Dark Tapestry and will become more powerful if it kills him. They performed a ritual to drain its power this morning, which will be restored if it kills the others. Their goal was to control it, but it was too strong. We agree to unbind him and take him to the other scenes to determine if any of the bodies are his accomplices. We need to find out if this beast can track them somehow.

The only other body he can ID is Glem Baskerwhel, who is the other corpse that was found with Marshan. He says that Crove would be at his asylum, and Hyve stays at an abandoned church; neither of these locations have been attacked.

We devise a plan of having the town criers proclaim that an individual has been apprehended and is being kept at a specific location, in an effort to lure it into an ambush. We consult with the mayor about our plan and possible collateral damage and find out that there has been another attack. According to witnesses, it is now invisible. Some townsfolk have begun to riot.

It’s getting really late, so while the town criers are doing their part of our plan, we will be resting at our ambush location. During rest Sigmund uses some magic to read the Pnakotic Manuscripts, which looks to be a working spellbook as well. There are some warnings to summoning a creature, just like Rupman talked about.

Night passes.

Mare, Ignis 5th, 1194

The beast attacked Rupman’s vat warehouse during the night. We head to the abandoned church, which is identified as being dedicated to Eliaz. There is a comprehensive collection of Blackstone history books here and a trap door that leads down to some natural cavern system.

In the cavern we are ambushed by Hyve and he snipes Rupman, then grenades him, nearly killing him. He gives us a really long chase, but we finally capture him after his fungus creatures knock him unconcious. Amongst the fungus there is an intact skeleton with a guard uniform and a magic mithral longsword. The area looks as if Hyve was using it to make, and maybe test, poisons. We drop off Hyve at the nearest guard post and ask about the mithral sword; it belongs to Sgt. Eldreen and is enchanted with aberration bane.

We head over to the asylum; inside we are greeted by patients, strapped in jackets, rolling around the ground and screaming. Orderlies then begin to assault us and we retaliate. In a small room attached to the kitchen is a narrow hole that has faint gurgling and shuffling noises coming from it. The hole smells really bad and Sigmund tosses a lit object down into it; it falls far and lands in water, sinking out of sight.

October 8th, 2023

Iustitia, Ignis 2nd, 1194

In the early morning an Advocate Destroyer of Avarra comes bearing gifts for our journey. He said that the goddess told them last night to make these scrolls for us. We then hit the road.

Mors, Ignis 3rd, 1194

While traveling we all suddenly feel a strange sensation and Luna becomes spooked. The scenery starts to shift, looking similar to when Ty would go ethereal. Approaching us on the road are six debauched ones on foot, another nine are riding ostrich-ish birds with green plumage; Ralzer identifies these are degraded ones (Planes 30), a large creature that looks like a cross between a scorpion, a lizard, and a human, and a large, blue-skinned creature wearing purple and black robes (Uunas‘ colors). The latter has a presence that exudes command. They don’t notice us at all and march in the direction that we came from. The vision lasts about 30 seconds before settling back to reality. Ty hops ethereal to see if she can find the platoon, but finds no evidence. Could this perhaps been a vision of the past or future?

Vita, Ignis 4th, 1194

While approaching Crestfall we hear a town crier proclaiming a search for heroes and to go to the Crown Manor. According to the guard, a great beast burst out of a house and then escaped a few hours ago in a district called the Slipper Market. The creature is described as a writhing mass of tentacles. The town is really tightly packed with buildings and only guards are outside in the streets.

We head to the Crown Manor and meet Vanton Heggry, the mayor. The mayor explains that this creature came up from below, burst through a building, killed some people, and then descended again. It has since repeated this a few more times in the city. The beast emerges from sinkholes that are coated in a foul smelling slime. Judging by the description Ralzer thinks it could be a chaos beast. Mayor Heggry gives us 1,500gp up front to help with this problem.

We visit the first site– the home of Marshan, a retired adventurer. One of the victims looks as if he was rung out like a wet towel; Marshan is not amongst the dead. Ralzer inspects the building; it, along with much of the city, is made out of midden stone, a cheaper stone alternative. On the side of the building opposite of Marshan’s home is what looks like a spiral blood pattern. The pattern seems similar to Dark Tapestry imagery and portals. Sigmund believes it could be related to a specific outer god. Inside the ruined house is a nauseating smell of wet fur, moist air and decay. There is a modest book collection here with subjects on astronomy and Crestfall history. We descend into the basement.

The basement is not typical– it contains several sarcophagi and a stuck stone door, which we are unable to breach. The slime trail leads to an 800ft. descending stairway that eventually leads to a moldy, moist cavern. A ghoul, Yarresh, is guarding two bodies near an altar surrounded by barren trees. On the altar is a book that the ghoul won’t let us near. Ty sneaks a look at the title, “Pnakotic Manuscripts”. According to Ralzer, the book is about conjuration and portals, gods and magic of old cults, and was originally written in Aklo. The book could hold valuable information. On closer inspection, both of the bodies are without blood. Graynor doesn’t want to engage in any quest to help this ghoul and get that book, so we end up killing him swiftly and take his magic ring, too.

The book has some inscriptions on the front page in Aklo and underneath are five signatures:

Sulm Marshan
Glem Baskerwhel
Waldur Crove
Arlend Hyve
Rupman Myre

Judging by the handwriting, the rest of the notes in the book are by Waldur.

Upon taking a closer look at the trees, Sigmund believes they were grown with necromancy magic. They are also decorated with bone fetish charms. Down one tunnel we find some recently (within a year) installed iron bars. We find a campsite with books and notes written in Aklo, which we take. We then return to the surface, bringing the two human corpses.

The guards inform us that there as been another monster encounter in the city and IDs one of the bodies as Marshan. We head to the newest beast emergence, the home of Oliver Barker (deceased). There is a similar hole in the house with slime up top, but nothing below. Based on the damage around the area of the hole, Ralzer doesn’t believe it went this way. Using a bit of the slime, we try to have Luna track its scent.

Luna leads us to the docks before losing the scent. We ask the guards about the other names in the Pnakotic Manuscripts and he recognizes Rupman, who has a place close to the docks where he makes midden stone. Inside are disgusting vats of fuming filth manned by undead workers. The zombies and an old, drunk arcane spellcaster assaults us. We destroy the zombies and subdue the drunk old man, whom the guard IDs as Rupman.