December 28th, 2024
Mors, Custodia 4th, 1194
We head into the passages to the Underdark and come to a four way intersection. Sigmund finds foot traffic in each direction; both humanoid and non-humanoid. We pick the left choice, for no particular reason.
We come upon a fungal forest that has biolumination in the area. We search it and start to feel our mental capacity diminish, so Sigmund suggests turning back.
We then take the middle path and it leads to many broken buildings. Ralzer believes the rubble to be several hundred years old. There’s one building that is a little better maintained, so we check that out. There is a damaged sign with three angels and the phrase “Give succor to the troubled”. The door is trapped and using the knocker triggers a minor acid spray. Not long afterwards, the door opens and a tall man greets us. He appears to be a servant to the master of the house, who is not in at the moment. He will be back tomorrow. The upon closer inspection, servant doesn’t seem to be human.
We then head back and go down the last tunnel. Down this one some of us hear many soft whispers from several sources and moving farther doesn’t make it louder. We find more ruined buildings and fungal growth. Sigmund, Ralzer, Ishtar, and Graynor feel some effect in the area.
A crazed derro with bulging white eyes jumps out and tells us to keep quiet in a very strange way. Then he walks away and we follow him. He refers to the whispers as leylines and the Watchers want to unravel the leylines. His name is Kyzvyn and he appears to have multiple personalities. He’ll take us to a leyline in exchange for some gems.
We hand him one of the gems that we got from the Citadel. He then leads us to a central area with a chalk circle on the ground that Kyzvyn drew himself from intuition—Ralzer does see some magical runes within it. When asked about the circle and symbols Kyzvyn mutters, “keys to unlock life’s secrets and peel back its skin”. He’s waiting for the Great Awakening. He then skips away.
We continue to investigate this area. Ty goes ethereal, but sees nothing different. Ishtar can feel that a leyline is close. He turns into an earth elemental and looks around through the ground. When Kyzvyn sees him do this, he gets really upsets and warns about smudging the lines and causing Cosmic Retribution. Ishtar is able to find the leyline nexus and thinks that he can access it from the “surface”.
We head back to the middle tunnel and camp.
Vita, Custodia 5th, 1194
When Ty approaches the master’s door she hears in her head, “The blot quivers. The lake ripples. His stain is here”, along with a clicking noise and some whispering.
The master is not home, his name is Tolm Barolo. We then engage this thing in combat, killing it swiftly. Turns out that it was a hollow one, a kind of construct used to resemble humans and have a spark of intelligence.
The portrait inside is made by a famous artist, still alive, in Jasper and could be worth something.
The second floor has some unnerving paintings; an underwater cityscape, a landscape, a portrait, and a theatre. Looking at the cityscape made Ralzer and Sigmund feel ill.
The third floor is full of books and colorful jars. There are two large patchwork constructs attending to the tables; they are not aggressive and we leave without searching. Judging by the height of the manor, there should be at least one more full floor, but we cannot find access to it at the moment.
We take the elevator to the basement and there is some strange glass construct there that utilizes fire bombs. It has magic resistance, so it could be a golem. In the corner is a vat of liquid holding an ochre jelly. In The Sepulchrum of Exquisance, Investigator Vale confronts a cabal that uses the jellies, split many times, as stencils to create intricate tattoos and as a torture method in larger quantities.
There is another option on the elevator to go to another, deeper, floor. Graynor and Sigmund squeeze in and take it down. It goes down pretty deep and on the floor below are two derro and two large, chitinous creatures, cytillipedes.