April 30th, 2023
Bellum, Frigus 9th, 1193 (Continued)
We move farther into the natural cavern and fight a lot of the plant creatures. There are remnants of many broken buildings here and it eventually leads to another large area. Carvings can be seen on the ceiling, but they are difficult to make out. We find strange cocoon-like pods scattered about that are a little larger than Ty. Down another tunnel we find several ruptured pods with Akata nearby– Akata are alien creatures that can spread a disease called Void Death. During our fight, they exhibit appearances and abilities that Akata are not known to possess.
We get a closer look at the largest broken building and find what looks to be Sir Morvant tending to some of these pods. He does, indeed, claim he used to be Morvant and turns aggressive. He is joined by Tolm, a spellcaster with long tentacles protruding from his back, wearing a wooden mask and wielding a staff with a strange metallic glint. During the fight, Graynor breaks free of his captivity and joins our side; it was a tough battle, but we emerge victorious.
Graynor also has a purple mark very similar to ours and confirms that he got it when the Mind Stone dagger was activated. He also tells us that the dagger is a tool for summoning a god and that the serpentine person that activated it looked a bit like Tolm’s mutations. He says that his group found celestial navigation tools that belonged to the Architects, and also mentions about going through some portal to a “Void Realm”.
According to Sigmund, Tolm’s mask is a symbol of a Halcyon druid and we may be able to use it as evidence to find out where he came from. Halcyon druids use masks as a bonded object and cast a mixture of divine and arcane magic, similar to Theobald’s description. Graynor identifies the plant creatures as twig blights and thinks that Tolm may have created them. Graynor also overheard him talking about Outer Gods. Sigmund takes a closer look at the carvings on the walls and ceiling and they look to be very detailed diagrams of our moon and other celestial bodies; perhaps Tolm was tracking something with this.
Behind a secret door, we find the rest of Graynor’s party– cocooned and stuck against the wall, all dead. We tell Graynor about the dragonpriest tomb and he expresses his concern about how we made it easier gain access to now that the traps are disarmed, so we lock the dragon door that leads to it. We spend the rest of the day moving our gear topside.
Later that evening, Ty gets a sending from Nadal regarding her appointment, “Prophet Tharivol will be available on the 15th”. We then camp for the night.
Iustitia, Frigus 10th, 1193
We begin our journey back to Ironwald Downs. On the way, Ralzer attempts to identify the rest of our magic items; the staff reacts to this and harms him. The Nightcaller whistle was created by ancient dwarves as a way to create undead– we may be able to sell it based on historical significance. We spend the next several days traveling.
Forte, Frigus 15th, 1193
We arrive in Ironwald Downs. Graynor visits his temple for guidance regarding the tomb of the dragonpriest, in which they advise him to visit the Inevitable Order about that. He also asks about Nightcaller and finds out that the transparent iron is called nephelium, which is a very rare iron ore that has been infused with magic. They say that the whistle should be destroyed or to at least have the magic removed from it, to which Graynor agrees.
Ty goes to her meeting with Tharivol, who has come all the way from Vallyn. He finds more passages and believes that the passages are being revealed because they are being activated by some sort of magic coming from Ty. The Architects somehow protected their language and anyone trying to magically decipher it would get hurt; perhaps this is like Tolm’s staff? He wants to meet with the rest of the group.