After the Fall

6A: “Enemy of My Enemy”

6A.1: “The Forest Spirits”

The expedition heading to Aemilia left before dawn — leaving the others, going to Altum Fortress, planning in the Rusty Duckling war room: Godric, Talon, Marvello, Miryn, Kivuli, Sam, and Eira, along with Howard. Looking down at a map of the world, Kivuli worries aloud that the Fortress is dangerously close to the Barrier. Marvello is agitated, clearly keen to get there as soon as possible. Sam, speaking in an apparent parody of his own accent, suggests that the party sit down for tea before leaving. Talon, ignoring him, joins the discussion, saying that they should be courageous in the face of potential risk. Marvello reiterates the importance of leaving as soon as possible.

“What’s there to plan? We just need to go! We don’t know what’s in there, we can’t prepare for it. Just… be prepared for anything.”

— Marvello, on preparedness.

Kivuli angrily disagrees. Sam jokes about the party being carried away by the wind. Howard interrupts, banging his hand on the table, and proposes the party vote on one of two obvious routes: along the roads from Maelor to the Fortress, or a more direct path across untamed countryside. Miryn assures the party that he would be capable of protecting them if they went through the countryside, and they agree on that plan.

Towards noon, the party set off toward Percontra. They travel through the fog and reach the hamlet unharmed, but as they leave they see an upturned cart and dead horse on the road ahead. The horse has bite marks in it and is clearly freshly dead. A scratching sound comes from the upturned cart, and Talon shouts out a warning to whatever is hiding within it. Marvello peers around the side of the cart, unseen, and finds two huddled goblins whispering to each other. Kivuli shouts a warning at them in Goblin and they are intimidated into running off into the fog.

Inspecting the scene, they find one half-eaten human in the cart, dressed as a travelling merchant. His clothes are ripped and both he and the arrow have several arrows stuck in them. Kivuli eats some of the dead horse, and the others prepare a funeral pyre from the wood of the cart for the merchant. Marvello attempts to get the teapot to produce petrol, but the most intense emotion he can muster produced only lightly-spiced mulled apple juice. Sam inspects the eyes of the dead horse, and assails the others with a speech about the anatomy of eyes, a subject he has never previously had any interest in. Eira touches his arm, asking why he’s acting differently than usual, but he brushes off her concern.

“Sam, darling, are you feeling okay today?”

“I’m fine.”

“You seem to be a little… characteristically different from the last time we spoke.”

“I must be in need of an orange.”

The party moves on, and reaches Cassia in a few hours. It is a small trading village of around a hundred people, surrounded by fields of sheep and small vineyards. They decide to stay at an inn in Cassia for the night, leave their horses, and travel on foot off-road directly towards Enyalia instead of heading on to the crossroads. Talon camps just outside of the village in a tent to have some time to think, and the party enters an inn called The Fuxhole, run by a man named Matt Fux.

In the inn, Godric approaches a pair of travellers, grandfather and granddaughter, sitting in chairs by a fire. They introduce themselves as Thomas and Tia Beatty, respectively, and explain that they are moving to Maelor to get away from some family problems. Godric entertains the young Tia for some time with fantastical stories about the far-away realm of Sodor. As evening comes, Thomas thanks Godric for his stories and starts getting ready to leave. As they go, Godric gives him a hand-drawn pamphlet he made to advertise his religion.

Godric’s hand-drawn-in-crayon pamphlet proselytising his Thomas the Tank Engine cult

Marvello sits at the bar next to a man and orders a Kollen cappuccino for them. They introduce themself as Gilbert Brand, a labourer passing through the town to Aemilia as the farm he was working at went out of business. Marvello asks if he would like to learn how to see the threads of time, and understand that reality is a shadow cast by a higher-dimensional realm, and he seems interested.

“Oh, boss, I think I am feeling the power of the real world!”

Gilbert takes another drink.

KIvuli asks Miryn about his family; he says he isn’t any closer to them than he is to anyone else from his village, and suggests that it could be because elves live so long. She asks if elves get bored with life, and he responds that he only follows fate wherever it leads, and has never considered being bored. Kivuli says Mati considers Miryn to be a part of her family now, and he says he’s glad.

Kivuli asks Godric about the conversation he had with the travellers.

“How did your hunting go?”

“Not well. They didn’t buy my ideas... or my merchandise.”

She goes upstairs and opens a random door to find Sam and Eira, laying on twin beds and playing cards together, fully inebriated.

“Oh, goblin! Come join us! We have half a bottle left!”

She slams the door.

“…more for me!”

In the morning, the party reconvene and head out on foot across the open fields. They cross worked farmland and sheep-filled fields but quickly reach the boundary of Cassia’s land into ancient farmland that has been left abandoned. Some parts are overgrown with thick weeds and small trees but it’s very flat and easy to traverse.

Some time later, Miryn notices species of plant that he’s never seen before growing over the fields, and they realise they’ve passed into the Fringe. The plant cover becomes steadily thicker, and the sunlight seems dimmer. Miryn finds the tracks of various small animals, but never manages to see any directly.

Continuing on through the dense foliage, he finds bear tracks, and sees a large, brown bear a short distance ahead of them. It’s facing away from them, and seems to be inspecting a flower on the floor — the same type of flower as the one in Hana Kohl’s office. Miryn wants to speak to the bear and ask it about the surroundings, but after discussing it the party decide to sneak past and not risk being attacked. Marvello, while they’re talking, wanders over to the bear and concentrates on feeling the flow of time. He finds that time is moving erratically around them, faster and slower, in small pockets that they’ve been walking through without realising. He gets some paper out and starts trying to chart the contours of the flow as they travel.

After passing by the bear unnoticed, Miryn feels a planar portal nearby and directs the others to investigate. They come to an unhealthy-looking tree, and Miryn points up into its branches at a region that seems misaligned. He throws a stone up through the portal and it disappears. Godric sends Tiny Thomas through the portal to investigate and he returns, relaying that it seemed safe. Tiny Thomas communicates that on the other side of the portal were other versions of the party.

Miryn climbs up the tree and through the portal, finding that from the other plane he can see colourless versions of the party, and hear their conversation in muted tones. The plants on the other side seem larger and more colourful, and he notices a few species of flower that are new to him. They work out that every plant on the Material plane has a corresponding Feywild plant in the same place, but not every Feywild plant has a Material equivalent. Miryn picks a flower in the Feywild, and looks through the portal to find the corresponding Material flower has withered. He looks around for flowers similar to the one from Hana’s office, and finds and takes one. Godric sends Tiny Thomas above them to scout, and it reports that it couldn’t see any buildings or creatures, but could still see the Towers.

As the others are leaving through the portal, Godric hears a voice from a nearby bush greeting him. He shouts through the portal to the others, then gets down from the tree to speak to the voice. It tells him that it is a harmless forest spirit, here to help lost travellers find their way. Kivuli rushes through the portal to protect Godric, terrified. The harmless forest spirit beckons Godric by name to follow it further into the forest.

“Shh, don’t talk to them. They won’t understand. Come this way, Godric; I can show you the secrets of the forest.”

“Can you show me the secrets of the Thomas?”

“Of course. The Thomas is very important to us forest spirits.”

Godric sends Tiny Thomas into the bush, then asks it some questions about the forest spirit, deducing it was humanoid and had smooth skin. Marvello jumps into the bush, attempting to catch the spirit, but rolls out the other side with nothing in his hands. A different bush nearby rustles as another spirit flees.

Kivuli charges up to the bush, pushing in front of Godric, and snarls, shouting: “this one is mine!”. She slashes at the creature, decorating the side of a tree with faerie blood and organs. She grabs Godric and orders him back through the portal, but he stops to scrape the faerie’s remains off the tree, and take them with him. It was around ten inches high, with sparkling, iridescent skin and dragonfly wings.

6A.2: “Enyalia”

Talon and Miryn show the party back through ever-thicker undergrowth to a small path that leads to Enyalia, a supply camp situated at the mouth of a river that runs past Altum Fortress. They approach the settlement, finding a few buildings clustered around the end of the path: a couple of houses, an office, a stable, and a small warehouse by the river. A sign posted outside the settlement reads: “welcome to Enyalia, population 2. Please check in at reception.”

Schematic map of the journey from Maelor City to Altum Fortress

Marvello enters the office, finding a reception area and desk, and a staircase in the corner. On the desk is an open visitor log book, and a cold cup of coffee. He checks the log book, noting that the most recent entry is dated eight days ago.

Kivuli investigates the stables. It has three boxes, two containing horses. Both are lying down, and one is dead. She casts speak with animals to interrogate the living one, finding it utterly apathetic and unwilling to answer any questions. She finds food and water in each stable, and an examination of the dead horse shows it was dehydrated and malnourished. Miryn threatens the living horse with a flaming torch, and Kivuli wild shapes into a hyena and claws its face, but it doesn’t react to either.

Climbing the stairs in the administration building, Marvello finds himself in a bedroom study containing a desk, a bookcase of records, a small chest, and a bed. In the bed is the body of a human wearing professional work clothes, who seemingly died in a similar manner to the horse. Miryn checks the records and finds they go back to Enyalia’s original founding around two years prior, but have a gap of nearly a year in the middle. He finds an unsent letter written by the dead man to his mother, excited that he was to be promoted to Head Logistics Officer of the camp. In the letter he mentions being in his third month in Enyalia, out of a six month placement. The log book in the room records shipments in and out of the camp and similarly has a long gap in shipments.

Kivuli investigates the warehouse, finding stored shipments of iron nails, coal, animal feed, and a small wooden box that emanates magic. Marvello opens it to find two large potion bottles packed in straw: one deep red healing potion, and one shimmering blue mana potion. She exits through a large back door to a small yard area by the river and finds two large, flat cargo boats moored. She goes back inside and attempts to force the horse up and out of the stable, but it refuses to move.

Back in the administrative building, Marvello checks the shipment log book finding records of shipments of coal, nails, and animal feed going to Altum Fortress, a box of potions going the other way to Kolle, and a shipment of rations headed for the Fortress that seem to have already been shipped out on a third cargo barge. He finds record of the names of the staff members: the dead man was called Gerold Hahn, and the third boat was taken by a Karolina Huffman.

Talon and Miryn search the lodgings. The first room they check is unoccupied, and the second has one dead human woman on the bed, her possessions around the room suggesting she was an assistant researcher in Altum Fortress heading home. Upstairs is the largest room, with twin beds and a writing desk that the other rooms lacked. In the corner is the crumpled figure of a man who seems to still be alive. He is unresponsive when questioned and does not resist being searched: he is wearing the clothes of a travelling trader, and has a few silver coins in one pocket and a knife on his belt.

They decide to call him Gottfried for convenience. Marvello coerces the teapot to produce a sweet drink that he pours into the man’s mouth. Talon searches the room and finds a notebook that track’s the merchant’s orders that shows he brought in a shipment containing barrels of water, sacks of animal feed, and boxes of iron nails. Talon leaves a note in the office saying that they are borrowing a boat, and loads the merchant into one of the two cargo barges. Kivuli kills and butchers the horse, and hangs up strips of meat on the barge to dry. They steer the barge, pulled by Talon’s magical horse, downriver and away.

The journey is long and uneventful, the forest around them growing thicker and more hostile by the mile. Over the eight hours it takes them to reach Altum Fortress, Gottfried recovers a little, becoming somewhat responsive and able to follow simple instructions, but does not speak. Closer to the Fortress, the rivers’ water slows and turns a milky white, and the trees nearby become thin and sickly. They pull the boat over to the side of the river and have Talon’s horse pull it the rest of the way up to their destination.

They moor the boat at a small dock, and notice a small shack some distance ahead, with a faint path leading away from it to the south. The party investigates the strange water. Kivuli casts protection from poison on Miryn who tastes a little, describing it as tasting of bitter plant sap and being slightly poisonous, but not hugely dangerous in small quantities. He collects some in his waterskin for later.

Marvello opens his awareness to find anything cosmically important nearby, and is drawn to something in the shack, so heads off ahead while the others discuss the water. The door is locked, so he ”casts knock”, opening the door with an echoing bang. The room inside smells of dried fish and salt, and has an old fisherman inside who is awakened by the sound. He jumps up, assuming Marvello is trying to rob him. Marvello identifies the object of power as the man’s right femur, and explains to the man that he’s detected the presence of a powerful artefact destined to save the world. The fisherman seems very excited at the idea, and invites Marvello to sit and talk.

“I knew it!”

— Ol’ Viktor, on his own destiny.

He introduces himself as “Ol’ Viktor” as the other party members come into the shack. He tells them that he’s been maintaining the barges going up and down the river since the Fortress was built twenty years prior. His shack seems, from a cursory inspection, to be somewhere around a hundred years old, and furnished with unexpectedly heavy-duty equipment for the job he describes. Marvello asks about his fish-catching, and he roots around under the bed for a small box, from which he produces a ten-inch-long, white, eyeless fish that he describes as his “prize catch”. He asks if the fish is the artefact that Marvello sensed, and Marvello tells him that he’s the artefact. He tells Marvello that he knew he was special; he’s the only one who can hear the fish speak.

“They tell me secrets. They tell me I must leave, but I don’t listen.”

— Ol’ Viktor, on the things the fish say.

Ol’ Viktor pulls a stool and table over into the middle of the room and gestures for Marvello to sit. He puts two short glasses on the table and pours milky-white river water into each from a bottle he keeps under his bed. Kivuli suddenly runs into the room, reporting that outside, through a ripple in the fog, she saw the legs of a gigantic creature, twenty feet tall.

“Haha! I think your friend’s been drinking too much river water, if you know what I mean!”

— Ol’ Viktor, on The Legs.

Talon rushes out into the fog to look but can’t see anything. Marvello bids farewell to Ol’ Viktor, promising to come back with further information on his destiny. They decide to head to the Fortress; Marvello disguises himself as a site safety inspector, and they head up the rough track towards the city.

The party reaches the outer wall of Altum Fortress: 30ft high, built from huge stone blocks. The path leads up to a gate with one guard keeping watch outside. Talon and Marvello approach the guard, and identify themselves as a surprise inspection from the Tower Lord. He goes inside to fetch a supervisor, asking them to wait. When they come out, Marvello asks to see their records. The supervisor, who identifies himself as Christoph Warren, head of the East Gate Guard, seems to believe their story and escorts the party inside to a small office at the back of the guard’s building.

Talon explains what they found in Enyalia to Christoph, who says they hadn’t heard anything from them for over a week. They say they’ve been keeping watch that whole time. Marvello checks their logs, finding a record that they sent a cart down to Ol’ Viktor’s dock when Ingrid’s ship was meant to arrive, but nobody showed up.

Kivuli asks what defences they have against The Legs; Christoph laughs that such creatures are just a children’s story.

“And your defenses against the legs?”

“Legs? I’m not sure what you mean.”

“There are monsters outside with twenty foot legs!”

“That’s what the children say.”

“Note that they have no defences against the legs…”

He tells them that Altum Fortress is completely safe from attack, mostly because of its location so far away from civilisation.

“And who do you think would be foolish enough to come all the way out here when the Tower is in the opposite direction?”

“No one, sir — that’s why this fortress is impenetrable!”

They show “Gottfried”, the man from Enyalia, to the guards, but none of them recognise him. Christoph assigns one of the guards, Sally O’Neill, to the group as they go around the city. They all visit a nearby doctor’s surgery to have them examine Gottfried. Sally stays with Gottfried as they have no identification papers for him. Marvello convinces them not to check the party’s identification, and convinces the doctor to let him read through the confidential medical records. He takes five files at random out of the filing cabinet and finds three of them were reassigned outside of the city after showing signs of depression and lethargy.

Christoph takes the party to the Scientific Research Commission to meet Dr. Friedrich, the man in charge of the whole operation. The SRC is a grand, official-looking building flanked by stone pillars, with a heavy wooden iron-studded door. They head inside and introduce themselves to a receptionist sitting at a long desk. Asked for proof of their identities, they send Christoff away, and explain that they are from Maelor, on a diplomatic mission to explore future relations between the domains. The receptionist scurries away to find Dr. Friedrich, and the party takes the opportunity to rifle through the desk drawers. Kivuli finds pens, ink, and a well-worn romance novel titled “Colleague in the Library”. Miryn recalls having read some papers authored by the Doctor, relating to abnormal phenomena observed in the Fringe.

The receptionist returns, and beckons for the party to follow her upstairs. They pass two landings with corridors stretching out in both directions, with doors on both sides leading to small offices. On each landing are a couple of benches and some plants in big pots that Marvello suspects are fake. On the top floor, the receptionist leads them down to a room bearing a name plate that reads “Doctor Rochus Friedrich”, and knocks.

“Come in.”

6A.3: “Chrononautology”

The party enter Dr. Friedrich’s meeting room: an ornately decorated study with a huge desk, overflowing bookshelves, and a portrait of an old woman. Standing across the desk from them is Dr. Friedrich, wearing a metal helmet that covers his entire head with two glowing blue lights for eyes, and a long, white lab coat over a formal shirt. Behind the doctor, a large window gives a wide view of the city below.

Marvello greets him, identifying himself as Carlos di Angelo, and introduces Miryn as his scientific advisor. Friedrich tells the party that he received a letter about them that morning, requesting that he show them what he is working on. He asks if they have any questions about his city, and explains that the intended function of the city is to support the Scientific Research Commission and his work.

“Children of men call me Kivuli wa Fisi. I am here as the environmental safety officer — to make sure you aren’t eaten by your own environment.”

— Kivuli, on the legs.

Friedrich tells them that the fortress is built on the ruins of an old civilisation. Marvello responds that one of their party is particularly interested in studying the Ancients, and Friedrich asks if they have developed anything interesting. Marvello gives a surface-level summary of Aither’s gun.

He takes them across the corridor and unlocks the door labelled “Laboratory”, leading them into a small, windowless room lit by fluorescent lights. The room is set up like a chemistry laboratory, clean and well-equipped. On a bench in the corner of the room is a rack of small bottles that Friedrich points out as mana potions. He invites them to imagine an army of magicians with no need to rest, and offers one to Godric to try. Godric asks how they were invented, and he tells them it was all his private work. He asks if Friedrich practices magic; he says he has assistants who do, but he’s spent his time researching magic rather than practicing it.

Marvello looks around for books, finding none. He notices that the tools and test tubes look so clean they could be unused. Sam investigates the room, interested in what chemicals he has been working with, but finds the room and cupboards completely bare of stock. He asks the doctor where they keep reagents, and Friedrich responds that they have a storage room downstairs. He asks to see it, and Friedrich says no. Godric engages Friedrich in conversation about basic alchemy, and comes to the conclusion that the doctor’s understanding exceeds his own.

Next, Friedrich produces a tiny vial of black liquid from his lab coat. He tells them that it is “prima materia” (or vis), the substance from which the philosopher’s stone can be created. Godric asks how it is made, and he replies that it’s a “scientific secret”. Friedrich hands him the bottle and tells him to keep it; Godric identifies the bottle, learning that the liquid can be used to temporarily enchant things. Friedrich explains that he has devised rune patterns that sharpen weapons or strengthen armour.

Marvello asks more about the production of vis, and Friedrich admits that it originates as a kind of magical stone mined from beneath the city. Marvello notes that something seems off about his explanation. Miryn asks why the fortress was founded where it was — he says he’s only been head of the commission for two years, and so doesn’t know. Marvello thinks he’s lying. Miryn has seen work in chemistry published by Friedrich over the past ten years, and papers co-authored by him as head of the SRC in the past two.

He takes the party back into his office, and takes down the painting on the wall, revealing a safe behind it. Godric sees the combination he uses to unlock it. Inside is a cylindrical object made of metal, about a foot tall, with a strip of leather attached to carry it and a triangle of three holes on one side. Godric identifies the metal as salvaged ruins metal.

“A foot high and somewhat less in diameter, with three curious sockets set in an isosceles triangle over the front convex surface.”

— H.P. Lovecraft, The Whisperer in Darkness

Friedrich introduces the object as a device that allows a magic user to concentrate on two spells at a time, and prevents loss of concentration. Godric says he would love to see inside, but Friedrich says the internal workings are classified. He says his personal assistants helped with creating the device, but nobody outside of the Research Commission had anything to do with any of the three inventions. Marvello gets the sense from the way he talks that the thing he’s holding is a fake, but that there is a real version of the device somewhere.

Godric asks if the device is based on Ancient technology; Friedrich says that while some people in the city study Ancient artefacts, everything he does is original. Marvello asks if Friedrich knows much about time. He gives Marvello the address of the Guild of Chrononauts in the city — an organisation dedicated to researching temporal anomalies.

Talon asks if they can see the chemical store, and the mining facility. Friedrich says the chemical store is above their security clearance level, but offers to organise a tour of a mineral processing centre for them. Friedrich asks how long the party intends to stay in the city. Marvello says they have a lot to do, and he says they can stay as long as they want. He offers them a couple of rooms to stay in at the SRC, and points them towards one of his assistants, standing silently in the corridor nearby, dressed in clothing like white robes.

The assistant leads them downstairs. Meanwhile, Godric tries to ask them about working for the SRC, but they say they’re not allowed to answer questions. They say Godric should talk to someone with at least clearance level 2. They say they are level 1, meaning they’re allowed within the city but very little more. Level 2 is reserved for permanent researchers, member of organisations in the city. Dr. Fredrich is the only level 3 that they know of. Godric identifies them, determining that they aren’t under the influence of any spells.

Godric and Miryn hear a mechanical sound coming from behind them. Miryn uses speak with animals to ask Mittens to investigate. He then uses beast sense to see through Mittens’s eyes as he goes back down the corridor. At the end of the corridor, he sees the metal door sliding closed, then hears a rumbling sound.

Down on the second floor, the assistant points out the rooms assigned to the party: two adjacent rooms with twin beds, dressers, and small en-suite bathrooms. Godric and Marvello check the room for magical and non-magical listening devices, respectively, and find nothing. Miryn casts find traps, and detects that the rooms contain something that might hear them. He communicates this to the others with careful phrasing, and Marvello gets out paper on the assumption that written notes will be safe. They sit down and communicate by note what they thought of Friedrich, and what they should do next. They burn the notes, then rest.

After a little while, the assistant comes back and gives everyone in the party level 1 security passes. Miryn asks if they could get the party some food, which they do, returning after half an hour with a stack of lunch boxes. Godric tastes the food before the others to check for poison, and doesn’t find any.

They send Hana’s bird home with a message explaining everything they’ve found, and it returns after some time with a message telling them to find out more information, but not put themselves in any danger.

Later in the day, Marvello goes to visit the Guild of Chrononauts. They are based in an old building in a cheaper area of the city. Inside, Marvello is welcomed by a receptionist, Phoebe, wearing a pair of huge steampunk-style welding goggles. He asks to speak to someone at the Guild about the research they do, and shows them his book, Theories on Metaphysics. The receptionist exclaims that the book is the most powerful artefact they have ever seen, and call for Mavis McCarson, the head of the organisation.

Mavis comes down the stairs, and similarly recognises the book as significant. She takes him up to a meeting room, and Marvello introduces himself. She explains that the guild studies chronology — specifically, a kind of particle they believe mediate time: chronotons. A guild member invented the goggles they wear which allow them to see chronotons, and they have been mapping the density of them around the area. Marvello probes for information on what they know about the passage of time inside the Towers, but all she says is they know time becomes more stable towards the centre of Rellica.

Marvello asks if they have any published work; Mavis explains that no journal would publish their work so they started their own publication, the Chrononautology Weekly, published every month. She points him to a shelf of back issues, and he lends her Theories on Metaphysics to read while he studies them. The oldest issues are seven years old, when the organisation was founded. They chronicle a large amount of fieldwork outside the walls of the city, tracking the movement of time currents by mapping the stars. Four years ago they invented the goggles and have since systematised their research greatly. He asks Mavis about the people getting depressed and leaving, and she says they have no evidence it is related to the time distortion. When Mavis has finished reading his book, she offers to induct him as a Level One Chrononaut. He accepts, gaining permanent security clearance and access to the building.

Marvello leaves the guild, and heading back to the SRC stumbles across someone being thrown out of a building. He approaches them, and offers them an egg. He introduces himself as Jesiah Cross, and asks if she needs help. She introduces herself as Elisabeth Bowen-Smith, and tells him that a friend of hers has gone missing, and nobody will help her. She says his name is Dominik Jansen, a researcher at the metallurgical institution. She tells him that she tried to get the City Watch to help, but they told her that they had no records of him ever having existed. She has started to believe that the government of the city kidnapped him and destroyed the records. Marvello offers to look into it for her. They swap contact information, and he returns to the SRC to sleep.

The next day, Marvello takes the party to visit the doctor’s surgery that they went to on the way into the city to check their records. They find the man they called Gottfried has not improved since they last saw him; able to eat, drink, and follow simple instructions but still unable to speak. Marvello pretends to have a severe allergic reaction using his Hat of Disguise. He and Godric effectively distract the receptionist and doctor for a few minutes while Miryn sneaks past into a room of records. Searching the room, he finds nothing in the patient files under the name “Dominik Jansen”, but checking a logbook of previous appointments he finds some pages have been torn out. He sees some screwed up paper in a waste paper basket and takes it before hurrying out. The other two finish their medical emergency act and follow him out.

Back in the room, Godric identifies one of the security passes they have and finds it contains an enchantment that could be used to track their location. Miryn looks over the stolen papers: most of it is uninteresting, but among it is a patient file that has been crudely scribbled over in pen. The file belongs to a man named Florian Reich, who works in the security sector. It contains information on where he lives, where he works, how long he has lived in the city, and records of his six-monthly psychological evaluations. There’s nothing on the file indicating why it was thrown away.

Marvello contacts Elisabeth to ask which doctor Dominik was with. She tells him, and asks if they think the doctors have something to do with his disappearance. Marvello tells her they haven’t found anything yet, and that he’ll be back in touch if they do.

A Level Two Security Clearance research assistant of Dr. Friedrich’s, Otto Tarquinius, meets the party in the SRC reception to take them to the mineral processing facility. A metal mesh fence encloses a small compound signposted “Albert & Warner”, which Godric explains is the organisation that operates all mining in the city. Stuck to the fence are numerous posters apparently protesting the mining, signed “The Society of the Exhumation”.

“Oh, don’t worry about them — they’re a cult. Something about Albert & Warner being evil? They believe we’re digging up Satan, or something. It’s a wonder anyone would be part of that given how intelligent most people are here!”

— Otto, on foreshadowing

Otto explains to Godric that they’ve apparently blown up buildings in protest of the mining. He says that they worship something deep within the earth, and are worried that the mine could wake up their god, destroying the world.

Otto shows his pass at the gate, and the party is allowed inside the compound. Sitting outside is a large container filled with fist-sized rocks. Marvello steals one; it’s normal stone with tiny pinpoints of a dull carbon black diffused throughout it. Otto leads them inside to a large room with three long conveyer belts running along it with machines set up to grind the rock to a powder and separate out the black substance. People stand along the conveyer belt performing various tasks; picking out some of the rocks, monitoring machinery, and moving around barrels filled with powdered rock. Godric estimates the process has about a 1% yield.

Marvello wanders down towards the other end of the room, but Otto runs after him and calls him back to the group. He shouts over the machinery noise that he’ll be happy to answer any questions they have. Talon uses his divine sense; he senses pineapple, and something else. Godric sends Tiny Thomas down to the other end of the room while nobody is watching to steal some of the black dust, which he succeeds in doing without being seen.

Otto gives a cursory explanation of the process, then takes the party back outside. He says he has an urgent meeting to get to, and wishes them a good day, leaving them to find their own way back.

6A.4: “Purification”

The party decides to head to the refinery where they process the black dust into vis. They find the address; a small courtyard surrounded on all sides by office buildings multiple storeys tall. Marvello and Godric consider disguising themselves as Dr. Friedrich and Otto and going in the front door.

Miryn and Kivuli head back to the SRC to distract the real Dr. Friedrich while the others carry out their plan. They ask the receptionist if they can meet with him, and she asks them to wait. After about five minutes, Friedrich comes down, greets them, and invites them up to his office to talk. Kivuli suddenly staggers and holds her head, saying she feels ill, and needs to go back to her room to lie down — intending to slip away in bird form to tell the others he’s at the SRC. Friedrich is concerned, and asks if she has been taking her medication. Miryn and Kivuli, confused, say they hadn’t been told about any medication. Friedrich is apparently angry at the Watch for not telling them, and says he needs to go and make sure they don’t make the same mistake again. Miryn asks if he can come too, but Friedrich says he should go with Otto to the doctor’s and get some of the medication for all of them.

Miryn and Otto get the medication. Miryn finds out from the doctor that everyone takes one pill a day to slow down the depression that people get here. She doesn’t know what the pills are made of, and says that they are produced in-house by the SRC. Kivuli, later, crushes up and tastes a pill; she says it tastes like chalk impregnated with bone dust. Marvello identifies it specifically as old, fossilised bone, but none of them can say for certain what effect it might have.

Back at the refinery, sparrow-Kivuli lands on Godric’s head. Marvello disguises himself as Friedrich, and Godric disguises himself as Otto, taking off his armour in favour of a lab coat. As they prepare, they see two men have shown up in the courtyard with a cart. They are carrying a wooden pallet with a single barrel balanced on it towards the building.

Marvello goes over to a small door that appears to go into an adjoining building to the refinery, and starts trying to pick the lock. Meanwhile, Sam and Godric approach the people with the barrel. Godric, trying to impersonate Otto, greets them. He tells them that the barrel they are delivering has been contaminated and that he needs to take it from them. The men, seeing Friedrich at the other end of the courtyard, acquiese. Godric tells them to go back to the facility and delay the next delivery for two hours. One of them asks him to sign their delivery papers, and the other calls over to Marvello-Friedrich, asking if Godric and Sam are with him. Marvello does his best impression of Friedrich, telling them they are, and the men buy it. They put the pallet and barrel on the floor, and leave with their cart.

Godric and Sam try and pull the lid off the barrel but fail. Marvello fails to unlock the door. Kivuli looks in through the windows of the buildings and doesn’t think anyone has noticed them. Marvello, Godric, and Sam decide to disguise themselves as deliverymen and try and deliver the barrel to get inside. They take the barrel down a couple of stairs to a little service door and find it unlocked. Inside is a small underground room with a few sealed barrels stacked in the corner, and a table littered with random tools. Kivuli spots a crowbar on the table which Godric uses to open their barrel, finding it full of black rock, ground to the consistency of sand.

Marvello sneaks up the spiral staircase that leads off from the room into a long corridor. He can hear talking coming from a room at the end, and some sound from a couple of offices along the corridor. In the wall next to the staircase is a dumb waiter, which Marvello opens for Kivuli to get inside. He goes back downstairs as people start coming out of the room at the end of the corridor. Kivuli finds a high-up air vent to hide in. Godric takes one of the sealed barrels from the basement outside and knocks on the door, calling out “hello, delivery!”

Kivuli sees two men in overalls trailing behind the smartly-dressed scientific staff of the facility: a very tall dwarf and a very short human, both very muscular. They seem to be complaining about a late shipment. They head down the stairs, and open the door for Godric when he knocks again. Godric tells them that a new protocol means he can’t leave the delivery without seeing one of them. They accept his story, and ask if he has the form for them to sign. He takes some paper and makes a crude impression of the form he saw earlier appear on it magically. The dwarf doesn’t look closely at it as he signs it. Godric asks if he can go up and use the bathroom while they sort out the delivery, and they tell him he can. The two workers start carrying the barrels over to the dumb waiter as Godric heads upstairs.

Kivuli joins Godric, who wanders around the building. He passes a couple of people and is completely ignored. He goes into the room at the end of the corridor, which appears to be a break room. He sees a locked door in the room which he suspects might be a cleaning cupboard. He picks the lock easily and goes in, putting on a pair of overalls that was sitting in a crumpled heap in the corner. Godric wheels a cleaner’s cart out of the cupboard and down the corridor, picking a random room to enter. A person sitting at the desk apologises, and leaves the room while he cleans. Godric tidies up the room while Kivuli searches for interesting papers.

After finishing cleaning the office, Godric wheels his cart past the reception desk, and waves at the receptionist. The receptionist seems to recognise him as the deliveryman, apparently called Steven, but Godric claims to be his cousin Dave, sent from a temp agency. He says that the previous cleaner had some sort of accident, which the receptionist seems to accept. He continues on up a large staircase to the top floor, finding two offices, a small kitchen, another cleaning supply cupboard, and a set of double doors that lead to a laboratory. Kivuli checks the two offices which both appear to be empty.

In the kitchen, someone is making a cup of tea while wearing a head-to-toe disposable hazard suit. Godric mops the floor around them and inspects the room, finding a chart stuck to one cupboard with the ways each staff member likes their tea. When the person in the suit leaves, he takes out a pen and adds milk and sugar to the end of every order. Next, he opens the fridge, finding it quite full. On the top shelf is a lunchbox with a note that reads: “Property of Jeff. DO NOT EAT”. He half-eats most of the contents of the fridge, and throws the rest away, leaving only the Property of Jeff untouched.

After finishing with the kitchen, he heads for the first of the empty offices. On the door is an obvious mark where a name plate would have been, but no name. He thinks the name plate must have been removed quite recently. The room has little apart from empty bookshelves, an old desk, and a little chair. The desk is old and scratched but the drawers are empty, and there’s barely a week’s worth of dust on the desk. The room is completely bare apart from a single tiny photograph that Godric finds tucked behind the curtain rail. It’s of a woman and a little girl; the woman looks to be about 30, and the girl around 12. They look like they’re probably related. He takes the photo, and leaves.

Godric decides to investigate the lab next, and wanders in, finding three people standing around a long bench talking and operating equipment. He sees the dumb waiter comes up into this room, and next to it sits a few stacked barrels. One of the staff members, August Larius, confronts him, telling him he isn’t allowed in the lab. Godric tells him that Jeff said the lab needed cleaning, and August gives a knowing sigh, saying that he’s been pranked, but that he’ll have to write him up for breaching protocol anyway. Kivuli turns into a spider and crawls onto the man’s lab coat. Godric suddenly turns, knocking over two glass beakers which he makes crackle and glow with his magical tinkering. They shatter on the floor, and August jumps back, thinking a fire has started. One of the other two lab workers comes over to help, and Godric stops the fire illusion. He asks what they’re making in the lab, and they tell him he doesn’t have the security clearance to know.

August takes Godric out into the corridor. Godric points to the office he was in, and says that Jeff told him to clean in there too, and that he found something interesting. August insists he show what he found immediately, and Godric takes him into the office, saying he found a scribbled note. When inside, he knocks August out with magic missile, and hides his unconscious body in a cupboard. He takes the man’s hazard suit and Level 2 Security Clearance pass, leaving the cleaning overalls in the cupboard.

Godric goes back into the lab and pretends to be August, complaining to the other two about Jeff. He says that Jeff had confirmed that the new guy was from a temp agency, and he had sent him to clean the empty office in the corridor. He wonders aloud why they’re not allowed in the office, and one of the other two says the office has been empty for his whole two-year rotation.

He goes over to the equipment that the two had been standing beside, and asks them to present their day’s work to him. They talk about the low yield, and he asks if they have any theories on increasing it. He gets them to talk him through the entire process, and reckons that he could replicate it later if he had the materials. He says that the good doctor is eager to test the day’s product, and takes the three 2 ml vials that are the sum total of the day’s work out with him.

Going over everything on the way back to the SRC, Marvello recognises the lady in the photo as Elisabeth Bowen-Smith, the woman who had asked him to investigate Dominik’s disappearance.

Meanwhile, Miryn tracks down the location of the mine in the city. Scoping out the site with his planar portal detection, he finds two portals within the boundary of the fence; one in the centre of the area, possibly down in the mine, and another slightly elevated from ground level. He spots a small number of guards patrolling the area, and the occasional worker moving about the place. He hears the sound of mining equipment coming from the centre of the compound but can’t see anything from outside.

He returns to the others, and convinces them to break in that evening to investigate.

6A.5: “Trial by Blood”

ZC: I still love her even if she did kill my receptionist
HC: the receptionst committed suicide by hyena i think you mean

— conversations on Kivuli.

Just after midnight, Miryn, Kivuli, and Marvello prepare in total silence to leave their bugged room for the mine. Marvello takes his Chrononaut security pass, but the others leave their passes in the room. The city-wide curfew has left the streets empty after dark, and they know that if they’re caught not having passes will be the least of their worries. They take to the ashen streets, invisible, passing closed doors and shuttered shops; the city falls away, leaving empty, sandy plots, a road, and the fence.

Kivuli wild shapes into a weasel, slips through the links, and waits on the other side. Miryn misty steps through the fence. Marvello, blind in the darkness, is left on the other side. He whispers that he’ll wait outside, and keep watch. The other two head around a small hill, finding heaps of excavated rock lying around, and a worn track through the dust that leads deeper into the compound. They follow the path which, after a little while, suddenly tilts steeply down into an underground chamber, around 100 ft across.

Kivuli points down the tunnel, smelling rock, metal, paraffin, people, explosives. She tries to communicate this to Miryn but he doesn’t understand, so the two continue on into the chamber. Miryn hears a couple of voices talking ahead of them. One tells the other to hurry up with whatever they’re doing, and the other replies that they don’t really know what they’re doing.

Kivuli scurries forward to try and find out more. She gets close enough to smell them: the same curious sand and rubber as Marvello was suffused with when he returned from the Guild of Chrononauts. There are two of them, crouched by the wall of the cavern, clearly setting up explosives. They stand up and take a step back from the wall, apparently finished setting up. One takes a small, leather-bound notebook from their pocket and starts leafing through it.

Miryn approaches and introduces himself. They both turn around to face him, and he sees they’re wearing huge steampunk-style goggles. They claim to be safety inspectors, and Miryn tells them that he’s a safety inspector too. The two strangers, thinking they’ve been caught in a lie, prepare for a fight. Miryn defuses the situation, explaining where he’s really from and telling them that he’s investigating what’s going on in the mine. They whisper to each other for a second, and agree to trust him. They introduce themselves as Carlos and Phoebe, members of the Guild of Chrononauts, and say that they’re trying to get a sample of the rock from the mine to test. They explain that their guild performs valuable scientific research, but is sidelined by the SRC who prioritise research that demonstrates military applications.

Meanwhile, Kivuli sneaks behind the Chrononauts and chews the fuses off the explosives they’ve planted in the wall.

Miryn mentions that his friend went to the Guild of Chrononauts the day before, and Phoebe says she met him. She says that his book has been a topic of some discussion in the guild. Carlos turns back to the explosives and notices the fuses have come off.

“Is there another way to get the rock?”

“The people who mine it generally use pickaxes — because explosive are dangerous and loud and expensive, and potentially haven’t been invented yet.”

Miryn suggests finding a pickaxe and taking some small samples, but Phoebe says she can mend the fuses with magic in a few minutes. She reads Arcane instructions out from her little book, and the fuses reattach the the sticks of explosives. Miryn asks what the plan is, and Carlos produces a sack. They intend to gather up as much rock as they can and take it back to the guild to experiment on. When Phoebe is done, they all stand back from the explosives and Carlos prepares to light the fuse. Phoebe gets ready to cast a silence spell over the area.

EXEC_with.METHOD_SILENCE {
        PROC self;
        SRC self;
        LIM qua.TWO;
        DEF 0 EXEC_sub.METHOD_LOC{
            SRC self;
            DIR dir.FACING;
            MOD 0 8902 0;
        };
      }.#(t.NOW)

— Arcane instructions for the silence spell

Miryn looks around the cavern, finding an opening on one wall that seems to have been mined out, leading down into a lower chamber. While Phoebe ritual-casts the spell, he decides to explore, finding six connected chambers. In the lowest one, he finds a number of pickaxes on the floor, and scratch marks in the wall nearby. The rock has tiny black flecks in, and he realises the rock the Chrononauts are about to blow up is just normal rock. He runs back up to the Chrononauts to warn them.

They halt their plan, and follow him down to the lowest cavern to have a look around. In the monochrome of darkvision, the wall is covered in black lines, reminiscent of the marble of the Tower; however, when Miryn lights a torch, he realises the lines are rivulets of dried blood. Kivuli inspects it, trying to determine what animal the blood came from. Miryn decides to taste it. He falls unconscious, taking a catastrophic amount of necrotic damage, and learns that the blood came from a dragon.

Kivuli turns back into a goblin, brings him back to consciousness with healing magic, and swears profusely in goblin. Miryn feels at once very tired, and very awake. Carlos asks him how he feels, seemingly probing to see if he feels any more powerful. Miryn scrapes some of the dried blood into a little box to take away. Looking closely at the patterning of the wall, Kivuli realises that the dragon is absolutely massive.

Phoebe and Carlos say that dragons aren’t real, and ask if they should set up the explosives down here. Kivuli tells them that if they do, they’re likely to drown in blood. They ask who she is, but she just leads Miryn out of the cavern as they talk without answering. As they leave, Carlos tells Phoebe to pack up the explosives while he has a closer look at the blood. He cries out, having apparently touched it and been affected in some way, and Phoebe starts screaming hysterically.

Kivuli says “I think the idiot’s touched the blood”.

“Oh no…”

“Don’t worry — it is natural selection.”

Back at the main chamber, they stop for Kivuli to cast pass without trace before they leave. Phoebe rushes up behind them, painted in blood. She asks them where they’re going and starts hyperventilating, asking Miryn why he survived the blood while Carlos didn’t. Kivuli tells her that the strongest survive, but Phoebe protests that Carlos was the strongest man she ever knew. Kivuli replies that he obviously wasn’t that strong, or else he would have lived. They argue for a moment about whether Kivuli herself would survive, and Phoebe, distraught, moves to attack her. Kivuli tells her not to embarrass herself, and catches her with entangle.

Miryn tries to de-escalate the conflict, asking Phoebe to leave without causing any more death. She doesn’t respond, so he suggests a Trial by Blood, where Kivuli would taste the blood, and if she lived Phoebe would leave her alone. Phoebe suggests, in reply, a Trial by Fire, and fireballs Kivuli, causing a deafening explosion that echoes out into the city. Kivuli runs towards the planar portal Miryn detected on a nearby hill. Halfway up the hill, she turns and conjures a wall of thorns on Phoebe. She crawls out and launches a final fireball at Kivuli who summons a spectral hyena in response, that kills and eats Phoebe.

Marvello arrives, drawn by the explosion, and says the City Watch are on their way. The group run up the hill and through the portal. On the other side they stand on what seems to be the same hill, smothered by an awful monochrome darkness. They have entered the Plane of Shadow.

6A.6: “Thirst”

Emerging from the portal, the party adjusts to perceiving the Plane of Shadows. They can only see about thirty feet in any direction with what little moonlight makes it through the portal, and they can see no other sources of light. The air here feels close and heavy, filled with the suffocating stench of decaying meat, and compared with the heavy footfalls and crackling magic and distant shouts of the world they came from this place is utterly silent.

Marvello, blind in the darkness, opens his mouth to speak, but cannot produce any sound more than a quiet sigh. He lights an oil lamp and sees the others around him also trying to talk. Kivuli cycles through every language she knows, trying to find a word that she can speak aloud, and eventually, accidentally, communicates the question “can you hear me?” to the others in the language known as Shadowtongue. They all hear the glass-sharp words, spoken in her voice, as clearly and intimately as if her lips were a breath from their ear, regardless of actual distance. Realising they have all gained the ability to speak Shadowtongue, they talk for a little while, finding their intentions automatically translated into the language and back without any relationship to words in Common.

The lamplight illuminates eighty feet ahead of them as they walk in the direction of the mine. The hard-packed dust of the ground suddenly transitions to flat, smooth stone. Kivuli, ahead of the others, finds a large step down, then another, and another. At the bottom of six concentric metre-wide steps is a hundred-foot-square courtyard with a circular pit in the centre. Marvello spots a scrap of leather lying on the floor near the pit, but dismisses it as discarded clothing.

Miryn hears muffled footfalls coming from their right; something humanoid running barefoot across the stone. He turns to the others and communicates the danger without words. The rest of the party prepare for a fight as the footsteps approach. As it comes into the light they finally see it: a tall humanoid, with pale grey skin and long, dirty hair. Its mouth hangs open unnaturally and it is stained all over with a splattering of some black liquid, and its eyes glow red. The party release prepared attacks all at once, and reduce the vampire to dust and rags before it can do any of them any harm. Where their missiles impact the thing it tears open and bleeds a fibrous black powder.

Godric: “Ooo, Miryn, that dragon blood looks tasty!”

Other players, collectively: “No.”

Miryn casts Protection from Evil and Good on himself and runs towards the hole. Set up over the top of it is a winch connected to a platform suspended by ropes. As he approaches, he notices the discarded leather cloak is slowly shuffling across the ground towards him. It realises he’s spotted it and rears up to attack; it is a flat flying creature, dark brown leather on the top and light purple underneath with a large mouth. He slashes at it but misses, and it stings him unconscious with its tail before enveloping him with its body. Kivuli rushes over to Miryn and heals him while snarling at the creature. He screams and throws it off, and it splits into four identical duplicates which fly off in different directions, apparently dissuaded.

Godric inspects the body of the vampire, finding some patches of scales on its skin. It appears to be of elven ancestry, but he wonders if it might have been part dragonborn. Godric asks Miryn if he can taste some of the dragon blood. Kivuli threatens not to heal him if he does, but he proceeds anyway, tasting a drop and doubling over in pain. He falls to the floor, writhing, as the dragon blood burns clean through the bottom of his jaw. He eventually recovers and stands, though the mark remains painful indefinitely.

“This is not a good idea!”

— Kivuli, on power beyond mortal control.

Miryn starts pulling the platform up, finding it was around 10 feet down. Everyone else gets on and he lowers them down to the bottom before climbing down the rope after them. After a short passage directly down through solid stone the surroundings widen out beyond their range of vision into a large cavern. They reach the bottom, floor made of natural rock, and explore their immediate surroundings. Close to the platform they find the body of a dead humanoid who seems to have suffered a serious chest wound. Godric searches the body finding a clearance level 2 ID identifying them as a miner named Otto Tarquinius. In one pocket he finds a small, flat compass held in a battered leather case. Opening it, the needle spins around a couple of times before pointing directly backwards, away from the wall.

Kivuli notices a strange pattern in the wall and, shining light from Marvello’s lamp around, realises the wall is actually the side of a colossal dragon’s hand. It has been carved from stone with impossible precision, which seems to extend deeper even than the skin as Kivuli finds an area that has been chipped away by pickaxes revealing stone muscles, blood vessels, and bone. Kivuli, touching its flesh, comes to understand that the stone dragon is alive.

6A.7: “Break the Chains”

Earlier in the day, Talon overheard Eira and Sam arguing from the other room:

“I get it, Sam. You’re having fun going crazy in the crazy town, sure. It was fun. But I’m not having fun any more! Can you, for just a second, be serious? I… I miss you.”

“Sam? My name’s not Sam. It’s David Williams, renowned veterinary ophthalmologist from the University of Cambridge!”

“Get out. Just get the FUCK out!”

The party decide to split up briefly to explore the underground cavern. Sam notices a patch of thick grey dust staining the stone directly below the hole in the ceiling they descended from. Miryn identifies that the wall the dragon’s foot protrudes from is made from a different substance to the floor, and following it around reveals it to be a huge free-standing stone band holding the dragon in place, and not the wall of the cavern as they had assumed. Marvello follows the cavern wall around and finds a second band of stone also holding a massive reptilian foot. Godric finds ancient text scrawled on the cavern wall in a dried black substance, and identifies it as draconic, but cannot read it.

< The Dragon / God Sardior >
< Gives no Gifts / Mercy >

Talon uses his divine sense, and learns that the dragon is a gem dragon, specifically a ruby dragon. He walks from the foot towards where the body of the dragon would be. He discovers and climbs a set of smooth stone steps, carved with indecipherable text and small images of dragons, rising up from the floor towards the dragon’s head. At the top is a large flat platform set with rows of pillars to his left and right reaching up into the ceiling of the cavern. Ahead he sees the head of a dragon laying on the platform, apparently made of stone and unmoving, neck extending away into the darkness. He holds his sword aloft and greets it, his words echoing out into the minds of all the party in Shadowtongue.

Talon: “O great ruby dragon, I beseech thee to awaken, and give me audience!”

The stone dragon’s eyes flick open, but it otherwise does not move.

Sardior: “My name… is Sardior.”

Talon falls to one knee, and continues.

Talon: “Greetings, noble Sardior. I humbly ask for audience with you, so that I may seek your wisdom.”

Sam mutters about needing to change his bowtie, which everyone in the room hears perfectly clearly. Marvello uses his Eyes of the Archivist to translate the draconic message written on the cavern wall as “the dragon Sardior gives no gifts”. The rest of the party ascend the steps and join Talon. Sam considers attempting to examine the dragon’s eyes.

Sardior, addressing Talon as a slave, asks how long he has been asleep. Talon tells him the year is 1067 After the Fall, but Sardior does not understand what that means. Marvello understands using his weird time powers that the dragon has been sealed in this cavern for over ten thousand years.

Sardior: “Ten thousand years? No, surely not! This cannot be! My brother, my sister... They would have come for me.”

Talon explains that true dragons are legendary; that no living person has ever seen one. Sardior goes silent for a second, shaken by the information.

Sardior: “A legend? No. I am… I am nothing now. Ten thousand years here? I am… rotting meat.”

Talon asks if the dragon was here by choice, or if he was imprisoned against his will. To this, Sardior snaps that lesser beings should not speak unless spoken to. He asks if they have come for more of his blood. Miryn asks him if he wants to stay trapped in stone forever, and in response Sardior asks if Miryn has the power to kill him.

“Bloated tick, do you have the power to kill me?”

— Sardior, on Miryn.

Talon asks who trapped him, and who has been taking his blood; all he says is that it was their kind, and tells them to leave him alone if they cannot kill him. Godric asks how he was trapped; he explains that some people who disagreed with the dragons’ benevolent rule over them decided to rebel, found some powerful sealing magic, and were apparently not stopped by his brother and sister as quickly as he had hoped.

“Do you know no way we might free you?” Miryn asks.

“I have no wish to be free in this dead world.”

Marvello asks the dragon if he can perceive his own existence across different planes. Sardior praises Marvello for his insight, and reveals that he has an ability called dragonsight, allowing him to see versions of himself in other alternate realities. He says from that sight he can tell that the world they inhabit is dead. Marvello asks what event caused the world to die, but Sardior says he does not know, as his dragonsight developed after it had already happened.

Godric attempts to flatter Sardior, and convince him that they could take him to a new world. He reacts negatively, accusing Godric of trying to deceive him to get more of his blood. Godric

“I am a servant of the great fiery beast Thomas. I may be nothing but my master is everything.”

“You and your master are… saprophytes — and no more.”

Miryn asks for more information about the world being dead, and whether there is anything they can do to save it. Marvello asks if they could go to a world that was fated to survive. Sardior again praises Marvello’s intelligence, but says no more than that they have no idea what they’re talking about.

Talon interrupts their conversation to offer to kill Sardior if he wishes to die. Marvello stops him, asking Sardior if he would agree to help them with something first in exchange. He is amused by the idea, and offers Marvello a Contract — a kind of deal certain magical creatures can make.

“The terms of the contract are: you may have my Body. In exchange, within a year and a day, you will return and kill me, or else your life will be forfeit as recompense.”

After some questioning, the party learns about the distinction the kind of magic Contracts are based on makes between the Body and Mind: owning something’s Body allows you to force it to carry out any orders you wish, and owning its Mind allows you to force it to agree with you or answer questions truthfully. Talon and Marvello decide it would be best if they took on the Contract together, agreeing to both die if it went unfulflled.

Miryn makes a final attempt to convince Sardior to live, asking him to try and save the world. He isn’t convinced, but Marvello sways him by offering to free him from his bonds to see if he can find some purpose to live for, and end his life at a later date if he still wished it. He Names Marvello Darsana, draconic for “The Insightful”.

“Yet again, worm, you impress me. Yes, this world is doomed and dying… but maybe there is a little more fun to be had in it before the end. Lowly human… I hereby Name you: Marvello Darsana (The Insightful).”

— Sardior, on Marvello.

Sam looks around the surroundings for any fallen scales that he might carve into bespoke apparel, then stared into the dragon’s stone eyes, examining them. Sardior asks him: “what… are you?” but he brushes the question off.

Talon asks how they can free him, and he tells them to break the chains that are binding him. He doesn’t understand the magic that went into creating them so cannot provide any further help. Talon uses detect magic and learns that the stone all around them radiates abjuration. Godric begins identifying the chains. Miryn asks Sardior if they can keep the blood they collected, and use it to grow plants. Sardior hesitates for a second, then begrudgingly agrees, seemingly keen to be freed. Godric asks if he knows anything about “the great fiery furnace beast of blue and red” but he does not.

Talon probes for more information about Bahamut. Sardior seems to think he must be dead, but Talon is convinced that he must be alive as he draws his magic from him, and tells Sardior such. Sardior tells Talon that Bahamut took up residence a few years before he was imprisoned around 300 miles northwest of their current location — a distance larger than the diameter of the world.

Godric completes his identify ritual, informing the others that the stone manacles contain an analogue of the spell imprisonment. Sam casts dispel magic, shattering the bindings with a single attempt. The floor beneath them begins to shake, and a claw lifts up in front of them. All they can see of Sardior’s body turns to swirling black mist and is sucked away from them, and he is gone.

“At last, the sky!”

— Sardior, on freedom.

Miryn notices that the wooden platform they descended on is being raised up towards the surface, and hears voices shouting from above. He begins running towards the centre of where the dragon was for the planar portal he detected, and the others follow. The ceiling is falling in on them, and Godric narrowly avoids being crushed by falling rocks as he gets to the portal. The party fall through onto soft soil and hard rocks in the middle of a vast crater.

Talon looks up at the sky for Sardior, and sees him flying away from them. He is already some distance away, and seems to be trailing blood from a deep wound in his side. Looking around, the party finds stone and earth overlying the buried Sardior has been launched away in all directions, smashing buildings and burying some unlucky people alive. A two hundred foot stretch of the city wall has been destroyed by the crater, and twisted spider-like things can be seen crawling through the gap towards the city.

The party all drop to their hands and knees in the dirt, scraping as much bloodied soil from the ground as they can into whatever containers they have to hand: Godric fills Tiny Thomas; Sam tries scooping it up in his bare hands but suffers severe burns where the blood touches his skin; Talon collects some in his alms box and plunges his sword, Judgement, into the earth, trying to awaken any latent power in it; Marvello produces numerous glass bottles and fills them; and Miryn sticks some of his arrows into the ground to coat them in the blood.

Satiated, they all realise they should fight back the creatures assaulting the city so that the breach in the wall can be repaired. Marvello and Talon perform a motivating speech to anyone within earshot to be brave and fight with them. Two members of the guard and one spellcasting researcher who are nearby join them in the fight. Talon uses divine sense, learning that the creatures are aberrations, and are attracted by fear.

“Ye beasts of darkness, you will tremble before my blade! You will not harm these innocents!”

— Talon, on self-confidence.

One of the things, legs tipped with blood-red markings, spears one of the guards with its pointed limbs, reducing him to bloody ribbons in a matter of seconds. The other guard, terrified, tries to run away. Miryn shoots and kills the red-tipped thing, and the party surround the other as the guard makes it to the edge of the crater and collapses.

Eira arrives, having apparently run straight from the SRC when she heard the blast, and shouts down to them that Friedrich is on his way. A short time later, Miryn shoots the second thing to death and calls out a cry of victory, stating that they will succeed in saving the city. Dr. Friedrich, striding through the crowd at that moment, speaks in agreement, with apparently no idea of their involvement in the incident. Friedrich’s chief spellcaster, Elliot Kawakami, raises two adjacent walls of stone to bridge the gap in the wall — with the help of a dull metal cylinder clutched in his hands.