Sanctuary

After much discussion on what to do next and where to take the town, the party opts to head towards the Strong Bite Gnoll clan to deal with the raids on travelers and the town. We gather a few food gifts, namely deer, and head off. After several hours of travel, we come across a sleeping bear. Orion votes to kill the bear in its sleep and bring the corpse as another gift. The party overall decides against it and continues on.

We arrive at the gnoll den and are greeted by two guarding gnolls. Taron tells the gnolls they wish to speak to the leader. They laugh at us. It is not a friendly laugh. They take us into the den.

Inside the den, the party crosses over a spike pit trap. The two guard gnolls stay back. There are three gnolls on this new side as well. Two are large enough to lead their own tribes. The third gnoll is an extremely large creature gnawing on a human-sized femur. Terran attempts to converse with the largest gnoll. He laughs at Terran's attempts, explaining that it's too late to help him from zombies to the north. He engages in combat. [Several combat rounds, a crit failure on reposition checks by the gnolls, and several crits by the party later the gnolls are all defeated except one who submits].

We announce the surviving gnoll BiteBite as the new leader of the Tribe. He renames it to True Sons. He tells us that BigChest Strongbite came from the north and conquered the tribes in the area. BiteBite is from the current den, so he can't provide more information than that. We give BiteBite the Gnoll Tooth Necklace and take the rest of the loot. BiteBite also shows us the food stores, where the party takes the (several) human remains from the stores for proper burial, among them are the bodies of K, C, and B? Lawrence notices that one of the non-previously mentioned corpses contains a letter stating “a shipment is ready for pickup”. Orion fails identification of the very damaged seal.

The Gnolls return after 1 week. We dub them, the Laughing Bones gnoll tribe. The party asks them several questions, one of them being about any zombie sightings. They state they saw 2 more zombies. …Stuff Happens..

We prep to set out for the Dukedom of Aeria controlled by Duke Lorenzo, who has been on a genocidal crusade against of monsters throughout his territory after an ambush(of minotaurs?) killed his husband. However, it is noted that although there is a marked decrease in monster sightings, the number of disappearances has not decreased notably and/or remain high.

11 days of downtime

Downtime activities end, resulting in Ayin finding 3 guards(2 fighters, 1 sorcerer, each level 2)Arjuna, Krandell, Thully for a monthly price of 6 gold a month. This outdoes our monthly surplus of 4 gold.

The King's architect shows up. His name is Raul. He does not care for the town and is only here because of the orders given by the king to prepare. He believes there is a lot of work to do before the ceremony. He sends Timmy back to Red Castle for more supplies as Raul begins construction.

The Party begins its journey to the Dukedom of Aeria. Before we leave, Taron gives us a harrow reading. Of minor notes: Orion's fate was deemed unreadable(and his fate cannot be read until the 21st of Estu) and several dark cards were drawn. The Party heads east towards the the Dukedom of Aeria]. There are storm clouds on the horizon. The evening of the 21st passes without incident. ==22nd of Clarent== It rains all day. Everyone is moderately unhappy and a few of the party are dragged down by the dour weather and fatigued, but otherwise the day passes without incident. The evening arrives. [[Taron takes first watch where he spies a shambling zombie. He does not engage the creature, but does make note of it. Sees-Nails and Zara's shifts pass without incident.

We arrive at the juncture between the grasslands in front of the mountains and the beginning of the mountains themselves where we spy a mostly empty inn by the appropriate name of Foothill Inn. There are two individuals inside a female Dwarven named Miss Stone and a human male named Buster. Miss Stone offers 5 rooms for 2 silver a piece and throws in some oiled cloth for tent making. The Party accepts and begins preparations for the night. Miss Stone leaves to make dinner and Buster attempts to convince us to convince Miss Stone to sell the Inn to him so she can flee to safety from the zombies. As we inquire about him and his desires, Buster leaves quickly to make the rooms up and disappears for some time. We remain unconvinced and his actions are deemed suspicious.

While waiting for dinner, Ayin and Sees-Nails discover a large chunk of unrefined primal obsidian behind the bar. Miss Stone reveals that the inn itself was built on a short-lived primal obsidian mine. So short-lived that the mine quickly died, but the through traffic meant the inn could stay open. The party asks to investigate the mine, to soothe their minds about zombies. Miss Stone obliges and shows the party where the mine entrance was. It was truly small and dug out with old techniques. However, Orion notes that one of the branches was mined more recently and (someone) spots more recently mined primal obsidian. There are also clear signs of recent foot traffic by a humanoid. Sees-nails begins to hunt the footprints. We relay this information to Miss Stone, that there may still be primal obsidian in the mine and that Buster seems suspicious. Not long after, we find Buster wearing what appears to be a zombie mask spreading some sort of powder. We think it will summon zombies.

We attack Buster. Two strong zombies help him. They actually take a bit of work to put down. Orion identifies the powder Buster possessed as a dried humanoid powder, which is a less than savory substance used to summon zombies. Orion also identifies the strong zombies as a wither which is a more advanced, complex zombie than a basic mindless drone. We interrogate Buster and determine he wants the Mine and the Inn above. Buster resists in telling us where he obtained the dried humanoid powder. We finally (Bianca, Taron, Orion) intimidate Buster into revealing his source. The description he gives loosely matches Duke Lorenzo. Buster was given the dried humanoid powder and told to sprinkle it on wagons he saw. He also received a pouch of gold. We clean the powder up and destroy the remaining amount.

The mountains are more dangerous than the road to the Inn. Sees-Nails and Taron don't see anything on their watch shift. However, Thalacos sees two shadow men-like figures squatting at the far end of our camp. They eventually call out to Thalacos and warn him of keeping fires, that it's dangerous in these parts. After Thalacos wakes the party, Taron asks who they are. One answers that he is Doran. He looks like a minotaur. He describes himself as a scout and ranger for a cave of other minotaurs. Doran describes of a pack of zombies capturing and killing humans, which makes the life of the minotaurs difficult. After a few more words, the two minotaurs leave.

It is a torrential rain. Travel is difficult. Only Bianca and Sees-Nails take a shift. Their keen eyes spy a man wearing a hood, walking bravely through the night. Minutes later, ten powerful looking zombies stumble in the same direction as the hood-wearing man. The party opts to not engage the horde of zombies.

We continue traveling, otherwise nothing of note occurs.

As we continue traveling, we come across two powerful looking, zombified trolls. We attack them, but it consumes a significant amount of our daily resources.

We arrive and enter the town of Aria. We head to the Gateside Inn. Their clientele is a bit wealthier than expected. We ask the manager about rooms and she tells us that the room prices are 45 silver a night or 2 copper for a bed in the cellar. The inn is quite busy because people are gathering for Duke Lorenzo's birthday. Before we can pay for a room, we are informed that there is already a room for us, room 22. We go there where we meet a Miss Maeny(I don't think this is right but I can't read my hand writing). Piper is also in the room, relaxing on the bed. Piper informs us that our objective at the party we are attending is to acquire a Harrow Card, held most likely by Duke Lorenzo. We are informed that it is The Crow, a card related to powerful necromancy magicks.

We are further informed that we will be attending as Piper]'s servants and we need to learn the ways of grace. There is a multiday training montage. ===1st of Estu== [[Orion buys and learns invisible item

We fail our training on our task

Taron and Orion ask around about zombies. They learn from a drunk that a catfolk was leading the zombies away.

The party prepares for the party by loading up Orion's bag of spacious holding We head in, bypassing the security and seeing Piper off before heading to our real objective, find The Crow. We sneak around until a zombified troll intercepts us. We defeat it and kick the body into the lake. As we traverse the castle, we wind up in a slightly unused bedroom. There are several fancy outfits. We find Duke Lorenzo's journal(see google doc) and an oddly shaped keyhole. We continue our search, stumbling across a room containing two zombies holding down a giant piece of paper. We defeat the zombies and discover the paper contained a draft of an unfinished ritual that would disenchant and resurrect a target(see duke lorenzo's journal). There is also a key shaped for a specific keyhole. Other loot is: a scroll of fly, magical supplies.

We take the key, unlock the door and travel down a path to a rickety elevator. It takes a long time to descend downwards before rushing the last few feet. The room is dark, save for Ayin's crown, which reveals two skeleton knights crackling with electricity.

We defeat the skeleton knights, later discovered to be grave knights. The room contains several cells and appears to be a prison-dungeon. There is a single individual in there, a pale and bald man named Big Leo. He tells us that he and some others were escorting someone named Screed of the Citrine Light before they were waylayed by zombies. He is the last remaining survivor of the travel group. He informs us that all the other individuals in the travel group were experimented on and eventually either turned into grave knights or something else.

We tell Big Leo we will let him out after we find the key. Del listens at a door deeper in the prison and hears a low, pained groan. We open the door. There is a monster! It is some horrific beast surgically combined of several body parts from different people. It is currently chained down, where it loosely and weakly tugs on the chains. We fight the beast, wherein Orion recalls it is a Necrohusk, a failed attempt at more complex and advanced monsters, best used for their brute strength and short lives. We slay the creature.

In the silence, we hear dripping water and investigate. We discover the emergency hatch out of the prison and warn all of us to not open it. There are also some foliossee google doc in the room, containing information. There is also a box containing a letter to Screed from the Headmaster Sarapos(spelling). There are a few other items inside the box.

Orion sketches the half finished ritual and begins pondering its completion. We change into the fancy clothes and prepare to storm the birthday party as fancy nobles and stop Duke Lorenzo. We are introduced to the party with our names. We notice Piper speaking to Duke Lorenzo. Lawrence fires a shot at a funny, dancing skeleton on the party walls and Taron announces our plan to defeat Duke Lorenzo. Duke Lorenzo wastes no time and orders his servants to kill the guests inside the party. During the commotion of fleeing guests and advancing skeletons, Duke Lorenzo turns vaporous and begins to flee. The party defeats the skeletons, suffering no deaths thanks to a well-timed heal by Orion.

We begin chasing Duke Lorenzo. His vapor form makes it difficult to defeat him and he almost escapes off a balcony and over the water before Sees-Nails uses a scrap of cloth given to him by The Weaver to summon the strange fae for a favor due. The Weaver catches Duke Lorenzo and returns him to us in a special sack of the stars. Duke Lorenzo pleads for his life, explaining his actions and needs. He offers gold and information to the party in exchange for life and support in saving his husband, Italo. Italo died via monster attack, but The Harrow Gang revived him using The Crows and ordered Italo to raise an army of dead able to be controlled by The Harrow Gang members. Duke Lorenzo will teach Orion his ritual of undead. Taron attempts to get more information about The Crows from Duke Lorenzo, but the Duke resists, loving his husband too much to sacrifice him.

Bianca offers an out for them by offering to be adopted. This will give the Duke an heir and allow the two to retire into old age with each other, once the ritual is complete and the deed done. Duke Lorenzo accepts.

Something about snakebites, waxworks warehouse. Dockside gang, Basaii. I was drunk and failing to take decent notes by this point.

4th of Estu–Continued (Missed these two minutes) [The Rabbit Prince] is freeing slaves from mining colonies in Truscia, mostly of the [Free Seas Mining Company] and this is causing a shortage of primal obsidian in the Truscian mainland. The party deals with Lorenzo and discusses how to resolve the conumdrum of Italo. Lorenzo creates a ring of warding against the zombies that he created, for us. This will protect us from the zombies natural roaming. Lorenzo and Italo will go to the 1st World for hiding, but not the main city.

We discuss where to go next. We decide to go to Bassaria and stop at the rumored Sarenae temple en route. It will take week to head straight to Bassaria and only 2 more days to head to the temple of Sarenae.

We do downtime, there is crafting and resting.

We head to the temple of Sarenae. It takes two days. As we begin climbing the mountains to the temple location, the air grows thin. We see a few zombies, but they do not bother us thanks to the ring.

The air grows very thin. Lawrence, Orion, and Thalacos begin struggling due to the thin air. Everyone else is ok. Lawrence and Thalacos recover and grow more used to the air, but Orion continues struggling.

Hours later, the party arrives at the temple. It is a small complex that is lush with plants. There is also little decay in the area. Orion and Ayin]] discover there is a form of preservation magic centered on the stain glass window in the main cathedral building. There are no animals or insects in the area, it appears the zone is above the tree line.

Bianca searches and speaks to a flower that says its name is Flora. Flora says there are no visitors or haven't been in years. It does say that the it felt the wing beats of a large creature.

Del and Taron patrols the perimeter and Del spies a a large, black metal plate. He rushes over and examines it. Del and Taron determine that it is likely the scale of a dragon. They finish their patrol and inform the party of their discovery.

Bianca interrogates Flora about the dragon. The wing beats appear from east to west or west to east. It is not common, but it has happened multiple times in its 45 year life. We determine that it may be a Conspirator Dragon. It hurts Sees-Nails is lightly injured when investigating the scale's age.

We enter the cathedral. The room is cast in an orange light from the stained-glass window. The outer edges are not within the preservation spell and are crumbling a bit. There are several paintings of Sarenae, 6 in fact.

Taron notes that the cathedral is above the tree line. Orion theorizes that maybe the cathedral was moved there somehow, perhaps by magic. Bianca posits that maybe the explosion from the Truscian super fortress causes magical mayhem, bringing it here.

The paintings are 1. 2. 3 and 4 are unreadable. 5 is the Prismatic Ray bestowing honors upon 7 knights. Painting 6 is the same 7 knights in a star pattern. There are holes for 7 gems. The gems are missing.

We spy a locked door with a symbol of Sarenae. Thalacos states that it is a holy room and requires a process to open. We search for some holy oil, but find none. We theorize that lighting Thalacos on fire will allow him to pass through. Orion obliges and sets Thalacos on fire. Thalacos walks through the now open door. It begins shutting, but Del intercepts the door and the party keeps the door open. The room is for preparing holy warriors to fight evil. Inside we find a glass vial containing a shining substance. We determine it is a vial of Greater Dawnlight. We find a scimit with a flowery version of 'Strike down those who would not repent'.

Thalacos takes the items and there is a long argument with Orion over studying the items and stained glass window. Thalacos forbids studying them, fearing the destruction of the holy artifacts.

We travel after fighting an elemental. We arrive on the border of Remia, a caravan nation where the (something uita?) move every five years. There are games that determine where the (uita?) go. We are on the Southern route. We enter a tent shop containing General Goods. We see a man in black, The Black Wolf. He is balancing a sword poorly. There is a poster asking for help slaying a goose.

Bau Gresh is asking for help. Orion announces that people of Remia put the caravan name first, so we are in the Bau caravan. The Black Wolf attempts to dissuade us from fighting the goose.

We fight the goose. It is not a normal goose, but a fae goose hydra!. We note that it is odd to see a creature such as this out in Sanctuary. We note that it can grow as large as a house. We slay the beast.

The Black Wolf makes a surprise showing, claiming “he had it right where he wanted” and that we took his kill. We gather the goose eggs and return to Bau Gresh. He signs the power saying we receive “5 points”. We find out we need to join the Hunter's Association. Gresh informs us about the Hunters feast in Bassari

There is a time skip 19th of Estu - Nothing much happens

Someone hears a knock on a door. There is a note for Taron. “Let these not (something)Do not stray something with the Throne Card”

During the evening, there are some riled up wolves and a single lit up candle in the distance. We do not pursue or investigate

The flare/fire/candle moves a little closer. It is shaped into a creepy crescent smile.

During the day, we meet a traveling merchant. He regales us with a story of a very skinned wolf. The merchant's name is Traveling Merchant Bart. He also says that the Docksiders] opened a new chapter in [[Port Friendship. Bart notes that the Docksiders are taking protection money and he paid to be safe. We will see Rab of Hunter's Association in Fort Cain in Port Friendship. During the evening, the howling wolves go quiet quite suddenly. The candle also swaps side to be ahead of us instead of off into the distance/behind us.

There is a fight. We fight some witch warg's aka the wolves. We note that they do not usually come in black or stand our. It is quite odd.

We fight the witch wargs. One is a big black warg. Their faces are stuck in a neutral expression, which is odd. The black warg speaks telepathically to Bianca “Child of night, this is not your fight”. It repeats a similar message to Lawrence. Orion reads the black warg's mind. It is giving a command to the other wolves/wargs to attack Taron. The black is looking ragged and like it is partially constructed from some material.

We defeat the black wolve and a Jack O' Lantern appears. It is a fae in hiding. Someone or something summoned this fae to attack us. They are not used by the Queen of Mushrooms because they are not loyal. It likely killed and flayed the wolf to hide in its skin. Ayin's dragon, Bella slays the Jack O' Lantern, leaving behind the pumpking and a thorny hand wraps of might blows. Taron does a harrow card reading for the party. The first 3 cards that popped up were Wax Works, Snakebite, and Eclipse. Taron then draws Empty Throne, Courtesan, and Eclipse. He notes that this is highly portentous and unusual because there were two Eclipses.

Nothing of note happens

We arrive at in a town called Carksville. Our first stop is a place called The Magical Brewery. It currently appears closed. We speak to a gnome outside called Mr. H. He owns the brewery and has informed us that his last batch of brew became sentient and has taken over and shut the place down. MrH offers us a keg of the brew to save his brewery. He definitely wants us to save some documents he has stored inside, even if the brewery is destroyed.

Orion cats invisibility on Sees-Nails who then proceeds to sneak into the brewery. Sees-Nails spies 3 amber colored elementals and some icicle snake. Sees-Nails finds the documents and investigates a closed bedroom door. He sees a stuffed animal being eaten by the/an icicle snake. He steals it and hides it. Orion puts the documents and stuffed animals into a spacious pouch/bag of holding. These elements are called Inking Waterfalls. They are usually guards to the Water Plane. There is a fight. We win. We note that the brewing tanks are smashed in, purposefully destroyed. We investigate the last room in the brewery and note that this specific tank is damage as if something had burst out from the inside. There is also a bag of Cold Comfort Lesser.

We name our group the Lords of Valcastle. We convince Mr. H to name a bear after us. He informs us that his beer is highly qualified, drunk by the King of Alabaster. He pays us 200g and gives us a barrel of Firework Fest. It has an acidic finish. We head out of the town after convincing Mr. H to have the magical effect of our beer be a short warp step.

There is 5 days of travel

Nothing of note happens

Nothing of note happens

Nothing of note happens

Nothing of note happens

We arrive at Port Friendship. Gangers have moved into town and setup a protection racket. We visit The Church of Sarenae where Sorin and Zay inform us of the conditions of the town. Jet leads the Docksiders gang. The gang is based in Bassari, but this is a new chapter here.

The Upstanding Gentlemen are corrupt guards that patrol the upper parts of Bassari. Taron, Lawrence(and someone else) head to the town hall to ask questions there. The townhall appears healthy and relatively intact, compared to the rest of the town. We enter in and there is a dwarven woman Alda who runs to Bassari to deliver messages to and from the town, since the governor operates out of there and does not come to Port Friendship. Alda says that Bassari can't send resource to Port Friendship to deal with the gangs rising up. We determine that there appears to be at least 16+ members of the Docksiders gang in town.

Thalacos writes out a concern that the Lords of Valcastle will deal with the gang in exchange for rewards. We head to a bar where the gang hangs out. The party discusses for a while and decides they will kill Jet. There is a fight, we win it. Orion grabs a Soothing Tottie. We find a trap door and advance down the bar, spying two crocodiles.

We defeat the crocodiles and gang members under the bar. Sees-Nails opens a chest and we gather loot.

Nothing of note

Nothing of note

Nothing of note

The courier we sent to Bassari returns with a letter signed by the Governor of Bassari taking note of our concerns. Nothing will be done by the governor. There is a newspaper that indicates that a vote by the Thousand Sword Alliance to stabilize Truscia. It fails.

Nothing of note

Nothing of note

We arrive in Bassari. It is known that it possesses 2 gangs in the town, the Docksiders and the Upstanding Gentlemen. We enter the city during the day before the Festival of Shelyn. We enter into the town through the poor district entrance. As we enter, we see a guard with a red bandana demand 2 gold from an old man. We surmise the guard is a member of the Upstanding Gentlemen. We say the old man is a part of our group and bully our way in. Bianca questions the old man about a burned down halfway house. He warns us off from investigating the halfway house before parting ways with us. Our first sight in the town is a huge inn named The Keyhouse 1. It is a 4 story building that Del and/or Ayin say is neutral territory for the criminal activity in the town. We note that there are 3 'Keyhouses'. We enter into the inn and split a room. Biance asks Miss Key about the halfway house that burned down. Miss Key tells Bianca to go to the Church of the Radian Prism. As we get close to the church, a half-orc named Osol is building a stage theater.

As we enter the church, someone with a meek voice says “Lauali”? Bianca has a very strong reaction. The meek voiced woman starts crying. Bianca encourages her to keep talking. The woman eventually recounts the harrowing story of the fire that burned down the halfway house down. The woman identifies a specific wereshark. This information points the Docksiders gang sending a message out to people. We leave the church and head to the burned down ruins of the halfway house. There is a sign out front that says “Sarenae Halfway House. No one leaves”. Taren suggests that the Waxwork card is working with the Docksiders gang.

We meander about the halfway house and surrounding area for a bit. We stumble onto 4 shady characters who opt to go their separate ways quickly. Taron catches one of the shady individuals. He strikes up a conversation with the individual in question. Taron says the part just wants to ask about the halfway house. The individual says the part should prepare for a fight in that case. The man turns to leave, suddenly no longer interested in the conversation. Del throws some water on his head. He turns and Sees-Nails pickpockets the man. The man punches Del in the jaw. Sees-Nails pickpocketed Demon Dust off the man.

At the halfway house, a nice, friendly person told us that to leave.

There is a fight. 4 gang members attack us. We kill 3 of them.

Bianca takes a javelin and stabs one of the corpses and runs it and the sign through the corpse. The surviving gang member describes a bit of how the Docksiders work. Sees-Nails takes a finger from the surviving member. Eventually enforcers show up on Harbor Street

We go off to gather more information. Ayin tries to buy some drugs from a gang member. He succeeds. There is a fight. Sees-Nails gains another finger from a person. We interrogate the survivor of the fight. He describes how the important members go into the water in Bassari near the lighthouse on the peninsula. The survivor describes a guard dog protecting the suspected underwater base.

We pick up some potions of waterbreathing. We also rent someone's boat and head out to the peninsula lighthouse. We get there and we get attacked by a large shark. We kill the megalodon.

We enter the underwater base and easily defeat some low level workers. We continue onwards. We open a door to reveal a bunch of primal obsidian tools used for manufacturing Shiver and primal obsidian. We see some more dockworkers and a werebat. We leave them be and sneak/advance to a door with some religious runes on them. We can't understand the runes. We press onwards. Sees-Nails attempts to open the door, but as the door clicks open, the werebat notices the door handle moving and comes to investigate.

We must fight the works and bat. We do and open the rune covered door.

Orion realizes that these are holy runes for binding and trapping evil beings. We see a summoning circle in the middle of the room. There is an erinys devil in the room, petting on one of a set of manticores. The devil name is Uranieth who was summoned and trapped to summon for the Great White Shark. Uranieth recognized the black dragon scale we picked up at the broken down temple. She reveals that someone like Orion was interested in the blood of the dragon. Uranieth revealed that a slick-backed haired man traded a scroll of Loose Time's Arrow. Ayin asked what the blood of the dragon was for. Uranieth wants to conquer the domain/plane she was summoned from and since blood has power, the blood of a dragon would have lots of power. We decide that we will let her out of the summoning trap on a few conditions. She would hand over the scroll of Loose Time's Arrow. She makes a mistake and we end up giving her an empty vial. We also learn that the black dragon's name is Naseal. He is a conspirator dragon that pretends to go by the name of Korvald. He holds The Eclipse Harrow Gang card and Korvald is a member of the Thousand Sword Alliance.

Sees-Nails has a flashback to hunting Naseal. Orion and Lawrence scratch out the trapping runes and Uranieth leaves the summoning dungeon. Orion and Lawrence record the scratched out runes before they remove them so they can come back later and record all the runes. We walk out the backdoor we spy in the room. We enter a pristine, but spartan, room. There is a bed and desk, but not much else. There is also a pool of water and a metal safe. There are items in the desk, a set of documents and ledgers. There is also a second set of documents noting the declared content of ships passing through port friendship vs the known contents. There are discrepancies oft used for smuggling. Taron deduces that the gang had an inside man and that the ships are sneaking in primal obsidian. Sees-Nails opens the safe. Inside the safe is some good loot. Del dives into the pool of water and swims 300 feet before running into a greate. There is a a 'blood lock'? with a harpoon trap pointing at it. Sees-Nails surprisingly fails to open the lock. The trap triggers and obliterates a ruffian finger Sees-Nails used to attempt. Orion transforms into a prawn and continues swimming through the gate to investigate. After another hundred feet or so, Orion pops out into a gaudy and comfortable room. There is a small kitchenette and a comfy bed. Orion detransforms and pulls 1 of 2 levers on a wall. In the distance he hears “Great White's here”. There's also a wooden lock that Orion identifies as a 'bloodlock', just like the one back in the underwater tunnel. Orion pulls the other level and and he can hear the hum of primal obsidian being pumped with magic. Moments later, a werecrocodile shows up. Orion hides. The werecrocodile looks around and mutters “She must be up there” and looks at the ladder and bloodlock. The werecrocodile leaves and Orion takes the opportunity to attempt to bypass the wooden door. He eventually manages to burn through it without using the lock, but Orion passed through the destroyed door.

He climbs the ladder into an office. There is the loud sound of metal on metal. There is a desk with various ledgers on it. The office looks like a prepared “legitimate” office for business. Orion looks out a window and recognizes the location. He is at the Key Forge.

The group catches up to Orion inside the bedroom. Del steals some Barclay Vineyard Wine. It is a pinot Noir. We also steal some scotch that is from the Truscian Isles. We decide to advance and clear out the basement instead of attempting any stealth or such. Thalacos kicks down the door. There are two werecrocodile guards. Lawrence shouts at them.

We do a running fight, but one guard manages to send out an alarm. Del is also severely injured by the fight. Ayin opens a set of doors revealing a bunch of loot and an injured man bound in a chair. He was clearly tortured. The man has a red bandana, indicating he is with the Upstanding Gentlemen. In another room, there is a corpse with an arm replaced by primal obsidian in the shape of an arm. The primal obsidian is pulsing with magic, but the man is very dead. There is also a dwarf with white hair in that same room. He is taking notes and fiddling with dials on a machine. He is very focused and does not notice us watching him. We recall that Queen Ryla of Redcastle is the only known person who has created a working primal obsidian prosthesis on herself(or anyone). Everyone else dies or rejects the prosthesis. We take the loot and the prisoner.

We sneak back to the hotel we rented our rooms at, Key House 1. Before we can enter in to the building, we see effigies of the party. There is a corpse painted green with a note saying “Leave 800 gold at the Halfway House and the party may be allowed to live”.

We wake up the prisoner and learn his name is Dale. He informs us that he's a simple town guard for Bassari. We decide he's withholding information from us and we press him. He informs us that a boat was bringing in primal obsidian. He says it's a special kind of boat, an underwater boat.

We recruit Dale to help continue the enterprises in Valcastle. Orion fakes putting a mark on Dale to track him and force him to go to Valcastle. Dale also says that the Upstanding Gentlemen are going to raid the music festival where it's suspected that a lot of the Docksiders Gang members will be. We chartered a caravan so Dale can have a safe trip to Valcastle. He informs us of a few Upstanding Gentlemen. Lieutenant Strohl organized the volunteer gang members.

We head back into Bassari. The line to enter the city is much longer than when we first entered it 24 hours ago. We spy a half-orc named Boss who headed up the caravan we initially all met on. We give Boss a favor to take Dale to Valcastle.

As we re-enter the city and head to the upper district, we see some 3rd hand images of our visages on bounty posters. It lists several of our crimes. We take a few as keepsakes. The posters bear the seal of the Governor of Bassari. We decide to sneak further into the city via the harbor instead of through the city streets. It is quite easy. We walk up to a ship drydock. No one is working, but there are musicians and street performers all warming up for the Festival of Sheylin. There is also some good smelling street/festival food. There are town criers shouting out for people to buy wares and events and so on. We see a few people taking a step back from us as we walk through. There are also no guards or Docksiders Gang selling anything. The party splits, some are going to the music paradate. Orion and Taron look for Lieutenant Strohl. They notice there are guards in the Upper District of the city.

Back to the party in the paradate. The musicians see [Osol] who is there to start the parade. He starts with an intermediately difficult song titled “Hym of the Radiant”. It talks of 7 knights who were blessed to transform into dragons. Orion and Zara recognize the song as vaguely something the leader of the Citrine Academy would sing to transform into his Aspect. We also posit that the song may be related to the temple we discovered and found the black scale at.

As the crowd disperses and musicians fall from the parade, as per the competition, and the last songs start playing, a guard shows up and declares that the remaining crowd/parade is disturbing the peace and that everyone there is under arrest.

There is a fight and we capture/kill the guards that come to arrest us. We save a few folks and Osol. Zara continues playing during the whole process and wins the music festival. Congratulations!

We follow Osol back to the Church of the Radiant Prism into a private office for discussions. There are some scrolls and diaries in the office. Osol informs us that there is a possible secret prison. He further informs us that Lieutenant Strohl has an office at “The Armory” if we wish to see him.

The party splits up to investigate the information we've gained. Lawrence, Sees-Nails, Orion stealth in to the upper district. Del, Taron, Thalacos put on disguises. The disguises get the party up to the wall separating the upper district from the lower district, where two women stop them. Orion gets captured by the guards, but for a fat bribe, they'll let him go. He pays, but Sees-Nails gets the gold back.