Narrative

Day 23 was Wednesday, 7th Jan 1012, with 11 days to the Tri-moon and 7 days to the auction. The party went to Excellence’s lair with the merfolk, led by pack leader Alana. In the underwater cave, the water ebbed and flowed like a tide. A 20-foot-long crystalline dragon sculpture stood there, with glowing runes on its base.

The lair contained three cages and barrels. One cage held a merfolk who looked different from the others, green rather than blue. Alana seemed to revive him and took him back to the ship. The chests appeared to be waterproofed, and their contents might not be openable underwater. When one chest was opened, it contained white powder that Eliana inhaled, causing a sequence of visions or hallucinations: a basilisk attack, salamanders, Arabic writing, a white dragon circling around the dome, rabbits, and the whole room becoming a black void. Two blue eyes approached through the darkness, bringing intense cold, before Eliana returned to the room.

Another cage contained a snail with a gleam of metal: a jeweller’s chain attaching it to the cage. Guardseen said the snail was a bad omen and had been drugged. Back on the ship, the merfolk explained that they had been abducted from beyond the barrier. One merfolk, his friend, and his wife had been taken; he woke one day and both were gone. His wife was nobility in their pact, possibly Sneul. The Huntmaster dispelled magic on the snail, and a mermaid appeared.

The merfolk described an empire of their people outside the barrier. They had been captured while on a diplomatic mission to the city of Onyx, which they did not trust, and there was war between them and the Salt elementals. Princess Aquunea was named. The city of the Black Scales was said to have a “door” into [unclear], with payment for access being a Grand Towers penny.

The party checked the barrels and other goods. They found a sickly sweet medicinal potion of magical energy that restores one spell slot, silk and parchment interleaved with runes, two portions of white Rose powder for which Taina gave the party 1000 gp, and a metallic censer, possibly silver, religious, and connected to a water god. This Censer of Noxia had the ability to enrage and control water elementals and was active. A message was sent to The Basilisk.

The party returned to Freeport, which seemed much colder than before. It was snowing over the sea, and everything was dark and snowy. A man shouted that the end was nigh and that the Moon was crashing down into the city. When asked which city, he no longer seemed bothered and said he had dreamed it. This was around 22:00. Many people were having dreams. One dream involved gnolls attacking a village and requesting backup from Everchard and Fairshaws. Another was underwater with mermaids and a big cat with metal wings attacking it. These dreams had happened a few nights earlier, at the same time as the party’s dreams.

The party went to the Castle to see the Baroness. The necklace was removed from the sergeant, and he simply walked off. The mermaids had a meeting in three days at Baytail Accord to discuss what happened, and the party could go. The dreams seemed to contradict one another, possibly because they came from the Ancient One, so they could still happen. The Huntmaster was going to Grand Towers to speak. A Justiciar was in the city and may have been looking for the party. The Baroness got the party into the Drunken Duck, a secret venue airwise from the Jewelry District. Something had been written on the padlock on the cart, and the cart was still safe at the Castle. The Baroness’s master was connected to Valenth Caerdunel’s necklace, while her sister was a ring.

At the Drunken Duck, all the walls were covered in pillows or soundproofing. The clientele included a red dragonborn, two tabaxi, an automaton, two halflings, and a gnome. Arxion was given Schnupps from the Brass City. The barman said “only the best for the Little Finger” and was intrigued by who the three best members of the Underbelly had gone on a mission. The tabaxi had whiskers laden with “Dew” and traded in “keeps” from art to food. A faint noise or raised voice came through the floorboards. The automaton kept talking about a factory and wanted to know where the labs were; the party said they were all by the barrier, which cut down his search radius. In a private room, the party arranged to send a message through the Underbelly that they would not go to Baytail Accord and would instead go to the desert laboratory.

At the desert laboratory, they found a coil of rope with a burnt end on the rug, which crumbled when touched. There were no automations. The place was oddly clean. A hole in the roof seemed to have been blown from the outside in, but had been cleaned up. Through the firewise door, they found a female automaton, very different from the others and called Silver. She said the mistress was not her and would not be coming back. Silver had been there 601 years, and 907 years without the mistress. The hole was from a security breach. Silver took the party to sit down through the first door on the right.

The party was served wine from 37 BD, Before Dome. Silver said the mistress died there in a spell accident, and Silver cleaned her up. No one had met with the mistress in the last 907 years. Rubyeye had last visited 908 years ago and had met her 47 times. Rubyeye had requested a copy of a book after viewing it at Aquaria, but Silver did not have it; Rubyeye had it. The runes had been lit since the mistress died. The book came back two days before the death, despite usually being returned daily.

On the tour, a room opposite contained flower beds with well-pruned white roses, disposed of with fire at a different temperature, and insects in the dirt. Down the corridor, a door on the left opened into a room with a huge silver statue of a dragon, a sphinx, and humans and others at the base with a dead eagle. The inscription or note read: “Victorious but too late it was still the Dunewand.” The figures included the human Browning, the elf Cardonal, the dwarf Rubyeye, the halfling Enwi, the dragon Muttowh, and the sphinx Garadul. The statue commemorated the death of Hephaestos, exalted of air. The names Valianth and Cardonal were boxed in the notes.

The history recorded there said that in 29 BC Hephaestos formed an army. Rubodueul, a friend of the Dunnen people, called for aid. Two years later he returned with mages and defeated Hephaestos. He lamented not helping Garadul in his revenge when he learned that a void lieutenant had escaped, and he sought revenge. The Brass City fell and drove the tabaxi out. He had been a friend of the mages, but they trapped him and he became friends with another mage.

The elven art gallery was a marble room dominated by statues of very muscular elves, like the Elementarium, and pictures of pale skin. Aranthium was named as the main architect of the Great Tower. Elementarium was a great scholar, slain by Excellence or entombed for 400 years, worshipped darker gods, and died in 741 BD. Others shown were local folk heroes. A picture showed Aranthium in front of the Great Tower. Browning died in 44 AD, but Rubyeye and Cardonal had talked about him as though he were alive. The mistress had defensive automations that could teleport in from the factory through a teleport circle if needed.

At the end of the corridor, Silver could not go through a door without a person. Beyond were rot and decay. The mistress had played the flute. The kitchen was dark but lit up when the party entered, and had been made by Cardonal and Browning. In the dining room were pictures of Enwi, Joy, Browning looking in his fifties, Rubyeye, the human Heurhall, and a sphinx, painted in 314 BD.

Behind the pictures, Dirk looked uneasy. Behind Garadul’s picture was a golden band with a ruby. Silver tried to get it. The gem was smashed, with arcane runes, and it resembled Eno’s ring. It seemed hurt, broken, not quite powerful, and possibly sentient. Eliana opened the music room. While Geldrin checked the magically lit fireplace, Silver watched Eliana. The music room contained various instruments, including a harp, and a hat stand resembling the one in Enwi’s lab, but with no rug.

Geldrin found a stone in the fire and recognised it as a stone of sending. When the rock cooled, a piece of paper appeared underneath it reading, “I’m coming to get you.” Geldrin showed it to Eliana, and they did not recognise the handwriting. Silver took a tube from the harp. Playing “Ode to Mountain Halls” was noted. A piano held sheet music for the harp song “Betrayal.”

The kitchen door showed char marks from the kitchen to the dining room, suggesting a localised explosion. The door from the kitchen to another corridor seemed to have an explosive device directing a blast into the kitchen. Silver broke the laboratory door and insisted on getting in; her voice changed and said they needed to get out. Dirk visited the toilet. A bedroom looked as though someone had left in a rush and had a marble head on the dressing table. Silver stared at the rod she stole and used it to attack the door with magic missile. Dirk managed to get the wand from her. Silver said she wanted to get out and had been trapped like she trapped her friends.

The door next to the lab was trapped and led to a storeroom with parchment, copper wire, shield crystals, and other materials. Crates contained bits of Silver as spare parts. Silver thought she wanted to be friends but had been just a practice vessel. She blew up the storeroom door. The laboratory door was trapped and needed a key, which was not in her room. In the guest room, a mirror had Elvish writing: “When you hold it like this you they get me first.” It was very loose and contained a key in parchment. A stone under the mirror read, “you’ll need something from a gift to Gavin.” A hat stand had a cloak with a key in it, and the parchment said, “we made it so you need to do both at the same time.”

The library contained no grimoire, but Noxus was in the building. A project automation construction manual by Everard Browning existed in many versions. Automations were powered by a weak elemental, shield crystals, and copper to animate them. A key elven form involved binding one’s own spirit to it. “Instructions for creating sentient jewellery” by Cardonal was written in Celestial. Sentient items needed a soul. The party managed to stun Silver and lock her in the dining room, then opened the laboratory.

Inside the laboratory, Garadul armour was piled as though to remind the mistress of shame. There were practice enchanted items. On the desk was a copper astrolabe containing a red gem. A voice came from the crystal and asked who the party were and what year it was. It had been 907 years. The speaker knew or was unsure that the necklace would survive her friend [unclear]. Enwi was being protected by Goliaths. Nobody knew the city was there, due to Browning’s doing. Silver had taken over the body from the ring.

Silver’s defence mechanisms were extensive. The voice fell silent when told that Garadul had escaped. She held the barrier, constructs, and Silver in check in all ways. A barrier shock might help remove Silver from the body. The party planned to trick Silver into opening the door. Silver tried something, was propelled across the room into shelving, slumped against the wall, and the lights in her eyes went out. When the party tried to take her to the barrier, Cardonal said she was still active. She woke up by the portal room. Dirk threw her into the barrier, destroying the soul, and Cardonal then took over the construct.

At 13:00, “Acore Iceland” was recorded. The Ancient One was Cardonal’s friend and had tried to save her. Enwi’s apprentice seemed to have been the end of Garadul’s sanity. Garadul had been locked up after consuming the void’s lieutenant and slaughtering the rest of the Dunnen people. He was the leader of the Dunnen people. An alliance with the gods had created the barrier to entrap the other “gods.” The dragon crashing into Grand Towers had been enough to weaken the prisons so Garadul could escape.

Cardonal could provide codes for other teleport circles. There were seven prisons, five labs, Browning’s inaccessible the last time, and three Grand Towers levels: factory, control room, and meeting level. Other sites included the gate in the mountains earthwise of Coalment Falls, Coppermines at Arthur, the impact site earthwise of Goldenswell, the menagerie at Riversmeet, the Goliath city, and one location close to each pylon. An additional dwarven city had disappeared. Rubyeye had a connection to both the missing dwarf city and the missing Goliath city.

The Elemental Princes were described as having made a pact with the gods, who worried they would want extra power like the other elementals. The listed princes were Salinus of salt, Limusvita of ooze and friendly, Iceblus of ice and a monster cow, Arasarath as a swirling humanoid dark cloud, Mericok as a spider-like figure with a torso ball of smoke and thumping demon, Garadul who consumed one of the two void princes, Papa I Meurina as a crab with three snake heads and magma, and Valententhidle, who had extra precautions with Galetea the automation. Valententhidle appeared as a female human with ashen skin, faded so that only her eye was visible. Garadul might not know where the other prisons were. Cardonal could be contacted with fixed Enwi.

At 14:00, the party headed to Garadul’s prison. A storeroom door opened into smashed ruins. Runes were scratched or torn away near acid burns, with toys intertwined with copper, coins, and other debris, and the smell of rotting corpses. It was a dragon nest, containing dark green-black egg shells and a tiny dragon corpse with very green skin and a hint of black, more perodlus colouring than Infestus. Poison or acid erosion surrounded the prison circle. The dragon was a young adult. The treasure appeared to be from Dunengend, with copper coins. A standout coin showed a well-chiselled man on one side and a funnel on the other, identified as Goliath coins.

A very muscular and odd-looking dragon approached, with a repulsive head, no horns or ridges, no lips, and an attic-like inbred appearance. Inqueshwash thought Dirk looked tasty and said his mother sent him to be eaten. A void elemental blamed veridican dragonborn for Garadul’s escape and said “Dragon.” The party were originally known as the exiled hundreds of years ago. The Perodot princess was very well known, and the party might need to see Provista Town Hall for the history of other tribes.

Browning had put out the word that he died of old age so he could bring in the magisters and Justiciars to act as his proxy. Enwi’s spellbook was locked by one of Cardonal’s creations, and she changed it so that it was attuned to Geldrin. Automations were identified as Explorer, one guarding Valententhidle’s prison, and the overseer of the factory.

The party teleported to Iceland but landed 24 miles away. They walked for six hours before remembering they had a stone and messaging Iceland to come at 21:00. Iceland found them: a very old dragon with cataract eyes and arctic hares amid its scales. He had been coming to see the party, but the messages had not come through. He explained that visions have a likely outcome, but that outcome tends to lessen when he sends the visions. He had tried to help Dirk’s people with Heurhall.

Iceland needed the party’s help with the prisons. The shimmery one required taking another dwarf with them and levers. Nothing had yet been destroyed at Ice’s prison, but there were visions that it would be. The black spider thing was “touch and go,” and the party had some treasures with them. Iceland had seen a two-headed green dragon, Dirk’s glowing sword as his favourite, the pirate and Excellence, and Browning still in the tower. The part where Geldrin stood on the tower made Iceland think Browning could have done with an umbrella.

People, Factions, and Places Mentioned

Freeport, the Castle, the Drunken Duck, the Jewelry District, Baytail Accord, Grand Towers, the Underbelly, the Brass City, the desert laboratory, Aquaria, the Great Tower, the factory, the music room, the laboratory, the portal room, the barrier, Coalment Falls, Arthur, Goldenswell, Riversmeet, the Goliath city, Dunengend, Provista Town Hall, and Iceland were all mentioned.

Alana, the merfolk, Guardseen, the Huntmaster, Princess Aquunea, Salt elementals, The Basilisk, the Baroness, the sergeant with the necklace, Valenth Caerdunel, Arxion, the Little Finger, tabaxi, automations, Silver, the mistress, Rubyeye, Cardonal, Browning, Enwi, Joy, Heurhall, Garadul/Garadul/Garadul/Garadul, Muttowh, Hephaestos, Rubodueul, the Dunnen people, Aranthium, Elementarium, Excellence, Dirk, Eliana, Geldrin, Noxus, the Ancient One, Enwi’s apprentice, the gods, Salinus, Limusvita, Iceblus, Arasarath, Mericok, Papa I Meurina, Valententhidle, Galetea, Inqueshwash, veridican dragonborn, the Perodot princess, magisters, Justiciars, Explorer, and Iceland were all mentioned.

Items, Rewards, and Resources

The party found white powder causing visions, a jeweller’s chain on a snail, a potion of magical energy that restores one spell slot, silk and parchment interleaved with runes, two portions of white Rose powder for which Taina gave 1000 gp, and the active Censer of Noxia, which can enrage and control water elementals. Access to the Black Scales “door” required a Grand Towers penny.

Other resources and objects included the cart and padlock at the Castle, Schnupps from the Brass City, tabaxi “Dew,” wine from 37 BD, white roses in the laboratory, defensive automations, a teleport circle from the factory, a golden band with a smashed ruby resembling Eno’s ring, a sending stone and note reading “I’m coming to get you,” a harp tube or rod taken by Silver, sheet music for “Betrayal,” a wand used for magic missile, spare Silver parts, parchment, copper wire, shield crystals, two keys hidden with mirror and cloak clues, Browning’s automation construction manuals, Cardonal’s Celestial instructions for creating sentient jewellery, practice enchanted items, a copper astrolabe with a red gem, teleport circle codes, Enwi’s spellbook attuned to Geldrin, and Goliath copper coins from Dunengend.

Clues, Mysteries, and Open Threads

Day 24 was not found as a confirmed boundary, so this narrative preserves the continuous Day 23 material until the next confirmed Day 25 start without inventing a Day 24. The white powder visions, including the basilisk, salamanders, Arabic writing, white dragon, black void, and cold blue eyes, remain unexplained. The merfolk abduction beyond the barrier, the missing noble wife from the pact possibly called Sneul, the city of Onyx, the war with the Salt elementals, and the Black Scales “door” remain active threads.

The shared dreams over Freeport contradicted one another and may have come from the Ancient One, making their predictive value uncertain. The sergeant simply walking off after the necklace was removed, the Baroness’s connection to Valenth Caerdunel’s necklace and her sister as a ring, the Justiciar possibly looking for the party, and the choice to skip Baytail Accord for the desert laboratory all remain significant.

The desert laboratory established that Silver, Cardonal, the mistress, Rubyeye, Browning, Enwi, the automations, and the sentient rings or jewellery are deeply connected. The exact identity of the voice in the red gem, the phrase about the necklace surviving her friend, the role of Noxus in the building, the threat implied by “I’m coming to get you,” and Silver’s shifting control remain uncertain. Sentient items requiring souls, Silver as a practice vessel, and Cardonal taking over the construct are major open consequences.

Garadul’s escape appears tied to the dragon crashing into Grand Towers weakening the prisons. Garadul consumed a void lieutenant, killed Dunnen people, and may not know the other prison locations. The seven prisons, five labs, missing dwarven and Goliath cities, Rubyeye’s connections, Elemental Princes, prison-status systems, and Grand Towers control levels remain central campaign threads. Iceland’s visions point toward threats at Ice’s prison, the shimmery one, the black spider thing, a two-headed green dragon, the pirate, Excellence, and Browning still in the tower.