Narrative

Day 45 began in the old Riversmeet mage school / Menagerie after midnight. Morgana turned into a bee and scouted toward the kitchen at about 12:30. The drama classroom was larger inside than outside, like an amphitheatre with a huge tree-filled set, and was still well kept. Near the door between the hall and kitchen she heard animalistic snoring behind the scenery. Three cages stood there: one empty, and two holding chimeras. Both had lion and dragon heads; one also had a goat head, and the other had snakes. The corridor contained many hybrid-animal pictures, and the hall had a dome-like barrier against the door.

The party found a first-year dorm with no bedding despite the late hour. In a possible surgical or experiment room, a horse lay cut open but still alive on a slab. Men with squid heads were speaking to an elf with green or moss-like hair. One said, “There’s no need for her to be here.” The elf replied that there was, with the meddlers around and her mother gone. This was identified as Willowispa, the same dragon earlier listed as Willowspra / Willow-wispa; her father is Infestus.

The party tried using the broom to reach the kitchen, but the darkness worsened. The door disappeared, leaving two black holes with a black ring around them. A second attempt with the broom opened into a cathedral, with the door in the ceiling. Morgana tried to detect Dirk’s father and felt they were in Hartwall. The place had strange wood and a vacuum-like feel, and the holes then vanished. Morgana tried to leave a note saying they might have left Valentinhide’s home. She saw Valentinhide, yelped, and asked if she was Lord Squall. Valentinhide told someone to go warn someone.

The party eventually reached the kitchen. A salt pot would not move, but its top behaved like a safe dial. The sequence 6/11/10/13/7 opened it and revealed salt. Mr Moreley appeared from the well and said Evocation would make sense when they got there, with no point in riddles.

In the main hall, the party found a storage area for stock beasts and human wizards. Geldrin tried to deceive the wizards, but one pulled out copper wire and a fight began. The party released an owlbear, and Morgana tried to free the remaining animals. A ledger documented beast sales that had stopped in the last few weeks. A necklace bore snake and scorpion symbols of Noxia. The animals were released out the back door.

The party was then attacked and plunged into darkness. Willowispa attacked them, changed into a dragon outside, and flew off. Two wizards came through the room doors; one looked like one of the twins. When the grub was killed, the party heard a scream from the basement. They used the broom to try to reach the basement. One door opened onto blue sky rather than pitch black. When they went through, the door vanished. Bosh flew down and saw coins glinting in the distance. Paying a penny reopened the door.

The basement contained a relief map, roughly from dome time, with eight divots around the outside, possibly for the orbs. Two doors stood to either side: one had no handle, and one had a handle but was magically trapped, with dried blood seeping underneath and a breaking head on the other side. Traps went off from the outside as designed. An antechamber had three doors. The people who had been in the room were dead, with evidence they had been trying to decipher the traps. Other wizards had apparently been ordered to get in at all costs and had spent twenty years trying to get through. Three were killed by the trap. There was no visible way into a plain room, though the wizards had broken through the ceiling. The party found a gap between the mortar that seemed to be a door but could not open it.

Through the hole, the party seemed to reach the third-year dorm, with about ten people sleeping there. They locked all the dorm doors and went to Evocation. The corridor floor between the third-year dorm and main hall was covered in four rays from different areas: an orange stained-glass-like ray from Dunnensend showing Garadule from one angle with the word “Terror” visible, a copper ray with perfect concentric circles, a white fur-like ray like dog or ghost fur, and a cheap-looking hexagonal design split into six primary and secondary colour segments. Pictures on the walls matched the rug styles: dark shirts, tabaxi or elves, a dwarf or copper dragonborn, and a tiny fluffling or thri-kreen male. A far rug was labelled “A gift from the Coppers.”

The music room had a musical lock on the door up to Evocation. The classroom had been ransacked, but a large metal table remained intact with a circle of dark runes. The runes glowed when Geldrin approached with flint and steel. A copper-scaled dragonborn with a human-like head approached. The party subdued him, though no one could see him. He was a copper-goliath / dragonborn mix called one of the Tarnished, now understood as offspring of Verdigrim, the prisoner and Lortesh’s son. When the party fetched a rock from the excavation hole, a squid-headed man attacked and died. The party found a jellyfish brooch and a 5th-level scroll of Magic Missile.

Another Tarnished came toward Evocation, armed with a coin necklace and a curved sword with a purple crystal in the hilt. The sword activated the summoning circle. This Tarnished wanted to make a deal, saying Willowispa had told everyone the party was there and they were in danger. The party decided to go with them. The Tarnished had to obey Verdigrim and would be in trouble otherwise. The summoning circle had a Disintegrate spell trapped on it, activated by command. Another invisible copper Tarnished dropped a note reading “propell.” The Tarnished were sacrificial and had not known the sword would not work. They had a hideout fifteen miles below Tradesmalls. The party sent the information to The Basilisk. The Tarnished began fighting among themselves; the sword-bearing one killed the other, and Geldrin destroyed the circle with them on it.

The party returned to the basement to sleep. Three hours in, Geldrin’s Alarm went off. Hushed voices said they had hidden things, that dragons had not known it was Mother, and that they would not be happy. The notes ask whether there were male and female Willowispa. When the party woke from their shifts, their minds were blank, and for some of them memory took longer to return. Morgana felt it was a spiritual effect from something always present in the building but stronger there.

At 8:00, the party left the room and found eleven severed heads lining the hole. The heads looked torn off and apparently had not been killed there. Most of the wizards seemed to be dead. In Elemental Lore, an ornate handle with all the elements on it formed part of the lock. A counter stood at one end, and thirty or forty cages held animals that all seemed dead. Errol tapped on the window, saying he could not find Rubyeye. He was chatty and odd, saying it had been 117 years for him but three days for the party. He looked maintained, did not remember where he had been, and his core seemed to be bursting with energy. He remembered looking for Rubyeye and the dwarves, darkness being with him for forty years, and giving only the answer “lost.” He had been with Abraxus in a really nice city, returned inside the Barrier through the Coalmount Hills portal, and saw a fight involving one black and three green dragons, perhaps Veridian. He had been eating gems for forty years. He thought the party had always owned him, thought Eliana was Evalina, and recognised the others from the time they went to the past. Abraxus had given him to them. Abraxus was Professor Moreley. Moreley was waiting downstairs, very confused and not making sense.

Back at Evocation, Errol had not found any orbs. The party went to the third-year upper dorm and found a globe with a rock inside, then turned it into lava in the Evocation classroom. They wanted a novelty from home and went looking for poor gifts. The shop was very quiet. They persuaded its door to open and found socks, trinkets, and an illusion of a gnome shopkeeper. They asked for a snowglobe from Snowsorrow.

The party needed to make the snowglobe bigger in Alteration. The door between Necromancy and Alteration seemed to be made of bone. The party got into the room by shrinking, eating cake, and growing again with a potion. They took the remaining cakes and potions from the desks. At the tuck shop, they learned the next targets were in obvious rooms, exactly where expected: Storm in Weather and Life in Herbs.

On the way to Weather, near the shield wall, an exalted vulture man lay prone. He seemed dead, but the party suspected his soul remained. The body had been associated with Hephaestoos, but earlier old-school material also showed the four-armed vulture-man body making rudimentary Dunnen-style pots. Morgana tried to reincarnate the remaining spirit rather than the body itself. Some of the party went to Weather. The room seemed to open outside onto a clifftop in temperate weather. They closed the door, turned the handle to point to a storm section, and reopened it into a storm. They spotted something floating in the water and retrieved the orb by changing the weather back and using Shape Water. After changing back to storm and holding the orb to the sky, lightning struck a small piece of seasoned stone in the orb. They gained a Storm Orb.

Morgana felt the vulture man’s soul was incomplete and tried to gather the remaining soul parts. In Herbs, Geldrin got mushroom remains on him that tried to communicate. It called him a flesh bag, asked what he was doing, and said they were friends with Limos Vita. It searched Geldrin’s memories and said he was trapped like they were. Someone was already spreading them around, described as a cat-horned flesh bag.

During the spell, Morgana blanked out. She had a vision of an infinite library aisle with a red carpet stained by dried blood. A voice or sign said “not Terror,” referring to Garadule as Terror of the Sands. A book labelled “Grand temple city,” now understood as the Grand Temple City of Garadule, was blank except for one page. It said, “Has hubward - she left him astray.” A cat figurine was down the corridor, and Benu got close and asked what Morgana was doing there. Morgana returned to the room.

Invar got Dirk to open a door while a warning said the party might not come in and that the creature had to be contained. A tendril spoke to Dirk and asked to be freed. Dirk refused, and it said he had blockers too, then showed him a vision of a sickly goliath entering a tent and being pulled out by a green dragon or dragonborn. The party managed to push the door open enough for Geldrin to get inside. An automaton was holding the door back and was there to stop the mushroom escaping. The mushroom tendrils wanted freedom. The automaton had only ever been in two places; a student of Lord Briarthorn had taken it to study. The mushroom wanted to give the party five pieces to plant a mile apart, earthwise from a river. The party agreed to wait five years.

Morgana’s reincarnation formed a male elven body with greenish hair on the floor. He felt full of divine energy and said his name was Garadule. He did not recognise the party. The last thing he remembered was the desert and his people, before any Dome existed. The party told him what had happened, and he seemed good for the moment. When Benu banished Garadule, he had not gone where expected. Morgana thought much of Garadule had been in the vulture body. Emeraldus was wondered to be one of his children. The party decided to call him Groot for the time being.

The party returned to the basement. Garadule sensed spirits protecting the area. They placed the orbs into their relevant slots, producing a slight glow and some light on the locked door, but nothing else happened. The door changed and showed ancient Draconic runes: “You’ve got this far. I’ll do my best to aid you in the battle you are about to have. The creature you are about to face will destroy your memories & you will not remember the spell you are about to cast.” The party tried to tell Garadule what he might encounter. A forty-foot alien, squelchy creature appeared, with an anguished humanoid face half scared and half in pain. Skeletal wings and a spectral dragon were holding it down. Mr Moreley was the spectral dragon restraining it. The creature was the original Sphinx meant for the Goliaths, stolen and altered long ago when the Dome was created, and used to alter the memories of everyone inside the Dome. Mr Moreley was pulled back into the school, and the creature rose.

Ichor sprayed, and the party experienced visions. Eliana saw a cave with small creatures clad in metal, firing repeating crossbows, running past while a dragon roared. Dirk saw a thriving goliath city with many races trading. Geldrin saw a metal tower with zeppelins flying around, and the dragon skull was gone. The party felt the mind-altering effect coming from the back. Morgana saw a grassy field of daisies, a hand on her shoulder, and a warm, calming feeling from a barefoot faceless woman in silks.

The creature died, but an invisible entity escaped through the door. The party attacked it, but forgot it was there. Dirk ran through it and thought it was a wall. It became visible and ran through the orb room. The room began to disappear, and four doors appeared in the map room. One orb was not lit: Amoursorate’s. An illusion of Joy appeared on the far side of the map table, saying she was there because the party had met her and she was lost and always had been, then disappeared. Morgana was a head when she came into the room, and an illusion toad appeared beside her with something in its mouth.

Geldrin appeared in a dark room before Kasha’s throne. Kasha wanted to claim her debt for Garadule and wanted him because he was like her father. Geldrin returned to the room with his bag dripping blood and told Garadule that Kasha wanted his soul. When the party investigated the non-glowing orb, they found a tiny scratch in it. Geldrin asked for cake and tried to hear the orb. A rug on the floor said “lost” in several languages. The main door had disappeared. The orb contained a skull with ruby eyes, which said he had been close to working it out, had given Errol a message, could not stay much longer, and then vanished. Lightning reappeared in the orb.

The water room held the water Excellence the party had battled, dragging the mermaid they had rescued. When Dirk asked why it was there, it replied that because they had seen it, now it would be their end. Garadule removed Morgana’s Feeble Mind. Before returning to herself, she saw two storm Rubyeyes. The party removed the salt orb, and the prison door shut.

Geldrin asked Errol for Rubyeye’s message. Errol said he did not have one, but when Geldrin called out the lie, Errol opened his desk and a ruby dropped out. The ruby played a scene of Ennuyé and Browning in a huddle. Browning asked what Squwal had asked for. He said the weather to come through the Barrier, but the notes clarify that was not what Squwal said; Squwal actually asked for “the loss of everything.” Ennuyé said it was cryptic but might help them. A second message showed red glowing eyes with white minds for eyes, a water Excellence, and a whirlwind being. Errol refused to play the message. Morgana turned into a bat and found something by echolocation, then forgot she had found it and turned back. The lost ring was given to Geldrin. When he put it on, it disappeared. Dirk lost compassion, and Geldrin no longer wanted to learn things. A message said “Bread & Circus” and pretended to be Rubyeye.

Morgana reopened the coral door. The same things were there, but now with an army of fish men. She challenged them, tried to disbelieve the vision, saw leech-like creatures, and told the party to kill them. Geldrin fired a Fireball at the ceiling, revealing many trails to the creature and some to the rooms. Through the Dunnen door, the statue of Sierra was in one piece, Lodest was surrounded by vulture men, and Anastasia was chained up. Lodest hunted him in. Another door showed someone taking a pleasant stroll toward Valentinhide’s prison with purpose. A shock did not seem to register, and the figure continued toward the prison door, which glowed. When Morgana hit the mermaid, the party took damage.

Dirk, Garadule, Eliana, and Morgana protected the glowing thing in the rooms and woke back in the original room. Geldrin and Invar also woke. The notes record “Dead!” The invisible entity was defeated, and then everyone woke with memories flooding back. The party levelled up. Other people’s memories flooded through them all at once and then dissipated. Invar and Eliana remembered that Morgana was more familiar to them than they remembered. Platinum, Cardonal’s cat, said Errol was possessed by one of Squwal’s things. Platinum headed out toward Dotharl, and his eyes turned. A message from Rubyeye / Squwal warned the party to be careful at Riversmeet. Ennuyé had set a trap in the room for Rubyeye, who went to a safe place, his wife’s place, and was imprisoned. Cardonal and the goliaths had spotted tainted dragons and were going to root them out. Amoursorate said, “look after my son.”

Dotharl, played by Joshua, had only been aware for twenty years. A soul crashing into the tower had awakened a few constructs. A magpie landed on Morgana and said it could help her. The Chorus had sent it. Difficult times were coming, but Morgana would know the right path when it came. The magpie could say no more because Morgana had told it not to say anything else, though she could not remember doing so. It said it was time; the Chorus could not help before but could now. Willowispa was flying away furious. Dotharl had awakened around Rimewatch about twenty years earlier, near a door, and something had forcefully propelled him through it.

People, Factions, and Places Mentioned

People and name-like figures mentioned include Morgana, Dirk, Dirk’s father, Geldrin, Bosh, Invar, Eliana, Willowispa / Willowwispa, Valentinhide, Lord Squall, Mr Moreley / Abraxus / Professor Moreley, Rubyeye / Ruby Eye / Brutor, Errol, Evalina, Verdigrim, The Basilisk, Hephaestoos, Limos Vita, Lord Briarthorn, Garadule / Groot, Benu, Kasha / Kashe, Amoursorate, Ennuyé, Browning, Squwal, Dotharl, and The Chorus.

Groups and factions mentioned include the party, squid-headed men, human wizards, stock-beast handlers, the twins, the Tarnished as Verdigrim’s copper-goliath / dragonborn offspring, dragons, goliaths, the Dunnensend rug imagery, the Coppers, tabaxi, elves, dwarf / copper dragonborn figures, thri-kreen or fluffling figures, vulture men, fish men, and leech creatures.

Places mentioned include the Riversmeet Menagerie / old mage school, kitchen, drama classroom, hall, first-year dorm, Hartwall, Valentinhide’s home, cathedral, basement, Coalmount Hills portal, Evocation, Elemental Lore, third-year dorm, third-year upper dorm, music room, Dunnensend, Tradesmalls, Snowsorrow, Alteration, Necromancy, Weather, Herbs, infinite library, the Grand Temple City of Garadule, the desert before the Dome, orb room, map room, water room, Dunnen door, Valentinhide’s prison, Rimewatch, Lake Azure, and goliath civilisation.

Items, Rewards, and Resources

Items, documents, and physical resources included the broom, salt pot safe with sequence 6/11/10/13/7, salt, beast-sales ledger, Noxia-symbol snake-and-scorpion necklace, basement relief map with eight divots, magical traps, musical lock, dark-rune summoning circle, jellyfish brooch, 5th-level Magic Missile scroll, coin necklace, curved sword with purple-crystal hilt, note reading propell, Alarm spell, elemental ornate handle, globe with rock, lava-transformed rock, socks and trinkets, Snowsorrow snowglobe, cakes and potions, Storm Orb, seasoned stone, mushroom pieces, ancient Draconic warning runes, orbs in slots, Amoursorate’s scratched orb, rug saying lost, skull-and-ruby-eyes orb, ruby messages, lost ring, coral door, and power-armour suit.

Spells, visions, and magical effects included Morgana’s bee scouting, broom door travel, darkness, dome barrier, paying a penny to open a door, trap magic, Disintegrate trap on the summoning circle, command activation, alarm magic, memory blanking, shrinking and growth through cake and potion, reincarnation involving Hephaestoos and Garadule, Weather room controls, Shape Water, lightning charging the Storm Orb, mushroom telepathic memory search, Morgana’s infinite-library vision, Dirk’s sickly-goliath vision, Garadule’s reincarnated divine body, Feeble Mind and its removal, ancient Draconic battle warning, memory destruction, party visions during ichor spray, invisibility and forced forgetting of the escaping entity until it was defeated, Joy’s illusion, Kasha’s claim, messages in rubies, echolocation followed by forgetting, emotion / trait loss through the lost ring, Fireball revealing trails, party-wide memory flood, level up, Dothral’s soul-crash awakening constructs, and Chorus magpie guidance.

Clues, Mysteries, and Open Threads

The Menagerie / old mage school still contains layered rooms, planar routes, time effects, living or dead experiment subjects, traps, and spiritual memory interference. The precise mechanism joining Hartwall, Valentinhide’s home, the cathedral, the kitchen, the basement, and historical school spaces remains unresolved.

Willowispa’s statement about her mother being gone, the possible male and female Willowispa voices, the hidden things unknown to dragons, and the reference to Mother remain active clues.

The basement relief map has eight divots, and the orbs placed into the slots only partly activated the locked door. Amoursorate’s orb was unlit and scratched. The full list of orbs, their sources, and the meaning of the scratched Amoursorate orb remain unresolved.

Errol’s 117-year subjective absence, forty years of darkness, memory gaps, gem-eating, and possession by one of Squwal’s things remain unresolved, as does why he thought Abraxus / Moreley had given him to the party.

Garadule was reincarnated in an elven, green-haired, divine-energy body, remembered the pre-Dome desert after being restored, and left to find his brothers. Whether he is now ally, threat, divided being, or restored protector remains open.

The memory-destroying creature was the original Sphinx meant for the Goliaths, stolen and altered when the Dome was created, then used to alter memories across the Dome. The invisible entity was defeated, restoring the party’s memories and allowing the Sphinx aspect to reincarnate as Bynx.

Dotharl, Amoursorate’s request to look after her son, Dotharl’s twenty-year awareness, and the constructs awakened by a soul crash remain open threads.

The Chorus magpie told Morgana it can now help and that she will know the right path, despite Morgana apparently having previously told it to be silent and not remembering doing so.