Monday, January 1st, 653 AU, continued

• While Thaldohr is being attacked, more assassins break into the rooms of the other members of the party. Though the assassins are tough (and using highly-illegal mind-altering charms) and the party is separated, the party is victorious.
• The battle spilled out into the street, and the town guard are very angry and demand the party accompany them to the guard house to sort out what happened. They are even angrier when the party ignores them and begins rummaging through the corpses, but are slightly mollified when they discover they’re the Dawnbringers.
• On one of the corpses, they discover the following letter:

The problem has not resolved itself, as you assured me it would. In fact, it has gotten worse. They have a Broadbuster with them now. If they piece things together, it’s over for us—M will make sure of that. Kill them all, but especially kill the dwarf. Don’t fail like R did. —T

• They puzzle over the identity of the mysterious ‘T’, but come up empty. The guards agree to let the party cast speak with dead on the corpses the following day, after Aurelia has time to prepare it. They all return to the Silty Swamp—no more splitting up!

Tuesday, January 2nd, 653 AU

• They return to the town morgue to question the corpses. The priest of Corentin is wary of necromancy, but allows Aurelia to cast speak with dead.
  • Who hired you to kill the Dawnbringers?
  • I won’t tell you.
• Everyone groans. Aurelia uses some makeup to disguise herself, then returns to the questioning.
  • Where was the last place you met T?
    • Never met in person. Used a dead drop.
  • Where is the next dead drop?
    • Under the rain barrel. Northeast corner of the Drunken Goblin.
  • Why is T after the Broadbuster?
    • Something about a sword?
  • Why were you hired by T to take out the Dawnbringers?
    • Threat to our plans.
• They sigh and Aurelia casts speak with dead on another corpse.
  • What are T’s big plans?
    • To depose queen Oriel.
  • Who is M?
    • T’s boss.
  • How did R fail?
    • Didn’t kill you.
  • Are there other plans to kill the Dawnbringers?
    • Most likely—they’re still a threat.
  • What is the name of your organization?
    • The Comets.
• For good measure, they cast speak with dead one last time on a third corpse.
  • What do you know about the sword that T is going after Thaldohr for?
    • Just that we can’t let them get it.
  • Is Grieving Edge the name of this sword?
    • Yes.
  • What is the relationship between Grieving Edge and the Broadbusters?
    • Family knowledge.
• Aurelia dons the helmet of one of the assassins before asking her last questions.
  • I’m the only one of us who survived, but I forgot where we were supposed to go…
    • Don’t worry, Halas. You’ll dream it…
• No one knows what to make of that. Valya suspects they’re very high-level spellcasters to be able to send messages through dreams.
  • Who of those closest to the Dawnbringers is trustworthy?
    • Don’t worry… the blacksmith came around eventually.
• Not sure what else to do, and disturbed by what they’ve discovered, they return to Rhoda and continue on their way to Hart’s Crossing. The journey is uneventful, and it’s early evening by the time they arrive. They get rooms in the Green Stag at Rhoda’s recommendation.
• Rooms secured, they decide to scout out the Lucky Sword—the tavern where Julian, the dwarf who hired the students who tried to steal the shipment containing Valspira’s orb, is supposed to frequent.
• Thaldohr enters the Lucky Sword first to scout around without drawing attention. He spies a dwarf sitting near the fire, dressed in finery and wearing multiple gold rings, who immediately locks eyes with Thaldohr, breaks into a smile, and announces to the whole tavern that Thaldohr, one of the Dawnbringers, has arrived. He motions for Thaldohr to sit at his table.
• Julian is a gregarious, jovial businessman. The rest of the party, hearing from outside that their cover is blown, enter, and Julian shouts for them to join him and announces the drinks will be on him. He knows a lot about the party, which he claims is from reading the papers but intimates that he has a secret network of spies.
• They speak with Julian about the incident on the road, while Valya surreptitiously casts detect thoughts. However, his thoughts appear to be shielded somehow. She does, however, note three people who are keeping an eye on them on Julian’s behalf.
• Julian begins hinting that he knows they have the shipment, and escorts them to a private room, where he brings up Valspira’s orb. Valya admits that they have spoken to Valspira, but Julian doesn’t seem to know that the orb is broken and Valspira is free. He claims he’s the best person in Castalia to keep a dangerous object like the orb hidden. “No offense, but adventurers always meet their grisly ends eventually, and when that happens, do you really want the orb to fall into their hands.”
• Valya offers to exchange information about the orb in exchange for information about Grieving Edge. Julian says he knows Valya is from Thamior, knows the circumstances around the event at her family’s manor, and knows about Grieving Edge. Unfortunately for Julian, all the information he has, the party already knows, except that he mentions the Comets, who are looking for the sword too, are recruited by dreams and have visions of comets, which disturbs Aurelia.
• Julian also knows that the Comets are trying to pave the way for their masters, and that something big is coming, but he doesn’t know much else. Valya asks if he’s worried about the collapse of Castalia. Julian just replies “Kingdoms rise, kingdoms fall… there’s always money to be made.”
• Julian does provide one interesting piece of information about Grieving Edge—Siora Virren’s forge would not possibly have been able to forge something like Grieving Edge, and none of her family witnessed her making it. If Grieving Edge is indeed her work, she must have had a secret infernal forge somewhere, which no one has ever found.
• Valya offers to provide information for Julian in exchange for money, and he says he’ll think of something he wants.
• In exchange, Valya tells Julian that the last known location of the orb is in the Temple of Neesha under Crystalport. Julian is horrified at their negligence, at what the orb could do in the wrong hands. They all enjoy watching Julian squirm for a bit before Aurelia reveals that they freed Valspira from the orb and she’s under contract.
• Julian reveals that Grieving Edge is supposed to be a dragonslayer weapon, which would be very useful against Bellaroth. Valya is genuinely shocked—she had no idea.
• Eventually, Julian agrees to help them find Grieving Edge if they agree to slay Bellaroth, since the Hammer isn’t being utilized properly by the Queen and there’s no other group of adventurers around.
• Julian also reveals that Finch, the doppelganger, was working for him—his mission was to find a way to collect healing water from the spring and sell it on the black market for an immense quantity of gold.
• They return to the Green Stag.

Wednesday, January 3rd, 653 AU

• The party buys a wagon and a horse at the market in Hart’s Crossing. Aurelia also buys a diamond in the market to power her healing magic. They also buy a large green diamond for 500 gp and two magically enchanted gems (which they pretend aren’t magical to get a better price from the poor merchant). One, the lapis lazuli, is a level one spell gem. The other, an obsidian, is a cantrip-level spell gem. The lapis lazuli currently contains arms of Hadar, but the obsidian is empty. Qhask buys studded leather armor.
• They head to the Ilvassar Forest, leaving their horse and wagon in the small town of Greenview. It starts snowing heavily as they trudge north, following the frozen river into the dark pine forest. It takes several hours, but once they are in the depths of the trees Qhask begins searching around for likely areas to build something.
• In the early afternoon, they discover the remains of an old graveyard, taken over by old trees. Part of the graveyard has been cleared of trees some time in the past—stumps among the graves sprout new shoots. There are some piles of cloth bags and a few old wooden crates scattered about. In the center of the clearing is a pile of rubble that used to be a mausoleum. They can make out “AHAR” written on the mausoleum, but the rest of the words must be on the rubble. They move some of the rubble, and find another piece with writing—this one says “UXOV”.
• Qhask remembers Caranthiax talking about an old wizard acquaintance from long ago, named Uxovaharis. He thinks this might be his tomb.
• Aurelia casts detect magic and finds a dwarf skeleton buried under the snow nearby. The magical aura comes from a potion in pouch of its tattered clothes.
• Qhask opines that this was probably a grave-robbing operation and, judging from the stuff still lying about, everyone involved died. Valya realizes this must be the site of Cecil Sharpe’s ill-fated expedition. Aurelia is worried that something below the mausoleum drove Cecil crazy.
• They find a rough tunnel that leads under the mausoleum. It connects to some stairs. The way up is filled by rubble—it looks like they blew up the mausoleum at some point. On the stairs going down, they find another dwarf skeleton, partially crushed by whatever blew up the mausoleum. They wonder whether the dwarves blew up the mausoleum to prevent something from getting out.
• At the bottom of the staircase, they find several hallways lined with sarcophagi. Directly across from them, they hear what sounds like the quiet clattering of bones. They investigate, and find that this room has been filled with crates, barrels, and bags. The ceiling is blue sandstone with inlays meant to look like stars, and the ceiling is held up by squat granite columns.
• Suddenly, they’re ambushed by a bone naga that dominates Thaldohr. The naga is powerful—it can cast lightning bolt—but it’s hampered by a glowing knife that pins its tail to the far wall. It soon yields.
• The naga reveals that it is the guardian of Uxovaharis’s tomb, and Cecil is the one who pinned his tail to the wall with a blade sacred to the goddess Vodona. Aurelia offers to release the naga if it lets them pass unimpeded. The naga agrees, but only on the condition that they take care of Cecil. They’re taken aback—didn’t Cecil leave the tomb? The naga informs them that Cecil and his dwarves plundered the tomb while it was stuck to the wall, but something deeper in scared them off. They ran, blowing up the mausoleum on their way out. But some time later Cecil returned, and has never since left.
• They agree to deal with Cecil. Aurelia asks if they can remove the black statue they’re sure to find here, but the naga is adamant that no matter how evil the statue might be, it is a treasure of Uxovaharis’s and they may not remove it from his tomb.
• The naga informs them that further ahead is an orrery—a model of the planes. There is also a library, but the naga warns them that the dead will not like intruders reading the books. Valya suggests they might find useful information in the library, so they should check it out regardless.
• They continue through the door on the opposite side of the room, looking for the orrery. They find an octagonal chamber covered in murals of mages performing strange rituals. The center of the room is taken up by a column covered in arcane sigils, which they can’t interpret. Valya is the first to enter the room, and falls through the illusory floor. The real floor fifteen feet further down, is covered by a foot of acid. Worse, the column doesn’t extend further down than the illusory floor—instead, a roper is attached to the bottom of the column, which immediately attacks Valya with its tentacles.
• The fight is difficult, since no one can see through the illusory floor and the real floor is covered in acid. Worse, the naga attacks them from behind, angry at their suggestion that they steal even one of Uxovaharis’s precious artifacts. Eventually, seriously injured, the Dawnbringers emerge victorious.
• Qhask sends his drake into the acid, and finds 325 gp.
• They continue to search for the library or the orrery… ❦