Adventure Story
Our journey began aboard a boat bound for Valkengard, at 5,26. The city welcomed us with a robbery; we answered with our fists and found a room at the Brick Mammoth. Peace there proved brief. The dark mage Zarkan attacked us in the morning, and after a hard fight we killed him. His journal, coins, scrolls, and ruby ring passed into our hands. With a delving permit secured, we began collecting work and following the city’s less respectable leads.
A message from Sutter Izen spoke of a woman and boy who might fetch a fine price at the Shahn black market. At the Emperor’s Fancy gambling den, we found Izen playing high stakes in the backroom. Fortune favored us: we won the freedom of Lady Thora, Lord Emmotatch’s wife. Her son had already been sold, and Izen refused to tell us to whom. The following day brought another inquiry, this time to the Gooch about the missing Beavered Battleaxes.
After provisioning ourselves, we left the city. A moose supplied meat and saleable parts, but a barrow mound supplied only danger. Believing it might be Morkaal’s Tomb, we entered and found more zombies than we could handle. We fled, leaving the mystery unresolved.
Farther north, at the catacombs in 11,21, we met Zecko and the kobolds, who had found pearls and knew where Cyrus was hiding. His tower stood at 12,22, defended by brigands and many arrows. We struck a bargain: the kobolds would receive the tower, we would receive Cyrus, and the spoils would be divided equally, with our company choosing its half. Glipto, their scout, accompanied us to reconnoiter the place.
Disguised as wine merchants, we gained entry and launched our attack alongside the kobolds. Cyrus survived his capture, though barely. We tied him up, claimed half the saffron, and left Zecko delighted with his new home. Back in Valkengard, we delivered our prisoner for the reward. Rumors of wandering zombies had reached the city by then; we professed ignorance.
When we set out again, another lead drew us toward 08,21. Two lions interrupted the journey, attacking after we encountered them over a fresh kill. Beyond that fight, singing in the forest led us to the Shrine of the Sun Healers. Priestess Kalosi presided there, while glowing metal beneath the shrine appeared to lull her followers. She wanted us to break Cyrus out of prison and bring him to her. We declined politely and continued north, where a tomb in the coastal cliffs finally seemed to answer our search.
The riddles carved into the tomb’s door and statue resisted us. We tried another ledge, discovered corpses with coin-filled urns, and repeatedly stirred the dead through traps. Eventually our route brought us behind the door, which we picked and pushed open. Great murals of an enigmatic figure watched over the main chamber. Another locked room concealed a cracked sarcophagus radiating magic.
As we explored, we found names on the sarcophagi, each with a faintly magical letter. More coffins waited across a river. Fenrel jumped the gap, and Movomi studied the auras to identify the letters. Four zombie heads attacked and were quickly destroyed. Deeper passages offered traps that we sometimes evaded and sometimes survived by the narrowest margin. Coins and a brass, possum-like Zoog figurine rewarded our persistence.
After searching the sarcophagi, we placed the Eye of Jakar into a strange arm beside a door. Flesh shifted, a head emerged, and the arm set the necklace upon it. The door opened. Beyond it we fought wights and studied another mural beside the raging river. Then Movomi took the Eye back. Toxic gas filled the chamber, the great door slammed shut, and the giant statue outside awakened.
That battle broke the company. Zota Ragor and another companion, recorded in the journal as Ragnor, died. Movomi and Fenrel escaped. The survivors’ account laid the awakening at Movomi’s feet and recorded Fenrel climbing over a companion to reach safety, leaving the others to their fate.
Slavers sent by the Shahn later ambushed the survivors. Two strangers, Salu and Cadecus, helped dispatch the attackers and joined the company. We learned that the slavers operated from Fort Ikenvar, but first needed supplies from Skaalburg.
Upon reaching Skaalburg, we secured lodging and went shopping. We met Mazzos, a wizard seeking an apprentice, and Movomi took an interest. Reaching his tower at 01,18 promised to be a challenge of its own. Meanwhile, Shadwell offered a more immediate prospect: a nest on the island’s eastern shore, marked at 17,22, where a platinum tankard might be found.
We sought out the nest and fought its flying inhabitants, described in our journal as pteranodons. Once the battle was won, we searched the nest and recovered thirty-seven gold pieces, a pewter-and-platinum drinking horn, and an emerald grasshopper talisman. The return journey brought another attack while we camped, this time by cockatrices. Their stones joined the spoils.
In the morning, we set off again. The drinking horn, cockatrice stones, and talisman were later sold, and the recovered gold added to the party wallet. A further ten gold bought Shadwell’s second secret: a dead or missing merchant with wealth and goods at 12,23. With provisions replenished and another lead in hand, the company had fresh business to pursue.