Session 8: Mysteries in Hexenberg

General Summary

After having a well deserved rest after their long journey, the party gathers in the tavern known as the Smiling cup. They decided that they needed to investigate further in order to locate the shard that might be hidden in Hexenberg, if there even is one.   They headed over to the Temple of Nethys in order to investigate the vortex shimmering in its tower. As they entered the temple they encountered a man claiming to be the head priest. But this was quickly debunked by Jerrycoy who saw right through the mans ploy. And as a real priest showed up, clad in blue and silver robe and wearing a half black and half white mask covering his face.   The priest spoke with them through magical telepathical ability and told them about how the massive library of Nethys that is kept in the temple. Ùshrir and Thomas decided to use this library to find out what they could out about Hexenberg and the possibility of a shard being found here.   Pander and Jerrycoy instead decided to investigate the wizard gone necromancer Grimold Dark. Thus they decided to split up and the druid and the bard went towards the giant clifface that made out the magical wizarding school. Entering the school they noticed that all students seemed to wear a peculiar robed outfit, with a trim seemingly signifying their prefered area of study. They managed to find out that Professor Dark was formerly a lector of Enchantment.   As they came through one of the entrance corridors they entered a colossal towering open room, that seemed to be as high as the mountain itself. This area was filled with platforms floating up, down and across to different levels. In order to not appear out of place the two walk confidently to one of these seemingly endless platforms.    On Jerrycoys behest, Pander stepped up, claiming he knew how to proceed, and tried to find the right page of the book of glyphs that controlled it. Somehow, he managed to do so without fail and they immediatly were taken to the tower where the faculty of enchantment had their offices.   When entering this tower, Pander turned himself invisible and managed to find and break into Grimolds former office. Jerrycoy followed after they realised that it was safe, for a while, as the office was completely trashed. Soon thereafter, as they managed to find a secret stash wherein they found a log, they heard noises. They immediatly hid, with Pander turned invisible again and Jerrycoy by turning into a spider.    Into the office came two students that seemed to come from the abjuration faculty. These started to search the area. Then Pander began to mess with them, pretedning to be a ghost, whilst the druid snuck outside. When they began to flee one and turned invisible. As they chased them, Jerrycoy turned into a bear and grappled one of them. Pander on the other hand chased the other one down the tower to the lift. There he cast a wind spell which pushed the stundent over the edge.    This resulted in the student, who was invisible which is illegal inside of school grounds, falling without being targeted by the glyphs of feather fall which activate in case of a fall. This caused him to hit another student close to the bottom, killing both in a gruesome scene.    As Jerrycoy joined his companion with the other student, who was unaware of his friends fate, they forced him to tell them that they had worked on the behest of their teacher Professor Knacke. They told the student to take them to him, and he complied. But when the arrived at the faculty, another teacher caught them and asked them to leave, telling them to book a meeting instead. He also booked a dinner date with Jerrycoy to discuss professional curiosities.    As they were escorted out, they passed by the nasty accident that they had caused. The teacher seemed to grow suspicous of them but didn't outright call them out. They then returned to their friends.    Meanwhile, Ùshrir and Thomas had managed to find out that the nexus was the vortex of Galganon Gorst, a creation of the a former count of Hexenland and now the ultimate weapon of Hexenberg. They also found that there was strong magic put on the school which kept it safe from magical threats and prevented all teleportation within its grounds.    Together they shared what they had found and in the journal they had procurred they realised that Grimold had family in a house on the outskirts of town. That evening they headed there to investigate. Inside they found undead, but the undead seemed more afraid of them than the other way around. One even answered them in simple phrases.    After searching the basement they found Grimold Dark in his basement turned laboratory. When talking to the spooked and paranoid man, they managed to come to an understanding. It turned out that Dark had become desperate when he was flooded with work and then his family was killed. This made him turn to necromancy, making him loose his position, opening an oppurtunity for Knacke's companion.    He also shared that he knew of a rumour about a powerful shard in the confides of the school, protecting it. But only the headmaster knew for sure. But there was secret passages inside the school, that the headmaster only had a key to. In these passages the school stored other powerful artefacts. He would tell them where these passages where if they could fetch a component for a spell that could help him further his work inside the headmasters quarters whilst also getting the key.    The party agreed and returned to the tavern to plan their next action.