Session 9: Hexenheist

General Summary

Upon having recieved the information on how to find the secret room inside the headmaster's office, but the probem remained. How were they to get inside the office to begin with. It didn't help either that the headmaster's identity is as per tradition kept secret until the day he steps off of the position. With all options exausted, Pander remebered the journal that he had apprehended from the students that fled the town. Upon reading through it he found that the students seemed to have grudge with one of the head professors in their faculty. Thus, when they were approached by a gnome that they called Mr. Nacklenook. The students had been ment to deliver a secret key to get into the headmasters office. Based on the stundents state when they encountered them they surmised that something had gone awry.    Hoping that the students succeeded in at least delivering their quarry, they went looking for the gnome. After a short meetingwhere Nacklenook noticed them being watched, they decided to talk it over in the gnomes rented room, leaving Gaston and Lefoy as lookouts. Thomas noticed a human follow them upstairs. Catching him listening through the door, Thomas drew his weapon on the spy. Alerting them inside the party ended up tying him up and knoking him out, almost killing him in the interrigation.    They decided that Nacklenook, who also had a target inside the headmasters vault, would come with them and aid them in their break in. After locking the poor spy into Panders wardrobe. In the meantime Ushrir managed to get a response on his advert and finally recruited himself a squire. His first task after signing the contract, which he didn't properly read, being to guard the wardrobe where the spy was being kept.    When the group had reconvened outside the the academy during the afternoon, they went to business. Dressed in student robes they strode into the platform room, and with Nacklenooks secret book they started their decent into the floor and down into a lone entryway. Carefully treading into the headmasters office. Pander managed to help them avoid an alarm spell by using magc detection. They dispelled the alarm and moved on.    With the aid of Grimolds scroll. It was the title of a book and the text: "to Nethys". Given that the walls and roof were all lined with bookshelves except one slot that was filled with a giant portrait of the god Nethys. Thus they realized what had to be done. Thomas was the one who managed to find the right book. Upon giving to the portait which came alive to recevie it, the portrait opened up to reveal a corridor.    The path lead them to three doors protected by a young sphinx. It asked them to tell him a riddle it couldn't answer. A task which proved difficult when the sphinx seemed to have an endless supply to all recorded riddles. But as soon as Pander came up with a riddle of his own the sphinxs seemed flabbergasted. Thus they were allowed to pass. One room had a magic cancelling room with a glowing chrystal in it. The second door lead them to a storeroom with all the confiscated goods in it, including the ressurection scroll Grimold wanted and Nacklenook's data. The third room was a dome filled with pulsating magic emminating from the central point where they found the hard they were searching for.    Grabbing it proved a challange. The pulsating magic grew more dense the closer they came to the center. Like diving into deeper and deeper water. But by tying a rope around themselves and just running into the the dome they at least didn't risk death inside the dome. After Pander and Úshrir had failed multiple times, Thomas stepped up and managed to grab the shard, but thats when they realised that the singularity in the middle had to be filled with something. Pander once more made an attempt and this time he succeded and by switching the shard with the glowing chrystal. Thus the magical pressure faded away.    As the party celebrated, greed got the most of the halfling and he tried to grab the chrystal again. He succeeded but this opened up hole in reality that held it in place, sucking in the halfling, crushing him a bit and knocking him unconcious. Úshrir rushed in and managed to save him by pushing him out to allow the chrystal to fall into place. They then left the acdemy with haste, giving the shard to Thomas.   Back at the tavern they went to interrogate the spy once more. After some violent discussions, Pander decided to make him look like a drunk by forcefeeding him liqour. In the end they lowered him down into a alley where Nacklenook slit his throat. Something Jerrycoy and Úshrir managed to stay oblivious to. The gang then moved on to deliver Grimolds scroll. Afterwhich, when they had kept their word, they set his hut on fire after locking the undead with their creator in the cellar. Screams of terror could be heard from the necromancer before suddenly they stopped. Overtaken by the thrumming noise of the fire.    The party left town, after Nacklenook revealed that he had heard myths of a shard inside the wall seperating the empire from Valakia. Thus they headed to Festenfort, observing the Vortex of Galganon Gorst seemingly flashing and twisting as they left.