Session 21: The Ocean Heart Report

General Summary

We find the Party in Nadigav, after the market has been in town. Having done all of the necessary shopping, they follow the invitation of Morokha for a special audience.    Passing through yet another secret tunnel beneath the, currently under construction, home of the Lescailles. Alrund leads them through a portal which he opens with some magical sigils. The now open door leads to a vaulted chamber which thordunn recognized as being of Mandran design.  At one end of the chamber a massive amorphous amber with dark seams running through it emanates a soft light. Blue magical flames along the walls provides most of the light.    6 ornate Chairs await the party each with a symbol for each party member, plus seats for Alrund and Morokha. once seated a booming voice comes from the Amber and introduces themselves as Feranot Lescaille, one of the Amber Councillers of the family.  He explains to the party, that there is renewed interest in the Gems they know as the forgestones. They are infact pieces of an artifact from before the younger races arrived, the party already knows this as their paths have crossed with Elva who now controls the Amethyst.    Feranot implores them to accept working for the Lescailles again, as they attempt to preempt collecting the shards, in preparation for the next Amber council election in Carminia.  Feranot answers some of the parties questions regarding the process of the election, and what an amber counciller actually is, before agreeing to travel to the Tower of Blinking lights in the bay of Nelak which is believed to house the Mandran Gismose and another of the Shards.    Soon after The party embarks after paying their loyal servant Uradil, who joins them again after posting the money to his family. They take a barge up the Kro river as the sun steadily climbs higher in the sky the further Sunward they travel. Once the river becomes too shallow for barges, they move on with their horses. It is at the riverhead that they meet an oncoming caravan peddling the specialties of Nelak, that is salt and fish. Still concerned for the refugees now living in Bjerglys, they set up a contract with the Kurv og Kølle Karavanseri for 75 barrels of Salted fish to be delivered to the town.    A few days later they see an unusual sight, the city walls of Nelak, one of the few cities on the continent to still have one, primarily used for protection from yearly storms. The city is sorrounded by saltpans with people working in them. Going straight for an inn and setting basecamp, the party sets out to learn all they can about the tower of blinking lights and how best to get to it.    They find that there is a local religious order, which believes that they can interpret messages from the patterns of the tower.  They have a temple, which is set in the center of a coral maze. They learn that this mimics the massiv reef which sorrounds the tower. Muk decides to spend some days studying the ways of these believers as to get better at navigating the maze that leads into the tower.    At the mean time they follow up with the sister of the guard who let them into the town to order a ship and sailor to bring them to the tower, or as close as he dares.  They learned from different people what dangers might await them: A tribe of lizard people live in the reef sorrounding the tower, there is a ton of sealife there such as sharks that can be hostile, and more worryingly there is a large beast called the akhlut, a huge legged amphibious beast of black and white which haunts the maze.  They spend some days studying how to swim, buy some potions of water breathing, and leaving uradil in charge of the logistics and goods, they set sail for the tower of blinking lights, which the soothsayers say has a good omen.    Arriving at the edge of the reef after a good day of sailing with the tower coming ever closer, Soren decides to cast water breathing on his companions as they dive in. Below the water surface they find a massive wall of colorfull corals fish and sealife. Muk leads the way through the maze and they meet several apparantly magical puzzles, and at one point a clumsy soren cuts himself on some coral which triggers a shark attack, that mauls the party, but is eventually dispatched.    They dive up into an enclosed room of air, with a colorfull floor of blue green and yellow, this turns out to be a trap, with a collapsible floor if one steps on the wrong colour. Some finnegeling , jumping and magic later they make it to the other side, take a short rest before reading for their continued ordeal through the coral maze.