10-12 Resting, 1304 AM
The raised shadows, the last "challenge" that the Robed King issued to the adventurers, was quickly defeated by the party despite taking some hits. When the camp was finally cleared, it was time to search. Urak, the deceased camp commander, wielded an unusually heavy and unbecoming halberd, which Malgrim identified as one used by a famed Bar-Sinhan unit, the Chesterhold Crusher of the Dauntless Thirty. How it ended up in the hands of a hobgoblin cult follower is anyone's guess. Afterwards, Caerlin and Jacqualine went to search the commander's tent whilst Del'Gado, Malgrim, and Imaros went to investigate the central bonfire and cage.
In the tent, Jacqualine found two letters addressed to Urak.
Urak,
I have begun the work to return the Lord of Shadows from his sleep. When the signal comes, you are to strike fear and uncertainty into the hearts of the unknowing mortals of Akkon. Take in anyone who comes to you, and bring them into the fold. Train them to be heralds of the looming darkness. Teach them the blinding truth of the Sun.
Death is not the end. It is the reward.
Urak, my friend,
We will provide your clan with sufficient equipment: this will continue as long as you send us full complements of the armour and weapons we request. Any seals, stamps, or other means of irreproducible identification will yield significant bonuses.
M. ls K.
She managed to recall that the "ls." denotes a signature on someone else's behalf and that this was commonly used in formal business transactions. Further, there was an unfinished letter next to a forgery kit, which was a falsified letter bearing the seal of the Royal Verderer of Gloomlight Forest. Caerlin appropriated the forgery kit for personal use. Meanwhile, Del'Gado managed to recover a barely-legible seal of the Alliance Army amongst the burned letters in the camp bonfire; Malgrim and Imaros did not find anything of note in the cage other than the fact that it seemed not to have housed many prisoners. Thereafter, the trio went to an adjacent tent, and found a golden chest tapered with sigils of the Karapanate, protective runes, and emanating pure magic. Barely having time to process this find, Caerlin and Jacqualine entered, and the knight of Hyron immediately recognised it as the object of his mission, but before much of the verbal nature had commenced, Jacqualine proceeded with an attempt to break the magic seal of the chest. This was an unfortunate success: the seals broke for a second, and in that time, the priestess was overcome with strange and unmentionable visions of unusual places, accompanied by a sombre voice speaking in a completely unknown language. Rendered momentarily catatonic, Jacqualine left this state after mere seconds, but was afflicted with insanity, and now has an irrational fear of stars. The golden chest seemed to have a failsafe built in, and re-applied its outer wards. Caerlin remarked to the effect that only an idiot would remove magic from a thing such as this. Jacqualine advocated not bringing the chest to the king, instead wanting to bury it deep underground, calling it "evil."
Malgrim left this heated debate, and found a large burn site outside the camp with a staggering amount of charred skeletal remains. He documented the place, and counted 60 dead, all adult, primarily men, with the majority of the corpses being somewhat fresh. When the party reunited, he explained his rationale for returning the chest to the king and Jacqualine relented, agreeing to not hinder the rest from taking the chest, but absconded all responsibility if things were to go wrong.
The next day was spent trekking back to the bend. Caerlin telepathically spoke to Jacqualine, recommending the wise counsel that she not "do anything stupid," and to "calm down," which was met with a spell of silence being cast on him. Malgrim spent the journey explaining basic tenets of mog and mott to Del'Gado, as well as making an attempt to teach Caerlin the Giant language. When the party reached the bend, they immediately headed for Akk-Ur.
On the heartroad, the adventurers encountered two Alliance Roadwardens who, after being shown the royal seal, recognised the strange bunch from captain Idal's annoyed descriptions. They accompanied the party back and led them to the captain's quarters, where the foul-mouthed officer once again defended her integrity. After the party described what had happened in the forest, she sent out a scouting party in order to verify the details of the story. Del'Gado threw a dandelion at captain Wayflower and made a remark about her mood. They then left for Morrowfall Redoubt.
After having to pass through two checkpoints whilst undertaking the journey up the steps, a palace official eventually let them in, mentioning that they would have special company. And indeed, after Imaros played a tune heralding their own arrival in the Elysian Court, they spotted four figures dressed like high-ranking priests of the Karapanate, but in white and yellow instead of the usual maroon and yellow; these men were members of the esteemed Fellowship, the ruling organ of the Karapanate. After giving a brief debrief to the King, the priests acknowledged that the golden chest was intended for the Karapanate, and wondered if it had been opened. Jacqualine saw it appropriate to engage in open debate with the priests, loudly proclaiming that evil was afoot in that chest; the members of the Fellowship explained that every single precaution and reasonable safety measure had been taken, and that it was hugely irresponsible for her to even make the attempt in the first place. However, the priests eventually left with their property, and the King was given the incriminating letters from the camp. He said that he would have the Radiant Throne look into the apparent military conspiracy, and asked that the party investigate the cult of Vyriavaxus in Akk-Ur, since he deduced that they must have a network nearby if they were able to conduct attacks this close to the capital. After hearing about the spectral kingly figure, he relayed the party to one of the many scholars at court owing to the Queen inviting the continent's brightest for a grand seminar, and after that, Gilgenon quickly empowered the adventurers as Twilight Advocates and directed them to seneschal Shala, who was to give them a briefing.
