The Tome of Hungering Shadow
General Summary
Kingra, Ryke, Zaketh, Mortimer, and C351SL went with Procella to the Whispering Archive - a tower containing a collection of potentially dangerous and magically active books, kept under wards and watched over by Keeper Viveldra Ninox. Keeper Ninox showed them a book that emitted a shroud of magical darkness. She theorized that the book was reacting to the recent magical and planar disturbances and wished the party to examine it, before it did anything worse.
Zaketh's patron gifts allowed him sight through the dark to read the angular runes - the language of the Rattar. He saw it was a collection of spells, rituals, and dark prophecies - some sort of religious text for the rattar's evil god, The Gnawing Dark.
As the party discussed what to do with it, a group of rattar thieves and assassins attacked, grabbing the book and making a run for the stairs. The party stopped them and retrieved the book. But splashed with blood during the fight, the dark shroud began to grow and swallow them up.
They found themselves in a ruined, decayed version of the library. Swarms of aggressive rats scurried in the debris, and demons of teeth and shadow attacked. In the ensuing carnage, Ryke and Cecil were rendered unconscious, and Kingra was killed.
Cecil's auto repairs had brought him back online, the others had tended their wounds, and the party was wondering how they would transport Kingra's bulky form. Then a light shone from Kingra's pack. The sea hag Sallie Mildew contacted them through the stuffed angler fish Kingra carried. She offered a chance to bring Kingra back. For a price.
Mildew wanted the heartstone and soul bags they had stolen from the lair of the coven, as she had originally tasked them with retrieving. In addition, both Ryke and Zaketh would owe her an unspecified favour, that she could call upon in future. They agreed, and Kingra was restored to life.
As the group considered its next move, they heard the stilted, broken voice of Procella's awakened spellbook echoing from all around. It called their names, then urged them to head to Goblin Manor and the Narrative Device. They set out across the ruins.
After an arduous trek, dodging rattar looters and prowling demons, navigating fallen rubble and rotted floors, they arrived at Goblin Manor, just as ruined as the rest. Battling rattar and demons, including a bulezau - a horned, rat-like monster with an aura of disease and filth - and trapping a maw demon in a closet, they found the staircase to the room where the Device lay, a radiant light shining under the door. Opening it, they were bathed in light and returned to reality.
Procella and Keeper Ninox were there, along with Master Eregast, and a pair of gnomish tinkerers from Scuttleglen. Together, they had modified the Narrative Device using parts from Eregast's planar orrery, and used it to pull the group from the ruinous reality where they were trapped. The modifications had taken the better part of a week, yet the group had experienced just a night and a day inside the book.
Procella was relieved to see Kingra alive. She explained that when the group had vanished, she had been able to study the book's apocalyptic prophecies, and in them, the lost group's actions were described. In the prophecies, Kingra had been killed, and she had feared that might be true. They told her that it had come true, but had been subverted by Sallie Mildew's intervention, and now all wondered the consequences of dealing with the sinister hag.
Rewards Granted
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