The Mouth of Doom: Session 31
General Summary
Foot Rubs and Tiny Hands
Report Date
15 May 2021
Standing in the freshly brumed Forbidden ward, the Wrenjers ponder why Vrokíva shredded Yaza, the cleric of the Master, but left each of them unharmed. They felt the searing heat of the brume cleansing the Pestilence from their bodies and yet they were unharmed. Sometime during the steam cleaning, Ansible coalesced back into their obsidian rod. The paladin placed the rod at her waist while they rested. Te’Leyuura sat down and started to resummon Sindragosa followed by Detect Magic. They were still planning on finishing their investigation of this level of the dungeon. As some of them rested, Artem slinked off to take an initial look down the side hallway. As the rogue moved, they noticed that the only remnant of the pestilence was the cracks in the walls that it had flowed through the area.
After their short rest, they all move down the hallway letting the scouts take the lead. Moving quietly knowing that the cleansing could have drawn attention to their location, they follow the hallway. Ahead of them it turned east out of their sight and in the middle, a staircase that headed west and deeper into the dungeon. Choosing not to delve further into the dungeon they take the turn in the path. At the end of the hallway was a wall with a similar magical handprint. Above the teleportation rune, the words indicated it would take them back to the Isolation Center. Jarvis offers to take Artem through the handprint to investigate and the scouts leave the others in the hallway behind them. It does indeed drop them in the isolation center, however instead of the southern door in which some had thought it would have led to, they moved through the northern handprint. Jarvis went to press his hand upon the print to head back to where they came; however, he emerged into one of the isolation rooms. Returning to Artem they start moving through the area, heading back through the Fountain rune.
They were to come back immediately if they could and when Artem and Jarvis did not return, Zetwuzadi pressed her hand upon the print, leaving the others behind. After a short amount of time, just waiting in the hallway the others returned and they moved through the area back to the statues. As they travel, Vadim asks Zetwuzadi their opinion on why the Brume cleansed and collected everything on this floor but not them. The paladin muses that possibly Vrokíva understood that they were helping and that their goals were currently aligned. Whatever the reason, they understood it was a blessing that might not happen again. The paladin offers Vadim Anisble’s obsidian rod to hold as it seemed that those two had bonded over music during the travels through the dungeon. The bard accepts, smiling at the bond they had formed.
The small sideroom still had the three small statues that radiated transmutation magic. In each alcove, resting on the floor was a gargoyle, pegasus, and a unicorn. This room could have been a chapel, possibly holding statues the Menders held sacred. The mural across the wall was still defaced with “the healer is false and will betray you” but the blood had been cleansed from it but the print was carved into the surface. As they entered the room, Leofric wanted to mend the defacement but they were quickly talked down by Jarvis and Artem. Taking the cautionary route, they send Sindragosa in to touch the statues before the wizard approaches and identifies the magic upon them. They learn that the statues each have some sort of trap on them that if something happened they would disintegrate. With nothing left to learn from the statues, they ponder the saying upon the wall and trust that whatever nefarious creature who defaced the Mender ward would not try reverse psychology. Grabbing the unicorn statue, Artem tries to leave the room. However, as they moved through the doorway the statue started to crumble. Shortly after, the gargoyle and the pegasus crumble with not a sliver of gold dust left in their wake.
Pushing through the disappointment, they move to the larger staircase that ascended up into the dungeon. Assuming that it would drop him off at the floor above, Artem quietly climbs the stairs. In front of them the room is oddly shaped with some sort of magical effect upon it. Not wanting to press their luck, they continue moving through the Forbidden Ward noting that the Brume cleansed the blood off the beds and had collected the dead. They hypothesize that the cracks that the pestilence flowed through was caused by the summoning of a particular demon rather than the pestilence driving through the stone.
Making their way back to the dinning hall, they uncover the leering demon portal. It resembles the Master in form and doesn’t match any décor of the Menders. They send Sindragosa back through, with more instructions and after a few moments she is brought back with no more information than they had before. Unfortunately it was dark, and there wasn’t another portal for the familiar to return through. They continued their journey back through the area and as they moved closer to the refuse room, they noticed that like all the other doors it was wide open. But the Brume had swept through the area, leaving just the mushrooms. Leaving the area, they make their way back through the dungeon talking about foot rubs and tiny hands.
They arrive back at Castle Calaelen unassualted. The gnomish Ready Wrenjer, Xaljun noticed them from their place atop one of the towers. Propped up on his weapon, Xaljun called out to guards. Arddan meets them at the gates, welcoming them back. They inform the commander that they wish to rest, eat and talk before heading back to the dungeon quickly to retrieve some items before taking a longer rest. Moving to the great hall, Arddan asks Vadim to lock the doors while Enya moves into the kitchen preparing the meal. While they settle, Arddan approaches Zetwuzadi’s bear, Erukoesk, and greets the celestial bear. With food and drink in hand they settle for a conversation.
They inform Arddan that the Pestilence has been cleansed. The disease might have been once a disease caused by Vrokíva but it had been manipulated by demonic forces. In desperation the Menders trusted one of their own, who had been secretly working for the Master and summoned a demon. The Wrenjers eventually learned of the Mender’s mistakes and were able to break the curse that was laid upon their remains. When they broke the curse, the Brume had poured forth through the fountain and it cleansed everything that had been touched by the disease. Every bloodstain, corpse, every trace of the pestilence. It even disintegrated the captive. Arddan wouldn’t say there was an exact president for what happened but it wasn’t the first time something similar had happened. There isn’t really anything the Brume can’t do when compared to what the aethrin can. The leylines and the life that lives upon them can dampen the Brume but there are plenty of stories about people who have felt the cold hand of death brush over them to choose another. In truth, Arddan believes that Vrokíva must understand the limit of their power in the cultivated area of the Myzelis, but when the scales tip and her power can flow through an area she has to focus it. She might have wanted to rend asunder the entire place but knew that the Pestilence was the bigger threat at the moment.
He further explains that the Brume Wolf wants to end civilization and all the items the aethrin’s have created. Since the ripple she had gained sentience and cunning. Vrokíva understands what protects civilization and is not opposed to using the same tools against them. After the lovely and light conversation about the Brume, Artem brought out the letter they had found hidden in a secret closet. Reading it, Arddan’s face fell. If the letter is true and wasn’t someone claiming to be the Grand Cornu of the Master, it might be the evidence that Hogaine was looking for. There were a few reasons why the Advocate was keeping the dungeon secret, Arddan explained. One they wanted to make sure the people didn’t feel the fear and spread the fear of Tsar giving the Master more power. And secondly, Amrith Hogaine is a ley vampire but still a vampire. The Master isn’t called the master for nothing, if there is enough of the Master’s power that had survived and thrived, so close to the ley network that gives the Advocate sustenance, the Master could overpower his will. Arddan explains that Hogaine has remained in the Rhuddinwyd and has delegated his duties.
With her usual excellent timing, Zetwuzadi asked the group if they had talked about the Anima Engine and Arddan dropped his cup. It clatters to the ground as the satyr regains his composure. Turning to the group he asks them to keep this information to yourself until you discover if it’s true. There are two ways this could play out, it could be just a bunch of random people who just stumbled upon knowledge of Tsar or Tsar could be real and reborn in the dungeon. With the mood light and airy, Leofric of the Menders asks when he could share his information with the Mender council, understanding that they need the knowledge of what they are doing a secret. Unfortunately the information can not be widely spread but Arddan will copy his notes and distribute it to Hogaine and Kobeck Huaru. And when it is time, the story will get told.
They take their rest, and before the Wrenjers depart to the dungeon to collect some items, Arddan approaches them with a grave rumor. There had been a sighting of a notorious figure called the Shrike of Czira. They are something of a pirate as they travel on a boat but they are a necromancer of the highest order and are wanted for crimes against Gylidd Syn Aethri. Apparently they have surfaced on the eastern end of the island and seem to be hunting something in the area. Their commander warns them to keep an eye out. They leave with a cart and return with it filled with the heavy items they were forced to leave behind. No one asks them where they had been knowing they were on a secret mission, although many eye the two large hides.
It had been a tough week in the dungeon and they understood that they needed to craft items for their companions to delve deeper into the dungeon. A week into their rest, a storm formed off the southern coast of Gylidd. The storm was as wide as the island and wasn’t any normal storm. Vrokíva had sent it as a reaction to something that was happening somewhere else in Myzelis. Whatever upset the Brume Wolf, the storm would bring the Brume beasts and people could perish. To appease the Inaethrin, the Advocate asks all of Gylidd Syn Aethri to stop creating and resource draining until the storm dissipates. The Wrenjer’s were excluded knowing that they needed these items for the greater good. Eventually the deluge does peter out.
After three weeks of rest, studying, and crafting they assemble on the 23rd of Asha in the courtyard of Castle Calaelen ready to return to the dungeon.
