Mission 018: Beyond The Light
Edgepoint Lighthouse, a vital waymark on the Menagerie Coast, has recently gone dark without warning - and your rivals, the Golden Chain Mercenary Company in Port Damali, haven't returned from their contract to investigate.
Mission Log
Contracted by the Marquis of Port Damali and the merchant guilds to follow up on an investigation into the unexpectedly darkened Edgepoint Lighthouse, the Golden Standard sent two of their newest members (Mali and Nico) accompanied by two of their more experienced rogues (Lark attempting to mentor, Fess attempting to not) to the fishing village of Palma Flora, where they could head up the coast to the lighthouse. Fisherman Matheu and his somewhat awkward, easily intimidated son Filipe guided them to the cliffside launch point by sunset, ferrying them across the channel to the rocky islet where the Lighthouse stands. Though the fisherman was able to provide some information about the Golden Chain party that had gone ahead three days prior and the Lightkeeper himself, the party noticed that he seemed uncomfortable when talking about the Lightkeeper's new apprentice. They left one rowboat tied up on the Lighthouse dock for the party before heading back to shore, leaving the party to investigate the lonely island. There was little to find on the outside of the looming Lighthouse besides boot marks, though Nico's pseudodragon Izar was able to scout the rooftop and Mali noticed that the Lighthouse door was slightly ajar.
The party proceeded cautiously inside, using Nico's Light spell on his staff and Mali's torch to light the way for the Darkvision-impaired half of the party. Proceeding stealthily, Fess took point on the exploration. The party found supplies on the first floor that Mali requested they not raid (though Lark pointed out pessimistically that everyone was probably already dead) and bypassed a locked storeroom, heading upward to the living quarters, where they encountered one chubby orange tabby (to Mali's delight and Lark's dislike), a plethora of books and scrolls shoved into a bookcase which Nico began to organize by color, a painting hanging above the larger bed which drew Lark's interest, a metal plate-sized crab on the table next to the smaller bed spotted by Izar, and a druid's journal on the desk that Fess began to study.
Though some of the pages were in languages the party wasn't able to translate, the last few pages were in common, detailing a recent visit from a friend (initial S.) who brought an unusual gift of "residuum." Nico's arcane knowledge immediately identified this rare substance as a refined version of whitestone from Tal'Dorei, useful in arcane experiments to strengthen and elongate magical effects. The journal went on to note that the alignment of the moons and the residuum provided a rare opportunity for the Lightkeeper, who had crafted three colored glass lenses and made notes regarding the spectrum, with "Green" and "Blue" marked as Elysium and Ethereal respectively and the others left blank. Once again, Nico's arcane studies easily allowed him to identify and describe those Planes of Existence to the party.
Moving onward, the party found the Lightkeeper's workshop and the first dead bodies of what they assumed were the members of the Golden Chain. While the rogues checked their pockets, Mali studied the bodies and swiftly realized that while one of the mercenaries had been clawed in the face, the cause of death seemed to be massive internal bleeding caused by magical damage as they fled from danger. The party attempted to comfort a visibly upset Nico, who wondered if this was also one of the dead mercenary's first missions and was troubled by the thought of how their lives were cut short. Fess also found a mostly-full bag of residuum on the work table, which he pocketed.
Eager to head to the top floor, Lark flitted up the stairs, but in the pitch darkness accidentally set his hand on the trap door and knocked it back onto the floor, ruining his stealthy approach. The party proceeded together to the Beacon Room. While the rogues did their requisite shakedown of the three dead bodies on this floor, Mali and Nico examined the beacon itself, making note of the three glass lenses and their levers as well as traces of residuum in the brazier, and a small metal object shaped like a tuning fork hanging above the brazier inside the beacon itself. Nico played with the levers, moving the lenses over the brazier to little effect without the additional magical elements. Stymied without signs of the Lightkeeper and feeling as though they'd missed something, the party debated their options, with Fess pointing out that they'd officially discovered what had happened to (most of) the missing Golden Chain members, had enough information to assume that the Lightkeeper and his apprentice had gotten themselves mixed up in some arcane experiments, and could simply relight the beacon and leave. Mali was quick to note that the beacon would simply go out again without a lightkeeper, and with Nico eager to push more levers, the party decided to check the storeroom, feed the cat, and explore the roof more thoroughly before wrangling with whatever magical nonsense lay ahead of them.
Mali and Fess returned from their quick storeroom foray (Fess's lockpicking skills vastly exceeding the challenge!) with healing potions and a potion that Nico thought might be for mystical waterbreathing, which the party split up amongst them. Nico and Lark's exploration upstairs turned up a suspicious lack of anything, leading them to conclude that the battle might not have started here, strictly speaking. Loins girded and prepared for battle, the party then proceeded to finally light the beacon with Nico's Radiant Flame and a stingy pinch of residuum from Fess's bag, and (after a quick debate about which lens might lead where and which to try first) decided to try Blue, noted as "Ethereal - good for travel?" in the Lightkeeper's notes.
Once they shifted the lens into place above the brazier and the beacon light turned blue, the entire lighthouse seemed to move. To the party's delight, they swiftly realized that they were in fact now in the Ethereal Plane overlapping the Material Plane, intangible (as Izar demonstrated by flying through his warlock's chest) and weightless and, thankfully, still capable of moving the levers(!).
Their next choice was Red, the first mystery location. They emerged to the roof only to discover roiling red skies, lava flowing everywhere around them, and distant winged creatures. Nico immediately recognized the fourth circle of the Nine Hells, Phlegethos and decided it was TIME TO GO NOW NOW NOW, the party tumbling back inside and pulling the trapdoor shut as the sound of wings beating grew louder.
Yellow (Green/Red) was their third stop. The incredibly loud wind howling outside the lighthouse walls made it hard to hear each other without yelling, and when Lark stuck his head outside to the roof to check for bodies, he found his energy almost immediately sapped by the exhausting force of the gale. Spotting nothing and regretting everything, he slammed the trapdoor shut again, and Nico shifted the levers once more.
In Cyan (Green/Blue), the shadows immediately seemed cold and oppressive, and the light from both Mali's torch and Nico's spell turned pale blue. When they went up to the roof and looked around at what Nico thought might be the Shadowfell Plane, they finally found the four remaining bodies of the Golden Chain mercenaries lying on the stone. They quickly checked the bodies, only to discover that one, a half-orc fighter named Khaddim, was somehow still alive and barely conscious. As they healed him, questioning him about the fight that had left the rest of his party dead, Fess moved to the final body and heard a scratchy, frantic voice speaking telepathically in his head via Message. He peered over the edge and spotted a small figure at the foot of the lighthouse who begged for help, having locked himself out of the front doors. Nico swooped down on his wings to carry the goblin up to the party. The goblin introduced himself as Ozzy, the Lightkeeper's apprentice, and thanked them profusely for their help, asking if they'd found the Lightkeeper yet. With an eye on the sky in consideration of the dangers the Golden Chain mercenaries had encountered, the party began to move the bodies down into the Beacon room with Khaddim's help, until fear of certain death overtook Mali, Nico, and Izar, while Lark suffered from apathy. It took great effort on their part to shift the levers to Magenta (Red/Blue), where the beacon suddenly ran out of residuum and returned them to the Material Plane.
Taking a breather, the party asked for Ozzy's account. He shamefully admitted that he'd been in charge of the beacon while the Lightkeeper studied other planes, when he'd gotten distracted by the cat (Carnelian), accidentally let the beacon burn out, and reset the levers. While he felt certain that the Lightkeeper was in the Red and Blue world (Magenta), he somehow had ended up in a different place, where he'd gone exploring and witnessed the attack on the Golden Chain members days later. Realizing that the lenses he'd picked were not the lenses they'd picked, the party quickly realized that the apprentice had chosen the wrong "Red" lens because he was colorblind, and with that final clue, they relit the beacon fire and switched the correct lenses into place.
Magenta took them to the Astral Plane, a beautiful sea of stars floating in the endless expanse, where they found the Lightkeeper patiently awaiting rescue. He chatted with the party, recognizing Mali as a former Vezdaweald ranger and asking after her father before eagerly questioning the others for their experiences in the other Planes, while Nico and Izar flew up to swim with a school of Space Guppies. One of them followed him back to the roof and took a liking to Lark. Lightkeeper Bavog Dulamar safely recovered, the party returned to the beacon room and the Material Plane. However, the bodies of the mercenaries inside the lighthouse immediately alarmed the Lightkeeper, who suspected it meant that enemies from the Shadowfell had come through to the other side. Lark unhappily suggested that maybe the monsters were inside the bodies....and was proven right when the Lightkeeper cast Protection against Good and Evil on a body, and shadows began pouring forth. Ozzy's cloud of Faerie Fire helped the party take aim at the visible shadows, and they used their various magical weapons and magical effects to augment their attacks. The largest shadow demon barely had time to launch itself at the party before Nico, guessing at possible vulnerability to radiant magic, absolutely wrecked it with a critical hit from Guiding Bolt (for 88 points of damage). Though more shadows emerged from the bodies and sapped the health of Mali, Izar, and Khaddim, the party easily dispatched them one by one, and continued downstairs to take care of the remaining two shadows on the corpses below. Sensing no further shadow demons with Lark's locate creature and knowing there were no more bodies to spawn more, the party felt confident they'd helped clear the tower. Mali and Nico chose to rest with Khaddim (Nico pulling out a travel pillow from his pack which, it seems, was the only thing he'd brought with him on this trip) while Fess and Lark helped the Lightkeeper and his apprentice prepare a meal. Lark was able to bargain for a painting of the Lightkeeper's work in exchange for a feather and 5 gold, secure a future visit from the Lightkeeper to the Feywild as a touring artist, and even managed to possibly arrange an introduction to S., the Lightkeeper's mysterious friend. Fess was gifted the aforementioned metal crab built by Ozzy himself as a thank you for his rescue. Bavog offered Nico his Bottle of Boundless Coffee, who declined, but was happy to gift it to Mali instead. Retrieving his bag of residuum from a reluctant Fess, Bavog asked if the party was willing to accompany him on one last trip: a visit to whatever plane lay beyond the use of all three lenses. He relit the beacon using the last of the residuum, then Nico and Izar together pushed all three levers.
The final plane was, as Lark had hoped, the Feywild. The party was entranced by the beautiful view from the tower. Nico, Izar, and Lark flew up to look from above, where Lark spotted a pod of Dolphin Delighters, attempted to gossip with them about Tykhon (alas, language barriers proved the effort fruitless), and sadly allowed his Space Guppy mount to fly away to explore this new plane. Fess was the first to notice the tall figure of the marine-fey guardian emerging from the rooftop cupola. Though he seemed inquisitive and curious at first of the visitors from the Material Plane, Lark's mention of Oberon darkened his mood, and he withdrew his blessing from the adventurers as he suggested they leave. Not even Nico's Celestial Blessing of Light in return or Lark's attempt to trade his new painting seemed to convince him to change his mind, and so they quickly left, only to discover that Mali's entire memory of their brief jaunt into the Feywild hadn't returned with them. Amidst Lark's furious ranting regarding the guardian's atrocious hospitality and insults to Oberon, Bavog gave Mali the quick watercolor he'd painted while they were there as consolation for her loss.
Thanking them for all of their efforts and generosity, the Lightkeeper helped the Golden Standard deliver their fellow mercenaries' bodies safely to Palma Flora. Mission accomplished, all but Mali (who took the occasion to visit her cousins) triggered their bracers and returned to HQ.
SUMMARY
DM Zoe
PLAYERS Emily (Mali), Luke (Nico), Mike (Fess), Rae (Lark)
RESULT Mission Complete
TOTAL XP 1475 XP each
TOTAL GP 55 gp each (45 gp paid, plus an additional 10 gp each looted off the Golden Chain mercenaries)