The Foundation recovered from Marcella’s revelation in the House of Light hotel in Aundair. Not long after, Essex mentioned that they would need to find a means of restraining him as a full moon was coming that night. He also gave more details on his background: that he was a part of the 66th Division of the Thrane military, a ghost unit made up of bred werewolves who were deployed when Thrane wanted no one left alive. Of the twenty members of the 66th, only 9 remain.
The Foundation took to the city to find a locksmith and a butcher’s shop. After purchasing a heavy chain and 5 lbs lock from the locksmith and a hindquarter of pork (and getting the name of a more delicate and discrete locksmith in the Cliff District called the Lock and Chain), Bal placed the chain, lock, and pork in the sewer maintenance area where Marcella met General Aarland and where they planned to chain up Essex later that day.
Then, the Foundation went to the nearest statue of Arawai to begin looking for clues. Vax noticed that the bottom of the fountain pool was oddly shimmering and Bal noticed that the bottom of the pool was covered in a viscous, mirror-like substance. Using control water, Vax managed to move the substance and water away from the bottom of the pool revealing letters embedded into the bottom of the pool. Clearing the water away from the bottom in a ring, they uncovered the letters DSVIV.
Turk then rushed to the next statue, and the others in turn, revealing other series of letters:
Turk was unable to decipher these letters or what they meant while out in the open and suggested going back to the hotel. During the statue search, the sun began to set, so Bal took Essex back to the maintenance tunnel and chained him up. He then decided to hide the pork leg somewhere out of sight, so that if Essex got out, he might hunt down the pork and not harm any people.
Bal and Yelena elected to stay nearby the sewer entrance to keep watch in case Essex escaped. At the hotel, Marcella attempted to help Turk in figuring out what the phrases meant, but to no avail. However, while Yelena kept watch on the sewer entrance, she remembered something she had been taught during her military training. A cypher, called Kestoffer’s Cypher, was created by a Cyran alchemist that he used to write secret letters to his Aundairian lover: a painter. The cypher involved taking the number of a letter in alphabetical order, reversing the alphabet, and then using the letter in that numerical spot instead. In the morning, Bal and Yelena let the still chained Essex out and they returned to the hotel where Essex passed out.
Yelena told Turk about the cypher, who immediately confirmed that the cypher worked by forming the following words:
- Where
- Meets
- Skull
- Sapphire
In order the phrase is: Where Sapphire Meets Skull. Together, Marcella and Turk pieced this together, along with a map of the city to mean where the catacombs meets the Audairian River. Marcella also confirmed that the catacombs were not easy to enter and that they would need to find a way in.
Before they could go looking, they needed to meet General Aarland as promised. In the service tunnel, the party meets General Aarland, who is happy to meet Turk and explains that his motives and interest in this are purely personal, that he supports Turk’s endeavors and that the Royal Eyes supports them in opposition of Breland. While he cannot come out in direct support of the Foundation itself, he can try to offer aid where he can.
To that end, the Foundation tells Aarland that they need help accessing the catacombs beneath the city. Aarland tells them their is a secret entrance in the sewer tunnels nearby and leads them to it. A section of the tunnel wall opens as if on hinges and the party finds themselves in the famed Fairhaven catacombs, where Aarland leaves them.
Inside, the foundation does their best to maneuver the dizzying and strange catacombs. While there, some in the party start to have fearful visions and hallucinations. Vax believes he hears the footsteps of would-be assassins coming to get him. Bal believes he sees the same, strange shadows as he saw in his nightmare. Yelena hears the heavy footsteps of Operative V, and Yves feels the presence of the shadow in her mind once again. However, they successfully find the end of the catacombs where it meets the Aundair river, marked by a giant’s skull embedded in the wall. They decide to break through the skull, but as they do, undead soldiers rise to defend it.
In the fight that ensues, some small damage is taken, but most of the undead is wiped out in a single blazing spell by Rasp, who turns the undead and manages to destroy most of them. However, they can hear many more coming. During the fighting, it is discovered that behind the giant’s skull is an illusory wall and the foundation dives through into a chamber beyond.
On the other side, they brace for a massive force of undead, but the charging brigade breaks against the illusory wall. Rasp detects that a ward has been placed on the entrance to this chamber and they are safe inside.
The Foundation (including Turk) search this chamber, finding only a brazier of pale silver fire in the center, and a fresco adorning the four walls. The fresco depicts the moments just after Tira slays the archdevil: she is manacled, led to Flamekeep, and placed somewhere beneath the Silver Flame itself.
While investigating the room, Vax picks up the brazier, but finds nothing underneath. He then places his hand into the flame itself, but finds it actually cool and almost numb-inducing. The numbness then crawls up his arm, eventually covering his whole body and, as it does, Vax disappears from the chamber.
Bal follows suit and eventually the rest of the Foundation do the same. They find that they have been teleported some distance to a dark, wide open chamber where another brazier of silver flame sits. They can hear footsteps approaching and they prepare themselves for what may come.
From the darkness, a small figure appears in the light: a dark-skinned young girl with shock-white dread-locks pulled back on her head, and pure white eyes. Some in the party recognize this girl as Jaela Duran: the Keeper of the Flame. As she enters the light and sees the Foundation, she asks them: “Who are you?”
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