07c - Uncovering the Drowned Ruins

General Summary

Previously

Expedition 07a - Hunting of the Beast

SPOILER

After a pair of children have gone missing, and there have been sightings of a strange creature stalking outside the walls of Ostenward, the guild sent an expedition out to find this beast. They set off for the Cave of Songs as that is where Carfiir found a massacre of poacher and Giant Carnivorous Squirrels bodies.
The party encountered the beast which had been living inside of the cave. As it clawed its massive body out of the cave mouth, arrows began to rain from above it. Poachers had apparently hid themselves in the trees to ambush this creature. The guild aided the poachers in this fight but the poachers quickly turned on the party. They stood no chance however.
So the party take down this beast and the poachers but see no sign of the children. So they set up a small camp and begin tending to their wounds until they continue their search.
Full Expedition Report HERE

Expedition 07b - The Lost Ones

SPOILER

While the party was tending to their wounds, Enik & Wally wandered off in pursuit of a golden rabbit they saw dash into the nearby woods. During their pursuit, they suddenly find themselves in a lively forest, full of bright colored flora and strange beasts. After a few (near death) encounters with the local beasts, they followed the rabbit into a clearing that they found occupied by a well dressed humanoid Waspman holding the now apparent Golden Horned Rabbit.
The Waspman welcomed Enik & Wally and asked them for their names. Both of them respond and in that instant they are both overtaken by a fog that clouds their minds. It doesn't last long, it faded nearly as quick as it appeared. Though as both of their minds clear they are left feeling...hollow. They look at each other and recognize them as a friend and ally, but cannot remember their name. And then they began to think...they can't remember their own names either.
The Waspman continued to speak, and thanked the cartographers for their names. It was willing to return the names that the cartographers gave it, but only if they would "Bring me back my wings" the Waspman said. The two cartographers agreed and made their way back to their allies camp, renaming themselves Scaley & Shelly.^{(They have since regained their names)}
Full Expedition Report HERE

And that is where we find ourselves

Encounter

The Camp & Cave

As Bondok & Banjo Kentucky finish setting up camp they turn and see two figures emerge from the brush that they can't seem to recall, but do remember them as allies. They are a humanoid turtle and lizard, and both look rather beat up. Wait, weren't they here just a moment ago, what happened?
The character introduce themselves as Scaley & Shelly and explain what happened in the strange forest and while they are telling their tale they begin to realize that time had not passed as it did in the strange forest, it seems like they had returned to the exact moment that they moved into the brush. Their story seems strange but doesn't appear to be false so the party moves on to searching for the children again.
During the search Legion 27 catches up with the group and they discover children sized semi-dried footprints in the mud near the edge of the cave mouth. Following inward they find them again near the pools inside the cave, it almost appeared as the footprints lead into the water. Upon learning that Scaley & Shelly dive into the pools with their ability to hold their breath for extended periods of time. They search and find a small tunnel in one of the pools leading deeper, it was hard to see how far without going down.
They swim up and share this info with the rest of the party and together they decide to tie a rope to a boulder in the cave and send Shelly down holding the other end. They set up a communication system to tug on the rope a certain amount of times if safe or if he needs to be pulled up, and he dove down. Good thing that the group tied two lengths of rope together as it appeared that cavernous tunnel led downward about 60 ft. before leading to a somewhat safe appearing landing. Shelly tugs the rope indicating safe and the party joins him shortly.

The Drowned Archives

Area 01

The party entered and gathered in this small stone cavern before squeezing through the narrow crevice leading into the ruins.

Area 02

After squeezing into Area 02, they find themselves in a stone walled room, greeted by a smashed statue laying across the floor. The party did find a book amid the rubble titled "A Fish A Day" but nothing else of interest in this room. They continued down the hallway towards areas 04 & 05, stopping at the door leading to 04.

Area 04

The party shoved open the heavy stone door, grinding on its gears. To which they all heard the voice of a phantasmal woman in their heads saying
"Shhhh, they'll hear you!"
but nothing else seemed to happen so they continued to explore. The room contained a stone statue of a robed human with its hands forward and open as if they were holding something. Was not anyone notably famous and seemed to have been place there for safekeeping. Around the room are several pieces that seemingly belonged to other statues that were either broken or dismantled. The statue of the robed human seemed rather well kept in comparison to everything else in the rest of the ruins. The party eyed down the stairs to area 05 but chose to continue the hallway westward towards area 06.

Area 06

As they move into area 06 they enter a room filled with bookcases which are mostly empty. There are a couple of books on the ground, all completely wet from the water that seems to have found a way inside most of the parts of the archives. Though while searching the party knocked some books on the floor and again heard the voice of the phantasmal woman in their heads saying
"Quiet, or else they'll find you! "
They take the voices advice and quietly open the door into area 07.

Area 07

The door leads to a small room that the library curator would use in order to do bookkeeping and other management-related work. It seems just as damaged as all the other rooms in the archives with most of the books from the side shelves missing or on the floor completely wet and damaged beyond repair.
Upon investigation the party finds a waterproof scroll case on top of one the the selves containing the following 3 scrolls:

Image	Item & Description	Quantity
	Scroll of Momentary Omniscience, Rare When you use an action to read this scroll, everything becomes perfectly clear in a moment of fascinating realization. Despite the arcane phrase's manageable length, the scroll itself is outrageously long and filled with nonsensical grids, lists, smudged diagrams, and other strange musings. Choose one of the following benefits: Answer When you finish reading the scroll, you must also ask a question to a creature that can hear you. The question needn't be answerable with a yes or no, but can only include one question. The target must make a DC 20 Charisma saving throw. You know whether the creature succeeds or fails on its saving throw. On a failure, you mentally learn the truthful answer to the question from the creature's perspective (if any). The knowledge and awareness of a creature is limited by its intelligence, but at minimum, a creature can give you information about nearby locations and monsters, including whatever it can perceive or has perceived within the past day. You learn the answer to this question even if the creature is unable to speak. If the question has multiple parts, or if the creature can't hear or doesn't understand the language in which you asked the question, the scroll fails and the effect is wasted. Direction You immediately learn the most direct physical route to a creature, location, or object on your plane of existence at the time of reading the scroll. You must have at least secondhand knowledge of the target. You retain this information for 7 days, after which time the knowledge is lost. If the target moves during the duration, the route remains unchanged from when you first learned it. Solution You immediately learn the solution to a cypher, puzzle, riddle, or similar quandary. If you decode a cypher in this way, such as a secret message or series of ancient glyphs, you also know how to speak, read, and write it for the next 7 days, after which time the knowledge is lost. The scroll magically unrolls and tears itself in half once it's used, destroying the scroll.	1
	Scroll of the Skyfallen, Rare This sky-blue scroll flutters in a magical breeze and is written in Elvish. Faraway clouds can be seen floating in the background of its parchment and magically sputter into existence upon reaching the edge. Miniscule birds soar through the clouds, both on the paper and off. By using an action to read this scroll, your words ring out to magically rip the wind out from beneath the wings of creatures around you. Any hovering, levitating, or otherwise flying creature within 120 feet of you must make a DC 16 Dexterity saving throw. A flying creature falls to the ground on a failed save, and its flying speed is reduced to 0 for 1 minute. On a successful save, any flying speed it has (or similar means of flight) is halved for 1 minute instead. If the creature was levitating or can hover, the creature safely descends at a rate of 60 feet per round until it reaches the ground instead. A creature with legendary actions is unaffected by the scroll. The scroll then vanishes in a plume of vapor, and is destroyed.	1
	Scroll of the New Dawn. Very Rare This narrow parchment always feels sun-warmed to the touch and gives off a faint glow. Reading the scroll aloud takes 1 minute, at which point the words on the scroll fade and it bursts into an instantaneous flash of sunlight. The scroll is then destroyed. If the reading is interrupted, the scroll is not destroyed. When the scroll bursts into sunlight, it sheds bright light in a 20-foot radius and dim light for an additional 20 feet. Any magic item within the bright light that would normally regain a number of expended charges at dawn instantly regains all expended charges. When this happens, a creature that's attuned to an item in the light that regains 1 or more charges takes 1d4 radiant damage for each charge regained by the item in this way, even if the creature isn't in the bright light. This damage ignores resistance and immunity. Legendary items and artifacts are unaffected by the light.	1

Other than the scrolls nothing of interest was found and the party began to make their way towards area 08.

Area 08

As the party made their way down the stairs towards area 08, they began to hear a deep set of "THUDS" resonding throughout the stone beneath their feet. Wally decided to investigate into area 5 and noticed a metal plaque on the wall near one of the alcoves reading

UPHOLD THE SILENCE

as well as a book titled "Hitchhiker's Guide to Underwater Domains" sitting next to the ruined statue in the alcove. As he grabs it he hears the thudding getting closer and returns back to the party in area 08. He finds them in readied stances as the thudding appears to be coming up the stairs from area 09...

The Wandering Warden

Atop the stairs crawls large, blue scaled, reptilian creature. It appeared to have coral growing from its back Pictured Here

, and it began to move towards the party. Bondok let loose an arrow and hit the creature right in the joint of its front leg, it let out a cry and retreated slightly. The party began their assault on the creature but when Enik fired of a spell and with the words he used to cast it ringing off the walls, he hears in his head,
"They heard you, they are coming for you!" as the phantasmal woman's voice tells him. The party has harmed this reptilian creature and it is backing away when another creature begins to float down the steps from area 05, PICTURED HERE

, and it begins to speak towards Enik.
"You have not followed the code of silence and are being requested to leave. You have been formally banned for 24 hours, if you would please make your way to the exit your cooperation would be greatly appreciated" it says rather politely.
The party questions it and it explains:

The drake is ill of mind and cannot control itself like you sentient beings

Only Enik had been requested to leave

During the questioning Banjo got aggressive and also got banned

Said the entire party was welcome to return in 24 hours after the bans had been lifted

After that the party made their way back to area 01 to set up camp wait out the 24 hour ban, though a storm ultimately came through and forced the party to climb the rope up as the cavern area began to fill with water. They make their way out and are forced to go back to the guild with no news about the missing children.

Rewards Granted

Image	Item & Description	Quantity
	Scroll of Momentary Omniscience, Rare When you use an action to read this scroll, everything becomes perfectly clear in a moment of fascinating realization. Despite the arcane phrase's manageable length, the scroll itself is outrageously long and filled with nonsensical grids, lists, smudged diagrams, and other strange musings. Choose one of the following benefits: Answer When you finish reading the scroll, you must also ask a question to a creature that can hear you. The question needn't be answerable with a yes or no, but can only include one question. The target must make a DC 20 Charisma saving throw. You know whether the creature succeeds or fails on its saving throw. On a failure, you mentally learn the truthful answer to the question from the creature's perspective (if any). The knowledge and awareness of a creature is limited by its intelligence, but at minimum, a creature can give you information about nearby locations and monsters, including whatever it can perceive or has perceived within the past day. You learn the answer to this question even if the creature is unable to speak. If the question has multiple parts, or if the creature can't hear or doesn't understand the language in which you asked the question, the scroll fails and the effect is wasted. Direction You immediately learn the most direct physical route to a creature, location, or object on your plane of existence at the time of reading the scroll. You must have at least secondhand knowledge of the target. You retain this information for 7 days, after which time the knowledge is lost. If the target moves during the duration, the route remains unchanged from when you first learned it. Solution You immediately learn the solution to a cypher, puzzle, riddle, or similar quandary. If you decode a cypher in this way, such as a secret message or series of ancient glyphs, you also know how to speak, read, and write it for the next 7 days, after which time the knowledge is lost. The scroll magically unrolls and tears itself in half once it's used, destroying the scroll.	1
	Scroll of the Skyfallen, Rare This sky-blue scroll flutters in a magical breeze and is written in Elvish. Faraway clouds can be seen floating in the background of its parchment and magically sputter into existence upon reaching the edge. Miniscule birds soar through the clouds, both on the paper and off. By using an action to read this scroll, your words ring out to magically rip the wind out from beneath the wings of creatures around you. Any hovering, levitating, or otherwise flying creature within 120 feet of you must make a DC 16 Dexterity saving throw. A flying creature falls to the ground on a failed save, and its flying speed is reduced to 0 for 1 minute. On a successful save, any flying speed it has (or similar means of flight) is halved for 1 minute instead. If the creature was levitating or can hover, the creature safely descends at a rate of 60 feet per round until it reaches the ground instead. A creature with legendary actions is unaffected by the scroll. The scroll then vanishes in a plume of vapor, and is destroyed.	1
	Scroll of the New Dawn. Very Rare This narrow parchment always feels sun-warmed to the touch and gives off a faint glow. Reading the scroll aloud takes 1 minute, at which point the words on the scroll fade and it bursts into an instantaneous flash of sunlight. The scroll is then destroyed. If the reading is interrupted, the scroll is not destroyed. When the scroll bursts into sunlight, it sheds bright light in a 20-foot radius and dim light for an additional 20 feet. Any magic item within the bright light that would normally regain a number of expended charges at dawn instantly regains all expended charges. When this happens, a creature that's attuned to an item in the light that regains 1 or more charges takes 1d4 radiant damage for each charge regained by the item in this way, even if the creature isn't in the bright light. This damage ignores resistance and immunity. Legendary items and artifacts are unaffected by the light.	1
	A Fish A Day A story about a fisher man who tried to catch one of every fish in the world	1
	Hitchhiker’s Guide to Underwater Domains A book about different underwater climates	1
	Guild Payment Sweet, sweet money.	7gp, 5 sp each

Related Reports

Expedition 12

The party go back to the archives during Expedition 12 - Wings of Desire

Report Date

31 Jul 2022

Primary Location

Drowned Archives

Secondary Location

Cave of Songs

Related Plots

• Drowned Archives
• Missing Tiefling Children

Related Characters

• Banjo Kentucky
• Bondok
• Enik
• Legion 27
• Wally

by Venatus Maps

Drowned Archives

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