#15 - Dark Mirrors

Cypher, stunned by the experience preserved in the final messenger's tale, eventually related it to the others. Cyzicus actually recognized the name of the human mentioned in Claviger's last memory: Wolaf, a range from the Eldeen Reaches and a member of his order, and the very man that Cyzicus was sent to find. But there was no way to determine from the device just how old the experience was. In short, the warforged named Claviger was dead, and he had been in the company of Wolaf, and somehow the final messenger fell into the hands of the gargoyles of this mountain. Wolaf's fate remained unknown, but this was confirmation that he had been here.

Laying Dursha's body amidst the other skeletal remains in the gargoyle's bone pits, the PCs then headed back down the spiral stairway, with apparently nowhere else to go. Part of the way down, the spectral hobgoblin appeared again and requested that Cypher follow him, citing something about him being expected. He was presumably under the delusion that Cypher was someone of importance—perhaps the Emperor of ancient Dhakaan itself—and certainly not a warforged. Of course, the Empire of Dhakaan fell thousands of years before warforged had been created. If the ghost didn't know he was a ghost, that might make sense.

So they headed down the rough-hewn steps, spiraling further down into the mountain below the inner sanctum of Paluur Draal's palace.  But it was on those stairs that the ghost suddenly turned and attacked Cypher, attempting to either wrest the Emperor's Key talisman away from him...or else to throw him down into the abyss. The PCs fought back on the narrow stairs, and had some close calls. Cyzicus even risked a fall by climbing beneath the battle on the stairs in hopes of fighting from the opposite side. At one point, the hobgoblin's body changed, manifesting what might have been the means of his mortal death: with a scream, his body tore apart as if from massive claws, spilling out spectral organs and gore. It was an alarming effect, but ultimately harmless. Spells proved partially successful, though a lot of physical attacks and missiles passed harmlessly through the spirit's body. Eventually, they'd dealt enough harm to it and the ghost vanished altogether. Destroyed or merely dispersed?

After the fight, they continued on down the stair that wound down the chasm and found that it reached a "bottom" of sorts. The pit itself continued down into darkness without a stair to chase it. What used to be an open passage was now buried rubble, but there was also a door nearby, and the PCs pushed past it to find a curious new chamber.

A line of arcane sigils were carved into the floor—not characters of any language but symbols that, combined, might have some magical effect. Meanwhile, the room itself was hexagonal in shape, and against four of the walls were tall, smooth blocks of obsidian. They were polished so clear they looked like dark mirrors.

And it was when the first of the PCs caught his own reflection in one that a creature took shape as his reflection...then ambled out of the image, murmuring and gibbering, and attacked!

They were squat, bulbous, with hideous, rubbery, bruise-colored skin, long skinny arms, and wicked claws. As the fight was joined, more of them appeared—each time one of the PCs crossed into the direct line of sight of one of the mirrors, they came forth. Their claws were cruel, and their breath foul, but eventually they were all slain. Wherever the creatures fell, they melted down into disgusting puddles of slime.

#14 - Wings and Heights

The PCs did not comply to the ghostly hobgoblin's words, but camped out and rested, weary from their battle and mostly confident that the surviving enemies—namely, Avashad, Drazul, and any Emerald Claw soldiers—would not be able reach them. The mysterious shade walked through the wall and vanished without a word.

During their rest, some of the PCs examined their new treasures and Xoma sought out the room labeled "Separation Chamber" on the map, with minimal success.  Rendar donned the Karrnathi banded mail taken from one of the skeletal warriors. It looked distinctively Karrnath, yes, but here inside the mountain, who would care?

When they were rested, Cypher used the Emperor's Key to "open" the great plaque, which dissolved the pillar of shadow depicted in the relief into dark smoke, thus creating a passage through. The PCs went through, but Halbazar was reluctant—he had an intense dislike and general distrust for goblinkind (dead or otherwise).

They found themselves emerging onto the edge of a daunting, circular chasm of rough-hewn stone which rose out of sight into darkness (with a glimmer of daylight far above), and down into the depths into utter darkness. A spiral stairway, carved vaguely into the rock walls, wound itself both up and down the unseen distance. The shelf 

Halbazar immediately chose to go up, not wanting to go further into the earth. And in that moment a gargoyle, camouflaged against the rock wall, sprang from beneath the spiral stair and slammed into him. It was soon joined by a second and a new battle was underway. It didn't last long, though. The gargoyles were quickly slain with arrows, spells, morning stars, and warhammers. Their heavy bodies dropped into the depths.

But the PCs continued upward, toward the distant light. After several spirals later, with Xoma and his darkvision in the lead, they reached the top of the stairs—though the shaft itself continue further up beyond their reach—where a pair of stony gargoyles perched and watched them. The PCs attempted to bargain with them as Xoma attempted to sneak upon them. Another gargoyle emerged from a tunnel behind the other two, revealing the battered and unconscious body of Dursha, the old goblin woman from the Bookmark Inn, who they'd captured from the ruins outside.

Using the decoy of the Emperor's Key as part of a bargain, the PCs "reasoned" with them and entered their lair. Inside was a long chamber of narrow walkways and carved fissures, with various humanoid bones strewn about the place. Six gargoyles flanked the central walkway and at the far end, in front of another exit, was a large idol of stone resembling an exaggerated gargoyle or some sort of devilish figure. To Doongul, it resembled one possible depiction of the Devourer or the Shadow, gods of the Dark Six.

But then the statue itself moved, revealing it to be a gargoyle, too—a very big one. Ogre-sized, at least. Around its neck hung a velvet bag. The PCs again attempted to bargain with the gargoyles for passage beyond their lair, and the great gargoyle eventually conceded to a single fight between each side's "champion." The assumption was, if PC champion won, they could pass. If the gargoyle champion won, the PCs would have surrender at least one of their own as a meal.

The PCs chose Magnus as their champion, and of course the large gargoyle was theirs.

It was a short but brutal fight, with a gravely wounded gargoyle lord and a very unconscious Magnus crashing to the ground. But the moment the Seren barbarian went down, Xoma joined in by releasing a Ray of Enfeeblement at the gargoyle leader. The spell wounded him further, but the action incited mass combat, as the other six gargoyles joined in.

It was another exhausting battle, as spells and weapons tore into stony flesh—and gargoyle talons and horns punctured PC bodies. Blood was spattered upon the ground from both sides. The great gargoyle assumed a petrified state and seemed to heal like this, but eventually animated again to renew the attack and even tried to escape. Magnus, wakened at last with magical healing, finally delivered the death blow to the massive gargoyle, who crumbled into stone even as he died. 

Dursha had not survived the battle.

Within the rubble of his remains was a gleaming, broad-bladed dagger that the arcanists of the party recognized as magical. Runes and gargoylish designs were etched into the blade. Within the velvet bag Cypher discovered a curious metal object which he soon identified as a final messenger, an artificer-made object that could be embedded within the chest cavity of  a warforged. They were used to impart a message to another warforged that the messenger can fly to, or the final moments of the construct's life.

While the other PCs delved into the pits around the room among the countless bones of the gargoyles' victims, Cypher placed the messenger inside his own chest and experienced the final moments of another warforged's life:

Light shines in a long corridor. Where the light fades, darkness fills both directions. It shines from a lantern in your left hand. In your right is a crossbow. No, your hand is a crossbow.


“I don’t like this,” you say.

Your name is Claviger. The final messenger imparts this knowledge to you. You are a warrior with some artificer training. You never fought for any of the Five Nations. When you were created by the heirs of House Cannith, you were purchased by a human unaffiliated with the house. He immediately gave you your freedom, but he asked you for help on a quest. That was a few years ago now.

“I don’t like it, either, old friend,” says your companion, who insists on walking in front of you. He is human, gruff, big-bodied, bearded. Cloaked, carrying a broadsword. The man is at least fifty years old―which you can hardly fathom. You’re not so “young” for a warforged, but you’ve been alive for less than ten years. You can hardly grasp living for five decades or more. Can warforged truly live that long?

“Why doesn’t this tunnel end?” you say. “It isn’t natural.”

“No,” the human replies softly. Is that fear in his voice? “It is most certainly unnatural. Remember who made this place.”

Then something looms before you both in the darkness ahead. Without moving, its very presence sends uncomfortable vibrations through your body. You try to see it better, but it is nothing more than figure at the edge of your light. Tall, emaciated. Dead, you think.

Or undead.

It glides closer.

“Wolaf!” you yell. “Get behind me! You promised you would let me do my job.”

“We’re beyond the bodyguard thing now, Claviger. You’re already wounded. I can take this thing. Just stay—!”

The creature is upon you! It looks like it’s smiling. Full of bones and razors and wet muscle. Claws, impossibly long, lash out. Wolaf slashes with his sword and parries its attack, but with a second sweep of its claws it sends him crashing against the wall in a spray of blood. He grunts and goes down, but you know he’s still alive. You must keep him alive!

You shout and storm forward, loosing bolts even as you throw down your lantern and draw out your sword. The creature turns its full attention upon you now. Pressure so intense it can only be called pain courses through your body as claws tear through wood and stone.

You weather the attack and drive your blade into its body. But the knife-blades of its fingers won’t stop tearing. You realize you have failed your only friend. Perhaps you can buy him time.

Perhaps—

#13 - The Governor's Throne

Still wounded and in need of rest and healing, the PCs had no choice but to keep moving.

The ghostly hobgoblin led the PCs into the armory—a large chamber empty of any weapons or armor it might have once held. Paluur Draal had been explored and picked clean for hundreds of years, after all. But a bronze plaque on the ground was carved with symbols similar to the those etched into the Emperor's Key medallion. Upon seeing it pulled forth by Cypher, the hobgoblin shade kneeled before the warforged, and said in Goblin, "My liege." Though he was not completely subservient or responsive, the shade urged Cypher to issue commands (with the Key).

Eventually, it worked. Merely commanding it, the plaque rose up from the floor, revealing new shelves that had been stored beneath the floor. Within them were several new treasures, which the PCs took eagerly and quickly, as Magnus heard their pursuers coming.

• Two leathery pouches containing an oily brown fluid and a watery black fluid.
• A glass decanter with some sort of smoky black liquid inside it. Xoma discerned an aura of necromancy about this.
• An ornate quiver made of bone. Cyzicus took this.
• A large metal shield carved with the symbol of a dragonne—which also happens to be the heraldric beast of House Tharashk, but Rendar doesn't think they're related in this case. Doongul took the shield.
• A cloth-wrapped blade. Upon unwrapping it, it was revealed to be an ancient scimitar forged from purple-hued metal. This may well be byeshk, the rare metal used by the Dhakaani Empire in ages past to fight the aberrations of Xoriat.

There was no real time for talk or investigation; the enemy was upon them! First, a pair of iron defenders appeared but were quickly destroyed. In this brief skirmish, Cyzicus discovered the property of the curious bone quiver. Arrows he drew from it and loosed split into two more—much to the chagrin of Doongul, who took one of these arrows in the side!

Moving back out into the cavernous throne chamber, the hobgoblin shade seemed to beckon the PCs toward the north end, by the throne itself and a smaller chamber beyond it. The throne was a  large stone seat inlaid with bronze, with two panels of quartz-like "buttons" which Cypher promptly began to study.

As the party moved around the throne and saw the space beyond—which contained a mural-sized bronze plaque—Avashad's cohorts advanced into the throne room. Only Doongul's bullseye lantern pierced the gloom, but those with low-light vision were able to see them advancing first:

Emerald Claw soldiers. Iron defenders. Dolgrims. Dolgaunts. Another Karrnathi skeleton. The half-orc Drazul d'Tharashk. A cloaked figure who may have been the so-called Avashad himself. All had come and were moving forward, outnumbering the PCs and looking much less for wear.

But as the enemy advanced, a new and significantly larger figure lurched into the chamber from one of the side entrances: a ten-foot animated statue made of clay and carved to resemble a Dhakaani warrior. Crafted by high priests, clay golems usually guard temples—although largely ponderous, they're said to be infused with divine power and can move swiftly when the need arises. In addition to great strength, the wounds they deal cannot be healed by magic, only time. The golem strode in and immediately attacked the nearest creatures—one of the dolgaunts. The Emerald Claw soldiers immediately swarmed around it. Almost without fail, every time the golem struck one of the humans, it killed him instantly, pulping flesh and bone and nearly decapitating one with its earthen fists.

The dolgrims loosed crossbow bolts, some of which hit their mark. Blood spattered. Avashad never made any direct attacks of his own, although the PCs did see him cast to the floor some sort of snake. The focus for a spell?

Cyzicus loosed arrows. Xoma used his boomerang and his magic. Halbazar flung fiery javelins. Rendar, Doongul, and Magnus handled the melee. While the dolgrims were clumsy if effective with their crossbow bolts, Drazul was deadly with his bow. With one arrow, he sent Cyzicus slamming into the back wall, collapsing him. Some of the other PCs began to drop from their wounds, forcing Doongul to hasten among them, delivering his clerical touch to keep them from dying. Cypher, working to decode the throne's mechanisms, was shielded by some invisible wall of force. Two iron defenders, the skeleton, and a dolgaunt all reached the front lines before Cypher managed to activate the first throne-based defense: a wide section of the floor began to sink swiftly down, creating a small but dangerous chasm. Half of the enemies were cut off from attack.

Then Cypher activated a second configuration on the gem-buttons: a separate section of floor began to rise. What ultimately became of the clay golem and the Emerald Claw soldiers battling it the PCs did not know. What they did know is that Avashad and Drazul d'Tharashk—arguably the most dangerous of their foes—were cut off by the rising wall of stone and the swiftly descending pit. The cloaked wizard, or whatever he was, merely watched it rise. Almost patiently, or perhaps resigned to losing them again.

The dolgrims, not quite dumb enough to let themselves be squished by the rising wall they were standing on, ambled forward and fell to the bottom of the pit. The dolgaunt, skeletal warrior, and iron defenders were finally slain, but had left grievous wounds upon the PCs.

When the rising wall had completely closed off the rest of the throne room, the PCs fell back, exhausted, into the small chamber behind it.The hobgoblin shade urged them toward the bronze mural, which depicted an army of hobgoblins arrayed around a smoky pillar with sinister eyes lurking within.

"Command it to open," the shade said in Goblin.

The PCs ignored him. They wanted rest.

#12 - Eyes and Shades

Making short and noisy work of a pair of iron defenders, the PCs hurried out from the guard chamber and further into the Vault. The sound of pursuit from the direction of the entrance was getting louder, and suggested a large number of pursuers. Clearly the PCs weren't going to get the prolonged rest they needed. Not yet.

They hurried into a central chamber.

On the gnome-made archaeologist's map of the Vault they possessed, the chamber was denoted only with the word "eyes." Indeed, each of the eight stone doors was carved with an ocular design on the inside, facing inward. The PCs hastily worked to bar the door they'd come in through and open other doors, aiming to head toward the northeastern section of the map. All the other doors, however, were held firmly shut and resisted easy breakage.

Their examination of the chamber was also hurried but yielded a few interesting things. Carved into the floor was an even larger eye, and its pupil was formed of dark glass. Cypher even discovered a tenth eye carved into the north wall, where there was no door.

Halbazar's magic, Magnus's strength, Doongul's clerical magic, lots of rope, and more prudent uses of the grease spell kept their enemies from storming easily into the room. Soldiers, ragged skeletons clad in piecemeal armor, and the animated corpse of the ogre they recently killed all attempted to get into the room of eyes. Worse, the soldiers they glimpsed beyond the door were armored in a distinctive half-plate armor and wore the green colors of the Order of the Emerald Claw—an infamous knightly order from Karrnath once known as some of the best soldiers on Khorvaire. Now, they were an outlawed even by Karnnath's king for their terrorism and fanaticism.

The Order was known to consort with evil creatures and to do reprehensible things on the commands of their masters. A sprawling organization with hidden cells in cities across the land. Usually they kept their own company or worked with the cults of the Blood of Vol. What they were now doing allied with a cult of the Dragon Below, a Tharashk excoriate (the half-orc Drazul they'd met in the skies), and the wizard called Avashad was anyone's guess.

The ogre zombie finally burst into the room, but the combined efforts of Magnus, Halbazar, Cyzicus, and Rendar brought the creature low. Yet more were coming so they renewed their efforts to keep the southern door shut. In addition to the ragtag skeletons, one skeleton was armored in Karrnathi plate, no doubt brought by the Emerald Claw. In Karrnath, elite soldiers who die in service to the crown are often raised by the Ministry of the Dead. This skeleton was one such, and even bore a Karrnathi scimitar—a masterwork weapon. Both this skeletal warrior and the Emerald Claw soldiers fought with greater skill than those previous, but the combined efforts of the PCs still brought them down.

When one of the northeastern doors finally yielded, Xoma immediately went through it.

Cypher, having been analyzing the magical radiations from the room's many eyes, was the first to see the ghostly figure step out of the north wall and into the room. Clad in ancient Dhakaani armor, it was a hobgoblin who looked substantial but his skin and clothes were all a matching shade of gray. It seemed likely the dar warrior was undead, but he did not attack. In fact, the ghostly hobgoblin, armored like a warlord, beckoned the PCs to follow him through one of the north doors. He pointed in the direction Xoma had gone and said in the Goblin tongue, "That way is death."

Xoma, unaware of this, nearly collided with a nearly invisible wall of moving slime when he reached the first junction. He turned and fled back to the "eye" chamber, knowing a thing or two about acid and the generally negative results in total immersion.

More shouting men, barking iron defenders, and the rattle of bones signaled the approach of reinforcements. At last, the PCs decided to follow the hobgoblin shade. He led them into a much larger, rectangular chamber. Unlit, it vanished into darkness, but the map the PCs possessed suggested this was a throne room.

The hobgoblin stood in their path and pointed toward one of the exits on the left-hand side. On the map, that way lay the "armory."

#11 - Into the Vault

Reunited with the others, the PCs spoke again with Kyress and her group. They were deciding exactly who would go where—the gnomes, Wenrick, the disturbed Aundairian would go with the professor—when the sentries called out that winged shapes appeared in the sky. Indeed, rounding the corner of the mountain was a wyvern.

It had only been a matter of time. The PCs had declined the offer of the cloaked stranger who visited them aboard the Sky Talon—the offer to take the Emperor's Key off their hands and end all pursuit. Now, the man-who-was-not-a-man and his allies, had probably come for it. Whoever they were. A shapechanger, an exoriate half-orc, cultists of the Dragon Below. And apparently a whole Host-damned flight of wyverns.

There was no more time for discussion. The groups said their terse farewells and spread out. Rendar, Cyzicus, Cypher, Xoma, Magnus, Doongul, and Halbazar set out toward the site of the crashed Talon in order to draw the attention of the approaching wyverns, while Kyress, the hobgoblins, and the gnomes set out down toward the bottom of the ruined city. Before separating, the professor reluctantly gave them a map she had of the Governor's Vault: the inner fortress of the palace that once sat atop the top tier of Paluur Draal when the city was part of the old Dhakaani Empire.

Two wyverns shot out over the city. As they neared, one turned back and flew the way it had come. The other descended and engaged, and a battle soon ensued. The rider, a human who wielded a lightning-spewing wand, seemed unafraid of the greater numbers. Lashing with electricity, he wounded the PCs but slew none of them. In turn, slowly, they brought him down by killing the wyvern with a series of attacks. Once downed, the rider tried to flee, but he was swiftly cut down.

The rider was human with elvish blood, that was clear, and in searching his body the PCs discovered that he bore the Mark of Storm! House Lyrandar bore that mark. Another dragonmarked heir—allied with the Dragon Below? Not a good sign. When attempting to pry the wand from the dead man's hand, Xoma found himself shocked by its power. While Cypher had a quick look at the defensive matrix infused in the wand, seeing a dragonshard was set into its base, Xoma simply set to work cutting off the dead man's arm so he could still take the wand with him.

Xoma is like that.

On their way back up the city, something much more than wyverns appeared in the sky from the north: a whole new airship. This one was sculpted like a kraken—denoting as a vessel belonging to, or at least commissioned for, House Lyrandar. The kraken was their symbol. Flanking the airship were two wyverns.

The PCs reached the entrance to the Governor's Vaults and went in, seeking shelter from the eyes of the airship. They waited and consulted the map, wary of the trap indicated in its first junction. When the airship came into view from the entrance corridor, they followed Cypher and Xoma, who searched the darkness of the hallways for further danger. They needed to find a secure place to rest, not quite ready for another fight.

When they discovered an illusory secret door, they soon found a guard chamber and made camp. Hours passed and they lingered in the dark, waiting, quiet. Magnus slept while Cypher examined the dragonshard wand in the dimmed light of a hooded lantern. The others dozed or just kept still. Or, like Cyzicus and Doongul, took up a sentry position.

But before they could get sufficient rest, they were disturbed by the sound of intruders to the vault. Distant, shouted voices near the entrance. Then, from the sounds of it, the triggering of a trap—the loud, banging, metal-on-stone of heavy weights hitting solid ground. Angry shouts and metallic barks followed.

A short while later, Doongul and Cyzicus spotted a pair of iron defenders stalking by the illusionary wall, clearly searching for someone.

#10 - Dragonshard Retrieval

In the morning, Cypher, Cyzicus, Rendar, Magnus, and Xoma set out with the warforged Keystone to investigate the crash site of Sky Talon. Cypher, in particular, was hoping to recover the Khyber dragonshard that had been used to bind the elemental. Meanwhile, Halbazar and Doongul remained with the gnomes and other charges, along with Kyress and the hobgoblins of Clan Jar'aram.

It didn't take long to find the fallen ship where it had slammed into the edge of the city on the third tier.  In fact, the Sky Talon has clearly cracked open and half had fallen over the cliff's edge on that side, down hundreds of feet to the valley floor. What remained had been scorched but not burned, though smoke continued to fume out from the missing bow and smashed underside—it seemed the fire elemental had burned up everything inside the ship.

Though the elemental itself was nowhere to be found.

Investigation did, however, yield something: a nine-foot, spiked-club-wielding ogre, who'd been rooting around inside the wreckage, and his kobold allies who lurked in the nearby cracks of the city wall. Cypher's attempt to warn the creature off hadn't quite worked. So the ogre attacked.

To make matters more interesting, the ogre was carrying around a cage of stirges—bloodsucking bird-insects that have been known to drain men to death in seconds. Hurling the cage at the nearby stairs, where Cyzicus and Rendar had taken their stances, the ogre unleashed them. The stirges harried and sucked at the half-orc and shifter alike, though they seemed particularly keen on Rendar's blood. Because Rendar never quite gets a break.

Keystone held his own, took several hits from the ogre. Xoma used color spray to dazzle and distract the ogre, and it paid off well. Despite a few injuries and ugly stirge bites, the PCs won the battle and the kobolds, ogre, and stirges were all slain—though it seemed more kobolds lurked within warrens beyond the wall. they shunned the daylight and didn't press their attack. The last couple of the draconic humanoids were impaled on a pair of thorny pads that lashed at them from shifting shadows of a nearby wall....

Indeed, one of the displacer beasts from the hold was loose!


But it didn't attack, it merely approached, growled low, warning them, then climbed into the smoking wreckage. Aware that the creature wasn't interested in attacking the whole of them, the PCs yet dared to sneak back into the remains of the ship to pilfer the large purple dragonshard. Between Magnus and Xoma, they succeeded—and the displacer beast merely struck Xoma once on the way out with one of its pad-spiked tentacles.

Also, Xoma found and pocketed a magic ring (mostly a loop of leather) that had been worn by an armored kobold.

#9 - Old Flames and New Friends

The first thing the PCs did once the two attacking gargoyles had been dealt with was to split up—of course. Paluur Draal was a ruined city, but it was still large, full of crumbled structures, weeds, and rubble—and more gargoyles were still flitting about. And it was still dark enough to warrant caution, despite the bright glow of six full moons!

As the party gathered together with the gnomes, two search parties roved out among the ruins in search of a new direction. Xoma, a drow of Xen'drik who grew up amidst ruins and dark places, went north, toward the firelight they'd seen. Cypher, with Dursha, wandered west. Unlike the warforged, the old goblin woman could see in the dark just fine.

While Xoma found a bank of stairs leading up to the city's highest tier, Cypher was the first to find trouble. A gargoyle leapt upon him from a stony perch and disabled him in short order. Had he been edible, this might have been his end. But even stony-skinned gargoyles seem to have no taste for composite metal, stone, and wood. Yet Dursha's scream alerted the others, and both Magnus and Cyzicus followed the sound—only to discover she'd been taken by the predatory monster. They carried Cypher's weighty form back to the rest of the group.

But by then a new problem had presented itself. The great fire elemental, freed from the Sky Talon, had come for them. Moving slow like a wandering bonfire, the creature burned all brush in its path, gliding steady toward the PCs between the broken buildings of the city. They kept it at bay without attacking it, throwing various objects—tents, torches, bedrolls—aside for it to consume. It accepted these but never strayed from its path. But in turn, the elemental never attacked them directly, though its heat was overpowering and it proved quick when it wanted to be. When another gargoyle dared swoop in, the living inferno rolled over and immolated the creature in an instant.

Eventually, the PCs moved away from it, retreating slowly...though it continued to follow them. When Doongul reached Cypher, he awoke him with a healing spell.

Hobgoblins of Darguun.

At the top of the stairs leading to the next tier of the city, they encountered a squad of well-armed hobgoblins from Darguun—with bows already drawn on them. Xoma spoke for the group, and soon the others joined him. Halbazar, Magnus, and Doongul brought up the rear, coaxing the fire elemental with flasks of oil. One of the hobgoblin commanders gruffly ordered them to surrender their weapons and reluctantly, most of them complied. The situation was tense, and though the PCs were battered and in need of rest (and the gnomes in need of safety), Halbazar nearly instigated a fight. There were only five hobgoblins—though they had the upper hand and did not appear injured, they were outnumbered.

However, the arrival of a woman—human, middle-aged, white-haired, and attractive—set tensions aside and she hastily welcomed the PCs and their charges to join them at their camp further in on the city's upper tier. She introduced herself as Kyress, a professor of archaeology from Morgrave University, and her companion/bodyguard was Keystone, a tall, axe-favoring warforged. The hobgoblins of Clan Ja'aram and their leader, Gershak, that her department in Morgrave had arrangements with—so long as they served as escorts, they were free to explore these ancient Dhakaani ruins. 

Byeshk, a rare metal prized by smiths
for use in jewelry and weapons.

Kyress explained that she was in Paluur Draal on a scholar's expedition—seeking byeshk, a rare, violet metal normally found only in the depths of the Byeshk or Graywall Mountais. Evidently, she'd heard a rumor of byeshk objects discovered near Paluur Draal and had come to investigate. (Cyzicus alone had heard of this precious metal and knew that it had been mined and used by the Dhakaani goblins ages ago in their war against the monsters of Xoriat. Byeshk is said to be able to cut easily through aberrant flesh whether other blades cannot.)


She also explained that Paluur Draal had already been thoroughly explored and "picked clean" by many expeditions in the past—especially by the Zil, given its proximity to Korranberg. Nevertheless, from time to time some still come here on archaeological investigations.


Like herself. However, the gargoyles were new. Kyress said that monsters did lair in the ruins from time to time, but inevitably they're slain or driven off again by the adventurers who inevitably explore the city. This latest colony (or "wing") of gargoyles only recently appeared, and have been harrassing Kyress and Clan Ja'aram since their arrival a few days before. The creatures seemed to be lairing somewhere up on the mountain high above the city, making it difficult to root them out.


In turn, the PCs gave Kyress a truncated version of events leading up to their arrival.

The PCs spoke with Kyress a bit more, and came up with a plan: In the morning, everyone would venture down to the airship crash site together to see what could be learned or salvaged. From there, Kyress would begin her journey back to Korranberg (a three- or four-day journey by horse and wagon, which she has) and would take the gnomes with her. Along with Wenrick, who was eager to return to his "superiors," and the Brelish magewright and his family.


Under the assumption that their enemies would keep pursuing them so long as the PCs carried the Dhakaani amulet, the Emperor's Key, the gnomes would be safest going their own way. So much as any assumptions can be made.