Four months have passed since the Istust incident.
In that time, the party has undergone a few changes. Edward spent a good deal of time experimenting with the Division Bell, at great cost to his health. His body began to rot from the inside out as the corruption that had begun to spread in Istust ravaged him to the bone. A vision from Mantorok showed him a way he could use the remaining shards of the Blackstar as a place to house his soul while he found a way to repair his body. Edward took that information and had a new construct body created, using his new “Soulstone” as both the power source and control center for it. The rest of the party came to see when the procedure was performed, both in morbid fascination and with a hope of keeping an eye on his now corrupted body. Their fears were confirmed when his old body came to life while they were distracted by Edward trying out some fireballs in his new body. It managed to escape before they were able to stop it.
It’s whereabouts are currently unknown.
The party took this time to perform bounties for the Bureau, bringing in slimes, elemental ingredients and supernatural criminals as postings went up. They commissioned new equipment and took whatever measures necessary to help restore their sanity after their time in Istust. The season passed from fall to winter, even leading to a few scattered snow falls in Bellcea. Just past the Midwinter celebrations, the party received summons to the Bureau for a new assignment.
They gathered in their usual meeting room and were briefed by Dessa, although information was sparse. Two nights before a light had been seen streaking across the sky. It was seen as far south as Ludo and appeared to crash down in the northern reaches of Dun Thandol. Bureau agents in the capital, Khaz’Borim, heard reports of whatever fell from space crashing in the mountains not far from a small mining outfit named Silversun. The party would head to Khaz’Borim for supplies and additional information before heading to Silversun to retrieve whatever had come from the stars. The party was given train tickets and instructions to meet with their new cleric on the way to the station.
As the party descended the stairs of the Bureau in to Light’s Hope Square, they spotted a pair waiting by Gatesbreaking Fountain, one of them standing with a horse. Approaching the pair, the party met with Paz Monninger, the tiefling that the Bureau had assigned to replace their former cleric. She introduced them to Cal, a human found in the western forests of Cordova. He turned up at a temple of Sarenrae with no memory of who he was, just a horse that refused to be separated from him. His recovery had been overseen by Tumbii before Paz had brought Cal to Bellcea, hoping to find some way to help him unlock his past while she did her work for the Bureau. With the group assembled, they gathered what supplies they needed and took the train in to the north.
Two days took them in to the snowy mountains of Dun Thandol, through valleys and tunnels until they reached the capital of the Dwarven Federation, Khaz’Borim. Built in the heart of the largest mountain in all of Nyvon, the city was the only place in all of Dun Thandol that wasn’t abandoned in the Long Winter. Heated by the great forges at the heart of city as well as lava flows from the very core of the world, Khaz’Borim was able to sustain itself for years at a time. The Bureau had a satellite office in the Trade District which the party went to in hopes of more information.
The office had heard from Silversun that the mining company had recovered an item of some kind from the crash site and was holding it until the Bureau could send investigators to determine what it was. They offered full cooperation with anything the Bureau required. The head of the office offered rams to carry the group up the main route to Silversun, a tunnel through the mountainside that was the main ore road out of the mine. He gave them a map of the area as well, should they need to find anything else of interest.
Departing in the early morning sun, the party was hopeful they could reach Silversun by lunchtime. Riding thought the snowy pass west from Khaz’Borim, they passed carts laden with ore heading back in to the city. As the party approached the mountainside containing the tunnel, cracking could be heard up the ridge. Suddenly the snowy mountainside slid down across the road with a roar, blocking the tunnel under meters of snow.
After debating the merits of fireballing the avalanche repeatedly, the party opted to return to a fork in the road and take the long way up. Reviewing the map, they saw the road wound around up the side of the mountain. It passed through a collection of houses drawn on the road, with the name of the town rubbed out. Traveling up the road, the sun passed behind the mountains. As the afternoon came on, the sky began to cloud over. A light snow began as they reached the plateau where the nameless remains of the town was. Snow mounds were all that remained of the houses with drifts completely covering the ones closest to the mountainside. As they passed through, the rams became restless. The party (except Ash) felt a presence in the houses, as they watched dwarven faces appear in the snow, first a few then dozens. Eventually hundreds of dwarven faces spoke to them, every voice overlapping.
Run!
It’s here!
You must flee before it takes you too!
The voices stopped all at once, as a black shape appeared in one of the few exposed door frames. A black robe floated above the ground, darkness filled the hood. All they could see was a white toothy smile filling the darkness.
The apparition attacked the party with powerful magic while they attempted to strike it with weapons that could harm it’s ghostly form. As the battle raged, the creature summoned forth undead dwarves to attack the party. They fought against their will, striking with dark powers. Ash struck down the apparition with his Sun Blade, it lit the darkened remains of the town as it tore into the black cloak of the creature. Cal rode up on the undead dwarf and ran it through from the back of his horse. They found one additional undead dwarf and finished it out of mercy, freeing the townsfolk from the curse that held them in the town.
They continued on, hoping to make Silversun before nightfall. The wind picked up and the snow increased, making the rest of the ride miserable. It was well after dark by the time they arrived in Silversun, caked in snow. Silversun was little more than a collection of buildings in front of the mine entrance, large barracks for the miners, storehouses for supplies, the bright and inviting lights and sounds of the single bar, and the large building that appeared to be the headquarters of the Wintersleep Mining Company.
Half the party headed to the bar, the rest to the HQ. Mörker and Edward asked around, hoping to learn a bit about what was going on around the mine. The workers were on shutdown as the blocked tunnel would prevent ore from being shipped for days. They were deep in to the drink and told them of the foreman and his lead hand. The lead had taken a few men up in to the peak to find what had fallen from the stars. They returned with some kind of item that was being stored in the HQ, no one knew much more than that.
At the HQ, the party met with Helmok Blackstone, the dwarven owner of the Wintersleep Mining Co and Cyril Kegshoulder, the human head of security. Cyril was the adopted son of Edmund Kegshoulder, the dwarf that Helmok had bought the WMC from. The pair was welcoming to the party, happy to receive support from the Bureau. Helmok told the party about his lead hand, Maynard Keenan, and his strange behaviour after returning with what he could only describe as some kind of relic from the crash site. It was a rod, made of a red metal they couldn’t identify. It was nearly two metres long, ending in a U shape. It was covered in fractals, starting large at the top and shrinking beyond sight by the bottom. Helmok told the party that the rod made him extremely uncomfortable, Cyril as well, but that Maynard had become quite infatuated with it. He had come to the HQ repeatedly to see it over the two days since they’d brought it back, leading Helmok to lock it in the large adamantine vault that filled the center of the HQ. Maynard had gone to his quarters to sort himself out, hours before the party arrived. No one had seen him since.
Helmok offered to show the rod to the party as Edward and Mörker joined them from the bar. He and Cyril went to the door and placed their hands on to two shaped cutouts, with no success. Cyril noticed that his hand cutout was gouged, although he didn’t know how the damage occured. As Helmok began working to override the lock (he had built it and knew what could be done to bypass the outside controls) the party headed to find Maynard. R4D was left with the pair to offer additional security while they worked on the door.
The party made their way to Maynard’s barracks. His room was on the second floor, away from the group bunks of the miners. His door was unlocked, a candle still burning on his desk. He was not there but the party did find his journal. Flipping through it, Reith read aloud the last few days.
The day before the rod was recovered was uneventful. The workings of the mine. Ore quotias. What he had for lunch.
The day that they found the rod contained a brief description of the crash site and detailed descriptions of the rod. Drawings of it filled the margins of the pages.
Yesterday contained musings about the rod, frustrations about being away from the rod. The rod was order made manifest. The rod was the key to making the world a more orderly, more perfect place. The rod was perfect. The rod was life.
The last entry was still drying, the writing hurried and jagged. It was a single phrase, repeated for pages.
All Hail the Crimson King
Edward was seized by the now familiar sensation of Mantorok pulling him out into the freezing darkness of space. Floating before the great glowing jellyfish, he could feel it’s unease for the first time. He told Mantorok what the party had found, about the rod and the writings. Mantorok was further disturbed by the presence of a relic of Chattur’ghath, whose powers were strongest against Mantorok. It believed the rod to be the Ubiquitous Synergy Seeker, a powerful artifact that can reshape and reorder reality around it.
Edward was returned to reality with a warning, he must avoid the rod at all costs, as his very being could be unmade by it’s touch.
Early Frost Warning 