Wheeling and Dealing

General Summary

The party explored the rest of the sanctuary pocket plane, including the museum curated by three more spirits: Lysenia, Iris, and Hypatia. The guardians, concerned about Anatolia Dagrazt's fate and recognizing an opportunity, proposed a contract with Coop, Aemon, Tiberius, and The Professor. In exchange for traveling to Cyrecuze to investigate the “incorrigible degeneration” and sussing out what happened to Dagrazt, the adventurers could use the Shrine of the Preserveras a home base.   The exact terms of the agreement are as follows:  

1. The party will immediately proceed to Cyrecuze to investigate the fate of the Preserver, with allowances for addressing the potential link to the schemes of a being called The Fisher.
2. In return, the party are granted access to all the resources, relics, art, and data housed in the pocket plane.
3. No materials may be removed from the sanctuary by the party or their designated appointees.
4. The party may make copies of anything in the archive, and the copies may be removed.
5. The party may bring researchers into the shrine to study and copy materials, but only two are permitted at a time and the party are entirely responsible for their conduct, whether present or not. Any violation of the agreement by the researchers will also be construed as breach of contract by the party.
6. The party may use the pocket plane as a home base, in perpetuity, so long as the conditions are observed.
7. The party has been provided a keystone (a key made of stone) that can teleport the party back to the entrance chamber to the pocket plane.
8. The keystone cannot reverse teleport; once in the plane, the party will have to traverse the swamp.
9. The penalty for breach of contract is that the specters will (try to) kill the party and/or their representatives.

  The party accepted the terms and have possession of the keystone. Before departing for Cyrecuze (via Paludis Oppidum), Tiberius and Coop returned to the main sanctuary to check on the Meats. As they entered, they witnessed a shadowy figure bearing numerous lanterns (which resembled the one that activated the portal to the pocket plane) vacuuming Theryn Soupslinger soul into a lantern. The shadowy soul thief laughed evilly and departed, leaving a blackened trail in the swamp as it went. The expedition workers rose again as zombies, which Coop and Tiberius dispatched (mostly as they were animating). They delivered the bad news to Aemon and Tol, which sent Aemon into a screed about the uselessness of the expedition employees. Perhaps a trip to human resources is in the future… or perhaps he was right. After all, it was a natural expectation that a hand picked expeditionary force from the cultural and academic center of Malatoria would have at least begun investigating, examining, and analyzing their surroundings. They had, after all, reached the destination they had spent weeks journeying towards. A destination that was, perhaps, the most significant historical discovery of their lives. But alas! There were no notes, no sketches, not a single shred of evidence that they had performed even the most menial and banal parts of the job that they had been sent to do. Ah well. Academics!   Putting the library to good use, they discovered that the shadowy being is known to some as “The Fisher.” The Fisher was a necromancer who entered into a devil’s deal with a cosmic power, the aim of which was the ability to reverse an event from his past (some speculate it was a tragic loss of his family). The deal, which required the Fisher to collect souls to power a ritual, of course did not go his way. But The Fisher is undaunted; he yet collects souls to achieve his aim.   The party suspect some connection between The Fisher and the disappearance of Dagrazt. They also speculate that The Fisher may seek an object called The Tapestry of Dal-Takar, the power of which is only exceeded by its mystery.   Hoping to catch the Fisher along the way, the party left the Shrine and headed back towards Fort Floodgate. En route, they ran into the remaining Meats, along with Captain Markesh. This prompted some contractual renegotiations…