Episode 02 | Burning City

Vantam is burning. Glowing, rainbow ash falls on abandoned streets in the wake of an explosion in the heart of the city that destroyed one of the most advanced schools of magic in the world. Emergency crews rush to contain magically active flames and rescue survivors from buildings damaged by the concussive blast that rippled across the city. It is a lucrative day to be a hero.

Belson Freeladle arrived at the Sanctuary with another job for our heroes. A client with a protection contract has activated a magical signal and requires rescue. The client is Dr. Dornell Gauge, a necromancer working for Postmortal Services in Seven Towers. This job will take the heroes close to the site of the explosion, but there is no reward without risk!

The heroes know they’re on the clock if they’re going to save Dr. Gauge, but Zkah has a stop to make. The previous week, she lost her greataxe in a battle against unknown assailants looking to steal cargo from their last client. It turned out the greataxe had been recovered and sold to an admirer of Zkah’s exploits in Rivenwing Arena from her gladiator days. The collector confessed he was going to keep the axe, but in the wake of the explosion he needed a favor. If Zkah would check on his brother and ensure his safety, the collector would give the weapon back to its rightful owner.

Mesrick Lostpin was an inventor and scholar in Seven Towers, and when Zkah found him, he was experimenting on a machine designed to measure the fluctuations of magic caused by the explosion. Unfortunately, a miscalibration caused a whole new disaster. Mesrick’s machine exploded, spilling toxic gas across the rooftop. Zkah and the team rushed to save him. They were successful, and the humbled inventor agreed to return to his brother’s house where Zkah recovered her favored weapon.

With that out of the way, the heroes proceeded to Postmortal Labs. The building had been badly damaged in the shockwave of the explosion. They picked their way through the rubble, and soon came upon a victim of the collapse, Dr. Olive Besmertan. There was nothing they could do for the woman, and worse, her homunculus went feral in the wake of its master’s death. They had no choice but to destroy the magical creation and move on.

As they explored the halls, they encountered a group of uncontrolled zombies trying to batter their way into a locked room. The heroes made short work of the shambling corpses, but not before Quindyn suffered a nasty blow to the back of the head.

The heroes raced to see what the zombies were after in the locked room, and found a man in bloody robes. Before he could say a word, he collapsed from his wounds. Was this the man they’d been sent to save? Was it already too late?

NPCs
Dornelle Gauge
Dr. Olive Besmertan
Mesrick Lostpin
Stamos Lostpin

Locations
Postmortal Services
Seven Towers University