Brief Exploration Interlude

After Makar confronted Prince Mazaru Eramzir in the Red Palace of Kreniko, an effort was made to delve into the palace's private chambers.
Arzet used his servant knowledge, gained from Wenaldo, to make it into the palace's back rooms. There, he subtly used guile and magic to obtain a key to the Prince's office. In the office, Arzet found a secret compartment with an Alarm spell attached to the door. Arzet chose not to risk triggering the spell and continued on to the Fire shrine. By waiting and watching the guard patrols, Arzet was able to gain the password to a secret crypt beneath the shrine to the fire goddess. It seems that a group of Plague Warlocks were regularly going into and out of the crypt area, and used the meditation room there as a break room.

Arzet explored into the crypt, but their presence triggered a number of magically-animated ghouls, old undead Dryads surrounded by magical smoke, to rise from the crypts and attack. Arzet fled into the meditation room, calling for backup.
Potha began sneaking into the backrooms, following Arzet's trail. She used wind elementals to distract guards as she slowly made her way down to the crypts. Instead of removing Arzet from the crypts and regrouping, the two heroes decided to renew scouting efforts. They dashed passed the ghouls and into a side chamber containing princely ashes. The ashes had been pilfered, leaving only the old containment vessels. Makar provided cultural and religious advisement on what everything meant using their psychic connection, allowing them to decipher the basics of what rooms they were entering without light or time to decipher things. A massive plague rat followed them into the chamber, and they hid in the darkness before sneaking away. They managed to sneak past the ghouls and rats to go even deeper down into the smoky and fetid depths of the corrupted crypt. A fountain halfway down seemed to have scaling liquid, which Potha grabbed a sample of. The two eventually made their way down into the grand shrine of the crypt, which was horrifically corrupted. A massive black orb of smoke sat in the middle of the room, feeding on smoke pouring from a chasm ripped in the right hand corner. On the left, stakes had been driven into the wall between the entrance and a preserved mural of Kemegi. Potha tasted the stakes and found that they had traces of hand oil and leathers. The two heroes tried poking the orb with a sword, and discovered that it contained numerous Smog Spirits. They avoided further antagonizing these smog spirits and retreated back to the hallway.

Meanwhile, Kipilu talked with the Goosefeather cats: he talked with Olympia, the fancy cat, Olympia's deranged Rot-aligned magician Agripief, and a warrior-turned-Jellicle watchman renamed to Flobo. Apparently, Agripief and the Goosefeathers have desecrated the local conduit tying the city to the Cat Heavens. The mad magician claimed he had turned it to "chowder" with a "powder", as he insisted on rhyming.
The team agreed to regroup down in the crypts to either scout further or make a camp near the plague engine to launch an easy attack during the battle that night.

Parent Plot

Palace Scouting

Subplots

• Before the Coup

Related Locations

• Kreniko