The story so far
Threshold
and come from
Threshold. They signed up as part of a group investigating bandits on the road over the mountains from
Verge. This turned out to be both bandits and goblins (led by an ogre) based in an old abandoned castle near the mountain pass. During their investigations, the bandits were attacked and killed by the goblins, and they killed the lead ogre.
Among the items among left behind by the leader of the bandits was a scrap of parchment talking about flakes of winter, and down in the depths of under the castle, the goblin shaman actually had one of these flakes of winter. This flake caused them problems...but is now in Reed's possession.
Castle Amber
The group headed towards the capital Specularum to try to find the rest of the manuscript, or indeed any more information about the flake, but on the way something strange happened. They went to sleep next to the road and woke up in the entrance hall of a mansion surrounded by fog. They found their way through assorted strange scenarios including an in-mansion overgrown garden. Sergi got turned into a ghost as a result of a very unusual meal, most of their companions fell along the way, but they met and made new companions including , and eventually discovered a way out hidden in the basement and a hint that it was all caused by the entombment of
[Etienne D'Ambreville].
Averoigne
This way out didn't lead back to the normal world, but to a pocket dimension containing the country
Averoigne. Here the team changed again, and , , and Anders Thorngage. Fortunately they had found a scroll with a simple recipe for escape - just track down four magical items, protected by magical guardians, bring them together and you get taken to...well, a void plane which only has a single building with a single entrance. Not many options there, then. Now just sneak past the blue dragon, dodge the Wyvern, kill the Stone Giant (or get turned into jam by a stone in Francesco's case), nip past the sphinx, wade past the mud golem, kill the many-headed hydra, and you reach the tomb, the tomb of Etienne D'Ambreville.
Burning the tapestry depicting Etinenne's life freed him and he appeared before them. The tomb and its surrounding defences crumbled into nothing, they found themselves in front of the mansion again, which also proceeded to collapse leaving them in a null dimension with a very thankful Etienne who wished Francesco out of his jam pot and back to life.
Return to Akorros
After distributing magical rewards on all the party, it was time for the heroes to return to their own world, and for this Etienne asked to use the two winter flakes found so far. He magically filled in the gaps to make them into the whole snowflake and held it up in front of them. It started to spin, throwing out magical snowy sparks which enveloped the group. When things cleared again they found themselves in a basement.
A flaming black sphere spitting out sparks was in the centre of the room, and the repaired snowflake continued to spin between the group and the sphere, throwing icy lines of force at the sphere. The sphere's flames started to die and it seemed to shrink in on itself when whatever magic Etienne had used to fill in the gaps in the snowflakes ran out and the four spectral flakes winked out. The sphere was ejected up through the ceiling like an orange pip squeezed between fingers, trailing flame and darkness as it went and followed by a fountain of snow from the flakes.
The group were not alone, though. The sphere was gone, but a Red Arcanian and two Fiery Armour Animuses remained, leading to a tough battle which left several group members on the verge of death. They survived, however, and began to look for ways out. Coming to the ground floor, they found a back room and a shop filled with snow and scorched corpses of people apparently killed while heading towards the door.
Arrest and a new mission
Looking out of the front windows, they saw a snow-covered square and through the heavy falling snow saw the place was surrounded by guards who demanded they came out. They were arrested for causing the fire damage and taken to the nearby guard station, where they were ransomed out by
Gianluca de Malbec on condition they investigate the building for a couple of items which had been stolen - a jar with a speaking tube attached and a blue gemstone, both with the Panache logo carved into them. In return they would receive a reward, their freedom and the possibility of more commissions on behalf of Panache.
Investigating the building,
[Carlotta's Curios], it appeared to be a store selling bric-a-brac and assorted random junk, possibly with magic items mixed in, which had been taken over from an old woman (judging by the stuff in the attic) by an organisation which did something fire-related, possibly fire juggling. Lots of branding with a double flame logo. The sphere had clearly punched right through the building leaving holes in every floor and in the roof.
The jar with a speaking tube was found in the middle of a mystic symbol drawn in coloured sand on the floor of a shrine-like room on the second floor. It was surrounded by some sort of snakey creatures which couldn't leave the confines of the symbol. Once they had been dealt with, they picked up the jar and heard a strange deep voice emanating from it, speaking in a language they couldn't understand. When responded in confusion, the voice changed to speaking Common, but their responses evidently weren't suitable because it stopped speaking shortly after.
There was no sign of the gemstone, other than an indentation in the mud left in the basement and a set of clawed footprints - possibly a bird's - leading from the wall and back. Investigation of the wall where the footprints led revealed a catch and a secret door leading to a short passage, which ended in another door. This opened into the misty sewers beneath the city.
These sewers seem to be populated by all sorts of strange and dangerous creatures. A cat-sized shard of gemstone which multiplied when attacked with magic. A bruise-blue coloured fungus on a wall which shot spores at the group, causing painful poison damage. A faceless creature with three claw-tipped arms which causes major damage and heals fast from any damage received. It was all the group could do to extract themselves without anyone getting killed and regroup in the building for a night's rest.
This was more successful for some than others - Malcolme, Sergi and Francesco had disturbing dreams which left them mildy exhausted.
Next morning, Gianluca came round to check on them, took the jar with thanks and paid 50gp partial reward each, then promised he would return the next morning to find out how they had got on with the search for the gemstone.
They had searched the whole building, so the only option was to return to the sewers. They had seen footprints leaving and entering the area with the fungus and Quoreg (which was why they had investigated there first), but now spotted them heading in the opposite direction. Following these footprints along the path beside the sewer, the mist became thicker and more solid until they could hardly see their hands in front of their faces, and they heard taunting whispers in their heads. These caused several bouts of crippling fear and temporary madness - wild cackling laughter from Sergi, curled up whimpering from Malcolme, manic consumption of things floating in the sewer by Luciano (making him unwell) before the haunting fog drifted off with a few final mental cackles.
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