2021/08/11: Cubit - Mysteries Death Part 2 Report
General Summary
Knight, Immori, Sith, Keel, Ios
Continuing the detective work.
Lots of tracks from kids in the area near the woods. More recently, 20-30 jackbooted troops passed into the woods and didn’t come out.
There are signs of branches on the edges of the woods having been broken off as weapons or firewood.
Not a lot of wildlife in the area. Not even much insect life. Seems very subdued.
The party followed the soldier tracks into woods. Found old and ominous segment, with old and broken road. Immori realized the path we were on is following some sort of spiral. Broken road pieces look like they may have been flagstones, so there may be old ruin nearby. Flecks of quartz all over the place, with alteration and divination magic in a cloud over the ground near it. At around this area, the soldiers had been ordered into a quick march. We disbelieved an illusion in this area, and the forest became much darker, colder, clammier, and foggier.
The quartz is rose quartz, and was shined and carved into geometric arrangements. A million or so pieces scattered around. The pieces seem to be providing viewpoints for someone’s scrying.
Knight is hopping around in the branches of the trees. If the enemy doesn’t have someone up there to jump on us, Knight can be up there to jump on them!
Moving forward, the troops appear to have been directly chasing something. They were charging all over. We found bits of some of the soldiers, apparently damaged by something big with sharp teeth and extreme bite pressure. The troops may have also been hallucinating and partially fighting each other.
Then we heard a deep, wolfish howl, and we could hear something large breathing and approaching through the trees. We got attacked by some sort of super shadow wolf. It was absurdly fast and absurdly deadly.
Using scrying and the sky gem, we see that the forest definitely is a spiral, almost a whirlpool of woods. In the center is a ruin. We teleported to the ruin and the wolf followed us. The ruin seems to be in what may have once been a graveyard.
Keel interacted with a buried magic item, which then made an evil clone of him. The clone is named Ke’eel. Immori retrieved the mirror. The mirror is an ancient evil artifact, and it appears that it was taking in the souls of the things the shadow dog killed through the scattered quartz. The dog had buried the remains of the soldiers. There’s someone behind this setup, and we need to find out who and why.
Mirror is Chalgum’s Mirror of Dread. Anyone who looks into it is sucked into it, and a more powerful evil version of them comes out. On top of the mirror is Torzam’s Crimson Gem of Alteration, which alters the effects of items and anchors them. It appears someone had set it up so that instead of making clones, it was pulling the souls in and using them to fuel the shadow wolf. Keel, when interfacing with it, turned it off and on again, which reset it to original settings and banished the wolf (and made Ke’eel). We suspect this was being used to conceal something someone was doing in the area.
We searched the area for clues. Knight found some pieces of reinforced rope hidden in the trees near the entrances to the tunnels. Signs of engineering.
We found signs of warhorses from a few months back. Probably from whoever set this up. Plus indications that they were wearing high-quality heavy armor. Whoever did this is rich, has military funding, and either is a wizard or has the resources to hire/employ a good one.
Found sapphire-blue, high-heeled lady’s silk dress shoe. Dream vision: At a party. “What is it? Do I have to do anything myself?” Made specifically for Madame Salezbury recently at great expense. Lots of trouble about fitting. She has slightly flat feet, so she has a tendency to throw her shoes, especially when she’s doing evil deeds in the dark. She was called out to the woods at the request of her cavalry.
We stayed the night in the woods, then went to dig up the remains of the soldiers to try to get info from them. Found pennant, which is blue, grey, and silver. The soldiers seem too well equipped to be militia, and writing on the gorget of one armor piece says “The Queen’s Guard”.
With the Dream Master’s Nail, discovered the Queen’s Guard had been sent by the queen because “The queen will suffer nothing bad happening to her land’s children”.
Madame Salezbury had been practicing blood magic and possibly kidnapping children, and she set this whole thing up to cover that up after the queen got wind of it.
With that answer delivered to the butler, the party was allowed to continue on to the next test. Test 2 is to find an item and return it. We have to find the queen’s crown on the premises of a masked ball. We have a very detailed description of the crown, which is lightly enchanted, but has so far proved resistant to divination. The queen is Asmadi Miridas. The crown is a family heirloom, several hundred years old. No one present at any time at the ball has left; they’re being kept here until the crown is found.
Character(s) interacted with
The butler, Ke'eel
Created Content
Report Date
11 Aug 2021
Primary Location
Related Characters
Comments