The party leaves the coffin room, choosing to inspect the jade man more carefully. Gruffie mayhem knocks on the body. Each time she does, the stuff corpses animate slightly, lurching towards the jade man. They debate whether the jade man is worth the inevitable attack. They decide it is. Lobsang and Clement lift the jade man.
At once, green and yellow flames erupt in the corpses eyes and they spring to life. As their forms crack and creak to life, black sand falls from their joints. A battle ensues, the foes breaking into black sand when damaged. Just when it seems their forms cannot hold themselves together anymore, voids form in their chest, spilling with black dust. It is found (when the dust is thrown into the face of the knight) that the dust can turn one mad temporarily, causing ones eyes to burst into green and yellow flame. When the last of the creatures is finally cut down, the Tayan Theras clerics take some of the dust. They talk in hushed whispers about the temporary madness that overcame their knight. They seem excited.
The jade man is requisitioned by the clerics, but for their efforts Sir Barantyn allows the party to take the table (worth 6000gp!). The party heads (slowly and cumbersomely) to the surface to rest and regroup. Icoriol identifies the stone disc, revealing it as a Dousing Disc that can scry 1/day if exposed to sunlight. The day is windy and overcast, so they’ll have to wait to use it.
In the night, the whispering wind calls to Balthazar. “Sleep, Balthazar.” Balthazar is an agent of a higher sphere, lacking the ability to sleep. Nonetheless, the rests his head on the cold stone floor and feigns sleep. He finds his mind wandering, his thoughts collecting like a fog. That fog becomes manifest, gathering into a pale window through which a faint image can be seen: a towering volcano. He recognizes this as Mount Sadrigal, the volcano in the center of Nildazi. He keeps this vision to himself.
In the morning, Sir Barantyn expresses desire to explore the rest of the temple. The party agree. Their exploration reveals a ruined iron forge, a room full of cracked statues of warped children, a golden crown that ages the wearer (the elf dons it, so nothing happens), an unintelligible diary in a collapsing room, and a pile of gems encircled by white spikes (Balthazar’s bee grabs 6 of them before the giant worm waiting underneath the gems springs up, eating the bee and the gems).
Their temple exploration ended, the words they need contained in a book they possess, the party leaves their heavy treasure behind for a quick excursion to the twin statues.
Before they leave, Lobsang uses the dousong disc to check on his young son Mecine, who resides in the capital Solemnity. He sees his son as part of a gang of thugs, standing nervously at the back. On the ground before them an old man begs for mercy, but he has run out of time to pay his debts. Mecine winces at the violence. The vision ends. Anger and regret simmer in Lobsang. He does not tell anyone what he has seen.
On the way to the statues, a hunting band of seven goblins are seen contemplating attacking the group. Gruffie mayhem, who can speak the goblins tongue (a type of common (Korianian) tinted with the wilds of the primal forest) convinces them she is a goblin (horrifically malformed, though she is the right height) and a powerful sorceress who has captured 8 strong fighters as her prisoners. At first their disbelieve, but a summoning of her wildfire spirit causes the goblins to flee, fearful of further spells. The party continues to the statues.
When they arrive, it takes no time for Icoriol to call out the saying found in the ancient book.
“With chaos as my liege and lord To further aims of the outer spheres and domains of higher dukes I do pledge to carry within me forbidden understandings Madness in Nightshade”
Unbeknownst to him, a wayward eye in the sea of madness turns his way. The statues begin to move, their stone joints grinding. They lift their swords from the ground until the edges touch. With a rush of wind, a white veil appears in the archway created by the swords. When Balthazar sticks his hand through, it does not emerge on the other side. He feels a breeze. Lobsang charges through the veil. Balthazar follows suit, leaving the others in the clearing.
He emerges in a forest clearing from a pair of matching twin statues, their swords raised in an arch as well. A cottage stands nearby, as does an old man with a blindfold on, wearing a tabbard of Tayan Theras: a yellow four pointed star on a green background.
Lobsang calls to the old man. He speaks in riddles, thoroughly unhelpful. Balthazar and Lobsang attempt to speak with him until Sir Barantyn comes through the portal. He looks around and professes he knows this place. It is revealed they are in the Llamontca Wode, just east of Fort Duvno, north of Solemnity. This statue grove is one of the great secrets of Tayan Theras. The rest of the party come through the portal during this conversation. Midway through, their foreheads begin to burn. The lingering effects of Voghtairi’s curse, now triggered. He knows they have left his Barony.
They decide to camp on the other side of the portal, on a quest to reclaim their jade table and dousing disc. Sir Barantyn and his clerics say their farewell. They plan to head to Solemnity and let everyone know of Baron Voghtairi’s betrayal. The party makes their way back to the temple, their disc and table unharmed. The sound of flapping wings gets their attention. A heavy thud, scratches and snarls on the roof betray the presence of wyverns! The wyverns settle down to rest on the roof of the temple. The party descends the stairs halfway and rests down there.
The wyverns are still there in the morning. Balthazar sacrifices his lion locket to distract them, and they rush off with the table and disc.
It’s a long trek to and through the portal, but with the help of their mule Bill, the party makes their way south. Before he left, Sir Barantyn told the party about a captured watchtower on the wode-side of the River Ason. It’s drawbridge provides important access to the wode for the soldiers of Fort Duvno, but it is inhabited by bandits. On the 27th of May, the party arrives at the tower.
It’s the dead of night. The mule Bill and the jade table rest safely up the road. The party approaches the tower.
The front door is barred from the otherside. Two bandits with torches and arquebus’ patrol the roof, but their torchlight doesn’t reach the ground, and they’re not looking too hard. Lobsang attempts to scale the tower, but the stones are slick from yesterday nights rain. He falls with a thud, but hides in the tall grass before the bandit can see him. He throws some darts. They miss, but the guard notices something fly by his face. He starts looking closer, but Lobsang is long gone. On the other side of the tower, Gruffie Mayhem, boosted by Clement, scales the tower and hangs on to the edge, 30’ up. When a guard comes near, she strikes.
Gruffie is unexpectedly strong, the surprised bandit is lifted over the tower and lands with a thud on the ground, where he is finished off with Clement’s warhammer. Lobsang, using the door-archway as a platform, leaps up the tower and throws the other bandit off the tower, who dies on impact. The tower is silent, it’s guards, dead.
Balthazar knocks on the door. On the floor below, Gruffie, Clement and Lobsang hear a guard rouse his friend and head downstairs. Lobsang sneaks after him. Joined by Icoriol, Gruffie and Clement begin executing sleeping bandits. Before the bandits open the door, Balthazar uses his divine magic to transform his visage into that of the fallen bandit. The bandits stand bemused while Lobsang approaches from behind. In a flurry of movement, one guard is downed and the other is grappled. On the floor above, two bandits are executed and two awake from the noise. One is quickly dispatched, the other surrenders. He is killed shortly thereafter.
On the ground level is found a tied young noble. When his gag is removed he identifies himself.
“I am Baronson Rolf-Hydel-Amakoth, my father is the great general of Fort Duvno. If you free me, you will be rewarded!”
The party need no convincing. They rest in the tower and set off the next morning toward Fort Duvno, the young noble in tow.