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====== The Legend of the Ark ======
//A story of [[Tomb Raiders|vandals]], bandits, and a thief making off with the hero's prize...//

===== Session 1: The Acts of Gods =====
**6th Dariksay**

Our six heroes descended upon [[Olson's Ruin]], a recently excavated dig site South of the town of [[Taronsawk]], itself only a few miles from the border of [[Akselmarch]].

When they appeared in the central chamber of the ruins, four of them ([[Cairo]], [[Adaraeys]], [[Otto]] and [[Keith Urquhart]]) claimed to have encountered each other already, trading names with [[Granger]] and [[Rioux]] with seeming familiarity. A wooden box sat at the centre of this chamber, which the four claimed to reset time when either opened or moved far from its plinth. Whether or not it was the Poteus Ark was still unknown, but it was clearly magical - and a note found by Granger and Keith bore a dire warning.

The six explored the ruins, fighting off elementals and attempting to put together the mystery of what transpired here, at battles long ago. They found the remains of Dwarves from centuries apart, the buried remains of Elven holdings, and the tombs of Commanders from some great war long ago. Rioux was almost trapped underground, but by burning away the abandoned plant-life of the Elves and saluting fallen Dwarves, a way downwards was revealed with the entire party unharmed. However, the path downwards to Alasandell was tantalisingly sealed by a cave in. Missing pieces from a mechanism inside an abandoned study and requiring the dig team's help to progress, they decided to return to Taronsawk for the night.

They all encountered the foul-smelling but pleasant [[Karver Dyshand]], the local fuller and dyer, on the rainy path back. He gave a reading on the town's general anxiety around Akselmarch's presence, but believed all the bluster about packing up shop was just talk. Arriving late at night, Otto was allowed to stay with the blacksmith [[Brenot Oltmsith]], while Granger stayed at the estate of the [[Helcullens]]. Rioux found shelter at the Church, Cairo paid for his room, and Adaraeys roomed with a local florist and his wife. Keith attempted to bum in an unused stables, but was quickly found by [[Moira Mudshovel]] and [[Frederique Loinet]], the "guard" (in actuality, a barely-tolerated bandit) that he assaulted earlier. As Moira prepared a shelter in her house, Frederique let on that he already knew of Keith, in actuality named Jean-luc Vicquemare.

Before the house could be fully prepared, a loud explosion was heard from the town's centre, and a perfect cast-iron, searing hot sphere was found at the ruins of the well. Speculations immediately flew as to the meaning of this, as townsfolk and Olson's team arrived: was it divine portent, some trace of Akselmarch, or was it somehow related to the new adventurers or the dig team? Before tensions could get too drawn, [[Armick Helcullen]] arrived, and pulled rank to ensure some calm in the small village's night. He would organise a town hall meeting tomorrow, and organise for the well to be rebuilt, but until the omen was deciphered, everyone would return to their normal activity. With a sense of unease and impending doom about the future, our adventurers returned to sleep for the night.

===== Session 2: A Helping Hand =====
**6th - 8th Dariksay**

[[Karver Dyshand|Karver]] roused [[Cairo]] early in the morning. He dutifully informed the Tabaxi that many of the villagefolk were suspicious of the coincidence of the adventurers' arrival and the destruction of the well, and that unless their name was somewhat rehabilitated, they would lose [[Taronsawk]]'s vital support. [[Rioux]], [[Otto]], [[Granger]] and Cairo made contact with [[Vel Olson]] and his expedition, and in the few days it would take for the path to [[Alasandell]] to excavated, they decided to help where they could.

[[Keith]] and [[Adaraeys]] did a village tour, meeting first [[Moira Mudshovel]] and learning various avenues for help from her (who, as Keith suspected, claimed not to be one of the original Pioneers). They promised to find [[Elgsmet]] for [[Granny Sezin]] to help a deathly ill abandoned girl, while the others learned of [[Whiteshields]] that had failed to arrive from [[Kenen Cartwright]]. [[Maria Argsman]] told of a town to the North, [[Godscall]], with vital farming equipment that had become abandoned since the Wall had appeared. [[Hali Evenus]] told Rioux of stolen grain, while Otto and Granger were informed of an alleged garrison of Strom-Kreft by the extremely elderly [[Thaurivald Mithrilmirth]]. All the while, talk continued of fleeing or remaining in the face of [[Akselmarch]].

The ragtag band agreed that the wagons from Godscall would be very useful in their other endeavours, and so set off for that at once. A dead bandit was discovered on the road, while after a night's rest, another was found in the snow not far from the town, hanging as a warning. More strung bodies were discovered on the path into town as the adventurers went off-road. The wagons were quickly found, and a horse tracked to the abandoned town centre - along with a Plate-armour-bearing Giant with a Greatsword.

An attempt at flanking went wrong, despite some highly technical stealth strategies, and drew the Giant's ire, leaving Keith, Adaerys and Otto scrambling and just escaping their notice. Granger and Cairo took this chance to recover two horses, and discovering a loaded wagon of Human corpses. As the group met back and strategised in the barn, the Giant tracked their snowy footprints, and charged into the barn after throwing a warning rock.

Otto survived her first strike, while the spells of the others quickly stunned her and brought her low. Adaerys, Granger and Cairo's heat seared through the metal armour, as Otto and Keith struck blow after blow. On the verge of death, she smashed her Greatsword in two, threw the hilt away, removed her helmet, and loudly yielded, before succumbing to her injuries.

===== Session 3: Success is a Song of the Heart =====
**8th - 12th Dariksay**

The giant identified herself as [[Gwynyvy]], a knight from a nearby [[Stone Giant]] tribe attempting to clear [[Godscall]] of its inhabitants - the bandits who moved in after the townsfolk disappeared. While the party was obviously reticent of her presence, [[Keith Urquhart]] was able to strike a bargain, and enlisted the defeated soldier's help in gathering horses, wagons, and tools. With their task completed and food cooked, the adventurers set off for [[Thaurivald Mithrilmirth|Thaurivald]]'s treasure hoard. A somewhat-hidden path was found, and the baggage train led.

Sadly, the barracks were not as uninhabited as hoped - a fringe cult of the [[Light]], the [[Umbramortis]], had moved in after [[Prophet Makan]], a [[Shadar-kai]], had received a vision. She told of a vision from [[Abramates]], of a group of rulers of the Light itself called the [[Shadowless (Poteus Ark)|Shadowless]], and a calling to move her 20-odd followers to this old fortress. Brief investigation from [[Adaraeys Falaxxis]] and Keith turned up no weapons, although there was a statue with a somewhat-familiar inscription. However, when [[Rioux Van-ennox]] was turned Invisible, they were able to find a magical doorknob that opened up to a storm-room with an armoury inside - the [[Silver Smith]]'s Surreptitious Stronghold.

[[Granger Thistleborn]] kept Makan occupied, while the monk stole the doorbell, and quickly the party made their excuses and fled before their crimes could be discovered. The snow kept falling as [[Taronsawk]] was reached, and [[Maria Argsman]] was overjoyed to see the tools and stupefied at the portable room - although she was slightly perturbed that the party had brought the weapons with them. The [[Armick Helcullen|Helcullen]]'s were summoned, as Argsman truly believed they would be able to distribute the tools fairly.

However, [[Granny Sezin]] had bad news about [[Mico]]'s degrading health, while [[Hali Evenus]] made her anxieties about food known once again. Adaraeys and Keith chose to slightly lie about the time Mico had remaining to convince the party to chase [[Elgsmet]] ahead of the food supplies, and so the party set off on the horses they had just recovered to the mage tower where he was said to reside.

Without incidence, the tower was reached, a floating structure above a crumbling and collapsing courtyard. Elgsmet was aware of their arrival, and spoke to them in booming verse, a lyrical battle the party proved far more adept at. He was convinced of the circumstances, but seemed unable to open the rusted gate, and even seemed surprised that his tower was floating. [[Otto]] propelled himself with his gadget-sword to the top of the wall, finding the burned body of a groundskeeper, and again used this ability to grab onto the trap-door leading to the mage. The rest of the Ark-hunters followed, and a thaumaturgic boost from Granger allowed them access to Elgsmet's chambers.

The wizard's immobility was quickly explained - he was a [[Hobgoblin]] wizard of about 160 years, bound to a wheelchair after fighting off a [[Dwarf|Dwarven]] intruder several years ago. Once their predicament was explained, he searched the tomes for a cure while explaining the curious [[Angel Door]] he had uncovered. Eventually, he matched Mico's symptoms with those of kings and archmages who had spent too long living within Anti-Magic Zones, and had been cut off from the base magic behind all life. He produced a cure, and tagged along with the party on the way back to Taronsawk after a bargain had been struck, payment in return for conjured food.

When the party returned, they found they were a day too late.

Mico's service was already underway, attended by Granny, Argsman, [[Brenot Oltsmith]], Armick, [[Karver Dyshand|Karver]], and Maria, along with Hali who was running the service. The tools of the gods were lain to speed her soul along its journey to the [[Kfen]], and slowly drifted away once the grave was covered. Eventually, only Brenot remained, remarking with his mind on his own child "fleeing South is no guarantee of survival."

The party split to pull themselves together. Rioux went for a long walk around the town, while Granger attempted to find a crossroads to commune somehow with a higher power, failing in the attempt. Adaraeys went to track down the others after the funeral, and in doing so stumbled into the spotlight. The child's death had caused an uproar in a meeting in a tavern, between most of the town who wanted to leave (with Maria as their loudest voice) and the fraction who wanted to take their chances and stay (seemingly led by Karver). The Bard's control of the spotlight faded as two loud bangs rang out from the town outskirts, found eventually to merely be Otto. He was chastised in turn by them all, but as a group, they eventually decided to try to retrieve Evenus's lost grain, and earn the town a much-needed win.

===== Session 4: Dungeons and Dances =====
**12th - 14th Dariksay**

Quick as a flash, when dawn broke the adventurers rode through the rain, following tracks [[Granger Thistleborn|Granger]] had found by the ruined granary that led East. The mud made it harder to find the tracks, and so the party arrived at the bandit fort by its main entrance. [[Adaraeys Falaxxis|Adaraeys]] was volunteered to scale the slick walls, and his reports detailed twenty [[Satyrs]] dancing around a green fire, with a much fatter and larger Satyr named [[Bacchus]] seemingly in charge. A plan was quickly formed to breach the walls and "negotiate," headed up by [[Otto]] and [[Keith Urquhart|Keith]], while an invisible Granger slipped in and Adaerys stayed on the walls.

Immediately, Granger was knocked to the ground and discovered after the gate was opened for the visitors. They quickly coaxed admission of guilt out of the Fey: they stole the grain for a final party dedicated to [[Bonli]] before the Wall came down and [[Akselmarch]] killed them all, and had no intention of returning it to the "party-pooping" villagers. Quick to come up with a con, the party suggested that they attempt to provide a fitting finale to the revelry so far, and if their god accepted the end of the festivities, then the Satyrs would wind down their celebrations and hand over everything they had. The first trick? The discovered Adaerys, "the man with no..." "...connection to us at all."

A hasty routine was devised and performed. Granger's acrobatics warmed the crowd sufficiently, but Keith's poor timing lost interest. This was sufficiently regained by [[Cairo Avourel]]'s explosive burst of light, which also gave him access to the towers to search for the sacks of grain. Otto brought it to a close alongside Adaerys's accompaniment, terrifying the fey creatures with gunshots fired into the air. Eventually, they all cowed around the green fire for its opinion, as the lights restarted in the sky: it roared in approval, but Granger noted with some trepidation that it may not have been a fair victory, and that a debt may be owed in future. Bacchus led them in the final dance as the embers died, and the party recovered some 120 days of bread for [[Taronsawk]].

On the ride back, Cairo and Keith were deep in conversation about the [[Umbramortis]] when the Tabaxi shoved the Human to the side, out of the path of a marauding, ravenous [[Taronsawk Demons|Fiend]] loose in the woods. Adaerys's psychic assault forced it to run as Otto pushed himself to the limit to blast its back with his blade. Granger summoned a magical [[Syl|crook]] to fend it off as Cairo prepared healing spells. When it returned, it felled Otto and almost defeated Keith, but a smite from the Maul sent its jaw flying. A brief examination of the demon made the travellers conclude that it was once a [[Dwarf]], twisted by foul magic into a three-armed, fell form. It's corpse was brought along as they rolled into Taronsawk. [[Granny Sezin]] offered little insight and [[Elgsmet]] couldn't be found, but she did suggest that it was merely hungry, like a wild animal, while Keith noted that it was a strange creature to find in this location.

With unease, they returned to their business, once informed that a passage to [[Alasandell]] had been cleared by [[Vel Olson]]'s dig team. Otto, Cairo and Adaerys went drinking while Keith and Granger quizzed the genial [[Armick Helcullen]] about his [[Gander Helcullen|father]]'s [[Iyator|Iyatian]] origins, running into [[Arco Helcullen|Arco]] and [[Jean Louis Helcullen|Jean Louis]] first. As evening fully fell, a stream of wagons came rolling into town - the on-guard villagers were relieved when it was revealed to merely be a daring trader from [[Port Damocles]] by the name of [[Paravaccini]]. To cheers, Armick was able to procure a further two hundred days of food, while the party bought the few remaining supplies they needed to explore Alasandell.

In the morning, the details of the deal with the expedition were hashed out, and the hired guns set off South with down-payment received. The [[Poteus Ark]] was found where they left it, with Arco Helcullen sitting stunned by it: his obsession with it had gotten the better of him, and he had spent an uncountable amount of time by the box, while only minutes had passed outside. Once roused, he demanded, then quickly begged, that the delvers take him along. Arco felt he needed to prove his martial ability to the people, and offered to convince them to flee as repayment, which they instantly took him up on. He had his own shortsword, apprehended from a brigand he encountered on the road, was given a shield (and later a torch), and was tentatively made part of the group.

The organ was fixed, revealing it to be a brassy organ that was historically fascinating but not terribly interesting otherwise. The route to Alasandell was travelled, and a lift taken to the entrance of Site 2. Here, Otto realised what was bugging him about Arco's blade: it bore the same mechanisms as his own [[Gunblade]], with a twenty scratched into it, meaning it had been taken from an Akselian operating in [[Leurut]] from over the wall. He took a while to recover from this news, but was eventually ready to enter the dungeon after genuine concern from his colleagues - and Arco.

The first room appeared to be an old Elven prison of smooth brick, adjacent to a sewer, in which was found a scratched musical tab and a half-broken poison trap. Keith shattered the door to the sewer, and it was followed to a roughly-hollowed chamber, seemingly a camp for a long-passed Dwarven expedition. This chamber was followed to the other side of the Cell, a torture room. Within were two demonic, crocodile-like beasts snacking on bones, who were quickly alerted by a failed attempt to sneak up behind them.

===== Session 5: Smells Flammable =====
**14th Dariksay**

The two hellhounds were quickly dispatched, and when the room was investigated, it was revealed as an ancient torture chamber. The Angel Door in the North face was unresponsive, and so the party continued through the sewers, encountering traps, a Gelatinous Ooze, and more traces of a later Dwarven expedition. Ancient statues, emitting a musical tone, were found, but before the previously found tune was played, a decision was made to finish exploring open sections of the ruin.

An ancient winery was found, with the nectar spilled and smashed across the floor. When Otto entered the room, a rune on the ground exploded, slowing him and Rioux in time, and summoning several ghosts from the past to dispatch the intruders. These apparitions were themselves quickly slain, but in doing so, Keith discovered an ancient mural of Bahamut and Tiamat fighting, with a glowing red gem set into it. After the fight, they retreated to the Dwarven hovel to rest. In the chat that followed, Arco inquired as to how his weapon worked, and pointed out that despite the town being allegedly founded by Dwarves, none of their descendants could be found among the population, a fact the party found passing strange.

The rest of the rooms were discovered: a section of sewer fouler-smelling than the rest, an abandoned lift shaft, and a room discovered by Arco that bore a horrifying mutant creature known as the Ratcatcher. The statues were conducted by Adaraeys to open the second path to his room, and the choice was made to attack the Ratcatcher with a pincer movement. The plan mostly went well - Granger was felled in the beasts counter-assault, but he was distracted away from Adaerys and Rioux, allowing them to dispatch the rats the creature spewed while Keith, Otto and Arco went to work on the beast. It was the Monk who landed the final blow, and who discovered the magical rune within the Ratcatcher's rags.

A telepathic voice introduced itself as [[Gilvalur]], an Archmage once known as Darkfire. He once worked with the Dwarves to overthrow the tyrant installed in the palace, but was himself betrayed. He split his soul among three tablets, and promised to unlock more of the ruins if all three could be reunited and his body reconstructed, despite his dismay at the fact that it seemed centuries had passed. The rest of the rooms were traversed, and the haul included spell scrolls and Gilvalur's second tablet. Rioux realised the worse-smelling sewer had had its compacted matter interfered with relatively recently, but when forced to actually dig into the sewage, no tablet was found. Instead, a glowing green gem was found: although Gilvalur strongly recommended against inserting stones within the mural, but made no real effort to prevent it.

The Tomb Raiders realised that the floor of the lift shaft was in fact the old lift that had fallen to the bottom, and when it was lifted, the third rune was found within it. His entire self was reborn, and a new body ripped out of the earth, with stone fitting in for cloth, robe and skin. He bowed, opened the sealed passages as he promised, and retreated to his laboratory to do "something elemental." The party pressed further into the crumbled cavern, and found another chamber carved open by the Dwarves. It contained a national flag, woven in the traditional grand Dwarven style, but as Arco astutely noted, the bottom Dwarven characters indicated it was made as a flag of Taronsawk itself.

===== Session 6: A Habit for Collecting Loans =====
**15th Dariksay**

In the night, the sounds of industry and work rang clear, and in the next chamber once morning broke, Adaraeys discovered a series of elementals summoned by Gilvalur that were performing odd jobs around Alasandell. Darkfire intended to turn it into a new base, and was employing the latent elemental energies that this place was lousy with to carry out these tasks. A further chamber was found that might hold a tunnel leading downwards to another level, sealed in a similar fashion to one of the entrances to the top Site.

Under Gilvalur's omnipresent voice, the final areas of the dungeon were explored. A disused forge was explored, and Granger almost succumbed to an overly-deadly fire trap, requiring a Spell Scroll to escape once the instructions demanded he be separated from the rest of the group. After the ideal, the Water Gem was recovered. They attempted to poke around in Gilvalur's own laboratory, but were quickly asked, politely, not to do so - although they did poke around enough to find a journal by a Dwarven explorer named Andren Bazat. Eventually, there was little left to do but confront the Hellhounds sealed by a wind elemental in the Northern part of the network. However, Cairo's fireballs and Adaraeys's Hypnotic Pattern allowed Otto, Arco and Keith to butcher the creatures.

With the Wind Gem recovered, and after a brief stumble by Keith, the party went towards the statue of Bahamut and Tiamat, despite Gilvalur's protestations. His increasingly threatening arguments only served to make our travellers more suspicious of him, and they began the promised elemental upheaval. With a shudder of energy, Gilvalur's elemental army disintegrated, as well as further changes within the sewers that lacked time to be inspected. Darkfire assured them that he would not let a second betrayal slide, and immediately began gathering the fiends in the area to cut off their exit. A wrong turn took the party right into him, and a contest of spells began between the casters while the others fought off the summoned demons. Quickly, they determined (with Arco's panicked shouts) that fleeing was their best recourse, but Adaraeys found a Wall of Force blocking the exit. As they were all cornered, they tried to wail on Gilvalur to break his concentration, with Keith's hammer eventually finding decent purchase.

Despite the chance to fight that Keith urged they take, the elevator was clear, and cries for help quickly led to it being raised. The Mage didn't pursue them beyond Alasandell's entrance. Instead, he merely reiterated that he would not let another deception stand, and promised that, in two sunsets, he would command the fiends nearby and ensure the Dwarves that toppled him were destroyed for good - and raze Taronsawk from the map.

===== Session 7: Battle of Darkfire I - 100% Casualty Rate =====
**15th - 17th Dariksay**

Quickly, the archaeologists fled the ruin and piled into their wagon - the first sunset was already soon. Otto forced Arco to take them to the dead bandit he relieved the gunblade from, and the party was obliged. With Granger's "Speak with Dead" spell, Otto asked a few questions, the meaning of which was known only to him. Keith used one of the questions to ask what was causing the lights in the sky: it was "cannon fire".

On the way back, Arco and the party confronted Otto about his secrets, and the thing he was keeping hidden. With Akselmarch and Gilvalur all present threats, nothing could be kept hidden, and eventually, he caved to the pressure. He revealed that he was from Akselmarch, for real. He fled after being accused of a crime unknown to him but punishable by death. He suspected that the lights in the sky were from a civil war, and spared no detail in how quickly they would be destroyed if the Empire pulled itself back together. von Shmitz was interrogated on every detail as sunset shifted to night, and the orange glow began once more.

They theorised more on Keith's past, and the disappearance of the Dwarves and the Dwarf-life demons while the cart reached the inn, being used for a feast day. Armick was pulled aside and informed, and the feast ended prematurely. Rioux informed Hali, and they set to work for the rites of war. The others set about gathering allies, but ultimately Granger was unable to convince Moira to fight, and the mages were forced to sit direct conflict out, instead providing information.

The day passed with preparation - the peasants were trained and eased into the dwarven arms and armour, while others were assigned to the three entrances to the town. Karver was out for blood, while the Helcullens were keen to prove their profession. Sunset came and passed, and hours into the night, there was nothing, as Granny brewed potions and Thomas built barricades. Eventually, the wheat fields rustled, and the devastation Gilvalur promised was wrought.

The East front, near Maine-roche, was defended like a well-oiled machine. Arco took the brunt of the first hits, while Cairo's fireballs instantly collapsed the assault. Otto and Karver were able to take down the huge Barbed Devil, with the clothes-dyer scoring the final blow with a blood-stained axe. Almost the opposite was true on the North-west gate. Granger fell quickly, and they were unable to focus their fire well enough on the scarecrow, the spell-slinging Armalite, or the pagan monster. In a perhaps-engineered situation, Thomas Villedrouin fell as the wall was overrun, before being finished off for good by Keith. However, the battle still looked to be lost, with horrific casualties among the defenders. Keith bought himself time and Granger luck until they could be relieved.

Near the South gate, the situation started similarly dire, despite a strong first strike from the mounted Armick Helcullen. Adaraeys was assaulted by flying creatures, and despite their frailty, they escaped death for a long time. With Granny's help, he hid, as Rioux was overwhelmed by hellhounds and the magical Babau. They fell, and no solution presented itself to their certain doom - until Moira appeared. A wooden wall briefly turned into an Angel Door, and she cast Revifify with a diamond of her own, until she disappeared again into the door, clutching a book and reverting it into wood.

Bolstered by this aid, Adaraeys incapacitated almost all the fiends with a Hypnotic Pattern, easily allowing a healed Armick to help them in mopping up the remainders. With cries coming from the North-west gate, the cavalryman and many others rushed to plug the gap. The battle was long and grinding with none of the heroes willing to let the others remain on the ground unattended. With Otto's shots and Granger's bolt, the beastman and the lightning rod were turned into corpses, as a shade made by Keith of Thomas's soul occupied the hellhounds. Eventually, the invisible trickster was defeated by Rioux and knocked off the walls, as Keith's lightning and Cairo's light removed the remaining threats, at the cost of poisoning the tabaxi.

The moon glowed bright over the land as the defenders tallied their losses. However, the losses were grave, and Gilvalur had still yet to make his entrance...

===== Session 8: Battle of Darkfire II - Emerald in the Sky =====
**17th Dariksay**

Our Heroes licked their wounds as Rioux accosted Adaraeys about their near-death experience. The elf was in no mood to spill the beans about what had happened, instead spinning a tale about dragging Rioux back to the hut. Attention turned to the fact Gilvalur still hadn't appeared, and that the village would need to be reorganised for another wave of fighting. Rioux was sent on horseback to beg the Iris Order for additional help, but in the end they were more than content to sit back with bloodied hands.

While a second defence was being organised, and lessons being learnt from the previous battles, a hue and cry came up for a stranger coming to the village - Gwynyvy. Her tribe had decided to abandon their ancestral lands and flee the Akselian wall - Gwynyvy decided to come by Taronsawk when she noticed the signs of the previous battle. With the same equipment that had terrified the party beforehand, she was a formidable foe, and she and Armick made unusual allies at the North gate. Maria and Karver kept clear of each other around Maine-roche, while Brenot kept a careful eye on Frederique at the South Gate as the villagers huddled within Adaraeys's Tiny Hut. Otto made Arco swear to keep himself safe, and asked Granger to ensure this actually happened. Karver hoisted the found Taronsawk flag in the centre of the village, and the terrible wait began.

With a single flare, the Emerald Star appeared, and the assault began. Gilvalur's main force had already been spent, and on the whole the defenders fared much better. At Maine-roche and the North gate they were quickly dispatched by the now-veteran peasants, while a few stubborn foes at the Southern entrance once again placed Rioux and Adaraeys in danger. Cairo attempted to run and provide aid, only to find Darkfire had already surreptitiously entered the town, and was working a ritual with three constructed cultists. He raised the alarm and kept his distance, causing Otto and Keith to quickly arrive - and in Otto's case, get immediately entrapped by fell chains. They fought to free him as the warlock dealt creeping harm to Gilvalur and his minions, and Cairo repeatedly frustrated Darkfire's spells by baiting counterspells and threatening silences.

Another lightning-infused demon lay the Bard low, and Rioux forced a potion down his throat after killing a spell-casting demon not unlike the Wizard's cultists. After another grand hypnotic pattern earlier, the Bard was exhausted, and was forced to stay back on the rooftop and cast smaller healing spells. Gilvalur teleported and chased Cairo, but their iron faith stood against the worst spells of Eld he had to offer. In rage, he let loose a devastating Chain Lightning and a Fireball, but still his enemies stood. Even with Rioux terrified and sent away, with his cultists dead he quickly ran out of tricks. Otto caught him on the gunblade, and Keith used this to rend him twixt, before crushing his skull.

The scale of their victory took a while to set in, but quickly the word went around, and the villagers were overjoyed. A celebration was quickly held in the tavern, likely to distract themselves from how devastating even their few losses must eventually prove. Keith amazed with old war stories, and Karver tried to draw him firmly into Team Stay. Rioux tried once more to pry Adaraeys's lips with no success, but learned the truth from Frederique's watchful eye. They helped Moira pyre the demonic bodies, and managed to get her to open up a little, but things quickly turned sour when Moira insisted that they stop looking for the Ark while refusing to explain why. Arco and Otto found each other once again, and when a dance started to the Bard's tune, both left to get some air. They both talked about their dreams, and what Otto would do with the Ark - and how they would both probably rather stay in Taronsawk. Afraid of the cold and wary of the restarting lights, Otto took his chance, and they shared a tender kiss amidst the night's victory.

===== Session 9: Appeal to Authority =====
**17 - 20th Dariksay**

Keith and Adaraeys went for some private talk, with the former entrusting the latter with a secret, before Gwynyvy appeared before them to ask for praise and beer to be brought outside. The townsfolk were happy to oblige: Cairo kept a careful watch of the drunks, Otto rejoined the party with not a word said about what had transpired outside, and Rioux patrolled the perimeter after the talk with Moira. When Lord Helcullen peeled off, Adaerys followed, and overheard Hali Evenus tell him that several streams had been poisoned by demonic blood, scuppering the next Small Harvest and delaying any plans to leave: Maria Argsman, however, took Gwynyvy's presence as the ultimate impetus to prepare to leave as soon as possible. Keith left the party to enter the words, and returned moments later, hounding Adaerys about a passed out Otto's location, and drawing much suspicion before he left the issue alone.

The next day, the party made preparations for when the tunnel further was unsealed by the dig team. Keith prepared a sleeping potion from Granny Sezin and deflected suspicion from his interactions with Otto. Adaerys and Otto directly asked Moira if there was any correlation between the missing Dwarven pioneers and the large quantity of demons, but she just deflected and insinuated that they had left a long time ago. Much of the day was spent watching the news of the poisoned gardens spread throughout the town, and Adaerys learning of several secrets and swearing himself to secrecy on each. Cairo and Otto investigated the poisoned stream, but could draw no conclusions.

The second day dawned early with horrified cries: Gwynyvy had been decapitated, and her body dumped atop the ash of the pyre of the demon corpses. A combination of half of the party leaving immediately and Adaerys's attempts to take charge of the situation led to a major backfire, with the townsfolk rallying around each other and becoming intensely suspicious of the outsiders. Karver was the obvious suspect, and while he openly admitted to not regretting her death (being afraid of more mouths to feed), he still claimed to have not been responsible. Keith was able to appeal to their shared camaraderie as survivors of the Battle of Darkfire, and while this placated Karver, he then immediately used the opportunity to question why everyone was listening to the Helcullens, now the townsfolk could defend themselves. Voices rose as the party used a Speak With Dead spell to determine that Gwynyvy had been killed in her sleep on the same night as the Battle.

Before a full-blown fight could break out, but not before Armick Helcullen struck Karver, Moira appeared, bellowing at everyone to calm down. She was furious that someone had been killed on "her" soil, and reminded everyone that they stayed on old Dwarven land by her grace. She insisted on no further violence and refused to believe that anyone in the village was capable of it. With an oath sworn by everyone before the gods that they were not responsible, Moira insisted on believing that it was an external force who was responsible and, with no time for an investigation given everyone needed to tend to their land all day, on not compelling anyone to be investigated further. The mob began to dissipate, but the adventurers were left deeply unsatisfied, and continued to snoop around in the hopes of finding the culprit.

The day after, Cartwright came to Otto with startling news: Hali Evenus had most likely fabricated the story of the stream being poisoned. Adaerys and Keith were already suspicious of her, believing magic to have been required to move the body as no tracks had been found. With Otto's news, they were now certain. Rioux was deployed to ask Moira of Hali's standing in the town, and after they let slip their suspicions, aggravated her into marching off to accost the priest herself...

===== Session 10: Buried Secrets =====
**20 - 22nd Dariksay**

A crowd began to form around the blacksmiths storming towards the church, and, fearing the worst, Rioux, Otto and Adaerys tried to get ahead of them in the hopes of a calmer confrontation with Hali Evenus. Rioux allowed a smaller set into the hall while Otto kept the peace outside the door, and the monk and Moira took Hali to one side to confirm their fears. They wished for answers, but instead got an admission from Hali, who was afraid that, as an Elven priest, would never be able to find a community anywhere else, and so lied to the town to force them to stay. Even those sympathetic to Karver's cause were disgusted with Hali's conduct, but when Adaerys also mentioned that she was suspected of using her magical ability to kill Gwynyvy and move the body without a trace, an uproar ensued. Brenot Oltsmith was resolute that the Helcullens be the ones to dispense justice, as was their role, and so a terrified Evenus was escorted to the town centre, with Granger and Keith joining the entourage.

The adventurers gave their prosecution to Armick Helcullen, acting as an inquisitor, giving the trusted Brenot the talking points of their case. Hali tried to defend herself, admitting her deceit but refuting the charges of murder laid at her. Even this smaller admission was enough to terrify the crowd, now fearing that the last decades of religious practice had been worth nothing. Armick quickly lost control of the mob, and the outsiders threatening violence only poured oil onto the fire, with Karver and Maria and others taking turns to heckle the priest. A stone was thrown from the crowd at Hali, only deepening the chaos. Keith's threats to Karver infuriated Moira, and Otto failed to talk down Jean-louis before she took her bait. Utterly enraged, Moira took a torch and, almost certainly using a heretofore-unknown sorcery, dispersed the crowd by instantly lighting the tavern and setting the new flag of Taronsawk alight. She left as the crowd fled in panic.

Instantly, the party went to try and track down the dwarf, and Cairo could discern that she was hiding underground, beneath her house, beneath a purple angel door merged into the wooden floor. He and Rioux waited for hours for her to emerge while the others poked around her belongings and Taron Territ's grave, but eventually figured that if she didn't want to be found, she wouldn't be. Otto went around to see Arco surreptitiously, bidding what could be final goodbyes and taking the charge's gunblade, as Armick had decided that Arco should never see him again. Keith went for a checkup, too, attempting to steal that very same blade, and witnessing an ugly confrontation between the male Helcullens. With no weapon in sight, he struck up another deal with his patron: to kill Hali Evenus, being detained at the manor.

Rioux awoke seemingly convinced that Hali was dead, and while the rest of the party tried to convince the town of the benefits of magically produced food, they went to the Helcullens to see what happened. Armick gave a rote and disbelieved answer that Hali had taken a horse and left in the night for the good of the town. Rioux even inspected the cellar where she had been kept, finding it recently clean but otherwise with no trace. Armick wasn't believed in the least, but no one else had any other answers. Instead, they returned to the church, and began slowly taking over some of Hali's duties.

Everyone else at the stall took news from Frederique Loinet that Armick had tried to seize the peasants' food to flee immediately, as was his noble right, but that Karver led a group to threaten violent resistance, sending the lord back to plan further. Little else was done in the day, until Qitanen from the expedition arrived to tell the group that the next layer had been opened up, and that she was quitting immediately - she divulged to Cairo that it was because of what they had unearthed.

Immediately, in the morning, the party sped to Olson's Ruin before even checking in with the expedition, passing the time-turning Ark, walking through Alasandell, and lowering themselves into the next level, warded and protected by seals and holy cloths.

Beyond, lay a perfectly preserved and entirely white city, a dome of ancient but bleached civilisation deep within the earth, with a half-complete statue of Corel Lorethan at its centre. The party walked slowly through the alabaster abandonment, and went towards the nearest building, emblazoned with a sword. Inside were racks of armour, all white except a magical suit of chainmail, a bird-like humanoid statue, and two doors, one of which was easily opened by lighting some lanterns. A Watchman's Badge was looted and a filing cabinet abducted, and then the next room was found, containing a pile of dead, bleached, but undecomposed bodies, a Dwarven warning against further exploration... and the missing sword from the Glyptotheca. Otto took it, and immediately something started moving under the piles of bodies. The party fled, with Keith remaining to get a glimpse of the creature before slamming the door: it looked identical to the statue in the previous room. 

The sword was returned to the Glyptotheca, following a red trail that had appeared while the party was inside, and then the statue rose and held it aloft. Three more trails appeared, and the nearest building, some kind of bank, was interrogated, although little of immediate use was found. Otto's curiosity got the better of him, and he led the group to the unexplored door in the Sword building. As Keith tried to bash it down, the statue immediately started moving towards the interlopers. Everyone went on the attack: Granger fired a guiding bolt, Rioux pummelled it with magical fists, Otto blindly struck at it, Cairo ran, Adaerys tested its psychic resistances, and Keith finished it off with his maul. The next room was explored, although little more than evacuation instructions were found, and a mysterious key. The party left, satisfied that the Sword building had been investigated fully, and turned their attention to a new building, seeming to be some kind of courthouse...

===== Session 11: Being Watched =====
**22nd Dariksay**

The foyer was quickly brushed through, and the party found a bloody and cursed courtroom. Detritus floated in the air randomly, while coloured blood and mud coated the floors, and the entire room warped as if by heat. Statues with keyholes, a prisoner in the lazarettes and tight passageways were discovered by Otto and Granger, although the investigations were cut short when Rioux stumbled on a Mindwitness and it quickly began to attack with a variety of harming and charming rays. Rioux retaliated fast, but Keith delivered the final blows, aided by the usual complement of gunshots and sacred flames from the Cleric duo.

In the room beyond, a bailiff's office was found, with Keith swiping his wig, and everyone noting the bedrolls and chess board left in the room by the previous explorers. After a rest, Rioux found a secret door leading back to the foyer, and they continued debating their situation and their found artifacts as they wandered to the remaining building - until a shadow flew overheard, the occluding object moving too fast for anyone to see.

The final building was a tavern - Rioux crept ahead to peek through the windows to see inside, finding plates left on tables and three Watcher automata around the room (one seemingly chained to the wall). The whole party then entered, being careful not to run afoul of the Watchers' rules. They went to investigate a charcoal sketch nailed to the wall, finding it left there by the previous explorers. With the wisdom of Syl, Granger could identify it as a Dwarven team that Taron led, and Moira among the depicted pioneers. The investigations were cut short when the shadow returned, and Otto shot a glance to reveal it as a Beholder, melded in with the left-hand side of a Dwarf.

It too attacked with deadly beams, almost felling Otto, and in a horrifyingly slow crawl and despite everyone's best interventions, turning Granger into a stone statue. Adaraeys took cover behind a Watcher and, with a perfect dodge, baited a ray into it, causing the constructs to fly after the aberration, and buying the whole group time. Keith broke through the door at the back, and then everyone fled through to the basement, using the key found in the courtroon. A summoning circle was found, along with a note detailing a summoning ritual that Moira tried, long ago, to stop. Otto took a cloak from a dissected, bleached corpse. Comforting themselves that there were options to revive Granger, they were placed in the Surreptitious Storeroom, and it was decided that adventure, for now, should continue - especially as purple crystals and chess pieces were found in the room.

The party confirmed the coast was clear, and then sprinted for the courthouse, and Otto set up the game board. A Dwarven ghost appeared on the other side, known as Polos Karat, who was happy to chat while playing a game. A hundred-odd years ago, he and fifteen other Dwarven pioneers from their freshly-founded town of Dusidawk found these caves. A friend of theirs, Andren Bazat, had a plan to lure a beholder to the Poteus Ark to bypass its magical protection (which they guessed eventually led to the proliferation of demons and the Beholder's current state). Polos himself died fending off demons, expecting to die in unexpected honour while buying time for Taron to escape. Otto lost the chess game, but Polos was so glad for the company, he provided the code for the vault anyway. The party offered him the chance to join, and perhaps undo his part in causing the calamity that befell the Dwarves, and he was all too glad to accept.

In another sprint, they ran for the bank building, and quickly inputted the code. The vault door swung open, slightly, and a demon fused with a Watcher leapt forth - and was then roundly beaten back by Polos, Cairo, Rioux, and Otto. It was incapacitated by Adaraeys, and then finished off by Keith, after the Watcher asked for his maul to wound the demonic self with. Keith's Bane was the final straw, and the fiend's form collapsed soon after.

In the Vault beyond was the missing part of the Glyptotheca's chestplate, as well as a mural depicting the Watchers flying out of the Vault of Ahm. Its context and meaning was indecipherable to the party, however, falling out of Otto's historical recollection. When the piece was placed back into the Glyptotheca, the whole statue raised, revealing another relief, of unknown warriors of all shapes and sizes, with demons beneath them and meteors raining above them. Five more trails appeared, and the words on the side of the fountain were translated as "For the heroes summoned by Corel Lorethan, who fought but could not quell the tide."

===== Session 12: Demons Down There =====
**22nd - 23rd (?) Dariksay**

Of the new buildings discovered, Polos suggested visiting the tetrahedron-marked location first, which Keith hesitantly agreed to. That mark labelled an underground mine shaft and quarry, with a watcher named Contingency acting as a checkpoint within a foreman's office, seemingly checking for... something. An Angel Door blocked a side path, but at the end of the winding crevasse was a small but empty plinth marked, in multiple languages, as the "birthplace" of the Poteus Ark. Rioux, when attempting to find any secrets marked on the plinth, came across a note written in Dwarvish that told of a hand crank somewhere nearby, which Cairo reasoned was taken from the Bailiff's office in the Law building explored earlier. Keith found it trivially by upturning stones, while Polos sadly noted that the handwriting was Moira's.

Within the secret compartment in the bailiff's desk was a note sealed in a lead box, unaffected by the bleaching transformation. It told of the sentencing of a Lord Buldarne, popularly understood to have caused some kind of disaster related to the Poteus Ark, but whose true crime was attempting to reverse engineer its contents. The party found out that the chronomantic spell placed on the Ark was there to ensure that no universe could exist where the Ark had been opened — but debate raged as to if the Ark had or had not been opened once already, with the hasty note being ambiguously written.

The building marked with a cube held some kind of senate or assembly building, but it was afflicted with the same broken gravity as the courthouse. Rioux saw an occupant of the building, an elderly man dressed in a blue jacket, who disappeared once Rioux started asking questions of him. Otto went pale, identified the man as an officer of Akselmarch, and begged the party to swear that if they saw him again they would try and subdue him, if not kill him, for their own self preservation. Three of the side rooms were searched, revealing a key within an Imperator's statue, Polos's decomposed corpse, a plaque of sixteen names that Keith reckoned were those of the Shadowless spirits heard about earlier, and the code to the angel door.

After the third room was investigated, the party intended to search the fourth, but were interrupted by the Thing-that-was-once-Andren, a beholder merged with a demonic form of the oft-mentioned Dwarf. Safe within its anti-magic cone, they both studied each other, until Otto made the first move, attempting to leap towards it but failing to make purchase — it retaliated by instantly knocking Keith unconscious. Rioux suffered the cold of his armour while rousing him, and fled to the quarry. Polos tried to reason with whatever remained of his former comrade, but failed to make any headway, and even had his escape attempt interrupted. Otto dashed around the side of the courthouse for cover, and Cairo smashed a window for him and Keith to dodge through. It was the Cleric who began to fight back, with three fireball spells that rocked the floating creature and charred its skin. It began to flee, and as Otto and Keith attempted to shoot after it, it tried to snarl away the intruders by using its rays to turn the protective dome of Elfori multicoloured, stunning the onlookers.

Rioux found the angel door concealed a small burial closet, with one armoured figure and four other demon-twisted corpses that began to move and make for them, driving them to flee back behind the door. They gave a report once the rest of the party arrived, and the decision was made to take a rest, with time being uncertain within the eternally-bright city.

The rest was interrupted by the arrival of a lantern-bearing adventurer, presumably also after the Ark. Callie Reaver alerted Contingency and woke the group, and then randomly ran this way and that and began impulsively searching the party's belongings as they frustratedly tried to get a bead on her. Rioux was able to tease her name and purpose from her — she was not after the Ark itself, but the chronomantic magic that was protecting it. As none of the party was interested in this, they were begrudgingly happy to cut her a deal. The rest was finished, with Callie deciding to disappear and leave only the lantern, while Rioux forwent any sleep at all.

The next building, the one marked with a octahedron, was different — it was stained black, and held an irregular orb suspended above tar within it, as well as a statue of the Stranger inside. Within the orb's glass was the silhouette of a person, clearly reacting to their presence. Keith's patron immediately began commanding him to destroy the Coarctation within, and he duly complied, but neither his warhammer nor his blasts had any affect. Cairo and Otto tried to restrain him, but a hand reached from the tar to stop Otto and blobs intercepted Cairo's spells — until it was clear that Keith had no ability to damage the structure, at which point his Armour of Agathys disappeared, and Otto was free to tackle him. Everyone yelled to different amounts of escalation, and Cairo even burnt a spell slot to try and threaten mutually-assured destruction. Rioux was eventually able to get everyone to listen to each other, and after a heartfelt plea from Keith, they relented — in any event, none of them could damage the chains. Also within this building was an angelic abomination trapped behind a wall of force, a scroll that Callie quickly finessed, and a series of godly charms and statues protecting something that had later been ripped from the floor.

The party returned to clear up some loose ends. The body pit was quickly dispatched, and the new kleptomanic took a key from the neck of the unturned body. Otto recognised it as a name found on the abducted storage cabinets, and he used the key to obtain the Ad Hoc Warrant, taking the Watchman's Badge from Granger to do so. He attempted to use the warrant in the seemingly empty dodecahedral room, but a ghostly apparition confirmed what a note on the wall implied: to search Lord Buldarne's laboratory, a stronger warrant would be required. The final room of the parliament building was checked, and in and amongst increasing orders to mass bury the dead, was a dragon-shaped key, reminding everyone of the dragon statue found in the courthouse.

===== Session 13: Once So Silent =====
**23rd Dariksay**

The party sped to the Courthouse, failing to avoid Bazat's notice but surviving the journey, and Rioux used the key found to retrieve a small diamond, potentially useful in later spells. Otto read and re-read the warrant in as many places as he could, earning himself a gift of two magical lion statues.

Callie used the scroll-reader in the Sword building to illuminate a scientific report, telling of a chronomantic spell that allowed the Elves to have some idea of the contents of the Ark — and create something similar, called the Heavengate Merchant. While it pointed at many tantalising details, it was still frustratingly short in firm answers, and the party could come to no conclusions, and so decided to press on.

They took a break from warrant-reading to explore the final building, a mausoleum containing some elves who had elected to have themselves buried within the mechanical Watchers. The stone halls, floors, and ceilings were occasionally embedded with Angel statues — almost fifty all in all, by Rioux's count. One route was blocked with a steel door, containing various nodules in odd positions of which no heads or tails could be made. The other route required only the crystals from the tavern to unlock.

Otto entered a hall with a ceremonially-arranged Elven skeleton, from which a ghost rose and demanded his attention. This ghost, Lord Fjkrl, was a previous dictator of Elfori who despaired at what Otto assured him the city had come to. With a brief deception that Keith was involved in, a bargain was struck: Lord Fjkrl would relinquish the key to a full Statutory Warrant if he could be bested in honourable combat. With enthusiasm, the party agreed. Despite a cheating strike by the Elven lord, little challenge was posed. Cairo threw out several beams of fire, aiding Otto's gunblade in turning a Watcher lieutenant into scraps. Keith and Adaraeys hunted down the Lord, and then occupied themselves with destroying the ghosts of a Dwarf and a Dragonborn that he summoned. In the end, Rioux got the final blow, blasting the Fjkrl away with their astral might. He yielded, and delivered onto them the crystal chestpiece.

Taking a hint from the fallen lord, the party returned to ensure every possible route had been examined, and used the Ad-hoc Warrant to obtain the pattern needed for the other route in the Mausoleum. It revealed a dug-away hovel, where someone, left a Dwarven note guiding any "survivors" to Dusidawk and to Moira, presumably the note's author. Without anything else found, the party obtained the Statutory Warrant, and took it to the laboratory, where Otto used it to reveal the remaining facilities: a table, a basin for holy water, and a cage with an open door.

Otto walked into the cage to investigate, only for a ghostly figure to shut him in. While they and their appearing partner were hesitant to give any details and scared of their surroundings, the party pieced together that it was a vision of Moira and Taron from years ago. They could even confirm that Otto and Moira had the same locket. The two were getting ready to leave, apparently pursued by something, and Taron held a codex from which he was able to somehow deduce a path. When they tried to leave the building by the main exit, the Thing-that-was-once-Andren ambushed them — in both the vision and the real world. While the ghosts escaped through an angel door with the code Scapegrace, the adventurers elected to remain and fight.

It had learned from the last encounter, and tried to remain behind cover and to keep Adaraeys and Cairo under constant pressure. Even Otto was unable to get many clear shots on it. However, Keith was able to initially escape notice, and then dodge the anti-magic cone, and destroyed the grotesque form of the Beholder.

Otto found a key with the exile's rune on it — clearly intended for the Coarctation. When there, Cairo cast an experimental detection of evil or good, and discovered that something was certainly inside it, and that the nearby area was consecrated ground. Before he could makes this widely known, Otto turned the key, and the Coarctation began to sink into the tar. Soon after, the whole tar pit drained, revealing loose stones similar to those found before, as if the metal cage had sunk through the rock. As before, the party elected to return to the town to get the expedition's help with uncovering the next level.

Rather than leaving the way they came, the party left through the angel door coded to Scapegrace, revealing a colossal stone passageway stretching forwards for hours and hours. Faltering conversation started, stopped, faltered, and chugged along in turns for uncountable hours, until they came to an angel door at the other end. With no other option and turning back an unappealing option, the party resorted to giving out almost every possible word they had encountered in their archaeology. It was Keith who found the passphrase: ''Crypt''. On the other side was the burial plot of Taron outside town, being tended to by a pilgrim of Syl. He introduced himself as Anfang, a refugee from Arkadensmith, travelling the routes away from Akselmarch. It was an innocent interaction, were it not for his identical appearance, in vision and voice, to the figure that Rioux had seen in Elfori. However, he claimed no knowledge of a previous encounter, and soon the party departed to speak to Moira in the night. Otto, after a few paces, peeled off to return to the pilgrim.

On the way to Moira's, the party encountered Maria, bearing a lantern on patrol. She told of rising tensions, and foolish talk of a Helcullen plan to seize the town's grain to ensure unity in their future approach. The party knocked on Moira's door, returned the locket, and confronted her with what they knew. She danced between claiming no knowledge and trying to blow off the party's inquiries, only insisting they leave the Ark alone, but a heartfelt plea from Rioux, after so long and with so much evidence behind it, finally pierced her exterior. She returned the locket to its previous place, and began to tell the party what she knew.

===== Session 14: The Happy Fitz =====
**23rd - 25th Dariksay**

Otto returned to find Anfang, who begged him to take a seat, and he revealed the visions of Anfang in the cave with great trepidation. It became clear that Anfang knew much more of Akselmarch than a simple traveller could, including the recent death of the Rex, and he hinted that it might even be possible to re-enter the Empire soon. Still, he was reticent on personal details, although he did bizarrely ask Otto, who he got on well with, to shoo him away should any other copycat apparitions be seen.

To the other members of the party, Moira revealed all of Taronsawk that she could. She was one of the original pioneers who founded the town after a war between Strom-Merne and Strom-Kreft ended. She too was the first to find the Poteus Ark and discover its chronomantic spell. As she and her comrades had explored the ruins more, Andren Bazat thought to use a Beholder to bypass the seal. He seemingly succeeded, only to be transformed into a horrific demon, and to spread that curse to the hundreds of other Dwarves within then-Dusidawk. Moira was the last survivor, and she had been forced to put down Taron Territ by her own hand as he was mid-transformation. Stricken with grief and with her mind only on what-could-have-been, she still refused to leave, and now begged the party not to repeat the mistake and visit the same fate upon themselves.

Keith was unconvinced, expending no small social capital to fail to prove Moira had the book that Taron had used to manipulate the angel doors. He also (at least outwardly) ignored the risk of demonic transformation, and was able to slowly bring around everyone else to the view that opening the Ark could protect the people of Taronsawk from the true, greater evil responsible for the fiends and the possible curse upon the land. The party made up their mind to remain for now and complete their mission as quickly as possible. Keith and Cairo spoke of the Light (although, in the moment, Cairo could fail to summon many specific details) while Rioux tried to get to know the mysterious Callie that had entered the group's fold.
 
In Rioux's regular midnight vigil, they witnessed a pillar of flame scorch a warning into the town square, and take Maria Argsman from her home. They rushed to tell Armick Helcullen, and in the morning all was abuzz with the news that someone at Finrick's turtle expected their complete surrender. While the Olson expedition had decided to pull out of Taronsawk, the party managed to secure a tentative promise of backing from Armick Helcullen — although he too had decided to flee the town and protect his people as soon as he could. The party took Helcullen's horses, and sped South to Finrick's turtle.

The situation within the grey walls became clear quickly. A disliked landowner named Fitzroy had been visited with demonic power (supposedly from an angel) and used a magical staff to impose his will upon members of the village and declare himself King. He took the party as his hostages, wanting only Helcullen to come, and told them to make themselves comfortable in their captivity. They met Mary-Ann Sow, a blind witch and the previous resident of the castle; Infruír, a wandering dragonborn bested in combat by King Fitzroy; and Elf King Finrick, the castle's builder and now a spirit haunting the party. With Finrick's interruptions and a detection spell from Cairo, it became clear that the King could surveil the events in the castle through the enchanted turtle-shaped torch sconces that Mary-Ann was crafting, as long as the flame in them stayed lit.

With Keith distracting, Cairo and Rioux found Mary-Ann's gnarled cane, gave it to her, and read the message on its side asking them to remove her choker. They did, and finally she could speak frankly. She told them of Fitzroy's demonic power and of the spirit troubling the inahbitants — but also of a creature beneath the castle that both Finrick and Fitzroy remained afraid of, which the party made their next priority. In addition, they freed the motivational foreman, Ammon, from his blade's curse, while Keith and Cairo encountered more of Finrick's tricks.

When the party attempted to enter the well, having found two couplets of some kind of poem, King Fitzroy appeared to try and prevent them, sealing the shaft with fire. Cairo dove down the well anyway, shocking Fitzroy enough that he could get past. Rioux and Otto pounced. The monk held Fitzroy's arms while Otto wrenched the staff from him — only to uncover that the staff itself was a misdirection, and that Fitzroy had retained his power. Rioux dove into the well, suffering great harm as a result, while Otto attempted to duel Finrick, getting in one good hit before he was stopped by the loyal Ilfruír. Keith, spurning Elf King Finrick's apparition, grabbed Otto and saved them both by teleporting deeper into the well...

===== Session 15: Fire In My Brain =====
**25th – 26th Dariksay**

Rioux found a small tunnel leading out of the well's basin, and once everyone else had arrived in the acrid water, the party led themselves in Elf King Finrick's old and secret study. While most of the party investigated the desks and models, Rioux and Cairo explored the archaic and cryptic writings of Finrick on policy and rulership. When Cairo tore one of these documents in half carelessly, the ghost itself was summoned. It was stayed, by Rioux's begging and Keith's infested threats, to stay back for long enough for the party to learn two key facts: his ghost was still here because it wished to drive out interlopers; and Finrick used to be a wiser, more just king that would have easily recognised Fitzroy as a pretender and fool. Rioux read his own words back to him, and the wind was taken instantly out of his sails. His temper fell, and he muttered that something dangerous beneath the castle called Gyre Carline was locked away, before disappearing into his exhaustion.

The path downwards was locked, and the key was around a Tortle statue precariously close to a magma chamber. After a wise rest, the party engaged the statue, which quickly sprung into life. The party's strongest attacks found no purchase on it, so Otto grappled it and wedged its arm away so Callie could lift the key from its neck. It pursued relentlessly, until Otto dragged it away, and Rioux eventually pushed it into the magma. With the threat removed, the party progressed downwards, into a chamber filled with dead demons that seemed to have once been Dwarven children.

Beyond, was Gyre Carline. Callie's devilsight revealed its full form, of a huge swamp creature with elongated arms and rough jaws, and a single cyclopean eye. In a whispering voice, it promised great power and destruction to the party, but it was locked behind indestructible metal bars. Everyone, especially Rioux, was wary of its promises of rampant destruction and its nature as a capricious fey creature twisted into a demonic form: no matter what, they seemed to lack the ability to release it. Further exploration revealed a huge magma pool with a portrait of Elf King Finrick inside of it, undoubtedly how Fitzroy controlled him.

When Callie flew magically to retrieve it from the boiling rock, Finrick's Turtle leapt from the magma, now with its armour seared off. Callie, Cairo, and Otto unleashed their full might at it while Rioux threw darts from the basalt shore with surprising ability and precision. A risky move to fly over it by Callie almost brought her into the lava: Cairo's reactions failed to rescue her, while Rioux's spectral arms caught the warlock just in time. Keith was completely unaware of the battle, and tried to free Gyre Carline behind the party's back: he found an invisible lock, but failed to destroy it. Otto, with a well-placed shot, felled the animated guardian.

With Finrick freed and returned to his full power, he pledged to help the party remove Fitzroy, and he revealed that the riddle the party had found fragments of would unleash Gyre Carline. Keith thought he had it, but before he could speak the answer aloud, Cairo cast a silence spell, to allow a full discussion. Keith and Callie wanted the fey's power: Rioux and Cairo would never unleash a demon. Otto was the swaying voice, but was eventually pulled to the Clerics' side: with dissatisfaction, the party turned in for the night. While they rested, Cairo shared his prayerbook with Keith, who noted down one close to his heart.

In the morning, Keith and Callie, under invisibility, snuck to Mary-Ann Sow's tower, and enlisted her help in striking against Fitzroy now. While everyone took positions hidden in a bush, Sow summoned a huge illusion of Gyre Carline. The plan was for them to use the distraction to sneak the witch to her tower to produce a greater illusion to scare him outside while the rest of the party took positions. However, Fitzroy was more cowardly than expected, and instantly ran from his boarded-up keep to enlist help from the guards. Once he saw through the illusion, Otto immediately sprung to almost disembowel him while Keith swung wildly with his hammers. Callie and Cairo ran above the keep, speeding to the tower just in case it was required anyway, and through Fitzroy's wild flaming attacks. Rioux ducked in and out of cover to make strikes on Fitzroy, while Cairo kept the innocent away with a wall of fire. Fitzroy wasn't felled in time, but Finrick's intercession and horror kept him from annihilating the party at once. Keith struck the last hit on the Peasant King, and did so non-lethally, hoping to interrogate him as to his power later.

===== Session 16: Look To The Sky, Where The Sign Will Be Shown =====
**26th – 28th Dariksay**

Fitzroy was bound and gagged, and was interrogated as soon as he was roused by a fly-shrouded Keith. He told (under Cairo's zone of truth) how he had been approached by an angel and given Ahm's mastery over demons to stand against Akselmarch (although enslaving his town and occupying the Turtle was his own idea). Keith's blood ran cold when he revealed the name of the angel: Aristotle. The town gave the party the gold that Fitzroy had stolen as thanks, and Otto negotiated a deal whereby the party would take Fitzroy to Armick Helcullen and would avoid leading Taronsawk to their own town, in exchange for a small donation of grain. With Mary Ann Sow left in charge of her tower again and Fitzroy and Maria in tow, the party set off for Taronsawk once again. In the night, Keith asked his patron why he had given greater power to Fitzroy than he had to Keith: Aristotle replied that he simply needed the heroes distracted from Taronsawk for a few days, and that he had no need for a soldier in Jean-luc anymore.

In the pouring rain, the party rode back to Taronsawk in the evening to find the whole town in church. Cairo and Rioux told Armick of all that transpired, and everyone cheered the return of Maria. He too had his own news for the adventurers: Karver had discovered a map of the highest level of Olson's Ruin, and it indicated there were easily-openable tunnels leading South, to friendly and live Dwarven towns that could accept the town if they ever needed to flee. The town could remain in place longer with this new escape route opened, seemingly a solution that satisfied, for now, everyone. Upon hearing the news, Rioux suddenly collapsed in a state of shock, claiming they had received a vision of Ahm that portented doom for the town.

Rioux excused herself to a cloister while everyone went their ways for the evening: Keith to drink, Callie to patrol, Otto to wait for Rioux, and Cairo to investigate a wide perimeter of the town to search for Moira, glimpsing her briefly in a flash of lightning. The Tabaxi discovered that the graves of the Dwarves had been exhumed, including Taron Territ's, and concluded that Karver had taken the map from the graves. When he looked at the stone again, he saw that the writing had somehow transformed: Thaurivald translated it as "REMEMBER US, THAT ONCE LIVED" and pointed out that it contained the mine sign for The Fleeing Dark, a Dwarven sign of finality.

The party reconvened, and Rioux explained what had happened earlier: they had received a vision of the town ensared in black tendrils, stretching from ground to cloud, and they knew from similar such visions that this foreshadowed great calamity. The party attempted to piece together the meaning, believing that it possibly indicated an Akselian attack, but still concluded that the tunnels in Olson's Ruin was the town's greatest chance at survival. Later in the evening, a tearful Moira reappeared to Cairo, to discuss the Light and whether or not every sacrifice made in service of a goal was truly worth it: she was consumed by thoughts of turning back time using the Poteus Ark to before Taron had died.

While they talked, and Keith dreamed of the Fleeing Dark, the fires from Akselmarch started at the break of dawn. A cloud of red-hot shot descended through the air, with seven striking Taronsawk: one hit the tavern, and Moira disappeared in the carnage; others tore through the ground and farmsteads. Keith and Cairo attempted to tend to the wounded while Rioux went to find Moira at her house unsuccessfully. Otto took a second to survey the situation while Armick Helcullen gave the order for the town to arm themselves, and reasoned that the shots came from over the Wall, and that no attack was imminent. Armick readied to fight in case an attack would hit immediately, but hearing from Otto that there was indeed a window, he instead gave the order to retreat. He had seen someone struck directly by a shot from Akselmarch's Gonnes, and had no faith that Akselmarch would wait for them to dig their escape tunnel.

Keith and Cairo failed to contain this order, so Karver took it upon himself to physically stop Armick Helcullen, thinking that their pact had been broken: he told his supporters to get the grain stored in Maine-Roche so that the Helcullens could not unilaterally order a retreat. Armick waited for Karver to lead his supporters away, before killing the man who had apprehended him, and calmly gave the order to the remaining villagers to start fires in the houses of those seeking to break into his manor: they who wanted to stay would not allow their homesteads to burn while they attempted to breach the manor. Cairo attempted but failed to scare them off from this purpose with a //Wall of Fire// while still convincing some of those at Maine-Roche that fires had indeed started. Keith threatened Helcullen to stop his course, but neither man would back down, and Armick attacked. Cairo used a harming spell on Armick to try and force him to back down, but the spell ran wild, and he died in utter disbelief at the creatures that had let themselves loose on his town. Moira watched all of this happen, and resolutely decided to run for the Poteus Ark and undo all the errors that had transpired. She delivered a //Divine Smite// to Cairo, and warned the party not to try to stop her plans, before disappearing behind an Angel Door that hung in the air.

===== End of Chapter: Heaven And Earth, And The King On His Throne =====
**28th – 29th Dariksay**

Otto sent his raven to warn the Main-roche manor about the incoming attackers, while Keith and Rioux attempted to inspect the angel statue while being frustrated by Maria and the other townsfolk. She refused to let up her attacks and had to be subdued by Rioux, but the angel door was inert, and so the party rushed to Moira's home, breaking through the floor to follow her through her tunnel and stopping her sealing sigils. Otto sent his raven ahead to see if Moira was rushing to the Poteus Ark, but all this served to do was alert the Dwarf to their presence. She sealed the tunnel briefly, and while Rioux and Cairo tore it open, Keith was given one more chance by Aristotle to redeem himself by following his orders later.

The party pursued through Poteyenheim, Gilvalur's Workshop, and Elfori, encountering Moira's angel door shortcuts at each turn, until they found the passage through stone allowing her access to the laboratory beneath. With no way through, Keith attempted to dig through the stone (aided by Cairo's golden lions) as others tried to deduce everything they could about the angel doors, with Cairo and Rioux and Callie failing to make any traction. At Keith's suggestion, they sought the mausoleum full of Angel doors, and realised that they were arranged in a perfect grid, and that Moira could reveal one at any point whenever she liked to cover her tracks and bore passages. As they dug, Cairo resigned themselves to reading Ahmic scripture, inadvertently opening the door with the name of //Bahamut//. They followed into the Elven chamber beyond, where the Coarctation beat quietly.

Keith attempted to destroy it at Aristotle's command, but failed to dent it. Moira stepped out of the shadows and revealed that she had already tried, and that the Angel Doors seemed to be some kind of Elven containment mechanism around the Poteus Ark, a backup for the chronomancy. Keith listened but only had eyes for destroying the heart: he struck it and struck it as Rioux failed to stop him and Callie frustrated Cairo's own intercession. Neither Keith nor Otto were able to leave a single scratch on it: at Aristotle's command and after his failed persusaion of the others, Keith gave over his hammer to Moira, who was able to damage the Coarctation with righteous rage. This triggered the sanctuary's defences, a shadowy titan that instantly evaporated those struck by its weapon. Keith and Moira were struck first, and while Callie and Rioux were able to keep away and inflict genuine harm on it, they too quickly fell.

Keith, Callie and Otto awoke in a drizzling field, next to a huge manor. Within was Otto's Akselian teacher, Friedrich Durchdenwalf, seemingly awaiting him for the first time. They duelled, and Otto showed his surprising prowess, before the Demon of Bahamut burst in, quickly fighting them again and killing Friedrich. Cairo and Rioux appeared in a Light-blessed cave on the eve of Cairo's baptism into the Light, but tried to put this aside them as they explored their new Hollowsmerian surroundings. An Elven missionary led Cairo to the cave (with the guards convinced by Rioux's new vestments), but all convivialities were interrupted by the Demon's arrival, alongside an avalanche. It was being weakened, however, by Keith's armour, Otto's gunshots, Callie's blasts, Rioux's strikes, and Cairo's necrotics spells, the latest of which caused a permanent mark on its voided figure.

Next, Callie and Rioux were sent to the Craftsman, Callie's patron, who quickly displayed with a gruesome execution of Callie that the party were being sent to doomed timelines created by the Ark's openings, and that the Demon of Bahamut was persuing them across these consequenceless realms. He //did// tell them that the Chronophage could be controlled as it was weakened, and that he was happy to help them to help his own "real" equivalent out. He sent Rioux and Callie to weaken the Demon as it attempted to breach his sanctum. Keith, Cairo, and Otto were sent to La Pira, the capital of Iyator, the day of the revolution. Keith realised this quickly and tried to skip, but ran into his brother, the policeman René, who believed that his pursuit was at an end. He accused Jean-Luc of fratricide: and he admitted it was true, and that he had killed his brother to get the hammer capable of destroying the Coarctation for Aristotle, before feeling great shame at how easily he surrendered it. However, the Founding Sin soon happened, and the Demon arrived as the Grenadiers turned on René and civilians alike. Quickly it was able to travel the party once more.

Rioux and Otto appeared outside the outskirts of Taronsawk, and Rioux tried to explain how they had managed to choose their destination. Moira had also appeared alongside them, covered in blood and grime, and tried to attack before the Demon appeared once again. Callie had chosen to travel to the moment of their meeting with the rest of the party, and Cairo and Keith were drawn into it as well, quickly earning the attacks of the paranoid past adventurers before the Demon burst out once more. Cairo convinced his past self to attack it, but was attacked himself once he ran out of luck: the Chronophage tore past Keith in half under similar encouragement, allowing the prime Jean-Luc to recover a copy of the warhammer he had given to Moira. They all accepted their next hits, and all decided to arrive at the same place: the Coarctation, in the present.

Keith drew the warhammer, and finally found his spine, demanding concessions of Aristotle for the shit he had gone through. Aristotle showed genuine outrage and fear as, one by one, the party backed up Keith against his cruel patron — only for his first and final hammer swing to prove only that they had ignored Moira's presence. She swung her own warhammer at the Coarctation, and the world blazed white as it shattered.

----

//Out steps the figure that had been appearing before them multiple times already, that of Rex Anfang Akselmarch, the Emperor. He thanks them for their efforts, and wonders, given how much he has already achieved trapped in stasis, how much he can now achieve unleashed.//

----

The sanctuary began to rumble, and Keith forced Moira to lead them out. The earthquakes buried the Demon of Bahamut and, when they emerged in Poteyenheim to stop Rex Anfang from reaching the Ark, another tremor knocked it off its plinth, proving the time trap around it had ended. Rioux naturally scooped it up, and the party elected to return to Taronsawk, lacking anywhere else to go. Rioux locked the Ark in the Storeroom on the way: but when the party arrived they arrived to an aftermath, with all of the townsfolk either dead or escaped in a petty battle that they had missed. An Akselian Feldjaeger sat by a banner, confused that there was no one to surrender to: the Fourth Lehtion was badly running out of supplies, and needed to ally itself with powers beyond the wall to survive. Otto sent him on his way and then translated the encounter: the realisation that Akselmarch was never going to attack broke Moira, and Rioux had to lead her away, sobbing to her house, before glumly returning.

The only matter left was that of the Ark. Rioux and Cairo both wanted to physically take it away, while Keith had been taken advantage of to release the Akselian Rex. Otto and Keith did, however, think it was best for them to open it, secluded, instead of allow it to be opened by anyone else: a plan that Rioux assented to after a prayer to Ahm. Cairo resisted, but the monk snapped the box open in the church before anyone could react, revealing it to be absolutely plain, bare, and empty. As Aristotle helpfully informed Keith, whatever treasures and curses it contained within had already been taken by Andren Bazat decades ago — and nothing could have ever come of their quest.

Cairo wrote of these events to their Light clade, while Rioux through mad laughs remained in the church, praying. Keith, Otto, and Callie left, to continue burying the dead, utterly unsure of where to go next.