8-3-22 – 8-5-22CR: The party travels back to its new Twin Falls headquarters in the MossbackMountains.  They spend the night of 8-5-22 discussing plans, and decide to enter the portal and explore whatever lies beyond. 

8-6-22CR: In the morning, after eating a hearty breakfast cooked by Balale in the traditional Malo style, the heroes enter the portal and encounter an octagonal room with well-crafted stonework. The room has 8 portals, numbered correspondingly and consecutively with 1 and first seven prime numbers: 3, 5, 7, 11, 13, 17, 19.  They are attacked by an overwhelming force of undead led by Iljaerus, another intelligent skeletal being that is inclined to taunt them.  The mysterious identity of the undead conspirators that have been working against Falgenor is finally revealed: they are the Cymos clan, a criminal syndicate of necromancers from Moridar thought to have perished centuries ago.  The gates and octagonal room are their creations, and they were apparently Miarch’s and Gal’aek’s employers.

The Cymos clan formally introduces itself to the heroes and demands that Balale return the controlling gatestone (the amulet that was formerly embedded in Kir-Jae-Kor’s head).  Balale defiantly tosses the gatestone into the open gate behind him, denying the Cymos necromancer that which he most desires.  Now enraged, Iljaerus proves to be a deadly foe, and Severician is quickly killed by a spell from him which sucks her life essence abruptly from her body.  Kaso is nearly killed as well while fighting a delaying action to allow the rest of the heroes to retreat.  The party quickly retreats through the portal and attempts to recover from its first sound defeat at the hands of the Cymos Clan.  However, Balale’s quick thinking seems to have denied the Cymos the use of their own gate system and transferred control of the gates to the party – at least, those gates for which they possess a key crystal.  So there is a silver lining to the dark cloud of defeat which has fallen over the heroes with Severician’s death.

Further, while searching Severician’s corpse, Delsin discovers a hitherto unknown (cloaked by powerful magic) secret: for some time, the dark priestess has been carrying around a small bag of holding containing a pair of goblets which radiate powerful divine magic and appear to be sacred to Jenoic, in his aspect as the Walker Beside.

8-7-22CR: After the defeat in the gate room, the party meets the 4 confused “humans” from their encounter at Strudoor, who have traveled from that town to their headquarters to parlay with the heroes.  They are actually four “Nogroth,” a race of civilized humanoids from Asarya’s west coast, who have now been returned to their original forms.  The Nogroth – who were named so in old fireside tales of Talirae, but who call themselves the Vasx (pronounced “vaash”) – were cared for by the temple of Arinna in Strudoor because the party was kind to them.  These beings are the same four who attempted to intervene during the battle with Volgaren in the warehouse yard on the night of the Darkening, back on 6-2-22CR. Their names are Zalad, Khun, Krael and Sephrel (the leader and spokesman).

The Vasx are angry at the party for interfering but also grateful for their unexpected kindness.  They first thought the party might be rivals in Korelith’s factions (rivals of Volgaren and Miarch); now they are unsure what to think, so they are observing.  They are difficult to bargain with, and are very suspicious of humans due to events surrounding the continent of Sen’ry’ar and the Lord of Air and Darkness (Alec Al-Zaneida).  Alec’s people had a magical and technological rivalry with the Vasx that escalated into open war; the Vasx were persecuted by and driven into the sea caves and coastal shallows of the Sen’ry’arn west coast.  They do not trust humans who cannot demonstrate “ishnyo” a strange combination of honor and sacrifice for the good of the kin-house before self, and cunning self-promotion and greed within the bounds of decency. 

They discuss their leader Khaedoor’s desire to return artifacts of the gods to the life energy of the planet by destroying them physically.  The party declines the Vasxs’ offer to undertake an artifact hunt for them to the far northern reaches of Talirae, north of Caladan forest near the orc nation Malok-Gorthai, but they leave open the possibility of further dealings in the future. 

8-8-22 – 8-12-22CR: Satisfied by their recent triumphs, the heroes relax in their new Twin Falls headquarters and explore the surrounding area.  The surrounding countryside is fertile and abundant, with many fruit trees, wild herbs and edible fungi growing downriver past the ravine, and there is a reasonable population of wild game including venison, pheasant, mountain goat and wild turkey.  The heroes also work on their combat coordination and team tactics, developing a silent system of hand signals and body language to more easily communicate to one another in the heat of battle.

8-13-22 – 8-14-22CR: The heroes decide to further investigate the octagonal room since they appear to have control of its activation keystone.  Balale scrys the area and determines that it is as safe as possible, and they re-enter the portal at the Twin Falls headquarters with the intent to see where the three gates they have access to will lead. 

The gate marked #3 is discovered to lead to an abandoned stone ruin, in the hills 3 miles outside Jordheim – the exit gate is camouflaged in small underground bunker near the dark goblin caves formerly inhabited by Gal’aek and his minions.

            The gate marked #13 leads back and forth from the Twin Falls headquarters itself. The heroes seem able to access it at will by using the gatestone amulet that was embedded in Kir-Jae-Kor’s forehead.

            The #7 gate leads them to Volgaren’s hidden staging area in the Riverwall district – a building across the main street from the Old River Company warehouse yard that they have already thoroughly explored. However, it is now obvious how Volgaren and Miarch were able to enter Falgenburg undetected at will.

8-15-22CR: In the early afternoon the heroes enter the #1 gate (which is activated by the crystal formerly embedded in Miarch’s sword “End of Hope”), uncertain where it will lead them.  They emerge from the gate into a sewer tunnel, and after a brief search of the tunnel they discover a hatch leading upward which seems to be in regular use.  They enter the hatch and find themselves in a well-appointed wine cellar, but before they can explore the cellar an orc blademaster and three half-orc flunkies emerge from behind some crates and attack.  The heroes fight furiously after being caught flat-footed, and they manage to cut down the orc and his allies.  Proceeding upstairs, they realize that they are inside a large public house, and that the establishment they’ve breached seems to cater to underworld types and various other off-color personalities.  They come up from the basement levels into the main floor area and are met by the publican, a striking human female with a dangerous air about her.  Her appearance gives away her identity: Thentis correctly identifies her as Lady Amyrantha, a well known Falgenorn veteran who now runs the Bloom & Pony Public House.  Amyrantha politely suggests the party follow her upstairs for a private meeting in her offices, and they follow without a struggle.

            Once inside, Lady Amyrantha angrily scolds the party for its impetuous breaching of her privacy and asks them not to return to the Bloom & Pony.  She seems to be aware that they are the ones who killed Miarch and is none too happy about that development, but makes no overt threats against them.  She demands monetary compensation for the raising of her blademaster L’Garsh, in the amount of 5000 gold pieces, which the party bargains down to 3000 gp – since it was the orc and not they who drew steel first, Amyrantha grudgingly agrees to their terms.  They are quickly escorted out of the pub with a reminder that they are not welcome inside now or ever.

            Now at loose ends, the heroes eat a satisfying meal at Jhalo’s Fish Bar in the Riverwall district and discuss their plans for the immediate future.  They agree that more power and knowledge will be needed if they are to eventually engage the Cymos, and decide to leave Falgenburg for a time to seek their fortune elsewhere.

The Heroes of Falgenor