First things first, though. It would not be subtle to walk about town with an animated stove. Stopping by Hope's mentor, they asked him to watch the stove for now. The sage agreed, and so the party ventured to the archway which houses the barracks of the Knights of the Coronade to talk to Sir Richard and possibly talk to the captured dragonborn that apparently started the blaze.
Sir Richard was willing to confide what he knew of the situation with the dragonborn. The unadorned metal artefacts recovered from the amateur arsonist were both examples of prinsteel. This metal has never been worked or crafted according to any records available, but pieces of this material show up infrequently. They come in various shapes, such as tubes, boxes, cones and plates. Somehow these metal relics do not radiate as magical, but are capable of producing effects that can be described in no other way.
Sir Richard warned the party of his conundrum. Finding dangerous items like these within the walls of Bellstone Keep is a significant matter that should be brought to Baron Xenith's attention. However, dragons have behaved erratically and in highly destructive fashion in the past upon gaining possession of prinsteel objects. The name itself is both a play on the word pristine (due to the unmarred surface) and because the first dragon to take a keen interest in these devices was Prince Forgotten ("the prince's steel"). As son of the then-dragon emperor, the Prince was able to collect a vast number of prinsteel devices, but at some point the silver dragon gathered up maybe a dozen or so of these strange implements and went on a violent rampage. He first slew his father and much of the emperor's court. Declaring himself the new Dragon Emperor, he then flew quickly across the land, destroying swaths of large cities and obliterating isolated hamlets. The other dragons eventually killed the prince and secreted away all recovered prinsteel. This tragedy took place over a thousand years ago, but even with their power and control of the world, the dragons could not eliminate knowledge of this material. They never speak openly about prinsteel or how it affects them, and Sir Richard cannot be sure what the Baron knows. The lead knight cannot even guess if Xenith might already possess any examples of this metal within his trove.
So the loyal knight confides to the party that once his investigation of the housefire is complete, he will likely have to disclose the existence of the cone and panel to the Baron. The report itself will take many days to prepare, but sooner or later Sir Richard must update Baron Xenith about what started the fire.
Armed with new knowledge, the party was allowed to see the dragonborn that began the whole fiasco. He lay on the floor of the cell, being too bulky for knights to lift his limp form up onto a cot. Nothing spoken or done to the prisoner elicited a response of any kind. Even bringing the prinsteel cone into contact with the comatose dragonborn changed nothing.
Disappointed with the mixed success so far, the party pointedly altered Sir Richard that they intended to next speak with Rozazco. Traveling to his mansion, they party was ushered in by a servant, their arrival having been anticipated.
Inside, the party began the interview by placing the nobleman under a zone of truth. While some of his responses were evasive, at no point did Hope receive notice from the spell that Rozazco had blatantly lied.
They learned that the house was indeed used for smuggling. In the event of some mishap that risked discovery of the entire operation, all pertinent documents were to be destroyed and the residents instructed to wear a special magical hat to protect themselves. The hat would obliterate the last year of the wearer's memories, so in a way they were protected by this inflicted ignorance from being drawn into any protracted investigation of the smuggling operation.
Rozazco had become aware that some entity or group was running an independent smuggling operation, but he had little information about their goals or methods. He spoke of a passage leading from the house to a network of underground rooms, but the large stone slab concealing the stairway down proved too problematic. However, he determined that the underground rooms were now being utilized by the independent smugglers and had arranged for a massive bone golem to spring into existence the next time that the entrance was tampered with. It sounds like that part of his plan went off without a hitch, forcing the five smugglers to fight the creature before being able to escape under the stone slab.
Armed with Rozazco's information, the party took the day to prepare for exploring the network of rooms described by Rozazco. Once rested and prepared, the party returned to the damp and smokey building to find the underground passage. The stone slab was lifted with relative ease and the party proceeded below the house.
The first room confirmed some suspicions. The two missing smugglers from the fire were lying lifeless on the ground. No wounds were immediately visible, but closer inspection revealed a small puncture wound under the left arm, conveniently close to the heart. Both had died from poison. Two sets of human-sized prints and a smaller set of prints led down one of the hallways.
Continuing through the halls, Ali sensed a briny tang to the smell of the air. Once alerted, the rest of the party could tell that they were near some sizable quantity of salt water. The next few rooms revealed cots for dozens, all currently empty, personal items strewn casually about. Nothing in the rooms indicated violence had taken place.
In the second of these barracks, a halfling rogue was found hiding far in the back. Hatcher had escaped the drow by being invisible. The halfling had drunk a potion of invisibility back when the fire first broke out and the rogues headed below the house to ask the drow what to do next. Apparently the drow had been constructing crates of unenchanted dampine to ship Rozazco's magic items and then absconding with the wood once the nobleman's network had transported the crates into the city. All previous shipments of dampine were sent to these underground rooms, but none had been requested for many weeks. Along with Markus and Jerhro, Hatcher had defeated the bone golem and survived the fight. Once underground, the drow waiting for them shot the two visible smugglers with poisoned crossbow bolts and left. Hatcher couldn't move the stone slab alone and didn't know what to do once the potion's effect wore off.
Satisfied with the information received, the party released fortunate smuggler, who quickly fled to the surface. The party found a few more rooms that showed recent evidence of habitation, but no bodies or evidence of a fight.
The doors up to that point had been light in colour. Now a dark coloured door barred their path. Going through, the sleeping area had a different feel, and the party surmised that the drow sequestered themselves to this section of the complex. Again, the room showed evidence of part activity but gave no clue to the current location of its occupants.
The group then opened another black door. The room was featureless except for a tapestry featuring a strange spider-woman hybrid. Easily recognizable as drow-crafted, the party examined the wall behind the hanging to find a secret door.
This room bore the obvious marks of arcane activity. A red circle was painted on the floor, marked with abstract symbols. But those symbols, once under scrutiny, appeared to be selected almost at random, being an odd mixture of draconic signs, dwarven runes, elven words, and other nonsensical characters. But even if the script was gibberish, the circle still radiated illusion magic. Some of the party ventured cautiously into the circle, but learned nothing more. But once the drow sorceress stepped over the center of the circle, a magnificent display of magical light and sparkles engulfed the circle, and when it subsided, those near the entrance of the room could no longer see the party members who had ventured through the circle.Yet those party members found themselves in the same room, still able to see their compatriots across the chamber. For whatever reason, the circle is activated by the presence of a drow and serves to obscure the presence of those on the far side of the room.
Pushing through the invisible barrier, the party searched the blank wall behind the circle and discovered another secret door, this portal much better disguised than the last one. Once open, the smell of salt water was unmistakable as the party peered into the inky depths of a natural cavern.
~Tidwin
12/31/16
