Thursday, January 25, 653 AU, continued

• They haul Tephug’s prisoners, who are still unconscious, up to the upper level of the dungeons with the Sarlana’s prisoners (who are also still unconscious).
• Exhausted from their fight and from hauling bodies up several flights of stairs, they take a short rest. During this rest, several of the Sarlana prisoners begin to awaken as the sleeping drug wears off. They are:
  • Knubnep, a wealthy gnomish jeweler who was taken from his home on December 13th and thrown here. He says he’s done some embezzlement, but the guards haven’t even questioned him—he has no idea why he was imprisoned.
  • Cleellbeec, another wealthy gnome known as a dealmaker among the guilds in the city. He says Aubade is a bad influence on the Duke and Duchess, and thinks Telmir’s devolution of power to the town guard was Aubade’s idea. In fact, says Cleellbeec, everyone in the prison has spoken out against Aubade at one point or another. He also didn’t like Talesse because he thought the Shining Citadel would become more involved in Telmir’s church. (He was worried that it would be bad for his business… which is selling religious artifacts… which the more proactive Citadel church might disrupt.)
  • Tiarsus Caira, an elf who serves as a liason between Amyanthalas and Telmir. Her uncle was Orion Demodokos, one of the nobles of Tel’Arisse who was assassinated by Marenora and whom Aurelia revivified. She’s also spoken out against Talesse for being the queen’s lapdog.
  • Thallan Anzana, a half-dark elf who conducts trade with Thamior. He doesn’t care much about the inner workings of the church, but he does know about the Haedel family. In fact, he met Valya sixty years ago at a gala. He mentions that there is a debate among the nobles of Thamior about what to do with the estate, since the heirs are elsewhere and possibly murderers.
  • Camus Greyswallow, a human who ran charities for the church of Soleil. He also was on bad terms with Talesse and planned on opposing her candidacy out of fear that the church in the Shining Citadel would gain more control over the church of Telmir and thus its finances—Ingesin stayed out of church politics.
• They break the prisoners out of their manacles, but they’re all still trapped by the antimagic field and the heavy door.
• Thallan brings up the rumors around Valya and her family, which restores Valya’s recent memory loss and ruins her mood. Valya is surprised to see Rylvah, who she says was her great grandmother’s familiar.

⁂

• An hour passes, but Leander still hasn’t saved them. Valya realizes she has a cape that allows her to cast dimension door, and Tephug’s lair is outside the antimagic field! She takes Qhask “fifty feet down the hall from the door to the prison”.
• They peek around the corner and see that the door to the prison is guarded by two of the shiny metallic estate guards. Qhask also notices Leander peering around another corner at the guards, but Leander doesn’t see Qhask.
• Qhask sneaks around to Leander and tells him to plan for a fight. During the fight, they manage to open the door to the prison. The guards manage to kill Valya, but Aurelia revivifies her, and eventually the Dawnbringers finish the guards off.
• The Sarlanas’ prisoners carry some of Tephug’s still-unconscious prisoners out of the prison and lay them down on the floor. The Dawnbringers leave the prisoners to see if there’s a clear way out. They wonder whether the regular guard is in on the conspiracy. Vayla uses Neesha’s gift to cast Alustriel’s mooncloak to heal the party, then storm up to the Duke and Duchess’s chambers to demand an explanation.
• In the Ducal chambers, the Duke and Duchess seem to genuinely have no idea the Dawnbringers were trapped in the dungeon. They determine that the Duchess was ordered by the queen to “fix the situation with the church in Telmir”, but that resorting to murder was the Duchess’s own initiative. The Duke, for his part, thinks that all the prisoners in the dungeon are Wood Scorpion sympathizers.
• The Duke and Duchess refuse to hear anything negative about Aubade—the Dawnbringers think they’re being manipulated by Aubade.
• Aubade enters, and the party gets into a confrontation. It turns out Aubade is a powerful aberrant entity aligned with the Comets, subtly mind-controlling the Duke and Duchess for his own ends, and he attempts to kill the party.
• Aubade is so powerful that the Dawnbringers are actually losing a battle for once—they escape thanks to Azakon, who has finally woken up, teleporting them out of the palace.

⁂

• They suffer considerable damage as the teleportation goes awry (centuries have passed), but they find themselves in the ruins of a farmhouse on the outskirts of Telmir.
• Azakon doesn’t know much more than the party does about the Comet, but confirms that Queen Oriel should know what Raymond knew. Azakon knows there is a creature beneath Telmir, which caused them to make The Shining Citadel the capital instead. He’s glad that the nothic eye potion exists—by the time he was captured by Tephug, no cure had yet been found. He hopes the queen has something more powerful and permanent than the potion.
• Azakon says he was captured by Tephug because he was betrayed by his star pupil… Uxovaharis. Azakon had a journal in which he wrote down as much as he could before having his memory wiped, and kept it in a safe place, never to be read. Uxovaharis read it.
• Valya mentions that she woke Uxovaharis from his slumber, and also freed Valspira from her orb. Azakon asks: “Are you mad?! Of all the archdevils in Avernus, she is the most conniving.”
• Valya also mentions that she agreed to hand Azakon to Valspira in exchange for her help, but that she doesn’t intend to honor that agreement. “You wake Uxovaharis, you release Valspira, and you promise to hand me over to her to torture for her amusement?”
• They receive a sending from Leander, saying he and the duke and duchess have escaped the city. They make their way to their camp from the previous night. The Duke and Duchess are in shock, realizing they’ve been manipulated by Aubade the entire time. The Dawnbringers try to convince them to evacuate the city, explaining that there is a creature beneath the city that is waking up.
• Azakon is relieved to learn that arcane magic is outlawed in Castalia. He and Raymond had agreed early on that divination magic and especially planar travel would be dangerous as long as the entities were out there, and planned to ban it. Azakon warns them that the Astral Plane especially is crawling with the enemy. Dicora was totally destroyed during the last war.
• Azakon casts Mordenkainen’s magnificent mansion, where they sleep for the night. The cast sending to Lythienne, who says there was some sort of attack at the estate and that the duke told her there was no cause for alarm. “That wasn’t the duke!” Aurelia warns her. Lythienne agrees to leave for the Citadel at once.
• Valya has an idea: If they induct Azakon into the Dawnbringers, Valspira will be sworn to protect him, right? Azakon doubts that they’ll be able to out-rules-lawyer a devil…

Friday, January 26, 653 AU

• The next day, they try to enter the city but are shocked to hear from the guards that they’ve been told to look out for Wood Scorpion dopplegangers impersonating the Duke and Duchess. Aubade must be totally in control of the ducal palace by this point…
• They go to the guardhouse, hoping to convince Ivolen, the guard captain, of Aubade’s conspiracy, but though he’s thankful to the party for rescuing the missing guard beneath the Church of Starry Wisdom, he doesn’t quite believe them. He agrees, however, to take some guards and accompany them to the palace to investigate.
• Despite the captain of the guard’s presence, they are not let into the palace. Ivolen finds this extremely suspicious, and begins to suspect the Dawnbringers might be right. They sneak into the palace through little-used tunnels, and discover Aubade in the main hall. He mocks and threatens them, but says his work in Telmir has completed and he is needed elsewhere. Telmir is already doomed with or without his continued help. He teleports away. Ivolen is shocked.
• They show Ivolen the prison, and they see that the tentacles have spread even further than last time.
• In the prison they find the still-unconscious Tephug victims—the other prisoners must have fled without them. They bring them to the church of Soleil to be taken care of until they wake.
• The duke and duchess reassert control over their estate, and convene a meeting of the nobles. The duke and duchess agree to make plans to evacuate Telmir, but say it will be extremely difficult to persuade the other nobles. They give the Dawnbringers a letter requesting an urgent audience with Queen Oriel.

⁂

• They take a train to the Shining Citadel, parting ways with Leander who heads to Crystalport with Lythienne to stay in Aurelia’s estate. Azakon stays in Telmir to learn as much as he can about the remaining cultists and the Singing One.
• They buy a local paper—the front page says “Violence escalates at pro-undead riots” and several articles about how the Wood Scorpions have set up shop in the Citadel. They initially dismiss the rumors, but this article has a drawing of someone they recognize… it’s the man they saw in Valya’s vision talking to Fergus. Perrit, the leader of the Wood Scorpions! The article is written by Kat Steelgrip, and it also mentions that Harmony Grove is in the city and is suspected to have carried out three murders. The article also claims that the former minister of transportation was sacked by the queen for attempting to sabotage the train.
• While shopping for clothing to prepare for an audience with the queen, they run into Julian. They head to the Silver Flute, a nearby tavern, where they also meet Remy.
• Julian reveals that Saphielle was raiding the tomb of Uxovaharis (“What better time to search for hidden loot than right after some adventurers kill all the monsters?”) when she learned about the Comet. She told Julian, and they’ve had headaches ever since. Julian is horrified to discover he’s cursed. Julian also knows that Lucan is somewhere in the city, and he’s traveling with Aliatha Omanys but he can’t track them down. A rogue diviner has determined that Aliatha knows where Grieving Edge is, but Lucan doesn’t. Isn’t that interesting?
• They head to Saphielle’s room at a nearby inn and give her a nothic potion, but they don’t have one for Julian yet. She and Julian agree to help the party in any way they can in exchange for nothic eye potions… and gold.
• Julian suspects that Lord Peyton Cloudfang, who has bought up all the displacer beast fangs, is probably cursed too.
• Aurelia sends to Zylvan, leader of the Fists of Dhedros, asking if they’ve found nothic eyes yet. They’ve heard rumors about Ghelroth’Far, but also the wilderness south of the Gemra Empire.

⁂

• They head to the royal palace to speak with the queen. They’re let in immediately and led through a maze of hallways to a large throneroom. Queen Oriel IX Fentris is seated on the throne. She looks similar to Calvin—the same olive skin—but is in her late 40s. When it’s clear they must talk about the Comet, the queen sends away the several advisors meeting with her, but before they leave, Qhask speaks to the silver dragonborn among them, Merthan Medwarum, foreign minister to the Gemra Empire. “I am Quask Bronzeback, a member of Caranthiax’s guard. Captain Moonchew gave me an urgent mission; to deliver something to you and keep it secret at all costs.” He takes off his backpack, places it on the ground, removes something, and holds it up for all to see. “Caranthiax’s egg.”
• Everyone’s eyes go wide. “My liege, this changes the calculus!” says Merthan. “Indeed it does,” replies Queen Oriel. “We will have to revise our plan for dealing with the Gemra Empire.” Merthan thanks Qhask and takes the egg. “Were you given any other instructions?” he asks Qhask. Unfortunately, Qhask was not. Merthan Medwarum invites the party to his personal estate at their earliest conveniences.
• Once Merthan leaves, they speak to the Queen about their encounters with Uxovaharis, their knowledge of the Comet, and other matters. The queen says half of her ministers are compromised—members of the comet cult or otherwise plagued by the dreams and controlled by outside forces. That is why she constantly fires and jails people. She knows what Aubade was, and says she has had to deal with three of his kind in the past year alone. Even the Hammer has issues dealing with them.
• The queen knows of two blasphemies: The one under Telmir, and one in the mountains south of Melloth in Khorsir—rocks are crumbling in the mountainside and revealing a giant crystal with a closed eye at its center. The queen is surprised that the party know so much about the blasphemies, and is even more surprised when they reveal they’ve acquired some of the volumes of the Maw in the Sky, and that they know of another blasphemy: The Scarlet Lord, in the Shadowfell. “Perhaps I was too hasty in writing you off,” says the queen.
• The queen is aware that Pamona is still active in the Shining Citadel and working with Lord Desmond.
• The queen reveals that she takes a nothic eye potion, just like them. Her line was never able to replicate Thilros’s Gift. Thilros was a god of secrets who sacrificed himself to lift the curse from Raymond. If a god had to die to cure just one person, she doubts it will happen again.
• She reveals that there was another party like them, aware of the knowledge, but they all died six months ago. The Hammer has their hands full dealing with the various threats like Aubade, so she needs a new adventuring party to handle tasks outside the Citadel. She asks the Dawnbringers to complete two tasks:
  • Protect Calziver Cobblegem and figure out what he’s planning to present at his conference. She believes the tiny plane he’s discovered is the key to removing the curse entirely. The curse appears to emanate from that plane, but whenever they send someone to it through the astral, they turn into a nothic before they make it—the closer they get, the stronger the curse. There has to be a way to get there intact and destroy the source.
  • Brave the ruins of Ghelroth’Far and find a way to read Deep Speech, the language in which the Maw in the Sky is written. Only the high wizards of Ghelroth’Far could speak it. Not even the Comet cultists know how to decipher it.
• Valya asks Queen Oriel if she can find Lucan or Aliatha, but she declines to spare a diviner.
• They take their leave, and Aurelia tries to cast scrying on Aliatha. Surprisingly, it goes through. To their horror, though, they see that Aliatha is dead, lying on a couch in some lavish wood-paneled suite. The blood is still tacky—she must have been murdered less than a day ago.