Family Business
In the baking heat of Osirion, it is hard to ignore the presence of the sun, and as such, it is no wonder that despite the land's more traditional customs, worshippers of The Dawnflower can be found in abundance there. One such devotee is Willapur, a kind and matronly Grippli with a honed skill in medical alchemy. The swamp fields she cultivates along the Junira river are most often quiet, peaceful places, but that peace was shattered when the Chirurgeon saw a tall Garundi man steal her prized statuette of Sarenrae and escape into the desert with it.
Distressed by the theft, Willapur leveraged an old debt, and summoned the drifter Irwin Yona to her house by letter. Meanwhile, her nomadic middle son Iopo happened to be the area, and stopped by to check on his mother. After a pot of tea, Willapur introduced the two wanderers to each other and tasked them with tracking the Garundi man towards the Footprints of Rovagug. The pair agreed, so with a packed lunch and some elixirs, they were set off on the first day of Erastus 4722AR.
Hunting a Thief
The unlikely pair tracked the thief towards the Footprints of Rovagug, following his trail easily enough through the wetlands. As the ground started drying out, the prints were harder to follow, though Iopo and Irwin still tracked their quarry into a canyon. In there, they set off an alarm snare, and were attacked by a hatchet-wielding bandit. Despite giving the pious pair a good hiding, the bandit eventually surrendered, fearing for his life; their assailant was revealed to be a 14 year-old boy named Kito. He explained under duress that he had been adopted by the thief, named Ephraim, and trained in the ways of the desert. Recently, however, Ephraim had become erratic, taking to locking himself into his room at night and emerging the next morning with ragged clothes and destroyed furniture. Furthermore, Kito's boss was spending much of his time at a creepy temple to an unknown god that was located in the centre of a corrupted oasis. When offered the chance at redemption, Kito took the chance eagerly, surrendering his weapons to the hunters, and he gratefully gave them directions to the temple in exchange for a chance to be looked after by Willapur.
Irwin and Iopo followed Kito's directions easily enough despite the heat, and soon found the temple in the oasis. The ziggurat was constructed of strange black stone, and where the door should be there was only a bone handle and small keyhole. After checking the perimeter, Iopo tried the handle, which aggravated a diseased crocodile that had been hiding in the moat's depths. After the crocodile was defeated, Irwin dissected it to check if the key had been swallowed by the beast, but had no such luck. Iopo searched the bottom of the now safe moat, and found the small silver key submerged in the muck at the bottom.
Inside the temple, Iriwn and Iopo found Ephraim praying at a dark altar with the statuette of Sarenrae in hand. They attempted to approach quietly, but a stray rock caught by Irwin's boot alerted the thief to their presence. Enraged, Ephraim transformed into a bipedal crocodile monster, and attacked his pursuers. After a hard fight, in which Iopo was nearly drowned, the monster was subdued. Iopo gave Ephraim a chance to repent and commit to The Everlight, though he swiftly executed the thief when the latter refused redemption.
With the statuette of Sarenrae retrieved, Irwin and Iopo took the chance to search the temple, finding a small amount of loot, as well as some heretical carvings of the liberation of Rovagug and the destruction thereafter. Iopo destroyed the carvings and the heretical altar, and the pair returned to Willapur's house.
That evening, they found both Willapur and Kito alive and well - the former was happy to have the statuette back, but was a little confused when she saw the excellent condition it had been left in by the thief. The odd group shared a meal that night, and Willapur offered bed and board to the boys for as long as they needed, though she warned them that there was something strange going on with the cattle in the area dying.
Going Shopping
A few weeks after Iopo and Irwin's retrieval of her statuette, Willapur asked her three boys to head to the nearby city of Lamasara to fetch a large set of groceries. After some mild bickering, the boys set off on the two hour journey through the marshlands. On the way, whilst Iriwn stumbled through an explanation of crocodile reproduction on Kito's behalf, Iopo was robbed by a small fey creature, which had brought two comrades. The two trios fought briefly, and the fey were swiftly subdued by the boys, who tied up the smaller creatures and took them with them so they could be left in a safe place. Whilst looking for a tree to leave the fey in, the boys were approached by a water spirit of some sort. She took the fey, which she called Hanivers, and explained that the blight that had afflicted Willapur's cows had been driving the local fey from the marshes to their deaths into the desert. She gave Irwin a vial of marsh water, and requested that the boys take the water to an alchemist in Lamasara to be analysed, offering a blessing of the marshes in exchange. The boys agreed, and carried on their journey.
An hour later, the trio arrrived in Lamasara, where they rented a cart and started with Willapur's shopping list. By lunch, the list was complete, and after a hearty packed lunch, they started to look for a reputable alchemist. Kito found a lead from an old human woman, who recommended her son, Neramin. They tracked down Neramin's shop, and comissioned him to investigate the marsh water. After only twenty minutes, the alchemist started to present his conclusions, but was struck in the shoulder by an arrow that had flown through the window. A thug leapt in through the window to finish the job, but was knocked out by Iopo after a brief skirmish. Neramin, whilst being treated by Iopo, explained that the marsh water had been corrupted by shadow essence, an expensive and dangerous poison. Under interrogation, the thug confessed that he had been hired by cultists of Zon-Kuthon to follow the boys and attack whoever was shot at by an assassin colleague.
The bandit took the boys to a meeting spot where the assassin would be meeting somebody in around twenty minutes. The trio took him, unarmed, to the temple of the Dawnflower, as the thug had promised to repent, and also left their cart of shopping there. Back at the meeting spot, the boys observed from cover a meeting between a cultist priestess and an imposing assassin. The two women discussed "Willapur's problems" and called the boys "raggedy-looking", though the assassin assured the cultist that they had been dealt with. They vowed to move onto the corruption of the rivers full-time. The assassin left shortly after, though once she did, the cultist turned to the hiding Irwin, and revealed that she had know he was there the whole time. They talked briefly, but once Iopo noticed the defaced symbol of Sarenrae that she was wearing, he attacked her, and was nearly slain in ensuing skirmish. Nontheless, the boys emerged triumphant, with Irwin decapitating the priestess.
Battered and bruised, the boys hobbled back to the Everlight temple to spend the evening resting, healing, and cleaning weapons. The next morning, after a hearty breakfast provided by Sister Eloma at the temple, the trio set off for the marshes once more, with Kito and Iopo pulling the cart between them. Conversation on the way was a little morose and not very productive, though Kito did mention that his mother was an assassin, which made Iopo and Irwin twig that the assassin from Lamasara and the boy looked very similar.
Stopping by the water spirit's tree again, the boys informed her, now calling herself the Fey Queen of the Marshes, that the corrupting aspect in her waters was shadow essence. The Queen was worried greatly by this, and lamented that the could do nothing without a pure sample of shadow essence. She asked the boys to see if Willapur could extract a more pure sample from the swamp waters.
Back at Willapur's house, she was in frantic anxiety as to where her boys were; she berated the trio over their lateness and the fact they had put themselves in clear and present danger. Nontheless, the matronly grippli was glad to see her boys safe, and getting along so well at that. She promised she would try and distill some shadow essence, but it may take a while.
Meeting a Smuggler
Over the next month, Willapur spent some time attempting to distill pure shadow essence from the swamp waters, but was ultimately unsuccessful, and alchemists in Lamasara either shunned the task or didn't know where to start. In the meanwhile, the swamps were atrophying further: black tendrils snaked through the water, and crocodiles died in equal measure to Willapur's cattle. On one bleak morning, a gnomish postman arrived, with a letter for Willapur. She explained to her boys that an old friend called Zikkig had managed to smuggle some pure shadow essence into Lamasara for them, and asked them to go and meet the smuggler to collect the essence. Packed lunches and elixirs in hand, the boys set off to meet a strix on the northern docks of Lamasara.
After a short journey through the increasingly desolate swamplands, the boys met the shifty strix Zikking on the northern docks of Lamasara. The smuggler was initially suspicous of the group, though relaxed onced they explained in detail who they were and who sent them. She handed over the essence to the party, but as the exchange happened, the group was attacked by a skeleton warrior. Despite a hard fight, the skeleton warrior was eventually defeated, and the party searched its belongings. On its person it had a heretical symbol of an undead god, its weapons and armour, and a letter detailing Zikkig's exact location and description - the smuggler had been sold out by somebody. Sister Eloma, who had arrived after the fight, explained to Iopo that the symbol from Ephraim's temple had been seen painted in blood all over town. She asked Willapur's associates to look into the symbols and update her that night at the temple.
Kito set about gathering information, and eventually found out that the symbols led to the western outskirts of the city, and there were a fair amount of abandoned buildings out there. The gang followed the symbols, and eventually found a boarded-up house with the symbols painted such that the entire wall was covered. After checking the perimeter, Zikkig tried to pick the lock on the door, but was electrocuted by some sort of trap. Irwin managed to disable the trap, and using Zikkig's picks, finished the lockbreaking. Inside, the house was dark, but there was a strange chitnous creature covered in glowing runes. It attacked the party as soon as it noticed them, and after blinding them all, slew Irwin with one mighty blow. The creature disappeared into nothingness, and Kito ran off as soon as Iopo confirmed that Irwin had died.
Zikkig helped Iopo return Iriwn's corpse to the Everlight temple. Sister Eloma was deeply shocked by Irwin's death, as she had had visions of the group's success. She offered to embalm the pirate's corpse, and take care of it until the swamps could be cleansed for a proper burial. Iopo left the temple under Zikkig's watchful eye, and went out into the city to search for Kito. After a few hours, he returned, exhausted and defeated, without the boy. That next day, Iopo and Zikkig picked up Kito's trail and followed him back towards Willapur's house. Eventually, they found the boy curled up in the Fey Queen's arms, safe and sound. She carried Kito back to Willapur's house alongside Iopo and Zikkig.
At the house, Iopo did his best to explain to his mother what had happened, but she was furious that her boys had taken on so much danger unnecessarily. She accused Iopo of letting his piety make him cold, and instructed him not to come back to the swamps for some time after Irwin's funeral. Iopo had little more to say, but asked Zikkig to care for his mother in her time of grief. He returned to the temple of Sarenrae in Lamasara immediately after.
A Resurrection and a Mission
In the three days since Irwin's death, Iopo had spent his time subduing criminals in Lamasara. On the day of Irwin's funeral, Iopo returned to the temple of The Everlight, only to find Sister Eloma in surpirsingly good spirits. She took him to the back room of the church, where she showed him a very much alive Iriwn. The brothers were ecstatic to see each other, and Iopo shed a tear when he realised his brother was well and truly back. Irwin explained that he had been on the edge of death when he was brought back to the temple, and as he lingered on the threshold, he had receievd a vision from Sarenrae which rejuvenated him. The Everlight had shown him corrupted waters, demonic sigils, and dark shrines in the desert; Sarenrae had charged Irwin and Iopo specifically with vanquishing this evil before it could flourish.
In good spirits, the two brothers made their way back to Willapur's house, and ran into the Fey Queen Anahita en route. She was surprised to see Irwin, but happily granted the boys the boon she had promised; they received a bottle of elemental water with which they could summon her if need be. Anahita also mentioned that Kito had taken up a new hobby - something to do with nature.
Arriving at Willapur's house, the boys announced their arrival, and Kito came barreling down the stairs to meet them. He attacked Iriwn with a hug, overjoyed to see the both of them returned and intact. When pressed, he explained that he was hatching a crocodile egg, and Willapur was helping him. The three returned to the house, where Willapur tentatively opened the door. She was initially in disbelief but eventually her stress and grief faded to a prickly acceptance that her sons were turning out like her pious husband. Willapur did agree to furnish her sons with some supplies to pursue their divine mission.
On their way into the footsteps of rovagug, where dark cults often made their home in abandoned mines, the boys were glad that Willapur had furnished them with her finest oxen - Nightshade, and a traveller's cart. After a full days travel with the alchemically enhanced oxen pulling the cart, the boys decided to pitch camp in a field of strange sandstone pillars. Parking the cart inbetween some pillars for the sake of cover, Kito took first watch, and the other two grabbed some sleep. Around halfway through Kito's watch, he was approached by an ancient, haggard looking beggar. The boy woke up his brothers, which prompted the old man to panic, which is when the ambush sprang. The boys fought off the bugbear that had snuck up behind them, but in the meantime, the beggar had fled to hide behind another pillar, where he was attacked by some sort of spirit. Iopo ran to intervene, but was knocked unconscious by the spirit. The old man dragged Iopo away, and explained that the spirit was his dead wife that the bugbear had somehow trapped in the rock.
Keen to continue with their quest, and aware they could do little to dispel the ghost, the boys told the old man to make himself comfortable, and that they would return with somebody able to deal with his wife's tormented spirit. The next morning, they travelled on towards the mines. After five hours, they arrived, only to find the entrance to the mines guarded by a sleeping viper. Luckily, Kito's ingeneuity allowed them to lure the snake away from the entrance, and the three boys entered the mine.
Under the Desert
In the Athet Mines, the boys were caught up with by Kito's hatchling - a young Ulgrem-Lurann, which none of the trio correctly identified. Kito managed to persuade his brothers to give the "crocodile" a chance in battle, and with that resolved, they descended into the mines. As the depth increased and the walls grew increasingly damp, they found themselves at a three-way fork.
The boys followed the central tunnel at first, and found themselves in a larger cave eventually. There, they were attacked by some strange crustacean creatures, which were swiftly dispatched: the first one was knocked unconscious, and the second shelled creature was obliterated by a weak point shot from Irwin. After the short skirmish, Irwin and Iopo took a moment to commune with Sarenrae, and Kito searched the cave. The space contained only two areas of intrest - some kind of haunt, and on the opposite side, a remarkably narrow tunnel leading deeper. Whilst Irwin continued meditating, Iopo managed to disable the haunt, which he identified as a set of phantom footsteps, with a reading from Sarenrae's scripture. With that dealt with, the boys had a look at the narrow tunnel, which not only had an Osiriani sign reading "death from below" hanging nearby, but Iopo managed to spot that the tunnel terminated a little further down in a sturdy-looking wooden barricade.
Back at the split, along the left fork, they found an office which had crates full of coin and raw ore, as well as monetary ledgers indicating that the mines had previosuly belonged to the Aspis Consortium, which Kito recalled was an unscrupulous consortium based in Cheliax. The trio did take a little coin from the crates, with the hope they wouldn't pay for that later.
Finally, at the right-hand fork, the tunnel continued for a little longer before bifurcating again into a neatly carved tunnel, and a natural fork. The trio initially followed the mine tunnel, which led to an encounter with the assassin from Lamasara - who peeled off their face, revealing them to be a charlatan wearing a mask. The charlatan fought to escape out of fear of the people she had been working for, but she was ultimately apprehended by the boys.
With the charlatan dealt with, the trio continued to the last unexplored branch of the mines - the natural tunnel down the right-hand fork. Travelling even deeper for some time, the boys finally arrived in a natural cavern - a natural cavern containing a large cage, and a tiefling cultist priest. The cultist was dealt with in exceedingly quick, and accidentally deadly fashion by Irwin. The cultist's body took a little cleaning off of Iopo, but the trio soon turned their attention to the cage - a cage that contained a strange scorpion centaur creature. The creature was peaceful, and after the boys established it had no intention of harming the surrounding area or inhabitants, they released him. As a parting gift, the scorpion man gave the trio a vial of his venom, and some information that the cult was trying to gain the favour of one god to free the rough beast my bringing down the towers. Though the clue was cryptic, it was the most solid lead that the trio had been given so far.
Into the Depths
With the immediate threats in the mines dealt with, the boys returned to check on their prisoner, who was still unconscious. In the spare time, they returned to the strange office-type room in the mines to review the ledgers. The texts showed that the coin in the mines belonged to the Aspis Consortium, and their on-site accountant went by the name of Falsin Deek. Undeterred, the boys stole the large crates of coin, and burnt the ledgers. Upon their return to the cart, they found the charlatan awake, and surpirsed to be alive. She told the trio that her name was Grea, and after a little verbal sparring, she admitted that she would be grateful if they could drop her off in Lamasara.
On the way back out of the desert, the cart passsed by the valley where the old man Otto was camped. They woke him to let him know that they would be back soon with a way to dispel his wife's ghost. Iopo, with the bit of expeirence gained with the phantom footsteps, managed to identify that the only way to truly dispel the ghost would be to dig her remains out of the pillar. The boys vowed to return with a pickaxe as soon as they could. However, nightfall demanded that the group camp in the valley again - it was a quiet night thankfully.
Back at Willapur's house the next morning, the boys explained to her the strange encounters they'd had in the mines, and though she was glad to see them alive, she did despair of the rather dangerous adventures the boys had had in only a few days. When the trio revealed the sheer quantity of coin they had retrieved, Willapur offered to stash the coin in a number of different institutions and safe spaces so that it would be safe. The boys took the gold pieces to Lamasara for some shopping, whilst Willapur started work on stashing the rest of the coin.
In Lamasara, Grea departed the cart amicably, thankful that she hadn't perished at the hands of either the cultists or the boys. With that matter attended to, the trio spent a prodigous quantity of coin at various merchants in Lamasara - they visited Sister Eloma for healing potions, Neramin for alchemical elixirs, and met a dwarven blacksmith to acquire runic enhancements for their weapons.
Shopping done, the boys returned, with a pickaxe, to the valley where Otto was camped. Between Iopo and Irwin's efforts, they m,anaged to surpress the spirits rage for long enough to dig her remains out of the rock. Otto was overjoyed, and made moves to bury his wife, though accepted Iopo's offer to consecrate the corpse first.
At the mines, the boys returned to the chamber where the scorpion creature had been imprisoned, and started following the many branches leading off from it. The first tunnel they followed led to a huge chasm, at the bottom of which was a large group of Rovagug cultists. To avoid direct confrontation, the boys retreated back down the path, but triggered a magical trap on the way. They dispatched the cobra that the trap summoned with ease, and returned to the central chamber. The next tunnel quickly led to a dead end, but there was a small strongbox containing a pittance of treasure. The boys followed the next spoke tunnel over, and found a drow priestess worshipping at an altar of Rovagug. She fought the trio well, until she was slain by a bullet to the back of the head from Irwin. The boys agreed that the unintentional kill was probably holy, as it was extremely unlikely the priestess would have repented. Taking her shield and crossbow, the boys returned once again to the central chamber.
Merciful Solutions
The next passage was well-machined, dead straight, and the boys followed it for nearly half an hour before finding a sign in Osiriani that indicated this tunnel joined with the other Athet mines. They liberated a small amount of treasure from a crate near the sign, and returned to the central chamber. The next tunnel led to an incredibly ornate pair of doors, flanked by a set of statues; the stone carvings spoke to the boys in a language that none of them could understand. After unsuccessfully trying a random set of riddle answers, the boys returned to the central chamber.
Following the next tunnel, and taking a lefthand fork, the trio came face to face with a middle-aged druid. He attacked them when the boys explained that they were with Sarenrae, but he was knocked out after a brief skrimish. Once the boys woke him up, he was willing to explain that he had been hired by the Aspis Consortium to act as a security guard for the mines, and that Falsen Deek had returned to clear out his deks the previous night - and that the accountant seemed upset about something. The guard agreed to leave peacefully, and took his giant bat with him. However, where the giant bat had been, the boys faced off with a swarm of regular bats, which was defeated easily enough.
Returning to the central chamber the boys followed one of the final unexplored tunnels - it ended in a flooded section. However, as Irwin made an attempt to dive in the water, the boys were attacked by a huge swarm of leeches. They each suffered from severe bloodloss, but they managed to recover thanks to alchemy, medicine, and Sarenrae's blessing.
Draconic Encounters
After they had each recovered fully, the boys took some time to appraise the flooded section of this tunnel fully. Whilst it was not especially deep, it was clear there were still leeches in the water, and there as no way of knowing how far the tunnel went before hitting an air pocket. Deciding not to sent Spikey into the water on his own, the boys turned back towards the central chamber.
As there was only one unexplored cave branch leading off the central cavern, the boys proceeded to head down it, checking carefully for traps. However, none of them checked well enough, as Kito and Spikey fell through the floor and disappeared out of sight. Irwin followed down on a rope, which snapped haflway down. Lukcily, he found Kito and Spikey safe in a pool of water at the bottom, uninjured due to the wet landing. Iopo glided down after his brothers, and they began to appraise the cage they found themselves in. Their investigations attracted attention, however, and a kobold guard ran off to notify his superior that somebody had been caught. With the guard out of the room, the boys used Kito's levered crowbar to make good their escape, and hid behind a tall pillar in the room to try and sneak out.
When the guard returned with his boss, some sort of mage, the mage soon clocked the trio hiding behind the pillar, and as they began to sprint for the exit, begged them to stay as they apparently had a common enemy or two. The kobold leader introduced the boys to the peaceful warren, who worshipped a crystal dragon deep underground. The Aspis Consortium had driven the tribe deeper and deeper as the former's mining operations expanded, and recently the warren had been set upon by cultists of Rovagug. The mage, Mirkol, confirmed the boys' intel that the cultists had been trying to appease Zon-Kuthon in order to free Rovagug. Given the boys and the tribe shared a common enemy, and the kobolds were so hospitable, the group stayed in the warren overnight to rest.
The next morning, after a good night's rest, the boys set off into the mines. Their pickaxe was returned to them, Mirkol gave them a trio of healing potions, and they were also gifted a copy of the Kobolds' trapmaster's maps of the mines. Back up at the top of the mines, the boys were confronted by Falsen Deek. Despite the arcane accountant's intimidating words, he was knocked unconscious by a flying kick from Iopo. There was a letter on Falsen's person from Cirildimina Alasbhallas, who Kito recalled was the Aspis Consortium's spymaster. The letter described her disapproval of Falsen's association with the cultists of Rovagug. The boys woke up Falsen, and asked him to explain his actions. He declined, choosing to ramble about salvation in the desolation caused by the return of Rovagug. Irwin, incensed, put a bullet in the accountant, and the boys burnt the body.
With the mines almost clear of all threats, the boys returned to the chasm which overlooked a heretical altar. There were more cultists praying there than previous, which gave the boys the perfect opportunity to do some damage. They tied the letter from Cirildimina to the rock, and heaved it over the edge. Iopo shouted down after the boulder, letting the cultists know that the Aspis consortium had abandoned them. Irwin executed one of the badly injured cultists trapped under the boulder, and the rest of the cultists fled. Taking a good look over the edge of the chasm, the boys noticed that there were carvings around the altar that matched the ones at Ephraim's temple.
Resolving to revisit Ephraim's temple again, the boys headed back to Willapur's house for some proper rest. After another successful journey through the desert, they returned to their mother's house. Glad to see her boys home, Willapur got the down-low on what had happened in the mines, and reminded Iopo and Irwin that Kito's birthday was tomorrow.
A Birthday Besieged
The next day, the boys awoke to the house decked out in birthday decorations. Irwin and Iopo offered to take Kito to Lamisara for some birthday shopping.
On the way, they ran into Anahita on the edge of the swamps, and she mentioned she would leave a gift for Kito back at home. Kito, however, was more focused on getting a birthday kiss from the water queen.
In Lamisara, the lads went to the tavern to toast Kito's 16th, and after that, went to the scrap yard for some recreational destruction. After some improvised cricket and Irwin demonstrating his marksman skills on flying bottles, the trio went to grab some street food. Kito picked out some devilishly hot meat skewers, which both Irwin and Iopo handled admirably. With that done, Kito chose to return home for some cake.
Upon arrival back home, it was clear that something was wrong. The decorations were all over the house, and the sigil of Rovagug was drawn on the floor in blood. The boys managed to pick up the criminal's trail, and followed it into the desert - towards Ephraim's temple.
Inside the temple, the lads solved a riddle in old Osiriani, which revealed a dark and foreboding passageway. They encountered a grave hall trap, but Iopo managed to exorcise the spirits trapped within and unblock the way forward. The next room housed a huge altar that was emitting some kind of antimagic field upon which Willapur was trapped. The boys set upon the three cultists that appeared to be responsible with few qualms. Two of the cultists were dispatched easily but their leader finished the ritual before he too was slain. The ritual summoned a shadow from Willapur, which the boys seriously struggled to defeat. After an almighty slugfest, the lads chose to summon Anahita, who released a powerful healing spell. As Irwin went to free Willapur from the altar, he suffered a vision of Rovagug. In his vision, the blazing heat of Sarenrae freed him from the peril and the coldness in the temple disappated.
The family returned home to try and make the best of Kito's remaining birthday. Willapur and Anahita both got him some gifts, and he also received a letter from somebody who might be his mother which invited him to Cheliax.
