The crowd is thinning out as the Goblin Market begins to shut down. Then Tikulti’s voice suddenly comes through the sending stone. “The orb is found and taken,” he whispers. “We are making our way back now.” The doppelganger tells them there is no sign of danger below ground.
The players spot a familiar face in the distance. Demise is here, in dark leather robes, watching them with a thin smile. Nearby, three gnolls dressed in scale armor cackle as they charge forward. Whispering, two small humanoid shadows flit from near Demise toward you.
Encounter 25: Hated Face
Claw doppelganger darkmage
3 Graywall gnoll mercenaries
2 filching wraiths
Alain and Rick pursue the doppelganger and kill her, finding that she is not the real demise. During the fight, the wraiths steal the ashen crown necklace from Gennal and deposits it with Tikulti in secret, without the players’ knowledge.
They hear scraping from behind the screen of their market stall, signaling the safe return of Yeraa and the other seekers. “Friends!” shouts Yeraa, her voice ragged.”We have returned.” The Word bearers emerge into the stall, clearly worse for the wear. They are stiff and ill at ease. The Dark Lantern agent, Tikulti, isn’t with them.
Although the seekers wear the seeming of life, the players see shredded flesh clinging to exposed bone. Oversized claws extend from their gnarled hands. The creature that looks like Yeraa is not as they remember her. Darkfire traces her twisted form. Noticing your piercing gaze, mocking laughter racks her and she attacks.
Encounter 26: Dark Betrayal
Yeraa, dreadclaw darkliege
5 goblin dreadclaw reavers
Tikulti grabbed the orb and the circlet after he killed the Wordbearers, but didn’t take their other items before he set them on the PCs. A search of the corpses finds Yeraa’s +2 resounding bastard sword (level 7 item), Govaan’s +2 leather armor (level 6 item), Yeraa’s journal, and some gold.
Yeraa’s journal, a well-worn, leather-bound book, contains Yeraa’s notes on her quest for the Ashen Crown. It also describes the failure ofthe first Wordbearer team (one survivor) in Ashurta’s tomb, and the fact that “tomb robbers” stole Ashurta’s blade.
Her later notes speak of the PCs. The records are poetic, describing persons and deeds, and flattering. Yeraa also records that she plans to learn and perform the Rite of Arkantaash in Ashurta’s tomb, which is a holy site of ancient Dhakaan. The journal notes that Tikulti knows and approves of the choice to use Ashurta’s tomb – he seemed pleased and thoughtful when Yeraa suggested it.
In the book, Yeraa records how she met Tikulti in Rhukaan Draal, the capital of Darguun. It’s clear that she admires the knowledgeable and brave hobgoblin in more than a professional way.
Furthermore, Yeraa’s book includes the names of her contacts in Sharn, Graywall, and Darguun. Prominent among them is a trusted advisor, the seer Huugan of Rhukaan Draal. She planned to carry the completed Crown back to him.
The group then uses the sending stone they still possess to contact Tikulti, now aware of his betrayal. He responds, “The endgame approaches, and you still have something I need. I’ll take what I have to my comrades in Sharn. I think you’ve met my ladyfriend and her Karrnathi pawns? Anyway, play along and chase me if you have the guts. It should be interesting, at least, since I’ll be able to talk to Kalaes first. I wonder which of us he’ll believe in the end? I suppose you’ll have to find me and force me to confess. That should be fun. Of course, you could just hand over the Crown pieces. We’ll contact you when you get to Sharn.”
The PCs return to the airship to get back to Sharn. They lift off into clear skies, quickly leaving the town of Graywall behind. They head east across the sprawling plains of the frontier toward the pass between the Graywall Mountains.
They cruise just below the clouds, passing over the gloomy landscape that abuts the mountains. Suddenly a dragon plummets through the clouds, pulls up sharply, then hovers above the forecastle deck. The crew panics and scatters.
“Give me what you carry – all valuables and food. That will be sufficient tribute for me to allow you to live,” says the dragon. It snarls, and its mouth and horns dance with lightning as it lands on the deck.
Encounter 27: Sky Robbery
Blue dragon sky bandit
Defeated, the dragon retreats, though Gore tries to run off the deck to jump onto him to finish the job. He is stopped by his party members and their cries against it. They tell him how the Queen and the Dragon Riders have sent them on this quest. So killing a dragon would be a very bad decision. It could be come a Rider’s Dragon someday.
Upon their return to Sharn, the characters find they are not well-received. But the shopkeeps still take their business. They meet with Kaleas briefly to report and try to persuade him they are not against him and that Tikulti is the betrayer. Kaleas doesn’t seem to care either way. He just wants the crown. He says that whomever brings him the crown, he shall believe to be true.
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