Into the Gray

There’s a missing key. A dead man. Three tanks. [[Owlbears]]. They might have been experimenting with Owlbears. Owls and bears normally don’t breed in real life. #clues

[[Star]] begins reading from his book. It’s a journal from the dead man. There was a lot of valuable information in various ruins. He was alone. He got out of somewhere. The last thing he got was a kind of key. It’s a lot of dangerous stuff. Having a lock like this has a lot of valuable uses.  #clues

I attempt to ask about whether they’ve seen a white quarterstaff nearby. Star can hear them talking about bribing me with it. To my great surprise, one of the goblins pulls out the staff matching the description of what I’ve been saying. #clues

We all look and see a low-hanging cloud of smoke. The goblin wonders if something was burning inside a building and got out. #clues

First thing in the morning, on Tuesday, after traveling for 2 hours, we notice on the North (right) side, there is a tree with a bunch of gashes in it. It looks as if somebody was wildly attacking the tree with a sword, almost crazily going at it. #clues

Star asks about the mansion up the hill. Nicole sighs and says some rich guy owns it, he moved in here, he keeps to himself, he was the one who started Valdethirsk. He has hired staff with him in the mansion. #clues

We all continue debating whether Hedvika really has the best interest of Valdethirsk in mind, why didn’t he have guards out there already? #clues

We’ve been invited to the town hall tomorrow. They’ve found more [[Markings in the Trees|attacks on the trees]] and now there are words in a foreign language on the trees. #clues ^bc46af

THE NORTH INVADES THE SOUTH DOES NOTHING NO MORE SHALL THEY STEAL RETURN TO THE BALANCE THESUNTHESUNTHESUNTHESUN #clues ^fa1da0 - Star has followed the runner to the town hall. Chatter about what this means. Non-minor concern about the ability to keep everything and everyone safe. It seems that as long as Hedvika will put up adequate defenses, they do believe that it’ll still be fine. It is assumed this is targeted at Hedvika as being from the north and building his wealth here. - Elzara and I get our paychecks for work. I earn 1gp. #income - We chit-chat at dinner. I laugh about looking like Arachne, which she is still not amused about. I talk about finding cool stuff at the pawn shop. Elzara asks about the end of the town meeting. - This symbol was also on the trees ϕ ^496d1e - I follow Wash over to pick up a keg and offer to help pay but he waves me off. - We all meet at Wash’s and Kai’s house.  - Wash asks about how we got back to robbing the house.

Empty shed on the other side of the portal. Wash assumes the [[Portals|portal]] was a [[Smuggling|smuggling]] operation. #clues ^6e53a6

About a third of the day in, the owl sees some humanoid creatures in the distance to the East. They’re headed southeast. We decide to keep an eye on them. After a while it appears that they’ve disappeared down into the ground. #clues ^67744f

Star ends up pursuing the mouse down into a hole over 100ft and his familiar finds a person down there. #clues

[[Star]] reminds us that we found the shiny mouse. It turns out that it is probably a person living underground nearby. #clues

We learn through [[Star]]’s patron that the gods are interested in our group and may whisk us away. We learn that [[Wash]] has not had this happen. #clues

Star, Elzara, Arachne, and me occasionally when we’re high up, could swear we could see a figure walking in the far north. It’s super far away and fades away after not too long. #clues ^14dc49

After about an hour we see portions of giant bones sticking out of the ground. Elzira is quite certain that these bones are from a very old, adult dragon. We are looking at the ribcage. #dragons #clues

On top of the door frame, Star finds a small torn note. He can read “It’s the usual dummy, the one you can’t forget, i-” #clues

I look for anything openable. I find some openable desk drawers. I see a paper in yellow with text in all caps. It says “Stop changing it. Stop with your notes. This is your last warning before disciplinary action.” There is a lantern that I light with my tinderbox. I use the light to help me look through the desk further. #clues #items

I start the portal and it sputters as [[Wash]] spills out. He doesn’t seem to remember what’s going on or know where he is. There was a bad-smelling man who chased him. He seems to think it’s been a very long time. #clues

I pipe up that maybe Wash knows what the weird orb is that we found. [[Arachne]] starts talking about how the [[Umber Hulk]] were unable to do their psychosis. She says that the first time she fell, a terrible sound emitted and she thinks it was the strange orb we found. #clues

The [[Umber Hulk|umber hulks]] seem agitated. #clues It’s Elzara’s turn. For some reason, she does not make a saving throw. She swings at the most injured umber hulk. She action surges and hits it three times. This deals a total of 29 damage. GIANT 2

Wash is able to find a spot where it seems people would like to hide things. He is a little suspicious of traps and Baja Blasts the door. When he does this, nothing obvious occurs other than the door being blown in. Inside it looks like some old crates, some doors that lead further in. The immediate opening room seems empty otherwise. #clues

As I open the door, from behind me there is a little blip from the back to the right. A [[disco ball]] flies straight into my back. It looks like an arrow shaft with a little sparkling ball is there instead of the tip. I take 1 damage. #clues

I also pull out the drawing of the crest on the flag we saw in the hideout to see if she recognizes it. She says it seems related to a [[Smuggling Ring|smuggling ring]] not used in like 50 years. She asks where we found it.  #clues

We kind of spit out things about ego-death, his brain or soul being split into a lot of fractions, and swamps or sewers, and warehouses. #clues

During the second half of my shift, I can see the ground being [[Migrating Monstrosities|disturbed in the distance]]. More concerningly, the far off noises I heard the other night of otherworldly [[Shrieking]] are happening again. #clues

During the first watch, Star sees 10 Umber Hulks [[Migrating Monstrosities|head up north]] early in the night. Around 1-2am Star hears the unholy [[Shrieking]] again. #clues

1. Locked door #clues 2. Room on the second floor that has a skeleton 3. A knife on the floor near the skeleton 4. The paper on/near the knife has blood soaked into it 5. A couple of other rooms look like they were storing stuff and there is rotting food 6. There is another skeleton in another one of the rooms sitting in a chair

I look but don’t see any traps before stepping into the Records Room. Underneath the Slaad excrement, it appears there are a distressing number of human remains. They seem old, not super recent. #clues

I put my ear up to the door to see what I could hear. (CRIT.) It’s not so much that I hear anything, but that I feel there is a soft low level vibration. #clues

I run between the stairwells to smell and decide which to follow. (Following Gandalf’s advice: Follow your nose.) On the right stairwell, I get the smell of living creatures. A faint whiff of sweat, excrement, etc. On the left stairwell it smells more metallic in the air coming up. It smells almost of magic, if that were possible. #clues

Arachne sees the letter “L” on the door label. We estimate about 6-8 letters might have fit on the sign. #clues

As I dig through the bushes, they are producing some sort of annoying resin that is sticky. As I look through drawers with plant life growing out of some of them, it’s all inaccessible because of the bushes. #clues

It seems they’ve tried a bunch of different methods of acquiring energy, including getting energy from different planes of existence. In later versions they started trying to get energy from living beings. #clues

She keeps saying 5 miles minimum under the earth. #clues

At the beginning of my shift, I hear almost the sound of shifting sand softly. I can kind of hear, it almost sounds like footsteps. It sounds like it’s receding. Eventually, I can’t hear it. I can’t tell which direction it went due to the acoustics of the alcove. #clues

I show April the ring to see what she knows. She asks where I found it. She says she might be able to learn more about it. She asks to hold onto it. I get no weird vibes and happily let her hold onto it for research. She said it should only take a few days. She takes it and places it on a desk in the other room. #clues

Something about when things feel wrong, something is off. But not a physical problem. That’s the kind of thing this can help with. Meta note: When I gave it to Elzara it had a very positive fix/side effect. #clues #boons #items

Arachne discusses a man who said that the gods have abandoned us. #clues

While in town listening around: "while you're spending eating time in bars and whatnot you hear of a phantom thief who leaves nothing but a song and a magic floating ball having robbed someone in Trin" #clues This is almost certainly the [[Disco Thief]]! I recal finding the [[disco ball]] while in the [[2022-01-08 The Bunker]] where we found a flag with the crests of an old smuggler ring. #rumors

Elzara goes to find records about the [[Disco Thief]]. She finds some! She gets the name of the person who was the victim of the Disco Thief. Basically everything is from over 50 years ago. Reports suggest this is a copycat. #clues

He says his friend Mavuto might have a lead. “There was a thievery, let me tell you about it. Mavuto’s feeder cried out in the other room. The shiny objects, they are jewels no? Those are the words you use for them? Well, Mavuto heard her feeder yell out in a deep pain – she saw him clutching his stomach and whining about his family jewels.” #clues #iconic

I try to be pompous and official. I ask why the Disco Thief says he targeted her. The robot is in storage as evidence. Orna says the given reason is libel about embezzlement. Other stuff about corrupt deals. The target would be public funds. She says she has done much to help the city. #clues

- Orna knew Arachne cast magic - The broken magic pottery with barrier magic - The window glass and glass casing was easily bypassed - There was dirt near the window outside - The indoor part of the window was especially clean - Two sets of footprints, one in the house/one outside - Kamal and Liana are suspected of framing Orna or stealing themselves - Last deep cleaning of the house was a week ago #clues

Somebody steps up in front of the class. “Today we want to start as we always do, say it with me: Synergy. Say it with me: Synergy.” This goes on five times and I join in on the last time. I double Nat 20 a WIS save. I feel a kind of a brain fog for a moment, but it shortly passes. #clues #encounters/brainwashing #groups/synrgus

Arachne uses Sending: A → hi have you heard of synergy cult. making weird machinery. names we've heard are insert names here: Syngacto, [[Alastor Ryouchi]], Boss of Science #clues A → cool thanks. we think it's somehow connected to new dawn

On one of the small islands, there is a column with a bowl shape on top. There is a plaque that reads “Should the fire ever not be ablaze, please relight it so others may not lose their way.” #clues

Arachne finds a sign that reads “[[New Dawn]]“ but is unable to enter the building. She will turn into an octopus as soon as the spell ends. She finds a plaque with a name. “[[Afra Rusudan]]” #clues

Wash found [[Disco Thief|Phantom Thief]]'s footprints walking up the fence of where Kamal lives. This is one of the top suspects. #clues

Wash notes a chipped pottery that seems to match what Arachne might have found. Kamal says someone donated it to him recently. Wash points out that this is suspicious. Kamal suggests having [[Orna Julianna|Orna]] come see if she recognizes it and will show Wash around to see if anything else odd is lying around. #clues

THEY RISE ONCE MORE IN THE NORTH REJOICE MORTALS REJOICE ACCEPT THE RAYS AND BECOME WHOLE ONCE MORE THESUNTHESUNTHESUNTHESUNTHESUNTHESUN #clues

- Offices with broken or lost labels, one with an “L” and 6-8 missing letters - A series of colorful rugs #clues/ruglore - Many journals and notes about the history and inner workings of New Dawn, as well as the activities and research therein - Vials of fear gas - Turrets and autonomous bots - [[the safe|sentient safe]] - A 15lb gun that requires a significant amount of magical orb energy to fire - Two aggressive creatures: One like a chimera, the other some tangled mess of creature - Bushes ranging from smooth to hairy, the hairy ones have a sticky resin - Multiplanar monstrosity (Material, Ethereal) - Teleportation room - Salvaged gear - Trapped Planetars being siphoned for energy, which are [[Hestor]] and his friends - Storage containers filled with magical energy