Freedom of Movement
Nade City, Nade
Back in safety of the Nade House, the party begins to contemplate what just happened, and what to do next. The party feels relieved that they left before the cloud of beasts swarmed the Ancient Ruin at Camp Harrow, but guilty for leaving the workers and even the mercenaries behind to take the brunt of what looked to be a brutal and surprise attack on the camp.
In a moment of calm in the first hours of return, Ramach details the use of the Gate Compass. It has toggles for 5 surface locations and 33 Islands, and two dials to input the current day and year. Setting these toggles and dials and then pulling a lever on the side causes the machine to click and clank and whir inside, and spins a line of display dials on the top - when they stop they spell out an arcane formula that slots into a teleportation circle spell, resolving the relative motion of the Islands that normally confounds such spells. One can leave from anywhere on the Islands or surface locations listed, but can only go to a known arcane circle at the destination. The toggles, in addition to the names of Islands and surface locations, have little circular depressions into which one can place discs bearing the arcane sequences of destination circles, if one were so inclined. Both Compasses are empty of such discs as recovered. At present, Ramach knows two Alshekal circles, one in the House on Nade and one in the House on Iradel. Ramach also knows a bunch of Helkala's circles: two in Helkala's Hold in the Concord of Uldrath, on the surface a day's walk from Camp Harrow, and one in Helaka's rooms at the top of the ruin at Camp Harrow, and (from the chalk board on the study pillar in Helkala's chamber) one each at Mehujael, Zelix, Jamerah, and Kasan, all four of which presumably have a growing corrupt tree-creature nearby. He also has only two scrolls of Teleportation Circle left, a spell that is presently beyond his ability to learn.
The 33rd Island listed is an oddity and a surprise. As far as anyone knows there are only 32 inhabited Islands. The name next to the toggle is Ogdoas, a name none of the party has heard before.
The party also contemplates what to do about the four Islands that may have corruption growing on them. But then Akissi is called by her feelings to take a walk into the dingier parts of the Nade Traverton, and returns with an astounding story. She ran into her son, Nzema, a man about the same age as some of the party, who had settled into a good life on Jamerah. Evidently the seed pod placed on Jamerah was in his village, and it grew to a tree-creature and had nearly enslaved his entire town. Nzema and some of his fellow villagers began to feel the same special feelings and mental nudges that Akissi sometimes feels, and manifested some of the same powers to defeat the tree-creature, but not before most of the village's people were lost. The five of them then felt a call to go to Nade and wait, presumably to be found by Akissi. They are committed to learning more about their newfound affinities, and after hearing that their may be more tree-creatures on other Islands they all feel a strong desire to track them down and eliminate them. Akissi recognizes that this is her higher power's way of allowing Akissi and the Alshekal to go their own way, and assurance that the corruption problem of the tree-creatures is being handled. Akissi gives Nzema and his compatriots the names of the other affected Islands, and the party agrees to allow her to arm them and fund them for their quest - all without mentioning the Alshekal or any of the other members.
The party then turns to the three petrified figures they retrieved form Camp Harrow; Aidra Bredini, a Magi of the Collegium, and a random adventurer.
The Magi they arrange to have transported to the local Collegium court, with a message outlining the general location of Camp Harrow where they found him and that there is another petrified Magi there (although someone in the Collegium should know - they sent the two poor mages there to be petrified in the first place). The party also mentions that their remain a camp full of people that may or may not have just survived an attack from a horde of surface creatures. The party trusts that the Collegium will send help or a scouting party to the camp and that any survivors will now have help getting back to the Islands.
For the other two bits of statuary the party pays a visit to Palmach, and ask him if he knows of any way to reverse this effect. They also ask him if he knows any black market mages who might be able to transcribe a high level scroll. They need more Teleportation Circle scrolls but don't want to let on to the Collegium that they even know about this capability, let alone that they might have the Gate Compass. In one day Palmach meets the party again, and delivers an ointment that should reverse the petrification effect. He says he got in touch with an Angel Touched recluse he knows, but it took a lot of effort and persuading to get the man to deliver the ointment - Palmach relays that this sadly has eaten up a lot of the remaining "favors" credit for the Alshekal. He also says that there is a black market mage named Shadowell who may be able to transcribe the scroll, although Palmach warns that he is a highly suspicious sort and can be quite paranoid. Black market magi don't get to be experienced black market magi without this trait. The party thanks him and reserves an introduction to Shadowell for later.
Back at Nade house, the party uses the ointment on Aidra. She is bewildered and shocked to find herself back on Nade in the company of the party, but eventually relays that she had tried to sneak into Helkala's chamber and felt herself slowly stiffening. The party tells her that Helkala is dead, and that they retrieved the Gate Compass and hiked back to the Empty Plaza Gate. Aidra is suspicious and deflated - she was clearly counting on getting to the Compass first so she could find some way to sell it and recover her family fortune. As the party secretly has two, they make a magnanimous offer to Aidra: they tell her that their goal was not the Compass itself, and that they will broker a sale to a highly reputable buyer for a 10% fee. In the meantime they will keep the Compass at the Nade House, which is safe from scrying. They tell her they buyer is on Morayel, so it will be about a half a year before the Gates allow the transaction. Aidra is yet suspicious, but on the whole she has nothing else to go on or pursue, so she agrees. She decamps to her own estate in Nade City, and promised to check in periodically.
Finally, the party uses the ointment on the last statue, a random adventurer who is also bewildered and alarmed at first. When the party explains the situation, he immediately asks after someone named Rekel, presumably the other petrified adventurer that the party left behind. He is saddened to learn that Rekel is still on the surface, but eventually revives enough to tell his own tale. He is reluctant at first, but in a windowless, doorless room with several well armed strangers he comes to the conclusion that reticence is perhaps not the immediate best move. He says his name, ironically, is Stone. He and Rekel are straight up adventurers for hire who specialize in finding information and hard to get objects. They normally operate out of the adventurer's quarter in the Citadel on Barakeel, and have done lucrative work for the Arcanists. A little over a year ago, Helkala approached them with a commission. They were to see if they could find any information or objects relating to something named Ogdoas (this would have been about the same time that Heleka stole the Gate Compass from the late Baron Bredini). Initial payment in hand and a few paid divinations later, they set out. They learned though trials and tribulations that much information relating to "Ogdoas" is locked away in a vault at the Tovan Monastery (a well known surface holding). Whatever sealed the vault is high magic and nigh impenetrable, and the key to this vault was split into two parts and hidden away. One part, a staff, Stone and Rekel located and "liberated" from a cloister of recluses on Virodimel. The other, a medallion, they learned is located on Balmach. They travelled to the Empty Plaza and accompanied a caravan through the vicious surface jungle to being the staff and medallion location to Helaka at Camp Harrow, and Helkala thanked them and then turned them to stone. Now that his employer betrayed him, and is partner is a statue in an impossibly difficult place to get to, Stone doesn't quite know what he will do. Likely he'll wander home to Barakeel to regroup. The party lets him go without telling him that Helkala is dead or that they have the staff. However, they let him go without getting the precise location of the medallion on Balmach.
Finally, Ramach gets around to identifying the magical loot from Helkala.
- Helkala's staff (on him, metal shod hard wood): Staff of Spell Storing, 20 slots
- Helkala's staff (from pedestal, unknown wood with swirls of a glassy substance): one half of the key to a vault at the Tovan Monastary.
- A small oblong smokey glass ornament: Calls an unseen servant 3x per day
- A large sapphire: A key of Instant Summons, tied to the original Gate Compass.
- Sword from pedestal: +1 sword, and +4d8 damage to conjured or extraplanar beings
- 3 daggers from Heklaka's Hold: Each +1, and each when held confers resistance to electricity, fire, and sonic damage, respectively.
- Cloak from Helkala: Something like a cloak of etherealness, although the identity doesn't tag it as linked to the "ethereal" plain, exactly. Also, Akissi feels a bit uncomfortable around this item.
It was on Day 71 of the Year 500 that Ramach solved Nyana's puzzle box, giving clues to her failed search for the Gate Compass and kicking off the Alshekal's search. With all the adventuring and waiting and traveling between three Islands and the surface, the party arrived in the basement of their safe house on Nade on Day 146 of Year 500. With two days of rest and wraping up loose ends, it is now Day 148....which is the last day that Nade is open to Darromar, the last known location of the previous Alshekal.
Darromar only comes to the Core Islands every 2.1 years, so an opportunity to find out what happened to their relatives and special friends is about to close for a while. On this cycle Darromar will also open to Morayel (in 31 days) and to Kasan (in 67 days), so there is time to explore and get back to the Core Islands. And if they miss the window, the party now has the Gate Compass and Ramach has two chances to read a high level scroll correctly.
The party gathers their gear, packs their bags, and at the end of a long day walks to the Nade Gate plaza to take the Gate to Darromar in the last hours that it will be open. An Arcanist standing before the Gate asks them if they know where they are going. It's a dangerous place after all. The party assures him that they are aware and step though the Gate.