Seeds of Corruption
Somewhere on the Surface, roughly 50 miles from the Empty Plaza gate
Late in the evening, the party makes their way down into the quarry one by one. They pry open the tunnel mouth leading to the new mine under the Ancient Race Ruin, and Ramach's unerring direction sense puts them in a shaft directly below the center of the ruin. They climb a ladder and attempt to open the hatch leading up. At first it makes too much noise, and their infiltration is nearly scuttled form the start as a few nearby sleeping guards wake up and patrol to investigate. The party waits for them to clear, and tries again. Koros gets himself up to the first floor to see open archways into a large bunkroom for the company of Habri mercenaries. They snore and fart away in their sleep, but any sound could bring dozens of them awake.
Koros sneaks up the spiral stairs past the second floor door, which reportedly leads to Habri officer's quarters, and at the end of the stairs finds the open arch to the third floor, where he detects a glyph around the arch. Ramach levitates up the central atrium, and together they disarm the ward. One by one the rest of the party sneaks up, but Paetro slips halfway to the second floor and wakes a few mercenaries. He brazenly lowers his voice and tells them to mind their own business, impersonating some officer stumbling around at night, and it works.
The third floor is under construction, and there is no way up to the fourth floor except though an unfinished section of ceiling. Ramach levitates up and finds that the fourth floor is dark, dank, and covered in a thin green spongy moss. The party climbs up, and in investigating the fourth floor they are attacked by corpse-like humanoids with long lashing tongues.
The three ghouls swing claw-like hands, and the party discovers that they can paralyze their victims. Koros is hit and paralyzed and one ghoul has its tongue into Koros's mouth and down his throat before the other two are dealt with and the party comes to his aid.
The fourth floor is locked away from the fifth and final floor, except for a medium sized hole where a ton of soil seems to have fallen through and piled up on the fourth floor. With Orosh in the lead, the party clamors up the pile and presses through the hole, digging through foul smelling dirt and detritus. Emerging from the earth piled up on the fifth floor, the party sees that this level is double-height, has 2-3 feet of dirt covering the floor, and has a large root-like trunk poking through from the closed off wedge portion of the tower. Each long root has a seed pod growing at the end, similar to the one the party saw on the farm in Placido Terra. For Akissi, the room is thick with the feel of corruption. It is clear that this is the source of the corruption that Helkala is secretly teleporting to the Islands.
There are also four pillar-platforms equally spaced along the walls, about 15 feet high. Light glows from two of them. Starlight spills from one that looks to abut the archway leading to the fin-balcony previously explored by Koros, and another looks like it has objects with a faint glow floating above three pedestals.
Paetro climbs one of the non-lit platforms, and when he is halfway up thick humanoid rock creature picks itself up from the soil and begins attacking the party.
It is tough - normal missiles and weapons seem to harmlessly bang on its rocky form, and each mighty swing of its arms knocks the wind and blood from anyone it hits. Paetro fires ghost bolts at it, Ramach fires fire bolts, and Akissi and Koros use magical weapons that seem to actually chip away at it. Orosh, lacking a magical weapon, grapples with the rock elemental and keeps it from hitting anyone while his companions slowly whittle away at the creature until it falls to harmless stones.
Paetro's platform contains a bed , and from his pillar (the bed pillar) he can more clearly see the other platforms. The one to the archway (the archway pillar) has a rune circle, the one with the pedestals looks like a workshop of some kind (the workshop pillar), and the objects over the pedestals are a version of a Gate Compass, a staff, and a sword. The last seems to have a chalkboard and a bunch of notes (the study pillar). The party heads for the workshop platform, and notices a ward written around the wall. The ward disarmed, Orosh, Ramach, and Koros climb up the workshop pillar to examine the pedestals. Paetro, still on the bed pillar, notices a shimmer around the rune circle on the archway pillar, and then an older man in a thick cloak holding a staff and a large satchel is on that platform. Presumably Helkala, he bellows out, "Thieves! Scoundrels! You have burned my papers and you will answer for it!" And the battle is on.
Akissi, Orosh, and Koros rush the star-lit archway pillar on which Helkala sits, while Paetro fires bolts from the bed pillar and Ramach stays on the workshop pillar. As Orosh climbs up, another ward is trigger and another rock creature rises up form the floor. Koros is forced to engage it alone as Akissi attempts to follow Orosh up the pillar. Orosh reaches the top of the archway pillar to find Helkala encased in an invisible, , impenetrable sphere of force. There is also a barking noise and Orosh is attacked by some sort of invisible dog. Ramach levitates Akissi up the pillar. Orosh pushes on Helaka's globe, and it moves, surprising Helkala, who utters a word and vanishes, only to appear on the study pillar.
Akissi jumps down to assist Koros with the rock creature, Orosh jumps down and imn mid ari throws a javelin at Helaka, hittig him hard. He then rushes the study pillar as Koros fights for his life and gets beaten near to death, Paetro peppers Helkala with bolts, and Ramach disarms wards and grabs the staff from the workshop pedestals. Helaka releases lightning and bolts of fire. As Orosh reaches the top of the study pillar, Helkala once again vanishes, this time to appear near Ramach on the workshop pillar.
Helaka casts a spell that has Ramach's limbs start to stiffen, but Ramach is able to break it off and shrug himself free. Ramach tries to use the staff he picked up, but is unable. Ramach is hit by a close in lightning bolt, and is badly injured. Orosh leaps off the study pillar, and again in mid-air throws a javelin that spears Helkala in a leg. Paetro lands a solid precise hit at the same time. Helkala, badly injured, turns to grab the shiny new Gate Compass from the pedestal, and Ramach beans him in the back of the head with the staff, knocking him unconscious.
Helaka down, the party makes quick work of the rock creature and takes a moment to assess. Ramach memorizes the chalk writing on the study pillar, the party grabs the sword from the pedestal, and a ward on the archway is discovered and disarmed. After a brief debate, Akissi kills Helaka and removes his head.
Although they loot the magic items he possesses, there is no spell book. The writings in the study seem to confirm that Hekala was using the Gate Compass to transport seed pods to the Islands. Five Islands have arcane circle patterns written next to them, and one matches the circle the party destroyed on Nade. From this the party deduces that Helakal has already succeeded on Mehujael, Zelix, Jamerah, Kasan, and Nade (although the party cleared out the tree-creature on Nade, the Master of Placido Terra).
Ramach spends a while working out how to use the Gate Compass. They have four scrolls of Teleportation Circle stolen from Rinsluck, and Ramach thinks he can figure one out to cast the spell - with the Gate Compass, he may be able to get them to the arcane circle in the basement of Nade House. The party then gathers on the fin-balcony, and decides to take some of the petrified individuals back with them. They choose Aidra, one adventurer, and one Magi of the collegium.
Before they go, Ramach and Orosh re-enter the tower to ensure that none of the seed pods ever leave or get to the Islands. They set out to burn the entire lot. As they do so, the rest of the party sees a cloud rising on the dawn-lit horizon, as hundreds of distant monkey-demon creatures, like the ones on Wisp and at Placido Terra, take to the sky and head towards them. There is a distant keening wail, and the trees of the jungle in that direction begin to shake and tremble, a wave that rapidly picks up pace and comes towards them. The party grab Ramach and Orosh and make their escape - Ramach at first fails to read one of the teleport scrolls but gets it right on the second try.
With massive corruption bearing down on Camp Harrow, and with not one but two Gate Compasses and three petrified individuals in their possession, the party teleports away and arrives safely in the basement of their Nade house.