The inquisitor, Draythus, asks Nim about the bounty
“I hate to be that guy, after you almost got, uh, lobotomized”
“I have some questions about you regarding some involvement, you’re not under arrest”
Sarah: “isn’t that for me to decide? I’m mayor”
Draythus: “Interim..”
Inquisitor: “She’s with you, right Nim?”
Nim: “There’s a 50% chance she arrests me, for gits and shigs”
Draythus: I’d like to ask some questions about ur escapades, there’s a warrant out for ur arrest
Draythus: the bounty only applies to civilian
Draythus: to Sarah, you know you don’t have a pardon right, this is an international bounty
Draythus: Did you ever enter any temples, ruins, etc., without proper permission?
Sarah: She would never do that!
Nim: I am a respected academic how dare u insinuate that I break laws
Draythus: I am well aware of ur accolades, but I have to go through some of the, i don’t wanna do this, look you’ve pissed off an entire set of powerful people, not least being the The Council of Archmages
Draythus: I have heard tales, I’ve read one of your works
Nim: I’m famous!
Seliph to Sarah: can you stop antagonizing everyone you meet?
Sarah: No
Lady Novis retired from her position, and is no longer with the Council of Archmages
Seliph: We need to defeat the woestrider, this is all we’re ordained to do here
Yul: And we need to explore the rest of the lighthouse
Draythus: OMG SOMEONE SMART!!
Going to the top of the tower tomorrow
Draythus is checking the basement right now
In the bag is a weird metal contraption, it only looks like a box
Nim takes out the metal contraption
The orb shakes as Nim tries to take it out
The entire cube is metal except for one part in the middle
You need to juice it up with some form of conjuration magic
Nim casts mage hand and pokes the non metal hand, Nim’s hand wasn’t able to do anything, the mage hand though, acts like a switch
See a blue ring, a line of blue line up on all sides on all of the faces, a plus sign on each side, feel a gust of air, hear an air lock release
Each face extends out a little, protrudes, all the corners extend out and rotate 45 degree, see embers and weird blue lightning charges zapping around something in the center
Nim reaches through and grabs the thing in the center and gets zapped by lightning, a strong jolt
Now, the casing it was in is floating/hovering, hear the hum hum louder, the center is now spinning somewhat fast
In the bag, see a journal, haphazard journal, not a professional
Bloo flips through the journal, incoherent writing, see a sketch, very similar, amateur diagram of the cube
Has a label, “energy storage”
Some haphazard notes, the work is mostly in their head
Diagram with arrow, if you touch one of the faces, and the arrow says, “close cube”
Nim closes cube, it clings together, and now the cube is rotating around as the lights slowly fade away, and then it falls
Nim catches it, makes her fall over, it’s super heavy
The humming slowly comes to a stop, it feels lighter
Bloo rummages thru the notes, see one other thing, a little sketch of a lightning coming out of the cube, indicates there is more than one model of that around
This is the first battery
Pouch in bag is 700GP, with a note that says, “Research Funding”
Bloo takes it
Sarah: when can I have my sword Seliph
Bloo changes into Sarah
We follow Seliph and Draythus into the basement
Basement of Lighthouse
Climb down the ladder
Seliph: Is this ladder gonna keep going down forever
We get to the bottom, very dimly lit
Seliph lights up a torch
In this basement, see something ritualistic
Including a foot, an arm, no head, but are for different people (diff skin tone) one of them looks human (arm), the other is dwarf-like (foot)
The joint is dusty, sandy almost, not cauterized, not bloody
In the center of the room, despite all the cobwebs and dank air, notice something weird, a pristine pillar made of shiny polished quartz with a clear glass bowl in the center with a liquid
Sarah: “Yul I’ll give you 50 gold to drink the liquid”
The liquid smells very salty, look at the clearness/opacity of the liquid, it’s salt water brine, notice that there’s something weirdly ritualistic about it, on the pedestal there’s also a dead rat
Get a feeling that disturbing this might have consequences
Is not a ritual that you have seen (Nim)
It might be connected to Ruin because of other things, it might be related to the rings in someway
Feels warm in the room, warmer than it feels like it should be
Seliph: why is it hot in this room
Seliph: blows out one of the torches
Seliph walks towards the pillar, careful not to disturb it
As he walks closer, realize this pillar is somewhat tall, as he gets over to it, Seliph found the source of the heat
Faint wisps and a small flame, very clear, almost transparent, there is a fire lit on top of the bowl, the salt water itself is burning
Feel a weird magical presence
The severed limbs are sand-like, powdery where severed, get the feeling that the only things remaining are the severed limbs
On the floor, there’s dust in a circular shape with 4 prongs, 3 prongs pointing in and a little circle on the other end of the pillar
Ruin’s signature is turning things into dust
There’s one limb in each sector
The hand does not have a ring on it
Draythus is writing stuff down, refuses to cross the lines to open the box
Nim goes around the lines to investigate the circle
Yul digs through the box
We are on the circle side
The lines extend to the walls and corner
The crate that Yul wants to look into has a few cobwebs, and another weird metal chain looking thing with something weird attached to the end
It’s a little amulet, but the chains aren’t jewelry small, but not chain link thick
Sarah puts the amulet on, feel 5% more confident, and not cursed (you have a +1 to hit on attack rolls)
Name: Minor Amulet of Accuracy
In the amulet is a tiny little spider
The circle in the bottom right has a little salt
Nim is fairly certain Ruin is already summoned if this is a Ruin summoning circle
The longer this ritual lasts, the more stable Ruin is as he is being constantly summoned, but I’m not confident about this
Sarah wants to fuck up the ritual
The wizard wanted to be a conjuration/illusion wizard, but she dropped out, couldn’t pick a focus, took so many different classes, let her have her father’s tower
No one here really likes Dongle, but you can enter the competition
People don’t like when I investigate guilds
Seliph: you dunno how infuriating it was conversing with that pathetic welp of that egomaniac, Wilfred Dongle
Refused to let me parlay on behalf of the guild
Nim: inquisitor, question, the passcode to get into the secret lighthouse, they were Wilfred and Agnes Stonefire (THE MAYOR)
The questions
Draythus thinks Wilfred is the “scourge of the city”
Agnes Stonefire was not wearing a ring the last time Draythus saw her
Agnes did say she was having an important meeting with someone, she said her lips were sealed, may have been blackmailed or coerced or threatened
Draythus: Tomorrow, the inventor’s competition, noon, you need to submit your entry by 10am the registration deadline
I’ve been investigating Wilfred, he’s super ambitious and will trample on others
Do we think Wilfred reports to the changeling or Tabitha?
We exit the basement, Draythus locks it
Draythus: please rest, but I have something
He pulls out a tiny little booklet, “this is my personal thanks, i don’t think it’s right for me to use it” walks to Yul (past Sarah), “this is very valuable”
It’s a booklet of vouchers and coupons
“Consider dinner on me, I hope you guys love seafood”
After some discussion, Bloo casts Detect Magic on the ring they tried to give Nim
See an aura, detect 2 schools of magic, enchantment and necromancy
Coupon: 1 free item anywhere in central market
Coupon: BOGO at Blood, Wrath, and Beyond (shopkeeper died, snapped)
Central Market
We go back to the Central Market
Go to alchemy store
Average looking human, just kinda there
He’s sweating bullets
The normal shopkeeper is there and alive, just in the back
Sarah buys a potion of cloud giant, Nim gets a potion of invulnerability
