Act 3: Searching for Redemption

Finding the Cult

Once the party is ready to start the hunt, the first thing that they will need to do is track down the cult. Find the cult, find Alarak. Depending on how the party wants to go about the investigation, they have a couple options. First off, they can take the advice of Hearim and check out the area of the city that he highlighted (Southwestern Slums), or alternatively, if they have decided to research the items, Astarak and the portal, they could go to the Grand Library and look for scrolls/books related to the subject. As well, the party will have free access to the Solara Estates Library, which houses logs and missives from 300 years of the Dammian Raiders.

Option A: Investigate the South-west Slums

Taking Hearims advice, the party heads to the South-west Slums. As the party wends their way through the streets and alleys, several children will take notice and start tracking the parties movements. If party members succeed on a DC15 Perception Check, they will notice that they keep catching glimpses of the same children, becoming aware of being followed.

These children will eventually setup a diversion to distract the party. This distraction will come in the form of a fruit stand. A few of the children will create a botched robbery at the fruit stand to make a scene and draw the party’s attention. Then a young girl named Nara will sneak up on whichever party member is in the back and attempt to steal their coin purse. If the party member is aware that they are being followed, give them a DC 12 perception check to see if they realize what is happening. If successful, have them roll a DC 13 Dexterity Check to see if they catch Nara’s hand, preventing the theft and escape.

Scenario 1: Nara is Caught

Nara, caught and unable to escape, will initially try to threaten/intimidate the party into letting her go. When that goes, she will try the sob story approach, claiming to be an orphan on the streets, completely alone and left to fend for herself (Note: This is not true, a DC 13 Insight Check will allow the party to see through her lies, noting that her clothes are in surprisingly good condition, much better condition than if she was handling her own clothes).

Once pleading fails, she will move towards bartering, trying to strike a deal with the party in order to get them to let her go, that is, until she spies someone in the crowd. Once she spies them, she should start encouraging them to turn her into the Guard so that she can face punishment.

This should seem highly suspicious to the party, and, upon investigating, will learn the truth. Nara’s sticky fingers has led to her coming into the possession of a “Fancy Wand thing”. It turns out that the people she had taken the item from really want it back

Scenario 2: Nara Escapes

Option B: Reasearch the Cult and the Items

This route involved checking the Grand Library for any information related to Astarak and its Cult and any items related to the cult and its prophecies. For this, have the players role a DC14 Investigation Check to see if they can find anything. As long as they pass this check, they will be able to find a scroll called “The Call of the Dark One”, which is a poem detailing the opening of the Dark Portal. If they fail the roll, the expend an hour, but fail to turn up anything useful. When they do find the entry, it reads as follows:

The Call of the Dark One

They set the circle in a hush of oil and bone, a pendant hung like a breathing bruise against the throat, a robe drawn over trembling shoulders like dusk made cloth; and the ring, a cold promise, slid to the sleeping finger.

The staff was planted like an oath between the feet — butt to earth, jeweled crown adorned, the bearer steadying the world on the hollow of their palm, arms a map of measured intent, eyes turned inward.

Words were kept soft, syllables folded into the seam, the city’s name breathed only once, a rumor in the throat — Iperion whispered and then smothered, as if not to wake it.

They moved as one instrument: pendant shining, robe falling, staff leveled, a finger closing the last ringed seal; the air drew tight, as though listening for someone to breathe.

A person was given, a light put out like a coin dropped, placed where the ritual needed a human hush; their body answered the pattern, a statue in a private pose, limbs arrested in the exact geometry the portal required, face set like a witness that could not and would not look away.

What happened to that one is a door we are not asked to open, only to note the stillness — the way hands keep time for strangers, the way voices leave the room and footsteps make new laws.

Outside, the city moved and did not know; inside, the joining: pendant and robe and staff and ring found their measure, and in the space between jeweled head and planted heel a thin black seam unzipped the skin of the world — a hinge that remembers how to hang a shadow.

— Sahir al-Muqaddam, Hero of the city.

After reading the passage, the player reading the passage (Unless they read it aloud) should roll a DC13 Insight check to see if they recognize that this passage is actually letting the party know what items are required by the cult. If they pass the check, the will realize that the ritual requires the following magical artifacts:

• The Pendant of Dust
• The Staff of Oblivion
• The Crown of Astarak

Note: The Staff of Oblivion was known to be broken into 3 pieces, with each piece being hidden in a different location in the Zerab Desert Region. This was confirmed by missives between the upper level members of the Dammian Raiders who oversaw the dismantling of the relic.

See Raider Missives between Durfin Hedelbrokand High General Vidi, located in Solara Estate’s Library
Also Note that the cult has already recovered and re-assembled the staff, minus the head of the staff, which the child Nara has stolen from the cult.

If the Party Investigates the Solara Estate Library

With the investigation, if the party chooses to look into what information that Lord Valdar and the Dammian Raiders might have, they can visit the Solara Estate Library to look into what information about the cult and what was involved in the banishment of Astarak. A DC13 Investigation Check will unveil a series of correspondence between Brigadier General Ashuk and Lord Adi about what to do with the Staff of Oblivion, its breaking as well as hints about where the pieces have been hidden.

Correspondence between Lord Adi and Brigadier General Ashuk after the Banishment of Astarak