Akkron glances at the other bar patrons sleeping off their ale... he sighs as he realizes that there's pretty much no chance that they'll be able to get the privacy he would like. But he can make it work if he must.

"Lorlin, I know you can create a Tiny Hut just as well as I can," he says to the Cleric. "So perhaps it would be best for you and Dabbert to camp in one while Khessa and I take another. Not that I have a problem with either of you, of course, but I have something I need to show my apprentice, and I would prefer not to have any distractions while we work on the lesson I have for her."

The lich rises and beckons for Khessa to follow him to an empty booth near the back of the room. He takes a few moments to make sure that the area is clear of other patrons, then sets his drink on the table and performs the ritual to summon the Tiny Hut. As soon as the bubble of force pops into existence to shield them from prying eyes, he slides his drink over to Khessa (assuming that she followed him to the booth, of course).

"I'm not sure why they felt the need to buy me a drink," he says quietly. "I don't even have a stomach anymore..."

Khessa eagerly follows her former magic teacher, fetching while still on the way an imposing tome from her backpack: its cover as black as a starless night, but with a pattern of silvery decorations that mimics spider webs.

'Zer'lan...' the blonde arcane warrior remembers 'That drow wizard that was with the slavers' expedition. I killed him duting my escape and stole his spellbook. And I'm still using it as my own... I could well change it, but I prefer to remember. To remember how dangerous unattended evil can be. To remember how hard has been for me to master magic. To remember that determination and dedication can overcome many obstacles. No, I'll keep using this one'.

"They did not reflect about your nature..." the tall adventuress smiles "But they meant to be kind anyway. You are a person that deserve kindness, Master Akkron! And I foresee a lot more of it, for you, in the future!" she winks.

Khessa then sits, spellbook open, an inkpot nearby, quill in hand, blue eyes sparking with almost the same excitement of her first lesson with him: "Ready when you are!"

Dab nods as he listens to the Khessa and Akkron as they plot to do...well, whatever the hell it is that wizards do when they have time and fathomless powers at their fingertips.  Namely, playing with things far beyond human comprehension.  He shrugs, thanks the Tetrea that it's not him having to figure that shit out, and then looks at Lorlin.  

"I uh...hope you don't snore."  He tells the Cleric.  "Because I do."  

"The first Drow I was ever forced to kill was... was my wife..." Akkron says bitterly as he notices the distant look in Khessa's eyes as she pulls out the spellbook that once belonged to Zer'lan. "She betrayed both myself and our daughter to the priestesses of Lolth for a chance to rise in their ranks. No matter how many eons pass I will never forget the shock and pain in my daughter's eyes when she realized what her own mother had done."

He takes a moment to compose himself, then places his own grimoire on the table and opens it. The book is a relatively simple leather-bound tome with only a single large symbol on the cover, but it resonates with an aura of incredible arcane power.

"Well, it's something that happened many centuries ago. What matters is our current predicament. This is the spell I want to teach you," he says, pointing a desiccated finger at an innocuous-looking low-level spell. "It's nothing too flashy or complicated, but against Beholders it is extremely potent. This spell can be used to conjure mystical Darkness that is impossible to see through by normal means... which robs a Beholder of the majority of its most potent abilities as they can only target creatures that they can see. The biggest drawback to using this spell is that we won't be able to see through it either, but even totally blinded we would be in a much better position than the Beholder is, and even if the Beholder uses its central antimagic eye to suppress a portion of the field of darkness then it will still be unable to target us with anything except its bite because of the antimagic field."

He pauses thoughtfully again after explaining the utility of the spell that he is about to teach to Khessa.

"We need to be extremely careful in this place," he says after a moment. "There is something extremely unnatural happening here. Normally, when Beholders are anywhere near each other their immediate instinct is to fight to the death. If there are multiple Beholders openly traversing this realm, something is very different from the 'normal' order of things. There is even a chance that I might collapse into an inert skeleton if I am ever in an antimagic field... back on our own plane of existence that has never been an issue for myself or any other lich, and I can even create an antimagic field myself if I so desire, but here I'm not as sure after I saw a Beholder fall out of the air when it inadvertently entered an antimagic field. Innate supernatural abilities such as a Beholder's ability to hover aren't normally effected by antimagic, so I can't say for sure what else might be suppressed."

(Side note: per Jeremy Crawford, Antimagic Field and Dispel Magic have no effect on creatures or objects that were brought into existence by means of spells that have a duration of 'Instantaneous' as the magical effect is something that changes the fundamental nature of reality and after that no longer needs to be sustained. Presumably, whatever Akkron did to become a lich falls into that category).

"Yes, evil can be disruptive and violent, as it was in my case..." Khessa lets the quill fall for a moment, placing the hand on her master's shoulder "or subtle and sneaky, as in yours... But we both found the will and the determination to fight back - and no few good came out of it. We'll just do the same here and now. We will not stop until we put an end to this threat. And end it we will!"

"I saw it myself" the blonde arcane warrior reflects. "Things seem to work... differently here, at a fundamental level. Many monstrous creature are doing ordinary things (like the spectstor cook) instead of causing harm. And that might be a trait better preserved than lost... But yes, you are perfectly right, it is important to asses the depth of the changes and their ultimate consequences. It is usually very dangerous, to deeply change how all things work!"

"Anyway, " the tall adventuress picks the quill back "you are smart and efficient as usual! Depower poor scary beholders with a lame low level spell... That's is another thing I always admired in you: you have an immense arcane knowledge and power - but what makes the difference is the clever ways you find to employ it. So, let's go on! Bring me to your..." she smiles, jokjng "dark side!"

And she focuses on the arcane concepts, formulas and gestures that will enable her to conjure darkness on demand...

"We should really collect the skeletons I left at my last campsite to test some of this properties of this place," Akkron says with a chuckle, then suddenly becomes very serious. "Actually... we should probably do that anyway if you didn't already deal with them while you were following my trail. If they slip out of my control they will start wandering and attack any living thing they encounter... I doubt that they will get very far in a wasteland overrun with Beholders and Elementals, but there is a chance that they might encounter some unlucky survivor in the rubble if they aren't put to rest or brought back under my control within the next twelve hours or so..."

He shakes his head.

"Well, we still have enough time. When we're done I'll create a Phantom Steed so that I can go to collect them."

Akkron will spend the next four hours instructing Khessa in how to use the Darkness and helping her decipher his writing so that she can copy the spell into her book (I'm hoping that will eliminate the gold cost for copying the spell since he's right there to help her decipher his unique script instead of leaving her to do it by trial and error), then he will take a Long Rest with the remaining four hours of of the Tiny Hut's duration to swap out a few of his prepared spells and get back his spell slots.

"Skeletons?" Khessa frowns "No, I didn't meet them... But once I got to this place, I might not have followed your path step by step... the evidence of your major fights put me on your trail, but in some places I may have taken a slightly different route than yours".

The blonde arcane warrior carefully follows the powerful master's explanations, asking for clarifications when she has any doubts and noting everything (questions & answers included) in her spellbook.

In the end, the tall adventuress also makes some practical attempts, just to be really sure and lo and behold... (poetic license: I know that Khessa shouldn't be able to cast the spell already - she should prepare it first - but I imagine that the wizards will have some way to make practice tests and be sure that you have understood everything correctly! Maybe such attempts are implicit in the process of learning the spell? Anyway, I'm not taking advantage of this... It's mere role-play)

..."It works, Master Akkron!" Khessa exults, as an impenetrable darkness completely fills the dome area (though not spilling out of it) "And the great thing about this spell is..." the woman moves confidently and embraces the lich, as if she can detect perfectly the area where it is "...Anator sees perfectly anyway, and can tell me telepathically where the creatures are!"

"Thank you, huh, my brother?" the tall adventuress speaks for a moment to her familiar.

"In this way," the blonde arcane warrior starts talking to the lich again (releasing the embrace) "I'll still have the hindrance of not being able to see my opponent with my own eyes... but at least I'll always know for sure where they is - and therefore I will avoid attacking thin air!"

"Speaking of attacks..." Khessa worries for a moment "Maybe it's better if you create two Phantom Steeds and I come with you... (or if the distance isn't great, I can also just Fly). You know, Master Akkron, it is true that you are hunting for mere skeletons, but if you came across a group of beholders... you could prevent them from targeting you, fine, but I don't know how easy it would be for you to beat them with a staff. To assist you in this boring and brutish task, perhaps it is best if I accompany you..." (yes, she's playing down, but the concern is real in the depths of her blue eyes...).

"That isn't a bad idea," Akkron replies. "The ruined temple where I left them isn't too far from here, but your concerns are justified... now get some rest, we'll head out when the dome disappears."

Khessa smiles and, knowing she can count on Anator for surveillance, puts her backpack on the ground, frees her feet from the knee-high boots, removes her armor, crouches down with her hands under her head (and on her backpack) and the staff at her side - then falls asleep peacefully. It's the first day. She's just arrived in this strange place. And she has already found her master, made the acquaintance of two new valuable allies, and increased her repertoire of spells. Worries about keeping reality from falling apart have gone with the wind. Tomorrow is another day.

Akkron spends the night mostly in silent meditation (for around 4 hours, which is all he needs to complete a Long Rest), preparing spells, etc. As he glances at Khessa, he can't help but feel a little pang of envy for the arcane warrior's ability to sleep... to actually close her eyes and let everything fade away for a few hours. He sighs and pulls out the strange tome that set him on this quest in the first place, reading over the bizarre and foreboding prophecy for what must be the thousandth time. There must be something there that he's missing... something that can give him some idea what they need to do to fix this mess.

As the tavern transforms into impromptu sleeping quarters the Oblex spawn gloops around and extinguishes most of the light sources.

For those sleeping in the booth as you sit down the surrounding runes light up and the space around you grows dark and outside noise becomes muffled. The bench also starts to feel more comfortable so a decent long rest is achievable without much back pain. 

As the dome fades, Akkron emerges from his meditation.

"It seems that morning is upon us," the lich says. "We'd better take care of this little issue... I'm going to go check with the others quickly and see if either of them want to join us in cleaning up my mess. Also... I want to run an experiment when we get there. The neighboring tower is full of corpses in the aftermath of the deceased warlock's one-man siege... I would like to check if we can get any of our seeds to sprout from one of the bodies and multiply our currency or if there's another component that we need."

Akkron then proceeds over to Dab and Lorlin's table and points out that they left four skeletons at their last campsite which will go berserk when 24 hours have elapsed unless they are dealt with.

"In my defense... I wasn't the only one who forgot about them when we left," Akkron says after he finishes explaining the situation. "Anyway, would either of you like to join us in the clean-up, or should Khessa and I meet you back here?"

Quote from Mister_Whisker >>

..."It seems that morning is upon us," the lich says. "We'd better take care of this little issue... I'm going to go check with the others quickly and see if either of them want to join us in cleaning up my mess. Also... I want to run an experiment when we get there. The neighboring tower is full of corpses in the aftermath of the deceased warlock's one-man siege... I would like to check if we can get any of our seeds to sprout from one of the bodies and multiply our currency or if there's another component that we need."

Used since childhood, when she helped her family in the fields, to wake up early, Khessa immediately opens her eyes as she hears the lich's voice - and smiles, fresh and rested: "Good morning, Master Akkron!" she stretches "Did you come up with an improved version of this spell? For some reason, the bench was feeling ... more comfortable than usual! I would have expected it to be harder. Unless it was just another small change in the laws of reality...".

"The seed experiment is a good idea," the blonde arcane warrior approves, as she begins to review the spells she wants to keep in mind that day — including the one she just learned, Darkness. "This warlock, by the way… did you know what patron he serves? Maybe his patron might know more details about what's going on here... and if we find out who this entity is, maybe we can try to get an audience... And the same could be said of the beholders... If 'something' manages to make them get together and act in a coordinated way, perhaps this 'something' is a powerful entity... who perhaps has a more precise idea than we do of the current events. Did you try interrogating some of the dead beholders? With magic, I mean, of course..."

As the conversation progresses, the tall adventuress has finished preparing, washing herself (eventually, with the help of magic if there is no water available), putting on her clothes and armor and now, staff in hand and a smile on her face, she is ready to face the new day... and whatever challenge it will bring! She stays by her mentor's side, greeting the others and asking them if they slept well, before Akkron comes to the point and asks them if they wish to come.

(Let me know when you're ready for the next "day" to start.)

The warrior's eyes crack open as Akkron shambles up.  For a moment, Dab is caught off guard by the proximity of the Lich, then pushes the heels of his palms into his eyes and tries to force the sleep out of them.  

"Oof.  You look how uh...I feel."  Dab says.  He frowns, wondering if he's already made that joke, then shrugs.  He grunts a bit as he pushes himself out of the booth and stretches.  "I'm getting too old for shit like this."

He greets Lorlin, then wishes Khessa a good morning as well while examining what the room and its always odd occupants.  

"So uh...planting seeds in corpses?  Seems pretty reasonable with all the things we've seen so far.  Am I uh...understanding correctly?  Going back to where we fought the monk?"  

Quote from Painted_Beyond >>

Used since childhood, when she helped her family in the fields, to wake up early, Khessa immediately opens her eyes as she hears the lich's voice - and smiles, fresh and rested: "Good morning, Master Akkron!" she stretches "Did you come up with an improved version of this spell? For some reason, the bench was feeling ... more comfortable than usual! I would have expected it to be harder. Unless it was just another small change in the laws of reality...".

"The seed experiment is a good idea," the blonde arcane warrior approves, as she begins to review the spells she wants to keep in mind that day — including the one she just learned, Darkness. "This warlock, by the way… did you know what patron he serves? Maybe his patron might know more details about what's going on here... and if we find out who this entity is, maybe we can try to get an audience... And the same could be said of the beholders... If 'something' manages to make them get together and act in a coordinated way, perhaps this 'something' is a powerful entity... who perhaps has a more precise idea than we do of the current events. Did you try interrogating some of the dead beholders? With magic, I mean, of course..."

As the conversation progresses, the tall adventuress has finished preparing, washing herself (eventually, with the help of magic if there is no water available), putting on her clothes and armor and now, staff in hand and a smile on her face, she is ready to face the new day... and whatever challenge it will bring! She stays by her mentor's side, greeting the others and asking them if they slept well, before Akkron comes to the point and asks them if they wish to come.

 "Good morning," Akkron replies warmly as an animated skeleton can to Khessa. "So, the unfortunate warlock was a beholden to a Hexblade. It may be possible for us to contact his patron if we wish to... though it seems that there are quite a few Hexblade warlocks around here, so we would probably be better off just asking one of them to commune with his or her patron for us. As for speaking to a deceased beholder, I have not done so yet... honestly, I'm not entirely convinced that we could get any useful information by such communication. Beholders are notoriously unstable when they're alive, I doubt that being dead would make one any more coherent."

The lich does his best to laugh at Dabbert's joke, then quickly returns to a more serious tone.

"That is one of the things that I intend to do, but it isn't our main objective," Akkron clarifies. "The main problem is that we left four skeletons to guard our last campsite... four skeletons which are going to be free to do as they wish within a few more hours. And unfortunately, what most common undead such as skeletons and zombies wish to do is exterminate all living things that they encounter if they aren't under the command of a necromancer. I might be being a little bit overly paranoid about how much damage four skeletons can do, but I don't believe in leaving my messes for others to clean up."

Quote from Mister_Whisker >>

 "Good morning," Akkron replies warmly as an animated skeleton can to Khessa. "So, the unfortunate warlock was a beholden to a Hexblade. It may be possible for us to contact his patron if we wish to... though it seems that there are quite a few Hexblade warlocks around here, so we would probably be better off just asking one of them to commune with his or her patron for us. As for speaking to a deceased beholder, I have not done so yet... honestly, I'm not entirely convinced that we could get any useful information by such communication. Beholders are notoriously unstable when they're alive, I doubt that being dead would make one any more coherent."

The lich does his best to laugh at Dabbert's joke, then quickly returns to a more serious tone.

"That is one of the things that I intend to do, but it isn't our main objective," Akkron clarifies. "The main problem is that we left four skeletons to guard our last campsite... four skeletons which are going to be free to do as they wish within a few more hours. And unfortunately, what most common undead such as skeletons and zombies wish to do is exterminate all living things that they encounter if they aren't under the command of a necromancer. I might be being a little bit overly paranoid about how much damage four skeletons can do, but I don't believe in leaving my messes for others to clean up."

"And that does you credit, Master Akkron!" Khessa gently places a hand on the undead's shoulder "It is true that, considering the dangerousness of the creatures that roam, the most probable epilogue is that those skeletons have long since being turned to dust, but since, all in all, helpless creatures can still exist here... it's only fair to try, at the very least, not to make this place even more dangerous than it already is!"

"Speaking of dangers..." the blonde arcane warrior asks, addressing all "Since you hadn't thought of contacting the hexblades' patron until now... how did you plan to do, to understand something more about what's going on? Were you going to cast divinations? Or… going around looking for clues? Or... what? What plan did you have?"

Akkron considers Khessa's questions for a moment.

"When we spoke to Baron Evermore, he told us that monsters seemed to emerge from the center of the city," Akkron says. "The first part of our plan was simply to establish a base within the city to get a good idea of what is going on, and then determine our next course of action from there... honestly, I didn't think to ask any of the Warlocks' patrons about the situation because I assume that if they have any pertinent knowledge then it would have already been shared with their warlocks. We already spoke to Baron Evermore, and I am fairly confident that we learned all that we could from him; I doubt that any of the other warlocks have a patron who knows more about what is happening than the Matron of Ravens does. Admittedly, I may be overestimating the generosity of the Matron of Ravens with her knowledge, but I suspect that it is in her best interests to get this situation cleared up as well. I will probably do some divinations to help lay clear the path before us, but so far most of what we have been doing is searching for clues in the wreckage... you have to understand, as potent as magic is, it isn't always the most reliable method to obtain what you need... For example, if I were to use Speak with Dead on the beholder that we killed, it could and, to be frank, most likely would, give me incomplete or even outright false information as it would still remember us as its enemies."

"Of course, Master Akkron. You"re understanding of such matters is much deeper than mine" Khessa clarifies. "My limited knowledge of magic is mainly focused on helping me breaking the heads of my enemies faster and easier... I did not mean to criticize, I was just trying to understand what you all planned. I still would find strange that someone as powerful as the Quenn of Ravens does not know more of what happened in her own plane... I'm more inclined to believe she is directing her servants without necessarily sharing all she knows with them. But searching clues first-hand is quite fine by me".

"Oh  and speaking of my limited knowledge of magic..." the blonde arcane warrior readies her web-decorated spellbook and her quill "I really want to take notes about the ritual you use to conjure the phantom steeds, while you cast it! Since those steeds are of little use in combat, I did not took touch intetest in that spell... but for travel it can come in handy! Maybe I'll try to learn this one during our next training session. Should we need to cast it for all, at least, knowing the ritual in two would halve the time needed".

So after you wake up and cast around the first thing you’ll notice is that this place is dead empty. Fire extinguished Candles burnt down. The second thing you’d notice is that the place smells better, fresh with cold, crisp air. The third thing you would notice is the cool light coming from the secret entrance you arrived by. A cacophony comes from that direction - a sound  similar to two parades that decided to fight each other.