The Valley of Ends

Wand of Secrets

Do we have access to the HQ?

The Residence? You can open the door the day the securing party is supposed to arrive. 

Onyx would scout the surounding area while waiting, trying to spot dangers before they surprise us. He would do it mostly during the night and rest during the day. Maybe hunt some food while at it. 

As the days go by, the each party member goes through activities from standing guards to hunting the sacre game in the area for food to just wandering around for a bit before they spot a group of heavily armored individual, ignoring the blazing heat approaching, They stand in contrast to the more lightly armored raiders from before. They stop at the edge of the ruins before one moves forwards before bellowing out loud, you suspect throwing Thaumaturgy.

"I am Uda, Paladin of Pelor. I am to speak with Resfaen, Paladin of Kelemvor!" She bellows out for all to hear.

"Someone you know?" Fingolin asks. "Whatever it is, stand tall! We're here if you need us." Bardic inspiration d8 to Resfaen.

Resfaen approaches the paladin, with a hint of hesitation, "I am Resfaen and we have been expecting you, welcome." Then she motions for the group to make themselves comfortable as best they can among the ruins.

"I am to relieve of you of protection of this site. HIgh Priest has given us a very short overview of the situation due to limitation of Sending so if you or your party could fill us in on everything," Uda states as she put out her hand for a shake, "I believe this may be a trouble in the making. Depending on your answers, we may have to give you some answers you may not like," 

"Well we arrived several days ago and noticed a rather large encampment of looters in the region bringing items up from inside." As she points to the entrance to the tomb. "We scouted the perimeter one night to test their defenses but were discovered so had to flee for a day. We returned and were planning our attack in the morning hours but when we approached we saw that in the middle of the night the looters just seemed to disappear. We went inside," then she sighs, "and encountered rooms that twist around and statutes that came alive and attacked. Once defeated they started to reform so they still might cause you some problems."

Then you can see her spine stiffen, "We eventually made it to the interior and encountered some queen ghost that gave us some information on the looters." At which point she pauses and breaks eye contact, spitting on the ground. "I was unable to rid the world of this ghost as she is powerful and she tasked my companions with a missions to return her body to the site. She mentioned the looters were very interested in her body and are planning on using it for some ceremony. At which point we left the tomb and have been waiting the past couple of days for your arrival. What news do you bring?"

Uda listen to all of this with her hands behind her back and feet apart before looking over her shoulder and gestures for one of the smaller individuals of her party to come, "Sybil, please investigate the tomb. We may have a lingering spirit in the central chamber but she seems non malicious but proceed with caution and treat the spirit with respect," Sybil nodded before she takes out a book and wanders towards the central area with a happy of Uda's party. Uda turns back to Resfaen before reaching into a bag and pulling out a small stack of papers bonded by string, "Swear you will burn these after you are done. I also have been authorize to give you this," She reaches in her bag and pulls out a large pouch and hands it over to Resfaen, even with her strength has to quickly adapt to the sudden weight, "This is a enough Stellar Iron to create a sun blade. Now that is out of the way, I need for Sybil to returned with her take before I can tell you sensivite information,"She looks around before gestures to the central ruin before she takes off for it with the rest of her group in tow. 

Sitting on a fallen pillars and looking at the party in tow, "Got any thing you wan to talk about as we wait?"

With the leather pouch is several bars of a white bright metal that feels soft to touch but doesn't bend under pressure as welll as 400gp. 

Salys moves up and cranes his neck to try and look at the papers, "Are those the designs? Good timing, we can open the residence here if we'd like and start work right away!"

Uda looks at the very eager gnome for a bit before returning to her comrades, "Survey and determine defense points, see if anything can be mended and restored. This is a possible deity site," Uda waits for a bit as the ground beneath rumsbles repeatedly and the party watches the Paladin for a while before her eyes closed and she tilts her head as if someone was whispering to her before he face stiffen and she lets out a angry growl before open her eyes and beckon the party over.

"Welcome to the deep end it seems weather you like it or not. So the tomb raiders were or are a band of mercenaries known as Knucklebusters, if they're still calling themselves that is questionable but they seem to have fallen in with one of the many cults in this Valley. For most parts, these cults are people just desperate and will cling to anything but the valley has many forgotten and what we would refer to as Dead Gods. Most of the time, these dead gods are inactive but within the Valley a spark of life returns to many of them and with believers they become hunters, consuming other sparks until they need a host to truly affect our world," Uda takes a breath in her explaining. 

"A host to properly contain a god, even a demi-god power is rare because you need more elements then just body strong enough, you need one with the right affinity. A goddess of hunt is ill suited in the body of a artificer, even a strong one," Uda reached into her bag once more before pulling out a small book before flipping through a page or two.

"Thayihneh, the Witch Queen aka Legion maker or in short, a Necromancer of great power of ancient times. Making her a prefect host for an undead god or goddess who's power has shown with the showing at Cardinal," Uda explains, "Which means this just become a big problem as the difference between what a grave god could do before and after a host is night and day,"

Salys pauses in trying to read the scroll for a moment before turning to Resfaen, "I think your new toy will have to wait, although it would be wonderfully useful just now. So, I'm assuming they'll need some ritual to achieve this, can it be performed anywhere? Or do they need a particular place?"

Gotch conjures a chair and sits down as well. "And, other than getting the body away from them, what can be done to stop them?" He puts in.

"It would delay them until they can find another proper host. At the same time, should the host be destroyed while inhabited, it would greatly weaken the god within," Uda states, "This Witch Queen is an ideal host from the Library's quick research so they will guard it until they can combine the two. As it stands, we have no idea how to start looking and how long we have,"

Salys sighs, "Well, that's singularly unhelpful. Any idea who might know, besides the cultists, obviously?"

"At the moment, we don't know enough to even start. All we can do is keep an eye out and try to gather what information we can. They may have the main component with a host but they need would need power to bind a god to a host. Before you start, power is relative, there is no set parameters but the more power they can gather from relics, item even people, the closer they are to achieve this," Uda states as she leans back, "All we can do is investigate the site for information and get information from the spirit for clues on what they may want to gather as affinity to both the god and the host is important. This isn't a problem solved over night but nor it's a problem that will occur soon,"

Uda looks up as Sybil and her group emerges from the center stairway, looking around finds the group hurdled up. 

"Hello, I'm Sybil Keymys. I'm a Librarian dispatched to survey and study these ruins on behalf of the Church of Pelor of Eastcliffe city. I just wish to go over some things about when you were exploring. You did not use Pass Without a Trace to erase any of your tracks correct? Nor did you use a fireball in the central chambers?" Sybil looked at the responses of no from the party before writing into her book, "You destroyed the earth elemental in the form of Statue correct?" She sees a collections of acknowledgement on that before writing down notes before she seem to ignore the party as her scribbling become fanatic, "Ok, this tomb is very elaborate for sure and the mechanics could be used as a defense but requires stronger internal defenses as a 5 of tier 2 adventurers were able to suppress it,"

Uda loook at the retreating figure of Sybil, "She gets like that. I believe that is all for our business, I wish the sun will watch over you all in your journey and keep you safe," Uda stands up and move out of the central ruins.

What do you want to do now? 

Resfaen thanks Uda for the payment ad the information, tucking the bag of ingots into her backpack. Then moves away from the other group signaling for her friends to follow. "Having unfortunately met the ghost, are we able to magically find out where her body is? Can we possibly scry on it to find out where it is located so we can stop this evil process? We might want to look into that. For personal reasons obviously, I would like to visit our house and the town so I can gather what materials I need to start work on my new weapon as it will take several weeks to accomplish. Other than that I am in your debt on helping me accomplish this task and am at your disposal."

"Also within the bags are the ingots I will need to make this weapon and," holding up the paperwork, "these are the directions in making it. They also gave us 400gp for helping them, which I will pass on my share and it can be divided among the lot of you."

Salys shakes his head at the offer to split the gold, "You'll probably need that to get what you need to make that weapon. Though I can help with the forging and infusion, and Gotch might be willing to help infuse the magic into the blade. If all three of us work on it round the clock, it'll take, what, 17 days? In any case, I can open the residence here, but then we won't be able to move it again back in town, so maybe we should just go there. As for how to find the thieves, if they," pointing at the assembled small army, "can't do it, I'm skeptical we'd be able to, even if I knew the spell. Maybe we should ask around town to see if anyone's heard anything about thefts or purchases of necromantic artifacts? Track it that way?"