AD&D Session 80 - Blessing or Curse
15th of Duscar, 835 PD
Pressing deeper through the trapped tunnels beneath the Cinderrest mountains the party reached a small cavern where a water pool had formed. What first looked like eerie, green-glowing growth along the waterline proved to be something far more alarming: a natural-looking font of residuum, crystallised in abundance. The discovery raised immediate concerns about how such a concentration could exist here unnoticed, and whether Blackcloak’s work had somehow created it as a by-product of his experiments—less like mining and more like something being pulled out of magic itself.
With stamina running low, the group chose to make camp in that stretch of tunnel, one of the few places that felt defensible if something came stalking out of the complex. During the rest, attention turned to Whisper’s handwraps—previously exposed to residuum—and the signs were troublingly suggestive. The enchantment and provenance didn’t feel like ordinary magic gear; it looked increasingly plausible that these wraps might be a true vestige, potentially the same one once associated with Dyamak. Confirming that would require careful comparison against records back in Rexxentrum, but the distance—and the political reality of moving through the Empire while carrying both residuum and a suspected vestige—made the prospect feel less like scholarship and more like walking around with a target painted on the party’s backs.
16th of Duscar, 835 PD
In the morning, the party examined the rune-work on the far side of the pool cavern and identified it as a standard teleportation circle—useful, but also another reminder that this complex wasn’t merely a hideout; it was built to connect, move, and operate. Their gnome companion, Enikas, decided to test the circle directly, vanishing through it to see where it led. A subsequent Sending confirmed he’d arrived safely and could return, so the party used the breathing room to carefully chip and bottle small samples of the residuum crystals rather than attempting anything more disruptive.
Before long, Enikas reappeared from behind the group—having made his way back through the earlier route—and complained that he had no intention of dealing with the pit traps again. Taking the hint, the party backtracked to the library/laboratory area they’d already uncovered in the complex and spent the remainder of the day doing a fast, practical triage of the writings: skimming for the most dangerous material, deciding what should be destroyed, and what was too significant (or too risky) to burn blindly in a warded arcane structure.
Two threads stood out. Notes on “mallus keys” framed them as structures that could form or extend “buildings” across planar boundaries—tools for large-scale ritual work and amplification rather than simple transport—and one entry explicitly connected that research to the name Ludinus, hinting at links far beyond a lone mountain lab. Alongside that were catalogues of relics: lists of confirmed and legendary vestiges, and similar inventories for artefacts tied to the Betrayer Gods—suggesting the author wasn’t merely experimenting with power, but trying to map, classify, and potentially collect it. By the end of the day, the party hadn’t just found a lair; they were staring at the outline of a much bigger game, with residuum and vestiges as pieces on someone else’s board.