Chapter Twelve

Chapter Twelve takes place just before the summer solstice of the year SR571.

The Journey to Shadygrove
As the party travelled along the main road to Shadygrove, they passed the ruins of the College of Toltharien. The series of low, overgrown remnants of tower walls were of some interest to Wisdom Anaerion of the Magisterium, but unfortunately after 500 years of exposure to the elements little remained that was worthy of proper investigation. Ser Loras and his companions continued their journey to Shadygrove Hall.

Baron Ludwig and Shadygrove Hall
Toltharien's vital importance to Ser Loras' quest was soon realised. Only hours later Baron Ludvig, of The Shady Grove, requested that the party cleanse the hellkind presence from all four of the dungeon realms of his county. Toltharien was one of these, as well as The Cloven Rock, Moryn's Circle, and what Baron Ludwig believed to be the ascendant location: Hag's Hollow.

Toltharien
After a night's rest the group struck back out for the ruins, arriving in the mid evening. Though they expected the shrine in the centre of the ruins to hold the gate to the Underrealm, on approaching with the Key they instead watched on with surprise as the main tower of Toltharien displaced undergrowth and uprooted trees to re-emerge from the low walls of the ruins. The main tower of the ancient college was seemingly intact, somehow unchanged from the sparsely-documented accident that occurred five hundred years previously.

A harrowing sight greeted the group as they cautiously entered the tower. Furniture was upturned and rent with the marks of claws, magical apparatus and texts were strewn in disarray – and nestled among the chaos, the skeletal remains of the former college members, still draped in the tatters of their robes of office. More deeply disturbing still were the glyphs of Hellspeak splattered upon the walls in dried blood and excrement, translated by Torben of Brightfield to mean, among other things, The Underking Comes.

It was some strange comfort to see the presence of a planar capstone here, holding Emberglow apart from the Underrealm's corruption.

The group ascended the tower cautiously to be met with more long-decayed corpses and further evidence of a panicked retreat. In one room, set up to be an area for the magical binding of some creature of intrinsic evil, Ser Loras heard the voices of the long dead mages of the tower, seemingly re-enacting a dangerous magical ritual to call forth the Underking himself. Another room held a workshop that seemed to be focusing on the creation of new crystalline teleporters, like those seen in the Dungeon Realm, though the long-dead mages seemed to have failed to complete their work.

The highest point of the tower - a loft room - seemed to be dedicated to the protection of an ancient set of tomes, immediately covetted by Wisdom Anaerion. Numerous traps and barriers in the room were further evidence of Toltharien's mastery of the magical arts, with a particular artefact surging with the energies of a spell belonging to the eighth Echelon. More frightening still was the evidence that the mages had learned to harness mana to fuel their spells.

As the group investigated the tower they discovered several damaged documents. Though for the most part unreadable, Torben hoped that they might contain secrets that would shed light in the party's quest, and Toltharien's role within it.

Ser Loras in particular had a powerful experience during the investigation. He discovered the remains of the the last Archmage of Toltharien, whose essence still lingered about his bones. Its voice spoke to Loras of the Shibboleth of the Underking and Toltharien's failure in learning the final phrase, and pleaded that Loras destroy the capstone so that the mages of the college may finally go to rest. Loras spoke the final phrase for the Archmage, and made a pledge to free the bound spirits.

With Loras' resolve renewed the group descended into the the cellars of the tower. They found a staircase leading down into the earth, though it was somewhat unlike the dungeon realms found elsewhere; the walls here were clearly of the same make as those of the tower, indicating that the subterranean extent of Toltharien was somehow different to those of the other dungeon realms.

The party soon heard cries of agony and anguish as they walked through the stone-walled corridor. Ser Loras rushed to lend aid and discovered a small chamber containing a woman horribly restrained above a pit of foul green, corrosive liquid. With the assistance of Neren, Loras was able to break the chains holding the woman's manacles in place and set her down on the floor outside the chamber.

The woman identified herself as Kiara, a sorcerer necromancer and member of Toltharien, captured several years before the college's fall and tortured on the Underlord's whim for the last five hundred years. The necklace she wore, identified by Wisdom Anaerion as suffused with the magics of unlife, was all that sustained her – while she wore it, she could not die, but was also harmed by the energies that were resonant with true life. Kiara was hugely grateful to Ser Loras for his help in finally freeing her from the Underlord's grasp, and offered to help Loras in his task to cleanse this part of the Underrealm.

The party learned from Kiara that Toltharien's purpose was to help stem the tide of the Underrealm's incursion into Emberglow, against the wishes of the Magisterium; according to her, the Magisterium hoped to harness the powers of the Hellkind for military purposes, particularly with regard to unstable relations with neigbouring Ostmark. Ser Loras told her that Toltharien had indeed since fallen to the Hellkind; Kiara blamed the Magisterium, who had never deigned to help the competing college.

The realm was simple in design, but presented difficulties beyond those the party had faced previously. The Dungeon Heart, vessel for the foul essences of Keeper Sokhai, lay submerged beneath a vast pool of corrosive bile that Kiara personally attested could kill within moments of contact. She noted that Sokhai, though incorporeal save for its Heart, was a sorcerer of some significant power and would defend its Heart with all manner of magics should any but her step into its chamber. At this time she left through one of the crystalline portals, agreeing to help the party at Moryn's Circle but pleading with Ser Loras to be quick – she would doubtless be captured and tortured anew.

The group considered several options for the destruction of the Heart. Wisdom Anaerion suggested the use of magical and alchemical acid to lower the level of bile in the chamber to a point where the Heart could be struck directly, as Kiara had stated that acid would somehow counteract the bile to the point where it would essentially disappear. Doubts formed on whether the party's reserves of magical acid would be sufficient, and Ser Loras asked for further options.

Torben stated that he might be able to call forth creatures of elemental stone and rock; possessing no flesh, they would be immune to the effects of the bile and could assault the Heart from within the pool. The planar capstone, however, prevented magical summonings within the Underrealm, and the capstone would have to be destroyed for the plan to work. The party agreed to the plan, and set about destroying the capstone on the surface – but not before Sokhai noted their presence, and began hurling its powerful magics. Wisdom Anaerion bore the brunt of the assault, his spells of invisibility failing to conceal him from Sokhai's notice and forcing him to retreat with the others.

Ser Loras, Neren, and Regin set out to destroy the planar capstone in the tower above. Though it proved sturdy and magically protected, it eventually crumbled and Toltharien emerged back into Emberglow proper for the first time in five hundred years. With the capstone destroyed Torben was able to cast his summoning magics; the earth and rock around the tower heaved itself into new forms, each of which descended into the newly exposed dungeon realm and proceeded to shatter Sokhai's Heart.

The capstone's destruction made the dungeon realm accessible to Emberglow as a whole. Concerned that the secrets within might fall into the hands of others less qualified to understand or use them, Loras decided that the cellars should be collapsed to prevent access. Torben made further use of his summoning abilities to block the tunnels within, and Anaerion partially collapsed the tower by transforming the stonework of the supporting walls to a sticky sludge.

With their task complete the group made back for Shadygrove, pleased to have made a knowedgeable ally to aid them in the coming days and eager to act quickly to save her further torment. This positivity was quickly broken by the arrival of a group of riders hailing from the Underwatch, lead by a man named Benor. Benor held high the King's Seal as a measure of his authority and demanded that Ser Loras give up anything he had claimed from Toltharien. He called the group's work treason and denied the group's legitimacy, Archwizard Lichter having retired only days previously. Ser Loras tried to negotiate, but Benor was resolute in his demands.

Loras relented and handed over the documents recovered by Torben. Wisdom Anaerion eventually did the same for the tomes recovered at the top of Toltharien, though not without extreme reluctance. Luckily for the party, the arrival of another group of Underwatch riders more sympathetic to the group's task allowed the documents and tome to be recovered, but not without some more deep-hitting accusations of treason and a frightening reminder of the Underwatch's ability to observe from afar, let alone confirmation of its new fragmented state.