We return to the Agate Seekers, as the party returns from their excursion in the Kingdom of Hugan. The party is greeted by the ever-chipper Punchy and the ever-gloomy Prioz Bronzefield. After a short conversation, the party entered the restaurant and was greeted by Norben Holton, the A Taste of Home's bard, as he shortly interrupted his performance to talk. He, enthusiastically, told the party about the song he was writing, about Zora defeating Raul Ammon... only to be shut down immediately, who didn't want a song, leaving him rather crestfallen. He then asked if there was any updates to what anyone in the party was seeking, to which Dareth Lion'el Griffmane carefully confirmed, saying that it's private though, leaving Norben a bit disappointed.
With that, the party retired for the day and started their downtime. Sooty continued into his fourth of six weeks of becoming telekinetic, Mikhail trained his fifth of mome weeks to become a spell sniper, Dareth finished his second-to-last week to train to become more mobile, Volk Lesnoy trained his observantness for the fourth of nine weeks, and Philomena Snapdragon finished her fifth of eight weeks to become more effective with piercing weapons. Additionally, Mikhail and Dareth had several... fun nights..., as well as a short moment opening up some letters; one from Fenmaer Ashcrown of The Evergreen Hunt, one from the Midnight Sun.
Volk also asked the party to join him, to have their picture painted to hang up in the restaurant. After some initial giggles at Volk's very bad drawing, and misspellings of everyone's names, the party did agree to have the painting painted; with Volk paying the full 500 Gold for the painting and the mahogany frame.
At the end of downtime, the party eagerly awaited the ring of the questboard-bell... only for Dareth to hear a voice in his head, who, much to his disappointment, was just Captain Ukren Schwerter, calling them in for a meeting. At his office at the Liwilai Adventurer's Guild HQ, which was once again overflowing with paperwork, Ukren told the party about a mission request that he got from Limni Diluvi and Horvyn Quickstamp, specifically asking for the Agate Seekers; this mission was also going to be more-or-less required job for the party. Apparently, in the ruins of Aesil, the Bronze City, under the temple of Merikira te Ruvea, there was an underground bunker completely untouched by time; and the party should look through it, also to see if some of the artifacts that were asked about are still there.
The party then accepted the mission and went on their way, first teleporting to the city of Pampana, and then making their way to the ruins of Aesil over the next few days. The party arrived 3 days later, finding a ruined town in the mountains, with many dig sites of archeologists. Volk got a weird feeling of knowing this place, even though he's never been here before... And he questions that Limni brought the party here for a reason.
After a quick meeting with Horvyn, who was here with LIB-813 - Libbie and his archeological helpers, the party entered the underground complex, finding it largely untouched, but running on emergency power. After finding a pad with the instructions to restart the reactor, and turning the power back on, the party looked around a little, finding a Greataxe and a Cauldron, a non-magical hand mirror and a replica dragon egg, as well as some Crystal Sentries and an Ochre Jelly that were promptly dispatched.
Back in the room with the central computer, which was now running at full power, the party couldn't help but notice an opened file on the main screens; an Ancient News Excerpt, featuring a significantly younger and unscarred Arilki Rayshine as a Dorro... as well as one Raleni Vardek, who Volk recognized as the woman who tried saving him. Both were apprentices in this very temple... And then, they noticed a file called Speaker's Log - RV 001... A recording of Raleni.
Volk needed a moment after hearing this recording, first listening to it over and over again until he broke out in tears... This revealed so much about the woman who had tried to save him, and this has left him grieving all over again... over her, and himself. After eventually catching himself, the party moved forward, dealing with a Gelatinous Cube and some more Crystal Sentries, with Volk collecting a stray porcelain theater-mask and Mikhail noticing a dirty draconic magazine, "Draconic Hunks Monthly", in the bunker bed rooms... leaving it be, although Philomena immediately snatched it up.
SESSION END.