The morning of the 24th of Suntide came with steady rainfall, fog, and lots and lots of blood from Arkorow's newly sprouted wings. After a breakfast of painkillers, the party ventured to meet Vanis, Draz's striking wood elf mentor, to talk about helping him out with the mirror shard problem.
Vanis and the party met at Hamlet's School of Arcane Learning. Vanis went to talk to the principal, Sorben Arkavir, to stall him, while the rest of the group went on to spy around the school to learn more about their projects. Devinn and Nafir went one way while Arkorow, Draz, and Mordus headed the other.
After not learning much, the party headed upstairs and quickly got lost. Vanis had to find them and inform them that he cannot stall the principal forever. Continuing even higher, the party reached the spire, a sort of research center at the school. People, there were very focused on their projects. Looking around, the group found an office of a high-elven gentleman of sage age, with no shoes, oil stains, and overalls. Arkorow conjured some fake business cards to look more credible. After some small talk, it turned out that this old sage studied mirrors that had some connection to other planes and possibly travel between them. The faculty did not dare to look at the mirrors as it was irresponsible and dangerous; instead, they decided to experiment on them and connect them all together.
He showed the party into the room where they kept all the mirrors, all of them covered and chained together, and a cold mist roiling on the floor seemingly originating from the mirrors. The shard, which the party recovered from the mirror they broke at the abandoned chapel long ago and handed over to the church in Capital, was the centerpiece. The sage pointed out that more information about each mirror and shard might be in the archives.
The party did not stick around for long as they needed everyone but them to get out of the room. So once nobody was in sight they broke into the room again. Having some peace to look around they inspected the room more thoroughly. There were about 20 mirrors plus the shard in the room.
Not learning much, and then leaving the mirror room, the party went to the principal's office where Vanis and the principal, Sorben Arkavir, were still talking. The party tried to persuade Sorben that his experiment was dangerous and he admitted that he and his faculty did not know the outcome of their experiment but are sure if anything dangerous would come out of it they were well equipped to handle it. After the mention of weak gods and dangerous liches, the principal, changing their tone, walked the group into a hidden darkroom behind one of his bookshelves.
They could speak openly here. Sorben proposed that the gods were not real, meaning they were not all-powerful beings but just mortals who rose to incredible power. At the mention of Teztudamé, formerly a high priestess of Draconiz, Arkavir proposed that Draconiz, being the only deity not depicted as a humanoid, was created and not a creature who had ascended. As evidence of his theory, he pulled out a book named 'The Rainbow Pseudo-Dragon'. He offered to collaborate with the party if they would tell him more about what they learned of the gods, and in return, he would give them full reign of the mirror room, to which Mordus responded, "Well, we've already broken in and messed around in there."