Session 2

Keech bumps into Barrax and Odysseus as they're leaving Oktan's Hole. You all have a quick chat and find some shared interests: Barrax and Odysseus are looking for riches (in both the informational and financial sense), while Keech is good at finding stuff. Also having a shared acquaintance in Brother Simon, you agree to visit him together.

You all meet up at the House of Memory (where Brother Simon works). Brother Simon thinks a relic hunter by the name of Marius might be a good lead. Based on inquiries that Marius had made at the House of Memory in recent weeks, he likely has a small dig somewhere in the Low End District. It's been a while since he stopped by the House of Memory—roughly around the time the occupying forces swept into the city.

It's late afternoon by the time you venture into the Low End (which is also where Keech lives, though the adventurers head for a different neighborhood) and start asking around. The proprietor of Gravins Printworks, Amara, thinks that Marius is the son of the couple who runs Claes Bakery just up the street. It's closed now, so you decide to return in the morning.

The next day, an upset Helena Claes confirms that Marius is her son, but she hasn't seen him for weeks. You get general directions to his dig site in a nearby neighborhood. There, Johana, Marius's girlfriend, is running the dig inside an old storehouse with a crew of three: Ruben, Tram, and Hedel. She admits that Marius is missing but is resistant to letting some adventurers poke around in their site. After some back-and-forth, she agrees to let you take a look.

You venture into the dig, heading below the storehouse into low tunnels buttressed with wood. Checking out a few alcoves and offshoots, you end up in a larger open chamber that's the main focus of the dig. There, you discover a cunningly concealed hatch that appears to lead further down. While checking it out, fumes spurt from tiny cracks and manifest into a pair of monstrous creatures made of smoke and cinder!

You dispatch one of the cinder sprites, which detonates in a cloud of obscuring smoke, while the other summons forth more of its kind. A desperate fight ensues, but you emerge victorious. In the aftermath, Johana admits that Marius might have gone down there but she's not certain what's become of him. She cautions to not open the hatch—she's not sure what may get free.…