Downtime II

 21st - 27th day in the 1st month of 1372

The Heroes of Tandis continued their sojourn in Balga. They set about gaining knowledge and began to draw their plans.

The magic users wished to learn more of Necron and the Grey Princes. Though the lord of Balga and his retainers were not well-read, they found that the priests of Valka, the Astoradian god, possessed many tomes and much lore. 

The magic users learned that the Grey Princes were once red-haired heathen kings from the north. In seeking immortality, they all joined in a foul pact with chaos and became undead horrors of tremendous power. They ruled over the Barrow Hills, a range of rocky hillocks where many heathen burial mounds were located. It was rumored that there was a dungeon beneath their fortress that contained a powerful relic. This they were sworn to guard until the breaking of the world.

The magic users attempted to learn more about the amulet believed to contain Necron's lifeforce, but such lich-lore still eluded them, perhaps a powerful necromancer would know more. 

They also sought knowledge about the strange black mirror-like opal. It seemed that much of the dark-spired fortress was made of a similar material. This mineral proved to be otherworldly in origin, though they managed to learn little else. 

The Book of Necron contained the following spells

Level 2: ESP, Knock, Invisibility, Wizard Lock, Magic Mouth

Level 3: Hold Person, Clairvoyance, Dispel Magic, Infravision, Protection from Normal Missiles

Level 4: Wall of Ice, Charm Monster, Dimension Door, Ice Storm

Level 5: Hold Monster, Telekinesis, Animate Dead, Contact Higher Plane, Feeblemind, Cloudkill, Monster Summoning III

Level 6: Flesh to Stone, Anti Magic Shell, Death Spell, Control Weather

Visefrin too spent much time with the Priests of Valka, who wielded great influence in Astoradian society. These priests he learned, were a power all their own in the Principality to the East. Valka measured the arc of power in centuries, unlike short-sighted men who ruled for mere decades. These priests were friendly to the bishop, but would not entertain any notion of adding the Western gods to their pantheon.

These priests told Visefrin that several of their clergy had been recently assassinated in the nearby city of Kronstadt. The murderers left only a sigil of a serpent near each of the kills. 

Sybael, the fair elf, married his lover, Elaris in a gay ceremony presided over by Visefrin. This was a great amusement to Pagovin and his retainers who had never before reveled with elfkind. 

Taran, meanwhile weakened greatly having been geased by Morcarat. By the end of the week, she was barely able to walk and she subsisted only on sour goat's milk administered by Pagovin's servants. No spell or benison could relieve her condition. It seemed she would continue to waste away until the heroes recovered the Libram of Kryon.

The heroes managed to learn something of Fidamalion from the library of the Valkan priests. Fidamalion was once a tower and home to an insular order of mages. Through their hubris, the tower was destroyed, though the maze beneath still existed. No adventurers had survived their perilous delves below Fidamalion, though many had tried to claim the lost relics of the mages. The Libram itself, a grimoire that contained many spells lost to common usage, was said to be deep within the dungeon guarded by a hulk of magical iron impervious to any mortal weapon.