We begin outside the capital of Rhakaan. It is a typical cold, dark, and rainy Haalkitaine evening. Nearby the Sunset Bridge a cryer tells of Frelik’s defeat while thirty feet away the usurper’s dead body is skewered and strung up. Not only Frelik but hundreds of his men, spiked to poles outside the city walls. All pale and bloodless in the relentless cold rain. The cryer also reports that the Crown has been retaken and is in the possession of King Kenek Janus Faslurin. King Kenek is Tyrus’ eldest brother: a war disciple like his father. Seeing Prince Adkar in among the group, the Ice Gate guards allow them duty-free entry into the city.
Their magician friend they met in Lethys, Jymsan Ixata-Centarus, appears to be waiting for them while enjoying a drink under the front porch of the Phoenix Arms Inn. In greeting the party he explains that he and Nukiti Melenka (the thief) arrived just last night via a Eidolon Trading Company skyship. Nukiti is not around at the moment. He is undercover mixing in with the locals looking for information about the Sceptre of Khom (also thought to be lost in the catacombs). The party quickly adopts Jymsan. They share their tales over a late meal. Meanwhile, the mentalist, Mordon Noek, visits a nearby bordello and miraculously emerges disease-free. They all stay the night at the Phoenix Arms.
In the morning, an emissary of Kenek greets Tyrus in the inn’s common room. Tyrus learns that his brother (the King) wants Tyrus to stay low-profile with respect to the Imperial Court. Tyrus wants nothing to do with politics or royal life so he does not complain. The emissary hands over the keys to the Phoenix Villa, a large midtown mansion just down the street. During the tour of the villa, Tyrus learns that the King dedicated two full-time servants and a squad of experienced imperial guards to watch over the place.
They move on to locating the catacombs and the Phoenix Sword. The mentalist intuites that the Haalkitaine Library is the place to go. They arrive in an ancient structure that dates back to the Second Age, over 6000 years old. They ask librarians what they know about the legendary catacombs below the sewers. Somewhat to their surprise, the library officials tell them that the basement of library has been haunted of late. Staff no longer go down to the Rare Books section without dread, especially at night. There are many reports of spirits, jangling, moaning, haunted wails all emanating from a locked room adjacent to the lower level Rare Books room. It all started after a scary looking priest of Klysus spent the better part of a day in the Rare Books room though they state he was supervised at all times. Anyway, the librarians ask for help and the party says they are able to assist at once.
Taking the party through the subterranean Rare Books room, the librarians then unlock the door to the haunted room. They find it odorous but empty except for a iron grate obviously leading to the sewers. The librarians stand near the sewer entrance while the party descends a twenty-five foot vertical chute. They emerge in an eight-foot wide trapezoidal blue granite sewer tunnel directly beneath the library. Tyrus leads the way his sword flaming like a torch. The smell of the sewer water is awful. It is about one foot deep and flows south and westward.
They discover some sort of fissure or excavation about forty feet south of where the library ladder left them. The sewer flowage spills down that narrow tunnel to the southwest creating a “muddy” slide into the unknown. Jymsan encants a three foot high stone wall blocking water from filling the tunnel from now on. On the climb down, Tyrus accidently slips and slides all the way fifty feet down in offal spraining his ankle in the process. The others manage to follow without sliding. They find themselves in a large calcified cavern that has a steeply sloped floor pitched west.
They hear insectoid clicking from the opposite side of the cavern. Next thing, giant Jadeback beetles swarm them from the south. Seconds later, Jymsan positions a wall of flame causing the human-sized dung insects to retreat.
They find a rough stairway carved into the steep sloping floor. The stairs to the higher elevation east lead to a vault door with a wrought metal lock mechanism and door handle. Leading downward to the west, the stairwell changes from rough hewn dug in the cavern floor to a man made stairwell leading even deeper. Sewer stains it all, but it appears the water must drain somewhere while the Jadebacks apparently skim off the fecal matter.
Turning their attention to the eastern vault door first, the mentalist attempts to lift the door handle with his telekinetic powers. The next instant a lighting ball trap explodes directly in front of the door. Luckily, the party were all out of range. Not wanting to deal with this, they head west down the stairs.
They descend to find another stone vault door to right of the man made stairwell. They determine the dotted script on the door is Taranian, an ancient race with unimagingined technology. The door does not have a handle or any other obvious means of opening, so they bypass this door for now as well. Continuing down the western stairs there is a right-turn to the north. As they take the turn, four armored skeletal warriors burst through a set of double doors intent on killing. In less than a minute Cad slays three himself: two with repulsions and the third with his undead slaying mace. The rest take out the fourth even though Tyrus trips over an imaginary dead turtle.
From the antechamber where the skeletons emerged, there is pair of closed doors on the far west wall. This is when Tyrus’ flaming sword begins glowing just a bit brighter. With quiet confidence, he tells the others more undead are on their way.
The mentalist uses his telekinesis to open those doors. They open into the side of a twenty foot wide hallway that is domed fifteen feet up. The north and south ways both lead far into the darkness. To their right (the north) about fifty away and moving quickly toward them are two eight foot tall armored skeletons with red glowing bones. They wield wicked-looking bastard swords.
The party holds their position. Cad and Tyrus brace themselves in the open double doors. The skeletons move in surprisingly quick and attack. As a first blow, one lunges its sword crushing Cad’s side, breaking bones and grievously destroying organs. Cad collapses and is only seconds away from death. Tyrus quickly slams the double doors leaving the skeletons in the hallway. It seems they do not pursue.
Jymsan quickly slips a Schlorp mushroom from his pouch and places it in Cad’s mouth. This is a lifekeeping herb that keeps one’s soul within even a “dead” body. Now they have to find someone able to heal this terrible wound. Only a High Priest of Orhan would have the power to heal this.
In full retreat, Tyrus shows his incredible strength and carries Cad up the stairs on his back. With no sign of the Jadebacks, they look to scale the “muddy” chute. Jymsan casts an enchanted rope they use to team the dead body up the chute. The mentalist uses telekinesis to exert an extra hand pushing the climb upwards. Tyrus slips embarrassingly several times spraining his ankle yet again. Eventually, covered in sewer ick, they climb over the short stone wall and back into the sewers, exhausted.
Next they climb twenty-five feet back up the ladder. Again, they use the rope to stabilize the body, another telekinetic push from the mentalist, and the rest relying on the strength of a limping soiled prince.
Tyrus plops Cad’s corpse up into the library basement. Two of the three librarians still remain vigilant some two hours later from when the party first descended. Tyrus asks the librarians to summon a healer from the Church urgently. One of them runs off to do so. The rest of the party climbs up and begins cleaning off sewer poop and as well as tending to their tragically mangled cleric.
One of the High Priests of Kuor arrives thirty minutes later. Over many minutes and many prayers, the cleric heals and then awakens Cad.
Of course, Cad feels run down. They all retire to the Phoenix Villa, but tell the librarians they intend to rest, re-equip, and return.
