Under Franzahl’s and Wilda’s direction, the troupe enters the Duergar city of Thulmur. Thulmur is a large network of worked stone tunnels and chambers carved into the earth and until the Upheaval these tunnels were full of life and activity, but now those tunnels are dark, stark, and abandoned. The craftsmanship is the smooth finish of the Duergar fused stone and is relatively sound in most places with cracks and collapses indicating some tectonic violence in its past.
A thick carpet of dust covers the stone floor from lack of use but, disturbingly, there are tracks. Thulmur is a dead city but there clearly are creatures moving about. Naisha and Magnus study the tracks and from the bony prints, they appear to have been made by feet shod in boots long since rotted away.
Frahnzahl and Wilda are finally excited. Franzahl speaks hurriedly, “Is it that we will move ahead to scout for survivors? Is it that you will follow the avenue north and east to the main city and you will be met?”
With that, the two Duergar merge into the stone wall to the east and disappear, leaving the troupe alone and confused. Magnus leads the group vaguely northwards and they come to a large chimney rising to the heights and falling into the depths. Winding along the wall of this chimney is a short staircase that leads to some kind of ceremonial chamber, with statues of Duergar figures set into alcoves along the walls. As the group enters the room, ancient Duergar skeletons slumped along the walls animate, stand and attack.
Thie battle is short and fierce, with Magnus going toe-to-toe, Mar’Khabazza fighting as a moving, flanking skirmisher, Ravenna slinging arcane energies and Naisha deadly with arrows.
When the dust settles and the din of battle fades, Savenia says, “Well now we know what happened to the citizens of Thulmur. I wonder if any Duergar survived the cataclysm.”
For the next several days the troupe slowly and quietly explores the western edge of the city, following a broad avenue northwards. They move silently and warily, trying to not attract attention from any sinister inhabitants and at one point they have to backtrack and find a new way forward to avoid that which Ravenna dubbed “the candlewraith”.
They travel ever northward but their progress is soon blocked by a strange phenomenon: Savenia and Ravenna feel their arcane power being drained and as they push forward they spot a large cavern formed as if a giant ice cream scoop has carved out a chunck of the city, leaving a rough-edged cavern behind. The cavern contains dozens, hundreds of floating strands of greenish light similar to the cavern found below the observatory in Beryl.
Forced off-course, the troupe then navigates eastwards along a smaller side street that merges with an unworked natural fissue with a river flowing through it. The river flows east-west so they begin to follow the river upstream.
August 14, 7762
As they travel eastwards, they troupe spots a reddish glow from a passageto the south. Mar’Khabazza scouts ahead and finds a worked cavern containing a dozen skeletal Duergar standing silently in formation. At the end of the cavern is an archway that is the source of the red glow. The gate is similar to a void gate, but this one glows red, not unlike the gate found in the cemetery of Calithil in Tothkubad.
The skeletons react to their presence, filing up the passageway after the fleeing figures. As they flee the skeletons, Magnus, Naisha and Savenia hold the rear guard and pour out oil along the passageway and when they reach the intersection they ignite the oil which engulfs the persuing skeletons. Faced with the conflaguration, some skeletons peel off and head to an exit to the south while the remaining skeletons are smashed to pieces by Magnus and Naisha or immolated by Ravenna.
August 15, 7762
When the oil fire burns itself out and wounds are bound, the troupe returns to the chamber with the gate and Ravenna causes the ground supporting the gate to turn to dust which, in turn, causes the gate to collapse under its own weight with a crash and a cloud of stone shards
They return to the shore of the subterranean river and continue heading east,
Eventually the group’s passage intersects with a larger hall, appearing to be a ceremonial chamber of some kind- a elongated rectangle oriented north-south. At the far end are a trio of fused-stone thrones and upon the center throne sits an exotic-looking human female. She is regally dressed with a well-worn tome in her lap and a large black scythe leaning against the armrest of her throne. She marks her place with a bookmark and closes the book carefully and addresses ths group.
“My first visitors in what very well might be two centuries. Welcome, strangers. Come forth and let me take a look at you.”
Introductions are made: she is Malacoda and she says she arrived into Thulmur via the same red gate that Ravenna destroyed. Unbeknownst to Malacoda at the time of her arrival, the gate was a one-way entrance to Cignoria, and the combination of the laen bowl and the change storms above have trapped her among the skeletons and remaining Duergar for centuries.
“Yes, the Duergar,” she says. “I have spoken with their scouts from time to time and I know how to find their enclave.”
She agrees to take the group to the “dwarven wall”- the fused stone edge of enclave of the the remaining Duergar who have survived since the Upheaval- in return for them showing her the way out of the laen cage. Magnus and her flirt a lot and she is intrigued by his lack of soul.
Malecoda leads the troupe to a wall of fused stone that completely blocks a passageway. Slapping the seamless wall, Malecoda says, “This wall marks the boundary of the Duergar who survived the cataclysm. Either their scouts will find us or you will need to find an entrance.”
The group then starts to navigate through the mazelike passages around the perimeter, looking for a door or alternate way in.