Session 2 - The Sinkhole at the Old Rampart
On the morning of the rendezvous, the party met Kari, the ranger giant of Treespire, who delivered new orders from Lord Emeris. Fresh intelligence required delaying the mission to intercept the Havenites at Hadar’s Table by at least a day. Kari offered no further explanation, making it clear she was sharing only what was necessary before departing to attend to other business.
With time suddenly freed, the group split their attention. Xiacalat, Thalyn, and Torbin pursued personal errands, while Saib, Malgi, and Luigi focused on resupplying for the delayed mission. During this time, they overheard an elderly farmer pleading with Emeris’s guards for help locating his two sons, who had vanished two days earlier. The guards refused. Luigi spoke with the farmer, who admitted he could not pay and doubted any group motivated by coin would help him. He explained that a massive sinkhole had opened in one of his fields near the remains of an ancient stone rampart. His sons, intrigued by old folklore claiming the rampart once belonged to an ancient keep, had descended into the hole and never returned.
The party agreed to help on the condition that they could keep anything they recovered. Saib, followed by Malgi and Luigi, descended into the sinkhole.
Below, they found a vast ruined chamber supported by four pillars, with three hallways branching outward. The dust and rubble had been recently disturbed. Bas-relief carvings along the walls depicted a faceless army burning a town beneath an impossibly tall, windowless tower. Another carving showed a towering, faceless war-god clad in armor and wielding a glaive, wearing a smooth, horned helm with no visor.
Malgi recognized the imagery as the ancient legend of the Faceless Lord and the Blind Tower, a tale predating the Maiming of Nikta. Though its origins are lost, all versions agree the Blind Tower was a site of great evil and destruction.
Two hallways had collapsed long ago. The remaining passage contained four marble statues—two soldiers and two priests—each exquisitely detailed yet entirely faceless. One statue glowed faintly with bioluminescence, partially concealing a natural tunnel lined with glowing lichen and echoing with the sound of running water.
Following the tunnel downward, the party reached an underground river forty feet across. A rock island stood in the current, tethered by a rope trailing downstream. Saib crossed to the island and pulled the rope free, hauling up a battered leather satchel from the water as something large splashed nearby and vanished. The satchel held potion slots for twelve bottles; only six remained intact. The potions were identified as Potions of Water Breathing, potent but unsettling, carrying side effects of sinking, hallucinations, and impaired judgment.
Meanwhile, Thalyn, Torbin, and Xiacalat remained above near the rampart. They were drawn to a rhythmic pulse emanating from the bioluminescent lichen—steady, deliberate, almost like a heartbeat. Xiacalat sensed ancient, tangled magic reaching back before the Maiming. Torbin recognized the cadence as matching forgotten military drills associated with the Faceless Lord’s army. Thalyn uncovered a half-buried stone tablet etched with a single word: Return.
Behind the rampart, they discovered a narrow fissure opened by recent upheaval. It led into a long-sealed crypt containing a broken faceless priest’s mask, a weathered scroll written in an ancient tongue, and a fragment of a map showing the underground river—marked with a symbol matching the satchel recovered below.
Most disturbingly, a ritual circle carved into the crypt floor flared to life when touched, revealing a hidden tunnel descending deeper into the ruin.
What began as a simple rescue had uncovered echoes of an older, darker history—one now clearly entwined with the forces already stirring beneath Fanewick.