The Murkmire Malevolence

Excerpt from a House Sivis dispatch:

From: Glissando Lyrriman d’Sivis
To: “Grandma”

Lhara, from the Clifftop Adventurers’ Guild, has introduced us to Meera Raheer. Meera has invited the other gnomes and me to join her secret society, the Golden Vault. The society aims to right moral wrongs and other such worthy goals.

Meera has left us with a music box, elaborately decorated with images of dragons. I may be mistaken but I’m sure that occasionally the dragons shift position or are replaced by different dragons entirely. There is definitely something magical about that box!

Meera told us that whenever a golden key is delivered to us, we should put it in the music box’s keyhole and a message will play, informing us of a mission.

I will continue to learn with the Adventurers’ Guild until our next assignment.

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Excerpt from the Sharn Inquisitive:

Society gala
Members of Sharn’s high society gathered at the Varkenbluff Museum of Natural History last night for an exclusive gala celebrating the launch of the Murkmire Stone exhibition.

Museum curator Aldaea Alorenthi, an Aereni exile, gave a brief talk on the origins of the stone, which was recovered during an expedition to the Shadow Marches sponsored by Morgrave University. The curator’s talk was politely received by the gala attendees, while they were served a selection of canapes and wine.

Though she is often uncomfortable in public social situations, a rumor suggests that Alorenthi’s awkwardness yesterday was due to the precarious financial situation of the museum and the need for her to let some staff go.

Other gossip overheard includes the suggestion that the Murkmire Stone is not actually the gemstone everyone believes it to be and is instead the egg of an eldritch horror. No museum official would comment on the rumor.

Countess Helene ir’Danforth, a member of the Sixty, was as elegant as always wearing an older style one-shoulder ruched gown of shimmering sage green. She has been an ardent supporter of the museum for many years and was seen leading a representative of the dragonmarked House Sivis to one of the other exhibition rooms.

He was well-dressed in top hat and tails with emerald green trim featuring an understated House Sivis emblem. Another gnome at the gala sported a very colourful purple, yellow and green outfit topped by a purple beret.

Renowned surgeon Dr Horthnar Stonecrusher cut a stylish dwarven figure, with his neatly trimmed beard and silver-topped walking cane finishing the look of his silver pin-striped charcoal suit. He has become a witty and knowledgeable representative of the dwarves at recent city events, and several regulars on the social circuit claim to enjoy his company.

Best dressed of the evening was Cyran refugee gnome, Catnip Evergreen, who wore a stunning flame-coloured gown. The off-the-shoulder fitted dress featured a dramatic slit and long flowing sleeves. Her hair was styled in a halo braid set with a fiery butterfly hairpin around which flitted several live butterflies.

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Excerpt from the Sharn Inquisitive:

Murkmire Stone stolen
An investigation has begun after items were stolen from the Varkenbluff Museum of Natural History earlier this week.

Staff arriving for work on the morning after the museum’s gala opening of the Murkmire Stone exhibition discovered that the 12 overnight security workers had been attacked and left unconscious.

The workers were able to be revived and do not expect to have any long-term or permanent injuries.

However, the infamous Murkmire Stone is one of several items missing from the museum’s collection.

Curator Aldaea Alorenthi said that a stone from another exhibit had been placed on the pedestal in the locked room where the Murkmire Stone had been displayed. Several other displays had been disturbed, security devices were strewn around the wing, and debris from a rampaging animatronic bladetooth dinosaur littered the two main levels.

“An initial assessment suggests that two small weapons are also missing from the archaeology exhibit,” Alorenthi said.

“Our security staff have described the five intruders who attacked them, activated the dinosaur which had been on display in the main hall, and stole the Stone. We believe they left the building via the attic skylight and roof.”

One security guard, who spoke on condition of anonymity, claims that the Murkmire Stone began changing and emitting bursts of magical energy at the time of the break-in.

Murkmire Stone expert and former Morgrave University professor, Dr Cassia Cantor Dannell, declined to comment on the theft or the suggestion that the Stone is magical.

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Excerpt from a House Sivis dispatch:

From: Glissando Lyrriman d’Sivis
To: “Grandma”

Our first music box assignment has been completed. Dr Cassia Cantor Dannell tasked us with retrieving an eldritch horror egg which had been misidentified at the Museum of Natural History.

Dr Dannell gave us tickets to the opening gala so we could scout the area and prepare a way in later. It was good to socialize, and I’ve made some useful connections with people like Countess Helene ir’Danforth.

After the gala, we returned to the museum in more appropriate garb for our assignment and climbed up to the attic, where Dimble had previously propped open a skylight.

We made our way down to the exhibition floor, where we encountered a gnome guard in the café (having successfully avoided their notice until then). Our stealth needs some work as the guard was alerted to our presence, and she was able to summon others before we were able to knock her out.

Several more guards came, including the captain, but we were able to deal with them all before Dimble activated the animatronic dinosaur, which ran down the stairs and caused havoc for about ten minutes while we continued our mission.

Dimble and Sunny grabbed security passes from a couple of the unconscious guards and climbed into the ventilation shaft between the hall and the display room. Dimble said he could hear movement in the room and didn’t want to go through the door, then he spent some time trying to figure out the magic being used to protect the egg.

While he did that, Catnip, Nissa and I went to retrieve a jade stone I had spotted during the gala that looked to me like it would be a good substitute for the egg in case of any size and weight traps. There were a couple more guards in that area to deal with, and we had to break into the display cabinets to get the stone.

So that it would take longer to establish what was missing, we moved some of the other pieces around in that cabinet and another one.

We managed to open a secret door in the chamber, which turned out to be a janitor’s closet. But the other side of the closet was another secret door leading to the egg display room.

When we opened the door, I looked across at the egg and noticed it had turned translucent. I could just make out some sort of shape inside it when it emitted a burst of magical energy. One of the guards seemed to be badly affected by the pulse of magic.

At the same time, Sunny and Dimble jumped into the room from the ventilation shaft to overpower the two guards with Nissa and me, while Catnip ran over and switched the jade with the egg.

She gave the egg to Sunny to carry in the special bag Dr Dannell gave us, while Nissa took the security passes from the downed guards and closed the secret door. We made sure the ventilation shaft was closed before we used one of the passes to open the door to leave.

By this time the animatronic dinosaur had stopped, and the museum was quiet except for the sound of four guards running up the steps. Sunny slid her bag to the rest of us as she and Nissa stepped forward to fight.

Catnip grabbed the bag and raced toward the attic with one of the guards in pursuit. Sunny, Nissa and Dimble fought the other three guards while I distracted them with insults. These ones seemed particularly effective:

“You’re the reason baby gnomes cry!” and “I’ve seen more threatening geckos!”

Despite being chased by a human, Catnip was somehow able to fell her pursuer and reach the roof.

After the guards were rendered unconscious, we tossed the security passes around the hall and carefully closed the skylight before climbing back down to the alley.

Dr Dannell was waiting for us with a special box to contain the egg and prevent it from affecting anybody else. She paid us for our services and said we could keep the magic bag, which she described as a family heirloom.

The Sharn Watch has questioned me a few times about my movements after the gala, and I expect that they spoke to the others as well, since the museum guards would have been able to provide descriptions of all of us. But I haven’t heard anything more about the investigation.

The Golden Vault has also rewarded us for successfully completing our first mission by presenting Nissa with some mithril chainmail, which should help limit the noise she makes when we’re trying to be quiet.