Session 3: Secrets Unearthed Arc 1

While awaiting Gus’s return, Chanty struck up a bond with Rhyia, recognizing her as a fellow druid. She offered to teach her the art of basic alchemy, including the crafting of lesser healing potions—a skill that could save lives in the perilous days ahead. Grateful, Rhyia accepted the lesson, and the party assisted Chanty in preparing her sleep potions for the villagers. During their conversation, Chanty mentioned that many, especially Nelles, blamed the bandits for the disappearances. She also recalled the village merchant, Gran Gram, complaining about a missing shipment she believed the bandits had intercepted.

Valsali, ever the bard and lover of stories, stayed behind at Gus’s home, intrigued by the sorcerer’s life and the improbable union of a dragonborn and an elf that had resulted in a biological child. Meanwhile, Rhyia and Botas visited Gran Gram’s shop.

In the warm, herb-scented kitchen of Gus and Chanty’s home, Valsali listened to Chanty recount her past. She had once been a guardian druid of the forests surrounding Angar, her duty to protect the wilds. Beyond the kingdom’s gleaming walls lay refugee camps of displaced peoples, including metallic dragonborn cast out from Ghidorah, a continent now under the iron rule of chromatic dragon overlords. Gus, a rare chromatic dragonborn with wealth and influence, had come to Angar as an ambassador of peace. Inspired by his selfless work aiding the refugees, Chanty broke her vow of nonintervention, joining Gus to create a charity that provided the camps with infrastructure and hope.

After years of hard work, the couple retired to Blackstone Village to raise their daughter, Maria, a miraculous union of elf and dragonborn blood. When Valsali, in his typical blunt curiosity, asked about Maria’s birth, Chanty simply called her a miracle—a rare exception to nature’s rules.

Gus returned at last, reassuring Chanty that their daughter was thriving at university. He greeted Valsali warmly and shared insights into Susanna Wheatflow. She had been especially drawn to his collection of books on celestial and infernal origins, topics that mirrored her parents' scholarly pursuits. When presented with the strange, hair-bound tome the party had found, Gus admitted its nature was beyond his understanding, though it radiated ancient and powerful magic. He also revealed that Susanna had a favorite reading spot—a verdant prairie marked by a solitary rock—where he suspected she may have been taken.

Gus and Valsali ventured to the prairie to investigate. Valsali’s sharp eyes and keen magic uncovered faint tracks leading to a dead end—but magic revealed a hidden hole leading into the mountain’s depths. Before they could process their discovery, disaster struck.

Valsalli became temporarily blinded and shocked. When he regained is senses, the sorcerer vanished, and the tome disappeared from Valsali’s chest of holding. An arrow whizzed through the air, striking the Verdan. The attacker revealed himself as Bullseye Jack, an orc and ally of the slain bandit leader Josef, bent on revenge. In the chaos, Valsali was thrown into the hole, plunging into the tunnels below.

Bruised but alive, Valsali found himself surrounded by the eerie silence of the mountain’s interior. Just as despair began to take root, unexpected aid arrived in the form of Cici, the halfling miner and friend of the missing women.

The fate of Gus and the mysterious tome weighed heavily on Valsali’s mind, but with Cici’s help, he might just find the answers buried deep within Blackmountain—and perhaps even save those still missing.