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The party awakens the next morning at Zigfried’s manor (or in the case of Rome-Bee, in the backyard). An already dressed Alain quickly sets about checking the security of the previous night's barricade. He confirms there were no monstrous intrusions, and breakfast is served. Afterwards, Varkle, Alain, and (to a lesser extent) Zigfried rearrange the cellar and install a heavy lock on the secret door. Alain then retires to the study to read. Zigfried bothers Vessariel and observes Garthor as the latter fells yet more trees. Varkle busies himself with chores. Vessariel and Garthor head into town to check on their cult, uh I mean church. They find things proceeding as ordained by Vessariel, and Garthor goes to fetch another shark to feed the village. An overzealous pile-driver puts Garthor temporarily out of commission, but Vessariel manages to rescue him before he drowns. Upon returning to the town, the doctor (the same aged dwarf we keep running into) is summoned to patch up Garthor’s wounds, during which he asks both Vessariel and Garthor about their travels. He seems decidedly interested in the world outside the storm, and sailing especially.
When Vessariel uses the magic parchment to produce schematics for a large ship, the local carpenter is recruited to begin construction on the brand new sailing vessel. However, It is noted that sailing within the storm is extremely dangerous, as there are an excessive amount of jagged rocks and ridges just at and beneath the ocean’s surface. The party begins to settle in at Zigfried's Manor, and before they know it, several days have passed. During this time, they find various activities to occupy themselves with.
Rome-Bee tries their hand at correcting the manor’s sadly under-tended garden. After a few misfires, the garden looks ship-shape, but some ill-advised irrigation methods fail to produce anything worth writing home about. Wisteria knits up a storm, unsteady at first, but eventually finding her stride (slither?). She makes Varkle an underwhelming sweater, which he may or may not be allergic to. He reciprocates with a fair attempt at a needlepoint portrait (though some of Wisteria’s personable charm is lost in his depiction).
Wisteria also crafts an intimidatingly large tapestry depicting a single candle, which Varkle helps her hang on a curtain rod in front of the largest bookcase in the study. Alain seems vexed by this, but his tone and mannerisms betray his underlying amusement. It is clear he is beginning to warm to our heroes, however slowly. During all of this, Garthor the Mighty goes to work mastering the art of chaircraft. After spending days and sleepless nights refining his skills, he creates what will surely go down in history as the perfect chair, then promptly collapses into said chair to catch up on some well-needed sleep.
At some point it is revealed Zigfried has been sneaking into the basement at night to visit with Rain and she has asked after the party and wishes to speak with them. Alain is unsurprised to hear of Zigfried's secret cellar visits, mostly because he was entirely aware of them (as he has been on high alert ever since first encountering Rain). That evening, the party, Varkle, Zigfried, and a hesitant Alain prepare to visit Rain in the secret room. A passing remark by Varkle reveals the cloud cover above the islands is permanent, meaning nobody living on the Thulian Isles has ever seen the sun directly, and it never rains on the islands either. This information is especially irritating to Rome-Bee, who realizes they have been wasting much of their energy on a garden that is all but doomed to wither and die. Proceeding to the secret room, the party finds Rain already present and waiting, though she has distracted herself with the room's light source, a solitary candle. Rain does recognize our heroes, and is pleased to see them for a moment before Garthor and Vessariel proceed directly into the adjacent tunnels seeking passage to one of the other islands.
Vessariel tasks the magic parchment with creating a map of the tunnels, which it does for all paths they tread. After some time spent exploring, Garthor and Vessariel come across a larger chamber in the tunnels, which contains a sizable tree fed by dripping groundwater and the barest bit of light shining through a shaft in the chamber's ceiling. In front of the tree is a larger and more complex version of the Goddess statue the party found on the mountainside and relocated to the village. Our spelunking duo manages to climb first the tree, then the shaft, finding that it connects to the surface. To be more precise, it connects to the well in the manor's back yard, from which Vessariel and Garthor emerge. They then proceed inside and down the stairs to once again enter the secret room having not even appeared to have exited. This initially causes some confusion but is quickly explained before the party minus Wisteria heads back into the tunnels and continues exploring.
They eventually find a tunnel leading to the surface miles from where they started, with sand and a warm breeze emanating from it. They find the tunnel terminates at the surface of a new island the parchment identifies as Negatio Thule (it simultaneously identifies the central island, where Zigfried's Manor is located, as Ultima Thule). Unfortunately, the tunnel exit is too small for any of the party to fit through. UN-unfortunately, Garthor is very big and strong, and his rippling back muscles allow him to fracture a fault in the tunnel exit, collapsing part of the rock around the hole and expanding it to easily accommodate the party. The three-quarters party emerges onto the warm sandy dunes of Negatio Thule and spies a structure in the distance, which they immediately set out to investigate.
Back at the manor’s secret room, Wisteria heads out after the party and is guided along the most efficient path by Rain, finding the exit to the other island only a few short minutes after the rest of the party, and catching up with them shortly thereafter. A cool, breezy night has fallen, and our heroes use the glinting light of the structure they spied earlier to guide them forward on this desert road. All seems well before a quiet shifting in the sands gives way to a swarm of scorpions! Wisteria, Rome-Bee, and Vessariel are all crawled upon and stung, and some are poisoned (they get better though). After a lot of frantic swatting and squishing, the party is alive but somewhat weary, and makes the remaining journey to what at first seems to be some sort of large adobe building. As they approach however, they begin to make out the features of the structure and it appears very cleanly constructed, with fine details and angular architecture organized in an aesthetic seeming both artful and decorative (art-deco if you will). The party hears the ringing of a bell high in a tower in the front of the building. They see a woman silhouetted in the light of the front door, holding a single candle and beckoning them inside. She introduces herself as Madam Gigi, proprietor of the Khalafia Inn. After waking Gelnferry (the front desk nightman), she invites the party to check in and rest for the night. A suspicious party hesitantly gives some names, not all of them genuine. Wisteria, Vessariel, and Garthor proceed through the courtyard (past a huge metallic statue of a featureless male figure) to the baths, which seem to be magically heated and fed by an underground spring. The areas with the spring, as well as the courtyard, have no roofs, and the party can see a clear night sky with sparkling stars and a waxing moon overhead.
This is of course in direct contradiction to what they were told about the islands being under permanent cloud cover, and raises some suspicion. Garthor in particular becomes apprehensive, studying the stars and discovering they do not correspond to any constellations he knows of. Curious, he climbs the wall behind the spring, peering over the edge to find… nothing. A complete absence of any visual input, which his brain fills with afterimages. The resulting vertigo causes Garthor to slip back down to ground level, and he resolves to investigate further. Vessariel, after utilizing the baths, explores the inn, coming across two of the staff tidying up in the dining room. They seem oddly unwilling or unable to communicate verbally, and don’t seem to understand Vessariel’s sign language, and their wardrobe seems… suggestive, which causes some tension and a bit of misunderstanding between the party and Madame Gigi. The Madam assures them everything is above board and her employees, or “boys” as she calls them (despite their obvious grown-ass-man status), are both cared for and happy. The employees in question seem to corroborate this, though it is a bit difficult to take their meaning given their limited range of communication.
In the courtyard, Garthor scrutinizes the statue, which leads Madam Gigi to allude to a “Silvered King”. She claims this King protects the inn and maintains it as a kind of paradise for her, the staff, and their guests. Garthor’s inspection of the statue yields no anomalies until he prays to it and experiences no resonance of divinity, only a slight feeling of unease. When he looks up from his prayer, the statue seems slightly different somehow. He attempts to explain to Madam Gigi what he saw over the wall of the baths, but the Madam seems unconcerned. Determined to call attention to the issue, Garthor scoops up Madam Gigi and manages to scale the bath wall a second time while carrying her. Peeking over the wall this time, both Gigi and Garthor see… a normal landscape. Desert, shoreline, ocean, islands, and storm, all in their proper place. The sky is still strangely clear of clouds and blends oddly into the horizon. Again returning to ground level, a perplexed Garthor decides to shelf his investigation and turn in for the night, finding the first unoccupied room he comes across and claiming it. Vessariel dutifully guards the room as per usual, but Garthor is able to convince her to do so from the inside this time. He suggests the two of them sleep in shifts, to which Vessariel reluctantly agrees.
During all this, a very patient Rome-Bee politely accepts Gelferry’s offer of a room key for one of the inn’s deluxe suites. They retire to said suite after marking the door so the rest of the party can find their way to the room, which Wisteria does shortly thereafter. The suite includes two king size beds, one of which is completely filled by Wisteria’s coiled form. Oddly enough, neither the suite nor the room Garthor has claimed seem to have any windows. Vessariel, Wisteria, and Rome-Bee’s rests are slightly troubled, but none can place exactly why save for Wisteria, who recalls a nightmare in which someone from her church is disappointed in her and she is unable to feel pain when performing a ritual to honor Loviatar. When Vessariel finishes her meditation, she informs Garthor about her unsatisfactory rest. He resolves to remove himself and his friends from the premises and gathers the party before heading to reception to check out. Once entering the lobby, the party finds the front door has seemingly vanished, and a sheepish Gelnferry admits there is a certain level of chicanery to the inn itself.
He also tells the party that if they really want to leave, they should try reentering the room so the door may reappear. The party exit and reenter the lobby to find the door has indeed reappeared and they are able to leave the inn freely. Once outside, Garthor finally feels safe enough to sleep, only to have the same uneasy rest as the other party members. What troubles our heroes’ sleep? What is up with this “Silvered King”? Does this place include turndown service? Answers to all these questions and more next time, on Dungeons & Dragons!