The cool and otherwise quiet night had almost passed in Mount Gheladan, but in the darkness lurked ill-intent. A young Nilari girl was out on a midnight hunt when a green blaze of fire suddenly filled the air, illuminating the great mountain. As suddenly as it had appeared, the fire was snuffed out, leaving only a thick cloud of smoke. Vetra, in her viridian form, was the first to come upon the scene of the Nilari girl wandering through the haze of smoke, choking with each lungful before the air began to blow the cloud away. There on the ground lay a rabbit, quite dead and gutted open, leaving its organs exposed to the air.

For the first time in ages, Romeo and Juliet left their seats at the Ring of Portals to descend upon Mount Gheladan. Calling upon the help of those that would offer it, they led a group to the scene of the crime. Odei, Cillae, and Myuu joined Vetra to question the girl about what had happened. She exclaimed that she was too distracted by the unnatural light to see what took place, but was dismayed to find her favourite rabbit, which was to be her birthday meal, dead and spoiled on the dirt. With a sudden bit of excitement, the girl urged the group to seek out Lorel, the local tanner and expert of animal skins. While Myuu ran off to find the tanner, the group examined the ground around the dead brown rabbit, noting that runes had been etched around it and were now charred, no doubt from the flames. As Lorel came onto the scene, he chided the girl for being out so late before settling down to examine the corpse himself. The animal had been gutted by a short, jagged knife he noted and point out the absence of the creature's heart.

As the group argued over the meaning of this, a scream filled the air, brought in by a strong wind just as a blue flash lit up the forest surrounding the Pixie Village, the majestic arches of light glimmering and dancing hypnotically before fading away. The group quickly took off towards Minia with Romeo and Juliet leading the way. Upon their arrival they found a tiny pixie girl, that would usually being singing and flitting about, crouched down by a tree, sobbing and white as a ghost. Asami, having seen the light above Minia, ran in to join the intrepid group of adventurers, brought together by admittedly odd circumstances. Asami was able to calm down the crying girl, finally able to speak through her heaving sobs. Two men had run in and taken her squirrel from her, cutting it open before performing a dark ritual that left the creature burnt to an almost unrecognisable char. Having heard the sobs of the girl, a local pixie teacher arrived and began to scold the adventurers for scaring her. After the situation was explained, the teacher knelt down to examine the corpse itself. Though unsure, the footprints looked oddly like those of the pixies' neighbours. The wind blew up a pile of leaves, exposing the edge of a piece of parchment. The group huddled around as Vetra read the script aloud. It seemed as though a group of mages was experimenting on animals, for what the scribe had not written down, but it was clear the next target was a sheep.

Myuu piped up loudly that they should make haste to Lodi so that they might catch their culprits. Just as the group arrived, two imps both clothed in robes stood up from a gutted young lamb. Haakon, the elder mage scowled at his apprentice Drak, complaining that he had wasted too much time. Drak, not caring about the onlookers stepped back to begin chanting as he summoned forth green magefire. "I submit to powers greater than my feeble self." He shouted, the runes etched on the ground answering with the same blue glow seen earlier. "Free us from this world, come forth from the Void!" He chanted, the words barely leaving his lips as a crimson portal opened beneath the sacrificial lamb, pulling it into its spiralling vortexes. Sensing failure, Drak cursed and pulled his master along. Though disappointed, Haakon sneered at the group, wishing them good luck just as a pack of hellcats emerged from the portal to attack the adventurers. After quickly dispatching them, a large clawed hand began to emerge from the portal before the entrance into another Plane collapsed upon itself, sending the demon back. Romeo and Juliet shot worried looks at each other, remarking that this was getting out of hand quickly, and now was the time to put a stop to it. Dark clouds formed over the Ember Tower, crimson lightning crackling sinisterly as the storm slowly sprawled across the skies of Minia while the group made their way there.

Rather quickly, Cillae was the first to notice a door, seemingly out of place just beyond the guard's room that would not open for her. The rest soon arrived, and after Myuu interrogated Akar, the squirrel trainer he begrudgingly admitted that the pair of mages had made their way down there, but confessed he was not allowed in nor could he open the door. He implored upon them to seek the alchemist. Thus began a long list of arduous tasks, each more sickly than the last: kill a firesprite, have a pixie child cooked for the Imp Lord, and finally, trick a sick Kobold into drinking what he thought was medicine to turn him into a writhing abomination. The alchemist, pleased with the group's resolve, called for the door to be opened. Before he could turn away though, Myuu struck him down with her scythe for having them commit such atrocious acts.

Making their way into the basement of the tower, seeming a makeshift laboratory, Romeo and Juliet found the two mages. Haakon greeted the group with a toothy grin, knowing what trials they would have had to pass to reach this point. Making his case, he pleaded with the group to help him and his assistant continue their pursuit of knowledge, for both science and perhaps a bit of gold. The mob slowly lowered their weapons, the jingle of sovereigns ringing pleasantly in their ears. Drak explained their preparations, showing off the bloody altar that sat beneath a looming archway, the sides of which were etched with the same runes found at the various sites of dead animals. Myuu took off to Lodi to grab a fresh sheep before returning and announcing that they were ready to assist. The depthswalker took a parchment from Drak, reciting the same words from earlier till a portal began to open within the archway. Pushing everyone aside, Haakon stepped forward, arrogantly calling into the Void for power over the weak and dominion of the lands. A hair-raising chuckle filled the room, the noise a cacophony of hellish voices that uttered a single word, "No." With that, a demon hand grabbed the elder mage and pulled him into the vortex, his screams the last noise heard before the portal closed on itself.

Drak professed he was pleased with the results, fulfilling his promise of gold as he lined the pockets of Vetra, Myuu, Cillae, and Mani. With congratulations, he urged them to not forget this day and to continue seeking out the greater truths in the multiverse, that even gold cannot replace. As the group dispersed, happily counting their coins, Romeo and Juliet gave each other a cross look. They shook their heads with a sigh and departed home, mildly disgusted, though not surprised, by the inevitable greed that consumes mortals and drives them to go along with wicked acts.

Summary:

A group of novices arrived at Mount Gheladan after witnessing green fire fill the sky there. There they found a dead rabbit, the obvious victim of a sick ritual. From there they went to the Pixie Village in response to a shining blue light and discovered a similar scene with a torched grey giant squirrel. After examining the clues that caught two imp mages, Haakon and his apprentice, killing a lamb before the apprentice, Drak, performed a ritual to open a portal to another Plane.

The group killed a pack of hellcats as the imps made their escape. Finding that the duo had made their way into a locked basement, the group, led by Romeo and Juliet, haggled with the imps of Ember Tower, performing heinous acts to be granted entry. Instead of killing the two mages, they were instead enticed by promises of gold. After helping Haakon and Drak open a portal within an ancient archway, a demon pulled Haakon through before it closed, and Drak rewarded the new assistants handsomely.

Penned by My hand on the 1st of Daedalan, in the year 767 AF.