The Cold Below

The Cold Below
Date	8/31/2025
Storyteller	Tire
Tier	Legendary
Player Characters	Melfyra, Serene Leyvald, Cyrus Leyvald, Illiam Elro
Rewards	400 xp, Staff of the Dreamlands (Major), Armor Potency +3, Living Mantle (Greater), Penultimate Heartbeat x4, 52940 gp
Result	We learned a lot
Author	Melfyra
Downtime	30

I think this might have been one of the most terrifying missions I've ever been on, and I've seen some pretty terrifying stuff out in the field. The long and short of it is we found some shards of Gorum, and had an encounter with FUCKING TRELMARIXIAN HIMSELF. Let me start over from the beginning though, I should provide the full context for this log. Just a few days after the last group visited a lone homestead to investigate an ecological disaster and encountered a dinosaur that allegedly resembles a pickle, we were sent out there to basically do a better job, because we were left with more questions than answers. Cyrus also has thoughts on how they were investigating things, I was told that whole party should expect strongly-worded letters from him. Anyways, we get there and we start looking around. Our findings consist of mainly the following information: there was some sort of black crystal buried in the ground. We didn't get a good look at it at the time because it disintegrated. It was causing the effects of a blight and consecrate ritual against the living and the dead, and when it broke, the rituals ended. I suspect the consecration to be against everything that isn't a daemon. A horse had ridden away and gotten bigger, sounds like a sign of some sort of Nightmare, maybe an unholy champion of, or directly Trelmarixian himself. We also investigated the house and the corpse of the homesteader the last party encountered within the house, and we found out that this murder had happened long before the last group who showed up here had even entered. He didn't die in this bed, he was dead for 6 months, he starved to death, the water was poisoned, and the last person and creature he met were the owner of a nearby arboretum, Paul Conley, and his precious cow Bessie. The previous group had suspected the use of time magic on the area and victim, but upon further investigation, no magic was used on him or the house. They never even met the real homesteader, and the house was like this way before they even showed up, since right around when the meteor dropped. The hoofprints we found that showed signs of a nightmare also headed in the direction of Paul's arboretum, which we were going to investigate next. Cyrus was looking around with eyes from his robe, and he found a figure wearing a worn hat and duster riding away on a nightmare. We encountered them, and a fight broke out. The duo didn't last that long with Serene there. For a moment I suspect that we'd killed Trelmarixian, but no, that was too easy. Illiam identifies them as a Tolokand, and we're able to identify the horse as a Supreme Nightmare that had been weakened. It wasn't quite on the level of one of the horses of the apocalypse, but it was still stronger than a Greater Nightmare. I was relieved at the time, thinking we'd dealt with the one who had blighted the homestead we had just left, if only we were so lucky. When we get to the arboretum, we find that the land and trees had become twisted, with the same blight/consecration ritual in place here too. Fortunately, Paul was still alive here, and upon investigation, he is the real Paul Conley and not an imposter. We convince him to pack up and leave here, and he complies. He wouldn't be able to get much out of here anyways. We feed him and give him a ring of sustenance before following Cyrus's scouting to find the buried crystal. Some of the corrupted trees started moving and attacked us. They put up a surprisingly good fight before we took them down. I ask the tree closest to where the crystal was buried about who put it there, and they told me that a figure on a horse buried the crystal. To be expected, but it's still good to have confirmed it from a witness. We dig it up, and this crystal doesn't break. Serene asks if anyone here had seen "one of those godrocks", and that's what put the pieces together in my mind, this is a shard of Gorum. It had been corrupted to do things that Gorum absolutely would not have wanted to do, blights and poisonings are against the Lord in Iron's ways of doing things, and it didn't like what happened to it. It was pulsing as if it was alive, and in fear. Illiam tries to break the curse on it, but they can't with the time we have here. It's a really strong curse. I down an entire bottle of my favorite vodka to keep it in, and Cyrus holds on to it for safekeeping. Lictor Zeal should absolutely know about this, and we can do more research on it, perhaps we can find out more on our enemy through it. We check more of the locations we were instructed to check and find more of the same. On the way back home, we pass by a refreshingly clean and peaceful farm, where we encounter someone who looked just like what the homesteader at the first farm would've looked like if he was alive. The facial structure matches my reconstructions to a T. He's riding a gaunt, black horse that looks a lot like depictions of Halflight, the horse of Famine. Cyrus and I can immediately tell that something's up with this guy, and he taunts us as he approaches, claiming to know nothing of the incidents we encountered. Eventually he drops the facade and reveals his true face, a three-headed jackal-like figure. It's the real Trelmarixian, in the flesh. He does *something* that leaves the others terrified, I'd never seen Serene, Illiam, or Cyrus looking this terrified. He said we weren't very interesting, and he just got back on his horse and left, promising that if there was a next time, there wouldn't be. He left behind another object, which upon further investigation, was another shard of Gorum - still corrupted, but inactive. It hadn't placed a blight on the land, and I wasn't going to give it the chance to do so. I had another bottle of vodka on hand, so I downed it and put the shard inside. I'm going to show this one to Lictor Zeal as well, but after that, I'm going to take it to a secret location that only I know of, and only I will know how to access for safekeeping. I will make sure this isn't used for nefarious purposes, and I will not let it corrupt the environment anymore. If anyone wants to see it at any point, contact me about it, and I will lead you to where it is. You will be monitored the entire time you are investigating it, and I will have safeguards in place in case something bad happens with it. I urge future associates going on investigations to be more careful about who and what they encounter, if the last group to visit that homestead is anything to go off of, we could encounter the horsemen at any moment. I also urge associates to speak up about any incident like the homestead incident to a knowledgeable authority, Arumi, Lictor Zeal, the Council, anyone who would know what to do about this. In addition, if anyone encounters the horsemen, I urge them to focus on escaping above all else - that's not a fight you're going to win, and it's not going to be a glorious death.