The Aching Bones

The atmosphere is warm and inviting. The main hall features rustic wooden tables and chairs, a stark contrast to the city’s dead atmosphere. A large, roaring fireplace dominates one wall, surrounded by shelves filled with strange trinkets and relics from across the land. The soft murmur of conversation and the clinking of glasses create a lively ambiance.

Svart

You receive the last table, next to the sister of the Dark Sun. She is in conversation with a duergar who is accompanied by an undead servant. They are discussing in old dwarvish about an expedition that the sister wants the duergar to undertake.

The sister, named Svart, has responsibilities in the temple. She gives the Hryngar a decorated box containing a map of old catacombs and a mausoleum, with secret writings on how to open it. Additionally, there is a purse full of gold as payment for the service.

The Hryngar

The Hryngar have settled north of the Antiquities Quarter. They include:

• Mausun, a battlepriest
• Awilam & Sheasi, Mausun’s personal guards
• Urten, King’s agent
• Huna, Task master responsible for a cohort of 5 undead Forge-spurned

The Midnight Shadows

Following the order of Attu, Nisitus traveled to Shaen with the hope that the heroes would proceed from the Cathedral of Silence. However, she faces significant challenges there, needing to avoid both the PCs and the sisters of the Dark Sun (at least in public).

She urgently devises a plan, hoping it will be effective with the Candide Absalomians. Before making contact, she plans to arrange a public confrontation with Svart of the Sisters of the Black Sun to demonstrate their opposition. Then, feigning desperation, she will approach the PCs and explain the situation between the "free Shadar-kai," who want to move beyond their past and the lich's influence, and the Sisters of the Black Sun, who seek the lich's return to lead the legions of Argrinyxia, the Umbral Dragon.

To fulfill the prophecy, one must have the three potent items of Shaezhar. Only then, in deep shadows, under aligned moons and weeping stars, can Shaezhar's return be stopped. The heroes already possess Thelgax, the dagger. They now need to quickly obtain Skull, the staff of necromancy, before Hryngar's party.

To achieve this objective, they must proceed to the Breathing Death Catacombs, locate the mausolea of the Shaezhar family, and pass through the gate leading to the true tomb of the ancient lich. Rest assured, the lich no longer exists; only by breaking the Prophecy could the sisters of the Black Sun revive it.

The Duergar will leave in three days, awaiting reinforcements. Once en route, they will be unstoppable.