Echoes of the Obelisk
The Veiled Vanguard returns to Nal’thees and hands over the purple wrymm poison, securing Craumgacu’s release and locating the Dwarven Paladin Burgall. While Valerie and Ro’Zaad spy on Burgall and a disguised mage—later revealed to be a succubus—the rest of the party witnesses the terrifying arrival of the Porcelain Queen, who kills and raises innocents in a show of necrotic power. Fleeing the city, the party journeys toward the Obelisk, only to suffer a mysterious life-draining curse, culminating in Renatus receiving a grave warning from the goddess Grevtrea: the River of Souls has stopped, and the dead can no longer pass on.
Returning to Nal'thees after a short rest, the Veiled Vanguard delivered the purple wyrm venom sac to Guildmaster Brightvein—Valerie using Prestidigitation to clean a bloodstain left by Big Jim at the entrance. Impressed by their speed, Brightvein accepted the venom, relinquished his claim on Craumgacu, and revealed the location of Burgall Farstone, the dwarven paladin who had already accessed the obelisk pillar. While the rest of the party rested at the inn, Ro’Zaad and Valerie scouted Burgall’s rented shack. Disguised as an older man, Valerie created a distraction while a telepathically linked Ro’Zaad eavesdropped, overhearing Burgall tell Father Lyrcas that an envoy had arrived and they needed to return to the main dig site. Just then, the rival party's disguised mage approached Valerie. Unaware of Valerie's identity, the mage tried to solicit her for companionship, giving "him" a gold coin before stepping inside and revealing her true form as a red-skinned, winged succubus. As Ro’Zaad snuck upstairs—dodging an alarm-rigged silver thread to copy Burgall’s map showing three desert mesas—Valerie fired off three mockingly spiteful Sending spells to the mage. Overwhelmed by the mental harassment, the mage failed a Scrying attempt on Emelyne and stormed off in a rage.
Meanwhile, an ominous, bone-chilling aura swept through the tavern as three Sanguisian Empire figures entered. When the innkeeper denied them rooms, a nearby patron bled from the nose and crumbled into dust. Rejoining the party at the inn, Valerie morphed into a purple tiefling in a sequined cloak, while Emelyne boldly went upstairs to speak with the lead Sanguisian figure: Lady Darthbyne, the "Porcelain Queen." Protected by undead servants in an extradimensional suite, Darthbyne served Emelyne herbal tea and listened as Emelyne and the rest of the party revealed the obelisk's existence and Angus Blackshire's secrets. In exchange for their silence and survival, Darthbyne gifted them a skull ring embedded with a diamond that fortified summoned undead, while directing them toward an independent library dungeon across the mountains above the Relamor River.
The next morning, the party entered Darthbyne’s room to find her confronting an agent named Nolsthera. Darthbyne abruptly slaughtered thirty innocents in the main tavern room with a necrotic blast, raising them as an undead horde to cover her escape. Amid the magical chaos, the Vanguard fled down the lifts with Shasoth, who guided them toward the desert on Schnoggles before heading west to Solveria while the party rode northeast toward the obelisk site.
As they crossed the badlands, a severe lifeforce-draining effect began sapping their vitality, forcing them to take shade beneath a mesa during peak daylight to avoid permanent death. While Emelyne and Thalia wrestled over a baby coyote—resulting in Emelyne killing the pup to bait flying vultures—a ghostly voice commanded Renatus to "return to the earth." Encouraged by Ro’Zaad, Renatus buried himself in the dirt. A deafening bell tolled, and Renatus emerged with a message from Lady Grevtrea: the obelisk was severing the River of Souls, trapping all dead souls, preventing resurrections, and draining divine power. With the disciples of Mordecai utilizing the obelisk and a cosmic temple set to rise during the full moon in two days, Grevtrea urged them east. Before they could move, the mother of the slain coyote pup whimpered beside its body, and as Emelyne attempted to finish it with Mind Sliver, the creature suddenly mutated into a vengeful, giant humanoid beast.