In the aftermath of the mechanical dragon’s assault, the party began investigating the wreckage. Clues led them to a disturbing discovery. The dragon’s Chardalyn armor bore the unmistakable seal of the Blackwater Mercenary Company, a private militia and arms dealer headquartered in Wolford, the only region in Rosenhall known to produce Chardalyn ore.
Saratuc, drawing on his knowledge of arcane materials, recalled that Chardalyn is dangerously unstable, fragile in its raw form, yet capable of absorbing and reflecting magic. Typically used in spell-storing rings and enchanted armor, this batch had been superheated in an Arcane Forge, making it unusually durable and potent. Someone had gone to great lengths to weaponize it.
With the city in shock, Captain Malcolm Monsterblade, commander of the city guard, formally deputized the party to continue the investigation. Their next stop was to check on Lady Alison Havenflower, who, despite being unharmed was far more shaken by the political fallout than the attack itself. With Havenfest in ruins and an election looming, her primary concern was her reputation.
To salvage her public image, she tasked the party with an unusual request: clean up her late father Jehnam Havenflower’s abandoned hotel, which she planned to reopen as refugee housing, turning tragedy into political triumph. The party complied.
Inside the decrepit hotel, things quickly turned bizarre. The halls were filled with extravagantly homoerotic decor and unnerving monster portraits, hinting at Jehnam’s eccentric tastes, or hidden secrets. A crumpled note suggested that the paintings were more than mere decoration… they were a key to something deeper within the hotel.
Following the trail of mold and decay, the party uncovered the source: a Black Pudding, a deadly ooze. A brutal battle ensued.
During the fight, Zahkir was tragically consumed and killed by the pudding.
In the silence that followed, Saratuc, acting quickly, managed to trap part of the ooze in a vial using a fragment of Chardalyn, an improvised experiment that might yield insight later.
As the party mourned Zahkir, something strange happened.
The hourglass pendant around her neck suddenly flipped, its sands flowing in reverse, and Zahkir returned, alive and unaware. She repeated the moment of entering the hotel, just as before, with no memory of her death or the battle that had claimed her.
Something has changed. The party is left shaken, not only by what happened… but by what time forgot.