With the shadows of the past stirring, the party returned to the abandoned Havenflower Hotel to finish their investigation.
Following the earlier clue about the monster portraits, they discovered that a stuffed owlbear concealed a mechanism, triggering it revealed a secret room hidden behind the mantle. Inside, they found a sealed cellar door, leading deep below the hotel.
There, in the cold darkness, stood a foreboding sarcophagus etched with a skeleton motif, an ominous relic of someone powerful… or cursed. Beside it, a hidden war room was uncovered, filled with old invasion maps and classified documents dating back to the Rosenhall Civil War. Shockingly, the contents implicated Jehnam Havenflower as a conspirator in a long-buried plot to overthrow the Crown, suggesting the Black Pudding was intentionally placed in the hotel to prevent anyone from uncovering these secrets.
In this same chamber, Saratuc discovered a Sending Stone, long dormant, until Mayla’s mysterious red gem pulsed with arcane energy, activating it.
A voice emerged from the stone.
It knew Saratuc by name.
It spoke of forgotten loyalties.
It claimed Saratuc had once served the Order of the Gauntlet, the same shadowy organization Jehnam belonged to. The voice warned him:
“Ocean’s Oath cannot be trusted… They always muck things up.”
With their investigation paused but questions mounting, the party returned to Ocean’s Oath, seeking clarity. Instead, they accepted a mission: deal with the gnolls who had been attacking refugees in the Rosewood Forest, ambushing travelers and desecrating caravans.
Joined by Jofire, the Order’s resident Guild Wizard, the party marched into the woods and launched an assault on a besieged windmill, now overrun by the gnolls and their savage kin.
It was a hard-fought battle, but the party emerged victorious, scattering the gnolls and recovering stolen supplies. Yet even in victory, uncertainty lingers.
Who can they trust?
What lies inside the sarcophagus?
And what did Saratuc forget?