Another red magical tear opened in the bloody chamber before the Rectifiers could continue. Through it came more strange packages, one of which being an amulet similar to Maron’s for Duma Van. Duma journeyed to the same odd shop that Maron frequented. There, he traded an entire set of armor for a chestplate that apparently bears the symbol of The Founders. He was told it was Founder Loyalists armor, and that it would grow over use and time.
With these oddities dealt with, the group journeyed through the off-white stone door through a hallway that echoed crunches as they stepped. They emerged in a chamber that seemed to be made from bone itself. In the center were several buttons. On the far side of the room were two large, transparent juts of bone that held a golden skull and a golden ribcage. Behind those stood another bone door with a humanoid skeleton bound to its frame. It was missing a ribcage and skull. On the left and right of the chamber were additional doors that held symbols of a black skull and black ribcage above them. Inside, the parties spied skeletal, winged beasts (one side being a dragon) roosting on top of a black ribcage and black skull.
The Rectifiers decided to toy with the buttons and solved the puzzle to retrieve the golden bones from their receptacles. Before completing the incomplete skeleton on the door, the party decided to brave the winged beasts that now guarded footlockers that appeared once they had solved the puzzle. With the beasts defeated and the footlockers looted, the group completed the skeleton with the golden bones they had retrieved. Once completed, the skeleton began to materialize flesh and muscle. A dragonborn woman was eventually formed, bright red scales covering her body and ash-colored hair atop one side of her head. She wore dark gray plate armor with a flame symbol upon her chest. A greatsword poked over one shoulder.
The woman introduced herself as Lora, a knight from Ignis. She seemed quite disoriented, so the party tried to get her up-to-speed on what was happening in her city, or lack thereof. When given the news of what had happened to Ignis, she seemed quite defeated, stating that she had failed her purpose. With a sigh of desperation let out, Lora decided that she still needed to escape this realm. She drew her blade and offered it to the Rectifiers, whom she recognized by the raiments.
In the next chamber, the Rectifiers and their Knight of Ignis were met by another guardian’s abode. Here, a pillar of bones hovered high above, with a circle of magic runes beneath. A clattery voice greeted them, giving the same choice as the previous guardians: offer tribute or face their wrath. The voice offered to let them face its master if they merely offered the tribute of breaking their bones. Denying this request, the Rectifiers summoned forth the guardian, which appeared to the pillar of bones high above. It slammed down with finality, and several torsos of varying species of bones wielding bows of bone sprouted forth. At the top of the tower was a conglomeration of bones creating an ominous, abominable skull with black aura spewing from the eye sockets like smoke. The Rectifiers faced down this final guardian.
Though the Rectifiers nearly did not survive the encounter with the Bonebreaker Guardian, Gale let forth one last bullet from her pistol to shatter the tower of bones. With one more agent of evil slain, Gale Bonebreaker and her allies gathered what winnings they found, and approached the cracked open bone door that now awaited them. Through the human-sized opening, they saw a dark red fluid flowing downward toward a purple light. With no way to go but down, the group leapt down into the dark red fluid.
Once at the bottom, the fluid spilled out into a narrow moat. It glowed with an evil red, flowing toward an immense stone door ahead of them. It filled a symbol on the door with its blood red glow. Once full, it changed to purple. The symbol matched the one on Duma Van’s new chestplate…