The party confronted the figures that intercepted them in the magical tunnel that should have promptly sent them back to Barba. There were five of them, two corrupted stalkers, two corrupted oracles, and a headless man wearing dark, noble clothing. He wore a rapier at his side and held his left hand behind his back. When spoken to, he motioned in front of him, seemingly causing a portal to spit forth more gifts from The Red Inquisitor. Once they had sifted through the rewards, the figures remained. The finely dressed man pulled his left hand from behind his back, revealing a diseased, alien mouth replacing his left hand. An orb of membrane slid open, revealing long fangs with green ooze dripping from them. The mouth spoke with a deep, raspy voice, stating that their master requires an item from the Minotaur Duma Van. Duma presented Marka Corvux’s broken blade, and the headless man seemed to want ownership. Duma hesitantly let the man examine the blade, but declined when the group wanted to take the blade away. The man and his alien mouth suspended the blade in a red force-field and entered battle with The Rectifiers. He was called The Word of The Red Inquisitor, and stated that The Rectifiers could either give up the blade or prove they deserved to keep it by defeating him in battle.
Though they were victorious over The Word of The Red Inquisitor, The Rectifiers now understood how far The Red Inquisitor would go to get what he wanted. With the foes dispatched and the blade retrieved, the party was finally returned to Barba.
The Rectifiers finished resupplying, spoke with Councilor Mira about how she was returning to Haven, and learned from Duma Van about where the dark crystal he bought from The Red Inquisitor took him: an endless white desert covered in eternal night. Though they had only been through a few hours of the day, it was one of the strangest already. With time drawing short, The Rectifiers headed toward the eastern gate beyond Orlos’s keep where Luxenians were already gathering.
With Orlos’s blessing, their allies regrouped, and the Luxenians ready to find shelter in Amanta, The Rectifiers led the host up the winding stone pathway leading into the mountains. A short way into their journey, a man approached, shouting the name “Galaneia”. The man grasped Gale’s hands and told her that her grandmother and mother would be proud of her, with a wink.
The Rectifiers continued their journey upward through stone and snow, but Karth noticed something off in a thicket of woods a bit off the path. They saw a cloaked figure leaning against a tree, watching them. Azalea used her archer’s eyes to get a better look and noticed the man had no face. Maron and Duma Van seemed alarmed and added that the figure is likely an agent of The Red Inquisitor. A short discussion on what to do ensued, but the group agreed to merely continue to not raise a scene around so many civilians. As they rounded a bend to continue upward, Karth noticed the figure had vanished.
When they topped the final rise to the grand stone doorway to Amanta, The Rectifiers found four dwarven guards, a large stone door with an etched diamond sigil, and two immense braziers burning with a light blue flame. Two of the dwarves wielded halberds and wore heavy armor, while the other two wielded magic staves and wore thick robes. The knights had blue capes while the cloaks of the mages were green. The knights denied the group entry, stating no one was permitted to enter the city. Though they argued, the knights finally added that the only way to gain entry to the city was to duel them in ritual combat. When The Rectifiers asked if that would permit everyone with them in, one of the knights replied, “We shall see” with a glance to one of the blue fires.
The Rectifiers found the four defenders of Amanta quite the combatants, and some of them were forced to yield out of the combat. Eventually, the remaining Rectifiers forced the final dwarven knight to yield. Shortly thereafter, the blue fires rumbled and an old dwarven face tore through the shimmering flames. The voice of Harin the Councilor shouted with a crackled effect to “Stop this madness!”…