7. Locating the Secret Vault

The Adventures of Godrik the Magician*

This is the adventurers’ first time to the capital of the Immaculate Realm. The Sun is sinking low, and the shadows inside the city walls are deepening. A cloud of black smoke hovers over the city gate behind them. They have just passed between Thothia’s northwest watchtowers where they’ve witnessed the city guard dragging two charred bodies from view. The smell of naphtha and burning flesh still lingers in Godrik’s cloak. Earlier, a couple of the city’s visitors were caught inside the gate tunnel and killed. The gateman must have slammed down the two portcullises, one before them and one behind. Greek fire was then ignited and sprayed over the two men, and both were incinerated alive — a practice referred to by the locals as “righteous cleansing.” The two visitors had not passed their “inspection.”

Thanks to Nomacron’s writ of passage, the party has been permitted to enter the city bearing arms. However, the prefect at the gate has issued each of them papers. “Papers” consist of a single piece of parchment that bears two columns on it and the royal seal of the Realm stamped beneath in a craggy splotch of red wax. One column is headed by the Realm’s symbol for law, and the other by the symbol for chaos. Each traveler entering Thothia must profess his or her utter obedience to the law in an attempt to get…