Strange Aeons / Dreams of the Yellow King pt. 18 / Galen the 2nd, 3592 CE / 2-11-23

In Limbo, as their companion Zolkri has begun to refer to the team, has just finished their battle with Captain Glower and her trackers. As the survivors crawl away and race to their horses, Zolkri stands over the body of his fallen foe before saying a prayer to Thurn. Following the ritual of his people, and with the assistance of Mason the margoyle, they dig a grave and mark a large stone with Glower's sword, before joining their companions in ferrying Lord Emilio Demaine and his surviving retinue aboard the Starling. Captain Fred is quick to put the new crewmembers to work, and happy to accept a purse provided by the Lord for safe passage, but Lord Demaine also assures the halfling that they will not be guests of the Starling long, and that they plan to disembark at a camp in Veluna once the ship sails safely out of Corwyn territory. In the meantime, Captain Fred informs the crew it is not safe to land in Corwyn for the time being and puts them on half rations so that they can skip their next planned stop, the shipping hub town of Ivy. Mason and Hemlock for their part attempt to catch their own meals through fishing, though the investigator finds more success than the margoyle in that venture. Hemlock then goes to assist the psychic Esp and the two scholars the Starling is transporting to Liem in their efforts to crack more of the clues left by his former employer, Baron Haver Lowell IV. In Limbo, and specifically Esp, Hemlock, and their companion the cleric Trakir, are aboard the Starling specifically for this purpose; to pursue Baron Lowell and stop him from whatever plots he has concocted to gain further power for himself by occult means at the expense of others' pain and suffering. They have already foiled the consequences of his actions twice so far, once at Stonebriar Asylum when the Baron provided the means to open a conduit to the Dreamlands which sent monsters rampaging through the asylum, and the other in the town of Rushton, where the Cult of Hastur he used as enforcers almost succeeded in taking over the town. Now, with the books they recovered from the Baron's estate, they search for answers to his plot, as well as clues to retrieve the memories of Hemlock and Esp, sacrificed in a Dreamlands ritual to a mysterious being known as the Mad Poet. Learning from a splinter of the Baron's psyche calling himself the Yellow King that the Mad Poet requires rare gifts as a means of supplication before seeking aid, the party has been using the Baron's notes to locate these gifts and conduct excursions into the Dreamlands to retrieve them. As Hemlock, Esp, and the scholars pore over the texts, they glean more clues on the next item on their list, a skull of ghoul royalty. They learn that the Leng ghouls of the Dreamlands, so-called because of the region they inhabit, are not like the undead creatures of the material realm, but instead are living monsters who inhabit vast civilizations under the Plateau of Leng. They also learn the key phrases necessary to make their next excursion to the supposed location of the skull of ghoul royalty. At one point the scholar Reuben breaks away from his research to approach Zolkri, who has been sitting nearby listening as he works crafting poison from the flowers he purchased in Dabrile. Reuben tells Zolkri that Esp explained he now suffers from intermittent blindness in the Dreamlands due to a curse from a lurker in light. Reuben tells Zolkri that this condition will be become permanent unless he can find a cure in the Dreamlands, or if his dream self dies. As the evening winds down, and the ship once again moors and battens down the hatches, In Limbo prepares for another Dreamlands excursion to seek their latest treasure, the skull of ghoul royalty. Esp tells the party that though she will conduct the ritual for them, she is not entering the Dreamlands this time due to mental strain. Trakir, Hemlock, Zolkri, and Mason sit in a circle and once more descend the steps into the Dreamlands. As they approach their destination, the party can see a dim, sickly light ahead of them at the bottom of the stairs. Hemlock and Mason both also recognize the sound of chanting in Aklo, prayers to something called "Nyarlathotep." The party finds themselves in a cavern covered in glowing fungi, at the center of which, a circle of Leng ghoul priests pray and supplicate to their dark god for strangers to aid them. Upon seeing the arrival of In Limbo, the head priest Wilkins welcomes them and asks for their aid. He explains that a group of monsters called gugs have taken over their sacred necropolis. The party is wary to do business with the Leng ghouls, but realize that the necropolis is the best place to find the skull they seek. Zolkri also seeks vengeance of his own against the gugs for an incident from his childhood that set him on the path to bing an eldritch monster hunter. The party agrees with assurances from Wilkins that taking the skull of the royal interred in the necropolis, a ghoul prince by the name of Scarcrim Vost, will not incur the priests' wrath, though the party notices that there is some dissent among his followers. As In Limbo sets out for the necropolis, with a ghoul priest named Steven in tow. Zolkri notices that one of the priests who objected to their bargain with Wilkins has disappeared. When In Limbo reaches a promenade leading to the main plaza of the necropolis, they are attacked by guardian constructs made from the many bones which litter the place. They are able to destroy the bone golem and necrophidius, but Steven seems confused as to why these ancient guardians were not activated by the incursion of the gugs. In the necropolis's main plaza, the party approaches the mausoleum at its center, presumed to hold the corpse of Prince Vost, but not before three gugs reveal themselves and another battle is joined. Working together the party defeats the terrifying monstrosities, with Zolkri in particular gaining some satisfaction from brutally cleaving the one he is fighting. With the gugs dead, the party is free to investigate the mausoleum. When Zolkri enters to retrieve the skull, he is just able to avoid the ghostly hands of Prince Vost's vengeful spirit grasping for him, but with the skull removed, the ghostly presence goes inert once more. Trakir also takes the prince's scepter, saying that Esp had tasked him with retrieving it to pay her debt to the Trade Prince whom she encountered at the Viscount's Gala. As they prepare to depart the Dreamlands, In Limbo hears the sound of an approaching force, and hurriedly force themselves awake just before the ghoul Captain Colxor and his soldiers arrive to exact vengeance for desecrating the Prince's tomb. Only Mason stays behind, hidden in the shadows, and after Colxor and his followers chase the fleeing Steven down the promenade, he once more investigates the mausoleum, this time finding a cache of gems to use as currency in the Dreamlands in the future, before returning to the waking world.