Session 4: The Keeper’s Song

Module Phase: Lighthouse Restoration
Location: Onboard The Mermaid’s Lament, Graytower Island, Lighthouse Interior
Time: Morning departure to dusk ritual
Atmosphere: Ominous tides, ancestral echoes, a race against time and tide.

The Mermaid's Lament — Dreams and Dorsals

The voyage began uneasy.

• Shyk fought the sea in his stomach more than in the waves.
• A massive scarred shark shadowed the ship, circling slow. Captain Mirun warned against provoking it.
• Mirun himself spoke in riddles:

“Have you dreamt of the sea swallowing the sun?”
“Old memories come up with the tide.”

Dreams and faith tangled, leaving the crew quiet and uneasy.

Birds and Omens

The sea offered no peace.

• Oily-feathered gulls followed, shrieking and mutating in their wake.
• A half-sunken fishing boat drifted by, abandoned. No survivors.
• Crew superstition deepened. Whispers thickened in the salt air.

Arrival at The Graytower Beacon

The island was fouled.

• Shorelines slick with slime and carcasses, goats bloated and dead. Corpses of fishermen lay unrecognizable.
• Oversized gulls nested nearby, hostile and restless. The party chose the forest path to the tower.

The beacon itself rose ancient, carved with elven grace and Netherese practicality. Runes whispered of long purpose.

The Ritual of Restoration

Cassian’s scroll dictated six hours of continuous ritual. Three in fixed places. Failure meant collapse.

• Hour 1: Corrupted crabs scuttled in.
• Hour 2: A fog carried psychic shockwaves through their minds.
• Hour 3: Black eels poured from tidal pools, writhing and snapping.
• Hour 4: Mutated gulls descended, oily wings beating the air.
• Hour 5: Quiet — a silence thick as oil.
• Hour 6: A sahuagin aberration emerged, limbs twisted, psychic fury tearing at the ritual circle.

Each hour nearly broke them. Each hour they forced the ritual back on track. By sundown, the tower pulsed alive.

And yet — not fully.

The Tower’s Heart

At the summit, they found the truth: an orrery-like mechanism turning, golden light cast across stone, but inert. The scroll ended with no final key.

It was the The Graytower Beacon Caretaker's Journal that spoke. Written across generations, in Common, Dwarvish, and Netherese. Mentions of Rue’s parents. Memories of a small girl visiting the tower. References to the Echoing Gate.

And one entry that caught like a knife in Rue’s chest:

“Still, I hope she remembers the old songs, and why we keep the beacon turning. If not, the stones will.”

The ritual had lit the beacon. But only Rue — daughter of Watchers, child of collapse — held the rest.

The old song.