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acl.cool/site/draft/umbral10.dj

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 # Umbral Gaze 10: Necromaniac
 
+_Last time on Umbral Gaze..._
+
+Our band of heroes learned about Cheshira the Night Hag from Mayola Ekris, listened covertly to Carmal's arcane explications, talked with the Open Lord regarding their next target, and received a warning from Tasha to show it no mercy. Venturing through basement passages under the headquarters of a shady fishers' guild--- contacts of the Open Lord--- the party achieved a portal room from which a grizzly kenku has just flung them onward to the place of their next adventure.
+
+{.thematic}
+***
+
+Ribbons of a thousand colors swirl about the party; their fingers and toes grow numb in seconds that feel like minutes. Teleportation is _usually_ too quick to even notice; what's causing _this_ lurching, lurid tornado, the they can only begin to guess.
+
+With a thump and a clatter and a choking cloud of _something_ white in the new air all about them, the magic deposits its captives at last onto material ground. Or, at least they assume it's ground--- with their vision so obscured, they really could be standing on anything. Moments pass, in which adventurers wave their hands blindly before their eyes and cough dryly as dust desiccates their throats, and the dust begins to settle. Adventures can make out their comrades across the cramped, single-window-lit room in which they find themselves, and determine the source of the thumps and clatter to be the myriad of destroyed objects and burst flour sacks in jumbles and heaps just beyond the edge of the teleportation circle. Judging by the nature of detritus and the placement and dimension of the window--- high and narrow--- the party determine that they've landed in some sort of storage room and destroyed its contents in doing. Unsettlingly, as they look around, they notice too some humanoid bones, several skeletons worth, in fact. 
+
+The commotion draws attention. Wondering voices penetrate the thin wooden door that hangs at the top of a warped set of equally thin and wooden stairs, and party members overhear a strange argument play out on the other side. The people who live here can't seem to decide whether their uninvited guests are _zombies_ or not. Carmal puts their fears to rest, calling out with reassuring words articulated better than any zombie could manage. A brief exchange later, the party come upstairs to greet their unexpecting hosts.
+
+The house above the teleporter cellar is small, in good repair, but disheveled. 

acl.cool/site/writings/umbral9.dj

@@ -43,7 +43,7 @@ They find the object of their desire in the basement--- a cellar, really. A broa
 
 The conversationally adroit bard mutters something non-committally affirmative. He's just learned about the people helping the party today--- the Xanathar's criminal tendrils are everywhere in Waterdeep. Our heroes have a mission to complete right now, though. If this place needs dealing with, it will have to wait.
 
-A kenku arrives by Warbeth's right hand, and a gesture thereof sets it all about the room, making sure the circle is clear and arranging the party in proper order for transit to what will be their most remote destination yet. With a final sidelong circumspection, the kenku deems everything alright, and a nod of confirmation from its master and a flash of arcane mist mark the split second before the teleporter rips the room from the party's view.
+A kenku arrives by Warbeth's right hand, and a gesture thereof sets it all about the room, making sure the circle is clear and arranging the party in proper order for transit to what will be their most remote destination yet. With a final circumspection, the kenku deems everything alright, and a nod of confirmation from its master and a flash of arcane mist mark the split second before the teleporter rips the room from the party's view.
 
 [^mayola]: [Mayola Ekris](/writings/mayola/) is a friend and consultant to the Unblinking Patrol, an archivist in the Watchful Order of Magists and Protectors (WOMP).