DM: The small rectangular room has six plinths in the centre, each topped with a dark orb. There is another door across from you. Harriet, Diardi, you can see small grilles in the corners and a drain on the floor.

Adam (playing Harriet): Uh huh. I try the door.

DM: It's locked.

Adam: Can I pick it?

DM: You don't see a keyhole.

Lyra: Something to do with the orbs.

Hamish (playing Hunter): I want to see if I can twist one of them.

DM: Make a saving throw.

Hamish: Oh! Uh, it's a 7.

DM: You take 5 psychic damage. You know that something terrible will happen if you turn the orbs.

Lyra (playing Hesty): Ahhh!

DM: However it rolls spectacularly badly and ends up awkwardly plopping beside you. Roll initiative.

Lyra: I want to get back into my mech suit!

DM: The cube is going to attempt to swallow Hunter and WA.

M (playing WA): Rude!

DM: It misses, just.

M: I take a stab at it.

DM: You slice at the jelly with your daggers and gain some satisfaction from watching little gashes open up in the surface of the goo before it kind of squishes back together.

M (playing WA): That's me.

Adam (playing Harriet): I'll come too.

DM: The interior of the tomb opens out into a wide, low chamber. Pillars line the entrance. There is a single door in the opposite wall, and foot-high words inscribed into the stone beside it with a solitary skeleton propped underneath.

M: Anything moving?

DM: No.

M: Come on in.

Lyra: Oof, looks like whoever came in before us is already dead.

Adam: Uh, I doubt it. Heal check on the skeleton?

DM: It's ancient. Hundreds or maybe thousands of years old.

Hamish (playing Hunter): Is there a backstory there? Was there a Cardinal Bobcat I?

Lyra: Yeah,

M (playing WA): The first one was an actual bobcat. But Hesty and the bobcat got lost in the mountains and it died sheltering her from the cold. She had to slit it open and climb inside until the blizzard passed, Star Wars-style.

Lyra: Oh my god.

DM: Wow, just creating an entire canon here.

Lyra (playing Hesty): Barrows!

Marijn (playing Winnifred): *firmly* We have an outstanding quest with the museum. Dungeon time.

DM: The dungeon is two days' hard riding from Theriya.

Adam (playing Harriet): Better buy horses, then.

Rach (playing Gregor): Can I even ride a horse as a thri-kreen?

DM: I don't want to deal with the problem of you not being able to ride, so yes.

Rach: I should look into other mounts.

DM: It turns out his real name is Jorgan Felldale. His diary reveals that he is half-orc, half-elf. His mother was an orc who got pregnant with an elven ally, and after she died unexpectedly the father raised baby Jorgan himself. Unfortunately his extended family were openly racist toward the young mixed-race boy and his father didn't try to stop them. He was raised in the elven tradition and learned archery and magic. He grew to hate his 'family'. When he came of age he left to seek out orcs and learn about the other side of his heritage. He fell in with a traditionalist group of Gruumsh worshippers and they nurtured his resentment toward his elven upbringing. He converted to Gruumsh, tore out his own eye, and swore vengeance on everything elven.

Lyra: Cool motive, still murder...

DM: He travelled to Theriya and took a cleaning job at the museum, polymorphing himself into an elf to get close to Corellon worshippers. He found the broken Keystone in a museum vault and created a pact with a demon to restore its power, in return for his blood. He knew it would eventually kill him, but it was worth it to him as he put together his plan to heal Gruumsh's missing eye.

Hamish (playing Hunter): *raises eyebrows* Can he do that?

DM: He reckoned if he could restore Gruumsh's eye it would put him on a power level to challenge and this time defeat Corellon. Jorgan learned of a ritual created by a splinter cult of Bane designed to heal their god if he was ever grievously harmed in his ancient conflict, and travelled there to learn the ritual. Once they had taught him what he needed, he used the Keystone to dominate them and transform them into the Faceless. When he returned to the city he tracked down a powerful symbol of Corellon, the god who had wounded Gruumsh, which he needed for the ritual to work.

Marijn (playing Winnifred): Shame's necklace.