Part 16: Penumbra and Terfin

We once again traveled by moongate back to Yew and picked up our flying carpet from Nicodemus' house. Our first stop was Alagner's place in New Magincia to return his notebook.

When I approached Alagner's house The Guardian spoke to me:

"Thank you for the information in that notebook Avatar, it was most useful"

Then we entered Alagner's house...

Alagner had been ritualistically murdered in the same fashion as Christopher in Trinsic, or the gypsies in Minoc. Looks like Hook and Forskis have been at it again, and The Fellowship is covering its tracks. We left the notebook in his house, as we had promised to return it, then headed to Moonglow to find Penumbra.

The lock sealing her house cannot be picked or opened using any key. Instead, a golden plaque before it explains items that you need to place before it. Each correct item you place changes the plaque to tell you another item to bring (a rudimentary puzzle). The only slightly challenging part of the puzzle is reading the runic writing.

The first sign said "hammer to enter" so we placed a hammer I had picked up earlier before it. Before our eyes the sign changed to "pick item carefully to keep gong". I suspected I needed a lock pick, so for efficiency I went around collecting all the ingredients I will need. We returned and placed the lock pick, the sign changed again:

It now reads "a golden ring of truth faces thee". The tricky bit about this which has got me in the past is that there are no gold rings in the game. The rings that are gold are rings of invisibility, but what the game actually wants is one of the orange coloured rings. I placed it and it changed to "grasp not at threads". I placed a spool of thread, this time it changed to "the royal mint shall not hold thee back". I placed a coin... and the puzzle was solved. The plaque vanished, and in its place was a golden key.

We picked up the key and unlocked the door. The Guardian laughed at us as we entered. Penumbra was sleeping on an uncomfortable looking stone bed. We decided to rudely awaken her with the Awaken spell and she was startled back to life.

She had not aged since my last trip to Britannia. A few moments into our conversation she was suddenly wracked in pain - clutching at her head. The disturbance in the ether was the cause.

She asked me to help her, she needs something to act as a barrier against the disturbance. Immediately blackrock came to mind. Luckily for me, I'd taken four pieces of it from Rudyom's house back in Cove. We placed a piece on each pedestal around her room, and the effect was instant.

We talked to her about the problems in Britannia and the disturbance in the ether. She could sense the source of the disturbance coming from Dungeon Deceit on an island to the north of Moonglow. She also described the device causing the disturbance as a "tetrahedron" (they should have just called it a pyramid). Another generator, just like the spherical one we encountered in Dungeon Despise.

She also told me that like the Sphere Generator, the Tetrahedron Generator has an external defense mechanism. The only way to enter it would be to wear the Ethereal Ring. She suggested I speak to King Draxinusom of the gargoyles to find it, and that I should bring it back to her when I have it so she can enchant it.

King Draxinusom lives on the gargoyle only island of Terfin. If you remember a long time ago we also had a lead that Elizabeth and Abraham had left Moonglow to go to Terfin, so travelling here will kill two birds with one stone. We are also supposed to report Inamo's death to Draxinusom. Terfin is on an island to the southeast of Britannia:

We flew by carpet and landed to the north of the island. As always, I spoke to everyone on the island:

• I found a note in a unknown person's house from Runeb (the Fellowship clerk) talking about explosives and destroying some altars (the altars to the original gargoyle principles of Control, Passion, and Diligence). I confronted Sarpling about it and he put all the blame on Runeb - and he gave me more information. Apparently there is an assassination plot that slipped our during our conversation. Runeb was going to kill Quan and blame him if the destruction of the altars failed - and take over as the leader of The Fellowship in Terfin.
• Quan, the leader of The Fellowship in Terfin told me that Elizabeth and Abraham had gone to the Meditation Retreat which is on an island near Serpent's Hold. Quan was unusually helpful and kind for a member of The Fellowship.
• Teregus, who runs the house of the altars, took a look at the note I found that Runeb had given to Sarpling. He asked me to confront Runeb about it... I suspect it will come to violence.
• Draxinusom talked about having to sell his Ethereal Ring during the move to Terfin. He apparently sold it to the Sultan of Spektran who lives on an island nearby. The Sultan apparently has the best guarded vault in Britannia. I also told him about Inamo's murder, he told me to inform Teregus at once who was devastated. 
• The bartender also told me about the conflict between the winged and wingless gargoyles. He suggested I speak to the healer and the trainer for more information. The healer recommended I talk to Silamo the gardener who is a wingless one showing signs of hostility. 
• It's also abundantly clear that the gargoyles did not move to Terfin purely of their own accord. They were essentially asked to leave the mainland.

It was getting late so we slept until morning. At first light we went to his house and confronted Runeb about his plans to assassinate Quan and destroy the altars. He predictably turned hostile and we brought him down.

Next, we went to find the gardener Silamo. He talked about not feeling respected because he is wingless, and perhaps The Fellowship do not hold such prejudices. 

I went to Quan and told him about the plot to kill him and destroy the altars. He didn't believe me, he seemed unable to see the evil in people.

With that, our time to Terfin had come to a close. We had foiled a terrorist plot, found the next location Elizabeth and Abraham were at (the Meditation Retreat) and the location of the Ethereal Ring on the Island of Spektran.