In the morning, many of the statues are gone. The artisans are going wild — they have been working for days! And Tarin StoneChisel is missing too. The Horizon Keepers' initial assumption: "Perhaps statue-eating monsters? Came over for a midnight snack? Who's to say — we've seen weirder islands come and go. Just handle them."

Ask each player where and how their character is found when their owl arrives. Read the letter aloud for each player, then send the next owl. Keep Corwin grumpy but not hostile — he summons them to his office and gives details there. Use the owl as a cue to move the scene forward: "The owl takes off, heading toward the hill above the Magister's District." Then move to the next player.

The door opens onto a tall, book-lined office where afternoon light spills through two long windows behind a heavy wooden desk. The desk is cluttered with parchment, ink pots, and a small army of owls — some perched on stacks of books, some blinking from the window frame. In the centre sits Corwin, the headmaster, with a bushy white beard and matching brows, his face grumpy as always.

He does not look up. A pale, translucent magical hand moves above the desk, bending letters into tight little scrolls. One by one it seals them with wax, ties each with a pale cord, and passes the finished parcel to a waiting owl.

When the first owl stretches its wings and launches into the air, as it flies through the Drifting Crown looking for your character — where does the owl find you? Please describe your character for us.

The Magister's District opens before you like something out of an old painting — wide cobblestone streets lined with clay-coloured buildings, columns and arched doorways carved with reliefs of figures and creatures you half-recognise. A large town square opens up, surrounded by artisanal shops and buildings. The air smells of warm bread and something else underneath — something earthy and faintly sweet, like fresh soil after rain, but richer.

The square is busy. Dozens of canvas tents fill the space, most still tied shut — statues inside, drying, waiting for their moment. At the centre, a stone gryphon rears up from a fountain, armoured and mid-leap, water running off its wings.

Three tents near the far end catch your eye — their flaps wide open, the sculpting platforms inside bare. Whatever stood on them is gone.

Near the edge of the square, a woman is speaking to two guards in hushed but urgent tones — her hands moving, her voice tight. She hasn't stopped looking around since you noticed her.

Gather clues, identify the missing statues and Tarin's disappearance, and find the trail. Key leads: Alexandra at the guards, Arinath-Pierre and Agnes for suspicious details, Crok Ruthesk at the magic shop. Let players drive — if they get derailed, have Pierre bump into them and destroy a tray of dragon eclairs, demanding payment.

Perception or Investigation DC 14 — stone fragments near building edges wherever statues were taken, as if something large and heavy grazed the corners while floating. The trail leads north but disappears after a few hundred feet.

Crok Ruthesk walks by into his shop. He can offer goggles that show footsteps or a Speak with Animals scroll — on loan, in exchange for a future favour.

All clues point toward the museum and Gorrath — but everything known about Gorrath's character points the opposite direction. Keep the players guessing. When one clue implicates him, remind them how trusted he is. When they start to suspect, give them something else to wonder about. Don't confirm until they force it.

The museum sits at the quieter edge of the Magister's Market — a wide stone building with carved relief panels running along its outer walls, each depicting a different island the Drifting Crown has passed through. Inside, the air is cool and still. Display cases line the walls, filled with relics and artifacts gathered from dozens of expeditions. At the far end, a corridor is sealed off behind a shimmering arcane wall — the words MEDUSA'S MIGHT — ENTRANCE PROHIBITED hang above it in glowing letters.

Near the entrance you see two figures who don't notice you at first — one kneeling beside the other, holding her hand. Seated on a chair is an ordinarily dressed, white-haired, pale-looking woman, visibly weak. Beside her, kneeling, is a tall man in dark robes with black skin and white dreads. They are deep in conversation. Do you let them finish — or interrupt?

Insight DC 13 — he is worried, but not about the statues.

Perception or Investigation DC 14 — several empty display mounts. Items are missing — either on Gorrath's person or in his study.

The shimmering arcane wall blocks a side corridor.

Inside: two large empty pedestals where the Kaldor & Vorbi HardSteel warrior statues once stood. Along the walls, six petrified humanoids in various poses. A placard reads: "Adventurers lost to the Medusa of Serpent's Nest. The island has since vanished. Kept here in the hope that one day it returns."

Insight DC 15 (automatic for highest roller) — he is guiding them somewhere, not helping them.

Gorrath tries to slow players down and escape by crashing through a study window. At DM's discretion, run a Chase Skill Challenge. Resource-draining but not deadly. After the fight each item he carries has 1d4/2 charges remaining.

If Gorrath escapes: he runs to Kaldorzen's side.

If cornered and captured:

If players can't get the location from Gorrath, Pete at the airship docks remembers taking him recently.

"Oh, Gorrath? Yeah — yesterday, early. Big load of cargo, wouldn't say what. Archaeological dig, he told me. Seemed in a hurry." He can point players to the exact landing spot on SoftEarth.

The island rises out of the clouds slowly — pale and warm, sandstone cliffs catching the morning light like something half-carved. As Pete brings the ship down, you see the rocky terrain up close: cream-coloured, with a faint warmth to it that stone shouldn't have. The air smells of it immediately — that earthy sweetness you noticed back in the square, but stronger. More concentrated.

The ship hovers over a shallow canyon, turquoise water threading between pale boulders below. Somewhere ahead, past a natural stone arch, the cliffs close in. Pete points: "He went that way." He drops the rope ladder. "Should I wait here — or come back?"

The canyon narrows. Lush, dense vines climb and cover the face of a cliff in front of you. The wind picks up — strong enough to whip your hair across your face — and for just a moment the curtain of leaves pulls back. Beneath it: stone. Cut stone. Columns, half-buried in the cliff, carved with symbols you don't recognise. The wind dies. The vines settle back.

The carvings are not decorative. A prayer. Addressed to something beneath the earth.

The tomb's outer entrance. Players discover a sacrificial puzzle guarded by Merandiel Frostborn. The lich is not hostile — he evaluates intentions and grants passage if they appear genuine. He points them toward magical items in the first chamber.

The path after the entrance is more cave than construction, but there is a definite route to follow. You go deep into the earth — far enough that you begin to doubt there is an end to this place. Completely dark. No dust. The air is still and silent. There is a disturbing feeling creeping up the back of your neck the deeper you go.

You reach a dead end in a large cavern and find yourself facing giant double doors, tens of feet high. Frescoes line the walls. At the centre, against the far wall, is a statue of an earth elemental: taking a knee, palms upward, holding something up. Before it sits a small brazier, burning with golden magical fire.

Old and cracked — but they tell a story of battle, ending with the imprisonment of the figure in the central statue. The creature takes many different forms across the panels, but every form has the same thing: red glowing eyes, depicted glowing on the frescoes even now.

"You surmise you are standing in the entrance to a prison, meant to keep something — or someone — in."

"If time comes when we can't stand guard — the dead shall guard he who has been locked."

"Only those may pass who prove their worth. Sacrifice that which they hold dear."

The doors are sealed — but the wall beside them is not. A fissure splits the rock, wide enough to squeeze through. The magic holds the lock; the stone did not. This was carved wider by something — wide enough for a large person to fit through. Fresh marks.

A ceremonial chamber housing six statues locked in an oath ritual. The central paladin holds a sword inscribed with the sealing instructions. Players must speak an oath to unlock a hidden chamber where magical items and the sealing scroll are stored. The scroll is critical — the only way to seal Kaldorzen after she's weakened.

With an almost deafening sound, the giant stone wall lowers into the floor. Dust stirs — you cover your faces. When it settles, a small chamber opens before you, perhaps the size of the entrance hall, with an open arch leading into a much larger and completely dark space beyond.

This room is illuminated. A golden, soft glow emanates from the eyes of six statues on small pedestals — all pointing their swords inward toward the centre. A paladin who looks carefully recognises this as a ritual — they are taking an oath. But the central paladin holds his sword horizontally, which is very unusual. There is something written on the blade.

"To those who fight for those who can't — tell me your oath and my sword shall yield."

Must be read aloud, uninterrupted, for 3 rounds within 60 ft of Kaldorzen — but only after she is brought to half health. The scroll activates at that moment. Both hands occupied, cannot move, cannot attack, cannot cast. If interrupted for any reason, the round counter resets — it does not pause.

This chamber is completely dark and extremely cold — other than the faintest source of light at the very far end. Anyone have a light source?

This gigantic hall stretches further than your torchlight can reach — tens of feet tall, filled with row upon row of pillar-like pedestals. Atop each one stands a figure. Their arms, their torso — they are not humanoid. They wear no armour. You soon realise what you are looking at: earth elementals. Primordial warriors. Hundreds of them — enough to threaten cities. Kingdoms.

But they are not moving. Each one is encased in ice — thick, pale blue, perfectly smooth. The cold radiates off them in waves. Whatever imprisoned Kaldorzen imprisoned her army alongside her, sealed in the same moment, frozen mid-stance. Some still have their fists raised. Some are mid-step. The ice has held for centuries.

It is still holding. For now.

Nothing attacks here. The ice is immune to all low-level magical damage — instantly evident that whatever created it is beyond conventional means. This chamber is atmospheric. Give the players a moment to feel the scale of what is at stake, then push them toward the light at the far end.

The chamber opens up around you — you feel dwarfed by its sheer size, lost in its darkness. The only light comes from a single break in the rock overhead, a beam falling straight to the far end. It illuminates a tiered altar with wide stone steps. At the top: a giant stone dragon, one wing complete, the other a skeleton of half-formed stone. Below the dragon, moving earth like water — Tarin, sculpting.

At the top of the steps, coiled low, a stone serpent. Two glowing orbs of red. A voice booms through the chamber: "You brought the scroll... it seems I'll have to deal with you myself." The red eyes flare. Kaldorzen begins channelling her essence into the stone dragon.

Torches all over the walls flare up one by one — revealing a rocky, devastated cavern, shaken by earthquake, filled with crevices and jagged rocks. Two large figures leap and land between you and Kaldorzen — a stone Owlbear and a stone Minotaur.

Whether he was travelling with the party or arrived separately — here, he reveals himself. He attacks from behind or the flank. If he fled from the museum, he is already at Kaldorzen's side.

Throughout the fight, Kaldorzen reads players' minds and taunts them with what she finds.

Once Kaldorzen hits half health, the dragon staggers — a visible crack appears across her chest and golden light bleeds through. The scroll in a player's hand activates and begins glowing. This is the moment.

One player reads the scroll for 3 rounds within 60 ft of Kaldorzen:

— Both hands occupied. Cannot move. Cannot attack. Cannot cast.
— Counter resets on any interruption — does not pause.
— Each successful round: the crack on the dragon widens, light gets brighter.
— The dragon's lair action now specifically targets the reader — stone pillars and walls try to cut them off from the party.

The fight shifts from "kill the dragon" to "protect the reader while finishing the dragon off."

The crack shatters open. A deep vibration through the floor, through everyone's bones. Golden light explodes outward — Kaldorzen's voice cuts off as her essence is pulled screaming back into the prison, like water rushing into a drain. The dragon goes still. Begins to crumble, piece by piece. The torches die one by one.

The crack tears open. Golden light explodes outward from the dragon's chest, flooding the chamber, and Kaldorzen's voice cuts off as her essence is pulled back into the prison at the far end of the chamber — like water rushing into a drain — until there is nothing left of her. The dragon crumbles, piece by piece. The torches die one by one, until only the pale column of light from the ceiling crack remains.

The sealing re-anchors the prison's magic. The ice in the second chamber holds. The army is not going anywhere — not today.

She's free — but not yet done. To truly escape she needs Merandiel defeated, and her current army isn't enough. She puts Tarin back to work, pulling stone from the island and the ruins. Once the army is ready, Gorrath sends it against Merandiel's forces. If she wins that fight, nothing stops her.

Darker ending: The pact is void. Melandra's illness continues. Gorrath got nothing. His betrayal cost everyone and bought him nothing.

Leave it open: The players now know about Melandra. They could seek another way — a lead on the medusa, a healer, something. Gorrath has a reason to cooperate rather than simply collapse. Recommended if you want the door open for a follow-up.