A cart crashes into a signpost reading: Gully Hill, guards find a body (young Mikhael Embergrave) and 3 people are taken. Jacob finds himself in a prison cell, his gun holster is empty. On the left is Ravenar and on his right is Thaldin. Jacob is picked up from his cell for questioning, inside the room are 2 people (an older man who is called captain Delk, and a lady of mid 20s who is called the sister). The sister, named Halvine is an aasimar (human-like race, touched by a celestial being). She is the inquisitor of the Godqueen herself. Next up is Ravanar, the name Embergrave rings a bell to him. He is part of the noble house that oversees Gully Hill and the coal mines. His father is Hieran Embergrave. Thaldin is last and get’s into a staring and toughness battle with the sister. In the end she wins and puts on a magical bracelet, which she then also gives to Ravnar and Jacob. This binds them to the Embergrave family, only to be broken when they find the true killer. Thaldin wants to walk towards the capital but Jacob persuades him to stay for 1 day to help with the investigation. They head for the Inn and Jacob and Ravanar start conducting a neigbourhood survey. Ravanar learns that the coachdriver who is probably the murderer was last seen at the church. Someone tells him that House Embergraves loaned money from the Tiressian Railway Company (TRC) to modernize the mines. The inkeeper tells them that the mine has been closed for a few days because of monsters. The heroes make way for the church to speak to the priestess Veyra. At that moment they see 3 thieves running with 6 bags of gold. They stop the thieves and show restraint, because the thieves are local boys this leads to approval of the townfolk. They each get 50GP from Berrick Flint as a reward. The heroes head to the church, there are not many people around the church, only a red tiefling. Veyra recollects seeing the coach driver wearing a strange cloak, a visits more often and usually heads north afterwards (towards the mines and the Embergrave Manor). She talks about the sister, and that she has been sent by the Godqueen herself to check on the debt of the Embergraves. Veyra tells them to look into Ferdinant Embergrave, he might be consolidating his position when his father will be punished. They head to the manor, are led in by a guard and meet with Ferdinand, the lordling tiefling with piercing golden eyes. Thing heat up and the lordling is blaming them for killing his brother. Then suddenly: “FIRE!!!!”, a guard comes running in telling them that the church is in flames. The whole manor charges to the church to extinguish the flames, the heroes use the time to break into the personal quarters of Ferdinand. They find a love letter from his brother Mikhael, the heroes are now convinced that Ferdinand did not kill his brother. In the church fire Veyra is killed and Ferdinand apologizes to the heroes, he believes them now and claims that his family is targeted by the TRC because of the debt of his father. Jacob examines the body of Mikhael and finds out that is has been feasted on by some monstrous creature. Seeing that their only remaining lead now is the fact that the coach driver went north, towards the mines. First they head to the church finding nothing of interest en then head to the inn to find themselves a guide in the mines and get a good night’s sleep. The taverner points them in the direction of Raskin Drude, an ex-miner and “old crank” Jabin. They tell them that the monsters are on the upper levels and that the heroes should visit the shimmerstone. Jabin tells them that the supports of the tunnels in the upper section of the mines are weak.
The heroes make for a good night’s rest and head towards the mines. They meet Kreg Orlov, the foreman of the mine, he allows them to enter the mine. He is able to place the coach driver in his mines and tells them to look for him upstairs. However that is also where the monsters are seen, mainly spiders and possibly goblins. They enter a room which is filled with 6 creatures ( 3 oil hair creatures and 3 sharp toothed guys). Ravenar uses extreme stealth to lockpick the door on the left so the heroes can hide in there. Thaldin uses an insane acrobatics move by chugging a potion mid air and afterwards kicking one of the gremlins to death. Ravenar uses his whip to pull the trachea of one of the creature out of his body. Jacob get’s targeted due to his metal gun by one of the other creatures. His gun get’s hotter and hotter causing burn damage. Ravenar get’s an cookie of his own dough by taking a shocking grasp from his opponent. Jacob evaporates one of the creatures by shooting a bullet through his brain while jumping in air. A spell is targeted on Ravenar’s whip hanging him upside down on the ceiling by his own whip. Thaldin wants to protect his new made friend and decides to attack the whip, luckily for Ravenar is does not get destroyed by the brute force of the dwarf.
The heroes make way for the study of Kreg Orlov, they find a drawer that emits magic. Ravenar decides to try to disable the device and retrieves a magical quill and 2 platinum slabs worth 1000 GP. In the meantime Thaldin stood guard and listening to the humming sound of the glowing stones he get’s in a trance and hears people dying and a ceiling collapsing. It comes from downstairs. When they head down the stairs they are quickly confronted by the shimmer-stone, a huge slab of magical, reflective stone that forms the right wall of the stairs. Jacob senses that the shimmer-stone has been tempted with but in origin it is a natural formation. The heroes get into a tight tunnel where they have to crawl through, blood drips from the sides of the tunnel downwards. After quite some time they are not crawling through stone anymore but a tunnel of flesh. When they get out they find out that they have been crawling through the intestinal tract of a huge creature which was probably killed by a much bigger creature. The heroes need to get themselves together, Thaldin uses breathwork, Jacob can’t stop puking and Ravenar cleans himself. When Jacob coughs the magic quill get’s activated and engraves everything the cougher says. They head into a new room, the shimmer-stone still at the right side, the room has multiple coal karts. The room is full with cobwebs, they try to move in stealthily but Jacob trips and causes all 3 of them to stumble in. Thaldin refuses to hold in anymore and screams: AGAIN?! 2 giant black widows show up, as his first action Jacob lights a torch and throws it on the cobweb causing a raging fire. Then Jacob starts shooting cover fire while Ravenar slashes down 2 out of 8 legs. As the fire spreads Thaldin makes a giant leap to jump on the the belly of the spider hanging on the ceiling causing it to shit out a small piece of web and crashing down on the floor. Seeing this Jacob lights the small web which creates a giant spider bomb causing a huge explosion killing the spiders and nearly Thaldin too. The elevator at the end of the room is broken so Jacob decides to touch the shimmer-stone. He feels a hand blocking him. A gentle reflection of themselves blocks them until they invite him into their room when he says: “no, no, I insist” and let’s the heroes pass through the shimmer-stone. They enter a room where a familiar coat is hanging, and also there is a note:
“I’ll show that old man. I’ll show him what could’ve been. Who was going to take over after him, Ferdinant? Please, that strung up bastard wants nothing but power, but wouldn’t know what to do with it once he got it. That feeble idiot Mikhael? Please, he’d be wrung out within a week. Hieran himself is growing old, he knows he’s not for long, especially if the TRC comes cashing in their debts. The fool knows the walls are closing in, and his coffers are running dry. I don’t even care about my inheritance anymore, who gives a crap about legacy. The God-Queen teaches us that we each have our humble place in life. To protect the great plan. Well how can the queen execute her great plan if the has such weak noblemen.”