An Accident in the Arthar’rt Observatory

Starting with an ominous crash and the frustrated cries of Atrian Lerit’r, trouble was brewing at the Arthar’rt Observatory. The scientist had been frantically trying to assemble his teleportation device before his brother, Eduyik Lerit’r, and his brother’s wife, Metharme Lerit’r, came to visit him and see his work. Eduyik and his wife had taken a detour through Hallifax to see the city since its refounding, where they met a few Hallifaxians, most notably Force Commander Morshoth. The Commander escorted the couple to see Atrian in the Observatory, taking along a curious group of Hallifaxians including Daera Letara, Tulemrah Shevat, Kanara, and Xaldrin Somnius. Unable to finish in time, Atrian begged the Hallifaxians assembled to help him put his teleporter together, while a snide Eduyik looked on.

After Morshoth and, interestingly enough, the Magnagoran Sahmiam m’Viraz worked together to put the teleporter in place, Metharme Lerit’r tested it only to form a gateway out of which ice skulls, precursors to the dread ice devils, escaped into the Basin. One ice skull was apparently momentarily possessed by an unknown malevolent force which sent some of the floating ice skulls to split off to seek some unknown goal. Others were directed to attack the bystanders in the laboratory.

However, despite the efforts of those present to destroy the ice skulls, Metharme died and a furious Eduyik blamed his brother for her passing. Atrian, for lack of better options, tried to think back to something that would alleviate his brother’s grieving – and remembered Eduyik’s fondness of statues. Dionellah Windwhisper, an unorthodox sculptor residing in Avechna’s Teeth with a penchant for moose antlers, had long been patroned by Eduyik and Metharme in the past for her sculptures. At Atrian’s urging, Eduyik not only agreed to ask Dionellah for a commission, but seemed rather enamoured with the idea for undetermined reasons. Daedalion, Orventa, Dramon, Maellio, and Tulemrah all set off following Morshoth as they delivered the request to Dionellah and worked on getting her the materials needed for the statue.

The events following the statue’s creation are haunting and disturbing, and shared by the small band of Hallifaxians that unknowingly began the first step of Eduyik’s experiment. Whether it will ultimately prove successful, however, remains to be seen…

More disturbing, however, was the fact that an unknown number of floating ice skulls had escaped into the Basin of Life, intent upon their clandestine plans.