Skip to content

Into the Chasm - Episode 4

A Bargain with Malquin: in which a child speaks, Malquin demands proof, and Eidrikas holds back the chasm

Featuring: Jrain Fanlish, Finnan Oakstride, Justas Rhostrin, Ekko, Eolo
In Taelgar: Jan 26, 1730 DR - Jan 29, 1730 DR
On Earth: Thursday, January 8th, 2026
Melusa and the Great Chasm

Kalima vanishes into hiding as the Ice Palace’s influence tightens around Melusa; the party bargains with Malquin in the Ice Palace and steps through the “safe” gash into the true Great Chasm, where Eidrikas holds back a failing planar mechanism.

Timeline

  • Jan 26, 1730 DR, morning: The party meets with Iskander and speaks with Malquin, then escapes the mysterious realm of Melusa.
  • Jan 29, 1730 DR, midday: The party appears in the true Great Chasm, four days having passed for the one they spent in Melusa.

Cast of Characters

  • Jrain Fanlish – scout and archer, watching the village and reading danger in the blizzard.
  • Finnan Oakstride – bard and storyteller, probing minds and drawing hard truths from his ring’s magic.
  • Justas Rhostrin – veteran devoted to the Kestavo, pressing bargains with divine stubbornness.
  • Ekko – kenku druid of Kemeko Monastery, scouting the chasm and leaning on magic when the sky tears open.
  • Eolo – young kenku warrior, badly hurt testing one of the gashes but still pushing forward.
  • Kalima – Melusan woman, taken into hiding in the night by Zahara.
  • Nura – Kalima’s sister in Melusa, explaining the village’s curse and fears.
  • Khaled – Nura’s husband, frightened for his child and wary of questions.
  • Samir – Nura and Khaled’s baby, who speaks with a voice and memories not its own.
  • Taquin – the name given by the soul speaking through Samir.
  • Iskander – one of Zahara’s circle, explaining the gashes, Malquin’s guards, and the ice wolf.
  • Zahara – leader of Melusa’s troublemakers, hiding Kalima and maintaining a secret refuge.
  • Malquin the Vaqar – ruler of the Ice Palace, terrified of “ending” and bargaining for proof of reality.
  • Ice wolf guardian – a forty-foot ice wolf placed before the “safe” gash, watching but allowing passage.
  • Eidrikas – Ekko’s mentor, holding a broken planar mechanism together in the Great Chasm.

Places

  • Melusa – fog-bound cliff village with a curse of “wrong souls,” watched by the Ice Palace and its guardians.
  • Ice Palace – Malquin’s floating court, reached by a narrow ice bridge that answers to signs and speech.
  • Great Chasm – the party’s true home chasm, reached through the “safe” gash after time has slipped.

Narrative Summary

Our session begins the night after the Ice Palace’s soldiers search Melusa, during which Kalima vanishes from Nura and Khaled’s house—spirited away by Zahara. In the morning, Samir speaks with a voice and memories that are not its own, warning that “Kalima will be safe” and recalling a fall into the labyrinth. Nura explains that children are sometimes born with “the wrong soul,” a sign of the village’s curse and a fate they do not expect to survive. With Kalima hidden and the palace quiet, the party turns from the elders toward the village’s troublemakers and the Ice Palace itself.

The party finds Iskander, one of Zahara’s circle, and learns how the village understands its prison: the five gashes in the cliff appeared months ago; Malquin’s guards and the forty-foot ice wolf have prevented anyone from using the one that looks like it leads “home.” Iskander points to Zahara’s hideaway in the Watchwood Islands, but the group decides to confront Malquin directly, sending Iskander to warn Zahara that they are about to “stir the pot.”

After a risky bit of experimentation with the metal gash (and a newly-bloody Eolo), the party crosses the narrow ice bridge into the Ice Palace and meets Malquin the Vaqar. Malquin’s shifting voices and fractured thoughts reveal a ruler terrified of “ending,” convinced by whispers that the outside world is unreal—and yet haunted by memories of moonlight and stars. He offers a bargain: take his necklace through the “safe” gash, show it to the night on the other side, and return with proof that the outside is real. With that proof, he promises to tell his guardian to let people pass and to aid the party in closing the planar cracks.

The party immediately attempts the bargain. They pass the ice wolf and step through the “safe” gash—only to emerge into the true Great Chasm, amid floating stone platforms etched with luminous patterns and new tears opening briefly in the sky. A Clairvoyant look reveals Eidrikas below, literally holding a broken planar mechanism together as its unstable energy surges through his body. Eidrikas explains that orcs stole a key stone from the mechanism after a battle, killing a kenku warrior in the process, and fled downward into a “sky dungeon” of descending platforms. With the chasm’s instability worsening and days—at most—before the mechanism fails, the party prepares to chase the orcs.

Detailed Bullet Points

The Morning After

  • Jrain spots Kalima being led away in the whiteout by another figure as soldiers search nearby houses; the party chooses not to pursue into the blizzard.
  • In the morning, Finnan questions the baby telepathically; it speaks out loud about Zahara taking Kalima and remembers a fall into the labyrinth from someone else’s life (name given as Taquin).
  • Nura and Khaled describe children born with “the wrong soul” as a known affliction; they cite the elders Sama and Aram and speak of past examples ending badly.
  • Finnan uses his ring’s regained charges to learn “true facts” about where they slept: the realm is time-separated from Taelgar, bounded by mists, and its sky is controlled by Lord Foraquin (the Frostbinder), whom villagers call Malquin.
  • The party agrees the Ice Palace and its Sylvan signs feel fey rather than Kestavan and decides to seek out Zahara’s troublemakers.

The Troublemakers

  • The village appears calm in the morning; the ice bridge from the palace is gone, but chalk sigils like a stylized Ice Palace are marked on doors.
  • The party meets Iskander, who laughs at their plan but answers questions about the gashes, Malquin’s guards, and the ice wolf “guardian” placed before the safest-looking exit.
  • Iskander says the gashes appeared about six months ago; he connects them to rumors of worsening omens and planar phenomena back in Taelgar.
  • He describes three escape attempts through the “safe” gash: one foiled by guards, one halted by Malquin’s speech about souls being destroyed, and the ice wolf appearing afterward to deter further tries.
  • Iskander points the party toward Zahara’s hideaway in the Watchwood Islands and admits a small inner circle (about seven) hopes to escape if an opening appears.

Exploration and Planning

  • Finnan asks Iskander to warn Zahara’s group indirectly and to have as many people as possible ready to move if the party creates an opportunity to flee.
  • Eolo tests the metal gash by reaching in and taking heavy damage to retrieve a razor-sharp, shimmering shard; the ice wolf reacts by opening its eyes but does not attack.
  • With a small crowd watching, Finnan uses Minor Illusion to amplify Jrain’s Sylvan announcement as “interplanar travelers,” prompting the ice bridge to extend toward the Ice Palace.

The Ice Palace

  • Inside, Malquin the Vaqar flickers between tones and locations, switching from hostile interrogation to regal courtly speech and back again.
  • The party uses Insight and Detect Thoughts to conclude Malquin is not obviously possessed, but is panicked about ceasing to exist and prone to violent shifts when challenged.
  • Malquin demands proof of an outside world “he could not have invented” and references a “knight” beyond the gash; he recalls moonlight and stars that do not exist in his realm.
  • Malquin gives the party a necklace and demands they show it to the knight beyond the gash and return it; he threatens a cold curse if they do not.
  • Finnan renegotiates: if they return with proof that the outside is real, Malquin agrees to aid the party and to accept that people who wish to leave should not be impeded.

Through the Gash

  • The party returns across the ice bridge, ties a rope to the ice wolf as a safety line, and jumps through the “safe” gash into the Great Chasm.
  • They emerge on a sheer cliff face beside a small floating platform carved with geometric channels; below, a larger “sparking” platform cycles unstable, multicolored light.
  • Brief gashes open and close in the sky, spilling lightning or falling sheets of black metal into the chasm.
  • Finnan’s Clairvoyance reveals Eidrikas on the sparking platform, using his body to bridge broken circuits of planar energy to keep the mechanism from failing.
  • Eidrikas says orcs stole a key stone after a battle involving stoneborn and orcs, killing a kenku warrior; they fled downward into a network of platforms (“sky dungeon”) where the party plans to pursue them next.