Ognit Eznertob, Dabner
Drednever and Dagda Icefury
had spent the last several
days spelunking in the Hole
and the ruins of the old city
of Paineel. The ruins were
an eerie, dusty and dark
place. Strange and terrifying
sounds echoed throughout
the once splendorous city,
like wails of torment from
souls suffering in eternal
| agony. Though Ognit seemed
unfazed by the atmosphere,
Dabner and Dagda were very
skittish about their journey
down into the Hole.
Dabner swore that the sounds
were none other than the
ghosts of Erudites slain
during the great war that
destroyed the old city years
ago. Ognit hypothesized that
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the strange noises were
caused by undercurrents of
wind wafting from the surface
above and were nothing to be
concerned about. Dagda knew
not the cause of the sounds
but she was sure that the
three of them should not be
in that place.
After spending some time
exploring the ruins and
| wandering deeper into the
cavern, the three came across
the very thing for which
Ognit had been searching.
Before them stood The Hatch
and the wall of Living Stone.
The Living Stone is an
artifact of great power
created by Brell Serilis the
purpose of which was to stop
the creatures from the Plane
of the Underfoot from
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entering into the world. The
residents of the old city
once conducted experiments
on the Living Stone,
attempting to find a way to
harness its power. The
experiments damaged the wall
of Living Stone and creatures
began to breach the wall and
threatened the city. The
Erudites constructed The
Hatch, a sort of life support
| system that kept the Living
Stone strong after the
earthen Lord Yael escaped
and threatened their
destruction with his army
of elementals.
Ognit sought to study both
The Hatch and the wall of
Living Stone. He felt that
the Erudites were simply not
qualified for that sort of
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study and indeed it would
take the delicate and careful
touch of a gnome to properly
study the artifact and
perhaps find a way to harness
its power. History has a way
of repeating itself.
Ognit considered the first of
his experiments successful.
He found that the wall of
Living Stone was able to
| release enormous amounts
of power, as evidenced by
the tremendous earthquakes
he was able to cause simply
by infusing the Hatch with
just a small amount of
magical energy. Indeed, it
seemed the two worked
together like a transformer,
turning small amounts of
energy into tremendous
surges of power. Though he
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had no idea how one could
harness the released energy,
he was impressed with the
results nonetheless.
Dagda was terrified and
believed that the gnome was
tinkering with powers beyond
his comprehension. She
threatened to leave them both
down there, particularly when
the experiments began to
| cause earthquakes of greater
and greater magnitude.
Against her better judgement,
she stayed.
Ognit saw the greater
earthquakes as a sign that
his experiments were going
well. He was getting even
better power output for the
same amount of energy.
Dabner eventually began
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to become frightened too
and started to side with
Dagda, urging the wizard
to abandon the experiment.
Ognit was incensed and
no amount of convincing
would deter him from
his experimentation.
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