On The Topic of Apa’s Northern Coast and The Discovery of the Fugues

One finds few reasons to visit the northern tip of Apa, but on this day in the year 1726 AV, I, Tyrell Trombly Esq., found myself exactly there.  The academy had gotten word of a new artifact being found up there and naturally they sent their best explorer. It took me and my party about six hours to move from Alhax to the Shingling coast.  About four hours into the journey the sky began to darken and rain began pouring from the sky, with thunder and lightning creating a symphony of noise. It was unlike anything I had ever experienced before.The four of us found shelter in a burned out structure just on the coast itself.  Our archeologist dated it back to about 1300 AV. I find it hard to differentiate between night and day here. The skies have been ashen as long as we’ve been at this ruin.

By the time we began setting up camp, whispers began creeping from the plains around this old castle.  One of my compatriots even believed to see several shapes, like ghosts moving around. Preposterous I told him.  The academy clearly dismissed the idea of ghosts almost a century ago.

By day two of our stay here we had gotten no sense of where this artifact might have been hidden.  We had found no caves in the sides of the cliffs, no temples, and really no general idea of where it might be.  That is until one of my men saw another one of those ‘ghosts’ and chased it through the castle before tripping into a previously hidden hole.  The man unfortunately lost his life but gave us a new location on where to look.

The tunnels under this castle have led to some remarkable locations.  The ruin it seemed used to be the home of a powerful magician named Nactorian the Mighty and while his work was shunned by most on the surface, he found solace here in the tunnels where he had placed his laboratory.  From his journals we were able to deduce that this Nactorian had been testing magic to cross the mortal planes of existence, something thought not possible by the masters of the academy. He discussed the opening of a portal, much like how we use teleportation circles, to cross over into this other plane and collect the golden mace of speed, an artifact made my his ancestor Alexandros the Loyal.  

At this point in time we had been here for a week and still found no sign of this mace, the presumed artifact we had been tasked with finding.  I am under the assumption that it still resides on this other plane that Nactorian was looking for and may have crossed over into. Those ghosts we saw earlier have now come clearer into picture, both through words and through our own eyes.  They’re not ghosts as one would think, but actually they are what happens when someone crosses from one plane to another without carrying proper protection. Now I understand why he placed his base of operations here. He understood there was a weakness here, of some kind I fail to understand, and that here it was indeed possible to go to another plane.  
I will be returning to the Academy today with my findings.  My party is pressuring me to name them before some dusty person in the academy can do it.  I’ve decided to name them “Fugues” after the echoing nature of their voices. I shall return here one day of this I am sure.