Three Days Later
A runner arrives at the inn after three days, notifying the party that Ahrens had some information for them.
Upon rejoining the sage, he related his findings:
"I began with my entomological search for your Devourer reference. I soon exhausted this line of inquiry, however finding nothing associated with the words other the simple meaning with which I began. I was forced to turn to more esoteric searches. After an afternoon of unrelieved study, I finally found a text that made mention of something called the Sign of the Devourer.
"I pursued this lead into strange regions of my library. Finally, in a crumbling scroll penned in ages past I found an ambiguous phrase. The scroll was a treatise on the plane of Negative Energy, claiming that everything--life, light, and knowledge--is ultimately drawn to the Final Void of the Negative Energy Plane. The phrase that caught my eye was 'And when the Devourer is truly one with the Final Void, all knowledge will be his, and he shall be like unto a god.' This reference was unexplained, but it inspired my searches in other, specialized texts.
"In the end, I discovered only these two things. First, the rendering of what is supposedly the Sign of the Devourer:
"There was no accompanying text."
"The other item I discovered was a name. There are not many details here, but it seems that well over two decades ago, there was a powerful mage named Desatysso who was apparently interested in the Sign of the Devourer, as you are. Desatysso was known among those of power as a powerful but secretive wizard who rarely troubled himself with concerns of the outside world. There is no record here as to what, if anything, Desatysso discovered concerning the sign, or at least no further record has ever been made regarding the mage.
"I took the initiative in finding the locale of his last domicile, and found this", Ahrens says, producing a scrap of parchment. "'Start directly south out of Blackston, across the River, and thence to the foothills of the Greytooth mountain range. From this vantage, the heights of Panther Peak and Mt. Kroonburzh are both visible. A day's trek further south into the Greyteeth will finally cause Panther Peak to perfectly eclipse the view of Mt. Kroonburzh to the west. When this occurs, put the two peaks at your back and head directly up the steep scree slope of tumbled rocks and boulders. At the top of this slope is a mountain valley, and the eastern end of this valley is the purported site of Desatysso's private dwelling.'"
