The Heartbeat of Almenarch

The party continues exploring the Almenarch dungeon, encountering a thunder drake—the third drake in the dungeon. Rather than killing it, Greg decides to knock the drake unconscious, intending to learn more about the dungeon’s mysteries.

The party discovers the Throne Room, where Manasa delves into the Tome of Almenarch. The tome contains hundreds of epic poems chronicling the guardians of Almenarch and their ties to the Feywild. Later, Kilijan uses alchemist fire to illuminate the entire dungeon. The party collects scattered notes and begins solving a riddle to open the painted door in the dungeon’s southernmost room. During this process, the blue drake reappears, slamming its head against the tome. Before taking its own life, the drake urges the party to "seek the entrance and free the guardians of Almenarch."

The party attempts to solve the puzzle twice but fails both times, sustaining damage with each mistake. They notice Tamil growing weaker after each attempt, hearing cryptic voices pointing out errors in their solutions. Melcior, who is watching over Tamil, warns that another failure could irreparably harm him psychologically. Determined, the party revisits the riddles. They conclude that the names of the dragon guardians must be spoken in specific rooms, while curse words must be uttered in the Southern Room where the drakes’ ectoplasm lingers. As the riddle is solved, the persistent heartbeat that haunted them for two hours fades away. Suddenly, a fusion drake materializes before them. Scattered across various rooms, the party sees the entire layout of Almenarch vividly appear in their minds. The fusion drake declares that they must "earn their entrance into Almenarch" before launching an attack.