Broken Obelisk Session 5 Report

General Summary

Session 5: 19-01-2025

The party takes a breath after the fight against the Far Realms aberration tired and some of the members beat up and bruised. They explore the chamber and Bruise finds a Greataxe made from a dark metal with the words 'Zorzula's Last Insult' engraved on the blade. The only things on the body of the monster are a ring and a pair of silvery bracers. In one of the side chambers they find a desk filled with notes, maps and scrolls. Trix identifies 3 scrolls as spell scrolls while Bruise reads through the documents. They also find a chest of gold containing the equivalent of 1500gp.

Glancing up Bruise notices that Fa-Medve stares at the map he is reading and once asked he explains that it's the land where he's from. He is the Duc of the land and his cousin has stolen the throne from him and he wants to return with 25,000 men to get it back. Oh the map the city of Ziracos is circled and the word 'Blackstaff???' is written above it.

• The Dragon's Hoard refers to the ruined city of Thundertree and the green dragon they encountered there. One of the key shards of the Obelisk can be found there.
• The Crypt of the Netherese Mage is in the fallen Netheril flying city of Xynthalus which crashed somewhere in the wilds of Katashaka. It is where the creator of this Obelisk lived, a High Wizard by the name of Thalaxyr Vos, and he is in possession of a key shard.
• Qunbraxel, the Emissary of Glyth is a Mind Flayer in service of Ilvaash. He has a Nautiloid, a tentacled mind flayer spelljammer, and he is the first of "the Great Gods" the Goblins have seen in centuries. They have sworn absolute devotion to him and his crew.
• They mention the town of Phandalin and its the first place they've been to after hiding down in the mines for a long time.
• There's a list of 16 villagers they have taken. 4 of the names have been crossed out.
• The Goblins have searched the lands around the mine and recovered the pieces of the black Obelisk and given them to the Mind Flayers. They have reassembled the Black Obelisk but don't mention where.

They notice a strange figure in long white flowing robes in the other side chamber. When confronted he explains that he is neutralising mind flayer tadpoles left in the catatonic villagers. Upon suggestion from Fa-Medve he throws the last woman into the lava instead of killing her with his fists. He urges the party to leave quickly and not linger in this place.

Quickly travelling through the mines they party arrives at the ship and get let onboard. They meet Wenumo, the second Spelljammer of the vessel and the resident Cleric. He checks Bruise and Rhulian, while both seem to be suffering from an affliction he goes to Bruise and cures him.

Meanwhile the items recovered are identified by Trix:

• Zorzula's Greataxe - a Greataxe +1 that can cast Darkness once per day.
• Bracers of Archery - add +2 to damage rolls with bows.
• Ring of Protection - +1 to Armor Class
• 3 spell scrolls: Phantasmal Killer, Teleportation Circle and Gaseous Form
• 2 potions of Greater Healing
• 1 potion of Haste

They deposit the full plate armor with the quartermaster to be cleaned, repaired and adjusted for Torold.

Captain Horatio invites the party to a great feast in their honor and loads of food, ale and wine is brought from below decks and everyone relaxes for the feast. During which a discussion starts about the weapon of Ronaunur and to see if the cleric can remove this curse from him. Ron panics as the weapon sends waves of fear through him while Bruise physically drags him off to the cleric. The curse is soon removed and the weapon slips free from its sheath and turns into its true form.. A black leather hilt with a blade made from a yellowed jagged bone and Trix suddenly realises that it altered his memory when he cast Identify. It is the Sword of Fraz-Urb'luu, the demon Prince of Lies and Betrayal which drives its wielder mad with delusions of grandeur over a period of 10 days.

The party also insists that Fa-Medve have himself checked out by the Cleric especially by a suspicious Trix. He finally relents and meets with the Cleric in private while Geralt and Ron are eavesdropping on the conversation. They hear the cleric sound surprised at something and calls him someone of ancient lingeage. He also recommends that he has a minor restoration spell cast on him to remove the Far Realms corruption. Afterwards the whole party gets the same treatment and all Far Realms corruption is removed.

They use the clerics door to open the Pocket Plane and find Duergar with blue glowing eyes inside. He tells everyone that he was captured by the Mind Flayers a long time ago and trapped in the soul jar. His name is Hjoldak Hollowhelm and he wants to go back to the mine. He tries to jump off the side but gets bounced back by the gravity bubble and has to wait for the ship to stop. They watch him climb down and walk off towards the mine and go back to partying noticing that Ymari and Rhulian are sitting on the prow of the ship.

In the morning they find that Rhulian has gone catatonic and no longer responds. They immediately cut his head off and burn it after throwing it overboard as he instructed. Ymari explains that she has now reluctantly taken over the mission and there's a grave threat to the world. The Obelisk has a twin in the Far Realms and its slowly spreading its corruption eventually transforming the entire world and inhabitants into Far Realms aberrations.

On deciding what to do they have a conversation with the Captain and Ymari and the captain is willing to extend the same terms of contract for his ship to them. He asks for 12 casks of the finest Bralian powder from Giff town, 20 wheels of Waterhavian cheese, 10 roasted pigs, 5 barrels of ship biscuits and 5 barrels of the finest ale. They decide to take Rhulian's body back to The Rock of Bral, regroup and look for aid. The captain promises to reserve his services for them and gives them a magical card which they can contact him by.

The ship turns vertical and shoots up into the sky. Soon they see the world as a large ball slowly getting smaller and smaller while they travel around Selûne, the moon, into the Tears of Selûne where they see an asteroid emitting light. When they get closer they see a city has been built on top of it and wooden docks filled with strange flying ships attached. They dock and leave the ship to venture into this strange town.