The IRS Session 18: Thrills, Chills, Kills? Report

General Summary

With the promise of a traditional temple for young warrior couples ahead of them, the party led by the Planeswalker Loú rolled their Enhjuls Southeasterly in the direction of the city of Ustgelt.
As they continue traveling down this path, the party encounter a quite unusual cart headed by 4 horses each clad in matching blue and purple clothen armor.
Though initially Dain tries to move out of the way of the cart, it slows down as it gets closer to them, and as it rolls to a stop, a blue and purple cloaked man wearing a bird mask steps out of the cart and invites the party inside.
Dain is surprisngly the first to take the man's invite, heading into the aromatic vessel to find a lone shopkeep sitting amongst a pile of his wares surrounded in a cloud of insence.
The man introduces himself as a travelling shopkeep hailing from Chertaminè, as he seems a bit broken up about something which he doesn't want to admit.
Offering the vendor some of his beer, the man and Dain get quite chummy. Dain manages to trade his beaten-up freshly-brewed barrel of cactus mead for some stronger Chertaminè liquor and even gets a pouch of smokescreen as a bonus.
The vendor offers Dain to play a card game with him, which Dain gladly accepts. Dain wins some cartridges and some smokepowder bombs for only just a few silver before his game ends.
Intrigued at the man's game, Cal joins the sitting man in another round of his matching card game for possible potion rewards.
Cal manages to get trauma-dumped on first, as the man recounts how his brother horrifically died in Vomethnda at the hands of some dastardly adventurers, one calling himself "The Bloody". The Chertaminè man emotionally reveals that he is on his way North to Promaticous to hold his brother's funeral, and then up to Vomethnda to potentially meet his brother's killers and learn why they killed his poor brother.
Cal assures the man that his brother's "journey is not over, and in-fact, it has only begun", and that his brother is watching over him as they speak. Though this changes the man's perspective, he still wishes to head North and confront the men.
After a game of cards, Cal wins a medicinal potion, a wizened tincture, and a placebo (not pussyboy) potion. Cal then making a trade to obtain the simple medicinal potion's recipe.
After another trade with Khural and a quick exchange with Riz 'O, the merchant continues on his path towards answers for his many questions.
After another half-day's travel, the party eventually make it to the promised "love cave" as Nessa put it, seemingly a large Chinese-styled pagoda tower.
Loú takes this as a great time to mention that the "strongest pair" should head forward first, leading to a party vote which causes both Cal and Nessa to head in together.
As the lovebirds enter the ominous ruined corridor ahead, they can't help but feel as though they are being watched, Cal quickly noticing that the gargoyles overhead of them have their eyes following Nessa.
The floor seems to buckle as Cal grabs on to the now-floating Nessa (seemingly through a levitation effect from the room) as a large black void opens beneath them. Cal loses his grip as he plummets into the depths below.
The rest of the crew head through the front door to find Nessa and Cal already separated, with Nessa breaking down how the room seemed to operate. As Riz 'O, the furthest back in the group, walks over a threshold, the men (minus Khural) fall downwards as the women are floated in-place to move towards the door in front of them.
The men all join Cal 100-ft downwards after a nice feathfalling cloud brakes their descent, as they now sit in a giant chamber full of large stone murals of seemingly different gods performing different actions.
The North mural depicting sea creatures floating through the air with an imposition of Küvüagaar, the East showing Dölkhair and a village of happy and prosporous people with plants growing out of them, the South showcasing a lush but grainy forest and field being tended to by Froúda, and the West displaying a deep sea populated by birds which Kyclonas's vague outline can be seen over.
The room containing differently-colored tiles spread throughout the room also boasts a large circumscribed sigil platform in its center which seemed to not have much function to it yet.
The women (and Khural) went forward into their room which not only featured retired torture devices, but additionally four cannons, one on each of its corners, which each seemed to fire a different element projectile upon a motion activation.
Nessa really focused on reacching Cal to make sure he was safe, finding out that she was able to talk to Cal through telepathy.  In-fact, everyone in the temple were able to speak telepathically.
As the women pushed buttons and pulled levers throughout the room, seemingly gaining no sort of progress, the men were confronted with the temple's guardian golems.
The men fought off these elemental golems as the women tried their best to solve a seemingly solution-less puzzle, as the golems flipped some of the compressible tiles beneath them.
Dain saw right through the puzzle, and upon defeating the golems, began flipping all of the tiles to the right sides.
After flipping everything to match, the levers in the women's room began to light up the murals, seemingly creating powerful effects on the center platform.
The women combined wind and fire to create a strong updraft to allow them to float to a platform 60ft in the air, into what seemed to be a newer alchemist's lab.
The men opened two chests which gave them tons of Silver, a few scrolls, and even some quality materials.
After pressing buttons to raise some mirrors in the women's room, the men and women coordinated to use those mirrors to destroy the cannons and allow the women to press onwards.
The men laid stuck in the chamber below as the women approached a threatening dark mirror.  After a little more waiting, the men communicated with Gen and were able to burst through the large sheet of ice at the top of chamber through sheer skill (not luck).
The men approached the mirror being able to hear the women on the other side for real this time.  The mirror then suddenly awakened and told those in front of it that "in order to pass through the dungeon's next trial, they must reveal a dark secret which will weaken the barriers between them and strengthen their bond".
As the group debated who should reveal their secrets, Dain admitted his trips to whorehouses, and Cal eventually figured that it would be either his tie with Nessa or his tie with Gen which he would need to break down.
Nessa came forward to ease Cal and appease the monolith, regretting how unconfident she is and how often she fucks up in front of everybody, something which she would otherwise never admit.
The mirror appreciated this reveal, asking Cal to reveal a secret of his own.  Eventually, Cal digressed that he never has had attachments, and doesn't know how to feel now because he feels that, deep-down, he's a monster.
Cal then, feeling relieved, thought the turmoil was all over, until the mirror asked him to "relay the message to the one whom his words affect", with Cal shrinking even further into himself.
Cal once again talked about how this whole journey has gotten him to appreciate the few things he has had in his life and to give others second-chances.  Because though he is scared, being scared has allowed him to finally have friends and those around him who really care for him.
After this exhausting reveal, the mirror lightens and allows the adventurers to walk right through.  
Dain, who was trying to smash the mirror multiple times, consols Cal and talks about how he has lived his life too scared and afraid to slip out of his comfort zone, and that his heroic acts have inspired Dain to turn a new leaf.
Dain then smashes the mirror.
As the spirit inside the mirror floats towards the heavens, it thanks Dain for its freedom and for sharing, instead of giving Dain the curse he was so hoping for.
The now-downtrodden party headed forwards into a throne room which sat two matching thrones next to one another.  With Dain and Cal sitting on the thrones, two display cases unlocked themselves to reveal two matching bracelets, seemingly with the power to allow telepathy between them as well as for the emotions of their partner to be seen through them.
Loú informs Cal that these are typically for a married/engaged couple, to which Nessa and Cal reluctantly put them on.
As the lovebirds test these bracelets on one another, they work out an agreement with Loú where they pay him extra and let him go off on his own without visiting a third dungeon.
Before Loú departs however, he notices strange, unfamiliar, fresh boot marks in the sands at the temple's entrance.
After examining the boot marks, the party realize that they are being trailed by some sort of factory workers from Ustgelt who bare a crest of three claw marks...

Campaign

Lines Drawn in the Sand

Protagonists

Gehenna Malabolge

Chaotic Neutral Kalashtar (Enchanter's Apprentice )
Paladin 4
War Cleric 1

31 / 31 HP

STR
8

DEX
14

CON
12

INT
10

WIS
19

CHA
17

Dain

Chaotic Neutral Dwarf ()
Artificer 6

49 / 49 HP

STR
18

DEX
10

CON
15

INT
16

WIS
13

CHA
13

Rizzard of Oz II

Politicaly Incorrect Custom Lineage (Fey Lost)
Rouge 3
Warlock 1

39 / 39 HP

STR
11

DEX
12

CON
17

INT
10

WIS
10

CHA
18

Nessa Sarkas

Satyr (Noble)
Bard 2

19 / 19 HP

STR
11

DEX
17

CON
14

INT
16

WIS
14

CHA
18

Cael Malos

Chaotic Neutral Air Genasi (Apothecary)
Monk 4

43 / 43 HP

STR
13

DEX
18

CON
17

INT
10

WIS
18

CHA
15

Report Date

04 Nov 2024

Primary Location

Khudaldaa

Related Characters

• Loú Kin-Rey