Convergence Sessions 1 - 10

General Summary

Session 1 The party reunited on the road to Eodur, traveling to the great city on behest of Aefaren Thrangur, who contacted them each individually to inform them he felt something big was going to happen soon. True enough, when the party exited the Brytnian Woods, they found Eodur in the distance obscured by thick plumes of smoke. In addition, a second plume of smoke coming from just off the Highway was visible to the south.
They quickly moved to investigate the closer plume and found a small fishing town absolutely ransacked. Investigation revealed smashed in doors and the signs of a slaughter: bodies strewn throughout the street bearing wounds typical of sharp teeth and claws of a large beast. Also prominent in the mud and dirt were the prints of some sort of large, reptilians creature. Only the town's chapel appeared to have withstood the onslaught with survivors inside. They took some persuading, but the survivors spoke to the party and revealed that massive, toad-like monstrosities had steamrolled through the town the night previous. One of them had been injured and his wound appeared infected. Before the party could administer healing magic, the wounded man went through a horrific transformation; assuming the form of a hulking, red toad-like creature: a slaad. The commotion it caused also lured back a number of the town's original assailants: blue slaadi. The party battled them and were able to defeat the creatures as they attempted to flee their clearly superior foe.
Echoless opted to make a non-lethal attempt on the newly transformed red slaad to see if there was anyway to help the victim. The consensus was that the transformation was permanent and that only "reality-warping" magic would be effective. Fortunately, Leona was able to call on the divine powers to do just that. The party then departed to investigate Eodur proper, leaving the grateful townsfolk to reflect on what had transpired.
Farther along the highway, the party came across the frontline of the city's defenders set at a chokepoint gatehouse of the highway a couple miles out of the city. There they learned the attack happened roughly 3 days ago with hundreds of the slaadi "pouring out of every shadow in the city". They stormed the Mithral Spire and took it by the end of the first day and the remaining garrison has been focused on evacuation ever since. They were escorted to the command center set up in the townhall of the settlement below where they met a familiar face: Mul Curunir was hear to help. The party grilled him, obviously not trusting their old adversary in the slightest. He revealed that he had learned of Cataclysm's plans "first hand" and believed that if he succeeded, it would be the absolute end of all things. To that end, whatever was going to happen was going to happen atop the Mithral Spire. The party weighed their options between teleporting their directly, joining the main charge of the counterattack, or aid in a hostage situation in which the slaadi took a squad of specialists, but ultimately decided to attempt to nip this whole thing in the bud.
After a successful teleport attempt, the party found themselves atop the Mithral Spire in the company of none other than Palios Pseftis himself, who was accompanied by 6 gray slaadi who appeared to be in the last stages of a massive ritual. When questioned why, Palios finally revealed his hand: He was Cataclysm and he was hear to flip the gameboard. He started to explain how his very nature was a paradox he could not abide by, but he was cut short by Echoless silent-spelling a sunburst over his head. A brief combat ensued as magical energy continued to crackle off the spire. They were able to get some solid hits in before most of them were stunned by a psychic scream followed by an explosion of magical energy threw all of them off the tower.
Using various means to break their fall and return to the defense's command center, they took a moment to catch their breath before realizing that the explosion from the Spire had encapsulated the entire city in a sphere of swirling magical energy, and what's more, the sound of a massive horde of slaadi could be heard quickly storming down the highway towards the defenders' front line…
XP earned: 2000 each
Session 2 With the dome encapsulating Eodur and a horde of Slaadi quickly on the approach, a retreat was called, diverting all remaining defenders and refugees to "Master Fictus' Tower" on the outskirts of Runswick. All was going well until a massive phoenix appeared from within the dome and attacked the tower. The party engaged it in combat, though it was able to tear down a considerable amount of the repurposed windmill before Aefaren Thrangur and Kruzikmaar joined the fray. Ultimately, the phoenix was banished by a prismatic spray spell cast by Echoless.
The tower turned out to be a multi-dimensional portal owned by the arch-wizard Christoph Heulen, who was introduced to the party as the primary benefactor of the White Tower Alliance, a coalition formed to seek out and stop Cataclysm before his plans could unfold. Christoph showed them around the complex and introduced them to Rhanorok, the dragon-like spirit that oversaw the castle. Lastly, he showed them their private quarters and informed them of a war meeting tomorrow morning to which their attendance was requested.
In the evening, the party got to know their new surroundings, with Leona spending some time with her hippogriff at the stables, Bran got drunk at the Wizard's Hat in badger form, Allston made himself at home in the tinkerer's lab and started working on contact-based potions, Zel jumped out a window and found himself in the presence of his crush, Ysbetta, Buttons continued his studies of the origami craft, and Echoless took some alone time. The latter two were interrupted by none other than Mul Curunir coming to visit them. The duplicitous warlock wished to establish some sort of rapport with the party as he believed if they were going to work together, they needed to (at the very least) not be constantly watching for a knife in the back. Echoless and Buttons were less than happy to see him, but appeared to reach some kind of understanding after Mul revealed how he had come into contact with Cataclysm by seeking the council of the aboleth and other extraplanar beings.
In the morning, the party regrouped and joined the war council, which contained a few new faces and many familiar, including Sigil's old spymaster, Aefaren, Christoph, and surprisingly, Brynn, who was present in projection-form (possible thanks to MAD's connection with his island). There, it was decided that the dome engulfing Eodur needed to be circumvented, to which the party suggested extraplanar travel. Brynn agreed and revealed that he had already considered utilizing the Antecean's old Nexus, a demi-plane that enabled trans-continental travel. The party agreed and met Brynn in person on his island. From there, they all traveled together by way of a planar gate into the Nexus; the first mortals to step foot in it in over a millennia…
XP earned: 1,875 each
Session 3 The party and Brynn progressed into the weird, silent realm of the Nexus, travelling for an unknown amount of time. As they progressed, they encountered wisps and echoes of the spirits of those who died here in some sort of calamity. Brynn took some time to explain the original purpose of the Nexus and why it was so bizarre to see it in such a state. Further in, they began finding bodies: men, woman, and children of all different races slain by what appeared to be feral beasts. Leona attempted to speak with dead with the first body they found, but in doing so, the unraveling magic of the area imbued Bran with cosmic power, granting him a wish. Panicking, Bran spat out the first thing he could think of and wished simply to be able to speak with the deceased. This resulted in the man being fully resurrected.
The newly revived Antecean was a man named Quintus who vividly recalled a massive explosion followed by a fissure from which a horde of horrific creatures poured forth and slaughtered everyone before moving throw the open Nexus gates. The party did their best to ease the blow of being revived after a millennia and eventually Brynn brought him back to his island to recuperate. Curiously, as the party waited for this exchange, Brynn made it sound like he was gone for several hours, despite them feeling as though they'd only waited minutes.
Further in, they discovered one of the many floating obelisks once owned by the noble wizards of Antecea. Allston and Echoless snuck their way into one and found beyond an Iron Golem and a theatrical programmed illusion the ghost of the wizard Decimus who offered further insights into what happened in the Nexus. He also offered a few spell scrolls from his tower and a promise of further gear if the party succeeded in getting the Nexus back online. He even agreed to travel with them to the Conduit to aid in its repair. During their talks, Decimus also revealed he recognized Echoless by reputation and Brynn from his days in the Imperial Senate, also offering condolences for Brynn's wife, which was something of a revelation to the group and Echoless, specifically.
At the Conduit, the party witnessed a Gith'yanki warship appear in the sky and dock with the tower. Upon confronting the gith, they learned that they were hear to turn the Conduit into a bomb in order to destroy a number of astral dreadnoughts; massive, horrifying creatures that had been appearing in the Astral Seas with frighteningly increasing regularity. Ultimately, Echoless and Buttons were able to convince them to stay their hand and even stay to fight the pair of dreadnaughts they had baited to this location. Ultimately, the party was able to overcome the dreadnought's anti-magic gaze and defeated the creature. Though the same could not be said for the gith, who fought valiantly but still lost a number of their warriors. But with the immediate threat gone, their attention turned to their original goal of repairing the Nexus…
XP earned: 5,000 each
Session 4 The party dealt with the aftermath of the dreadnought battle. A few searched the contents of the dreadnought's bellies and found a number of useful items while Allston and Zel experimented with dreadnought blood and Echoless and Brynn settled things with the gith'yanki, who tentatively offered aid should they ever find themselves in the Astral Sea. With that, they turned their attention to fixing the Conduit, a task which proved relatively simple in theory, but became more dangerous when the reactivation process attracted swarms of spirits that sought to absorb energy from the Conduit and possess the living bodies of the party. They were driven back, though Zel was momentarily possessed, which prompted the ghost Decimus to banish him back to the Material Plane (where he found himself in his home swamp and was nearly attacked by a young lizardfolk before he was returned to the Nexus).
With the Conduit repaired, the Nexus could begin to be reopened. The party first opted to check out the remains of Decimus' tower, which they found currently being explored by Crown Mages of Sigil, who were suspicious of the party's arrival but ultimately agreed to let them poke around. In the sub-basement, they found a number of useful items, including both a tome of understanding and clear thought.
Finally, they moved to pursue their primary goal: investigate Eodur. Inside, they found the city engulfed in whirling motes of fire, ice, and stone. They quickly realized this was Limbo, the Elemental Plane of Chaos. The Mithral Spire seemed to be tethered to an inverted spire in the sky by some sort of energy beam which branched off into 11 separate beams. Before they could do much more investigating, Cataclysm appeared before them. He reiterated his intention to tear down all of reality in order to escape his paradoxical nature and that the party should enjoy their remaining months. He also offered a trade deal: he would allow the remaining civilians trapped in Eodur to return with the party if one of them drew from the Deck of Many Things. They reluctantly agreed, and Bran drew the Rogue card, rewriting reality in a way that causes King Dorian Havik of Crucible to seek Bran's destruction.
True to his word, Cataclysm then instructed his Slaadi to allow safe passage for the mass of refugees back through the Nexus and onto the material plane. The party shared what had happened with the White Tower Alliance, where Aefaren hypothesized Cataclysm was attempting to force a Convergence. This required deeper study, and in the mean time, there were many tasks that required attention. The party advised on which specialist groups should be diverted where and chose for themselves to investigate tales of a powerful bow located deep within the Forest of Souls at the foot of Mount Exemplar…
XP earned: 3,200 each
Session 5 The party took the remainder of the day to rest and garner supplies for their next journey. In doing so they were surprised to find the alchemist Agatha, previously encountered in both Borne and Cognance, had been brought into the fold of the alliance. As an added treat, the warlock/bard Ferdinand was also there and was apparently in the service of the same fey patron as Agatha (he was quite upset to learn that he had been inadvertently gathering ingredients for her "highly addictive" potions). Among the ordinary supplies and trading of magical goods (robe of eyes, dragonscale bow), some specialty orders were placed. Buttons asked Agatha for poison bombs, Echoless gave her her long kept gorgon blood to make a paralysis poison, Leona is seeking boots of grounding, and Bran acquired a sending stone to keep in contact with the druids investigating the dragon killer.
In the morning, Christoph escorted them through MAD to the ancient city of Ceadun where they bumped immediately into Princess Tria, who was in the process of lugging a bunch of research on extraplanar theory to the Alliance. Upon learning that the party was searching for a fabled weapon in the Forest of Souls, she eagerly offered to join them (and also informed them that Ximon had travelled to the White Tower days ago, but totally made sense he didn't tell them he was there). She was also able to fill them in a bit more on the folklore of the bow they sought, revealing that it was often used to thwart those attempting to feed on the souls that passed through the forest on their way up the mountain to the afterlife.
Within the forest proper, they quickly came across a great deal of ruins and evidence of heavy human traffic. One particular ruin, a wayshrine, was surrounded by distortions in the air the true seeing revealed to be some sort of flow of ethereal energy. Magic mushrooms also seemed to grow around the wayshrine, which caused some bizarre effects in those who ate them (like Allston becoming even smaller than he already was). Ultimately, they decided to follow the ethereal stream to see where it led and followed it til nightfall. During the night, Bran experienced a vision of a disembodied voice reaching out to him and requesting that the party combat the corruption affecting the Soul Stream from the First Wayshrine. In the morning, Bran shared this information and the party continued deeper into the woods.
Not too much farther in, they encountered a gruesome sight: the corpse of a unicorn slain by a silvery arrow and some sort of necrosis effect. There was some discussion about what to do with the body and how to proceed, with the idea of using something like speak with dead thrown out as entirely unholy. Ultimately, they opted to attempt a resurrection. The ritual worked and the unicorn was restored. Grateful for its life, the creature shared all it knew of its attacker, describing it as a fallen angel from the mountain above that had hunted him from his grove to here. He also agreed to lead the party to the First Wayshrine where said celestial likely had sequestered himself. With that, the party set off with their new ally, but unbeknownst to them, the mysterious entity that had contacted Bran in his sleep now watched them from the underbrush…
XP earned: calculate next session
Session 6 The party went to investigate what was watching them, but were unable to find the moonstone dragon who quickly vanished when the party moved in. Coming up empty handed, they followed the unicorn Eos deeper into the forest. Following the path of wayshrines, they encountered a group of goblin-like fey creatures called gwyllions who were siphoning magic off the feedback caused by the soul stream's corruption. There was a bit of a standoff, with Bran and Buttons getting perturbed with the fey's antics, but ultimately, they were able to part ways without violence.
Again camping for the night, another party member was visited in their dreams by the moon dragon. This time it was Zel. The dragon probed him for his motives and expressed concerned at his ambition and his draconic nature, but ultimately believed that he and the party would be an ally at least in cleansing the forest. At the completion of this rest, both Buttons and Allston had completed reading their magical tomes that enhanced one of their skills.
Continuing into the forest, they came across an ancient and massive statue of a Greek-looking warrior god. Tria and Echoless were able to identify it as belonging to a pantheon that pre-dated Antecea, but neither could put a name to the face, though they did believe he was some sort of god of war. Shortly after, they were introduced to the actual god. Dynami, the god of combat and hunting from the long-forgotten Logios pantheon had recently awoken from a premonition-like nightmare to find his home plane of Mount Celestia engulfed in a maelstrom. He came here to syphon power from the soul stream to give him strength to investigate. Unfortunately, in doing so he was upsetting the balance of the forest and had also taken the bow the party sought. Ultimately, they came to blows.
Dynami initially fired from the cover of the forest, allowing his great stags to fight in melee. However, Leona was able to nullify the fire enchantment on Dynami's mace, which was powering the syphon, with an antimagic field. This severely weakened Dynami (who was already at a mere fraction of his potential power) and forced him to enter the fray to reclaim his mace, which he did by turning Leona's bag of holding inside out and then piercing it. Unfortunately for Dynami, stepping out into the open gave Zel the opportunity to tear into him, utilizing a potion of dragonblood to grow even stronger and his harness to sprout wings to contend with the flying celestial. Ultimately, Bran in mammoth form was killed by a slaying shot from Dynami, who in turn was torn down by Zel and a well placed shot from Mr. Buttons.
In the aftermath, right before Allston sent Bran's remains to Crucible via his tiny chest in order to be brought back and revived the next day, the moonstone dragon Hahnobu revealed himself and revived Bran as a thank you for removing the celestial from the forest. Hahnobu also offered to aid them again if need be, though they would need to seek him out again in this forest. Bran also warned him about the mysterious dragon killer before they left for the Bow's Sanctuary where the guardian could purify it after Dynami warped it to his own purposes.
Finally, they returned to the White Tower with their prize. After an exhausting trek through the woods, they were all ready to rest in their beds. Unfortunately, fate had other plans. The Rogue card pulled by Bran back in Eodur was coming to fruition, as in the middle of the night, four assassins entered Bran's room with the intent of finishing off the Druid…
XP earned: 6,500 each
Session 7 Bran reacted quickly to his intruders and raised the alarm. The rest of the party leapt from their beds and joined the fray (with some initial hesitation from Allston, who fell asleep on a recliner and awoke to a blade pressed to his throat). Things escalated when one of the assassins turned a bag of holding inside out to bring forth the Phantom Knight hiding within. The Phantoms did their best to remove the rest of the party and reach their goal, wounding Leona and Echoless and knocking down Zel. However, Bran proved to be too resilient by assuming elemental forms immune to the assassins poisoned blades. They held out long enough to wear down the assassins. The Phantom Knight himself was obliterated by a blast from Echoless' amulet. Shortly after, Aefaren and Christoph arrived and the rest of the assassins were mopped up, with only the two ghost-like assassins getting away.
In the aftermath, Echoless correctly identified the Knight as the same one they fought back in Crucible when Dorian staged his coup. Leona further corroborated this by using speak with dead with one of the assassins (though this proved initially difficult as several of the assassins turned out to be undead), who revealed they were hired by someone with influence from Crucible. The topic of conversation also turned again to the Deck of Many Things. Aefaren used identify on the deck and confirmed that the Rogue card Bran drew had turned somebody in the world hostile against him. Christoph also showed clear interest in letting others use the deck, believing the potential benefits outweighed the potential costs. This earned him some suspicion from some of the group, specifically Leona.
In the morning, a war meeting was called. All the usual suspects were there, including some surprise guests in the form of Shepherd, Cato Sabjorn, and Mul. First order of business was Leona questioning everyone under a zone of truth to see if they couldn't discern if anybody in the room was the one who turned on Bran. Ultimately, they all came up clean, though the spymaster revealed that a number of new allies had recently arrived from Horizon, including elves from Aeturnum, private forces of Crucible nobility, Lunar Forum wizards, and some of King Dorian's specialists. Next order of business was a material Shepherd needed to refabricate Lazaros' axe into a prison for Cataclysm: Soul Stone. The mineral is exceedingly rare, but fortunately, Mul knew exactly where to find some, claiming a good-sized sample is part of Ralakor's collection in the lost dwarven city of Kal Eldrumm. If the party was willing, he could lead them there.
The last order of business was Bran felt it would be best if he split from the main group for now if people were still after him. He would go join the druidic team on their investigation on the dragon-killer. Aefaren did insist that the Deck of Many Things stay with the Alliance, however. Bran expressed concern in letting Christoph have access to it, but ultimately agreed to leave it behind, opting to leave it with Shepherd, who made it clear that while he would not stop someone from attempting to use the deck, he would strike down anyone or anything that negatively affected their mission.
Not to leave a spot open on the team, fortune would have it that Eladan arrived at the White Tower earlier that day and was able to join the group. As they prepped for their journey into the Underdark, Shepherd approached the party and offered them an opportunity to draw from the Deck, reminding them that he would kill them should a bad card be drawn. Zel agreed, although with more thought put into it than perhaps previously expected (Shepherd asked them to consider what they would do in a best-case scenario). Safe within a demi-plane conjured by Shepherd, Zel drew from the Deck and came away with the Star card, granting him a buff to his constitution. With that, the party returned to preparing for their journey, now set to take a hike through the mountains and into the depths with their favorite mischevious warlock…
XP earned: 7,500 each
Session 8 After taking some time to get Eladan re-oriented, Christoph led them and Mul off to MAD and into his workshop in Estmere, which was currently being rummaged through by oddly well-off looking looters. It quickly became apparent that the city was in disarray with news of a quickly approaching Slaadi horde. In the ruckus, the party came across a half-elf merchant hailing from Lum'nar who was desperately trying to move his fine woodcraft to warmer environments with his usual route to Eodur cut off. Allston offered to purchase them at cost, as well as passing off a quiver of stun arrows to Mr. Buttons (who was returned from his impromptu trip to Crucible in the morning). Mul was quick to coax them out of the city, however, as they had a long journey to Kal Eldrumm still ahead of them.
They travelled for several days up and into the Eordwall mountains, using Leona's ability to summon a temple every night to rest (one night a drunken Eladan revealed the existence of his Nightmare) following a path that Mul had learned about during his Peregrination visiting Kal Nerroth in Horizon. During their journey, they encountered the corpse of an adult white dragon bearing signs of necrosis similar to what was reported by the druids investigating the dragon slayer. Leona cast speak with dead and learned that it succumbed to a battle with another dragon, and a red one at that. The rest of the hike proved relatively uneventful until they reached the city of Kal Rhenov, which was currently under siege by a sea of Slaadi. The party rained upon the horde their most powerful area of effect abilities, earning them the appreciation of the dwarven defenders once they entered the city proper. Here, they found a far more organized resistance to the horde, though the mood of the city was still grim.
They quickly made their way to the back of the city and its deep mines, which were currently under heavy guard in response to a number of slaadi making their way up from the depths. The dwarven captain was willing to open the doors for them, but they would remain closed once they passed, with one exception: if they could locate Scout Lieutenant Annera Bladebreaker and bring her and her team back, they would open the way again.
Following the ancient mine shafts, the party did end up picking up the trail of living creatures, and eventually found a small number of dwarves around a campfire eating some sort of stew. They all bore some kind of injury, and only the leader, who introduced herself as Annera, spoke. However, it became quickly apparent something was up. Leona used her true seeing ability and saw that these were in fact Slaadi in disguise. Fortunately, they were few in number and quickly dispatched (though the lead gray one got away). Some more poking around led to the discovery of what appeared to be freshly cleaned dwarven bones and armor, and the contents of that stew suddenly became disturbingly clear (not that this deterred Zel from finishing it off). With that, the party was left to continue their deep dive beneath the earth…
XP earned: 1,600 each
Session 9 The party progressed further into the mines of Kal Rhelov, coming to an intersection where one path led deeper into the Underdark and the other led to some sort of commotion just on the periphery of hearing. While the group deliberated on whether this was worth checking out, Allston snuck off to see for himself. Upon realizing he had already left, the rest of the group reluctantly followed. Allston and Buttons (who was the second to run off to see what was going on) came across a lone dwarf fighter desperately trying to hold off a pair of red slaadi, whom they dragged out with bigby's hand while Buttons dropped one of the slaad with a slaying shot from his new bow. The other slaad was quickly dealt with by a barrage from the rest of the party.
The dwarf turned out to be Annera Bladebreaker, the missing dwarf scout. She was in no condition to travel with the party and needed to report back on her (late) team's findings, so Buttons gave her his broom of flying, boots of speed, and shirt of invisibility to get her back safely to Kal Rhelov. With that, the party trekked back to the intersection and down into the depths, where they plunged for several days. Mul took some time at the camp fire to attempt to get to know the party a little better; asking into their motivations into adventuring. All except Echoless answered more or less forthrightly. Otherwise, their descent went relatively uneventful, passing gaping sinkholes, long ruined statues, cave-ins, and weird (barely edible) creatures.
Towards the end of their journey, they encountered the lair of a pair of purple worms. They realized too late what lurked here and alerted one of the worms to their presence, though it didn't know exactly where they were. Eladan attempted to use Pyrious to ethereally shuttle the group out of harms way, but once the group was split, the Nightmare made a great deal of noise, intentionally alerting the worm(s) to their location. In the ensuing battle, Eladan was swallowed by one of the worms (which in turn revealed the existence of the second worm, as the first had been hit with faerie fire), prompting him to transform, revealing the curse of Bivodan's Crown: once the worms were dispersed and Eladan was freed (by way of a disintegrate spell from Echoless), he realized he could not halt his transformation, which was quickly burning away his mortal form. A showering of healing spells was able to spare Eladan and a remove curse from Leona allowed him to remove the mask, which he then risked the use of a wish to permanently remove the curse (and also causing him to exhaustedly ride Pyrious the rest of the journey).
On the approach to Kal Eldrumm, the Low Ways came to life, suddenly hosting a minagerie of Underdark denizens ranging from duergar, hobgoblins, lizardfolk and drow, the latter of whom stopped the party (who had taken the guise of drow themselves and gave Mul a hard time about it in the process) to size them up. Mul was able to convince them to leave them be. Finally, they simply had to declare their belongings and intentions in the city to the duergar guard before they were allowed to enter the city proper.
Beyond the gates, Rakalor's Estate was clearly visible at the center of the city. Now it was only a matter of finding a way in, as the city's ruler was notoriously reclusive and only dealt with those who could add to his collection of relics and antiquities. Mul also pointed out that he's said to frequent the fighting pits, so it could be possible to get his attention that way. While they discussed this, they moved through the markets, sampling Underdark cuisine (Eladan attempted to barter with Fire Plain ham, which the local palates found disgusting), avoiding the gaze of a small illithid party, and taking in the scenery: most notably the thriving slave trade. While they deliberated potentially throwing a monkey wrench into the city's economy and other ways to deal with Ralakor, they were approached by a surprisingly stealthy hobgoblin who claimed to be the descendant of the previous ruler of Kal Eldrumm. He offered their pick of Ralakor's collection in exchange for helping him usurp the current ruler. The party found this guy particularly shifty, but agreed to at least speak with him more under a zone of truth…
XP earned: 2,800 each
Session 10 The party spoke with the mysterious hobgoblin "Ark" at an open café and learned that he was, in fact, not a hobgoblin and was over 300 years old (though he would not reveal what he actually was). With the zone of truth, the party felt a bit more comfortable trusting Ark, but still wished to pursue other options and take a couple days to mull it over (and let Eladan recover from his wish). Zel and Leona used this time to get the former into the city's fighting pits, where Zel was chastised by a duergar fighter for wielding a dwarven weapon before 1v1ing a froghemoth in the arena and defeating it handily (only being swallowed by it twice). His performance earned him an audience with Ralakor himself, who witnessed the performance and wished to meet the champion.
The party opted to stay at a particularly schmoozy inn near the city center (Mul and Allston chatted for some time about their exploits) and in the morning, Zel was brought in to meet Ralakor while the rest of the party was put up in a lounge area. Allston attempted to follow invisibly, but this did not go over well. Despite moving about unseen, he tripped Ralakor's sensors and caused the floor to lock down. He hid for a time, but a drow inquisitor with true sight ultimately spotted him. He attempted to flee by way of teleporting up to the next floor, but the spell went awry and he landed in the bed chambers of the White Tower back on the surface. For some reason, he decided his best course of action was jumping on the sleeping wizard nearby, prompting the alarm there to be raised. Fortunately, after only some "minor" damage, Allston was recognized and the wizards stood down. He attempted to teleport back to Ralakor's estate and succeeded after a few mishaps. Unfortunately, the place was still swarming with guards and he was captured moments later and thrown in the dungeon.
Meanwhile, Zel met with the beholder who was initially excited about a new champion in the fighting pit, but quickly turned to paranoia when Zel brought up the soul stone. Ralakor had him thrown out, believing this was ultimately some kind of ploy from surfacers to steal from him. After that, the party decided their best bet was to take up Ark on his offer, only realizing that Allston was missing at the end of the day. Believing he was either dead or captured, they left him to his fate for a time, as Ark mentioned their route into the estate would take them past the dungeons anyway. With that, the party did some shopping and picked up some supplies, including boots of elvenkind of those that did not have them already and boot of grounding for Leona. Finally, as the group prepared to make their way into the sewers that would lead to Ralakor's estate, Leona used her divine intervention ability to arm and set free all the slaves in the city, as she had seen more than enough of their suffering, and it was only the groups tempering that convinced her to stay her hand until the opportune moment…
XP earned: calculate next session

Report Date

13 Dec 2022