The Adventures of the Big HELP, Session 25

General Summary

• While the rest of The Big HELP prepared to relax for the night, Petrichor was escorted to have tea with Archbishop Darvus. He greeted her and asked about her past. Petrichor said she had become a druid just by living the life of a beggar, wandering the desert as a child. She explained that she had just found the Staff of the Woodlands randomly, fearing Darvus wanted to take it away. Darvus assuaged her fear, saying he only wanted to use his Legend Lore spell to identify it.
• Darvus confirmed it had been a magic staff gifted from Sindara to a faithful disciple during the Element Wars. After a tragic end to the war, it was gifted to Cathedra from which it was later stolen from the Church Archives almost a thousand years ago. The staff was broken and the emerald which stored much of its power was separated, eventually making it to Moonvale Grove. Darvus also confirmed that the staff contained a memory of Sindara, her consciousness from a single moment of time, though Petrichor wasn't able to access it yet.
• Petrichor wondered why this staff appeared for her. Sindara had a mission for her, but hadn't told her what it was yet. Darvus pledged his and the Church's strength to help Petrichor in whatever way she may need. He only asked that, if the time came, she convince Bigwig and Hest to help fight off the blasphemous tyrant. Petrichor was concerned he didn't mention Larka.
• On the way out, Petrichor noticed one of the statues moved almost imperceptibly. She pressed her ear to the door and heard the Archbishop issue orders. He wanted Petrichor and her friends protected at all costs, and their memories modified after the vargar was killed. Petrichor assumed he meant Larka.
• Petrichor reunited with Larka and Hest in the bunks. Before she caught them up, Larka used her abilities to set up a telepathic connection between the HELP. Petrichor explained that, though the Archbishop was friendly to her, it seemed like he wanted Larka dead. Larka was suddenly less anxious over her decision to help Hespiro enter Cathedra, confirming the plan with Petrichor. Larka confirmed this with Bigwig as well, intruding upon an intimate moment between her and Punch.
• Following a long rest, the Big HELP reunited in the Library of Ages. They needed to sneak into the forbidden section, find the five wards meant to alert the Earth Faithful, and dispell them with the special Wand of Dispel Magic gifted by Zinnia. Along the way, the HELP ran into a cleric carrying a box. They hid while he dropped the box and sent some Slings of Chicken Fling flying around the hallway. Bigwig picked them up and handed what she could find to the rest of the party after the coast was clear.
• The party arrived at the Library of Ages. None of the librarians were in the library, so Larka was able to pick the very tricky lock without being disturbed. Petrichor kept watch and warned the others that she had heard the sound of stone against stone. They hurried into the forbidden section and locked the door. A hallway with several doors, marked as wings of the Archive by their signs, stretched out before them and ending in a large, junk-filled, room. Bigwig used Detect Magic and determined the doors were magically locked with Abjuration magic and would need keys to open. Bigwig tried knocking on the magic doors to no avail but was at least glad that they didn't knock back.
• Hest remembered she could now use Dimension Door and teleported with the wand to the other side of the door. Only after getting there did she realize that she couldn't use Dimension Door to cross back. Hest forged ahead and found one of the wards, a glowing purple light emanating from a beastial statue of Gorthag. She started walking up to the statue, but found herself slowed as if walking waist deep through loose earth. After some delibaration, Hest decided to move through the room anyway and used the wand on the ward. The wand felt different from her usual magic, less like she was bending the world to her will and more like she could just see how the magic worked and how to diffuse it.
• On the other side of the door, the HELP debated what to do. Some thought they would find keys to the door while others wanted to dispell the magic locks. Petrichor tired to use Mold Earth to create a tunnel for Hest. The earth itself resisted her, enchanted already, and Petrichor eventually decided to use her own Dispell Magic. Though the magic locking the door was powerful, she managed to disperse it anyway just as Hest approached the door from the other side. Petrichor was worried she would use up all her magic dispelling the magic locks so the party decided to check out the central room.
• The HELP entered the central room and were surprised by a group of assassins, taking the form of Earth Elemental Myrmidons, glided up from the stone floor. The HELP readied to defend themselves, but the assassins instead triggered a security system and fled. The door the HELP had used to move from the Library of Ages to the Forbidden Archives suddenly sealed itself up with stone.
• Looking around, Larka and Bigwig found a few pieces of junk that they thought might be of importance: A runic sword, a wand, a golden idol, a silver coin, a white book, a platinum dagger, a scandalous scroll, a polished skull, art of the Goddess Cerisa. Larka took the dagger and Bigwig kept the scroll for herself. Hest and Petrichor looked at the junk and realized that they were related to the various sealed doors. Bigwig wanted to show the doors her scroll to scandalize them into opening up. Petrichor tried showing the golden idol to a door labelled Forbidden Archive: Religious Texts. When that failed, she tried using the art of Cerisa to more success.
• Walking through the hallways of the Religious Texts wing, Petrichor was attacked when one of the assassins came through the walls and grappled her. Hest used her quarterstaff to lever Petrichor free while the others fought the assassin. The assassin fled back into the walls after a couple hits. Larka tried to sense where it had gone, but couldn't follow the way it moved through stone.
• Deeper into the Religious Texts wing, the HELP found a puzzle door barring their way. Above the door was four unlit candles and the only feature on the door were seven buttons made of precious gemstones/metals: Alexandrite, Emerald, Ruby, Nepheline, Onyx, Gold, and Pearl. Bigwig and Hest started pressing random buttons and a candle lit up with each button until four had been pressed. The flames turned red and burst out onto the party. Licking their wounds, Hest wondered if the first letter of each stone might spell out a word. She realized she could spell OPEN by pressing the Onyx, Pearl, Emerald, then Nepheline buttons. This pattern opened the door.
• The HELP found another ward in the next room. Hest used the wand again. Though the wand worked, it started giving Hest a headache and the rest of the party noticed a trickle of blood running from her nose. To the left, the Hest noticed a bookshelf isolated in a room. She grabbed one of the books, a Tome of Leadership and Influence, only for the bookshelf to retract into the floor. A siren started blaring and voice said that the books must not be removed while security protocols were in place, saying the threat would be evacuated. The room's entrance was walled off by a force wall and a glowing blue sphere appeared in the middle of the room. Bigwig noticed a set of runes had started glowing when the trap had triggered. She couldn't figure out how to disarm it, smashing her fist through it in frustration. The trap short-circuited and Bigwig was thrown across the room by magical lightning.
• The HELP returned to the central room to look at the Arcane History wing. Hest held of up the white book, a book with a blank cover that could not be opened, to open the door. While the door unlocked, Petrichor and Larka saw an image flash on the book cover depicting a water genasi fighting a red, armored figure. Larka wondered if it had anything to do with Bigwig and the Cult of Arazid, suggesting that there must be an illusion spell cast on the book to hide its contents.
• The path beyond the door was laden by stone hands reaching out of the floor. No one wanted to try to sneak by them, so Petrichor took the wand and used her Slippers of Spider Climb to walk up the walls and over the hand mines. She saw eyes on each of their palms, watching her. She passed over the hand mines and found the third ward, dispelling it.
• Meanwhile, Larka was the next to be grabbed by one of the assassins. She used her Wand of Magic Missiles to attack the assassin and break free. It escaped after taking a couple hits.
• The HELP decided to check out the Weapons wing next, opening the door with the runic sword. Inside, dust clouds swarmed the rooms. Bigwig tried stepping, but immediately started coughing and sneezing due to the dust's magic. Larka pulled her back out of the dust cloud and suggested everyone cover their mouth and nose so they wouldn't breathe in the dust. She and Hest saw the dust was being blown from a room to the right and found a pouch from which the dust was being magically blown around the rooms. Hest closed the pouch, ending the dust storm in the first couple rooms. Moving north, another dust cloud raged. Hest and Petrichor stepped into it, only to realize this dust had a different effect. Petrichor shrugged off the magical effects but Hest felt herself dehydrated and emaciated. Larka told her it might be Dust of Dryness.
• The HELP marched through the dust cloud, trying to shrug off its effects and find the pouch. They were attacked by another assassin and Hest was grabbed this time. Bigwig located the second pouch of dust and Larka moved to grab and close it. Free from the dust cloud, Petrichor used Freedom of the Waves to attack the assassin. The assassin was knocked back, and retreated, while both Petrichor and Hest took advantage of the water to rehydrate.
• The HELP then found themselves barred by a talking door. Larka and the door got into a conversation, with the door only able to respond in questions, until Bigwig got annoyed and kicked the door down. Larka cried out in concern for the door. She continued to talk to it even after it had flown off its hinges. Petrichor dispelled the fourth ward. She started to feel an oncoming headache after using the wand a second time, but it subsided as she shrugged it off. Larka picked up the door, hoping to show it a forest once everything had settled down. The HELP made their way to the Burial Crypt wing. Before they got there, Bigwig got annoyed with the door asking questions again and stabbed it until it was quiet. Larka cried.
• Hest used the polished skull to enter the Burial wing. A trap was sprung and the three exits in the room were closed off by stone walls. A fountain sat in the middle of the room and Petrichor realized that the water level was slowly rising. Larka dove into the fountain when she saw a lever at the bottom of the pool about 50ft deep. She swam down and managed to pull the lever, deactivating the trap, but started floundering when she couldn't make it to the surface. Bigwig dove in to rescue her, pulling her on to the surface and reviving her.
• Bigwig wanted to check out the room labelled Mausoleum before moving on. Inside they found a giant wing bone, a genasi drained of their holy magic, a tiefling who displayed some form of alternative magic, an elf who tried to imbue herself with potent magic and began to crystalize before her lower half shattered. Arazid appeared before Bigwig and revealed that the wing had been his, having lost it in battle. He suggested Bigwig drain it of whatever power it still held. She agreed and the rest of the party watched as her face became more draconic. Bigwig hoped that she would gain wings for this, but it Arazid in her mind that grew back a wing. Later, Bigwig would realize that Arazid gifted her with a boon in this moment that granted her temporary flight.
• The HELP moved on until they found a room identified as Stasis Chamber, filled with individuals held in stasis. Larka and Bigwig first focused on a figure turning to ice. A placard indicated that this elf was turning to ice due to the effect of an item called the Imperiatrix's Crystal. Larka suggested Bigwig should touch the elf to help thaw them, but this just resulted in the ice melting. Bigwig noticed that the figure was wearing a magic amulet and took it. Petrichor looked at the body of a mage displaced by the explosion of a Bag of Holding. Hest found a man who, if woken, would unleash a plague of shadows on the world.
• Larka suggested leaving these bodies alone and moved onwards. She had not thought to look out for traps and accidentally triggered one. She was fine, but the rest of the HELP were struck by a lightning trap.
• In the next room, Petrichor found some potion recipes and gave them to Larka. With the right ingredients, Larka could not make Potions of Growth and Potions of Fire Breath.
• The HELP continued on until they found the fifth ward. Larka dispelled it this time to no ill effect. She then looked around the room for treasure. Several were identified. Bigwig took a Ring of Nimbleness while Hest took a Tentacle Rod.

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34 Days After the Crash of the Raziel

Report Date

11 Aug 2024