The Adventures of the Big HELP, Session 28

General Summary

• Before sleeping for the night, Larka used her psionic powers to send a message to Hespiro. She had intended just to send a psychic letter, but her powers were greater than she realized and she managed to astral project into each other's dream space. Larka informed Hespiro of her rather chaotic day. He was unsure what to make of either the useful knowledge or the chaotic ramblings. He at least returned the favor with information for Larka. Darvus, the former archbishop, had either escaped the Cathedra cells or been rescued. Larka was less than enthused with this development.
• Larka asked Hespiro to help train her further in the use of Telekinesis. Larka did this by looking down on the material world from her astral projection and moving logs in the fire to mess with Hest, who was on watch. Hest was scared and woke Bigwig. Bigwig thought Hest was just hallucinating again until Larka started moving some rations. Larka tried to juggle the fruit rations, but hadn't yet mastered the technique resulting in dropped and bruised fruit. Bigwig and Hest were worried now an invisible man was stealing their stuff. Hest woke Petrichor, who used cast Detect Magic to look for the invisible man. The spell told her nothing, though, since the Larka was using psionics to move the items.
• Before deciding she'd had enough, Larka gathered stones in a circle around her body. Hest started freaking out and thinking fairies were taking Larka as she woke up. Petrichor figured out what was going on as Larka woke up, but Hest had to have it explained to her that Larka was moving everything.
• The next morning, Petrichor thought carefully about which spells to prepare and the rest of the group decided they should all go to the Cult of Arazid ritual that Bigwig had been told about. Petrichor let everyone know to be on the lookout for diamonds to power her Revivify spell. The party marched north at a standard pace and hoped to find the ritual site in the afternoon. Not long into their journey, the HELP heard the sound of a large figure approaching with a cart. Petrichor and Larka hid (Hest tried and failed to hide) while Bigwig stayed on the road to see who it might be. It turned out to be a goliath named Sturm on his way to the Six Tenet Monastery for the Festival of Saint Kynthas.
• He was selling fireworks, stone figurines, his wife's paintings, and small magical trinkets. Bigwig asked if he had any diamonds. This question out of nowhere, along with spotting Hest's poor attempt to hide, set Sturm on edge. Bigwig managed to calm him down, convincing him that Hest was just a shy person. They both then looked at his wares. From a distance, Larka saw the stone figurines and zeroed in on them, demanding Hest find the one with the cutest eyes. Hest decided that was tiny mouse figurine and Larka telekinetically sent some gold to Hest to pay for it.
• Petrichor scanned the merchant's wagon looking for diamonds. She noticed a fist sized ball of cloth and Wild Shaped into a mouse, snuck over to the cart to grab the cloth, and snuck back to her hiding spot. Bigwig decided to buy some fireworks. Larka wanted a bunch and tried to telekinetically sneak her some gold, too. She hadn't yet mastered this skill and ended up dropping the gold. Strum heard it drop and asked about it. Bigwig said it was hers a used it to buy the fireworks, but Sturm was already on edge and decided to leave after the transaction.
• Petrichor unwrapped the ball of cloth and found a 300G diamond inside with a note from Sturm's wife reminding him it should only be used to buy inventory for their shop. She felt a little bad but got over it.
• Along the way, the HELP heard a cry coming from a little ways of their trail. Hest went to check and found a little girl with an injured leg. Unfortunately, she soon learned this was an illusion created by a pair of hunting Displacer Beasts. The HELP were forced to fend the hungry beasts off, but killed them without much difficulty.
• During their march to the ritual, Arazid decided to manifest and talk to Bigwig. He probed her for her thoughts on the Fireblood's ritual. Bigwig was unsure what to expect. She wanted the power the ritual would offer, but didn't know why the Fireblood would want her. She noticed a wicked grin spread across Arazid's face and could tell that he knew more than he was letting on. Arazid called her a fanatic and questioned how anyone could understand the mind of a fanatic. Bigwig pressed further. In his arrogance, Arazid couldn't help but reveal his part in the Fireblood's life. The Fireblood had been born with enough of Arazid's inherited power to act as a beacon to him, even in death. He saw reached out and burned out her mind, filling her with a religious obsession for him. Even that paltry feat tired Arazid and he returned to the sleep of death for countless years. Bigwig wondered why the Fireblood was obsessed with her as well. Arazid wondered if he hadn't completely snuffed out the Fireblood's mind and if whatever remained behind was influencing her now. Bigwig tried to ask him more questions, but Arazid walked alongside her in silence.
• None of the party were prepared for another attack by Arazid cultists. Their leader called down to Bigwig from the clifftops and claimed she (or someone else with draconic features) had been killing cultists. She wanted to kill Bigwig in revenge and to claim her power before the Fireblood's ritual. The Big HELP managed to defeat the cultists with the assistance of Helena, who had joined in during the battle. Helena greeted Bigwig with a tight hug. The HELP were glad to see Helena, especially since they were worried she'd be captured or enthralled by the Cult. Helena was showing little signs of transformation beyond one lizard eye and fangs. Larka wondered if she had been the hunter the cultist had been looking for.
• Helena was a little concerned by just how much Bigwig had changed due to taking in the Arazid power from cultists. She would have warned Bigwig that the power would just dissipate if she let it be, but the past few days the cultists seemed to release this energy into a bolt of light that fired into the sky upon their death, much like the HELP saw the cultists do in this battle. Helena told the HELP about a ritual the cult was planning for, not realizing they'd already heard about it. What new information she had to offer, included sightings of massive torches being carried to a quarry several hours walk to the north. Before continuing on, the HELP stopped for a short rest, drinking some water from a nearby waterfall in the hope it would heal them.
• Bigwig and Helena got caught up as the Big HELP moved on. Helena said she had stayed in this area after losing track of the people who had left Ghispar with the cult. She wondered now if this quarry was where the cult had taken them. Helena decided to keep passersby safe by cleaning the woods of bandits and cultists while keeping an eye on cult movements. Bigwig said she had fought the cult, too, thinking of her encounter with them in Valadris. She also mentioned meeting the Church of Gorthag soldiers and how they had cool powers. Helena mentioned she had always wanted to visit Cathedra. Bigwig decided not to mention they had helped overthrow the Church and just said she had friends there they could hang out with. Larka really wanted to tell Helena about Punch, but did not let her intrusive thoughts win.
• The HELP soon came upon the quarry they were looking for. With the help of Petrichor's Pass Without Trace spell, they snuck up and were able to observe the goings on. Four enormous stone torches had been placed throughout the quarry and in the northeast corner was a flaming circle. The Fireblood stood in the center of the quarry, drawing arcane sigils in the air, while other cultists rushed around setting up the torches.
• Petrichor and Larka studied the quarry walls looking for ways to subtly start a rockfall. They picked one out that was too far for Larka's telekinesis. Petrichor used Erupting Earth instead. She could see the magic ripple through the air. The Fireblood had put up wards to sense the casting of magic. She Counterspelled Petrichor before the spell could take effect. The Fireblood whirled around in anger to see who cast the spell, but the anger melted away to excitement when she saw Bigwig.
• The Fireblood flew up to greet Bigwig with an uncomfortably tight hug and started to tell Bigwig excitedly what she had planned for the ritual. Larka looked around for another possible rockfall and set it in motion, killing one cultist and almost damaging a torch. The Fireblood didn't notice Larka's involvement, cutting her meeting with Bigwig short. The Fireblood suggested they go through the flaming circle, a teleportation circle, while she finished her prepartions. Afterwards, she and Bigwig could talk. For the first time, Helena caught the Fireblood's attention. The Fireblood recognized her as the one who had been killing her cultists. She used the Arazid blood in Helena to bend her to her will and force her to walk through the teleportation circle.
• The HELP decided to take the Fireblood's advice and travel through the circle. While walking through the quarry, Hest and Bigwig caught sight of the torches. They were covered in sigils that made up magical formulas, but both spellcasters noticed something was off. The magical formulas didn't seem right, like someone had tried to fill in missing parts of the formulae with questionable estimations and assumptions. They wondered if someone had altered the carved runes, but determined that no alterations had been made. Larka wondered what effect all of these miscalculations would have when the ritual started.
• Feeling they had no other choice, the Big HELP stepped through the circle to arrive at Arazid's Altar with the hope that they would rescue Helena and learn the history of the Fireblood, Arazid, and the cult they led.

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36 Days After the Crash of the Raziel

Report Date

22 Sep 2024