Session Report 53

General Summary

The Muskrats began their preparations for the assault on Tritemeus's lair in Ashenfall. The preparation included shopping for items from Diendrum the Marvelous who brought his selection of magical items into House Blackpaw. The Muskrats greatly increased their strength by buying items. Shadows in the Wind sent runners into the city to obtain potions for the party that they requested. Tev and Diendrum became embroiled in a minor argument over the prices that Diendrum was charging and Tev decided to not buy items from the merchant, attempting to strike a boycott. 
After shopping, Shadows in the Wind came to party, bringing Ember and Embry with him, to discuss the new mission that they were about to embark upon. Before discussing the object of the mission, Shadows in the Wind asked Shade to perform a ritual with him. The two stepped into magic circles and cut their palms to drop blood into the circle. The circles began to glow green as the blood flowed along the drawing of the circle. Shadows in the Wind grew excited and informed Shade that he was his long lost son and that his given name was Whispers in the Wind. After this reveal Shadows in the Wind posed an ultimatum to Shade: abandon the Muskrats, become the heir of House Blackpaw, and have his bow returned or leave House Blackpaw without his bow. To surprise of Shadows in the Wind, Shade rejected his offer. Shade had grown too attached to the Muskrats and a strong sense of loyalty moved him to stay with the party. Chev stepped in seeing a need to soothe the situation. With his sharp tongue he persuaded Shadows in the Wind to wait to see the outcome of their mission in Ashenfall to make any decisions. He appealed to Shadows in the Wind's love of raising the strength and popularity of his house and Shade dealing with Rorn was a clear way to achieve that. 
With that family drama out of the way, the Muskrats were teleported with the help of House Blackpaw to Embry's home in Ashenfall. There Embry unlocked his vault and offered the Muskrats his magic items as payment for helping him. Embry then set about improving Chev's armor as he had requested. From there the Muskrats began their preparations to teleport to the Caldera to enter Tritemeus's lair. Before teleporting Embry informed the Muskrats that he beginning work to move Rorn into a pocket dimension in the Astral Sea in the hopes the pocket dimension does not explode before reaching the Astral Sea. 
Upon teleporting the Muskrats stood at the top of a massive pit that spanned miles into the distance. They had arrived at the Caldera. They began the trek down the steep slope and into the Caldera. The Caldera was the scene where a massive volcano had once erupted and left behind this scar on Ashenfall. The surface of the Caldera was nearly featureless. The ground was windswept and few rock formations dotted the black ground that the Muskrats trudged upon. 
After a couple hours of walking the Monolith of the Caldera came into view. A towering black monolith stretched nearly three hundred feet into the sky, surrounded by the black ash clouds that hang low in the Caldera. Black cages hung from the sides of the monolith high above the ground. Charred corpses were packed inside as a warning to stay away. 
Ten guards stood out front lazily guarding the entrance. It was painfully apparent that they were unaccustomed to dealing with any true threats. The Muskrats for once in their lives decided to be stealthy and made use of the some of the items they had recently obtained to turn invisible. Slowly they crept past the guards and proceeded inside through the large door. The guards simply blamed the door opening on a draft that frequently came from within the monolith. 
Once inside the Muskrats discovered that there was a bustling operation in place. Workers were rushing around the monolith, going up and down stairs, using the elevator, and frantically discussing orders they had received. Knowing that they had to go lower, the Muskrats headed for the stairs and worked their way down a couple levels. There they heard a dwarven engineer coming about the Keeper and that he was holding up work by allowing no one to reach the Incinerator or the Incubator. As he continued the Muskrats realized that he had blueprints of the base. There the Muskrats began a riot over the working conditions and the salamander guards came rushing and began to impel the rioters on their spears. Within moments the dwarven engineer had his head removed and placed on a spike. This distraction was enough to reach the elevator shaft and begin the descent to the Incinerator, the low levels of the base. 
Slowly descending hundreds of feet underground the heat began to grow in intensity and for many of the Muskrats this was the most intense heat they had ever faced. At the bottom of the elevator shaft the Muskrats entered into a large hall. The pathway was flanked by lava on either side. On the other side of the hall, a large obsidian door blocked their path. In between the Muskrats and the entrance to the Incinerator was a group of fire snakes and salamanders. The battle promptly began and the Muskrats were having little trouble dealing with the enemies, until a large male figure entered from the door the Muskrats were desperately fighting to reach. The man wore black and grey spiked armor and carried a lance made of only hellfire. His pale grey face was illuminated by the fire burning were his eyes should be. The Keeper had arrived. He kicked his spurs together and a flame dragon, his steed, appeared. 
The battle began to take a turn. Aided by the Keeper and his dragon, the forces of Tritemeus started to even the fight. A wall of fire appeared sealing Tazmeth off from his allies. It appeared as he was about to be overwhelmed but he was able to escape by flying over the flames. As the battle raged on the party faced the dragon's flame breath. As the dragon was nearly defeated, the Keeper plunged his Hellfire Lance into the dragon and hellfire poured into the dragon healing it of many of the wounds the Muskrats had inflicted upon it.

Report Date

17 Jul 2022