Session Report 54

General Summary

The battle between the Keeper and the Muskrats continued. With the dragon now healed the Muskrats were facing an uphill battle. Cambio, Shade, and Tazmeth fled away from the center of the battle, leaving Chev and Itzal to face the Keeper and his dragon head on. Itzal began to warp the force of gravity to his own will and apply pressure to the Keeper. Cambio, despite fleeing, drew upon the power of his gauntlets and unleashed a rapid succession of eldritch blasts that began to rock the Keeper and his dragon. The might of the Muskrats began to turn the tides of the battle, but the Keeper in one last attempt to win, he surrounded Chev with walls of fire. Taking a risk Chev rushed out of the walls to get to a safe area to heal, but the Keeper followed closely behind. Chev standing his ground, facing death yet again, struck with his maul and filled with a surge of power, he unleashed a barrage of strikes as he crushed the Keeper and the dragon he was facing. With the Keeper defeated, the Muskrats moved into the Incinerator. 
The Incinerator was a expansive cavern filled with flowing lava, massive metal pipes, and metal walkways spanning the open space above. The sound of giant gears turning massive excavators can be heard in the distance. Miners of many different races are bustling around the Incinerator. They are soot covered and many of them are covered in burns. Most of the miners are chained together and guarded by a mix of salamanders and fire giants. On the far side of the cavern, the ground appears to be alive. It is flexing back and forth and as it expands outwards lava spills from the interior. As the players stand at the entrance, they hear a psst psst next to them. Standing there is a sooted covered dwarf wearing overalls and wielding a pickaxe. 
The dwarf asked if the Muskrats were the group that just defeated the Keeper. Nervously the Muskrats said that they indeed were the ones responsible for the Keeper's defeat. After learning of the Muskrats' achievement, the dwarf asked if the Muskrats would be interested in assistance with fighting back against Tritemeus. Jumping at any chance for allies, the Muskrats promptly said yes. The dwarf proceeded to lead the Muskrats to a storage area filled with crates. He began to move crates and sheet metal to reveal a small tunnel that all of the Muskrats had to crouch to crawl through. After crawling for some distance the Muskrats enter into a carved out chamber filled with dwarven miners. The dwarves reveal that they are freedom fighters, who are attempting to overthrow Tritemeus. After further discussion with the Muskrats, the leader of the dwarves yelled, "You can reveal yourselves now. They can be trusted." Each dwarf ran their hand across their face and their image blurred as they dropped their disguises and revealed that the dwarves were elves. 
The leader approached the Muskrats more closely and introduced himself as Naero Xestra, the Third Son of Vaxidor Xestra and the Head of Nachtmorder. Nachtmorder is an order of assassins who serve directly under the Emperor of Eltenweiss. Naero and Nachtmorder was sent to kill his half-brother before Tritemeus can cause the family anymore harm. Tritemeus's rise in power had begun to place pressure on Xestra family because they had not dealt with him yet. Under the pressure of the Achivelli, nobles were beginning to mount opposition to the Xestra family and their rule. Nachtmorder's optimal goal was to kill Tritemeus, but they hoped at the minimum to disrupt his plans. Nachtmorder hoped to use a specially designed poison, Magebane, to weaken Tritemeus. 
As the discussion continued the Muskrats and Nachtmorder agreed to coordinate their plans to disrupt Tritemeus's plans. Nachtmorder planned to incite an insurrection among the slaves to disrupt the progress of the excavation of Rorn. Meanwhile, the Muskrats planned to head to the Incubator to destroy the salamander eggs that are being fed to Rorn to hasten his awakening process. Naero had considerable information to share about the Incubator. The Incubator was a heavily guarded location that lies in a lake of lava and can only be reached by flight or teleportation magic. Furthermore, the Incubator was guarded by a fire giant named Flabrym of the Red Flame. Flabrym however was recently defeated by a giantkin who had attacked the Incubator. The Incubator was connect to the Elemental Plane of Fire with a rift that can be dispelled using multiple dispel magics. The rift can be weakened by destroying crystals around the incubator that provide power to it. Finally, the Incubator was a location that Drelodos, The Heir of the Molten Borrough used as a resting place and to house a small portion of his hoard when visiting Tritemeus. 
With the information gathered, the Muskrats headed to the teleportation circle to travel to the Incubator. The Muskrats planned to infiltrate by posing as slaves with Cambio posing as the guard in charge. As the group traveled to the teleportation circle, they saw a pit fiend approaching. Chev began to worry that his feud with Asmodeus could doom their plan already. Itzal choosing to sacrifice himself for Chev's sake, collapsed in an attempt to draw attention to himself. However, this distraction did not go as he intended. The pit fiend seeing him as weak began to brutally beat the down tortle. Eventually, having his fill of violence the pit fiend continued on his way and the Muskrats carried their wounded ally to the teleportation circle. Once there Cambio persuaded the salamander guards to allow the group to teleport to feed the slaves to the creatures in the Incubator. The salamanders seeing no problem with it allowed the party to teleport. Upon teleportation the Muskrats stood in an intensely hot dark red rock chamber and were face to face with two salamanders.

Report Date

03 Aug 2022