Session 58 - Eyes of the Beholder

General Summary

The Eye of Leng sees all...

The Saviors of Sandpoint, along with a temporarily depowered Dagourn, found themselves on the Plateau of Leng, a distant demiplane of nightmares within the Dreamlands, barely known to even the most outstanding scholars of the Great Beyond on Golarion. A moment before, they had been watching illusions play out in the basement of Echo's Mystical Oddities in Magnimar. The illusions changed in texture and temperature, and the cold winds of Leng slapped them into reality. A new reality, as the party found out. They stood on a stone circle, surrounded by large rings emboldened with glowing blue runes. From the east and west emerged Denizens of Leng, smiling predators about to feed. Most surprising was the sizeable floating orb, a large singular eye above a mouth of pointed teeth. Atop its head were eyestalks, and each eye seemed to focus on an individual party member. The creature called itself Barixis and welcomed the heroes to his trap. He boasted how he used Karzoug as bait, entrapping anyone using divine powers to search for him. Using the wizard's focus as bait was a fair tradeoff after everything the people of Leng had done for him in the past and continued to do even now. Barixis told the party that they should surrender. Their future was to be as slaves, sent to the Darklands to be sold to the K'thir as either labourers or food. "I do hope you’re not afraid of the dark," Barixis told them. "… because you will be.” Surrender was not on the menu for the Saviors of Sandpoint, and combat began. Kumiko acted quickly and blasted Barixis with a disintegration ray. However, Barixis retaliated with a disintegrating ray from one of the eyestalks. Kumiko's flesh was blackened and necrotic; much of it turned to ash. She remained standing just long enough for two Denizens of Leng to stab her with their claws, ending her life. Quilith was struck with another ray from an eyestalk, only this one managed to turn his flesh to stone. The same ray also struck Kilgor with a similar result. The Denizens of Leng went to work trying to use their enslavement ability to neutralize the party. But Quilith's precast of protection from evil protected almost everyone. Dagourn, shaken and powerless, fell to the dominate person effect and was plane-shifted away. Just when things looked dire for the Saviors of Sandpoint, the cleric of Cayden Cailean turned things around. Truett was able to curse Barixis, rendering him unable to act. That took him out of the picture long enough for Mite and Jayvielle to focus their attention on the remaining Denizens of Leng. Once the Denizens were dispatched, the remaining Survivors of Sandpoint's Saviors turned to Barixis. Its many eyes watched as the Saviors took revenge on their fallen comrades. As Barixis' body floated to the ground, the blue runes stopped glowing, and the sky turned to night. A massive yellow eye filled the sky, looked down at the survivors, and its alien presence bore into their minds. Just as they felt their reality starting to unravel, a sound of crashing glass from somewhere beyond snatched them back from the brink of madness. They were back in the basement of Echo's Mystical Oddities, with a very surprised Echo. Over the next several days, Truett was able to bring Kumiko back to the land of the living. This being the second time in a relatively short duration that she had undergone the process, Kumiko was weakened by the ordeal. It took her some time before she regained the strength to cast the spell necessary to turn Quilith's stone form back to flesh. Once returned, Quilith contained his demonic rage long enough to use his magic to restore Kilgor. Once that was done, Quilith teleported away to vent his anger in a "safely destructive and lethal manner." Safe for the people of Sandpoint, at least. A message was delivered to the heroes. It came from Echo, who felt terrible after everything the Saviors endured. The message was a poem that contained the clues to find Runeforge. Kumiko took the poem to the library beneath Jorgenfist to research the contents. The clues led her to deduce that the entrance was at Rimeskull, a mountain on the western edge of the Kodar Mountains in northwestern Varisia. Located on the banks of Lake Stormunder, it was named for the vaguely skull-shaped carving visible from miles away, the mouth of which was a large cave entrance. The path was set. Onward to Rimeskull.

Rewards Granted

Ding! Level Fourteen!

Missions/Quests Completed

Discovered the entrance to Runeforge.

Character(s) interacted with

Echo, faux vampire and terrible tour guide.
Dagourn, who just can't escape that slave life.
Gary, the 13th lv Monk with the trucker tan and affinity for salted and dried potato slices.

Campaign

Rise of the Runelords

Protagonists