Session 9: Jailbreak
General Summary
Nemara woke up alone in the storage room. Shortly after gathering g some of the party's things, she was pressed into service moving the bodies of the dead cultists through the labyrinth, where they were sacrificed to the bubbling pool in the Cathedral room. The acolyte she was working with said that a monster was forming in there, and that it would be powerful when it finished.
Afterward, Nemara tried to put the pieces together, but was startled out of her thought by a superior cultist ordering her to bring a green worm to the lab. The worm was an unnatural green shade, and had a mouth like a lamprey that gnawed at the glass where her fingers gripped it.. She brought it into a room where Vin was strapped down on a table, part of her robe cut away to expose her side. The cultist snapped at Nemara to hurry up and implant Vin with the word, but Nemara positioned herself so she could release Vin's restraints instead. Meanwhile, Vin had used Mage Hand to steal some gum arabic for Nelelue's Invisibility plan.
Together, th two heroic spellcasters killed the distracted cultist, and then put her body on the table where Vin's was. They passed her off as a failed test subject and sent the jailer to go fetch their friends, but Lins and Sigvurd knocked him out by faking a hold person effect, and stole his keys. They released Nelelue and fled toward the labyrinth, with Vin, Lins, and Nemara in disguise and Sigvurd and Nelelue invisible.
But Vin was distracted by their magic items in the long hall. When she cast a spell to distract the guard, the eye trap triggered again and alerted the citadel. The party had to flee through the secret door (whose opening knock Nemara had learned earlier) and the labyrinth, where kenku peppered them with arrows at every turn! Nemara used the secret knock to open the last door, and they fled toward the elevator, firing spells and arrows while Sigvurd turned the crank to lift them out of the room. His huge muscles strained to lift the five-person cargo, but Lins helped out and together they managed to propel the elevator out of harm's way.
After they stepped off at the top, Sigvurd severed the rope with one swing of his axe, sending it crashing down onto their pursuers.
The heroes have escaped the cultists' compound with precious information about their plans, but they'll still have to navigate the mine before they can deliver that information to the wizard Allustan, who anxiously awaits their return from his library in Diamond Lake.