Session 5 - The Protector God

Reese and Enna feel themselves being called further into town, and based off of the map, it seems like they're being lured towards the church. The group sets off, heading that way after some discussion, where they find the local church has some sort of bubble around it. Enna and Reese feel and urgency to go in, and they pass through the bubble with ease. The rest of the party, though, takes a moment to get through.
Enna and Reese get into the church, along with Etyo, and they see a small warforged without a face going through motions jerily, walking back and forth from shelves, to the feet of a statue, pouring an empty juge, and then moving back and restarting the motions. They find that there's some kind of gunk that's gummed up the warforged mechanisms, and they clear it out. He falls, and then pops back up again, introduces himself as Watcher, and the church as a church of Helm.
He explains that they were unable to get back through the barrier that went up "a few days ago" according to his systems, but his systems say it's still 127 AL. They've been looping in this stuck state for 77 years, but they don't know or understand this. He believes that Helm had put the barrier up when something came to attack the town in order to protect the church. They say their goodbyes to Watcher, and continue on their path up to the mysterious area on the map. Notably, Reese has cast Find Steed and a horse named Evangeline has appeared.
On the way to the mysterious area, Buxton-Clive takes a moment to run through one of the broken down buildings. Not through the rooms, but literally through the walls, and he runs so fast that it collapses behind him.
They continue after that, and find themselves at a mining entrance. It appears stable, although it also looks like it has been broken down and rebuilt to accomodate something larger. They hear in the cave what appears to be a voice, halting every few seconds as if they're taking a moment to do something in between each word, saying, "I know... not what I'll find here. I should not continue on. The walls are echoing with cries adn screams, and I hear her voice here. I know not whether I'm going mad or if this is some magic of the beast that dwells here... I should turn back." Notably, Buxton-Clive cannot understand this as it's said in Common.
They do a little bit of testing, realize Buxton-Clive can only understand Primordial, and that whatever is called into this cave begins to repeat. Reese calls into it in Deep Speech, and that starts to echo. They head in, sending Evangeline first in case there's traps, and they reach a branched mine tunnel. They hear water dripping coming from one of the tunnels, but it echoes through the tunnels so it's hard to pinpoint which side.
They head down into the left side, and come across what appears to be a deadend, with a large pool of liquid with humanoid bones in it, sitting in a man-made rock basin. The room is cavernous, a ceiling 50 feet in the air with stalactites. Etyo goes in as a bat and Evangeline the horse enters, and a Roper strikes out at the two of them, starting initiative. During the fight, Enna steps into the basin, and her boots begin to sizzle: there's a giant grey ooze in here as well. They continue the fight, with a major highlight being Reese crawling up the walls and using mold earth to loosen the roper and send it tumbling. Enna also has a problem where at one point, she takes double fall damage as she gets free of the roper.
After the fight, seeing no exit other than the one they'd come through, they take a moment to rest and chat. Enna decides to leave behind what she can of the items that she'd gotten from Binby Bleeker, understanding the likelihood of them being cursed. She leaves behind a set of dice, which Buxton quickly swipes up and puts into his pocket.