Session 308 - Night of the New Moon
General Summary
24th of Agrazhar to 1st of Azura 726TR
The Story So Far
The heroes are searching through the burned-out homestead of a coven of Agrik worshipers.
They have battled ghosts and flaming corpses and have finally discovered their objective: a powerful fire elemental from which they hope to use its magical essence to enhance their weapons. Unfortunately, the Magma Scorpion will not surrender its pieces without a fight.
This is the continuation of Session 307 - The Pontiff's Emissary.
Location - Claydon Manor in the Kingdom of Kaldor.
Part 1 – Rock and Flame.
Wreathed in flames, a huge elemental monstrosity emerges from the ruins. The Magma Scorpion's hide is rock hard and glowing with heat, and its stinger drips with burning lava.
Rycon lets out a mighty roar and charges forward, striking it with his blade, slightly cracking its hard outer shell. The malicious elemental catches the knight in the vice-like grip of its pincers and jabs at him with a flaming venomous stinger. Valeria calls on her shadow magic and summons the elemental’s greatest fear. The Phantasmal Killer works perfectly; what the alien monster sees in its battered mind is a mystery, but it begins to tremble and attempts to skitter away as fast as it can. However, it is vulnerable and quickly cut to pieces by the heroes.
Satisfied, the heroes dismember the elemental; its hard rocky shell is of no use, too brittle, but its tail stinger is collected as some of its fiery orange blood as well. An exhaustive search of the area finds nothing of value, so the heroes start their journey back to the City of Tashal.
Part 2 – The Twisted Tree.
A few days later, the characters approach a small village on the evening of the new moon and the first day of autumn. Some local peasants, torches in hand, give them a cheery wave as they pass by a crossroads with an old, almost dead, twisted tree. Dryueh’s sharp eyes spot an ambush; he sees suspicious movement of shadowy figures among the trees. They prove to be much more than common bandits.
Cloaked in dark robes and grey skins, the would-be assassins are not human. They leap between the shadows, wielding blades with a purple poison. Several are small and squat, only four feet tall, but others are thin and much taller. All have considerable magical powers, like Valeria specializing in shadow magic, attacking with Grim Tendrils and Vampire Touch, making a challenging and complex fight. However, they are weakened and momentarily dazed when Valeria summons Light, but they counter with more powerful Darkness spells.
The peasants are innocent parties and are also attacked, but escape after Dryueh comes to their aid. He subdues one of the small assassins with his sap and joins Rycon, cutting the would-be killers to pieces. The assassins explode with strange energies when slain, and one temporarily blinds and Slows Rycon. The most dangerous of the humanoids steps into a shadow and disappears, reappearing behind a tree across the crossroads. Dyueh follows, but as he nears the misshapen tree, he suddenly disappears. Still trying to figure out what happened, Rycon and Valeria deal with the remaining humanoids.
Part 3 – The Shadow Plane.
Meanwhile, Dryueh has stepped through a magical gateway to the Shadow Plane, a gloomy reflection of the world with no sun, moon, or stars. A magic circle inscribed in glowing red is on the ground nearby, and frighteningly hovering around him are three terrifying undead skeletal creatures. Their bony hands hold balls of chilling cold flames, which they throw at the startled rogue. One connects, and he feels a deathly chill, and cold flames begin devouring his flesh. Rycon and Valeria approach the twisted tree and step through the gateway, appearing just in time to assist Dryueh. Thinking fast, Valeria cast the Light spell again. Although slightly dulled in this strange world, the sudden burst of radiant energy is more than enough to startle and temporarily blind the undead.
The heroes take advantage of this situation and quickly destroy one of the flying horrors. However, the other two cast Shadow Blast, a quasi-real frost that causes injuries. Rycon is hit several times by the touch of one of the skeletons and, like Dryueh, becomes inflicted with flesh-destroying icy flames. Only Dryueh’s medical skills prevent him from passing out in pain. The second ghastly undead is eliminated, and Valeria Paralyses the third. Unable to move, it is an easy target for the character's ranged weaponry. The icy flames burning the heroes are eventually extinguished, and the heroes note that the magical circle is beginning to fade. They quickly walk on it, entering the gateway back to their home world at the exact location where they departed.
Part 4 – What Happened?
Dryueh reasons that the attack occurred during an auspicious time, the night of the new moon. He remembers the previous time shadow creatures assailed Valeria was also on a similar night (refer to Session 286 - Shadow Hunters).
Interrogating the captive humanoid, Rycon finds he cannot communicate; the captive speaks a strange tongue. Fortunately, the little man finds the knight’s presence intimidating. However, Valeria understands everything he has to say, and she innately learned Shadow Tongue when the magical mishap granted her shadow powers.
The grey-skinned humanoids call themselves Caligni, the Shadow Plane's version of the mysterious Night People, and this one serves Zynkayda, the Twilight Calamity, a mighty dragon of shadows. The Caligni believe Valeria has some of their master’s power, and to restore it, they planned to murder her, and the undead were to capture her soul and take it to their draconic master. Valeria lies, “You can’t have my soul; I have already sold it to a Demon Prince.” The stunned humanoid believes her, and as the sun rises, he fades back into the Shadow World to tell his master of his failure and what he has learned.
To be continued.
NPC Interactions
Nobody this week.
Challenges
1 x Elite Magma Scorpian.
6 x Caligni.
3 x Owb.
Rewards
Nothing this week.
Created Content
Nothing this week.
Related Reports
Player Characters
Valeria - Human Magical Experiment - L7 Shadow Sorcerer - Beastmaster.
Rycon - Human Rebel Knight - L7 Fighter - Liberator Champion.
Dryueh - 1/2 Elf Scout - L7 Thief Rogue - Vigilante/Medic.
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