Session 27

General Summary

11th of Wealsun, year 595
The party takes a well-earned night's rest. During the night, an occasional wandering monster would approach, but they were quickly detected and easily dispatched by those on watch. In the morning, they set to investigating this mysterious set of doors that, again pointed out by Malex, had never been there before as far as he knows. The large set of doors featured the bas relief of all the known chromatic dragons on the face.
Examining the area, Irina and Toby discover what they believe to be a trapped area of stones at the entry, with a false stone situated in a tight alcove between the doors and a pool of lava. With Irina's new magical cape of bat-like wings, she flew Toby over to the stone, and examining the trap's mechanics behind it, Toby discovers it's a trap within a trap. Had he failed to detect and disable the deeper trap, disabling the easier to spot one would have resulted in being skewered by spikes and dumped into the lava pool. Fortunately, he was able to bypass this thieve's snare.
Once through the doors, the party came to an opening that contained two massive statues carved out of opposing walls -- one of Tiamat, and the other of some unusual green and black pastiche. Below each was a bowl 6' in diameter, and between then, an obelisk that shined of its own accord. Engraved upon it in Draconic:

“The Mother gifts the child wisdom, the child gifts all freedom! Give generously in gratitude else pass no further!”

After a great deal of deliberation, tests and trials of what to offer, everyone contributed items of value to the bowls, to be vanished, and a gift of increased ability gifted on each. With the exception of Wally who, in an attempt to gain the hightened boon, contributed his amulet of his goddess -- a good-aligned "gift" the great dragon mother did not appear to appreciate, cursing Wally with illness and vertigo. But once he sacrificed his own lute, it seemed to appease the spirit of the dragon, and the curse was lifted, but without a bonus left.
Additionally, the companions, Lief, Uowyn, and Will, only seemed to be gifted with a moderate gift in ability, possibly due to the fact they sacrificed only coin. However, Irina, who sacrificed every coin she owned, was gifted the full bounty of blessing. Which seemed to add to the already unusual sense of belonging and serenity she felt since stepping into the area. Conversely, poor Malex felt ill the entire time, although his constitution was strong enough to keep him from being unduly affected.
The party sacrificed: The Blood Blade, a masterwork bow, a mw. sword, Wally's amulet to [goddess], a Potion of Climbing, all of Irina's coin, Wally's lute, 6 pieces of simple jewelry
They continued on to a stone bridge that spanned a large pool of molten lava, yet some magical wall of darkness stood in the way. This was handily dispelled, but as Irina continued walking, she stepped upon a Sygil of Force etched on the bridge, causing her to nearly fall off the side--saved by her Cape of Flying! The rest of the party was able to jump over once they knew where to look.
The natural lava tube passage continued down and around in a wide spiral, leading to a worked-stone corridor. The party investigated its length, discovering 6 tight alcoves, each with a chromatic-representative dragon statue. Toby opened a set of doors at the far end, unfortunately without finding the trap connected to them. A 10-food-wide stone ball rolled down through the doors, at the same time opening spiked pits in each of the alcove and breath weapon blasts from the statues. Some damage taken, some avoided, and some being crushed by the stone. But one recovered from the initial wave of trap damage, Irina and Urowyn made it to the top of the ramp to find another door, with a large dragon face bas relief, with a deep mouth and keyhole at the back.
The rest of the party accumulated at the top of the ramp... unfortunately, the stone reached a teleport point and re-appeared back at the top, crushing at least one in the party, while others very narrowly avoided it. Urowyn and Lief managed to hold the stone in place while Toby went back and reset the trap that set it moving to begin with, re-enabling the wedge to stop it from rolling!
With that threat dealt with, Toby was then able to pick the lock of the door up top, and the party moved on through.
It opened up into a large natural cavern with a raised area and carved stairs, and a marked increase in ambient temperature. Indy (the intellect devourer) seemed to see something in the middle of the room and stated, "We're not alone." Irina, with her natural resistance to heat, began investigating a way through the scalding and scorching patches of heat that seemed to appear around the room. Additionally, what sounded like from somewhere in the distance, a booming yet screeching voice seemed to be shouting commands in an utterly alien language.
Finally, after stepping into lava at one point, Irina was able to make out an hallucinatory terrain cast on the room, hiding a crescent pool of lava around a natural stone dais on which sat a giant statue of a dragon. Behind and beneath the dragon was a hole from which the voice appeared to echo out from. The party investigated to find a pit that went down a couple hundred feet into water. Irina flew down to investigate and found, a distant subterranean island covered in treasure with a titanic dragon statue standing over it, an actual Beholder (and not one of the minor "eye tyrants" that have been encountered thus far) flying, cackling, to the treasure, and a poor umber hulk quickly sinking to the bottom of the underground lake below her. And a large row boat with a carved dragon prow.
The party made their way down into the boat, paddling closer to the island, and once they disembarked at the edge of the mountain of treasure, the Beholder burst forth and threatened death....
Until an impossibly giant fist appeared and closed around the Beholder like it were an insect, and squeezed it to bursting. The hand belonged to a red human-bull creature at least 100 feet tall, who then shrank to a mere 15 feet before greeting the party. Lief recognized his as Moloch, the current ruler of the 9 Hells in Asmodeus' stead (who, along with Bahamut, Tiamat, and Titiana the Queen of the Fey, sacrificed his avatar to create the Gloghcrhim). Moloch indicated he ("they") had had their eye on the party, but was curious about the time they disappeared from the Material Plane. And what they were doing with an aberration inside an aberration (the intellect devourer inside the star-span seer). They explained their quest, which appeared to amuse Moloch greatly.
“You were told by a creature of the Elder World, that to stop the coming of the Great Abominations, you would need to give him the minds of arcane servants of the Old Ones? And you believed him? How precious!”
He explained the Mind Flayer must have set them on a quest to free himself, as in actuality, in order to seal all the Locks, they would only need to perform the spell-song on the fifth and final Lock. But also, as it's needed to open the Locks, sealing them would require the mortal blood of a "child of Asmodeus" to do so.
Moloch inquired if Irina would be that one. But if not, he knew of two other that could be of use:

In the town of Crescent, are two Children of Asmodeus. He is a criminal, a murderer of the innocent in fact, and has a heart of darkness, someone I imagine “heroes” such as yourselves would find the world well rid of; and she, however, while pure and good, suffering from a fatal disease that the town’s clerics can only at best slow down. She would be more than willing to allow her death to mean something significant to help others.

He then offered to Irina that should she decide to give up her Patron, being one of the ilk which they are seeking to keep from their plane, he would be happy to fill that role for her.
Questioned why he would help them, Moloch explained that, unlike their Mind Flayer friend, he would lose his access to the Material Plane should the Old Ones return and the eldritch veil torn. He had much to lose if the party did not succeed. Asked by Malex if he'd swear he was telling the truth, Moloch offered to form a pact, which Malex declined. Taking their discussion among themselves about asking the female tiefling if she would sacrifice herself else Irina would offer, as agreement, Moloch began to teleport them to Crescent.
Thinking quickly just in time, each of the party members scooped an armful of treasure up as they began to fade, luckily, no one attempting to grab from the same part of the pile as a comrade.
The party appeared at the top of a hill, just a mile east of the town of Crescent. Out in the distance beyond the town, was the familiar sea, and at the horizon, a pillar of moving light stretched from the water up through the clouds to disappear into the sky. This was obviously the sign of the location of the fifth Lock.
As the were getting their bearings, Indy spoke up, confused, saying, "Are we not getting my food?" The party attempted to mollify the creature, but when it became clear the party was not going for the second half of the meal he was compelled to seek, Indy exploded in rage and the power of the star-spawn seer's body in which he resides.

Rewards Granted

Toby:

• 110 gp, 16 pp
• 2 x Emerald (1000 gp)
• 2 x Star ruby (1000 gp)
• Star sapphire (1000 gp)
• 2 x Yellow sapphire (1000 gp)
• Amulet of Proof Against Detection and Location (uncommon, DMG 150)
• Bracers of Defense (rare, DMG 156)
• Ring of Animal Influence (rare, DMG 189)

Wally:

• 170 gp, 18 pp
• Sable Boots inlaid with Silver (750 gp)
• Sable Hunter's Cap inlaid with Electrum (750 gp)
• Pearl of Power (uncommon, DMG 184)
• Rope of Entanglement (rare, DMG 197)
• Infernal Tack (legendary, MTF)
• Wand of Lightning Bolts (rare, DMG 211)

Malex:

• 80 gp, 18 pp
• Art (5 at 750 gp): - Ceremonial electrum dagger with a black pearl in the pommel, Gold dragon comb set with red garnets as eyes, Silver plated steel longsword with jet set in hilt, Painted gold war mask, Small gold idol
• Spell Scroll(Cantrip) - Poison Spray
• Potion of Fire Breath
• Hat of Wizardry (common, XGE)

Irina:

• 60 gp, 18 pp
• Silver Medallion inlaid with Copper (250 gp)
• Ermine Choker (250 gp)
• Sable Hunter's Cap (250 gp)
• Spell Scroll (Animate Objects) (rare, DMG 200)
• Spell Scroll (Bigby's Hand) (rare, DMG 200)
• Necklace of Fireballs (rare, DMG 182)
• Greater Silver Sword (legendary, MTF)
• Ring of Spell Storing

Character(s) interacted with

• Moloch, the presumptive Prince of the Nine Hells

Report Date

25 Mar 2020