Session 7 - The Hanurak Surprise

General Summary

We start with Hanurak in the cavern with Saresh after his epic slide, he checks Saresh is still breathing and looks around the room noticing three tunnels leading away and then laughter from one of them. Confirming that Saresh is stable he follows the sound.
Back with the others while having a short rest so Faen can heal Siemens of his wounds Astraea and Valanthe discuss why the amulet wasn't destroyed and why Valanthe was lied to about it. Even though she is unhappy with the deception she decides to continue with the group taking the amulet for safekeeping from the ground where it was still lying.
Suddenly Astraea hears voices coming from the dagger "blood of my blood vengeance shall be ours" repeating over and over getting louder and more urgent until finally "Astraea join us" is practically screamed into her head. Faen seeing Astraea's distress asks what is wrong and she grabs the dagger from him suddenly seeing a vision she tells the group. "I can see my home town many years ago with dragonborn refugees being taken in by the elven townsfolk. Years pass and I can see the dragonborn and elves being forcibly removed from the town some are wearing the crest of the order of Draco it looks like a much older version of my own family crest. More time passes and I can see the town is besieged over the horizon I can see my family's banners being flown at the head of an army as it approaches and frees the town." Coming out of the vision Faen takes the dagger from her and quickly hides it back in his robes before anyone can comment they hear laughter from the corridor and follow it to find Hanurak fighting 2 ghouls. Andre runs in attacking one of the ghouls with the rest of the group joining and just as it seems the fight is soon won another ghoul and Wight appear behind Hanurak. The enemies are finally defeated and seeing that Hanurak isn't too badly injured Artorias decides to go back to Saresh and take her to the village for healing.
The rest of the group return to their small camp and decide to venture further into the catacombs. They enter a plain looking room and as Faen lights the torches the group sees scattered pots and skeletons of the long dead in alcoves along the walls. There are 3 exits and as they look they notice a wire stretching across the floor. Astraea tries her Mage hand but nothing happens so Faen suggests Andre put his face up to one of the holes the wire leads into while Hanurak pulls the wire. Suddenly Andre sees a streak of light coming towards him and the room is engulfed in flames. Valanthe expertly dodges back into the corridor with Astraea and they are unharmed while the others all come out of the encounter singed around the edges especially Andre who has lost his gloriously bushy eyebrows. Astraea sends her owl down another corridor and comes to a closed wooden door and into a room which as the group discover upon entering is a lot older than the rest of the catacombs they had been in. There is a circular pattern in the room and Faen tells the others that it depicts Asmodius an arch demon of the nine hells and his followers the Group of Four, he tells the group that they were extremely devout but died out with the fall of the @Empire of Thirsk and that the demon belonged to the empire's anti pantheon. Before anyone can try to open the wooden door like a normal person Hanurak punches like a former Greek God splintering it from its hinges they all enter to see a small halfling child wounded on the floor an arrow sticking from her leg.
As Astraea tries to approach to help the girl the stone slab she stands on sends an arrow shooting from a recess in the wall. She dodges but as she looks she can see many more holes lining the walls. After much debating of different hare brained schemes and several attempts to talk to the girl scaring her even more, Andre has had enough and with a dash races for the girl who in her shock and blind fear pokes him in the eye as he tries to grab her temporarily blinding him. He finally manages to grab her and runs back but as he does he sets off more arrows with one of them hitting him in the shoulder through the girl he was trying to save.
Valanthe quickly heals the child and as she falls unconscious she whispers "thank you" and smiles warming Valanthe's heart. Faen makes a magical disc appear so the girl can be carried as it is decided to take her with them. While this was being decided Hanurak makes a rudimentary trap disarming tool out of his mess kit by combining a spoon and a fork which he proudly names as a spork. Andre attempts to disarm the trap but the spork snaps in half and Andre throws it across the room in disgust. Hanurak then remembers that Faen was learning a flying spell which prompts Faen to remember that he had learnt it and he could have just flown over for the girl in the first place.
With Faen and Hanurak flying and the others sitting on the disc they all cross the room and enter the room opposite. Andre approaches the centre and as he does he feels a dripping and is suddenly engulfed inside a gelatinous cube, struggling to free himself he realises that he is running out of air. Valanthe creates a small earthquake which takes out another gel that appears and Faen dodges away from another but takes a fatal hit, seeing this Astraea grabs the bottle she has been carrying since Jora's shop and pours it down Faen's throat. Meanwhile Hanurak is hacking at the gel holding Andre but it reforms as quickly as he can hack so with some teamwork Astraea fires magic missiles at it giving Hanurak enough time to pull Andre free. Faen comes back around in time to finish the fight and it is decided they take a short rest for Faen to again recover from his wounds.
As they are resting Haurak searches the room and finds some gold, Valanthe finds a wand of burning hands and Faen takes a scroll of mirror image. They decide to continue on and they enter another expansive room.
Hanurak hears a noise from the corridor and races down it with the others following. As they round the corner they stop to find 2 Hanuraks staring at each other. The group tries to work out which is the Oni having both dump their gold until Astraea finally realises Hanurak's sword would glow so she demands they both show her their swords. (This is utter filth Shell - God :-) )
As both Hanuraks unsheath their weapons the Oni shimmers and there are suddenly two of him. He quickly shoots a cone of ice at them and Valanthe is critically wounded while Astraea and Faen are also injured. Valanthe manages to force herself back to consciousness while the rest of the party attempt to kill the Oni with Hanurak and Andre throwing all their might in sword and bow but the Oni keeps healing himself. Astraea and Faen along with Hanurak come up with a plan to cast haste on Hanurak allowing him to get away in time for Faen to cast the devastating fireball spell luckily Andre manages to get away with minimal damage deftly doging the explosion with only some further slight singeing of his beard. The Oni is not so lucky and critically fails to doge the ball of fire being engulfing in its fiery heart. Looking the worse for wear and deciding enough is enough it turns into a mist and tries to escape but Faen throws a fire bolt at him instantly vapourising the cloud and returning the Oni to its true form dead on the ground
The group enter the Oni's lair and they see a room filled with treasure and expensive looking furnishings. They loot the room sharing the spoils between them an decide to head back to the village. They are greeted by the elders who are joyful to hear of the Oni's death and seeing their wounds take them to be healed. Saresh is being healed and looks to be on the mend and the girl is taken by Sheleen to see if they can locate her parents. The group decides to rest and recover from their ordeal and as they settle for the night after eating and drinking their fill Valanthe having a lot of things on her mind looks back at the group as she turns and leaves the village.

Rewards Granted

Cloak of Displacement Crossbow of Utu- Nanshe Bracers of Giant's Fury Wand of Burning Hands Wand of Magic Missile Scroll of Mirror Image.
3000 gp 3000 sp 6000 cp.

Missions/Quests Completed

Hunt for the Oni.

Character(s) interacted with

Saresh Foun Sheleen Fatus Grenn

Report Date

24 Jun 2018