Session 18 - Power of Friendship

General Summary

Date: 13th, 14th & 15th Day of Kythorn 1491 DR

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The Party:
Aether – Level 5 Human, Circle of the Moon Druid
Duncun – Level 5 Human, Battle Master Fighter
Barack'O - Level 5 Half-Orc, Bear Totem Barbarian

Report:

The goons take an hour of rest after defeating the floating animated armor in the room before heading out. As the party leaves the chamber, Barack'O jests that they should keep the danger signs that were posted on the doors to the room, so that they may hang them up on a door whenever they want to rest in a room. They continue exploring the western hall and open the door to the chamber next to the one they were previously in. There they find a chamber with a table in the center of the room. Laying on the table is another metal piece similar to the one Aether found in the previous room that fits into Barack's rod necklace. Xavien moves up to crap the piece when a burst of radiant energy explodes from the table, knocking the elf boi unconscious. Aether casts a healing word upon the fallen elf to bring him back, Xavien moves away from the table and at a distance uses mage hand to grab the metal piece off the table.

The party continues their exploration of the temple and the hallway turns northward, at the bend is another doorway and Barack opens the door and steps in finding a chamber with ten starving ghouls who have been locked away for who knows how long. Barack'O screams and flies into a rage as the ghouls begin to rush him, and Arqwyn throws a fireball into the center of the chamber destroying half of the ravenous undead. With the fireball doing a good amount of damage to the ghouls the rest of the gang are able to easily take out the rest of the undead creatures.

The goons now emboldened by their relatively easy victory continue down the hallway and find it turns eastward they continue and find another door. Aether listens at the door and hears voices discussing some sort of infiltration in the city of Everska. Barack'O kick opens the door and flies into a rage ready to ruin the day of the inhabitants inside. One of the large snake-like abominations turns around and looks at him and the rest of the group, two of the snake-headed, two of the mostly human-looking, and one grey-skinned human, prepare to defend themselves as the abomination slithers to attack Barack. A demanding battle for the goons ensues, With Aether and Barack trying to hold the door, the snake people attacking with their poisons and the grey-skinned wizard attacking at the back, Arqwyn throws a fireball in the chamber but her second one is counter spelled by the wizard. Barack, Xavien, and Aether all fall but the goons are able to defeat the conspirators. Arqwyn manages to stabilize Barack, who was the worse of the bunch, while Xavien quickly regained consciousness. The party drags Aether and Barack into the chamber and rest for the day, waiting for their downed party members to awaken.

Aether awakens to the sound of Duncun slapping meat, and the party rest for the remainder of the day to recover from their near defeat. They search the bodies and find a greater ring of protection and a wand of ice storms on the grey wizard. After a prolonged period of rest, the party continues its exploration eastward and finds that the hall has wrapped around to where they had entered the lower level. There is one door left near the torture chamber that they have yet to check, they notice heat coming from behind the door and as Barack opens the door and rush of hot air escapes. They see on the other side of the chamber a lava flow about 8 feet wide. Barack goes to the torture room to recover a corpse to throw into the lava and as he drags the body into the lava room - the incredible heat is almost unbearable - as Barack makes it halfway to the lava a fire elemental emerges and beings to attack him. The goons attack to defend themselves Aether and Xavien throwing ice knives at the elemental, eventually, the goons are able to snuff the living flame out and get Barack out of the fire.

The party now having explored every chamber in the lower level (minus the double-locked doors) feel like they must have missed something. They realize that they forgot to check the corpses of the ghouls and head back over to the chamber and find a pouch containing gold, a sapphire, and another metal shard as well as badly drawn sketch labeled "The Key". This key roughy looks like the rod that Barack had found as well as the metal shards that they had found combined. Aether excitingly whispers as she gazes on the sketch "the key of friendship" The group inserts all the metal shards into the rod and Aether exclaims "Our friendship personified!" The goons then head back to the locked double doors with the key in hand and as they approach a keyhole magically appears in the wall. They insert the key of friendship and the doors open to reveal a chamber with a great sense of power emanating from the room. The goons enter the chamber and upon a dais stans a large sphinx who proclaims "I know what you seek" to which Aether responds "We already found friendship" The sphinx, of course, is referring to the magical relic that Arqwyn has come searching for. The sphinx proclaims that it will grant the relic to whoever completes the test. A test of both courage and combat. Barack'O chooses to undergo the test and is teleported to a dark chamber where he comes face to face with a shadow version of himself. The two of them each go into a rage and begin trading blows of the greataxe. Ultimately the shadow Barack prevails and leaving Barack bloody and with a huge slash across his face. The barbarian faints and is teleported back to the chamber of the sphinx where the party sees a bloody Barack'O lying on the ground Aether quickly casts a healing word on the half-orc bringing him back from the brink of death, the grievous slash across his face leaving a scar. Duncun then volunteers to take the test and is instantly teleported once he makes the proclamation and comes face to face with a twin version of himself. The Duncuns trade volleys of arrows at each other until the shadow version draws his greatsword and charges the real Duncun. Duncun pulls his sword out in kind and slays the copy. At which he is then teleported.

So is all the party teleported and they awaken outside of where they had entered the temple ruins and find that the entrance they used has collapsed completely. A panicked Arqwyn asks if they have it and Duncun feels something strange on his person - a flat grey metallic disc about 10 inches in diameter- Duncun hands it to Arqwyn and she takes it relieved. At this point Arqwyn asks where is the elf and they now realize that Xavien is nowhere to be seen. The group then makes their way back to the outpost center of the Rasilith ruins and head over to The Muddy Elf inn for a well deserved warm meal. As the goons sit down to eat an elder gentleman approaches their table, at which Duncan says nope not interested before the man can speak. He frowns and is about to walk away when Barack'O and Aether encourage the old man to talk. at which point Duncan leaves the table and finds one on the other side of the inn. The man named Andres DeMarque, a wizard who hopes to hire a band of adventurers to bring him a seed from the Shrine Tree that lies in the hidden oasis. Andres is willing to pay 2,500 gold, or in potions roughly equal to the monetary reward. They ultimately agree thinking to get themselves some potions of healing.

Character(s) interacted with

Arqwyn Raptis’triskal - Dragonborn Wizard
Xavien - Young Elf Necromancer

Report Date

02 Mar 2020

Primary Location

Rasilith

Secondary Location

Anauroch