Session 24 Report

General Summary

During their escape with the black sphere from the two Flesh golems, Rho, Grohim and Yerin all stay behind to try and halt their advance, while Nafikta and TT go outside. Nafikta decided that the best course of action would be to fly into the mountains where the Golems could not follow. Meanwhile, the rest of the party makes mincemeat out of the two creatures, eventually strewing their limbs and entrails around the cave. They search the cave for a moment and investigate the letter addressed to TT. They also find some old journal entries lying on the floor, alongside a knit woollen hat.
Nafikta identifies the sphere and finds out that it is an evil artifact used to harvest souls from killed humanoids, which are then used as a sort of fuel to keep the golems moving. The souls inside are highly aggressive and want to get out. Shortly afterwards, she tries to communicate with whatever is inside and is greeted by something that called itself part of a collective of likeminded individuals, kept prisoner in the sphere. These creatures are apparently very, very old, predating the Barradin Empire. 
She strikes a deal with the beings in the sphere; and is promised power in exchange for the sphere's delivery to a stone ruin to the east of Lake Gerstad. 
She tells the party that her friends or colleagues are trapped in there, and that she needs to rescue them. The party does not question her word.
Grohim casts a spell to figure out how the curse of Lycantrophy works and how it can be treated. They need to gather a bunch of herbs and mushrooms and burn it in a ritual to engage in a communal, magical trance, during the night of the first transformation. During the trance, they will be able to somehow stop the curse from taking hold. 
The party then throws all the limbs of the two golems in a pit and sets it on fire, reducing it to ash and making sure that it doesn't move again. Afterwards, they head back to Cosade's Rest for a good night's sleep. They find that the shrine that Grohim repaired the other day is no longer present and go inside the tavern for a drink.
The next morning, the party lays plans for their journey and decides to go into the mountain to look for the Kobolds and the dragon that was spotted by the villagers. They also garner some information from the locals about the Duke and Rannalla. Afterwards, they take a well deserved rest  and prepare for the night, when they will have to perform the ritual to stop the curse.
They decide that they will go back to Lady Hardtoe's place and perform the ritual in the basement. They burn the herbs and they watch as the room transforms into a dark forest, with treetops so high that they cannot see them, illuminated only by a full moon. After a short while, they hear the heavy footfalls of a giant black boar with red eyes and engraved tusks charging towards them.
They quickly learn that the boar cannot be hurt and they realize that they will have to either escape or defeat the creature in another way. After some back and forth, Grohim lifts the boar up above his head and lets himself be devoured by the creature, after which he finds himself in a warm place where he feels completely at home. Nafikta tries to manipulate the visions around her and conjures up an ocean with a beach and flies towards it, eventually plunging herself into the water. Feeling no resistance of the water, she falls into a darkness and is confronted with the voice from the sphere she heard earlier today, reminding her not to forget the deal they made.
Being the only two left, Yerin and Rho make their own plans; as Rho distracts the creature long enough for Yerin to use his dagger to cut off one of the Boar's tusks, as he falls off the creature with tusk in his hands, he sees visions of his old home, with the friends that he lost, reminding him that they have not forgotten about him. Rho makes his escape into the trees, and runs vertically towards the heavens, to meet the Roc who swoops down on him.
With all of them returned to reality and the curse broken, the party realized they had one hell of a night.

Rewards Granted

One (1) Evil black Sphere holding the souls of some ancient creatures.
A woolen hat knit by Lady Hardtoe
A recipe for healing potions
XP previous total: 20570
Cremating the Flesh abominations 200XP
Identifying and communing with the sphere 300XP
Information gathering 100XP
Identifying and curing the Lycanthropy curse 900XP
1500XP, new total: 22070 
XP to level 7: 930

Report Date

04 Jul 2021