Session 095 - Rough Music Rising

General Summary

35th Planting - contd.

Dreford - Three Bells

While the party sleeps, Commander Rimes has established himself in one of the private rooms and the party will wake with a note saying the commander would like to speak to them. He’s quite curious to hear their side of the story. He has Lt. Stronginthearm’s report and he’s already spoken with Kif and Berrith, but he’d like to hear it from them directly. Most of the party was ready to go down directly, but Janora took a few extra minutes to ritual cast Detect Magic. The witch was wary of being caught in another anti-magic field, but Rimes didn’t seem to have any such magics around him. Ell took the lead on telling the heroes’ story, starting with being awoken by Forest’s echoing bark to collapsing the arcane portal and finishing up the last of the fire spiders. Ranunkel added how they had been trying to shield other guests and keep the monsters from attacking.
Rimes actually seemed to show a bit of respect at last. Moving on however he asked what they had made of the portal and the shadowsteel spikes that had been used to power/keep it open. Janora was able to say that it went to the Abyss but beyond that it was hard to tell without going through and no one had wanted to do such a thing. Denye spoke about the spikes and how it had been a fascinating use of magic, but beyond the fact that the shadowsteel was etched with Abyssal symbols she told Rimes she hadn’t had a chance to study it. Rimes then told them how Everoim had already been out this morning to examine both the shafts of metal and the site. The only real piece of information the other wizard had been able to add was that the portal had opened to somewhere called the Conflagratum. That name meant little to Rimes or most of the party, but Janora recalled hearing a story about an angel who fell into madness and took his entire city into the Abyss with him. This angel was known as the Lord of Infernal Light and his domain was Conflagratum, a realm of constant burning and strange twisted monsters.
He went on to ask why the team thought someone would attack the inn in such a way. Denye admitted that it was likely that the party was the target. Ell was insistent that the culprits were the Ministry and that they were the ones responsible for the other fires as well. That made Rimes’ eyes narrow in thought, but he asked if they had any proof. Ell admitted that it was circumstantial only, but told him how Janora had scryed using a piece of chalk and connected with Overseer Feywine. Denye added how they have visited the Ministy’s compound and found balefire all over the place…which seemed to match with some of what they found at at least Kessforte. Before Rimes could ask another question, Capt Tato and a shaggy blond who introduced himself as Capt. Alexi Wolfgang. When Tato saw Janora he got a little awkward, but did offer an apology of sorts for the misunderstanding a few days ago. Janora accepted it, although she then simply dismissed the man from her mind, turning back to Rimes. At an interrogative look from the Commander, Tato reported that he had watchmen keeping an eye on the Ministry’s enclave. It seemed quite, although the gates had not been opened and that in and of itself was quite unusual. Recognizing the tension still between Tato and Janora, the pair of captains saluted and left.
Rimes turned back to the party and asked what they planned to do next? Janora pointed out that it was clear they needed to find the clerics of the Ministry and stop them before something else happened. The others agreed this was probably the best plan, especially if they could capture one of the clerics to be questioned and stand trial. To that end, Janora asked if they could borrow a set of shackles like Tato had used on her. Rimes seemed to be surprised by this but did agree that he would do what he could. He also acknowledged that if these cleric could open such a portal, at least one of them was skilled magically and would probably be more than his watchmen could handle. He suggested that if the party was willing to wait for a bit longer, Rimes would go to the Tyrant and see about getting a warrant. That would allow him to bring in some of his people to help support and secure the innocents while the party focused on the leaders. That seemed reasonable to everyone and Rimes packed up, promising to meet the party at the north gate in an hour.

Dreford - Celestial Dragon

Denye suggested that before they went into the compound, they might want to get a few healing potions and to perhaps see what else Aubergine had been working on. This seemed like a great idea so the entire party headed off in that direction. The copper dragonborn was quite happy to see them and did in fact have several upper healing potions. The team also picked up a couple of haste potions as well as a pair of fire resistance potions, and a large warhammer that Aubergine called the Party Pooper.
Since they were there Ell asked the artificer wizard what he knew of the Abyss and Conflagratum in particular. The entire team was somewhat surprised to learn that Aubergine did know something, including that its ruler Alzrius was one of the Chained Oblivion’s most trusted lieutenants. Wanting to focus on the immediate problem, they suggested that perhaps they could come back later for a consultation and conversation about the Abyssal plane.

Dreford - Ministry of Idle Hands

Commander Rimes was waiting at the North gate with six score watchmen and a warrant. The gates of the compound were still closed and the watchers reported that they had seen no one.come in or out. Ell cast Eldritch Sight to look through the palisade, but he saw nothing either. Janora sent Forest over the wall to sniff around while Helenwye took a quick look over the whole place. What they found was disturbing. No people moved between the buildings, although there were several of the golems that could be seen herding goats into the slaughterhouse and more were simply standing around. Forest reported that all of the smells were hours old and the most recent seemed to suggest that everyone had gone toward the main building, but when he tried to go in that direction, one of the golems moved toward him so the dogesus leapt into the air Denye had Helenwye hover over the animal pens and had the disturbing realization that most of the pens were empty…where they had not been yesterday evening.
Realizing they needed to get the gate open, Ell tried to push it open using Telekinesis. He pushed and pushed but while there was a cracking sound from behind the gate, it just wasn’t enough. Forest confirmed that there was a wooden bar across the gates and at Janora’s direction tried to push it out with his nose, but couldn’t budge it. Rimes was about to sent a few of his men with axes to deal with it, but Denye said she would handle it. Stepping forward, she began casting a spell and Knocked, causing the wooden gates to explode inward. That actually got a grin from the Commander. The squads of watchmen were ready to pour in as Rimes instructed them to secure the outbuildings, but Janora stopped them, saying they should wait until the adventurers had a chance to check for traps. That seemed to earn the witch a few pleased glances, including one from Tato. Ell suggested that if they knew everyone had gone toward the main house, then perhaps it would be better if the team went straight there…and perhaps the watchmen could be useful keeping the golems busy so the party could slip through. Ranunkel had a trick up his sleeve for that, a spell that hid people under a veil of misdirection. After Janora prepped herself with a few spells, they went in and were able to slip past the golems without issue.

Drefored - MIH - Big House

Before they got into the building Denye stopped to examine one of the statues in the antechamber and was shocked to discover that the statue, niche, and wall were all of a piece. She called Ranunkel over to look at it and after realizing that the stone was not from the material plane suggested that the entire building might have been grown…at the very least the outer shell and these inset decorations. That was slightly disturbing and hearing that it could have been grown, Janora laid a hand on the wall. For a second the witch thought she might have sensed the echo of a presence, but it was gone before she could identify it.
The scriptorium is empty but in good order. While Ranunkel and Janora went to check the now dark fireplaces, the others went to check the Overseer’s desk. A glyph of warding exploded when Denye opened the drawer and they were all hit with a burst of incandescent light. Most of them managed to close their eyes in time, but Ell reeled with spots in his eyes. Even worse, all that was in the drawers were a box of glass pens, a bottle of ink, and a stack of seemingly blank paper. Nor did the other two have much luck in the fireplaces, neither held sign of any burned paper.
They had more luck in the Overseer’s office where things have been overturned and a fireplace bore proof that much had been burned, but still the remains of pages that could be sifted out. These seems to be in code, but Denye was able to break it fairly quickly and learned that Overseer Feywine was actually Lady Nivasina Yarkath, a shadow elf and member of the cult of Unmaking. She was also quite involved in matching a portion of the Shadowlands with the demi-plane of the Lost Kingdom. As if that wasn’t enough, she was able to piece together that the plan had been to use the workers as sacrifices on the vernal equinox to break one of the divine chains. In addition to loosening the Chained One, the resulting explosion will claim much if not all of the city, further destabilizing the line between life and death and creating more of the dead for later use.
The sanctuary is a mess with clothes and shoes scattered everywhere. The party was immediately suspicious of the stone pillar that rose in the middle of the room, even more so the suspended metal grating above that seemed to lead to the top of that pillar. Denye sent Helenwye up to have a look and confirmed that it was hollow and without sending the pseudodragon down, she couldn’t tell how far it went. Ell meanwhile had noticed a secret door on the far side, where a fallen shoe seems to have kept it open. Before Ell or Denye could do more, swarms of cinders swirled up from several of the braziers and attacked the party, able to see them under Ranunkle’s spell. As they fought, two packs of radiant mephits joined the fight. Several of the adventures got singed but they quickly realized ice spells were quite good against the swarms. The mephits swarmed Tear and raked at him with his claws as both he and Ell took out one or two of them. Denye put them all to shame however as a single Shatter spell took out all the rest as she shaped it around the goblin. It also took out one of the big stained glass windows. All of the damn pests exploded in bursts of radiation and poor Tear got caught in a couple of them. As everyone got their breath back and looked around for more surprises, the wizard walked over and handed Tear a health potion.

Report Date

02 May 2024