Session 096 - Too Quiet

General Summary

35th Planting - contd.

MIH - Main House - Sanctuary

After defeating the cinder swarms and the mephits, the party discusses where to look next. There is a spiral staircase that goes both up and down as well as the opening in the top of the pillar. As they discussed what they should do next, Tear asked Ell to come over and look at the book on the altar. It was mostly in Abyssal and seemed to contain the “teachings of Tolios,” i.e. capitalist propaganda. After he scanned a couple of pages, the Voice whispers into his mind, “This is fascinating, you must take the book. Your father will know exactly what to do with such wonderful stories.” In response, Ell reactivily cast Create Bonfire, causing the book to burst into flame. The others were shocked, but Ell played it off as thinking the book was cursed and had started speaking to him. This seemed to reassure the rest of the party and even earned the warlock praise for not just picking up the cursed object. The Voice, now angry, had a final message, warning that Ell had earned himself new punishment for disobedience and reminding him that his soul belonged to his patron.
While the others were busy with that, Ranunkel was curious about the pillar in the middle of the sanctuary. Laying a hand on the stone he began to push through hesitantly and was surprised to find that after a few moments his fingers brushed empty air. Now even more curious, Ranunkel took a deep breath and pushed his face through, finding that the interior was hollow. The pillar was also open at the top, allowing light to filter down. What was more disturbing was that the tunnel vanished straight down, but Ranunkel was able to spot the occasional flash on metal, realizing that there was a criss-cross of metal blades across the opening…clearly meant to disjoint a falling body. Pulling his head out, he told the others what he had found. It seemed clear that the people had been sacrificed by being compelled to jump inside.
Wanting to confirm that Janora climbed one of the ladders and made her way out to the top of the pillar trying to see if she could smell blood. There was a faint sickly sweet iron scent that seemed like old blood, but before she could do more, there was a short violent earthquake causing the entire building to shake and the second stained glass window to shatter. Janroa tried to hang on as the platforms shook and swayed but she fell off, landing on of the heavy wooden pews below. Several of the party were also knocked off their feet. The earthquake was over as quickly as it started and the team looked around in shock, trying to make sense of what had just happened. Based on the tunnel within the pillar it seemed likely that they needed to go down the spiral staircase, but Ell suggested they check upstairs quickly. Jilken agreed that it would be wise to make sure they weren’t leaving an enemy at their backs. While they did that, Ell told Tear to run outside and find Rimes and tell him to pull all his men out of the complex…in case there were more earthquakes and some of the buildings collapsed.

MIH - Big House - Second Floor

The upper level seemed to be deserted, mainly consisting of a long hall with a number of bedrooms. The first room looked fairly normal, but there were a number of potted plants all over which seemed strange to Janora. She sat down and began ritual casting Detect Magic while Ell noticed that there was a number of small gemstone figurines nestled among the plants. Janora finally announced that the plants were natural, although there were echos of a growth spell.
The other three bedrooms were similarly basic, but appeared fairly basic but lived in. The final bedroom door was locked, but Ell was able to pick the lock. Here the room looked like a whirlwind had moved through, throwing things everywhere. Assuming that the room had been tossed, Denye tried to look over everything to understand what someone might have been looking for, but quickly realized the mess was more likely made by someone swiftly packing. While she was busy, Ell was also looking around and discovered a journal at the bottom of an open trunk. Flipping through it, the young man realized it belonged to Laycie Sparspray, the half-orc cleric the party had met on their first visit. Even more surprising, it seemed that she had once been a student of Secret of the Bluff. Showing it to Denye, the wizard was quite surprised and shocked.
She quickly took the journal and began scanning it for clues. It seemed that indeed Laycie had indeed been a wizard apprentice under the elderly Tabaxi and had left to get some real world experience. She joined an adventuring party called the Brass Wardens and together that group had several adventures around Umberfell. The final entry was almost a year ago, but seemed fairly normal and didn’t say anything about how she could have ended up here. Knowing that there might be more, but time was short, Denye slipped the journal into her bag before suggesting that they should move on and head downstairs.

MIH - Big House - Basement

The kitchen area was untouched and the shelves of food were half full. A door on the left side of the far wall was closed, but a matching door on the right side was slightly ajar and light spilled out from beyond. Janora moved over to examine the closed door as Ell went for the open door. Ha’aash went to sniff around the food and Tear joined him, confiscating a few interesting cheeses and other items. Ranunkel began spinning slowly in place, trying to triangulate where the tunnel within the pillar came out.
Moving into the dining room, Ell spotted the secret door at the back and the empty chests that proved any gold had been taken. Swearing to himself he wandered back out to hear Janora announce that there was something dangerous beyond the other door. Before they decided whether or not to open it Ha’aash announce that he had picked up the scent of several people going through the wall between the two doors. That drew the attention of the others and after some investigation, Ranunkel was able to make out the outline of a door. He pushed his hand into the wall, but it was thick. Denye offered to Knock it open, but Ell spotted that one of the chain bases is slightly askew and there are scratch marks to be found on the wall around it. Reaching up he pushed it back to an even square and the secret door swung open revealing a hallway beyond. The smell of blood and something else, acrid and bitter wafted out. Recognizing that as the way to go, the team decided to leave the locked door for now.

Dreford - MIH - Secret Tunnel

The corridor leads down until it hits the tunnel with the canal of blood. At the nearer deadend, a large flame of arc white light danced above a bowl of bubbling acid that poured out and into the blood canal. It seems to help break down the flesh and bone while keeping the blood from congealing.There wasn’t much, it seemed to have mostly drained away, following the slope down to the east. The party was instantly wary of the flame, particularly when Janora recognized the small portal from which both flame and acid flowed. Not wanting to leave such a thing behind them, Janora pulled a large white candle inscribed with silver runes. Wedging it into a broken tile near the shrine she used a match to light the candle and backed away quickly. As the anit-magic candle burst into flame, the much larger flame in the shrine vanished. The acid didn’t, but it did stop flowing. The witch warned the others not to get too close as it would suppress all magic.
While she was doing that, Ranunkel had examined the canal and the blood-stained holes in the ceiling. One clearly had to be the other end of the pillar in the sanctuary, but where did the others come from? While the druid was pondering that, Ha’aash was sniffing around for the trail and triggered a glyph of warding that exploded in a blinding light. Ranunkel had enough time to close his eyes, but the poor kyree was not and lost his sight for several minutes. Not wanting to trigger another, Denye took 10min to cast Detect Magic and began to edge forward. She found two more glyphs. One was on the other side of the tunnel where Janora and Forest were walking. Luckily she was able to warn them in time and they edged past out of range. The second glyph was on the heavy stone door that blocked the end of the tunnel and took a Dispel Magic to get rid of. Ranunkel offered to WildShape and lift it, but even that wasn’t enough to shift the stone door. Denye was going to go for a Knock, but Ell suggested a more subtle approach and pulled out a magical wand and cast Passwall through the stone.

Dreford - MIH - Ritual Cave

The tunnel opens up to a larger natural cavern where the channel of blood drops over a short fall and into a larger ring of blood surrounding an island. A shield of some sort surrounded the blood ring and the island beyond, rising from floor to ceiling, it seemed to be mostly made of a thin gray mist that sparked with arctic light and black/red lightning and it was hard to see beyond. What was more evident was the large glowing crystal embedded in the floor in the blood canal. Several others were visible around the veiling shield.
Frustrated that they couldn’t get to where they could hear the cultists chanting, Jilken leapt forward and began slamming her spear into the glowing crystal. As it began to crack, the others spread out to take out the other crystals. They found demon, towering creatures with stretched skin over misshapen limbs. Sharp, jagged claws extended from skeletal fingers and sharp needle teeth in a wide mouth and eyes burning bright with neon flame. Several of the party engaged the gibbering fiends while the others worked to destroy crystals and harass the cultists with what spells could be conjured inside. Ranunkel also realized that the shield only extended to the ground so he sunk into the rock to begin trying to destroy one of the metal columns from below.
After the second crystal is possible to see a little inside the shield. What they saw was bad. Five twisted tripods of shadowsteel, each holding a convex mirror were anchored in a very full circle of blood. The island holds a pentagram shaped platform with a magic circle inscribed in the floor. A second circle was etched into the ceiling and between them stretched a somewhat translucent stretch of enormous chain links, each link as large as a man. The five cultists were standing at the points, backs to the chain, pouring fire into the mirror which focused it into a tight beam. All five beams were focused on the same spot, slowly burning through a single link of the chain. One side was already cut and they were three-quarters of the way through the second. By the time both demons were dead and two of the cultists had been knocked out of the ritual, they finished off the third crystal and, now able to see inside, Denye cast Arcane Gate just as the half-orc wizard Misty Stepped through behind her.

Report Date

17 May 2024