Session 27 - Release the Flood
General Summary
Unknown
Jilken was the first to wake, needing only the four hours of trance. But the rest of the time passed without sign of enemies and shortly after the dome vanished the others began waking up. Once everyone had something to eat, Janora stealthily moved up to the northern doors. As they approached the doors slid open revealing a square room with several large wardrobes along with two magical circles engraved in the floor in opposite corners.
When there was no sign of foes, the witch waved the others into the room and went to examine one of the spell circles. As the rest of the team entered, Denye came over to join Janora. Between the two of them they were able to ascertain that the primary spell had something to do with changing the physical nature of a space, but it was magic unlike either of them had seen.
While they were doing that, Ell began going through the cabinets. He found several sets of soft cotton robes, but little else. Lus and Jilken both got the same idea and stepped into the circles and pressed the buttons. A moment later, walls of force leapt into place around each of them and the very air around them began to vibrate quickly. Two minutes later the walls dropped and both party members stepped out feeling refreshed and clean.
Jilken suggested that the others might like to try it, but no one seemed eager to volunteer. Ell had slipped one of the robes on and warning the others, he cast Minor Illusion on himself to look like one of the halflings they had fought.
Janora meanwhile moved up to the other set of stairs and found another set of doors around the corner. These too slid open at their approach. The room beyond was large and rectangular, with two grates set into the floor on the short walls. The southern wall was dominated by a mural of a mountain range rising above a redwood and cedar forest. To the north were two sets of stairs leading up, with a long strange table covered in odd machinery.
As the party entered, Denye and Ell were entranced by the large mural and spent some time examining it, trying to determine where it . Meanwhile, Lus went over and began examining the table. None of it seemed to be operational, but it did seem to trigger some sort of black sludge to begin rising out of the grates.
Ell fired a Ray of Frost at one of the rising oily sludge creatures, crystalizing some of its outer shell as Citrene hit it with a javelin. The pudding pulled itself free and oozed toward Jilken, slamming an oily psuedopod into the elf.
Lus tried to find a switch or lever that would stop the creatures, but finding nothing ran over to the nearby grate. Janora ran up beside Ell and holding out a hand called down a Moonbeam directly on top of the second pudding.
Jilken whipped out her lightening spear and sliced into the goo, almost slicing it in half. The two smaller goo monsters pulled themselves apart and focused on Jilken. The fighter elf brought the spear down once more and split one of the oozes into two smaller ones. Confused Jilken jumped up onto the table to get away from the black puddings.
Denye, seeing all of this chaos, made a mad dash for the center of the room. Spinning she sent out three Scorching Rays at the smaller puddings. One of the tiny ones evaporating in a greasy cloud. Both of the other rays hit, but the two puddings seemed to be made of tougher stuff.
Holding out both hands Ell sent two Eldritch Blasts lancing toward opposite sides of the room. One disintegrated remaining tiny pudding, the other threw the full size pudding into the wall near Lus. Citrene ran forward with their hammer and smashed the medium pudding into the ground.
The single remaining large pudding oozed it's way down the wall and slammed an oily tentacles into Lus' back, but the small bard dodged out of the way. Turning to look at the monster right behind them Lus cut of the psuedopod with their dagger.
Janora just smiled and moved the Moonbean on top of the ooze again, it's outer shell sizzling in the soft light. Jilken pulled out the Rainbow Reaper and kissed the snowflake before taking aim. As she did so, the tattoos along her neck began to glow. The crossbow bolt disappeared into the goo and a moment later the ooze vanished as well. The elf yelled, "It's only gone until my next turn, but it will show up in the same spot." Hearing this the party prepared attacks and when the pudding reappeared pummeled it into oblivion.
Once it was clear that the threat was done, Denye and Citrene went over to explore one of the grates, but didn't find anything of interest. It seemed to be a bricked opening, maybe 3ft deep. While they were looking, Ell tried the door on the far end of the room and found another room with two magic circles and a few sets of wardrobes. A quick investigation uncovered a small scroll case containing a spell scroll of Magnify Gravity.
Jilken moved forward and listened at the door leading north, but couldn't hear anything. Unlike some of the other doors this one did not automatically slide open. Upon closer examination there was a smallish panel of some dark metal set to one side of the seam. Jilken touched her shock spear to it, but it didn't seem to have any reaction. When that didn't work, she pulled out a crowbar and began trying to wedge the door open.
After looking at the grate, Denye had begun ritually casting Detect Magic and the spell completed just as Jilken started to pry the door open. The soft sounds of abjuration sang from the small metal plate on the door. The wizard was about to call out a warning when she was distracted by the symphony of illusory coming from the mural. Exploring further revealed that one section was vanished with a switch was pressed. The room beyond was empty, save for a teleportation circle engraved in the floor. Smiling to herself, Denye took careful note of the anchor sigils, before running back to join the others.
Jilken had managed to get one of the doors halfway open with the prybar and between Citrene and themselves managed to get the doors to slide open. The room beyond was massive, easily 100x150ft with ceilings that soared 60-70ft high. Four large stone archways flanked the side walls but the room was dominated by three large pillars surrounding an enormous stone pipe. Silver chains ran from each pillar to a large blue crystal in the center, from which water poured. It was quite clear what the problem was, while one of the chains glowed with a soft light, the other two were dark.
As the party entered the sound of hisses and groans was audible from an upper platform at the back. Recognizing it as Abyssal and an incantation for some sort of spell the party circled toward the back and Ell attempted to sneak up the stairs to see what was going on. Unfortunately, as he was climbing the stairs, he caught a foot on the robes and stumbled to his knees, drawing the attention of the figure standing there.
Ell did however manage to catch a glimpse of what was happening on the platform. Some sort of large ritual circle had been scrawled on the floor in blood and within the circle were two glowing fist-sized crystals, one yellow and one red. Before the circle was a humanoid looking figure, but not any of the races the party had met before. Almost 7ft tall, the creature was covered in a bony exo-skeleton with the occasional chuck of amber embedded somewhere. Even his face was covered by a weird bone mask.
Stepping forward he looked down at Ell and laughs, "Have you come to join us? We shall open the gate and call forth the Brethren. The time to has come to release Eltab from his Infernal tormentors. This place will become a staging point, it's people foot soli...."
Denye stepped forward a bit as he talked and tossed a small red bead of light at the person. It blossomed into a fireball as it hit his chest, followed quickly by a crossbow bolt from Jilken. Smoldering and stumbling backwards into the circle, the demon creature called out, "Intruders! Protect the sanctum!" At his words, two large stone statues activated and stepped forward out of the wall niches, the blank stone eyes focused on the half of the party near the stairs (Ell, Jilken, and Lus).
First to react was Citrene yelling, "Lus, look out," before charging at one of the large stone golems and fired a crossbow at it, the bolt jamming between arm and shoulder. Letting out a shout of defiance, the small halfling began to change. Thick brown hair began to cover their skin, their form grew stockier, and their face began to lengthen into a muzzle with two large front teeth. A moment later a thick leathery tail unfurled, landing on the floor with a thump.
Ell was the next to respond, sending Eldritch Blasts at both golems sending them stumbling back, before he ran up the stairs to the edge of the circle. As he did so he saw the exo-warrior picking up the two glowing crystals and embedding them his chest armor as he cursed in Abyssal. At the same time Janora ran forward and called down another Moonbeam onto one of the stone creatures.
Lus ran up the stairs as well and Suggested that he should hand over the crystals. The strange being just laughed, "I promise I shall show you what they do shortly, but I do not think I will be giving them up." Jilken bounded up, her tattoos glowing and laughed before saying, "Perhaps take a moment to reconsider." The bolt caught the creature under the chin. The body began to fall limp, but then vanished as the Banishment took hold. Without even looking Jilken send a second bolt into the golem in the Moonbeam.
Denye summoned her meteor swarm and sent small projectiles at each of the golems as they lumbered forward. Using the cover Citrene ran forward and bit deep into one of the arms, breaking off a huge chunk.
Ell moved over near what appeared to be a console of some kind and sent two crackling Eldritch Blasts toward the statues. One went wide but the other connected, throwing the golem back a few steps. A moment later there was a clatter as the body of the creature reappeared sans mask with the bolt buried through his throat.
Janora sighed at the need for continued violence and moved the Moonbeam back over the stone golem. As they did so the statue crumbled into a pile of rubble. Lus moved over to examine the body and realized that the face was that of Lindum Pondjumper, an older halfling and the only survivor of the team sent to check on an groundquake at the southern end of the canyon some weeks ago. Conjuring a Mage Hand they pulled the red gem out of the chest and ran down the stairs toward the closest pillar.
Jilken sent two more bolts into the remaining giant as it swung at Citrene, bringing a large stone fist into the top of their head. Denye followed it up with two more meteors that blew the head off the remaining golem.
With combat ended, Jilken called to Denye, "You should come take a look at this circle before I start smudging the lines." The wizard did as requested and spent some time examining it and learned that it was a portal to some portion of the Abyss. "Yeah," she said, "you should just close it...we don't want anything to do with that."
Ell used his own mage hand to pull out the yellow gem and he and Denye took it down to join the others at the pillars. As Jilken started to break up the circle, the strange exo-skeleton began to melt away into a clear goo, leaving the body of the dead halfling.
The pillars proved to be carved with images of elements. The northern pillar was wrapped in flames, while others were wrapped in clouds or trees. Finding a slot in the northern pillar, Denye quickly fitted the red gem into the hole and slid a panel closed over it. As the door closed, the chain connecting the pillar to the blue gem lit up and the water output doubled.
Quickly moving over to the cloud pillar, Ell fit the yellow gem into a similar slot and once more the chain lit up and the water increased. With the sound of water now echoing through the room Lus came back up to examine the panels. Noticing that the back of the balcony held a number of windows covered with metal shutters the bard quickly pulled them opening revealing a very strange landscape. The sky was greenish rather that the blue that one would expect, the clouds a burnt orange and the ground stretched out broken pinkish red soil with no other signs of life.
No one else could make sense of it either, but with the water now flowing the group declared their mission a success and headed back to the village and the promised return to the Glitterhame and Bel Khildor. Other than the walkway around the waterfall being slicked by the spray, the trip back was quiet and uneventful.
Back at the village, Jakwet and the others were thrilled with the party's work and insisted on throwing a feast for them before sending the party back. The team only accepted when the old priest admitted that he could only send them back after dark...so it was going to be an hour or two before that could happen.
Thrilled to be able to thank them the elderly gnome pulled out a large metal bowl that he filled with a pink powder. Holding both hands over it, he muttered a few phrases and cast Hero's Feast as an entire table covered with every manner of food sprung into being.
As the meal ended, Jakwet also presented Janora with a box. Opening it, the witch found two spell scrolls, a set of small amber statues and two bags of the pinkish powder. The statues proved to be carvings of the four large god statues at the center of the village; Huntokar, Milil, Celestian, and Milani. Handing the spell scrolls to Denye, the half-elf asked about the powder. Jakwet explained that it was rosium, a sort of universal magical powder.
Leading them back to the small shrine, Lus announced that Citrene and they would return with the original team to help out with their mission in return. After only a little protest the gnome priest agreed. After wiping his glasses, he peers up at the sky above, a sliver of star field framed by canyon walls. Pulling out a silver wand he began to wave it, drawing a circle of deep blue light around the party, once, twice, thrice. Coming to stand before them he offers a prayer:
Protectors and Guardians, we thank you for the aid.
Your champions have restored the balance of Starfall.
I ask that you return them to their place with our gratitude.
Milani, you who shelter the oppressed shelter them in your wings.
Huntokar, mighty stalker, shield their back.
Milili, grant them bounty and inspiration in their hunt.
Celestian, open the starpaths and guide their journey.
Reaching up with the wand, the gnome begins drawing starlight down and tying it to the ring of light around the party. He did this seven times and as he completed the eighth, the swirling sand flies up once more and that now familiar feeling of gravity shifting hit the party.
When there was no sign of foes, the witch waved the others into the room and went to examine one of the spell circles. As the rest of the team entered, Denye came over to join Janora. Between the two of them they were able to ascertain that the primary spell had something to do with changing the physical nature of a space, but it was magic unlike either of them had seen.
While they were doing that, Ell began going through the cabinets. He found several sets of soft cotton robes, but little else. Lus and Jilken both got the same idea and stepped into the circles and pressed the buttons. A moment later, walls of force leapt into place around each of them and the very air around them began to vibrate quickly. Two minutes later the walls dropped and both party members stepped out feeling refreshed and clean.
Jilken suggested that the others might like to try it, but no one seemed eager to volunteer. Ell had slipped one of the robes on and warning the others, he cast Minor Illusion on himself to look like one of the halflings they had fought.
Janora meanwhile moved up to the other set of stairs and found another set of doors around the corner. These too slid open at their approach. The room beyond was large and rectangular, with two grates set into the floor on the short walls. The southern wall was dominated by a mural of a mountain range rising above a redwood and cedar forest. To the north were two sets of stairs leading up, with a long strange table covered in odd machinery.
As the party entered, Denye and Ell were entranced by the large mural and spent some time examining it, trying to determine where it . Meanwhile, Lus went over and began examining the table. None of it seemed to be operational, but it did seem to trigger some sort of black sludge to begin rising out of the grates.
Ell fired a Ray of Frost at one of the rising oily sludge creatures, crystalizing some of its outer shell as Citrene hit it with a javelin. The pudding pulled itself free and oozed toward Jilken, slamming an oily psuedopod into the elf.
Lus tried to find a switch or lever that would stop the creatures, but finding nothing ran over to the nearby grate. Janora ran up beside Ell and holding out a hand called down a Moonbeam directly on top of the second pudding.
Jilken whipped out her lightening spear and sliced into the goo, almost slicing it in half. The two smaller goo monsters pulled themselves apart and focused on Jilken. The fighter elf brought the spear down once more and split one of the oozes into two smaller ones. Confused Jilken jumped up onto the table to get away from the black puddings.
Denye, seeing all of this chaos, made a mad dash for the center of the room. Spinning she sent out three Scorching Rays at the smaller puddings. One of the tiny ones evaporating in a greasy cloud. Both of the other rays hit, but the two puddings seemed to be made of tougher stuff.
Holding out both hands Ell sent two Eldritch Blasts lancing toward opposite sides of the room. One disintegrated remaining tiny pudding, the other threw the full size pudding into the wall near Lus. Citrene ran forward with their hammer and smashed the medium pudding into the ground.
The single remaining large pudding oozed it's way down the wall and slammed an oily tentacles into Lus' back, but the small bard dodged out of the way. Turning to look at the monster right behind them Lus cut of the psuedopod with their dagger.
Janora just smiled and moved the Moonbean on top of the ooze again, it's outer shell sizzling in the soft light. Jilken pulled out the Rainbow Reaper and kissed the snowflake before taking aim. As she did so, the tattoos along her neck began to glow. The crossbow bolt disappeared into the goo and a moment later the ooze vanished as well. The elf yelled, "It's only gone until my next turn, but it will show up in the same spot." Hearing this the party prepared attacks and when the pudding reappeared pummeled it into oblivion.
Once it was clear that the threat was done, Denye and Citrene went over to explore one of the grates, but didn't find anything of interest. It seemed to be a bricked opening, maybe 3ft deep. While they were looking, Ell tried the door on the far end of the room and found another room with two magic circles and a few sets of wardrobes. A quick investigation uncovered a small scroll case containing a spell scroll of Magnify Gravity.
Jilken moved forward and listened at the door leading north, but couldn't hear anything. Unlike some of the other doors this one did not automatically slide open. Upon closer examination there was a smallish panel of some dark metal set to one side of the seam. Jilken touched her shock spear to it, but it didn't seem to have any reaction. When that didn't work, she pulled out a crowbar and began trying to wedge the door open.
After looking at the grate, Denye had begun ritually casting Detect Magic and the spell completed just as Jilken started to pry the door open. The soft sounds of abjuration sang from the small metal plate on the door. The wizard was about to call out a warning when she was distracted by the symphony of illusory coming from the mural. Exploring further revealed that one section was vanished with a switch was pressed. The room beyond was empty, save for a teleportation circle engraved in the floor. Smiling to herself, Denye took careful note of the anchor sigils, before running back to join the others.
Jilken had managed to get one of the doors halfway open with the prybar and between Citrene and themselves managed to get the doors to slide open. The room beyond was massive, easily 100x150ft with ceilings that soared 60-70ft high. Four large stone archways flanked the side walls but the room was dominated by three large pillars surrounding an enormous stone pipe. Silver chains ran from each pillar to a large blue crystal in the center, from which water poured. It was quite clear what the problem was, while one of the chains glowed with a soft light, the other two were dark.
As the party entered the sound of hisses and groans was audible from an upper platform at the back. Recognizing it as Abyssal and an incantation for some sort of spell the party circled toward the back and Ell attempted to sneak up the stairs to see what was going on. Unfortunately, as he was climbing the stairs, he caught a foot on the robes and stumbled to his knees, drawing the attention of the figure standing there.
Ell did however manage to catch a glimpse of what was happening on the platform. Some sort of large ritual circle had been scrawled on the floor in blood and within the circle were two glowing fist-sized crystals, one yellow and one red. Before the circle was a humanoid looking figure, but not any of the races the party had met before. Almost 7ft tall, the creature was covered in a bony exo-skeleton with the occasional chuck of amber embedded somewhere. Even his face was covered by a weird bone mask.
Stepping forward he looked down at Ell and laughs, "Have you come to join us? We shall open the gate and call forth the Brethren. The time to has come to release Eltab from his Infernal tormentors. This place will become a staging point, it's people foot soli...."
Denye stepped forward a bit as he talked and tossed a small red bead of light at the person. It blossomed into a fireball as it hit his chest, followed quickly by a crossbow bolt from Jilken. Smoldering and stumbling backwards into the circle, the demon creature called out, "Intruders! Protect the sanctum!" At his words, two large stone statues activated and stepped forward out of the wall niches, the blank stone eyes focused on the half of the party near the stairs (Ell, Jilken, and Lus).
First to react was Citrene yelling, "Lus, look out," before charging at one of the large stone golems and fired a crossbow at it, the bolt jamming between arm and shoulder. Letting out a shout of defiance, the small halfling began to change. Thick brown hair began to cover their skin, their form grew stockier, and their face began to lengthen into a muzzle with two large front teeth. A moment later a thick leathery tail unfurled, landing on the floor with a thump.
Ell was the next to respond, sending Eldritch Blasts at both golems sending them stumbling back, before he ran up the stairs to the edge of the circle. As he did so he saw the exo-warrior picking up the two glowing crystals and embedding them his chest armor as he cursed in Abyssal. At the same time Janora ran forward and called down another Moonbeam onto one of the stone creatures.
Lus ran up the stairs as well and Suggested that he should hand over the crystals. The strange being just laughed, "I promise I shall show you what they do shortly, but I do not think I will be giving them up." Jilken bounded up, her tattoos glowing and laughed before saying, "Perhaps take a moment to reconsider." The bolt caught the creature under the chin. The body began to fall limp, but then vanished as the Banishment took hold. Without even looking Jilken send a second bolt into the golem in the Moonbeam.
Denye summoned her meteor swarm and sent small projectiles at each of the golems as they lumbered forward. Using the cover Citrene ran forward and bit deep into one of the arms, breaking off a huge chunk.
Ell moved over near what appeared to be a console of some kind and sent two crackling Eldritch Blasts toward the statues. One went wide but the other connected, throwing the golem back a few steps. A moment later there was a clatter as the body of the creature reappeared sans mask with the bolt buried through his throat.
Janora sighed at the need for continued violence and moved the Moonbeam back over the stone golem. As they did so the statue crumbled into a pile of rubble. Lus moved over to examine the body and realized that the face was that of Lindum Pondjumper, an older halfling and the only survivor of the team sent to check on an groundquake at the southern end of the canyon some weeks ago. Conjuring a Mage Hand they pulled the red gem out of the chest and ran down the stairs toward the closest pillar.
Jilken sent two more bolts into the remaining giant as it swung at Citrene, bringing a large stone fist into the top of their head. Denye followed it up with two more meteors that blew the head off the remaining golem.
With combat ended, Jilken called to Denye, "You should come take a look at this circle before I start smudging the lines." The wizard did as requested and spent some time examining it and learned that it was a portal to some portion of the Abyss. "Yeah," she said, "you should just close it...we don't want anything to do with that."
Ell used his own mage hand to pull out the yellow gem and he and Denye took it down to join the others at the pillars. As Jilken started to break up the circle, the strange exo-skeleton began to melt away into a clear goo, leaving the body of the dead halfling.
The pillars proved to be carved with images of elements. The northern pillar was wrapped in flames, while others were wrapped in clouds or trees. Finding a slot in the northern pillar, Denye quickly fitted the red gem into the hole and slid a panel closed over it. As the door closed, the chain connecting the pillar to the blue gem lit up and the water output doubled.
Quickly moving over to the cloud pillar, Ell fit the yellow gem into a similar slot and once more the chain lit up and the water increased. With the sound of water now echoing through the room Lus came back up to examine the panels. Noticing that the back of the balcony held a number of windows covered with metal shutters the bard quickly pulled them opening revealing a very strange landscape. The sky was greenish rather that the blue that one would expect, the clouds a burnt orange and the ground stretched out broken pinkish red soil with no other signs of life.
No one else could make sense of it either, but with the water now flowing the group declared their mission a success and headed back to the village and the promised return to the Glitterhame and Bel Khildor. Other than the walkway around the waterfall being slicked by the spray, the trip back was quiet and uneventful.
Back at the village, Jakwet and the others were thrilled with the party's work and insisted on throwing a feast for them before sending the party back. The team only accepted when the old priest admitted that he could only send them back after dark...so it was going to be an hour or two before that could happen.
Thrilled to be able to thank them the elderly gnome pulled out a large metal bowl that he filled with a pink powder. Holding both hands over it, he muttered a few phrases and cast Hero's Feast as an entire table covered with every manner of food sprung into being.
As the meal ended, Jakwet also presented Janora with a box. Opening it, the witch found two spell scrolls, a set of small amber statues and two bags of the pinkish powder. The statues proved to be carvings of the four large god statues at the center of the village; Huntokar, Milil, Celestian, and Milani. Handing the spell scrolls to Denye, the half-elf asked about the powder. Jakwet explained that it was rosium, a sort of universal magical powder.
Leading them back to the small shrine, Lus announced that Citrene and they would return with the original team to help out with their mission in return. After only a little protest the gnome priest agreed. After wiping his glasses, he peers up at the sky above, a sliver of star field framed by canyon walls. Pulling out a silver wand he began to wave it, drawing a circle of deep blue light around the party, once, twice, thrice. Coming to stand before them he offers a prayer:
Protectors and Guardians, we thank you for the aid.
Your champions have restored the balance of Starfall.
I ask that you return them to their place with our gratitude.
Milani, you who shelter the oppressed shelter them in your wings.
Huntokar, mighty stalker, shield their back.
Milili, grant them bounty and inspiration in their hunt.
Celestian, open the starpaths and guide their journey.
Reaching up with the wand, the gnome begins drawing starlight down and tying it to the ring of light around the party. He did this seven times and as he completed the eighth, the swirling sand flies up once more and that now familiar feeling of gravity shifting hit the party.
Report Date
16 Jul 2021
