Players (Characters)
Scott (Rain)
Jeremy (Grokk)
Catherine (Amber)
Tony (Roland)
Rachel (Horkina)
DM: Tom (Garlen)
Roland awakened the captured Mr. Abradius and spoke to him: "I think you should share the knowledge of the Soul Pillars with your fellow loremaster." Fetor was magically compelled to agree, so he shared everything he knew, and even helped Roland copy down large sections of his notes. The soul pillars contained trapped souls that could dispense knowledge in a manner similar to a Contact Other Plane spell. Fetor also confirmed many of the party's suspicions about the Cagewrights, and described the Planar Junction ritual in more detail. Once Roland had all of the information he required, Rain performed kidney surgery with the tip of his rapier. Amber used her ability to turn undead to free the soul of an elf from one of the upstairs rooms, but realized she was not yet powerful enough to free them all. The party returned to Cauldron to purchase a large amount of equipment.
One morning, Shensen arrived with an urgent request for the party to meet with Meerthan. Fario, one of Meerthan's agents, had been kidnapped by the Last Laugh and was being interrogated and tortured. There was no time to lose; the party had to move quickly to save his life and keep him from revealing the identities of the rest of the Striders. Meerthan was in telepathic contact with Fario, and was able to tell the party where he'd been taken: the Brass Trumpet, an abandoned inn.
Horkina used her Maul of the Titans to knock on the front door, or rather, knock down the front door. Recent construction had been done in this room -- stone walls with arrow slits had been installed on the east and west, and some thugs were waiting behind each. Garlen fired an arrow through one of the slits and hit one of the Last Laugh thugs behind. Horkina used her Maul to completely crush the other wall, and followed through to kill two of the thugs that had been using it for cover. The third wet himself just before Rain finished him off. Roland's electric loop spell dropped one of the thugs behind the remaining wall, and a pair of arrows from Grokk ended the combat.
Rain pulled the next door open and was hit with several poisoned crossbow bolts from the trapped door. He chugged a potion and the party kept moving, anxious to reach Fario and wanting to get the maximum benefit from Amber's prayer. Roland noticed a room full of spikes with an obviously weakened ceiling, and surmised the room above must be trapped. Rain and Garlen took out a pair of thugs in the inn's old common room while Roland flew up to the weakened ceiling and pulled it down. Two more thugs started down the stairs, and the one that survived the volley of arrows ran back up the stairs and tried to hide. The whole party headed upstairs and quickly dispatched the assembled thugs via melee. Amber struck one with her mace, and Roland came in through the now-floorless room to strike another with his quarterstaff. His familiar made a quick bite to finish the thug off.
Since there were no obvious exits to the room other than those leading to areas the party knew to be trapped, Roland used his knowledge of architecture to find a soft spot in the wall and Horkina inserted a new doorway with a single swing. Fario was attached to a torture rack, and a woman was standing over him with a bloody sword. Amber used a Lucent Lance on her, and Roland and his familiar used magical dragon breath to stun her. Rain knocked her unconscious with a sap. Amber healed Fario while Rain and Garlen released him. The party took down another thug and a spellcaster hiding in a curtain-filled room, and then quickly took Fario and the captured woman back to Meerthan.
Fario explained that he'd been captured while spying on House Rhivaldi. The noblewoman had not been seen for weeks, but several shady figures had visited her. Half-orc mercenaries from Lord Vhalantru had come and gone every day. A pale half-elf with a strange shadowy cloak, who Roland guessed to be a Vampire, had arrived just last night. Well-armed humans, including one with a shield with the symbol of Nerull, came just a few days before. Several well-armed dwarves, including a well-known local merchant named Adrick Garthun, were also visiting. The party woke up the woman from the Last Laugh and Horkina threatened to do to her what she'd done to the wall. This woman, Jil, said that Velior Thazo, leader of the Last Laugh, had ordered the kidnapping and that he was presently meeting with Lady Rhivaldi. The party got some rest and recovered spells while Rain and Garlen watched over House Rhivaldi.
House Rhivaldi had only one obvious entrance -- the main doorway. The party decided to approach from a less obvious entrance: the geodesic dome on the observatory. Rain spider-climbed up and gently pried one sheet of glass out of its frame, and Grokk (carrying Amber), Horkina, and Garlen all spider-climbed through, with Roland flying behind. Most of the doors in this section of the house magically opened whenever anyone approached, due to an Unseen Servant at each one. Some doors, however, were locked.
Amber dispelled the magical locks on Lady Rhivaldi's bedroom and the party entered. Roland picked up a stack of crumpled notes, while Rain stepped in to a secret closet. A series of cages held six small animals: a bat, a lizard, a monkey, a rat, a raven, and a toad. The monkey gestured wildly at Rain and then pointed at the Raven's cage. There, Rain found a secret compartment containing a spellbook. The monkey kept pointing at the spellbook. Amber's True Seeing revealed that all six animals were actually halflings, and Roland suspected they'd been Baleful Polymorphed, as the spell was in the book. The party decided to leave the creatures behind, planning to come back to rescue them later. The monkey clearly understood, and sat brooding in the corner, distressed that his rescue was being delayed.
The party approached a large double door, which opened to reveal a grand ballroom. At the front of the room stood a woman (Thrifane Rhivaldi) with a strange third eye grafted onto her forehead. In a semicircle around her were seven others: a white-haired dwarf with a leather half-mask (Adrick Garthun), a man with spiked plate mail and a shield with Nerull's symbol (Khyron Bonesworn), a gaunt half-elf man in black robes (Melagorn), a woman with crimson eyes and a cloak of shadow (a Vampire named Mhad), a fat tiefling with bloodshot eyes and purple robes (Vervil Ashmantle), a bat-winged half-fiend (Velizor Thazo, leader of the Last Laugh), and a green-skinned ogre mage wearing the robes of the Blue Duke (Zarn Kyass). A pair of dwarves flanked one set of doors, a pair of babau flanked another, and a large metal-and-stone construct of humanoid shape stood in front of the doorway the party had approached.
Immediately, Garlen stepped into the room and fired a series of arrows at a babau, screaming "DIE" as the demon fell. Thrifane activated a pair of defensive spells -- Stoneskin and Minor Globe of Invulnerability -- and waited to see what the party was capable of. Amber reacted quickly and used a Holy Word to great effect. The remaining babau was banished, two dwarves and the ogre mage were paralyzed, and virtually all of the other inhabitants of the room were blinded and deafened. Only two creatures were unaffected: the metal-and-stone Shield Guardian, and a Dread Wraith that had been draped over Mhad as a cloak. The now-angered Dread Wraith flew forward to attack Amber, draining her constitution with a touch. Horkina used her Maul to create another entrance to the room, and Grokk moved in through the opening, attacking the cleric of Nerull. Rain followed up by attacking the tiefling, who cast an invisibility spell and tried to move away. The vampire Mhad, blind and deaf, went gaseous and tried to retreat. Velizor hit the party with an Unholy Blight, sickening Garlen and dealing a small amount of damage.
Roland, having long desired a Shield Guardian of his own, decided to take control of this one by grabbing the controlling amulet from around Thrifane's neck. He ordered the guardian to attack the dwarf wearing a leather mask and standing next to it. Khyron attempted to command Grokk to stop fighting, but his ears were still ringing so he couldn't chant out his spell properly. The half-elf attempted to fatigue the party, but couldn't concentrate well enough to cast the spell with Grokk's axe whizzing around his head. The dwarf dropped his weapon and called out "I surrender", but the Shield Guardian began clubbing him anyway.
With no demons left to kill, Garlen tumbled and attacked the half-fiend, providing Rain with an opportunity to strike as well. Thrifane attempted to teleport away, but she mispronounced the spell and it fizzled. Amber, too, lost a spell while trying to avoid the Dread Wraith's touch, and it drained more of her constitution. Horkina smashed through Thrifane's magically hardened skin and felled her with two strong blows, while Grokk attacked the Dread Wraith and Rain stabbed Velizor through his throat. Roland rained fire down on the few enemies still standing, and managed to catch the invisible tiefling in one of the blasts. This left only a fleeing vampire, a Dread Wraith, and three paralyzed foes. Garlen moved to finish off the Dread Wraith, but completely missed with a charge from a healing wand. Amber tried to finish it with a spell but again got distracted, and it drained her nearly dead with its next touch. The strain of making the final attack pushed the undead creature over the line to fully dead. After restoring herself, Amber moved to the door the gaseous vampire had seeped through and fired a Sunray, vaporizing the gaseous enemy. Amber finished the fight just like she started it -- calling on the powers of good and light to smite the forces of evil.
The party tied up the dwarves and the Blue Duke and then secured the rest of the house, taking down a few half-orc mercenaries and gathering up a large amount of treasure. Roland looked over the crumpled notes he'd found -- a speech Lady Rhivaldi had probably just given to the assembled crowd. The speech detailed the lineage of the Shackleborn from demodands several generations ago, and how their souls would power a ritual to link Carceri to Cauldron. It also mentioned the ritual had begun, and that the criminals gathered here would be expected to topple surrounding kingdoms from within while the demodands attacked from outside. Her speech ended with a plea for the elimination of "a particular group", probably the Rubble Rousers themselves. Roland was entertained by the possibility that the very group she'd called to be destroyed may have interrupted just as she was speaking that line.
Roland reached level 13. The rest of the party reached level 14.
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