Erkonin (Campaign #2) [Session 45: Rajalmin's Agent]

[prabe]

Session 41: Lots of Devils. That Poor Town.

Dramatis Personae:
Aldalómiel - Wood Elf Ranger (Hunter Conclave)/Druid (Circle of Stars)
Elama “Lamie” Galanodel- Wood Elf Cleric (Tempest)
Vinya Anar - Wood Elf Monk (Way of the Sun Soul)
Elderon - High Elf Wizard (Loremaster)
Marxine - Mountain Dwarf Fighter (Champion)/Paladin

GM - Everyone Else

(Note: This session was held on Discord. Also note that deponent was having extreme internet trouble on account of a power outage and having to use a hot-spot created by her phone, with very dodgy signal, to be online at all.)


13 Bluzzimin 749 (Campaign day 164)(immediately after)

As we started leaving Elthir, the town a day’s travel upstream from Brush Bend, Marxine named her horse Comrade 2.

We rode as fast as we could on the road to Brush Bend. It was still daytime, though afternoon, when we left Elthir. There was a cloud of smoke in the distance that we could see. We could also smell the smoke and the sulfur. As the light faded and the dark (nearly new moon) night settled in, we continued going, though we had to slow down some, to keep the horses on the road and safe. We could see a glow in the sky over the town -- nothing as extreme as a pillar of fire, but definitely lit up in an unnatural way -- that kept us going in the right direction.

Despite slowing down, we were moving fast and with every intention of just blasting into town and dealing with whatever we found there. Then Vinya heard in her head a familiar voice -- that of Thorin, the deva she has a romantic relationship with, though he’s off on assignment in other places, possibly other planes.

Thorin: Devils like ambushes, you know.

Vinya thought about that for a second then slowed up a bit.

Vinya, to the party: Guys, we might want to consider scouting a bit and seeing what the situation is. Whatever is doing this might well be prepared for whoever would be coming to save the town.
Marxine: I’m not as worried about our lives as about saving the town.
Vinya: I’m okay with that. But we can’t save them if we’re dead.
Marxine: I don’t want to spend a day scouting and wasting time.
Vinya: Me either. But maybe Oda can do a flyover and Aldalomiel and I can sneak close and see what the situation is.
Marxine: Okay.

When we got about a half mile away from the town, Elderron sent Oda to scout and report back. Oda flew over the town then came back and communicated to Elderron that parts of the city are demolished and smoldering, but some buildings still stand. There was a well of laval that was 30’ across. All he could see moving around were devils. There were a lot of devils with tails and beards and purple skin carrying glaives. A smaller lot of devils with barbs on their skin. He saw a couple going in and out of two intact buildings that looked like they were wrapped in chains. He didn’t see any corpses on the ground.

Vinya: I’ve gotten a warning from a deva, umm, friend of mine that this might be an ambush.
Elama: How do you know a deva? What’s a deva?
Vinya: Ummm...Devas are celestials. We were at the Chiaroscuro Temple together.
Elama: What was a deva doing at the monastery?
Vinya: I’m not totally sure. But I think I told you about the Zariel cabal there. He brought some planetars, big green guys, and they busted it up. He had to leave after that.

After some thought, Elderron recognized the devils involved from Oda’s impressions. The devils wrapped in chains are Chain Devils -- they are jailers and torturers. The ones with purple skin, beards and glaives are Beard Devils -- they’re infantry. The ones with barbs on their skin are Barbed Devils -- they’re guards and notoriously alert with darkvision that goes way further than anyone in the party’s (120’). He passed this information along to the party.

Elderron: Don’t attack them with fire or poison. It won’t do anything. Cold’s not great either. And it’s tough to get spells to work on them at all, so keep that in mind when choosing what to cast on them.
Marxine: The intact buildings are probably where they’re holding the villagers.
Vinya: I’m sorry, Marxine. We need a strategy or plan here. Something to draw the Barbeds and Beards away from those buildings so we can get the villagers out.
Elderron: Oda also saw a 30’ wide well-like structure that looked like a pool of cooling lava. I think that’s a portal to the hells.
Aldalomiel: We could find a spot around the edge of the town and pick off the Barbeds with ranged attacks without drawing too much attention.
Marxine: Drawing attention away from the building is good. Some of us could get the villagers out while the rest of us do that. Maybe Elderron, Elama, and I could make a fuss while Vinya and Aldalomiel get the villagers out of danger. If we can get them out of the city, they can find their way to someplace safe.

We decided on that as something of a plan. Once the villagers were safe we could work on closing that gate -- both Elama and Elderron had dispel magic available. If that failed, Marxine and the hammer of unmaking could have a go at it.

The road led into the village, past a few destroyed buildings to the heart of the village -- some ruins and rubble and five standing buildings. We stopped outside of that Oda did another flyover, with Elderron watching through his eyes. He was able to identify the two buildings that the Chain Devils were moving between, which let Aldalomiel and Vinya know where to go. He also saw that the Beard Devils were widely spaced out, but loosely in a line facing the road from Elthir (the direction we were coming). The Barbed Devils were also widely spaced out behind them (from our point of view). The two “prison buildings” were further beyond them.

Vinya: Give us a couple of minutes to get into position before you start making a fuss.
Marxine: I’m more concerned about the villagers survival than ours.
Vinya: Understood. But we can’t save them if we’re dead.
Marxine: Right.

During those minutes, Elderron cast mage armor and mirror image on himself.

Aldalomiel cast pass without trace and she and Vinya headed around the village to a position as close as feasible to the two buildings we suspected were being used as prisons. We went around so that we were near the building closest to the portal (the well of lava) -- about fifty feet from the building and sixty from the portal.

Aldalomiel moved toward the building -- but stayed within thirty feet of Vinya so she’d stay in the pass without trace. That left her still a few feet from the corner of the building. She could see some windows in the walls -- they were low, because halfling buildings are typically at least partly dug into the ground. Unfortunately she couldn’t see inside from her position. She pulled her bow.

When they figured Aldalomiel and Vinya were in a good position, Elderron cast haste on Marxine. Marxine, about 120 feet away from some of the Beard Devils, moved up seventy feet and tried to get their attention on her. Then she cast shield of faith. (Note: The two parts of the party were unable to see each other. At this juncture it is plausible that Aldalomiel and Vinya could hear the fuss Marxine was making.)

Elama moved forward as well -- she hoped to cast call lightning, but the night was too dark for her to see well enough to do that, so instead she just ran as fast as she could and ended up about ten feet from Marxine.

Vinya, in the other part of the town with Aldalomiel, moved past Aldalomiel to the wall of the building and peeked in through one of the windows. She could see some halflings cowering against one of the walls and a couple of chains loose on the floor moving in a serpent-like manner apparently independently. She opened the window as far as she could without it making noise -- which was about 6 inches and not enough to really work with, alas. She then readied her short bow and held a shot for any devil she could get a shot at.

Over on the other side of town, six wads of fire came shooting out of the darkness at Marxine from beyond the Bearded Devils she could just see in the darkness. All of them missed.

Marxine: Shoot better! I thought devils had night vision.

Elderron moved and dashed to get closer to, but still behind, Elama and Marxine.

The Bearded Devils moved up, clustering around Marxine and Elama. Most of them chose to dodge rather than attacking, but one attacked Marxine with its glaive from 10 feet away. Fortunately it missed.

Over at the prison building, Aldalomiel went around the corner of the building to where we expected a door to be, based on what Elderron had seen through Oda. The door wasn’t locked. She cracked it open and saw a chain devil inside. She snuck through the open door as best she could. Once inside she dropped the pass without trace and cast hunter’s mark on the chain devil and shot it twice, hitting it once.

Outside with the mass of Bearded Devils, Elama cast call lightning and threw a lightning bolt at a couple of devils. One of them wasn’t dodging, but as Elderron had told us, it’s hard to get magic to affect them. Marxine moved right up to and attacked one of the bearded devils, attacking three times because of the haste on her.

In the prison, the Chain Devil turned to Aldalomiel. Chains unwrapped from its torso and swung toward her. Two of them wrapped around her, leaving her not only injured but also grappled and restrained.

Vinya looked in the window and saw the devil there. She fired four sunbolts at it, hitting three times, then moved back to where she couldn’t be seen through the window.

Outside, one of the Barbed Devils finally moved close enough that the party could see it. It attacked Elama but missed with both of its attacks. The rest of the Barbed Devils, still in the darkness and out of sight, threw wads of fire at Elama. Only two of the fire-wads hit, but they both hit her solidly.

Lamie: Ow!

The damage disrupted her concentration on the call lightning spell.

Elderron cast a fireball, which he modified to do radiant damage and have an intelligence save, on most of the Beard Devils and the one Barbed Devil that had moved close. One of the Beard Devils dropped and it appeared that many of them took damage from that. Then he moved just a bit, so he was a little less bunched up with Elama and Marxine.

Two of the Beard Devils were on Lamie. One of them hit her. She dropped it with her retaliatory lightning strike. Another of the Beard Devils attacked her -- both with its glaive and with its beard, but they didn’t hit. One of them attacked Elderron, but all it managed to do was break one of his mirror images. Another one missed Elderron because of the mage armor. The rest all attacked Marxine and all missed. The slow effect from the Rod of Litrices worked on a couple of them, who were suddenly moving like they’d walked into a wall of molasses.

In the prison, Aldalomiel was restrained and grappled by the Chain Devil, and the barbed chains cut into her, causing her to lose the hunter’s mark she’d placed on the devil. She turned into her starry archer form. She was able to shoot at it with her bow, hitting once, and to fire a radiant bolt at it, which also hit.

Outside, Marxine found herself in a target-rich environment. Two of the Beard Devils were under a slow effect from the Rod of Litrices. Marxine stepped away from the two slowed ones and attacked the ones on Elama. She dropped one of them with her first hit and another with her next two hits.

Elama could see a Barbed Devil coming toward her fast, so she cast shield of faith on herself. Then she went to one of the Beard Devils on Elderron and slashed it with her sword.

The Chain Devil in the prison attacked Aldalomiel again, doing a considerable amount of damage. The other Chain Devil surprised Vinya by coming around the corner of the building and attacking her--she was lightly damaged but also grappled and restrained.

Vinya shot four sunbolts at the Chain Devil holding her. Two of them hit, one very solidly. But it didn’t do anything to get her free of the devil’s chains.

Outside, Elama was in melee with a Barbed Devil. It missed her with its claws but hit with its tail that pierced her through her armor. Fortunately, she was able to keep the shield of faith active. The other three threw wads of fire, to unknown effect.

Elderron cast blight on the undamaged Beard Devil next to him -- it managed to avoid some of the effects but was still badly damaged.

The Beard Devil on Elderron responded with an attack -- but not a successful one. It badly missed one of the mirror images. The other two remaining Beard Devils advanced on Marxine -- both of them missed their attacks on her, but they didn’t get slowed by the Rod of Litrices.

Aldalomiel, in the prison on the other side of the village, was slashed and torn by the cruel chains that held her. She cast cure wounds on herself, because she was getting pretty badly hurt. Then she fired a radiant bolt from her starry form at the Chain Devil, but missed.

Marxine moved away from the two Beard Devils on her, risking the opportunity attacks (both of which missed anyway, though the Devils didn’t get slowed by the Rod), and went to the one on Elderron. She hit it three times and dropped it.

Elderron: Thank you!

Elama attacked twice on the Barbed Devil she was fighting, hitting once.

In the prison, the Chain Devil holding Aldalomiel hit her again. Vinya, despite being restrained and grappled, was missed. Emboldened by this, Vinya tried to wriggle out of the chains, but was unable to do so.

The Barbed Devil on Elama would have gotten a crit on her, but she was able to use the bulette shield to negate that, though she still took a normal hit. The other three threw wads of fire and missed.

Elderron fired a scorching ray, modified to do radiant damage, at the Barbed Devil on Elama and got two hits.

The two remaining Bearded Devils attacked Marxine. Once again, both of them missed. One of them got slowed again.

And there we ended. The next session will begin with Aldalomiel at the top of the round. There are five rounds remaining on Marxine’s haste spell.

 

[prabe]

Session 42: Brush Bend Saved! Barely!

Dramatis Personae:
Aldalómiel - Wood Elf Ranger (Hunter Conclave)/Druid (Circle of Stars)
Elama “Lamie” Galanodel- Wood Elf Cleric (Tempest)
Vinya Anar - Wood Elf Monk (Way of the Sun Soul)
Elderon - High Elf Wizard (Loremaster)
Marxine - Mountain Dwarf Fighter (Champion)/Paladin

GM - Everyone Else


13 Bluzzimin 749 (Campaign day 164)(immediately after)

We began this session in the same pickle that we’d ended the previous session. Vinya and Aldalomiel were both grappled and restrained by Chain Devils and pretty badly hurt. The villagers of Brush Bend were held prisoner -- the last Aldalomiel and Vinya had seen them, they were chained and cowering in a couple of buildings near where they were restrained by the Chain Devils. Elama was in melee with a Barbed Devil and badly hurt. Three other Barbed Devils were throwing globs of fire at Elama, Elderron, and Marxine from the darkness, where they couldn’t be targeted with return fire. The lowest stress part of the combat was Marxine standing between two Bearded Devils, one of which had been slowed by the Rod of Litrices, and Elderron.

Aldalomiel took some damage from the spiked chains that were restraining her. She cast cure wounds on herself, getting herself back up to half hit points, then fired a radiant bolt at the chain devil restraining her.

At the other side of town, Marxine stood between Elderron and two Bearded Devils.

Marxine: If I stop being your cover, you’ll be okay?
Elderron: Yeah. I want to get you moving into the town.

Marxine then took advantage of being hasted and ran to attack the Barbed Devil on Elama three times. She hit twice -- including a crit that didn’t do as much damage as one would hope. Elama cast cure wounds on herself. Then she made an attack with the scimitar of speed and got a hit.

The Chain Devils up near the prison buildings, tightened their grips on Aldalomiel and Vinya and swung additional barbed chains at them. Each of them was hit once, Aldalomiel worse than Vinya.

Vinya managed to wriggle out of the grappling chains, taking damage on the way. She circled around the devil so she could get closer to where Aldalomiel was dealing with her own devil with the thought that they were stronger together. Then she did patient defense, in hopes of not immediately getting grappled and restrained again.

The Barbed Devil in melee attacked Marxine, which was good news for the good guys, and attempted to commit mayhem on her. It totally failed at that, but unfortunately it was not slowed by the Rod of Litrices. The other three Barbed Devils threw fire wads at Elderron -- two of them broke the last two mirror images. Elderron cast shield to protect himself from the attacks of the last one. The shield blocked one shot but one got through and did a small amount of damage.

Elderron attacked the Bearded Devils that Marxine had left him with -- casting a radiant damage scorching ray with two of the rays going to the devil that wasn’t slowed, one of which hit, and one on the devil that was slowed, which was a critical hit that did a nice amount of damage.

In response, the Bearded Devils attacked Elderron, in the absence of other targets. Both of them missed him entirely.

Aldalomiel was injured by the sharp chains wrapped around her as she tried to wriggle her way free. Unfortunately, she was not able to get herself free. She was able to cast healing word on herself and get back some of the strength she’d lost.

Marxine down at the other side of town was facing a Barbed Devil that was barely hanging on. Unfortunately it took her two hits to drop it. She then ran toward the cluster of Barbed Devils that had been throwing fire and got an attack, because of the haste spell, on one of those. That was going to stop them shooting out of the darkness.

Elama upcast shatter, increasing the power and damage to the absolute max so that it caught the three Barbed Devils, but not Marxine. Then she moved up next to Marxine and took a swing with her scimitar, which missed.

The Chain Devil outside the prison building swung chains and Vinya but she was able to dodge out of the way of them. Unfortunately, inside the building, the chains wrapped around Aldalomiel tightened and slashed at her and she was dropped.

Vinya, shouting in hopes the rest of the party could hear her: naughty word!! Aldalomiel’s down!

Vinya then fired two sunbolts at the Chain Devil on her, hitting once. She then moved closer to it, so she was right up in its face, and punched it in hopes of stunning it. Unfortunately, the attempt to stun didn’t succeed.

Two of the Barbed Devils tried to hit Marxine -- both of them missed but were not slowed by the Rod. One took three swings at Lamie -- she kept one of them from being a crit with the bulette shield but the collective total was a lot of damage. She was able to maintain her concentration on the Shield of Faith spell.

Elderron cast magic missile on the two Bearded Devils -- one of them was left barely standing at all, hanging on by a thread. The other one was also hurt, but not as badly.

Elderron: I’m almost out of spells

(Note: He was down to two third level spell slots.)

One of the Bearded Devils attacking Elderron missed both times. The other one missed with its glaive, but hit with its beard, which does piercing damage. (That’s a really rough beard.) Fortunately, Elderron managed to resist the effects of the poison the Bearded Devil had injected him with.

Aldalomiel bled and choked (and failed a death save).

Marxine noted with some dismay that none of the Barbed Devils looked especially hurt, and certainly none looked more hurt than the others. So she attacked the same one she’d attacked with her previous attack. She got two hits then she surged with energy and made three more attacks, all three of which hit. That was five hits on six attacks, two for minimum damage and three for maximum damage. After Marxine’s impressive display, that one was looking much worse for the wear.

Elama, standing near Marxine, cast cure wounds on herself, then she attacked with the scimitar of speed, though not at the same one Marxine had attacked. She did a nice lot of damage to it.

The Chain Devil that Vinya had been fighting outside the building missed her twice. The one that dropped Aldalomiel stepped outside the door and attacked Vinya. Unfortunately, it hit twice and damaged her badly.

Fortunately, it was also badly damaged, so Vinya fired four sunbolts at it. That dropped it. She moved a little closer to where Aldalomiel was on the ground, though she didn’t have a lot of options on how to help her.

Two of the Barbed Devils attacked Marxine -- they both missed. The other one attacked Elama and got one hit. Fortunately it didn’t hit hard and she was able to keep her shield of faith up.

Elderron, running low on spell power and wanting to save his last two spells for attempts to dispel the portal in the lava well, drew his short sword and attacked the very badly hurt beard devil. However, he hadn’t used his sword in quite a while and his strike wasn’t true at all.

In response, the Bearded Devils attacked Elderron. One of them hit with its glaive and they both hit with their beards. He resisted the poison again and wasn’t dropped by the attacks.

Out of the corner of her eye, Vinya saw someone approaching Aldalomiel, who was bleeding heavily on the ground. One of the halflings had wriggled out of her chains, which were loosening a bit with the chain devil’s attention on Vinya and Aldalomiel. She had a bottle in her hands, which she poured into Aldalomiel’s mouth. Before Vinya could react or say anything, Aldalomiel took a deep breath and coughed and looked around wildly.

Aldalomiel: Thank you.
Halfling: [made shooing motions toward her without saying a word]

Aldalomiel looked around and saw the Chain Devil that held Vinya outside the window that Vinya had opened slightly. She took advantage of the fact that it didn’t know she was there and shot two arrows through the window, missing once then hitting She changed to her starry archer form and shot a radiant bolt at it but that missed because it had figured out from the first two shots that there was a threat inside the window.

Marxine attacked one of the remaining Barbed Devils, missing twice but getting a critical hit with the attack granted her by the haste spell. Unfortunately, though she did quite a bit of damage, she didn’t quite drop it. Then she ran between them and past them toward where she could hear Vinya fighting. And where she believed Aldalomiel to be bleeding out. All of the Barbed Devils missed with their opportunity attacks and one of them was left slowed by the Rod of Litrices. She ran up the village street to get as close as she possibly could to Vinya and the door of the building.

Elama cast a shatter spell on all of the Barbed Devils and channeled divinity again to do maximum damage. That dropped the one that Marxine had pounding on. Then she attacked with her scimitar on another one, getting a hit.

The Chain Devil that held Vinya hit her with one of its swinging chains, dropping her.

Fortunately, when she hit the ground she was jolted back awake (immediately rolled a Nat20 on a death save). She spent a ki point and did a step of the wind, disengaging from the Chain Devil and running next to Marxine. Then she pulled a healing potion out of her bag of holding and drank it.

One of the two remaining Barbed Devils was slowed by the Rod -- it attacked Elama with its tail and missed. The other one missed with all of its attacks.

Elderron cast a magic missile with one of his two remaining spell slots to drop the two Bearded Devils that were both in really bad shape. Having dropped them both, he then moved toward where he’d seen Marxine and Elama disappear into the darkness. He got to a point where he could see Lamie fighting two Barbed Devils.

Aldalomiel moved away from the window and out of the building to a position of some cover from a building across the way (and at a good distance). She took two shots with her bow. One missed wildly but the other one got it in the eye and dropped it.

The haste spell on Marxine ended and she leaned forward with her hands on her knees and breathed deeply for several seconds.

Marxine, to Vinya: Go help Elama.
Vinya (with 8 hp): Yeah. On it.

Elama attacked the one that hadn’t been slowed by the rod with her scimitar. Then she struck the ground with her scimitar and cast Thunderwave. There was a loud crack of thunder and a shockwave that hit both of the Barbed Devils. Neither of them were pushed away from her, but they did appear to have taken damage.

Vinya ran down in that direction then shooting four sunbolts at the more damaged of the two remaining Barbed Devils. Three of them hit and did a fair amount of damage. Then she took some cover around the corner of one of the buildings.

The Barbed Devils focused their attacks on Elama, but they missed entirely.

Elderron moved up and cast Toll the Dead on the more badly hurt of the Barbed Devils, but it saved.

Aldalomiel moved down the street to a position where she could see Elama and the two Barbed Devils, then she fired a radiant bolt at one of them. It missed. Her two arrows hit more true -- one of them dropped the one that Vinya had fired radiant bolts at. The other one was a critical hit on the remaining one.

Once Marxine got her breath back, she looked around and saw that one barbed devil was all that remained of the danger.

Marxine went into the building that Aldalomiel had been in. There were ten or twelve halflings in there. Some of them had worked their way free of the chains, once the Chain Devils were no longer paying attention. They noticed that Marxine is a dwarf (not that that’s hard to spot) and the holy symbol painted on her shield.

Marxine: Are there more of you?
Halfling: I think there are more. Most of us ran when this happened. They rounded up some of us, but there weren’t enough of them to get all of us. So some are out in the desert, probably somewhere safe.
Marxine: Were there any other devils?
Halfling: There were only two with chains.
Marxine: I’m going to go back outside and wait for a signal from my friends that it’s all clear. I’ll let you know when it’s safe to come out.

She then went back out to the street.

Elama attacked the last one with her sword, hitting once, but didn’t drop it. Vinya stepped out from around the corner of the building, and used her last ki energy to fire four sunbolts at it, dropping it with the last one. She ran back up the road to Marxine.

Vinya: The last one is down.
Marxine: I think there were only the two Chain Devils.
Vinya: Oh good.

Vinya immediately sat down on the ground in the middle of the road.

Elama and Elderron walked together toward the lava well portal to make sure nothing else would be coming through. When they walked past Vinya, she stood up and began to follow them. When Vinya stood up, Marxine patted her on the back, laying hands on her and healing some of her damage.

Marxine: Good job.

Marxine went with the halflings to open doors and explore the intact buildings remaining in the town, making sure there weren’t more devils around. Elama, Elderron and Vinya checked out the lava portal, with Aldalomiel watching our backs with her bow at the ready. On the way there, Vinya used the geode of living energy to give herself some ki back.

At the portal, we saw writing, scribed in glowing red lava, in Infernal. Vinya pulled the helmet of comprehend languages out of the bag of holding and offered it to the others, but no one took it, so she put it on herself. The writing was a series of threats and grandiose claims, including some mentions of Rajalmin and his works. There was a passage that said that with the gate he claimed ownership of the town of Brush Bend. There was also language that placed him in a Hellish hierarchy. It was even a pretty plausible one -- not entirely grandiose. It said that he was in the service of Kaztrioch, a paeliryon (a type of greater devil that specializes in the gathering of information) in the service of Lovitosud, a pit fiend, in the service of Dispater, Lord of the Second.

Elama: Do we have to dispel this with magic or can we smash it?

Elderron was still intent on attempting to understand both the writing and the magic on the lava portal. He knew that Dispater is the lord of the second layer of Hell, known as Dis. It looked to him as though a targeted dispel magic would disable the portal. It also seemed plausible to him that it could just be smashed physically.

Vinya: Will breaking the portal break Rajalmin’s claim on the town? Or was the portal placing the initial flag in the ground, but his claim persists after the flag was planted.

Elderron believed that Rajalmin’s claim was to some extent grandiosity. He also felt that creating the gate had probably taken a lot of energy and resources on his part. He was pretty comfortable with the idea that the claim on the town would not survive disabling the portal.

We talked about having Marxine just smash it with her hammer of unmaking, but Elderron really wanted to try to dispel it and had saved a spell slot just for that purpose. When he cast the spell, there was a moment of pause, then the red glow in the infernal letters faded. But the physical structure remained. The gate was disabled.

Elderron continued to study it, while the rest of us waited for the right moment to smash it, but that moment didn’t come while it was still dark, because he wanted to look at it in the daylight.

So he made a tiny hut while the rest of us checked in on the halflings. Marxine asked them if they wanted to have a celebration that night -- but they weren’t in a celebratory mood yet. They were able to find a place for our horses.

We took a long and uneventful rest in the tiny hut.


14 Bluzzimin 749 (Campaign day 165)

In the morning, Elderron and Vinya together studied the portal. After a bit, Vinya gave Elderron the helmet of comprehend languages to wear to help him understand what he was seeing, and went to talk to the villagers.

Vinya: What exactly happened here?
The halfling who’d saved Aldalomiel: This caught us by surprise. We were having a wedding.
Vinya: Was one of the people involved in the wedding a descendant of Sarik Whitesand who lived a couple of hundred years ago?
Halfling: Not directly. A grand-niece maybe. Sarik left to go adventuring and never returned. I really don’t know much about her.

Later, Vinya found Elama.

Vinya: You might want to send a message to Lt. Linnolim to let him know that we’re out of town but will be returning as soon as we possibly can.

Elama did so.

Elama, to Linnolim through the spell: We’re in Brush Bend. We’ll be heading back to Dhaqi presently.
Linnolim, through the spell: Well, stop by when you come back if you want to keep working as temp guards.

Vinya asked one of the villagers, the one who’d poured the potion into Aldalomiel, if there was anyone in Brush Bend or Elthir who could teleport us back to Dhaqi.

Halfling: Maybe the Shining Silver Tetrahedron can have someone come get you. They don’t like to do that because it takes two spells from that person. So it’s very, very expensive. Your best bet is to go by boat.
Vinya: Is there a road that parallels the canal we could travel along?
Halfling: There are some roads. But there isn’t a contiguous road from here to Dhaqi. Your better bet is catching a canal boat.
Elama: Will a boat be able to take our horses? I’ve gotten attached to Nibbles.
Halfling: Maybe not the first one that comes by, but certainly some of them do.
Vinya: So we just wait here and catch a boat?
Halfling: Yeah. That’s about what happens. Usually there’s one every few days.
Vinya: Perfect.
Halfling: There’s an inn with beds that will fit you. You’re welcome to stay there.
Vinya: Thank you!
Halfling: You saved our town. It’s the least we can do.
Vinya: We couldn’t not. Once we knew you needed help.
Elama: And we can help with whatever you need as far as rebuilding.
Vinya: We can also help find the people from the village who scattered out into the desert.
Halfling: Once the smoke and the glow from that [wave in direction of where the cold remains of the portal still stood] stop, they’ll come back.

Elderron, still studying the portal, took down the names of those who Rajalmin answers to, up to Dispater. He also got an idea of how the creation of this gate was pulled off -- though that creation is way beyond Elderron’s power. He also learned that Rajalmin is not a normal rakshasa -- he’s more powerful in some way, but it’s not clear how. He isn’t exactly fully invested in the hierarchy of the Hells--which is a feudal-ish conglomeration of debts and promises and responsibilities--and is apparently working as something of a free agent for Kastrioch (and eventually for Dispater).

Elderron: The rock of this portal is not of this world. And it’s not elemental fire or elemental earth. This is stuff that broke through from the Hells.
Vinya: So it’s Hell rock? It’s got to go!

Once Elderron had all the information he felt he could get from the portal, Marxine encouraged the people of Brush Bend to help smash the portal, so it wasn’t just us coming in from outside as rescuers and smashing it.

Marxine explained to us that she wanted to leave the villagers feeling empowered and capable of taking care of each other and their town.

The villagers got on board with Marxine’s plan and helped with the destruction of the gate.

Aldalomiel talked to the halfling who’d saved her.

Aldalomiel: I insist on repaying you for the potion you gave me. That was a major item for the village.
Halfling, the Mayor of the village, walking with her around the village: That building still stands. And that one. And that one. Our village is worth far more than a potion.
Aldalomiel: [nodding]
Mayor, ending their walk at the rubble of the gate: A couple of our people have died. If you want to repay us, find the one who built that and kill it. But take your time. We don’t want you to die trying.


15-17 Bluzzimin 749 (Campaign day 166-168)

We spent the next few days while we were waiting for the boat following Marxine’s lead as far as helping to provide opportunities for the villagers to build their sense of being able to care for and support each other. It was important to Marxine, and all of us, that we left the town feeling empowered rather than victimized.

We also did some martial training -- Vinya doing some very basic martial arts training, Aldalomiel doing some archery practice and lessons, etc. Our lessons worked pretty well -- some of the younger people of the village said they might want to go out adventuring like us, and then return to the village with more ability to defend it.

The villagers turned out to be pretty good at fending off native threats -- wild animals and bandits -- but a lot of devils was out of their league.

These days passed as a community-building montage.


18 Bluzzimin 749 (Campaign day 169)(immediately after)

In the morning, a barge arrived on the canal with enough room for us and our horses. The captain agreed that we could let the horses walk alongside the oxen that towed the barge to get exercise.

The captain explained to us that the canal is largely at sea-level. There are drawbridges across it along the way, so we’ll have to be aware of that sort of thing.

We ended as we loaded up our horses and stuff and prepared to leave Brush Bend on a barge called The iv-Nulis.

 

[prabe]

Session 43: Into the Ancient Wizard Tower

Dramatis Personae:
Aldalómiel - Wood Elf Ranger (Hunter Conclave)/Druid (Circle of Stars)
Elama “Lamie” Galanodel- Wood Elf Cleric (Tempest)
Vinya Anar - Wood Elf Monk (Way of the Sun Soul)
Elderon - High Elf Wizard (Loremaster)
Marxine - Mountain Dwarf Fighter (Champion)/Paladin

GM - Everyone Else


18 Bluzzimin 749 (Campaign day 169)

We left in the morning aboard the barge the iv-Nulis being towed by oxen along the Ewiv Canal from Brush Bend to Dhaqi. It was expected to be a 15 day trip.

The iv-Nulis was mostly a cargo barge. We were the only passengers.

Vinya and Lamie, as usual, sat on the front of the boat and watched the world go by. For the first few days most of the excitement was taking our horses out to get some exercise walking alongside the oxen towing the boat.

We went past a couple of villages in those days, but not many.


21 Bluzzimin 749 (Campaign day 172)

In the afternoon, we could see an expanse of water on the horizon. On the water, small and distant, we could see one or two other barges like the iv-Nulis being towed across by smaller vessels with windsails. One of the barge workers told us that when the canal was built, way before the Severance, there were springs and lakes in the plains, so the builders of the Ewiv Canal used those as part of the water system in the canal. We were told that it would take two days to cross this lake.

As we were approaching the village, the barge worker pointed to a hill-sized (and shaped) block of basalt at the edge of town and exclaimed in surprise. A number of other barge-men and -women came and expressed surprise as well. They agreed that this huge boulder was new since the last time they’d sailed by.

As we got closer, we could see that there was an intact tower, lying on the ground with the top lying on the ground and the base of it on the basalt.

Vinya: Can we stop?
Barge-man: We were going to anyway. The captain needs to arrange for a tow-boat across the lake.
Vinya: It looks like one of those floating tower-islands crashed.

The iv-Nulis tied up at a pier along the edge of the canal. We were told that we’d be stopped for about 2 hours while the captain made arrangements.

We walked along the tow-path at the edge of town toward the basalt hill.

Villager: It fell out of the sky about eight days ago.
Vinya: Good it fell on the edge of town rather than in the middle of it.

As we got closer to it, we could see that the tower was square, about twenty feet on each side, and almost entirely intact. However, a couple of blocks lay on the ground near what would have been the top of the tower, leaving an opening where we could enter the tower.

Elama cast augury and asked about exploring the tower. The response she got was both weal and woe.

Vinya: Shall we go in where the blocks came out?
Elama: Are you sure that’s a good idea?
Vinya: No -- but it seems like it’ll be fun. We’ve seen a few of these floating islands. They’re pre-Severance, right? Like by a lot. This is the first one we could go through.
Marxine: Better to explore it on the ground than in the air

As we got closer, there were some villagers in a loose circle around the fallen tower and basalt boulder. They were keeping people away from the tower, though they didn’t seem to be at all inclined to stop a group of obvious adventurers.

Vinya: Why keep people out?
Villager: There are noises. Sometimes buzzy, sometimes screechy.

Before we went in, Marxine did her divine sense -- she got neither good nor bad vibes. Vinya cast see invisible from the Rod of Alertness. Elama cast freedom of movement on Marxine.

After all of that, we went in through where one of the blocks came out. We entered into a chamber that was much larger than the exterior dimensions of the tower (80 feet on a side). There were some continual flame torches on what had been the walls (now floor, ceiling, and side walls), so there was light inside. Vinya grabbed one to take with us just in case.

This chamber was mostly empty, with some broken pieces of what looked like it had been bedroom furniture on the floor. We could see a railing and the opening of a spiral staircase in the middle of the wall that had been the floor when the tower was upright, about 35’ above us.

Vinya, looking at the broken furniture: This stuff is all over a thousand years old. And it hasn’t crumbled away or deteriorated -- it’s just broken.

Vinya took a rope and walked up the wall with the slippers of spiderclimb. At the top she secured the rope to the metal railing mounted into the stone “side” of the spiral staircase, then threw the rope down for the others.

Vinya: Maybe the lighter folks should come up first. I think we have a potion of climbing that could be left with Marxine just in case the rope doesn’t hold.

Elderron, who we figured was the lightest, got halfway up the wall when we all started to hear a bad creaking grinding noise from where the metal railing was attached to the stone. Vinya grabbed the rope and found herself with the entire weight of Elderron hanging off of her, with grunts and aargh-ing noises.

Marxine: I’ll take that potion.

Elderron continued up, with Vinya bracing herself and holding the rope across her shoulders.

Vinya, once Elderron had gotten to the staircase: It’s a good thing you’re slender.

We tied the rope around the central pillar of the spiral staircase. While Elderron and Vinya were doing that, Marxine used the potion of climbing to climb the wall and place pitons to properly secure and attach the rope.

Once the rope was secured, Aldalomiel and Elama climbed up. We left the rope and pitons in place so that we’d have a secure exit if we needed it.

Crawling along the sideways spiral staircase was a weird process of going up and over the central pillar and then dropping down a few feet to the bottom end of the spiral. It was awkward going but we made our way through what had been the floor to the next level in the tower. Vinya looked out into the room -- it looked like a fairly conventional study, though turned on its side. What had been the walls were covered with bookshelves, though all the books on what was now the ceiling were on the floor beneath us, which was itself a bookcase crammed with books.

Marxine tied another rope around the central pillar of the stairs and dropped it down into the study. We couldn’t see anything in the room, but we could hear a buzzing noise. Vinya cast see invisibility from the rod of alertness again. That didn’t help, because she still couldn’t see anything moving.

Armed with that knowledge, Vinya climbed down to the floor-bookcases and waited for the others to come down on the rope.

It suddenly occurred to her that she was standing on pre-Severance books and she started waiting far less patiently for the rest of the party to get down to this floor. Once everyone was safely down, Vinya and Elderron started putting books in Vinya’s handy haversack. Vinya mostly let Elderron choose which books to take, but did remind him (and the rest of the party) that we didn’t have anything to put them in other than the handy haversack.

Vinya, to Elderron: This was clearly a wizard’s tower.
Elderron: Yeah. There should be good stuff here.
Vinya: I don’t think we should take the time for you to cast a ritual. I can cast it through the rod.
Elderron: Great idea.

Vinya did so and started to walk around. As she was walking around, she spotted something that we’d missed wedged into a corner where the spiral staircase extended down into the room and the (former) ceiling it went into. She grabbed that and continued walking around on all the walls and through as many of the books as possible. She picked up any books that showed up as magical, of course, and anything written in Elvish or obviously about Elves as well.

When she made her way back around to Elderron, she handed him the staff, finally getting a good look at it. It was made of purpleheart wood and topped with a perfect cube of transparent calcite (otherwise known in the real world as Icelandic spar).

Vinya, handing the staff to Elderron: This looks like a wizard thing.

Elderron immediately sat down and began preparing to ritually cast identify on it. Vinya continued her walk, trying to cover as much ground as possible picking up books that looked interesting or magical.

Everyone in the party other than Elderron, who was very preoccupied, noticed that the buzzing sound we’d been hearing was getting louder and louder. Then four horrifically human-sized praying mantis-looking things with scythes on their arms came out of what had been the staircases leading through the walls to the “floor below” (now the next chamber over). Vinya was a bit away from everyone else in the party, because of her walking around to look for magic and books. (Vinya had totally filled up her handy haversack and was now just using rope to make a bundle of books to wear on her back and tying them on the outsides of people’s backpacks.) Marxine was standing over Elderron to make sure he stayed safe and Elama and Aldalomiel were near them.

Elderron was saved from being surprised by the flail of warning alerting him to danger.

Three of them came out of the former stairway on the left side of the room and one on the right side of the room. The one on the right flew to Vinya, who was closest to it, then landed and slashed with its scythe-like talons at the ends of its arms. It made three attacks, which all missed. The other three spread out -- one each on Elama, Marxine, and Aldalomiel (ignoring the unarmored guy sitting on the floor). The one on Aldalomiel only got one hit, but it was a big one for 21 points of damage.

Marxine: Yikes!

The ones on Elama and Marxine missed all around. Unfortunately the one on Marxine didn’t succumb to the slow from the Rod of Litrices.

Vinya attacked the mantis in front of her with her quarter-staff (guessing that these wouldn’t need magical weapons to hit them), hitting both times, then followed up with a punch and a stunning strike (that worked). Aldalomiel cast zephyr strike, then ran to the “wall” (formerly the floor) on the other side of the room and fired two arrows at the one that had attacked her. Both of those hit, doing a lot of damage. Elama cast thunderwave on the mantis in front of her -- pushing it so that it was next to the one that Aldalomiel had just skewered and doing a lot of damage. Then she moved to be adjacent to both of them and attacked one with her scimitar of speed. Marxine attacked the one in front of her, hitting twice (one of them a crit). That was so successful, she did an action surge and attacked again, hitting twice again. The total damage from Marxine’s turn was 60 points. NICE!

Of all of them, Marxine’s mantis was definitely looking the most ragged at this point.

Elderron moved to line up a lightning bolt on the three of them over there. It took a bit of doing and the bolt went perilously close to Elama. He made the bolt have a wisdom save (but left the damage unchanged) and she was able to entirely avoid damage from it. The bolt was somewhat anemic but still did 26 points of damage.

The three non-stunned mantises made a noise like a cough and from their joints emitted a cloud of what looked like shards of glass-dust. Everyone managed to avoid the dust, but it looked like it would be incredibly hazardous to breathe. Vinya’s, because it had been stunned, was unable to do that.

Vinya, seeing the crystal shard-dust: I want to keep mine stunned, I see.

She then proceeded to pound on hers, doing two attacks with the quarter staff and a flurry of blows with a knee and fist, all of which hit. She stunned it for the next round with a knee to the thorax.

Aldalomiel missed twice with her arrows then took her starry archer form and got a critical hit with the radiant bolt. Elama cast spiritual guardians then stepped a bit to the side so that all three of them on that side of the room were within the radius of little floating, zapping thunderclouds. Then she made an attack on one with the scimitar of speed and got another hit. Marxine attacked her bug, already starting to look frayed. She missed with one hit but did maximum damage with the other, leaving it looking pretty bad indeed. Elderron cast another lightning bolt, this time without having to worry about hitting Lamie as she’d moved out of range so he made it an intelligence save and had it do cold damage. Once again it wasn’t the most powerful spell, but it did hurt them.

The three mantises on that side of the room all took damage from the spiritual guardians, then attacked. Two of them were attacking Elama, each with three attacks. One of them hit twice. The other one only got one hit, but it was a critical hit. Fortunately the spiritual guardians stayed up. Marxine actually took a hit, which rarely happens.

Vinya hit once with the quarterstaff and once with an elbow, but it wasn’t affected by her stunning strike. Aldalomiel dropped one of the two on Elama with her arrows then fired a radiant bolt at the other one. Elama, having been hit pretty hard the previous round, started dodging. Marxine absolutely splattered the one that had been on her, then turned to the one remaining on Elama and hit it hard as well. Elderron finished that one off with a fire-damage blight spell that caused it to burn from the inside -- the exoskeleton glowing as its insides flamed before the exoskeleton itself burned and crumbled to ash.

The only mantis remaining, the one on Vinya, flew up into the air and its wings made a harmonic noise that charmed her entirely. Then it broke and flew toward the nearest staircase (the one it had come from), which was only a few feet away. Then it disappeared into the darkness.

Vinya ran after it, calling for the others.

Vinya: It’s hurt! We need to help it.
Aldalomiel, following: Sure, these are healing arrows.

Aldalomiel followed with a move and a dash to get to the entrance to the next room, where Vinya was waiting at the doorway. Then she fired a “healing” radiant bolt at it that hit. Elama kept up her concentration on the spiritual guardians and ran as fast as she could to get to the entrance to the other staircase, but didn’t go through. Marxine, who was closer to that staircase than Lamie, moved and dashed and got part-way through. Elderron, closer still, was able to get into the next room.

Where he saw Vinya chasing the bright elusive butterfly of love -- or at least the flying mantis-like creature that had charmed her -- calling for it to come down so she could help it. We were in what looked like a former magical work room, though all the furniture (and alchemical glassware) had crashed to the floor when the tower tilted and/or crashed.

The Butterfly of Love turned around and attacked Vinya, hitting her twice for a painful lot of damage.

That brought Vinya back to a bit more of a rational place and she was able to still her mind and end the charm on herself, then she used a ki point to step like the wind and move behind the broken remains of a bench.

Aldalomiel, to Vinya: Are you no longer seeing the pretty butterfly?
Vinya: Yeah. Sorry about that.

Aldalomiel then proceeded to shoot it -- hitting it with an arrow and a radiant bolt. Elama ran into the room and cast sacred flame on it (to no effect) then cast a powerful healing word on herself. Marxine ran in, but wasn’t able to close. She wasn’t able to get closer than the very edge of range for throwing hand axes at it. She tried that anyway, throwing two of them, but they both missed. Elderron cast a basic magic missile which did enough damage to drop it.

As soon as the last mantis dropped, Elderron sat down and started the ritual to identify the staff again. Vinya cast detect magic from the Rod of Alertness again and went back to walking around in this new room, the former workshop of the wizard who’d owned this tower. Vinya found a big, ornate book that could be a wizard’s spell book. She put that next to Elderron so he could put it into his bag when he was done with his ritual.

She got the impression, which Elderron confirmed later, that this wizard had been mostly focused on light, radiant energy, and illusions. We found some notes he’d made about research he’d been doing and slipped those into someone’s backpack.

While Vinya was walking around checking out the room, Aldalomiel cast cure wounds on her.

Vinya: Thanks.

Elderron finished his identify spell on the purpleheart staff with an impressed whistle.

Staff of Triltum (requires attunement by a spellcaster)

This staff is made of purpleheart, topped with a block of clearest calcite. While holding the staff, you gain a +1 bonus on spell attack rolls. Whenever you score a critical hit with a spell attack, the target takes an extra 3d6 radiant damage. Also, while holding this staff you can cast the Wall of Light spell once; you regain this ability at dawn.

Vinya: I think we’ve gotten both your weal and your woe here, Elama.
Lamie: That explosion thing they did was annoying.

Lamie then cast protection from poison on Vinya.

We moved on, taking the staircases in the walls from one room (floor) to another. We went through a kitchen and a formal dining room, getting ever closer to the basalt rock itself. While we were in a parlor there was a low-pitched rumbling and shaking, in the mind as much as in the walls. It seemed like it was coming from inside the rock.

We figured we had to be getting close to where the tower sat on/came out of the rock, in part because this appeared to be a room for receiving visitors. There were stairs on either side of the room that went on into, most likely, the basalt itself.

Elderron sent Oda in, watching through his eyes. Oda saw three beings in the room -- one figure was an extremely obese humanoid, medium size. His hands were so fat or swollen they were almost flippers and he was holding an object that looked like a staff. The other two were ogre-sized and grotesque. The skin and subcutaneous layers were transparent, so he could see the muscles twitching as they moved around. They were humanoid in shape and ogre-sized (and looked a bit like if you’d skinned an atypically lean ogre) with lots of teeth. Their eyes didn’t seem to have eyelids.

There was a lot of stuff in the room -- a glowing and flickering crystal that was hard for Oda to look at but the rumblings we could still here seemed to be in time with the flickering in the crystal.

All three of them turned to look at Oda. Elderron immediately popped Oda back into his owl-pocket.

Before we could consider too deeply what to do, the two large skinned-looking figures started climbing through the stairway into the parlor we were in. The blobby figure walked through the wall (phasing through not bursting through like Kool-Aid man).

Vinya: Maybe we found the wizard.

And there we ended.

 

[prabe]

Session 44: The Wizard And His Skinned Assistants

Dramatis Personae:

Heath - Aldalómiel - Wood Elf Ranger (Hunter Conclave)/Druid (Circle of Stars)
John - Elama “Lamie” Galanodel- Wood Elf Cleric (Tempest)
Sara - Vinya Anar - Wood Elf Monk (Way of the Sun Soul)
Emily - Marxine - Mountain Dwarf Fighter (Champion)/Paladin

Note: Elderon's player couldn’t be with us this evening. Elderon apparently got enraptured by some book in the library in the tower and was reading.)

GM - Everyone Else


21 Bluzzimin 749 (Campaign day 172)

We ended Session 43 in the ancient wizard tower that had been on a floating island that crashed to the ground. We’d made our way through the tower, fighting our way through it from the top of along (since it was lying on its side) down to about where the tower was built into the basalt rock it had been floating on. We’d been pretty badly damaged, and depleted, by a fight with some insectoid creatures and hadn’t had time to take even a short rest. We ended the session with Oda having scouted the last room in the tower and found an extremely obese human, holding a quarterstaff accompanied by two ogre-sized humanoids with transparent skin -- their muscles and ligaments were all visible and twitching.

They spotted Oda and came toward us -- the two transparent-skinned ogres through what would have been the staircases down to the lowest level and the obese humanoid with the staff phasing through what is now the wall (and was originally the floor).

Before they arrived, Elama cast bless on Vinya, Marxine, and Aldalomiel. Vinya moved a few feet and planted the Rod of Alertness in the floor, to give us all the benefit of the bonus to AC that it gives.

Vinya ran to the wall, fired two sunbolts at the transparent-skinned ogre on the right, then ran about ten feet up the wall with her slippers of spider climb and did patient defense. Aldalomiel shot two arrows at the obese humanoid (who we presumed was the wizard to whom this tower once belonged) then took her starry archer form and fired a radiant bolt at it. She got two hits.

The transparent-skinned ogre on the left moved up until it was about ten feet from Aldalomiel and attacked her with reach, slamming her with big meaty fists, one of which hit. The other ogre-like entity moved toward Marxine, but wasn’t able to get to her.

Marxine moved so she was between that ogre-entity and Aldalomiel and attacked with her hammer. Elama, who was running low on spells after the fight with the insectoid creatures, moved up to stand next to Aldalomiel and cast Thunderwave, hoping to move the ogre away from her (and avoiding Marxine in the area of effect). The ogre-entity took some damage but it was not pushed away.

The wizard made a gesture and a weird, color-clashing, bad-smelling blob of stuff hit the ogre on the left (the one that had attacked Aldalomiel) and Marxine, Aldalomiel, and Elama all took psychic damage without any opportunity to avoid or resist it.

Vinya ran down the wall and over to the wizard, hitting him once with her quarterstaff (and failing the attempt to stun him) then missed with a bonus action punch. Frustrated with that, she ran around behind the wizard, between him and the wall he’d just phased through to try and draw his attention away from the rest of the party.

Aldalomiel, with a transparent-skinned ogre right in front of her, cast Zephyr Strike, which allowed her to get away from the ogre-thing.She ran to a corner and shot two arrows at the wizard -- hitting him once pretty solidly.

Both of the ogre-things attacked Marxine and both of them missed her entirely. The ogre that had attacked Aldalomiel got slowed by the Rod of Litrices.

Marxine attacked that ogre-thing, hitting it once and whittling it down some. Elama backed away from the ogre-thing that had attacked Aldalomiel, getting out of threat range, and cast sacred flame on it, but unfortunately it saved.

The wizard found himself with a monk right behind him and made an arguably bad decision -- because he attacked Vinya with the staff in his hands rather than casting a spell. He missed.

In return, Vinya attacked him with her staff and didn’t miss. She was also able to stun him with one of her hits. She followed that up with an elbow to his throat.

Aldalomiel cured herself with a spell then fired a radiant bolt at the ogre-thing on the left, the one that everyone was focusing fire on.

The ogre-things once again tried to attack Marxine. And once again both missed entirely and one was slowed by the Rod of Litrices.

Marxine attacked the one we’d been focusing fire on, hitting it twice. Elama followed Aldalomiel’s lead and cured herself, then moved around the ogre-thing on the left until she was directly opposite Marxine, in order to provide flanking. She attacked with the scimitar of speed (which gives a bonus-action attack) and got a hit.

The stunned wizard just stood then while Vinya hit him with her quarterstaff across the temple, stunning him again. Then she hit him again with the quarterstaff and with an elbow to the solar plexus. Aldalomiel fired two arrows at the stunned wizard -- hitting both times, one of which was a crit. Then she fired a radiant bolt at the ogre-thing everyone was attacking, hitting it as well.

The two ogre-things attacking Marxine each actually got a hit, against all odds. Even though both of them missed with one attack, neither was slowed by the Rod of Litrices.

Marxine got her second wind and she attacked the same ogre-thing we were focusing fire on, the one on the left. She hit once and did a nice amount of damage. Elama edged around through the ogre-thing’s threatened area and cast cure wounds on her, then she started moving back carefully, but didn’t make it all the way. Then she attacked with her scimitar of speed getting a nice hit.

The wizard, stunned again, just stood once again while Vinya hit him with her quarterstaff and attempted a stunning strike. He saved against the stunning strike. She hit him again and he saved against the stunning strike. That was the last of Vinya’s ki points.

Vinya: Bugger.

Her unarmed kick to the back of his knee did hit, at least. Aldalomiel shot two arrows at the wizard, dropping him. Then she fired a radiant bolt at the ogre-thing we were focusing fire on, getting a critical hit and doing a lot of damage.

The other ogre missed its attacks on Marxine, getting slowed by the Rod of Litrices. The one we were focusing fire on actually turned away from nigh-unhittable Marxine and attacked Elama instead, hitting her only once. It dodged Elama’s lightning damage in retaliation but was still dropped by the residual damage.

Marxine only had one target remaining -- it was slowed, but largely unhurt. She hit it twice. Elama stayed away from it and cast sacred flame -- it failed the save, but the damage was minimal. Vinya shot two sunbolts at the remaining ogre-thing, then moved up to give Marxine flanking and to punch him with an unarmed strike, which hit.

Elama: I only have one revivify available.

Aldalomiel shot it twice her arrows, hitting solidly both times, but missed with the radiant bolt.

The ogre-thing appeared to freak out somewhat at the loss of the wizard and its compatriot, and it did a huge flailing thing, attacking at both Marxine and Vinya at the same time. It missed Marxine, but hit Vinya, knocking her prone but not out.

Marxine, now without flanking, hit with both of her attacks and dropped it.

Whew!!

The room we were in was the remains of a parlor, the furniture all broken and shattered where it fell when the tower crashed to the ground. Vinya retrieved the rod of alertness, then she and Vinya scouted through what were the stairwells to the last/lowest room in the tower.

We saw a flickering crystal about the size of a wine barrel about 40 feet (half-way) up the far wall, which was originally the floor. We saw some art around and some other things. Vinya went to get the rest of the party, casting detect magic from the rod of alertness when she was in the parlor getting the rest of the party. She spotted a magical ring on the wizard, which we collected before we returned to the final room. The staff he was holding was not magical--in fact, it started to sublimate when he died. In that room, with the flickering crystal on the wall, we found a cloak and a brass horn that were also magical. We put those in Vinya’s bag of holding.

We also found a broken abacus -- some of the arms were broken and a few of the beads were missing. This appeared to be for doing some weird kind of non-decimal mathematics, though it was difficult to tell. There was a pocket with notes attached to the abacus, which is not, itself, magical. Elderron looked at the notes and found that it was the wizard’s spellbook. The one we found in the laboratory had mostly notes and a few basic low-level spells -- this was the one he had clearly developed as he grew in power.

The crystal was in some sort of housing or setting on what had been the floor. VInya walked up the wall and looked at the housing around the crystal. It had some discoloration to it and the crystal had cracks or flaws. She couldn’t tell if they were on the surface or deep into the crystal. There was no writing around it, but there did appear to be some marks like orientation marks or compass marks. They looked like indicators so the wizard could steer, at least somewhat, the floating island. The rumbling we’d noticed in the tower appeared to be coming from the gem and the light it was giving off flickered regularly.

The rest of the party looked around this last room for anything like writing or papers, but didn’t find any. We had found some in the notebooks we found in the laboratory -- including mentions of places we’d never even heard of, such as Sigil, Draalaath, and Nirama.

There were no further exits from this room.

As we were going back through the parlor, we noticed that the wizard’s body was decaying incredibly quickly and had already mostly decomposed away, as did the staff in his hands. , Vinya finally figured out that the wizard’s name was probably Triltum -- as the staff we found in the stairway to the library was called “Triltum’s Staff”. It’s a reasonable hypothesis at least.

When we got back to the library, everyone got loaded up with interesting looking books -- Vinya grabbed anything in Elvish that she saw. Elderron grabbed interesting books as well. We filled up all the backpacks and satchels in the party, including Vinya’s Handy Haversack, then tied books on the outsides of the backpacks and satchels as well. Elama suggested using the magical cloak we’d found to carry more books, and we did that.

Vinya pointed out to the others that we’d heard these floating towers were at least pre-Severance. Maybe older than that. Elderron agreed that the magic to float islands and towers had been lost with the Severance, and the existing implementations had gotten less stable and predictable over the centuries.

We got out of the tower without too much trouble, thanks to having left the rope hanging and waiting for us in order to have an exit. We emerged looking beaten up, pretty badly beaten up, but victorious. The tower was still making occasional rumbling/thrumming noises.

One of the villagers guarding the perimeter: What’s with that noise it’s making?
Vinya: I’m kind of worried about that noise, to be honest. There’s a cracked power crystal in there. You might want to enlarge the cordon around the tower, just in case.
Marxine: Can we talk to your mayor about calling in outside help?
Vinya: And a librarian.

Elderron said that he believed that the crystal was unstable in the long term, but would probably not catastrophically explode in the next week or so. Probably.

Elderron: Help can probably get here in time. And if it explodes, it’s probably going to be psychic damage, so the buildings will be okay.
Vinya: Yeah. If we can talk to the mayor, we’d like to contact some people who might be able to help. But we don’t want to impose that on you.

We were taken to see the Mayor, a human man named Torin.

Vinya explained that there was a library full of knowledge from before the Severance in the tower and that it should be collected and conserved and made available to researchers. She also mentioned that there was an unstable power crystal in there and that it might explode any week now, maybe any day now. Torin was a little skeptical about the whole thing, but agreed to let us notify someone from Dhaqi to come in and assist with both of those situations.

At his agreement, Lamie cast sending to Jorcha Linnolim at the Well of Screams.

Elama, through the spell to Jorcha: Hi! We found a crashed wizard's tower in Dortil, with a broken unstable power crystal. Wanna help?
Vinya: Remember the library.
Elama, still through the spell: And an intact-ish library.
Jorcha: That sounds dangerous, and important. We'll get someone there soon-ish. Make sure the people know to keep out.

Elama, to the Mayor: Tell people to keep out of the tower. We’ve cleared out the monsters but it’s still dangerous.
Mayor: Thank you.

We headed back to the iv-Nulis, getting back in plenty of time before it left Dortil to cross the lake under tow. We retired to our room, taking a short rest. Vinya started identifying the books we found while Elderron identified the things we’d found. (See treasure list at end of session notes.)

Vinya found a book on pre-Severance Elvish religion among the ones we’d found and sat down and began puzzling her way through that.

The day passed with reading and discussing the magic items, followed by the night passing. And thereby we had a long rest as we crossed the lake under tow.

We ended the session there and will begin again on 22 Bluzzimin 749 (Campaign day 173).

Treasure from Triltum’s Tower (Sessions 43 and 44)

All of the items we found are in the DMG.

Brass Horn of Valhalla (this does not require attunement and can be passed around among the party)

Ring of Free Action -- requires attunement. It allows the wearer to ignore difficult terrain, magic can’t reduce their speed and they can’t be paralyzed or restrained.

Cloak of the Bat -- requires attunement. It allows the wearer to fly as long as their hands are free and they are in shadow or darkness. It also gives advantage on stealth checks in shadow or darkness.

Hat of Disguise

Triltum’s Abacus Spellbook -- non-magical but very nice.

Triltum's spellbook is in the form of something like an abacus, in some sort of non-base-ten, with a tattered bundle of notes tucked into a leather pocket sewn into the bottom. Arms are broken and beads are missing, and there are pages missing from the notes; but it's clear Triltum was working on magic from a more purely mathematical direction than most current theories.

The following spells can be reconstructed from the notes present, using the abacus in its current condition. Someone dedicated enough can plausibly reconstruct the arms and beads, and Triltum's theories.

1st: Flash, Gift of Alacrity, Voidslime, Triltum's Forced Learning, Senses of Tindalos, Tasha's Caustic Brew (T), Catapult (X), Illusory Script, False Life, Fog Cloud, Silent Image, Unseen Servant, Alarm

2nd: Aegis, Adroit Escape, Acid Serpents, Mind Spike, Dust Devil, Warding Wind, Blur, Locate Object, Magic Mouth, Rope Trick

3rd: Triltum's Timeskip, Intellect Fortress (T), Thunder Step (X), Wall of Sand (X), Bestow Curse, Blink, Gaseous Form, Glyph of Warding, Haste, Magic Circle, Nondetection, Remove Curse, Slow, Tongues

4th: Wall of Darkness, Sickening Radiance (X), Elemental Bane (X), Evard's Black Tentacles, Confusion

5th: Gravitic Crush, Far Step (X), Synaptic Static (X), Scrying, Dream, Contact Other Plane

Triltum’s Normal Apprentice Spellbook -- non-magical as well. Mostly theory, but has a few minor spells in it: 1st: Expeditious Retreat, Protection from Evil and Good; Tenser’s Floating Disk; 2nd: Arcane Lock, Detect Thoughts, Phantasmal Force

Staff of Triltum -- (requires attunement by a spellcaster) -- This staff is made of purpleheart, topped with a block of clearest feldspar. While holding the staff, you gain a +1 bonus on spell attack rolls. Whenever you score a critical hit with a spell attack, the target takes an extra 3d6 radiant damage. Also, while holding this staff you can cast the Wall of Light spell once; you regain this ability at dawn.

Lots and lots of books -- GM NOTE: Information on this to come later.

Art Objects -- Worth 750 gp each: silver chalice with moonstones around the base; silver-plated longsword with jet in the pommel; gold comb in the shape of a dragon, with garnets as the eyes; obsidian statuette with gold fittings and inlays, in the shape of a dancing six-armed woman; painted gold war mask, molded and painted to look like an angry storm giant. (This is one art object (or 750 gp) for each of us. Vinya would like the gold comb in the shape of a dragon, if no one minds.)

 

[prabe]

Session 45: Rajalmin’s Agent

Dramatis Personae:

Aldalómiel - Wood Elf Ranger (Hunter Conclave)/Druid (Circle of Stars)
Elama “Lamie” Galanodel- Wood Elf Cleric (Tempest)
Vinya Anar - Wood Elf Monk (Way of the Sun Soul)
Marxine - Mountain Dwarf Fighter (Champion)/Paladin
Elderon - High Elf Wizard (Loremaster)

GM - Everyone Else


22 Bluzzimin 749 (Campaign day 173)

We successfully crossed the lake during this day. In the evening we arrived at Terozzi on the other side of the lake and docked there for the night.

During the day we talked about the stuff that we found in the fallen tower. Elderron was interested in the Cloak of the Bat, so he got that. We decided that Marxine should get the Ring of Free Action, though that could be useful for anyone. We decided to keep the Hat of Disguise in the Handy Haversack, because it might be useful sort of situationally.

We overnighted on the iv-Nulis in Terozzi and the night passed without incident.


23 Bluzzimin 749 (Campaign day 174)

Before we left town the next morning, the iv-Nulis took on another passenger -- an earth genasi merchant. We didn’t see any large quantity of goods being loaded as the genasi came on board.

He was introduced to us as Irahi Tulq and one of the crew told us that he’d paid well to be another passenger on the barge. (The iv-Nulis is much more a cargo barge than a passenger vessel.)

Irahi Tulq was very interested in talking about the things we’d seen and done. Over the course of the next couple of days we talked with him several times. Elama mentioned the fallen tower, which got him very interested. We told him about the things we’d fought and the furniture that had fallen. We mentioned that there had been some sort of time-stopping effect protecting things until the wizard died -- then the furniture started to decay. Vinya was careful not to mention anything about the library that we found.

Irahi Tulq: Why are you on the river?
Vinya: We were at Brush Bend. We were at Luxug’s Wall in Daqi, I don’t know if you know it, and saw that some naughty word was going down in Brush Bend. So we hurried over to help.
Irahi Tulq: That behavior just baffles me. You ran toward the danger.

Elama read his surface thoughts with her Helm of Mind Reading. He didn’t seem to be baffled at all.

Irahi Tulq, thoughts: (sarcastic) Of course they went to help.

Vinya kept back anything to do with demons, devils, fiends, and most especially Rajalmin. But she was willing to talk about anything else we’d seen -- including other floating towers and things we’d fought in various places.

In another conversation, we asked him what he traded in.

Tulq: It is best described as small but expensive items.
Vinya: You must have some significant powers to be able to defend yourself and your goods.
Tulq: They are not obvious. I found a bag of holding and use it to transport my items.
Vinya: Oh, man, we’d love one of those.
Tulq: It is not for sale.
Vinya: No, of course not. But we’d appreciate you letting us know if you see one for sale. If you have a way to do so.
Marxine: Why are you alone?
Tulq: I have found that one person on publicly maintained roads generally can avoid the notice of those that might be inclined to rob him. Security by obscurity.
Vinya: Have you been anywhere interesting? Can you recommend places for us to go?
Tulq: In Oldest Dhaqi there is the House of the Wind and Sand. They are all about flying and rapid overland travel, especially around Za’akesh. Their prices are, however, exorbitant.
Vinya: We traveled by the Shining Silver Tetrahedron. They were likewise not cheap.
Tulq: Teleportation rarely is. As I’m sure you know, the Tetrahedron also does planar travel.

It became clear to us that Irahi was only going as far as Rhe’ez -- a village a few days travel from Terozzi.

We traveled without incident (other than walking the horses along with the mules on the towpath and talking to Irahi Tulq) for a couple of days until we arrived at the next village.


25 Bluzzimin 749 (Campaign day 176)

We arrived at the next village, Onitri, on this day. Aldalomiel left the iv-Nulis to go look for ammunition. Elderron went to find fine paper and inks so he could start transcribing the spells he could readily figure out from the broken abacus spellbook.

Irahi Tulq disembarked and Vinya sort of generally followed him, going in the same direction without trying to be obvious about following him. He went to a market and went through some merchant stalls. He appeared to be looking for deals on small items that he could carry in his bag of holding. Vinya followed him for a little while, until he proved to be absolutely boring, then she returned to the boat.

We stayed on the boat, docked in Onitri overnight. And the night passed without incident.


26-27 Bluzzimin 749 (Campaign day 177-178)

A couple of days passed quietly as we sailed from Onitri to Rhe’ez.


28 Bluzzimin 749 (Campaign day 179)

We arrived in Rhe’ez late in the day and we’re told we’d be staying there overnight. Irahi Tulq disembarked as soon as the boat docked and was gone out of sight almost as soon as the boat tied up.

We asked one of the crew for a restaurant recommendation and were sent to the Sterling Dolphin for dinner. The food there was clearly inspired by or related to Dhaqin street food -- smoky, peppery foods, some moles, tapas-style small plates. We ordered a feast of small plates and tried lots of different things. All very good.

Vinya kept an eye out, but we didn’t see Irah Tulq.

After dinner, we returned to the boat and the night passed without incident.


29 Bluzzimin 749 (Campaign day 180)

We left Rhe’ez in the morning on the iv-Nulis. We were informed by the crew that we were going to be traveling for a while between towns and were going to be traveling overnight.

In the evening after dinner, Aldalomiel was up on deck walking around, Vinya and Elama were sitting up in the bow watching things go by. Elderron was studying in our cabin down below. Marxine was down below trying to ignore the fact that we were traveling by boat. Still.

Around sunset, as we were going along, one of the crewmembers, who had been swabbing the deck, suddenly just fell over, drooling. Elama ran to him -- he didn’t appear to be breathing, so she gave him some healing. He sat up.

Elama: What happened?
Crewmember: (drools)

He was now breathing, but appeared to have suffered some sort of severe, traumatic mental injury.

Elama: Can you get Elderron, Vinya?

Vinya ran down to our quarters and told Elderron and Marxine what was going on and where Elama was with the crewman. Then she went to get Captain Luzin.

Elderron, to Elama: What’s going on?
Elama: He just fell over and was dying. I cured him but he’s still not right.
Elderron: There are some spells that leave no wounds but leave the victim stupid.
Vinya: Permanently?
Elderron: For a very long time.

Vinya and the captain looked around the deck and around the ship, but didn’t see anyone but us and the crew there. We got back to Elama and the stricken crewmember.

Elama: How far are we from Dhaqi?
Captain: About four days.
Elama: Maybe someone in the next town can help him.

Vinya cast see invisibility from the Rod of Alertness and looked around very carefully, walking around the perimeter of the deck and looking around. About 60’ off the stern of the boat, she saw a giant frog-like thing swimming along and keeping pace with the iv-Nulis. It was human-sized but frog-esque.

Vinya went and passed the word to Aldalomiel, asking her to tell the rest of the party, then tried to hide and watch it without letting it know it had been made. Unfortunately, when she got back to keep an eye on it, it had dropped back. It had apparently spotted her spotting it.

Aldalomiel spread the word amongst the party that there was a froggy, aquatic, invisible thing tailing us. She talked to the captain about whether he’d be willing to stop the boat. He said he would be, though his own inclination was to get to Dhaqi as quickly as possible. Elderron started ritual casting water breathing.

Vinya noticed that it was falling back -- not getting out-paced, but deliberately hanging back. Vinya passed that word to the others. Vinya started the crew making a hue and cry about the stricken crewman, Jorni, hoping that might make the frog-thing curious. .

The Captain pulled over to the side of the canal and tied up at one of the cleats left at regular intervals for the canalboats to use. When the boat stopped, the frog thing stopped and backed off some -- to about 100 feet away behind us. We noticed another barge approaching, from the other direction (from Dhaqi) -- it was about 100 feet in the other direction.

Captain Luzin: I’ll make sure they stop.

We decided we couldn’t wait, because that other boat was going to be in danger. Elderron stopped casting the water breathing and ran to the back of the boat to cast dispel magic. Elama was waiting there, ready to cast control water as soon as she could see it. Aldalomiel held an arrow shot, likewise waiting until she could see it.

Once Elderron cast dispel magic, he recognized the thing as a hydroloth, a type of yugoloth that steals memories. That memory-theft effect can be reversed with either greater restoration or remove curse. They often work as mercenaries for demons or devils. He relayed this information to the rest of us.

Marxine jumped off the boat onto the towpath and ran as fast as she could back in its direction.

Elama cast control water, moving the water away from the hydroloth and leaving dead center in a 100’ area without water. It had 50’ of dry canal bottom in every direction around it. Then she jumped onto the towpath and ran toward it again.

Aldalomiel fired her held shot, hitting it nicely.

Vinya jumped off the boat and ran as fast as she could, using some of her ki to run with the step of the wind. Then she fired two radiant sunbolts at it, hitting with one.

The hydroloth waved its froggy hands and tried to do some weird magical stuff, but nothing happened. Elderron got the sense that it had tried to dispel the control water and failed. Then it moved to Vinya and tried to grab her, but missed.

Elderron cast lightning bolt on it, upcharge, but altered the damage to radiant and the save to wisdom. It was a solid hit that did a lot of damage. Marxine jumped into the dry canal and moved and dashed so that she was right up in its face. Aldalomiel fired two arrows at it, hitting twice and doing a lot of damage. Elama ran and jumped into the dry canal, running and dashing to get as close as possible. Then she cast spiritual weapon, placing the little floating lightning cloud right next to it, but missed with that. Vinya shot it with sunbolts again, hitting twice (once a crit). She spent some of her ki to fire two more sunbolts at it, getting another crit. That dropped it.

The body began to deliquesce into a foul-smelling puddle.

Elderron: There are no more, are there?
Vinya, still seeing invisible things: Don’t see any.

Vinya walked up the side of the canal and tied a rope to a cleat, throwing it down to help the others up out of the canal.

Once Elama and Marxine were out of the canal, Elama released the hold water. We walked the hundred or so feet back to the iv-Nulis together.

Elama: We all think Rajalmin sent this, right?
Vinya: I sure do. He hired those oni, so we know he’s not above hiring mercenaries.
Marxine: And we just pissed him off.
Elama: He might have informants.
Vinya: I’m back to suspecting Irahi Tulq.

We got back on the ship and give the Captain the all clear, which he relayed to the boat going in the other direction.

Vinya: I believe that Elama can help Jorni.
Elama: Yep. Tomorrow.

When we’d resumed proceeding, Vinya went to talk to the captain.

Vinya: Have you encountered anything in the water that attacked people before?
Captain Luzin: No. Trade is too important. Dhaqi and Illhon, its trading partner, go to some lengths to keep the canal clear.
Vinya: Okay. So that really was weird.

The rest of the day and night passed without incident.


30 Bluzzimin 749 (Campaign day 181)

First thing in the morning, Elama cast remove curse and undid the sailor Jorni’s memory theft.

Elderron explained to us that if it had gotten memories from someone in the party, it could have taken that memory to Rajalmin, so that he would have our memories. Elderron thought it could examine the memories it collects. So it knew that it had gotten a sailor and missed any of us.

Elama: I’m getting pissed. Rajalmin doing things to usis one thing -- but taking down random people and mind-snarfing them is not cool. I wonder if that thing was in brush Bend and followed us the whole way.
Vinya: I’m still suspecting Irahi Tulq.

The rest of the day and the night, indeed the entire rest of the trip, passed, though we had some fun celebration of the Feast of Sky, the midsummer festival, on the ship (on Day 182). Lots of drinking, though less than there would have been ashore and/or further north--there’s a tradition of drinking from sundown to sunup, trading off standing the rounds..


2 Sunnin 749 (Campaign day 184)

We arrived in Dhaqi right around dinner time.The first thing we did on our arrival was to go check in with Lt. Linnolim to get our guard badges fixed. He was happy to see us and that we had survived our adventure intact. We filled him in on what happened -- both what had taken us so suddenly out of Dhaqi to Brush Bend and what happened on the way home.

Vinya:We talked with your sister about the fallen tower.
Linnolim: Yes. They decided to travel more quickly to get there, because it seemed like a dangerous situation.
Vinya: Oh, they didn’t go by boat?
Linnolim: She and one of her librarians traveled by flying carpet there. They made arrangements to have a barge meet them there. There are going to be some librarians and laborers on the boat.
Marxine: Could it be the barge we accidentally stopped?
Linnolim: (confused look)
Vinya: We were attacked by a hydroloth we think was sent by Rajalmin. He was definitely involved in the situation in Brush Bend. Do you know an earth genasi named Irahi Turq?
Linnolim: No. I don’t think so, why?
Vinya: Random, free-floating paranoia. But he got on our boat, asked a lot of questions about what we’d been up to, then got off. Then we were attacked by the hydroloth.

Linnolim took our guard badges, which had gotten thoroughly marked with verdigris during our time away from the city, and gave us new ones.

Vinya: Is there anything we can help with?
Linnolim: Not right now, but I’ll keep an eye out.

We left the guard house and went back to our inn, Bultir’s. Bultir was apologetic, because he’d had to let our rooms in our absence. However, he did have new rooms for us.

Elama: Can you keep horses?
Bultir: There are stables in the Society of Guests.

We took our horses (Nibbles, Horse, Comrade II, and the unnamed horses belonging to Aldalomiel and Elderron) to the stables and made arrangements for them to be stabled there. Then we went back to Bultir’s and took rooms. Elderron considered whether he needed to rent a room for a workshop, but didn’t make the decision to do that right away.

We ate in the restaurant, then went to our rooms to rest. We had two rooms with a connecting door between them. Elderron spent a couple of hours learning the spell Alarm from the abacus. Then he ritual cast it on the doors and the windows.

The night passed without incident.


3 Sunnin 749 (Campaign day 185)

We ate breakfast in the restaurant at Bultir’s.

Vinya, as she finished hers: I’d like to go to Luxug’s Wall and see if we can learn more about this Irahi Turq person.

The others agreed and we went there after we finished eating. At Luxug’s we paid our money and took our numbered flag. Then we got coffee and sat down to wait for our report.

When it arrived, the report was short.

Irahi Tulq lost his soul to a succubus some 70 years ago. Since then, the succubus has been intermittently using him as a persona to assume.

Vinya: So it was the succubitch that reported our location. Then Rajalmin sent something big to deal with us. (an unpleasant realization dawns) Rajalmin knows how long it takes for a cargo barge to get to Dhaqi.

Vinya (to the desk clerk at Luxug’s Wall): Do you do extra-planar readings?
Clerk: It is more expensive and less reliable. And less complete.

Vinya and Elama paid for a report on Rajalmin.

Vinya, as we went to sit down again: I wonder if we get a refund if it turns out he’s on this plane after all…

A little while, and some very good coffee, later, we got our report.

Ughu Rajalmin Ard is a mighty rakshasa in the indirect service of Dispater. His lord is most interested in information, and Rajalmin mostly serves that need. On Erknonin, Rajalmin sates his lust for pleasure and undying revenge. His castle on Dis is full of fiends who serve him directly rather than taking part themselves in the Blood War.

Rajalmin has access to slightly more magic than most rakshasas, and is completely unafraid to step into combat himself with his greatsword.

The gate in the Well of Screams has on occasion led directly to his small castle on Dis, as has one of the portals in the Prince's Palace in Kiranamakir.

We left Luxug’s Wall and walked and talked about this. We already knew from Elderron’s research that Rajalmin goes after the families of the people who thwart him. And that he has all kinds of devils and yugoloths and fiends (non-specific) working for him. But no one has ever seen him working with demons.

Elama had a bit of shopping to do -- she wanted to get some additional diamonds so she’d have enough for four castings of Revivify. She also acquired a crystal ball for scrying.

We also went up to level 9.

And there we ended.