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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Eridanis" data-source="post: 692227" data-attributes="member: 275">Session 39 - Enemies are friends, and friends are enemiesDrake’s Journal:Kellan and I returned to Verbobonc the next day, after I had erroneously teleported us some distance off our intended target...twice.  Luckily, our return to Verbobonc was much less difficult.  We regrouped and decided to chance an encounter with the yuan-ti in the valley, with whom we hoped to gather new information. They were cautious with us, as we with them.  Their representative offered to divine our questions if we could rescue one of their members from the Fire Giant's fortress.  It seems we had overlooked earlier the possibility of silent captives, and had not bothered to look inside all the cell doors in the prison area. We agreed to the task.  We teleported into the fortress' prison area where we first rescued the druidess.  Thankfully, their guards are probably guarding their treasure room rather than the prisoners.  We released a fire giant captive who was locked up for refusing the mind-influencing mead.  He hopes to stay behind and  help his comrades, though I don't see how he could accomplish it alone.  Nevertheless, he chose to stay behind while our group teleported back to the grove with a very sick yuan-ti. The two druid priestesses proceeded to restore the yuan-ti to health, after Kellan's ability to remove disease appeared to fail.  After a short rest, we proceeded to travel by foot toward the yuan-ti lair, where they greeted us and prepared to divine our questions. Does the lady of the lake have the artifact:  NO Is the mind flayer dead:  NO Do we have to destroy the artifact:  NO Is the artifact in the valley:  NO Is the crystal the artifact:  NO After reviewing the answers, and those to previous divinations and planar contacts, we decided to return to the lady of the lake and inquire about the sword.  What we found would surprise us all. After a brief discussion with the lady, where we let her know our suspicions about the sword's powers, we paused, waiting for the lady to return with the sword from her home at the bottom of the lake.  After fifteen minutes we knew it had been too long, and that the element of surprise had been lost.  So, with potions of water breathing at the ready, we all dove into the lake to repossess the dark blade. It appeared the lady was waiting for us, only she looked a lot less like a lady, and a lot more like a celestial dragon.  But the sword in it's hand convinced me it wasn't my imagination...maybe it's not too late to turn back now. Three crocodiles appeared to intercept us on the way down.  Grimtooth unleashed his fists on them, while Kellan and Greymantle closed ranks with the "lady."  The lady fought with them, while resisting every spell I could muster against it.  Near the end of the battle, Greymantle lay dying, and Rodrigo managed to teleport close enough to Kellan to pick up his unconscious body, as I delayed the dragon with a wall of force and we teleported back to safety in Verbobonc.  It was only after we arrived that I realized that Jorie was not with us.  Rodrigo says he saw him flying out of the water as a griffon and should likely be safe. What else is there to say, except that we failed in our task.  We will be better prepared in the next day or two, but so shall the lady.  The temple is doing it's best to revive Kellan's body.  I fear we may be too late to save him.  Greymantle still remains in the lake--a short-lived companion, but his bravery will never be in doubt by those who knew him.  So this is the price we pay to our gods.  It makes me grateful that I had not chosen the divine path when I was younger. Now, we must make our final preparations.  Should we succeed in our task, I suspect the church of Heironeous will owe us much more than gold could ever repay.From the Collected Letters of Sir Kellan Evershar:After returning to the valley after regrouping in Verbobonc, Jorie granted bird form to the entire party, so that we might scout the valley with minimal chance of being spotted. We saw groups of humans and centaurs wandering the valley aimlessly; evidence that we had successfully interrupted the supply of mind-control mead. Finding nothing much else out of the ordinary, we decided to change tactics, and talk to the yuan-ti in this valley. One of the young druidesses accompanied us (to guide us to their cave, but also, I think, to make sure we didn’t attack them outright). We were taken, after some discussion, to Vashilis, their high priest. As much as it turned my stomach to have to parley with these abominations, I know that we need to fight one battle at a time, and this was not the time to add another hostile front to our already overwhelming problems here.It turned out that the yuan-ti were missing several of their ‘broodmates.’ In particular, a diplomat named Mismis had been sent a month ago to find out what was causing the giants to start terrorizing the area, and she had not returned. If we rescued this diplomat, the high priest agreed to tell us what he knew of the late problems with spellcasters. As we were familiar with the giant’s cellblock, Garrett, Drake, and Graymantle teleported in, found the cell with the yuan-ti, and teleported out (after gathering a bit of information from a fire giant prisoner who hadn’t gone along with the others in the mind flyer plan). We returned Mismis to the yuan-ti; she was found to be infected with the red ache, but after a moment’s pause (remembering the fate of Stirling Dale, and who had done that to him), I cured her of the disease. Vashilis related a divination their dread gods had provided to them:“Prison, key, and panoply of guardsSeeking souls to burst the wards,Blackest bridge twixt silver stars”We took the “bridge” to possibly be the gates we knew the yuan-ti were using; seeking souls probably means they’re collecting souls in some fashion to break the bonds holding. . . what?The yuan-ti knew the answer. “There is a resurgence of the elder gods,” he said. “The human gods will not survive their return.” (Causing Rodrigo to quip: “We don’t have to outrun the elder gods – just the halfling ones.”) As tactfully as possible, I suggested that perhaps it would be in the yuan-ti’s interest if they returned. “No one wants them to return – even us. Only the servitors of the elder gods wish their return,” was the reply.We left the caves with more information than we started with (and also knowing that they too use the gates, two of which we’ve discovered – we’ll need to deal with that when the time comes). Drake cast another contact other plane, and we determined that the “key” in the prophecy was actually the black sword, once wielded by the bugbear chieftain in the jungle valley, then given to the Lady of the Lake upon the suggestion of Fharlanghan’s servants. Now knowing a terrible danger lay on the bed of a lake, possibly without the Lady there knowing the full significance, we teleported there to retrieve it and destroy it.The Lady was less than convinced that we would be able to destroy it, but after extended talk, she agreed to bring it to us. Time passed, and we realized – as we’d feared – that she would not return, and in fact may have been turned already to the sword’s will. Having prepared ourselves with water breathing potions, all of us, save for Nahktibastet, dove down to the depths. There, four giant crocodiles met us, controlled by the Lady in what might be her true form, that of a sea dragon. She had a magical staff in one claw, and the sword in another, and she proceeded to nearly ignore the few attacks Graymantle and I were able to land on her. I was the first to fall – staggered by her attacks, and slain by a single slash of the sword. My comrades tell me Graymantle quickly fell, too, and the rest were barely able to escape in time.The last time I died, I remember having a body, I remember green fields and starry skies, I remember the companionship of heroes and holy ones, and the near-yet-far presence of our lord Heironeous. This time was different. I cannot even relate the experience – nor do I wish to remember it, except that I remember it too clearly anyway – but I was adrift in a void, tortured by the groaning infinite void, belittled by my utter insignificance. The only “other” was the malignant presence, the consuming hate that was the un-soul of the sword. A mindless negation of life that hungered for souls to unlock the gates that lead to something worse than Hell, worse than Hades, and worse than any of our clerics and mystics have imagined could exist. I don’t know how I survived – I just know that I want no one to ever experience that again. This force must be stopped, and it might require us to ally with creatures such as the yuan-ti in order to fight an evil greater even than that which they represent.Grimtooth’s Journal:After retrieving my personal belongings from my former captors, the fire giants, I returned to the city of Verbobonc with the hopes of meeting up with my rescuers once again.  It was an odd band of would-be heroes, but just as good as any that I would find here in the middle of nowhere.  If anything, they would be a means to exercise my skills by presenting me with multiple opportunities to rearrange some faces and further perfect my <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" /><img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" /><img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" />yu martial arts style.  As luck would have it, I was able to track down a few members of the group I was in search of.  They did not seem opposed to me tagging along and before I knew it, I was magically teleporting around to and fro as they began collecting information about some sort of evil magical artifact.  After consulting some rather questionable folk (i.e. immortal beings) along with some Yuan-ti, it was finally determined that the artifact they sought lay in the hands of a lady from their past.  After enduring the many seemingly endless days of riddles, useless banter, and general meddling, I was quite eager to stick the boot leather to some unwilling foe.  I supposed a lady of the lake would do.  Unsurprisingly, the lady who possessed the evil artifact did not want to relinquish it so our party was forced into trying to take it from her.  As we pursued her into her underwater lair, we had themisfortune to discover that the lady (surprise, surprise) was not all that she appeared.  She now took the form of a formidable serpentine abomination.  At this point, our party became separated as some eager fighters within our party closed ranks with the lady and her evil artifact.  Seeing as our sorcerer and wizard had been left behind undefended, I began the tedious process of eliminating the oversized crocodiles that had been sent to intercept us with the assistance of the halfling named Garrett and a large badger friend of Jorie the shapeshifter.  After a few brief moments wrestling with and dispatching of the crocodiles, I looked up to see two of our party swimming with the fish at the bottom of the lake, the paladin Kellan and the half-orc Gray Mantle.  The fight looked to be faring poorly for our side indeed.If I were a smart dwarf, I would have left right there and then, but I’m not one to turn down an opportunity to fight especially since this particular opportunity had taken much longer than usual to get.  I began swimming directly toward the lady dragon and hit her with a flurry of attacks that would have easily downed any other creature.  Realizing I was seriously outclassed, I left my fate in my dwarven-bred resilience and began to attempt to disarm the creature as she fiercely pummeled me with claw, tooth, sword, and tail.  This was her home turf, and there was no way for me to dodge her blows underwater. I could see that I was distracting her, if only temporarily.  I just hoped that I could hold out long enough for my allies to discover a way to take her down.  Just as I could feel the halls of Moradin calling me, the sorcerer Rodrigo had had enough and whisked us all away to safety to fight another day.  My ego is certainly bruised, but it’s nothing another run in with the lady dragon won’t be able to fix.</blockquote>

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