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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Eridanis" data-source="post: 747841" data-attributes="member: 275">Session 41 - New Valley, not the same as the Old ValleyAnother session where we have journals from all the regulars. With this, we finish Beyond All Reason, and move on to Necropolis, making a pit stop in Call of Cthulhu d20 on the way through...Jorie’s Journal:We destroyed the sword, although in the process the Ancient Evil inhabiting it possessed the Fire Giant mage their King had sent with us.  After defeating some servant of the Old Ones, the sword's malignant effects on magic ceased to get worse.  They didn't get any better, however, so we were sent through a portal to another world.  I've found myself cut off from my Lady; however the absence was quickly filled by another.  The Lord Apis has claimed me as a gift from the goddess.  I can feel his strength fill me as we head into the Necropolis to retrieve an artifact that can help us seal the danger of the Old Ones away from our world once again.From the Collected Letters of Sir Kellan Evershar:We possessed the artifact; what, then, were we to do with it?After all the fighting and dying we had been through, I suggested a change of strategy. As absurd as it sounded, the others in the valley, though our bitter enemies in other circumstances, had as much to lose as we, so I suggested we try to peacefully approach the fire giants and basically ask them politely if we could destroy the artifact in their volcano. The only other option being to fight our way through (there was no way to access the core from the air), it was quickly agreed to, and someone suggested that we invite a yuan-ti representative along in order to show our honest intentions. The yuan-ti high priest; Mismis; and two others came along as we walked to the front gate of the fire giant fortress (teleportation now being far too dangerous and unreliable to attempt).We found the doors wide open for us. The two giant guards at the gate asked after our business, and I, carrying the artifact, replied that we wished to destroy the sword in the heart of their citadel’s volcano. They insisted on seeing the sword; I carefully unwrapped the hilt and part of the blade, being careful not to touch it. Satisfied, and more than a little anxious after seeing the artifact, they ushered us to the forge at the heart of the fortress. Their forgemaster, Tian Fullstrike waited there for us, and upon questioning, he relayed some of the sword’s history to us.The sword had, in fact, been forged at that very place a very long time ago. A joint effort by the mind flayers, the giants, and the yuan-ti, it confined a terrible evil being and kept it from entering this realm. Apparently, as the sword began to be used, and as it was able to consume souls, the being grew more and more powerful. How it came to be in the hands of the bugbear chieftain so far away, we may never know; but it was certain that detroying the sword in the volcanic forge, while possible, would release the evil within. After a few minutes of discussion, we decided we had come to far to turn back, and after casting as many preperatory spells as we dared, Tian strode to the forge and placed the sword within.The form of the sword slowly changed, melting as if turning into tar. As it melted, stretched, and began to lose its form, I thought I could feel fear and hate, and behind it all, the mindless force of chaos I had known while trapped in the sword. In just a moment’s time, nine insect-bat demons appeared, apparently at the sword’s summons; they quickly attacked, but not before Rodrigo was able to seriously hurt them with well-placed firebrands. One or two giants were plane shifted away by the devils, but otherwise, we were able to deal with them quickly. The sword, however, was still acting; turning and writhing, it forced its way down the throat of Tian, choking him and quickly desiccating his body from within. In seconds, the giant’s form was rippling, and just as it completed a transformation into tar-stuff, itextended a pseudopod and pulled Grimtooth into its body. For all its evil and power, we were able to deal serious damage to it, and had nearly defeated it when it was able to pull Greymantle, Garrett, and myself into its body as well. At the moment of truth, Rodrigo’s sanity held firm; his disintegration  spell ended the being’s threat to us.It seemed unlikely that a creature defeated so relatively easily would be the source of all the problems, and the yuan-ti promised to give us more information when we were ready to continue our quest. We returned to Verbobonc to resupply, and the sages and clergy we consulted (one of whom was able to name the creature was had defeated, shakily writing the name “shaggoth lord” on a piece of paper and passing it across to me, refusing to say the name) confirmed that the troubles were not over. While things did not seem to be getting worse, rumors indicted that the lesser gods were completely unable to grant spells to worshippers. They felt that we were powerful enough to be able to solve the problem, but not so powerful that the greater beings would be aware of our presence, and would move to stop us. We spent the next week and a half creating magic items for ourselves, and felling as ready as possible, gated back to the arctic valley to continue our quest.The yuan-ti told us that a rift to the chaos realms still existed, and had to be repaired using an item known to them, but existing on another plane of existence, a place called Khemet, or the Necropolis: a city of the dead accessible only through their system of gates. The device, a phylactery, to heal the rift would be found there, but its guardians would not be willing to share it. (As it turned out, Khemet was Nahktibastet’s place of origin; this would be of great importance to us, since her knowledge would undoubtedly be of great aid to us.) They told us that we would not be able to get our spells from our deities (a disturbing shock to me), but our spells could be granted by allying ourselves with the deities there (an even more disturbing thought). Each of us took a holy symbol at random from a selection they possessed; mine was an amulet with a cobra head, which Nahktibastet told me would a fortuitous choice. Thus prepared, we took the crystal the yuan-ti offered, placed it in their gate, and passed though to the next phase of our mission.The air was dry; the sun beat down heavily upon us. We stood before a gate leading to a valley in the desert, a large ‘pylon’ with worn and faded pictures, depicting the gods of this plane (Nahktibastet quickly explaining the pictures of gods named Osiris, Anubis, and others). The heat did not permit us much time to discuss; after quickly flying up to survey the immediate area (desert as far as could be seen), we entered the pylon to escape the sun. We cautiously walked past doors on either side of the passage, until a tall jackal-headed man appeared before us. Claiming to be Anubis, the god of the dead, he demanded our names and said that only the dead could pass. As his confederates appeared from the walls, my response was that I had cheated death, and had no fear of it; this response was enough to let me pass, but the others would not be allowed to follow. After a few more moments of discussion, the man lifted his hand, cast a spell, and the melee began…Rodrigo’s Journal:Those sniveling little punks should consider themselves lucky to be alive.  I must admit that the Yuan-Ti moved up several spots on my s**t list.  In the middle of battle they threw themselves on the ground quaking in fear.  Had it not been for the tip about this strange place that they call Necropolis we would have had to show them the light.  So for now at least my list grows shorter rather than longer: John Wells (Vampire Scum)Vampires (Blood Sucking Scum)Mind Flayers (Squirmy Bastards)Yuan Ti (Cowardly Dogs)The "Lady" of the Lake (This one can come off the list finally, although considering her treasure hoard it should be the "Bag Lady of the Lake".) The best news is that I don't feel as loopy now that we have arrived in Necropolis.  So as long as I can find something to cuddle up with, that does have a demon exploding out of it, then it just might be a good place to stay if things go bad.Garret’s Journal:The past few days have been very difficult for me. After an abruptsummoning from one of my mentor's students, I returned to my home to assist my teacher overcome a strange illness. Upon returning to my new comrades I was surprised to discover that the party had not only returned to the dragon lady but had defeated her, thus gaining possession of the cursed sword.After many hours of discussion we decided to take the sword tothe lair of the fire giants so that it could be destroyed in the heart of the volcano. Fearing our reception would be less thanfriendly, we persuaded the Yuan'ti and the druids to come with us and assist in the destruction of the artifact.Upon meeting up with the giants we discovered that the sword in question was forged by the fire giants and the mind flayers. Its main purpose was to act as a prison holding the essence of a long forgotten deity, known loosely as an Old One. Fearing the ramifications of the swords destruction the fire giant smith was reluctant to destroy the artifact and thus release the Old One back into this world. After much convincing the fire giants agreed that it would be better to destroy the artifact so that magic would once again be accessible.  Unfortunately during the process of destroying the artifact the fire  giant smith was possessed by the essence of the Old One. A great battle ensued between the party and the Old One. During the course of the fight the majority of the party was captured and engulfed in the amorphous shape of the Old One. Luckily, battle ended when Rodrigo disintegrated the blob, not only killing the Old One, but freeing us as well.Once the dust had settled, we began conferring with the Yuan'ti and learned that we must travel to another dimension so that we can find another artifact to restore the balance of magic in our world. We were informed that the deities of this world were much different than ours, and that they walked amongst the mortals. Furthermore the Yuan'ti advised us that each member of the party needed to reach into a magical container and draw forth a token of the deity they would worship. My new deity's token was a Crescent Moon. When I inquired about what the token represented, I was told that it suited my personality.I entered the portal and for a second I thought I walked into the Fire Giant's furnace. Looking around I noticed that we were sitting smack dab in the middle of a huge desert with the only distinguishing feature being a large stone structure directly in front of us. Fearing the heat would soon bake our Paladin, the party decided to head for the building. Upon arriving in the stone structure, I met a strange fellow who claimed to be Anubis. Supposedly this Anubis was the all powerful God of Death. Greymantle had to say something dumb to these guys and they seemed to go crazy attacking us.Graymantle’s Journal:With the Dragon dead, we hoped to destroy the sword swiftly.  We believed that the best place to do so was in the Fire Giant's lair, in a bed of lava or some such.We brought the Druids and Yuan Ti with us in hopes of avoiding battle.  It turns out that the Giant's weaponsmith had made the sword, long ago, to contain the essence of a strange spirit.  He feared that destroying the sword would unleash this spirit, but could offer no help in solving our problems if we didn't.So he broke it for us in the forge in which it was made.The spirit escaped, of course.  It possessed the Giant, of course.  It summoned a small army of minor demonlings that we quickly dispatched,  although one caused a Giant to vanish to another plane, according to Rodrigo and Drake.  We avoided such a fate.  The Giant changed into a large, weird, blob.  This prompted our dwarven monk to try to grapple it, unsuccessfully (also of course).  Dwarves can be hard-headed at times.  The blob swallowed the little fella right up, although he got in a quite respectable blow in before being eaten.He wasn't dead, though, not yet.  We found the thing to be very tough, and vulnerable to magic, and we were on the verge of killing the thing when it decided to try and eat all of us at once.It nearly succeeded.  Luckily, Rodrigo managed to finish it off by disintegrating it, freeing myself and most of the others who had just been gobbled up.The Yuan Ti tell us that there is an artifact that can set things right, though to get it, we must travel through yet another gate to a place called the Necropolis.  Gods are more active there, and the Yuan Ti insist that we take tokens of the foreign gods of that place with us.  Mine is of a hawk.  A being called Horus, they tell me.  We shall see how this all turns out.Drake’s Journal:--At the Fire Giant's Keep-- The fire giants greeted us, and upon recognizing the dark blade, agreed to help us destroy it in the very forge where it was created.  The melting of a sword is normally an unextraordinary event, but still our group prepared for the worst. The fiery forge was unable to contain whatever dark magic was contained in the sword, and from it sprang forth several demons.  We managed to put them down quickly.  Meanwhile, the forgemaster had somehow engulfed the dark entity as the last of the sword melted away in the forge.  The entity took the shape of a large ooze-type of creature, and engulfed Kellan, Grimtooth, Greymantle, and Garret, all in turn.  It seemed there would be no end to it, until finally Rodrigo successfully disintegrated it. After all our efforts, the yuan-ti made it clear that the evil contained in the sword was more likely released than destroyed.  To complete our task we would have to travel to another place...Khemet.</blockquote>

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