The Storm's Eye
General Summary
After investigating a desolated village, our group continues their journey southwards, under a blackened sky. The geography becomes ever more rugged and difficult, with cliffs and hills dominating the land. Upon concluding a day of travel, Trygve spots a crevice in the wall of one such cliff, which the group uses as a camping spot, taking the time to talk amongst themselves while listening to Amelia's soothing melodies. While making watch, Fionna spots an harpy, attempting to lure the lonely Amelia through a mystical song. Following a difficult fight, the group defeats the fey, convincing a terrified Hallie to attack the creature's lifeless body. With the dawn of a new day, Corvino asks Kushala for help fashioning a necklace out of the harpie's talon and dark feathers. Raindrops start falling, eventually growing into a full blown tempest, accompanied by a loud thunderstorm which scares both Hallie and Trygve. Forced to take refuge, the group attempts to wait out the storm, while an ever increasing headache plagues Corvino. Suddenly, a loud lightning bolt strikes the nearby ground and Corvino watches as a dome of purple clouds and lightning forms under the storm's eye, a dome which only he can see. Ever reckless, Corvino rushes the dome, disappearing before a quickly following group and a lagging Trygve. The group find themselves admist a circle of round-shaped stone, a large menhir standing in the center, pierced by three different coloured spears: one orange, one brown and one cyan. While the large majority of the group examines the corpses of five nude humanoid figures, Corvino examines the rainbow coloured glyphs that don the stone, written in the same strange language that he learned so long ago. "By the power bestowed upon me, Ragnir, I seal you, Tesla, the Betrayer. I, Firmis, reinforce the sentence, in stone and blood. I, Glacis, freeze you lips, so they don't ever poison another soul." Intrigued, Corvino touches one of the spears, which causes it to burst into flames, while another bursts into ice particles and the remainder into stone fragments. The three primal energies combine, releasing forth a wave of dark energy, which reanimates the fallen corpses and creates a powerful energy, seemingly created out of the void itself. The surrounding stones glow with a single word, Tesla, while the storm that surrounded the monument intensified. An arduous fight ensues, with the construct seemingly able to absorb most of the group's attacks and the animated corpses seemingly immune to the party's attacks. Eventually, the party emerges victorious, with an impaired Corvino somehow crushing the creature's incorporeal neck with his mechanical arm. Shaken by the events, the group interrogates Corvino about what just transpired. Corvino, about as confused as the rest of the group, admits to having experienced a similar situation, of which he recalls nothing. Fionna deduces the language Corvino spoke during the event is none other than what the scholars call Primal, a dead language which no person knows how to speak. The group shows their concern about Tesla, The Betrayer but eventually decide to leave the demi-plane, returning to their original location. Before leaving, Corvino carves a pair of names in the menhir, then follows his companions. The now dissipated storm causes the rest of the road towards Kor Doguhm to be mostly uneventful. The group eventually reaches the town late in the night, exhausted, where they pass the test of iron, performed by an unfriendly dwarf. After making their way downward through hundreds of downward steps, the group gazes upon a poorly lit underground city, sited over two large iron platforms. While Fionna, Amelia and Hallie head towards The Crusty Beard, looking to rest, the rest of the group searches for an open establishment looking to sell weaponry to the adventurers. They are greeted with hostility by most shopkeepers and townsfolk, but eventually find a friendly face in Brumadin, the owner of The Iron Price. There, Kushala helps the dwarf correct a small dent in a bastard sword which Corvino ended up buying. After making a friend, the group returns to the inn and following some small talk, each head to their respective rooms. During the night, Corvino experiences a peculiar dream, in which he meets a shackled Tesla. After a thunderbolt shatters the shackles that support her mouthgag, Tesla speaks Corvino's name, but he's suddenly awoken by loud knocking on his room's door.