Letter to dad 1 part 2

Continued,
 
As Hayley sends out Fiachna to scout the river for possible getaway boats, Luke immediately used his magic to track the gemstone of Norgar, hoping he is still in possession of it. Luke claimed that the gem was moving away North but quite a bit below us, so probably underneath the Palace Hill complex which lies North of the Embassy. We all left our partners for the evening behind and rushed to the basement and started searching through the rooms, but our haste got the better of us when Hayley opened a door triggering a fireball trap and revealing a strange ritual behind it. About eight cultists and a Flesh Golem chanting around some arcane circle. Now, we were heavily under-armed and under-armored, and even though I disarmed a cultist so Gael could use his dagger it were his magical vines pinning them down and a horrifyingly effective fireball from Luke, which almost burned off my eyebrows, that won us the fight. When I finished up hacking what was left of the Flesh Golem to bits I could not help but feel bad for these people brutally burning to death, some of their screams still echoing through the basement. Though that pity was quickly squashed when Luke informed us the incantation they were doing was to summon a demon with the name "Durzal". Guess they were planning on crashing the party to mask Norgar's disappearance. We quickly had to accept that there were no hidden paths here that would lead us the Norgar and they had moved out of the range of Luke's spell. So we had to go back up to the party to start heading North but first we informed some guards about the mess downstairs, I mentioned it in draconic to not risk too many people overhearing that there's a giant, bloody, smouldering mess down there. But some of us looked really rough from the fight, so we couldn't prevent some people staring.
 
As guards were moving downstairs Elsa also came up to us, offering some healing and mentioning how there were other buildings in this complex with basements we could have a look in, since we were a bit lost for options. This started off a bit of a wild search, we had Dadroz check every door for traps and frantically look through every basement room. The lack of guards outside was a bit alarming, maybe they were now called to the basement but it seems odd that no one is guarding the outside grounds. It wasn't until we reached the large guard barracks (which was empty as everyone was on duty) that we found something: my nervousness about Norgar getting away from us got the better of me and I opened a door Dadroz checked to land headfirst into a small group of Half-Dragons, who took the opportunity to strike. Again, we were still unarmored and this time the fight was quite rough: Gael, Liliana and I all suffered quite some wounds, even going down a few times, barely keeping them occupied as Dadroz, Luke and Hayley flung spells and arrows, finally taking them down. The Half-dragons were in the armory's stockade so we helped ourselves to some weapons, armor and shields, even some healing potions and chugging some of them down as we anticipated even more fighting, making a mental note of giving this stuff back and paying Rachnar back for the potions. In the nearby room Dadroz found a hidden door and after receiving some magic help, courtesy of Gael, he managed to unlock it. Liliana halted us and requested that maybe we should take a breather, we were still a bit wounded and used a lot of our strength which could be important to replenish. But time was a major factor and we concluded we could not afford an hour so we ran onwards, into the dark.
 
The tunnels eventually opened up into a cave, though it had markings of being an old basement. Since we would be below the Palace hill maybe it used to be part of the palace complex but closed off? Or maybe it's something even older? Regardless of its age, we did see some signs of recent mining activity there (in Hillfield we met a dwarf called Dorr, long story, but we should probably ask him about this) and a doorway. But when Dadroz tried opening the door a dagger flung into his side and a shadowy figure revealed himself together with two devilish imps. This shadowy figure was adept at using stealth to escape our grasp but eventually he had to reveal himself and be overwhelmed by our combined might (though not before also taking Gael and Dadroz down). Luke recast his spell and he claimed the gem, and hopefully Norgar with it, was close. We made our way into their base, trying many doors and even walking in on a demon sleeping, groggily wondering if we're cultists, Liliana's dceived him to think we were and that he should go back to sleep. We would have to deal with him later but had bigger things on our mind. When we reached ever closer to Norgar's location we found Robert Talespinner, waiting for us.
 
He started talking about letting them do a ritual on Norgar and the gem, extracting some draconic essence for their further experiments. He claimed it would not kill him and we can have him back after, this was for the benefit of Keralon, aren't we all 'stealing power', blah blah blah. None of us bought this of course, especially when Hayley told us that in his mind he was just delaying us, triggering him lunging at us. The fight was short, as this was not Robert Talespinner but a shapeshifter, a Doppelganger, and we made short work of it. We tied him up, though after stabilizing him and punching him unconcious again. Leaving him for a second while we went further in the direction Luke's spell pointed at. We passed by some doors and a sort of prayer room, dragon parts set up as an altar, but we finally found a room with a bunch of drakes guarding an unconcious Norgar. The fight was hard on me, wielding a torch and sword to see something in this darkness cost me my conciousness. But soon enough the last one fell and we got to Norgar, lying asleep underneath a strange dragon statue holding his gem, it being active with some light swirling around. Hayley managed to identify the gem as some sort of soul container and together with Luke figured out the ritual was siphoning off his soul, you know: complicated magic stuff. Luke managed to perform a complex weave that disrupted the ritual and we could free Norgar from that ordeal. He was still asleep though but he was out of immediate danger, meaning we could take a breather ourselves though not before getting our doppelganger prisoner so we could bring both back. After taking a breather we set out to return but wanted to check out a few closed doors to get some more info. And despite being trapped and poor Dadroz taking the worse end of a few of them we mostly found long hallways leading further into the ruins. So we doubled down on actually returning but once we got to the crossroads where we first found the doppelganger Robert we heard the voice of the actual Robert Talespinner, although sounding fatigued, calling on us to leave, that we were still his friends and should leave Norgar and the gem and forget all about this.
 
Of course, he knew we could not do thi, so after our refusal the shadows on the other side of the hallway started moving: two smaller figures started running our way and one slower giant shadow squeezed its way through the Hallway and followed suit. Luckily, as Hayley was quick to point out, the way out was open and we could make a run for it, get Norgar to safety. And so, leaving behind our doppelganger prisoner and my sister and I carrying Norgar, we hurried our way back through the tunnels and back to the embassy grounds. Clearly Hayley's raven had gotten our message across as a few guards awaited us downstairs, prompting us to go to the nearby temple to have Norgar and ourselves looked at. Since we were near the armory I dropped off the plate armor I had been borrowing: 'some guard has a better use for it than I', is what I thought.
 
We settled in at the temple but then the Norgar's gem that Lil had been safekeeping started to glow and Dadroz noticed some tremors underneath. Hayley, thinking fast, summoned her raven and send it away with the gem, thinking that like us, Robert was using magic to find it. We all settled in for what we thought would be a siege of this temple as the ground cracked open and a giant abomination of a dragon crawled out, screaming in Robert's voice to hand over Norgar and the gem. The fight looked like it might be our last, we were all down on magic and resources, I even left my armor behind, and a few Half Dragons came in from the side to tilt the fight more in the cult's favor. But some good shooting from Gael, Liliana dragging Norgar to safety and me dumping every little ounce of strength I had into carving into Robert's accursed form at least took Robert out of the equation. My slashes felt stronger and faster, maybe this armor I wear weighs me down more than it protects me? But I quickly learned why you wear it when the Half Dragons unleashed their fire breaths and slashes and I got knocked down alongside Hayley who was next to me. Eventually the fight turned as the last half dragon tried to flee, my frustration with this cult reaching its boiling point as I threw my shield their way lacking a ranged option (daggers are just small swords right? I'll look into those), hoping to prevent one escape. But it was Hayleys magical words that echoed through the freshly carved pit as the Half Dragon slumped to the floor.
 
Quite fast help arrived, guards and a cleric streamed in to patch us up and inform the guests that they should probably leave as the tremors and cracks were hard to deny now. As we rested up Norgar awoke, we filled him in on what we saved him from and he shared that the last thing he remembered was going outside to cool off a bit, and he got lured into an ambush. Regardless, when fiachna brought back the gem to Hayley and the guests cleared out we headed into the embassy to be greeted by Rachnar, the leaders of the knight circles, the knights of the Octagon and of course our companions for the evening: Elsa, Dann, Samuel Valeborn, mom, E.J. and of course Galiene. Seeing her made me realize how bad of a date I must've been: constant talking to Vivienne, the group, the Octagon and then I was gone basement and ruin dwelling for the rest of it. Rachnar invited us to tell the story of what happened tonight, we took turns telling it, to make sure not detail was left unexplored.
 
While Luke and Hayley were explaining the intricacies of the ritual being performed on Norgar and the way Luke dispelled it I was taken aback by the group gathered here, everyone of importance outside the King and Queen were gathered here, it made the plan of the cult seem almost foolish, especially the last ditch effort crashing into the temple, yet it still required us to foil it. Throughout the tale everyone was paying close attention, Ser Donovan even taking notes.
 
After we finished our tale, the first to speak was Rachnar. He elaborated on the gem, revealing he also had one. Apparently their culture's high ranking members are granted a gem that collects their soul when they die. In their society this is a way for them to live on with their ancestors, and that it could be used to siphon off part of a soul for draconic essence disturbed him. We speculated on what could be their ultimate goal, not getting much further than their stated goal of turning into dragons but we concluded that from all we did now and the intercepted letters back in Hollow Hill that their base in Keralon is temporarily broken. Although there still was this Beatrice person we haven't found. Ser Donovan and Rachnar were agreeing on coordinating some forces to liberate Ravensfield when a guard rushed in and whispered something in Rachnar's ear, my heart stood still for a bit, expecting some new attack from this cult, as Rachnar said that his guards went down to those ruins and learned there's a portal gate down there, probably being used by the cult to send reinforcements. It would need to be investigated, together with the rest of those ruins. Maybe a future job for us...
 
Ser Donovan rose to his feet, speaking for most of the Octagon and the royal court in thanking us for dealing with this cult. How in the short time we've been active together, which was about four and half weeks, we've risen this far and done so much for Keralon and the Draconics. And that a proper reward should be in order, saying we should prepare ourselves for an audience with the King and Queen in the near future.
 
Ildan Aspental, the herald for the high city circle knights, spoke next. That despite no official quest being given for dealing with this cult, he agreed with the leaders of the circles that Gael and Luke have earned their mettle for joining many times over by now (he also made a slight remark on how Rachnar should've contacted him to make this an official circle quest). Gael wanted to join the Rose Garden and Luke the Briar ring. Ildan also looked at Lil and asked her if she has decided on what circle to join, but she wanted time to think about it, claiming she has not 'earned' it. Something I don't really understand as she fought as hard as any of us, if not harder.
 
Ildan also explained that those of us who already gained knighthood were still owed a proper knighting ceremony which is an occasion that got lost in the events unfolding over the last weeks. So we should also look forward to a proper, formal knighting ceremony. And with that Ildan and the rest of the knights left leaving us with Rachnar and Norgar. We spent some time talking about the events, that we should really have a visit without anything dramatic happening. Elsa also brought up how the embassy was a former guard outpost and the keys getting to Robert probably happened through some guards on the side of the cult. Not that strange seeing as we had many cultists be members of the guards. Rachnar seemed very keen on taking this up for investigation, as well as the tunnels that seem to lead in and out of the embassy.
 
We left the embassy soon after, being exhausted from the day and needing a bed (or at least, I did). In the carriage ride over I apologized to Galiene, since I presumed she spent most of the evening alone at a party overrun with nobles. But she apparently met some interesting people, and remarked that our evenings together usually ended with some adventure distracting from a normal night out. Mom was also surprisingly positive, apparently talking to the octagon and earning an audience with the King satisfied her need for family status, I didn't have the energy to point out that it was due to the things she disliked (adventuring, hanging out with our 'lowborn' friends) that we even got this far. She did manage to pressure poor Liliana to consider courting Norgar, as he's ambassador Rachnar's son and next in line, and being an ambassador's wife is important and all that usual talk. While Liliana could do much worse than Norgar, like Samuel Valeborne for example, I'm not sure if being an ambassador's wife is her idea of a good life. And anyhow, my sister did her part for the family already, serving Vivienne, something the family should not have asked of her in my opinion. But that's a topic for another time.
 
Anyhow, it's getting quite late. And since mom and E.J. are leaving soon we should at least spend some time together until then. And then we should probably get ready for the King's summons to court. Wonder what reward we will get?
 
Hope to see you soon, my sister and I really want to visit but ever since she came back from her service to Vivienne it's been nonstop with this cult.
 
Best wishes to everyone home,
Ali