5.2 THAT DEMON PLAYED YOU LIKE A FIDDLE!

Zugg, Freya and Lim Dul came to me asking for assistance dealing with some unfinished business at some place called the Millenia Cave. Sounds intriguing. Something about some smugglers dealing in some ritualistic behavior I think. On the way to the cave, they briefed me on the goings on and the layout of the cave system thanks to a crudely-drawn map. It did its job.
 
As soon as we arrived, I pulled a tiger from the bag of fuzzy surprises. I called him Tigger as it seemed appropriate. As we continue deeper into the cave, we begin hearing what sounds like a child yelling for help down a side path they hadn't yet explored. We stuck our heads in to see what was the matter. Turns out it was a spider ambush thanks to a doll with Magic Mouth cast on it. We had our suspicions about the circumstances, but when that doll fell, they were confirmed. We took care of a couple of spider swarms and a giant one apparently named Sheila. Weird name for a spider. During the encounter, Zugg got absolutely smashed by the large spider to the point of knocking him out cold. I ran up to him and administered a quick healing potion to get him back on his feet before helping beat it and the rest of the spiders down. It must have been a harrowing encounter for poor Zugg. I wonder if he even knows what hit him? He had some time to remember, though, as apparently the spider venom caused him to become paralyzed for a while. Luckily the paralysis wore off after resting for a short time, then we continued on.
 
We turn south and eastward along the path unknown and found ourselves in a slightly larger part of the corridor. On the northern side of the corridor we found a wall of what appeared to be moist brown mushrooms looming over some corpses on the ground below them. It looked as though their flesh had been sort of melted or burned, but not charred. As we could see some light ahead, we decided to bypass them for now and come back later.
 
We passed carefully by the mushrooms and corpses to find ourselves in a relatively large chamber within the cave. We could feel an intense heat and the smell of sulfur permeated the air while a large ritualistic circle dominated the area as it lay on the floor. Just beyond it looked to be a large holding cell in which three figures could be seen. These must be the kidnapped people we were here to free. The two adults, one male, one female, were quite animated and eager to be released. The third, a young boy, seemed to stare blankly toward the ritual circle and pay us no attention. As we approached them, the woman warned us not to get too close to the circle as she thought she felt a dark presence emanating from it. I was all too happy to agree. I may come from such a place, but I want no part of it unless I absolutely must. Zugg and Lim Dul talk with them and come up with the idea to break the lock on the door by using Lim Dul's crowbar. I sent Tigger to assist however he could while assuring the prisoners that they would not be harmed by the tiger. They stood back as Lim Dul and Tigger pried the door, snapping the lock and allowing the door to swing open.
 
Grateful to be freed, the prisoners left their cell. The boy began wandering towards the circle, seemingly drawn to it. Before he could get close, Zugg cast a Hold Person spell on the boy, stopping him in his tracks. We were able to determine fairly quickly that the boy did not seem to be in control of his own facilities, so we bound him such that he was leashed to Lim Dul as we escorted them out of the caves and back to the nearby village of Willowshire. As we walked toward the exit, the woman, Svetlana, explained that she is an herbalist and she has noticed that ever since arriving here, the boy, named Bran, has appeared to remain in this trance-like state. Ronel, the third kidnapped, says Bran is probably in a state of shock given what he has been through.
 
The moment we exit the cave, Bran's senses seem to return to him as he looks around with a completely changed demeanor, asking why he's bound. We explain the reason, to which he says he doesn't remember anything about the time they were held in the cave. I feel like he may have been meant to be used as the smugglers/cultists next sacrifice, but I don't make any mention of it with him around. This is when Freya remembers that when they ventured here last time, she was compelled to whisper "Give me blood" to herself. It was overheard by the other party members. Whatever evil power is in play here must be powerful indeed.
 
We escort them back to Willowshire and collect our reward for bringing them back safely. We take a night to recoup before heading back to the cave and making our way back inside.
 
Before entering, I once again pull a fuzzy creature from the bag. It was the triumphant return of King Louie once again. We decide to check into what's behind the doors at the cave entrance as they skipped that last time. Zugg takes the lead carefully opening the doors, revealing what appears to be an alchemists lab at the end of the hallway, and a figure pacing back and forth between stations. Zugg stealthily wanders up to the figure as we hold back. The figure has a scar matching the description given to them. It's one in the shape of a V. This must be the symbol of this smuggler/cultist group. As he notices it, Zugg casts a quick Hold Person spell on the man, and he stops in his tracks. Zugg gives the signal for us to approach. Lim Dul checks the man's possessions, taking away anything on him that could pose a threat before the Hold Person spell wears off. One of the items Lim finds is a key. Freya begins interrogating him, asking him what he knows about the pentagram ritual circle. He swears he knows nothing and has never ventured that far into the cave thanks to the creepy voices he's heard in the cave. She asks him about the key Lim found on his person. He's adamant he knows nothing. Freya begins looking for clues as we continue questioning him. She finds some pots with herbs and chemicals, along with a set of instructions about how to craft alchemist's fire, but the last few steps are smudged and unreadable. When question about them, the man admits it was his job to create the alchemist's fire for use by the other members of their crew. We ask who he reports to. He says he would normally have reported to Ellar before he and Ellar broke things off and defected from the group. Zugg, Freya and Lim were told by Ellar last time they were here that they had defected, so this seems to corroborate their story. He said Ellar was able to kill a couple of them before they made their escape. After a bit of a vocal back-and-forth between us and him, we realize this may be a misunderstanding, and decide that even if he IS telling the truth, it's best we knock him out while we investigate further rather than just take him at his word and let him go. So while Lim Dul and Zugg hold him back, I give both his knees a good hit to snare him and knock him unconscious. We leave him bound and Freya leaves a bit of cloth in his mouth to silence him should he wake up.
 
With that done, we look around the lab and decide we should try to finish the alchemical concoction he was working on. With Freya's help, she and I were able to successfully make one vial of alchemist's fire. We take the vial for ourselves, and Freya takes the instructions.
 
As we head back toward the mushrooms and ritual circle, I pull out two more fuzzy creatures. They were both tigers this time. Welcome back Tigger, and welcome Tigger 2: Electric Tiggerloo! He must be related to Baloo 2: Electric Baloogaloo. With our animal menagerie, we make our way to the mushrooms and corpses. We notice that each corpse has a pouch on them. Not wanting to get too close, Freya suggests sending King Louie to check things out. Good idea. I send him over there not knowing what might happen. After a few seconds of King Louie standing near the mushrooms, one of the mushrooms seems to lash out with a sort of tentacle-like appendage, and grapples King Louie. Unable to escape, the mushroom begins to drip what we can only assume to be acid onto Louie. I'm not going to stand idly by, so I fire off a quick round from my repeating crossbow, hitting the appendage, but it does not loosen its grip. As more acid begins dripping onto King Louie, Freya fires off her Eldritch Blast, freeing King Louie. King Louie runs back to me without grabbing the pouches while he was there. I don't blame him at all. Instead, Freya uses her Mage Hand to grab them and pull them over. Each pouch just had some silver inside. Not bad.
 
Now we continue toward the ritual circle. It appears exactly as we left it, with the fires still burning within the prisoner's cell nearby. On closer inspection, the circle doesn't look to be drawn. It's instead carved into the floor in a similar manner to how one might "draw" something in the sand with a stick. There are small trenches that leave to a small divot at the center of the circle, as if to allow a liquid to pool inside and flow through the troughs. Lim Dul remembers what Freya whispered to herself and thinks that to activate the circle would require blood. With none of us willing to be the blood sacrifice, I apologize to King Louie before sending him to the center of the circle and firing my crossbow at him. The poor guy has been through a lot, but something made me feel like I needed to use him. I feel like this was Malvora's doing. The hag is starting to use my companions against me. I shall not allow that to happen.
 
King Louie begins dripping blood, some of which enters the divot. Just then, the circle appears to come to life and shine with a blood-red light. Suddenly a large winged demon appears at the center of the circle. It's time to take him out once and for all. Zugg blesses us as we begin the tough fight. The demon disappears after casting a spell. I'm able to keep track of him though thanks to my Hellsight ability, which allows me to see creatures using magic to hide, but only for a few seconds. I update the party as to the demon's whereabouts and each move it makes until I run out of uses of the ability. During that time I let my animals do all the work for me and I just chase the demon to keep it within my sight. It has a nasty ability that knocks one of us back and summons a shadow creature at our original location. The worst thing about these shadows is that they are able to drain our very strength from our bodies, continually weakening us over time as they attack us. It's a race against time to get them down while also whittling away at the demon before it can summon more of them. Eventually Lim Dul takes over the duties of keeping sight of the demon and I take up arms against our enemies in his stead. For once we seem to work well as a team. I hope that trend continues. The demon was able to very quickly take out Freya by attacking her and then picking her up, flying to the ceiling of the cave, and dropping her from that height. She goes down hard, knocked unconscious by the fall. I run over to her just as I did Zugg before and fed her my last greater healing potion to pick her back up. At one point, both Lim Dul and myself lose sight of the demon, but Lim Dul quickly regains sight of him. As the demon flies further westward, we race to catch up with him. After listening for the sound of his beating wings, I fire one last shot from my crossbow toward the sound. The bolt connects, bringing an end tot he demon once and for all. It falls to the ground, becoming visible once again, lifeless.
 
We gather all the belongings on him we could find before heading towards the molten river of lava flowing just south of the now-defunct ritual circle. The heat is intense, and that smell of sulfur is almost sickening. Along the river we see a couple of islands, each with fingers protruding from the edges of the round islands, as if held afloat by an unseen stone giant from below. Stretching between islands are giant chains affixed to a finger. I am the only one who is unable to use magic or abilities to safely get across, so Lim Dul fashions a rope bridge, tethering one end to one of the chains and the other to one of the cell bars. I gingerly make my away across and onto the chains, where I'm able to more easily balance myself as I walk across them between the islands.
 
Eventually, we all make it to a hidden chamber up some stairs at the other end of the lava river. Entering the room reveals a sanctum containing many books, scrolls and writing utensils. I'm just about sick of seeing books thanks to my previous escapade. There is a red chest near a human skeleton and a rug scorched in a radial pattern. It looks like whatever this now-skeleton was doing caused an explosion of sorts, charring the rug and presumably succumbing to the blast. We find much loot, which we sort through before taking the leftovers with us back to Urithiru, where we end this fruitful adventure.