Chapter 8, Session 3: Something Wicked This Way Comes
General Summary
'I... I FUCKING DID IT! I don't need that stupid book!'The battle against The Terror Chimera raged on in the pit. The party found themselves struggling against the sheer power of this creature and it's varied abilities whilst also dealing with the bone swarms and putrescent slimes protecting the creature. Kodo quickly chose to speak to the Chimera in the hope of avoiding needlessly killing it and found the heads began to debate what to do; especially after Kodo played on two of the heads desires to go home as they debated the infernal goat head and it's desire to 'subjugate' the group. While Kodo continued to attempt to persuade the chimera, with Anastasia and Mimsi assisting by translating for him. The bone swarms, however, could not be reasoned with and continued to damage and harass the party with their 'swirling bones' skill attacking every creature in the area. The Bone Swarm then matched this ability with 'Death's Embrace' that allowed them to 'puppet' a foe when they were hit... they used this ability during the battle to puppet Mimsi who assaulted Thordak and Olympia (bringing Thordak to 2 failed death saves during this time) before regaining control of her body as Olympia became a full medic for Thordak, burning spell slots to keep him alive. During this battle with the bone swarm, the Terror Chimera's mage and lizard heads were convinced by Kodo and wanted to step down from the fight to receive assistance in 'going home'. However, the goat-like infernal head continued to rage and stated that the other heads had no idea what 'home' was with how newly made and conflicted this form was and so, with limited actions and lacking the support of the rest of the chimera heads, the infernal goat attacked Kodo with it's tail attacks but he side stepped each of them. Fen made use of a powerful thunderwave, Thordak used his new firebolt cantrip and finally Mimsi's strikes managed to dispatch the remaining slimes and bone swarms in this fight. During this time, however, the battle changed and the party watched as the arcane gates, and it's scintillating colours, changed to a block of solid green, settling on a target as mist and fog rolled out of the doorway and into the material plane. The party immediately remembered the loud heavy drumbeat that followed this door opening as they realised they were staring at a door into The Feywild... something that should not have been possible to achieve with how the fey had been shunted away from the material plane due to Dashilla the Dark Queen and her deal with The True Heroes. Anastasia felt herself freeze with fear seeing this gate and Kodo warned the chimera to leave as he knew the threat of Proto would be too much for the group and the chimera; with that, Kodo then asked the party if they could close the door to which Fen responded that he could try. Seeing the door, hearing the drumbeat and feeling the rage boil inside himself, Thordak went berserk. Only screaming the name 'Proto' again and again as he destroyed one of the remaining slime monsters, while destroying the creature. Mimsi and Fen and Anastasia noticed his rage and Anastasia also noticed his fingernails destroy his finger in growing into large talons as Thordak swelled in size and gained a claw attack to use additionally. After destroying the slime in one slash Thordak then, in an insane bloodlust, turned on his allies. Attacking Fen first and tearing into his body with his first shot. Fen, while desperately holding Thordak back, unleashed a chain of lightning towards the gate in the centre of the battle map in an attempt to dispel it. As he hit the gate, he felt that he was competing against another spellcaster in this moment but did not, yet, take the time to gain a vision of who was fighting against him. Mimsi, in an effort to protect Fen, interposed herself between the mage and Thordak. Hoping that Thordak's promise to always protect her would make him hesitated in his assault, during this time Anastasia moved to heal Fen and ensure he was alive to dispel the doorway and Olympia also used her own dispel magic to help remove the doorway and empower Fen's casting. Thordak, in his wrath, assaulted Mimsi however, grabbing her by the head and slamming her into the ground. However, upon doing that, Thordak heard the voice of Bazzle Strum-Strum in his mind stating 'you have broken your promise' at which point his tattooed oath exploding in tendrils of electrical necrotic energy that crawled across Thordak's body and struck his heart, killing him instantly and avoiding death saving throws. In a panicked response to this Anastasia used revivify to bring Thordak back to life and he returned, now calmed but not remembering what took place during his bloodlust as Mimsi profusely apologised to him and Kodo joined in trying to comfort him. Anastasia refocused the group then as she saw, within the green portal, a pair of silhouettes emerge; one huge and intimidating in look, Proto and the other being a tall and slender figure with a large black crown sat atop their head, Dashilla the Dark Queen. As they approached closer, Anastasia urged Fen to work more quickly on dispelling the gate. Fen felt himself beating back the mage he was facing but, curious, he decided to drop his dispel magic efforts for one round and instead focused on using his arcane link to this mage. Following that thread, he found that he was scrying on the masked image of Lyren Killian, working against him to hold this gate open. Shocked, Fen doubled down on his efforts to close the gate. The two silhouettes stepped closer at this point and the party started to rally together in desperation to close the doorway. During this time, Hayili Flickermask felt she had nothing else to offer the party and used dimension door to escape, telling the party she would make her way to Wakefield and that if they needed her they could get in touch. Fen continued his efforts and succeeded once more in his arcane battle with Lyren, however, during this success, Persicorum watched as, with a great deal of pain, Proto passed one arm through the door and into the material plane. In response, in an effort to buy time, Thordak ran up with his warhammer and attempted to knock Proto's arm back, missing his first hit but connecting with the second. To which Proto responded that he didn't recognise Thordak and used a Hellish rebuke to, once again, knock the half-orc unconscious. With that, Fen managed to use his final burst of lightning styled magic to close the gate and, after beating Lyren Killian, he also overpowered Proto and closed the gate around the warforged's arm... severing it in the process and leaving the party in the now silent and dark pit... the danger of the arcane gate averted. The party took a moment to breathe as Olympia pulled the flying carpet from the bag of holding and they discussed what had happened. Fen revealed Lyren was the one opening the gate and Kodo immediately countered that Lyren must have been coerced into it... Anastasia doubled down on her belief that Xan Prayerkeep must have something to do with summoning Dashilla as he is the one controlling Lyren in the Masked Brigade, though Kodo argued they had the evidence that, so far, Xan Prayerkeep was fearful of Dashilla and her return. The party realised that reaching Blackstone and saving Lyren had to be their next focus and so they took the flying carpet back to Oar's Rest to recover their energy. The party received a modest thanks from the people of the town for dealing with the chimera (they did not tell them that they didn't actually kill the creature) and they were given free rooms in The Broken Oar for a night and free meals from Gustar for their efforts. The party each ruminated on their conflicts, issues and fears (apart from Fen who found the confidence and breakthrough he so badly needed in his ongoing abstinence from his Grimoire of Envy) before Fen took Proto's severed arm and told the others he would work to identify what the arm could do before the party committed to giving it to Thordak... though they did for a time discuss whether the arm would act as proof that Proto was a real threat but disregarded that after realising Proto regularly modified himself and there was not much memory of him due to his disappearance for 75 years. With their own issues to deal with and the agreement that their next location would be Blackstone, the party went to their seperate rooms and wrestled with sleep. Anastasia struggled constantly, haunted by the vision of Dashilla and Proto as those nightmares slowly were becoming more and more real. Kodo did his best to meditate and order his mind, revealing that he had felt, since the party's return from the feywild, that they should have focused on saving Lyren. Thordak wrestled with the intense guilt and horror at his assault against Mimsi and Fen, but also tried to understand the strange exhilaration he felt with the increased power and ferocity of that transformation. Lastly, Fen meditated on the arm and realised it had one simple function and purpose. The arm was capable of casting sending and had been used every day by Proto as he had tried to contact the True Heroes time and time again but never reached them... as the feywild was contractually cut away from the rest of the planes of existance. As Fen came to this realisation, he felt his trance interrupted by a dark presence and he woke up, half recovered, to the sight of a large, heavily armed and huge hobgoblin sitting across from him with a violent and wicked disposition. It seems Drahz Grymhook had finally tracked him down.
- Fen celebrates his finding of magical potency in the battle over the gate.
Rewards Granted
The party claimed Proto's prosthetic arm: Capable of casting sending but only to the true heroes.
Missions/Quests Completed
The party defeated the creature terrorising the local wildlife and closed a gate to other planes.
Notes
This is notably, the party's first sighting of Dashilla the Dark Queen.
Report Date
05 Feb 2023
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