2023-10-14 Rest in Peace
Player Characters
- Auri
- Balasar
- Tarhun
- Essa
- Amartherui
Summary
The party marched to the summit of Howlpeak with all five pedestal fragments in hand.
On the pedestal's plateau at the top of the ancient stairs, Lord Phiramet and Witch Doctor Jha'kri sat waiting for their arrival.
Jha'kri claimed that if the Haunted Realm were destroyed, the Destroyer might claim the lost souls released from its grasp. Essa disagreed, pointing out that the souls were tormented and restless, and should be freed from the misguided attempt at preservation.
The PCs fought the two villains. Balasar was dominated for part of the fight and forced to help them. When Amar dragged the mummy lord to the edge and shoved them off, Balasar cast feather fall to save them. Once Balasar's mind control was removed, Tarhun dispelled the feather fall, dropping the mummy off the mountain. Lord Phiramet caught themselves in a forcecage, but had no way to recover, eventually falling to their demise once it vanished.
Amar and Tarhun's summoned construct grappled the witch doctor and forced him to the ground. Balasar unleashed an overcharged magic missile, destroying the shaman through his death ward, but hurting himself in the process.
The party rested in case more trouble arose. Then, they slotted the five fragments into the pedestal. It contained two levers: one that summoned the orb back from the ethereal plane, and one that locked it in place.
Amar pulled the summon lever. As the orb returned, so two did something else: an enormous ghostly ancient dragon! The dragon unleashed a powerful banshee wail breath weapon, but the party managed to resist it.
Realizing that the dragon was very deadly, the PCs looked for alternatives. De-summoning the orb using the pedestal lever didn't seem to remove the dragon.
Balasar teleported the Orb of Preservation to the East Ocean beside Dawn Island, where Dawnzithyre might see it.
As the orb vanished, the Haunted Realm became quiet. The dragon faded into mist and rose upward into the sky, as did countless thousands of ghosts from all over the valley. The fog greatly receded, and the sun's light found its way through the gloomy sky for the first time in eons. The whole realm seemed to exhale a sigh of relief as the tormented souls were finally freed from their prison.
The PCs heard a cacaphony of wood and grinding stone, and distorted buildings appeared down the zigzag staircase below. Obbleville climbed up, screaming in a hundred simultaneous voices about how its ancient memories were disappearing. It was furious that the party had reneged on their promise, and began to launch mimics and tendrils at them.
The party used various teleportation abilities to bypass the angry village and escape to the base of Howlpeak. Amar teleported into the air and skydived, Auri and Tarhun flew, and Essa and Balasar dimension doored their way down after briefly being surrounded by psuedopods.
Essa and Balasar piled into a bag of holding held by Amar, who sprinted faster than Obbleville could chase. This left Tarhun and Auri to soar over the village and fight back as it launched buildings at them.
Tarhun improvised an eldritch blasting cannon and rained shots from the sky above. He felt bad about betraying the monster that he had shared a curiosity with, but had no choice but to put it down. The hivemind put up a fight, forming a mimic cannon from the town's clocktower and lobbing statues, trees, and gazebos into the sky. Finally, it fell apart into a mass of sulfurous ooze as Tarhun finished it off.
While Amar dashed through the southeast forest, Lord Phiramet materialized from a whirlwind of sand in front of him. Just as the mummy began to speak to him, a blue portal suddenly opened nearby, spewing icy wind. A blue insectoid fiend with a large spear skewered the mummy and dragged them into the portal. The portal closed behind them, leaving no trace of the mummy.
The party convened near Obbleville's corpse, and poked through it to ensure it was dead. They found a Phantasmal Staff of Power and a Compendium of Technique among the goo.
They traveled back to the Umbral Bayou to find that its shroud of eternal nighttime was gone. They found Jha'kri's campsite, where the witch doctor, trunk, and soul cypress log were all absent. Humanoid footprints led westward, and large clawed footprints pursued them.
Balasar cast sending to inform Dawnzithyre of the Orb of Preservation's arrival. The dragon responded saying he noticed it, but did not collect it.
The party returned to civilization to rest, then teleported near Dawn Island, arriving a few days after the destruction of the Haunted Realm. They said hello to Dawnzithyre. The dragon recommended destroying the Orb of Preservation, and pointed them to where it appeared and splashed into the waves.
The party cast waterbreathing and swam down to the ocean floor. They found a pit in the sand where the huge purple orb had landed... but it wasn't there. Somewhere many miles away, a gargantuan monster carried the orb away, wrapped in a large tentacle...
Tarhun asked Dawnzithyre if the stars in the night sky had changed over the past few hundred years. The brass dragon noted that the stars changed too frequently to bother memorizing, and that they were indeed diminishing in number over time.
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