Liches get Stitches - Cursed Compass

General Summary

Having watched the brutal tournament ending in the death of Kanai and the self exile of Tsama the group suddenly found the arena fading as they appeared in another room.
The stone room looked familiar to the rooms from the first level with two large doors to the right and left and another large door straight ahead with four shafts locking the door in place. To either side of the center door stood a sigil similar to those that needed crystals to progress before. As they appeared Sarya noticed a spider in the corner but quickly dismissed it as being part of the dungeon. The group headed left first, Raijun continuing to insist that was the only way they could ensure that they didn't end up in a circle, appearing in an empty hallway. Raijun scouted ahead saying the hallway seemed to extend for a while but there was an immediate door that seemed more available. The group decided that it would be easier to track the doors if they started with the first one and proceeded inside after conducting some preparations.
As they touched the door they were once again teleported through this time immediately faced with not one but two large brass dragons. The dragons, later introduced as Timmy and Tommy, seem to immediately take an interest in Myra inquiring, "Hello, you're new. What are you doing here?" As the second one echoes "Their new." The conversation continues pleasantly for a minute in much the same vein as the one with the previous guardians. The Dragons are slightly more willing to give information going so far as to point at Myra's wrist when talking about the 'abomination' that we all carry. They even go so far as to 'suggest' Myra into remembering the presence of the object. The conversation is much lighter than some of the previous guardians and the dragons do seem to genuinely want to help. However, when they are unable to help the group remove or stop the bracelets and can think of no way to help other than to return to the cells the conversation becomes more antagonistic.
The dragons call the group selfish saying that they are putting their needs over the broader worlds. This is still difficult to track, even with Myra remembering the bracelet, as the group still has no idea what the connection of the bracelet is to the wider relation to the prison and why they cannot be let out. The dragons do seem to clarify that if the group is release there would be something let out with them. The dragons also seem to believe that there is no way for the group to escape without releasing the nameless abomination. As the group turns to go thanking the dragons and suggesting that maybe they would be able to find a way around the violence one of the dragons comments that it is, unfortunately, their duty to stop the group and exhales a gas that puts Hagren, Myra, and Trenchcoat to sleep.
Sarya and Raijun leap to attack as Amelie seems immediately drawn to the sleeping forms of Hagren and Myra. As she approaches Myra she lays a hand on her commenting, "I can take your dreams away," as one of the wisps of nightmares seems to be drawn out of Myra and into Amelie. This seems to wake Myra who is confused to find Amelie above her. Unfortunately, Hagren is awakened by a much ruder blast of fire from another one of the dragons as they line up a shot across the group. The group manages to defeat both dragons with some of the members getting badly singed. Myra, using warding bond, took a good deal of the damage dealt to Sarya and waves off some of Amelie's healing in favor of giving the health back to Hagren. Having defeated the dragons, a tapestry appears that seems to match the sigils in the first room.
As they leave the room Raijun sees the state Myra's in and slips her his superior potion saying she needed it more before shadow stepping away before she had a chance to protest. Sarya carries the tapestry back and places it on one of the sigils causing it to glow. The group decides to proceed down the right hand hall next hoping to find the location of the other tapestry that they assume they need to open the door.
The right hand hall seems lined with traps that activate as anyone walks over the pieces of loose rubble on the ground. The group get's through relatively unscathed, with Sarya just earth gliding below the trap. Raijun and Amelie stumble upon a light switch at the end of the hall which seems to deactivate the trap resolving any problems they might have had on the way back. Unfortunately, upon reaching the end of the hall they find a dead end, though Raijun notices that something feels off. He helps Myra investigate the end of the hall and they reveal that it's actually an illusion and that upon touching one of the bricks that seems off, the wall recedes. Beyond the wall seems to be a black pit, not wanting the others to inadvertently fall Myra enlarges Spryg and they begin flying forward until they can confirm that there is a ground, it's just not perceptible to the naked eye.
As the group passes over the not so bottomless chasm they find another hallway on the other side terminating in a small stone room with a very nervous looking goblin in it. We seem to startle her, "What are you doing here?" We mention that we were just looking for the way to get into the next room and she laughs saying that our manner of travel is not the easiest through here. Amelie immediately recognizes the goblin as the assistant who's been helping to torture her these past months.
As the group begins to ask question about who she is and what she means the bracelets with the red stones seem to dissolve off our wrists and an acrid black smoke appears from the puddle revealing a skeletal figure in red robes, his flesh falling apart stretching and missing in some places. As the bracelets break the group's memories come back to them in a rush. They remember arriving, they remember resisting the suggestions initially with Sarya resisting a number of times before succumbing to the enchantment. The memories are overwhelming as they returning dazing the group for a moment.
"I've been looking for you," the lich croons as he extends a skeletal finger toward the goblin and a hideous green ray comes out of it. The goblin screams as her body is disintegrated to a pile of ash as the lich turns back to the group. "Thank you for helping me find her," he cackles before turning on them. The battle is relatively short but some brutal damage is dealt before Sarya is able to get the final blow on the undead form.
As Sarya’s elemental form pounds down on the Lich, it’s form collapses into a pile of water. Briefly, before it collapses, it cackles and smiles as if the death was fun or merely a minor inconvenience. The group notices an ear to ear smile on it’s face, as if its greatest concern is not death, but removing the nuisance which was the goblin that now lays in a heap of ash. The lich seems almost happy to return to its original form cackling, “death is a luxury, death does not define, it merely post-pones the inevitable. I will see you again my pretties. It was such a good idea to bring you here, you surely won’t disappoint. See you soon.”

Report Date

11 Mar 2022