Coia: 44 - But Wait, There's More... Portals
General Summary
Deciding it would be best to investigate the other side of the cave before destroying the portal, the group heads to the right and is stunned by the sight. Another Sorrowsworn is standing in front of a 7th portal! Whaaaa??? We make short work of the sorrowsworn as we blast it apart, with Mithac chopping off its crystal penis in a most insulting death blow.
Still reeling from the discovery of another portal, Nym hears a familiar voice calling him in his head. Yaldra tells him that she's done some research into Mephisto and found that he is a Nightwalker, a sentient undead monster, both death and shadow. He's immune to non-magical damage and only communicates telepathically. She suggests that we guard our minds. Nym relays this information to the group.
Where Lucy had been standing, a large tree suddenly appears. Lucy finds his old friend Moose who has been busy on his own mission and inquires how Lucy is doing. Moose pulls out a haversack and tells Lucy that someone wanted our group to have this. Lucy thanks him and they wish each other luck as the tree disappears.
Inside the haversack, Lucy distributes notes for Garus and Mithac, an hourglass of recall (once per day you can undo the last 6 seconds) for Zen, 2 elemental gems for Szarden, a mind-piercing bow and mithral armor for Lucy, and Keajor's finger and mask of the Gods to Nym.
Retta says that Nicodemus told her there's another portal inside the castle. We notice that this portal appears to be more active than the one on the left, noting that it looks like something has recently been dragged through. We feel a slight tremor and quickly bust up both of these portals.
Realizing that we really didn't know the total number of portals, we check the compass and see that it is glowing faintly in the western direction. Nuts. Deciding that it'll be quicker to travel to Shadowfell and start destroying the portals from that side, we activate the cubic gate and cast Plane Shift to find ourselves in the Shadowfell outside of the Upper Lachis portal which we quickly smash.
Back in Shadowfell
Rasputin scouts ahead and sees 2 patrols circling counter-clockwise. Jumping in between them and keeping our distance from both, we circle over to the Wiggam portal. It's mossy on this side and the portal looks to be dead, same as we'd found it on the material plane. We smash it anyway for good measure and continue on. Nym decides to try to contact Borivik Seshani once more and is finally successful! Borivik is disturbed to find out that he's now a resident of the ring. He doesn't have any more information about the portals unfortunately, however he is rather certain it was Dannish who did him in as he was reviewing old manuscripts. While Nym talks to the voices in his head again, Retta catches up with Szsarden and tells him that her research found that his family had been caught in a war between Hellestra and Loth. Lother required his family to die. We approach a familiar looking portal in a rocky area with no vegetation. It's high up a set of stairs and we fear that it's so out in the open and close to the castle, destroying it may bring unwanted attention our way. Noticing the cages on the side, we realize that this was the portal in Altherstab, the very first one we'd come across. Knowing it to already be inactive on the material plane, we decide to reverse course and sweep around the other side, ambushing the last 2 patrols of Death Knights along the way. Approaching the Herthe portal, we realize we're pretty close to the other side of the castle and want to destroy it quietly so we let Retta Eldritch blast it. She blasted at the base, at the base; no trouble.Into the Castle
Sneaking mostly stealthily up to the castle, Szarden picks the lock on the first gate. Zen and Garus go invisible and take point. Entering the castle, we find it to be stiflingly hot with heat rising up from grates in the floor, moaning and screaming sounds blending in with the movement of molten rock sounds to create a very unpleasant atmosphere. Picking the lock on a second gate, we find a corridor. As Zen heads to the left and Garus heads to the right, Retta messages them both to stay in contact. Garus hears movement ahead of him and notices a large creature that seems to be patrolling the corridor. He follows it down to the main entrance. As it reverses course on patrol, he ducks into the shadows and watches it go by, noticing it's some orc-like creature. Informing the others of this, he continues to the main room, falling out of range of the message spell. Seeing something large blocking the main doors of the caselt, he turns to his left to find a hallway leading into a large open space. The clearing he finds is about 150 ft wide and 120 ft deep and open to the sky above. There are metal doors around the perimeter and 4 grates in the floor with devices hanging above them (some with creatures inside). There's noticeably little movement in the room, although he spies some tables with three tall creatures with chains and hooks standing near them. This doesn't look good. Meanwhile Zen finds a door at the end of his corridor and a crack in the wall that it looks like he can squeeze through. He tries the doorknob and while super-squeaky, it appears to be unlocked. Fearing drawing attention to himself by opening it, he squeezes through the crack in the wall to find himself in what appears to be an empty dining room with still-warm plates left on the tables. Opening the door to the next room, he sees a stone dais next to a tall cloaked figure wearing a long, pointed hood. He messages that this way is clear and the rest of the group follow. Most of the group gets through the crack in the wall but Retta and Mithac bump into each other and create enough noise to raise an alert. The creaky door opens to reveal a large figure with the body of a man but the head of a rooster, carrying a large sickle. Roostertaur takes a swipe at Retta just as she jumps through the crack. Looks like we're gonna be making some omelets tonight...Rewards Granted
- Sorrowsworn: Potion of Longevity and jewelry worth 250 G.
- Death Kinghts: 2 +1 halberds and 500 G.
Sszardan T'Sarran
Zenhorn
Mithac Fezim
Lucius
Garus Silenus
Retta
Nym Lenore
Report Date
01 Nov 2023