Session 102 Report

General Summary

Auren Sylynn quickly found himself surrounded by ghasts. Hearing the sounds of trouble beyond the crawlway, Selia Roselyn Maxwell cast Haste on those around her so they could hurry to help Auren. Titta Morco stretched out and flew through the remainder of the crawlway and landed behind the wall of ghasts to try to draw some of their attention. Pyzar Zim squeezed passed Auren and began fighting the ghasts alongside him. Ladigo Farthon cast Mass Snake’s Swiftness from the tunnel to support their efforts. Kyrie Eleison Thatcher-Stone crawled towards he opening of the tunnel and cast Holy Smite out into the room, blinding most of the ghasts. Mogi Delvin entered the room, standing over the remains of a ghast Titta had felled. With the battle under control, the party finished off the ghasts who continued to approach, despite their blindness. In the course of the conflict, Titta was paralyzed by a ghast’s touch, but then Kyrie came to her aid to remove the paralysis with a spell. Some of the party began exploring the room while Kyrie healed those who were wounded. Auren began examining the altar at the far end of the chapel when suddenly a Lightning Bolt shot forth from it. He managed to dodge out of the way before being struck, but Selia could not evade the blast, standing at the opposite end of the aisle. Selia moved away from the aisle and drank a healing potion. Then Kyrie cast a healing spell on her as well. The rest of the party moved to the other side of the room while Auren continued to search the altar. A Fireball then exploded from the altar. Auren disarmed the traps on the altar and continued searching the room. Kyrie and Titta examined the rows of pews and found that most of them contained coins. However, the front pair of pews were empty, but trapped. A poisonous gas emitted from them and filled the room before the banister that separated the pews from altar. A magic force seemed to prevent the gas from passing the banisters. The party all quickly rushed there and waited for the gas to dissipate. As they continued searching through the room, Titta released a pair of bloodmote clouds from an urn in the southeast corner. These undead mosquitos began sucking the blood from Titta, Kyrie, and Pyzar. Then Kyrie held forth her holy symbol and called forth divine energies to destroy the undead. Ladigo’s Find the Path spell pointed him to a spot on the wall east of the altar. He found a circular indentation in the wall, large enough to fit something like a coin or a ring. Based on the riddle they had found at the entrance to the complex, they surmised that this was where they would need to sacrifice “a loop of magical metal.” They debated their next step for some time. They were divided in their desire to go back and search the areas they ignored for a magical ring, or just give up one of theirs and continue forward. Eventually, they decided on the latter after a failed experiment with a mundane ring and an Arcane Mark spell. They settled on using Ladigo’s Ring of Protection, since he had the ability to stay away from the battle and cast spells from a safer distance. They tied a string around the ring to identify it later if they were to find it again. Then Ladigo pushed it into the circular opening. A section of the wall slid down, taking the ring with it. This revealed a passageway. The party then lined up as Ladigo continued to follow the guidance of Find the Path. They followed the corridor down some steps before it turned to the west. Along this path, they came across three pit traps in succession. Ladigo’s spell warned him of them ahead of time. The party triggered them and Titta flew everyone over, one by one to avoid them. On the third trap, however, Ladigo’s spell pointed him down into the pit and to the southern wall where he found a secret door. The corridor above continued to the west before turning north, but the party continued following Find the Path. They descended another set of stairs and then the corridor turned west again towards yet another set of stairs. At the bottom of these stairs, the hallway was full of misty clouds. Selia detected necromantic magic in the clouds and Kyrie and Ladigo cast Death Ward on everyone as a precaution. When they entered the hallway, however, Pyzar felt a magical effect take hold of him so he fought it off by expending the Benediction spell Kyrie had cast on him earlier. He warned the others and they all held their breath as they walked through the mist. Ladigo was led to a door on the south wall. He opened it and found a stairway covered in thick webs. Auren used his flaming sword to burn the webs away and they descended. At the bottom was a messy room with damaged and rotting furniture. A couch decorated in gold filigree rested against the southwest wall, and upon this couch was a lich. The lich stood and said, “Who dares disturb Acererak’s rest? You have found death.” The party attacked the lich and defeated him easily. The body fell intact, not turning to ash like they expected it to. They immediately suspected that this was not the real Acererak. But Ladigo’s Find the Path spell was done, having found its destination. Before they could debate this, the room began to shake and stones fell from the ceiling, threatening total collapse. Many of the party ran down the hall, holding their breath in the mist. Then Selia called them back, informing them that it was just an illusion. The party returned and they gathered what treasure they could in the room. It was clear that this was not truly the lich Acererak. And they were only about halfway through the riddle. They left the chamber and passed the mist again. There they began searching all the walls. Selia found a secret passage covered by an illusion that her True Seeing helped see through. This passage led to another room. This room contained three vats that appeared to contain water. Traegandar and Mogi sensed a creature in the eastern most vat. Titta flew over to the other side of this vat and stuck her sword in. After a few inches of water, it hit something solid. Then a round ooze-like creature, resembling a circular gelatinous cube burst out and tried to swallow her. Titta evaded it. The gelantinous cube did not survive long as Kyrie struck it with a Destruction spell. After the body disintegrated, a half of a golden key fell into the vat. They found the other half of the key in the center vat. Mogi used Mage Hand to lift it out, not wanting to stick his arm in the liquid. This proved to be a smart idea as the the water inside was actually acid. He then sent water elementals into the western vat. This one was indeed dirty water, and there was nothing else to be found there. They connected the two halves of the key and searched the walls of this room for an exit. There was secret door on the south west corner. They followed the corridor down another set of stairs. Then the corridor turned east. There was a thirty-foot long pit in the corridor. The floor of this pit has some spikes in it, but sporadically placed and seemingly easy enough to avoid. Haymin’s Heroes did not risk it at all. Instead, Titta flew everyone over the pit, one by one. On the other side, they began to systematically search the walls for secret doors. They found one on the north wall which led to a room littered with debris and broken furniture. There were two intact tapestries on the wall that depicted green underwater scenes. Auren entered the room first, while the rest of the party waited. He searched the door at the far end of the room and found it to be trapped, an identical spear trap like they had found in a previous room. The door opened into a brick wall. As he continued to search the room, it shook intermittently. Auren kept his balance and spent some time searching for the trap mechanism on the floor before he disabled it. When it was safe, the rest of the party entered and started to look around. Titta looked behind the closest tapestry. When she pulled it back, though, the tapestry fell off the wall and turned into a green slime that covered a ten-foot by twenty-foot area. Luckily, it missed everyone. On the wall behind the tapestry there was an opening leading to a narrow passage. Titta flew everyone over the slime into the passage and they continued. The passage curved around to the east before descending some stairs. The stairs landed onto a long passageway. This passage came to a four-way intersection. Auren checked the intersection and found a pit trap. He rigged it closed and he passed over it carefully turning to the south. There was a door at the end of this hallway. It hid a spear trap which Auren disabled. Like the others, behind the trapped door was a stone wall. Auren returned to the intersection and turned east. He approached a door at the end of this hallway but accidentally triggered the pit trap before it. Auren managed to avoid the 100-foot drop. Titta flew over and carried Auren to the door so he could check it. On the other side they found the hallway continued east. Titta flew everyone over and they came to a cavernous room from which the sounds of a woman calling out for help could be heard. Auren cautiously approached a stone formation in the center of the cavern. The voice came from behind that. When he looked behind the rock wall, he saw the spectral form of a banshee. Her wail caught Auren head on. The party saw him turn pale as his lifeless body slumped to the floor.

Campaign

The Heart of Embril

Protagonists