Session 95 Report

General Summary

Two of the twisted hound-like creatures appeared from the angles on the cavern wall and attacked. An enemy mage cast Evard’s Black Tentacles and caught the majority of the party in the writhing black masses. The spell did not hinder them long, though, as some of the party had various means of escape. Kyrie Eleison Thatcher-Stone used her Anklet of Translocation to teleport just outside the tentacles’ reach and cast Holy Word. This left a number of the enemy dead, while others were blinded, deafened, and paralyzed. The two hounds were also banished to their home plane of existence by the spell. Ladigo Farthon was in the shape of a blink dog and used the creature’s Dimension Door ability to escape. He then cast Wall of Sand and trapped the majority of the cultists beneath. Selia Roselyn Maxwell escaped using a Dimension Door of her own. While Pyzar Zim resisted the black tentacles through brute strength, forced his way out, and attacked the paralyzed enemies nearest to him. The few enemies who were not trapped beneath the sand were defeated easily. Then Ladigo continued to concentrate on the Wall of Sand. A few managed to power their way out and escape from suffocation, and those were also easily defeated. When enough time had passed, Ladigo ceased concentrating on his spell and let it fall, leaving behind the remains of those who had suffocated. Titta Morco found a broken slab of stone split into six pieces on the floor in front of the portal. The fragments were etched with markings. She put them together and found that it depicted the Elder Sign Vanimelda had been researching on her visit to Rowadin. Kyrie cast Make Whole on the slab and it appeared as if it had been cut from the wall around the gate; the stone matched that of the wall around it. Haymin’s Heroes went through the gate and were immediately struck with a feeling of vertigo. The terrain around them appeared twisted in impossible dimensions, taxing their senses as they tried to understand their surroundings. Some of the party began losing their balance. A few spells from Kyrie helped them fight through the vertigo, but Fisher’s mind could not cope with what the bear was seeing. Titta sent him back through the portal with instructions to guard it from the other side. They were on a beach with ocean waves crashing upon shore underneath a darkened sky. Farther inland there was a city, twisted and macabre. But closer to them was a warped structure of bent spires. Upon a great door at its entrance was the symbol of the tentacled face they had seen on the enemy in the cavern. As they approached the door, six large beings that appeared like winged heads with tentacles dove out of the sky to attack them. Ladigo caught two in a Downdraft and sent them crashing to the ground. Auren Sylynn rushed one and maneuvered to the one side of the creature. Then Pyzar flanked it from the other. Titta flew up to one of the airborne ones and struck with her scimitars. The creatures were strong and resilient, but the party’s spells and weapons proved to be too much for them. Four of the tentacled creatures were killed, but a couple of them managed to fly away towards the city in the distance. The party entered into a temple. Within were several men around an altar. Among them was a pair of mind flayers. In the center of the temple was a large pool of water. In the background there was a large statue to the bulky, winged, tentacle-faced being. A priest behind the altar began speaking to Haymin’s Heroes in Gaeric. He welcomed them to the temple. Kyrie spoke with him briefly as the party moved cautiously into the room. The men in the temple maneuvered as well. Then suddenly, the mind flayers unleashed with their Mind Blasts. Mogi Delvin and Traegandar were left stunned. Pyzar was saved by his Third Eye – Clarity. Then two of the evil clerics cast a spell and each shot a black ray, one at Auren, and the other at Pyzar. Auren was truck and left dazed by the black beam. The clerics’ hands remained with a black glow as they prepared to unleash more black rays. Ladigo cast Wall of Sand and caught the majority of the enemy. The party then focused on picking off those who remained free or managed to escape. One of the mind flayers teleported out from within the wall and attacked the party from behind. Then Auren and Titta closed in on him. A mage cast Evard’s Black Tentacles and caught some of the party, but Ladigo used Greater Dispel Magic to remove the effect. In the end, all the enemy were killed, except for the mage. They captured and began questioning him. Kyrie did most of the talking, still aided by her Tongues spell. Selia used Detect Thoughts to glean further information from his mind. They learned that his was a temple to their god, Cthulhu. Vanimelda was being prepared for sacrifice within the inner sanctum somewhere below, beyond the pool of water. There were aboleths residing deep within the water guarding the tunnel that led to the inner sanctum. More men, mind flayers, and a strange tentacled beast were to be found below as well. And in the pool within the inner sanctum lived a huge hulking beast that looked very much like the statue of Cthulhu. When they were done with the mage, they knocked him out and left him tied up to a column. They formulated a plan of how they would continue and prepared. They first took Pennig back through the portal to wait with Fisher. The party then returned to the temple and the majority of them got into the Bags of Holding. Mogi summoned four water elementals using his ring and sent them down into the water to distract the aboleths. Then he got into one of the bags as well. The plan was for Traegandar, in dragon form, and Titta, using her Ring of the Wild, to swim, carrying the Bags of Holding. They would attempt to swim past the aboleths while the elementals kept them busy. Then when they exited the water tunnel, they would let the remainder of the party out. Hoping that everything went according to plan, Traegandar and Titta jumped into the pool behind the water elementals.

Campaign

The Heart of Embril

Protagonists