Chapter 26: A much needed rest
After looting the red dragon's hoard, Kathra used her magic to form the dragon's skull into a cart with a red dragonscale covering and Nalzmyr butchered the rest of the corpse for crafting materials. They left the lair and traveled to the Last Bastion at the behest of Dorn. There, Dorn was greeted by his fellow knights who believed him dead (including a very large tiefling knight named "Red"). After a warm welcome, Dorn spoke with grand master Ardek Lorens who granted them 3 companies of knights to accompany them on the Thaycreep expedition. The group mingled with the knights over dinner, consisting of Calishite Chili made by the fire genasi chaplain Pyros. Pan performed several songs about their adventures and a good time was had by all. Nalzmyr learned about the Thaycreep from the knights as they ate and celebrated the return of Dorn.
The next morning, the group left to return to Suzail. The knights would join them at the royal docks in a month's time. Back in Suzail, they met with the King again who began preparations for the expedition. Given free reign over the city for a month, each member of the hellraisers spent their downtime as they saw fit. Pan searched for an enchanter to enchant their weapons and armor and found an powerful mage who could do the job. Given materials from the red dragon, Dorn's plate armor was enchanted to resist fire. With the demon ichor from avernus, he enchanted Kathra's armor to resist necrotic damage. They paid him to enchant one of Pan's scimitars and Nalzmyr's falchion "souleater" with a fire enchantment, allowing them to set their blades afire (Nalzmyr's with an eldritch purple flame). Pan also searched for a buyer to sell some of their hellfire shortswords and the remaining demon ichor. He spent the rest of the month carousing among the lower class, making connections and learning about the plight of the commoners (and rumours of a democratic movement in the countryside backed by some low nobility).
Kathra spent her month of downtime smithing. She broke down one of the hellfire shortswords and reforged it into a fine blade for Lulu and used her divine magic to make her studded leather armor. She spent the rest of her time relaxing and reconnecting with her goddess Haela Brightaxe. Meanwhile, Nalzmyr also spent his time in religious service reconnecting with his patron Melegaunt Tanthul and Dorn spent his time at the Last Bastion training.
In the last few days of downtime, the group was approached by an eastern monk named Shin Hakai who hired them to investigate the murder of one of his brothers at the temple of oghma and retrieve pages stolen from a tome called the book of inner alchemy. Pan found a piece of cloth with the insignia of the order of the immortal lotus, and Kathra confirmed their suspicions by speaking with the deceased monk through magic. Brother Hakai revealed that the order of the immortal lotus was a sect of the open hand monks who had been attacking travelers in the king's forest on their way to the temple of oghma with tomes of knowledge. He thought that the order's leader, Bak Mei, hoped to create the gloves of soul catching (a necromantic artifact) with the instructions in the stolen pages.
The group headed into the king's forest garbed in monk's habits, hoping the immortal lotus would attack them. They instead found 2 members disposing of corpses by dumping them into black oozes living inside a dead tree trunk. They followed the monks to their temple and began their attack. As battled ensued, Nalzmyr conjured a wall of light that burned the unsuspecting monks and blinded the rest of the temple from seeing them. Pan unleashed a fireball into the group, and Kathra cursed the monks with magic as lulu distracted the enemies and attacked with precise strikes of her shortsword. Their teacher was slain before he could act, and the remaining monks were killed shortly thereafter. But another group of monks who heard the sounds of battle soon joined the fray, leaping over the wall of light to join the battle. They too were eventually slain, proving to be no match for the hellraisers. They ventured deeper into the complex, finding emptied living quarters. Their stealth failed them as they approached the training yards, and another group of monks attacked alongside their teacher. This group was also soon dispatched, with only two structures in the temple remaining before them (one of which was an ancient hollowed out tree trunk carved into the form of a lotus flower).
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