Session 57: The Stars Align
General Summary
But first, a flashback...
The party, fully assembled, watched as Agath the priest-librarian and his acolytes summoned divine energy and called out to the soul of Zeke the paladin. As Zeke was helped, nodding off even as he walked, into a room kept for the respite of petitioners, the party let out their breath. "Well," said Vin into the silence, drawing the eyes of her companions, "I think I'm done." The wizard went on to explain that the quest had become overwhelming. "Zeke died, she emphasized, pointing after him. "And if it weren't for the intervention of a divine godlike being, he'd still be dead." She worried about her family, even with angelic protection. She felt the helplessness she had felt on the battlefield, with no armour, no shield, waiting behind cover. "Maybe I can get an apprenticeship with Tenser," she suggested, "and he can teach me how to scribe scrolls that I can send you, and I can do research for you and stuff, but I think I have to stay here." The party met these arguments with various levels of approval. Nemara, of all people, understood the need to step back when things were Too Much, and though sad to be apart from her friend, didn't stand in her way. Sigvurd, on the other hand, rebuked her for choosing the easy path. He skipped denial altogether and angrily pointed out that the danger was still present, that there was a dungeon full of wormy creatures to fight through. He bargained that they could outfit Vin with armour, and learn spells to resurrect the dead, themselves. When Vin held her ground, he became sullenly depressed, grumbling into his beard about betrayal. Vin assured him that she was still going to fight the good fight, just from a mage tower instead of the front line, Sigvurd gave his gruff acceptance. Through this all, Lins looked on quietly. The silence was not missed, and when Vin queried her thoughts, Lins went in for a hug. The war-mage thanked her lanky friend for all she had done, for all she had taught, and all she would yet do. As the finality of her decision became evident, the priest-librarian cleared his throat. "I understand you may not want to discuss this immediately," he admitted, "but it would seem that your quest is too dangerous to return without a full complement. If you are amenable, I know someone - a fellow cleric, in fact - and one of no small talent - who would be willing. Celestian calls us to travel, and she mentioned that she has been stationary for too long." The party was indeed amenable to the presence of a cleric, given their recent adventures, and Vin excused herself to a room the library kept for travellers as Agath went to fetch the party's new member. Moments later he returned, followed by a blonde half-elf in midnight-blue robes. Bubbling over with excitement, she happily explained her qualifications. "I can regrow an arm!" she declared, with Agath nodding in confirmation, "Though if I do a good job you won't lose it to begin with." She assured the party that she did have a suit of full plate that she would change into, that she didn't plan on adventuring in her acolyte robes, she reassured a suddenly-insecure Nemara that her leather armour was "working it," and, like, totally let's smite some undead! Sigvurd frowned at the high-spirited cleric. "You'll have to prove yourself." he said, a challenge Fraeya was more than happy to rise to.One "Teleport" spell later...
The party arrived back in the dungeon, looking down the pit at the wormy floor below. They decided to fall back on old standbys, so Sigvurd lit himself aflame and then repelled into the midst of the swarm, with Nemara hurling fireballs after him. The fire shrivelled and melted the worms as they surged over him, but they were so numerous that they began to smother the flames, and too mindless to be repelled. Fraeya realized the dwarf would need backup, and summoned an avenging angel, who began peppering the swarm with holy arrows. As Sigvurd moved out of view, Nemara tried to follow as well, but missed a handhold and needed to make a quick getaway from one of the worm nagas infesting the side passages. Eventually, the party assembled in the room below, a room carpeted with the sludge that used to be a massive swarm of Kyuss worms. Fraeya healed Sigvurd back to half-health, and they decided to explore westward first, and see what was behind the double-doors. Sigvurd threw them open, and the party immeditealy found themselves hypnotized by the two wormy sorcerers who flanked a fountain on the oppiste wall. "Come" they intoned "Drink deep and slake your thirst." The party shambled forward, plunging their hands into the cool, clear waters and drinking. As they did so, they were overcome by a vision. They saw the city from a bird's eye view, with all its thousands of citizens gathered around the zigurrat, where waves of energy pulsed from the black-stone monolith at the spire's peak - the same one they had seen torn off by a dragon in a previous vision. Each energy wave felled citizens, and a sense of wrongness permeated the air as their souls were drawn from them and into the spire. As the energy built, a humanoid figure, gigantic in scale, formed around the spire. It was a huge, undulating mass of worms. It raised its arms in triumph, but that elation swiftly turned to outrage as the figure contorted and then imploded, absorbed into the spire's blackstone peak. As silence rang, the first stirrings of unlife began among the fallen populace. Reeling, the party blinked as the room came back into focus - and they saw that what they had been guzzling was not cool, refreshing water at all, but a mass of worms! Fortunately, they all managed to puke before the worms took a hold. Unfortunately, the sorcerers who had compelled them to drink were not willing to let them off so easily. They positioned themselves between the party and the door, and prepared for battle!Rewards Granted
Lins got Vin's Scroll of Teleport