Isn't this how I die? Report

General Summary

1489 DR - Autumn - 2, Marpenoth (10) - Maztica - Lost Shrine of Zaltec

• After resting in the hut inside the room with the three wells Yasen, Llewellyn and Xifor decide to hang back to recover and to guard the tunnel down into the temple while Huden, Oudman and Lucyan scout ahead for a way out.
• The temple seems to be hiding some kind of malice in it's shadows almost as if the darkness is fighting some unseen war with itself. There is life in the darkness just beyond their vision but they are not sure of it's intent.
• Huden, Lucyan, and Oudman head up the staircase into the next entry room, finding it filled with trinkets and offerings, with a mummified centaur presiding silently over the room in it's deathly sleep.
• They loot the room thoroughly and Huden opens the next door onwards, only to find it hides a jade wall directly behind the door. At this moment the centaur animates and attacks Huden and the party from behind, attempting to slay him, but is felled before he can accomplish his mindless task.
• Oudman sets fire to the corpse, resulting in a thick acrid smoke completely filling the room and forcing the choking vomiting party to retreat back into the well room and bar the door.
• After preparing some masked cloths, they press through the smoke to the jade wall, and find it topples outward easily, seeming to be a trap for those on the other side. This allows the smoke to disperse a little into the high ceiling of the next hallway and the party proceeds.
• They come to a room with a hatch at the top and ladder rungs leading to it, flanked by secret doors that lead to a manner of throne room. Exploring the throne room first, Huden finds (after struggling with Oudman's over prepared use of a snare spell) a stone figure on the throne holding a beautiful magical scepter. The stone figure bears Huden's face as if it was an ancient incarnation or ancestor.
• Huden picks up the scepter carefully and begins to see flashes of great battles past, armies of Tabaxi fighting feathered warriors in great open warfare, with him leading these armies to certain victory, after a few moments Oudman convinces (without much difficulty) Huden to hand over the rod to him, and does not see the same visions. They store the rod for later identification.
• Deciding not to mess with the room anymore, and feeling the threat of the shadows and distant laughter in the shrine, they checkout the room with the ceiling hatch, hoping it is a way up to the surface. Upon opening the hatch a whirlwind fills the room, tearing everyone off their feet and throwing them around the room. The immovable rod is not easy to hold onto either and is stuck at the top, while Huden also tries to cast Leomonds hut inside the wind for protection, but is thrown around onto the rusty ladder pieces and loses the spell.
• Oudman, feeling the pressure of everyone watching him as the only person still in the room, manages to successfully climb to the hatch and retrieve the rod, then crawls out of the room on the floor. The three decide they will leave this trap as is for the others to solve when they follow them out.
• Continuing on they find a room with a valve, lever and portcullis. Huden begins to move the valve after switching the lever and hears a grinding movement from the hallway past the portcullis.
• As the valve gets close to being tightened, the floor drops out underneath Huden and Oudman, and they both fall into a pit filled with bones. After climbin out to either side, Huden manages to finish turning the valve and lock it into place with the lever, then traversing the pit by a beam across the middle.
• Lucyan examines the portcullis closely and finds a small keyhole next to it, which Huden finds works perfectly with the platinum key. They exit through this way, and decide to take the key with them, leaving the portcullis closed for the other three and Damien to also solve on their own.
• They climb a final staircase, and begin to hear through the cracks in the walls the sound of the jungle at night, having finally reached the top of the temple, only to come against a final secret door that they then struggle to force open piece by piece.
• While Oudman, Lucyan, and Huden are gathering at the exit and opening the door, Yasen, Llewellyn and Xifor begin making progress behind them, but as they proceed it seems as if the darkness is shifting around them, almost showing a 'not quite as dark' pathway through the temple that helps them find the right way to follow the other three. Seemingly dangerous paths are made harmless by this physical blackness and shifting power, and they find the way remarkably clear of obstacles (later causing confused reactions from the others).
• The party then exits through the now open door, and into an open decaying temple in the early morning dawn, showing a dim and crumbling top to the once magnificent pyramid. They hear a light sobbing and moaning coming from behind a giant metallic Zaltec altar of a bat covered in carved writhing worms.
• The figure before the shrine is Fallen, and he seems to be in some kind of stupor, not reacting to the group edging carefully around the metal bat wings. He repeatedly mumbles to himself in a manic state: "He was a lie... Just another goddamned lie..." There is black wisps seeping out of his clothing, obscuring his full form as if some dark magic is leaking from him.
• Lucyan wastes no time on the traitor and goes on the attack, casting Seething Eyebane on Fallen immediately without giving him much chance to act. Fallen is unfortunately faster and reacts just before the spell completes by shouting at the Chosen with a throat tearing growl (particularly at Lucyan and Huden): "YOU ALL KNEW DIDN'T YOU! YOU KNEW HE WAS A LIE!" and the black void wisps explode outward from his body in a screaming howl, causing massive damage to the party.
• Lucyan manages to finish his spell however and Fallen's eyes EXPLODE in his face with acid streaming down his body and burning him, while splattering acid over a radius. Lucyan is prepared and reacts with a defensive spell to resist the acid, but a little splashes on Oudman as well.
• Fallen is blind and enraged and grasps for Lucyan wildly, grappling him and beginning to throttle him while rending with his clawed feet, and trying to drain the life out of him, nearly killing Lucyan.
• Simultaneously while Lucyan and Fallen duel, Oudman begins firing venomous bolts at Fallen, while other enemies enter the temple from their hiding places.
• A familiar hybrid werejaguar emerges from the shadows, flanking in behind Xifor and Llewellyn, pressing the surprise advantage and growling something in ancient Olman language. This phrase seems to trigger Yasen's transformation and Yasen becomes another Hybrid Werejaguar version of himself, turning his blade on Xifor and Huden! Yasen tries to fight to control the beast, but is still unable to control himself while Zaltec bids him to defend the shrine.
• The Ancient WereJaguar rips open Xifor, leaving him for dead on the ground to move on to Huden.
• A massive Hyena emerges from behind the temple walls and charges Huden as well, threatening to devour him whole and tearing him to an inch of his life.
• An arrow is shot from a hiding place in the ceiling at Llewellyn, who is caught by surprise by the shot, which catches her square in the neck, bringing her down to begin bleeding out on the temple floor.
• Lucyan steps through shadow to teleport out of Fallen's draining grasp before he is withered, and Oudman retreats to support Huden. Huden then blasts the clustered enemies and takes down Fallen while Oudman strikes at enemies from his whip and with the beams of his clawed skull homonculous.
• Lucyan then summons two giant spiders for support to take off the pressure and draw the enemies attack.
• The Harper who was hiding in the ceiling tries to execute Oudman, but is spotted and he avoids the sneak attack. He shouts her location to the team, and Huden shatters the ceiling she is standing on and she plummets to her death.
• As Yasen fights to control his bestial form, he manages to win some autonomy without changing, and breaks from combat to stabilize Xifor. Llewellyn manages to avoid death with a near miss save, and Oudman has time to bring her back to her feet with a spell. Llewellyn then turns her bow on the Hyena, murdering it to finish the violent and brief combat.
• The group teeters back from near death to recover from the confrontation and assesses the temple floor. Fallen and the Harper both still live, and they tie her up first before stabilizing her.
• Fallen is still sputtering and cursing through his death throes, and suddenly from behind the altar steps the Frogmouth, who imposes over Fallen and frowns in distaste. He says: "Such a shame that one, such potential, but a broken toy isn't worth the repair, when there are so many toys in the material plane." and proceeds to 'extract' the void magic that is leaking from him, leaving only a withered husk that slowly decomposes into dust.
• He turns and addresses the Chosen: "His usefulness has expired, but we need another to continue his work in gathering strength for the Lord of Lies, and this time I think it is necessary to be clear on what our servant is doing." and he offers the power to Llewellyn, who at first meekly accepts the offer. A streak of black essence leaps from Frogmouth's hand where it was writhing, and enters her through her eyes and mouth. At first she seems horrified, but the twisted grimace slowly morphs into a smile, and then into a raucous triumphant laughter, and even further to a giddy titter as wisps of black tendrils swirl around here. She exclaims "I see now! I understand where you've been! I know what I must do!" And continues laughing. Abruptly her laughter is cut off, as she vanishes in a trail of black smoke that quickly evaporates, and is gone.
• Frogmouth explains that their friend is fine and she will be back, but reminds the party of their pressing prisoner. The Chosen turn to interrogate her, using Huden's technique to pry out additional information, she says: "Fallen was merely a tool, we used him to stop them, they are a threat to everyone! You are all doomed now anyway, and they mustn't get access to the portal! You should never have helped the Xanathar." And the group dismisses her ramblings to pry more information. Her only other response trails into fury: "You are all fools just like the worthless Tabaxi, following your Lord of Lies, who will never tell you the truth! He is still imprisoned, a worthless god in a faraway cage, dancing for his unholy jailers. Wasting your time following an impotent deity while stronger villainous forces play a pipers tune to your----ack"
• Her blasphemy is cut off abruptly by her neck cracking, an unseen force twisting it around the wrong way. Frogmouth slowly returns his hand to his hooked staff:"That's quite enough of that talk." When questioned he merely posits that no Herald would suffer that kind of insult lightly.
• He then stays to answer a few questions about their situation, that they (himself (the real genius of the group), The Corpse (the strongest of them), The Man in Rags (their independent contractor of all things most difficult), the Lady in White (their former leader, though adding that her unholy 'resurrection' put her down a few pegs in his mind), and Abigor the Fiend (also merely a silent placeholder due to his physical forms destruction) are all Heralds of Strife, and that Keezor is their prospective Dreadlord (a type of demonic Avatar) for Cyric's presence on the material plane, and a force to be reckoned with all on his own right. They have done well in finding him and passing the defenses imposed by his jailers. He explains that he does not know the purpose of the pyramid or why it was with Keezor, but a deal is a deal when they still need something from the dealer and they should be done with The Xanathar by offering it to them so they can move on to finding the three artifacts outlined by Keezor to free him.
• The group explores the shrine and is diligent about checking for hidden dangers, but finds that after the void essence was passed to Llewellyn, the shrine has ceased to house any remnant of the divine, and they determine that Zaltec is truly a dead god, and was being impersonated by the Lord of Lies in order to get closer to freeing the Dreadlord.
• The party sets up a perimeter and camp to begin a long recovery before trekking back to New Waterdeep. They identify their spoils, and go through their spells, processing their experience and strengthening their resolve.
• The book retrieved from Keezor calls to each of them, and they take turns reading from the myriad of languages it is written in, learning a few new unholy and vile tricks from it's blood written pages. They feel a nagging hook from preparing the powerful spells they learn, but can't resist the promise of power it provides.
• Llewellyn returns in the night, still laughing from her experience, and telling the group of her travel through a shaded version of this world, seeing only the Frogmouth clearly on the other side, but observing and being strengthened by an ever present void that called to her, seeing clearly resting at it's center a laughing jawless black skull surrounded by even darker black flames. She explains that she knows that it must be fed, and feels empowered now to do it. The groups reaction is accepting, feeling that she now understands more of their connection to the divine now.
• Huden casts sending to Damien, and tells him the path is clear and they are at the top. Damien arrives merely an hour later, explaining that he "walked with the shadows" here, encountering no threats and being even aided by the darkness moving through the temple.
• The group finds among their spoils a map of Maztica, a valuable piece of scholarly art, and it shows them a much easier path to return to New Waterdeep, passing through a northern shipyard to take a small sailboat back across the bay.
• Upon returning to New Waterdeep, Baagram shows off the progress on rebuilding the town square in the week they have been gone, but upon being handed the pyramid, he gets excited, and bids that the Chosen come with him to witness their triumph in reactivating the portal. Most of the town armors up and follows them to the portal to the north, as if expecting resistance once opening the portal, maybe the Harpers?
• Baagram seems excited and a little nervous to finally finish his task, and the crew picks up on this, but see no reason not to see their mission through.
• The Chosen all enter the portal structure with Baagram and the soldiers that followed, who spread out to set up guards around the room. The center is dominated by a 60' archway rippling violently with a silvery blue light. He moves to a pillar near the base of the structure, and places the tiger eye pyramid into a perfectly fitted slot, almost like a control piece, and begins securing it in place. The Tiger eye begins to glow from within with a red light contrasting the portal.
• The portal surface begins to calm and Baagram turns to address the party as the first figures begin to emerge: " I truly am sorry about this, you've done so well, but such is the nature of business."
• From the surface of the portal emerges an 8' tall figure in sweeping blue tinted full plate mail, carrying a nearly 8' long black stone carved weapon, his slightly scaled skin, menacing sharp teeth, blazing blue eyes and light crackling about his presence whether from himself or from the portal, instantly fills the crew with utter dread. A figure out of legends only talked about in the news of Faerun. As other figures begin to emerge behind him, Garen Destarin, High Commander of the Zhentilar army, Dragon Disciple of Tiamat, Hellshaper of the Black Stone of Phlegethos, and eldest son of High Imperceptor Khelden Destarin, Lord of The Black Hand Empire speaks in menacingly slow and terrifying tones: "I finally meet my pawns, I hear some hilariously terrible things about you. Tell me, how does it feel to be truly lied to?" He lifts his terribly serrated monstrous sword with ease, pointing toward the Chosen as Baagram gives the crew a final apathetic shrug when feeling the biting gaze of the crews fury at his betrayal. The figures behind him pour out of the portal; fully armored Zhent warriors, Priests of the Tenth Lord, and gibbering, ravenous goblins covered in orange fungal growth, begin to rush forward as he gives a final ominous command: "Clear this worthless group of fools from my site!"

TO BE CONTINUED!

Campaign

The Chosen

Protagonists

Lucyan Kilndar

Level 12 Shadar-Kai Neutral Evil Druid
(Outlander)

79 / 79 HP

Xifor

Level 11 Tiefling-Abraxus (Mephistopheles, MTOF) Chaotic Evil Wizard/Forbidden Lore (COBW)
(Raised by Fiends (Raised by Evil, COE))

/ 54 HP

Yasen Luzar

Level 11 Aasimar CE Hexblade - Warlock
(Expropriated One)

60 / 74 HP

Oudman - Fonkle

Level 9 hobgoblin chaotic evil artificer alchemist
(styx-tuched)

/ 80 HP

Llewellyn

Level 8 Half-Elf (Moon) Chaotic Evil Horizon Walker (Ranger)
(Turncoat)

85 / 70 HP

Damien Crane

Level 4 Human (Amn) CE Warrior
(Apprentice)

/ 45 HP

Huden Golman

Level 7 hooman chaotic evil bard
(charlatan)

/ 38 HP

Report Date

26 May 2020

Primary Location

Maztica

Secondary Location

New Waterdeep