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General Summary

1489 DR - Autumn - 5, Marpenoth (10) - Maztica - New Waterdeep

• The Chosen have been led to a temple containing an ancient and powerful portal by Baagram, even though portals across the realms have ceased to function and are known to be inherently dangerous after the spellplague. This is the very same portal that the Harpers used, with significant loss of life.
• The pyramid they retrieved is explained to be a key of some sort to stabilize the portal, and Baagram shows them into the center of the temple in front of the massive 60' portal as his guards take up defensive positions around the room.
• The Portal becomes stable and through it steps Garen Destarin, High Commander of the Zhentilar, and a small army of Zhents, Goblins, and Schattenwretches! Baagram shrugs an apathetic apology, and Garen orders The Chosen to be killed on the spot.
• A black cloaked Zhentarim mage opens the combat by sending an empowered magic missile to strike everyone in the group!
• Damien presses his attack by charging Baagram in a flash of shadow, engaging him directly even as the Schattenwretches surround him, hellbent on destroying the betrayer of their order. He is however unable to defeat Baagram in combat before the Agent of the Xanathar escapes back through the portal.
• Lucyan again takes charge, attempting to use the same tactic that helped cripple Fallen on Garen! His spell and defense is completely powerless against the monstrous warrior, and he finds himself surrounded by Zhents, Infected Goblins, and Priests of the Tenth Lord, not to mention at the feet of the most terrifying opponent the party as ever faced.
• Llewellyn launches in a flurry of empowered arrow assaults, slaying groups of the soldiers with thorny barbs from her shots. Her new powers seemed tinged with additional dark energy.
• Xifor opens with a massive Fireball, seemingly emboldened by some black power he doesn't even understand himself, the flames seem to burn with the sound of screams from the void, and 75% of the invading force is wiped out in a single conflagaration. Xifor laughs maniacally as the crew looks at him wondering why he hasn't used this amazing power before! He feels fatigued from the effort however, and shortly thereafter riddled with bolts and taken to the ground.
• The infected goblins are all slain in the fireball and from their corpses sprout massive angry Barbed Devils and flying Spinagons that charge the crew!
• Garen is enraged by his armies decimation and roars a hail of acid, followed by terrifying arcs of electricity from his breath, tearing apart the crews defenses and sending them reeling.
• Llewellyn takes down several soldiers with arrows before the return crossbow fire takes her down in her electrocuted state.
• Lucyan changes into a mound of maggots and takes advantage of his defenses to hold Garen's attention while the rest of the party attempts to push back the onslaught of soldiers.
• Oudman summons a whip crafted from his own blood and alternates between devastating blood whip and much needed healing to keep the group rallied on their feet. He is effective against the foot soldiers but finds a poor match against the devils and Garen. He revives Xifor.
• Yasen begins leaking shadowy armor that reminds the crew of what Fallen had been using, which emboldens him to charge and tangle with Garen in single combat. Garen retaliates and nearly cleaves him in two if not for his void like defense. Sensing his dangerous position, he then leaps away to the overlook ledges at the side of the Temple to try and whittle down the mercenaries raining bolts from their crossbows at the team, but finds the soldiers to be stable enough to slow him down and hold their ground.
• Xifor attempts to charm and damage Garen, but his unholy knowledge is resisted. He instead then summons a murder of dretches to assault Garen and the devils, lining the ground with blood to keep them away from the party. Xifor is taken down by another hail of bolts, the dretches go wild.
• Damien murders the remaining Schattenwretches as the fresh to the fight summoned barbed devils move in to the fray. He takes the opportunity to officially announce a retreat, and bolts from the room.
• Garen again expresses his distaste at the delay in his enemies deaths and launches an assault of black tentacles from all sides, striking everyone around him and murdering the remaining demons, and bringing down Yasen.
• Lucyan summons a massive wave of rats that overwhelms Garen and holds him in place while the others flee the battle. He uses his last shadowy escape to make a bolt for the exit, only to be riddled with bolts just a few feet from the tunnel and falls there. Damien hauls Lucyan outside with him as he retreats.
• Huden begins throwing mind assaults toward Garen which seem to be only partially effective, and fighting off the devils that have pressed the attack. He attempts to hold back the devils single-handed to buy time for the others to escape and is overwhelmed by the barbed devils ferocity. He goes down in slashes of their tails just as he and Oudman are the last ones to try and escape.
• Oudman attempts to hold the group together and retreat, bringing Yasen back to his feet, but also falls to the hail of crossbows and slashes from the devils now advancing on the retreating team. Yasen promptly flees through the tunnel carrying Llewellyn out with him.
• Damien charges back in and hauls out Xifor and Oudman as well, who then begin to bring back to standing the crew outside the temple. Garen struggles free of the vermintide, and charges the last defenses inside. Damien is almost slain by Garen and the devils attacks of opportunity as he tries to escape with the bodies.
• Lucyan, now revived, summons a veritable HOARD of giant spiders into the entrance, providing a defensive shield against the devils and Garen, as Damien, now mysteriously sheathed in another shadowy suit of black mist, charges back into the temple to retrieve Huden and make their final escape.
• As the last members charge out the tunnel, Xifor blasts his last fireball into the entrance, causing a cascading collapse of the entire temple on top of Garen and the remaining Zhents! His hate filled roar is heard over the avalanche of stone.
• The crew makes all haste, limping along on their final breaths into the jungle and toward New Waterdeep. Huden casts sending to the ship captain of the Gazer, and receives only a disheartening response saying the whole crew is dead and the ship is wrecked.
• The Party proceeds then to raid New Waterdeep looking for a ship, and Huden strides confidently into the town, singing what can only be described as the most horrifying dirge anyone has witnessed. The remaining allies of Baagram and the Zhents in the town attempt to rush him from the buildings as he proceeds through town, but their flesh boils and theirs skin sloughs of in a cacophony of screams, finishing their lives with a sickening pop and puddle of slime. He finishes a stroll through town singing the dirge until there is nothing left in New Waterdeep except slime trails and puddles. The whole party proceed to set fire to the buildings.
• Unfortunately there are no ships in the dock sturdy enough to support a long journey back, and while they attempt to talk about other options, Abigor assaults Huden from inside his head again, taking momentary control. Oudman notices and asks what is wrong, but gets the wild mismatched eyed twitchy response from a now fully possessed Huden: "Take me to the ship!" in a scratchy commanding and not very sane voice.
• The party decides to move to the Gazer and see what has happened to it, finding that the entire crew has succumbed to the Vargouille sickness and their disembodied heads fly around in a cloud over the ships wreckage. Huden begins to sing the song again and goes in alone, but it proves not as effective against the flapping heads, that swarm him and begin biting at his face, kissing him to spread their demonic disease.
• The crew hails arrows and magic on the Vargouille cloud and then rush in to save Huden, who finds himself infected and slowing becoming a Vargouille.
• Upon inspecting the Gazer, they find the captain, nearly a Vargouille herself and on her last breath. She tells them there is no hope and that they MUST destroy the ship as it should NOT be allowed to live. They put her out of her misery and disregard her threats.
• Inside the wreckage they discover that the large ship had another seemingly living ship disguised in it's core, soemthing Huden recognizes as a Nautiloid, a ship of the Illithid, assumed all destroyed in the war with the Githyankin is found still partially alive in the shell. It has an illithid, seemingly brain dead, connected to a strange organic machine crystal in the command seat, resembling the strange pilot chair seen on the Gazer in their previous journey with the ship.
• Huden is wracked with pain and finds himself speaking again to Abigor, who explains that if Huden touches the mind of the Illithid, that he can possess it, and take control of the ship. The crew discusses options, and decides to give the body of the Mind Flayer to Abigor, who happily possesses the near corpse, and reignites the life of the living ship. Abigor laughs in their minds as he takes control, but explains that he can't control all of the ship for some reason, but can definitely fly them back. They load up on supplies from the wreckage and the ships bursts from the hull and begins speeding back toward Faerun across the Trackless Sea.
• In the captains cabins, the crew finds a journal, it lays out a little about the previous captains status as a hunter of Illithid renegades for the Githyanki, and that she was searching a powerful weapon that had crossed dimensions by the name of BlackRazer. Her search led her to a name as a clue, the name of Abigor. The Chosen are surprised by this coincidence, or perhaps it wasn't a coincidence that she was here, so close to her quarry.
• The crew interrogates Abigor to mixed effect, finding his insanity and newfound sovereignty to be frustrating and obtuse, but manage to get from him one piece of valuable info: His friend, known as the Fleshwright, keeps the sword in his collection, which is located in his domain to the Western edge of the Aunoroch desert, in a city of his making. He offers to travel there, but the crew decides to make a couple stopovers on the way.
  

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

01 Jun 2020