Session 43 -Demon and Devil

24 Klarmont 1010

General Summary

The party, upon seeing the False Alphaks, immediately prepares for battle. The False Alphaks appears ready for some small talk however, and seems disappointed that they don't want to parley with her. Leo uses his Rod of the Pactkeeper to restore his magical power, and Seraphina casts Bless on the party, and the False Alphaks takes this to be the beginning of combat. The wolves move into the room, loosely surrounding her. Leo, concerned that the fire bats from the lava shaft above may come to visit, drops sickening Radiance into the room such that the shaft is sealed off from the rest of the room, and the radiance overlaps the False Alphaks. She blinks out of that space however before it has a chance to affect her, reappearing much closer to the party, but the radiation cloud serves its purpose, as the flaming bats that do come down the shaft are killed before they get to the party. The False Alphaks takes down a wolf, and then turns its attention on Seraphina. With a powerful tail attack, she crushes Seraphina in a tight grip, nearly knocking her out with the crushing force. She lashes at Seraphina with one of her six swirling blades, further weakening her. The rest of the party gets to move in to help, and those with healing capacity send them Seraphina's way, strengthening her reserves and letting her fight on.
Many of their attacks that feel like they are going to strike effectively are deflected off by "Alphaks" many swords swirling around. However, Stavos does land one powerful strike and, using some clever maneuvering, knocks one of her swords out of her hand. Elincia, thinking quickly, has one of the surviving wolves rush in to grab the sword and run away to prevent her from recovering the blade.
Tork seems to have channeled his inner strength and lands a series of terrific blows on "Alphaks" time and time again; not only penetrating her swirling sword defense, but clearly wearing her down quickly. She comments on how he would be very useful on the battlefield, as if she was somehow going to overcome the party, but with Tork hitting her hard repeatedly they are able to wear her down surprisingly quickly. In just a few rounds, the party has defeated her, and she dissolves in a foul cloud and oily ichor, along with all her possessions except the blade that the wolf carried off.
Searching the room, it is mostly bare, except for the Divan, a pile of skins in the northwest corner, and a single small jeweled chest to the north. Stavos and Tork both check out the pile of hides; when they connect the dots, it appears to be a mix of animal and Yuan-Ti skins, as some are pig-like, but scaly in places.
Leo has cast Detect Magic by now, and verified that the sword is non-magical, though it is quite sharp, beautifully constructed, and made from a strange, green metal. They put it into the bag of holding. Stavos has opened the chest and the only thing inside is a foul-smelling bowl of soup. They take it out and have one of the wolves check it, but it recoils from the smell. None of them think it is a good idea to eat this and they toss it into the lava pit. The chest, however, does appear to be magical and, since it is encrusted with gems, they put it into their bag of holding as part of their prize.
After healing up a bit, they decide to explore the last doorway west out of the False Alphaks' lair. This turns out to be just a hallway that loops back around to south of the Skeleton room. They take a short rest back in the pillared area, safe from the Stirges before deciding their next steps. In the end they decide to explore the staircase that heads further down the shaft. They make a run for it rather than using Pass Without Trace and they arrive at the bottom of the flight of stairs, surprisingly the Stirges seem not to be present here.
They find two pools of water. The one directly below the staircases is foul and dirty and, as Seraphina examines it more closely, a dark shape emerges from the water. It is some sort of giant slug-like creature, which moves to attack. The party quickly dispatches the creature, which has a very nasty set of teeth. Seraphina looks around further and finds yet another of these creatures, which they similarly quickly kill. Feeling pretty confident, they start exploring the rest of the room. There are a large number of fungal growths, including giant mushrooms. The party doesn't recognize any of these as useful or valuable, and leave them alone. Coming over to the second pond, this one appears to be much cleaner, though still murky. As Tork starts exploring along the northern bank, he spots movement in the fungal growths and ten giant frogs emerge, looking at them as if the party were potentially tasty morsels. The party of course is pretty well prepared for such hostilities and, other than Leo's normal terror of creatures that have tried to swallow him in the past, they are able to very quickly dispatch the frogs. One, upon realizing the danger escapes into the pond diving to the bottom, but the other nine are killed. The party decides to take some frog legs as a potential dinner for later, stashing seven pairs of them in their Bag of Colding.
Having finished their exploration of the cavern system, they decide to head back to the Yuan-Ti quarters to complete their agreement.
They arrive back at the southern bedroom area of the cave system, and knock on the door. Vigruth nervously opens the door, but is pleased to see them returned. She asks if the deed is done and they confirm it; and show her the sword they took from the False Alphaks. She brightens at this. Leo asks if she would like to come back with them to meet with the leadership of the island to re-integrate, and she does not seem to have any interest in this. She says they would like to keep their isolation in the valley, and would prefer if the islanders continue to stay away. Leo is a bit disappointed in this, as he had hoped to integrate them back into the larger society, but they don't push this. They ask after the villagers, and it seems they are still working on repairing the bridge so that they can get back to normal life. Vigruth tells them the safest way to get back to the caves leading out of the village area, since it is a bad idea to go through the multi-colored curse room they entered through. She describes a hallway they will find that has mirrors on two sides. If they push on the mirrors they can go through, and they will find a door heading north that should tie back to the areas they know, allowing them to leave the Yuan-Ti as promised.
The party does this, and the mirrors are quite interesting. They appear solid, but flexible, and if you really push hard you will actually pop right through them, leaving no sign of damage to the mirrors. They try this going both east and west several iterations just to see what there is, but it seems they have explored all the most interesting portions of the caves, as the doors all open to places they have previously explored. They eventually find themselves back at the throne overlooking the lava-tube where the bridge was cut down. They can see that the villagers are busy working on the bridge, and the party waves as they leave the cavern - the villagers scowl back. They head back up the long hallway back to the burial chambers, emerging in the back of the room with the dead ghouls, and then on back out to the valley.
They emerge into what seems like blinding sunlight after their long time in the caves. The rains from the days before have ended, and it is a beautiful mid-afternoon day. They quickly get their bearings and determine that the unexplored portion of the valley is pretty much just jungle. They start heading along the path back out to where they hope to find Kai. As they approach the area with the fallen tower, they hear the screams of the Su, the dangerous ape-like creatures Kai had warned them about. There are Su on both sides of the trail, six in all.
The party goes into combat mode immediately. Elincia fires off a quick shot with her new bow and is able to hit two right away. The Su have a directed scream attack that targets a single creature - both Leo and Stavos are targeted with this scream and Leo loses track of time for a bit before being able to shake off the effects. The rest of the party has been able to partially eliminate the Su to the South, as they hear an even more blood curdling sound from off in the jungle. Expecting a larger Su to emerge, they are unpleasantly surprised to find a Green Devil, the one thing that the Red Devils that assaulted them before are afraid of. This creature is enormous with terrifying teeth, less terrifying arms, and a large tail. The remaining Su flee the area and the Green Devil, seeing the party as a tasty snack, charges in. It knocks back Leo and Stavos, and chomps down on Stavos, picking him up and thrashing about with him in its jaws. Tork and Seraphina charge back into the action. Apparently all Tork's struggles with stunning opponents has lead to solid practice, as he is able to land a stunning blow and knock the giant lizard down, freeing Stavos from the jaws. With the creature stunned, the party is able to pile on the damage and, before the stun wears off, Tork is able to succeed with yet another stunning blow. Stavos, still angry about being tossed about by the creature, stabs it fatally in the neck, and the creature thrashes around a few more seconds before silence.
The party has now overcome the dangers this island has to offer and their self confidence has grown significantly. Their skills are honed, and their tactics have evolved. They feel ready for anything!

Report Date

02 Apr 2021