Session 21
General Summary
This session resumed where the last one left off: Kit being dragged inside the Serene Stone with Shiro as his only ally on the Material Plane to there help him. The ninjas dragged Kit inside the building, leaving the automatically closing door to shut behind them. Shiro dashed inside, closing the door behind him.
Once inside, Shiro could barely see his hands in front of his face as a thick fog engulfed the entire interior. He tried to follow them down a staircase, but became tangled in magical webs. He still managed to use his Wand of Paralysis to paralyze one of the ninjas and push him down the stairs.
Meanwhile, once the door was closed, the rest of the party, who had been following them on the Ethereal Plane, used the door to return to the Material Plane so they too could help Kit. They defeated the ninjas that had remained outside the building and Damian took one of their heads as a souvenir. They then attempted to enter the building only to find that the door was made of solid steel and was locked with a Simple Enigma Lock, which is practically impossible to pick. That did not stop Damian from attempting to break it down, before realizing that he could use the Matchstick Key to cut a hole through it.
The chunk of door that was cut off had something written on it, "Password: Project Spindle". Claudia noticed this and spoke it aloud. This caused the magic protecting the space to fade; the thick fog and magical webs inside disappeared, freeing Shiro and allowing the party to pursue Kit and the ninjas into the basement of the Serene Stone.
With the party's help, Kit was freed and all but one of the ninjas had been subdued. The last one fled down some long corridors, but Shiro and Kit managed to catch up to him. Shiro used his Wand of Paralysis to paralyze him too, but not before he had alerted the rest of the ninjas in the structure to their presence.
One of the four newly-found ninjas sprang for a phone in the corner of the room while the other three tried to take Shiro and Kit down. Seeing them group up, Shiro shadowstepped to the corner of the room with the phone and threw a six-beaded Necklace of Fireballs at the four ninjas that were next to Kit (Kit was just out of range), vaporizing them instantly. Kit then dashed into the room and shot the ninja who was using the phone.
Still waiting for whoever was on the other end to pick up, he set the phone on the table, letting it ring, and attacked Shiro with two Unarmed Strikes. He missed both and proceeded to hunch over the phone, providing it Total Cover.
Meanwhile, Claudia tied up two of the ninjas that had ushered Kit inside the building and the two animated suits of armor that they had brought with them each grappled one of them while the party made their way to wherever Kit and Shiro went. Damian must have been worried about them, as he managed to traveld over 20 miles-per-hour to get to them.
Having no context other than ninja = bad, he saw the ninja hunched over the table and, in one swing, cleaved him, the phone, and the table in half. The ninja's blood splattered on him, Shiro, and the walls as the now-smashed phone played the "disconnected" tone. This was all done in clear view of a child that was locked in a cage on the other side of the room.
With no more enemies in sight, the party began exploring the place. Xavirie interrogated the two prisoners and found the keys to the holding cells, which contained a man by the name of Bill Winslow along with 9 of the 10 missing children. Kit, Vaision, and Claudia found a lantern that entranced them upon looking at it and Damian smashed it. Shiro found a pit stocked with a multitude of corpses of various ages and races and was too appalled to find anything there.
Their exploration was interrupted by an arcane whirring sound that came from the room with the phone. It was the Governor and he was pissed. Shiro was the first to check out the sound; he went invisible and peaked around the corner, but that was not enough to hide from the governor. He cast Hold Person on Shiro and began questioning him. This clued him in on the fact that Shiro had come with friends.
By this time, the rest of the party, excluding Xavirie (she was freeing the children), was just outside the room. Shiro broke free and the party attacked, dealing a massive amount of damage. The main damage dealer had been Damian, so the Governor cast Dominate Person on Damiand and instructed him (telepathically) to destroy Shiro. Another round passed, where the party managed to bloody the Governor, who managed to paralyze Claudia. Somehow the Governor managed to pass all of his Concentration Checks despite all the damage he took to maintain the Dominate Person Spell, so Damian was now a major threat for the party. The Governor then cast Blink and let Damian do the heavy lifting for him.
In a desperate attempt to snap Damian out of it, Vaision used his Wand of Wonder on Damian. The effect was a casting of the Spell Darkness centered on Damian that would last for 10 minutes. Knowing that Damian could no longer see him, Shiro shadowstepped across the room. Because Damian could not see and was instructed to destroy Shiro, who he thought was still right next to him, he did a whirlwind attack that hit Claudia, killing him instantly.
Paralyzed and in complete darkenss, he never saw it coming. With Sparrow's hand on his shoulder, his life flashed before his eyes. His final thoughts were of the sea, where he recalled the first time he ever caught a tuna as a kid and the joy it brought him to show it to all his friends.
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