The Dungeon of Graves: Session 22
General Summary
Rakshasa’d
Report Date
07 Mar 2021
Trapped and isolated, Levin Ayatoru, struggled against the heavy door. On the inside, the others were fighting the remaining ghouls. Nam tried as hard as he could, but it was impossible to open the magically heavy door from the inside. The battle, on the other hand, was rapidly finishing up. From the corner of his eye, Levin spotted the Brume cloud approaching the paladin. It would be soon upon him and his fear was making him panic. Falling back, away from the door, he calls out to the group that the Brume is nearly upon him. They start firing at the door, causing some cracks to form. Meanwhile, Mogg went further into the crypt to look for another way out. From a crack in the door, Sinestra’s familiar can see Levin leap into the mist and they can hear the sound of Levin smiting, struggling, howling, laughter, muttering--clear sounds of a battle happening in the Brume. As the Brume starts to recede with Levin still in it, Sinestra informs the others of what she had observed. They continued to assault the door with whatever means they had, however; a flash of energy washes over the door and a thunderous ‘knock knock’ and the door cracks open, allowing the group to pursue Levin.
The familiar is able to see the cloud as it got sucked back into the room in which they had spotted the Brume earlier. This particular area of the dungeon seemed to be rich in troubles for the group with one great reward, finding the oracle. Lothar, who was busy when they first found this room, was able to tell that this wasn’t Vrokíva’s Brume, as the dungeon was still standing. It was a rather clever trick and they might need to investigate things that could mimic the Brume. As they open the door, all they see is fog, and when they entered the space a cloud bank was--it just dissipated. Noticing this, Dr. Carric fires magic in the general direction Kaertas had indicated that he could hear battle.
Levin is locked into a fight with four hulking werewolves. The paladin is attacking the larger wolf as it seemed to be giving the other’s orders. Lothar calls his pack to him and steps up to engage one of the wolves. Walking into the room, he can see four large cages and an area in which someone would be tethered to for feeding the werewolves. Kaertas sends a Fireball into the area barely avoiding Levin. Normal weapons seemed to not do much damage, so Vai’len pulls out a silvered bolt and finishes off the bigger one. Sinestra takes out another and the battle wraps up.
Trying to see if Levin needed any healing, they all ask the paladin what happened. Levin decided to take a gamble as they saw some sort of movement in the Brume, something tigerish. They are unhurt as it was apparently the goal of the creature to bring them here, unharmed. Kaertas starts to investigate the room and as they start to search the large wolf’s body, they pull out a shield similar to Levin’s. Actually it was identical to the shield that Levin was currently holding. Confused, Lothar asks “Whom do we serve” and Kaertas pulls out the gem of seeing. Taking a look around, Kaertas can see three werewolves bodies and Levin laying on the ground with a silvered bolt in his chest. When the necromancer makes eye contact with the imposter, they can see a Rakshasa standing there, smiling and waving back.
A quick search of his past studies, Kaertas recalls that Rakshasa’s are immune to spells unless they are very powerful, knowing that they would be useless in this battle, they just chuck Levin’s shield at the being--Lothar has to duck once again. Mogg manages to hit the creature but the Rakshasa disengages, falling back while saying “the damage is done, I will be seeing you again.” Beyond the door, those closest can hear them cast a spell that takes them far from their current location.
Still wanting to know where the door led, most head down the short hallway that led to a rather nice looking bed chamber with some rather unique decorations. Before joining the others, Vai’len looks down at her bolt in her companion’s chest, she takes a breath before stepping into the room. Her fellow rogue notices her composure and tries to comfort her. They chat in Thieves Cant about how they are just fodder for the Shrike’s goal. As Kaertas, with the gem of seeing, steps closer to the bedchamber, they notice that it isn’t what it seems. There was no bed, just three chests and corpses on the wall. On one wall there was a rather large mirror with swirling darkness and no reflections.
Meanwhile, being escorted through the dungeon by the Shrike’s Wights, a Twilight Cleric of Tlombi made their way through the dungeon. Halxion is a stout 4’6’’ dwarf who gets deposited mere minutes after they lost Levin. In the room, the chests are investigated, picked and opened. Most of the others go and greet the new recruit, while Kaertas and Dr. Carric stand a good distance away from the mirror. Unfortunately for them, it did not activate on distance but when there were two in front of it. As they stand there, thinking and looking in the mirror they see their reflections and are aware that they can hear the other’s thoughts. Kaertas, being curious, learns that Dr. Carric had a close loved one die and they are spending their entire life to prevent anything like that to happen again. Instead of just leaving it at that, Kaertas draws the memory out into a thin strand. The wizard wants that little ‘accident’ to stay between them, as he even gives the Dr. his memory back.
Nam approaches the mirror, they had wanted to take it off the wall, and as they get close they can smell brimstone and hear the souls on the other side call out in pain. He chucks a rock at the mirror but it just bounces off. They then approach and place his hand on it, it passes through and he steps through it. Not much time passes until Nam runs out of the mirror, down the hall and clearly wants them all to leave. “It’s a gateway to hell” and looks at them all wondering why everyone isn’t just clearing out.
Because of the earlier battle with the skeleton, most of the stronger members of the group have become some of the weaker ones, but with help they all clear the dungeon with Levin’s body. As they leave through the upper levels they pass the room with the excremental and notice a brand new door that happens to smell terrible--they take note and hurry past. Moving up and out of the mausoleum, the gargoyles laugh and mock Halxion with “Leaving so soon?”
Returning to the coast, they reset the pyre and start to prepare to send Levin to a better place. During this, they identify some of the items and are able to open the fancy box they had found. Inside they find a small dragon with fairy wings. The tiny creature is pounding on the diamond cell it was trapped in. With some signing, Dr. Carric discovers that they used to be a powerful magic user’s familiar that was trapped and given as a gift to someone in one of the layers of hell to just be used as a bartering tool to Scramge (the Rakshasa). Furthermore, Dr. Carric learns that the creature is called Snaggletooth and that they have been trapped for many many years. They discuss what to do, as it seems that no one speaks Infernal or is magically strong enough to free the creature.
It was late afternoon when the fire took hold of their fallen friend. The gentle wind takes his essence up to the sky where they thought it would head off to the Brume, but instead it spirals up towards the sunlight.
