Campaign 1 - Stolen Rain - Session 9 - The Sunken Temple

The Party Line Up

The BOULDER! A monstrous vampire who identifies as an Orc.

Belle Juju, a Merfolk pirate with a magic flask that meddles with the forces of life and death.

Krumpa Dakka Waaah, the master Orc painter warrior who breathes life into color.

Edgar the Anointed, a vampire cleric pacifist, who wishes to heal the world with the light of the Immortal Sun.

The session kicks off in a heated battle with the demon the cabal vampire's summoned last session. The demon drained the heroes of mana, and for each missing mana it -1 from each of their D20 rolls making for a challenging fight. Luckily Strix was able to lend help during the battle thanks to the party destroying the altars that were preventing the octopus god from entering the Whispering Sands. Together they defeated the demon allowing Strix to devour the demon in it's gaping maw.

For destroying the altars and defeating the demon the party was rewarded with by the Octopus god but most importantly Krumpa got the second titan key and the party got the key to the sunken temple to allow them to continue their chase after the rain orb.
The party went back to Selbina to resupply where Belle raised up a pirate crew to meet up with her in Downpour led by Flower and Otter. They then made their way to the Sunken Temple where they ran into Merfolk Reclaimers who were guarding the keyhole to summon the temple from the sandy depths.
Leading the merfolk was none other than Talia who was still forcing Captain Tsunami to drive her around the sandsea at knifepoint.
Talia explained how she was an agent of the Reclaimers all along, and it was she who helped open the gates for the merfolk to invade the Mountain clan up north. When she heard the Desert Clan's water supply ran dry she volunteered to "help" just so she can make sure the desert clan withered up and died.
Battle broke out and the merfolk ended up retreating and the battle beaten assassin Talia vanished with only 1 HP remaining.
The party used the eye key to then summon the Sunken Temple and ventured inside with the now rescued Captain Tsunami.

Inside the sunken temple the party "survived" an elevator and met a jungle clan viking woman named Red Braid who was looking for her missing Orc husband named Headsmasha. She explained that a former business partner of hers, a sky clan tinkerer known as the Clockwork Queen, researches the mechanical beasts that are built in this temple under the supervision of a man named Dancer. She sent her husband to sabotage their research and he didn't come back and thus she is here to rescue him.
They make their way through the assembly line where Belle captures, let's say befriends, a mechanical scavenger dinosaur who loves to eat metal and they meet up with some Sky Clan Researchers.
The researchers explain that they work for Dancer but only as researches of the temple to learn the construction and purpose of the mechanical beasts that are created in this temple and that the researchers mean no harm to the party.
They explain that Dancer is an exile, banished from the Sky Clan by Linvalla and disconnected from the collective but the researchers joined him simply as a foothold into this temple and the pursuit of knowledge.
Inside they find a man frozen in a giant ice cube that they thawed out and revealed to be none other than Fingers the criminal mastermind who arranged for the rain orb to be stolen.
Fingers explained that the Rain Orb is actually an Ice Orb that melts in the desert heat causing rain and that Dancer betrayed him and froze him with the power of the Orb.

He also explained that Dancer made a deal with the Sun Empire to help them in the war in exchange for blueprints on how to make imperial cannons.
The Jungle clan and the Swamp clan are at war with the sun empire so the imperials wanted to start a war between the Swamp clan and the Desert clan so the Swamp Clan would have to divide their resources in a two front battle.
So Dancer organized for the Rain orb to be stolen and frame the Swamp clan for it which would trigger a war with the Desert Clan.
The party spares Finger's life and Belle convinences him into joining her pirate crew by branding him with her burn.

Then they meet the Clockwork Queen and the Orc Headsmasha who actually joined the collective and spoke in their robotic voice.
Krumpa couldn't handle this blasphemy and performed a type of Orcish exorcism on Headsmasha using his Orish worship idol. With Krumpa's conviction and strong beliefs he managed to banish Headsmasha from the collective hive mind causing the Orc to lose his robotic voice and WAAAAAAH back to his senses.
Headsmasha explained that Red Braid wasn't even his wife, they hooked up and she got clingy and stole his family ring claiming to be a wedding band. Outraged Red Braid stormed off but found comfort with The Boulder who offered to marry the crazy clinger.
Red Braid squealed with delight as Edgar the anointed, performed a ceremony that joined the Vampire/Orc and the Jungle Woman in holy matrimony.
The session ended with Belle recruiting Headsmasha and one of the Sky Clan researchers to join her pirate crew and gave theme each her burning mark. She convinced the sky clan researcher to leave the collective and follow a mission set forth by what they think is the Allmother telling them to explore the sea.