Session 75: A Sovereign Forgotten Report

General Summary

Halls of Sovereignty

The session began as the party was making their way into what looked like an ancient dwarven temple that they found on the slopes of the Gael Spire. A thick mist began to envelop them as they walked inside and a deep voice rang out: "The hunt begins" in draconic, just before a huge white dragon appeared from nowhere. The encounter was brief as the dragon struck Eldon Caufield before Omen ei' Taure attacked back, when the voice spoke again going: "Gherux, this is not our prey" and they heard a loud crashing sound and felt scattered stones land on them from above. Shortly after, the dragon that had struck Eldon turned Invisible before they heard the loud beating of draconic wings signaling the departure of the dragon.
After the brief ambush, the mist cleared and a hole in the ceiling above them was visible. The characters seemed to be standing inside the main prayer hall of the temple and a draconic statue stood surrounded by a strange-looking block of ice near the far wall. Exploring the rest of the temple, it had a kitchen, sleeping quarters, a bath (which was now frozen), and a library where they found a records book for the temple that they now learned was called the "Halls of Sovereignty". Reading through the records book, the most notable piece of information from it was a line written on the cover: "Speak thine intentions before the sovereign, and perhaps they shall answer thy call." And the last entry in the book, both written in Dwarvish:

I am the last and so I will remain, as the watcher of this gate. I hear the sounds of battle in the distance, now in the direction of Domelidún and wonder, will this be the end of our kin? or will we prevail once more? The horde has yet to find this temple and I hope it remains as such for as long as possible. May the sovereign bless me and those who fight for what was once my home.

— Guardian Huldran Dubrark Domelidún

With this information, Omen tried standing before the dragon statue in the main hall and spoke: "Oh gracious dragon, we are trying to find the secret behind you, will you allow us to enter?", though nothing happened. Maro Rei 'Sky' also tried once with: "Sovereign, please let us enter, we wish to protect this place from the horde.", but it didn't work either. Thus they had the idea that the ice covering the statue needed to be removed and contemplated a couple of different methods, but settling on having Nitt cast Shadow Metamorphosis, which transformed the ice into more malleable Shadowstuff, letting them more easily remove the ice, even by hand. After this, they spoke: "Sovereign, please let us enter, we are trying to find out what happened to this place." And the statue moved to the side, revealing a spiral staircase below it.
The staircase led to a cavern, where the walls were covered in ice, as well as this blue, pearlescent material shimmered in light that filtered in from a hole in the ceiling. The cavern floor went down a slope to a larger open grotto where a dragon lay curled up, its pale blue scales shimmering like the walls of the cavern. As the party approached the dragon, it awoke and asked them why they woke it from its slumber. Maro explained that they were seeking it as the next dragon in their quest to gather the powers of these elemental dragons. In turn, the dragon explained that something was making the environment unstable and that their trial would be to solve this issue. They should head to the easternmost part of the valley, to an ancient city called Domelidún where they would find a mechanism that could affect the environment and was causing instability in the region. It also explained that it had been sleeping for a long while and the other dragon could have something to do with this change. Before the party left, the dragon created an ocarina-type instrument and told them to use it when they were in need of great aid.
So, the party started making their way east before Baradin Godchosen once more summoned a Temple of the Gods for them to rest inside. During the rest, Nitt once more used the Mirror of the Past, on Baradin. In the mirror, Nitt first saw a much, much younger Baradin, lying unmoving in the middle of a forest. The vision shifted to show him slightly older standing before a farmhouse with a group of dwarves looking at him, horrified. Finally, the mirror shifted to a shimmering, slightly transparent pale blue dragon scale with veins of red running through it. Nitt decided to keep these findings to himself.
The following morning, the trek continued towards Domelidún and on the way, the characters discussed what their favorite animals would be, with the following results:

Eldon: Dogs, cuz you can be friends with them.

Maro: Likes cats, otherwise unsure.

Naaldoshi: Deer is tasty.

Nitt: Naaldoshi is his favorite animal, otherwise Duramboros.

Omen: Hummingbird.

Domelidún

After this discussion, Eldon asked Naaldoshi if they would eat him if he died, to which the gnoll answered, unflinchingly yes. Slightly disturbed, they continued with their travel mostly silent for the rest of the distance until they found a half-buried entrance built into the mountainside. The entrance featured two sets of walls and a buried stable between the two. The party scaled the walls easily and entered through the gate, the topmost part of which had been destroyed to leave room to get inside. They also noted an emblem on each side of the entrance, featuring a weathervane, but where a rooster would commonly be featured, it instead was a leaf and on that leaf, the name Domelidún was carved in dwarven runes.
Stepping inside the ruined city, they first entered a massive hall held by giant pillars of stone with remnants of battlements, arms, and armor, as well as scattered pieces of frozen dwarves and orcs littering the inside of the hall. At the far end of the hall was an opening to a lower level, overlooking a plaza with two crane-pulled elevators that would ease the transportation of goods between the levels, though one of the elevators was broken. The group decided that they should take the elevator down after asking Baradin to cast Commune to ask the following questions, with answers:

Is this area full of creatures that are hostile to us?: Unsure.

Do gods eat?: Sometimes.

Do you eat food?: Yes.

Now inside what looked like a residential part of the city, the party looked around to find a street sign, pointing toward the Industry Deep, which Baradin noted would be another level of the city, as dwarfholds are commonly divided into levels, called deeps. So, they began heading in that direction, which also pointed toward something called the Moldwood Grotto, which they figured was likely a farm for fungus. On the way, they spotted a store that stood out from the rest called Goldendraught Elixirs. Omen checked inside and found a large number of potion vials as well as a Potion of Greater Healing, Potion of Rapport, and Potion of Tracelessness.
Continuing toward the Industry Deep, the path eventually took them to a place where the smooth-stoned walls became more rough and cavernous as fungus and mushrooms grew from nooks and crannies all over. Just as the party was heading into the cave passage, Eldon received a message from who he could identify as Cathrine De Clair Antebellius and was the following:

Velamon mission failure. All assisting hurt or dead. I’m grievously injured. Josephine rescued, others unaccounted for. Made it to merlegos. Return ASAP. I need you.

To which he responded: "That's devastating news but it's good to hear that you and Josephine are safe. We can come help you immediately if you would need it."
So, to be able to get a response, Eldon sent a message to Cathrine, asking how urgently she would need their aid, to which she responded that they should finish whatever business they were up to but return swiftly afterward. Thus, they continued through and into the Moldwood Grotto, where four Undead, fungal creatures attacked them:

Combat vs. Fungal Servants

Round 1

Enemies: 4 Fungal Servants.
The combat began with one of the servants summoning an Insect Plague but Omen swiftly ran up to one of the servants, striking it and pushing it down a cliff towards his allies, before continuing and striking the one who created the plague using his Celestial Gavel, causing it to lose its concentration of the spell. After this Nitt fired a Psychic Lance toward one of the servants, though it resisted it. Next, Maro ran to a servant still atop the cliff and struck it multiple times with his Shadow Blade and a number of kicks.
One of the servants cast a Hold Person, only managing to affect Maro out of its three targets, and Arten Veronica Lagurdo flew up to it and struck it attempting to disrupt its concentration but to no success. In response, the servant struck back at Arten with a heavy blow infused with necrotic energy. As a response, Naaldoshi summoned an Insect Plague on two of the servants as well as Arten before flying up toward the ceiling. Eldon summoned waxy feathers and flew up to Maro and granted him Holy Weapon and Baradin summoned stone pillars from the ceiling to crush and restrain three of the servants. As a response, the servant that wasn't restrained cast another Hold Person, managing to affect both Eldon and Naaldoshi, who were both flying and thus causing them to fall down to the floor.

Round 2

Enemies: 4 Fungal Servants.
Now with three of his allies paralyzed, Omen ran up to the non-restrained servant that had captured Eldon and Naaldoshi and attempted to strike it to disrupt its concentration, though did not manage to. After this, one of the restrained servants transformed into a Whirlwind of Spores, letting it escape from the stone pillar restraining it. Meanwhile, Maro was unable to escape from the magic that was paralyzing him.
Arten then struck two of the servants with blows infused with Divine Strikes, managing to finish off one of the servants without even looking at it before flying toward another and performing a clean slice across its neck, finishing off both of the servants that cast Hold Person, thus ending that effect on her allies. Nitt then followed up with a Ray of Frost, freezing another servant and scattering it into pieces. Finally, with a Psychic Lance from Eldon and several powerful strikes from Omen, they finished the last servant.

End of Combat

Eldon spent some time collecting a variety of fungi from the overgrown farms before they continued toward the Industry Deep. On the way, they once more encountered a notable building, namely a clothing store called the Hall of Silk. Inside it, four large spiders crawled among the rafters of the building, who could craft enchanted robes for the purveyors. So, by standing on a central pedestal where an illusory image of Silksmith Mixyll appeared and explained the robe-making process and that all they required was to imagine how they wanted the robe to look. While they were, the spiders would descend and take measurements before spending 10 minutes to craft the garment. The party spent an hour in the store, taking a short rest and arranging robes for all of them.
After the short break, they continued along the large road leading to Industry Deep, and they finally managed to get to what looked like the walls of the massive city, where a doorway led to a staircase heading downwards. Next to the doorway was a large building decorated with weapons and shields, from which raucous cheers could be heard. As they were on their way past it, a loud crash was heard and a male frost giant flew out from the doors of the tavern. This frost giant, grabbed their jaw and spit on the floor, complimenting another giant exiting the establishment for the blow before noticing the characters. Omen, in an attempt to negotiate asked if they could join the giants, bringing out a keg of alcohol from their bag of holding. The giant considered the offer, but before accepting asked why they were venturing down here.
Omen explained that they were seeking something down below, though a bit unsure of its exact description. To this, the giant noted that they could not allow the characters to pass, "Boss' Orders". Then, Omen inquired about why their boss would not allow others below to which the giant responded by saying that their lord had a plan and their boss would see that plan to its fruition and none should interfere. Then, Omen asked Maro for a better explanation of what the party was looking for and explained that they sought a thing that could be changing the environment, after which the giant unholstered it's Greataxe and said: "No hard feelings. For Kostchtchie!"

Rewards Granted

Potions and Vials from Goldendraught Elixirs.

Robes from the Hall of Silk.

Missions/Quests Completed

Investigate the Halls of Sovereignty and come in contact with the Velkhana.

Character(s) interacted with

Velkhana.

Campaign

The Excursionists

Protagonists

Nitt

Neutral Vedalkan ()
Wizard 17
Rouge 2

92 / 92 HP

STR
8

DEX
16

CON
10

INT
20

WIS
14

CHA
14

Maro Rei 'Sky'

Chaotic Good Air Genasi (Aspirant)
Fighter 8
Monk 4

92 / 92 HP

STR
12

DEX
18

CON
16

INT
13

WIS
12

CHA
10

Omen ei' Taure

Chaotic Good Tabaxi (Temple Guard)
Monk 16
Cleric 2

172 / 172 HP

STR
23

DEX
20

CON
18

INT
8

WIS
20

CHA
8

Arten Veronica Lagurdo

Lawful Neutral Fallen Aasimar (Mercenary Veteran)
Paladin 14

113 / 113 HP

STR
8

DEX
18

CON
16

INT
10

WIS
14

CHA
20

Eldon Caufield

Neutral good Halfling (Fisherman)
Bard 15

77 / 77 HP

STR
9

DEX
16

CON
10

INT
10

WIS
16

CHA
20

Baradin Godchosen

Neutral Good Hill Dwarf (Far traveler)
Cleric 14

150 / 150 HP

STR
8

DEX
14

CON
20

INT
10

WIS
20

CHA
8

Report Date

03 Sep 2023