Session 5
General Summary
A few days later they returned to the Underdark beneath Littlebrook and ventured once more into
the crypts deep beneath the temple of the Sea Mother. The shaft leading down into the darkness
was over 500 feet deep and if it hadn't been for the enchanted robes the party wore they would
have been crushed to death in seconds by the immense pressures at these depths. The robes also
allowed them to move as if natural inhabitants of the depths and of course to breathe underwater.
The shaft opened up into a huge cavernous area, riddled with beautiful razor sharp spines that
would cut someone to shreds very easily. In the distance the alert members of the group spotted a
pair of gently bobbing green spheres that they correctly took to be a pair of eyes. The eyes
belonged to a huge water elemental, summoned many decades ago to protect this shrine. As soon
as the party entered into the cave the elemental attacked. It was an immense creature and the group
really struggled to defeat it, but the were ultimately successful.
Deeper in the caverns the group found a set of false tablets inscribed with the history of the kuo-toan city. They thought these were the Tablets of Sifkhu. Further searching revealed a secret door
and behind that a sarcophagus. Unknown to the party they had just found the burial chamber of the
legendary kuotoan priest Sifkhu. They elected to lift the lid on his sarcophagus and in doing so
unleashed a powerful curse that feebleminded half the party. In the coffin the others found the real
Tablets of Sifkhu and a number of other powerful items that they recovered. They escaped to the
surface and their companions were healed by Cardinal O'Connor.
Reading the tablets revealed that the Scarlet Lord was only partially bound and that the binding
chains would have to be in sight for the spell to be completed to rebind him. That meant returning
to the depths and finding the place of his binding, deep under the scarlet lake that sat next to the
kuotoan city. The party agreed to do this, and the tablets gave precise directions to the Scarlet
Lord's prison. They swam down to the depths and began the spell of binding. At this the massive
bulk of the Scarlet Lord began to thrash around, sending waves of scarlet water crashing into the
lake shores. Lady Fortuna continued to read from the divine tablets the spell of binding and the
Demon Lord was getting more and more agitated. At last it seemed he had broken free of his
binding and was charging recklessly towards the party. the brave adventurers formed a defensive
wall around the paladin as she continued to chant the spell. The 200 foot long bulk of the Scarlet
Lord arrived where the party were positioned and crashed into them, spilling them like skittles.
The party's brave stand was enough though and Lady Fortuna was able to speak the last lines of
the spell undisturbed! The Scarlet Lord gave one more massive shudder and then sunk to the
bottom of the lake, bound for another 1000 years!
The first real strike against the return of The Demon Prince had been struck!!
Returning to the surface the party were greeted once more as heroes. Cardinal O'Connor and his
clerics patched up the considerable knocks the party had suffered confronting the Demon Lord and
he told them they were invited to an audience with the King himself in a few days time, after the
church service that weekend. The group busied themselves organizing the defence of the city
seeing as the army were still out in the Barren Wastes fighting the hobgoblin invasion that had
occurred earlier that month and then the weekend was upon them. The Cardinal held a big service
in thanks for the deliverance of the city from evil and then the party and a few notables retired to
an informal dinner in the palace. In attendance were the King himself, Cardinal O'Connor, Sir
Mangarack (the head of the Order of the Sun) and Captain Trimane (the head of the city watch).
The conversation turned to the search for The Map of Titus and the king was interested to hear that
the party had been successful in finding the map and had deciphered it to the extent that it would
lead them to the Key of Seven Stars which would open the Book of Vitiris which in turn would
enable them to banish The Demon Prince once and for all. This news was warmly received by the
king and of great interest to those around the table with the party, apart from Captain Trimane who
seemed a bit lost by the whole conversation.
That night the party retired to The Green Dragon Inn where they were staying and decided to
mount a guard on the Map. The next day they were due to head out into the Barren Wastes to
search for Callindrill's Tomb and the Key of Seven Stars. That night however the silence of the
dead of night was broken by the rhythmical pounding of a metallic creature making it's way to the
Green Dragon. They couldn't see what it was but as they were half way through waking everyone
there was an almighty crash downstairs as the backdoor was obliterated. Traubon ran to the
landing of the stairs. Suddenly around the corner came this huge metallic construct. It looked at
Traubon with enchanted eyes and suddenly a red blast of fire shot from one of its eyes and
exploded around Traubon. Sorely burnt the dwarf escaped upstairs as Kai grabbed the Map and
leapt from an upstairs window, closely followed by the rest of the party. The construct smashed
open the front door of the Inn and blasted Kai with an ice ray from another eye. The party
regrouped and waited in ambush for it to turn the corner. Unleashing the full furry of a group as
powerful as this one on the construct they disabled it before it was able to fire another shot with
it's deadly eyes. Acting extremely quickly the barbarian poured vial after vial of acid onto the
constructs body, obliterating it and incidentally the maker's name that they had not had time to
read.
Gathering their possessions the party paid the landlord some recompense for the state of his Inn,
bought a load of provisions and headed out of the nearby gates to the city. There, waiting for
them, was the enigmatic Myrddin. He told them that the creature they had fought was a Retriever -
a personal assassin of the Demon Lords. It was typically constructed with a specific mission in
mind and the party guessed that in this case it was to retrieve The Map of Titus from them. The
also realized only 4 people knew they had the map - the four people they had dined with that
night. Worried that they had powerful enemies and spurred on by another warning of impending
doom from the wizard the party raced south into the night heading for the Barren Wastes and the
next part in their epic quest...
Report Date
10 Apr 2024
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