Citadel of Hextor Report

General Summary

Ready'reat 11th-12th, 595 CY

2024-09-18 and 2024-10-02

Once they had finished healing up a bit, the Topknots moved to the north door. Neither Malakai nor Tolman heard anything, but when they opened the door, two cultists of Hextor were loudly worshipping at the mural of Hextor in the north wall. As the companions attacked, the cultists rained down spells on the group, at one point paralyzing Crichton and summoning spectral versions of Hextor's flail. But they were no match for the party and quickly fell.
Moving to the south door, they found four tiefling guards in a workshop. The tieflings moved into position and managed to inflict some decent damage on the Topknots, but, as with the cultists, they began falling quickly.
Taking some time to rest up a bit, the companions hid in the workshop room behind the door which obviously blocked sound. Kaszu spent the time cleaning up the skeleton room and putting them back the way they would have appeared before the combat.
The eastern corridor ended with two grand double doors emblazoned with the symbol of Hextor. A door in the north wall of the corridor was chained from the outside, while a smaller door to the south led into another 5-foot-wide corridor. Hating the idea of fighting in cramped quarters again, the party opened the grand doors.
A gong rang out throughout the complex as the doors opened into an arena-like room with a 20-foot-high balcony running above it to the north, south and east. On the eastern balcony, a throne-like chair with two smaller chairs flanking it looked upon the arena. A large statue of Hextor with a red gem in its forehead stood in the center of the arena.
Soon the forces of the Citadel moved into position. Tiefling guards emerged from the southern corridor while an older man and a woman appeared on the balcony behind the throne. Not wanting to fight on two fronts, the Topknots closed the door and focused on the tielfings.
Crichton, Malakai, Argan, and Kaszu's spider stayed engaged with the tieflings as Delilah, Kaszu, and Tolman stayed in the back firing into melee with spell and arrow. Three tielflings emerged from the corridor, followed by a rageborn paladin of Hextor. Then the doors to the arena opened. Two tieflings were at the door and behind them were the older man and the woman, both clerics of Hextor.
The older man, who the woman referred to as Theldrick, summoned spirits which swirled around him, slowing movement and inflicting damage on his enemies. Kaszu managed to strike Theldrick with a fire bolt, ruining his concentration, but not before the spider was damaged by the spirits. Tolman cast a sleep spell into the melee, dropping one of the tieflings unconscious.
Theldrick again called up his spirits while Kendra, the woman in back, cast silence on the area around Kaszu, Delilah, and Tolman. The rageborn paladin, named Garras, was thwarted in his attacks by Kaszu's spider, so he began to target the spider instead, but he struggled to damage the construct.
While things looked grim for the Topknots, soon their fortunes began to change. Garras was seriously wounded, and Theldrick was again struck by an attack from Crichton that ruined his concentration. Angered, he struck Crichton with a blight spell. Delilah struck Garras while in her form of terror and the paladin cringed from her, unwilling to move forward and take a better position. Garras and Theldrick were taken out within seconds of one another and the last two tieflings fell soon after.
Alone, Kendra put up a good fight, but ultimately fell to the Topknots.
Moving through the citadel, they Topknots found four bugbear zombies guarding the altar of Hextor down a set of stairs from the throne area. Once they were defeated the companions realized that they had finally defeated anything in the complex, except what was inside the chained door. Choosing not to find out what the Hextorians kept locked up, they spent a little over an hour moving through the complex and searching for treasure and clues.
In Theldrick's chambers, they found a stack of notes including his journal. While most of the journal was mundane and of little use, some excerpts shed light on why the cult was here and what it was doing as well as a note written in some kind of unbreakable code.
The excerpts mentioned two names, Grallak Kur and the Faceless One. He calls Grallak Kur a beast, but says that he is the key. He also spoke of the labyrinth and the cliffs, sounding like the labyrinth is the domain of the Faceless One and filled with birds and wizards, while Grallak has monstrous kin who came from the Underdark.
Knowing that they couldn't leave until the entire complex was cleared, the party worked together to move all of the corpses into the cultists' chambers and make the citadel look normal. Once that was done, they each took the beds and bunks of the clerics and tielfling guards and settled in for a rest.
As they woke the next morning, Crichton, who spelt in the high priest Theldrick's chamber, noticed a stone key under the remaining papers on Theldrick's desk.

Campaign

It Started in Diamond Lake

Protagonists

Tolman K’hurzz

Malakai Steelbuckle

Delilah Raincloud

Crichton Eogen

Argan Agu-Ulakanu

Chaotic Good Goliath (Outlander)
Ranger 4

36 / 36 HP

STR
18

DEX
14

CON
14

INT
10

WIS
12

CHA
8

Kaszu Billowcase

Chaotic Good Rock Gnome (Guild Artisan / Guild Merchant)
Artificer 3

24 / 24 HP

STR
8

DEX
12

CON
14

INT
17

WIS
14

CHA
10

Report Date

14 Oct 2024