Mission 012: The Manor
Hired by Rhusanen to unlock the mysteries of what they believe to be the Amethyst Crypt, our adventurers make their way to New Haxon.
Mission Log
Our group of adventurers head out to New Haxon to explore what their client, Rhusanen, hopes is the entrance to the fabled Amethyst Crypt. Armed with a ring containing the Knock spell and a cryptic note that it could be helpful, they arrive at the entrance of a grand manor situated not far from the edge of a steep cliff. Upon approaching the door, Fess notices something carved above the door frame: I did not knock for death, for he answered gladly. On a hunch, he called for Helelee to come to the door and knock.
The door opened, the inside the group went. They were greeted by a grand staircase and debris scattered around the first floor. Of the things found, Wendelin took a duck, two teacups (which Helelee took a liking to and began playing with) and a green glass star, Rhuck got some emotional damage from a sword that he found and promptly dropped, Ye grabbed a hat, and Fess examined the fountain to find that the water had a magical property. He also found a blue shard of glass...
Heading upstairs, they found a door leading to a library, a locked door leading to what appeared to be a larger room (clutch thinking from Ye in sending her ant familiar in), and a hallway that ended with a mirror. Rhuck went to examine the mirror, noting that the table behind him had a reflection of a green glass star and two teacups, but the table didn't have those things on it. While he was preening in front of the mirror, he was attacked by something he could only see in the mirror. Battle began with people using clever use of the mirror to see their enemies, and ultimately they went down. After a few minutes, they figured out the puzzle: taking the teacups and glass star to the table (along with the lavender that Helelee had confiscated to settle neatly into her horns), a secret door opened, revealing piles of gold.
Unable to help herself, Helelee dashed in and began trying to collect the gold, only to discover that the gold was actually gold elementals. Yet another battle erupted, with our adventurers ultimately becoming victorious despite Helelee going down. Rather than engaging in battle, Rhuck went to take a look at the murals on the wall: three people pictured in various states decorated the wall. A sleeping boy surrounded by green, a crying woman with blue hair surrounded by blue and black, and a tall man with dark hair surrounded by brown. Each of them held a star shaped object that looked like the shards of glass that they had been finding. Fess, upon looking at the wall after battle, realized that the shards they'd found looked like the points of the stars that they people in the mosaics were holding.
As they licked their wounds and gathered the loose gold, another shard, and other items that they could, they then went to the locked door. Rhuck attempted to kick it in, but unfortunately nothing happened.
In the library, Wendelin found a few books of interest and pocketed them. They also found a scroll with a list of spells and a list of components. Looking around the room, they were able to figure out the first puzzle on the paper, unscrambling the words pierced by the lines from spell to component to read Ascended. Upon reading the scroll again, they realized there was another clue: Read Untouched. They searched the shelves for the book, finding it and realizing it was a hollow book containing another shard and a key. Excited to have found the key, Helelee was going to go to the door, but Rhuck had already gone and finally kicked it in.
The door revealed a large open cavern with a raised dais in the middle containing black tiles. Fess stepped on one, taking a thunderbolt for his troubles. In a side room, there was a large summoning circle that Ye sent her familiar ant on. Unfortunately, Chadwick the Ant met an unfortunate end, and the group decided to keep far away from the circle.
One last room contained what appeared a chapel. On a table sat seven potions set under three floating candles. On either side of the table was yet more scraps of parchment. They quickly solved the potion puzzle and found that, when drunk, the person who drank it glows. Helelee, who had drunk the potion, went back to the dais, finding that the glowing light shining on the tiles made letters appear. Remembering the scrap of paper from the library (From above with a glow, shining bright reveals it all), Rhuck took Helelee up into the air while Wendelin quickly wrote down all of the letters. After some thinking, Wendelin had Rhuck alight on the letters A S C E N D E D in order.
After Rhuck touched the last letter, another hallway opened up filled with spiderwebs. A fourth shard was found in the cobwebs, and the hallway terminated at a large, glass door. The door had no handle, but in the center was neatly shaped crevices that looked like the shapes of the shards they'd been finding. Helelee and Fess set the pieces of glass into the door, and with each shard, a section of the door lit up. Once all of the pieces were in, they realized they were still missing one.
Heading back to where they'd left the unlit candles, they reread the parchment pertaining to them. Wendelin decided it would be a good idea to light them all at once, causing a miniature fireball to erupt in the room. After a short rest wherein they gave the puzzle some more thought, they finally lit upon the answer and revealed a hidden drawer that contained a green star just like the one the pieces they'd been collecting formed, another blue shard, and a letter written in Marquesian that was signed by O. Karbelnikoff. Fess gave the final blue shard to Helelee, who wasted no time going back to the glass door and setting the piece into the final slot. The door glowed, the star coalesced and fell to the floor, and the glass on the door disintegrated, leaving an opening by which they could enter a darkened room.
Upon realizing that some of the group did not have dark vision, Fess conjured his dancing lights so that Rhuck and Ye could see. In the room, seemingly alone, was a Drow man. He watched them curiously as they entered, saying only It's about time as soon as the last of them were through the door. After a brief conversation, the group learned that the man's name was Xeharin, and that Orina von Karbelnikoff had trapped him in here twenty years ago with the help of three others. The conversation was going well until the Amethyst Tomb itself was mentioned, and it was revealed that Orina had managed to move her soul somehow into a doll. At this point, Xeharin became exasperated, muttering that Orina was now ahead of him in their path of following Vecna, the Whispered One.
While some of the party considered activating their bracers then and there, others tried to question Xeharin, while Ye and Rhuck began to make pithy comments. To one of the comments about being alone for twenty years, Xeharin simply smiled and said "Who says I was alone?"
At which point, a winged tiefling made himself known right next to Wendelin, who gracefully tried to smack him, only to miss. The situation devolved from there - Wendelin, in her eye of robes, noted two shadow creatures lurking in the corners and attempted to cast Sleep on Xeharin and Vanity. It failed, and battle began. Helelee went out the door and used her Lightning Lure to pull Xeharin through in a good tactical attempt to break up the cluster, only for Xeharin to thank her and then blast the door itself before booking it to the teleportation circle, Vanity close behind.
Ye and Rhuck went out the smoldering door to try to help Helelee while Fess and Wendelin dealt with the shadows, but once it became clear that Xeharin and Vanity were running away, they returned to the room to help Wendelin and Fess. Helelee, however, gave chase, making a valiant stand against Xeharin and Vanity in front of the teleportation circle, but was unfortunately unable to stop their escape.
As the group in the room finished off the shadows, Helelee stepped onto the teleportation circle in an attempt to catch Xeharin and Vanity, only to find herself transported to a floating platform, surrounded by waves of shadows. Seeing no sign of Xeharin and Vanity, she quickly touched the glowing stone on the pedestal to return before the swarm could attack her.
The group reconvened in the room that had been Xeharin's prison, where they found some loot as well as a journal, presumed to be Xeharin's, written in code in a variety of languages. From what Wendelin could gleam from looking over it and reading the elvish and common, it appeared that Xeharin has been trying to recreate the steps that Vecna took to become first a lich, and then ascend to godhood. She found several mentions of the number 13, as well as some references to the Raven Queen, though she wasn't able to put those into any sort of sense. And, finally, the final page of the book was a burn page for one Leylas Kryn, whom it is clear he hates, and it was revealed that Xeharin had, at one time, been her paladin.
Having accomplished their mission and brush with potential death, they activated their bracers to return to headquarters, with Rhuck and Fess lagging behind so that Fess could ask Rhuck what he was into, sexually. Upon hearing the question, Rhuck called him a 'sick fuck' and activated his bracer, with Fess following shortly and seeking out Ye, whom he recounted the conversation to.
SUMMARY
DM Sherri
PLAYERS Emily (Wendelin), Mike (Fess), Mimi (Ye), Sarah (Rhuck), Zoe (Helelee)
RESULT Mission Complete
TOTAL XP 1850 xp each
TOTAL GP 70 gp each (and 40 gp Helelee)