Session 19: Lightning and Darkness

26th of Snowmelt

General Summary

The fight against the now winged electrically surging Cerval continues, with crackling lightning, roaring fire, and sword slashes echoing through the cave room surrounding the portal to the other dimension. The party quickly realises that they can break the tethers of lightning that Cerval uses to damage the party, but his incredible amount of movement makes it difficult for the party to get away, and his spell parrying blade makes solid hits on him difficult. As the party decides to use their numbers advantage to flank Cerval near the portal, they eventually realise ever so slightly to late that he put them right where he wanted them. Cerval unleashes a shockwave of force and lightning, which not only hurts the party but pushes Indra into the portal at the center of the room.
As a feeling of panic washes over the party, Cerval seems to have pushed his power a bit too far, as he loses his lightning form and crashes to the floor, stunned. Killian and Leaf immediately rush over, and after a short discussion decide that they will tie a rope around Leaf who will go after Indra, with Killian pulling them back up once Indra also attaches herself to the rope. This leaves Killian and Uthal on the material plane, trying to pull Indra and Leaf out of the portal, while also fighting Cerval. The fight is made somewhat easier as Uthal manages to remove the spell parrying blade from Cerval, making him much less dangerous. Magic fires across the cave, and despite a tense moment where a wild magic surge turns Killian into a gaseous form with Uthal just manages to catch the rope from falling into the portal, they eventually manage to kill Cerval just before he manages to escape.
In the meantime, Indra and Leaf find themselves in a familiar cold environment, with unintelligible whispers all around. They can still hear the sound of combat from above, but all the sound seems muted and distorted, as though the are underwater. Leafs necklace and Indra's connection to her deity protect them from immediate harmful effects of the area, but an alien unsettling call from some kind of monster in the distance, followed by hundreds of footsteps approaching rapidly makes for a tense scenario nonetheless. Despite this, the of pulling from Uthal and Killian, combined with the help of an unknown stranger that announces itself within this strange space, eventually manages to get both Leaf and Indra safely back to the material plane. They even manage to resist the urge of looking at whatever the source of the unsettling sounds was, after being advised to close their eyes by the stranger.
With Cerval dead, the party takes a moment to rest before further exploring the cave system surrounding them. They manage to find Cervals bedroom and alchemy lab along with some potions. They also manage to find a small chest mimic, who despite Uthals best efforts to make it into the party pet, is eventually put down as it continues chomping on Uthals arm. Lastly, the party checks behind the enormous metal doors that they had found earlier. Uthal uses his book to open a small 1 foot by 1 foot space right through the door, and Indra sends a familiar through the opening. To their surprise the room is filled with glittering silver and gold, but an enormous unmoving hornless blue dragon sits atop the hoard of wealth. Despite a curiosity from Indra to continue investigating the room, the rest of the party eventually convinces her that possibly waking a dragon is a bad idea, made worse by the lack of recourses due to their fight with Cerval. Thus, the party gathers Cervals body, and decides to leave the dragon where it is until the party feels more prepared to deal with it. It will take them a day to reach Brothers' Crossing again, will the road be less eventful this time?
Next Session: Session 20: A week of Respite

(Noteworthy) Characters Interacted With:
Cerval Orfalx

Report Date

09 Dec 2023