Session 21: A Mother's Love
General Summary
The Phaeros Foundation found themselves in Dr. Elke Roth’s lab as she stood in front of a white-sheet covered table amid five electric pylons. Elke briefly elaborated on her previous statement, asking Rasp if he was there to watch her complete her experiment.
When Rasp responded no, Elke realized that Rasp had not figured things out and was not there for the reasons she thought. Elke then asked if Rasp wanted the memory back that people had taken from him. Rasp initially responded no, but Balarath formed a mental link with Rasp and told him that he should. Rasp then asked, “What if I’m bad?” to which Bal responded that the Foundation would be behind him.
Rasp then reached out his hand and Elke restored his memory. In it, he saw a different version of the day that Rasp and Tap, his older sister, were caught up in a battle in Karrnath and were saved by an army cleric. Instead, Rasp saw that he took shrapnel directly to his heart and either came very close to death or actually died. Then, he saw flashes of being on a table and Elke arguing with unknown individuals before having a heart with a dragonshard embedded in it lowered into his chest and electrified.
With the memory restored, Elke talked about her “great research” and how she had not been able to recreate it since Rasp. The zombies seen in the swamps were a testament to that. Elke was used as a scapegoat after the war, exiled from Karrnath and could not find Rasp. Now, having failed enough, she decided to try to recreate that success as best she could. She then removed the sheet from the table and revealed Tap under the sheet. Rasp, seeing this, leapt from the balcony, ran up to Elke (who attempted to embrace him with open arms) and cast inflict wounds. Elke grabbed his hands instead and was disappointed by his attempt to hurt her.
The rest of the foundation followed and combat erupted in the lab. A few quick shots were taken against Elke, but the Foundation soon found that Elke was prepared for a fight. She began using the electric pylons to either block attacks or try to repel the foundation from the table where Tap laid. As Yves and Rasp stayed within close range, Elke smiled saying, “You may be formidable, but you are not smart. You should have barricaded the doors behind you.” Using the control rod, she called in the gray render who had attached itself to her. The beast viciously attacked Vax, sending him flying over the railing of the balcony to the floor below.
However, the Foundation started focusing some of their attacks on the pylons, breaking a number of them in quick succession. Elke then used the control rod and with Bal’s keen perception, he noticed a large group moving down the spiral stairs towards them. The zombies were coming.
Seeing this, Mila leapt to the floor below and began strafing towards Vax’s position. As she did, she fired a disarming shot at Elke, who dropped the control rod. She then took out Emberime and laid into the gray render slashing it mercilessly and severely wounding it. Vax then hatched a plan, telling the group to focus on the rod, and that he would take care of Tap. Shifted, Vax sprinted over to Tap on the table, held her arm and thunder stepped to the doorway on the balcony. However, as he appeared, he noticed he wasn’t holding Tap. Looking back, he saw the straps that held her down to the table were glowing with arcane runes just as the thunder clap hit her, knocking her unconscious. For a moment, all Vax could do was stare in disbelief.
Rasp managed to heal Tap, who looked at him and told him she was “Okay”. Then Rasp started unleashing vicious attacks against Elke, who could not hold them all off. However, the zombies were nearly at the door.
As they drew close, a rope dropped to the ground outside the lab and Rosa hit the ground, quickly drawing her sword and facing down the large battalion of zombies. She looked desperate against those numbers, but soon another figure dropped down the rope. Trilla stood at Rosa’s side and faced up against the zombies. Despite not seemingly being armed, she raised her fists. As she did, a red aura surrounded her and solidified into crystal blades at the end of her arms. Rosa turned around and said, “You guys focus on that asshole. We’ll keep these guys off you.”
Renewed, the Foundation continued their attack. The gray render wreaked havoc on the center of the room and Elke tried her best to keep the Foundation from stopping her plans. She sent another wave of electric energy out, managing to knock everyone back except for Rasp, and once again knocked Tap unconscious. Elke pulled a Siberys dragonshard from her pocket, with wires attached, and threatened to start the process of implanting it in Tap.
In the continuing skirmish, Vax, reeling from his mistake with the thunder step, was knocked unconscious. To add insult to injury, the strange black ring he had put on activated, revealing itself to be a ring of binding. Black metal bands sprang from the ring and encased Vax in mummy-like wrapping of black iron, incapacitating him. Yves gave Vax a healing potion and he woke up bewildered at his state. Finding no way out of the bindings, he instead cast fly on himself and hovered into the air.
Rasp healed Tap once again, who returned to consciousness saying she was “okay”. Before Elke could manage to enact her plan, Bal managed to fire off a shot from whispercord that embedded itself in Elke’s side, bleeding her out. However, before her body could even become still, an orange glow began to radiate from her chest. Elke’s eyes shot open, glowing orange, as it became clear that she had embedded a dragonshard in her own heart.
The fight then continued. However, the gray render seemed to have it’s control broken when Elke died, and it turned its attention to Rasp who help out his hand and the render sniffed it like a dog. Going off of instinct, Rasp gave the render a command to protect Tap. The render leapt across the room, ripped tap from the enchanted bindings and held her in a protective stance. However, Elke used the control rod to exert her control once more and the render started to turn against the poor kenku in its grasp. Before he could do any damage, the Foundation put him down.
Around that time, the last of the pylons was destroyed. With the render dead, the pylons destroyed, and the zombies handled by Rosa and Trilla, Elke became desperate. Luckily, Bal took another shot from whispercord that hit the dragonshard heart and it exploded, finally killing Elke for good. Outside the room, the Foundation heard the sound of hundreds of bodies hitting the floor, the zombies under Elke's control finally falling to their rest.
Rewards Granted
- Dragonshard Heart
- Control Rod
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