Session 3: The Temple of the Oracle

General Summary

We start the session with Astraea and Artemios claiming that The Hunter doesn’t speak for them and complaining that they did not agree with the oath that The Hunter swore. Brika, the blue-robed acolyte of Sydon finishes shaking Orion’s hand and, before she lets go of his hand, Orion bends down and kisses her hand. She is not amused.
She then gestures for us to enter the temple.
We walk into the Temple of the Oracle. There is a huge bronze/gold statue of Sidon in the temple. There is a rectangular pool at the foot of the statue that reflects light and patterns onto the ceiling of the temple. There is an altar in front of the statue at the entrance of the temple.
We see three men dead on the floor of the temple. There is an old man in simple priestly garb struggling to stand behind the altar. Orion rushes forward to try to help him stand. He starts to pass out.
Orion checks to make sure that the old man is alive. He places him in the recovery position.
The statue of Sidon is pretty menacing.
Artemios tells Orion, that in the future, Orion does not speak for Artemios.
Orion looks at the pool and cannot see the bottom of the pool.
Artemios and Halcyon start walking to opposite doors on either side of the statue. Artemios finds another set of doors that is locked. Astraea and Halcyon find another set of doors that are not locked. They find what appear to be priests sleeping chambers. There are some military decorations hanging in a hallway.
Artemios uses thieves' tools to try to pick the lock on the doors to the north. He is unable to pick the lock on the door. He kicks the door.
Astraea keeps walking down the hallway, opening doors.
Orion approaches Artemios and asks if he needs help with the door.
Astraea looks for anything that might help us defeat Brika and her men. She finds nothing of use. At the end of the hallway, Astraea finds a chest in one of the rooms.
Orion pulls a crowbar out of his bag, and Artemios is very confused about Orion having a crowbar.
Orion tries to break open the door with a crowbar. He makes an athletics check with triple advantage because of Elven accuracy, and eventually busts his way through the door.
Astraea uses Thaumaturgy to open the chest from another room. Inside she finds six healing potions and a small velvet pouch inside the chest.
She looks inside the pouch. Inside of it she finds a small rusty key.
She does not tell the party about the healing potions, but pulls the key out of the bag. As soon as her fingers touch the key, we roll initiative and are in combat.

Combat starts

Four animated swords jump off of the walls right next to Halcyon. Halcyon acts first and disengages and flies backward over Astraea and gives her bardic inspiration.
The swords advance down the hallway and Astraea attacks the sword closest to her.
Astrea hits one sword with her quarterstaff and misses with an unarmed strike.
The Hunter hears the swords and starts running toward the swords. He uses a full action dash, and starts swinging his flail.
Artemios moves towards the swords. He is a little exasperated but he starts attacking the swords contemptuously. He stabs one of the swords.
Halcyon casts dissonant whispers on the sword attacking Astraea, and it moves away, incurring an attack of opportunity from Astraea which kills the sword.
Another sword moves in to attack Astraea but misses.
The other swords attack Orion and he uses shield to avoid taking the hits
Astraea uses toll the dead, and damages the sword a little bit.
The hunter attacks the blade between him and Artemios. He crits for 20 damage and destroys the sword.
Artemios, still rolling his eyes, moves in to attack one of the remaining swords. He stabs it and does 9 piercing damage. His second attack does three damage.
Halcyon uses vicious mockery and hits the sword attacking Astraea for 2 damage.
The other sword hits Artemios for 7 slashing damage.
Astraea swings the quarterstaff at the sword attacking her and misses. She follows up the hit with a headbutt. She critically hits for 11 damage.
The hunter is saying that our mouths have gotten us into trouble, but he will save us. He swings his flail at the sword attacking him and misses.
Artemios stabs the sword between him and Orion and kills it. He then walks over to the last sword and stabs it as well for 3 piercing damage.
Combat Ends

Licking Their Wounds

Artemios asks what we touched. Halcyon explains that Astraea found a key that was warded. Artemios says that The Hunter has already opened the door.
Astraea felt bad for triggering the swords and she offered the potions to the party and says that now we are even. Halcyon says that we are all working together and there is no need to withhold information.
Artemios and The Hunter start to walk toward the closed door on the north side, but Astraea wants to know if we can take a short rest first.
We decide to rest in the priest's chambers.
After our rest Artemios walks on toward the closed door.
Artemios goes to open the door at the bottom of the stairs. It does not open, and his hand gets stuck to the door. The door is a mimic and comes to life trying to bite Artemios. It misses.

Combat Starts

Artemios acts first after the mimic, and tries to stab the door. He misses.
Halcyon uses vicious mockery on the door doing 1 damage.
The Hunter uses a fire bolt on the mimic and does 6 damage.
Astraea uses toll the dead and the Mimic makes the save.
Halcyon sues hideous laughter and the mimic becomes incapacitated.
The hunter steps up and swings his flail against the mimic doing 6 damage.
The mimic passes its wisdom saving throw and is no longer incapacitated
The mimic tries to bite Artemios and fails.
Astraea uses toll the dead doing 2 damage to the mimic.
Artemios tries to escape from the grapple, and does escape.
Halcyon uses vicious mockery and the mimic passes its wisdom save.
The hunter uses a firebolt and hits the mimic for 7 damage.
The mimic moves up to Astraea and tries to bite her. It does bite her for 5 damage.
Astraea tries to tumble through the mimic’s space, but fails. She then uses misty step to get behind the mimic.
Artemios gives her three slow claps. He walks up to the door and stabs it for 10 damage. And then uses his other dagger to stab it for 2 more damage.
Halcyon uses vicious mockery and does 2 damage.
The Hunter uses firebolt and hits for 1 damage.
The mimic tries to bite Artemios and misses.
Astraea swings her quarterstaff and hits the mimic for 11 damage and misses with her unarmed strike.
Artemios tries to stab the door and hits it for 9 damage. He then stabs with his other dagger and does 1 more damage.
Halcyon uses vicious mockery and does 3 damage. Killing the mimic.
Combat Ends

Not Even the Doors are Safe...

Artemios concedes that we might want to use magic to open doors.
We continue down the hallway. We find ourselves in a rocky grotto lit by torches and filled with misty vapor. We hear water echoing in the chamber. Artemios checks for doors.
Artemios walks across the stones to the middle of the pond in the grotto. He thinks he sees one of the rugs on the rock island start to move. He walks back a few steps. He starts to move back to the other side and Astraea uses thaumaturgy to shake the ground causing Artemios to slip. He is able to stay on his feet, but he takes 1 fire damage from the hot water.
Artemios knows that Astraea caused the ground to quake, and he punches her.
Halcyon tries to use mage hand to move the rug, but there is some resistance, and the rug stands up and points with a tassle behind itself. Halcyon suggests that we follow the path past the rug in the direction that the rug is pointing.
Artemios bumps into Astraea as she is walking down the path, but she is able to keep her balance. We slowly start to make our way down the path. The Hunter is using shape water to freeze the water near him so no steam gets on him.
Astraea goes around the bend. She sees a beautiful, dark-haired woman who is suspended above the water by tendrils of water. She hears a hideous cackling coming from inside the chamber.
Astraea tries to sneak forward and is successful in her attempt to remain stealthy. Astraea makes a noise with thaumaturgy from the direction opposite of where we are coming from. Astraea sees that the tendrils are attached to a creature that is standing around the corner.
Artemios yells at Astraea asking if everything is okay. We then hear an elderly woman’s voice asking if anyone is there, and that she has fallen and needs to help Versci.
Astraea moves forward and sees something that startles her around the corner.
She has to make a wisdom saving throw and fails it. Jake says we will start next week with Astraea being frightened.

Character(s) interacted with

Versci

Report Date

27 Dec 2022

Related Plots

• The Prophecy

Related Characters

• Artemios
• Astraea
• Halcyon
• Jack the DM
• Orion Castellanos