Episode 5 - Cultist Chaos
The Cult of Khalash is revealed...
The party tentatively begins to explore the dark basement beneath the parsonage. Yedahlia leads, illuminating the way, and slowly approaches the left turn in the corridor. Before the group made the turn, Zeke appears behind them, apparently with no memory of the last 2 days or how he got into the basement. With Zeke rejoining the group they soldier forward, coming across a large room with a caged section at the back. They observe 3 creatures resting, until they hear sweet sounding song coming from them. Lyra and Arcim are drawn towards the cage by this song while Yedahlia attempts to stop them, before being swayed by a second song herself. Zeke is able to resist the songs of what appear to be Harpies, and observes a tripwire in the middle of the room. He distracts 2 of the 3 harpies with a large amount of food, while Lyra and Arcim are able to snap out of the Harpy spell before they are drawn past the tripwires. After intimidating them into silence, the group decides to leave them be for now, and return to the graveyard to await Drema and her contact.
After an hour or so, Drema arrives along with a mysterious figure in a dark robe. Before they can begin speaking, unfortunately Yedahlia sneezes, giving away everyone except Lyra. Yedahlia leans into it and begins sobbing uncontrollably by a random grave in an effort to deceive, or at least confuse, Drema and the mystery man. Zeke attempts to assist, but promptly goes for a walk around the block. Eventually the mystery man sees through the 'ruse' and resurrects a handful of skeletons, triggering a confrontation. After a tense battle, Drema is slain and the necromancer cultist is knocked out, defeating the skeletons as well. Most of the party pick up the bodies to take to Hearnald, while Lyra heads to the Bastion to get Gortha (and Carthon) to assist with the interrogation.
After causing a small fuss in town with the bodies, the whole party along with Gortha and Carthon meet with Mayor Hearnald to discuss their findings. The mayor is distressed at the nature of what they found, but relieved it is dealt with. He appeared most concerned with involvement of a man named Rorik Hadestone, who apparently should be dead, but would understandably want revenge on Farpoint. After some light 'interrogation' at the hands of Gortha, the cultist (Named Meek) revealed that his group is called the Cult of Khalash, that Rorik is his leader, and that they are based in the Bryllrook Mountains. They eventually execute Meek, and Hearnald resolves to send this information back to Melinda.
With the matter resolved, everyone decides to head to the Earnest Eagle for a drink. Lyra and Carthon meanwhile go on a small walk to The Bastion before joining the others. Along the way near Strider's Station, Carthon hears Gortha call out to her down an alleyway, and leaves to investigate. Lyra follows and finds Carthon being knocked out by the 2 mysterious figures that bumped into her back at the shrine. Lyra turns to run, but they give chase, running through Strider's Station and around the farm. Lyra is able to stay ahead of them just enough to make it to the Bastion and hide out for a few minutes. Once it appeared that they had given up, Lyra headed to the parsonage to get some assistance from Gortha. Returning to where Carthon was knocked out, she was nowhere to be seen for a moment, but happily she returned from around the corner, telling Lyra and Gortha that the assailants had fled. Lyra returned to the Earnest Eagle to reunite with her friends, but quickly made her excuses and went to bed. Everyone else in the meantime had a great evening of drinking, hanging out with Gerb, and getting some info from Dilm about a shipment for the Cultists heading towards their hideout in the Bryllrook Mountains. Eventually, they all follow Lyra and turn in for the night.
In the morning, the gang had their breakfast, said goodbye to Gerb (and gave her another Javelin), and did some quick shopping before setting off on their journey once more. They wanted to move quickly to catch the cultist shipment, but were slowed upon entering the Scarlett trees. After wading through the forest a while they did stumble across Deyn again. She was drawn to Arcim once more, and asked for his and the rest of the party's aid in defeating some cultists nearby that were disturbing and damaging the trees. Arcim quickly accepted on everyone's behalf, and they set off to investigate. They were met with a complex magic barrier that they were able to dismantle with a series of magical tuning forks they looted from Drema. They next had to brave a mist that affected their minds. Arcim and Yedahlia managed to maintain their focus, while Lyra began seeing visions of Carthon, and had to be led through by Yedahlia. Zeke meanwhile was having visions of what turned out to be his patron, who revealed his snake form and introduced himself as Nhyreen, giving vague allusions to future work they will do together. Yedahlia returned to the mist to find Zeke, but was beset by romantic visions of Berkle. Zeke was led by his patron to collect Yedahlia, and reconvene with the group to find a sextet of Khalash cultists attempting to open up some kind of portal.
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