Session XXIII: Surek's Last Stand Report
General Summary
Grewarum is sitting in the library of the Temple of Ptah researching the Necronomicon when a priest approaches him and tells him that his friends are in need, but they are able to teleport him to their location. He need only go down the hall until he reaches a door. He must ask the door to go where he wants and the door will oblige; the door should be on board because they asked him and he said it was ok. He directs them to a long corridor.
Going down the corridor of white sandstone bedecked with hieroglyphs, Grewarum comes to the end of the passage and finds at the end a strange sight. Cut into the sandstone wall is a granite doorway about six foot high and four feet wide. In the doorway is a rough and scarred wooden door of an ancient quality. The swirls of the grain appear to form crude eyes and a mouth. As Grewarum approaches, the swirls coalesce into raised facial features as if the door had been expertly carved and two jet black spheres had been placed in the eye sockets. The eyes focus on Grewarum and the mouth opens to wooden teeth and a mouth emptying into an inky blackness. A high pitched voice, evidently straining with inexplicable excitement, speaks, "I am Duncan the door. Have you come for me to open for you?" Grewarum agrees and the strange door opens to a blind white light that places Grewarum in the lighthouse with the rest of the party.
Having cornered Surek and cut off from the higher floors, the party begins to fight. Garlith let fly with crossbows, missing at first, but then finding his mark. Dalvanak flailed with his tentacles but, despite doing some damage to Surek, the crazed priest threw off the grasping limbs. Surek responded with a thunderwave that knocked Darius unconscious and seriously injured Dalvanak and Faddius. After some more confused blows exchanged, Khoroson refused to let his brother Surek win and offered a prayer to Ptah in order to heal those caught in the stairs. Faddius was able to blind and deafen some of the mercenaries, giving the party some breathing room. Surek attempted to immolate Dalvanak in a blazing inferno, but Dalvanak ducked out of the way, much to Surek's rage.
Darius, newly healed, duels with the final sun guard in the passage while Grewarum failed to put Surek to sleep. Faddius attempted to cast a mind-altering spell on Surek, but the zealot raised his staff and absorbed the spell instead. Surek, however, was on his last legs. As a last act of defiance, he swung at Dalvanak with his sword, but finally took one of Garlith's crossbow bolts to the neck, gurgling a warning that they would come for them as he died, his staff breaking as he fell.
The remaining mercenaries surrendered in exchange for being allowed to live, handing over some small gold and their equipment. They show the party the way up to the top of the lighthouse where a golden square box rested on a pedestal. Khoroson takes it from the pedestal and opens a portal to the temple of Ptah on Bral.
Khoroson replaces the beacon on the pedestal and addresses the party, "The portal can stay open so long as I desire. If you have any business in this place, I will wait an hour. Whatever you find in this place is yours along with your reward from the temple. I shall recommend that the priestess award you all richly. You fought bravely and my safety was never in doubt." He hands Grewarum an ankh like those given to the rest of the party earlier and says, "Take and keep these tokens. They mark you as friends of the Path and the temple shall provide what it can to you."
Below, the mercenaries are either leaving out the gate or boarding the remaining ship in the harbor. A burly female lies dead in the courtyard, bedecked in golden robes and a broken staff and sword similar to that of Surek. She appears to have been hurled from a parapet by a dwarf standing on a balcony calling to Jareth below, who appears injured but alive with his men.
Rewards Granted
2 x heavy crossbows
2 x longswords
2 x 40 crossbow bolts
Surek's Sword
Surek's broken staff
HighKey Foorty
Faddius Lurendi
()
8 / 8 HP
STR
DEX
CON
INT
WIS
CHA
Grewarum The Outkast
Garlith
Report Date
21 Mar 2023
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