Session 20

Fading Tensions

The Fated Eight - barring Graxious who was asleep - stood around the lower floor of Cynthia Glint’s abode as they each began to share react to Aurevald’s outburst and subsequent admission of the truth behind Scabb’s disappearance.

Aurevald did not take too kindly to some of the platitudes levied at him by the others, but as his rage quelled, he dropped the argument in order so that they could get some sleep before the early morning ahead of them.

A Dream Of Attire

Aurevald fell asleep quite quickly after returning to upstairs. The Goliath male’s mind raced with the events that had transpired on his sabbatical & since returning to The Fated Eight - with the final dream before waking being that of his and Lady’s trip to see Goren Thimble.

The Goliath male recalled the kindness and generosity of his Elvish party member - who offered to cover the cost of the large, pure gold shackles that Aurevald wished to wear to the Beck Family ball.

Before Dawn

Hours before sunrise, on the 25th of Vaelorn - The Fated Eight awoke and made their way towards the gates of Roan, where they met Thelnyron. The mage discretely gave them their orders, some supplies, and specially trained horses that would cut the travel time in half.

The party made their way on the loosely North Westerly heading, with Jin leading the charge.

On The Road Again

For the first time in weeks, The Fated Eight were all on the road again - and thanks to the specially trained horses, the travel did not seem to be too strenuous or involved for them as individuals. This lax travel gave some of the party time to partially catch up on lost sleep, or tend to other interests atop horseback.

SHAI Looks At the Sky

SHAI - concerned by the news that BLUE had shared the night before - took some time to parse the night sky whilst he still had the chance. Here he applied lessons he had learned from a lecture he’d taken at Veiled Visage University - taught by Thelnyron Dose in Davison’s stead - and began to make sense of a potential implication of LeBron James’ Retirement as it now visibly converged with the constellation of Elon Musk’s Assassination.

The others - unable to even see these constellations as well as not blessed to share in the grace of The Dungeon Master - saw SHAI staring upwards at the sky for a longer time than would be considered normal, whilst muttering to himself. The astute amongst The Fated Eight noticed their Changeling companion experience a moment of clarity amidst the star gazing, shortly before the sun began to rise.

Aurevald’s Apology

Aurevald who had been floating around the back of the troupe - deep in thought - approached a conversation between Axton and Graxious where the former chided the latter for sleeping through it all.

“If you didn’t sleep through everything important - you would know what happened yourself…

Sorry - that was rude. I’m not a morning person, I should’ve have said it that harshly…”
- Axton’s snide remarks at Graxious…

Aurevald admitted to Graxious that he had let his emotions control him in a moment of weakness.

“What happened last night was a moment weakness and I let my anger get the best of me - I vow I will not let it happen again.”
- Aurevald filling Graxious in about the previous night…

SHAI overheard this conversation and appreciated the Goliath’s sincerity about the incident. The pair shared a conversation and Aurevald offered to heal any of the remaining bruises left on the Changeling Wizard’s throat.

Approaching The Crypt

Hours of travel passed as The Fated Eight eventually crested a large, grassy hill in Lower Terick - where they took a short moment to survey the land around them. The perceptive amongst them eventually noticed a small but apparent artificial structure jutting out of a hill off in the distance - it was too far to make out solid details around but it was clear to them from the horses desire to travel towards it, it was likely their destination.

Another hour-or-so passed as The Fated Eight relied on their steeds’ special training to traverse the damp and sometimes sludgy hillsides between them and the Hollow Crypt.

The Exterior

As the artificial structure came clearly into sight, The Fated Eight noticed the delicate and deliberate stonework present around the entire structure. The slightly raised stone tiles fit seamlessly against the walls that covered all but the side facing them - whilst the large, chiseled stone pillars on each of the corners stood strong holding up a simple but elegant stone ceiling with a lip around the edge. After only a short glance - it was obvious to most of them that this was indeed Dwarvish architecture; although clearly dated based on the supposed age of this structure.

The interior was rather bare - the only sign of inhabitants found here were a few crates and a long snuffed out campfire. An overzealous Graxious smashed open one of the crates - as the vile smell of rotted seafood and meats wafted throughout this first chamber. Luckily for them all - the structure seemed to continue a ways back into the hill behind it as they proceeded further in.

An Element-ary Puzzle

Following another bare chamber that likely once had ceremonial or logistical purpose - The Fated Eight stumbled upon a raised section with a stone table atop it and tablet directly in front of it. The tablet was etched with Dwarvish symbols that SHAI translated to say “Dwarves are at rest here…” before turning his attention towards the stone table.

The table had four Dwarvish symbols etched in a circular fashion around it. The symbols; in clockwise order, translated to mean “Air, Fire, Earth, Water… as the party began to speculate on how solve the puzzle.

Eventually the party decided to try exposing the symbols to the corresponding element through physical means. Aurevald borrowed Axton’s lighter in order to touch the symbol of fire with the flame. Upon doing so, a mechanical whir began to echo through the chamber. The table suddenly sprung open as a large Arcane pillar jutted out of the centre - before rapidly rotating and charging with energy. Without warning - the pillar released a shockwave that only SHAI was unable to withstand. Moments later, 3 ethereal Fire Elementals appeared behind 3 of The Fated Eight.

Combat

The Fated Eight quickly reacted to the situation - as Lady revealed early on that cold-aligned damage proved to wound their foes more than standard damage. Aurevald also took a chance to make amends with SHAI and protected the very injured Wizard by drawing the ire of one of the Fire Elementals.

The Party made swift work of the 3 foes - noticing that an odd crystal device fall to the ground whenever one of them was felled. These orbs would then suddenly and rapidly fly back towards the central spire. Just before the 3rd Fire Elemental could be slain - the central spire whirred to life again as another Fire Elemental appeared behind the isolated Lady Snowblood. With the combined knowledge of Axton, SHAI, and Morgyn - as well as the combat prowess of Jin, Graxious, Lady, and Aurevald - The Fated Eight were able to deduce that the central spire was the control mechanism and should be targeted if possible.

The fight quickly came to a close after that, as the device retracted into the table below them. A moment of peace rolled through the chamber as each of The Party gathered their things and tended to any wounds sustained, before the peace was interrupted by the mechanical whirring once more.

The stone table vibrated as it now split down the middle lengthways before the two halves slid away from one another - revealing a dank and musty stone staircase that descended into darkness.

Descending Into The Hollow Crypt

The Fated Eight made their way down the staircase - aided by SHAI’s light cantrip - and found themselves presented by a rectangular chamber; about 40 feet wide at it’s widest. The walls on either side had two levels of cutouts where poorly embalmed corpses and skeletons lay still & lifeless. The only other thing of note in this chamber was an L-shaped corridor at the end that led towards a similar, yet slightly more well-kept chamber.

The First Chamber

The Party searched around this more well-kept chamber, noticing the small piles of coin placed near the feet of the preserved Dwarvish corpses resting in the walls. The room also presented 4 sets of footprints that seemed to lead further into the chamber. The only other thing of note was a small badge - with the symbol of a mask, often associated with the theatre - that caught Axton’s eye. The Tiefling male recalled this as the affects of the Keating Family - a Crime in Gerward led by one of Vito Moretti’s few rivals in the city - Zol Keating. He kept this information to himself for the time being.

The footsteps led The Fated Eight towards an even narrower corridor than the one they had entered this room from - barely wide enough for Aurevald and Graxious to fit through.

The Narrow Corridor

Using Detect Magic - the party noticed a glyph embedded into the first tile within the corridor, before catching a glimpse of slits staggered on the lower half of the wall along the length of the corridor. Presuming the glyph activated some sort of spike trap, SHAI was able to use Spider Climb to avoid the glyph and scouted ahead of the rest. Some of the others chanced their luck and rushed through the corridor, with some proving better at outrunning the spikes than the others.

Lady & Graxious followed SHAI’s lead and attempted to travel along the walls for as long as they could before proceeding to outrun the trap. After each of the The Fated Eight made their way to the other side - they turned their attention towards the collapsed staircase ahead of them.

The Broken Stairs

Looking directly beneath them - The Fated Eight could see a short drop - to a flight of stairs that had clearly seen better days. Graxious daringly took the plunge and manage to avoid stumbling backwards or landing on a fragile step - whilst SHAI continued to Spider Climb down the central pillar to understand the risks. The remaining members weighed the risks of traversal before deciding to use Feather Fall on most of them to slowly descend through the central part of the spiral staircase.

Jin was chosen to traverse the staircase with SHAI’s intel to maximize the chance he made it down safely. Despite his recent focus on strength over dexterity - the Human Fighter still had a knack for acrobatic & athletic jumps and was able to make it to the bottom unharmed.

The Fated Eight regrouped at the bottom of the stairwell in an even more musty, stone chamber with a smaller tunnel protruding from the opposite wall 10-15 feet. Either side of the tunnel was flanked by stone figures of Dwarvish appearance - with a sword to their side in one hand, and pointing an unlit torch towards the top edge of the tunnel. A closer look revealed engravings in Dwarvish once again that SHAI translated with the use of Comprehend Languages.

The Fire Trap

The Dwarvish text was translated to say “Those who step unobservantly will be charred…” - prompting the party to search the room for signs of another trap or otherwise. SHAI found a glyph engraved into the large tile at the front of the tunnel and was able to decipher it as a Glyph of Fireball - thanks to his familiarity with the spell. SHAI used Spider Climb again to avoid activating the glyph and headed further into the tunnel - noticing a set of Dwarvish headstones lined up along the walls of the tunnel. SHAI gathered the statues could be part of the trap and investigated for a control mechanism on the other side. He found an Arcane device that was likely responsible for them - only to realize that it was already deactivated. Beyond that, SHAI was surprised to see that remnants of Feywild magic - similar to his own - were left over from the deactivation process.

The rest of The Fated Eight were able to avoid the rune through acrobatic or athletic means after SHAI determined that only the glyph was still active. They all continued down many flights of stairs before arriving in a much wider, rectangular room with golden accents decorating the walls and floors.

The Bowl Room

The room evoked a similar design to the earlier chambers with embalmed Dwarves resting on nooks in the walls - however the corpses in this room were much more expertly preserved, as well resting with ornate weapons and piles of coins at their feet. The Fated Eight split up to search the room for clues. SHAI found a Scroll Of Scrying whilst Graxious found a small amulet of Seedara. On the other side of the room, Jin found himself drawn towards a coin purse in the hands of a particular Dwarvish corpse - only to realize he’d unknowingly grabbed the purse and counted it’s contents.

Aurevald searched the room carefully and located an open doorway that seemed to lead to another long and narrow tunnel, as well a very ornate metal bowl resting on a decorated pillar to the left of the doorway. The Goliath male noticed inscriptions similar to previous rooms on the pillar and asked SHAI to translate. The first word of the script proved to be illegible due to being etched away - however the phrase read as ”????? wakes all Dwarves, even those in the deepest of sleep…

The Fated Eight regrouped and deduced the missing word was likely “greed” and offered anything they had taken from the room to the bowl, where the coin purse seemed to be the only item affected. Each time it was placed in the bowl - it would reappear in the corpses’ hands with a different amount of coin inside. Whenever Jin or another individual got near the doorway with the coin purse - Graxious and Aurevald were able to sense the presence of undead figures around the room. Oddly, those presences disappeared as soon as the coin purse was no longer in proximity of the doorway.

As Aurevald passed through the doorway - he noticed a similar bowl on the opposite side of the doorway containing a pouch with a large amount of platinum. He took the satchel after some deliberation and shared the contents with Jin.

The Long Corridor

Many minutes passed as The Fated Eight traversed the long and winding corridor before realizing that they had crossed over into a cave system. It seemed apparent from the scenes around them that construction had been intended in this area - but never completed for some reason lost to time. As they continued deeper into the cave system, they saw the familiar stonework resume, before their attention was caught by a sudden light appearing at the end of the tunnel…

Mysterious People

Jin, leading The Fated Eight in a single file line - instructed the others not to follow him as he approached the entrance of the door to see 4 distinct individuals resting across a carved spherical room. Jin took note of Aasimar woman with a hood over her head, an oddly tall, armoured Halfling man, a middle aged Human man with one hand of a rifle, and a wild Orcish male holding an dangerous looking war axe.

“Don’t follow me… I’m gonna do something stupid…”
- Jin to the rest of The Fated Eight

Jin stepped into the chamber and attempted to negotiate with the figures in the room - the 4 of them immediately sprung into action and took defensive stances as tension began to build in the room. The others in the hallway began to feel antsy as Axton also stepped into the room demanding that they drop their weapons. The tension continued to grow as the figures introduced themselves as Indria, GRAY, Kyle, and Ulbrig - before SHAI burst into the room and attempted to run towards GRAY.

“Everyone calm down - I know him! He’s my friend!”
- SHAI speaking to everyone in the room…

Lady, and Morgyn slowly made their way into the room as both sides were still tense. The man known as Kyle Korver requested that Graxious stay in the hallway for now, as to keep the exit doorway open -revealing that the 4 of them had been stuck with no way out, or forwards, for days at this point.

The tension began to calm a little before Aurevald entered the room and caught the attention of Ulbrig Derenge. Ulbrig grew increasing excited at the thought of battling the Goliath male and began to rush towards him.

A Warrior’s Near-Death?

The tension grew to new heights as both sides as Indria attempted to cast Calm Emotions - prompting a warning shot from Aurevald for her to drop it. This unfortunately only set Ulbrig off even more and both sides were now struggling to keep Ulbrig from starting a fight he clearly could not win.

Despite the best efforts of GRAY, Morgyn, and the rest of the table - Ulbrig was unconvinced by their attempts to quell his overzealous rage and the Orcish Barbarian attacked Aurevald with his War Axe. Aurevald expressed discontent at the need to do so; but made it clear that Ulbrig was in need of a humbling, before he and Jin together dealt enough damage to bring Ulbrig within an inch of his life. One of the many casters were able to stabilise the Orcish adventurer - but his response was quite odd.

Ulbrig revealed that he wished to die a worthy death and had deemed Aurevald a suitably strong candidate. Not allowing him to die had come at great offense to Ulbrig. The session closed as the ideals of the zealous Barbarian confused both adventuring parties in the room.