Chapter 3 and 4 - July 22nd, 2023

 

Characters

• Binkley Billowquick - elderly male gnome artificer battle smith. Travels with Tinkle
• Don Leon - male tabaxi rogue assassin. Size of larger housecat. Travels with Rolly - a large Isopod mount.
• Father Issac - male human priest - mysterious character
• Jeff White - male human life domain cleric. Very ordinary
• Krowvid - female Kenku wizard from the school of necromancy. Elderly
• Kyra Ironside - female Leonin barbarian from the Path of the Ancestral Guardian. Travels with Moorbounder named Boba Tea.
• Nezha - male tiefling soulknife rogue. Travels with a blink dog named Diablo.
• Nihal Arneb - large male Harengon hexblade warlock.
• Sath - small Harengon druid of the Circle of the Shepherd
• Torrwyn - female Aasimar paladin (Oath of Conquest)
• Zehari - large female orc barbarian from the Path of Wild Magic.
• Zyrath Pinefoot - male wood elf cleric (Twilight Domain)

Note: Zyrath is not at this current session as he's on Paternity Leave

Strong Start

You stand at the Prayer Site of Avandra, having just seen a vision of the warrior who calls himself Alyxian, the same warrior from your previous vision. “You came.. You followed.. You can find me.”. The crystals that surround begin to glow brightly and your video goes white. You see a vision of armored soldiers marching into the Betrayer’s rise, Alyxian among them. The overall feeling you get from them is grim, as if they all expect they are marching to their deaths. The vision shifts and you see the floors of Betrayer’s rise littered with the broken bodies of the soldiers, none survived, except one - Alyxian, who continues to fight, stepping over corpses of both mortals and demons. Once again, the vision in your mind shifts and you watch as this warrior falls upon his knees before a simple wooden alter that bears the holy symbol of the goddess Avandra, the Changebringer. As his prayer comes to a close, a young woman with light brown skin and flowing black hair steps forward and helps him to his feet. In your mind you hear a foreboding voice. “The Change Bringer and a mortal,” the voice intones. “What brings you into my sacred, devouring darkness? Even if you save him, Change Bringer, he will suffer. He will die. He will be forgotten. All that he has worked to save will crumble and be devoured by worms. Why invite further suffering? Let go. Give in. All is futile in the end, so why…” As the voice trailed off, the warrior turns to you. In anguish, he falls to his knees once again, tears streaming down his face. The scenery shifts, and the forsaken warrior is now underwater, amid the ruins of a sunken city. “The Crawling King spoke true,” he mutters. “All was futile. All has been forgotten… and I am lost in darkness. Please, help me set it right.”

Scenes

• Prayer Site of Avandra - the players will be able to ask Alyxian a few questions before he disappears from sight. After the vision disappates, Aloysia and the rivals are in the room. Aloysia will command the rivals to kill the players and take the jewel, but they will betray Aloysia as their loyalty is with the players. Aloysia escapes. Rivals will help players escape Betrayer’s Rise.
• Betrayers Rise - Several areas for exploration. How they went in will not be the way they are able to get out.

1. R4: Path of Emptiness
2. R5: Flagellant’s Path
3. R6: Cloister of Penitence - Treasure. A character who searches the corpse finds a pouch containing 22 gp and four stoppered vials that each contain 1 ounce of blood. This blood can be poured into the canister at the north end of the Flagellant’s Path.
4. R8: Spiders’ Chancel Treasure. The corpses are the remains of an Aurora Watch expedition that was trapped in the Betrayers’ Rise. A character who searches the bodies finds an onyx-hilted longsword that has become a sword of vengeance haunted by the spirit of its former wielder.
5. R9: Basilica of Revelry
6. R10: Supplicant’s Pit
7. R12: Threshold of the Excoriated
8. R13: Lightless Labyrinth
9. R14: Blood Font of the Ruiner

• Bazzoxan

1. B6: Wall of the Unforgotten - meet ****a lawful neutral, drow priest of the Luxon named Kalym Telaarin who can give players the Mote of Possibility
2. B5: Dilapidated Temple- learn more about Avandra, the Changebringer, from Foghome the Gardener

Chapter 4

The rivals cordially part ways after the “Arrival in Ank’Harel” scenario. The rivals find an inn that they make their semi-permanent residence, and a few days later Galsariad shares the address with the characters using a spell scroll of sending.

Secret and Clues

Check off when revealed.

• [x] No vegetation survives for long in Bazzoxan. Foghome thinks this is the result of the corrupting influence of the Betrayer’s Rise. (Foghome the Gardener)
• [x] Foghome the Gardener is a follower of Melora the Wild Mother, but he recognizes the temple as a former holy place of Avandra the Change Bringer. He hopes to honor both deities by cultivating new life in the midst of the death and destruction that haunts this place.
• [x] While meditating the other night, he (Foghome) felt something surge within the earth nearby - a warm and kindly presence reminiscent of the Prime Deities. He suspects the presence is a sign that a relic of the Calamity has awakened within the Betrayer’s Rise. (Foghome the Gardener)
• [x] There are three main factions in Ank’Harel 1) The Allegiance of Allsight, 2) The Library of the Cobalt Soul, and 3) The Consortium of the Vermillion Dream.
• [x] The Allegiance of Allsight is a scholarly faction that focuses on studying the past. Rumor has it they are currently spending a lot of time researching something below the city.
• [x] Over the past year or two the Allegiance has been excavating at a site in the Sigil District but only members are allowed down there.

NPCs

• [ ] Review NPCs
• Ayo Jabe - Ayo worries that the group has lost respect for Ayo’s leadership and questions her ability to make wise decisions.
• Dermot Wurder - Dermot fears that Ayo is faltering under the responsibilities of leadership and is being overly kind in an attempt to keep her happy. He is also worried by the way she has withdrawn from their longstanding friendship.
• Galsariad Ardyth - Galsariad shuts himself off from everyone. He feels underqualified for everything his group has encountered, and he stubbornly refuses help as he continues trying to prove his worth as an adventurer.
• Irvan “Irv” Wastewalker - The possibility of traveling to another continent—far removed from the Luxon beacons—terrifies Irvan. But his commitment to his companions outweighs his fear, and he chooses to stay with them and face his mortality head-on.
• Maggie Keeneyes - Always pensive, Maggie becomes even quieter after the events in the Betrayers’ Rise. Her mind whirls as she tries to understand the hidden forces behind the jewel, the temple, and the factions they’ve encountered thus far.
• Question - Monastic operative of the Cobalt Soul who can provide the party with information about the Jewel of Three Prayers
• Aloysia Telfan - Occult initiate who wants help finding a prayer site inside of the Betrayer’s Rise. Also knows quite a bit about Alyxian.
• Iwo Zalarre
• Laurin Ophidas
• 
  

Session Notes

We start this session at the prayer site of Avandra, after seeing the visions of Alyxian. The same warrior from the emerald grove. As the vision fades and the crystal ruins come into few again, they dim. We see Aloysia (Soy Sauce) and our rival party. She demands Nihal give her the amulet that he takes back from the podium. She tells the party to attack us and instead they pull their weapons on her.

Isaac tried to hit her with a spell, and she countered and put a protection spell on herself.

Roll for initiative.

Sath- does 7 points of damage.

Nihal- opens a portal above our heads, a gloomstalker comes through (Pumpkin). Paralyzes her with the screech

Nezha- does 21 points of damage.

Zarhari- summons an exploding pixie while raging, does 20 points of damage plus her pixie which does 3 more points of damage.

Kyra (Me)- does 23 points of damage.

Isaac- slaps her 2 points of damage. Tells her to stop this heretic foolishness.

Torrwyn- frightened her.

Don Leon- 14 points of damage.

Binkley and Tingle- 5 points of damage.

Soy Sauce- Just growls through the paralysis.

Round 2

Sath- Moon beamed 21 points of damage.

Nihal- 24 points of damage

Pumpkin- at least 34 points of damage

Soy Sauce- breaks out of her paralysis, causes an earthquake then she pulls things out of her pockets, some things fall to the ground. She throws something on the ground and smoke emits and she disappears. She only had 1 hit point left.

After the smoke clears, we see that the earthquake closed off the exits.

I investigate the objects that fell out of her pocket. I find two transportation tablets. They are designed that anyone within 30 feet come with me, and they will also only bring me to certain places not just anywhere.

We walk back threw to the room with the statue on his knees.

We see a path to the front, left, and right of us. There’s rubble by the path on the right. We can tell they are old stone paths. It looks different from when we came in.

Ayo- says her and her group will stay out of our way and let us do our thing. We went to the west; we walked into a 5x5 room with stairs that lead upwards. We go up the stairs, we enter a room that looks almost exactly like the last one. On each side of the wall there is teeth. Zahari throws her rations and Sath goes to the middle of the hallway, on a rope, nothing happens. Sath walks down further. He detects magic in the room at the end of this hall, which bombards his senses. It reeks of death and essence perfume.

I tried to go down the hallway the teeth protruded out and turned into daggers swaying me back and forth, I took 17 points of damage.

Binkley also tries to send Tingle; the same thing happens. Nihal gives me the ability to fly for 10 min. I get across. Sath continues to investigate the room.

Isaac makes it across by dashing, Don Leon also makes it. Torwynn takes Zarhari and Jeff across.

Tingle makes it across after Maggie throws him but loses a few pieces. We all make it.

To the west is an archway to a side room

To the south two statues that look like penises and heads man. There’s a canister above the doorway, leading back to the teeth hallway.

“Revel the pain you put on others” “relish in the pain you inflict on yourself” “give it to the king as an offering” on the doorway.

Sath hits Nihal in the face with his staff and he bleeds onto the floor and the canister begins to glow. Everyone starts hitting each other, many start bleeding.

The ones bleeding start filling the canister and it glows brighter, disabling the trap to the teeth hallway upsetting most.

Nihal, Sath, and Zarhari and a few others go to the west room, there’s hooks on the wall and a body in the corner wearing desolate robes. I Stay back with Torwynn, Korvid, and Isaac. They start fighting three flaming skulls.

Roll for initiative.

Sath- 19 points of damage

Nihal- 38 points of damage

Nezha- Missed

Zarhari- 16 points of damage

Jeff- Missed

Don Leon- 23 points of damage

Isaac- starts singing a hymn.

Sath- level 4 moon beam, 6 points of damage, smashes one of the skulls to the ground, pees on the fire to make sure it is in fact extinguished. Two are left.

Niahl- 15 points of damage

Torwynn enters the room as well to see what’s happening.

Binkley and Tingle- together 51 points of damage

A flame skull casts magic missile on Binkley but misses. The second one also casts a magic missile on Nezha and misses as well.

Nezha- goes for the undamaged one, 17 points of damage.

Zahari- Missed

Jeff- Guiding bolt, 18 radiant damage, casts right through his right eyeball and peppers the wall, another one is dead. Only one flaming skull left.

Don Leon- 33 points of damage

Torwynn- At least 20 points of damage. She microwaves the last skull, and it explodes in her hands. Found 4 blood viles and 22 gold on the corpse.

They leave the side room, and we decide to head east. To the other room it has a table with a vase. Its familiar where Zirath threw in his religious item in. We are back to where we began. We continue to go south. We find the three gibbering mouthers again, this time we need to fight them to find our way out.

Roll for initiative.

Nezha- 22 points of damage

Kyra (Me)- 18 points of damage

One goes for a bite attack on Jeff. Takes 16 points of damage but is not prone.

Jeff- Cannot attack.

Binkley and Tingle- together 17 points of damage

Don Leon- 34 points of damage, he takes his blue marble out of his eye socket and sling shots it on one of its mouths, causing it to explode. He cannot find his marble afterwards.

Krovid- 30 points of damage.

Sath- Casts spiked growth, between us and the gibbering mouthers.

Zahari- 9 points of damage

Isaac- cast cure light moon on Jeff

Torwynn- 32 points of damage, throw trident through two of its eyeballs killing a second.

Zarhari steps in cold cat poop, and I snuck Don Leons marble eye in my pocket, without his knowledge.

Nihal- casts shotgun, 18 points of damage.

Nezha- 26 points of damage

Kyra- 9 points of damage

Jeff- cast sacred flame, DM passes constitution throw.

Mouther goes for a bite attack and jeff and misses, so try blinding spittle. Also misses.

Binkley- Fires laser, 28 points of damage, loads and explosive shot in his shot gun, kills the third.

We find the door at the end and push through; we bathe in the light of the moon, then we see the lights of Bazzoxan, and head back to town and to our rooms, taking a short rest, restoring our strength and health.

Note: We received the rabbit token from the lady at the infirmary, and we need to take it to the Wall of Unforgotten.

Sath goes over to the crematorium, to help. We head to find the Wall of Unforgotten.

We see a stretch of stone wall with names etched into it and dead flowers at the base, necklaces, and good luck charms. Trinkets left at the base as well, Soldier Drow stands guard.

A priest stands up from prayer, with his group, and tells us to respect the dead, they deserve rest. I tell him “I am here to honor a friend who passed.”

He helps place the rabbit and kneels back down praying. After his prayer, he stands and gives us his blessing by touching our forehead, giving us the mote of possibility, except for Sath who doesn’t want to be touched without consent. We pay our respects, and head back to find Soy Sauce. Went to the infirmary, she wasn’t there. Nihal asks Batha if she’s seen her, she says that she hasn’t seen anyone of her description.

We head to the Ready Room; we sit to have a pint of beer and some fish dinner. The owners say they haven’t seen her, and she hasn’t returned. Nihal, Sath, and Binkley, Jeff go to visit Question again. “They all feel it.”

They explain that Soy Sauce wanted to take the amulet, and the visions of Alyxian. She isn’t surprised about Soy Sauce. Nihal asks for advice, Question points him towards her organization, but she cannot give out the secrets. She can, however, take us there or use transportation tablets. “The Cobalt Soul” is the name of the organization. We all agree to travel with her.She tells us to do what we need around town first and meet with her that night to leave. We decide to go to the Dilapidated Temple (tilapia temple), to learn more about the monster and why they come to this town. As we approach glass crunches under our feet, and weeds are overgrown, collapsed walls, horrible looking plants. Just at the far end at the encloser a smashed mosaic next to a withered tree. The mosaic once depicted Avandra, Isaac tries to restore it to the best of his ability. Binkley helps by mending it, the image it clear. Avandra face illuminated. We see something running through the remanence of the temple.

Nihal sneaks in and sees a Fur Bolg. Sath says hi and the Fur Bolg, he explains he doesn’t get many visitors and his name is Foghome, he asks if we’ve met Thyless and we admit we have. He tells us he has volunteered to help the Arura Watch, and he is trying to grow a food source for the town. The curse or (blight) on the land comes from Betrayer’s Rise, which keeps the food from growing. Sath offers to help. Niahl continues to interrupt as Fogholm tries to explain what we need to do. He says one day he was meditating, and he felt a surge from the prime deities, and that there was a different feeling from Betrayer’s Rise. Whatever we did had worked, because something had changed in the blight. He asks us to meditate with his “wild mother” to be sure things are good again. Sath continues to fuck up Fogholms name as FROGHORN or FOGHORN.

All Nihal is worried about is getting his shmedium ”medium” red rocket touched by Ayo.

We follow him inside and meditate with him. We receive a vision, and see a young human, sinking to his knees in the garden, he says “they’re counting on me, I’m exhausted and frightened, what do I do, please someone tell me what to do”. The two moons turn into a red sun. After the vision we are all prone to the ground. As we awake Fogholm has a look of concern on his face and asks, “what happened?” “All I know is we were meditating, and all passed out.”

Nihal describes the vision we have, and Fogholm say he’s also experienced it. He says he thinks the person in our vision is the Lost Champion of the prime deities. He asks Sath to come see some plants that are healthier that the others and shows him some etched words. He explains that he thinks the champions are the reason the plants grow here. Sath decided to sit for eight hours and cast a plant growth. It doesn’t succeed.

Fogholm looks at Nihal and tells him “There’s something on him that has affected the chain.”

Nihal shows the amulet, and Fogholm says there are three forces of change, and one has been awoken. Nihal asks if he knows where the other two pieces are that need to be awoken. Fogholm says he doesn’t know. He tells Sath that he appreciates what he’s tried to do with the plants. He also gives Zahari a blessing since they worship the same gods.

We leave and head back to the Ready Room. Most decide to have a round. Prolix (Prolapse) approached us with a tablet of transportation, take us to Ank’harel. He tells Nihal once we get there his associates will be able to tell him about the amulet. Prolix asks us to join him, the rabbits for some reason thought they needed to touch each other to transport together.

The gloom of Bazzoxan and the sunlight of Ank’harel comes to view. It takes us a minute to get our bearings. There’s sprawling roads and towers humming with light. There’s a magnificent building that’s made of white marble. Prolix leads us to a small house with a sloping roof. The bottom half is made from a different material than the top. He knocks on the door and a voice tells us to enter. We see a goblin in scholarly robes (Alakritos). Prolix explains we may have some information that he needs.The Scholarly goblin asks if wed like tea or coffee, most accept. Alakritos asks to see the amulet. Sath becomes very protective of it. He tells us it’s a vestige of divergence. It doesn’t belong to one deity but shows a symbol that it was made by the holy realm. After Nihal persuades him, he explains this city sits on top of another city “which is under water”.

Nihal explains our adventures and how we think we awoken the first part of the chain. He says we are willing to prove our worth to Alakritos. He decides to give us a map of the town and shows us the “Man” Meat Market on the map (circles it in red), the good ole triple M.

Binkley offers to make a weapon made of dildos for free. Sath accepts but wants dildos to be attached to his staff, a double dildo staff, if you will. We’ll see how it goes.

Torwynn receives two stones that are sending stones (testicles) from Question. Says we will be contacted through them, in the next few days, catches a carriage and leaves.

We look at our map. Towns Pops 29,300, divided into 8 districts. Sun Cut Bazzar district with crimson flags lined the street. There is a major port here, and people are used to seeing all types of creatures, including teiflings. Many awnings that range from treats to fresh meat are being cut. Shops that sell magic items. In the center of the district is a large building named “Lucks Run Casino”, Nihal recommends not to go there. Place call “The Bone Guard” which is a pawn shop.

Zahari and Krovid go to “The Bone Guard”. Krovid buys a mirror that shows a person what they look like in 10 years. Zahari buys a book of dad jokes; she also mistakes a little parrot behind her for Krovid.