Session 40 - Escape From The Isle

10th Feb 2022 - 19:45 - 11:15

In-game timeline: Start of session: 1489DR Uktar 05. End of session: 1489DR Uktar 09

Our "Heroes" are facing what they believe to be the final room, with very few spells and abilities remaining. So they of course, press on regardless.

They do stop briefly however, to try to open the treasure chest that they had found. Without a key, or a means to pick the lock, Karoshi tries to pry open the chest carefully, but hears the worrying sound of glass breaking as he taps a knife into the chest. Opening the lid he finds some broken glass and what smells like healing potion seeping into the other contents. Which is a shame. Derrick licks the dregs from the broken bottles and somehow manages to regain a few HP.

The unbroken contents look unusual. A warhammer is quickly grabbed by Karoshi, whilst the dwarven helmet, pair of spectacles, silk handkerchief, an unstrung bow and a cloak are inspected, then distributed amongst the group. There is also a golden crown set upon a crystal skull which Karoshi recognises as the representation of Velsharoon, the evil god worshipped by the Clerics of Shar. They decide to leave that well alone. Lastly there are pouches containing jewellery and gems. The five unusual items Derrick suspects are related to the five original founders of Abbey Isle - a suspicion confirmed by the names of each of the five being found upon the items. Without knowing what the items do, or whether they will be useful, the group pack them away for now.

Faffing over, there is nothing left to do but to head across the wooden walkway across the lake. They arrive at the closed door and find it unlocked so, unsurprisingly, Derrick opens the door and looks in.

He sees a body upon an altar, flanked by two crystal statues of grotesque humanoids, holding globes of green light. A grey smoke rises unnaturally from the body and drifts over to the side of the room.

Derrick and Karoshi move into the room, with Jaxii and Iwee standing behind them. As soon as they enter, the two crystal statues rise up and throw the globes of light at the interlopers. Luckily for the two, both globes miss, and smash against the wall behind them.

Now in the room, they can see a large statue of Velsharoon standing at the side of the room - it is currently unmoving.

As the group prepare their weapons, the two crystal creatures that threw the globes suddenly sprout large, crystal wings and rise up to fly towards the group. The first manages to claw at Karoshi, scratching through his armour and drawing blood. Karoshi responds with a smash with his hammer. As the rest of the party trades blows with the flying crystal creatures, Iwee runs past the battle and looks at the altar.

Upon the altar is a human male body, the chest cavity of which has been opened up and a large, red chinz crystal placed inside it. There is also an open book containing scripture unrecognisable to Iwee, and two chalices containing dark liquid. Iwee's attention is drawn to the side of the room where she sees a slumped male body against the wall, and can just make out an ominous, dark shadowy figure, which seems to be the end-point of the rising smoke from the body.

Iwee grabs the book, then discovering that it is bound in what appears to be human skin, and runs back towards the door. As she runs back, she cannot help but look at the shadowy figure and feels a deep terror go through her soul. Luckily she is able to resist the building fear and shrugs off the feeling. For now.

Karoshi, Derrick and Jaxii continue to battle with the flying creatures, and trying to doge the crystal shards that fly out from the creatures whenever they are hit. Jaxii uses the last of her rages.

Iwee escapes the room and tries to burn the book that she had grabbed. It burns, but slowly. The smell of burning skin permeates the room and adds to the deeply unsettling air that permeates this whole temple.

The rest of the group become even more worried as they see the shadowy form slowly emerge from around the corner. It stares at Derrick, causing exposed parts of his flesh to start to rot away from his bones, causing intense pain. What is equally concerning is that all our "heroes" start to feel really uncomfortable in its presence, which they soon find out causes them necrotic damage if they remain close to it. Every round.

Karoshi manages to destroy one of the crystal creatures, and then manages to destroy the red crystal 'heart' within to prevent it from regenerating.

Iwee runs back over to the body on the altar while Derrick and Jaxii focus on the last crystal monster, ignoring the shadowy figure for now. Derrick, very injured, runs out of the room onto the bridge to avoid the necrotic aura of the shadowy figure. Iwee, standing by the altar, attracts the attention of the dark figure and she immediately takes significant damage as her flesh starts to rot and fall away from her body. But she is still standing. Karoshi runs over to join his friend at the altar, and smashes his warhammer into the large red crystal in the chest cavity of the body lying on the stone slab. The party's spirits are collectively raised as they sense that action has caused significant harm to the dark figure that continues to slowly approach them.

Jaxii finishes off the remaining flying statue and then moves away from it to avoid its rotting aura. Iwee, putting the fighters who have run away to shame, fires a crossbow at the shadow, and impales a bolt in what she assumes is its shoulder. Derrick, somewhat embarrassed by the bardic gnome's bravery, rushes back in, ignoring the pulsing, red crystal 'heart' of the fallen statue, and takes the undead creature head on, despite being close to death. He survives entering its deadly presence, boosted by Iwee's bardic inspiration, and swings Garoth's Needle at the creature, slashing effectively at the dark robes, but then succumbing to the stare from the creature and falls to the ground, unconscious.

Derrick speaks from "beyond the grave" and encourages Karoshi to attack the dark creature. Karoshi ignores him and attacks the crystal heart in the fallen statue, missing on his first swing despite using his inspiration. He makes up for it on his second swing and destroys the crystal, but has no more attacks left to face the dark being.

Jaxii, slightly happier now that the crystal statue will not rise again, rushes in and attacks the scary, black shadow, hitting it with her first swing, and then just about catching its body with her second swing and causing enough damage for it to fall to the ground, its cloak crumpling to the floor as if completely empty. A weak but relieved cheer erupts from the still standing members of the party.

Then they remember that Derrick is unconscious on the ground, so they decide to revive him.

Karoshi attempts to spiritually cleanse the area, whilst the others loot the bodies and find some useful bits and pieces. They eventually draw back the curtain and see the unmoving body of Clarice. She appears to be dead, but an upset Iwee still uses her last spell slot to try to revive her with some healing. This seems to work - although the girl remains unconscious, the healing has brought her back from the brink, and she is alive!

They carry Clarice out of the temple, somewhat wary of the crystal minotaur which seems to have regained its position on the bridge, but they manage to cross the bridge without incident - possibly due to Iwee using the medallion she recovered from Feandris' body.

Upon exiting the tower, they are challenged by the three clerics who originally shut them in, but Derrick and the rest of the group manage to intimidate them enough to cause them to back off and let the party, and Clarice, escape the abbey ruins and make their way back to the slaves in the quarry.

Clarice is now conscious and is welcomed back with massive relief and eternal gratitude from her parents, Bart and Helen. Jaxii has a moving and very emotional moment with her mother, Tamara, who presents her with her birth-right from her clan on her mother's side, of which Jaxii was unaware. The Nakshatra Charm, the Gift of the Ancients. It provides Jaxii with visions of her ancestors, their lives and their history. Jaxii needs to pass into the Charm her own history and story as it evolves, to continue the lineage and history of the clan. In return, the Charm provides some potentially useful magical abilities.

The group manage to pass through the dunes without incident - they suspect because of the medallion that Iwee obtained from Feandris. When they reach the beach they find Bayleaf sitting with Bluespot and one other pirate, Harile. They had tried to make it across the dunes without a medallion and lost two of their remaining party in the process from encounters with crystal skeletons. Bluespot is drained and offers no resistance when our "Heroes" demand their items and money back from him. Somehow, many of the group appear to end up with more money than they started with.

Their ship, The Tired Adventurer, appears as expected on the horizon later that day and the group, complete with Bayleaf, the two remaining pirates, and the eight slaves, board the ship and eventually make it safely back to Neverwinter.

Back in port they trade in their gems, and identify the warhammer, Smite, which Karoshi is happy to add to his armoury. They contemplate the offer of keeping one of the historical artifacts, once they find out what powers they hold, but graciously instead hand over the items to the temples of the Benevolent Gods for them to keep - in return for 1,000gp of course.

Bluespot and Harile, the pirates, disappear quickly once in Neverwinter. Bayleaf looks for more mercenary work, thanking the group for rescuing them. The slaves are penniless - the party decide to give each slave 40gp each (10gp from each of the party) to help them make a fresh start - though Karoshi took a little persuading to do so! The paladin did speak with the priests at the local temples and arranged for the slaves to get some work in the churches around the city. Tamara is able to find work in the hospital and all is well.

This allows them all to LEVEL UP to Level 6!

How do we beat the clerics of Shah?

(To the tune of Drunken Sailor)

How do we beat the clerics of Shah?

Out on Abbey Isle