Nineteenth Session
| Campaign | The Primordial Campaign |
|---|---|
| Game Date | Tuesday, March 11th, 2021 |
| Start Date | Evening, Mawsim 15th, 261 IM |
| Start Location | The Grand Kizil Hotel, Kizil, Aydahar Confederation |
| Ending Date | Evening, Mawsim 16th, 261 IM |
| Ending Location | The Grand Kizil Hotel, Kizil, Aydahar Confederation |
| Next Session | Twentieth Session |
The session started with on the evening of the 15th of Mawsim with the party preparing their plans for the next day. The plan, was to lure Turar Sarsen, the Eldest Disciple of the Kizil Chantry of Jormungandr to the hotel where he would be held until such time as a suggestion spell could manipulate him to calling the red dragon (met in Session Eighteen) back to Kizil, while the party made their way south to loot the dragon's hoard!
The Sting
When the elderly cleric arrived at The Grand Kizil Hotel the staff was very quick to invite him to some breakfast. Serani Devalinth asked if he would like to eat something before going up to meet the leader of her sect. He responded, "Yes!" and was escorted into the tavern for a morning meal of ankheg leg, a local delicacy. Serani continued to chitchat while he ate and as soon as his meal was finished invited him up to Panamon's suite, where he would fine Panamon Cree, disguised as an elderly cleric of Loki.
On the way to the stairs, Mama Tess cast a bane to weaken the Eldest Disciple should trouble arise, but he did not seem to be affected by the spell in the least. Some semaphore was made between the party so that everyone understood that the spell hadn't worked. Nonetheless, Sarani cast her suggestion spell and told the old cleric that he should summon the dragon. The cleric looked a little confused, but replied "Yes." He was then directed back down the stairs and proceeded to amble directly back to the Chantry of Jormungandr, without so much as a 'Goodbye', a look of determination on his face.
Riverside Delays
The party made to the river as quickly as possible, arriving to find that between them and their awaiting longboat stood a collection of extremely nasty looking undead. "Give us the source!" Hissed the menacing undead leader.
This much anticipated encounter turned out to be farcical for the scheming undead, who had thought they had all but sealed the party's fate. The party sunk their spells and ranged weapons into the leader. Barron Jetesiz called upon Loki to turn the undead. Oh, how they turned. All but the leader of the wraiths turned in fear, with one crumbling to dust.
The party made short work of the wraith leader and cleaned up the few wraiths who returned after being turned. The extra power from Loki and Æski provided to the cleric, paladin and warlock far exceeded what the wraiths might have anticipated. They got no closer to the source than before.
Somewhere Down the Crazy River
The party quickly embarked their craft and floated downriver toward the dragon's lair, pushed along by Mira Nephilim's water shaping skills. They caught up with the Æski cultists at the riverbank about a mile away from the lair. Dutch Dauren indicated that he had not seen or sensed a flying dragon during the trip and asked Saduakas Yermek if he or his cultists had seen the dragon depart its lair. This was met with shaking heads. The party approached the lair and once again Dutch Dauren used his abilities to try and detect a dragon; which he did; easily.
Are Green Monsters Falling From the Sky?
Despite knowing that there was indeed a large dragon in the lair, the party and the cultists approached the lair, finding two ingresses, one a bit of a climb while the other was large and clearly carved by humanoid hands. It was at this time that the party noticed something unusual about the lair, and quite unexpected. The front of the lair and the rocks above were littered with four-armed corpses of the same description as the beast that had chased Mira Nephilim nearly to her death.
The corpses all had intact skin which seemed to be a sort of exoskeleton impervious to damage. Dutch Dauren bounced arrows off of one while the rest of the party failed to harm the flexible ceramic skin with acid, fire or Panamon Cree's crackling energy. The party decided that this new discovery was secondary to the mission and proceeded to the lair's main entrance, with Panamon Cree and Mira Nephilim taking the lead.
Natural Charm
The dragon watched the party enter its lair with incredulity. It flew it to a raised pillar across a lava filled pit between itself and the party. Surely these creatures had come to seek their deaths, it thought to itself as it bellowed, "Have you come here to die?"
As it bellowed. Mira Nephilim stepped forward and explained that the dragon had been unwittingly asked to guard an artifact that was going to be used for a great evil. Rather than incinerate the party, the dragon became curious. "Go on," it bellowed and Mira continued to explain. As she explained, Erbol Aidos created an Arcane Gate, through which a stealthy Saduakas Yermek easily detecting one of the Memes of Aspan.
Saduakas Yermek had secured the meme, made his way out of the cave and directed the cult to the boat while Mira Nephilim was attempting to convince the dragon to simply give the party the meme. Realizing that the meme had already been taken, she decided to come clean with the dragon and hopefully protect the party from any reprisals, which she suspected may have come very quickly. She did. She explained to the dragon that it had been lightened of exactly one piece of loot... for a very good cause.
The dragon... did not kill anyone.
Just a Bit More Pillaging Please
Meanwhile, the party having already made a retreat from the lair's entrance decided to collect up some of the strange skeletons from the grounds around the lair's entrance. A total of 25 corpses were collected and hauled down to the boat. The disembarked animals with the help of Mira Nephilim's water shaping got the party back upriver to Kizil before nightfall.
Obsidian Black pointed out to Panamon Cree at least twice, though it perhaps felt like a lot more than twice, that they had not in fact secured the box for themselves. Lots of adventure, but no treasure. Panamon asked after the two cultists at his hotel and Saduakas' former hotel to no avail. They then proceeded to the place of the initial cultist rally, where there was no evidence of cultist activity.
It was then that Panamon Cree came to the realization that they should have passed the cultists on the river, because of Mira's water-shaping push. Realizing that the cult had gone downriver into black dragon territory in hopes of escaping very angry red dragon reprisals, he advised the party check in for one more night and head to Koke the next day.
That night, Panamon Cree cast a scrying spell to discover that Saduakas Yermek and the rest of the cultists had made it down to Kazinasi and were all fast asleep at a local tavern in that city. Checking back, the next morning, they were breakfasting and talking about skirting around red dragon territory, Kara Aydahar Region, to get to blue dragon territory and the city of Koke.
