Session 87: Kortar Rising Part 4 Report

General Summary

Session 87 – Wednesday July 10, 2024: Kortar Rising Part 4

4-hour Exploration session 5:30 PM to 10:00 PM.

The Stone Bearers. Party of 5:

It is the 3rd day of the month of Alturiak (The Claw of winter) in the 51st year of the Age of Enialis (Early Feb.)

• Ajani– High Elf, L14 Wizard – Nathan Gioconda
• Cassidy – Human, L14Blood hunter – Ryan Armstrong (Remote)
• Gazlowe – Goblin, L15 Artificer – Josh Pozsonyi (Absent)
• Isabella – Forest Gnome, L14 Barbarian – Jackie Armstrong
• Juan Peyote – Gnome L14 Paladin – Will Johnson
• Seften Mitcaver – Human, L14 Cleric – Jacob Munson

Gisella

Cassidy sneezed and Ajani switched places with Gazlowe in the material plane. Cassidy, said, “We need to kill this witch.” Seften suggested a bit of healing, so Cassidy accepted a healing potion from Isabella. With Gazlowe gone they realized they needed to break down any locked door, so Isabella became the new door opener. Seften gave Isabella a crowbar and some guidance. Isabella broke the hinges to the iron door and opened it.   Inside they saw an attractive but very pale and thin female with dark hair. Ajani immediately recognized the room as a prison cell. They learned that the female is a vampire named Gisella Von Glauer (the youngest daughter of the Marques Kurtis von Glauer.) They learned that she’s a prisoner and she offered to help if one of the Stone Bearers would willingly give her some blood. Juan quickly offered his arm. She gained 50hp and lowered Juan’s max by 50hp.   Seeing the weakened Juan, Seften suggested he take the potion of Sufficient Restoration. Juan did so and then privately lay on hands to himself to restore his health. Gisella pulled out two wands she had hidden. She used one of them to cast detect magic and pointed out to the party where all the traps are in the hall. She then used the other to dispel one of the traps. She told the party she only has one more use of that wand and then said, “I’m not sure which way to go.” She gave the wands to Ajani trusting he’ll make better use of them. Gisella requested they find some living creatures to help restore more of her health. Cassidy offered her a vial of blood and Gisella thanked her.

Necromancy Lab

They went north and broke open another door like Gisella’s door. They found an empty cell that had humanoid bones in it. Isabella broke open the next door down the hall revealing a short passageway. Before going down the hall Isabella wanted to examine the other doors. Seften listened to one and heard a faint gurgling sound but couldn’t identify what it was.   Isabella broke the hinges, and the party removed the door. Inside they saw a large lab room with 20-foot-high ceilings that were covered with soot. The center of the room contained a large lab table scattered with various items. There was a glowing enchantment table in the NW corner and a cauldron with a glowing green mist in the SE Corner.   Isabella pointed at the cauldron and said “Lich!” Ajani took out the wand of dispel magic as the party positioned themselves around the room ready to react in case it failed. Fortunately, Ajani expertly used the wand, waving it rhythmically and the mist disappeared leaving a cauldron of grey goop. Cassidy heard a faint ethereal scream. Isabella said, “Is that it?” Cassidy said I think it worked. The spent wand in Ajani’s hand dissolved into dust.   Juan took a sip from the cauldron and it caused a searing pain, leaving him momentarily paralyzed. After a moment, the effect wore off, but Juan was hurt. Juan said, “What a brain freeze! Want some?” Cassidy rolled her eyes and collected a vial of glop from the cauldron. The party searched the room and found many spell reagents (See Treasure below.)   They went to glowing enchantment table and Ajani expertly cast Dispel magic, this time, without the wand. The glowing ceased and the table crumbled to dust. Again, Cassidy perceived a faint ethereal scream indicating the dispel succeeded. Juan of course walked over and tasted some of the dust, again resulting in an excruciating headache and left him coughing and unable to speak or move for a few moments. To quench his cough, he took another sip from the cauldron resulting yet another brain freeze.

A temple to Prudish

There was a door on the southern wall of the lab. Isabella couldn’t break the hinges. Seften pointed out the weak spots and Cassidy poured a vial of acid in the weak spots. Isabella was then able to broke the door open. Immediately Seften felt anguish and despair. He heard the faint voice of Snuffelsnort say, “Noooo!” as it faded into silence.   The room was well lit with a low ceiling. There were 6 small stone pews facing a large stone altar. Cassidy looked and the alter and recognized the symbols of purity, chastity, abstinence, celibacy, forsakenness and loneliness. She knew this was a temple to the goddess Prudish, the arch enemy of Snuffelsnort. Seften felt weak as the spirt of Snufflesnort was snuffed out and had no power here. Seften realized he was going to be powerless without Snuffelsnort.

The Avatar of Prudish

A beautiful (but conservatively dressed) woman appeared behind the alter. She said, “I sense a follower of Snuffelsnort!” Cassidy said, “I will neither condemn nor condone Seften’s religious choices, but I will defend him.” Prudish said, “He must die!” Cassidy tried to block the door. Prudish shot a bolt at Seften and tried to get Cassidy out of the way but failed. Juan squeezed into the room but couldn’t hit Prudish. Ajani looked in the room and tried to banish Prudish, but she resisted. Gisella ran in and clawed Prudish, but it wasn’t very effective.   Isabella went into the room and slashed Prudish with her flame sword. Cassidy looked at the altar, approached it, and hit it with her whips. Prudish looked concerned but focused on Seften. Seften walked up to Prudish saying, “I know you don’t like Snuffelsnort, but he’s all about love and acceptance and he hugged her.” The hug dealt her psychic damage. She yelled, “It burns us!” She swung her hammer on Seften and landed two critical blows!” (dealing about 100hp dmg!)   Juan hit her twice and then again with his spiritual weapon. Isabella saw that Prudish was bloodied and yelled out, “She’s vulnerable to Radiant Damage!” Cassidy said, “The alter is the source of her power.” Ajani lifted his robes revealing his shapely ankles and said, “Look at me!” He then hit her with a chromatic orb. Cassidy lit her crossbow with radiant energy and hit Prudish leaving her badly bloodied. Seften continued to hug Prudish. He pulled his dragon sword out and slowly pushed it into her back saying “Shhh, Shhh, It’s okay. It’s okay.” Prudish screamed and faded to nothing.   Seften heard a faint voice of Snuffelsnort telling him, “Destroy her source of power. The party joined together and grabbed their bludgeoning weapons. Seften used his masonry tools guiding the others. They all wailed on the alter turning it into a pile of rubble with Juan landing the final blow in superhero style. Snuffelsnort returned to Seften, and hugs were shared by all.

A startling revelation.

Ajani spent some time charming Gisella as he and the party examined the room. Cassidy examined a section of the room and standing back he saw a depiction of Snuffelsnort with his throat slit. He pointed it out to the others. Isabella gazed at it and saw a pachyderm type creature with a long snout and spots. She said, “Snuffelsnort is a Heffalump?!?!”

A secret room.

Investigating the wall thoroughly, Cassidy discovered a secret door into a small dark storage room. In the room they found 4 urns, one of which was made of Adamantine. There was a large stone chest that contained a slew of items (see treasure below.) The party wasn’t sure what to do with them. Ajani cast detect magic and learned that all of them had a necrotic aura about them except for 2 items. The Adamantine urn had an Abjuration aura covering the necrotic aura and the Crown had a conjuration aura about it.   Isabella started to place the items into the portable hole and accidentally broke one of the urns. Seften heard an ethereal scream as the magic aura faded from the porcelain urn. Cassidy suggested that these may be the lich’s phylacteries. Ajani suggested that they find out which lich owns which phylactery and sell them back. “It would make Gazlowe proud!”   Cassidy suggested they put them by the fireball traps and set it off. Isabella agreed and they took the items and placed them into the hall next to the fireball trap. Ajani tried to cast Mage Hand, but it didn’t work due to the missing Weavite. He was embarrassed in front of Gisella. Seften found a stone and threw it. It bounced onto and then off the trap. The fireball exploded. Cassidy heard 4 screams as the other two porcelain urns, the wooden cup and the red cloth were destroyed. Cassidy collected the remaining items, placing the 4 gems into the spell scroll case and then put the items into the portable hole. However, she did hold onto the gold crown with the conjuration aura.

A Pact Lich in the hallway.

The party went to the last door to the northeast and Isabella broke it down. It was the other end of the collapsed hall. Turning around they went into the hallway they saw earlier. It was short and ended in another door that led to yet another long hallway. Looking down the hall they saw dark lich who held out a scimitar and said, “By the power of Prudish!” The Scimitar started to glow green. Cassidy stood in front of Isabella and took all 4 hits of the Lich’s eldritch blast. The force threw Cassidy into Isabella and Cassidy fell prone looking pretty bad.   Isabella ran forward and shot her non-magical crossbow at the lich, it hit but did nothing. Cassidy stood up and hit the lich with a magical crossbow bolt. Seften cast heal on himself and stayed out of sight. Ajani peeked into the hall and shot a chromatic orb of thunder at the Lich and then backed out of the hall. The Lich said a short prayer to Prudish ending with “and send her to Hell!” A pit opened below Isabella’s feet as she was then hurled through the nightmarish landscape of the lower planes taking intense psychic damage. Cassidy moved forward and slashed the crap out of the lich with her whip. The Lich used his legendary action to banish Cassidy.   From Juans perspective, he saw Isabella fall into a pit and then Cassidy just disappeared. The other members were outside the hall and Juan was alone on Bird. He said, “Hello?” He shrugged and then urged Bird to dash to the lich. Juan hit the lich hard and then landed a critical blow with his sword and smote the lich leaving it near death. The hit was so hard the Lich lost his concentration and Cassidy reappeared. Seften looked into the hall and threw his hand axe at the lich. The axe landed on the ground near the lich’s feat. Ajani went to cast a spell but missed. The lich, near death, saw Cassidy as an opportunity to regain some health. He hit her with an eldritch blast hoping to finish her off. The first hit wasn’t quite enough. Cassidy had also branded the Lich so when the eldritch blast hit, the Lich’s brain was destroyed with psychic damage. Isabella returned from her journey through hell. She landed in the hallway in the fetal position, frightened. Juan slapped her in the face, removing her fear.

The Archive

The party moved to the end of the hall and broke the door open. They found themselves in yet another hall that ran east – west with 6 doors: 2 in the east, 2 in the middle and 2 in the west. The east and west doors were well illuminated by torches. The 2 in the middle were dark. They looked at the doors. Most looked alike except the door in the west wall that was a large double iron door. The center northern door had an elvish sign that read “Archive.” None of the other doors had signs.   Isabella broke open the door to the Archive. They looked for traps and found none. The room had an array of bookshelves. Ajani picked up a few and glanced through them. The books contained explicit details of failed experiments. Most books concluded with “Need blood from powerful celestial.”

Enchantment lab.

Isabella led the party to the larger door on the western end next and broke it open. They entered a very large enchantment lab. The ceilings were 30 feet high with no signs of soot like they saw in the other lab. Tables and spell components littered the room. Another large Iron double door was prominent on the western wall opposite the door they entered. There was a glowing enchantment table in the SE corner and a cauldron with glowing green mist just south of the door through which they entered.   Isabella pointed to the cauldron and asked Ajani to “disassemble the magic.” Ajani agreed and the party took positions around the cauldron. There was a “clink” against the large iron door that distracted the party. Juan went to listen and heard a low growl. Not wanting to deal with this at the moment, Isabella moved one of the tables in front of the door and asked Ajani to deal with the Cauldron first.   Ajani cast dispel magic but this time he wasn’t successful. A powerful wave of psychic and necrotic energy burst from the cauldron. Isabella and Juan grabbed their heads in pain as the energy pierced their minds rendering them effectively blind and restrained for a round. The mist formed into a lich who stood over the cauldron and said, “Who disturbs my magic!?” She pointed her fingers at the stone bearers….

Rewards Granted

Treasure

Necromancy Lab

• 1 vial of Kotar mystic cauldron glop.
• pieces of jacinth worth at least 1,000 gp
• 4 bars of ornately carved silver worth at least 100 gp
• A diamond worth at least 1,000gp
• A tiny silver cage worth 100gp
• A black onyx stone worth 150gp
• A Black pearl worth 500gp

Storage room

(after detect magic all have a *Necrotic aura unless noted)

• • 3 Porcelain Urns (250gp each to a collector) *Destroyed by fireball.
• 1 Adamantine Urn *Abjuration aura over a Necrotic Aura.
• 1,000 gp diamond
• 1,000 gp ruby
• 500 gp Emerald
• A gold and platinum crown (500gp) *Conjuration Aura.
• A Solid Gold Scroll case (500gp)
• An old red and tattered cape *Destroyed by fireball.
• A fancy gold and Jewel encrusted cup (1,000gp)
• A common wooden cup. *Destroyed by fireball.
• A fancy wand made from bone

Pact Litch

• • A +1 Scimitar