Session 91: Chloracridara's Lair Part 2. Report

General Summary

Session 91 – Wednesday August 7, 2024: Chloracridara’s Lair part 2

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

The Stone Bearers. Party of 4:

It is the 6th day of the month of Alturiak (The Claw of winter) in the 51st year of the Age of Enialis (Early Feb.)

• Ajani– High Elf, L15 Wizard – Nathan Gioconda
• Cassidy – Human, L15Blood hunter – Ryan Armstrong (Remote)
• Gazlowe – Goblin, L16 Artificer – Josh Pozsonyi
• Isabella – Forest Gnome, L15 Barbarian – Jackie Armstrong
• Juan Peyote – Gnome L15 Paladin – Will Johnson
• Seften Mitcaver – Human, L15 Cleric – Jacob Munson (Absent)

Need to rest!

Cassidy Sneezed, Ajani appeared, and Isabella disappeared. Cassidy, badly hurt said, “I need to rest.” Gazlowe however, was interested in exploring. Juan flew Gazlowe and Ajani to the well-lit area in the East. Light emanated from one of the chamber’s two aoccupants, an angelic creature of stained glass and sunlight who was in hushed conversation with the silhouette of a cloaked humanoid formed of mist and chill. Tables, desks, and other furniture littered what was otherwise a natural cavern. The furniture was covered in notes, diagrams, and drawings. The brilliant angelic being held a thick black tome bound with three leather straps.   Gazlowe asked, “Do you mind if we crash here?” Gazlowe assumed the angelic creatures were “Good” when they asked if he wanted to bring darkness to the world and the told them “No.” The Angelic beings were clearly corrupt as they professed their loyalty to Chloracridara. The Mist looked at Juan and said, “Paladins are not welcome.” Gazlowe learned that the bright creature Spicule, was a corrupt elemental sunlight nexus and Brume an elemental essence of mist. Both wanted to bring about darkness to the land. Brume started to threaten Juan, and Juan fled on Bird.   Gazlowe looked around and saw diagrams of angels bound by black ropes, with arcane runes that hinted at “draining power and light.” He also observed that the makeshift shelves held jars of hearts, eyes, and other body parts of various creatures. The drawings hinted at an empyrean stag being drained and its organs harvested.

The Stag

Gazlowe suggested that they are connoisseurs of exotic meats and Chloracridara told them about an Empyrean Stag that she had. The elementals pointed down the hall where Gazlowe found an Empyrean Stag looking rather lifeless being held by long black tentacles that seemed to be sucking the life out of it. Ajani asked the Mist creature why it looked so happy. It explained they just finished extracting the life essence.   Gazlowe realized they have a slight chance to bring it back, but he needed to act quickly. He told Ajani “Get ready” and yelled to Juan, “Heal this thing!” He pulled out his portal gun and transported the Stag over to Juan on the other side of the cavern where the others were. The sunlight creature grew bright, and the mist grew dark. The others were startled by the appearance of the Stag and knew Gazlowe and Ajani were in trouble. Cassidy sighed.

An elemental battle.

Ajani pulled out a black marble and cast Gravity Sinkhole against the wall behind the enemies. The creatures got sucked towards the center and took some force damage. The mist moved towards Ajani and its mere presence sucked the breath out of Ajani leaving him unable to speak. The Mist then brutally slashed Ajani. Cassidy sneezed and Isabella showed up. Gazlowe grasped in Horror at Ajani and that caught Isabella’s attention. Juan, on bird charged towards the mist.   Bird and Juan struck the mist hurting it badly. Gazlowe popped out of the armor and like a master builder, he created a metal construct (casting summon construct) that charged into the battle bloodying the mist. The light creature grew brightly and healed the mist. Isabella, badly hurt but concerned, went into a rage and critically struck the mist with her great axe. Ajani, unable to speak, pulled out some clamupium and cast dimension door to get out of danger. Cassidy shot a couple bolts but missed.   The Mist, badly hurt, struck Isabella and knocked her out. It then hit her again. Trying to kill her. Bird brought Juan to Isabella where he jumped down and laid his hands on her, healing her a bit. Gazlowe punched the mist unusually hard and destroyed the mist with his thunderous punches. The Light creature grew brightly in anger. The summoned construct struck the angelic light Spicule. The light grew brighter, healed itself and blinded those right around it.   Isabella stood up after being revived and recklessly attacked Spicule. Ajani hit it with a chromatic orb, bloodying the creature. Cassidy cast chill touch and prevented the creature from healing itself for a little bit at least. Bird and Juan attacked. Gazlowe finished it off with a critical punch! The bright light faded, outshone by Gazlowe’s radiance.

The Stag

After the battle Isabella and Cassidy examined the Stag, they couldn’t find a pulse. Isabella used her best healing potion on the creature, but it had no effect, it was dead. Gazlowe took out his defibrillator paddles, yelled “Clear!” and cast revivify. It came back to life but was in bad shape. The stag looked up, and weakly spoke in broken words, “Vampires, Darkness, Shadowfell, Aten.” He told the party to look where the tentacles are for the treasure and that the vampires took Aten. Cassidy said, “Can we rest now?” Gazlowe said, “We need to look at the tentacles first.”

The Treasure room’s guardians.

Gazlowe spread grease all over the tentacles and Ajani shot a firebolt on them. The tentacles burst into flames, screamed and then fell limp. Juan cut a bit of the tentacle and tried it. The acid burned his mouth, and he said, “Spicey.   They examined the walls behind the tentacles and found a secret door. Opening it, they saw a massive pile of coins and treasure along with a couple of large statues in the room. Gazlowe ran into the room and like Scrouge McDuck, dove into the treasure pile. The statues of course were fiends (Lacunas) assigned to protect the treasure, and they immediately attacked Gazlowe. Cassidy sighed again.   Isabella downed a potion of haste and said, “We’re taking a long rest after this!” She then charged in with her axe and struck one of the Lacunas. Ajani shot a chromatic orb and hit the creature, Bird landed a critical blow, and the creature teleported to the other side of the room away from Juan. Juan struck the 2nd creature. The Lacuna tried to infuse sadness on the party. Isabella, Gazlowe and his construct became overwhelmed with grief. Gazlowe said, “Soo much copper!” as he wept. The Lacuna then struck Gazlowe’s construct and destroyed it. The other Lacuna used its sadness feature and Juan and Ajani succumbed to grief. It then struck Isabella and knocked her unconscious.   Cassidy ran to Isabella and cast spare the dying. He looked at the others and said, “We need to get the hells out of here!” Gazlowe tried to attack the creatures but missed. Isabella stood up with only 1 hit point and said, “Flame on!” She went reckless and struck the Lacuna 3 times with her sword bloodying it. Ajani stood back and shot a psychic lance at the creature hurting the creature and incapacitating it. Ajani shook off his sadness. Juan critically hit the creature destroying it!   The party focused on the last remaining creature that was incapacitated. Juan hit it with his sword and bloodied it. Cassidy landed 2 blows with her whip and did minimal damage. Gazlowe walked up to it and struck it twice. Isabella landed three blows with her flame sword and finished it off. The fiend melted into a pool of black ichor.

We really need to rest!

Cassidy shut the door and said, “We’re taking a long rest now!” Gazlowe remined them, they needed to save Aten. They needed a celestial to help reverse the Shadowfell. Cassidy was insistent. Gazlowe said, “I’ll get him.” He an Ajani left the room and went back down the hall where they left the Empyrean stag. The stag was gone! There was a trail of blood that led to a secret door.   Gazlowe opened the door and looked inside. He saw the Empyrean stag tossed in the corner of the room. On the far side was a table with a smaller celestial creature (a Lightbender) strapped to it. There was a vampire with a knife cutting into the Lightbender and 2 vampire spawn stood by.   Gazlowe said, “We need to talk. We’ve been discovered, people are coming, we need to move to the stag to Niptu’s stronghold.” The Vampires didn’t buy it. Gazlowe yelled to the rest of the party, “They’re taking the stag!” Cassidy was not happy.

Vampires!

The Vampire spawn, with inhuman speed crawled along the wall and tried to attack Gazlowe. Cassidy dashed toward the room. Isabella (still hastened from the last battle) made it all the way into the room, attacked the vampire and landed one blow with her axe. The 2nd spawn tried to attack Gazlowe, but he couldn’t land a blow either. Juan hopped on Bird who dashed to the room. Juan landed a couple blows on one of the spawn. Gazlowe took his only splash potion of healing (Supreme) and tossed it onto Isabella. He then punched the spawn.   Ajani ate a clove of garlic and cast banishment and the two spawn were banished, the vampire resisted the spell. The Vampire turned into a mist and floated about the room hurting everyone with necrotic damage. Juan fell unconscious from the attack. The vampire mist engulfed Ajani and he too was about to fall unconscious, but Gazlowe inspired him helping to stay alive and maintain his concentration. The Vampire then tried to charm Gazlowe, but he resisted.   Cassidy struck the Vampire with her whip. Isabella (with the last round of haste) charged with her flame sword and slew the Vampire. His body appeared on the table unconscious. Gazlowe poured a normal potion of healing down Juan’s throat. Ajani pulled out his knife and sliced 2 of the straps holding down the Lightbender. Cassidy sliced 2 others. Isabella fell to her knees feeling nauseous as the haste potion wore off.   Ajani took 2 of Isabella’s arrows and broke them. He then hammered them into the vampire’s heart. The vampire’s body froze up. Cassidy knew that the makeshift stake won’t kill the vampire, but it does render him permanently immobile. Juan walked over to the vampire and peed on him to destroy the Vampire but that didn’t do the trick. Cassidy suggested casting ceremony, but Juan needed some powdered silver. Gazlowe provided the necessary components and Juan cast ceremony, destroying the vampire forever.

A new friend

The released Lightbender rubbed up against the legs of those who freed it showing clear thanks and appreciation for being freed. Aten was an intelligent, large, lionlike creature with a silvery white shimmering coat and a long double tail. The creature had a light emanating from a glowing sphere between two horns on its head. The creature took a liking to Ajani and seemed to be protective of the group.

A long rest

The party went into the treasure room and took a long rest. In the morning, they also sorted through the treasure (See Treasure Below.) The party wandered around the rest of the lair for a bit, Cassidy collected a bit of the poison. The Empyrean Stag, Calypso, was still badly hurt from the ordeal he had gone through. He charged the party to care for Aten as Calypso needed to return to the celestial plane. Calypso explained that Altair had been compromised and is resting in the celestial plane.   Cassidy told Calypso the full story of how they were tricked into taking Altair’s heart and suggested they he be closely watched. Calypso asked for the name of the adventuring party and Cassidy replied, “Eversus and Friends.” Calypso handed Ajani a tuning fork to his celestial plane and then Calypso opened a portal to his celestial plane and bid the party fare well.

Back to Mistmaster

The party tried to put the treasure into the portable hole, but found they didn’t have room for everything plus the party as they need to leave in the portable hole. They left all the chairs behind. Cassidy swam through the lakes and brought the others to safety. She realized they left the jars of celestial parts behind so Cassidy went back to get them. She came back and was badly hurt.   The party made their way back to the Mistmaster’s home, the Citadel of the Mists. The Mistmaster’s home was a castle enveloped in the fog, with 3 towers and wall's connecting them symbolic of the Gatekeeper’s Crystal used to kill Niptu the first time. The keep was Protected by air elementals. The place was made to look well kept by illusionary magic, but the inside was quite plain and primitive.   The party explained all that happened in Chloracridara’s lair. The Mistmaster explained that he had read much of the materials they provided and learned that the process to reverse the Shadowfell will require a “living sacrifice” of a large celestial creature. The party all looked at Aten.   The Mistmaster offered the party to stay for a few days as the Red Lady will be coming to his keep soon. He told the party that a hoard of Fey’ri is reported to be gathering at Hellgate keep and the Red Lady had assembled a small army of various factions. She’s coming to discuss tactics. In the meantime, the party spent a few days resting and preparing to level up.

Rewards Granted

Treasure

From the treasure Room

• • Cloak of the bat
• Dagger of venom
• Chloracridara’s Sun eater staff
• Potions:
• Better Healing
• Superior Healing
• Get Lucky
• Comprehension
• Frost Giant Str
• Invulnerability
• Lesser Restoration
• Fire Resistance
• Potion of Agility
• Black onyx bowl (worth 500 gp)
• Porcelain vase adorned with stylized draconic art (worth 2,000 gp)
• Dragon-horn comb engraved with gothic imagery and veined with black tourmaline (3,000 gp)
• Marble statue of a weeping human with black opal eyes (worth 4,500 gp)
• Gold cup with serpentine handles, embedded with emeralds (worth 5,000 gp)
• Ring inlaid with smooth obsidian surrounded by black diamonds (worth 5,000 gp)
• 100,000 cp
• 40,000 sp
• 10,000 gp
• 1,500 pp

Heavenkiller Chronicles

Spicule’s vast tome contains secrets concerning celestials and how to use them to fuel dark magic. You must spend 50 hours studying this tome to gain the following benefits:

• Using an action, you have advantage on Intelligence checks to determine the vulnerabilities and weaknesses of Celestials.
• You deal an extra 9 (2d8) damage to Celestials when you hit them with an attack.
• You know how to harvest parts of Celestials and use them to fuel dark magic. You can harvest a heart, eye, or other useful organ from a Celestial’s corpse with a successful DC 16 Wisdom (Survival) check. You can use a harvested Celestial organ in place of one material component that would normally be consumed by the spell, up to a cost of 2,500 gp.