Session 109

The battle continues with the Bonemass. As the party continues to throw everything they have at it, the situation escalates as the Bonemass takes Moonshadow, whom he was holding in his hand, and inserts him into his mass of bodies, leaving Moonshadow stuck within, struggling to get out. The Bonemass then focused on grabbing Dorin. Meanwhile, one of the skeletons cast off of the Bonemass' body approached Dain from behind and as its ribcage opened up wide, it lunged at him and encased Dain within its ribcage, piercing him with its bones as it restrained him. Seeing that his magic would be useless against these undead, Valdor elected to sacrifice his own vitality to heal the party, as they were beginning to get overwhelmed. As Moonshadow repeatedly failed to extricate himself from the Bonemass' body, Dain used Vortex Warp to free him. Moonshadow had been drained severely from behind incorporated into the Bonemass, and looked haggard. Dorin was grabbed multiple times, being dropped each time Merrick used his Crown of Stars motes to daze the Bonemass, causing him to drop Dorin. After grabbing Dorin, the Bonemass moved over to Moonshadow, who was dealing some devastating blows to the Bonemass, and stomped on him, injuring Moonshadow severely. Merrick used his Crown of Stars motes to get the Bonemass' attention as the skeletons swarmed him, and Dain moved in to wail on the Bonemass after using Misty Step to escape the hold of the skeleton. The Bonemass, who had been effortlessly smashing others, began to struggle to hit Dain, getting increasingly more angry as Dain dealt it a serious blow with a Branding Smite. Finally, Merrick unleashed his final Crown of Stars mote, finishing the Bonemass off for good, as the bodies that composed its mass began to fall apart into a large, putrid pile. As it fell apart, the skeletons it had created collapsed, their magic extinguished. As the party regrouped and began to nurse their wounds, Valdor restored Moonshadow's lost vitality, and the group settled down to take a break, during which Dain had to repair the Steel Defender, which had been smashed to bits by the Bonemass during the fight. The group then approached The Obelisk just through the trees.

With the door still partially open from their last visit, Dain moved to open it. As he did, a putrid odor of death hit him as he noticed that the bottom floor of the tower was filled with some sort of blue haze obscuring vision within the room slightly, and he also noticed large thick thorned vines growing along the walls. Before he could really register the haze and its potential danger, it began to move forward out of the door and engulfed him and his comrades directly behind him, draining their vitality. Dain backed off, and Merrick wondered if perhaps the haze could be flammable, and decided to let loose a Firebolt to test this theory. Unfortunately, he didn't wait for Dain to move out of the way first and as the Firebolt caused the thick blue miasma to erupt in a violent explosion, it exploded out of the door, nearly scorching Dain, who moved just in time to avoid it. He then looked at Merrick in annoyance before continuing into the tower. The party moved to ascend the tower, and noticed the large, thick white vines growing on the walls. As they moved past them, they heard a sickening wet noise as the vines peeled away from the wall and moved to lash out at them. Merrick narrowly managed to avoid being grabbed by the legs, while Dain took a bludgeoning strike to the chest. However, they managed to get up the stairs and out of the range of the vines, ascending past the library, now filled with many types of plants they recognized from their last visit to Aubron's garden here, with stalks made of bone protruding from several patches of foliage. As they continued up to the third floor, they found a large hole in the wall with a very large trail of blood dragged across the floor from Aubron's operating tables and ritual room toward the wall hole. Likely the origin of the Bonemass they had just killed. As they ascended the final staircase to the fourth floor where Aubron's garden lie, they came upon a bulb with blue veins leading to an opening leaking the blue miasma they had seen downstairs. They backed off and Merrick hit it with another Firebolt, causing it to explode violently, leaking a small amount of the blue miasma all over the immediate area, which immediately ignited and exploded. Finally reaching Aubron's garden, they took in the sight of the overgrown room, having vines all along the walls and bone stalks protruding from the ground. In the darkest area of the room, they saw a large fungus giving off a soft blue glow and leaking the blue miasma. Dain decided to burn it to a crisp, sending the party back down the stairs while he went to toss a Fireball into the room. However, as he did, the spell fizzled, and he heard wet footsteps approaching from the opposite staircase that led to Aubron's chambers, and ragged breathing. A rotted carcass emerged with eyes glowing -- it was Aubron, or what remained of him at least.

The creature snarled and Dain heard agonized groans from the garden as several Shadows emerged from the haunted plants. With most of the party constrained by the narrow staircases and small area, Dain charged forward and attempted to fight Aubron, but Aubron managed to deflect his attack with a vine from the wall before reaching out and touching him with his necrotized hand, which drained Dain's vitality and infected him with a powerful contagion, leaving him exhausted and physically drained. Aubron then became invisible after being engulfed in a whirlwind of smoke coming from his cloak. The party turned their attention to the approaching Shadows, which Merrick managed to temporarily disable with a Hypnotic Pattern. However, the vines on the walls seemed to come alive and repeatedly attempted to bash the group or grab them if they moved to attack the fungus. Aubron then reappeared, releasing a cloud of spores, further draining the vitality of the party members it came into contact with. One of the vines managed to grab Dorin, restraining him and snaking around him like a serpent. Merrick moved into the room past the others and unleashed a Flaming Sphere, killing one of the Shadows, who regained control of their intentions. However, the Flaming Sphere seemed to have no effect when Merrick attempted to use it to destroy the fungus. The Shadows then moved in and began to attack Dorin, who was helpless due to being restrained by the vines, and they began to wither away his physical strength. As the group crowded at the top of the staircase, Aubron caused a bulb to rapidly form on the wall, which exploded, unleashing more of the miasma on the party and draining their vitality. Aubron also managed to infect Summer with the fungus that was sapping Dain's strength.