Session 130

As Summer quickly regained her bearings and got back on her feet, she quickly stabbed one of the Bakari. However, the Bakari Warchief behind her came up behind her and clapped his hands together with such great force that it caused a shockwave which deafened Skinner and Merrick. After assaulting the Warchief with his blades and his spirits, trying to avoid the Warchief's deadly bite, Skinner fled into the air, hovering far above the angry Bakari. Down below, Dain finished off one of the remaining Bakari by bashing its head in with Stormsmasher. Merrick then used a Guiding Bolt to finish off the last of the normal Bakari, causing it to explode in a shower of radiant particles, before shooting another star from his Crown of Stars at the Warchief, badly hurting him. Summer then disengaged from the Warchief, dancing around him and the Warchief decided to go after Merrick, reaching out to grab him with a blackening hand, with Merrick narrowly dodging it, putting him off balance, which the Warchief used to swing around in an arc and clobber Merrick in the kidney with his maul, and then dropping it and swinging around to crush Merrick's shoulder. Merrick retaliated by casting Energy Flood at the Warchief and nearly finishing him off with another mote from his Crown of Stars. Far above, Skinner flew directly above the Warchief and used the abilities of his altered form to send a Sunbeam crashing down on the Warchief, obliterating him.

After the party took a moment to gather their breath, Skinner noticed something odd -- the spirits of the Bakari appeared where they had fallen and immediately began to run towards the inner streets of the city. He alerted the others and gave chase, hovering a little above the party in the air to get a better look. They followed the Bakari spirits at Skinner's direction to what appeared to be the entrance to a mine, where they saw the Bakari gathered around what appeared to be Akronite deposits, according to Skinner, who was intimately familiar with the metal. They watched on as the Bakari approached the ore and dissolved into particles of light, which flew into the metal, causing it to glow from within. They then saw growths bubble up on the Akronite ore, moving around like liquid, a strange sight indeed. Skinner, unnerved by this, but curious, decided to perform a Rite of Exorcism to try to banish the spirits from the metal, not liking this one bit. He managed to purge the four conventional Bakari from the metal, but rather than be sent to the afterlife, they reappeared outside the metal, giving him an angry look before fleeing into the mine shaft. While Skinner was distracted, a curious Merrick snuck up and took the chunk of Akronite containing the Warchief's spirit, who had avoided being purged, and put it into his Bag of Holding. Skinner returned to his original form before suggesting that they investigate the mines, wanting to know what the Bakari spirits were up to. The party grabbed some chunks of loose Akronite ore and pocketed it before proceeding.

Proceeding into the mine shaft, using Merrick's sight, they investigated several tunnels, with two being dead ends, before finding a passage that led to a large open area that appeared to be an active dig site, with a strange glow coming from it. Thinking it was the four Bakari that had fled, they moved into the open area and saw something they had not expected -- about two dozen of these Akronite deposits, all glowing with the spectral energy they had seen when the Bakari possessed the Akronite above. More alarmingly however, they spotted several glowing Akronite deposits with growths far larger than the ones they had seen above; with these ones in the shape of Bakari. Alarmed, Merrick took the hunk of Akronite containing the Warchief out of his Bag of Holding and dropped it unceremoniously, getting an annoyed look from Skinner, who hadn't noticed him take it. As Skinner began to attempt to examine the deposits to learn something new, Merrick approached one of the Akronite growths which looked almost like a fully formed Bakari, and began to use his dagger to chip away at the flaky Akronite shell. He chipped away at the face until he uncovered flesh; the creature's eye -- which snapped open to look at him. The creature suddenly jolted, its arm breaking free from the Akronite, as it tried to lash out at Merrick; but Merrick managed to dodge the creature and blast it with Eldritch Blast. However, the spell simply broke away the remaining Akronite encasing it, allowing it to charge towards him and punch him across the face twice -- hard. While Skinner and Summer were content to sit back and watch Merrick get pummeled for a bit, Dain waited a moment before jumping in to help, bashing the creature across the face twice with Stormsmasher, breaking its jaw off, killing it. Dain then yelled at Merrick for being so foolishly reckless. With everyone disturbed by what they had seen here, they decided to send a message to the Spellscar Crusade's commander, Seneshal Hellenna, to let her know what they had learned, telling her of the connection between Bakari and Akronite, which allowed them to regenerate. The only response they got was a simple "*What the fuck?*"

Proceeding down another passage, the party found another area containing more of the glowing Akronite deposits, with one growth appearing so fully developed that they thought it might hatch at any moment. They noticed that the light inside this deposit seemed to be barely visible, noticeably dimmer than all the others. Skinner decided to try something unconventional, and decided to try to stab his weapon into one of the Akronite deposits in order to make a connection to one of the Bakari spirits inside in order to Soulbind it. After some initial trouble getting his weapon to penetrate the metal, he plunged his blade deep into the metal, making a connection with the spirit within, and Skinner's will overcame the spirit's, causing the spirit to be ripped out of the Akronite and forced into one of Skinner's empty soulstones. Skinner immediately beckoned the spirit from within the Soulstone, causing the spirit of a Bakari to appear in front of him, which the whole party could see. He attempted to ask it why it was attacking his people, but got no response. Skinner then had an idea and cast Speak with Dead on the spirit. The spirit seemed to distort and scatter into a cloud of light before jumping around chaotically, then snapping back into place, reforming into a spirit resembling an Ettinor man. Startled by this, Skinner asked the man if he knew how he had become a Bakari, but the man said he did not know what that was and that the last thing he remembered was the sky darkening before numerous lightning strikes happened all around his village, and then he saw a flash and everything went dark. Skinner asked how he died, but the spirit seemed to not be aware that he WAS dead. Skinner turned to the party and asked if they had any ideas, and the spirit quickly replied "*No.*", annoying Skinner. He asked the spirit where he was when he died, and was told that he was within his home village of Taluloko. Finally, Skinner asked if any of the spirit's village residents were also caught in these flashes of light, and the spirit said that the lightning strikes were numerous and happening all around his village, so most likely yes. As the spirit began to dissolve after answering Skinner's questions, it reformed back into a Bakari, who looked down at itself in apparent confusion. Skinner asked if anyone had any magic to "banish evil", but neither Dain nor Merrick knew how to help. Not expecting to find any more answers, the group proceeded to back out of the mine shaft, where Skinner asked Dain to collapse the tunnel to ensure the Bakari would never get out. Dain obliged, lobbing a Fireball into the tunnel, causing the rocks to destabilize and collapse, filling the passage with several tons of rock. They then moved further through Koranir's inner city to a pass that led to a ravine...

Arriving at this ravine, they could see a bridge spanning across it, with the mesas butting up against the ravine's edge, leaving them with no option but to cross it. The storm began to die down, but its winds buffeted them with force. As they approached the bridge, they could clearly see that some of the boards had rotted thoroughly from years of rain and disrepair. Summer offered to go first, with the party tying a couple ropes together and attaching it to her. She proceeded carefully across the bridge, nearly falling through several rotted planks, but catching herself each time. After some close calls, she made it to the other side, where she tied off the rope to the bridge support, with Skinner tying it to his side. Skinner then began to cross the bridge, using the rope as a lifeline to avoid falling, narrowly loosing his grip on it several times as boards fell out from under him, before he too made it there. Dain, not having the patience for such things, simply cast Dimension Door to reach the other side. Finally, Merrick began to cross, and had minimal trouble now that Summer and Skinner had fallen through several of the most hazardous areas. As they reached the other side, they came up to a flat plateau and the storm began to subside. They continued on their journey south for several weeks, following the southern coast past a mountain range, until they saw a town in the distance, on the other side of the mountains...

Approaching the town, they could see a number of Ettinor, going about their daily lives. As they approached, several looked at the party astonished and confused, with one man moving to run for one of the larger buildings in the town center. One of the women approached Skinner, speaking to him in Ettunak, asking him his business. As Skinner explained wanting to find a Soulbinder to help them with their predicament, the woman seemed hostile at the mention of Soulbinding, mentioning a "deviant" that lived near the riverbank on the west side of town, saying that he devours souls and that it was not natural, and that he had lived for far too long, apparently having lived in the town for almost two centuries. Skinner decided to switch topics, asking about his family, mentioning his family name to the woman. The woman seemed to be familiar with it, and directed Skinner to the eastern side of town. Skinner thanked the woman and went towards the eastern side of town. After getting further directions from others, Skinner found his way to a hut without a door, with beads made of bone hanging on strings in the doorway. Skinner hesitated for a moment before knocking on the side of the building. He heard a raspy old woman's voice answer, asking if it was "Ovol" again, telling him to go away; but Skinner corrected her, and she approached with a look of confused recognition on her face. She told Skinner that he looked just like her father, asking who he was. Skinner told her that he was the son of Thokkar, which caused the woman to say that that was her brother, asking how he was. Skinner had to deliver the unfortunate news that he had died, which saddened the woman, but she asked if he died well. Skinner told her of how he had sought a better life for them and died trying to find a way to protect their new way of life. He asked why his father left Marakan, and the woman explained that Marakan had a complicated history with Soulbinding, mostly due to the deviant by the river named Kogano, who devoured souls, which soured the town's opinion of Soulbinding. Skinner tried to defend Soulbinding, but the woman corrected him saying that it was not her that he needed to convince, saying that many in their family had shared this gift, though she and her sons had not inherited it. She said that Thokkar had left the town because he believed staying would mean a slow death fighting a pointless war that had raged for almost a century, and that he had wanted to seek a solution elsewhere. Skinner understood, saying he wanted to make sure there would be no more pointless deaths. At that, two Ettinor men walked over, asking about Skinner, and the woman addressed the older one as Teor, telling him that Skinner was his cousin. However, upon explaining what he was seeking, Teor spat on the ground, seeming offended that Skinner wanted to speak to Kogano. The woman hushed him and asked him to guide Skinner to his hut, and the man reluctantly agreed, escorting Skinner to the edge of the west side of town, pointing out the hut, before parting ways. As they drew closer to the hut, they saw an old Ettinor man hunched over sitting on a rock, whittling bone. He glanced at the party as they approached, and they could see his cool, glowing blue eyes -- like that of a spirit.

Without turning to them, Kogano greeted them asking why they would travel past Koranir and risk being ostracized by the town to speak to him. Skinner introduced himself and explained what they had come seeking, recounting Andozar's actions, destroying Mythwell, and explaining that they sought a way to destroy a Soulstone. Skinner seemed to struggle to explain the specifics of the situation, confusing Kogano, until Merrick decided that the simplest way to handle this would be to Commune with Orick. He performed his ritual as Kogano watched on in confusion, until he eventually conjured Orick in front of them. Orick greeted a startled Kogano, who was alarmed by Orick's appearance. Orick explained that what the party was trying and failing to convey to him is that the Salokota they sought to destroy was not just any Soulbinder, and was in fact a Lich. Orick explained that this Rite he had performed was derived from one Orick himself had created over ten millennia ago. He explained that he had bypassed the typical requirement for ritual sacrifice of many lives by making use of a special artifact which substituted the spectral Flow normal required by killing many people at once, and that despite having once been one of Estrea's most devoted clerics, she had abandoned him for it. However, after a time, she forgave him due to the sole fact that he had achieved his transformation without the use of ritual killing, and that she could not suffer him to exist in his current state, and so had elevated him to godhood so that she could ensure his good behavior, so to speak. As Orick revealed all this, explaining what Andozar was, Kogano paled. Kogano said that he would help Skinner, but asked what Skinner considered important. Skinner replied that it was important for him to keep his remaining family safe and that he wanted to ensure that nobody else would fall victim to Andozar, who had lived for far too long. Kogano explained that keeping Marakan was what was important to him, and said that thought the town hated him for what he was, they would bring gifts to him for his protection, though he had not sought that. He said that he was growing older and his time was nearing, and that he could not go to meet Estrea until he was certain that Marakan would be safe from the Bakari. He said that he was the only Soulbinder remaining in Marakan and asked if Skinner would take his place one he finished his business with Andozar. Skinner agreed without hesitation, and so Kogano agreed to help him.

However, as they were speaking, Summer noticed something moving in her peripheral vision -- something red. She turned to see distant figures approaching the town from ridges above the town, and in trenches; Bakari. She could see the creatures rush towards several townsfolk, with one woman trying to grab a weapon, but being caught by the creature who sank its fangs into her neck. She fell to the ground, writhing in pain as her skin began to redden. Panic erupted in the town, and Kogano rushed forward shouting in fury, beckoning the spirit of an Ettinor man, and charging into battle...