Session 135

As the four Enthralled began to close in on the group, Summer moved to take cover behind a nearby building. Meanwhile, Dain tried to unleash a Fireball among the Enthralled, but Sabine quickly waved her hand, causing a ripple effect that reflected the Fireball back at him, dropping it among the group. Sabine then closed the distance and attempted to unleash her Wellspring Torrent, but Dain and Merrick were able to dodge out of the way in time. Sindri cast Tenser's Transformation and became bulkier and charged forward towards Dain, while Mahani targeted him with Haste. Vargas then dropped a Cloudkill spell on top of the party, causing them to cough violently as the poison worked its way into their systems. As Skinner emerged from the Cloudkill, he tried to attack Sindri, but Sindri's accelerated movement made him a difficult target. Merrick emerged from the opposite side and used True Polymorph to become a Death Knight, and Sindri emitted a hand made of pure force that knocked Skinner end-over-end, causing him to fall flat on his face. However, Dain emerged and hit Sindri with a Toll the Dead, destroying the Ply Agaric within him. Sabine countered by casting Crown of Stars and unleashing a star at Dain, burning him. Suddenly, Sindri began to shake his head and after a moment, the pink light in his eyes went out as he regained control of his mind. After regaining control, Sindri moved to get in close with the other three to make it more difficult for them to cast their spells. Skinner took the opportunity to move closer and lash out at Vargas and Sabine, using the necrotizing effects of his chain blades to burn away some of the Ply Agaric inside them, and then activated a rune to make himself bigger. Tyllaetha hit Vargas with Toll the Dead, fulling burning off the rest of the Ply Agaric inside of him. Mahani then manipulated the earth to form a dome around Merrick, trapping him inside; after which Summer shot Mahani, and Dain almost managed to burn away her Ply Agaric with Toll the Dead, but she managed to shake it off. With their numbers dwindling, Sabine attempted to channel her Wellspring chaos to unleash a powerful Chain Lightning spell, but Dain was able to counter it. However, Mahani responded by using Polymorph to turn Dain into a sheep. As Vargas shook off Andozar's control, he targeted Sabine with Toll the Dead, killing off the last of the Ply Agaric inside of her. Skinner then tried to knock some sense into Sabine by attacking her, and then used his blades to destroy the rocky dome imprisoning Merrick. Merrick then ended the battle by unleashing a Destructive Wave, freeing Sabine from control, but putting Mahani down. Mahani was nearly killed, but Skinner acted fast, rushing over to feed her a healing potion. She sputtered and coughed, but appeared to be okay.

As Sabine shook off Andozar's control, she began to break down, the gravity of the things she had been forced to do under Andozar's control hitting her all at once. Summer rushed to comfort her, and after calming her down, Sabine shifted her attention to the rest of the group, quickly explaining that Andozar had kept her by his side constantly, and that while she didn't know all the details of where the artifact containing the spirits of Thalassarion was kept, it appeared to be somewhere within his lair, and that she had been in the area he kept it in once, but wasn't allowed past a certain point due to some mushrooms along the walls where she commented that "the air was very thin". She said that she could see the Flow signature of the vessel containing the spirits leaking ahead and that the energy was tremendous. She also commented that something in there was causing all of the static Flow in the area to be drawn in towards it, speculating that it could be Lod'exenter. As they confronted the question of how to proceed, Dain asked Sabine what she planned to do, asking if she would help them; but she refused, saying that she never wanted to go anywhere near him again, and she couldn't allow him to turn her into a weapon again. However, the three fledgling wizards of Artus seemed eager for revenge and agreed to come along. Tyllaetha also agreed to help, saying they could use all the help they could get, and the people of Mythwell deserved justice. Asking Sabine what she planned to do, she seemed unsure, commenting that she didn't have the money for an extended trip, to which Summer and Skinner replied by pooling together 1,500 gp for her, with Skinner tossing in a healing potion and Summer giving her the Dagger of Venom. Sabine thanked them, saying she would head north either to Eldham or Fort Elden. However, they decided to get a good night's rest first, as they were all exhausted. Walking towards the village inn, they got a lot of dirty looks from the villagers, not only for their own behavior, but because of the fear of the four who had minutes before been attacking the village. They made their way into the inn, where the innkeeper seemed terrified of them and initially seemed to not want to rent out rooms to them; he threw out an exorbitant charge for the rooms expecting them to refuse, and was flabbergasted when Dain offered double what he asked. That seemed to shut him up, and he showed them to their rooms, making sure to let them know he would be available if they needed anything. As they settled in to rest for the night, Merrick decided to try to scry on Andozar to gather some information; but he couldn't seem to locate him. Instead, he chose to scry on the bridge they had fought him on, hoping to get a glimpse of him. However, rather than Andozar, Merrick saw a figure standing at the end of the bridge that he recognized as Evaryan. Disturbed by this, he settled in for his nightly routine.

In the morning, after gathering their things and having breakfast, they reconvened on the road outside, where Sabine said her farewells. Before setting off, she agreed to say hello to Tamas for them, and made her way along the road to the north. Afterwards, the group debated how to reach Thalassarion, recognizing that they had a limited amount of time to get there before Andozar would be able to construct a new Soulstone. Trying to travel there on foot would take the better part of a month; so it seemed the only real option was to teleport there. However, they had only been there once, nearly a year ago, and though they had his journal, it was too long separated from that place to serve as an anchor. However, as the three wizards from Artus had been there the most recently, Sindri offered to teleport them, as he would be more familiar with the area. They agreed, and Sindri took the Ring of Teleportation and recited the incantation. The party was pulled into Callamus, rapidly flying through a tunnel toward Thalassarion; however, about halfway there, the tunnel diverged and they were sent careening in the wrong direction, flying north of Thalassarion. As they reached the end of the tunnel and were ejected back into the Material plane, they looked around and saw a ruined city, their surroundings very much familiar, but most definitely NOT Thalassarion. As it dawned on them, Sindri say "Oops..." and they tried to determine where they had ended up. Merrick decided to Commune with Estrea, and told her they were lost and asked where they were; to which Estrea replied by saying that they had wound up 1,000 miles north of Thalassarion, at a second ruined city in the northern half of the Dreaming Wastes. After some discussion about what to do, Merrick decided to use True Polymorph to change his form into that of a Roc, so that he could fly them all there. Performing the spell, Merrick took on the form of the massive legendary bird, and the party climbed on top of him. Merrick took to the skies, flying half the day for just over 5 days straight. As they arrived, Sindri began to try to dispel Merrick's altered form, as the magic had become permanent due to the time spent in it; but after several failures, Tyllaetha intervened, altering the probability of his success and allowing Sindri to end the spell.

As the group approached the city, keeping their heads on a swivel, it wasn't long before they passed a building, and Summer saw a shadowy figure dart at her from inside. Turning to defend herself, she stopped short as the furry form of Nuggie lunged at her and began licking her. Overjoyed to see the companion she had unintentionally left behind, she was not watching closely enough to notice the second shadowy form within the building -- a form which the other members of the group noticed showed scaled skin underneath. The figure approached and addressed them, and they recognized him as Nalath, the Yakan they had encountered in the Savage Frontier the previous year on their first journey to confront Andozar. Nalath told them that he had found Nuggie wandering alone in the wastes, and he was emaciated and dehydrated, and he and his people took care of him, assuming the worst after he recalled seeing Nuggie with the group before. He said his people had been watching Andozar's Enthralled hoping to capture and liberate them from his control, and they had developed a counteragent to the Ply Agaric concoction he had been using to take control of his Enthralled. He handed Dain two flasks that he said would create a vapor upon shattering that would kill off the Ply Agaric, allowing the Enthralled to break free of his control, and Dain informed him of what they had learned, they it could also be broken using necromancy magic; which Nalath thanked him for. Nalath wished the group luck and they moved to the familiar graveyard where the entrance to Andozar's underground lair resided, and began to descend into the old catacombs and down to the Deephollow.

As they reached the bridge spanning across the underground river, they noticed a chill in the air which was making everyone except Dain and Skinner uncomfortable. Across the bridge, they expected to see the two statues with the crystalline balls that had nearly ensnared their minds before, but the statues appeared to have been destroyed, with the tops missing. Additionally, the crystals on the other side which had killed Skinner's family were also curiously missing. Summer got a bad feeling, briefly wondering if Adamar had gotten there first, recalling his interest in recovering Lod'exenter. Pressing on, they found that the doors were under the effects of an Arcane Lock spell, which Dain easily dispelled. They continued down the tunnels where they came upon the cavern with several pillars rising from a deep gorge with rope bridges spanning across them, and three paths. One, which they remember led to Andozar's underground keep, and one which led to a room which Sindri confirmed was where Andozar kept his network of gateways for teleporting around the world, which could only be accessed with a Keystone on Andozar's person. Figuring the third path was where they would be able to find the vessel and Lod'exenter, they decided to split into two groups, with one heading to the vessel to destroy it, while the rest would create a distraction to keep Andozar away. However, despite remembering the traps placed there before, Summer did not immediately see the glyph on the other side of the stalagmite which had blown Merrick into the gorge the previous time, and this time she was the one to be blasted off the ledge down to the gorge below, landing hard on her side. Skinner rushed to help her, lowering some rope for her to grab. As Summer moved to try and climb the wall to reach his rope, she came upon an area where she unexpectedly grasped the rock to find it well-oiled, and she nearly tumbled from the wall, but managed to hang on and grab Skinner's rope. Unable to get footing on the wall due to the oil, Summer dangled and rotated wildly as Skinner reeled her in. As she crested the top, the group pressed on to investigate the rest of the cavern. Summer, wanting to head towards the area containing the vessel, attempted to cross the rope bridges towards the third path -- however, halfway there, she felt a burning sensation and looked down to see her flesh rotting away rapidly just as she noticed a red haze hanging in the air. Retreating from the mist, they circled around looking for another way to cross, but conveniently each gap where they could potentially jump across seemed to have some kind of plant tendrils dangling from the cavern ceiling. Skinner attempted to cut them with his blades, but they grew back rapidly.