Session 69

After Merrick's Book of Shadows lends him a clue, the party begins searching the dead woods for signs of small objects that could potentially be related to the spirits. Grim, Dain, and Icarus stay behind to fend off the spirits as Merrick and Summer search for the objects. One by one, they locate the objects responsible for tethering the spirits to the woods and destroy them, releasing the bound spirits to the afterlife. Lavanda manages to finish casting Commune with Nature and locates the final object, and also learns the approximate size of the dead zone in the forest and that there is another person and a building located a couple miles away. The party decides to rest before heading to find Aubron.

The next day, the party awakes to find that the skies are overcast and very dark. They trek through the wilderness in the direction Lavanda indicated and at roughly mid-day, they locate Aubron's tower, an eerie looking thing with gnarled trees wrapped around it and bones piled high around the walls.

Lavanda decides to scout ahead by wildshaping into a mouse and sneaking under the cracks of the doors. She is hit by the stench of bodies as she moves about a large chamber containing a large ritual circle with many bodies littered about its interior, with a large pool of blood in the center. She moves past the circle and explores further, taking the stairs up to the second floor and finding what appears to be a library of some sort, but is unable to locate any books of interest at the rate she is moving, and continues to the third floor. There, she finds some sort of ritual circle with bones neatly arranged in key points. She decides to cause some havoc and begins moving the bones outside the circle, and after completely removing them all, the circle stops humming and its light dies off, leaving it inactive. She then continues to the fourth floor where she finds a barrier of some sort blocking the stairs to the next floor and a room full of planters containing strange plants she does not recognize. Seeing no way to continue alone, she heads back down to the first floor and tells the party of what she has seen. Summer then unlocks the front doors to the tower and they enter…

The party finds the room with its many bodies, reeling in horror at the sight. They explore the room carefully avoiding the ritual circle until they reach the stairs, where a spirit manifests and runs towards them screaming, begging for help, before the ritual circle lashes out at it with a tendril of energy that drags her, kicking and screaming, into the center, before vaporizing her and creating an orb of energy which is quickly absorbed by a blue crystal hanging from the ceiling. Dain is determined to destroy the crystal, given its purpose, and unleashes a couple of Fireballs at it, the only thing in the party's arsenal that seems to be effective, causing the crystal to crack into pieces and fall, leaving the room dark as the ritual circle and crystal's lights fade. They then continue upwards.

On the second floor, the party takes some time to explore the bookshelves and finds a handful of books of interest, which Lavanda proceeds to stuff into her backpack without a thought. As they pass by a bare section of wall, Summer wonders aloud why there is a section of the room in the center where there should be extra space. Lavanda searches and finds a draft directing her to a bare section of wall with a small crack at the bottom. She begins frantically tossing books off the shelves until one makes a mechanical click and the wall swings open, revealing a dark room. The party investigates, finding a chest containing some ornate gloves, which Dain identifies as Gloves of the Gravekeeper, and a potion identified as Potion of Shadowy Form, as well as a nice pile of 2,000 GP and some valuable diamonds. They also find a book on a podium with a list of names, including Rhys, Adamar, and Marcel, the first and last of which are scratched out. The party also sees numerous other familiar names on the list including their own, and note's that Eskall's name is scratched out. They gather the valuables and proceed up the stairs.

On the third floor, the party finds the inactive ritual circle and searches the altar nearby where they find journals detailing all of Aubron's discoveries dating back centuries, and all the horrific procedures he has performed to learn these things. They also find mention of a Black Shard and Dain determines that the arcane notes indicate it maintains Aubron's control over his undead forces, and without it, all of his undead would simply de-animate. The party collects these notes and proceeds through some doors where they find a room with a long line of operating tables with mutilated bodies on them, one of which they identify as that of Aerendyl Immeril, one of the hunters they were asked to find. They find some notes on a workbench detailing the procedures performed, in gruesome detail, and note that Aubron mentions plans to animate a large number of Graycrawlers and Drabs. They proceed through a final door where the stench of death hits them, where they find hundreds of bodies neatly stacked, some so decayed they are skeletal. Dain has seen enough and slings a Fireball into the room to make sure the bodies stay dead and the party proceeds to the next floor.

Entering the floor where Lavanda saw the barrier, the party explores, taking note of the various flora and their unnatural appearance. As Dain and Summer try to inspect notes on a workbench on the far corner, Lavanda is busy gathering some plant samples when a large pile of bones in one of the planters leaps forward and grabs her, at which point, two Shadows appear. The party fights off the Shadows, but not before one of them manages to siphon away some of Lavanda's strength as she is restrained by the bone pile. After they are dealt with, Grim finds a small stone with a runic carving on it tied around one of the bone pile's bones. Lavanda uses Speak with Plants to speak with the Wraithroot plant, which helps her to identify the various plants in the room and their uses. The party then uses the small runic stone to dispel the barrier protecting the next floor and proceeds upwards.

As the party enters the room on the final floor, Dain attempts to immediately cast Fireball at Aubron, not wanting to give the monster a chance to defend himself, but Aubron was expecting them and used some sort of spell to make Dain's wand fizzle.

He then gave a short hate-filled speech about what he planned to do before telling Dain to "DIE!", at which point, Dain collapsed. Unexpectedly, Orick then entered the room, looking down at Dain, and ignoring Aubron's taunts, telling an unseen figure in the room, whom he called 'Emir', to show himself. A dark figure emerged from behind Aubron, from the dark smoke billowing behind him, and called Orick a fool for challenging him.

Orick told him that he was under no impression that he could defeat him, but that he only needed to distract him, before lunging at him, flying with the dark figure through the back wall trailing smoke. Then, an amulet hanging from Dain's neck began to glow as he rose into the air and his body exploded in an intense light. Dain meanwhile saw the form of Astix, who told him that the amulet she had given to him after he had dealt with Haldir was no mere gift, and its true power had been hidden from him. She told Dain that he would return, but as her Avatar. When the light cleared the room, Dain appeared wreathed in white-hot holy fire giving him the appearance of some sort of flaming bird. Aubron, enraged, shouted to the ceiling, angry about some sort of "non-interference pact", to which Astix spoke into the room saying that she was not interfering, simply fulfilling a boon granted to Dain for his role in disposing of Haldir, and said the rest was up to him. Dain set his sights on Aubron, and the battle begins…