Session 72

The group finds themselves in chains and shackles in a small, dark prison cell. They are separated, and note that Anna appears to be in special shackles made of a strange blue-ish tinted metal, and there is another Human in a cell all by himself who is bound completely, leaving him no mobility. A light spills down into the room as the entrance door above opens and a well-dressed man who introduces himself as Baldric Agosto. He seems to believe the players were involved with the Yuan-Ti and were opening the portal to allow them to attack, and indicated that it was a foolish move, as the Yuan-Ti were hopelessly outmatched on their last visit to Myr. The players argued with him, explaining their situation, to which Baldric was surprisingly open to hearing. He says that he will consider bringing them before King Gideon so they can state their case. However, Anna picked up on something the players didn't and called Baldric a hypocrite for using magic so he could speak their tongue, to which Baldric replied by telling her that it was a device provided to him by a merchant from Reshyk, and that it was magical, but harmless. This led to a back and forth with Baldric accusing Anna of misusing magic, as the Sorcerer's Cabal was supposedly responsible for killing a group of Myrmidons the previous month in a nearby town. However, Anna pointed out that they did this because the Myrmidons were kidnapping and abusing the Elven women of Pazenust. Baldric denied this and became irate. The conversation didn't really go anywhere, and Baldric disengaged, and left the players to stew.

The party conversed for a bit, with the man locked up in full body restraints unable to understand the conversation, so Anna translated manually. However, after another couple hours, a Myrmidon ran down into the stockades and hurriedly tried to communicate with the players as a blast of some sort hit the building, causing debris to fall. They could hear loud bangs outside and sounds of combat. The Myrmidon seemed hesitant, but freed the players, saying that he needed to take them to King Gideon in Nezah et Tam, the capital city, so they can tell the King what they know of the Yuan-Ti. However, the party attacked and attempted to subdue the man, who argued with them, saying that the Yuan-Ti were attacking the city. Anna translated, and the players let him go. He introduced himself as Manos and said that they needed to leave, but the players refused to leave without Anna and the fully bound prisoner. Manos was hostile about the idea of freeing Anna, but outright refused to free the bound man. The party managed to intimidate the man into complying, perhaps making him realize he was outnumbered. He freed Anna, but left her blue-metal manacles on, refusing to take them off. Upon being released, the bound man reached out and Manos doubled over in agony. The players initially did not understand what was happening, but put two-and-two together and convinced the mysterious stranger to release Manos. The stranger introduced himself as Vernon, and the party moves upstairs and retrieves their gear, including Vernon's preferred weapon, a scythe. They ran out into the streets and saw buildings burning and the occasional distant blast.

As the party moved down the street, they saw occasional distant Yuan-Ti engaging in combat with Myrmidons, but Manos urged them to ignore it and continue to the gate. Along the way, they witnessed a massive creature that appeared to be a very large Dragonborn with wings charge across the street and swipe several Myrmidons with its massive blade, batting them aside like ragdolls. They hurriedly ran towards the gate, where they were confronted by a group of Yuan-Ti, and engaged them in battle. The battle was quite taxing, but Vernon's unique magic was a big help, as was Anna once the party convinced Manos to unlock her manacles. Once the party managed to defeat the Yuan-Ti, Manos re-shackled Anna, and they hurried out the gate and continued down the road toward the capital. Along the way, they encountered a lone hooded man on the road that put Manos at high alert. The man threw some sort of object toward Anna, a key, which amazingly went straight into her shackles, unlocking them. Before Manos could react, Anna put him to sleep with a spell. Vernon seemed suspicious and was ready for a fight, but the hooded man revealed himself to be none other than Archmage Kyran. Though this put the party at ease, this just made Vernon even more nervous -- however, Anna said nothing regarding his abilities. Instead, she told Archmage Kyran of the manacles that had blocked her from using her magic after he chided her for not being able to escape some simple metal. This annoyed Archmage Kyran, who said that he would inform the Cabal, and told Anna that he had some information that could help them, and suggested they seek out the ruined town of Buut Pravat, chuckling at the cheeky name, which in Aurum, apparently means "small missile". He told Anna that he discovered that this was the initial location that the Yuan-Ti invaded centuries ago.

The party traveled to Buut Pravat, taking several weeks, and arrived to find the ruined town, nothing more than burnt wood, cracked stone, and ashes, with no sign of life anywhere. It didn't take them long to find the center of town where there was a large burn mark that Anna indicated must be the location that the gate was opened. She asked the players to fan out and search for anything they could find to help them find some information about what the Yuan-Ti were searching for. They began to search, and the players occasionally would see shadows moving at the edge of their vision that wouldn't be there when they looked. They went to Anna with this information, and she said that Myr experiences a high degree of spiritual activity, and they were most likely the spirits of those killed here centuries ago. The players were confused, not familiar with the concept of spirits, which baffled Anna. She explained it, which seemed to disturb the players. She told them that if there are spirits nearby, then there would also likely be Wraithroot, a plant that grows in the presence of concentrated spiritual activity, and which could be used to communicate with them. She described the plant and had the players search for it. When they eventually found some and brought it back, Anna explained that they would have to wait until dusk when the spirits could manifest more strongly, to perform the ritual. At dusk, she cast the spell, and within seconds, the players could see many shadows watching them from behind corners, and even some in the open, which put them on high alert. Anna told them that they would be fine and to relax, and called to a nearby spirit…

As the spirit approached, she began to ask it about what happened here. The spirit informed her that he was on his way to the trading post to buy his son and himself some chocolate from a travelling merchant from Catarvoss, when a large ring of light appeared in the center of town, creating a window to another place. He said he saw some strange creatures on the other side who stepped through the ring into their world, holding weapons. The spirit said he thought he was seeing things and that his brother Nikos had spiked his wine, when the creatures pointed a spear at him and his son and started to talk, but that he couldn't understand them. However, a "real ugly one" in the back started waving her hands about and muttering and after a few seconds, the one with the spear to his throat repeated her question, asking "Which way to Thalassarion?" He says he had no idea what that was, but his son spoke up and told him that it was a story that one of the Orators had told a while ago while passing through town, about some city in Arak that was destroyed "all mysterious like" a few thousand years ago, and nobody knew where it was anymore. The man told the Yuan-Ti that perhaps the sorcerers at the nearby tower would know more, and pointed it out. After this, the Yuan-Ti seemed pleased and were about to leave, but then the "ugly one" in the back started muttering again and then he saw a burst of fire before everything went dark. Then, when he woke up, the town was in ruins, and he could no longer touch things. Anna figures that the tower the spirit is speaking of is the nearby ruined tower of Tok-ye'laxmal, which used to be a tower belonging to the Sorcerer's Cabal, which was used to study Lekaris' nearby Wellspring, but that it was destroyed long ago. The party decided that the tower should be their next stop…