Session 77

After the grueling battle with the host of Sahuagin, taking refuge inside the home of Kira Evenwood, the party decides to take a brief rest to recover. Afterwards, Merrick summons a familiar, a small octopus, and uses it to explore the house to scout out any potential threats, and goes from room to room to see what is inside. He finds a room that appears to have been a lounge, with a built-in bar with scattered bottles everywhere, a couple bookcases with books scattered all over the ground, and a fireplace. He then moves on and finds a barebones kitchen and Kira's bedroom. However, the final room's door appears to be locked. Dain then begins moving from room to room after performing a magic detection ritual, and spots an aura coming from the bookshelves in the lounge, and after carefully inspecting them finds some scrolls that appear to have a slight blue tinge on the parchment, and puts them away for later. They move down the hallway, ignoring the bedroom and kitchen, and attempt to open the final door, but find that the door is certainly locked, not just barricaded. Dain uses his thieves' tools to open the lock and slowly enters, noticing glowing runes along the doorframe. Upon entering, they emerge into an air pocket, apparently the work of the runes on the door frame.

Inside the room, they see a softly glowing magical circle with a pedestal that has a crystal affixed to the top that is glowing and humming.

There seems to be a skeletal corpse lying along the outer rim of the magical circle. They also see bookshelves with more scattered books -- however, these ones are dry. Additionally, there is a drafting desk and a table with papers scattered about them, and a chest. Dain is wary of the magical circle due to their luck with them in the past and decides to investigate the chest, which is giving off two strong magical auras from within. After trying to open and failing to pick the lock of the chest, Summer steps in and easily unlocks it, making a snarky comment at Dain's expense. Inside, he finds a well-preserved tome and two bottles -- one with an orange iridescent liquid, and the other with a milky yellow liquid. Opening the tome to inspect it, he notices that the water dripping off of him seems to slide right off of the pages, and continuing to read, he learns that it is marked as the personal property of Kira Evenwood, and contains several transmutation spells that she was fond of. He places the tome in his Bag of Holding before moving over to the magical circle. He notices a magical aura being given off by something within the robes of the corpse, and uses Mage Hand to fetch it out of them. He spends some time incanting a ritual of identification, learning that it is a Wand of Slow. Summer then finds a piece of parchment on the drafting desk, but can't seem to make heads or tails of the formula written on it. She shows it to Dain, who realizes that it is a recipe for a Potion of Longevity. Calantha seems interested and comments that she would very much like about 100 of those to make up for all the time she has lost being trapped in this place.

Merrick is wary of doing anything to the crystal atop the pedestal, which seems to resist any attempt to move it. He decides to commune with Orick, and asks him about the crystal and whether it will bring down the barrier. Orick says that the result would be "unclear". This vexes Merrick, and he attempts to ask Estrea the same thing, receiving the same answer. Calantha is horrified at Merrick's casual conversing with not only a Lich, but a minor deity, and Estrea herself. Summer tries to remind him that the gods may not be all-knowing, but Merrick is resolute in wanting an answer, and tries one final time, making the mistake of attempting to commune with The Deep One. He repeats his question and is met with a fierce anger from the eldritch horror, whose tendrils are caressing the face of everyone in the room. The Deep One roars in anger at Merrick for daring to ask him questions, when Merrick is the one who should be providing answers to him, and slams his tendril into Merrick's face, sending him careening through the doorway and slamming into the wall in the hallway, despite the water resistance. Merrick decides to give up on this venture, and instead decides to just attack the crystal directly, giving it six quick forceful blasts which create severe cracks in the crystal. Summer leaves the room, not wanting to stick around for the presumed explosion, and Dain tells Calantha and Evaryan to leave the room, before he runs over and uses Stormsmasher to give it a good whack, finishing it off. This results in the hum and soft glow from the crystal and magical circle to cease. However, a magical barrier appears, preventing the remaining party members from exiting the room as water begins to enter through the walls, coalescing into the form of a water elemental with a trident and armor, who begins a fierce assault on Dain and Merrick, easily killing Merrick's summoned Deep Spawn, before Merrick decides to cast Banish, causing the elemental to disappear, which causes the barrier to disappear. Calantha pops in to ask what happened, seeing the battered Dain and Merrick. They take a moment to gather their thoughts before deciding that they should move on, not wanting to stay in one place for too long.

As Calantha guides them down the street, the party sees the north gate of the city and, continuing along, sees a large destroyed section of the city walls and buildings surrounding it in ruins. They also see a large gaping hole in the city proper, too dark to see beyond its ledges. As they take in the sights around them, they are beset by a small group of Sahuagin traveling with a Giant Shark. The party quickly dispatches the Sahuagin, though the Giant Shark nearly devours Dain alive before being slain by Merrick. They quickly continue down the road, seeing the beginnings of the market district's many market stalls, before a nearly spotless metal sign on a nearby building catches Dain's eye. On it, he reads "Nola Jendor - Enchanter". Recognizing the name as Dwarven in origin, and recognizing the last name "Jendor" as the last name of a famous Dwarven Artificer responsible for the invention of a very particular Runetech device, the party diverts, figuring this must be the second wizard that Calantha spoke of. They move toward the house to investigate…