Session 80

The group takes stock of the hidden area behind the wall that slid away and notices an area of the ceiling that looks as though it has collapsed with some rubble beneath it that is behind the pylon. Merrick moves in to investigate and finds that although the rubble is the same type of stone as the rest of the room, there are no sharp, angular breaks in the stone as if from fractures where the roof collapsed, and rather, the stones are all smooth. Not sure what to make of this, the party begins assaulting the pylon's crystal. But just as they are about to destroy it, the rubble in the rear of the hidden room gathers up in front of Merrick in the form of an Earth Elemental Myrmidon and begins to batter him with a large stone maul, crackling with energy. Merrick takes some heavy hits before escaping to the other side of the room before Dorin finishes the elemental off with a dolorous, resonating sound from Toll the Dead. They then move in to finish off the crystal, and as Merrick gives it one final assault with his Eldritch Blast, Summer hears the sound of wet footsteps running down the hallway, which she tells the party about.

Merrick takes his octopus companion and tosses him at the corner wall at the end of the hallway and uses its vision to look down the hallway. He sees a brief flash of a form dart by the doorway at the end of the hallway just as he connects to the octopus' vision. Because it happens so fast, he cannot make out any significant details other than the figure looked to be male and in tattered clothing. He then sees some flickering light coming from around the corner in the room. Merrick moves ahead out into the main area where he saw the figure, but nobody is there. The party begins to inspect the room, not knowing what to make of this. As they are searching around the room for the mystery figure, they hear a clatter from the laboratory, like objects falling, behind them. They rush back into the room to find nobody there, but the desk appears to have been rifled through and objects are tossed about. After trying to talk about what could be happening, Summer and Dain hear the same clattering noise coming from the bedroom on the opposite side of the underground bunker. Dain rushes over to the room, and immediately upon entering the room, he feels his body stop in place, as if he is frozen. The sensation feels nothing like a Hold Person spell, and rather feels like everything has just stopped. He feels a rush of air as something moves past him, before his body begins to move again several seconds later as if nothing happened. Dorin moves to block the entry door, and there is a whistling sound from the laboratory, to which Merrick responds by casting Sickening Radiance in the room to attempt to draw out whatever may be in the room. However, nothing appears. Having enough of these games, Merrick recalls that he has an item in his pack that just may help with this situation, pulling out a Lantern of Revealing. He moves back out into the main area, and Summer hears an audible gasp somewhere in the room, and as Merrick is moving towards the entry door area, Dain spots a shimmering form appear near the fireplace. He points it out, and Merrick moves to confront the figure.

Merrick attempts to question the figure, but the figure responds with hostility, demanding to know what the party is doing in his home. Merrick attempts to diffuse the situation, but the figure is having none of it, seeming very paranoid and twitchy, and demanding to know what the party is doing there and why they are in his home. The party introduces themselves and asks the same of the figure, to which he replies by telling them his name is Seylas. Merrick and Dain attempt to question Seylas about himself, but he refuses to say anything more until he knows what they are doing there. The party mentions having come to the city after being contracted by Evaryan Shaethe, a member of the Antiquarians' Guild, to find the lost city after some wreckage turned up on the shores of Caphanos appearing to originate from the city. The party then mentions Calantha, and Seylas immediately changes tone, launching into an angry rant, referring to her as "THE BITCH" and demanding to know about the party's involvement with her. Dain then explains that they are trying to get out of the city and brings up the barrier and explaining how they tracked the Juvenile Kraken to it, and that is how they found the city, and that it appears to be able to come and go from the barrier freely. Seylas mentions that he cannot escape the barrier as well and that he does not have "permission". Dain then explains that they are trying to deactivate the barrier by destroying the pylons. At the mention of destroying the pylons, Seylas loses his cool and responds with "YOU DID WHAT?!", stalking over to the laboratory, seeing the destroyed crystal, and lamenting that the party has no idea what they've done, and telling them that they need to stop immediately. The party questions why and are told that the pylons have nothing to do with the barrier around the city and they need to stop, but upon further questioning will not elaborate as to what the pylons do, if not control the barrier. He simply says that they are protecting another place, but that they do not need to know more than that. Merrick calmly pulls out his Book of Shadows and, not having Calantha's name written in it, instead opts to contact Evaryan and instruct him to ask Calantha about Seylas. After a pause, Evaryan responds saying that Calantha is telling them to get out immediately and get away from him, and tells them that they are in immediate danger. The party continues to question Seylas, and he goes up to each of them and taps their heads, showing them a vision of the carnage that was unleashed on the city when it fell from his own perspective, showing them a massive shadowy beast clawing the city apart, as shining figures approach from the sky.

As he does this, his invisibility fades, revealing a haggard old Elven man wearing ragged clothing.

After showing each member of the party the vision, he explains that he was on his way to see Valdor when the attack happened and that that Valdor had just woken up, and he trailed off, rambling incoherently. The party wants to know more, but Seylas does not trust them, and says that if they want his trust, they will have to do something for him, offering two options -- kill the Juvenile Kraken which takes residence in "the trench" where Tryn's tower is located so that he can access the tower, or find him information on how Eskite can be safely destroyed or rendered inert. Dain references Seylas' own notes about this, which seems to agitate him since Dain had read his notes. The party says that unless Seylas can tell them more about the pylons, then they will continue to destroy them, which causes Seylas to turn cold. He says that if they destroy another pylon, then he will kill them. Dain boasts that Seylas does not want to cross them, and that they are powerful, to which Seylas responds by moving to the center of the room and waving his hand, causing everyone in the room to freeze in place like Dain did before moving into the bedroom. He repeats that if they destroy another pylon, he will kill them, and tells them to be wary of "THE BITCH" and tells them that they should watch her when she thinks nobody is around, and that it's curious that the Sahuagin don't attack her. He then stalks past Dorin and leaves the bunker. Shortly thereafter, the party regains control of their bodies.

The group leaves the bunker and heads back to Kira's home, finding Calantha still working on the device. They question her about Seylas and the things he said about her being untrustworthy, and she replies that she is unsure where he got these ideas about her, but decides to reveal that while she was not necessarily withholding information, there are still things she hasn't told them about her time in Seryndor, and reveals that while mentoring under Valdor, she knew that Seylas was a good friend of his and would visit often, but that he always gave her uncomfortable vibes and would look at her with a mixture of anger and fear. She says that he once told her that she was undeserving of Valdor's mentorship and that she was an awful child, and then destroyed the experiment she was working on. This continued, with him berating her and saying nasty things to her whenever he would visit and sabotaging her experiments, and that he always behaved in a "twitchy" manner. Then, she says, one night she went to the night market to find some ingredients for a spell Valdor was teaching her, and witnessed Seylas making a trade with a "shady" looking character for some sort of liquid, and that he saw her and began chasing her, shouting "GET BACK HERE, YOU LITTLE BITCH!" and even slinging a Firebolt or two at her. After that, she says any time he came to visit, she would hide, afraid to tell Valdor what he was doing for fear he would dismiss her or not believe her. With this information lining up with Seylas' behavior in the bunker, the group asks Calantha what they should do next. She says that she will continue working on the device and the likely next step is to deal with the creature in the trench so they can reach Tryn's tower. However, they decide to make a detour first, and head back to Nola Jendor's home…

Arriving at Nola's home, Dorin heads into her laboratory and casts Speak with Dead on her body after reattaching her jawbone which had been knocked away by the blast from the shattered air crystal. He asks her about The Consortium, the group Seylas says composed the wizards of the city that worked together, and asks about the pylons. According to Nola's answers, when Dorin asks if the pylons control the barrier, the spirit takes a moment to respond before saying "Yes". He then asks if the barrier has a password to allow them to pass through, to which the spirit responds "No". He attempts to ask where the remaining pylons are, but gets a non-committal response that they are "in the homes of the Consortium". Not getting much useable information, Merrick decides to take a chance by contacting The Deep One again, and moves outside. The Deep One seems enraged at Merrick's direct contact, repeating that he is the questioner, not the one who provides answers, and tells Merrick that he is the one to provide answers. Merrick asks what the question is then, and The Deep One says that the one they seek, Tryn, has a pylon, and that on their way to seek it, they will encounter a gate, and that he wishes to know about this gate. He then pauses, and says that he also wishes to know the precise temperature of a Sahuagin's blood, which confuses Merrick. Merrick asks the Deep One what he is, and asks if he was created by The Whispering Abyss, to which the Deep One responds by saying that he was created by the Wellspring eruption itself, and that his nature is the most important question, and that if Merrick finds the answer to that, he will be greatly rewarded. The Deep One then disappears, leaving Merrick to ponder these questions. The party returns to Kira's home to relay the information to Calantha and they begin to prepare for the journey into the trench.