Session 82

With Dain and Prenna seemingly incapacitated by the illusion placed upon them by the gate, Summer, Merrick, and Dorin engage the Bone Golem. Meanwhile, Dain and Prenna find themselves in a vast white nothingness and see a large creature, a Minotaur, off in the distance wielding a great axe, when suddenly walls shoot up all around them, forming a maze of corridors. They begin to try to find their way out, with Dain encountering the Minotaur once and nearly taking a blow from its mighty weapon before escaping, while Prenna was able to safely navigate the corridors, avoiding the distant roars. The Bone Golem fired off some kind of bone spike at Summer, dealing a moderate amount of damage to her before it exploded with necrotic energy, damaging her nearby allies. It then moved in and engaged with its claws, dealing some heavy damage to Summer, Dain, and Merrick. Eventually, Dain and Prenna managed to break free of the illusion before joining the fight and helping to fell the enormous creature. Afterwards, they approached the pylon and Dain attempted to smash it with Stormsmasher. However, despite making a solid swing, his hammer passed straight through the crystal as if nothing were there, causing him to spin around and fall on his butt. Summer moved forward to investigate and pretty quickly realized that it was an illusion and noticed the real one suspended from the ceiling. She and Merrick began firing at the crystal, with Summer's arrow finding purchase and forming a large hairline fracture, but unfortunately Merrick's Eldritch Blast couldn't quite finish the job, so Prenna stepped in and used Kindori Light to finish the crystal off. Expecting something of interest to happen, the party was disappointed that like the previous crystals, the room simply went quiet. They briefly deliberated about what to do before deciding to take a short rest. During this short rest, Dain decided to read the journal he had found in Tryn's bedroom, hoping for some piece of information he may have missed. What he found was that Tryn had had a chance encounter with none other than Adamar in the city, freshly dismissed from his position as "Kembax" at the Ars Aurum Academy for "fraternizing" with a student, and that Tryn got to know Adamar after contracting him to craft some defenses for her pylon, and discovered that the student he had an affair with was none other than Calantha, which sent Summer reeling as she realized that this likely meant that Adamar was her grandfather. She confronted Calantha about this, who admitted that she danced around that detail after they had told her of what Adamar had become, not wanting to traumatize her granddaughter, but asserting that if it was any consolation, he wasn't always like that, and was once a good person. When they got up to resume their journey, Calantha complained of feeling unwell and suggested that she stay behind to recover, explaining that she always gets this way after spending an extended amount of time swimming through the water without getting dry for a while, and that she believes it's because they weren't meant to live underwater and something about breathing the water repeatedly for so long must have an effect on her health. The party decided to leave Evaryan with her so that they could communicate with her through him using Merrick's Book of Shadows.

After leaving Tryn's tower, the party proceeded back up to the top of the trench, keeping watch for shadowy figures in case any more Sahuagin decided to attack, but confident that the device Calantha had repaired and loaned to them would keep them safe. Along the way, following Calantha's directions to go to the western edge of the underwater island, they indeed encountered a group of Sahuagin and some large sharks which upon coming into contact with the device's sphere of influence, recoiled in pain and fled. After reaching the western edge of the island, they followed the cliffs south and found Valdor's tower right where Calantha said it would be and located the entrance, where they found the front door smashed in. They entered cautiously, with Merrick being very paranoid about the inanimate decorative armor statues flanking each side of the entrance. They explored the lower level of the tower, finding various crates and casks filled with decayed junk and old wine, as well as what appeared to be Valdor's kitchen and a study / dining area. Besides finding a relatively well-preserved cask of wine, they found several jars of a red-tinted honey and some kind of red-brown powder in the kitchen, and then in a random crate, found a build-up of ice. Upon picking away the ice with his dagger, Merrick found what appeared to be a wand with icicles jutting out from the top half, which Dain identified to be a Wand of Icy Fingers. They also found a waterproof map of Seryndor in another crate adjacent to it. Proceeding up the stairs to the next floor, the party emerged into an air pocket, and took out one of their reserved air crystals, not knowing whether there would be any fresh air to be found here.

Investigating several crates and barrels lining the hallways, the party was surprised to find very little actually contained within the crates, figuring they were clutter, though they did find a good amount of coin scattered among them. They cautiously approached the door to the central chamber and, upon entering, found what appeared to be Valdor's laboratory area, with several doors leading to other chambers within, some workbenches, a plant bed, and an altar that had a curious stone bowl stained with dark red, along with an ornate dagger next to the bowl with similar stains. Additionally, there were cauldrons full of what appeared to be blood similar to what they found in Tryn's tower -- however, the blood in these cauldrons appeared to be much fresher. Inspecting one of the doorways, Summer found a storage room with numerous stacked crates containing plenty of spoiled food, but found a small chest containing a few Potions of Healing and some coin. However, the real mystery was the door against the far wall, which Dain attempted to open, but found locked. He reached for his lockpicks, but was confused when he found no keyhole. Summer investigated the door looking for a way in, but at this point, she saw a Symbol begin to slowly appear on the door, and before she could react, everyone in the room was hit with a wave of fatigue, with Dain immediately falling asleep, and Merrick, resistant to the effects, becoming sluggish and stunned. The rest of the party, taken off guard, turned to see a figure standing in the doorway behind them with small glowing orbs orbiting around him, which he hurled towards them, causing several explosions which heavily wounded the party. The figure stepped in to reveal that it was Seylas, who began shouting at the party telling them that he wouldn't allow them to destroy everything he and "the others" worked so hard for and that he warned them to leave the pylons alone. Seylas raved about how he told them that the pylons had nothing to do with the barrier and mentioned that he wouldn't let them "kill him". The party was obviously confused, but tried to push for more information, but only seemed to antagonize Seylas further, to the point where he told them that he knew they could not enter the pylon room and that without supplies, he would just trap them in there, promptly throwing the door shut and casting Arcane Lock on it. He continued ranting on the other side of the door while the party licked their wounds and decided how to proceed, briefly considering smashing down one of the walls or tunneling down into the floor below. While Seylas continued to rant outside, they heard his voice suddenly cut off mid-sentence. Merrick created a scrying eye outside the door and saw that neither Seylas, nor anyone else, were anywhere to be seen in the hallway, and he could not hear anything. Dorin took the opportunity to dispel the Arcane Lock and they went out into the hallway, finding it completely empty.

They retreated back to the laboratory and began to search for ways to open the warded doorway. They found some potions on an alchemy workbench nearby, and decided to explore the final doorway in the room, which led to a small, cozy study area. The only thing of note in the room seemed to be a wine rack, which contained several bottles of vintage wine on it (which Summer pocketed), and a desk with an open journal on it, which Dain read. The journal had several log entries detailing Valdor's actions starting from when he took Calantha under his wing, to when he completed an unknown project he had been working on he referred to as "the Elixir" that he had apparently safeguarded in a place called "Duzen'exak". Strangely, the log seemed to indicate that Valdor had not banished Calantha from his mentorship due to her witnessing a forbidden ritual as she had previously told them, but because she had confessed her love for him and she was rejected. He noted that he even had Seylas write a letter of recommendation for her to the Ars Aurum Academy, because, as he put it, if they knew of him, then they would most likely lock him up in one of their "secretive facilities". When Calantha returned to Seryndor, the log indicates that she was initially cordial, but somewhat cold to him, and he referred her to his colleague Tryn to continue her education, but that at some point, she had come to visit his tower and saw his new wife "Ardnys", who bore a resemblance to Calantha, which apparently angered her, causing her to lash out and say some horrible things that greatly distressed Ardnys, with Valdor saying that any hope of a professional relationship was now gone. The party decided to try several keywords from the journal hoping they would unlock the door, which Dain had identified was password-protected, but was unsuccessful. Dain then attempted to dispel the enchantment barring the door, but ended up wasting a scroll. Finally, Dorin decided to upcast a Dispel Magic, which broke the enchantment on the door, causing it to creak open. At that point, they heard a hissing sound behind them and looked to see a dark red mist pouring into and slowly filling the room around them.