Session 84

After reviving Evaryan, Dain questions Valdor, wanting to know how he was able to do so. Dain comments that it seemed unnatural, while Merrick says that it rather seemed too natural. Valdor says that what he did was identical to the Revivify spell that Clerics employ, just from a different source. Dain is skeptical, but drops the matter. As Summer moves to search Calantha's body for her trident and anything else of use, she sees Calantha staring back at her. Calantha curses Summer, saying that she has worked too long to get to the Elixir, and that if she couldn't have the Elixir, she would pay Caphanos a visit while the party is dealing with the barrier. She seemed to have more to say, but Summer cut her off with a dagger to the chest. Calantha laughed with her last breaths and said "see you soon". As she died, her body begin to crystallize, with the color of her body changing slowly to a blue, and then white color, as it took on a powdery consistency, looking like snow. Her body then began to melt, bringing back memories of their first encounter with Adamar, where he had employed similar magic to trick the party into believing they were fighting him when he was elsewhere. Valdor seemed troubled by this, though he admitted he should have known she would use such magic given where her talents lie. Dain suggested that they needed to find Seylas, as he may be able to help them. Valdor took the Crystal Ball from Dain and said he would try to get in contact while the party moved through the blood seal to get rid of the Elixir. But first, he pointed the party to a pool of water that he advised them to drink from. Doing so, they began to feel refreshed, and even more powerful than before (level 13).

Moving up to the blood seal door, Dain saw a circular imprint in the center with an impression in the shape of a hand with a needle in the center, with intricate lines leading away from the center to the corners of the door. Dain pressed his hand against it, pricking his hand, and the door began to siphon his blood, filling the lines, and then glowing red before slowly lowering, revealing another cavern passage filled with glowing crystals. The party proceeded down and to the right, where they saw an archway with vines and bushes with flowers growing all over it, and a statue beyond it with an outstretched hand with its palm up, with a spherical object in the hand. The party took some time to investigate the statue to ensure it wasn't some sort of trap before moving around it and finding a dais with a pedestal at the top, and sitting on the pedestal, an intricate looking potion bottle filled with a glowing purple liquid. The dais seemed to shimmer with a red energy on the steps leading up to the pedestal. Dain decided to carefully touch the dais, being drained by its magic in the process. While mentally communing with The Deep One, it commanded Merrick to lick the dais, which he unwisely did, receiving an even worse draining effect than Dain. Dain then tried to teleport to the top of the dais with Misty Step, but was ejected from the pocket dimension as he tried to teleport and thrown end over end backwards. Not having the patience for their foolery, Summer decided to walk up the dais. Each step she took, she could feel her life force draining away and leaving her with less and less energy than before. Upon reaching the top, she grabbed the bottle, barely able to hold it, and was assaulted with one last wave of draining magic, which took every last bit of strength she had, before she uncorked it and poured the liquid onto the dirty floor beneath her, which rapidly darkened -- being corrupted by the dirt, and turning into a black sludge at her feet. She then collapsed from the strain of the activity.

Merrick moved to investigate a wall on the side of the room that had emitted a strange noise each time the party attempted to cast a spell to reach the Elixir. He and Dain tested it, casting spells and having them dispelled in turn, hearing something on the other side of the wall. Dain decided to smash through the wall, creating a large hole, finding several gears inside and a crystal higher up that was glowing. Dain decided to start removing the gears, and as he did, it seemed to disable its ability to dispel their magic. He then used Mage Hand to recover the crystal, which he identified as the type of crystal whose vibrational frequency, when magically enhanced, could disrupt Flow in a certain area, effectively nullifying spells. The party then decided to head back to Valdor, who was relieved to hear that the Elixir had been disposed of, but was concerned for Summer's health. As Dain began smashing up some of his diamonds to make some dust for Dorin to cast Greater Restoration to give Summer some of her strength back, Valdor said that every second they delay is more time for Calantha to reach and destroy Caphanos. He suggested that he would look for Seylas and Ardnys, as he could not leave them there after so long, and they could search for whatever Calantha was using to create the barrier. After some speculation, Valdor believed that they should search the cave where they first encountered her, as he was not aware of this place. The party set out to find the cave, and found it abandoned and dark. Dain lit the campfire, seeing her abandoned camp, and cast Detect Magic, seeing an illusory wall in the rear of the room. Moving through it, the party found a manmade passage with a door leading to a small shelter and another passage that led to a small room with an altar with votive candles and a glowing sphere protected by a barrier, reminiscent of the altar with the Black Shard in Aubron's chambers at The Obelisk. Dain dispelled the barrier and proceeded to use Stormsmasher to obliterate the sphere, feeling tremors under their feet as he did so. After the tremors stopped, they proceeded back outside towards the city limits, finding that they could not find the barrier any longer. Proceeding upwards, they reached the surface, though the rapid ascension exhausted them. As there was still some daylight, they could see that the Windrunner was still there a few hundred feet away… however, it was smoking.

Dain rapidly approached the Windrunner and boarded, finding numerous sailors dead on the deck, and the captain's quarters open and apparently on fire. Proceeding inside, he found Captain Darvan unconscious, but alive. He used his magic to put out fires on the deck and in the quarters and woke the man, who was confused, claiming some sort of blast knocked him against the wall and set fire to the cabin. He was horrified to learn of the fate of his men and broke down, saying that this fool's errand cost him his entire crew, and was angry with Dain for Dain's callous response, saying that his men had families. Dain said that the group would help him get his ship back to shore, and they set out, taking an extra day to reach Caphanos due to their lack of sailing experience.

As the party approached Caphanos, they could see the lights of the city on their approach, as it was nearing night time. However, once they got in visual range of the harbor, they realized these lights were not those of street lamps, but of fires raging on the buildings of the harbor. Reaching the docks, they saw Sahuagin swarming the harbor and Calantha barking orders at them. As they docked, Calantha noticed them and ordered the Sahuagin to attack…