Session 11: Explorers and Exiles

When they stood up from the debris, Khashayar told the people that it had been the rats that caused it. Only people from the poor district had any reason to believe him. Furious, Pastor Vormic and the town council ordered the arrest of the party. Eight temple guards stepped out with halberds readied. Then Steps came forward. He successfully cast charm person on one of the non-intellect devoured council members, and though the casting of the spell was noticed, none of them were magic users, and so heeded the orders of the charmed councilor to halt. With a series of very high Persuasion checks, Steps brought their punishment down from arrest/execution to voluntary exile from the city. The controlled councilors disagreed, but were ultimately outvoted. Thus, the party was escorted out of the city. The saw some clockwork soldiers at intervals, standing sentry. They hatched a quick plan to notify Pendeghast, and Steps distracted the escort guards enough for Khashayar to send a message to the scholar. On the way out, they noticed the replacement cocoon being brought to the temple. With some religion/insight, they realized it was suspicious for the fanatics in the city to even have a replacement ready, rather than saving the original.   As they went down the platform with their iguanas, they looked up and noticed 5 of the 8 escorts had the same dark circles under their eyes.   As they had to leave down the back end of Thywicket, immediately upon hitting the ground, the party was in danger. Plant life was at its maximum activity, and spawned 3 devil boughs, 1 shambling mound, a hallowed reed, and a vines of Nemethyr, made from the bones above a Temple of Mamuk.   They successfully escaped into the Coral Forest, and met back up with Pendeghast, after he scryed upon them to aid his search. Visayan gave Pendeghast the last letter from Wren, and they set off to find the cave. When they came upon the destruction wrought by the Chapel of Light, it was easy to follow the path to the cave. They spent some time debating whether they should return to Thywicket, not knowing if it was ok to interfere in the religion of another culture.   Entering cautiously, they saw the script among the mural, and Pendeghast volunteered to cast Comprehend Languages. He spoke out loud in gibberish as the psychic effects hammered his brain, causing his nose to bleed, which he was unaware of. Visayan counterspelled the scholar to save him from his own spell. They were surprised to find that Pendeghast had thought he was speaking clearly, and he summarized that they were looking at the end of the mural, and it began at the bottom. It described (reversed from what he saw) a race coming to power, conquering and making slaves of many races, falling, and promises to rise again. The race wasn't mentioned (as the illithids are too vain to think any outsiders would read the text or be unaware of who was referred to), but they described coming from beyond the stars.   At the bottom, they took a quick survey of the carnage (it was already night, and they were tapped out from the plant battle), and cast Speak With Dead on one of the dwarf-bodied corpses. The corpse told them it was the master of the pools, mentioned spawning, and that they had been approached by Orthol Clemont, who easily defeated the defenders, but had been killed by something. The party reascended, and camped in the tiny hut spell, to search again in the morning.