29.07.2021 - Thunder & Scribe-5 - The Forgotten Emperor

What Scribe-5 knows about the ritual:

• The ritual needs at least 1 spell slot to activate
• Two runes are missing
• Shackles: Symbol of the path of restraint
• Clasped hands: Symbol of the path of death

This session

• Coty investigates the temple and looks for more gargoyles
• She finds a room with more ancients
• There is a plaque(?)  with one elvish word
• Thunder translates: "Guardian"
• Arnini talks to the warforged
• "Are you here for the tea party too? I'm sure Dusksunder will conjure some tea for us once he returns"
• The warforged casually mentions that it is tied to the chair because it has tried to escape some times
• It's been here a month
• He seems scared, and is looking around for Dusksunder to see if it is safe to talk to us, and trying to convince himself that he is friends with Dusksunder
• We tell him Dusksunder is dead, he gets a lot more talk-active
• He says that his companion and him were researching, when Dusksunder ambushed them
• We release him
• He introduces himself as "Miner-3. No… my free man name is Toad"
• Coty shows him that she can become a giant toad (Wild shape)
• When he got freed, his friends told him that he needed to soften up. He took the name Toad because they are soft
• Dusksunder told him everything. Toad believes Dusksunder needed a friend to confide in. And they had a month
• Dusksunder told Toad that the magical fog is coming from above in the temple. Said something about a guy on a throne
• "Me and Scribe-5 was researching. She is the smart one"
• We tell him that we found Scribe-5 and shows him the notebook
• We walk back to the other warforged in the caves
• Arnini is studying how Toads legs work. Toad is slightly suspicious, but tries to explain as best as he can
• We get back to the other warforged
• It is slimmer and obviously made for finer motor control than Toad
• It has a slim hole through its chest, and is lying motionless
• It was probably a long pointed weapon that caused it. (Niels shows ish 20 cm)
• Void thinks it was a pickaxe
• Toad confirms that they were attacked by a pickaxe with a crystal (?) by Dusksunder
• Arnini and Coty teams up to investigate how to fix it
• (Niels is describing the warforged as a cyborg, with part machine and part humanoid flesh side. I will try to retcon that later…)
• Coty heals the humanoid side, and Arnini fixes the mechanical parts
• Scribe-5 wakes up (I voice her and the others are surprised ^^)
• She asks how long she has
• Toad tells Scribe-5 that he had tea with the dwarf for a month.
• We talk for a bit
• Scribe-5 tells them about the entrance the warforged used
• She will follow the party to get out of the ruins
• Coty and Scribe-5 discuss coty's condition (cold all the time etc. ), And Scribe-5 tells her that she has 26 current theories, but will need time and equipment to investigate it more.
• We go back to the temple
• Dusksunder's body is gone
• Scribe-5 shows us which way they came in
• T insists we og do the ritual first
• Scribe-5 tells them some of her research on the ritual
• We need the symbol of clasped hands, and the symbol of shackles
• Scribe-5 scetches the symbols the other show her from the room of the ancients
• We head to the top, T sneaks ahead to scout
• It's flat, with a throne (?)
• The fog is streaming down the staircase that's going straight up to the top
• It seems to be coming from the throne
• A massive wooden throne, 10 ft. Wide, 20 ft. Tall
• Lit from behind by living lava of the volcano
• A body sits at the throne. Silver(?) knives in it's hands and knees
• Sometimes the body sighs
• It's an elf
• Another terrible con save round
• T can hover-move with her mind: 10 + int = 13 ft.
• Void gets slowed and can also move with his mind
• Coty ?
• The fog is leaking from the elf, who is pinned to the throne by 20 silver daggers
• We Og past the throne to get to the ritual
• As we do Thunder and Coty hear a voice in their heads (We failed a wis save
• "So painful". Says it was tricked
• Compels T to release it. "Thunder, I am your emperor. Release me"
• S Turns Undead, but the emperor uses legendary resistance to save
• C casts Hold Person on T, freezing her in place
• Coty feels the voice boring into her mind, but she is immune to charm effects
• "Coty. My subject. The injustice must be righted. Release me."
• "I was tricked, convinced, decieved. I am the rightful emperor"
• He doesn't know what Yin is. He is the emperor of the Golden Empire of the Rising Sun
• Scribe-5 tells them that the calamity happened 200(??) or something years after the rising sun (?)
• The empire he's talking about is roughly 3 times the size of Yin
• Arnini moves over to T with rope
• If Coty releases him, he will take over his rightful rule
• The traitors were what caused the calamity (???)
• The leaders of the paths wanted to create a supreme being by converging all the paths.
• He went along out of curiosity, then he was tricked
• They imprisoned him on his throne, to forever sit there
• Coty offers to be his campaign manager if he doesn't take the seat of emperor, but instead runs for emperor democratically
• He agrees that they will need support to rule
• T tells her all of the reasons that this is a bad idea
• Coty wants to sign a magical contract. But she can't make those, so she wants to ask him to do so
• All of the party hears the voice now "What will it take to make you want to release me?"
• When he finds out that the ancients downstairs asked us to awaken them, he warns ut to not awaken the traitors.
• They were what caused the calamity. If we awaken them their ambition will take over and ruin his empire
• He weeps mentally for all the people who died, for nothing, duiring the calamity
• The whole party drag T away from the emperor, to do the ritual and get out of here.
• When we get further behind the throne we notice that the fog only leads away from the volcano. We feel lighter, like it's easier to move
• The emperor tells Coty that she is under the influence of the divine
• He can remove the item, but can't help her with her predicament  (she wants to get the item, not remove it)
• He can't directly meddle in god affairs
• The traitors tried to create a god of their own
• Arnini wonders if he has money. 100 000 gp. "That can be procured". Arnini will come back to that later maybe, since the emperor didn't have it on him
• The emperor can trade Coty the fifth element if she releases him. He gives her his word
• The spirit from Void's sword is pushing him away from the throne, and trying to block his vision
• Coty is about to free the emperor. T tells her that we need to help Cloud first, then consider doing that later.
• Arnini, Coty and Thunder agrees to help Cloud, and then potentially release him after.
• As we get further away from the throne, the compulsion to free his disappears
• As we go closer to the volcano, we see that the path is gilded, with groves meeting in a precipice directly above the lava of the volcano the temple seems to surround. The temple must have been massive
• An orb is in the centre of the precipice: