Session 51-52

The Fortress of Memories

• The party finally makes their way to the cabin in the Shadowfell, and they make their way inside.
• The inside of the cabin seems to be the same, but the basement of the cabin has a door within the wall. With this being their only lead, the party makes their way through the door and down the deep, dark stairs.
• At the bottom of the stairs is the labyrinth of the fortress of memories, with each room being a person's memories at a certain point in time.
• As the adventurers make their way through the fortress, they start to discover that the rooms are beginning to become more personal to the adventurers, especially Alkinn herself.

The Hall of Memories

• As the party solves puzzles and defeats monsters, they eventually come across a large hall seemingly familiar to them.
• Doors line the hallway for each of the adventures.
• Each door leads to a room signifying a memory of each, Izen, a memory of Ilthrax the destroyer, Myrion, a memory of an elevan hunting party, Wild, a memory of the wood plagued and vinmo becoming a one with it, Muta a memory of her sister struggling to survive, and Lazarus a memory of the farm house they just visited burning to the ground and his mother being taken away.
• The final door was Alkinn's, but there was a more opposing force guarding whatever was inside the room.

A fight with an Avatar

• Inside Alkinn's room stood the avatar of the raven queen, standing, no guarding the part of Alkinn she had a grasp of. At first, the party tried bargaining with the god, but it was clear there was going to be a fight.
• The fight was explosive, the huge opposing force of the raven queen bearing down on the adventurers, but they still stood, being able to keep up with the queen.
• After the dust had settled, the avatar was temporarily taken down, and this scene plays out.

" As the avatar of the Raven Queen falls and all weapons drop, the crystal wall she had previously gloated about emits incomprehensible whispers, drawing Alkinn’s attention to it. The whispers grow louder as the cursed one approaches until it's almost a shrill hum. Millions of images briefly flicker across the crystal, showing the different lives Alkinn once lived. You count 30, 50, 70 different lives as they flash by. Each death your companion faced was at the hands of the Raven Queen herself in one way or another. Alkinn was cursed… cursed to live millions of lives as the Raven Queen’s toy. Every death the Raven Queen enjoyed, every moment of sorrow Alkinn ever faced, the Queen smiled at. She never wanted to redeem Alkinn. All she wanted was to have her toy back… As you all watch these, Alkinn looks back briefly before placing a cold, pale hand to the wall's crystal surface. As she does, a blood-curdling scream sounds as the memories flood Alkinn’s mind. Her body cripples under the turmoil, and as her knees hit the ground, she bursts into a plume of black sand with silver flecks inside. Her armor drops and crumbles, leaving nothing but a strange black gem with white light swirling within the top of the sand pile. The crystal wall that was once vibrant with memories is now dull and cracked, and there is no sound to be heard."

• Alkinn is now gone, and the party, now having the ioun stone in their grasp, made their escape out of the fortress of memories. The image of a colored familiar cabin flashed in everyone's eyes.

Finding an old friend

• With the party escaping, the shadow fell being pursued by a murder of giant crows, they seal the entrance.
• They leave the chair of the giant god and make their way to the cabin.
• The cabin, still destroyed from the ghost battle on the outside, was pristine on the inside, and with everyone searching the place for some hints, Myrion and Lazarus got the idea from the door in the shadow that fell.
• They start destroying the wall of the cabin's basement, and a hand from the earth reaches out to the group. It was Alkinn, but in a new set of armor and a slightly different body.