09 - 02/20/23 : The Gathering Of The Clouds

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  The Moonlighters interrupted a summoning ritual through Contrast's hypnotic pattern spell, causing a chuul to be brought into the prime material plane prematurely. This caused the creature to go berserk and attack its cultist masters, allowing the party to easily clean the area up and slay the chuul afterwards.   They then descended into the temple, finding it to contain ancient etchings of elves beneath a night sky. As they carried on, they encountered and slew a horrific gibbering mouther, as well as more cultists that had fled once the chuul summoning had been interrupted.   Vesper acquired a suit of mithral armor from one of the downed cultists; the Mithral Half-Plate of the Unmourned Stars, a suit that had been looted from the temple's old occupants. The armor allowed her to sustain radiant damage in exchange for bolstered, albeit temporary vitality, in addition to being unusually light and strong. Connie also acquired a ring capable of casting the spell chaos bolt, and Makoto chanced upon a set of lens of minute seeing.   After crossing a perilous platform, the party entered the main chamber of the temple, where a ritual was being performed on a blue gem hovering over a golden sarcophagus. Once again Contrast interrupted the ritual by incapacitating its' leader with hypnotic pattern, and as star-spawned aberrations charged at them, a pair of guardian statues at the end of the room began to move.   The statues depicted two elven women, one holding an orb of light and the other a scorpion, both of them declaring the temple a holy place of Desna, whom they called 'the elven goddess of stars'. Tied together by a glowing tether, the statues began wreaking havoc on the cult's forces. Once they were dispatched, the statues turned on the Moonlighters and tried to destroy them as well, with Contrast's please for peace falling on deaf ears. However, after weathering the statues' onslaught, Contrast was able to convince them that they wished only to take the gem to its home Desnan temple. With the gem in hand, the party left the temple.   As the sun set on the horizon, the party encountered Marvyllaste once more, surprised that he had already rode out to inspect the temple. He informed them that he was confident in their victory, but the Moonlighters doubted his intentions. Knowing they had seen that he was putting up a ruse, Marvyllaste revealed a shining brass arm beneath his cloak, and with it he cast a spell that froze Vesper in time. It was a harmless effect, he assured them, that would allow him to talk to Contrast and Makoto under his true identity; Veszaltyrr Oussndar.   Veszaltyrr revealed that he had been well and truly killed by Halaster's devastating magic missile barrage, and that his newer, younger body was a clone that housed his soul after his untimely demise. He also congratulated the party on finding the gemstone that he had removed from the Desnan temple in Revelmoore and then placed in Irrastin, as part of his own engineered plot to ensure Vesper followed the path of championing Desna and the cause of freeing the drow from Lolth.   He stated that he considered his work in the Prime Material a lost cause, and that someone would need to see to the drow's earthly needs for liberation in his absence; he considered Vesper a prime candidate given her disposition and unique circumstances. In the meantime, he sought different ways to bring war to Lolth's doorstep; ways that he would not reveal to Contrast and Makoto. He thanked the two for accompanying Vesper, and urged them to continue helping her along the path, whether they told her the truth or not, for the stakes were too high to do otherwise.   Makoto and Contrast asked if Urstul's return was engineered by Veszaltyrr as well; the sorcerer confirmed that he was not, and that the revenant's revival was a concern for him as well. He supposed that little would quell Urstul's undying rage, and an unconventional approach would have to be sought out to put him out of his misery. Veszaltyrr also supposed that Urstul was being aided by someone else given the information he was privy to, though he could not determine who.   After this, Veszaltyrr disappeared into the desert in a flash, and Vesper resumed movement, appearing confused as if no time had passed for her at all. Contrast and Makoto shared the revelations immediately, which frustrated Vesper but also made a lot of sense to her, given her familiarity with Veszaltyrr and his methods.   Vesper expressed disdain for being led on a leash, but also did not want to stray from the mystery the party had found. Contrast expressed similar feelings on being led on a set track, but the party agreed that this could be tabled for now. They still had to deliver the news of the cult's demise to Irrastin, and then return the gem to Revelmoore; all while avoiding the wrath of Urstul. With this in mind, the party returned to Irrastin to fulfill their end of the bargain.