Session 20: 1/6/2024
Opal shows up as we are picking up the pieces of last session. We explain to Opal what happened to to Alleli and that who we assume was his brother showed up in a portal that blew out the wall. General argument ensues. Opal isn’t sure what to say or how to process this so he asks if Alleli is going to die, and Jenthiel re-explains the grove of leaders past that we can ask information on the curse about. Jenthiel explains that they can keep Alleli stable while we are gone and Killian explains that we should probably be moving in order to get help for Alleli as fast as possible. Opal worries too much about the wall and who will pay for it and Ria says not to worry about it at this time. Jenthiel is sorry but he cannot really help us: they are not prepared for adventuring and we need to move. Jenthiel explains we need to follow the trail and then find the gardeners that tend that place, and he recommends we find Iskariel.
We all eventually head out, following Jenthiel to the path there. On the way through town some people join us to the entrance, interested in the happenings. We are led outside of town where there are these huge trees with gnarled branches around a well with ancient stone steps leading down. Opal throws a stone down the stairs and we hear it go down for quite some time, but it never seems to hit the bottom. We go down, with Killian riding on Ria’s shoulder, and we go down for and follow the path at least a mile. There’s a lot of twists and turns. At the bottom is a passage that widens and there are carvings of leafless trees. We proceed and find ourselves in a large cavern with water gently streaming down the walls.
In the first room is a spider spindly frog amalgamation that’s fucking awful when Alan described it. This thing is definitely hunting us. It’s a pretty big creature (medium classification). Combat begins. We dispatch of the pair of Immolis that were attacking. We move on past the pool of water and find another natural cave, filled with figures in robes seeming to take care of this place. There’s a whole slew of types of people: humans, insectoids, beastkind, etc. We hear a click noise that seems to be because we’ve arrived.
There’s a psychic force that tries to hit Killian’s head that starts to go through his head to try to find failures that but Killian himself doesn’t recall much that was difficult. There’s a split second where he access memory that doesn’t seem to be his own: he stands in a very cramped office of some kind, and he instinctively knows that this is not the body he inhabits right now. He hears a voice that he hates say something, but he doesn’t know what voice says before the memory slips away. He is distracted as he tries to recall the memory, but it’s already gone.
Meanwhile, we have triggered a complex trap that we need to dismantle. Opal immediately notices that the statues have eyes with unnatural glowing now. He realizes that we need to take care of these by…
- Using thievery to blank out the eyes
- Using Arcana or Occultism to become invisible to the statues
- Run past it all in a panic
Yuna runs past, coming to a stop before the next room. Ria also runs past and into the next room.
Valentine fails his check and is reminded of the final dual that he lost that put him on this path — he was fighting in some antechamber of some palace, fighting some three guys, and he just is being absolutely wrecked.
The memory for Killian comes backL
He’s in an office and Killian is made aware that this is an office and he hates this place so much. The voice is chewing Killian out, but Killian can’t see him because the person is behind Killian as he’s arranging something. Killian is staring at the wall waiting for it all to be finished. The voice is chastising him because Killian let them escape, and keeps calling him a moron and talking about how he deserves to die, why didn’t he get sacrificed, why don’t they kill him now, etc.
He realizes that this is the first memory he has of his previous life.
We all manage to get through the room and stop before a cavern with piles of skeletons.