021 - An Unexpected Temple Reunion

The party decides to take a short rest in front of the puzzle door. While resting and recooperating, Wazo cracks the puzzle by saying, "Threshold". As the door magically swings open slowly, the sound of chanting grows louder. Approaching cautiously, the party begins to walk down the corridor and begin to notice carved statues of dragons adorning the walls. Tegan uses the magical 'walkie-talkie' earring to phone Vaeoto and asks if he knows anything but Vaeoto does not. Tegan recognizes the iconography attributing to the god, Bahamut, a metallic dragon god of justice. The party quickly decides to interfere with the apparent ritual that is happening in order to save Gondra.

As the team proceeds, the floor begins to become cobblestones and the statues and iconography become more intricate. As Tegan leads the team, he foots falls upon a loose cobblestone and it presses down on a pressure plate. A metal scythe slashes from a slit in the wall, striking Tegan in the arm causing minor damage. Wazo quickly tends to his wounds and heals him. Aaron seeing that the scythe reset itself into the wall, decides to cast mage hand to press down on the pressure plate, in order to provide safe passage for Wazo and him.

The chants grow louder as the party proceeds deeper into this tunnel. Tegan casts Comprehend Languages and hears, "All Hail Vygho, Lord of the Mountains. May your power grow stronger with these virgin sacrifices. When life fades, and darkness rises, there is still the final hope". Tegan panics and says, "They're sacrificing a virgin to corrupt this temple!" Wazo enters into a rage and runs towards two lookout guards.

Initiative!

One guard misses Wazo, the other runs north through 8 to warn the others
Wazo hits her guard with a nasty divine rapier stab, then misses with a follow-up
Tegan runs flat-out towards the fight
Aaron runs up, and casts Enemies Abound on the fleeing guard. He stops and looks around, confused for the moment
Wazo's guard attacks her, but in her rage she barely feels it
Wazo obliterates her guard, slashing his throat open with her rapier.
Tegan rounds the corner, and seeing the casters he casts a subtle Silence over them
Aaron slams the last guard with a vicious EB
The cultists scatter, the head cultist moving north out of Silence, and the others moving south towards the group with murderous intent
Wazo skewers her guard, who collapses at her feet dead. She flies around the pillar in 8 to flank the cultists
Tegan casts Spirit Guardians and hides behind the pillar
Aaron snipes around the column from a distance, slamming acolyte 1 with two bolts.
Three acolytes rush towards Tegan, taking damage from angry angels
The cultist, still chanting, moves towards an altar and cuts open his hand, dripping blood on an altar near a dragon skeleton
Wazo slashes at acolyte 4
Tegan summons Spiritual Weapon, misses with it, then with GFB kills acolyte 4 and wounds 1.
Aaron blasts acolyte 3 to death with EB
Acolyte 1 is badly hurt by spirit guardians, but still bravely slashes at Tegan, missing
Acolyte 2 slashes at Wazo weakly
The cultist finishes his ritual, and from the mouth of the dragon skull emerge a young black dragon and two wyrmlings. The skull begins to turn an inky black like we saw on the tusks outside
Wazo ganks her guard and runs over to Tegans, killing him too
Tegan runs towards the dragons, bringing the SW with him. He misses a chill touch against the closest wyrmling
Aaron uses Enemies Abound on wyrmling 4
The cultist summons a spiritual weapon (a scythe) next to Tegan, but misses
Wyrmling 4 flies over to wyrmling 3, delivering an unexpected, vicious bite to the neck.
Wyrmling 3 runs to Tegan, and despite being hurt even worse by the angels he spits acid at Tegan, who dodges some of it
Wazo runs up to the black dragon, but misses two attacks
Tegan slides the spiritual weapon through wyrmling 4, killing it. He retreats behind the column, approaching the others
Aaron pulls back from the dragon, then blasts it, hitting once then missing
The cultist moves his scythe closer to Tegan, who saves against the cultists follow-up Sacred Flame
The dragon lines up another acid breath, aiming at Wazo and Aaron. They both dodge, but are still badly burned. Aaron goes down
(Tegan calls out, "I got him! Focus on the dragon!") Wazo skewers the dragon, but her follow-up misses
Tegan uses Healing Word to revive Aaron, and hits the cultist with Chill Touch
Aaron stands up and takes shallow cover behind the column and has Flit fly in LOS of the cultist. Two blasts of eldritch force slam the cultist, which is disintegrated. As the cultist dies, the wyrmling dissolves as well.
The dragon tries to bite Wazo, and when that misses, it flails at her with its claws. Wazo is looking badly hurt
Wazo keeps stabbing at the dragon, missing, then hitting hard.
Tegan runs up, bringing the angry angels. He quickly Healing Words Wazo, then runs up to the dragon and misses with GFB
Aaron hits the dragon with EB then circles around the column
The dragon takes damage from the angels, then angered by constant taunts from Wazo, bites and claws at her.
Still standing, she slashes and stabs back.
Tegan uses Hexblade's curse on the dragon, then stabs it hard with GFB
Aaron channels EB through Flit, dealing significant damage
Wazo keeps trash talking the dragon, which breathes acid on her. She falls unconscious
Tegan uses Healing Word to revive Wazo, then misses the dragon with GFB, even while using Favored by the Gods
Aaron misses with EB through Flit
The dragon slashes at Wazo some more. She falls unconscious, then it attacks her once more. She fails two death saves. It turns to Tegan and crit bites him, leaving him at death's door.
Wazo makes a death save
Tegan restores Wazo with HW, then misses with GFB
Aaron channels a full EB through Flit, and it falls down, dead.

The group limps over to the twin altars located in a gigantic skeleton of a dragon, where they see a dead blonde woman, and a 10 y.o. human girl with dark hair and light skin, who Aaron recognizes as his sister, Zelindra! He gently drags her off the altar. She says, "Aaron, what are you doing here?"
A-"I'm here to save you, what are you doing here?"
Z-"I was brought here by the Emerald Enlightenment"
A- "How did they find you?"
Z- "Our Aunt and uncle sold me to them when I was trying to find you and they got mad and sold me to them."

Tegan and Wazo cast healing spells on Zelindra as she is looking haggard and tired, and as they finish, she starts looking better. Zelindra says, "I went back to Liegard, to the family's orchard. I thought you had left me..."
A- "I didn't want to leave you in danger. I had to leave you."
Z angrily says, "Instead you left me with Laura and Charles."
A- "They threw me out. They seemed to be taking care of you."
Z- "They threw you out?! I had no idea..."
A- "They told me to leave and to never come back."
Z- "I'm so glad to see you, I was so angry"
A- "I'll make sure nothing like this happens again"
Z- "I love you brother"
A- "I love you too"
Zelindra heard the Emerald Enlightenment's plan when she was searching for Aaron. She says that they took over their family orchard because heart's fruit wine increases their god, Vygho's potency and anger. They also fed it to me and Sarina to increase our fear in order to make the rituals more effective.

As the party regroups from their harrowing dragon battle, Wazo inspects a mural at the back of room 25. It depicts Bahamut in his human form but there's something strange about it; Aaron notices that one of the canaries has a faint magical green glow with his Detect Magic Spell.

He reaches up and touches it, and realizes it can be moved and swiveled. He turns it to face left like the other canaries, and a hidden door swings open, revealing a treasure room. Wazo sees 900gp of gold, an emerald, a diamond (100gp), a bag of incense, some strange brass-buckled boots with a rabbit emblem and magical energy, a small elm wand, and a small packet of some dust-like material.

The group decides to take a break for an hour or so inside the treasure room. Tegan stays outside, afraid of being locked in. During the rest, Tegan tells Vaeoto all the things that happened and what they saw.

"Thank you for saving our long-lost altar to Bahamut. We noticed that the black curse has stopped growing. It's still there, but not creeping any further." says Vaeoto. "Be sure to mark the way to the temple so we can sanctify and reconsecrate it to Bahamut again."

The group explores the cave more on their way out, keeping Sarina with Aaron. Tegan and Wazo come across a family of hobgoblins at room 24. Initiative!

Wazo carves into one, doing good damage
Tegan finishes it off with chill touch
They gang up on Wazo, but she's fine
Aaron zaps one through flit, killing it
Wazo kills one
Tegan hits the last one with chill touch
It misses Wazo
Aaron channels one last EB through Flit and finishes it off

Wazo collects four shields and longswords, and Tegan stashes them in the bag of holding

Aaron hears a familiar voice in his mind... "Go back to the altar!" Ignoring it, he says, "Let's head out of here."

Sarina is concerned about how Aaron can cast magic. He explains that something contacted him after he was kicked out, he made an agreement with it and got magic powers. She is disturbed by this, and becomes withdrawn.

The group makes their way more directly out, and debriefs Vaeoto in person. The map they make for him is good enough that they can reach the temple. They perform some kind of ritual and by cleansing it, the ichor withdraws from their ivory towers.

Vaeoto is as good as his promise: he brings out a small rectangular box, intricately carved from ivory. Tegan takes it and opens it. The group sees the silver hilt of the Silverlight, Promise of Evermyre. The pommel has a dragon head, and the cross-guard consists of the wings of the dragon. He explains that his family has guarded this for generations, and he is giving it to us, fulfilling their pledge. The dwarves had told them, "You will know when the time is right to give it."

The group is now Level 8 :)

Category: AdventureLogs

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