Session5


 * 1-19-13**
 * The discovery of Heroes’ Rest and the tower within**

Azarius had stayed back on the boat upon our re-arrival in Lyrabar. He continued to explore and experiment. He found a new platform of stairs had formed in the area where the crystal bomb had gone off. He found an area of many crystals that were very dim with magic. He wakes up one morning with a new appendage… but tells no one.

Posy and Thorn have healed up at The Unexpected Monkey. Wren escorts Mally to the Inn after the Hunt. Together they tell Posy and Thorn about the traditional annual hunt in honor of the goddess Sehanine. It is a competition as well as a way to bring in deer meat for a winter festival. They tell them Erevin won the competition with the largest deer and Mally was close behind with the second. They also mention Jerrandis the witch hunter coming up empty handed. They are all invited to the festival, but its still a couple of months away.

Hoppy talks to Thorn about his “entrepreneur” abilities. He tells him of a woman who will pay him money for items. Mally, Posy, and Wren look at one another as the two discuss “fences” and construction work… something about “hot fences”. The woman is Serei Wavecrest. Hoppy tells Thorn that “she’s one of us”.

Azarius continues to work and experiment in the ship. He slides a crystal into place and a soft rumble goes through the ship. He goes up to find a wooden shack that didn’t used to be there… while the ship looks shiny and new, the shack has an older and worn appearance. The creaks as it blows softly open and closed. Approaching the door, he can smell trees and the fresh outdoors. Inside is a stairway that leads down. The stairs become a part of a Cliffside overlooking a valley of buildings and a tower. Flashes light up the windows of the tower. There are stars in the sky, but no moon. Azarius sends out messages to the group that he found something on the boat and to come right away.

Yuki exhausted from chores as soon as soon as she returned from the hunt, goes to get permission from Alain upon receiving the message. Alain seems concerned and casts an energy renewal over her, making Yuki feel great.

Everyone gathers at the boat. We notice the strange run down shack on the deck, and along the bottom it seems that the boat is regenerating it. We go down the stairs, wooden stairs turn to stone a scant 10 feet down, and then we are led onto the Cliffside. The stars here have different constellations and seem strange. It looks like a small village in the valley below.

Upon investigating the village, it seems uninhabited and dusty. We find a sign post that reads Heroes’ Rest. We go into the tower. The base seems empty with two staircases that wind up opposite ends of the tower. We find an area with crystals like on the ship, though these are bigger… holding up a light we see a figure frozen within a crystal… lithe, almost like some sort of black serpent person, horrific. It doesn’t move and there is no life in its eyes. Looking around, we see different creatures in each of the crystals, demons and devils 12 – 15 ft tall, each its own horror. There are plaques on the wall with heads. There are display cases of jewelry and gems, weapon racks, and mannequins of armor. This must be some sort of trophy room. Zzztt Zzztt the lights continue to flicker above.

Up the stairs, the next level seems to be carved into the walls to form an octahedron instead of a perfect circle. Lines are grooved into the walls that continue into the floor to meet in the center, “dividing” the room into 8 sections. A gemmed door is on each wall with magical writing. A different miniaturization of terrain is along the floor of each section. A column stands in the center of the room like a mountain spire with a halo ring floating at the top. There are tiny buildings along the halo ring that appear to be a city. Looking at the magic writing, we can see names like The Abyss, Abadon, The Hells, The Heavens… quadrants of electricity spark in different colors. Figures start to fade in and out of the air in six of the sections. Strange beings… churning cancerous flesh golems, small winged demons, a spiked eyeball with a tail, a winged metallic eye, strange multi limbed lizards, and a floating happy feeling of warm light. They each move in with hostility as they fade in.

Chaos ensues as they each rush in for battle. The light moves off to battle with three of the darker beings. The lizards charge Thorn, The fleshy evil globs move in close. Melloran defends Azarius when the spiked eye strikes him from behind. A long, tiresome battle against unfamiliar foes. We try to fight together, to use our strength. Taking some down, and new start to take their place. Thorn is left woozy with confusion and accidentally strikes Posy, who brushes him back in her rage. Yuki is poisoned and her muscles begin to fatigue.

Everyone is tired, the last foe falls, only to have another winged metal eye fade in… it zips close exclaiming “Chaos detected” and self destructs like a bomb… everyone is injured, but Yuki takes the worst and falls. Erevin catches her almost lifeless body. Mally moves closer and quickly stabilizes her, and a large bearded devil fades in to another section. Thorn throws his dagger behind it and blinks to the other side. Posy rushes in to hold him. Wren revives Yuki with healing magic. She tells us to use silver or holy weapons on the beast. Erevin trades his bow out for his moonblade and charges in to stand at Posy’s side.

The wicked beast wields a a giant weapon and cleaves Posy, who continues to attack him in her rage. It blinks through the air away from the strong fighters to appear behind the mages. It cleaves Azarius, who reels backward bleeding, and then it cleaves Wren who falls to the floor in a puddle of blood. Yuki looks up in horror at its appearance and tries to help her friends, her healing powers are challenged by the evil it emanates and she can only break through to Azarius. Mally sends in her lion and summons a large dog to attack the great beast. Thorn, Erevin, and Posy move quickly to try and defend their friends. Finally the beast falls as Azarius sprays acid into its open wounds. Yuki is able to barely revive Wren. It seems that the magic that had been pent up, was finally released, and no more were coming…

We go up to the roof of the tower and looking down into the village, we make out worn sparring mats with a rack of weapons. A hobbit hole is among the buildings of the village as well as an elven estate. It seems to us to be the place where the heroes of the ship came to stay and rest. Strangely it never seems to be sunny here. There is only dusk and a starry night.

We go down into the tower and investigate the treasure in the trophy room.

Posy takes a +2 warhammer that holds up to a 3rd level spell and does x3 on a crit Wren takes a +2 ring of protection Mally and Thorn sell a set of Half Plate Armor +1 fortification Azarius takes a Wand of Burning Hands (3rd level) with 48 charges Yuki takes the Ring of Climbing +5 Posy takes a +1 Keen Great Axe with a 19/20 crit x3 Erevin takes the Longbow +1 Ghost Touch

We also find about 21,000 gold pieces worth of jewelry…. About 7k each

Leaving the tower, we look around the area to find a nice clean spring that comes down from the mountain and winds through and then back out of the valley. Groves of trees. It seems like a wonderful place to stay.

Climbing the stairs back on to the deck of the ship, Dominic is there holding hands with Amynta, and they along with Kale all seem to be very worried about us. Yuki, who is still coursing the poison in her veins, clings to Amynta’s arm for support. Kale puts an arm around Wren who is still a bit ashen and sticky with blood. We take them all down to see the village, it even has a weathered tavern where we could set it up with supplies. We need to do some cleaning.

Mally decides to stay in the hobbit hole and keep Melloran here with her. Yuki chooses one of the homes near the waterfall where she can commune with her goddess. Erevin chooses one of the rooms in the elven estate that overlooks the waterfall.

Amynta takes Yuki back to the temple for healing.

Dominic and Erevin talk about Amynta and his possible long term project. They talk about a vial Erevin received from Lady Winterrowd. Its an antidote for the chimaera produced from Crucible. Erevin asks him to look over one of the 3 and try to reverse engineer it to make more. Dom is interested in the brass vial… he says his mother taught him with brass.

Dom and Wren pick one of the buildings farther out from the others to make into a work home and put in an alchemy lab and a possible future magic item creation area.

Priestess Helena heals Yuki and tells her that Axton has been asking for her.

Wren takes everyone to The House of Wonders and introduces them to Shandra Rossi. Yay! Time to shop!