Session+47

**The Last Two Challenges in Castle Scarwall - Serithtial Obtained!** After a brief rest and healing before heading back to the center of the castle, Mali and Melleron finally awoke from their nightmares. Everyone was relieved to see them well and returned. Thorn peered through his magic marble that he had left behind... to see the ghostly visage of Mithrodar... all 4 chains were broken off of him and he looked very angry about it as he watched the entrance door of his room... waiting for our arrival. We put up wards and spells and Posy led everyone into his room. Erevin felt the strength of the spirits of The Wise Owl of the Tarot coming to aid him. Posy nodded in greeting to the ghost, optimistically hoping he might be grateful, "We're the ones who have freed your chains..." "You FOOLS!" He shook his fist at her angrily, "You have no idea how long it will take me to re-anchor!" "Why would you 'want' to re-anchor?" She looked at him, confused. "The curse of this castle must go on forever! ...You!" He swept his eyes over the group, not finding anyone of an evil nature, "None of you will do!" He grumbled, glancing at Thorn, "You though... I might settle." Once the castellan of the castle... Kazavon's right hand. He had perished long ago to the war Mandrob, Uthgart's ancestor, brought upon the castle... undead for centuries, his mind was now broken with his only focus on keeping the castle together and strong. Mithrodar stepped forward and lashed out with his four chains, two of them smashing into Posy, gnarling up her face and dropping her intimidating presence to just a weak little gnome... and then he retracted back to the back of the room. Wren tried to hex him with a witchy retribution, but Mithrodar's will was strong and he shrugged it off. Yuki lashed out, smiting him with holy magic! The ghostly figure turned his full gaze toward the priestess as nightmarish images appeared in her thoughts of being turned disfigured and ugly and Axton not even looking at her... turning her away as disgusting and horrible! Erevin sent Mari to protect Yuki and pulled out his ghostly touched bow to pierce Mithrodar with 3 arrows! Mali sent in a powerful flamestrike and then sent Melleron to attack from behind, raking his claws through his ghostly back. Posy charged in with the holy cold iron glowing sword, slashing him with two powerful strikes! Thorn ported with his daggers up beside Posy to slash into Mithrodar's side! Four specters seeped in through the walls, one of them passing through Wren, weakening her immensely as she cried out from the cold ripping pain! The witch threw up her hands, defensively and washed out holy healing energy over the specter. Two other ghosts touched Mali and Mari, both gasped out from the cold devastating pull of power! One of the chains of Mithrodar smashed into Melleron, making him appear weaker and smaller... Yuki sent out a powerful spell, making all of the specters, including Mithrodar, gain a physical form... making their meaty bodies much easier to hit and damage! Erevin dropped the bow and brought up his moonblade against another of the specters with it's new physical form, slashing into it deeply! Mali sent out a roaring snake of flame through the four specters! The ones on Wren and Erevin fell to the ground! Posy stood as a desiccated husk still fiercely battling on with Mithrodar... she engaged her ring, throwing out a powerful ring of fire! Thorn managed to avoid it, recognizing the look in Posy's eyes. One of the specter's again passed through Mari, paling her as she grew weaker... but still she stood bravely guarding the priestess behind her! Yuki sent out a desperately needed wave of healing over everyone! Erevin sent out powerful strikes with his arrows to take the last two specters down. Thorn, knowing that Posy wasn't going to survive another hit from the castellan, and seeing him raise up his chains... going to claim her soul into the castle... bravely moved in with his daggers to try to save the gnome's life. Suddenly boosted by the spirits of The Silent Hag of the Tarot deck, Thorn rapidly stabbed Mithrodar in the back, gashing through his fleshy body! "You're not touching 'my' Posy!" The ghostly castellan wailed and shrieked as his body was twisted, caught in a vortex for a brief moment before he was gone.. A few moments later the walls of the castle began to shimmer in brightness as the shadows and darkness receded... sighs of relief seem to come from the spirits who collapsed into lifelessness, finally released from their prison. The ghostly form of Z'larra passed through the wall of the room to greet us, "I'm free!" Her spirit returned to the tarot deck. A young adult male spirit also came into the room wearing long out of style, finely cut noble clothes... his ghostly flesh was slowly stripped away as if he was being filleted by invisible knives to reveal his muscles and bones beneath! The flesh reappeared and the process started all over again to the shock and horror of everyone! The ghost hardly seemed to notice his continued mutilation except for the occasional flinch as a tender bit of flesh was tugged away, "You have done a great thing today! You have concluded a legend... what has festered here in Scarwall is no more. Saving us all, you have restored honor to this place... A shame I created and a shame that I was unable to lift. I was the one that told Kazavon of the crown so many ages ago... eventually even when 'my' coward soul could no longer bare to hear the tale of cruelties, I came here to Scarwall to attempt to undo what I had done... and yet again, I failed. Kazavon had my skin stripped away raw before my dying gaze... and when I did die, my spirit was trapped in the castle as it's prisoner. There came a time soon after when Kazavon was slain by a hero wielding a powerful sword. His blade, Serithtial, brought an end to Kazavon's rule, but could not squelch his spirit for Kazavon was one of Melar's chosen. Mandrob wisely ordered the crown taken away and he remained in the castle. His victory and the holy sword kept the spirits of the dead quiet... yet these did nothing to protect him from a baser threat. The orcs came down and murdered him... as he fell, his soul became trapped in these cursed walls. Without his presence, the light of Serithtial went dark and the spirits of Kazavon took hold. That is what you have righted now... and Scarwall will be left to crumble to dust as the ages march on... Yet I sense that your quest is only partially done... I have been here too long to have not felt Kazavon's strength and seed take hold of the barbarian woman you know as Bridget. Strange names that I do not know are in my head... Bridget, Uther, Uthgart... and your own. Kazavon quickens inside the barbarian and you must recover Serithtial in order to be able to cast him down again. I can still feel a presence in this place... a power linked to Melar. It remains in the star tower, once Kazavon's inner sanctum. I see now, in the deepest heart of Scarwall hidden... a fragment that was once cursed lingers there... While the curse held, the way was blocked to you... but now you can go down and it will lead you to your goal. My time here is now at an end... and your time shall at last begin." Another mutilation rolled across his body and then he dissolved into sparkling lights. Another glowing star appeared on the floor where Mithrodar had fallen. Everyone collapsed to the floor, exhausted, to rest for a brief moment. Some of the weight of the deep spiritual wounds was lifted as we recovered and healed.  As the freed spirits drifted out of the castle... 6 of them went to the group. (Hopefully I understood all of these correctly and wrote them down right. Speak up if they need to be corrected, Scott) One spirit went into Erevin's moonblade, lighting up a new rune... the elven rune for quickness... giving him two new feats, Deflect Arrow and Quick Reflexes? (Not sure of real feat name - once per day re-roll any reflex save) One of the spirits joined into Cirdan, Wren's raven that transformed into a bow... allowing her to store 3 prepped spells to be used as a swift action. Another spirit went into Thorn's daggers... giving him the Lunge feat without an armor penalty. A spirit flowed into Posy's nose-ring... to aid her by guiding her weapon, giving her the feat of Vital Strike. Another combined with Mali's cherry blossom staff... allowing her to Maximize any 1st through 3rd level spell damage up to 3 times per day. One of the spirits swept into Yuki's ribbon... giving her a longer reach with her spells up to 3 times per day 25 feet plus 5 feet per level. This also stacks with her reach feat... The spirits also increased all of the magic items to to +2 status. We discuss and agree to return to the castle after going after Bridget to consecrate the area and offer it as a place renewed for the barbarians if they so desire... Physically feeling better, but still wearing thin on spells... we moved on, stepping onto the star... we began falling through the air... nothing to grab onto.... only air all around us as we continued to fall through a blue cloud for miles... Erevin looked around, "What witchery is this?" Finally the blue fog faded and we fell to the ground below. Mali and Wren were lucky enough to will their feather fall in time, but the others smacked onto the floor at the bottom of the tower. We headed through the only door in the room into a rough hewn tunnel that led us underground. "Underground?" Yuki looked tentatively down the tunnel, "With dirt? ...and worms?" Erevin nodded, "And lots of bugs." "Bugs?" The priestess shivered slightly. Thorn nodded, "Centipedes... spiders..." Yuki's skin crawled and she stopped listening as she stared into the tunnel. "Look, it's a little pill bug... it's so cute," Thorn held up his hand with a tiny little bug that reared up with it's tiny feet and Yuki hid quickly behind Erevin, "You're a ranger... get him." Erevin poked the halfling. "Ow..." Thorn dropped the bug and led everyone into the tunnel, Yuki following Erevin closely. The walls were rough and had a sheen of glittering mineral deposits. The ceiling gave us plenty of room to stand tall at 12 feet high, but the tunnel was narrow and we walked down in a single file line. Everything looked wet and yet was strangely dry to the touch. We found one fork in the road and Erevin chose the danker smelling road ahead... It opened up into a very large cave that hung thickly with the rank odor of decay, filth, and wet fur. We were standing on a rocky shelf with four crudely made hovels of mud, hair, and debris. Yuki looked distressed, carrying on about wet fur and cannibals! To the north, a silent lake of black water stretched into the distance... very few ripples disturbed it's surface. A single star of light hung over the surface to the northwest, dimly lighting an island 70 feet out into the water. We walked down toward the muddy igloos. An awful looking creature ran out of one of the buildings at us in a crazed rage! Bitten, clawed up, and ragged... it charged at us on two legs... 8 or 9 feet tall, gnashing it's gaping mouth-head! Everyone instinctively pulled weapons and met it with a quick death. Three others were found in the hovels already dead... it looked as though they had been here long enough that they ate themselves and each other. "Canibals! I knew it!" Yuki shivered. Mali tugged out a sharp and pointy pick from one of the walls. Wren shuddered, looking at the water. Mali pulled out a feather and transformed it into a large black swan boat. The elven witch hugged the little halfling, "Thank you, Mali!" As we boarded the boat on the still black water, Posy heard drums and barbarian like music... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LANHWwEjOAU   As we moved across the lake, a pustule-covered 80 foot long worm beast rose out of the water, "You wont have it!" Dozens of legs ran along it's body while it's upper part was a bloated upper body of what was once a man... rolls of bloated flesh hanging on him. Yuki turned away from the hideous creature and slipped behind the ranger, "Erevin, after this... I want a ball. I want to wear things that sparkle... diamonds, sapphires, rubies..." "I shall make it so, my lady," he nodded, "I will bring down the stars and you shall wear 'them'." Yuki melted a little against him, wondering why Axton couldn't be more like that. The lake creature opened his mouth and acid-like vomit spewed over the boat! Highly toxic, it's acid burned heavy wounds into everyone except Erevin who managed to avoid it. Wren's lifeless body fell to the deck of the boat. Erevin leapt off of the boat onto the creature and sliced into it with his moonblade, blood and pus oozing out of it! Posy followed him out and gouged into the slice Erevin ripped open, and despite acid spraying out, she crawled inside the creature's belly! Thinking that was a great idea, Mali followed her into it's belly and transformed into an enormous spiky dinosaur type creature, bulging his belly outward, her spikes tearing him apart from the inside! Thorn leapt out and scurried around behind the creature onto it's back. Yuki screamed out, heading toward the fallen witch, "WREN!!!" She fell to her knees, pulling the witch into her arms, gently brushing off her face and kissing her lips with a breath of life, rushing life back into her! Wren's eyes fluttered open, "Yuki? ...what happened?" "That happened!" Yuki pointed up at the bloated worm man. The witch got to her feet and hugged onto the priestess, "Thank you, Yuki!" "You go down so fast! We can't tell Kale how many times you nearly died!" Yuki returned her hug and whipped out her ribbon, a shield forming over both of them, "He's totally going to kill me if he finds out that you keeled over AGAIN!" Wren blinked wide eyes at her, "I'm sorry, Yuki... I don't mean to fall so easily..." The priestess continued, "And if something happened to you, who would I talk to about Axton?! ...that jerk!" The lake creature pierced a gigantic briar claw through Erevin! He screamed... clenching his jaw and groaning from the waves of immense super-natural pain ripping through him! He realized that this was the same pain that this being must've been in for a long agonizing torture...Yuki whipped her head toward the ranger, "ERRREVIIIN!!" The ranger, trying to end the creature's agony... as well as his own... slashed his moonblade into the creature's throat, acid bursting out and hissing! Wren threw out a warding protection over Erevin. Thorn stabbed his daggers into the creature's flesh and rode them down the monster's back like a sail as they tore him open! Posy gashed into the creature with her holy sword from the inside while Mali thrashed around with her large spiky body! Yuki dropped her ribbon shield and sent out a powerful wave of healing over everyone. Wren held up Yuki's metal shield in front of them like a little parasol to all of the acid spurting out.
 * 5-31-2014 **

The acid continued to burn Mali and Posy inside and the creature slashed into Erevin and Thorn, the halfling barely fighting off the poisonous powerful waves of pain... Wren sent Cirdan to fire lightning arrows while she collected samples of the lake and acid into alchemy vials. Thorn pierced his daggers over and and over, using them to climb up the monster's back! Mali and Posy slashed and ripped it again from the inside, finally bursting it open! A burst of acid and maggots rained out! Yuki and Wren clung together, holding up the shield. Erevin, Posy, Mali, and Thorn fell into the black water below and everyone got onto the boat with a little help.

Posy moved up to the shining sword in the rocky island and she could hear almost a chorus of voices whispering to her, "Pull me free, smallest bear ...and fulfill your destiny!" She grasped the hilt in her hands and pulled the greatsword free as it lit up with a glowing white! It's voice came into her head, "Well done, little warrior! Whom shall we kill today?" "Bridget!" Posy answered without hesitation, "...but we have to rest first." "Take me from this place... it has been a long time since I got to fight evil." Heading back out, we stopped to check the forked path to find an entrance to the Underdark... home of the drow. Yuki's eyes got wide and she stepped in front of the ranger, "Erevin... I know what you're thinking... and we can't. Not right now. Our spells are down. We're tired... and dirty... and Posy is badly wounded." "I understand..." Erevin nodded to her calmly, still looking around at the runes carved into the entrance and taking note of everything. The runes were likely hundreds of years old... probably unused for a long time with the exception of perhaps the mouth-head creatures coming from there. "The Underdark is huge... it runs across under the entire continent. It's a world unto itself." "...'Someone'...could get 'lost' down there...Erevin," Yuki murmured, watching him worriedly, her meaning clear... We left the castle... the skeletons had collapsed and crumbled to bones.... the gargoyles were just stone on the roof... We returned to Destiny. A worried Axton and Kale both rushed up to greet Yuki and Wren. Kale looked the witch over, "What... is all over you?" Wren sighed heavily, "You really don't want to know... I just want to go down and take a bath." Erevin agreed with her and nodded to Kale, "You really don't want to know." Thorn came around her other side, "Wren, you need to go clean off all of that abyssal vomit!" The witch shifted her gaze to the halfling, "...thanks." She smirked. He grinned and nodded. Shri rushed up to Erevin and gazed into his eyes, "Thank the gods!" He smiled, slipping his arms around her, "Thank the gods indeed..." Shri glowed with happiness with the transformation Erevin had gone through. Axton, Shri, Amynta, Rue, and Ori went around healing everyone, renewing and restoring their strengths. We told the story of the horrors faced in the castle to the gathered group of people on Destiny and went through the piles of treasure... Thorn - Necklace of silver plated red wormling skulls valued at 2k gold  Mali - Sharp Pick with Aberration Bane +3  Mali - Immolation Ring (Fire shield for 10 rounds)  Posy - Mithril Full Plate +2  Erevin - Gauntlets +2 strength  Erevin - Amulet +1 natural armor  Yuki - Celestial Armor +3 with once per day wings of flight for 11 rounds  Axton - Mithril Breastplate +1  Kale - Full Plate +2 (returning his full plate +1 to the treasure pile)  Uther - Belt of Giant Strength +2  Yuki - Ring of Protection +2 (returning her +1 ring to the treasure pile)  Erevin - Greatsword +1 with Dragon Bane and Frost  Kale - Holy Cold Iron Longsword +1 (Holy gives +2 vs evil and cold iron works against demons and witches)  Axton - Ring of Protection +2  Shri - Mithril Shirt +1  Uther - Breastplates +1  <span style="font-family: arial,sans-serif; font-size: 12.800000190734863px;">Paladin Brightwood gift - Lance +2 <span style="font-family: arial,sans-serif; font-size: 12.800000190734863px;">Posy - Serithtial +4 Holy Melar Bane Greatsword <span style="font-family: arial,sans-serif; font-size: 12.800000190734863px;">(Holy gives +2d6 vs evil.) (Melar Bane gives +2 to hit and 2d6 dmg vs creatures / worshipers of Melar) *treated like it's made of cold iron and silver. *cast zone of truth 3 x per day. *Death ward and Freedom of movement vs Melar. *Glows like flame. *Intelligent - speaks. <span style="color: #222222; font-family: arial,sans-serif; font-size: 12.800000190734863px; line-height: 1.5;">gems valued at 8k gold10k gold20k silver (10 silver per gold = 2k gold equivalent)40k copper (10 copper per silver = 4k silver = 400 gold)...so if my calculations are correct... that's 20,400 gold divided by 6... that's 3,400 gold each. <span style="display: block; font-family: arial,sans-serif; font-size: 12.800000190734863px;"> plus whatever these magic items sell for... <span style="font-family: arial,sans-serif; font-size: 12.800000190734863px;">Selling... <span style="font-family: arial,sans-serif; font-size: 12.800000190734863px;">5 Breastplates +1 <span style="font-family: arial,sans-serif; font-size: 12.800000190734863px;">6 Great Axes +1  <span style="font-family: arial,sans-serif; font-size: 12.800000190734863px;">2 Full Plate +1 (one of these was the returned one from Kale)  <span style="font-family: arial,sans-serif; font-size: 12.800000190734863px;">Thundering Warhammer +2  <span style="font-family: arial,sans-serif; font-size: 12.800000190734863px;">Evil Staff of Necromancy  <span style="font-family: arial,sans-serif; font-size: 12.800000190734863px;">Adamantite Battleaxe  <span style="font-family: arial,sans-serif; font-size: 12.800000190734863px;">Lawful Greatsword +1 with Outsider Bane  <span style="font-family: arial,sans-serif; font-size: 12.800000190734863px;">Full Plate +2  <span style="font-family: arial,sans-serif; font-size: 12.800000190734863px;">Shield +1  <span style="font-family: arial,sans-serif; font-size: 12.800000190734863px;">Battleaxe +2  <span style="font-family: arial,sans-serif; font-size: 12.800000190734863px;">Ring of Protection +1 (returned from Yuki)