Honorbound: Episode 19

__NOTOC__
==Recap==
Opening art sequence by Diego, video by Travis Gillespie
=== Valis Castle ===
The party starts at the top of the tower in the castle in Valis, having just defeated Lady Amelia the Hag. Martur orders the zombie to rip off the head of the Hag, just to be sure. Thimble retrieves the dagger she gave Lady Amelia, and the party questions where she got it. Thimble claims she has always had it. The servant warns the party that Lord Francesco, like the hag, is not what he seems. Many people went into the throne room with him and did not return. The servant that they saved shows them a stash of treasure in the tower, which includes several valuable pieces of jewelry and 5 potions. Thimble immediately pockets the jewerly. Martur inspects the potions, finding that three of them are healing potions. One of them is unknown, and Bowen recognizes the last one as Holy Water. Bowen leaves his prisoner guards with the Yuan-Ti in the tower, and the party moves towards the throne room. Martur and his zombie break down a door, and the party streams into throne room. 
=== Valis Castle Throne Room ===
The party sees Lord Francesco standing where the throne used to be, and there is a dark symbol carved into the floor underneath him. Francesco is not moving. There are chains all around Francesco's feet. There is a stone arch in one corner of the room, and inside glows a dim light. Bowen enters, and sees a large snake abomination hiding behind one of the pillars. Bowen activates a charge on his flail and smashes the Yuan-Ti as Thimble shoots him. Martur examines the stone arch, determining that it is a dimensional portal to a dark place. The Yuan-Ti grapples Bowen with its tail and slashes a zombie. The creature then bites Bowen, dealing massive damage. Bowen drinks a potion of Greater Healing, and Thimble lands a pinpoint shot with her bow. Martur hits the symbol under Francesco with the hammer, but is unable to break it. The zombies slam the Yuan-Ti, and it looks bloody. The Yuan-Ti turns and slashes both of the zombies, and bites Bowen again. Thimble tries to walk behind Francesco, but as soon as she steps on the circle, she becomes frightened and runs away. Martur and the zombies land several hits on the Yuan-Ti as it fails to bite Bowen. The Yuan-Ti then slashes both zombies, who continue to hold on. Bowen smacks the creature. Thimble continues to run and then pulls out a small globe from her pack. It lifts out of her hands and starts orbiting around her head. Martur and the zombies bring the creature down with multiple blows. As the Yuan-Ti falls, Bowen investigates the portal, and senses that it is a two-way portal to a place of great evil. Thimble reenters the room and has a white stone with black spots rotating around her head. Martur and Thimble fling missiles at Lord Francesco as the light of the portal grows in intensity. Martur notices that something is coming thru the portal. Martur casts Magic Missile and brings Francesco down, causing the circle to fade. The party hears a rumble in the distance of stones and rocks falling. Darkness envelops around Bowen, growing from the portal. Bowen backs up and inspects Francesco, finding that he is dead, and also finds a mark of Lanios burned into his skin. Thimble sees a creature completely clothed in chains emerge from the portal.
Thimble lands a strong hit and then runs out of the darkness. The chains on the ground where Francesco's body lies come to life and strike out at Martur and Bowen, with two chains hitting them and two chains wrapping around their bodies. Chains fly out of the darkness to strike Martur to grab Martur, as the chain from the floor releases him. Martur casts Fireball into the darkness, but it doesn't harm this creature. The zombies pull Bowen free of the chains, and he casts Spirit Guardians to summon spiritual valkyries to aid in battle. Thimble pulls out her dagger and flings it at the Chain Devil, hitting the devil. Thimble feels her wounds knit over as the creature takes damage, and the dagger reappears in her hand. The chain wrapped around Martur squeezes him. A floating chain hits Martur and knocks him unconscious. Bowen sees a horrifying image of a petrified Therin emerge from the wall, and he becomes frightened. Thimble dual wields potions of Greater Healing and pours them down Martur's throat, bringing him back up. The chains move to surround Thimble as Bowen destroys one of them. They rain blows on Thimble. Martur sees his father wrapped in chains before the image disappears, and he becomes frightened. The creature hits Bowen with a chain and knocks him unconscious. Martur directs a zombie to use a Healing Potion on Bowen as he casts Magic Missile on the Chain Devil. Bowen stands up, charges his flail, and misses. Thimble flanks the Chain Devil and stabs with his dagger, draining life from it. The creature hits Thimble with a chain and grapples her as Bowen hits it with his flail. The floating chains move to attack Martur and Thimble, and one knocks Thimble unconscious. Martur smacks the Chain Devil as the zombies give a Healing potion to Thimble and free him from the chain. Bowen strikes the creature in the head with his flail, and it collapses to the ground. All of the chains fall to the floor, the magical darkness disappears, and the stone arch crumbles to dust. 
Martur smashes the remaining bits of the arch with the hammer. Martur and Bowen retrieve their prisoner guards and executes the two Yuan-Ti who they have tied up. Thimble goes to the front gate of the castle. She sees over a hundred dead Yuan-Ti on the ground, and three times as many dead human bodies. The floating tower is crumbled to the ground and destroyed. The party meets up in the throne room, and Thimble hears in her head a voice that says to eat Francesco, and that it wants blood. Thimble stabs the body of Francesco, and continues to hear the voice. Martur drags the body out of the circle, and Thimble goes blind. Martur burns the body with an alchemist fire, and Thimble's vision returns, but is blurry. Martur spends some time completely destroying the magic circle. Bowen gives each of the remaining prisoners and servants a platinum piece and tells them to spread word of what they saw here. Bowen moves out the front gate and addresses the people outside, using Thaumaturgy. He tells them that Francesco is dead and the snakes defeated. He empowers them to be the beacon of light that shines through the land and inspires their allies. Bowen thanks the Bonjoati for their assistance, and tells the crowd to rebuild and prepare for conflict. Thimble attempts to grab the stone orbiting her head for several minutes, and is unsuccessful. 
=== Valis Castle War Room ===
The party and Bonjoati convene in the war room of the castle. The party tells the Bonjoati leader that he must help unite the cities around Valis to help prepare for the coming war. Martur casts Identify on the floating stone, and identifies it to be an Ioun Stone that grants Truesight. He also finds that the item is cursed, and will continue to float around her head until a Remove Curse spell is cast on it. Martur also offers to identify her skull dagger, but Thimble lies to Martur about it's existence. Martur also sees a ring on Thimble's hand, which Thimble denies is there. The ring looks almost transparent. Martur asks Thimble if she took items from the cursed vault in Goldfort, and Thimble continues to lie about it. Martur casts Detect Magic to find what items on Thimble are magical. He finds that Thimble's ring is cursed, and will cause madness if you take it off. He tells Thimble that removing it might kill her. He also finds the dagger has two charges per day, and is not cursed. Martur identifies the last potion, and finds it to be a potion of Invulnerability. Bowen casts Remove Curse, and the Ioun stone falls to the ground. The cursed ring cannot be removed from his finger. Thimble's sight returns to normal. Martur casts Animate Dead and raises two more zombies.
The party has a coronation ceremony for Bonjoati, with several local nobles attending. They send heralds out to tell all of the new king of Valis. The party asks Bonjoati to coordinate their movements and deployments with the Hammerwatch dwarves. Martur explores the possibility of making his own healing potions, and purchases a recipe for Greater Healing potions from an herbalist in town. He also buys numerous Healing potions from the herbalist. Thimble buys arrows and studded leather armor, and Martur buys Mauls and Javelins to give to his zombies. Martur buys a potion of Greater Healing, and Bowen creates two more with the new recipe. Bowen finds the servant who was in the Hag's room. She is still unconscious after several days. He casts Remove Curse on her and she wakes up. She tells the party she had been experiencing weird snake dreams. 
== Experience ==
The party earns 5500 XP.
Category:Honorbound Episodes