Honorbound: Episode 20

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==Recap==
Intro to the episode by Diego. Video by Travis Gallaspie
=== Valis ===
The party sleeps the night in the Castle at Valis. Bowen has gone to restore the cathedral (player missing). Martur wakes up with a horrible stomach sickness, and repeatedly vomits. A messenger comes to the party's rooms and requests their presence in Bonjoati's throne room. They learn that the armies of the dwarves are holding steady in the forest near Valis. A bard has requested an audience with Martur and Thimble, and has a dancing dog. Martur declines to meet with him due to illness. He instructs the guards to burn the body of the Otyugh, and both Martur and Thimble go to Bowen to ask him to heal their diseases. He assist Bowen at the cathedral, and they find the bodies of 15 cultists and 3 Yuan-Ti. Thimble moves about the town to get the general mood of the town, and finds that they generally support Bonjoati. The next morning the party wakes up rested, and Martur meets with the bard. He is eloquently dressed, and arrives with a dancing dog and a guitar on his back. Thimble plays with the dog, whose name is Adrianne after the bards former son. The bard announces his name as Olesian, and informs them he has written a song of their adventure. He plays it for them, and the party starts to feel something affecting their mind. Thimble and Martur hear the song come to a close, and fall asleep. 
=== Dream Tower ===
The party starts to dream, and after a long time they awaken to the song finishing again. They awaken in a stone room with a mirror, a stone door, and a window. The bard is not there, and the party has all of their gear. Martur looks out the window, seeing a giant ruined city. There is a colossal sized statue and many stone buildings. Thimble tells Martur that she has a theory, and slaps him in the face as soon as he approaches. It hurts, but nothing else happens. Martur listens, and hears a disembodied voice telling them not to hurt themselves and that he is here to help. Thimble claims that jumping out the window will cause them to wake up, and starts climbing out. The voice tells them that injury there will play out in real life, and to be careful. Thimble drinks her entire waterskin, and doesn't taste the water. This convinces her that it is a dream, and she discusses the merits of jumping out the window to wake herself up with Martur. Martur asks what happens if he breaks the mirror, and the voice tells him to look into the mirror. Martur ignores the voice and hits the mirror with his hammer, and it bounces off. Martur activates his hammer and tries again. This time he smashes the mirror. The voice tells him that the only way to get out was the mirror. Martur casts Mending and fixes the mirror.
Convinced this is a dream, Thimble jumps out the window. She falls 200 feet and slams into the ground, falling unconscious. The voice comments that this was not a good idea. Martur ponders how to get down to save Thimble for 12 seconds, and then Thimble abruptly wakes up. She yells up to Martur and says she's ok, and then looks around. She sees the statue, which seems to be holding up a piece of a shattered dome above its head. Martur yells out to Thimble if she wants him to lower a rope, and tells her the voice warns of monsters. Thimble and Martur then discuss the ethics of mental kidnapping as Thimble searches for a door. She is unable to find one. Martur figures out that the voice is actually the dog, and the dog admits it. The dog tells Martur that the city he sees is the city of the Gods, Dracolme. Martur looks closely in the mirror, and sees a doorway with three runes appear in the reflection behind him. He looks back, and the door is now in the room. Martur looks closer in the mirror at the runes, and sees them shift into the dwaven words Pride, Wisdom, and Devotion. The voice and Martur speak for a while about the concept of consent, and then Martur opens the door with the runes. He sees a long hallway. Thimble tries to convince Martur to come down to the town and look for treasure, but Martur continues to explore the tower. Martur casts Light on a copper piece, and goes down the hallway. Thimble moves off to explore the city.
Martur finds a door with a rune marked Wisdom, and he goes through it. He sees a large chamber with a stone portal. There is a stone lamp with a large hourglass device with an open top, and two brass basins next to it. On the side of the room is a stream of cool mountain water running out of the ceiling into a pool. Martur hears a voice that says "The first is 5, the second is 3, but only a poor 1 opens me". Martur examines the basins, which are of different sizes, and determines one holds 5 liters of liqud while the other holds 3 liters of liquid. Martur contemplates the riddle.
Thimble walks towards the giant statue, and sees desolation all around her. She passes several towers, including one with a door. She continues towards the statue, seeing a large hole in the ground in the clearing before it. She find s the foot of the statue and is unable to find a door or an entrance. She determines that the statue is newer stone combined to the huts around her, and is similar to how Therin looked. Thimble starts climbing up the leg of the statue, but thinks better of it. She goes to look at the hole, and observes something moving inside of it. Thimble quickly hides, and sees the shadow in the form of a mist moving down the street. She lets it pass and then follows it. Thimble hears the shriek of a dying creature, and she sees the mist dissipate and move in several directions. Thimble hides again, and the monster moves past her. Thimble continues to follow the creature.
Martur fills the 3 liter basin with water and pours the water into the 5 liter basin. He does this again, leaving 1 liter of water in the 3 liter basin. He pours this into the hourglass device, and the portal opens. There is also a rune that appears on the ground in front of the portal, which he picks up. He goes through the portal, and sees another hallway. He sees a farmer with a distraught face running towards him, who asks him to destroy a monster that is behind him. Martur follows the farmer to a door, and Martur tells him to open the door. The farmer goes to open the door, and Martur pushes him into the room. The farmer looks back, says "You should have killed it!", and vanishes in a flash of blinding light. Martur steps into the room to see a dragon made up of shadows and a celestial being with a white light. The celestial being praises Martur for not putting his pride ahead of his judgement and killing with prejudice. It shows Martur a door, and Martur walks through it. Martur engages in witty banter with the voice of the dog as he moves forward.
Thimble continues to follow the mist until it returns to the large hole in the ground. Thimble waits awhile, and sneaks up to look over the edge. She sees a thousand bodies that turn into shadows, and start reaching out for her. She moves away as the hole starts growing bigger and bigger. She turns and flees at full speed back to Martur's tower.
Martur enters a room and sees a piece of glass ahead of him. Looking down through the glass, he sees a prison cell filled with 25 prisoners on his right and a second cell filled with only one prisoner on his left. On his side of the glass are two stone platforms with levers on them, one in front of each cell. Directly in front of him is a round ball marked with blood stains. The voice speaks again and says "The man on the left can answer all of your questions about this place, while the people on the right are those who have been caught up in his schemes. They are only souls, the only ones who aren't under the power of Shar-Ma-Gar. You need to bloody one and not the other to complete your trials here". Martur cuts his hand and places it on the orb. The voice says "Your blood will never sing again", and Martur feels something drain from him. He loses his blood power. A door appears to his side, and he feels in his pocket the runes for both Pride and Devotion. He walks through the door and hears a voice yelling "Martur!". Martur walks around the corner and sees Thimble, who tells Martur about the mist monster. The voice speaks and tells them they can leave through the mirror. It tells them that the towers in the city contain trials. There are seven of them, and completing each trial will point them towards one of the Old Gods. The voice tells them they can revisit this ancient city in their dreams to complete the trials. The voice (who is the dog) tells them his name is actually Olesian, and the bard is named Adrianne. The party climbs back up a set of stairs on the tower, as Olesian tells them he is the only Old God left who has not been corrupted. Olesian tells them he is the god of drink and song, and the city is the birthplace of the god of war. When chaos struck, Asmodius was created, who is more powerful than all the rest. He lies behind the largest of the moonstone prisons. Olesian tells them that if they want to return, just to think of him before they go to sleep and they will return in their dreams. The party walks through the mirror at the top of the stairs, and wake in their room to heavy pounding on their door.
=== Valis Castle ===
The guards enter and check on them, as the bard and the dog is gone. Thimble dismisses the guards, and the party contemplates what they have learned. 
Thimble checks with Bonjoati to find out more about the Bard, but Bonjoati is very unhelpful. Thimble tells Bonjoati to ignore such requests in the future. Martur and Thimble discuss how to get the zombies with them when they go to ride the griffons. The party searches for a wizard to teach spells to Martur, but all the spellcasters except for the high cleric have been sacrificed. They talk to the high cleric, and Thimble lets slip that Martur has zombies. The high priests starts to complain, but Thimble starts berating him, and the party talks their way out of the issue. Martur asks the guards to bring him any spellbooks that may have been gathered from the dead spellcasters, and the bring him one labeled "Xial". Martur tries to open the book, and as he does so his eyes go wide and he mouths a silent scream. Martur gains a determination in his eyes. The book is gibberish, and all attempts to read it are useless. Martur casts Identify on the book, and finds that anyone who reads it and is not the owner will be cursed. Martur tells Thimble that he will need Bowen to remove a curse on him later. Thimble tries to shame Martur for playing with cursed items, and accidentally reveals that he did indeed steal items from the cursed vault. Martur tells the book that it belongs to him, and tries to read it again. The pages he can read this time are the spells Blight, Dimension Door, Confusion, and Control Water. The party finishes their week of rest.
The party leaves the town with their zombies to find their Griffons. Thimble uses one of the zombies as a mount. She stops at a bar to get a drink, and gets many crazy looks. When the everyone notices what is going on, the entire bar clears. People start running around crazily, and get torches. Martur beats his zombie to death as people join in. The bartender shows up and accuses Thimble of riding the zombie, and the party just barely talks their way out of it. Thimble then claims that the zombie was under control and was fine, and the mob tries to grab her. Martur casts Suggestion on the bartender and tells him to let everyone know that it was a promotion to get people in the bar. The bartender makes the claim, and several people back away. The rest grab for Thimble, and she knocks two of them out. The mob breaks apart, and the party quickly leaves town. Martur casts Leomund's Tiny Hut, and the party waits till morning. They check in with the Griffons, and realize that they cannot communicate with them. After a few minutes, Martur realizes that he can cast Comprehend Languages as a ritual. He then can hear what they say, but still can't communicate with them. They finally realize that Thimblina is there and can communicate with the Griffons, and mostly convince the Griffons to take the zombies with them.
The Griffons then shriek as four dog like creatures burst out of the woods with fire leaking out of their mouths. Thimble fires a shot and hits one of the Hell hounds. Martur's zombies throw their javelins and all of them hit one of the hell hounds. Thimble and Martur land hits on the injured hell hound while the Griffons circle. The hell hounds flee the battle as Martur notices a cloaked man at the edge of the woods. The party decides not to give chase. Martur and Thimble get on a Griffon and fly to Valis to get Bowen, while the three remaining zombies pile on the other Griffon and circle the area. Martur grabs some herbs to improve the foul smell of the zombies. The party starts flying to the Wandering Woods.
Category:Honorbound Episodes