Honorbound: Episode 09

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==Recap==
===Seed Lake===
Seed Lake. The session starts with the party introducing themselves to the woman warrior, whose name is Elayne from the city of Tyth. She says that the Half Ogres had kidnapped the children from the town, so she and Rayce had journeyed here to save them. They look the bodies, finding 20 silver pieces. Therin checks for a silver arm tattoo, and does not find one. Elayne and Bowen go to check on the children, and Bowen retrieves his backpack. Martur casts Invisibility and explores the northern part of the cave.  He finds a throne made of bones, some barrels and boxes, and an iron chest with a big lock. The barrels and boxes contain food. The throne has a small sapphire inside a skull. Martur investigates and finds that air is coming through a small space in the wall by the throne. Martur investigates the west passage and finds many dead Half Ogres. Martur loots 5 silver pieces from them and returns to the main chamber and informs the party of what he found. Bowen casts Detect Good and Evil, and examines the throne, finding it to be a desecrated item. He also finds that there is a desecrated item in the chest.
The party convenes in the main chamber to meet up with Elayne, Rayce, and the children. Bowen detects something consecrated in Elayne's pocket. Martur searches through the ashes of the devil, and finds a key, a gold ring, and a pearl necklace. Martur opens the chest with the key, and sees 300 gold coins and a spiky suit of plate armor. Bowen warns that the armor may be cursed. Martur casts Identify on the armor, and finds that it is cursed to slowly drain the life out of the wearer and inhabit it with the spirit of the creator. Martur hits the armor with the hammer, and the breastplate slowly cracks and fizzles with light, slowly turning to dust. Martur hands the hammer to Bowen, and he swings it at the skull with the sapphire on the thrown. A thick coat of air seems to slow the hammer, but the hammer breaks through it and hits the throne. The same effect happens, and the throne crumples to dust, with only the sapphire remaining. Elayne and Rayce come into the room, and the party tells them that they destroyed some evil magical items. Bowen goes to the rock wall behind the room and moves it aside, revealing a secret door and a passage beyond.
The party rests and recovers. Rayce heals Elayne and her wounds recover. The party ventures down the passage and finds a chamber full of hanging chains and collars. In the center of the chamber is a pentagram filled with dried blood. Martur hits the pentagram with the hammer, and nothing happens. Therin searches around the room and finds a black marble in the corner. He pockets it. Martur scrubs some of the symbols off the pentagram, hoping to temporarily disable it. As the group exits the cave and groups up with everyone, Therin shows the group the black marble. Martur tells the party that the marble is a memento of his former master, and he used to send it along with collections of weapons or slaves that he would sell. Elayne informs them that the marbles come into her town with shipments of wool from Wollroff. 
The party journeys toward Tyth to return the children. Elayne talks to the party on the journey. She tells them that they ran into a cleric of Felumbra who had lost his powers. The cleric was taken away by the Sisters of the Shadow. There was also a set of killings by a man in grey robes, who disappeared afterwards. She tells them the man couldn't have been the one who summoned the devil, as he was too far away from that area. She lastly tells them about a silver robed monk who warned that the whole world was changing. She claims that it was nonsense, but Therin presses her to give more information. The monks are from the Order of the Eye. The party discusses that war may be coming. 
===Dreams===
The party goes to sleep, and in the night Martur has dreams. Martur hears a deep voice calling for him, and he feels himself going through a wooded valley with ruins, and hears the voice keep calling to him. He sees a ring spinning clockwise that slowly stops. The ring then reverses, and the ruins become whole with worshippers and an image of a just king. The voice speaks of the king's son, who has embraced the dark, and plots to overthrow the king. Martur is watching this as an observer, and sees the ring continue to spin. There is an image of the king and his son on a hunting trip, and then he sees what can only be a young Haggart walking with them. He sees men in dark cloaks that ambush the king, only to be thwarted by Haggart. The king's son is exposed in the plot, and escapes. The son moves away and starts building an army of drow and creatures from the underworld. The ring turns again, and the last battle is seen as the king and his honorguard in battle with demons. The king and the son face off, as the son is defeated, shouting "We will meet again father!". The king backs away, his arm turned black with poison. The king of the underworld demons continues the battle, and he is finally defeated along with his infernal dragon. The underworld king and his four demon lords are bound in arcane prisons beneath shining stones. The ring again spins faster. The king, his adviser, and his honor guard sit in their ruined kingdom, and make a blood pact while forging a hammer that only the adviser can hold. Martur sees blackness, and sees three shapes in the dark - a creature eating its own tail, a giant oak that dwarfs mountains, and a shapeless creature. The shapeless creature says "the blood calls, Martur Khurag; will you answer it's call?". It continues to ask the question, and Martur eventually wakes up. Martur tells no one of the dream.
Bowen has a dream with a circle, half white and half black, with the colors continually battling each other. He feels that he belongs to the light, but that the dark still has a place in the world. He then sees a grey color sweep over the black, holding the darkness in a bubble. The grey threatens to overcome everything, even the light. Bowen feels that this felt less like a dream, and more like when he calls upon his guard for power.
===Tyth===
The party wakes up and continues their journey, reaching Tyth and reuniting the children with their parents. The party discusses their next options, and decides to go to Wollroff. Elayne offers them a place to stay for the night. Martur goes to an armourer and gets his scale mail resized. Martur ponders over finding his old master, whose name is Xial. He discusses this with Bowen, and Elayne brings drinks over. The party and Elayne discuss the city's nobles and merchants, and how she is growing dissatisfied with the local government. Through their discussion, the party comes up with a plan to contact a trader in Wollroff and claim to have stolen goods to fence, hoping that will flush out Xial so they can find him. They plan to use the interrogation of Xial to find out who has been summoning demons. Elayne talks about an order of people in Wollroff that have a symbol with a large eye.
Bowen visits the temple and finds statues to all of the good and neutral gods. Rayce is the head cleric, and greets Bowen. Bowen says a prayer to Astair, and feels something unbalanced as his answer.
Therin also has a vision, seeing a hearthstone with a fire going and a figure sitting on an armchair. Therin approaches him and the figure tells him that he has a message. He warns Therin that if he makes the wrong choice, he will perish. Therin quips a joke, and the figure responds in a strange voice. The chair disappears, the fire roars up, and Therin can feel the darkness around him. The figure warns him to leave the path he is on and never return. The darkness peels away, and the vision ends. 
The party reconvenes in the morning and discusses their dreams. Bowen informs the party that he hasn't been totally honest with them, as he was actually seeking them out when they met. He tells Therin that he believes him to be the one the prophecy says will lead the armies of good against the grey. He claims that he must take up the holy sword Widowmaker and be a beacon for good. Therin immediately disputes this claim. The party meets with Elayne and buys horses, and then moves out to the town of Wollroff.
===Wollroff===
They stop at an inn named the Prophet's Stop. Therin notices that the Bard playing at the inn looks very similar to the one they saw in Tyth, and warns the party to be wary of them. Therin goes to the bard and learns that his name is Edmond, and his dog is named Honor. Elayne and the bartender pull the party into a back room, and the bartender informs the party that people have been disappearing in the town. Shortly thereafter, they reappear and tell everyone that they have been on a spiritual journey. They seem to be following a prophet, and they have raised a temple in town. The bartender gives them information on how to disguise themselves as the faithful, telling them where they can find robes and that they need to paint the symbol of an eye on their hands. Martur casts Invisibility on Therin, and he immediately draws his sword on the bartender. Therin interrogates him to find out why the bartender knows exactly how to find the robes of the faithful, as the bartender tells them they are located in a competing inn. The bartender shakily convinces Therin, and Therin goes to the competing inn. Therin enters, finding all of the rooms locked and the keys on the belt of the innkeeper. Therin, still invisible, spills ale on the innkeeper's pants, and steals the keys when the innkeeper goes to change. Therin then unlocks the doors, steals the cloaks, and returns to the party. The party stays the night at the inn and rises early to attend mass with their new cloaks. 
The party comes up to a building on the top of the hill, and sees well over 60 people entering the temple. The people have silver robes with an eye on the back. The party mills in with the crowd and enters, observing 6 armored guards and a few people whose robes are multicolored. Upon entering the temple the party can easily see that it used to be dedicated to a different deity, but it is now adorned with symbols of the eye. A man in a multicolored shifting robe steps to the front and addresses the crowd; Martur recognizes him to be Xial. Xial welcomes two new members; Barnabus and a man the party recognizes as Jonathan. Two more guards enter the room as Therin yells out "There are three more initiates back here!". The party walks forward to the stage, and Bowen casts Bless on the party as Jonathan notices them.  
Therin immediately goes for Jonathan and lands an early blow. One of the guards hits Therin and poisons him. Martur casts Thunderwave and hits all the enemies on the stage. Xial casts Melf's Acid Arrow at Martur, but he puts up a Shield spell and blocks it. Therin casts Hunter's Mark on Jonathan, but wildly misses. Jonathan yells to Barnabus to escort Xial to the iris. The guards advance to the stage from the back of the temple as Bowen dons his shield and jumps onto the stage. Jonathan casts Mirror Image, and two exact images appear around him. Martur casts Sleep and one of the guards on the stage slumps to the ground. Xial casts Fireball and kills one the stage guards, while hitting Therin, Bowen, and Jonathan. Bowen goes down as Xial and Barnabus run from the room. Therin casts Cure Wounds on Bowen, bringing him back up. Bowen heals himself with Healing Word and strikes at Jonathan, destroying one of the images. Jonathan casts Invisibility, but Bowen attacks toward him and drops him, his body appearing on the floor. Martur casts Sleep again, putting two of the guards asleep, and runs through the door to chase Barnabus and Xial. They are moving through a tunnel out of the temple. Therin steps up to the advancing guards, hitting one and bringing down the other. Bowen brings down one of the guards, but is poisoned by the blade of another. Martur casts Expeditious Retreat and moves quickly down the tunnel to find an intersection, taking the right passage and finding a door with iron bars. He sees Barnabus and Xial in further down the hall. Barnabus turns around and Xial goes through a door. Therin feels the poison sap his body, and he loses 4 points of Constitution. He brings down one guard, transfers his Hunter's Mark to another guard, and then brings that guard down as well. Therin looks out and sees that the temple has cleared of followers. Bowen walks over and kills the sleeping guard, and then casts Healing Word to heal himself. Martur casts Ray of Frost on Barnabus and drops him, and then rushes after Xial. He enters the room and sees Xial standing in a pentagram. Xial laughs, and summons a creature with four tentacles with eyes at the end, and one large eye in the middle.
Category:Honorbound Episodes