Session 83

The party searches the tunnels beneath the Blight Ward in Auguste, searching for Bellerophon's friend Julia Karamzin, while also hoping not to find Elizrae.
== Summary ==
After traveling through the hidden tunnel shown to them by Empress Renilla, the party found themselves in a large cavern. There was a large, decorated archway with an open door leading to a stone bridge which spanned the chasm, a bridge which appeared to be older than the cavern system itself. Hundreds and thousands of zombies could be seen covering the bottom of the cavern floor, slowly shuffling in a focused direction. Zombies periodically fell through cracks in th eceiling, falling into the mass and joining them in their march. They appeared to be moving in a southwest direction, which would take them toward the Blight Ward and beyond outside the city. 
The party moved across the bridge, disposing of zombies as they encountered them. On the other side was a building, shaped like a large pillar and ornately designed. Depictions of celestials locked in combat with infernal and fiendish entities covered the walls. At the far end of the bridge was a large archway, two giant celestials carved into it, their arms extended to indicate a halt. Teer threw a rock at at them to see if they would come to life and attack them; they did. After defeating the statues in combat, they discovered that they were machines of similar construction to arcane cores. 
After a brief respite near the statues to recover, they entered the building. Before them was a large square tunnel lit be amber-colored lanterns. One of the lanterns moved forward in curiosity about the visitors, but anoter pushed it back into its sconce. Ephemera and Belle thanked the lanterns for their service. As the group moved past them, the lights began to leave their sconces to begin repairs on the two angel statues. 
A large crank wheel arved with figures turning the wheel occupied the center of the next rom. The walls of the room again depicted scenes of celestials fighting demons. Teer and Ephemera pushed the wheel in the same direction as the depicted figures, causing the room to rotate so that the door that had once been facing the south wall was now facing the west. A metal panel was revealed, depicting an angel with six wings and a burning halo standing over an angry skeletal being lashed with chains. Unable to open the door, they rotated the room again, this time finding a section of wall with many divets with lines crossing between them. Uncertain of what this was, Belle asked her companion TLDR Bot for information on it. Though unable to provide help with the wall, it was able to tell them that the carvings depicted literal and metaphorical victories the celestials had had over fiends. It also told them that the lantern archons were the lowest rank of celestials, while the celestials with more wings were of higher ranks.
They once again rotate the room, this time revealing a small square chamber to the east. The ceiling was covered in metal nozzles, and the floor had a pressure plate. They capture a zombie and place it in the room, then rotate it until the door depicting the angel and skeleton appeared. There was a wooshing sound, and though the door opened briefly, it almost immediately closed. They rotated the room once again to find that the zombie had been utterly incinerated. Sors activated her Ring of Blinking to summon an angel statue in the room on top of the pressure plate, and they once again rotated the room. This time, the door did not close, so they proceeded through. 
 They entered an unlit passage which was sixty feet long and led to a downward staircase. Down the stairs they found a massive set of doors depicting a multitude of angels, including the six-winged angel with the burning halo and one with eight wings and a long robe. Toward the bottom of the doorwas a scene of carnage, humanoids and fiends in agony. On either side of the door were archways of shimmering light with sigils on them. Ephemera recognized the sigil to be related to the celestial choir. 
Sors used her echo sight on the sigil. She saw the two tall celestials depicted on the doors, one of which was Seresh. They closed the doors and three pieces of the sigil vanished. Seresh addressed the six-winged angel, Basilicus, commander of the Choir's military forces. Seresh expressed doubts that they should trust the Betrayer. Basilicus assured him, saying that they wouldn't be trusting them, and that the obelisk was locked away. 
The party explainewd that the obelisk was likely one connected to Vecna, and that if such an obelisk was nearby, then Elizrae was likely the one responsible for kidnapping Julia. They proceeded through the left archway, appearing in a rectangular room with a statue of Basilicus fighting a demonic creature. As his halo was not burning, Sors cast Sacred Flame on it, igniting it and causing the statue to move. It destroyed the demon and in triumph spread its wings, which also began to burn. The statue then attacked the party, but was defeated simply enough. Upon its defeat, it handed over one of the pieces of the sigil and allowed them through the next door. 
In the next room was another angel statue, this one also with sx wings and a spear. Though she did not remember who the angel was, she did remember that she was associated with lightning. Teer used Dragvandil's lightning damage to activate the statue. The statue motioned for Teer to stand in front of her, and then she summoned lighting. He dodged all but two of the lightning strikes, which was apparently not to the statue's liking. Ephemera gave it a go as well, successfully dodging all of them. The statue handed over her piece of the sigil, and the group continued through to the next room. 
The final room contained a statue of Seresh, his hands cupped in front of him. Belle poured the water from her waterskin into his hands, which awakened the statue. A table rose from the ground before him, and he indicated that someone was to play checkers against him. Kiono played against him twice, losing both times before giving up. Belle then proceeded to beat him, and they were given the final piece of the crest. 
They returned to the first room and placed the pieces of the sigil into the relief. A rush of stale air hit them as the door opened, leading to a spiral staircase leading down. They descended, finding the stairs to lead into the top of a large, circular chamber. In the center of the hundred foot tall chamber was a black obelisk, at the base of which was Julia, chained to the ground. Elizrae emerged, her invisibility dropping as she did so. Though she said she wasn't surprised to see them, she also hadn't expected them. 
== NPCs ==
=== Introduced ===
* TLDR - Telempathic Learning and Development Resource
=== Returning ===
* Saresh (Echo Sight)
* Basilicus (Echo Sight)
* Julia Karamzin
* Elizrae