The Final Battle at The Desecrated Temple

Jing Dao blasted open the doors of the temple's atrium with his final reserve of Ki to buy his friends the element of surprise, and the party finds a baptismal font in the center of the room.  It was lit by candles, and an octet of the devout were in a trance.

The blood pool roiled and a huge, oversized gnoll with blood red eyes and multiple rows of sharpened fangs emerged: The Jawbone of Yeenoghu had arrived to herald the end.

Wreck’t closed the gap to reach Dalton lying upon the sacrificial plinth before the Jawbone was able to act. Once it got its bearings, it mauled Jing Dao asunder in one frenzied blitz! Ziegfried wisely backed away to keep some distance while Kun-Ghar summoned the will to Rage beyond rage, diving further into madness.  The cultists were unfazed, continuing their chanting.

Ziegfried eventually pieced together that, so long as this chant continued, the creature might be nigh invulnerable.  Time to break someone's resolve enough to break through the evil protection!  However, he sees some action at the periphery of his vision.  There was a puff of dust next to one of the chanting cultists, and another which Zieg recognized via voice as one of the louts who betrayed him!  Channeling all the bile and ill will from being broken and rebuilt in Justice's image, Ziegfried successfully locates Farrick the invisible criminal, bellowing, "I will drag you back to the city by the nut hairs!"

Wreck’t rescued Dalton in time and administered a potion that cures exhaustion.  Dalton was back in action, rejuvenated in seconds!  Dalton's eyes flared in intensity to scan the battlefield, picking targets.  With celerity, Dalton acted on tactics from Ziegfried, lighting up the battlefield from the high ground.

"Kid, let's take care of the small fry."

Wreck’t, satisfied that Dalton was safe and back in form, switched his focus to the chanting cultists, who were now ordered to engage by a floating voice negotiating the battlefield unseen, speaking Abyssal. Ziegfried tried some clever thinking and, while unable to reveal the invisible person, he did confirm the presence of a floating spellcaster!

Eventually, the cultists are routed while Kun-Ghar and Wreck’t teamed up to pin the creature between them.  The half-orc cavalier marked the creature to keep the others safe by provoking its interest in sacrificing Wreck’t to the god of slaughter. Dalton got the final blow by plugging it in the head.  "No one attacks my friends, you sonuva-- BLAM!!"  The deathblow felt hollow to Dalton.  If nothing else, it might have been a sign of things to come if things continue unchecked.

The creature's flesh sloughed off the bone and the remains disappeared in pink embers of brimstone. Ziegfried fought his first fiend... and survived.  Only one person outside of this battle may believe this.

Wreck’t, having emerged from an intense battle after risking his safety to blaze a path to the safety of someone else, finally attuned to the necklace his mother gave him. A Relic of The Arcana has revealed itself, adding +1 to all saving throws and making Wreck’t immune to being Grappled.  Wreck’t got the clear impression that there was more to his own story, and the story of this tiny amulet, than meets the eye.

The group explored the rest of the temple unbothered, discovering a prison for potential sacrifices, a private room with some damning papers that would be of particular use/value to someone in the legal system, and a room opened by the Arcane Key with a tinted glass-like portal.  The other arcane lock opened a door to the exit and the setting sun beyond.  The world-encircling rings of Om'Kraan are particularly radiant this time of afternoon.  After having realized his personal quarry got away, Ziegfried unleashed his frustration upon the surface of the portal, eventually stirring it to activity.  Ziegfried grabbed some paper, wrote a vow of enmity in his own blood, and hurled the crumpled piece of paper through the shimmering surface of the space/time rift. The message went through the portal; Ziegfried would take some solace in that if he was not already awash in fleeting catharsis and fatigue.

Over the next hour or so, Wreck’t assembled the horses and saw to binding the body of Jing Dao, while Kun-Ghar took the reins of his horse, Rose.  It took some work, but the cavalier was unfazed by the challenge.

Ziegfried explored a secret tunnel near the portal and found a motherlode of discretionary funds, including some actual platinum!  Ziegfried also discovered a potion with unknown properties and a backpack with unknown properties, reeking of ozone, a dead giveaway to magical enchantment.  If nothing else, the thing was definitely magical.

... and it had something inside!

The party noticed that the portal seemed to show a scenic view of Midaneus about a day's travel away, and as the rest of the party traveled through with Wreck’t's insistence upon the horses, Ziegfried and Dalton saw about detonating the flasks of Alchemist's Fire that had been placed strategically to bury the temple in fire.

Dalton and Ziegfried emerged from the portal at the bottom of a shallow pit, 10 feet deep and 60 feet wide.  They had seen this pit before, but now it was bereft of all corpses.  It seemed the corpses were used to power teleportation circles that were placed outside the city limits.

The party carried one dead monk, a lot of item questions, and information to share with allies back in the city before more adventures wait.  The immediate goal was to see about paying for a cleric of The Holy Order of Death to provide services for Resurrection rituals.

If the soul was willing, then there might be a way to call back Jing Dao.  Otherwise, the party would have to make peace with proper burial services.

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