Session 3.7

## The Goblin, the Dragon and the Temple

Players: Chris (DM), Elaine (Fallynde), Luther (Buckler), Shane (Indigo), Brady (Chen), Ryan (Carric), and Tim (Fitz)

With all the shenanigans that have been happening lately in Council, Fallynde REALLY needs a vacation. And Hey! There are TWO Temples that haven't been completely explored yet! West and North! Let's go on a vacation and bash some skulls!!

### **Day 1**

**Hardholme**

The party meets up at the Town Green, and we run into none other than Fitzkin Cogwood, in the flesh!!! Buckler and Carric give Fitz a warm, hearty greeting. "Heyyyyy, Buddy! Been a while!" "Hey everyone!" Fitz shouts back. Buckler lifts the small Goblin up into his arms and gives him a great big hug. "I have NO idea who any of you are!" Fitz remarks mid-hug with a smile. Soooo, it turns out that Fitz has amnesia, doesn't remember us, and doesn't remember much of anything else either. Also, it looks like a piece of his skull is missing toward the back of his head! Is that... his brain in there...???.........

Anyway! He doesn't seem to notice that a part of his head is missing. Probably don't need to seek immediate medical attention, right...? Buckler advises him to put his hat back on. Let's bring him on our adventure!! =D

Before disembarking, we head over to the adventuring shop that was once BETA, now re-branded and renamed Alpha Adventuring. We chat with Letholdus, though he doesn't seem very excited. As we browse the shop, Carric walks with Fitz, "Man you would not BELIEVE the month I've had..." and proceeds to tell Fitz the Prentiss story. The shop doesn't really seem to have anything useful for us -- maybe low-level adventurers would have a better time. Letholdus does offer to buy some of those "magic items" off us, which seem to be all the rage these days. Fitz wants to pickpocket Letholdus (not stealthy-like, but to just walk up and rifle through his pockets like whatever haha); he decides against it, because the guy is just wearing some cruddy robes and probably has nothing valuable. Carric offers a tip to Letholdus that the Silver Flame Temple has a bathroom that they'll let the public use, if ever he needs one, as Buckler bows his head and covers his face with his hand.

To help jog Fitz's memory, Fallynde brings him to -- his old workshop! But nope, he doesn't remember it. Carric asks Fitz if he remembers Phil and Roboner, pulling them both out to say Hi. Nope! He doesn't remember them either!

We decide it's time to leave town and start making our way to Viven. "HELP!! THESE PEOPLE TRYIN' TO KIDNAP ME!!!" Fitz screams as loudly as he can. But Nope again. No one's really paying attention to him. Silver Flame guards look toward us pensively, but they back off with a slight glance and hand gesture from Buckler. Fitz soon decides that Carric's okay enough, so it's alright that we're stealing him away. Carric wants to walk past the Academy on the way out to stick Ulrich the Finger, relishing the thought of Ulrich standing by a window, staring out broodily over the city. We mount our stryders to leave, but Fitz isn't getting onto his mechanical bear... He doesn't remember his bear, either! "Have you... ridden it before?" Indigo asks. "No!" Fitz replies, "It just follows me around everywhere. I never tried to ride it!" "Hmmm, try hopping up onto it now." And we're off!!

On the road to the Viven portal, we encounter a statue of Carric, lovingly named Darric. It immediately starts shouting and cursing at Carric. Challenging him to a fight! It warns us that Carric's a real bad dude! We need to watch our backs if we're going to be around him. Buckler ponders that it may be a good idea to demolish that statue. Indigo thinks it's a great idea to have a statue of Hardholme's ambassador on the path between the two cities.

**Viven**

Upon reaching Viven, it's immediately clear that the Green Hyla are much more relaxed since the battles with the Red. We no longer need special audience approval to meet with Jeljon or any of that shit. We visit the Ritual Space, where Jeljon explains the problem with the portals. Carric and Fitz walk off to find something more interesting to do. It turns out that the Hyla performing that ritual (every time we've visit) are actually the ones keeping the portals open. They're getting very old, and some have need to retire. There's a lot of emigration from Viven, with Green Hyla moving away to live outside since the Red Threat is no longer a problem. With fewer inhabitants of Viven, and less need for so many portals, they believe only 4 portals should suffice instead of 10. Buckler shows Jeljon the map of the portals we wish to have left open, when Carric shows up again, interrupting them and reintroducing Prentiss to everyone and loudly whispering to all of us about their Loth problem. After we all greet Prentiss, Jeljon agrees to our request on which Portals to keep open and thanks everyone for all we've done for them.

Chen wants to walk by the Center for Science and Magic and kind of stalk around outside. Upon the 97th's Arrival, Natmine quickly abandoned him and left for Viven to spend her time here; it still stings. The rest of the party show up, and Indigo invites Chen to go inside with them; he reluctantly agrees, knowing he'll likely come face-to-face with Natimine.

Upon going inside, we immediately hear shouting and arguments. Indigo explains it's been like this since Natmine showed up a couple months ago. The 8th, whose purpose was to study the tear in the fabric of reality (what we call the Void) and create a way back to Davros, had given up their mission a long time ago and have been spending their days fucking the Green Hyla and smoking menga. Natmine actually works for CSM and was sent here to find out what the hell's going on and if any progress at all had been made. She's been whipping the scientists from the 8th into shape and triggering discussion on new theories. As we enter the room, Buckler dodges one of those theories, as a chair flies past his head. The shouting stops as we enter, and we greet them all. Chen and Natmine make eye contact for a moment, and she abruptly turns her head away from him. After another moment, he sighs, turns around, and walks out the door. Carric takes the opportunity to confront her with an accusatory tone, "Did you know you a *murderer* on your voyage, ...NAT-MI-NE?" [she didn't know lol]

Natmine explains to us her current theory on what happened to Arrivals 73 - 96. She believes they were all removed from the Void at once. She uses an analogy of a soda dispensing machine from Davros. If the cans inside are all numbered 1-10, and you open the machine and remove cans 4 through 8, the order the cans dispense will be 1, 2, 3, 9, 10. She believes that, somehow, the missing voyages were removed. On this note, we describe to her the circumstances of Trixy's falling from Zalatar and joining us in Hardholme, as well as the story she told us. This information sort of blows her mind, kind of confirming her theory. She asks us to leave, since this means she needs to get to work on sorting that out.

Buckler meets with Beatrix and discusses a plan to construct a Silver Flame barracks within Viven. Carric promises to Prentiss that he'll kill Loth. "Please don't make me look at him again. Don't make me look into his eyes, Carric!" she pleads to him. He reassures her that Loth won't have eyes by the time he's done with him. Chen visits the Bazaar and browses the many wares for sale, while a sitar somewhere nearby plays a minor-key version of Candyman under the dreamy city lights. Fitz sees that he has a shotgun and asks us if anyone knows how to use it [Tim keeps rolling 1's to try to remember things!] The group ends up returning to Davros (the bar, not the world), where we party for the rest of the night. There's lots of Simsum wine, with Rael's portrait smiling at us from the bottles. There's not much music happening, though. Fallynde starts a tavern-wide drinking song! "NO!!!" Carric interrupts her. We'll have none of that.

### **Day 2**

**Western Temple**

The group leaves Viven and climbs the mountainside to the Western Temple! Chen hops rock-to-rock with his Acrobatic skills. Fitz uses Investigation to point out which rocks are safe, and which will fall out from under us, "There, that one, NO NOT THAT ONE!!!" Fallynde uses Athletics to power her way up, while Buckler uses Charisma to keep everyone enthusiastic. The climb is a great success!

Upon reaching the temple at the top, we can see the lower terrace down on the other side of the mountain with its giant door; we take a moment to discuss our plans. Indigo really wants to use the Mind Flute found with Master Yiv to attempt to summon Ragrizzor. "It'll either kill us, or potentially really help us out when dealing with the Illithids!" The rest of the group believes this is a crazy idea, but their morbid curiosity about whether or not this can actually work outweighs their overcautious fear that we might all die. Fallynde has the biggest reservations about this plan, "I just don't want us to kill the LAST Annunkai in the world!" Indigo understands this sentiment, but assures her that there's no way we'll ever be able to kill such a creature, since it has the power to lift Wrex-wrexes clear off the ground and fly away with them. Against her better judgement, Fallynde agrees to the plan and leads the party forward to the temple.

During Ulrich's last expedition to this temple, we followed one branch and destroyed a dog mummy, finding the Yellow Triangle Key within its sarcophagus. The second branch was locked with a yellow triangle lock, but we didn't have time to explore behind that door last year. Our plan today is to venture beyond that door and seek a way to the large underground chamber that leads outside to the lower terrace. The other temples were inhabited by tall Narotx-esque Shars. If this temple also houses one, Indigo wants to lure it to the lower chamber and offer it as a sacrifice to Ragrizzor [This is because the Masters always offered sacrifices to appease Kazzaran!]

We light the four sconces outside to unlock the temple door and enter the large circular antechamber. There are 2 doors inside; one is already open and fully explored beyond; the other has a mechanism next to it locked by the Yellow Triangle Key. We unlock this door and venture through into the awaiting hallway. Chen takes the (already lit, lol) torch just beyond the door and carries it with his tail. The hallway bends, then ends with two doors -- both of them stuck. After checking for traps, Buckler smashes open the one to the left.

Beyond is a room lined on both sides and stacked high with large wooden barrels. Suspecting dangerous contents, Chen climbs atop one of the higher barrels to try opening it from the top, but he can't do it with his bare hands. Fitz remembers prying barrels open before!!! He offers Chen a pry bar, which Chen uses to successfully open the barrel. Inside, Chen sees a goopy yellow liquid. Fitz remembers this yellow liquid too! Bad News!! It's the mutagen refined from Morgrizzon's body that the Shars have been using to mutate things! Chen carefully gets away from the mutagen barrel, and everyone leaves the room. Chen wants to shut the door and lock it forever, but it's uh... destroyed by Buckler. haha

Speaking of which, Buckler now smashes down the OTHER door! Beyond is a gorgeous room! It's full of paintings of Kazzaran. At the far end of the room is a giant archway with a door locked by the Blue Orb Key. Also, on each side of the room are standing tall Nartox/Hyla-like creatures. They appear similar to King Zatzan -- like the Shars, but slender and dexterous -- ten on each side of the room. Their eyes are closed, but they didn't wake up when Buckler crashed through the door. They seem to be completely non-responsive, but they are indeed breathing. Indigo is confident that they'll all wake up when we unlock the door, much like in Yiv's tomb, and pretty much every other dungeon we've explored. We discuss strategy, and Indigo casts Ice Wall along one side of the room, trapping 10 of the Shars, and Carric casts Thorn Wall along the other side, trapping the 10 others. Buckler inserts the Blue Orb Key into the mechanism, and... the door opens... The Shars don't wake up, either. hahaha We scratch our heads a moment, then venture into the hallway beyond, which spirals down, and down, and down...

We end up in a giant cavern, where a Shar is at the near end of the room, muttering to himself over a workbench. We can't make out what he's saying, but he's working on a dead(?) body on the bench. Near the door is a stockpile of mutagen barrels; on the other side of the Shar is a large pile of dead (or alive???) Nartox and Hyla bodies. On the far side of the cavern is a giant door (the lower terrace?!) with a mechanism to its left. A low stone altar appears to be situated in front of the giant door. The group begins discussing plans to get the Shar over to the altar, where we could maybe incapacitate it to be used as the sacrifice. Carric says that maybe we should bring Ulrich back here and have him sit on the altar instead; Fallynde responds that he and Ulrich should just fuck already and get all this out of their systems.

During all this discussion, the Shar notices the noise. "Huh? Who's there?!" he shouts in Abyssal. He walks over to where we're all just hiding beyond the doorway. "Hi!" Fallynde offers, giving him both a slim benefit of the doubt and a chance to not be a dick to us. He totally decides to be a dick to us. [shock and betrayal, ya'll!] Battle Time!

### **Battle: The Gang vs. Shar'Taran**

**Round 1**

1. Fitz runs past the Shar, disengaging and running toward the altar, trying to lure him there. "Tasty!" the Shar yells, following Fitz.
2. Chen runs into the cavern at full speed and gets near the altar.
3. Fallynde activates Berserker Rage & Frenzy and lands a single smash onto the Shar, dealing 24 damage.
4. Buckler charges with full force toward the Shar and knocks him back 5 ft., dealing 21 damage.
5. The Shar runs away from Fallynde and Buckler to the barrel stockpile, inviting opportunity attacks from each of them. 21 & 23 damage each. He throws a barrel at Fallynde and Buckler, and they both get hit! The barrel shatters over them, covering them each with yellow mutagen, which seeps into their skin! 27 psychic damage to each. Buckler has developed dyslexia! (oh no, but he loves reading romance novels!) Fallynde is now an obligatory carnivore! She can't eat anything that's not meat! Buckler is also now frightened.
6. Indigo casts Ray of Enfeeblement on the Shar, halving his damage output. He also runs into the cavern, making his way toward the giant door.
7. Carric casts Stinking Cloud on the Shar, causing him to fall to the ground retching. "Don't go over there," he says to the rest of us, "I farted..."

**Round 2**

1. Fitz reaches the altar. It has chains and shackles attached to it, with a large button and a pulley wheel. Fitz begins tinkering with the chains and mechanism to figure it out.
2. Chen continues running past the altar to the mechanism next to the giant door. He wants to open the door, but... he didn't know he needed a key for this [Red Cube], and he doesn't have the Bag of Holding! [we forgot to explain the need for a key for this kind of thing]. Fallynde pulls the Red Cube key from the Bag and tosses it to Chen. He inserts the key, and the giant door opens! It is, indeed, the lower terrace outside, and we have a GREAT view of Aequitus Lake! The Shar looks very alarmed that his laboratory is now suddenly opened up to the outside; he literally had no idea this was a possibility.
3. Fallynde, avoiding Carric's fart cloud, runs toward the middle of the cavern and begins yelling Hylan insults at the Shar to lure him toward the altar. "Your mother couldn't swim, and your father was a tadpole!!!"
4. Buckler, still frightened, throws his magic bolas at the Shar, like an arachnophobe throwing a Sears catalog at a spider. He misses!
5. The Shar spends his turn recovering from the Stinking Cloud, while Fallynde continues to curse at him.
6. Indigo takes the Bag of Holding from Fallynde and runs full-speed toward the cavern door, rummaging around inside for the Mind Flute.
7. Carric drops concentration on the Stinking Cloud [Ryan was tired of wearing the party hat. lol] and runs toward Chen.

**Round 3**

1. Fitz figures out that the large button is the chain release, and the pulley wheel tightens the chains. He hits the button and begins pulling a chain toward the Shar, telling Fallynde to bring him over to the chains.
2. Chen holds his action...
3. Fallynde keeps yelling insults at the Shar, "Even the NARTOX think you're weak!" She holds her action... [Brady trying to suss out the situation with Buckler's fright and dyslexia: "So, you're scared of Reading??"]
4. Buckler overcomes his fear, and he calls the Shar over to them.
5. The Shar picks up another barrel over his head and begins running toward the cluster of little guys that are infuriating him. Chen moves to intercept the barrel, seeing that it's about to be thrown.
6. Indigo keeps going and reaches the door.
7. Carric runs toward the side of the room with the door mechanism, where Chen was before.

**Round 4**

1. Fitz moves to the side of the altar and casts Jump on himself, ready to leap up and chain the Shar's arms!
2. Chen holds his action...
3. Fallynde moves to the altar and keeps insulting the Shar.
4. Buckler runs to the entrance of the room, next to the barrels.
5. The Shar launches his barrel at Fallynde.... Chen intercepts! He snatches it mid-air, redirects its momentum, and sends it sailing (and crashing to the floor) off to the side, harmless to all.
6. Indigo finally reaches the outside terrace. He drops concentration on Ray of Enfeeblement and takes up the Mind Flute and concentrates on that instead. The clear octahedron floats in midair, spinning rapidly.
7. Carric rushes outside next to Indigo and begins smoking a menga joint. He starts talking to Indigo, breaking his concentration and causing the crystal to fall to the ground. Dammit! Indigo shuts him up and starts concentrating again. haha

**Round 5**

1. Everyone's getting ready for whatever's about to happen. Fitz holds his action, preparing to chain down the Shar when he gets close enough.
2. Chen holds his action.
3. Fallynde holds her action, preparing to use her strength to tighten down the chains with the pulley.
4. Buckler begins charging toward the Shar, ready to punch him in the back of the head. Chen gets the chains ready to lock down the Shar as well.
5. The Shar reaches Chen and Fitz and swings at them. He's super mad at Chen for deflecting his barrel. He hits both of them HARD. Chen uses his action to attempt to chain the Shar's arms! Fitz, having prepared a Jump spell, but with only the feet left to shackle, Super-Jumps at the Shar's feet!!! They both successfully shackle the Shar! Fallynde cranks down the pulley, dragging the Shar closer and locking him down on the altar!!
6. Buckler reaches the Shar and lands a good punch, tripping him up and making it easier to chain him down.

With the Shar chained down to the altar, Chen is hurting pretty badly from the battle and moves to the side of the room and lies on the floor; Buckler joins him to offer healing. Carric dons his invisibility cloaks, because he doesn't want to be eaten by the giant Annunkai that's probably about to visit us. Fallynde heals herself. The Shar is yelling at us in Abyssal to let him go. His name is Shar'Taran, and he was trying to get revenge on the Red Hyla for the murder of Shar'Zatan [King Zatzan, as he called himself to more easily control the Reds]. He was building an "army to end all armies" from this laboratory, and he got the mutagen from the East Temple. He pleads with us to let him go. "You tried to EAT us!" Fallynde reminds him. "Hungry..." Shar'Taran retorts in explanation. "YOU. TRIED. TO. EAT. US." Fallynde no-so-patiently replies. She notices all the journals piled near his workbench and ponders what they might reveal about him. "Don't look at those! They're private!" He shouts. Outside, Indigo continues to concentrate on the Mind Flute, which spins in place and has turned from clear to a blue color. Upon learning that we we killed the other Shars at the North and East Temples, Shar'Taran gets really upset. Shar'Oovoth was his friend, but he didn't care much about Shar'Gorath; that guy was an asshole. Outside, the crystal begins to rapidly change color and emit sound. Carric tells Shar'Taran the Prentiss story, to which Shar'Taran begins crying; it's evident that he, too, has experienced Loth. [Loss. lol]

By this time, the spinning Mind Flute has turned a green color and plays a mysterious tune... As the song ends and the crystal finally comes to rest in Indigo's hands, a dragon's roar can be heard in the far distance... The entire party moves toward the back of the cavern, near the spiral hallway, well away from the giant door and and the chained Shar. Fitz passes popcorn to everyone, while Chen ponders the ethics of a live sacrifice.

After about 25 minutes of anticipation and an angry Shar, a HUGE dragon flies into the doorway from outside!!! It almost takes up the entire doorway, but it's able to fit inside the cavern, which alarms everyone quite a bit. It has a serpentine body [think Chinese-style dragon] with a wolf-like head. It has golden-bronze coloring with shimmering scales. It is at once majestic, terrifying, and stunningly beautiful. The last of the Annunkai.

The dragon seems bewildered, glancing about the room. Upon noticing the chained Shar, he immediately rips into it, causing purple blood to fly everywhere. After devouring Shar'Taran, he immediately turns toward us and comes at us with full force to devour us too!!! [Welp! That takes us to as far as our plan went! NOW what the fuck do we do?! Did Indy expect the Annunkai to sit and have a pleasant conversation with us? haha]

### **Battle: The Gang vs. Ragrizzor**

**Round 1**

1. To try to avoid all of us dying right here, right now, Fitz calls out Ragrizzor's name, but inciting no response. It looks like he doesn't recognize the name. Fitz moves to shoot him with his shotgun, but decides to hold his action instead.
2. Chen runs toward the spiral hallway, picking up Fitz as he goes. The dragon can't fit into the hallway, so it seems a safe place.
3. Ragrizzor attacks, dealing heavy damage to everyone who's not already in the hallway. Everyone is then able to get their asses into the hallway to avoid immediate death.
4. Fallynde begins apologizing to Ragrizzor in Abyssal from the hallway. [maybe about Fitz almost shooting him?]
5. Indigo lifts the Mind Flute and tries to concentrate again, but his concentration is broken by the angry dragon.
6. Everyone is panicking and fighting over whether or not we should run upstairs and try to feed him the inanimate bodies lined up in the above room. Some want to absolutely do it to save our lives, while others worry that if we fuck with them, all 20 will wake up and attack us, trapping us between the dragon and themselves.
7. "FOOD!!!" the Annunkai rumbles in a deep Abyssal voice. Fallynde quickly points out the pile of Nartox/Hyla bodies behind it; it immediately turns around and devours all the bodies in the pile. It then turns back and continues to try to eat US too.
8. Indigo tries the Mind Flute once again to speak to Ragrizzor, while the others finally settle on running up the hallway to inspect the inanimate Shar bodies. Buckler pokes at them and moves them about, but they absolutely do not move or wake. Everyone starts carrying the bodies downstairs to the dragon.
9. Indigo tries to calm Ragrizzor by telling him that we are trying to avenge his mother and brothers. He doesn't understand the word "mother", but "brother" sparks a reaction from him. But he's still angry and still trying to kill us.
10. The others return with bodies and begin tossing the Shar bodies at him, which he rapidly devours -- 10 in all.
11. We perform a skill check to attempt to calm him. Fitz uses Investigation to try to locate a good scritchy spot where Ragrizzor may not be able to reach on his own. Chen and Fallynde both use Animal Handling. Buckler uses his Charisma to calm the dragon. "Hey! Hey Buddy! It's okay! It's okay!" Indy uses Arcana through the crystal, and Carric uses performance to play a sweet tune for him. Success!!!

He's somewhat calmed down, and we continue speaking to him. He speaks Abyssal, but very poorly. No complete sentences -- just basic words. He knows about his brothers, and that they were both killed, but he doesn't understand the concept of a "mother." It appears Kazzaran was captured and taken away either before he hatched or just afterward, and he had no guidance as an infant. He grew up in a state of arrested development and just hunted off instincts. He asks Indigo what a "mother" is, to which Indigo explains that she's... the one who gave him life... the one who was supposed to protect him, teach him, and help him grow up. He asks what happened to his mother and brothers, to which we reply that the Illithids trapped his mother and were responsible for his brothers' deaths. We describe what the Illithids look like, and tell him that we want to stop them, and try to free his mother. He calms down completely at this point. He wants to know where they are -- the Illithids and his mother. We describe the floating island over the southern sea. He moves toward the back of the cavern and sits across the floor, looking toward us. "SHOW ME," he rumbles...

The next thing we know, we're all mounted atop the Annunkai's back, soaring through the air high above Kazzaran's Valley!!! It's dusk, and the setting sun shines across the valley, painting the hills and plains with a dreamlike red-orange hue. We can see so far away! Further than the reaches to which we've traveled over the past couple years. Carric is playing his guitar as we fly, while Chen is making tea and inspecting the Annunkai's scales. They appear similar to a large scale he found at Garoon's Beach, except Ragrizzor's scales are much smaller than that one from before... Fallynde is simply giddy with excitement, holding Buckler's hand tightly as she processes the whole situation; Buckler is stoically taking in the sites of the surrounding Valley. Fitz is finding himself very satisfied with running into this group of strangers yesterday morning.

As we make our way through the sky, we point out the floating island to Ragrizzor. He feels an unbearable pain coming from the island, and he begins to shriek out as we draw near. We instead fly over the Ashlands; he tells us that this is where he lives, inside a chasm on the western side of the area. We are making our way back to the east, when we see an object flying through the sky! It's some sort of vessel that's just left the floating island! Chen remembers back to his previous adventure, when he thought he saw something similar flying toward the island. It appears to be an airship, though kind of Illithid-ey looking.

We tell Ragrizzor to follow the ship, but to not attack it. He asks why. He WANTS to attack it! Does it have those creatures on it? That took his mother? He needs to kill them! The party debates on whether or not to attack the airship. Should we follow and find out where it's going? Ragz is getting very worked up, like a doggie wanting to chase a squirrel! Fallynde points out to Indigo that if they bring the airship down, it would help their air travel research greatly. No argument there! We tell Ragz to bring the ship down, but to not destroy it. He immediately bolts through the air and grabs the airship in his jaws and shakes it like a rag-doll. The Illithids inside are immediately killed from the attack, and some of them fall out the ship and drop to the ground below. He brings the ship crashing down to the plains, near where Softholme used to be.

We decide to come back to the wrechage later to study the ship; indeed it will allow us to make great advancements in air travel. Perhaps we could even restore this ship and use it to reach Zalatar undetected?? We say goodbye to Ragrizzor, and he flies off toward the the west. We then make our way back to Hardholme, where our stryders (and mechanical bear) are surely eagerly awaiting our return. :)

We didn't make it back to the North Temple, but eh... This turned out to be pretty fucking amazing.