Session 36: The Gang Hits Rock Bottom

On Joe’s suggestion, the group stores Arran’s body in the church for safekeeping. They spend the night at the inn, so Grombrin can prepare his ritual. The next morning, Vojta gives him 500 gp worth of diamonds, then keeps watch outside the door as Grombrin chants strange phrases over Arran’s body. Grombrin communes with Arran’s spirit, which now resides in Pha’uel’s domain, and he manages to coax the reluctant spirit back into his body. Arran awakens, weakened and dazed, wondering where he is.

Meanwhile, Joe buys another 1000 gp of diamonds from the clerics, and sells the bulettes back to the merchant. When he returns to the church, Vojta mentions that he noticed a tiny dragon following them. When Arran and Grombrin come out, the group is about to return to the inn, when the tiny dragon appears to ask where the cat is. They recognise it as a pseudodragon, which usually can’t speak, so it seems to be channelling another person’s voice. It seems to be reaching out purely out of curiosity, so Joe tells it to meet them at the Blazing Crystal once Arran is resting.

The group hauls Arran to the inn, where he promptly goes to sleep. Grombrin then heads to the market in search of adamantine for his new weapon. The merchant names 850 gp per ingot, and Grombrin needs ten ingots for his hammer. He returns to discuss it with Joe, who says they can’t afford it right now. While they’re talking, an owl-like aarakocra arrives, with the pseudodragon on her shoulder. She introduces herself as Aeraddeaka Trrrkatra, better known as Aera. Her unprompted curiosity is strange, but Joe is eager for a conversation with someone not trying to kill him, so he invites her to have a drink together. They offer Vica’s red dress to Aera, who has it refitted at the tailor so that she can enter the restaurant.

At the bar, they order ironflame ale on Grombrin’s recommendations. As they chat with Aera, Joe slyly avoids telling the full truth of their mission. After some time, Arran joins them, having awoken from his trance. He asks Joe why he wrote in his journal, pointing to “the blessing of Turagh is not in the lifeless valley” written in his own handwriting. Joe, the only one who could have mimicked Arran’s writing, says he didn’t do it. It becomes evident that Arran’s memories have once again changed. He doesn’t remember communing with Turagh in the swamp, and seems to think that they moved on to Um’akuh because they already found the tower of Turagh.

After some confusion, the realisation dawns on them that the being Arran communed with may have been the aboleth, not Turagh, and that it sent them on a goose chase to the Lifeless Valley to be rid of them. They deduce that Arran’s episode of writing in blood was caused by his fey ancestry resisting the possession. When considering why his memories were changed now, Vojta realises that the disease known as daylight’s end can cause selective amnesia. It must have remained in his system even after Vica used the charm to end his possession, only to be purged by Grombrin’s resurrection spell.

Arran figures that the underwater extradimensional structure really was the tower of Turagh, and that killing the aboleth may remove the magic that obscures it. Since she is an adventurer in search of knowledge, Vojta asks Aera if she’s interested in figuring out the mystery in Namos. She is now eager to know more, so she agrees to cooperate with the group. They distribute Vica’s gear, while Arran relates that he spoke to Pha’uel in the afterlife, and that Pha’uel explained to him what happened in the alternate timeline, when Joe freed the demon lord Var. Before the group rests for the night, they turn the meat that they bought for the bulettes into jerky by cutting away the bad parts and using Grombrin’s fire to dry it. Arran also hires a smith to work on his crown.

When Arran returns to his private chambers, he finds Gyrraleth flipping through his books. The purple veins in his arms are much more apparent now. He claims to be here only to give his condolences for the loss of Vica, and says that Ti’ireth seemed very glad to have her back. He asks them where Lokreth went, and they truthfully say they don’t know. He asks Joe whether he has told his companions the rest of his history, and whether they know of Dreadclaw, but Joe brushes it away. He asks Vojta about the temple of Etreath and the individual known as O, but Vojta truthfully knows very little. Gyrraleth admits that he doesn’t know where the temple of Etreath is, and that it would be inconvenient for Vojta to find it first. Joe argues with Gyrraleth about his superiority complex, but Gyrraleth is apathetic to his insults and calmly leaves.

The group briefly discusses the temple of Etreath. While Gyrraleth seemed truthful about not wanting Vojta to go there, they still figure that doing so would play to his expectations. The group then decides to explain the situation to the confused Aera. She mentions that she comes from a family that searches for “the truth”. She won’t give more information about it, but she thinks that the truth may be related to the matter of Cerebarieth. As such, she wants to join the group for real. She then sucks them into a compartment of her ring, which contains a larger-on-the-inside lounge. There they meet the blue-skinned djinni Faranehou. When Aera gives him some gold, he greets them to his bazaar and explains that Aera is a warlock and he is her patron. He doesn’t seem very attached to her quest, but supports it as long as she brings him gold. After some introductions, and a moment of kinship between Faranehou and Grombrin, the group is pulled back out of the ring.

The group decides to rest for the night, but when Arran touches the doorknob to his private quarters, a wave of destructive energy washes over him. The whole building becomes slightly skewed, while Arran is briefly turned into a gaseous form. They rush outside to find a crack in the base of the building. Joe tells the staff that Gyrraleth is out to assassinate Grombrin and his entourage. An alarm goes off and a magical voice instructs everyone inside to evacuate. While evacuating, Arran notices that one of his books on places of power is gone, taken by Gyrraleth. Joe suggests that they should go public with revealing Gyrraleth’s actions. Joe and Grombrin head to the church, where Joe intends to give a testimony inside a zone of truth. Aera heads into the masses to ask around for where Gyrraleth went, while Vojta flies into the air as an eagle to get an overview.

When Vojta is in the air, a flying dragonborn assassin emerges from the night and stabs him. He is forced back into human form and falls a hundred feet down, barely surviving. He immediately heals himself with the most powerful spell he has, while calling to the others. Arran, Grombrin, and Joe rush back to him as two more flying assassins emerge. The assassins swoop down on them with poisoned blades. Vojta’s dragonscale armour and Grombrin’s elemental nature protect from the poison, but the already-weakened Arran is badly injured. Grombrin uses his boots of spider climbing to run up the side of a building, then uses the high ground to shoot sunbeams at the assassins. Arran riddles a blinded assassin with arrows, but they prove to be unusually resilient.

One of the assassins pulls out a crossbow and shoots Grombrin right in the face, breaking his concentration on his sunbeams. Joe casts a fear spell on it, making it flee behind one of the buildings, where Grombrin jumps down on it, crushing it under his weight. Meanwhile, Vojta protects the wounded Arran by transforming him into a giant yeti, prompting Arran to throw a stone bench at one of the flying assassins. While it’s reeling from the impact, Aera arrives, drawn in by Grombrin’s radiance, and stuns it with a psychic attack. The third assassin then flies around and stabs Vojta in the back, ending Arran’s transformation. Aera distracts the assassin with eldritch beams, while Joe administers a potion to bring Vojta back to consciousness. Vojta promptly uses his magic to suck the assassin’s blood out of his body through his pores, killing him. The other two assassins, heavily wounded, rally and flee into the night.

Vojta searches the dead assassin and finds orders for their assassination. It is signed by IV and V.T., and tells them to return to Sahqo Qethsegol after the job is done. Arran recognises Sahqo Qethsegol as the name of Ruthstin’s ship, also known as the Red Jasper. The group rushes to the paladin guild, but they find the church destroyed and the paladins killed by Gyrraleth. Vojta immediately starts pulling the group away, but Joe lingers and insults Gyrraleth, who punches him in the throat with uncanny speed. Grombrin picks up Joe’s unconscious body and the group hurries away as the church collapses behind them.

Aera gives her ring to Arran, before her and all the others go inside the sanctuary. Arran travels through the city unseen and seeks refuge in a house alongside a goliath family. The sound of something falling and shattering is heard in the distance. Some time later, a parchment is handed through the door to one of the goliaths. He hands it to Arran, saying it’s meant for him. It’s a letter from O, telling them that not all is lost and that they must head to the temple of Etreath.