Session 32 - The Hidden Truth

***"Hey Kirhin, I'm finally coming home and I get to ride on an airship! Also, bad news, my horse died." - Themus to Kirhin via message rock.***

 This is the 32nd session of the game Ashes.

## Summary

At the beginning of the session, the party began to secure the entranceways to the cave while Acaelus began to look through the papers within the laboratory.

Acaelus learns many facts about what occurred here in the cave (I'll write it out in chronological order and not discovery order, including everything from the notes to Elias's Speak with Dead, and the questioning of the Yuan-Ti):

Xerena, a medusa priestess worshiper of Vescea the Immortal Queen, received a vision that told her how to wake the eternally slumbering goddess. This required her to break the Seal placed on her goddess by the Priestess of the Nine known as Breha Dataina. In the vision, Xerena foresaw that the way to break the seal was to collect the essence of each of the Nine deities, and decided to collect it via the soul gems that reside within each person. She convinced a group of Yuan-Ti to aid her in this cause by pretending that her goal was to bring back The Queen of Venom, a very similar goddess that the Yuan-Ti worship, and they joined her cause. Xerena decided to go to Blackdale hearing that there was a war going on there and that they could use the confusion of warfare to begin experimenting. At a certain point members of the Junaguage Arcanis visited the cave near Rust Port where the experimenting was going on, among them were Vanden Hamin and Gregor Strauss. Strauss found what Xerena was working on interesting and began to sway some of the Arcanis to use her findings for their own purposes. Vanden disagreed finding what she was doing to be inhumane and split the remaining members of the JA to his side. A battle took place causing all but Vanden of the JA, and Xerena to die, and leave the cave buried. Xerena was able to find Strauss and bring him back to life and the two began experimenting in earnest. They found ways to force people into having their souls awoken, they were then petrified by Xerena, and had their soul stones removed. They discovered a way to preserve people in stasis in an amber-like liquid, as well as inject the liquid to force their soul gems to overtake their bodies creating zombie-like slaves. Strauss was didn't actually believe that Xerena could break the seal but worked with her in order to gain info. Strauss began working on several spells specifically in order to affect one's Soul Gem. An older figure had visited the caves at one point. They purportedly completed their work here, allowing another Medusa to take over, while Xerena left to find the grave of Breha Dataina, and Strauss left to find a Soul Keep.

After they discovered what they had in the laboratory they began to collect the Soul Gems that remained, and the notes they found and continued on down the hall. They came to another part of the lab with an overhanging walkway and several Yuan-Ti experimenting on people in cages, one of which was Delphine. Themus jumped down to confront them and fell flat on his face, deciding then to play dead. The Yuan-Ti approached and Emeran and Elias jumped down. They were easily able to capture the Yuan-Ti and began to interrogate them. Elias and Acaelus checked on Delphine who seemed to be out of it, saying that she had seen Acaelus once before down here. After speaking with the Yuan-Ti the party found further information when Elias used Speak With Dead on the Medusa named Phirena (The Fake Mustache was used, and it worked). The party let the captured Yuan-Ti go, and caused a cave-in to bury everything they couldn't take.

They returned to Rust Port and spoke with Silt. He questioned them on what they found, and ultimately the party decided it best to keep most of what they found a secret to help Silt and the others with plausible deniability. Silt thanked them for stopping the threat and gave them the location of the local treasury to earn their reward.

That night the party took watch in an abandoned apartment, and Astraea, Autumn, and Elias treated the stone growths that were coming out of Delphine. In the morning Acaelus finished reading the journal left behind by Strauss, and send messages to Nightdane, this is what was said:

Acaelus: "Rescued Delphine. Dealt with problem. On way back. Unless you can get us there faster."

Nightdane: "Well done. Wasn't expecting you back for a time. We're in the process of sending the next crop. Sit tight if you want an airship."

Acaelus: "We will wait. How long until it arrives? Also, maybe don't send the JA or trust them."

Nightdane: "Should take three days getting there, three days back. I might not have a choice who gets sent. The Gilded Eagle is coming.

Acaelus: "Delphine could use magical help. Should we be worried? Any developments with the Red Sky? Any other news we should know? Is the King coming?

Nightdane: "King not coming. Ship was fastest way we could agree on. Sending airship due to dangerous environment. Will send magical aid. They found Face and Hands."