Session 37: The Tortoise and the Tiefling

When the group awakens, Vojta tells them that Gyrraleth reached out to him in his dream. Apparently, Gyrraleth just wanted a conversation with him, as he respects Vojta’s perspective. Vojta relates the notable points of conversation. Gyrraleth claimed that he didn’t send the assassins, meaning that another dragonborn leader must have ordered it. He also mentioned that he loses control to Cerebarieth from time to time, which is why he massacred the paladins. Lastly, he said that most of the dragonborn don’t know about his involvement with Cerebarieth, and wouldn’t approve if they did.

When the group emerges from Aera’s ring, they find the streets desolate, the Blazing Crystal destroyed, and part of the crater rim collapsed. Vojta uses his cloud magic, and the group flies over the sea towards Bawher. They see Ruthstin’s ships departing in the distance, then pass over the Isle of Unity, which is a dense pile of buildings on a rocky outcropping. At the end of their eight hours, they land on the peninsula west of Bawher. They then realise that Joe is gone. Arran checks the bag of holding and finds that Joe left behind their shared money stash. Grombrin sends a mental message to Joe, who tells him to check Vojta’s hat. The hat contains a letter saying that Joe has decided to split off and oppose Gyrraleth in his own way, unfettered by moral objections. It’s signed with Joe’s real name, Arlan the Deceiver.

Aera and Grombrin don’t have appropriate clothing for the cold climate, so Grombrin uses his magic to build a stone hut, while the others gather wood and build a fire. The group rests for the night, and Grombrin plays guitar while keeping the first watch. A large creature with insectile eyes approaches under the snow. It doesn’t bother them, but keeps watching throughout the night. When morning nears, Aera awakens and recognises the creature as a remorhaz, a powerful predator. The group soon flies off again in cloud form, prompting the remorhaz to pounce on their campfire and consume it.

A few hours later, they arrive in Bawher, a city built among steep mountains. It’s inhabited by goliaths, who are huge and inured to the cold. Aera and Grombrin need cold weather clothes, so the group seeks out a tailor. The tailor doesn’t have clothes for “tiny toothpick people”, but sells them some fur vests that can serve as trench coats for non-goliaths. The group asks for some directions, and in conversation the tailor mentions some elves who passed through on the way north and never came back. Arran figures they were on the way to the City of the Glacial Stream.

While Grombrin is changing clothes in the street, a huge tortle with a turquoise gem on his forehead recognises him as a cleric and speaks to him. His name is Cho, and he is a priest of the Order of the Silver Ivy, who worship the goddess Yane. He invites the group to have some drinks together, figuring that he should welcome them to Bawher since the goliaths aren’t very hospitable. The group agrees, but Grombrin splits off to do some smithing first.

The four of them go to the Bridge Peak Inn and get some rooms. At the bar, Cho asks the group why they travelled here. Vojta says that he performed an exploration pilgrimage and is now returning to his tribe, while the others give similar true but incomplete answers. Vojta mentions that they are interested in checking out an ancient temple nearby and asks if Cho knows about it. Cho doesn’t know, but is interested in finding something to do, because he’s bored in Bawher.

When Grombrin returns with his newly-forged maul, he discusses matters of faith with Cho. Cho explains that Yane is a goddess of peace, but that he is one of the few servants not sworn to nonviolence. He is very skilled at violence but only employs it reactively, and he protects the sanctity of the home above all else. His order needed him to protect those sworn to nonviolence from exploitation, but now they have sent him away because his presence was becoming a problem for their image. He isn’t sure what to do now. Since they are both chosen of the gods, Grombrin offers to help him find his new purpose.

A red tiefling who has been listening in approaches the group. He says that his companions were ambushed just outside the city, and wonders if the group, as apparent adventurers, can help him get out of the city safely. He’s even more desperate to leave Bawher and go back to Um’akuh when he hears about the disaster that took place there. The group is unsure whether they will travel by foot or by cloud, but tells him to check in with them tomorrow.

The group chats some more into the night. Cho relates that tortles usually don’t have homes, as they don’t need them due to their shell. His religion requires that he designate a sanctuary, which is the church in Seagate, but he hasn’t been there for a while. Since Cho is huge, the topic of how much weight he can lift comes up. This prompts Vojta to turn into a brown bear, so that Cho can demonstrate deadlifting the bear.

The next morning, Arran goes to the cartographer to ask about routes through the highlands. The cartographer tells him about the many ravines and changing geography, making it impossible to give a concrete path. Arran returns to the group and argues in favour of flying, but Vojta convinces him to travel by foot since the temple isn’t far and the tiefling will pay them 25 platinum each.

The group heads out into the highlands. After several hours, the ground becomes increasingly filled with ravines, but nothing too dangerous. At nightfall, Grombrin shapes another shelter from stone. The group divides the watch, and the tiefling takes a potion to keep him awake, because he dislikes unconsciousness. Cho takes the first watch and converses with him. The tiefling mentions that a former companion of his was a diviner, and had a vision about Vojta’s group nearly freeing the demon lord at the spike. Cho hates demons but holds no grudge against them, as they didn’t truly do it.

At the end of his watch, Cho withdraws into his shell to sleep, while Vojta takes over. The tiefling introduces himself to him as Inquisitive, and says that he is a demonologist, something he deliberately hid from Cho. He again explains the visions regarding the Spike, and asks Vojta about his experiences with facing the demon lord. Vojta tells him what little he knows, and asks whether Var can ever be banished rather than imprisoned. Inquisitive says that Pha’uel took measures to prevent Var from returning to Eximum. Vojta asks about what happened to the sending stones when he confronted Var, and Inquisitive says that a pure sending stone wouldn’t heat up like that – it was probably a scrying device as well. Inquisitive asks how the demon was contained, and Vojta refers him to Grombrin for those details.

Although it should be Arran’s watch, Vojta awakens Grombrin. Inquisitive once again fills him in and asks him to draw the runes surrounding Var, since he wants to use them against the demons in the Lifeless Valley. Grombrin doesn’t remember them all, so Inquisitive shows him an amulet made from a raven’s claw and an aquamarine cross. It was taken from one of the bandits that attacked his group, and can supposedly be used to read memories. He asks Grombrin to use it on himself, to refresh his memories about the runes. Grombrin wants to ask Arran’s advice on it first.

Grombrin goes to awaken Arran, but he was already awake and eavesdropping. He inspects the trinket, which seems genuine, then questions Inquisitive’s intentions further. He says that this is his only way to learn about these runes, since the clerics would never let a demonologist near the Spike. When his diviner companion had a vision of the Spike, the servants of Pha’uel even appeared to extract this memory from their mind.

Arran wakes up Vojta and Aera. Cho remains asleep because he wouldn’t approve of demonology. The group agrees that retrieving Grombrin’s memories is the right call. Arran uses it on Grombrin, and they both vividly experience some of the events at the Spike, including the alternative timeline where Joe freed Var. Arran then writes down the runes that he saw on the pillars. He recognises them as celestial runes that ward against fiends, aberrations, and fey. The group agrees to show them to Inquisitive, while Arran decides to also send a copy to the archives.

Inquisitive is ecstatic and starts ranting about putting protective runes around the entire Lifeless Valley, so that the demons can’t escape. His sudden deranged behaviour makes Aera doubtful for the safety of the tieflings, who themselves are part demon. She starts casting a spell to subdue him, but Inquisitive was already paranoid and reacts faster, creating a magical explosion that throws everyone away from him. He then makes a run for it while yelling that they won’t take it from him.