Session3.8

## Hardholme S3E8: Adventure to the Pyramid of the Eternal Blue Flame

Chris (as Chris), Aurelae (Lauren), Nihilus (Caspar), Ulrich (Eric), Carric (Ryan), Steve (Kamara).

### IN TOWN

March is a dim and rainy month in Hardholme (even without the clouds). The air is thick with tension from the townspeople who are apprehensive of the Voidborn children in light of Silas’ rage.

As the group walks around town they notice a new development where the old BETA building used to be… seems that Lex purchased it. And reopened it as the same thing it was before, but has renamed it “Alpha Adventuring”... Aurelae and Kamara are not amused at this development.

There is some commotion coming from The Reach, so they stop by to see what all the fuss is about. Turns out that Nick Elback is performing a live show. The crowd is primarily made up of Orphans/Native Hardholmians. They are REALLY big fans of Nick Elback. And now so is Nihilus. Nick Elback’s music is old hat for people from Davros, but new to the natives of Kazzaran’s Valley and they are LOVING it. Aurelae has to drag Nihilus out because otherwise he would stay there all night. Nihilus: “Just one more song?” Aurelae: “No.”

As they walk, Carric is moaning about how he is homeless since Ulrich kicked him out of The Academy.

Aurelae: “Carric… you know that the 71st Estate is still there and it still belongs to us.”

Carric: “Yeah, but Silas de-Primed me.”

Aurelae rolls her eyes and “officially” reinstates Carric to the 71st. So now he has a place to stay.

They’re hungry now, and wouldn’t you know there is a new restaurant in town! Aurelae and Olivia’s very own “Elvish Delights”. They sit at the best table in the house and eat with compliments of the owners and chef. Quakesnake steaks and Holmosaurus and veggie skewers and mushrooms for all!. Olivia takes a break from the kitchen and comes out to meet them all. Kamara thinks his skin flakes would be a good spice if you ground it up… ew. Olivia is very experimental with her food and considers it...

Tis a good night for this group of friends.

### DAY 1

They hop on their Stryders and head North towards the Pyramid of the Blue Flame. Kamara is showing off his Stryder Show Riding Skills. He’s good.

They get to the pyramid and Carric announces that he has another magic bean! He plants it and a fruit tree grows. It has about 80 or so fruit on it, looks similar to dragonfruit, but is blue. Ulrich eats a fruit. It’s yummy. Aurelae starts collecting some fruit. Ulrich follows. They race up the tree with their Spider Slippers to grab all the fruit they can grab.

Aurelae to Ulrich: “Do you realize the amazing deliciousness that Olivia will make with this?” Ulrich realizes what this means, and gives Aurelae 35 fruit. So she now has 75. They each give Nihilus one and he is happy for it.

Nihilus plants a bean. A geyser springs up. IT’S A WINE GEYSER! They can’t help but compare the geyser wine to Rael’s wine, and it just doesn’t hold a candle to it. Nihilus names it the Swill Geyser.

They enter the Pyramid. There are two massive stone arms arch over the entrance that are touching at the fingertips, and a large, carved stone bowl at the top above the hands. There is nothing in the bowl. Ulrich puts some water in it. Aurelae puts a dragon fruit in it. Nihilus climbs in it. Each time they hear a magical harp sound. But nothing happens. No threat, no magic detected, nothing they can see. Seems like an offering bowl. (Turns out that if they had NOT put anything in the bowl, bad things would have happened.)

They go in. Dimly lit stone hallway. A lobby, and a desk… and a spectral figure in dark robes and a tall pointy hat is sitting behind the desk. He has a large book in front of him and a quill in his hand.

SF: “Name and purpose of visit please.”

“Ulrich of the 71st, exploration.”

“Carric of the 69th, and I’m on tour.”

“Aurelae, here for adventure.”

“Kamara. Discovery.”

“Nihilus, and to learn new spells.”

The Spectral Figure writes all this down in his book: “Proceed to the Waiting Lobby. Down the hallway.” He gestures to the door behind him without looking at them.

They walk around the desk and open the door… but the door is stuck. Ulrich uses his Rod of Lordly Might and smashes the door open. The guy turns around, looks disapprovingly at the lot of them, and shakes his head.

Inside is a dimly lit, flag-stoned tunnel, but it’s warped and twisted AND slippery. Even the Spider Slippers don’t help. They move forward, slipping and sliding all over the place. The hallway slowly twists until it’s spiraled. It goes straight but is not flat. Well this isn’t fun at all.

Nihilus uses his Cloak of The Bat to soar through the air and zips through the air, avoiding the slippery, twisted tunnel.

Ulrich takes a running start and slides down the hallway. The others follow, cautiously. Ulrich hears the familiar sounds of...students? At the other end of the hall a mass of very frightened spectral students appear and are running straight at them.

Ulrich and Aurelae manage to dodge the onslaught somehow, and Nihilus is flying above it all, but poor Carric and Kamara get trampled. It’s like being at Walmart on Black Friday. (20 damage) Ulrich heals Kamara and helps him stave off death.

They move forward, and into another area, and it is better lit and Nihilus suddenly drops to the ground. (The Cloak of The Bat only works in twilight or darkness.) The stone tiles here are no longer twisted or slippery. Ahead of them is a hallway extending forward. On the right is a door with a big sign above it that says “Waiting Room”. Off to the left is a sloping hallway that curves up and around to the left.

They explore straight ahead and that part of the hallway ends abruptly, and at the end of it is a giant pile of bones with little piles of moving slime on them… they avoid THAT and go back.

There is some discussion about whether to explore the hallway or to go to The Waiting Room as they were instructed to do. Nihilus sends Griefer to explore what’s down the hallway to the left. There’s a large statue of a human warrior who is badly wounded, down on one knee, but his expression is resolute. There is a silver plaque on the statue. The corridor ends in a dead end.

Aurelae starts walking towards the statue to read the plaque. The rest follow, some begrudgingly. It is the Shrine of the Wounded Warrior. The plaque reads “Taken from The Stronghold when the City Fell. When a valiant band of faithful held against a sea of heretics. Remember their sacrifice.”

NOW they walk back down the hall towards the Waiting Room. Most of them are down the hallway when Griefer lands on the statue. As soon as he lands… absolutely nothing happens.

They open the Waiting Room door. But it’s stuck. Thankfully Ulrich has his Rod of Lordly Might to force it open again.

The waiting room is about 20 square feet, and there’s faint Muzak playing. There’s a beautiful marble bench on the south wall. On the north wall is a floor-to-ceiling and wall-to-wall, very Roman Catholic-esque painting with a demon on one side and an angel on the other, and they are weighing a man’s soul while a priest reads the man his last rights.

Ulrich: “Hey it’s me and Rael!”

Nihilus REALLY likes the Muzak, and is glad he wears robes and not pants...

They all sit on the bench, but Nihilus stands on the bench… because… sitting right now would be… uncomfortable. Suddenly — the door SLAMS shut! The Muzak doesn’t stop though. And they just sit there. An hour passes. Ulrich plays his bone flute to the music. Two hours pass. Nothing happens.

Aurelae gets up and closely inspects the painting. It’s incredibly lifelike and detailed. The demon looks like the demon from Diablo. Ulrich touches the painting. Aaaaaand the demon peels itself off of the wall and springs to life.

In a loud, deep, booming voice the Demon proclaims: “I will have your souls!”

### COMBAT BEGINS:

Carric casts Blind. It doesn’t work.

Ulrich swings at him and misses. Swings again and…misses...and misses again.

Aurelae runs up the wall to the ceiling, and along the wall halfway down the room, then shoots it with ferocity (43 damage).

Kamara blasts the demon with a psionic blast TO THE FACE (11 damage).

Nihilus  is ashamed about his love for the Muzak, and had turned his cape around to help hide his shame, and in an attempt to cast something helpful, but being very VERY distracted, he casts Fog and the entire room is obscured. Not the thing he was going for, but at least hopefully this will make it much harder for the demon to attack them.

The demon lashes out with his fire whip and lights Ulrich on fire (15 damage). Then it stabs him with its electric sword (18 damage).

Carric slowly creeps away into the left hand corner (farthest from the demon) and lights a menga joint.

Ulrich blindly swings at the demon and hits! (9 damage and -1 AC) And hits again! (10 damage and -1 AC)

Aurelae uses her elf ears to listen for where the demon is, takes a deep breath and unleashes two arrows right to the demon’s knee. (49 damage)

Nihilus can’t quite concentrate on the fog anymore with this VERY sexy Muzak playing, and the fog begins to dissipate.

Kamara is walking backwards talking shit to the demon, “You punk demon! I’ll make you a deal right now. You want a soul?! HUH?!” He can’t see the demon though to cast anything.

The fog dissipates. The demon swings out at Ulrich with his sword (22 fire damage) and Ulrich falls to the ground. (-12 HP) Then the demon teleports right to where Carric and Kamara are huddled in the far corner.

Carric sees that Ulrich is close to death, with his Boots of Speed he zooms past the demon to Ulrich, luckily the demon misses Carric as he goes past and the demon FALLS DOWN. Thankfully it doesn’t fall ON Kamara.

Carric casts Cure Wounds on Ulrich and gets him conscious again (7 HP). “You’re never gonna find a better music teacher than me you asshole!”

Ulrich rushes over to the fallen, prone demon, and impales him with his longsword (43 damage).

Aurelae walks up the wall and takes a vantage point on the ceiling, and shoots two arrows to the fallen demon (41 damage).

Kamara capitalizes on the opportunity, jumps and stabs the demon in the back with his spear (12 damage). He gets a surge of energy from his success and stabs him again, working that spear back and forth into the tender muscle of the demon’s back (8 damage).

Nihilus walks to the angel part of the picture and touches it. Nothing happens.

Ulrich takes fire damage from the demon and is down again.

The demon lashes out at Aurelae with its fire whip and it burns with the fire of a thousand suns (30 damage). Luckily the whip doesn’t stick around her and she does NOT get dragged back towards the demon.

Kamara takes fire damage too and is down (0 HP).

Carric casts Dissonant Whispers “Hey. I want you to die. Also, if you’re going to kill anyone, kill Ulrich.”

Aurelae keeps chipping away at the demon (36 damage).

Nihilus hits the demon with a Mind Spike (13 damage).

The demon strikes down Kamara, and he takes a critical wound — his right arm is burned to ashes, from just above the elbow down through his hand. At least the wound is immediately cauterized, so there’s no bleeding to stop…

Ulrich is also critically injured, and on the brink of death. His left arm is burned horrifically from the Demon’s Fire Whip, but is not burned off. Once it heals, it might even be the “scars are hot” kind of scar.

The demon grabs Aurelae with it’s fire whip, and pulls her in (25 damage). She is not looking good.

Carric casts Dissonant Whispers again and the demon just EXPLODES.

Carric: “See you IN HELL.”

The Muzak ends when the demon perishes and the door bursts open.

They pick themselves up and take stock of the damages. Ulrich and Kamara both took extra critical damage.  Poor Ulrich’s right leg — the prosthetic one — is completely burned off. RIP Bone Flute. Kamara’s right leg is now burned and will scar...very sexily.

They stabilize the wounded and take a long rest to heal. But not in the Waiting Room. Because fuck that. Nihilus casts Leomund’s Tiny Hut in the hallway. Ulrich and Kamara are comparing war wounds and they all rest.

After resting, they walk to check out the heroic looking statue again.

Aurelae: “Ulrich, touch this.” He does. Nothing happens.

Aurelae walks to the end of the hall and she and Ulrich and Kamara notice something shiny on the wall, like a glimmering crack in the stone.

“I told you, the password is penitence.” And a door appears in the stone wall and opens.

There is a short hallway and a groaning zombie standing in… an elevator.

Aurelae: “Can we...go up?” The zombie groans and motions them in response. They get on. The zombie pushes the lever down and the elevator starts to descend.

When they get to the bottom and the elevator doors open, there is a small landing that opens up to a large cavern, about 200 feet across. And there are more zombies. A lot more zombies. They are linked hand to foot, forming a zombie bridge across the cavern. It’s about 200 feet across. Over a PIT OF SPIKES.

Aurelae walks along the wall. Kamara teleports across. Nihilus levitates both he and Ulrich over, and Carric levitates himself.

Next, they enter another large room, with a reflecting pool. Nihilus tells Griefer to drink the water, and he does. Another Griefer comes out of the pool. Carric follows suit. Another Carric walks out of the pool and stands there, staring at him. Nihilus jumps into the pool “Bombs away!” And a Nihilus twin appears. Aurelae, Kamara, and Ulrich stay away from the pool.

Carric pulls down Other Carric’s pants to see if he has an attached or detached Phil. It’s the same as Carric. Other Phil is in Other Carric’s pocket.

Aurelae calls the group forward, and there is a door on the other side of the reflection pool. “Come on everyone.” The doubles follow them, silently, into the next room.

The next room is the size of a football field, with grand marble arches and statues that are cracked and decayed and scattered across the room. In the center of the room is a square pit. At the far end is a lectern with a ghostly figure behind it. He has his hands on a large orb.

The Ghostly Figure yells at them: “Who amongst you is the greatest sinner?!” And as he says this, the pit bursts forth with blue flame.

Carric points at Ulrich and Aurelae and Nihilus point to Carric.

The blue flames move to envelope Ulrich, and at this Nihilus and Aurelae say, “Hey! Two people pointed at him!” They point to Carric again. The flames leave Ulrich and envelope Carric. “I’m not Carric, I’m Darric!” Aurelae curses under her breath, but agrees.

The Ghostly Figure takes his hand front he orb and the flames die down. “Okay come on you guys, seriously. None of you have come to repent? One of you has to burn.”

The Ghostly Figure is Santavias, the Dean of this Academy. The orb is The Orb of Judgement.

Nihilus steps up, says that he is not evil, has not done any evil deeds.

Santavias: “I will banish you.”

Nihilus: “For what? I’ve done nothing wrong.”

Nihilus lets the blue flame envelop him. Grey specters start dragging him to the flame. Nihilus Misty Steps over the flames and ends up directly in front of the Dean. Nihilus reaches out and banishes Santavias, and he disappears \*POP!\* into another realm.

Carric casts Bardic Inspiration on Ulrich. Ulrich hobbles towards Nihilus.

Aurelae unleashes two arrows and immediately kills two of the specters. (There are about two dozen specters, but they are clearly not very powerful at all.)

Kamara Sonic Blasts a specter, and it crumbles to the ground.

Nihilus runs up to the orb and grabs it. It begins to glow, and a disembodied voice says, “You are not a sinner.”

The specters stop pursuing Nihilus and start going for Ulrich.

Carric dick slaps a specter, and it collapses into a pile of dust.

Ulrich charges into the middle of the specters, tears off his wraps and shows his radiant skin. Bright light bursts forth does radiant damage to the lot of them. AND ULRICH KILLS THEM ALL.

Nihilus takes the Orb of Judgement. Ulrich and Kamara want to chop up the boss guy, they argue about it.

Aurelae: “WHY in the world would we stand around and wait for that guy to come back???” She shakes her head and walks out the door. Nihilus follows. Carric just wants to touch the orb and keeps hassling Nihilus to let him touch it. “Come on, just once.”

They run past the reflective pool, and the reflections go back into the pool as they pass. Aurelae gets a jar of the water as they go by. A copy Aurelae pops up, but doesn’t follow them out of the reflection pool room.

Nihilus casts his floating disk to carry Ulrich and Carric across the zombie bridge chasm. Aurelae walks on the ceiling toting levitating Nihilus who has tied a rope around himself. Brave Kamara runs across the zombie bridge, and with every step a zombie cries out the sins of their past. “I killed my mother!” “I robbed my neighbor!” “I lied to a blind man!” “I kept a secret family from my other family!” They realize that if the blue flames had consumed any of them, this would have been their fate.

They run through the hallway, past the heroic statue, through the twisted and slippery tunnel hallway, and up to the front and past the guy at the front desk. As they pass him up he yells, “Hey, where are you going with that?” They all keep going. Kamara flips him off. Ulrich goes, “With what?!” And they just keep running, out of the temple and into the night. The jump onto their Stryders and ride all the way back to Hardholme.