Session 38: Aarakocra Aren't Real

As Inquisitive runs away, the group scrambles to catch him. Inquisitive turns around and warns them to let him go, while flaming tendrils emerge from his back. Cho sees this as a display of demonic power and attacks, but his glaive bounces off the tiefling’s skin. Inquisitive then transforms into a huge demonic beast and attacks with his fiery tendrils. Cho blocks the path alongside Vojta, who turns into an earth elemental and summons Trojka the Stormbear. Aera and Arran pelt the demon with spells, so it constricts Cho and Vojta and dangles them over the precipice, clearing the path. He approaches the other two and releases another explosion that knocks out Aera and heavily injures Cho. Arran wards off the explosion with his magic, and summons a group of illusory clones to distract the demon’s attention.

While the demon struggles with the duplicated Arran, Trojka rains down repeated blasts of lightning onto it. Cho and Vojta escape from their entanglement and return to the fight. Cho harms the demon with the divine fury infused into his strikes, but gets smashed by the demon’s attack soon after. Vojta and Arran keep attacking the demon, wearing it down, until Trojka’s lightning is depleted. They realise that the demon’s wounds are constantly closing, and that they no longer have the firepower to keep ahead of its healing. The demon offers them a chance to surrender, and they reluctantly take it.

While the demon stomps off with the runes, Vojta rushes to check on Cho and Aera. Cho is dead, but can be easily revived using Vojta’s magic, as his warrior’s spirit refuses to die. He isn’t all that bothered by his own death since he has died before. Aera is dead as well, and her body has turned into a humanoid with pale skin and white hair. Vojta resurrects her with greater effort. When she comes to, she is surprised to see her altered appearance, and explains that she is a changeling. Her real name is Nan, but she took on the identity of Aera eight years ago, when she lived among the aarakocra. She returns to her aarakocra appearance out of habit.

The group then realises that Grombrin has been in a paralysed state since the battle started, and they are unable to snap him out of it. Since Cho literally died for them, Arran and Vojta explain their situation to him. He struggles with the concept of the primordial gods, but is compelled when Arran explains that Anaereth is another form of his goddess, Yane. He agrees to help them in stopping the bad guys. The group rests on the plateau, while Arran messages the Ashen Archive that the demon might be coming to the Spike. The archive responds that precautions will be taken. Cho then argues for heading back to Bawher to get his glaive enchanted, since he doesn’t want to face another invulnerable foe. Arran doesn’t want to divert, so he temporarily gives Cho his magic rapier. Cho doesn’t like the flimsy weapon but reluctantly agrees.

After resting, Vojta uses his cloud magic to fly the group to the temple’s location. There they find a stone totem pole next to an extremely dark cave. Messages are written on the totem pole in several archaic languages, warning that something is contained here and that travellers should not stay here. Four of them head in while Grombrin, still paralysed, remains at the entrance. Deep inside, they come upon a pile of rotting corpses skewered with spears. Near it is a note warning people not to go further if they fear for their survival. When they move past it, they are briefly assaulted by a cacophony of screaming voices and battle sounds.

They move on anyways and find an abandoned camp deeper inside, along with an improvised grave marker. A note clarifies that this is the grave of Igrahz Steelskin. Further on, they find a small stone idol in the shape of a deformed ram skull. Arran recognises it as a symbol of Etreath. Vojta hears a message in his head from a female voice, warning against the ram that roams these grounds. They leave the skull be and continue. Further on, they find three heaps of flesh and jagged metal on the ground, as if three armoured humanoids were crushed into balls. As they approach, walls rise on both sides, and unseen people point crossbows down at them through holes in the ceiling.

A giant shadowy ram appears before them. The others consider whether to fight, but Vojta introduces himself to the ram as an ally of Etreath. The ram asks the names of the others, then disappears. A hole in the wall opens, and robed figures appear to dispel any magical effects. They are then guided through the hole, where they meet a dark blue tiefling. She introduces herself as Obscurity, Clarity’s sister, and explains that this is their hidden base, and that the ram is an illusion to keep intruders out.

She leads them into a large hollow lit by sunlight from a crack in the ceiling. There are old buildings along the walls, and a fair amount of people going around. The group stores their weapons and joins the inhabitants for a meal. When they ask Obscurity about Clarity’s plan, she explains that Clarity received visions of Gyrraleth’s intentions, and initially tried to talk him out of it. When that didn’t work, she figured that a group of people with all six blessings could confront Gyrraleth and have the six gods subdue Cerebarieth by proxy. Vojta corroborates this by relating what happened when he fought Gyrraleth in Oda Iger.

Obscurity and her people have been working to remove Gyrraleth’s trees, but the blessings are their only shot at a lasting solution. The group explains how they still need to get the blessings of Turagh from Namos and Tereth from Far Kadoma, and how they need to regain the blessing of Mereteth from Oda-iger now that Vica is gone. When Cho hears about the aboleth threatening the homes of the people in Namos, he becomes dedicated to killing it, but they will have to purchase psychic protection in San’edhe first. When the weapon in Far Kadoma comes up, Arran once again refuses to say what it is, and Obscurity remarks that all elves are sworn to secrecy about it. Intruding on dragonborn-occupied Kadoma will require an invasion, so Obscurity recommends that Fayekro has been on edge due to the war declarations, and is a likely ally against the dragonborn. Cho says that Seagate got the war declaration too, and that he may be able to pull some strings there.

The group decides to take a quick detour to Oda-iger, then head to Fayekro and Seagate to gather allies against the occupation of Kadoma. Obscurity asks them if they can investigate the true temple of Etreath first. The divine avatar that lives there refuses communication, and the temple is overrun with threats. When asked, Obscurity offers Cho a magic glaive from their stockpile. They will pay for it for now, and return it later when Cho gets his own heirloom glaive enchanted. Obscurity also shows Vojta the orchard, so that he can use his teleportation to return here later.

After finishing their meal, Obscurity points the group to the true temple of Etreath, which is a moon-shaped building inside an enormous cavern. They head inside and find a goat’s head shrine with a bowl with some blood in it. Vojta tries dripping some of his own blood into the bowl as an offering. A magical surge occurs, and an incomprehensible voice speaks in primordial. The others give offerings as well, as a precaution.

Behind the altar is a maze of corridors. Red, blue, and green coloured ropes extend from the altar and split up into the maze. Nan sends her pseudodragon companion in to follow the blue wire. It flies through several corridors, but suddenly gets struck down by a skeletal hand. The group decides to head in after it, with Cho in the front. When they get to the same point, the skeletal hand attacks Cho but fails to damage his shell. It belongs to a tiefling ghost with glowing yellow eyes and a tattered robe. Four others are seen in the room beyond.

Cho moves in and starts slashing the ghosts with his magic glaive. The ghosts release clouds of pestilent mist and conjure a large amount of smaller hooded spirits, but Vojta summons waves of water to wash the smaller spirits away. Arran moves in as well to skewer the ghosts with his magic rapier, while Nan shoots them with eldritch blasts from the corridor. The ghosts attack them with their lifedraining touch. Vojta, who can’t transform in these tight quarters, is cornered and weakened. As the ghosts crowd around him, one of Nan’s eldritch blasts misses its target and knocks out Vojta instead.