Fifty-Fifth Session - Our Souls in Dreamworld

Resuming in the treasure vault beneath Azkaresh!

- Markoris zips around the vault to try and find the egg, but everything is gold!! He, however, gets very very lucky and spots the egg in the last corner the DM thought we would look! Exciting. He calls out to the others since he used all his action. It’s too big for him to lift alone even if he had anything left.

- Ishaq calls to Max to hang in there — Max yells a lot incoherently — and Ishaq makes his way towards Markoris to aid.

- Roe is torn between his wife and the egg right now. Ishaq rolls high persuasion and Roe leaves us to deal with the egg while he tries to grapple his wife, but in her panic turned state he can’t get ahold of her. There’s basically a giant dragon wrestling match happening.

- Raul moves and waits.

- Max is encased in stone and frightened and still raging from the cursed weapon. He fails his wisdom save against the fear effect.

- Celia thinks everybody’s got shit handled so she’s going to go try and figure out wtf is wrong with Max. She can tell there’s some kind of outside influence on his behavior but not what caused it. She casts guidance and does an insight check, thinking back to what Max was doing when he lost his mind, as to what’s different from the last battle vs this one.

- Alana sends her allosaurus to protect the characters digging out the egg, and moves over to Max to cast dispel magic on him. It doesn’t remove the curse on Max or the item specifically, but it disconnects his attunement to it. He snaps back to himself but no one knows what happened to him in the first place. Big thanks to Alana. She doesn’t know what exactly she did, but hey it worked!

- Zombie Dragon is now clawing at the wall to escape Celia.

- Rashid is unfrightened now, and is peeking out to see what’s going on.

 - Markoris and Ishaq uncover the egg (with assistance from Ishaq's mage hand) and it’s so hot that the gold beneath it has melted. Markoris wonders how the hell they’re going to get it out, and calls out to Roe that they found it for certain.

- Ishaq looks around for anything cool, shouting to Max — You doing okay buddy? But Max doesn’t really remember what happened to him. “Ishaq, why am I in the floor?” “You’re technically not in the floor.” “The floor’s on him.” (Ishaq does find something cool with a 26 Investigation roll using his last Luck, he slips it into his pocket.)

- Roe hears Markoris and stops trying to grapple his wife for a moment, coming to look at the egg. He picks it up and holds it in his claws and sighs deeply, hugging it to his chest. Then he turns and looks at Ishaq and says “I think you all should leave.” In common.

- Ishaq looks at Markoris, casting Message, and says he doesn’t want to get involved in Draconic drama because it’s high key and they should probably leave. He summarizes the situation in the worst way possible via message and convinces Markoris that they should leave.

- Raul is like YUP LET’S GO and heads for the door holding a bow attack just in case.

- Max is still encased in rock. He yells “be careful, they’ve got some kind of charm magic!” And tries to break out of the rock but it doesn’t work so holds a dash action for if he’s freed. He still fails his frightened wisdom save.

- Since Max seems like himself again, she tells Max to take Rashid with him and casts stone shape again to free him. “Whatever you did don’t do it again, I don’t know what you did but just take him and get out of here, don’t let him out of your sight.”

- Max grabs the governor and is outtie, bye bye.

- Alana has the allosaurus hang out where he is and moves towards the door.

- Zombie Dragon is still just trying to escape Celia, it’s clawing at the wall pretty aggressively. The whole cabin starts to shake and rumble, everyone has to do a dexterity saving throw. Stones start falling from the ceiling. Celia sidesteps a boulder but Ishaq and Markoris get hit by falling stones for 12 bludgeoning damage.

- Markoris tries to get the allosaurus to move with them but when it doesn’t he takes Ishaq’s offered hand and the two of them dimension door out of the vault doors.

- Roe bats the allosaurus out of the way and goes back to his wife, trying to calm her down with the egg in his arms.

- Raul is outtie.

- Celia is also outtie. The turn undead is now turn undone.

From the hallway they hear a deafening roar, and Alana gets to see the undead dragon attacking Roe.

- Alana and her dinosaur are outtie too.

In the hallway, Rashid rushes to the vault door. Ishaq says “you’re not locking Roe in, correct?” “Do you want that thing to get out?” “I’m not condemning him to death! Do you want us to come back in two hours and see who won?” Rashid says yes, Ishaq says it was a facetious question!! They argue about how he created the undead one, if Celia is okay to turn it again if it looks like it’s going to escape… and then Ishaq asks Max what the hell happened to him. Max doesn’t know.

As they’re talking Rashid goes for the door and Celia asks Alana to cast hold person on him. Alana casts hold person on Rashid, but he beats the save so Celia tackles him to the ground. “I would sooner suffocate you than close this door.” He is sufficiently intimidated and stops fighting her. “If that thing gets out, hundreds of people are going to die if not thousands.” “We’re not going to let it out,” Ishaq says. And Celia argues with Rashid that there’s a gold dragon handling it and over his calling the dragons ‘its’. Rashid is now completely silent as a giant mushroom is sitting on him. Meanwhile the dragons are fighting, and they hear Roe cry out in pain.

Ishaq cracks the door open again and Markoris pokes his head in to see if he can tell how Roe’s doing. Markoris with his high perception roll can tell they both look rough. The party argues over whether or not they should help somehow. Roe takes another hit and Ishaq Messages him asking if he needs assistance. He persuade him but disappears suddenly in the aftermath of a failed Wisdom Save. Then Max disappears. Celia gives the governor a whack and yells at him if he’s doing this, but he has no magic.

Elsewhere, Ishaq realizes this is akin to a pocket dimension not too unlike that of the Dream Devourer's invention. He explores in his strange new form, a fiery draconic spirit, and tests the boundaries of his current capabilities. Soon enough, an entity he \*feels\* is Max arrives, although this armored insectoid creature looks very different from Max. They're both relieved to see they've retained their linguistic capabilities. Ishaq asks Max about what happened to him regarding his freak out, and they both conclude the Undead Dragon must have tried some shit on Max. Ishaq changes the topic, optimistically looking forward to whenever they return to their physical forms, and follows up on the upcoming hunt for Cyrus. Max converses with Ishaq on the topic, although remains physically uncomfortable, and balls himself in a tight defense. Ishaq uses Prestidigitation, as he still possesses his arcane abilities, to massage Max's eight curled shoulders.

Markoris and Alana notice that there’s a ripple in the air where the others disappeared, and like a bluish light. None of them have any idea what it is but Alana recognizes it as a similar magic to what the dream devourers use. She says “I think it’s like the dream devourers, sort of.” The rift grows bigger and they can see it starting to tear through the air as it tries to suck Alana in. After a brief discussion they tie a rope around Alana and she vanishes into the rift. For a moment the rope is taut but then it goes slack and the end drops out. Markoris checks on the fight again with a nat 20, and Roe looks like he’s getting the upper hand but seems upset, and Markoris can’t see the egg.

Alana, in a form that is her but isn't her, pops into the pastel hellscape with a rope tied around her waist. She and Ishaq and Max reunite. Max and Ishaq definitely think Markoris and Celia are dead, it's tragic. Ishaq notes that Alana seems water-based, while he seems fire-based, and they experiment by touching fingers. Alana takes 2d6 (5 points) of fire damage.

Celia casts clairvoyance into the dragon’s fighting space, for seeing. Raul ties up Rashid while Celia runs into the dragon’s den to heal Roe, and Markoris waits anxiously, wanting to go in after the others. She casts prayer of healing at fifth level, multiple heals hitting multiple wounds for 156 points of healing. He turns and looks to her and speaks Myconid telepathically to say “You’ll be kept safe for now,” and she disappears. The door of the vault slams shut on Markoris and he also disappears, and the whole party hops into whispers. Raul is not with them, he’s with tied up Rashid. (But Celia can still watch the fight with clairvoyance.)

There are four creatures in front of Celia and Markoris, that they somehow know are their friends even though they don’t look how they normally look.

https://www.dndbeyond.com/monsters/1061744-soul-of-alana

https://www.dndbeyond.com/monsters/1061726-soul-of-celia

https://www.dndbeyond.com/monsters/1061629-soul-of-ishaq

https://www.dndbeyond.com/monsters/1061695-soul-of-markoris

https://www.dndbeyond.com/monsters/1061703-soul-of-max

In this realm, they are using the above sheets! And has magically had a long rest and we all have special abilities.

Ishaq makes an inspiring leader speech and grants 15 THP to the immediate party. Everyone with a passive perception reaching 14 or higher soon realizes that there's another person with them. Ishaq greets her, asking if she's a resident of this domain. She says no, and Ishaq says they came under obscene circumstance and they're in a bit of a pickle. He introduces himself (Ishaq Duvainor, leader of the Host Radiant) and asks her name. She says she doesn't think she has one yet and he offers to give her one. "Celia is great at names." "You can't give me my real name. You could give me \*a\* name." He says that's fine, she can have a nickname and declares that they're friends. Ishaq asks Celia's advice on a name. She says "Ankha." The girl seems to consider it.

The party considers her and Alana and Markoris note that she looks a little like Hepatian. Markoris tells Ishaq that Roe did indeed send them here, and Alana tells them that Ishaq thought Celia and Markoris were going to die. Celia gives them the run down on what happened back in the treasury, including that Raul has Rashid tied up in the hall. Ishaq congratulates them on not being dead. "Did Roe say how long we were going to be here? And if he dies are we going to be stuck here?" An excellent question.

Ishaq and Celia debate her healing of Roe more than the party. "I'd be really disappointed in him if he died after how much I healed him."

They determine that Ankha must be the egg and Ishaq asks her to come back from where she's wandered away a bit so they can stay together.

Ishaq coins the term "eggbryo" for Ankha. He also claims that Hepatian is Max's apprentice now.

Max wonders who's taking care of Min if he's here. He pats himself but can't reach everywhere -- but when he pats one spot he hears a little squeak, that's Min. Celia claims she needs it and Max tells her to stay away from him and his plant child. Ishaq jokes that Max is going to adopt Ankha too, and Max corrects that Ankha has a very protective father they want to make mad. Celia declares them her babysitter's club.

Ishaq Messages Ankha in Draconic that they have a special connection and he's going to be her godfather. Celia scolds Ishaq for calling her an egg/embryo again and they define her personhood. Ishaq flies around and tests out his tail and if he still has his spells, determines that he's still powerful. He is still very powerful.

Ankha turns to Celia and says "I've been waiting a very long time. Done here." And starts walking. Celia follows her, and we end session in the dream plane.