Session 66.6: Return of the Parents (October 31, 2024)
Last session, our heroes prepared for the coming incursion of armored boots echoing down the stone passageways of the tunnels underneath Dalin. After considering their options, to crawl through small vents in the main sanctuary chamber in an attempt to escape, to make a stand in the hall, or to brave whatever dark power resides in “the Basement”, they decided to hold up in an office room and try to ambush the approaching forces from there. Elias Silent Imaged a fake wall over the space of the open door, and the party and resistance council crowded in to wait.
Soon the Order of Steel arrived, marching in a column and clothed in oiled leather over armor. They were led by a man wielding a large mace and shield. The column stopped just at the illusory wall, seeming to notice something was amiss. One of them, carrying two sacks of liquid at his sides, prepared to spray burning oil into the room, but was knocked dead by a round of prepared attacks.
The fight began. Maho grew larger and blocked the doorway to the office, while Rormir filled the hallway with the silver light of his Moon Beam. Heph and Elias fired off attacks from within the office, and the council members and others attempted to stay under cover while fighting back the spreading flames from a Sulfurist’s spray. Rumblings were heard from the main sanctuary and large thorny vines broke through the ceiling, spirits tearing apart the temple to get at the invaders below.
In the fight Karrl was felled, and although Elias avenged his death by killing his attacker, Rormir did not feel peace or balance. He Misty Stepped out to Karrl, who faded from his octopus form, the first form any of the party had known him, into nothingness. Rormir followed a Sulfurist into the main sanctuary chamber, and attacked him as he attempted to set fire to it all. The soldier fell to his knees, and as Rormir stood above him, the Sulfurist looked and seemed to see what he truly was. Rormir stepped into the recently-lit fire and looked up to the roof, recognizing in the anger of the spirits above his own tendency towards violence and destruction in the name of “balance”. But his time in the material plane had changed him. As the temple’s structure crumbled and began to collapse in earnest, he implored the spirits above to hold it just long enough for his friends to escape. They finished off the rest of the Order of Steel, broke a hole in the office wall, and ran out, calling back to Rormir as he refused to leave.
As the temple collapsed they stood outside the piles of crumbled stone, each processing what just happened in their own way. Maho waiting for him to emerge from the rubble, Heph recognizing the fittingness of his loss, and Elias crying into Delilas’s shoulder. Heph attempted to resummon Karrl, but was unable, the reality hitting him as the entity he had bonded with seemed to be gone. John Wick, the Sulfurist who Rormir had turned, walked up to Heph and handed him Rormir’s staff, recently grown when he became a druid. He said Rormir had told him to give it to him. On it was attached a single hawk’s feather and an inscription reading “New Beginnings”. John relayed that Rormir said Heph would understand.
- The group is standing in silence, which is punctuated by Elias’
sobs
- Heph goes up to Saraen and asks her if there is somewhere else we can go that is safer
- Gelian notes the underground is probably compromised and they may not have any safe places left
- Heph suggests they head to the forest, and they are not thrilled at the prospect of dealing with the spirits
- Heph reminds them of the Root Stone, and they may want to focus some energy on finding that
- Elias doesn’t seem to have any input on where to go, and Heph asks Delilas if she has any thoughts
- She responds that the plan to take out Kogar seems even more important than ever, it’s very important to be on the offensive instead of hunkering down
- Some people in Stewspring may be able to take them in, and they might be able to get away from the Order of Steel
- Elias asks how many members of the resistance are left, and Saraen responds not many, many were killed by the scouring or left after as a result of low morale
- Saraen asks Elias to potentially use the relationship with Ash that he developed to try to get more information about Kogar’s plans
- Heph and Elias talk back and forth a bit and game plan, finding the Root Stone seems like a good next step that enables passing a large group through the forest to get to the windmill
- Heph asks John about the Order of Steel and if any more groups are
coming, and he explains he was just the forward strike force, and more will be
coming
- The group starts working their way out of the tunnels, and John and Heph talk a bit more about the Root Stone
- Heph explains that the stone was taken out of the tree’s reach, and John suggests it would be somewhere secure, like The Ministry of Unity or The Old Palace
- Elias chimes in to ask if The Ministry of Unity is vulnerable, since a large contingent of forces are heading out to fight the resistance
- Heph suggests that John could report back that the raid was largely successful, despite heavy casualties they managed to take down the leadership of the resistance
- On the way out we swing by Ser’s place and he grabs his go bag and the carving of the Spirit of the Deep
- The carving’s face is more distinct now, and looks more like Rormir, and triggers a fresh round of sobs from Elias
- We hear the sounds of more metal boots approaching from another corridor, and two more heavies turn a corner, and seeing the group yell at us to halt
- Elias can tell that they seem to have recognized who the group is, and he throws down a card and a Night Hag appears
- The heavies seem to hesitate for a moment, nervous to approach right away
- Elias charges one of them while pulling out Jarles,
tries to stab at #4, but misses, then runs over to one of the doors and tries
to open it, but it’s locked, then runs back and hides behind Maho
- Elias yells at Jarles that he failed him again, and Jarles seems a little sad
- Maho draws her katana and fires a sword beam at #4, but misses, then runs up to him and swings at him normally, but he blocks them all
- Maho tells Elias his hag is getting in the way, and Elias snaps back that the hag is doing her best
- Heph launches a couple lightning shots at #4 but misses
- Heavy #4 tries to hit Maho, but doesn’t land any shots
- Heavy #3 misses the first attack but finally manages to land one hit on Maho
- Elias tells Jarles to make it work, and then charges
in for another attack, finally landing a shot on #4, then swings New Jarles
for a second attack, misses, and retreats and squats behind Heph
- Elias sends the hag to scream at the heavies
- Maho swings at #4, landing one hit, is unable to push the guy but still deals some damage
- Heph shoots some lightning at #4, finally taking him down
- Heavy #3 seems surprised and asks who we are, and Elias says we’re ghosts
- #3 seems scared and starts to run away, but Maho grabs him and he struggles to get away
- Elias walks over to the guy, pulls out Jarles stabs at him, landing the blow for a chunk of damage, then does it again with New Jarles, landing a second blow, then stays within melee range of the guy
- Elias steps in and stabs him with Jarles, landing a hit, then tries again with New Jarles, but misses
- Elias swings Jarles at #3, finishing him off with a good old exploding head
- Delilas runs up behind and taps Elias, and there is
a group of resistance members gathering and working their way out
- Elias throws up his hood to try to hide, and Delilas tells him he did a good job
- We turn to leave, Elias instructing the hag to yell for a while about how she killed these two heavies
- We make it back to the stone staircase that we descended on arrival, and prepare to head up to the surface
- Saraen makes a game plan for the surface, and Elias volunteers, speaking in a deep voice and calling himself Mysterias
- Heph proposes that John Wick head in to the Ministry, inform the leaders that the mission was successful, find out anything about the Root Stone if possible, then come back out and join up with the group to help us break in
- Elias looks for some identifying items, and Gelian hands John the crown they were wearing, makes it clear it needs to be returned, but it should help convince them
- John agrees to head in, and suggests we hide out in The Closet to wait for him to come back
- Heph suggests they rally the troops for the material plane mission north of Circle Grove near the forest, and the council gives a location that Elias knows
- Saraen asks a bit more about Darryl, but we convince her to just trust the process and go along with it
- Having formed a plan, Heph puts his hand in and says “Go Team on 3, 1, 2, 3, go team!” and starts to walk away, but nobody else really knows what he’s doing
- He heads the wrong way, Elias corrects him, and he heads off the correct way
- Traveling towards the Ministry, the streets of Stewspring seem to repeat
themselves, seeming like we’re going in circles but also seeming like we’re
moving forward
- Eventually we cross a bridge and end up in The Closet, which is a poorer neighborhood with thin houses packed closer to together
- Elias knows this neighborhood at the one he grew up in, and we take a slight detour to pass by his parent’s house, and he asks Delilas if she knows where they are
- She says she’s heard they are gone, but hasn’t had a chance to come back to investigate because she’s nervous about coming back
- John heads off West Southeast to the Ministry, agreeing to meet up with us two streets North South of here
- The street has thin houses, poorly maintained, the road is mostly cobblestone
except for one well paved section in the middle for exclusive use by the
government, there’s an abandoned run-down basketball court, right next to a
completely pristine pickleball court, also exclusively for government
officials
- Elias suggests the less sneaky members of the group hang back, while he flips his cloak to black and sneaks up to his parent’s house to check for traps
- The windows of the house are dark, but the windows of the house next door are lit, and the neighbors are sitting on their stoop drinking some beers
- The neighbors seem to be scheming about the house in some way
- Elias and Delilas approach the neighbors (Marta and Manaen), who seem a bit surprised to see Elias, and tell him they were just talking about Elias and ask him to come in for a hug
- Elias goes in for a hug, not seeing anything wrong with the situation
- Elias asks about his parents, and they say they don’t know, and Marta explains they borrowed some tools and never gave them back, and would like them back
- Manaen jumps in to offer Elias and Delilas a welcome, to tell them he hopes his parents are okay, and that the tools aren’t really that important
- Heph, seeing Elias talking to the neighbors, sends him a message to ask if he’s okay, and Elias replies that there is some mixed messaging going on, Heph asks if she’s really the neighbor, and Elias pokes her to make sure
- Marta seems to remember that Elias poked people as a child, which is true, and seems to lend credibility to her
- Elias charms Marta, and prompts her further, she seems to back down a bit about Elias needing to get into the house, and she reveals she is secretly a bit nervous that they haven’t seen Elias’ parents in a while
- Elias asks about unknown visitors, Manaen expresses that he was a bit nervous about that as well, but they haven’t seen any unwanted visitors going in or out
- Marta does explain she wasn’t sure why Elias’ parents needed the tools they borrowed, but they could definitely hear sounds through the wall right before they left
- Elias pipes up that that sounds like his Dad carving ducks again, and Delilas feebly jumps in to back up the story, realizing after a moment that he was trying to make up a story
- Elias looks around to make sure no one is watching, then seeing
that nobody seems to be, walks over to his parent’s house and unlocks the door
with a key under the mat
- Heph messages and asks if Elias wants us to join, he says he’ll check if there is a trap first
- Elias steps in a flicks on the lights, and nothing seems to happen
- Heph and Maho join, leading to some gossip from the neighbors
- The inside of the house is very narrow, about 5ft wide, going back about 20ft, very reminiscent of Tertel’s
- There is a spiral ladder in the back that heads up to the upper floors, and there is a single couch along the right wall, and the front of the couch is touching the left wall
- There are two large wooden “ducks” guarding the entryway
- The bottom floor has a vaulted ceiling, so Maho seems to fit inside without too much trouble
- It turns out the first floor is the bedroom, and Elias shows us three murphy beds in the wall
- Elias reaches up and grabs a chain hanging down from the spiral ladder, and pulls it, and a light lights up way up at the top of the ladder
- Elias leads us up towards his “bedroom”, climbing the spiral ladder, passing several floors, one with an indoor pool, which is tended by an imp named Roomba, who dives into the pool to clean it at Elias’ command
- Elias stops him to ask if he knows what happened to his parents, and Roomba doesn’t know because he’s not allowed to leave the pool room
- Continuing up the spiral ladder, we pass the greenhouse room and make it to the kitchen, where Elias opens the pantry and grabs a bag of Bugles and starts eating them
- Making it to the roof, it’s clearly not meant for people to be there, and Elias has attached both ends of a hammock to the lightning rod
- Heph notices on the top floor (the kitchen) a lot of sawdust, and some seams that don’t match the wood paneling on the ceiling
- Elias pulls a spare spiral ladder out of the closet, which Heph climbs up to take a closer look at the beam
- He finds a secret compartment, and opening it, a piece of slightly yellowed parchment flutters down
- Elias grabs it and sees that it’s a map, and with Delilas’ help is able to identify the map, which is of an area not too far from here, possibly a place they could have hidden away
- Elias tells Delilas there’s a chance they hid instead of being captured, and they need to check out the cove
- Having some time until John returns, Elias heads to a fire pole at the front of the house, and descending back to the ground floor the group heads towards the cove
- Tying the roles together, Heph secures them to some pitons at the
top of the cliff, and the group begins to descend the ropes down to sea level
- There is a cave that appears to have candle light flickering in it
- Before heading in, Heph looks out at the water, and doesn’t see Darryl, but sees a bunch of Goldblums swimming around
- After briefly explaining to Maho what the Goldblums are, we head into the crevice in the cliff face that opens into a larger cave area
- The cave seems like it is partially filled by the sea at high tide, but the floor rises so it doesn’t get flooded
- Eventually the cave opens up into a surprisingly homey space, the rock floor covered with soft woven rugs, a number of bookshelves line the walls, full to bursting with large numbers of tomes, and there is nice high quality furniture
- Sitting at a dining room table are Mathias and Victoriias, who look a bit unkempt, they’ve been living in a cave for a while
- They are going to town on full fishes, eating them like corn on the cob
- They are a little surprised to see us walk in, and Mathias says with his mouth full “Ellie?”