[Alliance] Chapter Three: Session Thirty-One
Appearing Characters: Beve Perenolde, Elissa Cross, Gilveradin Windrunner, Morganth. Remnii, Seria, Uther Menethil, Velameestra Windrunner, Victor Prestor
January 3rd
At this point, the rest of the group had entered the macabre lab. Victor wanders around a bit, and inevitably, he sees the strange, tortured human corpse.
She gestures to the black ichor.
He goes over to look at the window, clearly uncomfortable. Meanwhile, Elissa also is trying not to touch anything, whispering prayers to the holy light.
Uther peers through the nearby interior window and sees a completely pitch-black chamber. Vel joins him and sees a completely plain chamber with a single chair, and there are heavy steel bindings, and the chair is bolted to the ground as well.
Vel opens the door and peeks in, and there’s another door to the right. As she surveys the room, she sees a dial between the window and the door written in eredun, which she can read currently. There is a light, a section for sensory deprivation, nether exposure, and a dial that ranges in intensity.
Uther, meanwhile, opens the other door, and he is overcome with the smell of formaldehyde. As he looks around, he sees jars, tubs and totes, bones… many different preserved parts and alchemical reagents. Little of it is labeled.
Vel also goes in to investigate, and she is overwhelmed for a moment of how disorganized it is. There is a lot of things in here. But she finds two potions, which are quite interesting. They are warm to the touch and emanate light, like cooling lava. They are not harmful to the touch. She pockets them.
Remnii, at a prior suggestion, uses tongues to try and commune with the creation node to maybe get a blueprint of the tower.
Remnii places her hands on the orb and there is a gentle hum.
There is a swift sound of a hatch opening, and the central cylinder opens. There is a ripple of energy, and about 2 feet above it, almost burned into existence is a slate. The hatch then closes and the slate gentle floats down and lays on top of the cylinder.
It’s a detailed diagram of the entirety of the Tower of Ill’galar as it presently stands. It reveals a number of things. There appears to be an underground entrance that leads from Beve’s room, which the group had missed.
The floor directly above them is the conservatory, which is an environmentally controlled area that has a number of alchemical reagents. There are several warnings, as there currently things there that are unsafe for most people--such as dangerous plants.
The following floor is the master bedroom.
The floor above that is the teleportation chamber.
The floor above that is where the Eye of Ill’galar is located.
And finally is the rooftop.
Vel had also looks at the tortured body and is able to determine that it died from internal trauma, as if it was poisoned.
Remnii then asks for a ledger of everything made in the last 20 minutes, and a warning voice sounds alerting them that energy levels are critically low. Remnii asks how long it would take to restore those levels, and the voice returns that because the power is being directed to the eye, the energy in this room is limited.
They decide to hold off in case something else is needed.
The group heads up to the next floor, with Uther taking the lead. He immediately begins to hear the sounds of the wilderness, and as they reach the landing, the room is bright, but the lights are more like blacklights. The first thing he sees is a bed of strange flowers and fungi with an array of tinted windows.
Uther takes a step into the room, and he sees more beds of flowers. The central base has a fairly large-sized flower with several layers of fungus.
As if to punctuate that statement, Vel sees a root lash out and wrap around Uther’s neck. Uther immediately rips the root off, and barbed thorns rip through the chain mail of his gauntlet. There is a high-pitched squealing, and the central flower and several other plants begin to move and shake.
He pushes up through the group to get up to the landing. Remnii, meanwhile, presses herself against the wall so others can get by her.
The large central plant tries to get up on its roots, but magical chains hold it back and it squeals. Something starts to tear out from inside the creature, and there is a human arm that begins to emerge. The creature’s flesh is pale and pallid, repulsively roiling with the same stench as the plant entity. It appears immediately in front of Uther. Three tendrils try to wrap around Uther, but they are unable to do so.
Elissa gets up on the landing, as does Gil, getting close to his sister. He takes a shot at the zombie and spores burst into the air. He fires again, and another arrow strikes into it. He then steps back into the stairwell.
Vel slips by Uther, covering her mouth as she runs through the spores and dodges a strike from the zombie, then summons a spectral hand that claws at the zombie as she uses chill touch.
The zombie tries to claw at Uther, its claws raking against his armor, and one of the violet lichens creeps closer and hurls some seeds at Uther. One of them breaks open, and a purple mist explodes in his face. He starts to cough.
Seria gets to the landing and casts force of nature. Some strange vines begin to move, and a human hand comes out of the side of it. Vel sees a human corpse rise out of the plant bed right next to her, vines burrowing into its flesh. It grabs a rusted weapon and turns toward the plants the group are fighting. It’s rather disturbing looking.
Uther, still coughing, casts bless on himself, Vel, Victor, and Gil.
He lifts his hammer, and the head of the hammer shines with a motivating light. He then skirts around to flank the zombie.
Meanwhile, the tendril puppet Seria had summoned tears its roots out of the ground to attack the other zombie. Gil pokes out again and fires an arrow through the zombie, and the insides of it explode, splattering Uther and the tendril puppet.
He fires a second arrow at the corpseweed, and it strains against its chains.
Following up on her brother’s attack, Vel uses toll the dead on the corpseweed, and it continues to squeal loudly as it strains against its chains. Victor then goes all in on the corpseweed, and the large plant dislodges another zombie behind it. It lashes out with its tendrils, but all of them go wide.
Elissa passes through the spores to get into position, but she starts to cough and hack, trying to keep herself from vomiting.
The zombie the corpseweed had just disgorged shambles over to Uther and slams into him, but his bless remains active.
Seria moves further into the room and casts wrath on the violet lichen closest to the doorway. The plant shys back, heavily wounded from the single attack.
Uther swings his maul into the zombie that was dogpiling him, and then quickens a green-flame blade, exploding the zombie into flames that spill onto the violet lichen and kills it as well. However, the zombie’s headless corpse remains up.
Remnii gets next to Uther and casts cure wounds on him.
The tendril puppet hacks at the corpseweed as well, somewhat unnerving Remnii.
Another violet lichen inches to the edge of its plant bed, but everyone is too far away for it to do anything.
Gil shoots at the corpseweed, and it shudders with a great deal of pain as he strikes into its stem. A second attack also blasts into its core.
Victor swings into the corpseweed, and it’s twitching in pain. Elissa manages to finish it off as she recovers from her coughing fit.
Vel tries to finish off the zombie, and it loses an arm, but it manages to still stay up despite the damage it took. Seria tries to strike out with wrath, but the zombie staggers out of the way.
The tendril puppet runs at the nearest purple lichen and attacks, driving its rusted weapon into it.
Meanwhile the zombie attacks Uther, but it’s unable to land a hit. Uther finishes it off. It explodes. He then saunters over to the lichen nearby and kills another one of them.
The violet lichen that was being attacked by the tendril puppet attacks, and there’s an explosion of noxious gas. Remnii uses smite on the lichen, and it explodes in a rain of light.
Vel uses chill touch on the sole remaining lichen, and Seria is able to finish it off.
The conservatorium calms itself for the time being. Gil and Seria start to poke around for useful things in the room. It doesn’t take Seria an immense amount of time, but she finds mostly plants that are primarily subterranean, or grow in otherwise dim places. There are leaves that seem to belong to a rare species that can be used for an abundance of medicinal practices. They are very rare and difficult to cultivate as they don’t have seeds, per say. They grow from events more than seeds--which can be replicated through rituals. They are mandrake leaves.
In addition, she finds collections from three different plants. There is some mana root, which can be used to make mana potions, some fungal blooms called stonebloom which can be processed into a cure for petrification, and a poisonous swamp fern called venomfern which can be turned into a poison or an antidote.
Gil examines the corpseweed and he isn’t sure what would be good to take from it.
They head up to the next floor with the tendril puppet shambling up first.
The master bedroom is dimly lit with continual flame sconces, and there is an abundance of tables and trophies. The comfortable bed is currently made with two end tables on either side of it. To the immediate left is a number of tables. One has a lute of some kind and a few precious geodes, next to it on the wall is a gnoll head as well as a small dragon skull, then there is a staff with a wolf pelt on the floor before it.
There are a number of ores, and a set of stairs that continue up to the teleportation chamber. The suit of armor is almost identical to the one in the entry hall. To the right is a lounge table with some pipes and a hookah on it. There are definitely some drugs on the table. On the far edge is a bench, with two grand doors that lead to the northeastern edge, and there are some other things in the room, as well as another small door.
Uther walks fully into the room, followed by the rest. Remnii, Seria, and Gil sees the strange vine-infused creature stop, and its head turns in the direction of the right side of the room. It then begins to walk into that direction.
There is the noise of a creak, and then a thump. The plant creature wanders around back, and they lose sight of him.
Gil goes to follow, and he sees a dresser, a mirror, and a stand that appears to have a tall mirror and some clothes. The tendril puppet seems to be looking around.
Gil summons Ara’shel to help look, and he starts to sniff around. Something shifts again, right in front of Gil. Vel starts to head over, the lantern at her waist lit, and there’s a chuckle.
A woman appears, her hands held up.
They have no reason to believe what she’s saying.
Gil readies an arrow and Uther starts to raise his hand. Victor moves forward, and at the same time, shoots a firebolt at Beve.
Gil also shoots her, getting her with his second strike. Uther, meanwhile, casts hold person, and her limbs immediately snap to her side. Uther then closes on her.
Vel uses chill touch on Beve, and the hand clings to her. Beve continues to try and struggle to break free, but is frozen in place.
The tendril puppet also attacks, but his weapon scrapes against some of her armor. Remnii casts mana burn on Beve.
Her eyes betray the fact she is incredibly frightened.
Seria then approaches and reaches out to the paralyzed Beve. She uses inflict wounds, and blackish red energy washes around Seria’s hand. Beve’s teeth grit, and parts of her graying hair turn more gray.
Gil takes a step forward and shoots Beve directly in the chest, and then her struggling stops.
Victor grabs Beve by the throat and moves to plunge his sword into her gut.
He drops Beve to the ground, and they stabilize her and quickly bind her hands and bind her to a chair.
They also blindfold her, and Uther uses lay on hands to heal himself and then bring Beve back into consciousness.
Beve starts to laugh, somewhat delirious.
Beve starts to speak again, but Victor slits her throat.
Seria examines her body, finding some coin, as well as a dagger and shortsword along with a scroll and spell focus. Vel is able to identify the scroll as a scroll of dimension door. Vel is able to also identify the dagger as a dagger of certain death. The shortsword is a +1 shortsword. Her armor is also magic studded leather armor. Vel just takes those items.
Victor wipes his blade off on her clothes.
The tendril puppet takes the lead again as they head upstairs. There are unmistakable sigils that indicate a teleportation circle that fills the entire room. Uther brings his maul down on a brick to disrupt the circle. He is thrown backwards and slams into the wall. Within a few moments, with some crazy sizzling and crackling, the circle is deactivating.
Remnii heals Uther’s wounds and they head up to the next floor, which is the roof. As they step into the final platform, the first thing Uther sees is another draconic hound creature. It is watching as they appear.
In the very center of the room is a scintillating red orb that resembles the eye of Azora, though it is clearly overcharged with energy. Standing next to it is a human in ornate robes. He is aged, and he rights his spectacles as he glances at his “guests.” He has an almost bored expression, and prowling behind him is another small, draconic, skeletal creature.
The orb in the center of the room starts to crackle, and Morganth pulls his hand away. Energy begins to ripple, and the earth shakes.
The four hatches in the center open, and energy starts to emanate from them.
Before they can get an opportunity to move, the minion of Ill’galar flies over and uses its desiccating breath attack, causing several of them to cough.
Vel starts to cast wall of force, but Morganth counters it.
Vel glares at him in response.
The servant of Ill’galar moves forward and uses his fire breath. Victor and Gil use their reactions to try and absorb elements, but the fire seems to bypass it as well as Vel’s ring of fire resistance.
Elissa swings in on the servant of Ill’galar, smiting it, but her second strike scrapes off of its scales.
Gil casts zephyr strike and sprints across to the other side of the room. He fires at the servant, and the arrow cuts into its flesh. But the second arrow passes right into an expression of Il’galar orb and disappears.
Uther also approaches the servant of Ill’galar and, with a bright flurry of holy magic smashes into it. His second blow misses, and he uses a green-flame blade. The fire washes over it harmlessly, but the holy magic from his smite does not.
Remnii quickly heals herself and then creeps back down the stairs so she can find some cover.
Victor moves in to finish off the servant of Ill’galar, backing up Uther and planting his sword into the back of the creature’s skull. It falls to the ground, dead. He then turns toward Morganth and closes.
Morganth glances at the slain servant and sighs.
He places a hand on the center orb and then he steps to the side and starts to case a spell. Vel immediately identifies it as the spell dark star, an 8th level spell, and she hastily slices through the air with a counterspell.
She slices through the beginnings of the spell, and it fizzles.
Seria then casts thorn whip and drags Morganth closer to her, dragging him directly into one of the expressions of Ill’galar. He looks to Seria with a bit of shock and surprise, but he is just barely able to duck under it.
Vel quickly hurries past the group to the Eye of Ill’galar and she start to attempt to wrench control of it from Morganth. Unfortunately, she is unable to do so. Instead she casts chill touch on the minion of Il’galar.
Seria casts hold person on Morganth, and he begins to be held in place.
A wash of fel energy washes around him, and he is able to break free of the spell. Gil, however, follows up with ensnaring strike. More hellfire bursts around him, burning the vines away before they can latch on. Gil follows up with another strike, seemingly striking on an external barrier he has.
One of the expressions drifts toward Gil, but he is able to dodge, and then he rounds on Vel, who is still trying to wrench away control of the tower.
He reaches out towards Vel and starts to cast Power Word Kill. Vel’s eyes widen as she starts to feel her heart stop, and she swipes her fingers through the air again, successfully countering it as she pushes deep into her magical stores.
Morganth grins.
Vel hisses and manages to duck out of the way as he focuses the orb behind her back in her direction.
Victor approaches Morganth and trips Morganth up. Victor kicks him in the face and brings his sword down, the blade crackling with arcane energy as he uses mana break. There is sheer pride on Vel’s face for a moment.
Elissa casts bless on herself, Victor, Uther, and Gil.
Uther also closes and swings down on Morganth with his hammer and another smite.
The minion of Ill’galar flies right at Remnii. Uther strikes at it as it flies by. However it closes and slashes into her.
An expression of Il’galar passes through both Victor and Elissa, but they dodge. A second one moves over Seria, and it almost touches her, but she ducks.
Gil closes and shoots Morganth at point blank, his arcane shot dispersing the wizard’s mage armor. The second arrow he fires goes straight through Morganth’s throat, causing Morganth to fall limp.
Vel sees something in Morganth’s staff, and there is a cracking of glass. The gemstone at the top of the staff breaks, and he immediately comes back to life in a burst of energy.
Morganth looks around, looking panicked, and he starts to rumble through his pack for something.
Vel steps back and reaches out to the Eye of Ill’galar, and she is able to seize control over the tower.
Remnii tries to turn undead, but the minion resists the turning, so she uses blessing of salvation.
Vel, now in control of the tower, moves one of the orbs through the minion of Ill’galar, disintegrating half of its body. Victor then pushes the resilient sphere into the expression of Il’galar, and the resilient sphere bursts as he himself ducks. Vel pushes another expression on Morganth, but a last burst of hellfire protects him.
Morganth grabs a potion, and quaffs it. He starts to grow and expand, screaming in pain as his form changes into that of a dragon.
He screams in draconic threats and claims to burn the cities and surrounding area.
Elissa swings into him, and the dragon returns with a wing attack that sends them spiraling to the ground. Remnii strikes the wall, and she falls unconscious.
Morganth, or rather, Darkblaze, then bursts through the wall and takes to the air.
Seria bends down and heals Remnii.
Darkblaze then sweeps his tail at Gil, slamming down on his ribs as he takes off into the air.
Uther demands if there are any other ideas, and no one is able to provide any. She hesitantly hands over one of the potions, identifying that the potions are functionally potions of true polymorph.
The rest of the group starts to run upstairs, and waiting atop a few parapets are some skeletal knights. Darkblaze is circling around the tower, and there is already smoke down below, with a roaring din of people fighting below.
Vel conjures a roiling orb of arcane energy, her eyes awash with her magic as she uses an enhanced dispel magic and hurls it at Darkblaze. There’s a roar as the spell connects, and his scales start to rip from his body along with blood as the form starts to shudder and fail. He screeches and banks.
Vel looks at Uther.
Darkblaze starts to charge fire in his maw, and there’s a concentrated gout of searing hot magma and blood emitted from his mouth.
He sweeps down across Remnii, Uther, and Vel. They are able to duck under the spray of the magma. The magma starts to burn through the tower, and it begins to buckle. One of the skeleton knights shoot at Gil, but the attacks completely miss.
Uther goes to engage one of the skeletal knights, swinging his hammer into it.
Elissa runs to help Uther.
Chains that appear to be made of earth appear around Victor’s arm, and he hurls them at Darkblaze as he uses earthbind. Darkblaze starts to plummet, but then breaks free, using one of his legendary resistances. He then firebolts a skeleton as he closes.
Seria, meanwhile, charges at Darkblaze as a dragonhawk, raking into him, and then backing off. Darkblaze whips his tail around, smacking Seria with his tail.
The skeletal knight swings into Uther. The knight shoves Uther’s weapon away, and then cuts Uther to the ground.
Remnii scrambles out of the lava, her hooves scraping against the stone, and then she uses mass cure wounds. Uther’s eyes snap back open.
Gil fires an arcane arrow and it strikes with a resounding blast into Darkblaze’s side. An identical wound to the one that Vel opened starts to tear away at his form. His second shot also connects.
Another skeleton knight goes for Uther as soon as his eyes open, and his third strike connects, blood beginning to pool in Uther’s armor again. Meanwhile, Elissa is able to deflect the attacks on her.
Victor pivots around the skeletal knight that attacked Uther and tries to distract it, swinging into it multiple times.
Vel grits her teeth, seeing the skeletal knight likely going for Uther, and she pivots out of the magma and reaches out toward Uther. Greenish blue necromantic energy wafts around her, and her outstretched arm seems to become translucent for a moment, revealing her skeleton for a second as her life essence flows into Uther and heals him.
As she expected, the skeleton swings at Uther, managing to land all three of its attacks.
Remnii draws closer and uses her turn undead, holy energy materializing around her. All the skeletons stop, and then begins to run. Remnii then heals Uther with Gift of the Naaru. She then backs off, and the skeleton swings at her, but the strike misses.
Uther swings and destroys the last skeleton that’s not turned.
Gil heals Vel and then fires twice at Darkblaze, stacking more bleeding on him.
The remaining skeletal knights turn and just run off the tower, as they are turned.
Darkblaze beats his wings at Seria, spraying her with hot magma blood. She starts to plummet but is able to catch herself at the last moment. She uses her druidic magic to heal herself, and then she comes up from underneath him, tearing at his scales with her beak.
Elissa drops in front of Vel and braces herself for Darkblaze to come back around.
Darkblaze roars and uses his fire breath as more scales and blood drips from his body. He hones in Vel, fury in his eyes. The fire burns through Elissa, Vel, Uther, and Victor, but they are able to duck under the brunt of the flame. Morganth then starts to fly towards the north.
Seria strikes into him as he goes.
The tower edge starts to buckle more.
Gil fires after Darkblaze, and another arrow sinks into his side. Uther grabs a longbow from the ground and fires, but unfortunately both attacks miss.
Vel goes to back up Uther, and whips out her wand of arcane missile, firing 8 missiles that all beat into Darkblaze. He is critically wounded.
Remnii casts phantasmal killer, and she feels herself connect to his mind, and the fear and panic there, but he breaks free from the hold with a legendary action.
Seria shrieks and chases Darkblaze down, raking into him with her claws. Darkblaze whips his tail at her, smacking into her.
The right side of the tower begins to collapse as the magma breaks it. Vel and Elissa are able to jump back, and Remnii starts to slip, but Uther grabs her and pulls them both to safety.
Victor tries to earthbind Darkblaze again, but it breaks apart.
Darkblaze uses his wing attack on Seria, and her form drops. She starts to plummet, but at the last moment, she casts dimension door, passing directly through it, and materializing on Darkblaze’s back. She grabs on, digging a blade into his side. As she is holding onto him, his form starts to gout out. His wing sloughs off, his body dripping into lava. The core of his body shrinks into a humanoid form. His skin is scarred and cracked, his eyes full of bleeding magma.
He starts to struggle, and Seria grabs him by the throat, and she pivots herself so he lands first. The enchantment goes off, and there is a ripple of energy, with a crater of superheated rock as he vanishes. Seria lands in the middle of crater, but still up. The pieces of dragon are melting into lava around her.
Everyone sighs in relief.
