Many Spells a Head
Session 11
The investigation of the Iron Consults body continued and Valeria finds a missive..
Yignath,
Know ye that these missives are inscribed under the gaze of the Shield of the Hidden Lord, which speaks with the True
Voice of Gargauth, the Tenth Lord of the Nine, the Lost Lord of the Pit, the Outcast, Daemon of Astaroth, and Legatus of
the Dark Gods.
In completing this work, your reward shall be to rise to the rank of Black Gauntlet in the esteem of Bane. And when the
Cult of Zariel claims the Flaming Fist, the Fist shall become the Left Hand and Bane’s Gauntlet shall become the Right
Hand of the Council. The old temples shall be overthrown and their fanes given over to the black hand, the white skull,
and the bloody tear.
-T.K.
"which speaks with the True Voice of Gargauth, the Tenth Lord of the Nine"
Barnabus informs the group that he has found information about where the forged papers might be coming from, a man named Americ, found in the low lantern, in the lower city.
The group descend deeper into the winding passages of the flooded tunnels. Valeria enters a small altar room, with a display of humanoid skulls and candles. She notices the black candles have engravings of names. Although she cannot recognize many, she recalls one of the names of the refugees. Curious, she takes a couple of candles to analyze later.
"Lorcan investigates the room with his tiny nose"
Barnabus, disinterested at the sight of another cultist altar and pushes forward down another passage. Meanwhile Lorcan investigates the room with his tiny nose but doesn’t pick up any foreign or alarming scents.
West in the tunnels Valeria and Barnabus hear a muffled voice, a voice that seems to be calling out for the Iron Consult, Yignath. On the spot Barnabus performs brilliantly and mimics a convincing reply, not raising an alarm. Valeria invites Reya to take point & the group to ready their weapons, as they prepare a surprise attack. Reya storms into the room, Valeria a shadow behind her.
Master of Souls room
The Master of Souls ‘Flennis’ stands over an altar of a deceased, conjuring her magic.
Two zombies hang by chains on the wall beside her slowly reaching their rotting hands towards them. Flennis turns to see
Valeria fling a throwing star, from behind Reya at the her and she takes damage.
The Battle
Valeria pops out from the other side of Reya armed with her bow and fires an arrow into Flennis, before stealthily stepping
into darkness behind a pillar.
Reya launches an attack but misses as the Zombies begin to claw out, pushing against their restraints.
Barnabus moves to attack, his heavy axe ready. But casts blindness at Flennis and the Master of Souls is cast into complete
darkness. Panicked, she runs disorientated across the room and slams in the southern wall.
Elmire dashes to the door, prepared to attack, while Flennis manages to heal herself, regaining sight.
Valeria, momentarily steps out of the shadows to shoot a lethal arrow, piercing Flennis’ leg.
Tauriel casts Spike Growth, growing out the cracks of the wells a radius surrounding the chained zombies sprouts thorns and
hard spikes.
Reya raises her heavy boot and push kicks the woman into the wall, just as one of the zombies launches off the wall, through
the thorns toward Reya. The zombies one armed clawing almost unnoticed on Reya’s elite armor.
Barnabus calls his rats to swarm the zombie remaining on the wall but most of them get entangled in the thorns. Frustrated he
tries to dismember the ‘free’ one armed zombie but his attack misses.
Elmire slides across the altar to flank the one-armed zombie, helping Barnabus. She slices with her short sword and the
zombie drops to the ground, wounded but stands back up again. Seeing this she casts Hunters Mark on the undead.
Flennis in retaliation casts Scorching Ray at her three closest attackers, missing Barnabus (& while not seeing Valeria). She creates three rays of fire that shoots in each direction aimed at their targets. As the ray of fire misses Barnabus, he uses Cutting Words to distract the woman with insults. The second zombie breaks its chains and begins to attack Barnabus, its swings causing little to no damage. Valeria draws her bow and performs Sneak Attack to successfully take down the zombie and disappears back into the shadow of the pillar. The energy from Tauriels’ Spike Growth fades as she pulls her magic back to her, recreating it as she conjures moonbeam on Flennis. A massive waterfall of sliver light pours from the ceiling and spears into Flennis. Wounded, but still she does not fall. Reya turns to cut down the zombie now on her back, swinging her long sword she takes its head clean off and it drops to the floor. Adrenaline pumping she draws her short sword and attempts to throw it through Moon Beam at Flennis. But the sword misses and bounces off the wall. Barnabus seeing this, is inspired to join this throwing contest and launches his great axe across the floor, in hope to cut out Flennis’ ankles. But also misses, weapons clashing as they bounce off the stone walls. Elmire flanks Flennis with Reya and attacks Flennis, still marked with Hunters Mark.
Barnabus can summon a swarm of rats
Flennis curls her magical hand and disappears. Only to reappear seconds later behind Tauriel using Misty Step. Tauriel seizes the opportunity and attacks with her longsword, but Flennis dodges as she attempts to flee. Valeria dashes after her and leaps onto her back looping her bow around her neck in a hope to capture her. Tauriel, long sword in hand runs after them and in one lethal swing beheads Flennis. Elmire and Barnabus yell in shock, as they see their lost opportunity of another prisoner for interrogation, a dismembered head rolling past them.
Barnabus can summon a swarm of rats
Valeria, still holding her bow follows as the headless body slowly drops to the floor. She pats down the body and finds another letter. On her person, she also pockets a handful of coin, a set of keys and a thick, locked spell book. The letter read as follows:
Flennis,
Know ye that these missives pass through holy hands directly from the Shield of the Hidden Lord, which speaks with the
True Voice of Gargauth, Once Lord of Avernus and Treasurer of Hell, the Tenth Lord of the Nine, the Hidden Lord, the
Lord Who Watches, and Legatus of the Dark Gods.
When the devils of Avernus brought down Elturel, the Grand Duke of Baldur’s Gate was claimed as a prize for Hell. So
too shall you claim for Zariel the souls of those who once served Elturel. You can know this to be truth, for I hold
here, at Vanthampur Manor, secure within its infernal case, the words of Zariel; the declaration of the powerful purpose
to which we set our hands. Lay to rest your doubts.
-T.K.
"When the devils of Avernus brought down Elturel, the Grand Duke of Baldur’s Gate was claimed as a prize for Hell"
Alarming phrases and more questions. Valeria asks Reya if any of these names resonated with her. Reya was alarmed and profoundly confused. Triggered by the phrase ‘So too shall you claim for Zariel (someone who she believed was slain in hell) the souls of those who once served Elturel. ‘(Her family, The hellriders & herself)
Tauriel bags the head, while Elmire finds a small key that matches the lock on the spell book, which she received from Valeria.
Flennis’ spell book
Flennis’ spell book
Barnabus presses on and at the end of a long passage finds marking on the wall and a letter pinned underneath it. He makes out a few key words. Many spells. ….. Haz… go no further. He pulls off the letter warning and shoves it in his pocket, telling no one. The group catchup, to find that the markings on the wall are made up of many languages. Elmire reading Infernal & Valeria understanding Drowish they pull the phrases. Crypt of devout one, Many spells, two sides, two spells.
Before them is a flooded channel, a different passage than they have encountered. Elmire goes first an steps into the shallow water, feels the floor drop slightly and a spell is cast. Although she doesn’t feel anything obvious, she notices an odd feeling and her body tingling. The rest see Elmire’s skin turn blue. Trying to figure out what has happened the group notice a rat dive down in the water on the other side of the passage and emerge glowing white, shining light bursting from in. The floor is enchanted. The entire flooded floor is split into two sides of pressure plated tiles. A deadly, magical puzzle. Elmire casts detect magic with Tauriel and The 4 begin to figure out the pattern of spells engraved into the floor tiles. Tauriel Misty steps to the other side and awaits the group. Valeria and Elmire, (having done this maneuver before to get out of a giant bloodworm burrow) begin back-to-back, arms linked and position their feet on adjacent walls ready to walk together, above the floor. The pair walk their way halfway down the passage before having to drop into the water. Valeria unable to read the spells, calls out the symbols on the tiles nearest to her fall and Elmire & Barnabus relay the verdict. She drops on the Illusion marked tile and it sinks as she lands. The spell is cast, as Elmire drops onto Valeria is missed by the spell. Elmire looks at Valeria as her face and body slowly shifts into the form of an older Drow woman. Valeria, thinking of her Mother changes into her entirely. Now standing in front of Elmire is a High Drow Priestess. Barnabus is attracted to the mature Drow woman, completely unaware that it is Valeria under the illusion of a spell. He steps onto a tile and begins to feel his body tingle and notices his skin has turned blue. Barnabus steps on another tile and triggers Entangle and finds himself slowly becoming entwined with vines, unable to move.
Nearly at the end of the passage, Elmire must choose a tile to activate. Stepping on an Illusion tile, the group sees Elmires’ face turn to wood, moss grow around her hairline and leaves sprout on her shoulders as she shifts into a tree dryad. The dryad steps into the safety of a landing room with Tauriel. Valeria follows Elmire, not willing to activate any other spells and triggers Illusion. The Drow High Priestess slowly shifts into a black robed Mind Flayer. Barnabus is last and the hops onto a couple of tiles, the first marked with abduration- this activating Shield of Faith and finally an illusion tile of his own. The group witness as Barnabus’ skin begins to crack with density as he shifts into a dwarf sized rock troll. With magic still surging, the group remain safe for a moment as they stand in the landing, looking cautiously ahead at the passage of enchanted tiles.
An elf, tree dryad, mind flayer and a rock troll.
To be continued..