Session 15- Covert Assault on the Cult’s Temple Day 38 10 am
After considering their options, the party decides not to go closer towards Orlane until nightfall. They pass the time at Lareth’s hiding shack, doing some healing and re-memorizing spells. They reach the village around 8pm and elect to give it a wide berth, keeping it out of view as they make their way around to the back side of the Temple of Merrika. Waiting and observing in a cold steady rain, starting to feel more like winter than fall, the party elects to send Tahntas ahead to sneak over the wall and secure a rope to assist the rest in climbing over. He climbs the wall and drops in perfectly, and finds a few garden sheds and a kennel built against the outer wall to hide against. He quickly observes a human in a cloak who seems to be guiding 2 wolves in a patrol around the grounds. Letting them pass around the building, Thantas begins to signal the rest of the group to approach the wall, but a second guard comes around th other corner of the building. Thantas lays a perfect sneak attack on the guard, dropping him silently and assisting the rest of the group over the wall. They decide to avoid the wolves and head straight for the front door, which they find unlocked. They enter the temple quietly and use some rope to secure the door handles from the inside. Not a permanently barred door, but it will slow someone down. They find themselves in the main greatroom of the temple, and begin to map and search some of the doors connected to the greatroom. They search an unoccupied meeting room, and an empty humble bedroom of either a priest or servant, then they open a door that leads to a long corridor stretching to the back of the temple. One side of the corridor is lined with very valuable looking statues in worship of Merrika. Also at the end of the corridor is priestess Misha Devi and a person wearing monk robes. Devi is surprised, and is pierced by an arrow from the party. She reacts by calling out “Intruders!”, opening a secret door at her end of the corridor and fleeing the combat. The party pursued, entering a small prayer carrel and leading out to a narrow hall via a flimsy door. The elves located a secret trap door on the floor, quickly opened it and peered down revealing some kind of basement or dungeon structure below. Then the flimsy door crashes open and the monk tries punching the party. They are unsurprised and Draden drops a sleep spell knocking out Misha and the monk. Thinking the battle over, Thantas goes into the narrow corridor to retrieve an arrow on the floor, only to have 2 more monks come crashing through the prayer carrel doors to engage him in hand to hand. He takes several serious punches, but the one monk exposes his back to the party and is quickly taken down. The other is dispatched in kind. The party now has a bound and sleeping Misha Devi, and have taken her magic ring of Protection +1. Now they hope they have enough time to interrogate her before more of the temple is alerted, or should the guard and the wolves realize the intrusion and begin to break through the front door. End Session Day 38 10pm.
Session 16- Poisonous Fate, Showdown With Abramo
Day 38 10pm. Knowing time is of the essence, the party scans their options. They have a bound and sleeping cult leader in Misha Devi, and think they may hear some stirrings at the front door. They scan down the trap door in the floor, and peek around the corner at the back of the temple and see a door, guessing that is where Misha was coming from, they head down the corridor to the closed door. A quick search reveals the door holds a stairwell up, and the party takes them. The stairs opened into a second floor long vestibule room lined with benches, and skeletons standing upright against the walls. Belgium moved in to attempt the turn, and they paused almost as if expecting something, before springing into attack at the clreic. Belgium used the power of his god to repulse them, and the party smashed their bones. Seeing the room to now be empty and quiet, they hid Misha’s sleeping body under one of the benches. Carefully prodding into the next room revealed a small neat room with a table and chair, perhaps a waiting room or a meeting room for the clerics. The other door in that room revealed a short corridor which opened into a large room that housed torture chamber devices- a rack, a, iron maiden, and a workbench with crude torture tools, also a small chest and some personal items. Just when they were about to search the room and get some sense of what it held, two groups of vile goblins came unexpectedly from two secret doors with a violent attack. Several party members took damage from unexpected javelin throws, but at the end of the combat the party stood victorious. They began searching the torture chamber, and Draden found some personal papers along with some clothes, and some nice looking leather armor. Thantas took a look at the small chest, and believing it to have no traps, tried and succeeded in opening the lock. However, he failed to notice the poison needle trap on the lock right before it pricked him on the finger. Steadying his constitution he prepared to fight off the poison- but alas, the poison trap was too strong, and the agile elf thief collapsed in a heap across the open chest. The contents of the chest revealed some pricey gems and 3 potions, still not close to the tradeoff for the beloved party member. Draden, from the notes he found was able to piece together that the belongings and the chest belonged to Derek, the rogue now revealed to be an assassin, who was doing some torture and executions for the cult. Even in death, though the party already killed him, Derek was still able to take a life from beyond the grave. Thantas, you shall be missed. Sadly all the party could do for him was to place his body in repose, cover it, and say some quiet words of remembrance. The assault on the temple must not waver. They somberly moved to the southern door exiting this room, behind which revealed a switchback corridor covered in weird evil looking runes scribed in charcoal. The party cautiously rounded the twisting passage, expecting an attack. They were greeted with the sound of casting, and then a rock was hurled down the corridor towards them and the area was bathed in silence. They have seen this trick before, and the party rushed into the corridor to confront Abramo, the head cleric of Orlane, but he has gone horribly insane, his armor and his face having been adorned with cryptic, evil runes written in charcoal. Abramo was fronted by a couple of goblin minions. The spellcasters moved forward out of the silenced area preparing spells, the fighters moving forward to attack, hurling flaming oil first at the goblins, taking them out in a blaze. Abramo was able to cast blindness on Belgium, but Draden was able to dispel it, and the party was able to kill him through spells and weight of attacks. A little vengeance for Thantas, though it was actually Derek who was responsible. After the battle, the switchback corridor ended in Abramo’s chambers, also adorned with the strange runes. Also in the room the party finds a cage, and they open it to release Cirilli, the daughter of the woodworker, who he had reported to them as kidnapped. Cirilli reveals to the party that she was kidnapped by the cultists and the troggs, and was brought to the Naga’s lair with Abramo on one of their meetings and prisoner handoffs. Cirilli was able to resist the charms of the Naga, and when the Naga was about to send her to be eaten by crocs, Abramo negotiated to give the girl to him, to which he brought her back here to this cage in his lair. The party now has a link to the Naga’s lair. The weasel given to them by Ramne should be able to track Cirilli’s scent back to the Naga’s lair. If they can get out of the temple without being caught by the cult. Also, after rescuing Cirilli and getting her story, the party checks the cage, only to find a silent shape covered by a cloak, the figure begins stirring… End session Day 38 11pm.
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