The Hag that Touched Qhortho
The Assembly rush up the spiral staircase, prioritizing positioning over defense. The Root and Tear both flicker to life. The close-combat fighters spread out enough to prevent being surrounded while maintaining enough proximity to switch targets if an ally needs help. The ranged fighters keep their distance, preferring to fire from across the room.
As they pour out of the staircase, a dense fog rolls in on the first floor.
One of the Hags focuses her attention on Faryn. The Hag’s eyes blacken to an inky void and Faryn suddenly grabs at her midsection with sickness.
The closest Hag reaches out, touching Qhortho and cursing his Wisdom. The third Hag uses this opportunity to Frighten Qhortho.
Rolan launches 2 arrows into The Hag That Touched Qhortho. Seeing the arrows snaps him out of being Frightened. Though he badly wants to retaliate, Qhortho is unable to coordinate his actions; he stands muddled and frustrated, his anger building with each moment the curse remains in place.
Balishna and Aran attack The Hag That Touched Qhortho. Balishna summons vines from the ground to restrain his target, but the Hag simply breaks the vines before they take hold. Even without his old trick, Balishna manages to badly injure the Hag, providing the opportunity for Aran to finish her off. Finally, Qhortho begins to get his wits about him. Aran immediately shifts his eyes to The Hag That Sickened Faryn. With 2 strikes, this Hag is killed too. He pivots to The Hag That Frightened Qhortho, bringing her to within an inch of her life.
Faryn rushes The Hag That Frightened Qhortho and kills her with one strike.
Suddenly, the portal disappears and their surroundings become ethereal. This is not each person Blinking themselves, this is different. The Slaad become grayscale and appear not to see the Assembly, but it looks like 4 more Slaad got through the portal before it closed.
Dodging one bullet for another, the Assembly finds themselves in the middle of a den of Wraiths and Banshees. The spirits immediately take notice of the new arrivals.
Just as suddenly as that the plane shift occurred, everything went back to normal. Well, back to the Slaads… There is no clean way out of this one…
Just as they are getting ready to battle, the Assembly shifts back into the Ethereal Plane. The spirits are now surrounding them more closely when the world suddenly snaps back to the Material Plane.
The shifts pick up in frequency, becoming a flicker. Each moment, the spirits disappear then pop into view even closer than before, until suddenly, the Material Plane does not come back.
Ethereal Disaster
Each member of the Assembly is surrounded by Banshees and Wraiths.
Faryn, Qarzdaq, Qhortho, Rolan, and Shaylin are all Frightened of the Banshees screams, but they know that as long as they don’t move, they can stand their ground. This leaves only Aran, Balishna, and Zinsueli with their mobility.
Banshees grope Balishna, Shaylin, and Zinsueli. Qarzdaq blocks it by instinctively creating his force shield. However, the Wraiths are able to sap a good deal of life essence from many of them, and simply injuring the rest.
Shaylin yells out, “FUCK EM UP!” and proceeds to slash into one of the wraiths next to him. The rest of his allies gain a resolve to “fuck em up” and are especially focused on their next attacks.
Qarzdaq summons a ball of sunlight in his hands, shining bright light all around him at least 30 feet in all directions. Qarzdaq pushes a bright beam from the sphere directly at the Banshee that Frightened him. The Banshee screams out as it is now weakened and Blinded. This scream does not vibrate the mind as some of the other Banshee Wails have; this was a direct response to pain.
Zinsueli Disengages the Banshee and Wraiths surrounding him and retreats to take cover behind the spiral staircase.
Everyone else was able to avoid the Banshee attacks. The Wraiths are a little more successful, draining bits of life from most of the party. The ones in Qarzdaq’s area of sunlight do not appear to have the same impact as they had outside the sunlight.
Rolan, still Frightened by a nearby Banshee, drops his bow and draws his Valyrian short swords. He strikes the wraith closest to him, leaving shimmering wakes through the shadowy cloud-like spirit.
Balishna strikes the nearest wraith. The roots that emerge from the ground go through the wraith’s form as simply as a puff of smoke. Even without his roots, he brings the wraith closer to death… or… expiration? Whatever it is when a wraith is no longer in existence. Yeah. He brings the wraith closer to that.
The Assembly continues to gain ground in the battle. That is, until the Banshees wail… Zinsueli, Shaylin, and Faryn immediately fall to the ground unconscious. The battle continues around them as their life essence drains.
Qarzdaq destroys the Banshee nearest to him, breaking the effects of being Frightened on both himself and Rolan.
All the while, Aran methodically rips through Wraith and Banshee, one after the other.
As their numbers fall, the Wraiths pick up a surge of energy and lash out at their closest foes.
One Wraith sucks more of Rolan’s life essence, but at least he remains standing. Aran and Qhortho are both able to prevent the Wraiths from draining their life, but Faryn is not so lucky. She falls to the same fate as Shaylin, as the Wraith closest to her steals her last breaths.
Suddenly, the Ethereal Plane is gone a moment and back the next. It blinks in and out of existence; a flickering shroud on the Material Plane. The flickers slow as they had before but are now lasting longer and longer on the Material Plane. Though the Slaads have been visible to the party the entire time, the Slaads did not have that luxury and let down their guard.
Slaad-Fest
The Assembly take this opportunity to surprise the Slaads. Qarzdaq rushes over to Zinsueli and revives him with a bright red potion. He then jumps back to his feet and explodes a Level 4 Fireball, hitting 4 of the Slaads. Zinsueli pops up beside him, and fires a few arrows at one of the wounded Slaads. His eyes scan the room. He sees Shaylin and Faryn on the ground, lifeless. Knowing he is up against a great enough enemy to down the 2 greatest fighters he knows, he decides to fight first and check on his allies when able.
Balishna and Aran take turns slicing into one of the Blue Slaads, taking him down with only a few strikes.
Zinsueli, Rolan, and Qarzdaq take down another. Qhortho rushes to the Red one that is off on its own.
Balishna attacks the next closest Slaad, thorny vines emerge from the floor and hold his target in place.
3 Slaads near Qarzdaq attack at once, but only a single Red one managed to make contact. Something about that strike felt deeper than just the gouge in his shoulder.
Qarzdaq whips up one of his Sunbeam Balls™, sending the beam directly through 2 Slaads. Rolan reaches back for an arrow and even pulls back the strong. Unfortunately, there was no arrow in hand. He looks around to see if anyone noticed (they hadn’t) and he grabs a second (first) arrow. Maybe the shot was difficult. Maybe it was his nerves. You couldn’t blame him (yes you can) after the ordeal they’ve been through today. Whatever the reason, the shot sails wide.
Qhortho closes the gap between him and his Red Slaad target. He attempts to strike the Red Slaad, but the creature turns around at the last moment and grabs his wrist. It smiles a wide toothy smile. The creature attempts to wrest the blade from Qhortho’s hand, but Qhortho rips his arm from the creature’s grip and prepares to defend himself.
Balishna and Aran focus on the same target again, felling the beast. Aran follows it up with an attack on the closest Blue Slaad. He is able to filet large chunks of flesh, angering it in the process. Just as it tries to retaliate, Aran finishes it off with a final blow. He then rushes towards Qhortho.
The remaining Slaads put up a tough fight, but in the end, the Assembly vanquish their foes.
As the presence of combat dwindles, so does the light in the Tear of Life. But before it evaporates, Rolan rushes over to Qhortho and heals him.
Repercussions
Though they’ve won the day, it is far from an all-out victory. They realize that Faryn and Shaylin are down and attempt to revive them, but it is no use. With Faryn and Shaylin dead, they’ve lost 2 of their greatest allies.
ROLAN: Wait, if they fell in the Ethereal Plane, shouldn’t they be in the Ethereal Plane still?
QARZ: Yeah… That is how I’d expect it to work.
ROLAN: Maybe it was because we didn’t shift into the Ethereal Plane. Maybe it shifted to us somehow?
QARZ: Yeah… I wonder if it had to do with that portal. Maybe it caused a temporary tear in the fabric between Planes.
QHOR: Another scar of this dangerous magic. This Air magic…
ARAN: Was this Air magic? Or was this something else?
ROLAN: I think we should prepare for the fact that this is what we’re up against.
They all agree and apply Keog’s Ointment to those who were scratched or bitten by the Slaad. The Slaad scars appear to close up nicely and they are confident that any residual effects have been overcome.
Zinsueli addresses the entire group.
ZINSUELI: With all your so-called powers, none of you could save them? Faryn, especially?? What are we going to do now??
QHOR: She was knocked unconscious instantly by those Banshees. You were here, you could see nothing could have been done differently.
ZINSUELI: You should have saved her instead of me.
QARZ: I needed to save whoever I could so we would have the best chance of survival. If Faryn had been closer, I would have saved her instead. It’s as simple as that.
ARAN: Look, we’re going to go with you back to the God’s Eye to give them a proper burial.
He shakes his head, the shame of defeat sinking into his bones.
ZINSUELI: We need to go now.
ARAN: We have to check this entire place first. We haven’t been up these stairs yet. We can’t leave this as an unknown. You now it as well as I do.
ZINSUELI: And so who is leading us now? You?
He flings his index finger towards Aran.
QHOR: I am.
Zinsueli turns to look at Qhortho.
ZINSUELI: Pfft. Forgive me if I don’t take solace in that…
Qhortho stares at him, the rage building.
ARAN: Look, we can figure that out, but we need to keep moving forward.
BALISHNA: Zin… Come on… He’s right. We have to finish this or our fallen will have been lost in vain.
Zinsueli glares at Balishna as if he’s suddenly turned traitor.
ZINSUELI: Everything we’re doing now is in vain… Faryn was the Root holder and was the one Great Balance.
BALISHNA: Fine. Fuck it. You stay here and wallow in your bullshit. We have to do everything we can. If I’m living, I’m fighting. Let’s get up there.
He motions towards the spiral staircase that continues up to the third floor.
Aran walks over to Faryn’s body and picks up the Root of Knowledge.
Balishna and Zinsueli look at Aran incredulously. Aran recognizes their stare.
ARAN: This needs to get back to the Isle of Faces.
BALISHNA: Yes… Yes, it does…
Aran continues to hold it out in front of him, showing that he does not intend to take possession of the artifact.
Qhortho is still staring at Zinsueli after his last remark and finally pops.
QHOR: Listen New Guy, you haven’t been with us long, but this is some real shit. This is what happens in the real world. You’ve been tucked away, into that little island there, all protected. Well guess what? People fucking die out here and that’s some real-life shit. If you can’t handle that, go on back to your fucking island – or grow a pair and help us avenge our fallen friends.
Zinsueli disregards Qhortho’s speech and walks up to Aran.
ZINSUELI: Give me the fucking Root now.
Aran tosses it to Balishna. Balishna holds it in his hands, his eyes widening as if he’d won some sort of unexpected prize. He quickly tucks it away.
Zinsueli pushes Aran’s shoulder in response. It was equally effective as knocking the castle with a blow. He walks to Balishna, holding his hand out.
ZINSUELI: I don’t trust you with the Root. Give it to me and I’ll bring it back to where it belongs.
Balishna does not move a muscle.
ARAN: You two need to stop this bickering like little bitches. Let’s move.
QHOR: We have work to do.
ZINSUELI: Fine. I’ll stick around for this last task, but after that, we’re heading back with the Root.
ARAN: Yeah, you’re welcome for keeping that from falling into the wrong hands.
ZINSUELI: It belongs to the Children of the Forest. We are here to serve and protect them.
ROLAN: Yeah, you’re a real child of the forest, aren’t ya…
ZINSUELI: You know what? Fuck this. Fuck all of you.
He descends the spiral staircase and leaves the castle.
ARAN: Is he always like that? What a fucking loser.
BALISHNA: Well, yeah… He’s not able to take things as they come.
Before they go upstairs, Rolan mentions that he doesn’t feel hurt, but he does feel very weak. He feels he needs to rest, but also knows there’s no way to do it safely until after the castle is clear.
Treasure?
Aran scans the room just to make sure they don’t leave behind anything useful. He realizes the large Annis Hag bodies are clothed. He walks over to them and searches the robes. Qarzdaq and Rolan search the other two. They find a dusty rose stone in the shape of a pyramid on one of them.
QARZ: Is this another Ioun Stone? I wonder what this one does.
QHOR: I don’t have one of those things yet.
Balishna shrugs.
BALISHNA: Neither do I.
Qarzdaq gives the stone to Qhortho. Aran chuckles to himself as he mentions that they could teleport back to Fire Lake and beat Zinsueli back to the God’s Eye with the Root. They joke about being able to set the narrative before Zinsueli gets anywhere close to the island.
ARAN: We can certainly say he turned his back on the cause, that much is for sure.
Balishna plays along half-heartedly; although they have their differences, there exists a strong bond through the Greenguard.
They climb the staircase with Aran leading the way. At the top of the staircase is just a smaller empty room with a ladder leading up to another floor. They are definitely in the central spire at this point and the next room up must be the top of the lookout tower.
Aran strides over to the ladder, Qhortho immediately behind. Aran pauses a moment shifting his view left and right, trying to get a glimpse of what might be up there. He quietly climbs the first rung, then the next, and the next. He continues to climb about 15 feet before reaching the floor. The room is dusty and empty. That is until he disturbs the dust.
Suddenly, a stream of bats appears from nooks and crannies within the room and pour out of the open windows making up the circumference of the room. Aran almost loses his grip but maintains control, preventing his fall into his friends on the ladder. Aran’s heart settles after a few moments. He climbs into the room and starts poking around while the others join him. It’s a little cramped with all of them up there, but it’s not so bad they can’t move around.
Looking out the windows, the entire swamp area around Greywater Watch is visible. Curiously, Zinsueli is nowhere to be found.
Sifting through the various items around the room, they find an Ogre’s, or perhaps a Giant’s, severed toe, an overflowing jar of teeth from various humanoids and other creatures, a set of large steel manacles that look like they could hold a Giant, 7 diamonds about the same size as the ones from the candlestick holders in Gulltown, and an old tarnished silver bell.
Qarzdaq dumps out the jar of teeth and finds one very large tooth, probably from a Giant. Qarzdaq decides that is his prize.
Rolan sees the bell and immediately flicks it with his finger. Ringing it fills the air around them with a sense of sorrow and distress. They all wind up being unable to hear anything for several seconds, but they do not suffer any other ill effects.
ROLAN: Alrighty then. I guess this could come in handy… Maybe against the Banshees with that goddamn wail they do?
QARZ: Shit… Yeah, you’re probably right… The thing that could have saved our fallen was just feet away from us this whole time. I mean, we obviously couldn’t have known that, but it does sting a little.
QHOR: It’s a good thing we got pulled out of there when we did.
ARAN: We should just burn this whole fucking place to the ground.
QARZ: You know I’m good with that.
ARAN: How about we use the portal and go back to the cavern, deal with that Ioun Stone, then burn this place down.
Balishna pops out a single laugh, not taking the comment seriously. They go down to the floor with the dead Slaads. Aran focuses on his Ioun Stone for 30 seconds, opening the portal back to the Fire Lake cavern.
BALISHNA: Huh… Neat trick.
Aran and Rolan step through. Balishna apprehensively joins them.
QHOR: Qarzdaq, should you check to see if the red lightning is gone?
QARZ: Yeah, that’s not a bad idea.
Maybe It Was a Bad Idea…
Qarzdaq Blinks into the Ethereal Plane and instantly regrets it. It’s as if the incorporeal beings were waiting for him to return. Three of the Wraiths are within striking distance, and two of the Banshees are within wailing distance. Instantly, the Banshees both Wail and Qarzdaq falls to the ground unconscious. The Wraiths pile on, sapping his life force. Just as Qarzdaq is about to gasp his last breath, he Blinks back to the Material Plane.
Qhortho sees him appear, on the ground, dying. He acts fast. He grabs Qarzdaq and tosses him over his shoulder. His next move is to launch himself directly through the portal.
And just like that, Qarzdaq disappears again.
ARAN: Oh fuck!
QHOR: Qarzdaq’s been hurt! He needs help! He wasn’t able to light the tower on fire!
ARAN: How hard could it be to burn that thing down?
Aran was thinking of leaving the portal open, but second-guesses that thought. Given that Qarzdaq was knocked unconscious while in the Ethereal Plane and that he (probably) just disappeared there again because of his Blink ability, whatever did this to him might be able to kill him before he comes back. The only thing they have the ability to affect in these few fractions of a second is the amount of space between the party and the Ethereal beings.
Aran quickly closes the portal, hoping he was able to act in time.
Qarzdaq reappears and Rolan shoves a healing potion up his ass.
Qarzdaq jumps to life, struggling to catch his breath.
QARZ: FUCK!
He quickly rips out the empty vial.
QARZ: That never gets easier… damnit…
ROLAN: I rue the day when it does.
Qarzdaq rubs his ass, trying to look behind him for traces of blood. Not that it would be discernable from the potion, but more out of instinct.
Aran looks around for the Ioun Pillar that matches the new stone they found.
ARAN: Hey Qhortho, over here with that stone.
Qhortho starts towards Aran.
ROLAN: Whoa guys, let’s rest for a while. You two may not be too bad off, but Qarzdaq and I could use a breather after that.
This Was a Good Idea
They awake several hours later, all feeling much better now that they are at full strength.
Before they seek out the Ioun Pillar, they reflect on the situation they managed to survive… that most of them managed to survive. Faryn’s and Shaylin’s bodies lie off to the side where Travers’s body once laid.
QARZ: I don’t care what it takes, but I am going to learn everything I can to fuck up a Banshee. That bullshit Wail is no joke… We should stop in at the next city so I can buy some books.
ROLAN: Gulltown is probably out of the question though. The next closest real city is probably Highgarden. I haven’t spent a lot of time up north, but I understand that everything is fairly spread out up there.
QHOR: We can disguise ourselves in Gulltown.
ARAN: Maybe. But it’s not going to be good if they find us out. Might the Children of the Forest have more information on the Banshees?
BALISHNA: Not that I’m aware of, but they may have knowledge not shared with the Greenguard.
ROLAN: That bell was pretty loud. You could try ringing that if we see those things again.
QARZ: Good thought. I wonder what happens if we aren’t able to hold our wits about us when it’s rung though. I mean, it was a little bit of a struggle getting through the sound.
They approach the Ioun Pillar and prepare to battle some unknown creature. Qhortho, Aran, and Balishna are up front. Qhortho approaches the large obelisk and slides the dusty rose stone into the recess. It sinks into the pillar and begins rumbling as the others had done before.
The entire Ioun Pillar collapses into rubble, leaving behind a Shield Guardian. Qhortho immediately goes into a rage at the mere sight of this mechanical construct.
Qhortho and Aran immediately slash into its arms and legs. A slick fluid pours out of the gashes in its metallic skin.
Rolan uses one of the arrows dipped in the cauldron juice, striking his target twice. With each arrow, the juice seems to dissolve the portions of the metal just around the arrows’ shafts.
Balishna strikes the creature with one good hit, but his second is met by a quick swipe from the creature, sending Balishna’s glaive flying across the room.
The construct pulls its arms back and arches its back in response. A thin orange streak beams out of its chest into the center of the room. An enormous Fireball erupts, engulfing all of them in flames. Just as the flames clear, Qhortho is met by a solid metal fist bludgeoning his face.
In retaliation, Qhortho slashes through the creature’s midsection, releasing a burst of steam and spraying a thin liquid on Qhortho’s face. Moments later, the creature is nothing more than a pile of twisted metal.
Qhortho roars with excitement. The roar changes to a whinny as he drops his rage.
The pile of metal turns to a fine ash and slides between the shards of Ioun Pillar.
Qhortho sifts through the rubble and ash to find the dusty rose Ioun Stone.
QHOR: I should find out what this thing does.
They take a short rest and Qhortho determines that the Ioun Stone provides him with +1 AC and +5 Speed.
This session end on Day 605. Though they have lost two of their own, they have gained another 5,250 XP, bringing their grand total to 107,400.
Though the overarching goal is to stop the Air Magic forces at work, there are a number of paths before them. Do they venture into Gulltown? Do they go straight to the Isle of Faces? Do they go straight for the Purple Worm? Will they go back for their horses outside Greywater Watch? Or do they simply continue North, focusing on the most important of tasks? And when they do continue towards the North, how will the Root of Knowledge play its undoubtedly necessary role?
…and as an aside, how will they handle the Zinsueli situation?
Find out next time with The Unlikely Assembly!