The Biting Mist
The party decides to open a portal back to Fire Lake, which has become like a second home; an easy refuge from battle. The cavern’s slow creek babbles with a faint, soothing echo. The ability to upgrade their Ioun Stones is a known at this point, but so many of its secrets are still unknown.
Nonetheless, this is Farron’s first time here, so the Assembly tells him all about it. They have a long rest and awake in the morning to discuss who would be the best person to hold on to the newly upgraded Ioun Stone once they have it.
They realize there is some movement on the surface above the cavern. That shuffling is followed by voices. Definitely human, but they are too muffled to make out what they are saying. The Assembly speculates they are the Assassins looking for Travers.
Farron summons a fish to travel to the lake’s surface to find out who is here. Farron determines the creatures are human and they are definitely looking for something or someone. They are definitely armed, though with small arms. Definitely not soldiers.
Qarzdaq uses Telekinesis to snap stalagmites from the ground and place them into the opening to the underwater tunnel so that they interlock and entirely block the opening.
They decide to quietly wait for the people above to leave before they do anything with the Ioun Stone. They wait for the entire day and night, remaining as quiet as possible. The next morning, they listen very carefully and hear nothing.
They proceed with inserting the marbled blue and red spherical stone into the matching pillar’s cavity. It begins to rumble and crack. As the ground shakes, a creeping fog emanates from the pillar. The fog takes eerie forms like grasping claws and writhing serpents. Shadows in the cave seem abnormally gaunt and sometimes move as though alive. The pillar splinters apart and shatters. The fog billows up into the space left by the pillar into a Vampire Warrior.
The creature moves with a swiftness in between the party’s attacks on him. It’s as if he momentarily becomes part of the misty fog at times.
Aran strikes the vampire, who suddenly appears inches in front of him. Aran manages another strike before the vampire grabs and holds Aran where he stands. He swiftly bites into Aran’s neck, letting some of the blood run down his neck. Aran can take it, but he feels some of his life force draining.
The vampire warrior summons three vampire spawn into existence. One near Qarzdaq, another near Farron, and the third near Qhortho.
Farron quickly Dimension Doors himself out of the situation and sends some inspiration towards Aran.
The vampire sinks his teeth into Aran again.
Qarzdaq releases a sunbeam, directly through 2 of the vampire spawn and into the vampire warrior’s chest. Farron summons small pearls of light above his head and one zips right into the vampire warrior’s face.
Partially blinded, Aran wriggles and lands a blow into the vampire warrior’s shoulder. All of the vampires instantly vanish. The fog on the ground dissipates quickly. The cavern is silent once again.
Avoiding Detection
Farron recognizes that Aran had been bitten and casts Greater Restoration on him to ensure he would not suffer any ill long-lasting effects.
They again hear the sounds of shuffling above them. Those bastards never left! They decide it’s probably best for them to leave immediately. They teleport back to the barrow at Sea Dragon Point and take a long rest.
They travel 10 days south before they run into any signs of trouble. A pack of gnolls… of all types. Hunters, Gnawers, Witherlings, and a Fang. No hags though, so at least they had that going for them.
Qarzdaq quickly verifies that the next red lightning site is several more days of travel to the west from this point. The party decides it would be best to avoid the encounter if possible since they may be able to surprise the hags that are undoubtedly guarding the site.
They hug the shoreline to keep a good distance and travel more slowly.
Artifact Impact
Over the course of their travel, those with artifacts continue to pray on they, bringing them spiritually closer to their respective sources of power. Qarzdaq always enjoyed a close relationship with R’hllor, but his core now feels one with the Lord of Light. Though stating such familiarity would be blasphemous, even to himself.
Qhortho, always in tune with nature to a degree, has been growing a sense of kinship with the Children of the Forest – and even the forest itself. Going back to his days with the Dothraki, he could remember feeling at one with nature, but socially, it was always a meritocracy; the strongest rule. He feels that becoming more distant, for better or worse. Now, this seems so… elementary… The Dothraki would fight together as a singular force, but this is more of a communion with the underlying force of Nature itself.
Aran, who had never been much of a believer of any faith, is slowly growing a fondness for the power that water brings to the universe. It’s not a matter of faith, for he would reject that on principle. This is more a matter of deeper understanding. He is beginning to understand the pull of the Kraken, and why Rolan needed to return home. Hell, he can almost see what Tyrone saw so long ago, though he could never see himself taking such drastic actions.
Ethereal Park
Ten days pass before they find themselves on a set of paths leading into and around a clearing. The path was crafted with care, shown by its smoothed surface and neatly lined rocks along the edges. It is just before dusk, but the stark white Stony Shore lighthouse can still be made out in the distance due to its brightly burning beacon.
It’s at this point that they notice three shadowy figures standing around a cauldron, tossing in various items. Hags.
Somehow, the hags notice the Assembly, even at this distance. Before the Assembly can react, their surroundings flicker and they are suddenly in the Ethereal Plane, with lots of ghosts, banshees, wights, shadows, and other ethereal beings. Some are close enough to attack, some farther away.
A giant persistent red lightning bolt lights up the sky. Its base at the lighthouse, its top to infinity. A small portal opens and the Hags jump through.
Farron teleports all of them immediately next to the portal. He looks at the others and jumps through the portal.
Immediately, he realizes that he is now back on the Material Plane. He finds himself in a semi-circular, ornate room with wonderfully crafted wooden desks and chairs. The portal, thankfully, remains open. Windows line the much longer, outer-radius wall, through which a greenish-blue glow catches his attention.
Looking through the window, he realizes the hags are inside another tower of the very same building, though the towers appear to only be connected via their ground floors through a squat, square keep. He seems to be on the second floor of his tower.
The hags spawn another small portal and disappear through it.
The rest of the party deals with a few of the ethereal beings, feeling some of their life force being drained, before they get the opportunity to jump through the portal. They hold their own and reunite with Farron. Once the last of them is through the portal, it closes behind them.
A Stony Keep for a Stony Shore
Taking a cursory look around the room, they see one door through the small-radius curved wall. The room curves around to a flat wall on either of its ends, with a door through each flat wall. A pair of full plate suits of armor stand at each door.
They also notice the largest desk in the room hosts an inkwell and some parchment, though all of the parchment is blank.
Farron points out the portal across the way that the hags jumped through.
They realize this scenario is very familiar and seems to be related to one of the shared dreams they’d experienced on their way to Winterfell. This one is notably different, with the hags, Ethereal Plane, and the strange glow coming from the grounds.
Looking outside, they find the ground littered with large blue-green crystals emitting a rich glow all around the keep. The central keep looks to be a single floor, while the two towers appear to be two floors each.
As they discuss how they’d run across the rooftop in the shared dream, they notice the sets of plate armor in the room have come to life and are approaching.
They climb out the windows and run along the rooftop towards the other tower. While they are running, Qarzdaq sprouts his wings and flies alongside them.
As they approach the tower, they can see something inside. It looks to be a large mass of interlocking metal components. Once they get inside, they recognize this room to be a mirror image of the room they left in the first tower. There are a few other heaps of metal components around the room, and the portal is along one of the flat walls.
Suddenly, all of the metallic heaps start to move. They are not just moving… these are most definitely alive… and they most definitely did not want to be disturbed. But disturbing is pretty much what the Unlikely Assembly does best, and so the confrontation begins.
Constructs of Some Imagination
The largest one, some sort of Steel Predator, lets out a thunderous roar that nearly stuns all of them. None except Qhortho drop their weapons. He looks on at the creature in disbelief and is unable to move. The other constructs look to be some arrangement of spiders (Retrievers), though they are easily 8-10 feet wide!
A moment later, some sort of large mechanical, bipedal flea (Cadaver Collector) busts through the door on the inner semicircular wall. It’s made even more harrowing by its adornment of cadavers of slain combatants. Several Specters jump from the dead bodies on its back and rush towards the Assembly.
Farron quickly banishes the Retrievers and Cadaver Collector to another plane, allowing them all to focus on the Predator and Specters.
Qhortho eventually manages to shake off his stun, and in the flurry of attacks that follow, all but one of the specters are taken down, and the Predator is already pretty banged up. The Assembly is still looking ok, though they’ve also taken a share of injuries. However, one of the specters manages to strike Farron just right, causing him to lose his concentration on his Banishment.
Instantly, they are once again battling the Retrievers and the Cadaver Collector.
Aran trades strikes with the Steel Predator until he spots a weak spot. He jabs the blade of his guandao between the gears near its neck and damages a key component. Just as the blade seemed as if it would snap, he quickly yanks the weapon free. The construct falls to the ground with a crash. Knowing it will no longer be a threat, he uses the weapon’s momentum to carry it through the last specter, taking it out as well.
The Cadaver Collector smashes Qhortho, bringing him close to death and leaving him unconscious on the stone floor.
The Assembly all notice and share a sense of urgency and vengeance with a dash of panic.
Farron banishes the two spiders while Qarzdaq and Aran put pressure on the Cadaver Collector. Aran gets a second wind and jams a health potion up Qhortho’s ass. He jolts back to life and is suddenly on his feet. Benefitted by Farron’s Bardic Inspiration, Qhortho goes into a rage and slashes the Cadaver Collector for his first time.
Aran follows up with a few attacks that bring the creature’s existence to an end.
Although no other enemies are here, they know the two spiders will return from banishment very soon. Being badly injured, they know they need to rest before fighting the hags.
They take a chance and jump through the hags’ portal and find themselves looking up at the Stony Shore lighthouse.
A Little Recon
Farron begins to summon a little spider friend to do some recon in the lighthouse, but they realize this will take longer than they’d like. Qarzdaq grabs a nearby rock before teleporting them all to Winterfell to rest, heal, and get a good meal – plus a few potions to fatten their bags before fighting the hags.
The next day, Qarzdaq teleports them back to the Stony Shore. The lighthouse before them is now guarded by two Retrievers. Quite possibly the same two Retrievers that had been banished… twice.
Our heroes march toward the fight. Their success will be determined on our next episode of The Unlikely Assembly!
We end this session on Day 782, having gained 10kXP each and finding a new Ioun Stone, one that enhances Intellect. A fight to end this second of three lightning bolts of power lays before them.