The Assembly awakes with renewed strength (and abilities!) in the warmth of their Tiny Hut, but they are being approached by the cave dwellers. Though the hut is camouflaged, it is not invisible.
They call out in broken Common to come out. They repeat one word the party definitely understands… “Kill”
Qarzdaq steps forward and casts a spell to make it easier to communicate. They determine the cave dwellers are thanking the party for killing their enemies. In return, they provide a Purple Smoke Shroom powder in a tiny pouch. Farron gives their spokesperson 10 days of rations and the cave dwellers provide them 2 additional pouches of the Purple Smoke Shroom powder.
They find out this powder controls anyone affected by this airborne powder (within 5 ft) for 72hrs and each affected target gains 1 pt of exhaustion every 6 hours.
They ask the cave dwellers if their intended route leads to danger and they learn it will take them into the territory of a cannibalistic tribe known as the Thenns.
Qhortho provides the cave dwellers a dragonglass dagger to aid them against the undead.
Knowing they have an Ioun Stone to upgrade, they attempt to open a portal. However, they’d forgotten that the Ioun portal doesn’t seem to work north of the Wall. Instead, they use their Teleport spell to go straight back to the Ioun cave.
Qhortho places the stone in the pillar unleashing a giant mechanical fire monster, spewing flames and grinding as it moves. They make quick work of the infernal machine but not before it spewed acid all over the place. Meh, it’s fine.
The upgraded stone is one of Strength. Aran attunes to it, they pick up some of their stored rations, and teleport to Greyguard to rest up.
Farron is becoming more and more aware that the crystalline shard in his pocket provides a unique level of comfort by its mere presence.
They spend two nights in Greyguard, during which time Qarzdaq converts six soldiers to follow the Lord of Light. On the morning of the third day, they teleport to where they’d treated with the cave dwellers. Upon arriving, they follow the compass’s arrow to the northwest, directly towards the mountains and closer to Thenn territory.
They continue for a few more days, arriving at a near vertical mountainside. Double-checking the compass, the target, whatever it might be, is on the other side of this mountain. Might as well go over!
Qarzdaq uses a rope and his power of flight to make the climb easier on his friends. After some time, they find a small plateau with a wide indentation in the side of the next cliff. This should serve as a decent backdrop for their next shelter. Except they find it is not empty. A glowing bead of blue light floating in the center of a large ring of ice crystals, perhaps 40-50 feet in diameter.
Farron attempts to move the glowing blue object with telekinesis, but it only seemed to trigger the ice shards to shatter, releasing a load of ice mephitis and air elementals!
Qarzdaq casts wall of fire and took out a half dozen in one shot. After the party destroys a number of the other creatures, the thing holding the blue light eventually shows itself… it’s another one of those abominations they’d seen in another cave. It’s like a cross between a mummified corpse and an insect with piercing limbs!
The glowing blue light? An Ioun stone circling its head.
The party is triumphant after some setbacks here and there, notably Qhortho being incapacitated with fear once again.
Farron begins to question Qhortho’s capabilities in battle. Meanwhile, Aran could not be further from being worried; his thoughts being more focused on how he was the savior of the day again.
They snag the blue spherical Ioun Stone, take a rock to bookmark this location in the Frostfangs, teleport to the Ioun cavern, and take a long rest.
Each member of the Assembly gains 5,800 XP this session. The party is about to awake in the Ioun Cavern on the morning of Day 913.