Session 46: Ettercaps & Espionage

"The most pious of Metarol have survived the Day of Mourning". If the inspector works for them, they'll reply with the challenge, "Now what makes you think that?" The counter-sign is, "Because their only sin was perfection."
 * Last time! Everyone but Vikrit and Vanesse is looking for dilithium crystals to repair the ship. Cornerio is wheezing on the ground and Sarienne is a bit hurt from their treeant encounter.
 * The party notices some large spiderwebs getting closer to the cave. Tork swats at them with his mage hand but nothing really happens.
 * Cornerio throws a pebble at one of the webs, and it sticks to it; it seems very strong for the web thickness. (NPC'd) Mogen is distracted by a dilithium crystal at the mouth of the cave, and says that it's what they're looking for.
 * Sarienne rolls a 1 looking into the cave, and sees an empty passageway. She takes out her lantern, and heads into the cave with Orielle. She triggers a log trap and then spots a large, hairy leg up on a ridge… and then it scurries away. They also notice what looks like a hoard of treasure.
 * Cornerio volunteers Orielle to go deal with the large spider hanging around, and Vesun buffs her. Sarienne sees some ettercaps skittering around. One of them rolls a boulder down at her and she jumps out of the way. Sarienne, Orielle, and Vesun creep forward.
 * Tork and Sarienne notice some ettercaps sneaking up on the party from the east. Only Sarienne notices some more up on a higher ledge, and a FUCKING beholder. She meets its gaze… and rolls a natural 1 on the Will save. She freezes, paralyzed, and hears it say, "OH SHIT! GET THEM, GO!" in Common.
 * FIGHT!
 * Orielle whacks the giant spider on the leg, pulling herself up and it down. Vesun heard the beholder but doesn't know where/what it is, so he moves in front of her and notices that she's paralyzed, and he smacks her with the Cudgel of Clarity. Tork recognizes what the beholder is and realizes it's smaller than a normal full-grown one. The spider bites Orielle, who seems woozy, and the ettercaps move down and stare; a second other large spider charges at Vesun. A third one jumps on Sarienne from behind and bites, but she isn't poisoned. The beholder turns around and zaps Vesun with Inflict Moderate Wounds, and he takes 22 damage. NPC-Mogen blasts the beholder. Cornerio attacks the spider biting Sarienne. Sarienne rolls yet another 1 on her sickle attack on the spider and misses with both sickles, dropping 1.
 * Orielle appears to shake off the poison and whacks her spider with her flail. Vesun casts Invisibility on himself (the spider gets an AoO and misses), then uses an action surge to cast Protection from Evil on himself. Tork sets up a Force Claw around the beholder/spider/ettercaps. The beholder yells that there are too many of us and tries to flee, triggering the claws. The rest of the enemies try to run as well, with a few more getting hit by the claws. The spider attacking Sarienne gets a nasty bite on her doing strength damage. Mogen misses the beholder. Cornerio destroys the spider next to him, and Sarienne attacks the unhurt one.
 * Orielle kills her spider. Vesun heals Sarienne. Tork zaps the spider and beholder with lightning, killing the 2nd-to-last spider. The rest of the enemies flee, and Sarienne destroys the last spider. NPC-Mogen continues collecting crystals. Sarienne sees an ettercap covering up a passageway with web and scurrying away. Tork saws off a spider leg.
 * "Apparently this is the second spider leg in my inventory?"
 * NPC-Mogen asks everyone to deal with the enemies while she keeps dealing with the crystals.
 * Sarienne lights up the web blocking the passageway, creating nasty smoke that fills up the cavern.
 * MEANWHILE!
 * Kashani tells Vikrit it's time to restore Lucien Greatoak. He asks what that will entail, she says he'll show them. She calls Sicily over, who levitates the heart.
 * They start walking to the site. She asks about the vision Konstadin showed them, he asked if it was real. She talks about swimming with and against the current. She says the future is more liquid than K thinks.
 * She says Vikrit needs to do this alone. She says he needs to to restore the heart himself, and they'll stay outside.
 * Vikrit slowly pushes it, still levitating, into the circular ritual site. In the inner ring, there's an empty dark stump with a big hole in it; it smells green and loamy. Vikrit pushes the heart in and feels a tremor; green vines come out and wrap around the heart (Vikrit falls back in surprise), then a huge redwood-sized trunk forms. It takes a minute or two for it to complete, then there's a massive tree. Birds, etc appear in the tree.
 * Vikrit reaches out and touches the trunk; then he hears a sloooow voice echoing in his head emanating from the stones. He asks if this is Lucien Greatoak, it says yes and that it's happy to see him. He nervously asks if he needs to do anything else to restore Lucien, it tells him that he should calm down and that he's safe here.
 * He says Godara's spirit is now part of Vikrit. He says there were five Gatekeeper elders long ago, at the end of the Age of Demons. He says it included him, Godara, Malachite, Hylea, and the Betrayer, Phinneas. Phinneas made some kind of pact with the demons after the gates were sealed and corrupted all of them, intending to poison the seals so that the plane of madness would not truly be sealed off. Lucien was saved by turning into a seed that Godara recovered and planted, resulting in his current tree form. Malachite went to go fight the demons directly and disappeared into the Demon Wastes; no one knows what became of him. Vikrit asks about Mavadtorop's vision of the betrayal, and Lucien doesn't recognize the name, and isn't sure what kind of creature would be old enough to have seen that. Vikrit wonders if Mavadtorop really is a god.
 * Vikrit continues asking about Godara; Lucien says the corruption of Godara was incomplete, and that the corrupted part of Godara took the form of an evil spirit that attached to the Second Temple. Lucien speculated that Godara had sealed some remaining good part of her away deep within the temple. Lucien thinks that this is the spirit that Vikrit now carries within him. She apparently always had an affection for lizardfolk. Lucien says that Vikrit is a vessel.
 * Vikrit asks about the origin of the lizardfolk; Lucien responds that after they sealed the gates, Khorvaire was devastated and the surviving Gatekeepers (Lucien, Godara, Hylea, Phinneas) worked together to restore life throughout the continent. Godara brought forth the lizardfolk from dragonshards using magic of dragons; Phineas was responsible for restoring Khyber, which is how Lucien thinks he became corrupted. Vikrit asks about Brazen, and Lucien knows the name… "a very old name, a very hated name". Vikrit says Brazen is backing the Stargazers, if that's true, they will need all the help they can get.
 * Lucien advises Vikrit to find the Aquila of Jaffa at the Second Temple to help consolidate Godara's power within him. He thinks that Brazen won't be expecting that. Vikrit asks if Godara is going to take over him. He pauses, and finally says it's not in her nature to do that. He says Vikrit has been chosen for a dangerous, difficult task. Lucien says he'll answer any question; Vikrit asks how he can protect his people. He says Godara loved lizardfolk; if he follows her and allows her spirit to live loudly within him, she will protect his people.
 * He says BE GOOOOONE! and there is screaming whistling wind. Vikrit takes one of his leaves and steps out. Kashani takes his claw and they begin to head back. She says they'll wait for his friends.
 * BACK IN THE CAVE! The team finally defeats the spider web.
 * Sarienne scouts ahead with Invisibility on. They find a bunch more ettercaps and the beholder in the next chamber. There's also a dead medium lizardfolk (looks defeated in battle) on a table. The party formulates an ambush plan. They overhear the beholder scolding the ettercaps and saying the master will be angry when he gets back.
 * Tork creates a ghost sound that sounds like an adventurer stuck in a trap. It tricks some of the ettercaps into following the noise. Sarienne silently sneaks up on the beholder… she sees now that there's a blue pool on the ground, and the body of the lizardfolk is Pollax's--she's the one who killed him a long time ago. The head has been cut open with a saw, and his brain case has something that isn't a brain in there.
 * Tork lightning bolts the fuck out of 4 nicely aligned ettercaps and there's one who was slightly out of the way left. The beholder yells NOT LIKE THIS!! And then ZOMBIE POLLAX COME TO ME, MY CREATION! It slowly picks itself up off the table. Cornerio brutalizes the last ettercap. Sarienne crits on the beholder. Tork attacks the ettercap. The beholder misses with one ray but blasts Sarienne with a scorching ray, then tries to hide behind a stalagtite. Zombie Pollax swings at Vesun. The ettercap tries to convince Cornerio to let it live while he swings wildly at it, finally smacking it on the last hit. Vesun fires off a Searing Light at Zombie Pollax with a cool gun firing motion and chunks of the zombie are ripped away. Sarienne finishes it off.
 * Tork moves forward and casts Force Claw again around the beholder. It pops around the pillar and fires off 2 rays; Sarienne makes her save and takes more damage, looking very hurt and Vesun gets hit with an exhaustion ray. Cornerio ignores the ettercap's pleading and destroys it. Vesun casts Divine Power on himself, and action surges again to Dimension Door right next to it. Sarienne moves next to the pool. Tork finishes off the beholder with a taste of its own medicine, Scorching Raying it into oblivion.
 * Tork points out the chests in the cave.
 * Vesun checks out the pool; he can see something at the bottom of the pool. Looks like a natural sinkhole with stuff constructed around it. He now sees Zombie Pollax's jaw and mouth begin to move: "So… you finally found me." It sounds like Pollax. Something floats up in the pool, it's a brain. "So what, you are here to desecrate my corpse once again?"
 * It tells Vesun to come closer and wiggles some tentacles around it. Vesun heals Sarienne. Pollax asks again why they're here, Vesun explains it was incidental. Sarienne asks what Pollax is doing here, apparently Castor tried to raise him. He says the beholder works for Konstadin. He expresses frustration in not knowing what we want, Vesun says saving the world and preventing enslavement to demons. He says it's not worth saving and that we're nothing but stooges. He says he doesn't care about any of this, and if we seek to kill Konstadin we should do it fast. Vesun gets a transmutation aura from the pool.
 * Sarienne tries taking a drink and nothing happens. Vesun asks if Pollax wants to die (permanently), he says his brother will carry on his legacy, and the party waffles on telling him about Castor's death. He says that he was in it for the fight, and then it was too late before he realized his mind was not his own. He says only Jana and maybe Burhan have resisted Konstadin. Vesun casts Purify Food and Drink on the pool.
 * Meanwhile, Cornerio finds amber and a goblin-sized, weirdly decorated in gold skull. He gives some amber, then says "Ew, a brain!" and whacks the brain in the pool, which sinks down, oozing. Sarienne finds a wooden half-mask with all sorts of teeth set in a maw, as well as a snuffbox that says "The Viceroy of the Zil Territories", looks like it's prewar and would be worth a bunch to a collector.
 * The party starts heading back with a big crystal in tow. They return to the Gatekeeper camp at nightfall. Orielle and Mogen head to the ship.
 * They find Kashani, Vikrit, and Esther waiting for them. Tork gives Vikrit the spider leg for some reason.
 * Esther says the Stargazers stayed in that cave for a while and they hadn't seen it. Apparently the trees weren't supposed to attack them. They say they purged the cave.
 * They say that Esther will head into the Demon Wastes, we'll head after the Stargazers. Esther goes to talk to Tork and says she won't be going with us to the ship. She and Tork hug.
 * We head back to the ship. Gettafix is standing around, Mogen and Dax are trying to install the crystal.
 * The rest of us head to Vesun's room. Kashani asks if Vesun or she should use the crystal ball, he volunteers. Vesun takes out the Stargazer amulet and begins scrying. Tork tries to support him with a gentle backrub. Eventually the ball shows a palatial building; Konstadin is wearing a mask covering his tentacles, and he looks relatively human; he's pacing in front of Jana, who is ignoring him. He sees an elven attendant, some kind of royal guard, wearing the emblem of Aundair. They say "Lord Darro will see you very soon. He's seeing some very important clients who have been a bit more trouble than anticipated." Konstadin complains and the attendant leaves, taken aback by his rudeness. Jana tells him to calm the fuck down, saying they need some protection, a letter, or the dwarves are going to kill them at the entrance. Vesun scores a 29 on his Will save, feeling like the image is slipping away; the picture starts getting blurry, then finally some force overwhelms him and the image snaps onto the Reef. Rigel the bard is sitting with Skaldi, who's reading a book--Rigel is teaching her how to read. Brother Xonak looks in, smiles, and closes the door, then it's replaced by a gaunt humanoid face of horrific anger. We hear a voice saying, "GIVE ME BACK MY CRYSTAL BALL!!"
 * Kashani is taken aback and asks if that was Konstadin; Vesun explains that it's likely the visage of Mordekainen the Fleshreaver (his name is engraved on the bottle of the crystal ball holder). Kashani says that it looked like the Stargazers were in the Aundarian palace in Thronehold. Before leaving, Kashani mentions "that gnomish friend of yours hid something in estate room" (in reference to Dax, because Cornerio is definitely not anyone's friend) - some kind of skull with gems in the eyes. Cornerio asks about the one he found, and she says it's similar.
 * Vikrit asks how we can contact the Gatekeepers, they don't really get mail. She says they can send an acolyte to pick up mail; she reminds us that the future Konstadin showed us is not immutable. Vikrit says goodbye and she leaves.
 * Dax comes in and asks for help moving the crystal. Sarienne goes with him.
 * Vikrit asks the rest of the party to look with him for the skull in estate room. We find a skull with amethyst crystals in the eyes hidden poorly in the big room. Dax explains that this is a Karrnathi device used to communicate long distance similar to Stones of Farspeech but operating at a much greater distance. Dax storms off to go attend to the ship's repairs.
 * Tork puts the skull under a blanket with him and presses play.
 * He hears a voice on the other end saying "Hello? This is Central Control, is anyone there?" They ask who it is, and ask someone who's authorized to press the button. Tork is unhelpful and covers it again. Vikrit tries talking to them. It turns out Central Control is the Dark Lantern command center. They ask what happened and whether the team had completed their mission of sounding out the political allegiances of the Gatekeepers. Vikrit says they need to leave the GKs alone.
 * They update us about what's happened while we were on the other plane: the Aundarian army is partially mobilizing, and in response, Thrane is fully mobilizing its armies. The Braelish crown is trying to intervene and hold a peace conference now in Thronehold. Negotiations are currently underway, and the Dark Lanterns want us to haul ass to Thronehold ASAP.
 * The Dark Lanterns give us a rundown of how to pass customs when we get to Thronehold: when we first arrive, boarded by customs, get the inspector alone:
 * Vesun remembers this phrase was used by the warforged we met in Khyber with him. Vikrit asks what to do if they aren't working for them, "Just make something up and try again."
 * Central Control then says that our main contact in Thronehold will be someone named Helmeth von Tappen. We are told to go to a building in the Karrnathi Quarter: the Reichministry of Colonial Affairs. CC then reveals that the Dark Lanterns have provided fake ID papers for each of the main party members. They are notarized by House Sivis, have written descriptions that match each of you, and all share the same residence: “The Continental, Oak Towers, Upper Northedge, Sharn”. We are all presumably from Breland and are listed as Brelish citizens.
 * Vikrit: Aziz
 * Cornerio: Benesarama “Benny” Singh
 * Mogen: Rowan Feldspar
 * Vesun: Sir Harold Worthington
 * Sarienne: Eleonore Comtois
 * Tork: Master Neville Welles
 * Vanesse: Nora Okin
 * Gettafix comes over and tells us we're ready to go, everything's secured. Vikrit asks if Vesun is OK, he says he'll need to go lie down. Vikrit asks about what happened in the cave, they eventually explain it; Vikrit is concerned they didn't bring the body outside until  says that for once in his life Cornerio did the right thing in destroying the brain.
 * We start taking off! Tork manages to right the ship as it tips blasting upward.