==Roll Call==
Childe Raymonde, Githyanki Paladin (Doty)
Bell, Kenku Cleric (CJ)
Blynce, Human-hybrid Fighter (Eric)
Vaal, Eladrin Rogue (Tim)
Bumi, Goblin Wizard (Matt)
Sheeza, Aasimir Wizard (Joanna)
Senzei, Human Monk (Frank)
To the Sanctuary of Albahith, Jigow Township
Greetings to the Masters of the Pilgrims, and hail to The Luxon:
Mission Report from Childe Raymonde (Part 26)
My apologies, O masters, but my memory is somewhat fragmentary of what occured once we went down the tunnel. I recall the following, but am not quite sure what it all means….
Order Symbol
1st Spider (Lolth)
2nd Bleeding Eye (Gruumsh)
3rd Jagged Spiral (Tharizdun)
4th Trio of Arms (Torog)
…The awful wailing noise gets even louder as you approach this chamber. A beam of light from above illuminates a statue in the middle of the room. The statue, made of pale marble, is shaped like a man on his knees, arms pinioned behind his back, trussed up in chains that cut into his skin. Hooks line the corners of the figure’s mouth, pulling his lips away from his teeth, and smaller barbs encircle his eyes, holding the eyelids open. All the while, hideous noise comes out of the statue’s open mouth—yet still, its expression is one of ecstasy. A double door made of iron is set into the statue’s chest; these surfaces have no handles.
A triangle, each side forty feet long, is carved into the floor around the statue, surrounding it. At each of the triangle’s points, a stone arm juts up from the floor with its hand outstretched….
…The passage defies reality, distorting any sense of direction as it twists and turns, making its way through the earth to another place deep inside the Betrayers’ Rise. The passage ends on the east side of a circular chamber. Its walls are covered with softly glowing amber-colored crystals that fill a crater at the room’s center. At the bottom of the crater sits an altar made of the same crystal….
…A spectral figure blossoms forth from the amulet. This warrior, who called himself Alyxian in your previous vision, looks up at you with a faint smile and says, “You came… you followed… you can find me.” The crystals around you glow brightly, and your vision goes white. Then you see a company of armored soldiers, Alyxian among them, marching into the Betrayers’ Rise. Their expressions are grim. Though they do not speak, you can tell that none of them expects to come home.
The vision shifts again, and everyone in the company of soldiers is dead except for Alyxian, who continues to fight while surrounded by the corpses of mortals and demons. He is hurled across the battlefield by the claws of a gorilla-like demon. The scene blurs, and he falls to his knees, pleading, before a simple wooden altar that bears the holy symbol of Avandra. At the end of his prayer, he’s lifted to his feet by a tall young woman with light brown skin and flowing black hair.
A foreboding voice cuts through this scene of divine intervention, and Alyxian freezes. “The Change Bringer and a mortal,” the voice intones. “What brings you into my sacred, devouring darkness? Even if you save him, Change Bringer, he will suffer. He will die. He will be forgotten. All that he has worked to save will crumble and be devoured by worms. Why invite further suffering? Let go. Give in. All is futile in the end, so why…”
As the voice trails off, Alyxian turns to face you and falls to his knees in tears. The scenery shifts, and the forsaken warrior is now underwater, amid the ruins of a sunken city. “The Crawling King spoke true,” he mutters. “All was futile. All has been forgotten… and I am lost in darkness. Please, help me set it right.”….
We were down at the bottom of a pit, and we saw our erstwhile rivals from the Jigow festival at the top!
They demanded the jewel. We dithered. Eventually, they grew impatient and began trying to kill us with arrows. Vaal's servant began to climb out of the pit to face our attackers, and we noted that not all the rivals were joining in the attack.
The battle started turning in our favor, and Aloysia (who seemed to be employing our rivals), used a scroll to cast Earthquake! But that seemed to hurt our rivals as much as ourselves, and Aloysia was separated from us all by a rockfall. Combat ended and an uneasy truce began.
They explained that Aloysia wanted the jewel, and further said that Aloysia thought we were misguided in "wanting to free Alyxian." For some reason, their leader Ayo was over-the-top hostile to us, which precipitated the battle. They had no explanation for that. In fact, there was some discussion as to whether or not anything was truly different with her.
Our rivals were quite dissatisfied; they were told that this would be "easy," that we would "see reason" and surrender the crystal -- not that they tried reason. Ayo had immediately resorted to dire threats.
The others did confirm that Ayo seemed a bit different -- and they told the story of a vision they saw, markedly different than the one we saw.
Our attention was drawn to Ayo's spear -- it seemed to be closely aligned to Gruumsh. In fact, this might be an "Arm of the Betrayers" endowed with great malevolent power. "Ruin's Wake" -- Gruumsh being The Ruiner -- the legends say that the Arm (this spear) is intelligent.
Ayo was so disturbed her own team-mates tied her up. We discussed what to do but decided first to escape this cave. We found a spent teleportation tablet -- no doubt left by Aloycia.