Session 28 - Fly, My Pretties, Fly!
In-game timeline: Marpenoth 26 - Marpenoth 27 DR1489
Our "Heroes" awake after a good night's rest, though Devon remains a little sluggish. They decide to head over to the other large, unexplored temple before dawn, in case it helps them get the jump on anyone else in the area.
And that was indeed the case. The opposite temple was one dedicated to Tyr, God of justice, and Drogan decided to open the door slightly and push Devon inside to do some exploring. The main hall was empty, but the temple was obviously occupied, as there was a burning brazier there. As Devon struggled to find somewhere to hide and stealth around, a half-elf appeared at one of the internal doors, demanding to know who Devon was, and what he was doing creeping around their 'home'.
As Devon came up with a story about being washed up on a beach, and trying to find a way off the island, the half-elf called two humans, who appeared at the opposite doors, and continued to ask for answers. He seemed to be disbelieving that Devon had managed to get past the skeleton dunes without any casualties. Devon called in the other three from outside and they tried to continue the pretence, despite the half-elf and his human colleagues looking more and more disbelieving. When Dwarrow cast a spell (Bless), that immediately triggered a fight, something that Drogan had, as usual, been looking forward to.
The fight did not last long, what with our "Heroes" being at full strength, and not in the mood for mercy. With Devon somehow managing to make the half-elf fall to his knees with laughter, he became easy pickings for the others to attack. He did manage to summon some spirit guardians around him, which would have caused Drogan (who as usual piled in for a melee attack straight away) some discomfort, especially as one of the humans managed to ensure Drogan was held in place, paralysed, but Alwaith managed to kill the half-elf before the guardians could actually attack. He also killed off the female human pretty quickly, causing the male human to surrender - for some reason he didn't fancy his chances alone against this kill-squad.
Surprisingly, our "Heroes" don't just cut his head off (though Drogan does busy himself cutting the heads off of the other two) and they decide instead to interrogate him, then tie him up and promise to come back to free him and take him off the island, should they survive. Should they not survive, or just forget him, then he will die of thirst in a couple of days. Which is more along the lines of what we have come to expect.
They do learn from the captured cleric that he is, or at least was, not one of the Clerics of Shar. He was sent to the island over a year ago from a group of Ilmater priests, who wanted to infiltrate the Clerics of Shar to find out what they were doing. He, Braydol, was so successful in his infiltration that he went a bit 'rogue' and started to buy in to the Clerics of Shar's teachings. He is apparently now ready to repent and go back to the benevolent path. Surprising what the threat of death will do to someone's beliefs.
They also learn that Haletris, the previous leader of the Clerics, who to the surprise of all the others Alwaith seemed to know something about, was killed during the pirate raid. And that Feandris, who seems to have taken over leadership, was planning on doing some kind of ritual, potentially to resurrect Haletris. All Braydol knew, or at least all that he said he knew, was that he thought the ritual had gone wrong, and something was released. He doesn’t know what, and they have been staying clear of the temple since then. This was a few days ago.
Meanwhile Devon, ignoring the conversation going on with Braydol, went nosing around the bedrooms. He emerged a little while later, laden with scrolls and healing potions, but feeling a little sick. It seems he opened a trapped box - in his haste he didn't check it first - and was poisoned.
Leaving Braydol tied up, the party head to the tower, having been previously warned that it contained Ozymandias, a wizard who was part of the Shar group, but has since gone somewhat mad. They also suspect that the harpies may be in the tower too, or at least visit it. They head in carefully. Or at least, as carefully as Drogan can manage.
Hearing some cackling laughter from above, the party retreat downstairs to quickly regroup and replan. The regrouping proves a bit of a downfall, as a Fireball is cast in the middle of them. As they try to dodge out the way, some succeeding, others failing, they spot the feet of Ozymandias running up the stairs. Unsurprisingly Drogan gives chase, with the others following a little way behind. Drogan reaches Ozymandias at the roof of the tower, seeing him shoo away the three harpies that were hovering around there, with a "Fly, my pretties, fly!" command. Drogan appeared just in time to be hit by a lightning bolt cast by the wizard. Luckily Drogan manages to dodge, and his decision to Rage on the way up proved beneficial too, reducing the damage taken to a minimum. Quick as a flash Drogan grapples the wizard and drags him to the edge of the tower. The others join at this point and Dwarrow, cool as a cucumber, casts silence around the wizard (catching himself and Drogan too) to prevent further wizardly castings.
The aura of silence also meant that Dwarrow and Drogan were unable to hear the song of the harpies, sung from a distance away where they were hiding behind cliffs and hills. Alwaith was unaffected, but Devon needed to summon all his resistance to ignore the charming song of all three harpies that were trying to lure him off the tower. Luckily he manage to resist all three, and their songs faded away.
Meanwhile Ozymandias, unable to cast anything, decides he is able to fly, and tries to grab Drogan and leap with him off of the tower. His own grapple failed, and Drogan decides to let him jump, which Ozymandias does, flapping his wings furiously as he discovers with some surprise that he is actually completely unable to fly and he crashes straight to the ground.
Remarkably he is still alive, though only just. As he begins to crawl away, bones broken and blood oozing from every orifice, Drogan fires an arrow into him from the top of the tower to silence his mad rantings.
Still nervous of the harpies, the party head back down into the body of the tower, away from the roof. Keen to press on, and feeling smug at his brushing off of the lightning bolt, and the quick demise of the mad wizard, Drogan ignored Devon's subtle hints that he'd like to just wait a short while until he recovered from his poisoning, and pushed open the door to the open walkway across the river and decided to dash over to the other side, presumably to avoid any harpy attacks. Unfortunately this meant he firstly left behind the rest of the group, and secondly ignored the crystal statues that lined the walkway. This proved a poor decision.
As he reached the other side, the two minotaur crystal statues that he had just reached came alive. They moved away, then turned and charged him, both managing to gore the barbarian severely. So severely, in fact, that Drogan fell, dying. So used to taking minimal damage from any hits, Drogan was unused to trying to save his own life, and, despite using the inspiration he had gained on the island, he failed his next two death saves and perma-death was threatening.
This was exacerbated by the fact that, in order to try to save Drogan, the rest of the group needed to get to him. Dwarrow ran across, but only reached halfway. Devon did the same. Dwarrow cast Spiritual Weapon to try to fend off the minotaurs, Devon missed on his ranged attempt to hit them. The minotaurs both rushed Dwarrowsteel, causing significant damage, requiring him to heal himself. Alwaith meanwhile fired off Eldritch Blasts from a distance, using his Hex to increase the damage where he could. Devon needed to try to rush past a minotaur to reach Drogan, getting hit in the process, but managing to get a healing potion down Drogan's neck before he completely bled out. Drogan necked another potion and re-entered the fray. In the meantime Alwaith had managed to down one of the minotaurs with his continual Eldritch Blasts. Not bad for a cantrip. The party then focussed on the other one, slowly knocking its health down. Just before they managed to kill it, the first one got up, resurrected by the chinz crystal within it. As the original minotaur was brought down by a group effort, the resurrected one managed to land a hefty swing of its greataxe on Drogan, taking him down again - twice in one battle! Alwaith brought that minotaur down (again) and Devon made sure neither downed creature could resurrect again by destroying the crystals within them. Dwarrow healed Drogan back to life and they all sat, wondering where it all went wrong.
Alwaith reminded them that the harpies were still around somewhere, and they retreated back into the tower, shutting the doors, to allow them to have a short rest, while they considered their next move. Though not before they had spent some time heaving the other two statues - crystal dragons who had so far not moved, over the bridge to smash in the water below.
And so we left our "Heroes", egos bolstered by two simple battles, then batted back down to earth by a tough one. Devon is still somewhat exhausted from the night before, and Drogan is now even more exhausted, not only being poor at his skills, but also moving considerably slower than usual.