Session 26

Recap:

- Resumed in the fight with the giant scorpion and dretches
- Sick double kill from Aurelia spraying blood and guts on Balsam and Skraps
- Tzon had a bachelor pad at one point. Big Billy the Strongman was killed during the attack on the circus
- We get to the basement and see a bunch of bodies and stuff and things for their processing
- See a cutie little Quasit and then some big scary centaur demons BATTLE
- Skraps runs away from the battle but says he isnt but then runs straight into a big scary demon who drops him
- Cassandra gets him up. Aurelia and Lily discuss roasting Skraps but also Aurelia says Balsam looks heroic >/////<
- We hear a blood curdling scream "I wanna go to that" - Balsam
- Find a statue that's clearly missing the Helm of Tormsight. Also some cool bone art
- Go into a room with a portal, a puddle, and bodies. Also Ravengard screaming in terror and pain and gripping his helm of tormsighted head
- Also in the room is a Glabrezu and a couple of Babau. The glabrezu confuses Balsam, Cassandra, Tzon, and Gideon
- "BAPHOMET I SEE YOU!"- Ravengard
- Tzon starts running directly towards the portal but shakes off his confusion before leaping in

• Aurelia thinks that the best option to get this helm off of Ravenguard is to bring him back to a Priest(ess) of Torm. She then stabs Grabbyezu twice. And then a slashy slash as well
• The Glabrezu grabs Skraps, tries and fails to squeeze Aurelia, and then casts power word stun on Gideon
• Lilith casts Darkness that encompasses everyone but Tzon and herself (and also bean I guess)
• Baby flares heat metal on Cassandra which takes her down. Skraps hears a sizzling sound as her body hits the ground. Claw on Skraps twice he also goes down.
• Bambino moves up on Tzon and grapples him and then drag him through the portal. Tzon sees a long long hall and can't see a portal behind him. There is a T in one direction, and an L in the other. Bambino claws Tzon. Deflect no damage
• Ravengard continues to scream
• Gideon is stunned.
• Tzon heals himself a lil and then punches Bambino a couple times throwing a stun on one which breaks the grapple. He runs towards the T he sees that its 60 feet in either direction with a bunch of turns and such along the way. He then turns so he is out of sight if anyone comes through the portal
• Skraps is down. Deathsave crit so he pops up with 1 hp. He drinks a potion and then tries to stab Grabby, but misses. "QUICK SOMEONE GET CASS SHE'S DOWN! I CAN HEAR THE BUBBLING!"
• Cassandra is down. She stares into the void. Darkness. Something she's familiar with. At first, she hears a feminine voice "ah. oblivion. refreshing is it not?" cass responds, "it is a relief" then a much more masculine voice "the darkness does not want you yet. I can return you to your task. All you have to do is one favor. your friends need you. accept." "the problem is I am in a monogamous relationship with Shar"- cass "Then die"- man "very good Cassandra"- feminine
• Balsam doesn't move and makes an attack at Lily, minimum damage. Darkness drops! Confusion drops!
• Aurelia psychically moves Cassandra behind Lily. And then drinks a potion.
• Grabby squeezes Aurelia. An attempted squeeze and fail on Skraps. A Pummel on Skraps, barely still up. He moves towards the portal with Aurelia and Skraps. Skraps is half stuffed through the portal. He can see but can't see Tzon or Bambino.
• Lily leans down and whispers to Cassandra "Come back to us" and feeds her a potion of healing. bringing her up
• Baby flares heat metal again. And then a claw on Lily which hits. And another on Balsam which also hits
• Bambino doesn't do anything that we can see
• Ravengard screams some more
• Gideon is stunned
• Tzon peers around the corner and doesn't see Bambino. Also doesn't see Skraps (which he wouldn't expect anyway) also no ceiling. He throws a dagger as hard as he can straight up to see if it comes back down. It doesn't. Can't see anyway to climb up the walls. He begins to hear the clopping of hooves down a hallway. He takes off his weight bands and step of the winds and starts to ping-pong his way up the walls. As he crests towards the top, and feels gravity shift and all of a sudden a floor comes into view. He begins to fall towards the new floor. He lands a little hard but not too bad. He now sees Skraps' head peeking through a portal. He runs straight at Skraps and jumps to try to push him back through the portal. He succeeds and pushes the whole crew back 5 feet, and Tzon falls back through. As he looks over his shoulder beforeso, he sees a massive fleet of fiendish minotaurs rounding a corner. "GET THE GUY GO WE GOTTA GET OUTTA HERE!"
• Skraps drinks another potion. And chucks a blade at Grabby which misses. but Cass makes it hit actually. It didn't hurt this time at all. It just like redirected the blade.
• Cassandra yells out "Balsam!" and out from around her darkness spreads out, (but like you can still see through it) its spirit guardians. "Yeah whatsup?" she then gets on her hands and knees and spits up some water
• Balsam notices there's no Der'ik and throws Cassandra onto Bean. Adrenaline Rush! Run over to Ravenguard picking him up taking a beat to savor the pain and running back to the doorway ready to put him on Bean as well. Then they swing their mace at Baby adding on a Divine Smite.
• Aurelia stabs Grabby some more. Psionic dmg added as well. Miss with the slash.
• Grabby throws Skraps at the wall who flips around and stops himself with his feets. Grabby moves over to pick up Tzon which he does. Squeeze on Aurelia. CRIT. She throws up a Protective Field. Pummel Aurelia.
• Lily commands Baby to grovel in front of her.
• Baby grovels
• Ravengard screams
• Gideon finally breaks stun.
• Tzon punches Grabby add a stun on there. Which succeeds!!!! more punches! Flurry of Blows! EVEN MORE PUNCHES!!!!!! all land! Tzon runs over to the group. "Theres a lot of monsters coming probably wanna leave!" Gideon says "You said you'd help!"
• Skraps throws a blade at Grabby. CRIT!!! SNEAK ATTACK! 43 points of damage!! WOOOOO!!! "Time to strike team! Guilty Pleasures assemble!" bonus blade also hits! He runs and hides in the other room. Aurelia teases him.
• Cassandra's spirit guardians lash out at Baby. Balsam yells to Cassandra to summon Der'ik and take Ravenguard on Bean and run! She can't though for like an hour. soooo she drops spirit guardians and casts Beacon of Hope. Still harrowed from her experience, she stumbles off the horse and starts stumbling her way towards Aurelia.
• Balsam sighs at Cassandra getting off the horse and then they run towards Grabby jumping up slamming their mace down onto it's face and then side swiping crushing its face in with divine energy collapsing it in killing him. Tempies to both Tzon and Aurelia.
• Aurelia runs over to Baby stabbing him twice and then missing with the scimitar
• Lily fills the air with a haunting musical sound and casts Toll of the Dead on Baby who saves
• Baby, bloody and battered with its leader seemingly defeated, it disengages and runs back towards the portal in an attempt to escape
• Ravengard sceams
• Gideon looks around at everyone who is injured (he's completely unharmed) and he fists Baby but misses with one, hits with another. He pops Baby's head clean off.

combat over

Tzon realizes the minotaurs should have come through by now. Gideon says that Ravengard sees Baphomet, the demon lord of labrynths. The minotaurs could be lost. Gideon says that to close it we probably need to get the helm off of Ravengard. Cassandra tells us to get in the beacon and we all start healing for max as best as possible.

We know a cleric of torm. Gideon holds the line as we head back out. Ravengard and cassandra being on bean. Last thing we hear before we crest the stairs, is the sound of battle as Gideon holds the door.

We discuss what went wrong. We briefly discuss Lily's boobs as well. As we get into the streets of Elturel we continue to hear battle and there is an earthquake. We all succeed. As we've pulled Ravengard from the portal his screams have gotten less. He's still not conscious though

We make our way back to High Hall and dont see any fiends patrolling. We head downstairs. The barricade is back up. Aurelia asks them to let us back in and that we have Ravengard with us. I poke him with my mace to make him scream. Aurelia is lost for words about me hurting him. They let us in. We ask Faeria (sp?) to help us get this helm off.

Faeria holds on either side of his head and looks into his eyes and he is mumbling and is seemingly swapping between the language of demons and of angels. none of us understand it. "oh this is bad" Faeria says. "we must prepare the ritual of returning" The ritual is done at the altar of torm which must be cleansed. She asks for a flask. Lily chugs a bottle of wine and hands the empty over. It must be filled with holy water and brought to the altar. She asks for someone trained in religion. Aurelia raises her hand. She asks that Aurelia recites a specific prayer and cover the altar with holy water.

She asks for a symbol of courage and self-sacrifice. I offer up Travick's ashes.

Aurelia heads to the room with the altar. It's been desecrated with sinew and intestines. She takes the bottle of holy water and washes it over the altar. She then recites the prayer, initially failing, but then tactical minds and closes her eyes and draws upon the energy of the room which helps her succeed. She kneels before the altar and recites it perfectly. She watches as Torm's power washes over the altar and washes away the desecration. For the first time religion has been useful and not just a scholarly thing for her. She heads back downstairs

Faeria tells us she has never attempted this ritual before. She needs us to be ready to step in to help if there are more evil forces than she can handle.