We last left our heroes locked in desperate combat with the priests of the Temple of the Shadowed Veil and their summoned demon minions...
July 27, Saturday [day 14, cont.] - The desperate fight at the cliffside Temple of the Shadowed Veil continues....
Realizing that more and more demons would continue to spew out of the summoning portals, Thalmyr edged closer to the Blood Orb and threw the Ruby Knight's hammer directly into the swirling ball of energy. The hammer disappeared into the Orb, which began to shake and pulse wildly. One of the Temple priests up on the balcony screamed "what have you done?!" and turned and ran from the area. Demons fighting for the Traniskans seemed to pause in their actions, and then scattered in all directions, attacking everything in sight, indiscriminately, some running, some flying.
With one final great pulse, the Orb imploded in on itself. As it did, a handful of various kinds of demons materialized in the air around the stalagmite, including another of the fearsome Death Demons. They flew off in all directions, with the newly appeared Death Demon screeching and wheeling off to fly west toward the city of Traniska.
The party decided that their work was done and it was time to leave.
Grandar's Gratitude - Fleeing the Temple by boat, the party made their way back to the Tomb docks and quickly hurried through the tombs to get back to the ancient dwarven tomb area where they had first met Grandar by the pool.
Thalmyr threw a stone into the pool, and Grandar appeared. He seemed pleased. "You have done well. The task is done! The city of Traniska will now begin to destroy itself with the Masters no longer in control of the fiends they have brought into the world!".
In return for the service of the party, he granted them each favors. Malachy and Duncan had their darkvision made permanent. Badric was granted permanent access to the 4th level spell Death Ward.
Melior's oaken quarterstaff was made to be a Staff of the Adder. Niam's rapier was made to be a +1 magical weapon. Arian's draconic nature was focused such that his clawed left hand was imbued with the power to deal lightning damage in addition to the claws' normal damage. Thalymr's boon was not specified. All were branded with a small symbol of Grandar on their left cheek bone. This would only be visible to dwarves, and would show that each person marked thus was favored of Grandar.
Lastly, the party was given a stoppered brass flask. Removing the stopper and releasing the vapors inside would return anyone within that cloud of vapors to the chamber with Grandar's pool. But only once, and with no return trip...
Return to Linden - Grandar then asked if the characters wanted to go home. When they replied that they did, Grandar murmured a word of power, the world went dark for a moment, and the characters found themselves in the crowded common room of an inn. The Linden Inn, as it turned out. Duncan was straddling a chandelier. Badric was standing on a table in the middle of someone's dinner. Niam was sitting on someone's lap. The remainder of the party was scattered around the room.
Hearing the commotion, Raglin, the proprietor, bustled into the common room and began scolding the group, only to realize it was this band of regular guests of the inn. Seeing them filthy (and smelly), he quickly hustled them upstairs to get bathed and into clean clothes. He then had them come down to a hot dinner in a private room behind the common room.
While eating a bowl of the Inn's famous spicy mushroom stew, Niam noticed that the spicy mushroom was in fact strips of Darkfire mushroom, an Underdark mushroom that they had just become familiar with, and which only grew deep underground (as far as he knew).
When questioned, Raglin was evasive, saying that only business partners got to know all his secrets.
A Business Deal, The Linden Inn basements, and a secret meeting - The group decided to invest 300 GP in the Inn, for which they would get a private suite in the attic area of the third floor. The money would be used for repairs and updates to better compete with the newer (and now nicer) Wagon Wheel Inn across the square.
Raglin then took them through his office and down a back staircase into a separate part of the old basements, some of which he indicated were the old basements of Lindenfell Keep. A locked door led to the sewers under the town.
A few passages and stairs down led into a large natural chamber. This chamber held a few interesting things. One was a robust crop of Darkfire mushrooms that Raglin cultivated personally. The other thing was a very old looking door, locked, and covered with arcane runes. The door itself had been blocked in behind a wall of stout iron bars. Raglin said that his father had never been able to open the door, and had never brought in a mage to try to open it for him. His father was the one who built the iron cage to block the door from the inside. Raglin had likewise left the door alone for fear of what might be behind it.
Pondering this information, the party went back upstairs. They were walking down a back hallway toward the common room when the door to another private room opened, and a serving girl came out bearing a tray of dirty dishes. A familiar voice in the room said "well that's the plan then". Characters standing closest to the door saw Fulcher of Alaron and Cyric Graymantle smiling and shaking hands. This was odd, as they believed these two to be enemies...
Next - Cyric and Fulcher...
GM Commentary - Looking back, the remainder of this combat was a blur. Lots of good guys. Lots of bad guys. Lots of spells and lots of dice rolling. As noted in prior session notes, it felt like kind of a relief to get out of the Underdark and be able to start something new...
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