Abyss Modified Session 31: Golden Fire

Our adventure started where the last one left off, with a bit of change. Haskan, a dragonborn barbarian had been hired by the Companion and made his way to the fallen sky temple. He encountered a small child waving at him from an airship, that child pointed him to the entrance of a strange cave. Once within, Haskan was able to follow the trail of wreckage left in the party’s wake. Burnt and battered corpses, a broken zombie beholder, multiple bodies of strange masked skull creatures, and even a strange magical portal that lead to a hallway of sundered books and a torn blood-stained carpet. He could hear the sound of battle down in further chambers and rushed past empty display cases and a desiccated husk strapped to a table. within the next room he could see a group of adventurers killing a giant strange green sock puppet looking monster.

The party turned and saw a muscular dragonborn with weapons drawn and exchanged greetings. He teamed up with Drifting Cloud, Dinak, Buttercup, Orion, and Xanaphia to explore the strange fallen city. The group looked around for any signs of danger in the room they were in and could hear a much larger monster in the southern chamber just off the room they were in and there was a quieter door to the east. They looked into the south room and saw a phaerimm cracking open animal specimen jars and devouring the contents. They chose to lock that door and head quickly to the east.

They found themselves in a long hallway lined with doors every twenty feet. Dinak listened at the first door and listened very well, hearing something paging through a book. Drifting Cloud knocked on the door and the group heard a loud pop, as someone teleported. They looked in the room to see pages floating to the ground and could hear movement in the next room. Drifting Cloud called out that they just came to talk, they were just exploring the city and whatever the creature was called them intruders and with a snap of two skeletal fingers two large red furred gorillas studded with bones appeared at the end of the hallway. Combat was joined and one of the beasts teleported behind Dinak, the other was stopped by Orion and started trading blows. Dinak summoned a swarm of wolves to vex the demons, and it worked. Drifting Cloud cast a few spells to support his friends and the door behind him opened, the speaker from before was another one of the masked creatures and it attempted to paralyze the cat folk. Drifting Cloud was able to dodge and Haskan rushed over to start swinging away at the figure. Buttercup was able to dodge, fly in, stab, and retreat from the demons, sowing confusion. Xanaphia experimented with her spells, trying to find one the creatures would take the entire effect of, noting they had resistances. The Grave Flayer, the masked monster, stunned Haskan and closed the door, teleporting away. The two demons fell and the party rushed to another door, knocking it down and finding the grave flayer behind it. they destroyed him and broke his mask.

Ixxion, their imp companion, came out of hiding and told he party they did a good job, but would need to be careful, the next bit of hallway had an even bigger monster in it, it should be dead and is floating in formaldehyde. The party cracked the door and looked into the next room, and as expected a large glass tank just a bit smaller than the room was full to the brim with a terrible smelling liquid and within was a large whale sized Phaerimm. Discussions were had on the merits of breaking the tank, the dangers of fire in a small space with explosive liquids, would they drown, if the creature was still even dangerous, and should they just leave out the other door of the chamber, ignoring this room entirely. Drifting Cloud used his eyes of the grave and confirmed the creature was dead, but not undead. The group quickly left the chamber, finding themselves on a platform leading out into the larger part of the city, it had seemed they had only been in a small entryway complex.

They looked out at the city at large, once beautiful, now ruins with giant green phaerimm floating around in the upper reaches. It looked like the city had been encased in a large pyramid shaped shield of force, possibly an old mythal to protect it and many of the phaerimm were picking at the edges, well out of range to sense the party. Faintly across the city they could see a large structure with a faint golden glow. Ixxon took the party to the old armory in hopes of finding something to help fight against the monsters ahead. The building was wrecked. Inside the group took shelter from the wandering Phaerimm and the other demons and undead in the streets. the group found the place was well looted and everything seemed broken. Buttercup found a strange lever, once pulled revealed a spiral staircase under some of the wreckage. Drifting Cloud zoomed down and found a hidden chamber full of petrified humanoids, weapons still in their hands, cowering from whatever had been raiding the city as it fell. He checked with eyes of the grave again, finding they were not undead, and the group checked to see what they had. They found a strange thunder whip (a magic whip that lets the wielder cast thunder wave at third level from the point of impact once per day), a flame tongue dagger (adding 2d6 fire damage), and a longsword of the clouds (similar to flame tongue but lightning). Feeling somewhat better equipped the group made their way towards the golden light.

After a few close calls and quite a bit of sneaking the group found themselves at a large stairway leading up to a large temple complex. They ran up the stairs as fast as they could, watching the sky for any sign of attack. The temple was the only building in good repair, it seemed the magic of Mystra kept it safe. Directly across from the entrance they saw two angelic statues, one serpentine, one more dragon like, flanking a brazier of golden flame. The group approached and the statues greeted them, telling them the flame of Mystra needed to be rekindled, the magic keeping it going was weakened by the cities fall and would need the heart of a magical creature to gain its old strength. The group looked at Ixxon and he informed them his heart was way to small for that.

A large form loomed in the front entrance, a misshapen fomorian giant that had fused somewhat with one of the phaerimm, its leg seemed to be one of the creatures. The group leapt into action, Dinak summoning more wolves to slow it down. Orion charged in with Haskan and they attacked the giant before it could get further into the room. The party noticed a few of the spells seeming to have a lesser effect on the creature, it seemed to be absorbing some the essence of the magic. Ixxon hid behind the statues, Drifting Cloud summoned his guardian of the faith, a large Anubis and a flying khopesh and tore into the giant. The giant looked at Dinak, inflicting grievous internal damage and wrecking his focus, the giant also started absorbing the summoned wolves. Buttercup ran in, stabbed the giant in the face, and flew off again. The giant took a few swings at Orion, scoring large hits. Haskan let out a breath of lightning into the giant and Orion hit back, killing the monster. The party quickly removed its heart and threw it into the flames. Golden energy surged out in a dome, filling the inside of the chamber and extending outward. The group ran out of the temple and washed as the dome crushed the undead and the phaerimm into the walls, destroying them. The group was invited to attune with the flame, each gaining a bonus on fighting demons in the coming battles. (+4 damage per hit on demonic foes)

The guardians thanked the party and told them about the other temples across the land. The guardians also healed them of all afflictions and teleported them outside by their airship. They saw Ralph who told them it was not his fault. They looked at the blood red sky and could see behind the sun another green orb hanging in the sky. They noticed another imp on the railing of the ship, he said the Companion wanted them to know the time table had changed and that Demogorgon had taken over Waterdeep and they should hurry before all was too late. We ended there for the night.