Divine Group, Session 3

And so the child was named Kalinda. After a prolonged rest amidst the idyllic landscape, the group was ready to continue through the distant dungeons of Veluvia, which now seemed almost like a fictitious nightmare.

Finduilas was hard-pressed to leave her daughter, despite Victoria's insistence, though the living felt supreme bliss in the child's presence. Matthias seemed to take on a more fatherly role, inspiring Kali to reveal something personal for Sev. If all ended well, the Archdruid and his barbarian love would produce a half-goblin daughter named Sevanna, who Kalinda anxiously awaited and called her best friend. Sirocco also took some time out to apologize to Sev for his poor service as protector, vowing to give his life if it meant the Archdruid's survival. Sev graciously responded there was no need for such words.

Finduilas's egg hugged tightly in her small hands, Kalinda waved them luck and well wishes as the group stepped through the portal, slipping from nirvana into pandemonium...

Back in the depths of Bladen Wing, the group found themselves in a narrow hall leading to a thick, oak door shut tight. The way back was barricaded with debris, collapsed earlier in what could have been the party's demise. Matthias kicked it in, inadvertently avoiding a spike trap with his makeshift bridge. They found this room to be a modest guard room, consumed by spider webs, and housing two spider demons of similar breed as those in the storeroom, as well as an ink arachnid the size of a lion.

Though the battle seemed momentarily overwhelming to the skald, who had his face nearly swallowed by one of the demons, the group fought hard to earn an advantage. There were slip ups to be sure, Matthias cutting his own arm off then Finduilas attaching it backwards, or Victoria's summoning of black tentacles which entangled, besides herself, a poor, tiny Sev in bird form. However, once the sloth was summoned, the squid limbs dispelled, the fire of heaven and mage hands delivered, the group turned the tide.

The wrangler spider seemed particularly formidable, able to snatch Serren from down the call and tear him to waiting fangs in one blinding move. It clawed and fanged in a terrible onslaught, as was its face as it was charred and charred and charred again by Serren's bursts. The demons managed to escape into the next chamber, slamming the door behind them, and the group focused on finishing the wrangler and saving the mage, who in a desperate move shoved his arm down the creature's throat and detonated an explosive sphere of water.

When the room was clear, the group took a momentary breather, preparing for what Tasha marked as something huge waiting up ahead. A natural spider crawled up Sev's leg and into the edge of his ear, delivering a message from Anansiel herself. It seemed their return was no longer a secret...

Serren bid everyone step back while he summoned centipedes from the garbage heaps of Torment's derelict city of Torpor. They tore through the halls and burst into the next room, the first of which was met by four blindingly intense rays that left it nothing much more than a puddle. The subsequent battle required the skills of every magic user in the group to summon elementals, monstrous insects, and cosmic bane magics to overcome the demon engine. The Warden Spider, as the two escaped demons referred to it, was a construct of a massive spider with pistols for eight eyes, each of which fired a deadly beam. Wisely, the group themselves remained out of the room for the most part, allowing their conjurations to do the brunt.

During the battle, the group happened to notice a man trapped in the webbed, iron-barred cell across the room. Familiar to some, it was a starved, beaten, and mentally drained Gravant Marr, former lord marshal of the city and commander of the guard. It seemed he survived the invasion and had suffered as a prisoner of war for months under the demons.

When the Warden Spider finally succumbed, sparks and flashes marked it ready to explode at any second. Serren summoned a shaped wall of force which managed to contain the series of fire, ice, electrical and petrifying discharges, though the ceiling and floor of the containment blew energy into the upper levels and lower levels of the dungeon. The final ray also converted the force into stone, creating a hollow pillar where there was none before.

The group raced to Gravant's aid, who'd deficated himself in the face of what he thought certain death. No doubt his revolve was worn to almost nothing after being subjected to the hideous tortures so displayed by the devices lining the prison walls. Between Sev and Finduilas, the once-noble man was restored to much of his former glory, though still strained and looking a bit unbalanced.

A short dialogue followed, where Gravant explained that Ilpa (the girl who holds the Hoping) was alive and trapped somewhere in the dungeon. He also explained she was actually a weapon of the churches of good, a creature a thousand years or older, though appearing no more than a fourteen year old elf (comparatively to a 14 year old human girl). He also warned that the demons were constructing a network of portals to link the places they'd conquered for quick and easy troop movement, with a fourth portal rumored to be nearly finished in the lowest bowels.

He offered to guide the group through the basements, which he knew well, and fight alongside them deeper down if they could find his armor and weapons. Serren checked the other cells, finding the remains of the Wolfson, what pieces weren't eaten simply exploded... from the inside out.

Finduilas recalled they had passed a chest in the guard room, and another by a cot across the room, and she rushed to collect the items before striking ahead. Meanwhile, Victoria ventured down the hall, this one seemingly carved so recently as to have not been properly worked yet. It branched in several directions, with shadows and webs apparent everywhere...


Experience: 2400

Loot (2 chests, under a mattress, and in the ashes of the webs):
Armor: buckler +3 (arrow catching), 3 suits of +1 plate of minor cold resistance
Art: brass mug with tourmaline inlays (311 gp), fire opal pendant on a fine gold chain (1,220.6 gp), mithril brooch with serpentine stones (902.8 gp), oaken staff, shod with meteoric iron, and smoky quartz gems set in the head (1,174.1 gp), ornamental silver skullcap, with gold inlaid runes and an onyx set above the brow (1,098.2 gp), pewter beer stein, 12 inches tall, gold-plated iron frame and handle, with hunting scenes (108.8 gp), silver & gold lock and key (971.9 gp), silver and steel slave-girl outfit (91 gp), silver chalice with lapis lazuli gems (93.1 gp)
Coin: 5,475 gold pieces
Potion: Potion of Bull's Strength, Potion of Cat's Grace, Potion of Owl's Wisdom (all cl7)
Ring: Ring of Improved Swimming
Rod: Lesser Rod of Metamagic, Empower; Lesser Rod of Metamagic, Silent
Scroll:
Arcane: Stinking Cloud, Displacement, Fly (all l3, cl5)
Divine:
Wand: Fireball (l3, cl6, 21 charges), Summon Monster II (l2, cl3, 14 charges)
Weapon: flaming greatsword +3, dagger +3, great axe +2, hand crossbow +3 (detect undead at will), 3 javelins of lightning
Wondrous Item: Manual of Quickness of Action +1

Objectives:
1. Find Ilpa/the Hoping
2. Kill Anansiel
3. Disrupt the portal network and stop demon troop movement

NPCs: Kalinda, Daughter of the Sun; Gravant Marr, Lord Marshal of a Lost City

Monsters: Spider Demons, Wrangler Spider, Warden Spider

Places: Kalinda's Plane, Bladen Wing Dungeon: Guard Room, Prison