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  1. Quests

For Blood and Brotherhood

Personal Mission

Session 1

One evening, Xirk had a troubled dream that depicted scenes from his dark past: of his time as the Sand Stainer, staining the sands with blood just as his soul had been stained the same. He could feel something within him pointing south, to the sands of his homelands, to settle things and set things right. It was not quite a voice, but he could sense the presence guiding him all the same. Xirk awoke and knew what he had to do, as he gathered friends and allies he had been in his adventures in Hawthorne: Avascara, Conner, Eirsai, and Ten Zhu. He explained to them the details of his past: of his time growing up in the wars of Calimshan, of joining the Glass Hands company controlled by the genie “Rabb al’Jahar,” and how he and his brothers in arms had committed darker and darker deeds as time passed until at last Xirk’s sins caught up with him and he was left for dead on the battlefield. Xirk expressed a desire to return to Calimshan to try to set things right, to deal with the genie that exerted its malign influence on him and others, and in the hopes of freeing his former comrades from the shackles of servitude in the hopes he could attain some measure of atonement.
 
The party considered their options: it was summer time now, and the desert sands of Calimshan this time of year could be a harsh and unforgiving place. Xirk laid out an old map of Calimshan he still had, and recalled what he could of the desert country. After discussion and after reviewing what Xirk recalled of the Glass Hands and of Calimshan, the party decided they would first head to Calimport to do further research and to ask around for more information on the Glass Hands. They stocked and prepared provisions for their journey, as well as obtaining armor and clothing more suited to the intense heat. There was still the question of actually getting to Calimport: it was over 1000 miles away from Hawthorne, and the party did not have ready access to teleportation magic.
 
The party ended up contacting Theodore, a noted platinum ranked druid of repute, for transport to Port Nyanzaru in Chult. After taking a day off, Theodore cast a spell of wind walk upon them as they began to make their way towards Calimport. Theodore elected to take a well-deserved vacation in Chult in the meanwhile. The party flew across the Shining Sea, but fell short of their intended destination, ending up by the coast some distance west of Calimport. They elected to take shelter for the evening. As Xirk went to sleep, he found himself tormented by and contemplating both his past and what would happen in his future. There were choices he had yet to take, his path had yet to be decided. The next day, the party headed out, moving eastward along the coast. Many had magic at their disposal to inure themselves against the heat, but Ten Zhu and Warrior, Xirk’s mastiff, had to endure with their own natural fortitude. Xirk had the clever idea of giving Warrior an eversmoking bottle to grant him some measure of protection from the heat. The party soon found themselves walking along an elevated area towards the cliffside, and moved further inland. As they did, after a couple of hours of walking, they found a strange sight: a massive, beached whale!
 
Just how it had gotten so far inland was mysterious, and the creature’s belly seemed to have been ripped open. The party went to examine it, but as Xirk jumped on top of it, the noxious odors and other gases which had been building up inside the creature released, catching all but Warrior in its poisonous stench. After that passed, further examination was unable to determine just how long the creature had been dead, but given that most of its body was still intact and it had been left out in the desert heat, it probably had been days at most, if even that.

The party continued along, and as they traveled along the cliffside, Conner caught sight of the possible culprits behind the beached whale: a quartet of massive rocs! He swiftly alerted the party to their presence, and Ten Zhu made a swift tactical decision to take the party out of sight by teleporting them nearly a mile inland and away with a phantom caravan. The party ended up by a desert mesa, far enough away to escape detection. With the possible encounter with the titanic avians behind them, the party continued along, now beginning to move along the desert dunes, which proved difficult for all but Xirk to manage. As they did so, at some point along their journey, the temperature in the area seemed to grow only more intense before it spiked at an alarmingly rate, with sand itself beginning to glass over around them. The area had become overcome with Memnon’s Crackle, as Xirk had warned before.
 
At the same time, fiery tears in space began to appear around them, and entities made of pure fire poured out, as several fire elementals assaulted them! Unfortunately, the initial wave of heat proved too much for Warrior to handle, and the mastiff expired, as he had not received the benefits of the protective spells the party had cast at the day’s beginning. The fire elementals swarmed the party, setting several alight as the party began to swiftly retaliate. Conner invoked Eilistraee’s blessing upon the party, while. Ten Zhu erected a resonating wall of thunder that repelled a fire elemental.

Unfortunately, Ten Zhu was the target of several of the elementals and lost concentration on the effect. Eirsai and her companion Scrapheap made for an effective combination of shotgun blasts and force-rending strikes, with Xirk striking out with his fiery maul charged with divine energy, tearing one of the elementals apart. However, in the end, Avascara elected not to draw upon her wellspring of divine anger but instead invoke a spell of sleet storm from a shard of ice she had been gifted, blanketing the area around her in a dense rain. The rain washed away the flames upon the party… and also extinguished the flames of the fire elementals around them instantly as well! However, before she and the rest of the party could celebrate for too long, a new pair of fiery creatures emerged, these ones far larger than the fire elementals from before. The water failed to make contact with their flames, evaporating before it could do so. The party prepared themselves to do battle with this new set of adversaries, and figure out just how they would get out of the situation...
 
 
Session 2
 
The party was confronted with the two blaze elementals which came out of portals to the Elemental Plane of Fire, their fiery forms seeming to evaporate the water of Avascara’s sleet storm before it could touch them. Avascara let go of the spell as the elementals surged through the party, setting several alight, and it seemed that their touch could spread from one to another. Before long nearly the entire party was ablaze as they tried to bring down the powerful elemental creatures. Even as one was felled, it burst apart in a white-nova of flame that enveloped the party. In the end, Xirk felled the final blaze elemental with an almighty strike from his maul, knocking himself unconscious in the process of doing so. Avascara put out the flame on him and he was roused as the party began to prepare to swiftly escape from the area overcome with Memnon’s Crackle. Ten Zhu was able to revive Warrior, the mastiff having perished before, and the group retreated away from the area as they saw the fire continue to blaze. From there, the party continued further east.
 
After another hour of walking, they began to see the start of a desert road, and in the distance, Conner could see a caravan approaching them. The party decided to see what the group was about, and they found a caravan of camels, carts, and supplies that was outfitted with a variety of guards and led by a colorfully dressed man with a turban that introduced himself as Jabal yn Hassan el Rashad, owner and proprietor of “Rashad’s Rarities.”
 
The two groups introduced each other, with Jabal offering the party a chance to browse the wares he had on offer. Two items in Jabal’s stock caught the party’s interest: a potion of invulnerability and a wooden serpentine owl. The party haggled back and forth with Jabal, with Xirk and others offering both gold and magic items in exchange for the items in question. Avascara insinuated to Jabal that there would be consequences if he was to cheat them, and Jabal rebuffed her in kind. In the end, the transaction was completed. After the bartering had been completed, the party elected to have a small desert picnic with Jabal on the side of the road. Conner had cast a spell of create food and water, and the party took the time to have a conversation at length with Jabal, with Xirk inquiring what Jabal knew of the Glass Hands. Jabal talked of how the revolution that left Calimshan in a state of political and cultural uncertainty, and the benefactor of the Glass Hands was not looked upon kindly by most due to the issues that had been had with the genies of Calimshan.
 
That said, Jabal said that the Glass Hands did have a presence in Calimport still as a mercenary company, with holdings in the Trade Ward, with one known as “Lavinia” being the contact present. Xirk thanked Jabal for the conversation and the trades, and the two groups departed, with Jabal heading west along the Coast Road.
 
The party decided to take an extended respite by the road, looking to continue travelling during the twilight hours to try to find a medium between the heat of the day and the chill of the night. As Jabal had told them, they were only about 3 or 4 hours of travel away from Calimport. As they took up position to rest up and resume travelling, it was 4 hours on that Conner noticed a strange sight in the distance: riders out in the sands, chasing what appeared to be a pair of human children! More people fleeing could be seen, as an entire pack of riders became visible. Conner alerted the party, and Xirk immediately what they were dealing with: slavers. The party decided to interfere in the affair, taking positions before Ten Zhu teleported them into the fray, but a mere twenty feet behind the slavers. Catching them by surprise, the party unleashed a storm of spells and steel, cutting down and precisely blasting apart several in the group before they could react.
 
The party noticed that a number of the riders were apparently hobgoblins, leading a group of human riders. As the surviving members of the slavers recovered from the initial foray, they retaliated swiftly, with a pair riding up towards Ten Zhu and Conner to cut them off and strike them down, while another group surrounded Avascara, intent on cutting her down, and yet another group began to approach Eirsai. The party was caught in the thick of battle, and just which way the tides would turn was yet to be determined…
 
Session 3
 
The party was caught in the thick of battle, with Ten Zhu down for the count and other members of the party surrounded. However, Ten Zhu summoned his reserve of will to rise back to his feet, enacting a swift phantom caravan to spirit the party away into a more tactically advantageous position. Not long after, Xirk and Avascara charged into the fray, striking at the warlord with fury, beating him down to the point where Avascara was left holding Kin-no-Yuki against the warlord’s throat and demanding that he tell his men to stand down.
 
The warlord was forced to submit, and the surviving slavers fled away into the sands, disappearing from sight. The quarry the slavers had been after were running out onto the dunes, but Xirk managed to convince them to come back, and that the party was friendly and willing to aid them. Members of the party began to loot through the bodies while others saw to the civilians as the warlord was being secured. There were six Calishites in total, all humans: two young boys named Mujad and Rushdie; Ibrhim and Surya, an elderly couple; Dastan, a portly middle aged man, and Zainab, a young woman.
 
Looting the bodies revealed a variety of largely mundane gear which were recoverable, mostly weapons and adventuring gear, though there was a set of chainmail that had survived the party’s assault. The warlord’s set of plate armor had been badly damaged, but was still intact, and a detect magic by Conner revealed that both it and the chainmail were magical in nature.
 
As for the warlord, the party contemplated just what to do with them. Xirk proposed that they ask for information regarding Calimport and other forces in the region in exchanging for letting him go freely. The warlord was a powerfully built hobgoblin, with a brand on his upper back that depicted a crossed sword and axe: as the party learned, the holy symbol of the hobgoblin deity of war and authority, Nomog-Geaya. The party tried to converse with the warlord, but he was recalcitrant to offer information, saying he wouldn’t sell out his own. Members of the party contemplated the use of torture to ply information from the hobgoblin, and Ten Zhu elected to walk away instead of participating in such proceedings.
 
As the party determined, physical torture was unlikely to break this individual, and torture was generally not the most reliable interrogation tactic. As Avascara recalled, more reliable coercive methods used back home tended to involve more long term means to have a hold over another person, such as threats to an individual’s loved ones, blackmail, or so forth. The threat of death or pain would not be a fruitful tactic to employ here: but perhaps threats to the prideful hobgoblin’s honor would be.

The party then proceeded to negotiate with the hobgoblin at length, using a mixture of threats and promises until they convinced him to speak in exchange for his freedom at Calimport. Xirk asked what the hobgoblin knew of the situation in Calimport. The hobgoblin painted a picture of a Calimport that had, in spite of the ideals of the Revolution which had freed Calimshan from the yoke of servitude to the genies and genasi, had reverted back to a slave-based society. The hobgoblin claimed to work for “Undazar,” and that he had taken advantage of the opportunity to provide services to the city in the acquisition and capture of slaves, among other activities. The hobgoblin described that each ward of the city was functionally a city-state onto itself with its own regulations. The syl-pasha held nominal control, but in truth the vizars and pashas of the different wards and guilds commanded the true power in the city, each with their own agendas.
 
When asked about the Glass Hands, the hobgoblin said that they still had a presence in the city in the Trade Ward, with Lavinia heading the guild hall, and he and other hobgoblins and slavers had done business with the Glass Hands before. In fact, some of the humans the party had fought and slain had been members of the Glass Hands themselves. The ward ruler of the Trade Ward was known as "Zasheir" according to the hobgoblin. As for Rabb al’Jahar, according to the hobgoblin, the dao was dead.
 
This claim angered Avascara, and she broke the hobgoblin’s nose, claiming that he lied. He was incensed by the apparent breach in the party’s word to not harm him, and that his honor was affronted by the claim that he had lied in spite of the deal that had been made. Xirk attempted to placate him by trying to punch Avascara’s face instead. He missed, and the two got into a brief scuffle that was broken up. The hobgoblin found this hilarious and laughed uproariously as Avascara stalked away, angry. Xirk and the others turned back to listening to the hobgoblin, who explained that, as far as the stories went, there had been some disgruntled Ilmaterites who hadn’t forgotten what Rabb al’Jahar and other genies of his ilk had done, and that they had hunted down and finished off the dao once and for all.
 
The party contemplated what the hobgoblin said, as the conversation came to end. They wondered if genies could be truly slain, or if they reformed similar to beings of the Outer Planes, and if Rabb al’Jahar was truly dead, or simply a rumor or story? Had Xirk come all the way to Calimshan for nothing? The party began to set out on the road once more, making their way towards Calimport, now with the hobgoblin in tow along with several Calishites.
 
The party continued along the Coast Trail before they saw a curious sight in the distance parallel to the Coast Trail: what seemed to be the ruins of some kind of an ancient city, buried partially in the sand. The party came to realize that it was perhaps an ancient fortress once used by the forces of Calim millenia, long since abandoned. The party elected to leave it be for now, with Ten Zhu opening a nomadic gate to accelerate the party’s progress towards Calimport. After some time of continuing along the Coast Trail, the party stopped for a brief water break.
 
Xirk took it as an opportunity to have a private talk with Ten Zhu. Ten Zhu expressed his dismay over how torture had seemed to be the first instinct the party had gone to, but Xirk noted that in the end, that was not what had happened. He confessed being somewhat troubled by the events of the day, of how easy it had been to give into his fury and slip into that bloodthirsty mindset. Ten Zhu reassured Xirk, saying that he had made great strides in the time he had come to know him. Xirk wondered of what the hobgoblin had said of Rabb al’Jahar’s fate, if he had truly perished, or if an extraplanar being such as he could truly die as others did. Regardless, Xirk saw that there was a value to at least freeing his former comrades from what had bound them, perhaps earning a measure of redemption for himself.
 
He also recalled what he had of Lavinia: that she had been an experienced member of the Glass Hands when he had been there, that she favored nimble weapons like the scimitar, and that she and Xirk had had a sense of respect and trust for each other as comrades in arms. He wondered what it would be like if he were to come face to face with her once more.

Ten Zhu however cautioned Xirk of the trials and tribulations ahead, and of the difficult choices that may need to be made, possibly even having to slay some of his former comrades. As he said, Xirk was a soldier, and death was a part of matters such as these. Xirk replied that he didn’t desire to be a soldier any longer—it was why he had come back to Calimshan in the first place, and he hoped that there was an opportunity for a better path. The two parted on that, leaving Xirk with much to consider. Xirk then went to talk with Avascara, who had remained silent and off by herself since the altercation.
 
He asked her to talk, and she acquiesced. He explained to her why he had tried to punch her, that Avascara’s actions had put what the party had worked for into jeopardy. Avascara replied that she had perceived it as an affront against Xirk, essentially a mark of dishonor in claiming something that would turn what they had worked for into something meaningless. Xirk replied that it had been Avascara’s actions that had inadvertently dishonored he, given the promise they had given to the hobgoblin. He said that Avascara didn’t need to act in such a way or hold herself at a distance as he empathized her mindset, something he had often occupied himself. He hadn’t gathered those he had for this task idly, and he considered her and the others family. The words gave Avascara pause, at the concept of being considered family by Xirk.
 
Xirk went on to say that perhaps in the future, he would help to put to right Avascara’s own dark past as well. Avascara noted that in her case, there was a dragon that cast a great shadow, and the two parted, with Avascara’s contemplating Xirk’s acknowledgment of her as someone he held dear and considered to be family.

The party continued on the Coast Trail, walking further east as the evening had come. A few in the party were beginning to grow tired from the long day’s journey, and they passed by a few huts and shanties along the path to the city. Eventually, they saw lights in the distance: the exterior of Calimport! As the party came closer, they could see the Shackles Ward of Calimport, a more run-down area of the city and exposed to the desert environs as it lacked a true wall to enclose it, also lacking many walls to enclose the sabbans or drudachs that comprised it.
 
The party and the hobgoblin went their separate ways, both intending to hopefully never run across each other, and the Calishities the party rescued departed as well. Xirk gave a number of them gold, which they took in gratitude, as the majority of them had come from the Shackles Ward and apparently intended to return to the muzad if they could. Dastan however was not in such luck: he didn’t believe he’d get a warm welcome in Calimport. Xirk advised he purchase a boat ride to Hawthorne, and Dastan took the coin, contemplating the offer as he began to make his way to the docks. It was late at night, and the party needed to find a place to rest. They considered finding an inn at the Faiths Ward, due to the more run down nature of the Shackles Ward, but as the party began to walk, several found themselves on the verge of falling asleep where they stood. They made their way to the nearest inn, Katar’s High, located within what seemed to be the nicest sabban in the Shackles Ward.

Katar’s High was a large two story building that sprawled more so than it towered, with a partial minaret. The party saw a full crowd inside, with an assortment of patrons ranging from travelers, gladiators, merchants, slavers, hobgoblins, and more. Eirsai received some unwanted attention briefly as she had attempted to disguise her identity as a centaur by utilizing a dress with wide lower portion. The party made their way to the barkeep, a tall powerfully built and bare-chested Calishite with a sheathed scimitar and what seemed to be a scar around his neck. Despite Xirk having concealed his face behind a mask, the man seemed to recognize Xirk by his eyes alone, declaring him quietly to be the Sand Stainer, and wondering what he was doing in Calimport once more. Xirk said he was here on some business, and the man wondering if this business would involve bloodshed, often of the innocent, as it had before, and Xirk said he was trying to turn over a new leaf.
 
The man introduced himself as Khamal, owner of Katar’s High and formerly a gladiator from Manshaka. Xirk and the others engaged Khamal quietly in conversation, getting a round of drinks and also purchasing some rooms. As they spoke with Khamal, they learned that Rabb al’Jahar, as the stories went, had been killed two years ago, apparently at the hands of Ilmaterites who weren’t as keen on forgiving and forgetting and had hunted him down at the Coram Steppes. They also came to learn that there had been an incident at the Beacon of Battle during a test of the heart performed by the clerics of Tempus: apparently, someone had been petrified in the course of it! The Beacon of Battle was a temple of Tempus, and the warpriests there often recruited gladiatorial slaves. Khamal advised steering clear of the place for the time being.

The party considered their options, deciding to figure out their next course of action in the morning. They headed up to their rooms to retire, the long day at last at an end. As Xirk fell into sleep, his dreams were occupied by the thoughts and feelings that had been evoked in him throughout the day: of his desire to break the cycle in favor of a better future and to become a person anew, and of the empathy he had felt and extended. During his dreams, he could feel a warm presence reaching out to him, something he recognized containing with it a spark of the divine like that which had lain within him. As it reached out to Xirk, that was when he suddenly awaken. It was now a new day, sure to be filled with new opportunities and new challenges...
 
Session 4
 
After resting in Katar’s High, the party headed down to get breakfast and discuss their plans for the day. The party decided they wished to see what the situation at the Beacon of Battle was and also look into the Faiths Ward. In addition, the party decided to look into the guild hall of the Glass Hands at the Trades Ward and also to look for places research could be done within the Quill Ward or Wizard Ward. The party headed out of Katar’s High to check out the Beacon of Battle. As they began to head there, they were stopped by a pair of clerygmen of Tempus, who told them they were scanning passerbys along various checkpoints. It seemed that a magical malady of some kind was loose in the Shackles Ward and they were trying to contain the spread. The party was scanned and moved on towards the Beacon of Battle. The party saw what seemed to be a barricade and various guards set up around the building. After getting scanned again, the party looked for someone in charge. Xirk saw a plate armored clergymen in his older years.
 
Xirk approached the clergymen, introducing himself as “Xirk el Tempus.” As Xirk learned, there had been an incident during a test of the heart, with one of the participants becoming petrified, and there was now a spreading magical malady. As for the cause behind it, it was unclear. One of the younger clergymen said it was probably one of the Bhaelrosi, but the older cleric corrected him, saying that no evidence had been revealed itself. Xirk expressed regret he wasn’t able to participate in a test of the heart, but he would consider coming back when things were clear.
 
The party decided to head north towards the Faiths Ward. As they passed through to the ward gate, they were scanned again, and they saw an orc that was taken by the guards to be quarantined, part of their face marred by stony scales. The party entered the Faiths Ward, seeing temples and shrines to a variety of deities. Avascara had and expressed a few religious differences with others in the party, with Ten Zhu offering conciliation, though he also did not follow any of the Faerunian deities. The party had passed by a temple to Ilmater back in the Shackles Ward earlier, with some considering going to see it afterwards. The party began to look for a temple or shrine dedicated to Waukeen and they found surprisingly a tavern! The First Trader’s Drink was a tavern dedicated to Waukeen and within the Kariq drudach of the Bakkal sabban of the Faiths Ward. The party made their way inside to see about acquiring information. The proprietor and bar tender was a pleasant Calishite woman named Naba yr Ubadah el Farooqui, assisted by her seventeen year old son Shaheed. Some members of the party introduced themselves, and Naba recognized Xirk’s name, as he had been among the notable participants in the final battle at Hellgate Dell to help save the world from the Titan Bohu.
 
The party talked more to Naba, learning the First Trader’s Drink was a popular spot in the Faiths Ward for others dedicated in faith to Waukeen, especially among the younger acolytes who could more freely express their opinions without worry of censure. The party learned of the Coinchapel, a prominent temple to Waukeen within the Faiths Ward and within the Farid drudach of the Erehnir sabban of the Faiths Ward.

The party headed out from the First Trader’s Drink and made their way to the Coinchapel, a large structure dedicated to Waukeen. A variety of richly dressed individuals could be seen, and as Eirsai approached, her strange appearance garnered some attention. As a devotee of Waukeen herself, she spoke to one of the clergy, a man who introduced himself as Latif yn Suleiman el Amir. As they spoke, Latif noticed Eirsai’s strange form and was even more surprised when she revealed she was a centaur. This fact seemed to unsettle Latif throughout the conversation as they spoke, Eirsai tried to determine if there was a library within the Coinchapel they could peruse.
 
Latif replied that while a great deal of trade passed through the Coinchapel, it did not house a library as such, and that the party would be better off to seek the Quill Ward or the Wizard Ward: there were the Imperium Archives or the Gallery of Majesta in the Quill Ward as a prominent library and temple to Deneir respectively as places they could potentially access.

Eirsai said a prayer to Waukeen before rejoining the party, and the party contemplated what they planned to do next. Xirk wanted to check out the guild hall of the Glass Hands. Ten Zhu worried if Xirk may be recognized, but Xirk assured him that while there were some who had recognized his name as Xirk, they seemed to know him as Xirk from the Battle of Hellgate Dell, not Xirk the Sand Stainer. Only Khamal so far had known Xirk in that way. Ten Zhu wanted to head to the Quill Ward to find a library to conduct some research and gain information about what they were dealing with. Two groups were formed: Xirk and Avascara to head into the Trades Ward, and Conner, Eirsai, and Ten Zhu to make their way past the Grand Ward and into the Quill Ward. How would the party communicate however?
 
After some discussion, it was agreed to have a signal via a spell of skywrite cast by Conner, to inform the groups when and where to rendezvous. With that, the two groups set off, heading into different wards. Ten Zhu and the others made their way through the Grand Ward, taking in a few of the sights but not tarrying long as they headed towards the Quill Ward, hopefully to find a library to peruse. As they were making their way through the Grand Ward, Avascara and Xirk were heading through the Trades Ward.

They were within an alleyway within the Zeqra drudach of the Sahar sabban when suddenly a pair of gleaming crossbow bolts shot from above struck Xirk! They only barely missed his vitals, but he was knocked unconscious and bleeding out instantly. Avascara had but scant seconds to see who the culprit had been: a hooded and turbaned individual with golden eyes before they disappeared out of sight on a roof. Avascara was able to swiftly reacting, drawing upon her reserve of divine rage to force away the shock as she shoved a potion of healing down Xirk’s mouth. Xirk awoke with a gasp, as Avascara swiftly told him that there was an assassin on the roof, and that they should get going out of the alleyway. Xirk also drew upon his fury to force himself to overcome his shock and rise to his feet. He still felt unsteady and knew he couldn’t run too far. Instead, he drew a horn from his side and blew it, summoning warriors from Ysgard to materialize on the rooftop! He instructed them to split up along the roof to find the assassin, before Xirk dove through the window of a nearby abandoned building and took cover behind a door.
 
The warriors began to fan out along the roof, before one of them ran into the assassin by an overhanging tree branch. The warriors swarmed around him, boxing him in though they failed to find purchase with their axe strikes. The assassin simply tossed up a red bead into the air, catching the berserkers around him in a bloom of fire even as he avoided the worst of the effects. He descended down the roof and dashed over towards the door Xirk was at, getting ready to fiddle with the door.

Avascara heard the explosion and the commotion and she came back around to see the assassin in plain sight by the door. She ran up to him, drawing Kin-no-yuki in the same movement. Xirk inside the home could hear someone attempting to force the door open. Rather than waiting for the assassin to come in, Xirk decided to go out, smashing his way right through the door! The door came right off its hinges, with Xirk and door in tow toppled over the assassin and pinned him to the ground, unable to move. Xirk also commanded his allies from Ysgard to surround the assassin and strike down. However between Xirk’s body and the door, their axes failed to find purchase on the assassin. The assassin drew another red bed and threw it into the air, severely injuring Xirk and the berserkers and destroying the door. However, he remained pinned, and Avascara and Xirk took that as their opportunity to finally strike back.
 
In a storm of furious blows between the two of them, Xirk took the final blow on the assassin, choosing to try to knock him as opposed to killing him. After the battle concluded, Avascara, Xirk, and the berserkers took the body of the assassin inside the abandoned house, As the body was searched, Xirk saw a dusky skinned, golden-eyed humanoid with a light smattering of scales around their sides: a yuan-ti! However, Xirk could see a piece of smooth glass embedded into their arm by their left wrist, and Xirk recognized the assassin as Farruk, a former comrade of his in the Glass Hands. As Avascara and Xirk came to believe, it seemed Xirk’s presence in Calimport had come to be known to the Glass Hands, and that Xirk wouldn’t be receiving a warm welcome at the Glass Hands. The pair removed Farruk’s possessions and Xirk decided to break Farruk’s arms.

Xirk was still heavily injured from the battle and decided to rest up. He told Avascara that he knew of a contact in the Trades Ward they could reach out to for aid: Shabbaz. Shabbaz had been a friend of Xirk’s who had been a gladiatorial slave at the Arena Efreetum in the Trades Ward. Xirk wasn’t sure if Shabbaz was still there or had won his freedom or some other fate had overcome him. He gave Avascara some money and the pair decided Avascara would go to the Arena Efreetum to pose as a buyer, to obtain information on where Shabbaz may be. Avascara and three of the berserkers headed off, while Xirk continued to recuperate in the abandoned house with three of the berserkers as guards, Farruk’s body on the table. In the meanwhile, Conner, Eirsai, and Ten Zhu had made their way into the Quill Ward, entering the Nuvis drudach of the Nasim sabban.
 
They were trying to find a library, such as the Imperium Archives, or a place of learning, such as the Gallery Majesta, a temple to Deneir. Ten Zhu flagged the first person he could find, and he saw a singular sight. He saw a beautiful woman in a flowing blue dress, fine jewelry, and carrying along a leash a young green dragon! The three approached her, caught by the strange sight, and as they spoke to her, they learned her name was Basrat yr Atla el Dumein of the Blue Tower, and that she was walking her pet dragon, Capricorn.
 
As the three spoke with her, Ten Zhu and the others steadily grew alarmed by her mannerisms and her innuendo of keeping pets. Basrat seemed particularly interested in Eirsai. The three asked if she would be able to get them access into the Blue Tower, and she seemed amenable to it provided Eirsai was willing to spend some time with Basrat for the foreseeable future. Eirsai and the others declined, and Basrat was disappointed. She mentioned that if they were looking for a library, there’s always the Imperium Archives if you can get in, and she began to depart.

As she began to walk away however, Eirsai contemplated casting knock on the collar around Capricorn’s neck and she began to raise her hands to cast the spell. The party was now split in three different locations: Xirk waiting in an abandoned house, bleeding and exhausted from a failed assassination; Avascara heading into the unknown to try to find a former friend of Xirk’s; and Eirsai, Conner, and Ten Zhu on the verge of confrontation with Basrat and her pet dragon. What would happen next would depend on the choices the party would make, and had yet to be determined…
 
Session 5
Conner, Eirsai, and Ten Zhu were within the Quill Ward of Calimport, having just finished a conversation with Basrat of the Blue Tower. As the three began to depart from the archmage and her pet dragon, Eirsai decided to attempt to free the dragon. She cast knock upon Capricorn’s collar, letting loose a loud audible knock around the collar as the collar unlocked. Basrat stared in incredulity and then with anger towards Eirsai and the others, declaring that perhaps she would acquire Eirsai as a more permanent acquaintance by force. She spoke a single word, and a powerful enchantment spell dazed both Eirsai and Ten Zhu simultaneously. Her dragon Capricorn closed towards Eirsai, tearing into the centaur with its fangs and claws. Conner joined the fray by banishing Capricorn, and the crowd of people on the street were caught surprised in shock at the sudden onset of battle. People began to scatter for cover on the street as combat broke out.
 
The guards initially moved up to Basrat, speaking in rapid Alzhedo, but they ended up attacking Conner instead! Basrat continued to fire off powerful enchantment spells, but she was surprised at the party’s resilience against them as they proved to be more hardy than she had anticipated.
 
Ten Zhu remained largely out of the fight, stunned and overcome with pain. Eirsai managed to recover her wits, though she too was overcome with pain, and she attempted to create a distraction in the streets by throwing gold into the air. Conner, surrounded by guards, was forced to defend himself as he created a burst of holy energy around him. However, he underestimated his own strength as several of the guards immediately fell dead around him to his own surprise. By now, civilians were running well away from the battle or finding whatever cover they could. Basrat finally broke Conner’s concentration as he doubled over in uncontrollable laughter after another enchantment spell from Basrat, and Capricorn rejoined the fray. However, Ten Zhu also managed to recover his senses, and seeing the messy situation around them, he swiftly teleported the party safely away.
 
In the meanwhile, Avascara was making her way through the Trades Ward towards the Arena Efreetum to make contact with Shabbaz, an old friend of Xirk’s. Avascara found the impressive structure, as well as a VIP entrance into the arena. She cut ahead of the line, giving those in the line a menacing gaze to ward them off protesting.

inquired if they knew if Shabbaz was around. The guards were initially resistant to questioning, telling her to get back in line but a “donation” of gold on Avascara’s part loosed their tongues. They said that Shabbaz had retired as a gladiator, having won his freedom, and that he could frequently be found at the Trident’s Rest, a tavern within the Trades Ward. She was told to look for a man with silvery hair and beard, and a scar across the nose running from eye to lip. Avascara left the Arena Efreetum and made her way to Trident’s Rest. After speaking with the bartender, she found a man matching Shabbaz’s description in the midst of concluding an arm wrestling contest. Avascara introduced herself to Shabbaz, who initially took her to be another challenger, but he quickly sobered as she explained the situation with Xirk to him.
 
He followed after Avascara towards the abandoned house Xirk was residing at. As she and Shabbaz began to make their way towards the house, Conner, Eirsai, and Ten Zhu were making their way through the Grand Ward, moving in the opposite direction of the Quill Ward as fast as they could. The situation with Basrat had ended up less than ideal, and Ten Zhu in particular was not pleased with how things had gone and Conner feeling guilty about the guards he had slain. They decided to make a rendezvous with Avascara and Xirk, calling off the attempt to conduct research given the heat they’d drawn in the Quill Ward. Conner cast a spell of scrying on Xirk to attempt to divine his location. He saw Xirk, heavily injured but recovering within a home, the prone body of Farruk on a table beside him. As Conner observed, Avascara and Shabbaz approached the door, with Shabbaz and Xirk exchanging greetings.

Xirk gave Shabbaz a rundown of the situation he was facing, which Shabbaz mulled over. He went to examine Farruk, whom Xirk had claimed he and Avascara had knocked out, but as Shabbaz pointed out, Farruk was actually dead! Avascara and Xirk checked the body to confirm, and Xirk suspected that the ring Farruk had worn earlier had been a band of loyalty: an item some of the members of the Glass Hands had worn before. However, Xirk found it strange as Farruk had been one to avoid using those in the past. Xirk and Shabbaz caught up as Xirk began to explain why he had come back to Calimport. Shabbaz seemed amenable to Xirk’s mission, as he wasn’t particularly fond of the Glass Hands either.
 
Shabbaz mentioned however that all the stories pointed to Rabb al’Jahar being dead, though Xirk expressed his doubts about that. As they spoke, it became clear that Shabbaz also wasn’t found of the clergy of Tempus in Calimport either, due to their involvement with the slave business in Calimport, and it seemed that Shabbaz had elected to take Bhaelros as his patron deity. Xirk asked Shabbaz if he could provide assistance in a safe place to stay, and Shabbaz offered his house. He arranged for a courier to be sent to Katar’s High to provide directions to the rest of the party, and three began to walk away towards Shabbaz’s house, with Shabbaz carrying Farruk’s body in a barrel.

Conner’s scrying spell ended then, and he informed Eirsai and Ten Zhu of what he had seen and overheard. The three made their way back to Katar’s High to await the courier. As they did so, Eirsai noticed a scrying sensor appear near them through her eyes which had temporarily spelled to detect invisible objects. It remained for 10 minutes before vanishing: an ominous sign. In the meanwhile, at Shabbaz’s house, Shabbaz had reached out to a contact of his to provide Xirk with medical care. Nouman, a cleric of Bhaelros, arrived at Shabbaz’s request to administer aid. He didn’t seem pleased to tend to Xirk, but he provided assistance all the same before departing.
 
Back at Katar’s High, the courier arrived, and Conner, Eirsai, and Ten Zhu made their way out of the Shackles Ward and through the Faiths Ward and into the Trades Ward to at last reunite with Avascara and Xirk. The five adventurers gathered within Shabbaz’s house, exchanging stories of what had happened to each during the day as Shabbaz prepared and served dinner, with Eirsai and Conner casting some protective spells over the home.

As they conversed, the party discussed the situation with the Glass Hands, including Xirk’s suspicion that Farruk may not have been a willing participant in the attempted assassination, considering the band of loyalty Farruk had worn as well as Rabb al’Jahar’s proclivity for mind altering magic. The conversation turned to what had happened at the Quill Ward, with Ten Zhu expressing significant dissatisfaction with how the whole event had gone down, and the new enemy they had acquired. A heated conversation continued for some time until the party finally decided to retire for the night, with Xirk soon heading up to bed. Conner spent some time examining the items the party had recovered, as well as contemplating the actions of the day.
 
Eirsai had been forced to scrap Scrapheap and had begun the process of constructing him anew. Avascara and Ten Zhu stepped aside however to discuss further the events of the Quill Ward, with Avascara attempting to assuage and reassure Ten Zhu in her own way. The general continued to remain dissatisfied with the entire situation, though he agreed with Avascara that it was an experience nonetheless to learn from.

As the party went to sleep, Xirk found himself restless in his dreams. He had found the day’s events bewildering and frustrating, and he desired to simply hit something, to strike out. In his dreams, he could feel another presence reaching out to him, it too containing a spark of the divine.
 
But this presence did not have the gentleness or warmth from the day before: it was a powerful, unrestrained presence, like a trampling stampede across a savannah or a raging thunderstorm. As Xirk found himself sinking into the heart of the storm, he felt himself awaken for another day, his heart pounding and blood rushing through his ears. A new day had come, sure to bring even more challenges to overcome…
 
Session 6
 
During the evening as the party retired for the night, Conner remained awake as the moon rose to its peak. He called upon Eilistraee, the Dark Maiden and his patron god, beseeching her aid to help address the situation with the men he had slain in the Quill Ward. He did not hear anything from her, though he saw the moon flicker for a moment. The next day, the party gathered for breakfast downstairs, prepared by Shabbaz as they contemplated what to do next. Eirsai constructed a new Scrapheap, as she adjusted some of her magical items, while Conner prepared a new set of spells for the day.
 
As the party ate breakfast and discussed among themselves, the party decided to attempt to resurrect Farruk and possibly gather more information as to the situation with the Glass Hands. Farruk had been a highly ranked and highly skilled member of the Glass Hands back when Xirk had been with them, with the rumors being that he had even assassinated a vizar of a ward in Calimport at one point. Shabbaz inquired of Xirk what they were planning on doing next. Xirk replied that they would be seeing to the situation with the Glass Hands, and that Xirk wished to reform it, not destroy it. Shabbaz replied that he personally preferred to kill those trying to kill him. Xirk offered Shabbaz compensation for his hospitality, but Shabbaz waived it off, saying that he was returning the kindness Xirk had shown in the past. Shabbaz expressed a desire to have a chance to be in a real fight once more, and Xirk spoke of the opportunities that the guild he worked for offered and said that perhaps Shabbaz would get a chance at a fight in the near future.
 
The matter then turned to the body in the room. Shabbaz said that he intended to head out to buy some more food—he had exhausted his stock of meat feeding 6 people last night, and that he’d leave the matter of Farruk’s body to the party. Conner rested his familiar on Shabbaz’s person, and Shabbaz headed out, leaving the party with Farruk’s body. Conner began a ritual to raise Farruk from the dead, but it required Farruk’s soul to be both free and willing. Avascara and Xirk both made offerings to attempt to coax Farruk to return to life, both saying that they did not believe Farruk wished for it to end like this. In the end, Conner’s spell worked, and Farruk woke up.
 
The party had restrained him before hand, and he immediately began to react poorly to his confinement and situation. Xirk attempted to question Farruk, trying to learn why Farruk had tried to kill him and who had ordered him to do so. Farruk declined to answer, telling Xirk to either release him or kill him. Xirk looked to Ten Zhu for advice, but as the pair spoke, Farruk attempted to make a run for it. However, Avascara and Xirk swiftly caught him and pushed him against the wall. Realizing that Farruk was being a handful, the party restrained Farruk further, binding his legs.

Ten Zhu elected to draw upon his psionic talents to glean more information out of Farruk, making an exacting query as to who had ordered Farruk to kill Xirk. Farruk began to insult Ten Zhu, but he found his lips moving in spite of himself, as he croaked out, “Lavinia.” Xirk wasn’t entirely surprised, but he asked why. The only response that Farruk gave was that “Traitors deserve to die a traitor’s death.” As the party contemplated that, Farruk attempted to bite off his own tongue to prevent from being interrogated further, but Xirk quickly interposed his hand and prevented the yuan-ti from succeeding. It seemed Farruk was intent on getting out of being held captive, even at the cost of his own life. Xirk in the meanwhile found the experience both bewildering and frustrating. Perhaps, given what Farruk had said, the Glass Hands needed to be handled more permanently after all. However, Farruk’s behavior had been strange and incongruous to Xirk: he always remembered that the assassin had been calm, cool, and collected, not the raving, desperate individual they were dealing with now.
 
The party began to consider their options. Conner knew that his spell had functioned: Farruk had to be willing to return from the dead, but his actions thus far had shown a surprising lack of sense of self-preservation for one who seemed to value their life enough to return from the dead. He cast a powerful restorative spell on Farruk, but the man seemed the same as ever. Avascara opined that perhaps the Glass Hands had something over they held as collateral: perhaps someone or something he cared about. Ten Zhu found that to be a dubious possibility owing to the general nature of yuan-ti. However, as they examined Farruk further, they saw the glass shard embedded in his left forearm, the one every member of the Glass Hands bore.

The party considered removing the shard from Farruk, that if it was somehow twisting his mind in some way. Xirk unceremoniously and efficiently knocked Farruk back out, and the party unshackled his hands so Xirk could prepare to retrieve the glass shard. As he began to cut away and pull at it however, he felt his entire body stiffen in place. At the same time, Farruk began to turn as gray and stiff as stone At the same time, the glass shard began to pulsate with an ugly purple light. Despite feeling his body continuing to harden, Xirk expended all of his effort and managed to rip out the shard from Farruk’s arm. He tossed it away, sending it clattering across the room, though a great gout of blood poured from the yuan-ti’s arm. A
 
vascara moved forward, administering a potion of healing to Farruk to rouse him and stem the bleeding. Ten Zhu administered a potion of heroism to Xirk to attempt to assist him. Farruk swiped a random potion to try to help himself, but he succumbed and was instantly petrified. Conner saw the situation and stepped forward, applying a powerful restorative spell and managing to overcome the effect on Xirk. The party took stock of the situation, with Farruk currently petrified and Xirk just as nearly. The glass shard’s purple light began to die off before it grew dim entirely. Conner used another powerful restorative spell to reverse the petrification on Farruk, and the party watched as the stone flecked off Farruk like a snake shedding its skin. Farruk stood before the party, exhausted and injured, but mobile and alive.

Xirk and the others could immediately see that Farruk’s eyes were different, and he began to speak to them in a calm, flat tone as the party had freed him of what had bound him before. It seemed the glass shard had twisted his mind and dominated his will entirely, just as it had for the other members of the Glass Hands. Farruk and the party began to speak at length, as it seemed for now, Farruk was no longer their enemy. Farruk explained that the reports did indeed hold that Rabb al’Jahar, the “Lord of Glass,” had been slain by a martyred champion of As they spoke, Shabbaz confirmed that the rumors held that Rabb al’Jahar had been killed by an Ilmateri, a martyred champion of Ilmater’s Tears no less. Farruk however too shared Xirk’s doubts that Rabb al’Jahar was truly dead. Regardless, for the time being, the Glass Hands were controlled by one known as “Ayndrareiss,” a Calishite who stepped in to fill the vacuum when Rabb al’Jahar was gone.
 
As Farruk explained Ayndrareiss wielded earth magic just as powerful if not more so than Rabb al’Jahar, and it seemed he was using the glass shards to control the other members of the Glass Hands, twisting their minds. Lavinia had ordered Xirk’s assassination at Ayndrareiss’s orders, as Xirk had deserted the Glass Hands and was a threat to Ayndrareiss and his interests. The party wondered if they could free the rest of the Glass Hands in the way they had freed Farruk. Farruk replied that there could be additional complications: things even worse than petrification into stone may well have resulted instead.

Farruk also warned that he was supposed to have reported in by dawn, and having missed that window, Lavinia would only assume that Farruk had failed and would arrange for further efforts to deal permanently with Xirk. Word would have also likely been communicated to other sites throughout Calimshan where the Glass Hands were present, including at their new home base in Suldolphor. It was there that Kalos, Xirk’s once close friend within the Glass Hands, acted as head, second only to Ayndrareiss. The party learned that the Glass Hands had two main holdings in Calimport, between their guild hall and a warehouse, both within the Trades Ward, and both locations heavily fortified between the guards, natural and magical defenses, and ranking members of the Glass Hands present on site. Xirk requested Farruk’s aid, and the yuan-ti replied that while he typically worked for compensation, in this case, what Ayndrareiss had done to him was personal and that he was willing to provide his expertise as an assassin. The party contemplated their next move.
 
Due to the events in the Quill Ward and having earned the enmity of a ranking member of the Guild Arcane, things would be complicated for them if they wished to utilize the resources at the Quill Ward or Wizard Ward for research. Farruk did say that it would be possible to attempt restitution, though the price may be steep. Upon being asked, he mentioned that he knew of a temple to Oghma within the Faiths Ward that had a small collection of books, though he advised that not everything worth knowing could be found in books.

The party debated their next course of action. They could attempt to rush the Glass Hands at the guild hall or the warehouse, using the current state of confusion and development to their advantage. However, they risked overplaying their hand, as Farruk warned that a frontal assault of either location would very likely be a suicide mission. At the same time, if they waited too long, Lavinia would likely have the Glass Hands pay them a visit at an inopportune time, and send more than one person that time. After discussion and debate, the party decided they would follow up for the time being on the leads they had acquired by investigating the shard and conferring at the temple of Oghma and also to focus on regaining the resources they had expended.
 
Farruk in the meanwhile would slip back into Calimport to do some intelligence gathering, though he did not plan to approach either the guild hall or the warehouse. Before he left, Eirsai thanked Farruk and gave him a slip of paper, which he accepted. Farruk then departed, saying that he would return to Shabbaz’s house with whatever information he could acquire. As the party prepared themselves for the rest of the day, Shabbaz returned, pleased and and with two large sacks of food in two. Seeing the party in the midst of tense conversation and the light damage that had been done to his living area, he took stock of the situation, inquiring what had happened. The party began to explain the situation, as it was a long story, and just what would be coming next had yet to be revealed...
 
Session 7
 
After Farruk had departed, the party considered next what to do. They decided to make their way to the temple to Oghma that Farruk had directed them to, within the Ibran drudach of the Evyrtaan sabaan. The temple had a relatively small collection of books available for viewing, and required collateral in order to borrow any books. The party spent time there researching what they could of earth magic, to gain some additional insight as to what Ayndrareiss may be utilizing or doing now. After spending some time in the temple, the party had gained some insights as to aspects of earth magic: its versatility, its connection with the principles of magic, and how many of its secrets were known to a few in the multiverse, with dragons and dao being among the foremost forebears of such knowledge.
 
Xirk also found a book he wished to borrow that he found interesting: the Secret Arts of the Sha’ir, as written by the Zakharan sha’ir Mukhtar el-Jashan. From what he was able to skim from the book, it described the nature of sha’ir and genies in turn, including the different kinds of genies as well as forming contracts with them as such. Before the party returned to Shabbaz’s house, they decided to take a slight detour and send Conner’s familiar over to scout out the warehouse of the Glass Hands. The owl was able to approach undetected, and noticed heavy patrols in the area around the warehouse, indicating a well-fortified position. The owl rejoined the party, and the party continued on to Shabbaz’s house.
 
Upon returning there, it was now well into evening, and Shabbaz had begun making dinner for himself and the party. The party debated as to what their next move would be. They contemplated trying to set Basrat of the Blue Tower and the Glass Hands against each other; they contemplated asking Farruk to attempt to sabotage the Glass Hands from within; and so forth. As the party debated, Xirk recalled what he could of the ranking Glass Hands members that Farruk had described, and he recalled Yakub, a powerful cleric of Bhaelros. Knowing that Shabbaz also was a Bhaelrosi, Xirk asked Shabbaz if he knew of Yakub, which Shabbaz said that he had: a quiet, but scary sort.
 
The party inquired if it would be possible to get Yakub to come to the temple so the party could confront him and try to free him of the glass shard that held its grip over his mind, and Shabbaz said that he would ask Numan, a clergymen of Bhaelros he knew also attended the same temple, to talk with the party so they could convince him first.
 
The party began to settle on an immediate course of action for the time being: if perhaps they could turn Yakub or at least break him free of the grip of the Glass Hands, that would be one less enemy they’d have to worry about, and potentially, like Farruk, a powerful new ally to add to their side. But whether or not they would succeed in such an endeavor had yet to be seen…
 
Session 8
  • Xirk and Ten Zhu spent time reading from The Secret Arts of the Sha’ir by Mukthar el-Jashan, which they had borrowed from the temple to Oghma. From the book, they learned the following information.
    • Sha’ir are a special type of spellcaster from Zakhara and are unlike typical practitioners of magic. They function more like warlocks, drawing their power from genies they make contact with and can form pacts or agreements with.
    • Sha’ir rely on a special type of elemental familiar known as a gen. Gen resembled miniaturized genies and come in varieties matching each of the Elemental Planes. Sha’ir use their gen to obtain their magic, by their gen acting as an intermediary to the genies to obtain their spells from.
    • Sha’ir obtain spells typically by having a spell in mind they know of, and through their gen, contacting a genie to provide it to the sha’ir. The kind of magic a sha’ir wields is influenced by the kind of genie they are in contact with. More powerful magic often costs more of the sha’ir and often requires more of them. They are fully capable of wielding standard magical power as associated with traditional spellcasters, as well as unique magics of their own.
  • Conner and Eirsai had a pair of sendings delivered to Basrat of the Blue Tower, though not much came of it. - Xirk had a dream where he had felt the same warm presence he had since his first night back in Calimshan. - Avascara had a meeting with the One-Eyed Weasel, a criminal contact of hers from Kara-Tur based in Calimport. Through the One-Eyed Weasel, she obtained the service of six veteran sellswords for a day.
  • The party arranged for a meeting with Numan, a ranking Bhaelrosi priest, to see about arranging an encounter with Yakub of the Glass Hands.
  • The party delved into the Calimport Muzad beneath the city streets within the Zeqra drudach of the Sahar sabban, intending to find a subterranean path to the guild hall. They encountered a pair of thieves—Nasim and Darshan—in the process of transporting a pair of bodies and barrels to the Temple of Old Night. Upon further interrogation, the party learned that the pair worked for Voraya.
  • The party learned of the location to a lair controlled by one known as “Skax”

Session 9

  • The party continued their path through the Calimport muzad beneath the Zeqra drudach of the Sahar sabban of the Trades Ward of Calimport, finding territory controlled by Skax. Skax’s minions in the area appeared to be kobolds.
  • Avascara held a group of kobolds hostage as the party took command of the situation before the party called for parley. The party conversed with a kobold dragonshield known as Dargan, who went to get Arix, leader of the kobolds in the area
  • After the initially tense encounter, the party exchanged resources and information with the kobolds in the area. The party learned that Skax’s territory extended throughout portions of the muzad, and that Arix was leader of the particular warrens the party was within, appointed by Skax.
  • The party traded a vial of wyvern poison to the kobolds, which Arix tested on a kobold, which promptly killed him. Conner revivified the kobold.
  • The party learned of an entity known as the “Sludge” which inhabited the lower parts of the muzad in the area and blocking the pathway to the subterranean path upwards beneath the territory controlled by the Glass Hands in the Zeqra drudach. The Sluge reportedly was a legendary entity centuries old, which has only grown over time.
  • The party made their way back to Shabbaz’s home to meet with Numan, a Talon of Bhaelros, to arrange a meeting with Yakub - Ten Zhu attempted to divine Farruk’s location, but was unable to do so
  • Ten Zhu used his psionics to attempt to scout the area around the Glass Hand’s warehouse, but found his wandering eye blocked after a certain distance
  • Ten Zhu was able to determine that there were shipments from the Golden Sands Brewery coming into the warehouse, carrying more than just alcoholic beverages, but seemingly spell components, magic items, and other assorted items
  • The party arranged for a meeting with Yakub at the Summit of the Storms at the apex of the Temple to Bhaelros within the Samilar drudach of the Evrytaan sabban of the Faiths Ward, to be held after the nightly service
  • The party gave the bodies they had recovered from within the Calimport muzad to be given funeral rites within the temple to Bhaelros
  • Xirk was given an offer to join the church of Bhaelros by Numan

Session 10

The party confronted Yakub within the Temple to Bhaelros in the Faiths Ward and managed to overcome him. He was temporarily possessed by Ayndrareiss before Conner's antimagic field cancelled the effect, and they managed to successfully remove the glass shard from him, with Xirk briefly receiving strength from Bhaelros in order to do so. Yakub decided to join the party on their quest.

Session 11

The party, now with the restored Yakub in tow, returned to Shabbaz’s house, where they met with Farruk who was waiting for them. He informed the party that the Glass Hands had become alerted to the party as a whole and was in the process of actively trying to hunt them down within the city, and were aware of their disguised identities. If the party intended to take actions within the city, they should prepare to enact their plans sooner than later.
 
The party and Farruk exchanged information as they prepared an assault on one of the warehouses belonging to the Golden Sands Brewery. The brewery had nine structures throughout the Coniq and Jhafer drudachs within the Sahar sabban of the Trades Ward, with the warehouses being the most heavily guarded structures. The party decided to retire and rest for the night before intending to begin their approach before dawn of the next day. Xirk spent some time talking to Yakub about Bhaelros, seeking to know more of the deity, as he was still unsure as to what path he would take in the coming days. Avascara meanwhile sent a courier over to the One-Eyed Weasel to prepare the hired men to assemble tomorrow and to bring specific gear with them.
 
As Xirk went to sleep, he went to sleep with a sense of uncertainty but also hope given the party’s recent success and their concrete plan to try to take the fight to the Glass Hands. As he went to sleep, he felt the same warm presence he had the night before. The next day, the party assembled near the location where Xirk had nearly been killed with Farruk, bringing along Farruk, Shabbaz, and Yakub.
 
The veterans Avascara had hired also came, with the gear as promised, thought they informed Avascara that she owed the Weasel an additional ten gold pieces for the additional supplies. Ten Zhu began to rapidly scout around some of the warehouses within Sahar sabban, but he found that a pair of warehouses not far from the guild hall of the Glass Hands was heavily warded, preventing his scrying magic from closely investigating the scene. The party reasoned that those warehouses likely contained the most valuable materials and would draw the attention of the Glass Hands the fastest. Ten Zhu had been able to make out that the warehouse was an entire complex consisting of multiple multi-story buildings, with archers on the roofs.

Farruk said that the Glass Hands had done some warding work for the Golden Sands Brewery before; the wards should be dispellable, but he was less sure about the guild hall, as Ayndrareiss had done some personal work there. The party, with Ten Zhu’s aid, set up a nomad’s gate to allow for rapid translocation above the warded area, allowing the group to airdrop in with the aid of Eirsai’s feather fall spell.
 
The party dropped in directly atop a pair of archers, and the fight was on. The party took full advantage of the ambush, swiftly dispatching some of the archers while they sought to deal with the other archers in the area. Yakub and Conner initially focused on attempting to dispel the wards in the area. Yakub succeeded in dispelling their anti-divination net, while the party continued to deal with the archers on the roof. In the end, the party began to fight their way down the building they were on, as the alarm began to be sounded throughout the complex.

Yakub stayed above, calling down lightning strikes to assist the party, while Farruk peeled away to cover the party’s flank and strike from the shadows. After a skirmish on the lower floor of the building they had landed on, Xirk and Avascara led a charge through to a building to the north, after Conner dispelled another set of powerful wards. There, they found what appeared to be some kind of textile area, with a variety of valuable strewn about. Several guards were present, including a robed individual, as Xirk and Avascara charged into the fray.
 
Xirk took the opportunity to swipe a couple of valuable potions from a nearby bench. Eirsai directed Scrapheap to take a flank around the door into the building, but as Scrapheap did so, he could see a large contingent of guards amassing towards the north, and beginning to swiftly make their way down towards the party...
 
Session 12
 

The party continued their raid on the Golden Sands Brewery, as they were now being surrounded on multiple sides by guards within the Brewery. They rallied together and fought back, with Ten Zhu acting as operational control, Avascara holding off the western flank by herself and refusing to fall even at the brink of death, Xirk teaming up with Farruk to take down forces on the eastern front, Eirsai and Yakub providing aerial support, and Shabbaz and the hired veterans raiding buildings to acquire valuables to take back. During the battle, at Xirk’s directive, Yakub invoked a powerful spell of firestorm to explode a building within the complex, which had turned out to be the distillery and one of the main storage areas for the alcoholic beverages produced within the complex.

By now, the party had created a commotion that had drawn attention from outside the complex, and they overheard some of the guard forces seeking to alert the Glass Hands as well as city guards for reinforcements. Ten Zhu set up a nomad’s gate for the party to prepare to transit through to begin their assault on the Glass Hands Guild Hall properly. As the party was preparing however, they saw a new force approaching through the gates of the complex to the east: a contingent of city guards, along with a dozen members of the Glass Hands, with more on the way. It seemed that their plan to divert the Glass Hands to the location had proved successful indeed; now they just had to get out intact...

Session 13

By now the party was ready to make their exit from the Golden Sands Brewery, as their position was about to be overrun, and members of the Glass Hands and city guards were not far from providing reinforcements to the location. The party swiftly assembled to take positions to enter Ten Zhu’s nomad’s gate at appointed times, to coordinate those that would be airdropping over the Glass Hands guild hall. After a swift telepathic discussion, Yakub elected to remain behind to continue to draw attention to the Brewery and away from the Guild Hall, to buy the party as much time as they could to enact their plans. As the party made their way through the gate, the last thing they saw and heard was Yakub shouting his voice to the heavens as the very foundations of the Brewery began to collapse upon themselves, a massive earthquake beginning to tear down the complex.
 
The party then found themselves falling rapidly towards the Guild Hall below, held aloft by Eirsai’s feather fall spell to slow their descent. The party had about a minute worth of time to work with, and they began their assault preparations midair! The veterans hired from the One-Eyed Weasel elected to take the acquired loot and descend over the Grand Ward to meet up with later, as they had done their job for which they had been hired and could help secure what the party had taken.
 
The rest of the party, including Farruk and Shabbaz, took the time to recover their energies via healing spells and potions, as well as preparing their entry. As Farruk indicated, the guild hall’s wards were anchored by wardstones, one of which was on the first floor, and another on the second level of the guild hall. Destroying the wardstones would permit the party to remove the warding magics over the complex. As the party descended above the guild hall, they saw a walled and gated complex with battlements brimming with archers along each corner. The rooftop had a few guards atop, but the party had prepared the remnants of the old Scrapheap to use as a battering ram to force their way through the roof. Avascara fired a shot from the mizzium mortar right after and the party blew through feet of reinforced stone and steel through the application of gravity and explosive force, killing some of the guards atop the roof and forcing their entry into the second level. The party made their way inside an enclosed room, corpses at their feet from the guards killed by the falling debris, flame, and the body of Scrapheap.
 
Inside the room were multiple members of the Glass Hands, as well as a floating mass of purple glass and crystal: one of the wardstones that Farruk had spoken of. The party sprung into action, taking the fight to the Glass Hands, and trying to keep as many alive as they could. In the meanwhile, the wardstone did not remain idle, unleashing powerful magic in the area to strike back against the party.
 
Additional Glass Hands reinforcements came from the room beyond, revealing a bunk area with more members of the Glass Hands. The party held back the two-pronged assault as the wardstone continued to lash out at the party. In the end however, between Avascara and Xirk, the wardstone was destroyed and unleashed an explosion of magical force that caught all those inside. According to Farruk, another wardstone lay on the first floor below. Avascara elected to create a pathway down inside of trying to find or take the stairs, as she smashed at the thick and reinforced floor beneath her. Between her, Xirk, and others in the party, they opened a hole down below.
 
They saw what appeared to be a black veil obscuring their sight, and Xirk jumped down. Xirk found himself landing on the edge of a long table within a large room. Multiple experienced members of the Glass Hands were present within, including Sifara, one of the Glass Hand’s experts when it came to destructive magic, as well as Hamza, a warlord and battlefield commander among the Glass Hands, having served as Xirk’s superior in the past before. At the very far end of the room was another wardstone.
 
Xirk realized that he had jumped into a very dangerous situation and with a surge of effort, he ran for one end of the table and upended it on its side to grant him cover against the right half of the room as he prepared himself for a drawn out battle. Above, the party was cleaning up some of the remaining adversaries in the area. Eirsai had attempted to seal the door with an arcane lock, but she saw to her surprise that the enemies were simply able to open the door without effort. The party then began to make their way down the hole Avascara and Xirk had created, to join Xirk below.
 
By now the battle was joined, with Hamza and several of his forces charging into the fray towards Xirk and the party. Ten Zhu took quick stock of the situation and swiftly erected a wall of clouds to cut off vision towards the back of the room to interfere with enemy spellfire. Avascara flew down towards Hamza and found herself locked in battle with him, as he kept her from backing away from him.
 
By now, the battle was beginning to wear on the party, who were largely congregating behind Ten Zhu’s wall of clouds. Sifara managed to fly above the cloud and shot down a devastating chain lightning at the amassed group, but Xirk kept him occupied afterwards, forcing him to invoke his contingency to erect a barrier of inviolable shimmering force, while it seemed the wardstone had also granted him a measure of protection from Xirk’s attack. The battle had become chaotic and was now joined, as the party sought to take down those guarding the wardstone. Whether or not they would prevail at last had yet to be determined…
 
Session 14
 
Battle had broken out on the ground floor of the Glass Hands’s guild hall. Much of the party had taken cover behind Ten Zhu’s wall of clouds, which obscured sight from enemy spellcasters, while the table Xirk had overturned also divided the battlefield. Avascara was still locked in combat with Hamza, while Conner, Eirsai, and Ten Zhu were fending off champions and knights of the Glass Hands. Sifara had managed to escape from Xirk’s focus, as the other enemy spellcaster and a pair of rogues sighted in on him.
 
By now, Shabbaz and Farruk had joined the fray, and both immediately sought to aid the party behind the cover of the wall of clouds, and both struck out fiercely against the forces attacking Conner, Eirsai, and Ten Zhu, between Farruk’s precise crossbow shots and Shabbaz lashing out at those within reach with his axe. Ten Zhu called upon his psionic mastery to try to dominate and crush the will of one of the champions, but he watched to his surprise as his ability had no effect: it seemed that the glass shards the Glass Hands bore granted them a measure of protection from such effects.
 
Meanwhile, Xirk sought to keep Sifara in check, as he managed an incredible feat of athleticism by bounding across the battlefield to strike down Sifara. Sifara attempted to conjure a shield to intercept Xirk’s strike, but Xirk’s experiences against spellcasters had lent him newfound skill in countering their moves, and he struck down the mage before he could finish his spell.
 
On the other side of the battlefield, Conner found himself the attention of several members of the Glass Hands as the most clearly identifiable spellcaster. He had attempted to invoke the blessing of Eilistraee, but a whisper in the wind informed him that he had everything he needed as it was. Eirsai’s sanctuary spell allowed him to remain alive, while Conner focused on providing as much support and healing magic as he could, at times invoking blinding light to ward off enemy strikes as well.

Hamza elected to back away from the fight with Avascara to tend to Sifara, to bring the powerful evoker back into the fray, as he instructed other members of the Glass Hands to cover him and also for a message to be sent to Lavinia to call for reinforcements. Xirk and others in the party sought to interfere with Hamza’s plans, with Farruk striking another shot that brought Sifara down for the count before he could unleash his destructive magics once more.
 
Another member of the Glass Hands roused Sifara, but Ten Zhu followed up with a devastating psychic strike that scrambled the minds of the enemy combatants beyond the wall of clouds, rendering Sifara, the other enemy spellcaster, and one of the rogues stunned in place, and preventing the message from being sent. By now, Hamza had joined the fray in the back, while the rest of the party scrambled to coordinate. Hamza had turned his attention on Conner, striking the cleric down as he raised his greatsword to finish him off. Ten Zhu was approaching the brink of unconsciousness after a mishap with an exploding horn of blasting, and he called upon his psionic reserves to enlarge himself, shifting the table aside and deflecting a potential lethal strike from Hamza aimed at Conner, allowing the cleric to scarcely avoid death.

However, Xirk and Avascara joined forces to take the fight to Hamza, and though the warlord was defiant, the two mighty warriors struck Hamza down. By now, most of the enemy combatants had been dealt with, as the tide of battle had been turned. Avascara and Xirk began to make their way to the ward crystal as the party dispatched and rendered unconscious the remaining combatants. The crystal proved remarkably resilient even in the face of the combined strikes of Avascara and Xirk, but then Conner stepped forward with an active antimagic field.

The pulsating light within the crystal died away, and as Avascara and Xirk struck down, the crystal no longer retained the same supernatural resilience it once had and shattered into pieces; this time, not even exploding into a burst of magical energy. As that happened however, the party could see Sifara’s body beginning to rouse as he rose up. As Sifara’s eyes opened, they no longer saw the electric-blue eyes from earlier, but now only a deep shade of amethyst light...
 
Session 15
Sifara’s body rose, his eyes glowing with amethyst light. As he spoke, he spoke with the voice of someone other than Sifara: speaking of a being older and crueller than he. Xirk surmised that it must be the voice of Ayndrareiss speaking through Sifara. Ayndrareiss, using Sifara as the instrument of his speech, mocked Xirk for the efforts he had undertaken so far.

He offered Xirk the chance to rejoin the Glass Hands and return to the company. Xirk refused, and Ayndrareiss replied that refusal like that had consequences, and he would see to what Xirk was willing to sacrifice to turn away from the Glass Hands. Sifara’s body turned limp, and Xirk and the party watched with surprise as all the unconscious Glass Hands present in the room began to crystallize. One of them turned to crystal—which immediately shattered into crystal dust. The party rapidly began to mobilize, beginning to take as many of the fallen Glass Hands as they could towards Conner, who still had an active antimagic field. Within its confines, they were able to somewhat safely remove the glass shards from the Glass Hands to release them from the effect. However, they were unable to get to all of them, as several turned to dust before they could reach them in time.

In the end, Hamza, Sifara, and three other members of the Glass Hands were the only survivors left in the guild hall. With the ward crystals destroyed, the wards over the guild hall had fallen, and the party needed to figure out their next move. It would likely not be long before the Glass Hands deployed to the Golden Sands Brewery would return to the guild hall, and likely joined by the city guard given the party’s actions.
 
The party had been in contact with Yakub via telepathic bond, and he had since used word of recall to return himself back to the temple of Bhaelros. He was planning on rejoining the party, and after discussion with the party, would be bringing assistance from the temple of Bhaelros in the form of Numan and four other ranking clerics. They arrived five minutes later, with one of the clerics using a teleportation circle to the guild hall to join the party. The party took the time to recuperate, with the aid of Yakub and clergy of the temple of Bhaelros, while they roused Hamza, Sifara, and the other members of the Glass Hands, after restorative spells were cast upon them. Hamza was roused first. Xirk and the others explained the situation to him, and Hamza was at first disbelieving, but he was brought around to see the reality of the situation.

Hamza’s mind and memories were muddled from the effects of being under the thrall of Ayndrareiss, but between the party, Farruk, and Yakub assisting, the battlefield was able to quickly get a handle on things. Sifara was roused next, and the party brought the evoker up to speed as well. The party also learned from Yakub that the city had been alerted to the party’s activities, even if it was albeit in their disguised identities (for those that were wearing a disguise in any case). The Glass Hands and the city guard would likely be coming in force to the guild hall. Most likely, Lavinia would be mobilizing as well, gathering forces from the warehouse to make her way towards the guild hall. The party had some decisions to make. They could try to make a break for it, stand and fight, or try something else.

As the party was figuring out their options, they explored the guild hall, taking what useful items and valuables they could. They also found documents and ledgers describing the various contracts and business dealings the Glass Hands held, and it indicated that they had connections and had done jobs for all manner of influential figures throughout the city, including the sabbalad of the Sahar sabban of the Trades Ward, various ward rulers, and members of the Guild Arcane, including Basrat of the Blue Tower. The party also found twelve prisoners held within cells on the upper floor of the guild hall, whom they released. They were captured slaves, but Xirk gave them some gold and told them to buy passage out of Calimport.

After discussion, the party decided that they should attempt to neutralize and capture Lavinia before making their exit out of the city. They had drawn considerable heat given their actions, and they could not afford to stay in Calimport too much longer. The party knew they had only minutes to take advantage of the confusion and chaos they had caused, and to catch Lavinia in transit between locations. If they waited too long, they would likely be overwhelmed by the incoming forces. Conner had sent his owl out to scout, deciding on a drudach she was likely within, and was given her description by Farruk. Conner chose to send his owl out to the Minab drudach of the Sahar sabban, and in time, he was able to locate her position. He found Lavinia leading a group of 12 other members of the Glass Hands through the drudach.

The party elected to set an ambush, with Sifara to set up a teleport, while Hamza, Farruk, and Yakub would come along as well. Xirk asked Shabbaz if he was in it for the long haul, and the former gladiator replied that he was, as he longed for a chance at a good fight, and the party thus far had provided the opportunity. Farruk warned that Lavinia and her group would not be taken by surprise: Lavinia kept a special pistol on hand that acted to warn her and nearby allies of danger. The party nonetheless decided to take the fight: this was an opportunity they had only a narrow window to take advantage of. Conner was forced to enter a bag of holding in order to comply with Sifara’s limitations, but the party teleported an instant later, appearing on a rooftop above Lavinia and her group.

Lavinia reacted instantly, alerted to the party’s presence above as she instructed her forces to kill the party. She threw a tangler grenade up towards the roof, but the party and their allies avoided being ensnared. Lavinia then swiftly began to reposition, walking along the walls of nearby buildings with ease. The rest of the party swiftly took to action, with Ten Zhu and Eirsai lobbing down beads of fireball to rain down destruction. Xirk and Avascara broke off, making a beeline towards Lavinia’s position. Conner had to spend a moment to get out of the bag, while Sifara began to fire off destructive magic from up above. Hamza, Shabbaz, Yakub both jumped down into the fray, with Hamza rallying the party around him. Farruk meanwhile took precise shots at key targets, and in time, the two enemy mages were quickly downed.

As Xirk closed on Lavinia, he attempted to strike out against her. The instant before he could connect however, she shot him deftly with her pistol, staggering him. She took advantage of the opening and slashed out with her scimitar, heavily wounding Xirk. She then nimbly walked away from Xirk, her superior mobility allowing to keep him at a distance. By this point in the battle, several of the enemy combatants were unconscious, but Hamza had found himself at the center of attention, being attacked from multiple angles. Lavinia also shot at him every so often, and before long, Hamza was unconscious and bleeding out in the middle of the melee. Shabbaz and Yakub remained by his side, electric spirits swirling all around the latter, but Yakub too was heavily wounded. Farruk picked off what combatants he could on the field, but several remained standing, while the rest of the party assisted.

Avascara and Xirk continued to chase after Lavinia, who nimbly kept her distance from them. Avascara managed to catch up with her. Lavinia attempted to counter Avascara’s attack with a precisely timed gunshot, but Avascara cut Lavainia’s bullet in half with her sword Kin-no-yuki, taking only minimal damage. In return, she landed a devastating strike on Lavinia, and Lavinia staggered herself, significantly injured for the first time in the fight. Still, it would take more than one good hit to take down Lavinia, and the battle was far from over…
 
Session 16
 
Notes:
- The party has left Calimport, along with Farruk, Hamza, Sifara, Yakub, and Shabbaz. They are travelling along the Trade Way out from the gates of the Trades Ward of Calimport. The party is presently transporting via cart the corpses of an archer, evoker, mage, and knight of the Glass Hands, as well as the unconscious and restrained bodies of Lavinia, an archer, 4 champions and 3 knights of the Glass Hands.
- The party is currently wanted by authorities across Calimport for their actions in the Trades Ward in committing property damage on a significant scale to one of the structures and surrounding area as belonging to the Golden Sands Brewery in the Jhafer drudach of the Sahar sabban of the Trades Ward, as well as for their raid on the Glass Hands HQ in the Zeqra drudach of the Sahar sabban of the Trades Ward.
- An abjurer, a champion, and a knight among the Glass Hands that was present at the Glass Hands HQ was told to meet with the party at the ruins southwest of Calimport.
 
The battle in the streets of Calimport continued to rage, as the party faced off against Lavinia and her entourage of Glass Hands. Shabbaz and Yakub fought nearly back to back, trying to take down the champions on the street. One of the champions broke up, darting up to the roof of the building where much of the rest of the party was. Ten Zhu saw the champion advancing towards him and Conner, so he took out the mizzium mortar the party had recovered earlier and fired a scorching blast of flame from it. He caught a champion and a knight with it, injuring both but felling neither. One of the other champions that gone up the roof earlier darted towards Sifara’s position, knocking the frailer mage over. He then struck down with a pair of powerful strikes, heavily injuring Sifara. Down below, Lavinia was tangling with Avascara but she broke away from the melee. Her black silken cloak fluttered behind her as she simply walked up the side of the building onto the roof, diving into the battle above. She then spun around, her pistol firing accurately at her enemies around her. Eirsai and Ten Zhu were knocked backwards by the force of her bullets, the latter being pushed off the roof entirely.
 
Sifara, who had been knocked to the ground earlier, managed to avoid Lavinia’s flurry of gunshots, but a strike of her scimitar brought him down, as he began to bleed profusely. Down below, Farruk continued to try to pick off what ground forces he could, shooting accurately with his crossbow to strike for devastating effect. Xirk now realized the situation occurring on the roof, and the danger that Sifara was in. He ran up towards Avascara’s position, who was near a tree adjacent to the building. Xirk made a snap decision and decided to try to bring the tree down and atop Lavinia! He swung with his adamantine greataxe, felling the tree in a single strike as he angled the blow so that it would fall atop Lavinia but not Sifara.

The tree fell right atop Lavinia’s position, and a last second reaction from her caused her merely to be pushed aside from the force of the falling tree, rather than being crushed and trapped beneath it. The tree shattered part of the roof, smashing through it to wedge itself into part of the wall beneath. Large cracks began to form on the side of the wall as it struggled to bear the tree’s weight. While Xirk had failed to pin Lavinia, he had created separation between her and her target. He ran up towards the house and attacked the wall, aiming to bring it down and Lavinia with it. Lavinia simply stared at Xirk in incredulity as he smashed through one of the load bearing supports, and caused an entire section of the wall to come crashing downwards.
 
Lavinia nimbly darted out of the way in time, but Xirk had created some cover for Sifara. The tree remained pinned on the roof, creating an uneven ramp from the ground to the roof above. Avascara took the makeshift ramp as an opportunity as she ran upwards, grabbing Xirk’s glaive as she did so. She closed in on Lavinia, slashing at her with the glaive and careful to keep her distance so as to stay out of the range of Lavinia’s gun counters. However, the leader of the Glass Hands’s Calimport branch proved to be exceptionally difficult to get a good hit on, as she dextrously ducked and bobbed Avascara’s blows.

Conner and Eirsai tried to press the assault. Conner conjured a trio of scorching rays to strike Lavinia. The first struck her, and Lavinia staggered, her injuries beginning to catch up with her. She managed to dodge the other two rays, as well as Eirsai’s shotgun blasts, batting the bullets out of the air with her scimitar. The centaur chose to make a strategic withdrawal, throwing herself off the roof and onto the ground below to break line of sight with the dangerous skirmisher. Hamza tried to instill a sense of order on the situation, giving Avascara an opportunity to strike while he focused on the champion on the roof. Avascara thrust out with the glaive at Lavinia again, but Lavinia sidestepped the attack. Shabbaz and Yakub continued to cull the herd down below, with Shabbaz duelling one of the champions, while Yakub dispatched the remaining archer. Yakub was too far away to soar upward towards the roof, so he instead conjured a guardian of faith atop it to hedge in Lavinia.
 
Ten Zhu picked himself off the ground below. He had been winded by being knocked down by Lavinia, but he retained an understanding for the battlespace. He teleported upwards, using his psionic abilities to grant Hamza a chance to strike out, but the warlord narrowly missed landing a blow on the sole remaining champion.

Lavinia retaliated with a shot towards Avascara. The bullet sank in, but the warrior from Kara-Tur didn’t flinch, remaining resolute in her pursuit of Lavinia. Lavinia shouted a command to the champion to deal with Avascara, and the hulking warrior tried to overpower Avascara. However, in spite of the massive difference in size, Avascara remained completely unmoved, shoving aside the champion’s attempts seemingly without effort. Lavinia was growing concerned about the situation, so she tossed another tangler grenade into the air. The grenade exploded into a snarl of sticky, white webs which ensnared Shabbaz, Hamza, and even the champion. Avascara however cut through the webs with a swift slash of Xirk’s naginata as she twisted her body at the same time, avoiding being restrained.
 
Lavinia snarled in frustration at Avascara’s resilience, but she walked up to Hamza, casually dodging a blow from Yakub’s guardian of faith as she did so. Hamza was wound up in the webs and was unable to get his sword up in time to block Lavinia’s attack, and her scimitar slipped through a gap in his armor. It took him in the side of the head, and the warlord instantly fell unconscious and bleeding out from the devastating and precise attack. By now, the combatants below had been dispatched. Farruk and Xirk rapidly made their way atop the roof, with only a champion and Lavinia as the remaining threats. Farruk managed to land a precise shot on Lavinia at last, and the skirmisher gasped in pain as the crossbow bolt took her in a shoulder.

Xirk followed up by taking advantage of the opening Farruk had created. He charged towards Lavinia, his fiery maul raised before he brought it crashing down atop her, the head igniting with holy energy. Lavinia tried and failed to dodge the attack in time. She tried to say something, but her words didn’t come out as the maul slammed into her and knocked the wind out of her. She crumpled from the force of the attack, her eyes rolling into the back of her head in unconsciousness as Xirk stood over her. A fraction of a second later, Xirk reached down to then rip the amethyst glass shard from Lavinia’s left forearm. Instantaneously, he stiffened and Lavinia’s back arched sympathetically as energy coursed through both of them. The party watched as both then began to crystallize, their bodies starting to turn to glass from the point of contact.
 
Avascara ran towards them both, dropping Xirk’s glaive and drawing Kin-no-yuki instead. She exchanged a glance with Xirk, and a wordless moment passed between the two before Xirk’s eyes flicked towards Lavinia. Avascara nodded before she raised Kin-no-yuki into the air and brought it crashing down upon Lavinia’s forearm. Flesh and bone separated before the blade, as Avascara cut off the crystallized portion of Lavinia’s arm before it could overtake her entirely. All the same, Lavinia’s lifeblood began to stain the tiles of the roof, as Avascara’s gambit had also left her on the verge of death.

Yakub in the meanwhile soared upward to the roof, energy flaring around him. He drew upon the last of his reserves as he intoned a prayer to Bhaelros before laying a hand on Xirk. Xirk felt a shock go through his entire body before he saw the crystals on his arm fade, as his flesh returned back to normal. A single champion remained, but Shabbaz made quick work of him in three swift blows. The battle had ended, but time still remained of the essence. The party worked rapidly to make their way around the bodies, trying to stabilize who they could. The party had been trying to avoid killing the Glass Hands throughout the fight, but some expired regardless during the chaos and confusion of the battle as they had been left bleeding out. Four of the Glass Hands lay dead, with the remaining nine heavily injured but alive and unconscious.
 
Lavinia was among those stabilized, but though the battle had finished the party still didn’t quite have time to relax. They needed to make their way to a secure location quickly, as the sounds of the battle would likely draw attention. In addition, the party’s actions had drawn attention across the Trades Ward by now, and it was likely that they would be wanted within the ward, if not throughout Calimport as a whole as it was. Ten Zhu had the ability to create a nomad’s gate to allow them to travel to an area they had been before, but the party had to make a decision quickly.

The party debated where to go next, as they considered their options. The party thought briefly about making their way back to the guild hall, but they knew it was likely overrun with members of the Glass Hands and city guards by now. The party then considered holing up in Shabbaz’s home. However, they reasoned that since several of them had been seen, including Shabbaz, it was likely that Shabbaz’s home was compromised. The party then thought about making their way to the temple of Bhaelros in the Faiths Ward; however, Ten Zhu disagreed with the plan of action, as clergy of the temple had already indicated that they did not desire to be generally implicated with the rest of the party. In addition, Ten Zhu could only take the party to a location they had been to recently. The party then recalled the staging point they had gone to in the early morning prior to assaulting the Golden Sands Brewery. It had been an abandoned house within the Tlaen drudach at the entrance into the Trades Ward from the Faiths Ward, within the very alley where Farruk had originally tried to kill Xirk.
 
The party traveled to the abandoned house via Ten Zhu's gate, taking the unconscious bodies of Lavinia and the other Glass Hands with them, along with the four corpses. It was there that at last breathed a collective sigh of relief as the adrenaline began to fade. The events of the last hour or so were making its effects known, from all the battles the party had been through in the morning hours. All the same, they had successfully dismantled the leadership of the Glass Hands, albeit at the cost of drawing significant attention to themselves, and authorities within not just the Trades Ward but perhaps across Calimport would be on the hunt for them. It was a looming question over everyone’s minds if they could continue to remain in Calimport with things as they were.
The party then began to discuss their next plan of action, both in the short and long term. They had struck a major blow to the Glass Hands in Calimport, but where to go from there? It was possible they could try to lay low in Calimport for some time. The party considered if perhaps they could convert Lavinia to their side, then between her and the rest of the Glass Hands leadership with them, they could try to blame the incident on a third party and draw the heat away from them. However, the party reasoned that was unlikely to work as several of them had been clearly and visibly seen, not just by members of the Glass Hands, but guards of the Golden Sands Brewery and of the city. It was also unclear if Lavinia, Hamza, and the others could truly clear things over given the scale of the incidents that had occurred.
 
The party knew that Ayndrareiss, to the best of their knowledge, was present at the main Glass Hands HQ in Suldolphor. The endgame lay there, but the party wondered if they were truly ready for such a challenge given the difficulty they’d had thus far in Calimport. The party considered remaining in Calimport, even if they may be hunted, and try to convert more of the Glass Hands over to their side to have a stronger force before making their way to Suldolphor. Even if they had crippled its leadership, the party knew a significant amount of the Glass Hands remained in the city, and the party had never made their way to the warehouse the Glass Hands controlled in the city. More work could still be done within the city. It would be a risky prospect however, as many eyes would be on them, and it would only give Ayndrareiss more time to prepare.

Hamza noted that most of the Glass Hand forces were committed to the cities the Glass Hands did the vast majority of their business in: Calimport, Almraiven, Memnon, and Manshaka, and that it would take time for Ayndrareiss to call forces from those locations. It was possible that a strike force could make reasonable headway if the party were to depart soon to Suldolphor, though Hamza admitted it would be a significant risk .However, waiting overly long would give Ayndrareiss significant time to prepare, and they may well face an army by the time they got to Suldolphor in such an instance. The party did consider perhaps instead of making a move for Suldolphor to instead make their way to other cities where the Glass Hands had holdings in Almraiven, Manshaka, and Memnon. By dealing with the forces of the Glass Hands there, they would in turn reduce the number of forces that Ayndrareiss would have to call upon, and have an even larger force by which to face him with. However, it would be committing to a long war, and the party was uncertain what the outcome of such a protracted conflict would be.
[1:48 AM]
The party was aware that the Trades Ward was in tumult, and their actions had drawn significant attention, particularly towards the Golden Sands Brewery and the Glass Hands HQ. Such chaos and confusion however also presented an opportunity, one whose window was quickly closing. The party decided that it was best to leave Calimport immediately, rather than holing and making their move later. The party had a few outstanding commitments left in Calimport that they quickly determined a means to resolve. Avascara arranged for a courier to be sent to the One-Eyed Weasel to have a mage hired to magically over send the loot the party had taken from the Golden Sands Brewery. Xirk planned to later use the serpentine owl they had acquired earlier to take back the borrowed book, The Secret Arts of the Sha’ir, back to the temple to Oghma and to retrieve the collateral they had dropped off. For the time being, the party needed a plan for a fast exit out of the city. They had a number of bodies to transport, and they had left the cart they had acquired earlier back at Shabbaz’s house, so Farruk went to buy a cart with some of Xirk’s money. The party considered where to go next.
 
Making their way back to the Shackles Ward and taking the Coast Way out posed heightened risk for discovery and being compromised. The party was aware however that there was another gate out of the city in the Trades Ward, connecting with the Trade Way north of the city. The party considered altering their disguises and pretending to be a merchant caravan making their way out of the city. However, the bodies they had with them, both unconscious and dead, created some wrinkles for that plan. Farruk had returned with the cart, and he recalled that the Glass Hands had done business with necromancers in the past, and he suggested that they pretend to be transporting bodies on behalf of one. It would not be the first nor the last time such a thing had happened in Calimport.

The party decided to go through some of the papers they had liberated from the Glass Hands HQ to produce a forgery to indicate they had a business order to fulfill outside the city so as to allow them passage. Ten Zhu, with Farruk’s help, created the forgeries, and the two also went on to make hasty disguises for the group. They didn’t have the time for full disguises, so they worked on making key alterations so as to make them look different enough to fool a casual glance. Eirsai, with the aid of a headband of inner secrets and some drapes, ended up disguised as one of the horses pulling the cart!
 
The party then loaded up the bodies on the cart, putting the dead bodies on top. They had stripped the bodies of weapons and armor, storing away the weapons in extradimensional spaces. The armor they hid away amid the bodies and along the side of the cart. The party also acquired a linen covering so as to cover the bodies. The appearance was fairly convincing, but Xirk decided the cart needed something extra, so he added some dirt atop the bodies and the covering before determining that it was ready.
 
With their preparations set, the party then made their way northward through the Tlaen drudach and out towards the city gates. Farruk was at the lead, pretending to be the lead, while the rest of the party served as imposing bodyguards of the strong and silent variety. Farruk presented the papers to the guards at the gates, while the rest of the party continued their imposing performances of tough bodyguards. The guards at the gates briefly examined the cart, with one taking a look beneath the covers. He wrinkled his nose, commenting on the dirt in that while the party may be transporting corpses, that was no reason for them to be unclean.
 
Farruk chose not to respond, but the guards did not have any other objections. They opened the gates to let them through, and at last, the party was able to exit Calimport, leaving a ward wracked by chaos behind them. Just what challenge next lay ahead them was unclear, but they knew that their actions in near future would be critical...
 
Session 17
 
- The party had set up camp in the ancient ruins of an abandoned military garrison used by forces commanded by the djinni Calim during the Era of Skyfire millenia ago. The ruins are approximately 6 miles southwest of Calimport.
- Avascara returned to Calimport under disguise to set up a meeting with the One-Eyed Weasel, seeking to arrange transport for the party.
 
The party had just made their way out of Calimport, their ruse successful in allowing them to escape without being caught out. Eirsai and a draft horse beside pulled along the cart that carried the Glass Hands the party captured. The rest of the party walked alongside the cart, as they traveled across the desert. They began by following the Trade Way. but as the distance from Calimport grew, they veered southwest to make their way towards the ancient ruins they had seen on their initial approach to Calimport. As the party traveled, they contemplated what their next move was to be. They had left Calimport, but if they intended to make an assault on the Glass Hands’s base in Suldolphor, they needed a way to rapidly reach the location. Suldolphor was on the far eastern edge of Calimshan, hundreds of miles away. The party contemplated if there was a way they could access the teleportation circle at the Glass Hands’s base, but Sifara warned that the area would be heavily warded and that such an attempt would likely fail. As the party discussed their options further, Sifara said that he would be able to potentially transport people outside Suldolphor, but he could only take eight others with him.
 
The party continued their journey, eventually reaching the entrance into the ruins. The ancient military garrison had but only a few structures left, with most either sunken beneath the sand or otherwise worn away with time. Some members of the party took to investigating and searching through the ruins. Avascara found to her surprise that the pool by the entrance contained a discarded sword amid sand and silt at the bottom, along with an assortment of coinage. Avascara took out an ancient curved blade, the black iron chipped and heavily damaged. A single rune could be seen engraved in the blade near the hilt, a remnant from the first war between Calim and Memnon. The coins the party came to realize perhaps had been given as an offering of luck, as soldiers made their way out of the garrison before heading into war. As the party further explored the grounds, they found an elevated area that contained one of the few intact buildings they could see. Further towards the center of the complex was what appeared to be a shrine, seemingly intact, and of which they noted that birds of carrion and other desert creatures seemed to steadfastly avoid. For the time being, it seemed the party had found a safe area by which to set up camp. The party set the prisoners they had captured near the elevated area, digging out holes and entrapping them within up to their necks in sand. They took to periodically knocking out prisoners as they awoke in lieu of a more long term solution. Avascara and Ten Zhu took time to have a discussion regarding their time in Faerun, with Ten Zhu reminiscing of his time back home, as a minister, and how he had ultimately been driven away due to issues of family. Avascara reflected on Ten Zhu’s words, for as much as they echoed her own experience in a way, and the two went on their separate ways.

Xirk had sent out the serpentine owl the party had acquired earlier to see to tasks in Calimport, returning the book the party had borrowed in exchange for the collateral they had left behind, and also to retrieve Xirk’s loyal companion, Warrior, and Scrapheap. Avascara took the downtime to work on repairing and reforging the ancient sword she had found, which she had discovered had been imbued with the properties of fire, and was likely in truth the weapon of an efreeti millenia past. She used her own knowledge of eastern blacksmithing techniques to repair the sword, adjusting the curvature of the blade and the total mass. Conner took to seeing to the camp’s defenses, laying down powerful warding magics of forbiddance to help ensure the party would not be ambushed. n the meanwhile, while the owl had returned with Warrior, Scrapheap was nowhere to be seen, and there had been people present at Shabbaz’s home. Eirsai was concerned, for Scrapheap may be used to divine upon the party. However, the party did not have the means of being divined upon currently anyway: Sifara had not prepared the spell for the day. As all this was occurring, Xirk elected to sit upon the most elevated point the party had found thus far and meditate. A lot had happened in the last week, and not just with the situation with Ayndrareiss and the fate of the Glass Hands coming to an end, but also Xirk’s spiritual future, and of what kind of person he would choose to be. As a divinely blooded individual, his fate had always been tied to the gods, but the events of the last week had left him torn and uncertain of which path he was to walk. In his dreams, he had felt clearly divine presences reaching out to him, each offering their own aid in their own way. Xirk was determined to learn more about his own situation and determine his own destiny.

After some internal debate within himself, Xirk elected not to reach out to the presence he had felt at the start of his journey nor the presence whose being was like that of a thunderstorm incarnate, but instead he stretched his sense out towards the presence he had felt a sense of warmth and welcoming from. Time passed, but eventually Xirk could feel his senses connecting with a being of a higher and greater existence beyond his own, exuding that same warm and comforting feeling he had felt before. Xirk entreated to the presence, speaking not so much in words, but in emotions, feelings, and concepts. The presence responded in kind. Xirk learned that the presence desired a champion, but not one that would work and fight not for the sake of glory, or for battle’s sake, or to seek to wreak havoc and destruction. Instead, the presence sought one who was willing to intercede upon the behalf of others and to take their suffering for their own if necessary, to act as a protector and defender of the innocent called upon to safeguard those unable to protect themselves. The presence further intimated that it sought most of all to cultivate the light in others and that they sought a champion willing to walk a path of mercy rather than retribution. Xirk considered the presence’s offer. It echoed much of what Xirk had been through, not just in the last week, but before. Xirk had sought and earned for a path away from the darkness he had fallen into in times before. And when it came to the matter of his former comrades, Xirk sought to save and rescue those he could, rather than simply killing them for being in the way. He had chosen what he believed to be right, not what was easy.

However, Xirk had some doubts. Through his own emotions, Xirk expressed concern that their would be times in which violence was called for and there would be no choice otherwise. The presence echoed Xirk’s concern: for as much as it desired to preserve and cultivate the light found in nearly all beings, it recognized that there were those who willfully and irrevocably had extinguished the light within themselves and sought to stamp out and extinguish the light in others. And for the sake of preserving the light in those who continued to have and cherish it, it would be necessary in those times to end the existence of such beings who no longer had any light within themselves. Xirk contemplated the feelings he had received from the presence before he decided that he found them acceptable. He chose to align himself with the presence and to work as a champion on behalf of its ideals, now ideals that Xirk would take on as his own perhaps for the rest of his life. Xirk felt the presence suffuse him, and he could feel the truth of the presence’s identity word that fill his being as he came to truly know the entity to which he had aligned himself with. It was the Crying God, Ilmater. Xirk at last opened his eyes, which now glowed as luminous pools of light. He gazed upon his hands to see a set of red bindings wrapped around his wrist, the symbol of his new god, and now to serve as an instrument of its will, his own Prayer of Mercy.

Xirk arose with newfound conviction and purpose as he went to rejoin the party. Those present could immediately sense the change about Xirk: there was now a lightness to his being, an easing of whatever had been weighing down Xirk’s soul. Still, as monumental as the personal change Xirk had gone through had been, they still had dire matters to deal with .The party needed to figure out what their battle plan for Suldolphor was, and that at minimum required a way to rapidly reach the location. The party thought perhaps about reaching out to Avascara’s contact in Calimport, the One-Eyed Weasel. Perhaps she would know of a nearby teleportation circle the party could use. After some discussion and debate, the party agreed that Avascara should set up a meeting with the One-Eyed Weasel in Katar’s High, and that Avascara could sneak back under disguise. Avascara was able to magically disguise herself as an armored female mercenary of dark skin and fiery hair. She took the serpentine owl as transport, with Conner using a spell of sending to make contact with one of the veterans the party had worked with for purposes of setting up a meeting. Conner also sent his owl familiar along with Avascara so as to keep an eye on her and be apprised of her status.

Avascara swiftly made her way to the Shackles Ward on the western edge of Calimport. The giant owl followed after her. The sight of Avascara and the owl drew some looks from those in the crowd, but Calimport was a city steeped in magic, and thus Avascara’s presence and her exotic steed did not draw much in the way of close inspection. It did however attract some of the slum children of the Shackles Ward, who took to following Avascara and the owl out of undisguised childish interest. After some time, Avascara provided some of the children with a feather, and when that failed to send them scattering, she exerted her intimidating presence, sending them swiftly scurrying away. Avascara then made her way into Katar’s High, entering the establishment. The giant owl made to enter, beginning to awkwardly squeeze its body into the entrance and its talons raking across the floor. Khamal, proprietor of the business, immediately saw what was happening and told Avascara that in no uncertain terms was it allowed. Avascara gave her own firmly stated rejoinder, but Khamal was unwilling to budge. Reluctantly, Avascara commanded the owl to instead alight on the roof, and she whispered for it to relieve itself there as well. An audible thump! could be felt as the giant owl perched above, and Avascara walked within. Avascara took to a table, observing some of the various patrons present, a collection of merchants, guards, other adventurers, and travelers from outside Calimport. She continued to wait for some time, but eventually the One-Eyed Weasel arrived through the doors of Katar’s High, nearly an hour after the initially stated meeting time. She was escorted by a group of hobgoblin mercenaries, and after obtaining a drink from the counter, she went to her own table.
 
Avascara tried to attract her attention via coughing, but nothing seemed to happen. After she attempted it again, another patron at the bar expressed concern if Avascara had come down with something, perhaps related to the plague that had affected the Shackles Ward previously. Avascara elected not to respond, standing up and making her way to the One-Eyed Weasel. The latter looked up at Avascara with a smirk, inviting her to take a seat, as the pair prepared to get down to business…
 
Session 18
 
- It is currently late evening, 7 hours and 45 minutes past highsun. The party has 1 hour and 45 minutes remaining before they can attempt another long rest.
- The party paid the One-Eyed Weasel in Calimport to arrange to receive on a teleportation sigil sequence to the Crypt City in Tulmon as well as to intelligence regarding the current layout of Suldolphor
- Eirsai and Ten Zhu discovered an underground path beneath the spire at the ruins southwest of Calimport, seemingly leading to an underground complex.
 
Avascara sat down to negotiate with the One-Eyed Weasel. The One-Eyed Weasel noted that Avascara and the rest of her crew had been up to quite a bit of trouble earlier in the day. Avascara directed the conversation to a question of acquiring transport to Suldolphor. She had Conner’s owl on her shoulder, allowing Conner to observe and report the contents of the meeting to the party. The One-Eyed Weasel explained that Suldolphor had been reduced to ruins during the Genie Wars following Calim and Memnon’s reappearance. It was now a nest of outlaws, with the only real organization exerting control in the area being that of the Glass Hands, and she doubted she would be able to obtain knowledge of their circle anytime soon or that it would do Avascara and the party any good.
 
The One-Eyed Weasel said that she could procure for Avascara a sigil sequence to a teleportation circle in Almraiven as the closest major city to Suldolphor, but the location was still well over two hundred miles away. Avascara wondered if it would be possible to procure the aid of a spellcaster that could cast wind walk.
 
The One-Eyed Weasel said that it would be, but that such services would take time to arrange. The One-Eyed Weasel however did offer, if Avascara were willing to wait a day or two. The One-Eyed Weasel said she could arrange to procure a sigil sequence to the Crypt City.
 
As the One-Eyed Weasel explained, the Crypt “City” was a portion of the city of Tulmon, which lay just a couple of days travel northwest from Suldolphor along the Turtle Trail. The Crypt City was rife with undead, but was often used as a neutral ground by outlaws and had a thriving black market. The One-Eyed Weasel demanded a price of one hundred and forty platinum pieces, reasoning that the knowledge would require work to come by and was highly valuable besides. Avascara considered the One-Eyed Weasel’s offer, electing to return to it shortly.
 
Avascara also inquired if it were possible to hire more mercenaries for a mission like the veterans they had hired before, or even more experienced or skilled ones as well. The One-Eyed Weasel replied that it would indeed be possible, though it would take more time and cost more to procure the services of the more highly skilled mercenaries. Avascara filed that away as something to be followed up on.
 
Avascara then turned the topic towards Suldolphor, for purposes of acquiring intelligence as to the layout of the area. The One-Eyed Weasel explained that while old maps of Suldolphor existed, they were woefully out of date and otherwise generally inaccurate as the town had been sacked during the Genie Wars. Ruins were largely what remained, acting as a hub for outlaws and brigands in the area, and with the Glass Hands having secured the largest stake of it for themselves. The One-Eyed Weasel did not easily have on hand knowledge of or access to the current layout of Suldolphor in its current state. Avascara tried to press the One-Eyed Weasel to marshal her resources to find out, pointing out that intelligence could possibly be gathered from the warehouse belonging to the Glass Hands in town or perhaps amid the wake of the attack on the Golden Sands Brewery. The One-Eyed Weasel looked doubtful, given the risk involved, but Avascara offered to put down additional platinum.
 
In the end, Avascara and the One-Eyed Weasel agreed to a sum of two hundred and ninety platinum pieces in exchange for information pertaining to a teleportation circle to the Crypt City in Tulmon, as well as additionally intelligence regarding the current layout and access routes of Suldolphor. Avascara even threw in an extra ten platinum pieces on behalf of the party to even the deal out, and the One-Eyed Weasel informed Avascara that she would be in touch.
 
With that, Avascara left the building, retrieving the giant serpentine owl to fly back to the party’s position. She found the party where they had been last, amid the ruins they had encamped within. Avascara descended down from the owl to rejoin the party. She informed them of the deal that had been brokered. The party considered their actions for the upcoming future, and Xirk decided that it would be a good time to attempt to get Lavinia on the party’s side.
 
With Xirk’s recent awakening of faith, he moved over towards Lavinia and sought to remove the foul influence that was corrupting her mind. He then roused her, and the party saw that Lavinia blinked, gazing around her in confusion, not hostility. She looked inquisitively towards Xirk and the others of the Glass Hands present, murmuring their names. Determining that Lavinia did not seem to be further under the effects of Ayndrareiss’s influence, the party freed her from the sand.
 
Xirk explained the situation to Lavinia. While Lavinia was still disoriented, she took what Xirk said in stride. Her mind seemed to be somewhat clearer than the others had been, though she still felt hazy and that there were gaps in her memories. Lavinia agreed to join Xirk and the others in taking the fight to Ayndrareiss, as she did not intend to allow what Ayndrareiss had done to her go unanswered. She expressed surprise that Xirk had chosen to spare her and the others, for she confessed it would not have been what she would have done. Xirk replied that he had chosen what he had believed to be right, and he had recently come into a spiritual awakening.
 
Lavinia then requested her possessions back, which the party had taken from her while she had been unconscious. After some hesitation, the party returned her weapons and gear to her, save her pistol. As Lavinia looked around for it, she spotted it being carried by Eirsai. Lavinia demanded to have her pistol returned to her.
 
Eirsai refused, as she did not trust Lavinia. The atmosphere grew thick with tension. Xirk came forward to try to quell the growing issue, asking Eirsai to return the pistol, though Eirsai stood her ground. Lavinia indicated that the pistol was not some mere possession for her, but something she had won through blood and sacrifice. Xirk turned back to Eirsai, entreating to her, and at last Eirsai surrendered the weapon—to Xirk, not Lavinia. Xirk promptly gave the pistol back to Lavinia, and Eirsai simply said to Xirk that if something happened, it would be on Xirk.
 
Lavinia then acquainted herself with those among the group, both among the Glass Hands present, as well as the party. She inquired of the party of which each could. Several gave replies that ranged from terse to more elaborate. However, Eirsai did not seem keen on sharing her capabilities with Lavinia. Lavinia turned to Xirk, demanding to know if they were actually allies, and if this was how they intended to proceed if they intended to actually work together towards a common goal. Xirk once more entreated to Eirsai. Eirsai reluctantly gave Lavinia an oblique reply, which Lavinia took as the best she would get.
 
As the group conversed, Lavinia tried and struggled to remember as best she could of the situation with Ayndrareiss. She explained that Ayndrareiss had frequently been in contact with her. She worried for the party’s situation, particularly given their lack of protection against divination magic, and she knew Ayndrareiss was a resourceful individual, with access to powerful spellcasters like the party had already faced. She recalled that Ayndrareiss was a supremely arrogant individual, believing himself to be truly invincible, something Lavinia believed was not merely some sort of idle boast, though she could not recall exactly why. However, that was also perhaps a weakness the party could exploit: after all, pride goeth before the fall.
 
Xirk inquired if Lavinia knew how Ayndrareiss had come into power, and just how Rabb al’Jahar had come to be slain. Lavinia said that she only knew of the stories like others: she had not witnessed it personally herself. In the wake of the Revolution that ended the Genie Wars, great resentment remained against those who had formerly enslaved the peoples of Calimshan: the genie lords and the genasi. It was said that a champion of Ilmater from the faction of Ilmater’s Tears had gone to confront Rabb al’Jahar, as one such genie lord who had evaded justice. It was said that this champion had slain Rabb al’Jahar, and neither Rabb al’Jahar nor the champion were heard from again.
 
The party wondered how such a thing could be possible, for a single person to have done such a thing. Lavinia was unsure herself, and offered a number of possibilities. Perhaps Rabb al’Jahar had been arrogant enough to allow an audience or engage in a duel, and had lost. Perhaps the champion had come with a host of allies to clear a path for them. Perhaps the champion had simply been that strong.
 
The words caused Xirk to stir, and he decided he would go to the temple to Ilmater in Calimport to learn more about this champion of Ilmater. He made to mount the giant owl to fly back to Calimport, offering to take one person with him. Avascara decided to join Xirk, and the pair swiftly set off for Calimport once more, also taking Conner’s owl familiar along.
 
The pair flew over the Shackles Ward, where they sighted a temple to Ilmater within the ward. The pair set the owl down nearby, attracting the interest and delight of some of the local children. Xirk bade the bird to fly and remain circling overhead, as he and Avascara made their way to the temple. The temple itself was a relatively humble two story structure of brick, mortar, and clay, with a minaret at the top. Near the entrance, the pair could see the Ward’s poor and destitute lined up, as acolytes and priests were serving soup to those in need. In a disturbing juxtaposition, Avascara and Xirk could see just on the other side of the street were slave pens were kept, with people in cages or chains openly being sold on the street.
 
An acolyte approached the two, inquiring if they were there for afternoon services. Xirk said that he was looking to speak with the head priest, as he had a recent religious awakening. Xirk showed the acolyte Prayer of Mercy, and the acolyte was awed by the sight. Xirk explained that he and his comrades acted to fight threats to the people and the land. The acolyte asked, in a respectful and awed tone, if Xirk and Avascara were of the “Companions.” Xirk wasn’t familiar with the term, and he said that he was not, while Avascara said that she was present in capacity to assist and guard Xirk.
 
The acolyte nodded and said that the two was more than welcome to meet with the head priest. The head priest however was preparing for the afternoon sermon after they were done serving soup, and would be available after the sermon.The acolyte turned to Avascara, saying that while she was permitted to bring her weapons inside, he asked her to respect the temple as a place of rest and peace. Avascara replied that she would respect such concerns, and she peacebonded her weapon with some rope that Xirk provided.
 
The acolyte said that Xirk and Avascara were welcome to wait, or even partake in assisting in the soup line if they wished to. Xirk and Avascara elected to help out on the soup line, with Xirk also using his newfound abilities to heal and aid those infirm or diseased among the crowd. This drew attention from those in the crowd, as several expressed their gratitude, with others laying on hands on him out of reverence and thanks. Xirk was uncomfortable by the attention, but eventually the soup ran out. Sadly, a fair number in the crowd were unable to get soup, as the demand was greater than the supply.
 
Still, the afternoon sermon was called, and Avascara and Xirk entered the temple with the rest of the crowd outside. It was as humbly constructed within as outside, with rows of benches laid out while a podium and altar lay at the far end. The pair could see an elderly half-elf being helped along up to the podium. As Xirk and Avascara came to learn, the aged half-elf was Revered Father Omar, the minister of the House of the Bound Hands.
 
Father Omar gave a sermon Avascara and Xirk had sensed he had given many times before, a sermon speaking of dealing with grief and loss, as well as of the values of forgiveness and mercy. He personalized the sermon, often addressing individual members of the congregation by name. As the sermon concluded and as the crowd began to filter out, Avascara and Xirk remained behind, with Xirk seeking to speak with Father Omar.
 
Father Omar invited Avascara and Xirk to sit with him at the benches. The pair could hear the elderly half-elf’s bones audibly creaking as he sat down, the acolyte from before assisting him. Father Omar turned to Xirk, saying that he had heard a rumor that a pair of Companions of the Noble Heart had come to visit their humble temple.
 
Xirk laughed, explaining that he was not in fact a Companion, but instead had recently come into the faith of Ilmater, as he showed the father Prayer of Mercy. Father Omar was delighted to learn that Xirk was a recent convert, and he solemnly recognized Prayer of Mercy for what it was, as proof of Xirk acting as a divinely mandated agent of Ilmater’s will in his own way. However, the father was also astute enough to realize that there had been other matters which had brought Xirk and Avascara to the temple. Xirk agreed, saying that while he wished had plenty of time to spare to discuss his newfound faith, the two had pressing questions regarding their quest.
 
The two asked what Father Omar knew of the tale of a champion of Ilmater slaying the one known as Rabb al’Jahar. Father Omar looked upon the two as he slowly replied, beginning with a recounting of the recent history of Ilmater, and its struggles during the Genie Wars. He explained that Ilmater had endowed one among the Calishites to act as his Chosen. Under their leadership, Ilmateri and other Calishites engaged in a nonviolent revolution. However, the Chosen disappeared and eventually, violence won out, and the genies and genasi lords were overthrown.
 
Though the people had won their freedom, old customs and habits died hard. In Calimport, slavery had returned and continued, to the point that slaves were beiing sold outside the very temple to Ilmater in the city. Father Omar trusted Xirk and by extension Avascara, given that Ilmater had entrusted him with Prayer of Mercy. As Father Omar explained, some of the Ilmateri in the city formed an underground organization, known as Ilmater’s Tears. They acted to rescue slaves and shelter escaped slaves within the muzad.
 
As Father Omar further explained, among those in the muzad had been a young man who had lost his friends and family to a powerful genie. He had become a member of Ilmater’s Tears, and one day he was killed while trying to defend others. When he was raised from the dead, his faith and dedication to Ilmater had become steadfast, and those within the church recognized him as a martyred champion of Ilmater. One day, he had decided to seek closure for what had happened to him and his family and others the genie had hurt, and thus the champion had gone to confront Rabb al’Jahar, the one who had taken everything he had cared about from him. As for what had truly come to transpire, it was said that Rabb al’Jahar was slain by the champion’s hand, and neither were heard from again.
 
Xirk and Avascara considered Father Omar’s words carefully, thinking over the tale they had been told. Xirk confessed that he had some doubts if he was truly walking the right path, as he wasn’t sure if he could be as forgiving as the faith dictated. Father Omar sympathized with Xirk, saying that doubt was natural, and that even Father Omar struggled with doubt at times.
 
However, he counseled Xirk that perhaps his beliefs about his upbringing and inclination to battle was not as contradictory with the aims of Ilmater as he thought. Most of Father Omar’s parishioners had no real inclination or life aimed towards battle, and thus it was more suited for them to pursue a live free of violence. As Father Omar explained, everyone was suited for different things, and the Crying God understood this. Xirk was one who would walk towards the fire, not away from it, and Ilmater must have chosen him to be such a person, to protect others, and even Ilmateri recognized that there was a time and place for violence, regrettable as it may be. Father Omar noted there were orders dedicated to such a purpose, such as the Companions of the Noble Heart.
 
Father Omar said however that even in such times in which one must not lose sight of trying to see the light in others and of the values of mercy and forgiveness. Xirk said he worried he wouldn’t be sure how to act at times, and Father Omar advised that in such times of crises, to trust in Ilmater and to trust his own heart. His conscience would guide him to the right path.
 
As the discussion had proceeded, Avascara also engaged Father Omar in conversation. Though she hailed from lands where entirely different gods were worshipped, she had found Father Omar’s words intriguing and which had stirred something within her. She asked if revenge was truly as bad as Father Omar had described it to be. Father Omar said that revenge was something that could offer what seemed like gratification, but it was ultimately an empty illusion. It could only hollow one out; it could not bring true reconciliation or peace within. The cause of vengeance harmed the one who sought it often just as much as its target. As it was said, if you seek revenge, be sure to dig two graves: one for your target, and one for yourself.
 
Avascara replied that such a lesson was not so simple for her, as she sought to make a reckoning with the one that had wronged her, and it was not something she could simply turn aside. Father Omar acknowledged Avascara’s words, and he ruefully noted that while the sermon he had given earlier was one that had applicability for his parishioners, he understood all too well the more complex realities of which Avascara spoke and had been bound up in. Father Omar said that he was not unfamiliar with revenge. In his youth, he had been an adventurer himself, filled with vigor, life, and a short temper. He had slain a number in his time for all manner of actual or perceived slights, but never had he felt truly at rest when he had committed such acts. It had not brought him closure, it had not made him a better person, and in his old age, he deeply regretted the deeds of his youth. Nowadays, he chose to take faith and comfort from Ilmater, the Crying God.
 
Avascara asked if was the case that Ilmater was a god of pain, but Father Omar was quick to disagree. He said that there were those among the faith who believed that, and who revered pain, but Father Omar did not believe that was the right way to look at things. As an Ilmateri, he recognized that life was filled with trial, hardship, and suffering, but he had hope for the future, and his god was one who empathized with those who suffered, suffering with them or taking their suffering onto himself. There were those among the clergy who emulated Ilmater’s example by taking on the suffering of others in their own ways, but it was never for the sake of suffering itself, but for the sake of the intrinsic value and light that lay within every mortal soul. The faith of Ilmater valued patience, endurance, hope, mercy, forgiveness, and empathy for one’s fellow person, but it did not revere pain for the sake of pain.
 
Avascara wondered if it was truly the case that such light as Father Omar had described existed in all beings. Father Omar replied that mortals were given a gift that was often all but impossible for beings of the planes beyond: they had the freedom to choose. Even in some of the darkest souls there were, that spark of light remained, the choice to be better. As had been seen time and time again. there were those who had turned away from their dark path in their own way, rediscovering the light within their hearts. Father Omar however admitted that there were some choices which could not be revoked, and it was also a choice to choose to turn one’s back on the light entirely. Perhaps even such people could be turned back to the light, but Father Omar would not fault or condemn doing what needed to be done to prevent such people from extinguishing the lights of others.
 
Avascara gazed upon Father Omar, and after a long moment of hesitation, she removed her menpo, revealing her face underneath. Her face was scarred by what seemed like a blackened handprint. Father Omar continued to gaze calmly at Avascara, his expression not altering and showing neither disgust nor pity. Avascara asked Father Omar what he saw of her, of what he could see of her pain. Father Omar peered at her closely and spoke softly, replying that he could see that Avascara’s pain was one that she kept close to her, and sought to hide from the world. It was a pain she could not forget or feel as though she could move on from. It was a pain whose true mark and scars lay deepest not on her skin, but in her heart.
 
At Father Omar’s words, Avascara remained quiet for some time, simply staring down at her hands. Eventually, she asked Father Omar what he believed she should do. Father Omar thought for some time before he spoke. He said once more that the lessons he gave his parishioners in his sermon was suited for the kinds of lives they lived and the experiences they had gone through. But he knew and respected that simply letting go would not be so simple for Avascara. He believed for Avascara to truly come to terms with her pain and to seek closure, she would need to seek and confront the source of her pain.
 
However, once she came to that point, she would be confronted with a choice. She could decided to answer cruelty with understanding, to choose to be better and to reconcile with what had happened to her, and perhaps in so doing be able to truly move on from her pain and no longer allow it to weigh her down and shackle her. Or she could decide to seek vengeance, to lash and strike out, and allow her pain to consume her. Father Omar warned that if she did so, he believed that she would find that she wouldn’t have the closure she thought she would have after. The act would hollow her out and it would allow her pain to have power over her, to define her and remain with her likely for the rest of her life, Regardless of what happened, it was ultimately up to Avascara what to choose.
 
Avascara considered Father Omar’s words. She said in a tone of genuine respect that she had not expected the faiths of Faerun to be as complex or thought provoking as Father Omar had related. Perhaps if she had not been raised in the east, in another life, perhaps the faith of Ilmater would have called to her over the gods she currently revered. Father Omar reassured Avascara that by living one’s life in accordance with seeking and cherishing the light in others, one was living a life that was also in its own way in the auspices of Ilmater. The Crying God saw the hearts of those more so than what they may outwardly profess. Father Omar gifted Avascara and Xirk with a book filled with religious verses dedicated to Ilmater, in the hopes that it would provide them with a measure of guidance.
 
With that, Avascara and Xirk decided that it was time to depart, both having much to think over, not just in terms of the struggle ahead, but also of their own personal futures. They thanked Father Omar and the pair headed outside. Avascara did not put her menpo back on, which Xirk noticed. He comforted Avascara, saying perhaps that it was now time they set their masks aside, both those within and without. Xirk crushed his own mask in his hands, letting the fragments rain down onto the sand as he gazed upon Avascara. Avascara decided not to put her menpo back on but neither did she discard it. She entrusted it to Xirk for the time being instead, and the pair called for and mounted the giant owl once more, rapidly making their way back to the ruins to rejoin the party.
 
Meanwhile, back at the ruins, Hamza, Lavinia, and the other Glass Hands had been setting up a perimeter and encampment within. Ten Zhu however was curious of the spire at the center of the ruins, which the local wildlife seemed to steadfastly avoid. He began walking towards it to investigate it, with Eirsai going with him as well. The spire rose high into the air, an obelisk at least one hundred feet high. The spire was made of polished stone, gleaming white in the light of the setting sun. Despite the ruins surrounding it, the actual area near the spire was made of worked and intact cobblestone. No animals could be seen near the vicinity.
 
Eirsai and Ten Zhu approached closer to the spire and began to investigate around the area. They found a seam along the cobblestones near the spire, indicating a hidden door. They considered how to get in, before Eirsai elected to try to blast it open with a shot. The shot impacted the cobblestone beneath, but sigils on the surface of the obelisk flared to life, and both Ten Zhu and Eirsai were struck by devastating necrotic energy.
 
The pair retreated away. Back at the camp, Conner had heard the gunshots and he talked briefly with the Glass Hands about the gunshot Eirsai had fired off. He approached Eirsai and Ten Zhu, who looked somewhat hurt, and he learned that they wished to explore the area beneath the spire. Eirsai had fired off yet another shot, blasting open the door apart enough to open a set of stairs descending down into darkness. Conner looked at the pair incredulously as the party had yet to recover from the events of the day.
 
Conner made to turn around and leave Eirsai and Ten Zhu to their own choices, but he saw Shabbaz walking forward out of curiosity. As Shabbaz explained, the events of the last few hours had been exceedingly dull, and a dungeon delve sounded more exciting than standing around doing nothing. Conner sighed and turned to follow after Eirsai and Ten Zhu, with Shabbaz nearby.
 
As the group prepared to head down the path below, the giant owl carrying Avascara and Xirk had landed. They had much to discuss, but the party now faced a new decision. Would they choose to explore what lay beneath the ruins, in hopes of uncovering whatever potential secrets or opportunities it presented? Just what lay within was unclear, and whether the party would choose to forge forth into the depths below was yet to be determined…
 
Session 19
 
- It is presently 45 minutes past highsun during the party’s sixth day in Calimshan. They, along with Shabbaz, have entered the Altar of Air present beneath the white obelisk of the ruins southwest of Calimport. Xirk and Conner have been trapped inside of a room being filled with a thick greenish mist, with the rest of the party outside the door.
- The party acquired a sigil sequence to a teleportation circle to a safe house in the Crypt City, directly west of the city of Tulmon. The safehouse is operated by a criminal contact known as the “One-Eyed Raven.” They have made arrangements to hire an assortment of mercenaries and to meet with them at the safehouse the next day.
- The party obtained partial intelligence regarding Suldolphor. They learned that the area around the ruins is said to be haunted, with something wrong with the very winds in the area according to rumors. In addition, the ruins are shrouded in a near perpetual sandstorm, making an aerial approach virtually impossible.
- The party was able to successfully restore and recruit to their ranks 4 Glass Hand champions, 3 Glass Hand knights, and a Glass Hand archer. They were also joined by an abjurer, champion, and knight of the Glass Hand, the only survivors from the incident at the Glass Hands’s guild hall in Calimport.
- The party currently has the intact corpses of 2 Glass Hands evokers, 1 Glass Hand mage, 2 Glass Hand master thieves, 3 Glass Hand archers, 1 Glass Hand knight, and 1 Glass Hand thug.
 
Avascara and Xirk reconvened with the party, as they saw Conner, Eirsai, Shabbaz, and Ten Zhu heading towards the passageway beneath the white obelisk. Avascara and Xirk learned that the party had discovered a secret passage beneath the spire that they intended to explore. After discussion, the group elected to leave further exploration off for tomorrow, as the day’s events had seriously taxed their resources, and they needed time to rest and recover.
 
The party made preparations throughout the night to fortify their encampment within the ruins, including sealing over the passageway beneath the obelisk with stray rubble. During the night however, Avascara received a missive from her contact, the One-Eyed Weasel, via a spell of galder’s speedy courier. The chest contained not only the spoils the party had obtained from the Golden Sands Brewery, but also a curiously sealed letter. The letter explained that the party would receive a teleportation sigil sequence to the Crypt City on the following day in another message, and that it would take some time to acquire any detailed intelligence regarding Suldolphor. The letter also provided a list of available mercenaries for the party to hire, further elaborating that arrangements would be made for them to be present at the Crypt City when the party intended to go there, and for the party to simply fill out an order and await further instructions the next day.
 
 
 
 
After some discussion, the party agreed upon a set amount of mercenaries to hire and returned the letter to the chest, now with the party’s order written in, to be sent back to its messenger. Later on during the night, the party saw a group of individuals approaching the ruins: it was the surviving members of the Glass Hands from the guild hall, carrying the bodies of those they’d be able to recover with them.
 
With the party’s assets now marginally bolstered, the party set watches and at last were able to take a well deserved rest. When they awoke early the next morning, they immediately set out to make preparations for the day, not just for exploring beneath the shrine, but also for their impending assault on Suldolphor.
 
Conner restored Lavinia’s arm, and he and Yakub worked together to restore the captured members of the Glass Hands, safely freeing them from the glass shards embedded in their arms and restoring their minds to them. The slain members of the Glass Hands would have to wait, though the party discussed potentially utilizing resources from Hawthorne to assist in their efforts. In the meanwhile, Lavinia, Hamza, and other members of the Glass Hands began making preparations for the upcoming mission, strategizing with the party. Farruk ended up heading back to Calimport to acquire additional resources under disguise to aid with the mission and possibly to assist in resurrecting the slain members of the Glass Hands present.

At highsun, Avascara received another message from the One-Eyed Weasel via a galder’s speedy courier. The message provided the teleportation sigil sequence as promised, which the party copied down on a separate piece of parchment. The letter explained that the circle would take them to a safehouse in the Crypt City. The safehouse reportedly wasn’t exactly luxury living, but apparently had a great view of the “Skullspire.” The safehouse was said to be operated by an individual known as the “One-Eyed Raven,” the One-Eyed Weasel’s counterpart in the Crypt City. They would be providing assistance to the party as well as handling the payment for the mercenaries the party had ordered.
 
The letter went on to further explain that it was taking time to get anything by way of concrete information regarding Suldolphor. However, according to the rumors the One-Eyed Weasel had dug up, the area around the ruins was reportedly haunted, with something wrong with the very air and winds in the region. In addition, the ruins were apparently shrouded by a near constant sandstorm, making an aerial approach virtually impossible. The letter concluded with noting that if the party was ready to depart for the Crypt City to mark it so on the letter in reply, and that arrangements would be made for the mercenaries to be present.
 
After spending some time in discussion, the party decided to instead depart the next day, as they intended to explore the area beneath the shrine for the current day, and they still had other preparations to make. They wrote their reply on the letter and returned it to the chest and closed it, which promptly vanished afterwards.
 

The party then set out towards the obelisk, with Shabbaz joining them. They set aside the rubble they had placed the day before, finding a set of stairs that descended down into darkness below. The party cautiously proceeded down, following the stairs until they came to a small chamber at the end. A large ornate door greeted them, sealed and engraved with arcane sigils and runes. An archway above the door had archaic, elegant script written across its surface. A pair of statues flanked either side of the door, in the shape of a beautiful woman in a delicate dancer’s pose, a foot resting on a cloud pedestal.
 
The party determined that the door was somehow magically sealed. Ten Zhu was able to decipher the inscription on the archway, learning that it read, “Enter, supplicant, into the Altar of Air. Hold your heart true or walk no further.” The party was unsure what to make of the cryptic remark. Conner studied the statues and the iconography, and his study of world religions allowed him to recognize it as an area dedicated to the goddess Akadi, Queen of Air, and deity of air hailing from the Elemental Plane of Air. Conner knew that a common ritual done among devotees to Akadi would be to burn incense and allow it to be scattered by the winds.
 
Conner then took out some incense he had on hand and with the aid of Shabbaz, the incense ignited as it began to spread across the chamber. The sealed door then groaned as it began to creak open, revealing another chamber beyond. The party saw an area supported by multiple pillars, beyond which as another chamber housing the entrance to another long corridor. The walls, floor, and ceiling seemed to be made of marble and stone, smooth and otherwise unmarred by the passage of time. Murals along the walls showed what seemed to be creatures of air and djinnis and other beings constructing a great fortress, with a large obelisk being built in the center.

The entrance to the passageway beyond was flanked by a pair of statues of djinnis, mystical entities also from the Elemental Plane of Air. Another pair of similar statues rested within alcoves flanking the entrance as well. Avascara and Xirk took the lead as they approached the lip of the passageway. However, they had scarcely gotten close when pressed down upon a pressure plate, and a deluge of rocks from the ceiling nearly crushed them! They were somewhat battered, but managed to get out of the way in time. However, all four djinni statues simultaneously animated, a stone scimitar in one hand, and a stone hammer in the other!
 
The statues fell upon the party, striking out at those within reach. While only mere imitations of the creatures they resembled, the statues were able to move remarkably nimbly, capable of even spinning rapidly like a whirling dervish to slash out at all those within reach! Additionally, their hammer strikes were exceptionally powerful, knocking down any struck by them.
 
Avascara and Xirk took the brunt of the assault, with Xirk covering the eastern flank and Avascara the west. Xirk used Prayer of Mercy to unleash powerful strikes of radiant energy, while Avascara had elected to use the fiery blade the party had found earlier. It was a weapon designed to fight djinni in the first place, wielded by an unknown efreet millenia ago among Memnon’s forces. And though the statues were no true djinni at all, the blade seemed to instinctively react to their presence all the same, with Avascara unleashing devastating cuts with the sword at those she struck.

In the meanwhile, Ten Zhu had stepped back to assume a state of battlefield command, coordinating his allies. Conner conjured a spectral weapon of force to assist Avascara and Xirk, while also assaulting the statues with blasts of necrotic energy. Eirsai and Scrapheap worked in tandem, with Eirsai plying her firearm with precise shots, while Scrapheap darted in and out of the fray, biting and clawing at those it could. Finally, Shabbaz was fully in his element, taking joy from the battle as he struck out with his axe. To his brief surprise, the lightning trailing from the blade seemed to have no effect on the statues, but the sheer force of his axe blows was still more than sufficient to lay down considerable damage to those he struck.
 
In the end, with the party’s combined efforts, the statues were rendered into nothing more than rubble. The party took a moment to take a breath after the battle, as they then gazed at the narrow corridor beyond. They saw a long passage that lay on a downward and descending angle, terminating in another door to the far north. The door resembled the one the party had entered through, though it lacked the same seal upon it as they had seen previously.
 
Avascara was suspicious of the hallway, and she hefted the stone head of one of the statues and sending it tumbling down the passageway. It bounced and rolled before crashing against the door at the far end. The door budged open slightly, but did not otherwise break, and nothing happened within the corridor. Still suspicious yet, the party cautiously proceeded forward, keeping an eye out around them.

For a moment, Conner thought he caught sight of something strange, but on closer examination, he didn’t see anything truly of note within the area. As the party went halfway down the corridor however, they heard a great rumbling noise as they watched something roll out through the wall above the entrance into the passageway and land at the top of the slope. It seemed to be some kind of box-shaped construct, with a pair of massive, crushing rollers, and it rapidly made its descent towards the party!
 
Avascara swiftly reacted, dashing towards the thing’s path before it could crush the party, She used the fiery blade to deliver a pair of devastating strikes, causing the roller assembly to nearly come loose completely, before she braced against it, hoping to slow down its descent. The construct rammed into her, nearly knocking her over and crushing her, but she managed to remain upright. By now, the rest of the party had recovered their wits, and Ten Zhu and Shabbaz moved forward, with Ten Zhu using a beam of thunderous force while Shabbaz threw his axe charged with lightning towards the construct.
 
With the damage Avascara had already inflicted, the combined force of Ten Zhu and Shabbaz’s assault was enough to cause the construct to fall apart into pieces, ending the threat. The party examined the remnants of the construct, which had seemed to roll out through an illusory wall above the entrance to the passageway, no doubt having waited to ambush the party.

The party elected to continue their approach towards the door at the end of the passageway. The stone head tossed there earlier obstructed their path, which Avascara smashed apart with Fireflint, the ancestral weapon of the Gommurg clan. With the pathway clear, the party worked together to open the door. The door was apparently stuck, though the blow from the stone head had loosened it somewhat. The party opened the large stone door to reveal yet another chamber supported by multiple pillars. At the center of the chamber lay an ornate sarcophagus, while beyond it was yet another passageway leading further into the Altar of Air.
 
The party stepped forward to examine the sarcophagus, with Avascara attempting to open it to determine what lay within. But no sooner had she attempted to lift the lid of the sarcophagus that the lid opened of its own accord, revealing a row of razor sharp teeth: it was a mimic!
 

With the rest of the party caught by surprise, Avascara tried to strike out at the mimic, but she watched to her dismay as her weapon adhered to the surface of the sarcophagus, refusing to be pulled free. The mimic in turn responded by unleashing an array of tentacular pseudopods to lash out at Avascara, before it lifted her up and swallowed her whole! The party watched Avascara disappeared from sight, now sealed within the sarcophagus. Within the sarcophagus, Avascara could feel herself inside the strange, amorphous, and acidic interior of the mimic. She found herself hardly able to move, and entirely unable to see or breathe. She tried to cut her way out from the inside out, but the enclosed space made it difficult to impossible to effectively use her weapon.
 
However, her allies did not remain idle. The party, both collectively and individually, had faced far worse threats than even a sarcophagus mimic. Xirk smashed into the creature with Prayer of Mercy, before striking out with his other hand even as the first adhered to the surface of the sarcophagus. Conner unleashed a devastating burst of necrotic energy, while Shabbaz cut into the sarcophagus with his Axe of Storms. Ten Zhu delivered the final blow with a blast of thunderous force, causing the sarcophagus to shatter, unceremoniously depositing Avascara to land in the midst of the chamber, freed of the confines she had temporarily found herself in.

With the strange creature now slain, the party began to survey their surroundings. They saw the passageway ahead, but Avascara and Conner were able to find seams along the western and eastern walls, indicating hidden entrances. The party shifted aside the western wall to reveal a corridor that extended westward. The party cautiously proceeded forward down the secret western path, taking care to keep an eye out for traps. They came across another wide chamber which curiously contained a pair of large, reed woven ships. The wood was long decayed and rotting, covered with tattered tarps. Along the walls, the party could see djinnis, ships, and other entities entering and exiting some great ancient port. As the party passed by the covered vessels, Conner heard the sounds of thousands of… somethings scuttling about within.
 
Conner reported what he had heard to the party, who elected to leave the boats be to avoid disturbing whatever had made its home within the rotting wood. The party continued beyond the chamber into another passageway. The passage terminated in another sealed door, with a long corridor to the direct east. The party elected to open the door, and they were immediately struck by a glitter of something golden, as they revealed a large room filled near to the brim with what seemed like a cornucopia of treasure!
 
The party remained suspicious, debating what to do before Xirk stepped forward to investigate the area. He went to pick out a handful of coins to examine it, when his hand passed right through it! The treasure vanished, revealed to be nothing more than an illusion. Conner had scarcely made his way into the room as well as he barely avoided being flattened as the door slammed shut, splitting the two from the rest of the party. The two gazed around as they heard a hissing sound, as thick greenish mist began to flow into the now sealed room...
 
Session 20
 
- It is presently 1 hour and 40 minutes past high sun during the party’s sixth day in Calimshan. They, along with Shabbaz, have entered the Altar of Air present beneath the white obelisk of the ruins southwest of Calimport. The party is currently engaged in a battle against a host of undead creatures in an area of the Altar laden with coffins and sarcophagi. They will be able to take another long rest in another 8 hours and 50 minutes.
 
Conner and Xirk were now trapped inside the room, as thick greenish mist began to pour into it. The rest of the party was outside, their path barred by the shut door. Conner and Xirk could see the mist beginning to take shape, forming a cloud that began to drift towards them! Avascara managed to react quickly as she charged forward, wrenching upon the stuck door with an effort of pure strength. As she burst the door open, the entire party could see what Conner and Xirk were facing, as they readied themselves to do battle.
 
The cloud then suddenly expanded in size, filling not just the chamber but even the corridor beyond with noxious green gas. The gas was poisonous, affecting several in the party that inhaled its toxic fumes, and the green fog utterly blinded those within its extent. From within the cloud of poisonous gas, the strange entity from before remained it seemed, as it seemed to strike out at those within reach periodically. The party swiftly rallied, slashing and firing blindly into the fog to try to deal with the threat.
 
Conner summoned a weapon of spectral force, sending out blasts of necrotic energy at the same time, while Ten Zhu sought to coordinate the party with his psionically enhanced battle awareness. Eirsai fired blindly into the mist, trying to home in on the entity that had created the poisonous vapor.
 
Xirk managed to strike at the cloud with Prayer of Mercy, and the fog dissipated, as the sheer force of Xirk’s blow seemed to have sent the fog parting away. The rest of the party then descended upon the noxious cloud, with Avascara’s fiery blade landing the final strike to consume the cloud entirely.
 
In the battle’s wake, the party took a moment to consider their situation, knowing that not everything was as it seemed on first glance. Another door awaited towards the north, which the party approached. Conner could smell the pleasant scent of incense wafting from within. The party went through the door to reveal what was an enclosed area filled with wafting incense. Eight unlit braziers hung around the room. Near the back of the room was a stone altar, atop of which was a strange censer in the shape of a cloud, continually emitting incense. Set before the censer was a golden platter filled with all manner of gold, jewels, and other precious items. As the party searched the area, they found a hidden seam near the base of the altar, which they pulled open to reveal a scroll and several vials.
 
The party elected to take the contents of the room as spoils, with Avascara and Xirk even lifting the stone altar as a whole to see if anything lay beneath it! All they found was smooth stone floor, and they elected to put the altar back. Xirk wondered if perhaps lighting the braziers would have some kind of effect. With Shabbaz’s aid, they lit all eight braziers, and with the room no longer darkened to the extent that it was, they could now clearly see the extent of the room.

However, the light also revealed, to the perceptive eyes of Conner and Eirsai as well now, that the incense remaining in the air seemed to be distorted and flowing around two distinct shapes in the room near the ceiling, a pair of invisible creatures. To Eirsai’s eyes, which had been enspelled to pierce veils of invisibility, she saw what seemed like a bizarre mass of air, roughly forming the shape of a creature: a invisible stalker!
 
With the pair discovered, the invisible stalkers swiftly moved to attack the party, warping trails of incense around them. The party swiftly moved into position, with Xirk leading the charge towards one of the invisible stalkers, while Avascara went for the other. The creatures proved nimble and crafty, flying out of reach, and forcing Avascara, Shabbaz, and Xirk to climb atop the now burning braziers to even have a chance to be close enough to strike one of them. The braziers proved tricky to maintain balance on, with Avascara plummeting off of a brazier at one point. She swiftly got up thanks to a command by Ten Zhu.
 
Eirsai continued to ply her firearms against the threat, as she could clearly see them with her enspelled eyes, though the sound of her shots were painfully loud within the enclosed space. One of her shots lit the invisible stalker up in brilliant light, making it clearly visible for all to see. Conner summoned another weapon of crackling force to strike out against the invisible stalkers. Even though Conner could not directly see them, his honed awareness allowed him to keep track of where they disturbed the air. Ultimately, the party’s combined efforts proved sufficient to vanquish the deadly elementals, with Xirk even grabbing ahold of one of them with his bare hands at one point!

With the threat neutralized, the party finished collecting the treasure within the room before they elected to move on. They began to enter the long corridor just south of the door where the fake treasure had been. The party saw a long corridor decorated with cloud motifs that lay ahead of them, but no sooner had they entered before a stone door slammed shut from the ceiling behind them, trapping them within!
 
Scrapheap was on the other side of door near where they had entered through, but was unable to force himself inside. In the meanwhile, within the corridor, the party could see blades sprouting from the walls, racing towards them in a deadly path! Avascara swiftly raced forward to escape the path of the blades by going further down the corridor. As she advanced forward, she could see another shut door on the other side.
 
The rest of the party had to navigate past the myriad blades, ducking, bobbing, and weaving around to avoid being cut in half. Not everyone could avoid the deadly arc the blades formed, and several received glancing hits from the blade’s passage.
 
Eirsai used her knowledge of metallurgy and smithing to try to destroy one of the blades, but a deadly collection of them still remained. As the party saw Avascara beyond, while the section of corridor she was in was clear of blades, it still had its own surprises. Avascara saw to her astonishment what seemed like a wave of crushing pillars descending from the ceiling. One of them slammed into her, knocking her down and knocking the wind out of her as well.
Ten Zhu realized that things were swiftly devolving along the corridor, and he used his mastery over space to allow the party to teleport all the way on the other end, free of the path of the blades and the crushing pillars. They lay right before the door Avascara had seen on the other end. However, no sooner had they arrived on their position before the door flared with life with a fiery sigil. The party could feel an intense sense of aversion emanating from the sigil, though their will remained strong, reassured and bolstering by Xirk’s presence.
 
Conner saw that there was another door in the hallway, one that lay to the north. He moved towards, it opening it with an effort of strength. He saw within an enclosed chamber, walls decorated with murals depicting different scenes. From what he could see, a pair of black obelisks lay on the northwestern and northeastern ends, carved with sigils and runic script. On the wall opposite the door was a series of tiles embedded in the wall, forming a mosaic.
 
Conner was unsure as to what to make of the new area, so he elected to chance the sigil and rejoined the party. The party remained steadfast against the sigil’s magic. Conner, Eirsai, and Ten Zhu worked together on disabling the sigil, the former two using spells of dispel magic and the latter using his knowledge of the arcane to assist. The sigil began to fade, but they did not fully succeed.

In the meanwhile, Avascara decided to enter the area Conner had opened up into. She was caught by the same sight, and as she went deeper into the room, she saw there were a total of black obelisks in the room, one in each corner. Additionally, the walls appeared to be depicted with different scenes evoking the elements: wind swirling around a mountain, a rockslide, a blazing inferno, and waves crashing against a beach. Though she did not know how to speak it, Avascara recognized some of the symbols on the obelisk closest to her, as it was written in the same script as the inscription on the fiery blade she wielded. She could recognize that the obelisk was in some way related to elemental fire.
 
At this point, the entire party elected to join Avascara in the room, to get clear of the deadly corridor. As they filed inside, they too were struck by the sights within the room. The strange mosaic of tiles remained along the far wall, with an inscription written above on its surface. As the party moved to investigate, the door behind them slammed shut! The obelisks in the room began to glow with energy, but nothing else immediately happened.
 
The party was unsure what to make of the situation, though they did not appear to be in immediate danger. As they moved forward to investigate the mosaic of tiles, they saw it seemed to depict an arrangement of triangles, some upright and others upside down, with some having a line through them as well. Ten Zhu and Xirk could read the inscription above the tiles, which read,
 
Four elementals trapped in stone,
Their elements ordered to lock their home.
Even patterns against all odd,
A tile misplaced awakens its god.
In proper order safely seal these four,
Or best one of each to open the door.
The party elected to spend some time recuperating from their wounds before tackling the puzzle. Conner cast a spell to enhance healing within the area, and the party took the time to recover their wounds and injuries. Outside the door, the trapped corridor eventually seemed to become inactive, as they could no longer hear the whirl of the deadly blades or the loud thuds of the crushing pillars.
 
The party then began to consider the puzzle, trying to discern its nature. Investigating the obelisk further revealed that each was tied to a specific element: air, earth, fire, and water. The party debated different orders by which to place the four fallen triangles. Eventually, they decided upon an arrangement after extensive debate.
 
As they placed the tiles into position, they watched with held breath as the triangles slotted into place. The obelisk glowed even more brightly, before the top of each obelisk slid away to reveal a gem, each of a different color. At the same time, the door opened, and the party let out a sigh of relief. They had successfully found the correct solution. The party exited the door back into the corridor with caution, wondering if the trap would retrigger. Looking towards the east, the stone door appeared to have moved aside, revealing a new pathway beyond. Eirsai elected to head west to retrieve Scrapheap, and indeed, the traps did not reactivate. With Scrapheap now rejoining the party, they elected to proceed further east.

The party found a corridor that split paths north and south. Towards the north lay another sealed door, but to the south the corridor opened up into a wide chamber. The chamber itself appeared to be decorated with motifs of riders on chariots racing around, and indeed within the room lay a pair of chariots. One of the chariots seemed to be more finely built than the other, decorated with bronze and gold and motifs of clouds on the surface. The chariots however were not unmanned. A pair of armored and armed figures that were clearly undead were within each chariot. The first chariot was being pulled along by a skeletal steed, while the more finely built chariot was being pulled by what seemed to be an undead griffon! At the sight of the party, the creatures took notice and began to charge, and the party watched as the chariot pulled by the griffon took flight!
 
The undead creatures on chariots rained down arrows towards the party, creating a volley of missiles they had to navigate past. The chariot on the ground circled the party, a pair of blades springing out from its wheels to cut at those in its path! In the meanwhile, the other chariot remained airborne, its riders firing down arrows upon the party. The party moved to neutralize the mounts, trying to destroy them in order to rob the riders of their mobility. Xirk sprung into the air, using the wall as a jumping off point to tackle the griffon above, sending it, the chariot, and its riders to plummet to the ground. Avascara swiftly moved over to end the creature’s existence, with Eirsai and Scrapheap working together in a tandem of slashes and shots, Conner summoning radiant moonlight to lash out against the undead creatures, and Ten Zhu working to fire beams of energy at those within reaching. Acting together, the party continued to make quick work of the remaining undead.

Within a few seconds, the battle was over, with only the chariots and the weapons and arms the undead creatures had borne as the only items of note. The party saw the chamber extended further to the south to another corridor, but they elected to investigate the door to the north they had left behind. The party determined that the chariot of bronze and gold was magical. Eirsai strapped herself into it, and with the corridor’s being large enough to allow the chariot to move through, the party proceeded back the way they had come and towards the northern door.
 
As the party approached the door, Conner and Ten Zhu investigated it together. Conner could detect the scent of incense wafting from beneath the door once more. As the party entered the area, they found a long rectangular room that was filled with coffins and sarcophagi propped up against the walls. A quartet of golden sarcophagi lay near the center, with canopic jars and other offerings of gold, gems, jewels, and other valuables strewn about. Xirk used his sense to attempt to divine the presence of any otherworldly creatures, but was unable to do so.
 
Ten Zhu was suspicious of the treasure in this room, as they had encountered illusory treasure before. However, to his eyes, the treasure did indeed seem to be the real article. As an experiment, Xirk picked up one of the gold coins, hefting it in a hand. He then tossed it out of the room. The gold coin flew forward, before it struck the ground, bouncing and rolling a few times before it came to a stop outside the room.

An instant later, every single coffin and sarcophagus in the area burst open, as the party could see a horde of undead, some with bandages loosely hanging about them. The four golden sarcophagi opened, and the party could see what appeared to be a group of heavily bandaged creatures, their eyes piercing in the darkness: mummies!
 
The undead host descended upon the party. Conner reacted swiftly, drawing his holy symbol as he tried to wade into the midst of the undead horde. However, he found himself held in place by one of the undead creatures, and he was forced to raise his holy symbol into the air from his position and invoke the power of the Dark Dancer. Silver moonlight flared, and several of the undead around him quailed at the holy light, reduced to dust. The more powerful undead in the area were otherwise unaffected, with only one of the greater undead turned by Conner’s holy light. Conner then summoned another spectral weapon of force, while Ten Zhu elected to fire off another beam of energy to sear one of the nearby undead creatures.
 
Avascara struck out at nearby undead with her fiery blade. Several of the bandages came alight from her strikes, and the horde of undead seemed to focus in on her in particular for doing so. Eirsai chose to fire shots from the backline with bolts of flame, while Xirk and Shabbaz charged into the fray to reinforce Avascara’s position. The undead host surrounded the three warriors, unleashing powerful strikes charged with necrotic energy upon the three. Whether or not the party would survive this latest challenge yet remained to be seen…
 
Session 21
 
- It is presently 3 hours past high sun during the party’s sixth day in Calimshan. They, along with Shabbaz, have entered the Altar of Air present beneath the white obelisk of the ruins southwest of Calimport. The party has just opened a secret door in a trapped corridor leading to another chamber beyond. They will be able to take another long rest in another 7 hours and 30 minutes.
 
The party was fighting a horde of undead creatures within the burial chamber. A large group of them appeared to be heavily wrapped in bandages, grabbing at those within reach. Other more powerful undead creatures also assaulted the party, with four mummies in the center, ancient beings who had risen beyond the grave to strike the party down. However, the party was able to band together to deal with the threat. Between Eirsai’s deafening shotgun blasts, Shabbaz’s swift axe strikes, Conner’s invocation of Eilistraee, and Ten Zhu’s energy blasts, the undead menace found itself faltering. At one point, Avascara walked down a line cutting down undead creatures with a single swing each, while Xirk unleashed a devastating pair of punches that destroyed two undead creatures in a surge of holy energy. In the end, the party proved triumphant, standing victorious over their fallen foes.
 
All the same, the battle had worn on a few within the party. The energy of death some of the undead creatures had invoked seemed to be amplified against some in the party for some reason, and it appeared additionally the party had felt their resilience weakened. The party elected to take the moment to search through the room and take respite after the day’s battles. During their rest, they went through some of the spoils they had acquired, finding a few to be valuable magical items.
 
After their rest, the party elected to press forward and make their way through the rest of the dungeon complex. They headed south from the chamber and further south of the room that had contained the chariots. Another passageway lay south, which the party carefully navigated through, on the lookout for traps. The passageway terminated in a false wall to the west, which the party shifted aside to reveal the central area where the mimic sarcophagus had been.
 
The party took notice of an unexplored area to the north of the chamber, and they began to proceed forward there. The chamber led to another area which was dominated by a massive statue of a great djinni in the center, carved out of black granite. On the west and eastern flanks were a pair of alcoves inhabited with additional statues of djinni, these made of alabaster and marble. Beyond the granite statue lay what appeared to be a portion of the wall carved and painted to resemble a door. Before the “door” was a granite slab engraved with runes and other symbols.
 
The party took time to investigate the area, and the slab in particular. As the party came to learn, the slab appeared to contain ritual rites speaking of the passage from death to life—to return one who had perished. If the party were to take the time, they use the magic of the slab to cast such a resurrection spell, or even to scribe it into a blank scroll for later use. Xirk’s eye was caught by the false door. He slammed his axe into the “door,” but was astonished to see that the door proved completely impervious to harm!
 
Xirk and Avascara moved up to the door, working together to push on it, and they found it was in fact a false false door! The door opened into another area, this one seemingly another burial chamber with a quartet of sarcophagi in the center, as well as canopic jars laid out in front, and other offerings of coin, gems, jewels, and more. Around the walls of the chamber was a mural. As Avascara walked into the room to investigate further, the lids of the sarcophagi shifted aside as a quartet of mummies emerged from within!
 
At the same time, the statues in the chamber connecting with the false false door began to animate, now moving of their own accord! The mummies and statues charged, preparing to strike the party down. The stone statues gliding into the fray, whirling rapidly to slash at all those within reach. The mummies attempted to bring those within their gaze to a halt with simply a gaze, but the party’s will and Xirk’s bolstering presence allowed the party to remain strong. They still lashed out with powerful fists wreathed with the energy of death, and Avascara in particular began to falter from the combined assault. Last of all, the black granite statue moved with a deceptive swfitness, using a massive granite sword while also drawing in the air around it. Both Xirk and surprisingly Scrapheap found themselves out of breath, beginning to suffocate.
 
However, the party quickly answered back the favor in kind. Scrapheap and Conner worked together to shield those in the party from the worst of harm, while Eirsai continued to blast away with her shotgun. Ten Zhu sought to control the battlefield with energy blasts, and Avascara and Xirk worked together to smash apart the statues with fiery sword slashes and holy strikes respectively. The party ultimately dispatched the constructs and mummies, though Avascara and Conner remained wounded in the battle’s aftermath.
 
The party investigated the interior of the burial chamber, acquiring more treasure by which to add to their spoils. The walls of the chamber appeared to be decorated with a mural that appeared to depict the process opposite to what was on the slab: a man’s journey from life to death, with the stages represented as stages across a day. The sun was rising as man crawled on four legs as a baby, the sun was high as man reached adulthood and walked on two legs, and the sun was setting as man reached his older years and required assistance to walk. At least, the sun had set on man’s grave. On the inside of the room, on the back of the false false door were engravings of different figures, showing the shape of a man’s head, a woman’s head, a ram’s head, a jackal’s head, and a falcon’s head.
 
Just what the symbols and mural meant was unclear. As the party took some time to ponder the matter, Ten Zhu was able to put the pieces together. He knew that the murals, depicting the process of a man from birth to death, was the answer to classical Riddle of the Sphinx, and in truth the five visages depicted on the door corresponded to the five known types of sphinx in the multiverse. Sphinxes were mysterious entities endowed and entrusted by the gods that often inhabited ruins and ancient temples such as the ones the party had found themselves in. Sphinxes often guarded such places, using riddles or other trials by which to test those that came before to determine their worth.
 
The party wondered if one such sphinx lay within the temple as well, and just what other challenges awaited them. However, the party had seemed to have circumnavigated the entire extent of the dungeon, with no sign of other areas by which to progress further. The party contemplated whether they had missed something, and they recalled that they hadn’t spent too much time investigating the trapped corridor from before—as they had been busy trying to avoid being sliced or crushed to death.
 
The party retraced their steps in the dungeon, making their way back to the previously trapped corridor. As they investigated its extent, Ten Zhu uncovered an illusory wall near the midpoint of the passageway, towards the northern end. As the true wall revealed itself, the party saw a sealed door with what appeared to be depictions of various heads carved into stone, arranged in a circular pattern. Clockwise, it depicted a falcon’s head, a female human head, a jackal head, a male human head, and a ram head.
 
The party realized that it must relate to the clue they had found before in the other burial chamber, perhaps indicating an order by which to proceed. They debated for some time as to how to open the door before at last Ten Zhu tried to simply press his hand to the human male head on the door. To his surprise, he felt the engraving depress into the stone door! Now more confident, Ten Zhu proceeded to the depress the female human head, the ram’s head, the jackal’s head, and then finally the falcon’s head in order.
 
As all five engravings were depressed, the door then shimmered before fading away, revealing yet another chamber beyond. A pair of great statues stood before a massive ornate door at the far end of the chamber. Just what lay within and through the door beyond was yet to be revealed...