Episode 24

After slaughtering the cultists and briefly exploring where the holes in the ruins lead, the party regroups at the entrance to the ruins.

After Cade notices his anger, Nok-Nok shares the letter with the rest of the party. They briefly discuss their options before Cade points out the strange dark clouds moving in from the distance. The clouds seem to be spiraling in towards their location and Galhaphé confirms that they are moving at an unnatural speed. Cade steps outside briefly to find that the same spirals are coming from all around. They decide to head inside the ruins to avoid dealing with the storm.

Cade takes them down the way he went previously. Dodging a few traps and following some obvious signs of traffic in the halls beneath the ruins, The party reaches a chamber where they have to make a choice. Either they keep following the obvious routes into the ruins and be easy targets for expecting enemies or follow slightly less traveled routes and possibly take the enemy by surprise. They decide to take the less traveled routes and in doing so they find themselves standing in a large chamber with a circle etched into the floor. Reading the elvish message on the walls, they gather blood is the answer to activating the circle. One by one they pour some blood into the small bowls located around the circle. Only Galhaphé's blood is good enough to activate the circle. She continues around and a portal appears in the middle.

Stepping through they find themselves in another large chamber with four pillar in front of them. In the center of the pillars is a beautifully crafted chest of elvish design. A short moment later the portal behind them closes. Cade fails to unlock the chest and make use of Mildren who unlocks it for him. Inside they find 1500 gold pieces and a tiny ornate dagger. Cade hands the gold to Nok-Nok and keeps the dagger. The search for a way out and open one of the two doors they found. This one leads to another circle, this time the words on the wall is written in common and they deduce that fire is required to activate the circle. Taman tries to light the four braziers around the circle, but nothing happens. Galhaphé produces a flame and the braziers light, leading them to discover that only magical fire can light the braziers. The portal opens up and the party step through.

On the other side they look back at the portal and after a short moment it closes. Galhaphé notices the writing on the wall and they see four urns scattered around the circle. The message seems to be written in dwarven script. Taman reads it to the party and explains that the word life is another way of referring to water in dwarven culture. They gather that they would need to pour water into the urns should they wish to open the portal from this side. They look for a way out an find a long 5 foot wide corridor leading away from them, so far in fact that only Nok-Nok manages to see a faint light at the end of it. They proceed with caution and after disarming and avoiding some traps, they reach the end which opens into a large cavern about 300 feet wide and 120 feet high at it's highest point. The walls of the cave seem to angle down the shape of a dome. They can see faints light glimmer in the distance, one from the ceiling and one from the front left. Stalagmites and stalactites are scattered throughout the cavern, the stalagmites offering some form of cover for their approach. They proceed carefully towards the lights.

Nok-Nok is the first to notice the dark cloaked figure, some 7 feet tall, standing in front of them with his back to them. Past him there is a square stone platform with a large tree growing behind it. Four pillars are visible, one off the side of each corner of the square stone platform. On top of the platform is a dark crystal floating above three skulls. The crystal seems to be anchored in place by three vines which are attached to the skulls. Around the crystal and skulls seems to be a magical sphere which glimmers ever so slightly in the small amount of available light. The tree behind the platform is lush and green and stands about 100 feet tall. There is a hole in the cave ceiling above and a beam of light shines through it onto the tree. What little scatters off of it is reflecting off the dome and lighting the back of the room. To the left o f the platform there are a few tents and a line of torches leading away to what seems to be another hole in the wall. Next to the tents are some crates and barrels. Between the tents and the square stone platform five cultists sit in a line, on their knees, hands tied behind their back and gags placed in their mouth. Behind them the party can see the three figures who ran from the outside during their attack. Two of them lead another of the bound cultists to the dark cloaked figure and slit his throat before handing the bound cultist over to the figure. to the right of the figure there seems to be a growing pile of dead cultists.

The party moves in closer and on reaching 60 feet from the dark cloaked figure, Nok-Nok and Cade falls down the ground, fast asleep. Taman makes the connection between what is happening to his friends and a spell Zaren once used on the goblins and quickly reacts by pouring water onto Nok-Nok's face. Whilst doing so he bumps into something invisible. Cade who had earlier gone invisible is lying right next to Nok-Nok. He shakes him awake as well. The dark cloaked figure begins to speak.

"Ahh, you made it." He says as he gestures for another of the cultists to be brought to him. They lead another to him and slit his through right before handling him over and returning to the line of kneeling cultists. "I see you brought some pets along. They have been quite a problem, but not to worry, they will be dealt with shortly." he points to the east side of the large tree. "I need your essence, come join me." His hand gesturing for what ever is there to come towards him.

On a branch in the tree, the party notices the figure of Killian appear. The party starts to attack the dark cloaked figure, Taman rushes in to attack before being commanded to leave by the dark cloaked figure. The other figures who ran in from outside wants to retaliate against their attack, but the dark cloaked figure gestures for them to stay and continue to bring him the bound cultists. Killian tries to persuade the figure to stop saying: "You know that what your are attempting will never be allowed to happen." The party continues their attacks as the dark cloaked figure gestures for another cultist and stops the others from attacking the party. He laughs out loudly and continues. Killian transforms into a adult bronze dragon and attempts to persuade the figure to stop again: 'Please, stop this madness." It seems to have no effect. The party continue their attack, Galhaphé turning into a giant constrictor snake and failing to grapple the dark cloaked figure. She is commanded to leave as the figure gestures for the last bound cultist. With the cultist in his hand, the figure allows the three remaining cultists to attack the party. Killian takes to the air and lands on top of two of them crushing them with a few powerful blows. The remaining cultist attempts to command Nok-Nok but he shrugs it off. As the party readies their next attacks, the dark cloaked figure discards the corpse of the last cultist, turns to Killian and transforms into a shadow dragon.

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