RECAP: 5th Avengers, 2-7-21
Behind a swirling mass of air is an angry cleric struggling with his bindings. The room is clearly a sleeping area for gnolls. Balyx grabs ahold of the cleric’s hands while keeping them in the bindings. As he struggles, a wooden holy symbol that matches the ones borne by those who attacked us in the grove jiggles around. Geth removes the holy symbol. Balyx instructs Geth to remove the gag and he does. The cleric immediately begins speaking in a tongue that is best described as bursts of air. Geth punches him in the face. The cleric recoils and narrows his eyes at Geth. Geth asks his name, and he says nothing. Geth can tell he is sizing us up. Geth asks his name, and he chuckles. Geth threatens him with death and the reply is only that we will not leave here alive. Geth replies that neither will he if he does not begin talking, and there is no answer. Balyx begins attempting to crush his hand. He does not feel any bones break. Jarry attempts to Charm Person the Evil Cleric, to no effect. Balyx begins crushing his hand again. It works. He tells us his name is Sajep Ojafee, that he is a cleric of the cult of Tharizdun and he is trying to bring the old god into the material plane.
Balyx asks him how they intend to summon Tharizdun. Sajep does not know all the spells and components and doesn’t know the whole plan, but they are excavating to find the portal. Geth asks him how many of his kind are here. He lies and says he does not know. Geth slaps him in the face and asks him for the truth this time. Balyx asks how he joined Tharizdun, but does not get any good information. Balyx asks also how many others in the village have been replaced with doppelgangers. He says he does not know. Geth asks how many of his order are down here. He says he does not know. Geth takes a hack at his shoulder. He says there are temples for each of the elements, earth, air, fire and water. Lauris gets up and walks in. The lantern of revealing casts a light on the swirling air–it’s not quite divination magic, and it’s not quite arcane magic. It’s not all there. It appears to be part portal and part illusion. Geth asks him about it. He says it is a conduit to summon air elementals, and illusions of air elementals. When asked who put it there, he says he only knows it was one of the higher order clerics, and that they would be in the Temple of All Consumption. He has never been there. He was recruited to the order of Tharizdun while he was an acolyte of another evil deity.
Geth asks him what he would do if we let him go. At the mere prospect of life, he says he would seek out repentance. We know he is lying through his teeth. He would turn us in given the chance. Balyx attempts to stick him in the portal by the head. Nothing happens. Balyx mutters that it is rather anticlimactic. The head does not vanish but is distorted and obscured by the magic. We tell him he is a bad person and should feel bad, and wish him well in whatever afterlife awaits him and Balyx cuts off his head. We loot the body and find two potions, fine leather armor and 3 platinum, 10 gold and 30 silver. We are not able to identify the potions but Lauris chugs one and feels a lot better. Balyx saves the other for later. We find nothing else in the room. We have four hours remaining on the torch of revealing.
Walking out of the room, we come across Spugnoir’s body. Geth loots it. We find a potion, some instructions written in Common about the routine of the shop, and a key.
Down the hot corridor, Lauris detects something amiss in the hallway ahead. He investigates and finds a trap. He successfully disarms a fire trap. We encourage and/or force Balyx to the front, but Lauris senses another trap ahead. Rounding the corner, Balyx comes across two small fire elementals. Combat commences, with Balyx in the lead, resisting the elementals’ attacks with his draconic lineage, and Lauris dealing booming blade damage. Geth wildshapes into a Lion and leaps ahead to attack the fire elemental taking burn damage. Caela hangs back, then Jerry pops back from around the corner and casts Frost on the elemental causing damage before moving back to the end of the line again. An ethereal fire pillar appears before Geth’s Lion, striking him with a fiery chain. Balyx advances and Misty Steps into the room, attempting to strike the cleric hat Geth points out to him. Lauris tosses his weasel into the fiery portal in the room, and the weasel dodges the elemental attacks on the way in but does not appear to be in distress in the ring of fire. Based on his experience, Lauris believes the elementals to be illusions and shares his opinion with the group. Geth believes the illusions to be real and attacks one, doing not as much damage as he would have hoped with his scimitar. Caela delays again. The fire elementals in front of Geth attack again for 14 damage. Jerry runs forward whispering to his comrades to close their eyes and casts Hypnotic Pattern. All the flashy lights go off. The chain that was suspended in air immediately disappears. The elemental illusions falter, then move backward into the swirling flame campfire. Within the swirling flames remains Lauris’ weasel, which seems quite fine. The cleric notices Jerry who rushed into the room and exclaims, “oh my friend,” and it moves to get closer to Jerry. The humanoid is dressed in robes very similar to the last one–he has a heavy mace and leather armor and a symbol matching the other cleric’s around his neck.
Looted from the Moathouse:
A bag of material components
Instructions written in Common about the routine of Spugnoir’s shop, and a key to his shop.
2 potions
Fine leather armor
longsword
Gold chain
97 gold
26 platinum
48 silver
Lantern of Revealing with three cones
A black scepter with violet gems
A small violet sphere
A black metal scroll case
+1 Shortbow
+1 Mace
A scroll of ???
