In which our heroes lose half their party to the labyrinthine hallways of the Monolith, meet Captain Zandalus, attempt to rescue his crew, fail to do so, refuse the gifts of the Lord of Eyes, try to flee from the Monolith with the remaining survivors, are assailed by flying aberrations, nearly perish, are saved due to Antel’s timely return, and eventually manage to slay the mind flayer who’s been the cause of all the trouble on Night’s End.
Session Recount
When we awoke from our rest we found most the party left and all members of our retinue had had dreams offering them power, I of course was too strong-willed to receive such a dream. Tensions were high in the camp and all the survivors were still weak and malnourished. Ifrid sent his bat to scout around downstairs, there he found a huge orc carefully sneaking through the corridors near the Lightning trap, we rushed downstairs before the monsters would overwhelm him. Any attack we made was healed by the pillar’s lightning, using us as a distraction Ifrid studied it and drew the power out now holding the raw magic in his hand. With their source of healing gone we dispensed off the amalgamated monsters quickly. I looked to Ifrid and we both knew what we had to do, create a lightning ingot. Using my own steel ingot and a hammer I struck the lightning and the energy released hurt immensely but the ingot remained u-infused, again I struck and the ingot now flows with energy ready to be forged.
The orc, Naa’gesh knew some basic common, he seemed to be a part of the tribe that lived here, the guardians of the island. He told us of the ithilid (mindflayer in common tongue) that had come to them and destroyed them all. He looked strong but now was not the time for a challenge, we continued through the labyrinth and made our way to two doors, on both, words were inscribed, THE EYES and SILENT with each letter removable we discovered how to open them quickly enough THEY SEE and LISTEN. Inside the listen door we found three magical items.
The other door opened a passage that led us to the centre of obelisk. There we found the last of the survivors, but these had accepted the gifts offered, from one grew two eyes out of his neck, another was covered in a some sort of muscle armour, the third had a tongue as long as the whip, the last was slumped over in the corner of the room, wielding no apparent gift. Though they bore no hostility they now served whatever dark master was sealed here. We attempted to remove their gifts but the only one we could save was the one with the long tongue, though he would only die later. The fourth was already dead but from his head came a thing, squid-like but cracking skulls open and eating what’s inside. It tried to get me and almost did, but it wasn’t hard to kill. At the centre of the room was the largest disk we found, and on it 12 circles carved into it, this was the final seal, you could almost feel the corruption. The more immediate problem was getting the survivors off this island and stopping the Ithilid.
The rest of our party had taken the usable boats leaving us with a half destroyed one, we decided to create a raft from scavenged wood and reeds, with our orc friend turning into a crocodile to drag us along. We barely made it a couple 100 feet before we heard the screeches of the chimera, I unleashed the Void vial on them as soon as they got close. That’s when the Ithilid appeared with an unfinished chimera, smaller than the other two. The Ithilid grabbed the head of the tongue guy, I used the vial on it trying to force it away but it cracked open his head and sucked his brain out. This gave us time, I dealt with one Chimera and joined the Orc in grappling the Ithilid. The acid breath of the black dragon destroyed our raft and killed some of the survivors, even the party struggled with it. The Ithilid was bleeding profusely and I took the opportunity to use the technique I had stolen during my fight. The Uppercut of 20 graves, my punch was so powerful it took off the Ithilid’s head, killing it to state the obvious. The last two fell soon after and finally we could leave this island, I write this as we sail back to Passage to deal with the final task Jurian Kael had set us, the actor troupe, though leaving our Orc friend behind to safe-guard the island.
Session glossary
- Captain Zandalus – an elven ship captain, as well as a drunk and a gambler; hired by Jurian Kael to take the Corleis Expedition to Night’s End; survivor
- Naelan Droth – his right-hand man; a bard; survivor
- Hamlin, Girion, Elbert and Clevin – sailors; all dead
- The Mighty Dolphin – their ship; burnt and sunk by a fire-breathing chimera
- Ilester – a linguist of the Corleis Expedition; survivor
- Maeve – an architecture specialist of the Corleis Expedition; dead
- Naa’gesh – the last of the Gatekeeper orcs on Night’s End; survivor
- Vvarak – a black dragon who taught druidism to the ancient orcs
Turn of the Age 