Want to help? Consider becoming a Patreon.

• Adrian Silverstrength (Human Paladin)
• Buppido Diinkarazan (Rock Gnome Cleric/Wizard)
• Sephrenia (High Elf Cleric) – Missed This Session
• Don Kannin (Half-Elf Ranger)
• Korra (Air Genasi Rogue)
• Elon Dusk (Tiefling Artificer)

• NPCs:
  • Disnarium – High Elf (Rune Knight, NPC)
  • Kraun Torodon – Tiefling (Businessman Rogue, NPC)

• Korra awakens with a gasp, her eyes blurry as she looks around and she immediately clasps her arm
• She looks at her arm and sees what appears to be stung by something with a long tentacle that had wrapped around her arm; while most of the wounds seem healed, the irritation on her skin showed there still was some form of venom or other irritation beneath the flesh
• She looks around and finds Sephrenia still unconscious; and for some reason Sephrenia is on the floor next to her bed, rather than in her bed (DM Note – The previous session, Elon Dusk shoved her off her bed, when looking for the rest of the party and decided to take a short rest on her bed, rather than his own bed; and then left her on the floor after he got up…)
• She thinks back to what she remembered last – it was fleeing the Illithid, and then when they got on their own ship (where she is now) – there was another mind lance type spell that had rendered her unconscious; she recalled seeing Sephrenia and Elon Dusk fall at the same time. She checked Elon Dusk’s room and was surprised to find he wasn’t there – nor did it look like he’d slept in his bed since the last time he’d made it. Curious she made he way around the other rooms and found no one else; as a matter of fact, aboard the ship it was eerily quiet; but outside she could hear people talking… but it wasn’t a language she understood.
• On the upper deck she finds ropes around the mast, then sees another rope over the edge; she takes note that she’s not in the Astral Plane; tall, massive pine-like trees line the landscape as far as the eye can see, with a mountain jaunting out from the lush green landscape here and there. Peering over the edge she sees simian humanoids mingling with insect like humanoids as well as slime-like humanoids; she listens but can’t understand any of the language. She decides that her friends must be here somewhere and climbs over the edge and begins to descend down the rope
• However, the pain in her arms saps her strength and she takes a tumble, for some minor damage to the pier below

• Several of the people on the pier help Korra to her feet; she asks about seeing her friends, but none seem to speak her language or any of the languages she knows. She begins walking down the street when she hears roaring laughter and sure it’s her comrades. She makes her way there and finds Don, Adrian, Buppido and Elon Dusk devouring some meat. Each of them convince her it’s the best thing ever. She is leery at first, because all four of them seem so excited – but she takes a bite (ironically rolls a Natural 20 as well) and agrees that this is indeed some of the best meat she’d ever tasked

• Korra asks them what happened; showing them her arm, and explaining the last thing she remembered was getting on their ship after fleeing from the Illithid; and then seeing Elon Dusk and Sephrenia knock out, just as she’d done
• Don explains how he saved Korra and her arm; as well as Elon Dusk’s nether regions; because some kind of invisible tentacle monster was trying to devour them; Buppido acknowledge that it’s all true (well, partly true… Elon Dusk was never attacked, but shhhh!)
• Korra asks why Sephrenia was left on the floor at the foot of her bed, and Don, Adrian and Buppido all look amongst each other, explaining they’d put her on her bed after the defeated the Feyr monster. They were uncertain how she ended up on the floor; but they all turn to Elon Dusk, who simply shrugs and says, “She probably rolled off the bed.”
• As Korra sits at the bar and begins eating the steak, an all too familiar friend enters the tavern door…

• He walks in; and the party sees him. He walks up to them, and no one else seems to notice him; except Disnarium – and the party remembers that Nikalos has the ability to make himself visible to whomever he wants
• He sits at an empty seat at the bar and says, “It’s been much more difficult finding all of you. But I am glad you’re here, however. Over on Kne’Urth, just had another group – since I couldn’t find you all, to help free a cursed town.” He takes a deep breath, “Don’t mind if I do,” and takes a piece of Korra’s steak – and he too is amazed (… and yet another natural 20!)

• Between chewing he mutters about how amazing the food is, and that it’s some of the best he’s ever had. After swallowing down the bite and wiping his mouth he leans forward, “And now, down to business. “So as you know, during the Day of Giving Festival, I enjoy delivering gifts to all the good children. Day of Giving Festival is widely celebrated; even here! Well, I’d dropped off all the gifts for the children – and got word that someone had broken into everyone’s home here and stolen and hoarded them all away in this small town. I could use your help finding out who and why and getting those gifts back to me so I can deliver them again! In the meantime, while you’re off doing that – I need to get going – but I will be back when you come back – should you come back! – to take the gifts to properly distribute them. Who knows,” he smiled, “I may even have gifts for all of you.”
• “What should we do with the thief when we catch him?” Adrian asks
• Nikalos sighs, “Well, the thing is Garr’ynch used to be a really good person and a personal friend of mine. However, one day – he met a young man, who looks a lot him,” and he gestures to Elon Dusk who is busy chewing food as well. “He struck up some kind of deal with that one that looks like your friend… and since then… my friend has turned evil and vile and bitter. His words are venomous and he’s done no true crime, except this recent one of stealing gifts…” He pauses, “This Tiefling looking person has been spotted in the mountains… perhaps if you can locate this Tiefling person… you can find out what happened… and Garr’ynch has also now relocated to the mountains…”

• The Appointed One, who is the Chief of the town, another Hadozee arrives and speaks with Disnarium briefly – before looking and smiling at Nikalos, making it clear that he too can see the celestial being. “It’s good to see you my friend,” the Appointed One says, looking at Nikalos. “I hope you are not disappointed that the Day of Giving Festival has been tarnished.”
• Nikalos winks, “That’s why they’re here – well, not why they’re here unless you believe in destiny and all that – but they’re here to help.”
• The Appointed One nods, “That is excellent news. If you do indeed help, I will be glad to send scouts to begin fetching materials to fix your Spelljammer I see floating out there.”
• Adrian says, “Would you have to have a potion shop in town?”
• The Appointed One nods, “Yes. You will want to see Goosar, he’s a plasmoid who runs the local potion shop.”
• After getting directions, the party heads to Goosar’s shop entitled “Goosar’s Goo“
• Upon opening the door they’re met with an adventurous looking plasmoid who explains through a series of booming and whispering voices how it always looks like this because the woods beyond where the required herbs are are chalk full of danger

• Adrian talks to Goosar for a bit and finally asks how much the potions are; and Goosar offers them for 48 gold a piece. Adrian looks over his shoulder, then back at Goosar and says, “Let me introduce you to my friend, Korra.” As he pulls Korra closer, Adrian whispers in her ear awkwardly, “Flirt with him.” Korra shoots Adrian a scathing look and whispers back, “How do you even know it’s a him? And what would he want with me? I am not a pladmoid!”
• Still angry at Adrian, Korra turns to Goosar and forces a smile, and says, “Hello. You make potions? How long have you been in the potion business.”
• “Generations, pods and pods,” Goosar says.
• “That’s so interesting,” Korra shrugs and looks back. Adrian gives her a thumbs up.
• Goosar then offers to sell them to Korra for 45 gold each (after her Persuasion check)
• Korra asks to purchase three of them; and three arms form out of the back of his body to grab three potions and slides them on the counter
  • Korra purchases: 3 (45 gold each)
  • Adrian purchases: 3 (45 gold each)
• Don asks, “So… Goosar… um, come here … often?”
• Goosar says, “Yes. Goosar’s shop. Here all the time.”
• Don sighs. “OK.”
  • Don purchases: 3 (45 gold each)
• The party looks around and notices that Elon Dusk is not with them; and as they make their way towards the mountain and pass the tavern, Elon Dusk, who was still eating sees them and chases after them
• The party begins heading into the woods and almost immediately notice how dense the woods are; the trees are thick, and towering, so that the branches that spread high above create a massive canopy and create dark shadows in the woods, diminishing visibility

• As they go on, Don hears sounds up ahead and casts Pass Without A Trace and Korra stealths ahead with a Natural 20 – and spots – what she’s not sure to make of it… She comes back and tells the others that there’s several giant hamsters up ahead who seem to be feeding; unfortunately, Elon Dusk ends up frightening them away despite Don Kanin’s efforts to befriend them. Elon Dusk continues to use his winged boots and fly around.
• Shortly after, they meet another Hadozee in the woods; one that looks to be a hermit and makes a living out in the woods; he’s disshoveled and aged considerably. Don tells the Hadozee that they’ve come to look for a friend of the Appointed One; another Hadozee named Garry’nch.

• The hermit leaps down and begins to tells Don that he’s seen Garry’nch and that he can be found in the mountains; but beware of the fiendish one who is also up there; and Elon Dusk choses that moment to land – which startles the hermit, who then draws an unusual weapon – he sees Elon Dusk has a fiendish appearance and assumes that he is associated with the fiend in the mountains
• He fires a shot from his “boom stick” and uses it as a distraction to escape (DM Note – There was more to it in terms of dialogue back and forth, but the long and short of it is – he was supposed to give the party a clue about the fiend in the mountains and that if they find Garr’ynch, that they need to bless his heart which was a clue of needing the Bless spell, which Sephrenia would normally have; but she wasn’t here that session; so it would need to be Adrian; which he did not have the spell prepped… you can tell, this is going to begin going poorly… the giant hamsters were also another thing the party messed up on; they were meant to be steeds for the party to get them to the mountain quicker, where they would have actually met the hermit at a cave in the mountain)
• Adrian shouts into the woods, “I’d really like to know more about the weapon!” but at that very moment, Korra leans in, and sarcastically says, “Maybe you should flirt with him…”
• This causes Adrian to fumble over his sentence as he looks at Korra (Critical Fail! Natural 1)

• The party proceeds to the mountains; and after numerous failed attempts and falling, the party finally gets up to the first ledge where they’re attacked by a frost displacer beast; a second one makes itself known, but is also defeated; and Don manages to skin both of the frost displacer beasts

• The party deals with the ice displacer beast and continues to ascend the mountain side, finally reaching the peak

• Peering the the snow haze, both Elon Dusk and Buppido spot a cave that seems to be giving off orange light; as the snow gets deeper and the air is thinner, several of the party members begin to get a level of exhaustion moving through the dense snow; Elon Dusk seems to suffer the most as they push towards the cave

• When they get inside the cave; there’s no campfire; but rather candles all along the cave walls as well as ritualistic writing all over the walls and floor; and an odd, smoking blackness lingers in the back
• Korra and Adrian quickly quaff some healing potions
• Buppido fires a Fire Bolt into the cloudy darkness; and the darkness seems to wrap around it and consume the light
• They hear a voice from inside, and bursting forth a Fire Ray hits Elon Dusk; but Elon Dusk does a Hellish Rebuke and hits something in the darkness, which simply laughs
• It’s eyes glow and meet Korra’s gaze; who suddenly feels charmed and cuts herself for reasons no one knows; and the voice in the shadows laughs and says, “Go away…”

• Elon Dusk seeing the creature for a brief moment, uses Alter Self and tries to convince the being that he is his brother
• Korra manages to break free of the charm
• Adrian issues the Champion’s Challenge which the creature fails and steps out – revealing it’s a Cambion which startles Adrian for a moment; as Cambion had been among the ones hiding themselves among the people Adrian grew up with; along with Succubi and Inccubi
• Korra throws a dagger and lands a critical hit; but notices, because it wasn’t magical, the Cambion seemed to be less effected

• Buppido launches a Raulothim’s Psychic Lance which the Cambion fails against, taking a lot of damage and incompasitating him
• The party soon takes him down; but unsure of what to do – if they should kill him or capture him to learn what was done with Garr’ynch – the party opts to do non lethal damage; and as soon as he drops, the dark barrier him drops.
• A small pillar is revealed with a sphere and a beating heart inside of it (DM Note – If they’d only spoke to Adoy, the Hermit…)

• Buppido looks at the sphere then the Cambion and mutters, “Well that complicates matters. We definitely need him alive for questioning.”
• The party quickly ties up the Cambion and do a Medicine check to stabilize him
• Buppido does Detect Thoughts and skims the Cambion’s thoughts – and sees the Cambion’s memory; Buppido sees the Cambion in a silky bed, laying with some succubi, talking about how he’d tricked a mortal recently
• The party fully awakens him and Buppido tries Suggestion and the Cambion shakes it off
• Adrian then decides to cast Zone of Truth
• Buppido asks, “What did you do with Garr’rync? Is that his heart there? What did you do to make him hand it over?”
• The Cambion looks at Buppido and says, “What if I told you what you think is the truth isn’t the truth? The Cambion swapped bodies with me, and now I am stuck, defending my heart from people who have come up here … they think it’s tied to the Cambion.”
• Adrian sensing something in the Cambion’s answer is not the truth
• Buppido asks what happens if the sphere gets broken
• Cambion answers, “Don’t break it… or else what happens to mortal hearts will happen… it will break.”
• Adrian nods to the others, informing them that he’s telling the truth
• Buppido asks what the deal was, and the Cambion answers, “It was a simple deal of wanting to become rich like The Appointed One. Who doesn’t want to be rich?”
• The Cambion begins coughing when he tries to say, “Yes” – not fully saying “Yes” to some of the questions
• The knock out the Cambion and Buppido says, “If we kill him the spell should break.”
• Korra shakes her head, “I am not sure that’s the right idea. We should actually go find Garr’rych.”
• Buppido yanks the sphere off the pillar it’s resting on; and immediately notices the sphere begins to crack. “Well,” Buppido says again, “this complicates things.” He tries to put it back on the pillar, but the cracked piece no longer fits. “We need to find Garr’ynch as fast as possible. Because this thing is breaking.”
• They move out into the snow and begin moving; where Elon Dusk gains two more levels of Exhaustion (Critical Fail). They do find another cave, full of gifts, and the Garr’ynch is found. The party pulls the Cambion out of the bag of holding and after speaking with Garr’ynch the party explains what happened; and the Garr’ynch explains that he had wanted to keep the land safe, and the Cambion said the children need to be “stronger” – and I had thought he meant physically; but when I agreed to the deal, he cursed me and made it so that the children don’t rely on precious gifts and need to learn to defend themselves
• The sphere continues to crack more and more; and they awaken the Cambion who says if they hope to save the heart there is only one way; and so the party rushes back to the Camnion’s cave, and Elon Dusk faints in the snow (another Critical Fail)
• Buppido sees Elon Dusk pass out; and Buppido asks Garr’ynch to carry him and he does so and they arrive at the Cambion’s cave
• When they get in the cave and try to replace the sphere; and it doesn’t fit and keeps cracking
• They awaken the Cambion and ask him how to fix it. The Cambion laughs, “You tried to take it from the pedestal? I warned you! And you didn’t listen!” He roars with laughter. “Your friend is about to be cursed forever… and it will be glorious.”
• Buppido casts Suggestion and forces the Cambion to fail as a Divination Wizard and asks, “How do you mend the sphere?”
• “Undo the unholy,” the Cambion growls trying to resist, yet still telling the truth.
• Korra looks at Adrian, “Wait. Undo the unholy.” Korra looks at the sphere then grabs Adrian. “Bless! Bless the sphere! Bless the heart.”
• Just before the sphere completely cracks, Adrian clasps the sphere, and casts Bless and a huge burst of light happens
• Garr’ynch collapses to the ground, grasping his heart and looks up, the madness gone from his eyes as the energy from the sphere flows into him. He shakes his head, and says, “What have I done?”
• “It wasn’t you,” Korra assures him. “It was the demon.”
• Nikalos laughs from the mouth of the cave. “Well done!” It startles the heroes. Nikalos assures them all that things are taken care of and that his elves have already located the other cave and began distributing the gifts again.
• Nikalos reaches into the bag and begins handing them each a gift:
  • Adrian gets: a magical ugly sweater
  • Buppido gets: magical Nikalos spectacles
  • Don gets: an enchanted snowglobe
  • Elon Dusk gets: a magical ugly sweater
  • Korra gets: a magical snow ball terrain changer
• Nikalos hands Korra a Enchanted snowglobe and tells her to give it to Sephrenia
• He explains all the gifts are magically enchanted; and each possess 12 charges. He also explains that if the gifts are given or taken, they will immediately explode doing radiant damage equal to the amount of charges left. Nikalos explains that Sephrenia’s will bind to her when she’s given the gift and it won’t work until it’s bound to her. He winks at Korra knowing her profession
• Nikalos grants them all Nikalos Inspiration and a ride back down to the Hadozee town; where the Appointed One greets the heroes and explains how happy he is to see them
• He explains he’s sent out scouts to begin finding wood and cutting it to repair the Spelljammer the party has but it’s going to take a week or two to complete; in the meantime, several farmers have reported that the meat that the heroes have enjoyed… the animals have been hunted by some kind of creature and he would love if the heroes could take the time to look into it while their Spelljammer was being repaired…

TO BE CONTINUED.