Episode 11 "Friendly Fiend"

Session #27: 1/5/2020

4th of Portanium 2350 of the 5th Age

Recap

 * The session began right where the last one had left off, with Thokk having just won the Kihivas and earning the title of Chieftain.
 * The Good Samaritans decided they would quickly need to solidify Thokk's rule by endearing him to the people, especially considering that his first act as ruler was to free all of the slaves. An act that, though noble, might not endear him to the populace.
 * They had the idea to throw a massive celebration, cooking the Roc they had killed the previous day and spending a mountain of gold on ale for the citizens.
 * Before leaving to begin preparations, Thokk sent out a group of Orcs to retrieve his family from the Esik canyons and bring them back to Sarkenholm.
 * The group set out to make preparations, but as they did so felt small tremors beneath their feet. They asked around and found that the tremors had only started recently.
 * Deciding they needed answers, the party quickly found Dorgad's corpse and carried it to the local cleric, Shaman Urkuul of Gruumsh, the god of War and Rage.
 * On the way to the shaman, Vendrin found a small grain of crimson sand float into his eye, he thought that this might be Red Dust.
 * Urkuul was an elderly orc and was not overly excited to meet Thokk. But, seeing as he is now the chieftain, agreed to perform the Speak with Dead ritual. But first, Thokk would have to sacrifice a creature of worth to Gruumsh.
 * A Direwolf was selected and Thokk leapt into the arena and immediately assumed his Werebear Hybrid form. He dispatched the wolf effortlessly. But Urkuul seemed displeased to learn that Thokk was a Lycanthrope.
 * Regardless, Urkuul performed the ritual. The deceased Dorgad was not incredibly helpful, recognizing them as the enemies who brought on his demise. So the group had to carefully phrase their questions to ensure they got the information they needed.
 * The group learned that something was under the city, though it wasn't a horde of undead like they had suspected. They also learned that someone had to die in exchange for a woman living, and that it somehow related to Dorgad's plan.
 * The party decided to gather as many of the freed slaves as they could, reasoning that they would have hear much while enslaved and hoping they could learn something that would help them reason out Dorgad's cryptic answers. Few elves actually came, but those that did were able to tell them that only a handful of interesting things had happened recently. Dorgad had been visited by an imposing Drow woman whom he showed respect to. (The party reasoned that this could be Kandra's grandmother.) They also told the party that a male slave had gone missing and another female slave had been mysteriously granted her freedom.
 * With their business done, the party returned to the Old Fortress to begin their search for whatever was under the city.
 * Arriving at the fortress, Zeevah used her Detect Portal ability to sense that it was a portal that lay beneath the city.
 * The party was greeted at the fortress by a well-mannered orc named Jahruuk, who introduced himself as the Manmaster of the Old Fortress. He was quickly hiring orcs to replace the slaves who had been freed in order to keep the workings of the castle going smoothly.
 * Jahruuk told the party of tunnels that lay beneath the Old Fortress that lead into the sewers and caverns beneath the city.
 * Vendrin noted that Jahruuk spoke with a Romalian accent and Jahruuk told him that as a boy he had been in a shipwreck, he was found by Romalian traders who raised him as one of their own.
 * On the way down to the secret passage, Jahruuk also warned Thokk of a few things. 1. With Dorgad gone, Thokk not only assumes command of the island but also of Dorgad's Sea King network, which is primarily made up of pirates and slavers and 2. That Dorgad made a great deal of money for the Empire of Gramt, and that the High Chieftain would likely be unhappy to learn he had been deposed.
 * The party descended down into the sewers beneath Sarkenholm and found them filled with red sand just like the grain that Vendrin found. As they descended deeper, they found more and more.
 * Following the sand and the everpresent and steadily increasing wind, they found a roiling and unstable portal in a large cavern. They watched and could see as it was slowly expanding and swallowing everything in its path.
 * Through the portal, the party could see an endless red desert. Seeing no way on this side of the portal to close it, Vendrin decided to Dimension Door himself and Thokk down to the ground to scout the area.
 * Once on the ground, they were able to see that the red desert lay beneath and red sky and was filled with disparate and ancient ruins from numerous cultures. The winds that had filled the sewers were present here and were endlessly whipping the razor-sharp sand into their flesh, causing small wounds.
 * Using the Earring of Whisper, Vendrin and Thokk let the rest of the party know they were alright and quickly found shelter in a nearby ruin.
 * Within this small domed hut, they found a red abishai, but unlike the abishai of the nine hells, this one greeted them as honored guests and offered them wine and refreshment through clenched teeth.
 * This Abishai, known as Jobithack the Friendly Fiend, told Vendrin and Thokk that the portal was unstable because someone had brought the magic item used to make it through to this side and had hidden it in a nearby tomb.
 * Thokk and Vendrin decided they needed to get the rest of the party down to the ground. Using a combination of all of their rope and the immovable rod, they were able to create a line that the party climbed down, leaving Tennebris and Hermes behind so they would be safe from the whipping winds.
 * Returning to Jobithack, the party deduced that he was under some form of enchantment which forced him to be unreasonably kind and helpful to anyone he met, no matter how much he wished to kill them. This curse had been placed on him by an angel of Bahamut called Bi'Arinar the Shining.
 * The party learned from Jobithack that they found themselves in Minethys, the third layer of Tartaraus.
 * Jobithack told the party where they could find the item they sought, a red glass orb. Vendrin, thinking quickly, asked Jobithack if he would accompany them. And through grating teeth, he agreed.
 * The party moved quickly through the sands to the tomb and descended down. Before them, they found a door with a protruding metal plate and an abyssal inscription which told them sacrifice was required.
 * Looking into the plate, they discovered several finger bones and deduced that to advance, one had to sacrifice their finger.
 * Vendrin asked Jobithack if he would be so kind as to cut off his finger and place it on the plate. Jobithack was, of course, happy to oblige, depositing his finger into the plate and opening the door.
 * What they found next disheartened them. Door after door demanding they sacrifice increasingly vital body parts..Thokk sacrificed an ear, but they found themselves leaning heavily upon Jobithack's unnaturally agreeable disposition to get them through more doors. But after three doors, Jobithack fell to the ground and turned to smoke, leaving them to fend for themselves.
 * After Jobithack's apparent death, they found themselves faced with a door that seemed to demand an arm cut all the way to the shoulder.
 * Thokk was quick to offer his own arm, reasoning that it was his city they were attempting to save, but realizing that there was no way he could properly sever his own arm, asked Lio to do it. But she refused.
 * Vendrin meanwhile, spent a moment approximating the length of each of the rooms And without consulting the party, Dimension Doored to, what he guessed would be two rooms down.
 * However, Vendrin had not anticipated that they had reached the final door and found himself suddenly buried within solid sandstone, only to be violently shunted out thanks to the spell's failsafe. He found himself suddenly in a large burial chamber lined with gold and faded murals.
 * Quickly scanning the room, he saw a latch he could use to open the door from this side, a large sarcophagus, and the corpse of an elf missing several body parts. He deduced that this was likely the corpse of a slave who had been sent to place the portal orb here in exchange for the woman's freedom.
 * Vendrin told the party he was alright using the Earring of Whisper, and pushed open the sarcophagus. Inside he found the red glass orb sitting on the chest of a mummified corpse. The orb jumped every moment, shifting as though it were out of phase with this plane.
 * Grabbing the orb, Vendrin found himself briefly overcome with the stench of the corpse, but was able to shake it off. Stepping back from the platform, he was startled when the sarcophagus shot open and a fully formed Mummy Lord stepped out, garbed in golden half-plate and wielding scimitars.
 * Vendrin, always one step ahead however, took one look at the Mummy Lord and Misty Stepped through the door to his friends, telling them they should leave quickly.
 * The party hurried back to the rope and began their climb, right as a massive sand tornado began forming and heading right for them.
 * Halfway up the rope, the strong winds caused Vendrin to use his grip, but he used the last of his powerful spell slots to cast himself back up onto the rope.
 * The party climbed back through the portal and found themselves now dangling above a massive portal that threatened to collapse the cavern, though it had stabilized and stopped expanding.
 * Using the immovable rod as an anchor point, the party was able to suspend another rope and climb to solid ground before dashing the red orb to the ground and sealing the portal to Minethys.
 * The party returned to the surface and met Jahruuk who was pleased to see they had not died and noted the sudden lack of tremors.
 * That night, the city of Sarkenholm withstood a massive party as the Roc was roasted in the center of the grand square.
 * In the morning, still stinging from their hangover, the party waited for the runner to return with Thokk's family. Liosynth spent the day with the elves, arranging for their safe passage back to Elbereth, Kandra followed as Thokk tended to the work of relighting the Great Foundry of his childhood, she practiced being intimidating, Zeevah worked with Tennebris on Displacer Beast riding, and Vendrin spent the day finding who might be Thokks biggest threats and turning them against one another.
 * That night, only one Orc returned from the Esik canyons with a harrowing tale of destruction at the hands of massive scaled beasts who roamed the canyons. He told Chieftain Thokk that they never even made it to the outcast settlement.
 * The party leapt into action, boarding the Red Lion and sailing to the western coast of Isle Thokk. They found where the Kingmaker was moored and took a rowboat ashore.
 * They entered the canyons and immediately could hear the sounds of massive roars accompanied by the sounds of battle.
 * Thokk rushed ahead and the Good Samaritans followed, eventually coming face to face with two massive Tyrannosaurus Rexes already deep in battle with Skord, Rain, and four of the Thokk brothers.
 * The party attacked and began chipping away at the massive beasts. Both Vendrin and Kandra were picked up in the beasts massive jaws, but were able to escape. Nearing the end of the battle, Vendrin used the Immovable Rod to hang in the air above the final T-Rex and send a fireball screaming down its throat.
 * With the battle finished Thokk was embraced by his brothers who introduced themselves to the party as Firebreak, Stonelifter, Metalrunner, and Sharkheaver.
 * The brothers led the party, Rain, and Skord back to the outcast settlement which lay hidden inside a massive cavern lit by lanterns hammered into the roof. Thokk was greeted by his horde of brothers who were quickly called off by his mother, Vykissa Thokk who approached him and cuffed him softly on the ear before embracing him. Thokk was home.