The team: Seiken the elf kensei monk, Elyrin the
human necromancer, and Ovin Snakestaff the eldritch knight-tempest cleric.
CoMT 16: Bleaksin was left behind when the team ended up in the
Astral Plane, in a gith city, hiding in the shop of a gith tailor named Glacia;
she gave the team headbands that made them magically look like githyanki – with
Ovin’s making him look like a woman. She was actually a spy and recruited the
team to help slay an illithid. Days later, the team was meeting the lich queen
of the city and off on the adventure. The team killed a young red shadow
dragon, slime creatures, and 3 mindflayers. Then they went to fight an elder
brain…
17: The team fought the elder brain in the cave, but it
teleported out. They brought the monster heads back to the gith and the lich
queen at the cathedral. A week later, the team (still parading around as gith)
became members on a planar ship to “engage in a raid” on the prime material
plane – but really, they just wanted to escape and get back home. The raid took
them to a dwarf city in the Sword Mountains, near Waterdeep. Elyrin had an epic
airship battle while Seiken and Ovin took out the ground troops trying to kill
the dwarf king. The invading gith were defeated and the dwarf king declared the
team heroes.
18: The dwarves teleported the team back to the pillar city
for their mission. Bleaksin was gone, but the team took out 2 mindflayers. They
then used the rooftops to avoid the army of undead to get to the pyramid in the
center of the city. They locked themselves inside, where they found Netherese
murals.
19: Inside the magical ancient Netherese pyramid, the team
fought off devils and golems. A team of 4 succibi tried to trap them in rooms;
Ovin sacrificed himself to get Seiken out of a trap-room. Ovin ended up charmed
once he was alone with a succubus (and he impregnated her – but it was assumed
that she either killed him or left him to starve to death, where the team
couldn’t rescue him). Elyrin and Seiken continued in the pyramid…
Note: That means Ovin only survived 5 sessions, after Mory
who lasted 12 sessions, after Derv who lasted 2, after Fox who lasted 6
sessions. But don’t worry, my next character makes it to the end…
Backstory: Long ago the elf war cleric Keravel Ual (which
means “Holy Spellsword”), had visions about the Netherese wizards bringing
about an apocalyptic event that would destroy his home elf village. The people
there kicked him out. While on his own, he was captured by the Netherese and
put into a temporal stasis…
20: Seiken and Elyrin found Keravel and took him out of
stasis, explaining that a long time had passed and his visions had been true –
his elf village was destroyed along with most of the ancient Netherese. They
also updated him on the mission, but Keravel warned that they might need to
destroy the pillar when they found it (because it was evil ancient Netherese
magic). They battled and destroyed a bunch of devils and golems.
21: After resting, the team took out a bunch of slaads,
mummies, spectres, zombies, flame skulls, and a mummy lord. The team destroyed
the ancient Netherese mummy heart and blew up the base with all of its chaos
energy. The succubus that had taken Ovin taunted the team before they left.
22: With the ancient Netherese pyramid temple destroyed, the
undead army was no longer attracted to the area. The team destroyed the
straglers. Elyrin explained how the team was in the “reclamation business”
(with what Mory told Elyrin about being the “Criminals of Many Things”).
Keravel explained ancient history with the gem dragon that competed with Tiamat
and Bahamut for godhood amongst the dragons – since it connected to the team’s
story and the City of Many Things. Once they were back at the city, they were
treated as heroes. They found out Parker was dead and Oozy had fled. The City
Council that had formed had Bruth, Braylinn, and the leader of the Roaming Gold
Caravan (in charge of the Merchant’s Guild). The team also fought a team of
gnolls and fiends.
23: The team fought and killed more demons and gnolls.
Elyrin hired an apprentice to help with his wizard tower. Keravel recruited an
elf clerk of Corellon for his temple tower. Ten days were spent on town and
maintenance stuff. Then the team took out all of the enemies in the Marilith’s
district!
24: The team coordinated with two dragons to engage in a
huge assault and take over the central gnoll area with the central building in
the City of Many Things. The main team, along with Braylinn, took the Bell
Tower while the dragons led the others in taking over the area with the
churches. The team won the battle and the remaining gnolls retreated.
25: The city’s resources were depleted from the big fight
last time. The central tower has a lich in it. The gem dragon “demi-god” had an
underground tunnel that the team could use to get into the huge tower to try to
defeat the monsters on the inside. Seiken, Elyrin, Keravel, and Braylinn took
gifts to the gem dragon, who also gave them items to help in the coming
battles. Raylin Sunsoaker even made an appearance to get an update from Seiken
and encourage the team to finish the last push to clear out the city. The team
used the underground tunnel and infiltrated the central tower, where some
nymphs and fairies tried to seduce them (and failed).
26: Still in the tower, the team fought and destroyed a
bunch of demons. In a magical library in the tower, an aracanloth recruited the
team to deal with necromancers competing to be the main apprentice to the
master lich Wulgreth. The team had to fight brain dogs, spirits, grell, and a
lich. After the team won, they reported back to the arcanaloth, who
congratulated them.
27: Bleaksin arrived at the team’s dungeon rest spot, to
trade places on the team with Braylinn, who was needed back in the city. The
arcanaloth then took the team to Wulgreth the demi-lich and introduced them.
Wulgreth gave them the tour and explained his evil plan – he had captured
hundreds of souls in a giant phylactery and would use it to free himself from
this place; coincidentally, the gem dragon could replace Wulgreth and use it to
escape – along with the heart of the balor demon on the top level of the tower.
The team went up one level and killed some redcaps and yeth hounds, along with
a purple worm and some wood woads.
Then the team made a touch decision – they recruited two of
the necromancers and tried to use them against Wulgreth, but the plan went
sideways after Keravel killed the arcanaloth. Wulgreth killed Bleaskin and
Keravel. Elyrin used their Ring of Spell Storing revivify plan and brought
Keravel back, but Wulgreth captured the souls of Seiken and Keravel. One-on-one,
Elyrin finally destroyed Wulgreth and destroyed the gems – thus he released
Keravel and Seiken. They, in turn, freed the other trapped adventurers in
Wulgreth’s skull gems. Unforunately, there were still 5 angry necromancers
outside the room casting spells…
28: The team and the rescued adventurers defeated the 5
necromancers and then destroyed the phylactery, freeing all of the trapped
souls. The team went back to FOE Manor. Despite being brought back to life,
Bleaksin was done and left the party. The team took 2 weeks downtime. Keravel
paid the local bard to make contact with the local elves. Seiken, Elyrin, and
Keravel each donated 5,000 gp for the fort at the mines (in hopes of getting
15% of the mine’s profits). When they went back to the tower, they defeated a
bunch more demons and rescued a solar. They then spent a couple of days
re-consecrating the ground.
29: The leader of the Roaming Gold caravan asked the team to
help the people in Naeb, where he said there was unrest and people were in
danger. One of the rescued adventurers encouraged the team to go back and clear
out more of the tower demons since they couldn’t leave for Naeb until the next
day. They went in and defeated a bunch of quasits, 3 nebasu, a goristro, and a
marilith. A sibriex demon then feebleminded and transformed the NPC
adventurers. Seiken was feebleminded, Keravel and Elyrin got him to safety and
used greater restoration to save him.
30: Seiken, Elyrin, and Keravel defeated the sibriex with
the rest of his minions; Seiken was killed, but then revivified. The team
rested. The gem dragon offered rewards, to turn the team into half-dragons;
Seiken and Elyrin accepted, but Keravel negotiated to instead get the gem
dragon to help free the people of Naeb. The team made the final push up to the
king’s level of the tower and up to the roof, where the Orcus-empowered balor
demon waited with a bunch of cultists doing a ritual around a circle. The team
was able to delay the balor demon long enough for the gem dragon to gain power
and come join the fight – pushing the balor demon back to the realm of Orcus
and closing the portal.
It worked! The gem dragon also sent his chosen dragons to
Naeb and took out the evil leaders there, helping the people in their
rebellion. Seiken and Elyrin became half-dragons, but representatives from
Bahamut and Tiamat showed up saying they had made a mistake by bringing the gem
dragon to power. The team argued that they were simply on the side of
neutrality and balance, not trying to be enemies of Bahamut or Tiamat. The City
of Many Things mission had been accomplished, as the team had successfully
gained control of the city and driven out the monsters.
