We start our little soiree with everyone present, Biminey, Stak, T’balktu and Visra. The group meets with the Council and founds out all the bad news, the town was attacked shortly after the group left by portals pouring through undead inside as funnel clouds descended and ripped up the protective stonework even as an army of undead swarmed over the outside walls.
The priests of the temple of Eris were able to eventually sever the controlling strings of the undead and they all dropped to the ground motionless and the citizen rose up in arms to destroy those wandering the city streets.
As the group arrived back they found Captain Werrick missing one of his legs from the knee down and discovered that he led a force against three figures that seemed to be commanding the forces as well as breaching the walls, a female in white, a mostly nude man who’s flesh morphed and wavered and a dark shadow figure.
They also learned that ‘merchant ships from the south’ had arrived and were taking on women and children to sail them to safety. Two of the three ships had already left filled to the brim with children and women and the third was still loading.
The group jumped to the conclusion that the ships were slavers picking up an easy profit and headed to the harbor.
They ran into a group of sailors and approached them. A noble looking individual confirmed that what the group suspected and delivered an ultimatum, the group delivers the airship to the island and they give the women and children back. If they don’t deliver the airship then they’re going to infect all the captives with the parasites and give them back.
The discussion rapidly went downhill. The noble turned out to be a fake, while the real noble, a fire mage of some power was dressed as a sailor. The sailors were quickly put down leaving the fire mage and the slaver lashmaster. As things took a turn for the worse for the slavers the firemage made his escape using a contingency teleport ring to teleport back to the ship leaving the lashmaster who surrendered to the group. As he made his getaway he told the group that they’d just doomed one ship full of children and if they wanted the others returned then bring the airship to him.
The gruop took a few minutes to recover, loot and discuss the thing and smoke started rising from the harbor. They rushed to the harbor and found several of the small fishing ships on fire as well as the docks and warehouse. People rushed in to quench the flames. Once it was clear the flames were under control the group got out their longboat and sailed out to the airship and set off after the fleeing slaver ship.
after an attempt to set the ship’s sails on fire failed, the firemage simply doused the flames, Stak shot a note down to the ship demanding the slavers debark in the ships boats and leave the captives onboard. The slavers failed to listen so the group started riddleing it with ballista bolts. The slavers quickly retaliated by lashing their captives to the sides of the ship. This failed to deter the group and they continued to try and sink the ship. And yes their ballista bolts hit more than one captive.
On board the ship the firemage weighed his options and found them wanting and performed a ritual that exploded the entire ship, killing everyone on board rather than see group rescue a single one.
The group turned the air ship around and headed back to its usual place with a rather somber atmosphere. They re-entered the city. Torel’s new found ability to see the lines of power protecting the city while holding the battle standard lead them to an old reading room now in use by the high priest as a bedroom as he didn’t feel comfortable taking the last high priest’s bedroom.
They found a mosaic in the floor and using the key they’ve been carrying for so long they triggered a lift, the entire floor of the room that dropped them down deep into the earth into a chamber.
There they were accosted by constructs demanding a pass phrase, when it wasn’t forthcoming they fought the constructs. Torel in his infinite avenger wisdom opened a door and added in another set of constructs. But with clever use of the Deamon Heart amulet and a failed reaction roll the new buzz saw construct fought with one of the other’s and the two ended up dealing something like 150+ points of damage to each other which was probably one of the few things that could have saved the group. In total the encounter ended up a level 15 against a level 9 party which would typically result in someone or all someone’s dying. But by setting two of them on each other they removed roughly 300 damage the group would have had to absorb and added 300 damage to the group’s output. Call it luck if you will but it saved them.
Inside the second chamber they found the Book of All Things and Biminey was able to recover an ass load of residium from the cylidners powering the protections on the room as well as enough parts to make a new construct, a mobile buzzsaw that he can deploy in combat.
As they left the temple they were met by Aricee, a strange being in the form of a plain looking woman but with the eyes of a dragon. She opened a portal leading them into her lair where they waded through piles of gold and jewels to a side chamber where they were fed a great meal.
Aricee told them that their best chance in the upcoming battle was to recover the Lance of Unmaking which is located deep in her lair guarded by a creature. She tells them she guards the lair, the guardian guards the lance and she has a device embedded in her chest that protects the lance from her.
The group is located in an instant between the past and future and will have several days grace before the time in the world ticks over and the chaosborn is freed. This gives them time to prepare, recover the lance and save the world.
She also tells them that the lance and the banner may not be enough and that it is possible to destroy the airship in a single cataclysmic event that will unmake everything in the blast radius.
We leave our group there as they prepare to descend into the tunnels after the Lance of Unmaking for their final climatic battle against the chaosborn and go down in a ball of flame or emerge victorious.
