Evanna Spectre – blogpost 5

Before we take a long rest, Ilimitar needs some spells for his ring of Spell Storing. I give him a Guiding Bolt for later since I have enough magic left in me before we go to sleep. After I give him the spell, Yrod and Elenyr share magic items with the party. I am humbled that they both think of me to give their items to. Eventually, Elenyr gets the Staff of Healing from Yrod, and I get a Sunblade from Elenyr. We go to sleep, but before I do, I attune with the Sunblade. The command to activate the blade is ‘chamber’. That’ll be fun and inconvenient when scouting a house or mansion…

The next morning, we descend to the dungeon below the castle and find the teleportation circle. I had no idea it was there. Elenyr speaks the magic word ‘Draezir’, and together with Shishaldix, he disappears. In pairs, we do the same, followed by Morsab. He prefers to stay alone, I think…

I stand before a big mansion with a big forest around it. I appear between rocks and try to hide after Ilimitar hisses at me to do so. We stay behind while Morsab and Shishaldix scout the area. When they get back, we discuss for half an hour how to approach the lodge. Ilimitar has enough of the discussion and just enters the house through the front door. I’m scared of more enemies, but I cannot stay behind while the whole party plans to follow Ilimitar. The door stands ajar… We all enter the house.

We enter a library-looking room with a weird tapestry depicting three hounds dragging down a white boar. Morsab pokes a hole in it and sees a forest behind it. All the others look behind the tapestry too. I don’t have the urge to go and look, daddy told me about weird realms behind tapestries, and that, when you enter one, you’ll never get out.

Ilimitar comes to the same conclusion: he thinks it is a one-way portal. He investigates the room some more and touches a big harness in the corner with his Mage Hand. When the hand touches the object, it looks like an illusion fades: the harness starts to move. It is a Helmed Horror, and next to me, some sort of trap is activated: weird black tentacles pop out of the ground – grabbing at the ankles of my friends. I’m in a pickle, I’m between the Helmed Horror and the tentacles, and the Horror will hit me hard as I try to get away. Instead, I cast my Twilight Sanctuary to heal the party, and cast Spiritual Weapon on the Horror. However, it doesn’t do much damage, and it hits me really hard. The attacks that follow all miss the harness and I cry for help!

Suddenly, four Ilimitars come to my rescue! Perhaps, the harness hit me a bit too hard…? Do I have a concussion…? One of them grabs me and teleports me to another spot in the room, a big thunderclap sounds that can be heard through the whole house. Yrod eventually kills the Helmed Horror.

We need to get out of this house immediately. The thunderclap was too hard not to be heard by enemies in this house. We flee, but Ilimitar stays behind for too long. While exiting the house, we can already hear people in the hallway. Someone opens the door and greets us: he wants to know what we’re doing inside his house. He is a member of the Cult of Dragons. He doesn’t seem to like Razmir because he seemed less friendly when we told him we’re with Razmir. “Razmir is gone to Parnast. Be gone!”

After some more talking, Yrod convinces him to open the door: maybe we can do something for him. We tell him we’re only hired by Razmir, and we don’t belong to his group. He falls for it and asks if we can do something for him: we need to intercept Razmirs’ caravan of loot before it comes to Skyridge Castle. It passes through Parnast, to arrive at Skyridge Castle – which is inhabited and secured by a Cloud Giant.

He provides us with a pass-phrase:

Tiamat: our mother and strength!

We thank him for the information, accept his quest, and head for Parnast. Before we leave, we hail Tiamat.