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Session 28 into session 29 –(recap)
Welcome back everyone! – Here’s what happened in our previous session.
We started off the last session with the party just waking up inside of the tavern, after finishing a much needed rest.
Waking up later on in the day though, they spoke with Atma whilst she was working at the bar, and she informed them that there was a parcel and a note left for them all by Scarlett, which she entrusted to Atma in a hurry, before leaving the city, alone.
Ophi took the box immediately, and read the note aloud to everyone in her group.
The letter was a farewell note, which told of a demonic incursion in her homeland, of which she had to go and help to save her sisters from their peril.
Scarlett also left a few of her favourite items behind in the box, for the party to use as they saw fit.
After an emotional goodbye and a toast to a dear comrade, the party were finally ready to move on.
They each headed to the local way-point, and teleported to the Lost City.
Upon arrival though, they would need to decide which direction to follow, and with some discussion, they eventually did.
Opting to avoid the Viper Temple for now, and with curiosity on their minds, they decided to take the main exit from the city, and travel to the place they nicknamed “Death Valley” instead.
… Perhaps they would find clues there to the kidnapped Merchants Daughter, it was a good place to start.
When arriving at the Valley, some of the more astute party members, caught a glimpse of something shining off to one side of the road, it was mostly buried in the sand at the base of a palm tree, but still, enough of it was visible as it reflected the light that they brought with them all.
Upon closer inspection, Rhyker and Cinder realised they had stumbled on the remains of a body, looking around there were clear signs of battle going on here, dismembered limbs, and blood stained the sand around them… Cinder pulled back a little, whilst Rhyker moved forward, and recognized some armour that was attached to a mangled corpse poking from out of the sand, which was that of Dracmun.
Rhyker could not see any of Dracmun’s other belongings on him, however, the ring mail shirt he did have on him, now almost entirely broken mind you, due to heavy blows sustained, combined with time spent in the rough weather conditions – Rhyker was all too happy to retrieve, and would get repaired next time he was in the City.
So, Rhyker reclaimed the armour for his own, and in doing so whispered a few last rites, to send the trapped soul from the body, to its final resting place.
After the scene was over, the party looked around, and noticed there were footprints left in the taller sand dunes.
There was some form of weak illusion magic, being used to conceal the prints, but it failed to do so, and so the party were able to follow the footprints, one set after another, until they were led to a dilapidated building, in-set in a giant cliff side.
At first the party tried to knock on the door, like civilized humans, but no answer came after several tries.
Eventually, Cinder took it upon himself to kick the door in, and they broke into the building instead.
However, as the door was flung wide open, a horrible odor rushes forward from inside and unsettled Rhyker… Forcing him to remember things from his past that he had forgotten.
From that moment on, he was caught in a depression spiral, and his mind and vision were skewed.
Entering the house, the candle-lit room they walked into first looked just like an average house, small in size, but still livable, it had usual shoddy wooden furniture like table and chairs, a kitchen-like area off to one side, a seating area with fireplace off to the other, in one corner a makeshift wooden bed, and a much darker hallway leading off towards the far side of the room… At first glance, it seemed to be a hermit house, but this was only the beginning of their investigation.
The party entered the hallway to the rear of the building, the long passage was dimly lit with black candles.
It’s walls were covered in blood and demonic symbols, markings and etchings carved using a knife edge, that lined the walls in an almost pattern-like way.
The floor tiles were covered in blood and other viscera, full human bodies were hung on the walls using large meat hooks, like some demented and twisted 3D picture frame.
…. This was NO hermit house – This was a cultists den!
The building at the front was merely a face to use, to mask the true sinister intent within the large cavern that was at the rear of it.
The party pushed forwards, and into the larger area at the rear of the cavern, and to their horror saw once caged prisoners, now only skeletal as remains, yet more blood and flesh strewn across the width and length of the area.
A dark altar was placed at the far side of the cavern, with scripts and texts laying upon it, written in a language unknown to all of the party.
The walls in some places along the side of the cavern had crudely drawn pictures, of what could only be described as demonic entities.
Small unholy objects and trinkets lined the stained altar top, and a large blood pentagram was drawn on the wall behind the altar… The unmistakable sign of Diablo Cultists.
Even with the stench of desecrated bodies in the air, somehow the party hold back any form of vomiting, and scoured the area quickly, only to find a pile of dead bodies in one corner of the room, and upon closer look, Ophi noticed small movements from a young girl.
She was hiding under the bodies, keeping out of sight as best she can, she was alive – but in shock.
Unknown to the party at the time, the girl was actually Grace – The merchants daughter.
It took several attempts to convince her, but eventually Grace did agree to leave with them, and escape back to the city… Where her loving father eagerly awaited her return.
Before exiting the den fully however, Rhyker with mixed feelings between his duty and hatred, decided that he would put an end to the den of corruption, and burn the place to the ground… So he lit a fire before exiting after everyone else.
Once back outside the exterior building section, Kaelin used a town portal scroll.
She headed through it, and Cinder and Ophi followed with Grace between them…. But, as Ophi stepped through, she noticed movement around her from the bushes and sand dunes, but it was too late as the portal pulled her the rest of the way in.
With the building now beginning to burn, Rhyker eventually emerged from it, to see the town portal glowing, but he is greeted by a large group of angry cultists that emmerge from the shadows.
The fire at this point wasn’t as big as Rhyker had hoped, and fearing that if he left, they would simply extinguish it, undoing his attempts to rid the land of this evil… Rhyker chose to remain.
Now, alone… filled with rage, carrying his axe and shield, and driven by divine retribution…. Rhyker chose to face the cultists, all by himself.
He watched as one of the Cultists raised their hand, and the portal to Lut Gholein faded from view.
Ophi – was back inside the city, she delivered Grace to her father, and claimed the reward of rare magical rings and gold coins, then without hesitation, she grabbed Kaelin and they both headed for the portal, only to see it destabilize and vanish… The only option left was the way-point, and it was going to be a long trek back by foot, to join up with the now cut off Rhyker.
The battle was inevitable, and Rhyker did manage to hold his ground very well, cutting a righteous path through the dark cultists, one by one… This was a battle of Good vs Evil, and Good was winning… Though not without any difficulty.
Meanwhile, Ophi and Kaelin were already back out of the Lost City, and on the road back to the Valley.
Skipping ahead now, to just as the last of the cultists were nearly slain by Rhyker… Kaelin and Ophi arrived back on the scene, very relieved to see him alive… and just in time to watch the inferno that was spreading through the cavern, engulfing more of the frontal building.
Smoke and flames billowed from the small cracks in the walls, and broke through the spaces where windows were meant to be, the whole building started to break open under the intense pressure and heat from within.
The battle was all but over, as one of the cultists fled deeper into the wider desert, taking a risk in the sands, rather than dying to a blade or arrow.
Another of them, revealed to be their leader, fled the field of battle too after realizing he could not sway Rhyker, no matter how hard he tried to get him to join his side.
With the battle over… Rhyker let out a scream of anguish as he fell to his knees, and started to weep softly to himself.
The flames grew larger, bursting through the doorway the party once used to exit that vile den.
Feeling accomplished in his duty, Rhyker found his way to his feet, and between all three of them, they searched the bodies of the cultists, to find very little indeed… A great victory was won that day.
This my friends, is where we start today’s session of… Adventure in Sanctuary.
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