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Session 31 into session 32 –(recap)
Welcome back everyone! – Here’s what happened in our previous session.
We rejoined the party as they were in the middle of speaking to Drognan about Tal’Rasha’s tomb.
He of course gave them all the information he could, and also informed them that the Prince had sent word, and that he wished for them to have an audience with him at their earliest convenience, regarding some trouble stirring within the palace grounds.
From that point, the Emberguard headed in two directions, Ophi and Rhyker headed to the palace, to speak with Lord Jerhyn, whilst Cinder and Kaelin, had their own plans in mind, and so headed to the dockyard storage area instead, where they found a nice spot to light a bonfire, safely and securely, so they could begin their lengthy process of cooking the demon meat they had.
Once the fire was strong enough, Cinder produced a cooking pot, they gathered some water from their rations, threw in the meat, some vegetables they had acquired, and left the stew to cook away.
Satisfied with their cooking, and happy to leave it, they rejoined their comrades over by the palace steps.
In the mean time, the Prince had greeted and spoken with Ophi and Rhyker, about the troubles inside of the palace, informing them that somehow, deep within the lower floors, Demons had broken into the palace and slaughtered the honored guests within Harem halls.
Rhyker and Ophi of course agreed to help the Prince with the matter, and waited for the others to join them, before heading into the palace.
The Emberguard descended to the floors below ground, and witnessed the horrific scenes of mutilated bodies, with blood and gore splashed all over the floor, the walls, and the ceiling.
Moving as quickly as possible, trying desperately to not pay too much mind to all the body parts of demon and man, the party passed by the Harem, and finally reached the stairs which led down to the palace cellar.
Upon arrival, Kaelin decided to steal a handful of herbs from the royal storage boxes and gave them to Cinder, and she believed that they had got away with it.
Little did they both know, she did not get away with it, neither did Cinder.
Some time ago, Prince Jerhyn was having issues with some of his staff stealing from his private collection of silks and wine, and asked Drognan to place warding spells upon the storage room itself, which would keep surveillance on the items found there.
Using these magical incantations, the Mage was able to catch the culprits red handed, and as punishment the Prince banished the workers to the furthest reaches of the northern desert.
Kaelin and Cinder would be dealt with in due time, but for now there were bigger threats at hand that needed to be dealt with first.
There were a small group of palace guards down there, that had been keeping the passageway between the storage room and the prison area, clear, they had barricaded the passage with furniture and empty boxes and barrels, and were holding the area well.
Welcoming the party on sight, they relished any help they could get keeping the demon incursion at bay.
Rhyker spoke briefly with the captain, and he informed him of the large, never seen before, demons, with multiple arms, pale skin, and very tall and thin bodies, that just seemed to appear from nowhere.
With that information, the party passed through the barricade, moving parts of it out the way as to allow them an easier route, and Rhyker ordered the captain to close the solid gate behind them, and so he did just that.
The prison itself was merely a few holding cells with beds in them, nothing too extreme, after all it was a palace first and foremost, so passing through the area was fast and easy, however, Rhyker as he traveled, spotted off to one side, a cell with a slain blood covered body on the bed, and the wall had clearly been broken through, and later on had fully caved in on itself.
Undeterred, the Emberguard pressed on, and soon reached the room at the furthest part of the hallway which led to the rear of the prison area… Upon looking at it, it was clear that this was a torture chamber.
A table with sharp objects for rending and slicing flesh, could be seen just as they entered the room near to the entrance. Thick iron chains with shackles on the end of them hung from the walls around the room.
Torture racks, stocks, and wooden wheel tables were dotted around the room, with various tools used for torture, placed nearby them.
The floor was covered in still drying blood stains, making the floor slippery and hindering the movement of the party with each step.
In the centre of the room itself were many slain guardsmen, laid out in a circle shape, and in the middle of that circle space, was an abyssal doorway.
Looking into the portal was impossible, and as Rhyker tried to take one step through it, he was repelled backwards and the portal began to glow with a bright green hue.
However, the very moment the portal activated, fiends stepped from the four shadowy corners of the room, and forced the party into defending themselves.
The creatures that appeared were very tall, and thin, with hairless pale skin except for a ponytail on the back of their head.
Sat atop their shoulders was a boney faced head, with very elongated jaws.
The creatures had two legs, and four arms, of which each one held a blade.
Wasting no time at all, they launched their attacks on the Emberguard.
The party reacted well to the ambush, the party tried to close ranks, but it was difficult with such limited amounts of space to move in.
The attacks from the fiends came quickly, and there were many in number, with each of the fiends able to direct their attacks onto multiple targets at once.
That said, in the end, the party were able to adapt well, and overcame their assailants, and wasted no time in searching their bodies, and the rest of the room for potential loot.
Once done, they all gathered around the portal in the middle of the room, and watched as Rhyker bravely stepped forward into the green portal before him… alone.
The journey he took was wild… and confusing, with endless spiraling through darkness, only to be spat out the other side, on what seemed to be a platform that floated in a place neither within time nor reality, and defied all logic or reason of the universe… Yet there he stood, taking in the sights.
Nothing about where he was seemed to make any sense to him, no matter how hard he tried to understand it all… This was after all, the Arcane Sanctuary.
The rest of the party soon joined Rhyker, and stood in confusion and amazement, as they glared out at what looked to be empty space, some form of cosmic location, which they had never even imagined could exist.
Suddenly, four portals came to being, one of each side of this platform, three were red, the other dormant like the green portal before was.
On top of this, Cinder noticed that there was a crude version of a Way-point, just off to one corner of the platform, which he was happy to activate immediately.
Activation of the way-point took merely a few moments of concentration before sparking into life.
Shortly afterwards, the party escaped the Arcane Sanctuary, back to Lut Gholein.
Back inside the city, Cinder and Kaelin headed over to the dockyard, to tend the fire pit and see how far the cooking process had come since they had been gone.
At that point, Cinder tossed a handful of stolen spices into the stew also, securing the theft.
Rhyker visited Cain, and handed over a magical sword he had found within the cellar, the demons so kindly dropped for him, and then headed to the tavern to join Ophi.
Eventually, all four of our brave adventurers met up inside Atma’s tavern, for a nice long rest.
The following day has now arrived, and this is how the party have spent their mornings.
Rhyker – He went out early to try and find a good spot to mine for some gems around the outskirts of the city limits, and to his surprise, he found quite a few, and returned with his findings quickly to the city main.
Ophi – Has now become a full fledged Herbalist, and can even craft her own potions, should she take the time to invent them.
Kaelin – She has spent most of her time sleeping, and relaxing, which is fair enough.
Cinder – He still finds that the power to control fire eludes him, despite his will and drive, and so continues on with his training.
It is here where we rejoin the party for this session of…. Adventure in Sanctuary.
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