Four Fates Under the Southern Sun, 3.5, Session 18

Start: 7 pm, Foreautumn 4, 401 GA

The party listened at the adjoining doors to the sacrifice room.

To the north, they heard the hum of a wall of force. The path appeared inaccessible, for now.

To the west, straining, they heard the shallow breathing of a humanoid.

To the east, they heard an unsteady prayer being muttered in Malphog, the language of malevolent beings of nearby spheres.

They decided to arm and armor Nathan, who once again pleaded the party to allow him to assist. His honor demanded it. Well, he seemed eager to throw himself into battle, right? Why not, they thought. They handed him the halberd they collected in Orashire, and studded leather armor. Nathan seemed extremely pleased he could take up arms against this threat, and followed the party's lead.

They decided to try the west door first. Behind it was a foul workshop of sorts. There was a woodworking bench with freshly unearthed coffins in the process of being dismantled. A glassworks was in one corner of the room, a forge in another, an enchantment bench, and a golem animation station in the others. The center of the room contained four large cages. Two of them contained flesh golems standing idle.

A cultist was at the bench. She was alarmed, and began to ran for the golems with her amulet in hand as soon as she saw them. She was intercepted and cut down by Alasdair and Winter, primarily.

Emilia plucked the topaz amulet from her neck. Ryardynin looted the entire shelf of potions. Alasdair perused the crafting table and spotted a Flesh Golem Manual. He filched it and they moved on quickly.

Emilia tried to control the golems, but to no avail. It seemed they needed an activation phrase.

Before leaving, they checked the north door. They overheard a man giving what sounded like a sermon far in the distance.

Moving on, they tried the door on the east side of the sacrificial chamber. There, they found a hobgoblin in yellow robes praying before an altar. Alasdair rushed him and cleaved his head off. A more senior cultist began to flee, but Pan flanked him and got a few choice shots in. The party ran him down and slew him.

The cultist's study had a book containing information about the creation of flesh golems and directing them. The phrase was 'activate'.

They took a string of pearls of power from the slain elder cultist. There appeared to be a library and darkwood plants growing in this room. They found an iron skeleton key, evidently intended to access a prison on the elder cultist's corpse.

Alasdair took a small amount of time to reconsecrate the altar in honor of his bloody god, Vollûr.

As of entering the dungeon, the sounds of javelin heads could be heard plinking against the parapets of the fort.

Emilia collected the golem and attempted to masquerade as the female cultist. The rest of the party went invisible thanks to Ryardynin's magics. They snuck into the depths. The cultists seemed to know something was wrong, but their ruse allowed them to make a great amount of headway and get the jump on the cultists. Two cultists were present for the melee. The elder appeared to be Yoggite, the junior had a familiar accent, suggesting he was a Viszud exile.

The combat went quite well for the party. Ryardynin instantly slew the elder with Phantasmal Killer. His worst fear was being as powerless as the prisoners he tortured.

With the cultists dead, one of the strange, malnourished harpies, who seemed to be robbed of song, surrendered. Pan peeled a piece of her ally's flesh, which she greedily ate. Ultimately, she was not spared, however.

The Orasid prisoners were liberated, and not a moment too soon. Nathan's comrades seemed very happy to see him.

Harpies slain counter: 22/100 confirmed. Unknown how many have perished outside fort Vendraal at the hands of Kryštóz Doryphoroi's myrmidons.
Cultists slain counter: 5/6
XP: 4,800
End: 7:15 pm, Foreautumn 4, 401 GA