At the behest of Kame, the human sized monk-like turtle, they head back to the Wend Empire, the place they had previously escaped from, using a flying fishing boat stolen from a fishing village. The Emperor's monks had been kidnapping anyone from surrounding villages that showed any aptitude towards magical abilities, usually elemental in nature. The Emperor and his chosen people were able to manipulate fire.
The Nalin Village
The arrive back at the fishing village of Nalin. They dock the massive airship along the cliff docks high above the waters. No other fishing boats are there. They disembark and explore the village. They find no one except the old drunkard Nogan, who has long since passed. They find him, mouth open towards his still above him. Araxie, spares him a moment and pours a bit of whiskey down the dead man's throat.
Vall uses his time to try and figure out one of the crab-like walker units that are around the docks. The villagers used them to load and unload the ships. The symbols accompanying the multitude of levers and buttons are indecipherable. After pushing and pulling various levers and buttons he is able to maneuver the vehicle, with the aid of Araxie, who had some experience with these things before. They are eventually able to get it aboard Captain Araxie's ship with some damage to the railings and scorch marks across the deck.
Vall decides he is going to experiment with this device.
Kame is keen to leave and seek out the emperor.
They board the ship and fly over the mountains and into the valley towards the emperor's palace.
In the distance they see several villages but all are deserted.
They also recognize, in the distance, the mountains where they had dropped off the rescued earth monks.
Down in the valley, scattered are individual people, miles apart. They stand there looking and them watching the ship pass by overhead. They are emaciated and their clothes are weather beaten as if they have been standing there a long time. They pass several of these sentries.
Practicing With The Doomsday Device
Eventually, Araxie halts the ship a few miles away from the palace. Through a spyglass they see several people lining the tops of the walls, unmoving.
The group takes a lot of time to devise and discard several plans.
Eventually they want to test their doomsday device. The myna-rig coupled a noise maker. Val uses the chamber pot of holding to cover his head while he holds the myna-rig and sets it off.
The crew and adventurers aboard the ship are blasted with waves of concussive force from the massive sound the myna-rig gives off. Cracks appear in the ship as well as the crystal holding the air elemental.
Deshani begins to mend the ship and discovers Droop trying to tape over the cracks in the crystal.
Meanwhile many of the crew and PCs are heavily damaged. Except for Absinthe who has safely retired to her mansion, using Mordenkainen's Magnificent Mansion.
They Really Want The Book
2,000 XP
Soon there is a group of individuals who approach walking from all directions around the ship. They converge in a perfect circle beneath the ship and speak in perfect unison calling upon the ship's crew to hand over the book.
"You do not understand the power of the book. You do not understand what it is you are interfering with"
Val and Deshani move around the ship throwing down spells and destruction upon the mind controlled humans standing below. By the time Deshani destroys her first target, Val has destroyed the other 7. Val tries his best not to be smug....but fails.
Araxie, not wanting to endanger the ship, tells the group to disembark and gives instructions to the crew to take care of the ship. To not let anyone board her. The group descends the ladder and sets off towards the palace.
Return To The Palace
Approaching the palace there are numerous monks which line the top of the outer wall of the palace. They stand and speak in one voice, "Bring us the book". The group debates whether to return to the ship and then lay siege to the palace but the fire monks speak again and give assurances that no harm will be done to them if they bring the book.
The palace gates are open and inside the vast courtyard are hundreds of individuals. They all stand and look at the small group outside the walls. Several of the group move forming a corridor down the middle of the courtyard leading to the main palace building.
The group decides to enter. As they move along the corridor made by the empire's people, the path behind them is quickly blocked by bodies moving back into position. They are being ushered along to the palace's main building. Once inside they find a large circular room which is empty save for several bed cushions and bedding moved aside to reveal a large door in the floor. It lays open showing the stairs descending down into a rocky tunnel.
Volcanic Prisoner Chamber
12,700 XP
At the bottom they enter a small room with a large corridor in front of them.
A large lava pool covers most of the corridor for several feet.
Val uses flying to get across the lava.
Droop conjures an eagle to fly him across.
Absinthe conjures bones of the earth to build a ramp/terrace for the others to cross.
On the other side they enter a massive cavern with large lava pools.
They see several fire monks near a monk performing a ritual. Some of the monks hold a beaten and weak villager as the main monk pulls from them, using some sort of ritual, the villager's magical power and stores it in a massive crystal. The crystal, fiery red, floats above the lava. It is tens of feet high and pulses with power. There are several more villagers all awaiting the same fate.
As these monks see the group enter the cavern the main monk, Duzang Lok, again demands the book. He alone is able to speak with a singular voice. All the others within the palace up to this point have all responded with a single voice from the entire mass of people.
It's as if they are all being mind controlled or something.
The group attempts to distract and delay the monks as Absinthe attempts to perform the ritual to summon the portal to her mansion here in the lava caverns. The monks will not be held off though. They attack. Duzang Lok uses the crystal to shoot out lightning energy to attack the group.
As they run across the lava, the monks each pull out a bead the size of a grape. They toss it towards the goblin, Droop. They explode on impact and Droop is trapped in a force bubble which is floating above the lava.
Absinthe is able to complete the ritual and she immediately enters the portal to her mansion. She orders tea and a chair to watch the entertainment going on back in the cavern.
The others are attacked by monks who use magic to pull apart the rocks in the cavern above Dehsanie, Araxie and Vall. A river of lava pours out of the opening that is made and the three of them are hit. Vall is able to escape most of the river but Deshanie is hit hard and she collapses unconscious. The monks press their advantage and some of them throw the concussive orbs towards Araxie. She is hurt and now trapped inside an unbreakable orb. She is able to roll, like a large hamster ball, so she moves towards the portal.
Absinthe, sitting in her chair and sipping tea waves at Araxie.
Kame rushes toward Deshanie, grabs her and puts her over his shoulder. He and Vall rush towards the safety of the portal.
Droop meanwhile has tried to maneuver his orb away from the lava while the monks move towards his orb and stand at the ready. The orb containing Droop disappears and he battles with the two monks, dealing with them easily. The orb then containing Araxie disappears and she jumps into the portal. There inside the mansion she sees everyone else and sees Kame and Vall tending to the injured Deshanie. Dropp follows soon after.
Kame gives a speech trying to rouse the group into leaving the safety of the mansion. To stop hiding and attack the evil. The bring back balance to this land. To stop the slaughter and stealing of magic. He charges out of the portal and runs towards the monk Duzang Lok.
No one follows.
Kame rushes towards Duzang Lok. Duzang Lok uses the crystal to summon a meteor swarm. Kame dodges and rolls and continues his rush towards the evil monk.
That's when Absinthe and Vall pull out the doomsday device.
Vall places the myna-rig outside the portal while Absinthe animates some coins and a whistle and sends them towards the monk. Once they get close to the monk the coins drop and the whistle begins to blow. The myna-rig picks up the noise and amplifies it and repeats it. It reverberates off of the cave walls. In the safety of the mansion the portal wavers with the force of the sound waves but all is quiet. They see all the people in the cavern slammed down and crushed under the force of the waves.
When the cavern finally quiets, the group leaves the sanctuary of the mansion. They walk about the cavern seeing the destruction they wrought. They see the crushed shell of Kame, their friend. They rush towards him and quickly grab for the sword which was in his shell, the source of his life.
They eventually find a prisoner who beyond belief has survived the doomsday device. She grabs onto Vall. She is frail and her clothes are tattered and torn. She cries into his shoulder and says thank you over and over.Her "thank you"s slowly change as her voice becomes slower, deeper and more ominous. She pulls from Vall's chamber-pot of holding the book. She holds the book close to her chest as she transforms into a winged Erinyes. A devil now holds the book. She laughs an evil laugh. and begins to walk away.
Absinthe casts Otto's Irresistible Dance on the devil. To the devil's great surprise she cannot help herself tapping her toes, then shaking her hips until she is full on dancing to a tune that Absinthe is playing. While she's dancing, Droop conjures several pixies an they all begin to cast polymorph upon the devil. Soon enough, she is a frog. Drop lunges and begins to repeatedly stab the frog until it is mush.
The New Mind Control Naga
7,200 XP
They leave the chamber and find themselves back in the palace looking down into the courtyard with it's hundreds of people all looking at them with one mind. They stand in the moonlight and they speak to the group. "Come join the One. We are free now. Join the One."
The group sees that the mind controlled population was being manipulated and used by the devils. With the devils gone they are free to be as they were, a hive mind population. But where is the queen. The mind control worm that they had seen back in the fishing village.
As the group tries to make its way through the people in the courtyard, there is a massive rumbling from within the ground. Some of the mind controlled people ahead move aside forming a large empty circle. Earth clumps and rock begin spewing up and out of the ground as the massive mind control naga emerges and rushes towards the group.
The group retreats back into the palace pursued by the worm. The worm begins to breath a cloud of gas upon the group and Araxie halts in her tracks. Droop turns to see as Araxie speaks with the same voice as the others, "Join the One."
Droop sends his remaining pixies still with polymorph spells and soon the giant worm in a frog which they easily dispatch.
DM Note: I hate this polymorph spell just as much as I hate Otto's Irresistible Dance
Droop conjures a giant eagle to fly him back towards the ship while Vall jumps down off of the wall and runs towards the ship. Soon Vall boards the ship where he sees Droop ordering the sailors to prepare the cannons and fire upon the palace. Vall yells for them to stop. They all do....except for one who accidentally fires the cannon, which almost kills Araxie.
The others still on the ground begin the process of clearing, killing, the mind controlled people who, without the mind control naga, stand motionless and mindless.
Now that the group feels free to relax, Absinthe looks at the book which has caused them so much trouble. She is tempted to read the book. There must be a reason it is so sought after. What is it for? What can it do? They cannot defend against or plan for what they know nothing about.
She wears Droops ring of spare the dying and grips her talisman of ultimate evil which will immediately tell her and the others if she turns evil anytime while reading the book.
She opens the book.
The others watch as she turns page after page faster and faster with a look which intensifies upon her face. Soon she screams as the talisman burns into her and she collapses dead, save for the ring which prevents her from ultimate death. She remains in this limbo of dying and not dying constantly. Vall tries to save her with the sword they had pulled from Kame but it is of no use.
Once aboard the ship Araxie yells for whoever was responsible for firing upon her. The overwhelming response is Droop the goblin, who has now hidden somewhere on the ship. Araxie orders a massive search immediately. Soon enough Droop is found and Araxie is furious. Droop though is a crazy goblin and defends himself with force. It then escalates into full on battle between the goblin and the barbarian. It ends with Droop falling to his death and impaled with the barbarian's javelin.
Does she remember what she read?
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