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18:30, 28th March 2024 (GMT+0)

Episode 1 Wrap-up.

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Thu 17 Sep 2020
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Episode 1 Wrap-up

The escape from an ancient temple beneath the city of Pheze was a close call and a pyrrhic victory of sorts. The investigation into the torture and eventual death of A'ikud spanned the Western District, the Sunset Docks, and a lost temple beneath the docks themselves.

Clues lead the party into the shady red lamp district within the den of inequity that is the Sunset Docks. First into the Pirate's Chalice, a drug den where a great deal of business is discussed among ship captains and merchants. Here the party learned of the Elladani legend about the beautiful, but insecure Maihi and her eventual fall, giving clues to the identity of A'ikud's killer.

From there they were guided to Diyosa's Brothel, a disciple of Beuren's old mentor; Orcor ava Chugem san Dyaku. Afraid of confronting his past, Beuren remained outside of the brothel as his companions entered. A drug fueled orgy was the backdrop for a discussion with Diyosa and Orcor.

Orcor appeared far too interested in Sitra than seemed appropriate, while Diyosa unknowingly gave a few more clues to the true nature of Maihi's cult. Orcor was very upfront about his teachings as well as an academic interest in what the party discovers concerning the rituals that caused A'ikud's disfigurement. In the end, the party left with more experience in the Sunset Docks and an offer of assistance whenever they should need it from Orcor.

Speaks made the mistake of drinking a goodly portion of the drugged wine at Diyosa's and felt its influence in her dreams that night, receiving visions from her ancestors that left her with the feeling of a hidden darkness when she awoke late the next morning.

Continued investigation leads the party to Hyati, the mother of the deceased girl. Beuren once again stumbles over his words, traumatizing the mother into in-coherency. Asking around the party learns that A'ikud was often seen harvesting shellfish in the tidal pools below the collapsing seaward side of the Western District. Waiting for low tide, the party descends into the area and begin searching for more clues.

It is here they discover an entrance into an old, buried section of Pheze and their destiny with Maihi's cult. Deranged cultists and twisted homonculi greet them in the ruins of a buried temple, the assault nearly kills Speaks, but the party is able to make short work of their opponents.

Further in, the party meets with a one-handed gnoll, who offers no resistance at they insult, threaten and question him. They learn he was hired as a guard to stop intruders, but he had grown tired of his position and felt the party offered the right opportunity to take his leave. Batri showed an interest in One-Hands 'art' of bladed weapons with severed right hands mounted on the wall in his room. The gnoll offered up little information and a great deal of indifference to the fate of his soon to be former employers.

While never aggressive, One-Hand's air of menace was very obvious when the party refused to offer any guarantee's that they would not murder him while he was bound, or even free him once they were "done" with their work here. While Sitra and Beuren were ignorant of the subtleties, Batri and Speaks had the training and experience to recognize someone who very well had the skills of an exceptional warrior. Whether through overconfidence or the need to maintain their sense of control over the situation, they never let on that they knew the danger the gnoll represented.

After binding One-Hand, the party continued on, passing through a pair of double doors bound in abyssal steel, and finding the temple of the cultists on the other side of crevasse filled with stagnant saltwater and a massive fungal forest. They cautiously made their way across a rope bridge to discover the bodies of several cultists, all missing their right hands. The bodies were covered in fungus, far too much to have grown in the short time the cultists had been dead.


The temple itself was painted with prayers written in Aklo, praising the 'Most Beautiful' and a carving of a woman's face with only a single eye in the center of her forehead. Ignoring the fungus, the party advanced on the door of the temple, the sounds of chanting and screams of torture giving them urgency.


Speaks leads the charge into the temple, opening the door to a scene of macabre murder. A circle of cultists chant over the bodies of a pair of victims, one already dead and the other badly wounded. Among the cultists were more twisted homonculi made of mortal body parts.

Beuren leaped into action unleashing a thunder clap within the room, causing a great commotion, stirring up the ritual smoke which obscured everything in the room. The shockwave of the spell sent Maihi and one of her cultists tumbling and slew the ritual victim that was still alive up until then.

The battle is fierce and Batri almost had Maihi, but bad luck intervened and her magic sent Batri from the temple with a new mission as she made her escape. Once again, Speaks takes the lions share of damage as she shatters bones and caves in heads in her fight. Sitra's psychic powers prove their worth as he and Beuren, trident in hand, finish off their own opponents.

During the fight the fungus outside begins to spread at an alarming rate, reacting to some trigger that will only be discovered later and much too late.

Batri, for his part, attempts to return to the party as Maihi's spell releases him. He finds the fungus had spread to cover the entirety of temple and the was making its way across the rope bridge. Below, in the fungal forest, unseen creatures were moving around with great urgency as a fungal tower was growing up towards the fungus on the temple side of the crevasse.

Making a quick decision, Batri heads back to the bound gnoll and questions him further, seemingly changing the terms of their arrangement and refusing to free One-Hand. Having lost his scimitar in the temple, Batri takes one from the wall in One-Hands room, a far better fit than the battleaxe he borrowed from Speaks.


Batri brings One-Hand with him to the rope bridge where they discuss how to move forward. The decision to cut the rope bridge and leave is interrupted however.

Inside the temple, the battle ends and Speaks attempts to burn the fungus as it continues its implacable advance. Realizing the torch isn't going to work, the three in the temple each grab a living prisoner from the temples cells and dash up the stairs and through the door that Maihi escaped through, half expecting to find her beyond.

Instead they find a room filled with potted vegetables, herbs and plants used for alchemical mixtures. The room is list by stones in the ceiling that had been enchanted to radiate sunlight. Another room contained Maihi's bedroom, a dark wood desk covered in scrolls, and a magic circle beneath Maihi's bed. A side corridor containing a pile of discarded clothing and belongings of the cults past victims draws Beurens attention with the glint of coins.

Dropping their prisoners, Sitra and Speaks look for a way out of the upper temple. Beuren searches the pile of clothing for coins, instead.


Batri shouts for them to hurry and let them know that there is no other way out as the temple three realize that the sunlight stones are all that is keeping the fungus from overwhelming them. Speaks and Sitra hurriedly gather the scrolls, search for a way to remove the sunlight stones, and failing to find a way decide to grab their prisoners and make a run for it. Beuren prepares to join them with his arms full of the victims belongings. A glare from Speaks causes him to drop the random pile of detritus to pick up his prisoner.

Taking a deep breath they open the door to find the entire temple filled with giant mushrooms and bioluminescent mold. Running at full speed to escape the temple they encounter the corpses of the slain victims and cultists, now animated by the fungus and making their escape more difficult, but escape they do.

Batri stops the battleaxe from severing the rope bridge as the temple three burst out from the temple, coughing from the spores they inhaled in the temple and struggling beneath the additional weight of the rescued prisoners. They draw up short as the full threat from the fungal tower presents itself in front of them.

A massive creature made from fungus and mold, towering over the edge of the crevasse, its many glowing eyes focus on the temple three. Sitra immediately recognizes this as an exarch of the Green Moon that orbits Laria. Known as the goddess Dhara to his people, the Ramkurgi, and by many other names to other cultures.

It is now that Speaks ancestral spirits give her insight that perhaps the rituals performed by Maihi's cultists were what was holding the fungus at bay. Speaks suggests they repeat the ritual, but everyone soon realizes they have no idea how to perform it. With that the temple three about face and run back into the temple, avoiding the fungal zombies and sealing themselves back in the upper temple.

Batri cuts the rope bridge and frees One-Hand threatening the gnoll with a certain death if the goliath ever sees him or his 'art' again. One-Hand gives him a sly grin before rushing from the underground ruins.

For his part, Batri takes a more purposeful exit, making sure to do everything he can to bar the way of any creatures trying to leave the ruins. As he does so, he searches the bodies of the previous cultists and the gnolls room for anything he can use, casually noting that one of the weapons (and the hand that was holding it) from the gnolls art installation have gone missing. He exits the caverns and searches for the source of the sunlight that the temple three had mentioned, failing to find it, he makes his way back to the Last Mistake.


Back in the temple, Beuren dumps his pack on the ground, trying to find something useful to escape the mess they are in. Speaks rights one of the tables in the grow room (having previously systematically broken every pot and uprooted every plant) and climbs on top of it to try and find a way to get the sunlight rocks out of the ceiling. Meanwhile Sitra pulls out the scrolls and begins to study them with more purpose.

Beuren fidgits with the magical compass he stole from Orcor when he ran away from the cult, but finds nothing other than the compass being apparently broken as it is pointing southeast, rather then north. He then decides to look over the plants and discovers that a few of the plants really have no other purpose than to be used in alchemical mixtures.

About the same time, Sitra realizes that at least one of the scrolls provides a recipe for a substance known as 'Green Bane', a hideous mixture of blood and various plants that acts as a barrier to fungal growth.

Speaks has since started looking over the debris of victims belongings, looking for something reflective they may be able to use. As she does, she asks if the arcane circle will help.


Sitra continues to study the alchemical recipe some more, realizing that it requires a rather large amount of blood and seems to be more useful as a defensive measure for protecting a physical location rather than several mobile individuals.

Then something clicks in Beuren's mind as he realizes that maybe the compass was pointing to the magic circle. Sure enough, he picks up the compass, following its needle and it leads exactly to the circle.

Sitra rushes over and begins studying the circle, comparing what he finds to the scrolls. He decides that the circle is a teleportation circle and that it operates by a command word.

Meanwhile, the fungal zombies are making every effort to get past the cursed sunlight to reach their victims inside. The exarch begins pounding the temple with its appendages, hoping to break through.

Rushed, Sitra figures out what he believes to be the command phrase and, possibly more clues to the cult and its purposes. Making the leap that the cult itself may very well be a farce, or at least a front to cover something else up. But there isn't time to ponder, a quick discussion ensues ending with Sitra and Speaks grabbing their prisoners and climbing into the teleportation circle while Beuren collects his belongings and joins them.

The words are spoken and as the teleportation circle activates the temple three watch as the temple collapses upon the remaining prisoner. The temple three find themselves back in Pheze, in an alley they suspected would be where A'ikud had crawled out of.

Speaks glares at Beurens greed-filled pockets before they all shuffle back to the Last Mistake to hopefully meet up with Batri.
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At the Last Mistake, the party is greeted by Asreelm as conquering heroes, while Bellach helps take the rescued prisoners that survived to a place where they could be looked after. Batri is sitting comfortably at the party's usual table, several tankards sitting in front of him, all empty.

"Took you long enough." he says with a smile.
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