(Going to summarize because I've missed several sessions on this and if I don't do this it'll be harder to do detailed narrative journals as I move on)
After the battle with the gibbering mouthers, the Second Rounds moved around the town looking into things. At the edge of the town crematorium Esoh traded a schematic for a radiant bonfire creator in exchange for reputation and help as well as some bullets for Snype.
Elara had a discussion with one of the local priests at the infirmary, a nice lady, but a little bit on the thirsty side.
Esoh and Imvenda also had an encounter with a tiefling by the name of Prolix Yusaf who wanted there help with a puzzle box that ultimately only had a couple of scrolls in it, but itself was a good extradimensional storage item. He talked about a woman he'd been sent to investigate, an elf working for a group calling itself the Consortium of the Vermillion Dream while he himself works for the Allegiance of Allsight. He is certain that she is up to no good. In an earlier conversation, the commander, Verin Thelyss talked about a woman trying to bribe his soldiers to take her into the Betrayer's Rise.
Meanwhile, Snype encounters Corenn, a drow woman from the Ashari with green dragon scales, a sorcerer of draconic heritage. She tells the kobold that she herself is a member of a group calling itself the Prodigals of the Scaled Tyrant and she's looking into rumors that the Chroma Conclave had been poking around in the area some decades ago and she is here to see if there are remnants of that group.The woman has troubles about her growing draconic powers, but is also wanting the do what she can to make sure the leftovers of that group are kept history.
Elara talks to Foghome, the firbolg druid at the abandoned temple to the Changebringer. He looks at the Jewel of Three Prayers and helps out with some thoughts and also helping provoke a vision. Later on, the party tells Corenn about the firbolg and she's shocked that there's been a priest of the Wildmother here this whole time and she never knew.
Snype, Esoh, and Imvenda take part in marksmanship contests at the barracks. Using their magic and rifle in place of a bow. Unfortunately for the orc challenging them, he seems beset with one bad circumstance after another.
Around the same time, they overhear and young scout dealing with depression over recent injuries and while a healer tries to encourage her about the potential arrival of prosthetics to replace her legs. The party initially doesn't pry but Elara does step forward in her role as a cleric and counselor to talk to the young woman and takes a badge to place at a memorial wall... in case the woman is killed soon.
The party also speaks to Question, a tiefling of the Cobalt Soul and she talks about a bad experience she had in the Betrayer's Rise. There were voices calling for her to join them, and she couldn't handle it, opting to return to town. Her companions went on ahead and she hopes they're all right... surely they will be. Stalwart martial artists and warriors all.
The party also checks in with their rivals, who were involved in fighting the incursion of gibbering mouthers and demons. The other group is a bit chilled by what they've experienced, but still determined to make their mark on the world.
Not long after, they're approached by Alyosia Telfan who wants to hire them to take her into the Betrayer's Rise. They're suspicious of her and immediately track that she is not exactly honest about her desires. She spins a yarn about an ancient hero using Ruidus's power, but her information seems off and not quite right. And it's hard to tell whether it is deception or she has faulty information. Most likely a mix of the two. Regardless, they're not particularly warm to her request and give her a polite non-answer. At which point she immediately turns sour.
Heading up to the gate later in the week, the Second Rounds are trying to convince the guards that they have permission when the gates to the fortress burst open, releasing three gloomstalkers into the air. While the guards go in to help some injured knights, the Second Rounds battle the gloomstalkers. The fight starts with Esoh and Imvenda being paralyzed by the shriek of one of the beasts. But between Snype's rifle and Elara's guardian spirits, they're able to hold back the creatures, until the others shake it off. The tide turning, the stalkers try to flee and find themselves pulled out of the sky by several means.
The guards thank them for their aid and the group takes some time to recover from their wounds before pushing inward. They find themselves crossing over a chasm with whispering voices calling out to them to jump down and they'd catch the party. Not listening to it, the party pushes forward and notices as flesh, eyeballs, and teeth start to pour out of the walls and form up into more gibbering mouthers. Snype experiences some bad memories after one of Esoh's spells gives her acid breath.
Defeating those, they push on to a room where there initially appear to be a single way out, but it had collapsed long ago. They investigate and Esoh detects magic in the walls with a vase that calls for the sacrifice of something valuable and a wall marked with the insignia of Tiamat, modified to represent the Chroma Conclave. Snype, with the remnants of the dragon breath spell on her breathes on the wall, causing the black head to glow slightly. Followed up by Esoh lighting up each of the other heads by cycling her cantrips with her knowledge as a scribe.
Within they found a twisted laboratory with numerous corpses. Dragonborn, dragon-blooded, sorcerers, and other people bearing signs of draconic influence. All of them dead and experimented upon. Beyond is a chamber of terrible blades on a twisting floor. They are able to work out how to shut it off and in doing so is open a sealed door beyond which are three flaming draconic skulls that immediately set upon them as well as revealing a stairwell up from which screaming rises up.
One fireball is countered, but another is released that brings some worry. Elara wards some off as Snype takes shots through the narrow door and Esoh uses her telekinesis to immobilize the last one so they can finish it off.
The study reveals a machine in which a sample of blighted draconic flesh has been infected with some strange, reddish material that is a mix of the organic and metallic. The material also seems to be creeping into the frame work of the the container holding it. The notes they find indicate this is a laboratory belonging to Raishan the Destroyer and that this experiment has been proven a failure and that she plans to leave this behind.
The party decide to destroy it the vase they found earlier, which causes the wall behind it to open and revealing another passage to a basillica in praise of the Betrayer Gods where four flames in humanoid form danced about. Stepping forward they danced with these entities, and, after some missteps and burns, each of them flew out to pieces of a great stained glass, lighting it up and opening the way forward to a deep pit.
A third path led to a room bedecked in sticky silk which they set on fire, killing the abominations within and hearing an unearthly singing, they use it to find a secret door with... instructions on how to get past the basillica.
(And with that, I'm caught up.)
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