Floating up from the gravity well in the leg, Pash finally catches up with us. Having been lost in The Mournland for days looking to find us.
After a quick briefing, we take the rubble-removed gravity well up even further.
We find a skeleton in the center of the room. Pash and Treeavenger hear a clinking sound coming from the body. Specifically, the helmet.
They remove it, noticing the sound certainly comes from the helmet and not the skeleton.
Treeavenger puts on the helmet. He was granted a vision of the final moments of the colossi:
As if through the eyes of a soaring bird, you see a titanic stone statue standing amid a circle of glowing sigils. A dozen robed figures, as small as ants, stand around the circle and murmur arcane words, their heads bowed in concentration. Impossibly, the stone colossus begins to levitate.
As silvery light swirls around the colossus, the ground quakes, breaking the mages’ focus. The colossus is buried in crumbling stone, surrounded by shifting mountains and sickly gray clouds. Years pass in rapid succession while the colossus stands like a stone sentinel, stuck inside the craggy mountainside.
Pash notices the ghastly crew on the right side and calls for Treeavenger to come over and talk to them while he has the helmet on.
It means nothing, just draws their attention from the window and onto us…
We manage to take out on of them quickly enough, but some strange spirit orb things appear from the other side of the room.
We take out the orbs easily enough, leaving just a single skeleton hidden in the corner.
Which we finish off easily enough.
Despite the fact that the gravity well won’t take us higher, we climb up the shaft to the next level.
We interact with the table in the center of the room and a guardian comes alive from it.
It slows us down a bit, but doesn’t stop us from taking it out.
Treeavenger heads straight out the right side to play with the ballista.
He fires off into the distance, striking nothing.
From the trees in the distance however, we see a truly massive bird.
We head into what seems to be an arm. A lever that opens a hatch to a gravity well below. Doesn’t seem to be the way we are heading.
We head back the other way and find a benign looking locked chest. Treeavenger calls for me to unlock the chest, which I try to do… But it was a Mimic all along!
We quickly take it out. Though it does spook me a bit.
Pash flies out and see the bird landing in a distant tree.
We head back to the shaft to try and climb further up. Pash attempts to fly up but a jet of water forces him back down.
He flies back up and is immediately attacked. We aren’t sure by who, but he is quickly knocked down to the very bottom of the shaft.
I jump into the shaft and teleport into the room. It was the Warforged Strike Squad that has been harassing us since we got here.
We took out one on the way up and I further wound the one in front of me. Taking care to get out of the way of the shaft.
Treeavenger climbs up and Pash floats up shortly after. While they are wounded, they are still very durable.
Treeavenger manages to finish off the lackey in the back and their main guy as well.
Bardon crawls up as Treeavenger strikes the final blow.
The other side of this chamber just leads to a gapping hole. The Rod of Seven Parts piece does not seem to be here, but even further up.
The shaft continues upward.
Treeavenger climbs up and just… leaves us behind…
After a minute, Pash floats up, with my rope in tow. Assisting in getting Bardon and I to the top.
Apparently he was speaking to an elemental of sorts, Landro, the colossi itself?
He warns us that taking rod will initiate a shutdown sequence and has its own defense systems that will trigger.
He wishes to join us and apparently the gem I found at the foot of the colossi is able to house him.
We allow him to join us, and he enters the gem: Elemental Gem (Emerald)
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We take a moment to prepare ourselves, and Treeavenger takes the Rod of Seven Parts (Third Piece) from the Graymatter Engine
Upon taking the Rod Piece, we hear an announcement:
1 Minute Until Self-destruct
Additionally, door in the room open up and several constructs appear.
I quickly teleport myself partway down the shaft and fall to the bottom.
Treeavenger uses the second part of the Rod to create an Arcane Gate at the bottom of the shaft.
Everyone else passes through the gate safely. Treeavenger closes the gate after the last member passes through.
However, the constructs fall after us.
I dash out of there.
Eventually, we all manage to get out of the ruin.
Treeavenger wanted to head back to Ialos to check on Mercy and the warforged we saved, Filch.
Upon our return, we find the area worse for wear. Attacked by the humans from before. We find a single warforged dying on the ground.
Bardon heals him and he tells us that Mercy alone escaped at the behest of his comrades.
We decide to head on back to the portal, Third Piece in hand…
Recite
Break Time
We make it back through the portal, to be greeted by Alustriel.
Treeavenger takes Landro’s Gem out into the town for a night of fun while the rest of us take a rest.
A woman rushes towards me, screaming in pain. Crying out about his. Choking. She falls at my and fades away.
The figure of Vecna appears in front of me. Insisting that I would want this power. Nah.
A shadowy figure appears as we’d previously experienced before. I strike it down. And it turns back into the screaming woman from earlier.
Vecna reappears as the body fades away. Their lives saved if I spoke up? My silence? My response to Vecna is the same…
I try more doors. Ignoring an old man, looking for someone I know. Only empty and rundown buildings.
I find a house that has a ghastly figure of Bardon. Poison coming from its body. I try to strike it, but feel like I shouldn’t continue to do so.
Vecna appears again… A Throne of Shadows for what I keep secret? Silence.
I go back to the room with the old man, it just becomes a shadow like the others.
I go down to where I heard some noise earlier, and find Treeavenger. He mentions a creature in the room to the south of us. I open the door on the North of us. Nothing.
Treeavenger heads North despite telling him I found nothing up there.
I head South instead. More empty rooms.
I find Treeavenger again. He is very fast. He found Bardon up north. Apparently he was having an episode. Whoops. Shouldn’t have shanked him, but it must have helped.
I see a child standing by some double doors in the distance.
Vecna appears again and calls Treeavenger an idiot. I call him one back. He asks me to ally with him. I ignore him.
I open the door and find a sickly looking Pash. I shut the door.
Bardon heads down from the North.
We continue unlocking doors and getting ready, while we wait for Pash to deal with himself.
Pash comes out and immediately tries to disintegrate the child. It just calls him naughty, that we aren’t ready. And disintegrates.
We go to the door. Finding 27 tally marks on the wall. Likely one for each who died here.
We open the door and find a being looking like me, but not me. Speaking with the voices of everyone in the village: “You hesitated, but I did not.”
He summons some shadow creatures outside the room to “even the odds.” I continue to strike at him, but he downs me with a wave of weariness. He heals himself using the energy from my soul.
Bardon brings me back up and I go back onto the attack.
Pash finishes off the shadow creatures with a fireball cast at his feet.
We keep attacking, he strikes a blade into my chest, but we manage to finish him off.
The recoil of his death does not take me out.
He drops a blade…
Vecna reappears and offers the power one last time before leaving again… Passing through Pash, seemingly replacing him.
Recite
END SESSION