Session 53: Day 20 of Planting continues

Party members who needed to re-memorize spells did so in the room with the plinth, and the rest of us moved the Band of the Black Hand bodies into the room where Tatania had previously spent a lot of time searching and finding nothing, and we went through their pockets. Ronan and Calbach had also reappeared and rejoined the group. As we prepared to leave and head back to Orlane, we were surprised to find that Yldarb had changed his mind and no longer wanted to go back. He seems to have established a psychic link with the spear, and worked out a way to use it. It was all a little confusing, with him mumbling to himself as we questioned him, but eventually we decided that would be okay. We all stood again on the plinth for a blessing from Polis, then headed east down the hallway.

Lhoss soon got quite excited because she could see doors ahead that we had not opened before. We passed two rooms that we had been in before, and the doors were still cracked open. Beyond that, we found a hallway to the north and a portcullis that was down. Looking through, we could see a dingy old curtain, yellow in color, hanging from a bar, and possibly something behind it. Six of us worked together and we were able to slowly lift the portcullis and move into the room.

As we moved toward the curtain, we recognized the yellow as yellow mold. Ronan—who had been closest to the gap in the center of the curtain—suddenly vanished! We couldn’t see him anywhere and couldn’t hear or find him anywhere in the room. We all decided to move carefully through the curtain to see if we could find Ronan. Lhoss managed to bump the yellow moldy curtain as she passed it, and a piece broke off and fell to the floor, but thankfully no one was damaged by the mold.

In the room, we found that there was a large mirror and inside it we could see two Ronans, fighting! We could tell which was the real Ronan because the other appeared to be undead, with rotting flesh. As we watched in horror, they battled and Ronan eventually vanquished his foe and reappeared before us as the mirror shattered into pieces. He fell to one knee, panting from his psychic battle with himself, and clearly hurting. Armaziti healed him and we turned to look at the rest of the room. There was nothing there except the curtains and the now-broken glass.

As Armaziti rested and rememorized spells, Chiki set Chick-Chick outside the curtain and then seemed to be making strange moves toward Yldarb. It was as if he was trying to behave like a thief, and failing miserably. I shook my head at him.

We moved back out of the room and beyond the portcullis, to the east. Lhoss spotted a door and was excited to open it. I also got excited because the door had a lock on it and I wanted to see if any of my keys opened it! As I inserted the first key, a needle appeared, pricking my finger and poisoning me! I immediately slumped and everything got very confusing.

It seemed as if Armaziti took off my boots and rubbed a bud of garlic on my feet before casting slow poison. That was certainly odd behavior, and the smell of garlic was strong. Then Lhoss wrapped me up and carried me over her shoulder like a bag of potatoes as everyone ran out of the barrowmaze and up through the marsh and the Dim Forest. It seemed warmer than our previous march toward the barrowmaze, but maybe that was just the poison in my veins. I dozed most of the time because otherwise everything was swirling. Later, the group told me the following story of their adventures while I was poisoned.

A couple of hours out of the Dim Forest, I started twitching and appeared more sick. Armaziti stopped the group and rememorized the slow poison spell, casting it again, then rememorized two slow poison spells. In the meantime, everyone ate dinner before continuing the hurried march back to Orlane. About an hour out of the Dim Forest, I appeared even more sick. Armaziti cast another slow poison spell on me, and again when we were about 3 hours away from Orlane. It was the middle of the night when we got to the town and the group headed to the Temple of Merikka and started pounding on the gates. A guard approached and hurried to get Priestess Misha, who came running to the gate, grabbed me, and ran into the temple.

The party then abandoned me to my fate (certain that the priestess would cure me, of course) and went to the slumbering Serpent. They were surprised to find it was full, but were allowed to sleep in the common room. Everyone slept deeply from the march and did not awake until 11am. After breakfast, they returned to the temple and found me sleeping on a cot, snoring loudly. That part I know was a lie because my sisters all snore but I most certainly do not! Priestess Misha said that I nearly died, but she was able to heal the poison and would only charge 200 gold pieces for her services, and I would sleep for another four hours.

The group then headed to the jeweler’s and he offered 1305 gold for the Gold pendant with a large pearl and the Golden chalice with multicolor gems. Ramne was also summoned and he agreed to cast a spell on the skull that I had been carrying on a small leather bag on my belt. The group paid 100gp for him to evaluate it and learned that it can be used 12 times and when the magic word is said, it will cast a beam of light and potentially paralyze whatever creature it is pointed at, and it can only be used by magic users. The shopkeeper offered 4500gp for it and only Armaziti wanted to keep it, so the party voted to accept the offer.

Flush with money, party members with outstanding loans to each other quickly passed on the owed coins. When I finally recovered, I also repaid my party loan, as well as the 200gp for the cure poison potion used to save me. Overcome with regret for my impetuousness, I tried to give away the keys to prevent future mishaps, but the party insisted I keep them.