Session XII - The Vale of Dancing Waters

Looking a Qarbo's bleeding body resting against the wide stone slab, our heroes are once again faced with a dead end in the search for the venerable dwarf Bruldenthar. They decide to postpone any decisions until morning after enjoying a well deserved rest. 

After plundering the kitchen to feed all of their newly found retinue, our heroes pack their bags and head towards the exit. With one foot out of the door, Elthas has the sudden urge to bring Figham in front of the stone slab in the hopes of having him translate the carvings. 

The latter is unfortunately not quite fluent in ancient dwarven runes. Although while examining the door closer, he runs his fingers through the grooves carved in the rock and, to his great surprise, the entire pattern lights up in a blueish arcane light. Even though the slab still will not budge, Figham takes Klaes and Tico's interpretation of one of the rune as ''blood'', and refines it to either ''bloodline'' or ''lineage''. 

Wanting to press this further, Halvarth goes and fetches Renwick. The lich slowly makes his way to the bottom of the stairs and, after a quick demonstration from Figham, explains that this ancient magic, from ages long forgotten, often requires multiple intricate components to activate. In this case, Figham Windstone is surely one of them. 

Renwick also reveals to the party that Ogrémoch is none other than the Prince of Elemental Earth. To the best of his knowledge there are astral understandings at play preventing such powerful entities from invading the material plane and, as such, he would be surprised if the portal, as convenient as it may be, would be a product of the Black Earth cult attempting to bring the Prince forth. He does admit, however, having little interests in the academic studies of divine affairs and so his knowledge is lacking in that regard. 

The party finally heads out, leading the cortège of freed slaves northward, towards the Vale of Dancing Waters. Along the way, they find themselves walking at the bottom of a thirty feet wide chasm bordered by forty feet high cliffs. Seemingly waiting for them, a humanoid creature clad in fine black robes inlaid with golden embroideries, its entire head set aflame, flanked by two monstrous looking hounds, is blocking the way.

The creature announces itself as Tristan, simply. Looking at them with a wry smile, he presents the party with an ultimatum: either turn around and crawl back into whatever hole you came from, or be consumed by the eternal flame. Leaving little to no room for further questioning, Tristan's patience is rapidly exhausted as he lobes a ball of fire which violently explodes engulfing the party in burning flames, simultaneously releasing the hell hounds, wreaking havoc amongst their ranks by breathing large swaths of fire. 

Tico counters Tristan's further attempt at magic while Halvarth pummels him in the shape of a gigantic ape. Badly burned and aching, Elthas eventually manages to land a finishing shot with its signature reality-piercing arrow on the fire mage while Klaes cleaves through the hellish dogs with divine smites. 

As the tides seem to be turning in the heroes' favor, two giant vulture emerges from the top of the cliff accompanied by two harpies. As the vultures swoop downwards trying to pick off the commoners, the heroes recognize Savra Belabranta, her youthful naive and admirative disposition having been replaced with a hard and sour visage. While the harpies sing a treacherously beautiful song which enthralls all who can hear it, Tico saves a commoner's life by making him as light as a feather as he plummets to the ground, having been dropped by one of the giant feathered monster.

Savra, realizing she is fighting a lost battle, makes a run for it. Halvarth, still in the form of a giant ape, grabs a hold of Tico before he scales the sheer cliff, granting his ally the line of sight he needed to cast entangling magic as vines sprout from the dry ground and entwine the vulture's wings. Losing no time, Savra jumps off of her mount and vanishes, out of thin air.

With necromantic arcane energy, Halvarth connects to Tristan's soul leaving its inert body. The latter reveals he has been working with the Howling Hatred organization, a lesser cult, in the service of an entity called Imix who, much like Ogrémoch, seems hungry for souls.  

The party continues their arduous journey until, with the help of Figham, they find a disuse path that was clearly meant for short stubby dwarven legs. Following this path towards the Dessarin river eventually reveals a long sinuous path descending towards a great stone arch that's been carved from the mountain side which encompasses a sturdy wooden door. 

With the sun setting on the horizon, Elthas silently scouts down the path and easily notices a steel tripwire which he points out to the rest of the party before moving forward. As he slowly and very carefully reaches the door, he hears behind him Tico and Klaes loudly yelping, having triggered the tripwire, trying to avoid boulders and stone gravels rushing down the path.

The door quickly opens to an angry looking dwarf demanding explanations. The party is surprised to hear denial in answer to their plea for help, on the account of them standing on sacred grounds dedicated to Sharindlar, a dwarven goddess. As the conversation unfolds, Tico standing in the back is busy probing minds, attempting to decipher the true meaning of what is unfolding in front of him. With horror, he realizes that these creatures are no more dwarves than he his a bard and seem intent on killing Figham to impersonate him and fool the rest of the party. 

Another fight erupts during which, as they fall slain on the ground, the so called dwarves morph into their true grayish burly doppleganger form.