Session XXI & XXII - The Howling Hatred Temple

Interrogating the kenku reveals little more information aside from the timbre of the alleged Howling Hatred queen along with her name: Aerisi Kalinoth.

Tied to three tapered obelisks, their sides inscribed with ancient pictograhs, barely conscious gaunt humans are on the brink of death, starved and dehydrated. Beneath their hollow ribcages, their bellies are little more than concaves spaces where the flesh stretches thin across their bones. Attempting to help these individuals is met with stout delusional protests with aspiration of proving themselves worthy to queen Aerisi who is demanding they learn to survive on air alone.

Pressing forward, the group discovers a room in two massive stone pillars thread holes in the floor and ceiling, while stone crossbeams pierce the pillars to form spokes, creating giant wheels. While the westernmost pillar is pushed in a clockwise motion by sorry-looking humans beings, two Howling Hatred priests are supervising the operation. Peering through their minds, Tico is surprised to find determination and grit in their hearts, rather than vengeance and resentment typically looming over the minds of enslaved individual. A brief discussion with the men dressed in the cult's gard quickly leads to an altercation during which, blinded by rage and violence, Kella elbows her way past her allies and slaughters the living hell out of everyone in this room. Only one Holwing Hatred priest manages to make an escape by turning himself into mist and slipping away through one ceiling hole. 

Unable to decipher the purpose of these implements, the party decides to push the cogs back into their initial positions and jam stones and pebbles into seams to disrupt any attempt at resuming whatever this was. 

Hearing screams of pain being echoed down the corridor, the party wastes no more time and head towards the action. Kicking the next door opened, a gruesome scene greets our heroes as they witness a handful of kenkus torturing tied up humans. Through their remedial discourse, the party recognize Aerisi's voice again, making snarky and demeaning remarks at the victims. Making short work of the torturers and liberating the prisoners, our adventurers lead all men and women towards the exit but one man who presents himself as Bero Gladham that refuses to leave without his wife, Nerise, who, he says, was "taken below" although he can hardly define what or where that is.

Agreeing to accompany Bero in his quest, the group strays further down the corridors of this ancient underground dwarven city. Going through multiple living quarters, dispatching cultists as they move forward, they eventually enter a plaza floored with cracked flagstone of ultramarine marble. With its back to the party, a djinni barely acknowledges their presence as he carves bricks out of a wall of fallen masonry and stone, periodically letting a perfectly carved brick float away into the darkness. 

The djinni presents himself as Ahtayir and reveals he has been at work, reparing and doing maintenance in Tyar-Besil as instructed by King Torhild Flametongue, for millenias. Even at the peak of the Besilmer occupation, the king knew he had sent Athayir on an impossible task to complete and was patiently waiting for the right moment to call upon the services of the Djinni. Somehow the implement keeping the djinni tied to this plane, a great spiraling ram horn, was lost through the ages and Athayir was left behind, hard at work, forgotten to the world. After finding the horn, Aerisi Kalinoth refused to liberate the djinni and, with no lost love for the queen of the Howling Hatred, the elemental does not mince his words when he promises rewards for the horn to be returned to him along with the queen, preferably alive. 

Dressed in cultist garbs, the party presses forward towards a stone colonnade that spans the moat surrounding a step pyramid. Their are met at the foot of the edifice by a large draconic creature with a humanoid rider. With skillful deception, the group manages to convince the rider of their legitimacy and they are granted entrance in the grand hall. 

Two rows of pillars are sculpted to resemble dwarves locked in solemn stares. Two ascending marble staircases without handrails lead to the upper floor while, in the middle of the room, several cultists in gray feathered robes levitate a few feet above the floor while chanting a hymn around a pit in the middle of the floor from which howling air rises. 

Ignoring this scene, the party climb the twenty feet stairs to a spacious, twenty foot high chamber containing a map of an ancient dwarven realm meticulously hetched into the flagstone floor. At the far end of the chamber, a high throne atop a marble dais overlooks all. From behind sky blue curtains that run the length of the chamber, emanate heady incense wafts of sweet smelling smoke. An incredibly beautiful winged elf is slouched on a high throne, her wings spread on both sides, an expertly crafted spear lazily resting on her shoulder. 

In the middle of the room, Windharrow, the half-moon elf they previously encountered, is being held at the neck by an invisible force while, gasping for air, he is profusely apologetic towards queen Aerisi. 

While Halvarth is keeping the queen busy with conversation, Elthas sneaks behind the curtains making his way towards the back of the room where, behind the throne, a great spiraling horn rests in an alcove. To his surprise, on the other side of the curtains, he finds a row of Holwing Hatred cultists holding the smoking incense bowls, completely drugged by the sheer amount of substance in the enclosed space. 

Feeling drowsy and nauseous from his exposure to the excessive amount of smoke, Elthas finally reaches the back of the room where he manages to sneak past the throne and, upon laying his hands on the horn, realises it's an illusion. Still hidden in the shadows, he notices Havra Belanbrantha, her skin blueish and eyes blank, coming out of behind the throne and addressing queen Kalinoth as her mother. 

Throughout the conversion, the queen reveals herself to be shallow, self-indulged, demeaning towards her subjects and appeared extremely confident that she would easily defeat the adventurers.

Flanked by Havra, Windharrow, an invisible stalker, an Howling Hatred priest and a dozen drugged up howling hatred cultists, Aerisi Kalinoth has had enough of this conversation and orders her retinue to dispatch of the unwelcomed guests.

As the battle starts, she blows a ram horn previously hidden in her robes, summoning Ahtayir and instruct to get rid of the heroes for her. Wasting no time, Elthas takes aim and lands a well placed arrow that swifts through the horn, break it in half. Athayir spreads is arms, closes his eyes and, with a sigh of relief, vanishes as he his finally transported back to his home plane after thousands of years of enslavement to the material plane. 

Tico launches blasts of psyonic energy, Elthas launches volleys of magical arrows while Kella sprints forward and tries to use her violent art to stun. Meanwhile, Trash lifts a lantern of revealing to circumvent the Invisible Stalker's invisibility and darts forward in the thick of the fight as Halvarth uses all the magical tool in his arsenal to trap the queen inside a wall of force on the one hand while curing Elthas of the nausea with his lute. 

The Howling Hatred retort with ice storms, cones of cold, cloudkill and lightning bolts. Along with the bulk of cultists jumping out from behind the curtain, the battle is looking like it will take a turn for the worst. Halvarth finally has had enough and transforms into a Tyranosaurus Rex, ripping through the cultists. He finally gets a hold of Aerisi, digging his gigantic teeth in her fragile legs. Kella sprints off the wall, and jumps on her back while swinging orcsplitter. 

Thinking he would carve her wings out, he realises they were also just an illusion. Wailing in pain, Aerisi Kalinoth finally vanishes in a screaming gust of wind, as her spear clangs loudly on the ground.

With the death of their queen, the Howling Hatred is in disarray. Cultists can be seen escaping on the runway, Windharrow teleports away and Havra crumbles to the ground, colors surging back to her skin, her body shaking in shock as she sobs uncontrollably. 

Upon being questionned, she says her memories become blurry shortly after their last meeting. After leaving the Feathergale Spire, she erred for some time before Aerisi brought her in and further assessed the importance of the cult's mission. She was the keeper of Windvane for some time as her mind became corrupt with the essence of Yan-C-Bin. Pressed on information about dwarves, she directs the heroes behind the throne where, lo and behold, Bruldenthar himself is chained up in the shadows. 

His skin bruised and cut, dressed in rags, the ancient dwarf looks to be in decent spirit. Seeing Windvane, he orders Halvarth to give him the weapon so his sould dosen't corrupt. With the bard reticent to obtemperate, Trash offers a compromise to store the weapon in the bag of holding for safekeeping. 

This determined look on an old dwarf that allegedly has been held prisonner and tortured for the past few tendays gives pause to Tico who starts doubting Bruldenthar's agenda. Peering through his mind, he does manage to confirm he his determined in acquiring all four corrupt weapons and destroy them. 

Satisfied, he joins the others in conversation, strategising how to tackle the remaining cults occupying Tyar-Besil.