session XXXIII - XXXIV: Ironfang

After these troubling visions, the party heads towards the Sacred Stone Monastery where they know they can get down into Tyar-Besil, presumably in the Black Earth cult's hideout.

They quickly investigate Renwick's former chambers. Aside from a few magical trinkets, find nothing particularly revealing about his current location and plans. 

They head down the sets of stairs, passing Qarbo's body, a Black Earth priest who had decided to take his own life rather than face our heroes' interrogation. 

As usual, Elthas scouts a good twenty feet ahead of the troop, carefully moving through the shadows to avoid being detected. Unfortunately, as soon as he steps into the Black Earth temple, an alarm spell goes off. He finds himself face to face with what first appeared to be a ten-foot statue of a stern dwarf warrior which is now activating both arms at the end of which spiked balls can be found instead of hands. 

The construct looms menacingly over the high elf for a moment, almost as though it is expecting something but the party takes no chance and goes on the offensive. 

As our heroes start dismantling the stone warrior, a retinue of Black Earth guard accompanied by priests quickly burst through the room. Trash moves forward and draws into his newlyfound magical abilities to stun most of them with a rainbow.

As Tico, Kella, Elthas and Halvarth finish off the construct, Trash moves forward and notices and entire army of Bulettes with riders, Ogres and a Dao waiting in ambush. The half-orc uses the bottleneck to buy some time for his allies to execute the stunned enemies but the elemental with a few tricks up her sleeve manages to open passages into Tyar-Besil's structure and allow enemies to flood the room. 

Halvarth uses a wall of force to further slow down the progress. While bulettes are pushing through, jumping onto Kella trying to rip her to shreds, Ogres, cultists and a rust monster make their way into the room but are quickly dispatched by Elthas and Tico who banishes the Dao back into her own plane. 

After what seems like an eternity, silence finally falls back on the ruins, only disturbed by whimpering of a Svirfneblin, confined by a pair of manacles tied to a post in the room to the south, now exposed by the Dao's magic. 

The latter clumsily try to hide in fear of Tico, as the sorcerer enters the room in aberrant form, hovering a few feet above ground. The deep gnome pushes a sigh of relief when the adventurers free him of his restraints and provide answers candidly. 

His name is Rukh, he's an adventuer in search of great treasures and was drawn to the Dessarin Valley by rumors that the fabled ruins of Tyar-Besil had been re-opened. He managed to sneak in behind cultists who had opened one of the stone slabs and even found a set of stairs leading to a lower level but was captured shortly after. The cult had intented to offer him in sacrifice to the black pudding and he would likely have been digested by now if it hadn't been for the heroes timely intervention. He says having witnessed drow presence in the lower level but has very little information as to what exactly is transpiring and, granted what just happened to him, would much rather be leaving this place and not look back.

He does point the heroes in the direction of what they understand is Marlos' quarters. Kicking the front door opened, Kella is the first into a cavern with formations of flowstone, stalagmites and stalactites everywhere. She notices numerous lifelike statues that have been arranged among the rock formations and a stone building anchored in the back of the room. The statues depict creatures in poses suggesting shock, fear or agony, many of which are dressed with Black Earth cultists' garments.

With True seeing, it takes a second for Elthas to realise those are living beings having been turned to stone by Marlos. 

Exploring the stone building, the party find a secret door leading to a narrow passage hugging a hundred-foot deep chasm. Moving forward, he hears distant conversation before noticing a few cultists in what appears to be resting quarters. 

Trash moves forward and attempts to negotiate their surrender but, as usual, peace was never an option. Once again a fight erupts. Swarms of cultists burst into the room surrounding Kella. Trash, on the other side of the room, witnesses the returned Dao as she uses earth magic once again to open up passages for Ogres and Black Earth priests. Tico and Elthas stay behind taking pot shots from a distance while Halvarth, feeling courageous, steps into the room.

Eventually both Marlos and the Dao step into the room. The Dao audibly expressing her disagreement with this type of tasks, the party plea with her to stand back. She hesitates a few seconds, giving Marlos a dirty eye but eventually decides to side with him and moves in on Halvarth. She obliterates his magical mount with great swings of her maul before Tico manages to step forward and banish her once again. 

Marlos, with utter disregard for his own safety, bull rushes the back line. One of Elthas' arrow eventually finds its mark. The prophet gives him a quick smirk before collapsing into a pubble of mud on the ground. The war pick artefact, Ironfang, clangs loudly as it hits the ground besides his remains.

An earth genasi having just entered the room accompanied by another stone warrior calls for peace and invites everyone to parlay. Wasting not a second, Tico jumps on the occasion to subtly cast Dominate Monster. For one minute, the adventurers have complete control over this creature and decide to use this time for questioning. Being in a rush, they waste precious seconds asking broad questions which the genasi does not know how to answer. They finally manage to make him reveal that, in the Fane of the Eye is a drow mistress by the name of Bezsrima DeVir who is guarding an artefact in the form of a smiths hammer. He is also privy to the fact that the elemental princes are attempting to make their way to the material plane so they can summon their progenitor. 

Before another question could be asked, the genasi snaps out of the mind controlling spell and, infuriated, leaves the room.