Chasing a Blaze in the Northern Sky Session 32 Summary

With the party having reassembled in Saliagos, an extended party of familiar faces composed of Halthor, Matthias, Randon, Eptun, Turni, Bodhi, Morrigu, Stefanos, and Joe set off back to the Palace of Arekasadra with a single goal in mind; go as deep in this palace as possible, because it's rare to have this many members of the Combative Companions together. Trekking up that mountain once more, the party enter the palace and immediately set out to the hidden passageway they were shown by the dog faced men. They did not find much in the immediate area aside from some mosaics, but the fact that there was a secret passage that had to be physically pushed to be discovered did inspire the party with a revolutionary idea. Maybe, just maybe, there's more than one secret passage in the complex. And they do manage to find an additional room by doing so.

As they begin examining the room a voice calls out to the party, and they see an absolutely massive woman approach, nearly a head taller than even the tallest companion, clad in bronze armor with a pair of daggers on her belt. Their encounter is tense at first, and the party is fairly certain this can turn into a fight if they are not careful with their wording. Thankfully, they had an unintentional ace up their sleeve, being Morrigu. This mysterious lady liked the prospect of the CeeCees having a female fighter among them, and with that Morrigu was able to defuse the situation as she told the woman that the party was there to learn of the locations history and culture, as opposed to looting it for everything that its worth. She believed her, and with that, the woman let the party continue.

The group soon discovers a stairwell leading to a lower floor and a lever that seems to be associated with a closed passageway. The CeeCees can rarely count on the party being as large as it is currently, so they made the decision to explore the second floor, but first, they wanted to try and see what the closed off passageway led to by pulling the lever. Said passage led to a room deep in a hallway with a treasure chest, and though a group of giants did emerge to try and stop their progress, they quickly departed upon seeing they were outnumbered. The party opens the chest, and find 300 silver.

With a nice bit of treasure to justify the journey, they continue into the second floor in search of anything they could quickly grab before leaving. They find a door with no knob on their side, with a group of women harassing them about how they shall not pass into their domain, so they make a mental note of that door for the future and decide to go to another nearby room instead. There they find a corpse with a sword and fine armor, but looming above it is a shadowy cloud that the party cannot quite determine the nature of. Sure that it is a threat Morrigu promptly shoots it from a distance causing the cloud to split and slowly shift into a pair of shadowy warriors. The party try to stab and shoot at the warriors only for many of their weapons to seem to go through them, hinting at some greater level of intangibility. The only thing that seemed to have harmed them was the strike of Randon's sword, and it was from there that the party determined that it must be magical weaponry that can harm these entities. Thankfully, the party has two swords and a salamander dagger, so despite the limitations they were still able to fight and managed to prevail with no loss of life. The room was cleared, Halthor pocketed the sword, Bodhi took the armor, there was even plenty of silver coins to split for later. And with that the CeeCees left, satisfied in the fact that for the first time in their long series of ridiculous mishaps, they actually set out with a goal in mind, that went without a hitch. In fact, their adventure went so well, they should try to go even deeper next week. What could possibly go wrong?

Session 32 Downtime Events

Following their first journey into the Palace of Arekasadra, Stefanos, Matthias, Halthor, and Joe traveled to Saliagos. As winter fast approached the skies cleared and the days grew shorter. Halthor, Matthias, and Joe all sought out to obtain more information about the Palace of Arekasadra. 

Upon their return to Saliagos, Halthor and Randon searched through the village for Loona their ox. They were unsuccessful in their search. 

Their pockets heavy with silver, Stefanos and Morrigu caroused within Saliagos. Each drank deep from cups of wine and traded stories of mirth and merriment. Unfortunately, as he kept drinking across four nights, Stefanos became sick. 

Joe Agreeable sought to find friends amid Saliagos. Though he tried to gesture and pantomime, his muteness prevented him from speaking to many. A pair of fishermen took pity upon him and gifted him with a Polished Mirror the back of which bore the image of Adrasta. They told him it would keep him safe. He was unable to find any retainers to join him within the Palace of Arekasara.

Matthias, Bodhi, and Turni sought to gather rumors about the Palace of Arekasadra speaking with the other tomb-raiders and the villagers of Saliagos.

The sun rises over Saliagos on day 10 of winter month 1. Snow falls from the sky. 

Rumors gained during downtime:

1) A party of tomb-raiders returned with one the burnt corpse of one their number, Harkon, who was slain by a trap.

2) Hallways on the 2nd floor of the Palace of Arekasadra are trapped, plunging those who would seek treasure to watery demise.

3) Hidden by the trees within the Palace of Arekasadra is a portal which leads to the cold-blooded city of Tromerosavra.

4) Demons, stolen from the land of ivory and spice, guard passage past the Pyriphlegethon River.