Back to Pathfinder.
The
dragon dismembered, we continued on our way. The passage was slightly too small
for the giant Evander so Alexei stone-shaped
a larger route for him. This backfired when the passage opened into a chamber at
the bottom of a slope. As Evander started to slide down, we spotted a large
beastie – a floating body of tentacles surrounding a large mouth with rows and
rows of sharp teeth. The tentacles, we soon discovered, could be pressed into
the ground around us to grab us even when we were a distance away. It was not a
nice beastie, surviving a vial of Ezekiel’s alchemist’s fire being dropped down
its throat by Aaron and many other, smaller attacks from the rest of us. We
defeated it eventually, though, and clambered back up the slope to carry on our
way.
Entering
a large cavern, the paladin made a bee-line for a winch he’d spotted at the
centre by a deep pit, wanting to know what it raised. It was hard work – even for
him – and I soon got bored watching him work and started to explore. There was
a hidden door – locked, so I set about picking it… I’d missed a potent trap, a
flame burst that knocked me to the floor, close to death. Fortunately, Aaron
spotted me and got Alexei over. Neither of them could see the door and seemed a
bit confused when I insisted on continuing to work through it. The flame that
nearly singed me convinced them I wasn’t mad, at least.
As I finally got the door open,
Paul (Kieran’s player) left to join a birthday meal. We decided the winch may
have been cursed and left him raising and lowering the small platform whilst we
continued.
The
door swung open to reveal a room decorated with maps, with a large heart-shaped
purple crystal (nahyndrian, we assumed) on a desk and a minotaur sitting there.
She wasn’t best pleased to see us, realising our purpose immediately. Throwing
up a blade barrier, she ran through the door at the rear of the room. We
chased, using various means to bypass the barrier (hurray for Shadowstep!). The next room had
tieflings within, who slowed us down. This continued – with blade barriers and
smaller demons to slow us – until I realised we’d come full circle: by turning
left, we would be back in the cavern. I could see Kieran still raising and
lowering the winch, but patrolling now were several demons.
It
felt as though my heart paused before resuming at a hundred times its usual
rhythm: they were the same species as the one that killed me just a few months
ago. I threw myself back, pressed as close against the wall as I could whilst I
tried to calm myself enough to message
warn the others. I crept to the right, finding a storeroom. I could see it led
round, giving another entrance to the main cavern. Controlling my breathing, I
suggested Aaron and I use this to creep round and ambush them from behind
whilst Alexei, Evander and Ivan keep them busy. It was a delaying tactic, but
fortunately unnecessary: I’d underestimated how powerful Alexei and his brother
can be, as the room filled with lightning that left no demon standing.
There
was no sign of Baphomet’s minotaur daughter.
There
was only one way left to go. The first door we found led to a torture chamber,
with a male demon attended by three succubi making use of one of the tables for
pleasure. Aaron threw in another vial of Ezekiel’s fire before closing the door
tightly behind… But the power of the blast could still have killed us if it
wasn’t for Alexei’s contingency spells throwing up a protective wall around us.
It’s very powerful stuff. At least the torture chamber was destroyed.
Next
room had several tall posts with humanoid slaves chained to them. Flying above
were 6 demons. They weren’t very strong and once they’d been defeated we set
about freeing the poor slaves. We gently shepherded them back to the main
cavern. I set up my tent from the Rod of Splendour and we ushered them inside.
The unseen servants were tasked to make sure everyone ate slowly and left
Yanielle to watch over them (with a degree of uncertainty but little choice)
before continuing to hunt down Baphomet’s daughter.
Heading
back down the corridor revealed nothing beyond a few bedchambers and some
minotaurs; just not the one we were looking for. We walked back to the main
chamber to find (as I’d dreaded) the pavilion torn up and the freed slaves
dead. Yanielle was barely alive, but still breathing. We stabilised her but
there wasn’t time to mourn the slaves: their fragile bodies had taken too much
punishment and all I could hope was that they were with their gods.
Kieran
came to from the trance he was in at this point (Paul got back from his meal) and I went back to the door I’d opened
when we first arrived: it was locked but rather than spend time picking it
again, I jammed it so she wouldn’t be able to escape that way. I was starting
to feel sick and the deaths of the slaves had stung – I knew it was a risk but
had hoped to save them.
We
went around the other way – another blade barrier barred our way, and she’d lit
the route so I couldn’t Shadowstep my
way past but Ivan got us past and we went after her. The battle was brutal and
bloody. As it neared the end, her body started to crack and fracture, a fiery
red light spilling out. She screamed out as the air behind her twisted and
pulled her through. Baphomet spoke, angry at the loss of his daughter but
saying whilst we’d been distracted he’d managed to take the Herald of Iomedae.
Unaware of who this was, my mind turned to Queen Galfrey and my stomach lurched
again.
Baphomet
was pissed off and ready to wink us out of existence – until the visage of
Nocticula reminded him this was her realm. He backed off, but we didn’t need
her to tell us we’d made a powerful and dangerous enemy.
Nocticula
thanked us and left a shimmering image behind for us to step through when we
were ready to return to the Fain from whence we’d journeyed to the Abyss. We
realised Evander had vanished somewhere along the way – Alexei advised he’d be
back soon and vanished, Ivan vanishing with him.
Aaron,
Kieran and I stood for a moment, then started taking down and securing the maps
from the walls. Aaron tried to take the nahyndrian heart, but it was difficult
to hold. Eventually, he managed to kick it towards and down the pit at the
centre of the cavern. I was feeling more and more nauseous so cracked the
emergency escape device Alexei had made and found myself back in Drezen with
the maps.
The
city was nearly rebuilt. I quickly pressed Irabeth for information on the
Herald of Iomedae and learned who this was and that they’d only just learnt he’d
been taken from the heavens and pressed the maps on her before heading to find
Brutus so I could meet the others when they returned through Nocticula’s image
to the Midnight Fain. He was looking older, so I cornered the nearest person
and asked how long we’d been gone.
Five
years.
Still
feeling sick from the mines, I don’t know how I kept myself from throwing up.
Five
years.
I
raced back to Brutus, wished he would take me back to my husband but knew he
wouldn’t. I told him where we would find Kieran and we set off.
Five
years.
They’d
come back through before we got there, and Kieran had called for Brutus. I
tried to convince them to go straight back to Brevoy, but Alexei hadn’t
returned by the time they left so they figured he’d be waiting for us in Drezen
and flew me back there.
Five
years.
Queen
Galfrey had been summoned and was on her way, but no one seemed to realise.
Five
years.
It’s
been a few weeks since I last saw Noleski and he hasn’t seen me for five years.
I can’t imagine what he’s going through and all I want right now is to see him
and no one is helping me get there.
Five
years.
It’s worth bearing in mind
Svetlana is a half-elf and Noleski human, and that there was already about 10
years between them when they got married so she knows she’s going to outlive
him by a long way and is dreading losing him. The biggest reason she tries to
stay alive is not because she’s afraid to die but because she knows if she does
she won’t want to come back again and wants to have as much life with Noleski
as she can before that. Five years feels a big chunk to have stolen from that.
Also, they hadn’t been together long and part of the reason for their marriage
was to stabilise a threatened kingdom, so it feels like very bad news – what if
he’s had to marry again? And once she’s dealt with all her Noleski fears, she’ll
realise Anya’s daughters aren’t babies any more, and who knows how old Vlad
will be, and that all of her friends and family will have aged and missed her
and she doesn’t want them to have gone through that pain. She’s pretty
heart-broken and afraid, right now.
And this is where we’re leaving
the characters for now (I believe, there may be a slight ret-con about exactly
where we are for story reasons, but AFAIK it’s five years later and we’re in
Drezen rather than Brevoy like Svetlana wants). We’ll be playing through those
five years back on Golarion using different characters – level 10, non-mythic people.
I shall introduce you in due course. I am going to miss playing Svetlana!
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