We last left our heroes in the moment of shocked relief as Skulldrinker’s body fell and burst into multicolored flame. Arunak, Yevin, Ryker, and Havayla either at or near the top of the switchbacks with Wander and Nathan climbing their way up the paths. Nathan continues up as Wander, bloody and battered, casts heal on herself and follows after. Yevin, Ryker, and Havayla all fly and float down to examine the remains of Skulldrinker, The Butcher, and the tent.
At the top, Arunak is acting erratically, reacting to things that aren’t there. Wander is able to figure out that he is struck with a similar madness as what she had experienced, and she isn’t able to cure it right now. While Nathan picks up (with a cloth so he doesn’t actually touch it) Skulldrinker’s staff, Arunak ties a blindfold around his eyes to prevent seeing any more hallucinations. Wander continues through the main room of Tigorian’s tomb to the library that had been her second home. The shelves are empty of their scrolls and tomes and the floor is covered in ash and burned papers. Stunned at the desecration, she turns back and rejoins the party.
Everyone meets in the center of the tomb. Yevin asks about Arunak’s blindfold and pulls out an elixir of healing. Since it worked before on Wander, it should work for Arunak. Potion administered, Arunak cautiously takes off the blindfold and is thrilled when he sees the party has the correct number of eyes and are the correct color. Yevin also notices Skulldrinker’s staff on Nathan’s back and instructs him to put it in the bag of holding.
Havayla takes a moment to commune while Wander scries on Duke Noillif. Wander comes out of her trance to report that the Duke is in a standoff with Mordomoth, the glass dragon, and seems frazzled. There is a sidebar of explaining to Nathan that being “in a pickle” is a metaphor and the duke is not literally in a pickle, when it is noticed that Havayla doesn’t have the usual serene look she adopts when in a commune with Sehanine. She comes out of her meditation speaking words in infernal before switching to common. Havayla reveals that she didn’t talk to Sehanine, she was talking with Tharizdun. It was like he took over the channel through which she usually meets the moon goddess.
Wander apologetically interrupts; based on what she saw, they need to hurry. Everyone agrees, they take turns healing up, and head out to the path she remembers. Between Ryker and Wander, with a reminder from Havayla, they find the part of the path that leads down towards where the orcs and Onacs had been previously seen, hoping that the machine will be found there.
6 hours of rough travel later, they come upon a battlefield of dead orcs, destroyed war machines, tree-impaled Onacs, and a massive dead lava dragon. The dragons did their part and the Derailers have a clear route to the cave entrance that they surmise is where the machine is kept.
The entrance of the cavern splits to the left and right as the center is dug down, down, down hundreds of feet. At the bottom, barely lit, the keen eyed members can see the skeletal remains of a gargantuan hind claw. If this is the rear hind of Carvacus and his head is 6 hours away under Tigorian’s tomb… it’s a good thing they interrupted Skulldrinker’s ritual.
Further in, after exploring a side room and crossing a precarious rope bridge, they come upon a set of stairs going up. Sneaking up the stairs for a peek reveals an open cavern. In the middle of the cavern is a platform with two strange figures. As they move about the platform the team can see their spindly arms and elongated heads. Where a mouth and chin should be there is instead a mass of tentacles. They are tending to a chained creature that stands below the platform, something that looks like it may have been a dragon at one time, but grafted or growing out of its back is a pulsating brain. The creature appears to be asleep and there is a set of tubes attached to it’s jugular vein that trace back to a tall canister of green liquid at the side of the room. Skulldrinker’s machine, developed by Kane from Illithid technology, waiting to aid in Carvacus’ resurrection.
Ryker and Arunak decide to sneak in ahead of everyone and Nathan makes Arunak invisible. As Ryker moves forward, he is startled by a voice at his shoulder: Mordramoth. He retreats back to the team and Mordramoth gives an update while Arunak continues his trek inward. Deciding that the Duke might be willing to negotiate rather than fight, Ryker brazenly walks in shouting for him… and is greeted by a grenade. But after learning that his son, Nahtan, was killed through Kane’s actions, Kane is dead, and Skulldrinker is dead, the Duke attempts to parlay for his freedom. As the rest of the team begins to make themselves known, Duke Noillif decides to take a risky action. Leveling his rifle at the control panel while his Illithid companions panic, he fires. And hits an invisible Arunak.
At the sound of violence, Havayla casts moonbeam square on the brain. Arunak becomes the target of two intellect devourers (dog-sized brains with legs. Not a dog’s brain size, brain the size of a dog) and is stunned. Ryker slips into the shadows as Nathan calls forth lighting that chains through the two illithid and a walking brain, striking down one of the mind flayers and his brainy companion. Arunak is able to break stun and fly up as Yevin hits the platform with a ball of thunder, wiping everything else out and leaving the Duke alone. The Duke moves forward to open the control panel, removed the Feeblemind stone and runs down the stairs. Hit with reoccurring pains, the creature awakes. Mordramoth decides that’s his last straw and moves to cut his losses, but is convinced back by Yevin (and Nathan)
Ryker slips to the contraption along the side of the room and observes the tubes of green liquid running toward the creature. He pulls out a vial of wyvern poison and dumps it in before becoming one with the shadows again, prepared for the Duke to attempt his escape.
Wander sends a burst of radiant flame at the Duke before turning invisible and the creature pulls at it’s chains, breaking some in its struggle to escape. Nathan sees the Duke coming down the stairs and in a burst of speed unleashes a torrent of eldritch energy upon him, striking the Duke down dead.
Yevin looks up at the flying Arunak and casts a spell. The red teifling’s form warps and expands into… a floating t-rex. Mordramoth invites Nathan onto his back and flies into the fray. Ryker picks up the satchel holding the Feeblemind stone and follows Wander up the platform steps as she searches the Illithid bodies for keys to the machine. The Brain lashes out with dark tentacles that hit and wrap around the Arunak-Rex. Nathan shoots another set of eldritch blasts at the creature while the poison is visibly making its way through the tubing. Then Yevin strikes out with a bolt of lightning that crackles across the brain, the machine, and a restrained Arunak-Rex. The lightning strikes true, killing the mutated beast, and hopefully any chance of the machine being used for its purpose.
As the Derailers gather together on the platform and begin to examine the various pools and gemstones, Arunak and Yevin compare Kane’s notes with what they see. Arunak thinks he’s figured out shutdown code that works along with the keys Wander found, but with the creature dead, it’s likely unnecessary. Havayla looks at the notebook and picks up one of the gemstones listed from the pool. She passes it on to Wander as Nathan begins picks up another. They each experience the emotion or essence associated with the gemstone according to the mind map. Wander recommends pulling all the stones out and storing them separately, as Yevin pulls out one of the other stones. Havayla notices him beginning to express anger and rage, so she intervenes and moves to slap it out of his hand. Yevin instinctively cast shield, but is too distracted to avoid her strike. Upset at the interruption, Yevin verbally unleashes on Havayla as Ryker steps in to mediate. Outwardly fuming, Yevin disappears.
And that is where we left off with the Derailers. What did Yevin see and where did he go? What did Havayla see in her commune and why was Tharizdun there? Will they all finally take a rest? We’ll find out in two weeks! Next week will see the return of level 20 chaos in a sequel to our previous one shot, followed by another mysterious adventure.