Thunsheer 29, 835
Tymlor glanced inside the double doors and saw a narrow passageway that descended into a gradual turn a short way in. After about ten minutes, the double doors closed. Noticing that the pustules had reappeared on the statue’s palms, Tymlor Fire Bolted them again and the doors reopened.
Sarielle noticed the hilt of a sword sticking out from under the statue's leg. With Tok’s assistance, she easily pulled the ornate hilt out revealing a very finely crafted long sword. Tymlor cast Identify on it, revealing a minor enchantment.
ACHU needed more time to recover, so Tymlor cast Tiny Huts two more times so that everyone could get a full night’s sleep, which was difficult with the constant wailing.
Eager to move along, Tok confirmed that Poof could open the double doors by attacking the pustules and then sent Poof into the statue’s chest, eventually following himself and then sending Poof back out and calling on everyone else to follow.
Tok halted and said that Poof had screamed, grabbed by a tentacle, and was gone.
The passageway twisted and turned for a few hundred feet before opening into a large crater-shaped chamber, about seventy feet in diameter. Amber-colored crystals covered the walls that sloped down from the dome-shaped ceiling more than sixty feet up. At the bottom, thirty feet down, was an altar.
Tymlor sent his owl to watch the passage one hundred feet up while Tok flew down to examine the alter. It was a simple wooden table with a symbol of Avandra on its side.
ACHU circled the perimeter and Tymlor cast Detect Magic and followed. He could sense divine magic coming from the altar and they descended, ACHU on his own and Tymlor lowered on a rope by Sarielle.
ACHU removed his pendant and placed it on the table and it was awakened.
A spectral figure blossomed forth from the amulet. Alyxian the warrior looked up with a faint smile and said, “You came… you followed… you can find me.” The crystals glowed brightly, and everyone’s vision went white. Then they saw a company of armored soldiers, Alyxian among them, marching into the Betrayers’ Rise. Their expressions were grim. Though they did not speak, it appeared that none of them expected to return home.
The vision shifted again, and everyone in the company of soldiers was dead except for Alyxian, who continued to fight while surrounded by the corpses of mortals and demons. He was hurled across the battlefield by the claws of a gorilla-like demon. The scene blurred, and he fell to his knees, pleading, before a simple wooden altar that bore the holy symbol of Avandra. At the end of his prayer, he was lifted to his feet by Avandra, a tall young woman with light brown skin and flowing black hair.
A foreboding voice cuts through this scene of divine intervention, and Alyxian froze. “The Change Bringer and a mortal,” the voice intoned. “What brings you into my sacred, devouring darkness? Even if you save him, Change Bringer, he will suffer. He will die. He will be forgotten. All that he has worked to save will crumble and be devoured by worms. Why invite further suffering? Let go. Give in. All is futile in the end, so why…”
As the voice trailed off, Alyxian turned to the companions and fell to his knees in tears. The scenery shifted, and the forsaken warrior was now underwater, amid the ruins of a sunken city. “The Crawling King spoke true,” he muttered. “All was futile. All has been forgotten… and I am lost in darkness. Please, help me set it right.”
“How can we cleanse this place of the darkness?” ACHU asked.
“I came here and almost died,” Alyxian replied. “I never found a way to stop it.”
“How did you escape?” ACHU continued.
“Avandra helped me,” Alyxian shared. “I fought in the Calamity and was called the Apotheon because I beseeched the gods for power three times and three times received it—first on the shores of Wildemount, again in the depths of the Betrayers’ Rise, and once more in a temple of Corellon the Arch Heart in a city of elves and orcs in the jungles of Marquet. That was destroyed centuries ago. Now I’m trapped somewhere underwater and there is a crimson glow which is being harvested by mortals but they are leaving me trapped. It is torturous to feel so close to freedom yet be ignored.”
The vision disappeared, and Tymlor heard his owl frantically alerting him to approaching intruders.
Tok cast Silent Image of a rock wall in the entryway.
From the passage, a voice angrily muttered something about parlor tricks and Aloysia appeared with Ayo’s party following behind her.
After demanding the pendant, Aloysia ordered Ayo’s party to take it, but they refused, congratulating the Clockwork companions for beating them once again.
“This is not a race, Ayo,” Tymlor replied. “And now we can work together to get out of this place.”
Ranting furiously, Aloysia pulled out a scroll and began chanting. ACHU cast Calm Emotions, but she ignored the effects. Tremors rippled through the ground and crystals fell from the ceiling as she turned and fled up the passageway.
As everyone tried to secure their footing, Aloysia pulled a stone tablet out of her pack while she ran, accidentally dropping two more onto the passage floor. The passage ceiling collapsed behind her and she was blocked from sight, as was the exit.
Tymlor recognized that the stone tablets were teleportation tablets and that these were tied to Ank'Harel. Question said they were the same as the ones she and Prolix had used.
Ayo’s party was eager to use one of the two teleportation tablets to follow Aloysia and get the payment she had promised them, but they agreed to help the Clockwork companions dig their way out first.
After digging for a while, Tok was able to use his summon his familiar back and have it squeeze through the cracks while it carried him in his ring.
Soon after, Sarielle was able to see the passage beyond the cave-in and use her Echo to get to the other side.
Despite their attempts at stealth, they attracted the attention of two ropers that had made their way into the wailing statue chamber.
Tymlor sent his owl to investigate and it told him that the door was open. Then Poof appeared and said that Mr. Tok and Sarielle had been attacked and used the teleportation tablet to escape to Ank'harel.
The remaining Clockwork companions agreed to abandon the digging and use the teleportation tablets.
They all found themselves on the roof of a small tower in the middle of a bazaar. In the center of the roof was a roper, Sarielle half inside its toothy maw.
Tymlor cast Slow on the monstrosity and it was soon beaten down by the combined might of the two groups until a green hand appeared and dragged it off the side of the roof where it disappeared.
Tok and Sarielle were dead. The monk’s skin had lightened and lost its facial features, now appearing as an ambiguous grey humanoid.
ACHU dropped down from the roof to the bazaar and began barking loudly, “Diamonds, I need diamonds.”
Fortunately, a gem merchant was nearby and ACHU quickly negotiated a sufficient amount of diamonds in exchange for two enchanted swords. Tymlor rolled Sarielle’s body off the roof to the bazaar where ACHU used the diamonds to cast Revivify. The merchant took Sarielle’s two swords.
“What…what happened…?” Sarielle gasped, sitting up and taking in her surroundings.
Walking over to Tok's corpse, ACHU raised his hands and whispered a silent prayer, casting Remove Curse. “My feathered friend, I am sorry you fell on our quest. May The Everlight welcome you into her warm embrace. I will see you again one day. May you find your freedom.”
The green tattoo across Tok’s nose faded away.
They were in a warm, bright, and sunny bazaar. The startled crowds of people milling around began to form a crowd, keeping their distance. After a moment, a pair of guards were seen heading over. Their armor was covered in blue and bore the insignia of a hand.
“Hello,” ACHU announced, turning to the guards with hands raised in a peaceful manner. “I am sorry we disturbed this peaceful bazaar, but the danger is gone. Although it did manage to kill our friend, we have avenged his death and restored the peace.”
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