Session #29 Summary

[Nathan Sherman]

When last we left our party they had ventured back into the mansion for one final battle to kill the remaining boss undead. They were engaged in a running assault with the undead appearing through walls at a distance and attacking them and then escaping again before they party could do much to them.

The party is on the second floor surrounding the balcony looking to the first floor. They haven't seen the undead and haven't been attacked or Telekinetically thrown for a short while. Then Otep feel the tugging attempt to fling him across the room but his strength is too great and he resists it. Still no signs of the ghosts for the party to react to and then Theren is assaulted and his strength isn't nearly enough to resist and he is flung across the balcony, into a far wall and dropped to the grand hall of the first floor. They spirit of whispering madness runs up to him and grabs him by the shoulders, damaging his flesh and giving him horrid visions on death and destruction in an avalanche of mud and debris. This combined assault is almost enough to kill him and Theren slumps to the floor, barely clinging to life and hoping that the undead won't realize that his isn't quite dead yet.

Up above, Akronos sees the assault bellow and fires off his scorching ray, damaging the undead attacking Theren. Lutheo encourages his hound steed to leap the railing and after a little bit of damage from an ungraceful landing they charge to Therens aid and greatly Smites the undead.  Otep vaults over the railing, sticks the landing and lends his mighty maul to the battle, but while some damage is done, the creature seems to be resistant to the brunt of the damage.

Akronos again punishes it with a barrage of his magic missiles, each one doing full damage to it. Theren takes the distraction of the undead standing over him to cast healing on himself and prevents his all too often sliding into unconsciousness. Ceress makes an impressive leap over the balcony and joins in the assault on the undead. Being surrounded, it gets in one final attack again before the parties assaults bring it down.

The ghost is way down a side hall and it tries to fling Lutheo into a wall. Lutheo is the one who has done the most damage with his smites and despite being a hard target the ghost gives it another attempt but Lutheo is stronger than his short stature implies and he resists the telekinetic attack. Lutheo, Otep and There rush down that hall but the ghost has once again passed through the walls to escape them.

Akronos, being the only one remaining upstairs takes the stairs down to the first floor to join the rest of the party. The ghost had gone through the walls and ceiling of the first floor to kill the straggling Akrons all alone upstairs and when it didn't find him there it came downstairs to attack him in the stair way. It does a vicious Withering Touch and almost kills him but having spent so much time trying to track him down it didn't have enough remaining movement to escape through a wall or floor.

The rest of the party rushes to Akronos aid and their combined attacks kill the ghost before it has a chance to escape through another wall or floor.

The evil spirit is finally vanquished and as its form dissipates into mists a wave of energy rushes over each member of the party pushing them back a step.

They have visions of a man with flowing hair and tailored clothing (Nikova) being plagued by the knowledge of his role during the end of the war.

Unfolding in their minds is a convoluted jumble of images and emotions, some of them familiar to them from stories they have heard, other are new and frightening insights. Visions of the banishment of Draxorith, a battle between men and ogres, crushing suffocation, swirling green mist, parades, sleepless nights, shame, guilt, bursts of anger, confusion and sorrow.

Images of what must have been Geldan, Kelandor, Hardin, Taramandan, Illanor and Nikova fill their heads.

These visions and emotions storm through their minds for what could be seconds or days. The swirling visions and memories form into a cobbled together history.

From this they gather the following:

Under Kelandor's direction, the Conclave worked for months to prepare a very powerful magical banishment trap within their hidden stronghold – a gateway to the darkness of the multi-verse... a doorway through which they would banish Draxorith back to his own realm... permanently. Without the focus provided by their dread lord, a fragmented Duthelm would surely fall.

This gateway, which was built as a great circular shaft in the largest chamber of their lowest level, was named the Conduit. The hall which housed this shaft was to be known as the Hall of Banishing. The construction of this magical trap was not made known to the general body politic of Kitar or the Rukemian Empire. No one outside of the conclave knew of its existence until after the war was ended.

The six leaders of the Conclave all followed the teachings of Ynthar and his teachings worked their way into the Conclave banishment. The nature of the banishing spell which had been prepared would separate Draxorith - body, mind and spirit, and then banish him once and for all. This was the only way that mere mortals could overcome a greater demons resistance and banish him. The symbol of Ynthar was adopted for the Banishing Ritual and Chamber since much Yntharian lore was used in the magical construction of the banishing spell and the Conduit. The holy symbol of Ynthar was inlaid in the floor of the Hall of Banishment with color tiles, the Conduit at its center. Each member of the conclave was responsible for creating three sets of three symbols to reinforce the banishment.

Such was the strength of the dweomer, that it's preparation required the very essence of the casters. Nikova spent much of his time working with the separation of mind, body and spirit to perfect the banishment. He knew that in addition to being at the site of the banishment and using their minds to cast the spell, each Conclave caster had to bind a part of their spirit into the ritual in order to insure success. As a result, each might suffer a shortened life span or other ill effects if the trap succeeded, but ridding the world of Draxorith was worth the cost.

When the Conduit was ready, the Conclave laid the trap and lured Draxorith and a small strike team of his forces to the location of their fortress. They trapped him in the banishment spell in the midst of the skirmish on the grounds above the conduit.

With precise timing, the six leaders of the Conclave took up positions in the Hall of Banishing and began casting the Banishing Spell while the fighting forces engaged Draxorith above. With their first syllables, Draxorith was bound to the spot above the Conduit. As the spell casters raised their voices and continued the spell, Draxorith lost his physical form and disintegrated into a thick, churning green mist.

A tug of war between something anchoring Draxorith in this world and the Banishing Spell ensued.

Eventually, Draxoriths physical and mental components, now nothing more than mist and energy, were sucked through the ground and into the Conduit where they remained floating, helplessly caught between dimensions.

As the spell ended and parts of Draxorith was banished from this world and the conduit sealed itself, brilliant light and peals of violent thunder cascaded through the area. Upon seeing their lord dispatched before their very eyes, the Duthelmian strike team fled in terror.

After the banishing, the Conclave members knew that their trap had only been partially successful. They knew that Draxorith was caught in the Conduit instead of fully banished, but they didn't know why. This was a precarious stalemate. In the days immediately following the battle, the Conclave forces cleaned up, dealt with the aftermath, and tried to figure out why the banishing spell had not completely worked.

Kelandor realized that the Knights of the Abyss and Black Sorcerers would stop at nothing to save their master. With magic divination, she could foresees the entire Duthelmian army marching on the Conclave Fortress, crushing it to gain access to the conduit and free their lord.

Knowing that the Conclave might not have any other option, she let the other members into her ace-up-the-sleeve for sealing off the site of the banishment; the volcano.

The fortress had originally been built at the foot of the dormant volcano, Mount Kir. A decision that Kelandor had insisted upon. She decided to locate the fortress here so that if ever there was a need, they could, with one mighty cooperative spell, trigger the volcano and completely obliterate the fortress.

The Conclave called upon the armies of the Rukemian Empire to reinforce the less than one hundred garrisoned at the fortress. If a few thousand troops could gain the Conclave a couple of weeks, it might allow them time to figure out what went wrong with the banishing and complete the spell. While the Conclave poured their attention and resources into trying to figure out why the banishment was only partially successful the first wave of several thousand Rukemian reinforcements march to join them.

The Duthelmian soldiers had also united quickly and launched another assault against the Conclave fortress with a Black Sorcerer and several Knights of the Abyss in the lead. This assault occurred right as the initial Rukemian forces arrived - much earlier than the Conclave members had anticipated. The Conclave had very little warning, hours at most, before the Duthelmian horde poured over the horizon and swept down into the valley.

The Rukemian forces rushed to defend the fortress but arrived after the initial Duthelm strike team had gained entry to the fortress and an epic battle with the Duthelmian forces ensued.

A Black Sorcerer and his Knights of the Abyss entered the fortress in the lead strike group. All six members of the Conclave and many of their elite forces battled in the fortress, killing many of the initial strike force. When they were backed up into the chambers before the Hall of Banishing, Kelandor invoked the emergency back up plan.

At Kelandor's command, five of the six leaders, leaving a small team of Rukemia's finest behind to guard the chamber, teleported to a small bluff over looking the fortress from a distance. Illanor, the sixth member stayed in the complex with their strongest defenders to battle to the last moment. The five on the bluff united their power for another cooperative spell - this one aimed at Mt. Kir.

Back in the fortress Illanor was being overwhelmed and feared that he hadn't bought enough time for the start of the cooperative spell. With a final breaking of his powerful staff in a massive retributive strike he killed the rest of the initial strike force, the remaining defenders and nearly killed himself as well. A contingency spell whisked him back to the rest of the Conclave where they saved him from an almost certain and painful death. Once revived, he too joined in on the spell to awaken Mt Kir.

The forces of the Rukemian Empire were greatly outnumbered and on the verge of breaking, giving way to the forces of Duthelm and loosing the fortress to enemy hands.

The final syllables of the spell was completed by the conclave and then Mount Kir, the volcano which had lain inactive for so many years, erupted violently. A thunderous explosion was followed by a cloud of ash and heat that roared through the area, melting the snow covering the mountains. The resulting mudslides swept down the mountain and through the valley where the smaller Rukemian army was straining under the power of the Duthelmian forces.

A hasty double-retreat was begun, but it was too late. All soldiers present on both sides were swept away. Bodies tumbled in the mudslide, those not crushed by boulders and trees died of suffocation, buried under tons of mud and debris.

The fortress and battlefield were completely obliterated, buried under a hundred thousand tons of mud, downed trees and dead bodies from both sides. This disaster left no survivors on the surface. Everyone inside the fortress was either dead or died in the searing heat from the volcanic mudslide.

Kelandor had chosen this location for the fortress partially due to the exceptionally high mineral content in the earth and rock surrounding the area of the Snowy Timbers. It partially blocks magical energy, more so than normal rock and dirt. After the eruption, the magic blocking nature of the rock and mud proved to be even more effective than Kelandor had guessed. In the aftermath of the eruption, the Conclave found themselves unable to scan the remains for life or even the location of the ruins. No spell could penetrate the rock and scan for the ruins below. The issue of Draxorith would remain buried under thousands of tons of magic-blocking earth.

None of the Conclave members ever mentioned the horrible sin they had committed, both in leaving the Banishing spell uncompleted, and sacrificing the lives of thousands of men to seal away the threat. They knew that many on their side wouldn't understand that horrific choice they made and that if any follower of Draxorith knew that he wasn't fully banished, those followers could never be contained in their search for the banishment gate in an attempt to bring Draxorith back.

The Rukemian Empire hailed the Conclave members as heroes and praised them for successfully banishing the demon lord Draxorith and ending the war. Each accolade was at best bitter sweet for some members and for others it was a wracking reminder of what they had done.

Nikova kept in touch with the other members for a while. All six, especially the priests, would go on to spend their lives wracked with guilt, either running from their past or trying to atone for it.

The six masters never again spoke of the fortress or the banishment unfinished. Aside from Kelandor who stayed in Aridorn, healing the sick, the rest fled for distant corners of the world to live out their remaining years in disturbed peace, some to their home lands, others to lands that wouldn't recognize them.

After the war, Nikova was plagued by the nightmares of what he had seen, what he had caused. Like several of the Conclave, he tried to make up for it with good deeds but the nightmares would always return.

Having tied a piece of his spirit to the banishment haunted him, not just for concerns of what it would do to him, but what it would do to the others. 

He continued to dabble in these arts of the separation of the mind, body and spirit long after the banishment. He began to think of the link to the banishment gate as a "splinter under his skin". It's possible that he delved too deep in an attempt to dig that "demon splinter" out of him and that must have caused damage to the link between his mind, body and spirit.

At his death, the terrible secrets he carried combined with the weakened link between his mind, body and spirit and the constant picking at it caused him to split and become these haunting spirits, rising on the one year anniversary of his death, killing his family and everyone in his estate. The manifestation of his mind and body roamed the halls of his mansion, seeking release of their pain by sharing it with others through visions, howls and whispers of madness while his spirt just wanted to lash out at everything within its reach.

He has haunted it till this day, until he was finally freed of it with the death of the ghost of his spirit, the banshee of his mind and the soulless manifestation of his body.


The party awakens from the visions to find yourself in a darkened hallway, the constant sounds of the anguished wind in the house gone and they realize that the whispers that were in the winds had ended shortly before, probably with the death of the undead that caused whispers of madness in their minds.

They return to the main hall where that more corporal manifestation of Nikova was killed and they find his battered and broken body laying there showing both the signs of having been dead for 120 plus years and the beating that it took at the parties hands.

They check the finger and sure enough, it points to this as Nikova, the final member of the Conclave. They gather up the body into their bag of holding and search the rest of the mansion. They find no other undead, just an old mansion that has seen better days, but at least now it no longer feels haunted, cursed and evil.

The party goes outside and informs the waiting wizards, clerics and city soldiers that the mansion has been cleared. They use the Snatch Pit to check where the map indicates and find that it points to the Snowy Timbers at what they assume is where all of this trouble began, the ruins of the Conclave of Freedom and the partially successful banishment gate.

They spend the next couple hours cleaning up the mess, enrolling the apprentice wizards Santiago and Salazar into helping and preparing to return to town. After allowing Nikos/Illinor to say his fair wells to his old friend Nikova, they take his corpse to the small graveyard on the property and give it a proper burial, at least, all but the skull which they keep in their bag of holding.

Akronos pulls out the old communication scroll and sends a message to Boazman asking him to come and help manage the mansion that they have just gained by freeing it and the city of Freeport from the evil spirits that haunted it. It turns out, Boazman and his wife were hiding out here in Freeport so it will be easy for him to help.

They return to the city of Freeport and meet with General Thomas Harn, letting him know that they have freed the mansion of the evil spirits. They do no tell him that the spirt was that of Nikova so they don't taint the regions history of the man. They ask for help with taking over ownership of the mansion and Harn is more than happy to help out, recommending Telbot Davidson as a good resource of brokering dependable hired hands of all types and Katrinas Pantry for supplies for the crew that will be living and working there until the hopefully return of the party.

The next morning Akronos sends a message to Elodin and lets him know that they have secured the final skull and they make arrangements for Elodin to meet them the following day to teleport them to the ruins of the banishment gate for the final steps in completing the banishment that has been 150 years in the works.

This is where session #29 and the 6th and final skull quest ended. Next session, the return to the ruins of the Conclave of Freedom and the attempt to complete the banishment of the greater demon Draxorith...