Session 54 - Elder Power

13/07/300 (afternoon) - Ruric Ironfoot has the ritual of restoration and regained his sanity. Eamonn, Riley and Skye cleared up the ritual whilst Braith, Elnorin and Heskan regaled the story of the past few hours. 

The party spent the evening relaxing.

14/07/300 - Heskan spends the morning in prayer, seeking guidance from his ancestors and Abzu. He feels at peace with his recent activities, reconciling their recent journey with his path as a paladin. He is blessed for his work.

The party grab some food and discuss their next steps before heading to see Eamonn to have him identify the strange sword they found in Hadar's Workshop. He could not name the exotic weapon but knew it was a powerful weapon that could strike more quickly than a normal weapon.

Whilst Heskan and Ruric went about their business, the other three went to the woods to prevent hunters straying too close to the area. Elnorin was unsuccessful in finding anyone but Braith and Bankanir disturbed a brown bear. The fight was brief but Bankanir was badly wounded. After tending to him, the party met up and headed back to the workshop.

As they entered the area, Ruric and Bankanir became affected by madness. Heskan staved off Ruric's madness but Bankanir sunk to the ground in inconsolable grief. Between heaving sobs, he spoke of Arinet and his grief at her loss. He was cured of his madness and, showing obvious shame, moved on with the group.

Elnorin and Ruric conducted an investigation, finding that a strange parasite had latched itself into the host body before overgrowing and creating the Caretaker creature.

In the final strange chamber, Ruric worked out that the room was filled with channeled energy from four points across the world. One far to the south, one far to the west and the other far to the north. The final one was nearby and likely the main source of the disturbance. The Caretaker had put a magical dam up to prevent the portal reopening but the madness in the area would persist if it was not dealt with. The group headed to the nearby source of power which was where the strange burrow lead.

Underneath here they found a strange cavern, seemingly created by an explosion from nowhere but with minimal debris scattered around. In the middle was a further crater with a large creature that resembled a giant brain. Elnorin thought it looked unwell. Of greater note was the gargantuan worm. It was seemingly either feeding off of or protecting this brain entity. The fight that ensued was brief. Fail-not sang as Braith sought to free a consumed Ruric. Heskan smote and Elnorin's wall of fire burned the creature. In a final attempt to survive, the creature spat acid (nearly killing Bankanir) but was laid low by an arrow from Braith. 

The group removed several teeth from the beast before heading back to town. They went to the Hall of Stone in Sheskin, summoning Fergus (the champion of Cormac O'Cloch) and handing him a large fang. Fergus seemed confused and Eamonn slipped out from the hall. The party left to celebrate and Cormac himself came out to see what was going on but was too late to speak with the group.

That night the group were given the best food and drink, seemingly at the behest of Eamonn.