This session began with your arrival at the dragonborn city of Rayture after spending 12 days on a ship going at full speed. The captain had been told that your arrival needed to be as swift as possible, and the captain willingly damaged his boat to get you there on time. Things only got weirder as you set foot on ground and entered Rayture finding the streets practically empty and everyone’s nerves frayed. Dragonborn guards stopped you and demanded to know what your business was in the city, and before you could answer a young boy named Ray motioned you to silence behind the guards. You gave an answer that satiated the tension and followed the young boy to a man named Garev.

Garev revealed that a Tiefling lord named Ianben Glimmergaunt had taken over the city and was… looking for something. Some sort of ritual. He tells you the man you’re looking for, Garunthal, is in hiding. Apparently, Ianben wants to get his hands on him for some reason. Garev wont tell you. All he’ll tell you is that if you kill Ianben, the entire system he has going will crumble and Garev and his men can ensure a rout of the rest of the tieflings. He says Ianben is an idiot, and has no idea how or where to use his guards. He says that’s what Ianben hired him for, to place and schedual his guards. Garev is your man on the inside of the mansion and he tells you where and when each guard will be so you can make a plan to sneak in. All goes smoothly, and as you sneak up to the second floor balcony and attack the guard outside Ianben’s room, you notice something odd. There are more guards then there should be, and something is WRONG with the tieflings you’re fighting. They almost look like someone has poorly grafted parts of demons onto their already demonic bodies, and its giving them increadible defense against your weapons. After the guards shout, more surge up the stairs and move to cut you off. Eventually, you all gave up and they tied you onto rings set into the wood of another room.

Ianben eventually comes into the room and flaunts his superiority at you. He feels as though he’d won and he was taking pity on you all to at the very least let you know what you failed against. Somehow, he’d found the old Bael Turath ritual and had set it in motion. “24 hours from now, I will be more powerful, and you will be my perfect red herrings to take the blame for the demons let loose in town.” He gloats some more before leaving you all hanging from your bonds. Time passes, and the closer to daylight you get, the more the mutated tieflings watching you look more and more like regular tieflings. They don’t even know they’re being possessed at night, and once dawn breaks they’re once again the cowards they should have been from the beginning. You easily break your bonds and dispatch the guards in the room and its a matter of minutes to find and get your gear back. You suit up and slam your way through Ianben’s door to once and for all take care of the idiot.

Now, he may be an idiot, but he does know how to fight, especially with the help of the barbed devil accompanying him. Though, your tactics and wrestling moves prove to be too much for both of them and they both die. Not without loss though, as S’ssei falls to the devil’s spikes. You loot both of Ianben’s daggers and his journal. His journal has some interesting information. Ianben was supposed to find and return the ritual to his master, who he hates and despises. He was going to use it himself and return to his master to kill him. There’s also mention of a Crispin who may or may not be his master. With the venom used around his name, there’s a good chance he is. With this knowledge, you go in search of the ritual itself. If the month-long ritual was supposed to end the next morning, its got to be somewhere in the house still!

You manage to uncover it from the pillar it’s hiding in and twist the puzzle box its locked in. As soon as the tome is brought into sight, you can see smell and feel the increadibly evil aura it gives off. Its foul, greasy, evil and hungry but it locks away once you put it in your haversack. You spend the next day waiting and helping the revolt against the tieflings die down before you can manage to find Garev again, and he’ll take you to the temple to have your friend lizard raised, free of charge. Its the least they can do for who and what your group represents.

You pass through a barrier on your way into the temple, and it almost feels like your soul is… off. Like its not where its supposed to be. Still there, just… off. You meet Garunthal as he brings S’ssei back. He tells you that you only have 5 months from when you killed the dragon, and you’ve already wasted 2 weeks. The scatterbrained prophet tells you that you have to find 7 keys, that they’ll be attracted to intelligence and power, and that you need them to unlock Elhonna from her bonds before the Shadow Man can finish his work. In his words “…Bad things. Bad, bad things…” Garunthal hands you a key ring. Not only something to hold the keys once you get them, but it is keyed to three specific points around the world to make travel faster, quicker, and easier. But ONLY to those three places. With only 4 1/2 months left, faster and easier is required.

Getting off Uristrica will be a problem though, as all teleportation off the island has been forbidden without the permission from the king. So you make your way to the king’s castle in Mukel and seek an audience with him. An audience you get, but things are not what you expect. you stand almost across the room from him, shouting to hold conversation. And you notice he has a key. One of the seven keys you need are dangling from the ornate crown on his head, and he brushes all attempts to cajole the key from him aside in favor of ‘sending you off to see family’ as his addled brain concocts. And so you teleport off to go look into where Garunthal mentioned the first key should be.

You’re headed to the Underdark. Just make sure to watch your back…

And so the adventure begins! It begins with frustration, anger, and just a hint of malice gleaming in your eyes. Gartor the green dragon has been hounding your well established mercenary group for months now, and you’ve all decided that you’ve had enough! After gathering all the information you need from your last employer, five of you set out in a boat to a nearby island that has become the temporary home for your tormentor. You came across a very old stone door that almost looked almost melted. Acid. A sure sign you’ve found where you’re supposed to be.

After shattering the door open, you soon find yourself face to face with three huge hounds. They look weak and cowed, almost malnourished and like they’ve been abandoned. They certainly look too big for the tiny room they’ve been given. Two are quickly dispatched, and you are gracious enough to set one free to go get something to eat for the first time in days most likely, and you forge on ahead. An illusion here, a room of corpses there, throw in a gelatinous cube for some flavor, and you all get the feeling that this is far easier than it should be. Something isn’t right, but you’re determined to see it through. You find an alter to Tiamat (and soon desecrate it) situated quite haphazardly in what was once a bedroom. Nearby, a dwarf thrashes in his chains when he spots you shouting something about a red flower. S’ssei rushes to save him, but it’s too late. He’d gone too long without healing and had lost too much of his mind.

Forging on, you find a bedroom with a really nice desk. Sitting in plain sight is a journal written by a rakshasa named Nysr Darond. Reading through it, you find several passages that catch your eyes. Something about preparing for the red flower, “I have discovered the dragon is his bitch” and “She is the key”. You ponder on this for the briefest of seconds before heading back towards your destination: Gartor. You go through more of the hounds, through a couple secret doors and find an art room to loot! Not to mention the nine Nessian puppies sitting in their impeciably clean cages. You leave them be for the time being and go after the dragon, which is sure to be on the other side of the now rough stone passage way before you. Stepping into the room, the scenery changes. From normal every day dungeon to sudden underground jungle! Surely Gartor is here, laying in wait just under the murky water. All you have to do is get close enough to the water’s edge and he’ll spring out at you. Alas, he expected you and hid in the trees. He attacks, initiating a startlingly easy combat. You take him down in no time whatsoever and as the last blow is struck, he cries out “No! That stupid cat! He LIED to me! I-I’m sorry Master!”

Disconserting, to say the least. Deciding to ignore it for now, you hack what useful bits you can off the dragon and cash in on its hoard before making your way back to town. You celebrate the sure loss of your tormentor and settle into what you believe should be a peaceful sleep. But you twist and turn with unsettling dreams of a lady trapped in blue crystal and someone shrowded in grey mist behind her. She begs you to help her before the evil behind her senses you and flies at you, but you wake before his hands can close around your throat and you’re back in the Inn safe and sound. But you’re filled with intense dread and a dire need to talk to your team mates. You needed more information, something to say you all weren’t insane for having the same exact dream. Something to validate the terror. You ask among the priests, giving them the description of the lady. Green dress and a unicorn necklace. Oddly enough, they direct you to a tavern in the lower parts of town. The Sea Lion. Suspicious and cautious, you head down to this tavern and the bartender directs you towards a very handsome tiefling surrounded by a gaggle of humans. A sight not seen very often. But he seemed bored, almost wanting for something more. The women of your group start to plan. Charybdis gives Ysabela her hat, and the two of them put their finest clothes on. Dressed to impress. But their plan is brought to a halt as Leo takes the initiative. The tiefling, Rothem, doesn’t seem very impressed. Not even when S’ssei puts a poisioned arrow straight at his throat. He’s not concerned at all, actually. He’s a very odd man. Eventually, Rothem agrees to talk and you all head to his room. As his door closes, his demenor changes completely. Gone is the womanizing bastard, and in his place is a business man. Complete serious as he asks what you want. After describing your dream and giving once again the description of the lady, Rothem swears. The lady’s name is Ehlonna, goddess of nature. She’s been missing for a good long while. He mentions some other things as well. Something about a prophecy and your group being the ones named in said prophecy. He also mentions a Shadow Man, the same one from your dream, and tells you that he’s been comsuming the souls of lesser gods. Nothing to worry about, really. He does tell you that you need to seek a man named Garunthal in the DragonBorn city of Rayture. Rothem tells you he will pay for your fare on a boat, and that by morning you will be sailing for UrisTrica. A two week trip, but you will have more information then you will know what to do with. The trip leaves you with ample time to think.
Who is this Shadow Man? Why is he consuming the souls of gods? What is this prochecy and what in all the gods names does it have to do with you?! Most importantly, what have you gotten yourselves into?!! Only time will tell. But be careful, you may not have as much time as you’d like…