The Path Made Clear

9th – 22nd Day of Readying, CY 592

Through the Looking Glass
Using some drops of blood to aid our divinations, we attempted to scry on the assassin who killed Creden and took his body.  She was well shielded against the divinations and it took two days of repeated attempts by our wizards before Safadin was finally successful.

Safadin saw the woman walking down a hall in the outer fane flanked by armored minotaurs.  She entered a private room and began speaking with a man, who we later identified as Varachan.  She said that a speak with the dead revealed some information about our group and our plans, but not a whole lot.  The most important piece of information was that Creden did not have the air binder.  She made mention of being lied to by “Caelith”.  Varachan was very unhappy with her results, and he demanded that she return with Creden’s corpse, so he could conduct his own questioning.

We decided to exploit this great opportunity, and we teleported directly to Varachan’s chamber.  He did not seem overly surprised at our appearance, and more importantly he did not attack.  Even though we had received some help from him, trust was not immediately forthcoming.  

Safadin kept watch over him, while we set the ambush for the assassin, Bethe.  We jumped her as soon as she returned, and she died very quickly.  The minotaurs were a bit more challenging with their powerful axes, but Vannay stopped them from charging us with a well placed force wall.

We spoke with Varachan briefly about his intentions, but we wanted to save most of the discussion for later.  Varachan agreed to retrieve Creden’s gear from Bethe’s quarters.  We left a note on her body stating that Varachan was left at the bottom of the Stalagos.  We teleported to the Rook’s Cove in Verbobonc.

Tales of Loss and Redemption
Varachan joined the cult shortly after the fall of the original Temple of Elemental Evil.  He rose quickly through the ranks in the outer fane, and he was well on his way to surpassing Hedrack.  He was on track to become a Doomdreamer and join in their dark reverie.

He had made a pronounced mark early on with the breaking of Prince Thrommel.  Thrommel had been captured by the noble drow house, Topart’tal, and delivered to the Temple of All Consumption.  The young priest, Varachan, was charged with his interrogation.  Varachan along with the torture master, Yrthuk Innar, and the demon ogre, D’Gran, worked on the prince for nearly two years.  Eventually, the prince succumbed to the ministrations, and he accepted the gift of the dark feeding.  Varachan was not unfeeling though, and the sheer force of will and faith that Thrommel exhibited left its mark on the young man.

Some years later, the First of the Triad, Unariq Vol’Talsimol, thought he had discovered a means of freeing their dark god.  He created a portal to the Indomitable Gate and confronted the celestial guardian, Galgaliel.  He was defeated and deposited in the prison plane with his master.  Unariq was a rare breed of illithid known as an ulitharid.

Varachan was curious about why Unariq was not successful, so several years later he traveled through the portal and confronted Galgaliel.  He spoke with him at length about why an immortal would agree to spend eternity in one place.  Again, Varachan was confronted with a level of devotion and faith that was staggering.  This was the turning point in Varachan’s life.

He eventually rejected all the tenets of his faith.  This of course placed him in the precarious position of being an infidel in the inner circle of the outer fane.  He was ready to leave the temple, when he heard of a group of heroes making their way through the ridge mines.  He decided to keep up the subterfuge and help out the group if possible.  On several occasions, he was able to do just that.  The most important time being a warning about the red dragon, Chymon, guarding the fire door.

Varachan is not fully committed to helping out society, but he has abandoned his dark past.

The Inner Fane
Varachan provided us with a somewhat sketchy map of the outer fane.  He also told us that Lucas Caelith has been captured and is being held in the sublevels of the inner fane.  He told us that the inner fane has fourteen levels, and five of them are below ground.  The lowest level is right above the molten core of the volcano.  There is a massive artifact called the dreaming stone, which occupies many of the levels of the fane.  This dreaming stone is the primary conduit between the cultists and their deity.  The First is on or near the uppermost level.  There is also some sort of teleportation device located in one of the fane’s sublevels.

The area between the outer and inner fane is the blasted yard.  It is guarded by entropic undead called ehloriads (we found reference to these in the journal of Susain Carun).  There is only one entrance into the fane, and it is a sentient door.  We must figure out a way to make the door open for us.  Varachan has only visited the inner temple a few times, and he never went beyond the first level.  So his information was mostly secondhand.

The Plans of the Doomdreamers
It turns out that our final destination in our quest is not the inner fane.  We must return to the temple of elemental evil.  A massive excavation is underway there to unearth the collapsed lower levels of the original temple.  It is under the supervision of The Second.  They are attempting to uncover and reopen the elemental nodes, so the princes can be called into them by the champion.  Once the elemental princes are present, they will use the Orb of Oblivion to free Tharizdun.

The champion is Lareth the Beautiful, who we fought in Nulb many months earlier.  Varachan confirmed what we already believed concerning Imix, Prince of Fire.  He has been called into the node (sometimes called a moon), and he is waiting to join his siblings in the ritual.

If all four princes are called into their respective nodes, then the ritual is guaranteed to work.  Varachan believes that the ritual can still be performed with as little as one prince, but it is not guaranteed to work.  He also stated that if the cultists believe that we are going to stop them, they will move up their timetable and perform the ritual early.

To stop their immediate plans, we must kill the champion and recover the Orb of Oblivion.  We do not have to kill Imix, and it is possible (in Varachan’s estimation) that we could not kill him regardless.  The cultists created two copies of the Orb of Oblivion.  The first copy, the Orb of Golden Death or Goldskull, was destroyed by the group who defeated the cultists fifteen years ago.  The second copy, the Orb of Silvery Death, still exists and is most likely being used by the cultists.  The original is most likely being kept safe with the First at the top of the Inner Fane.  

Varachan is not certain about this information, because he was not always privy to their plans.  He does know that the Second is heading up the excavation with most of the other Doomdreamers.  He also told us that Tessimon, former head of the Fire Temple, has joined the ranks of the Doomdreamers.

To stop Tharizdun from ever being freed, the Orb of Oblivion and all the remaining binders must be found and destroyed.  Varachan has no idea how to accomplish this.

Varachan said that he will travel to Greyhawk City and disappear in the metropolis.  Victor spoke with him privately about considering the faith of Kord, but he did not seem interested.  He was not sure what new faith he will pursue.  He told us to feel free to contact him if more help is needed in the future.

The Envoy from Baator
We returned to the outer fane and decided to seek out the gelugon that Varachan warned us about.  The gelugon was sent by the lords of Baator to check up on the activities of the cultists.  Vannay used clairaudience to check on Chymon’s chamber.  We did not want to get ambushed again.  He heard some heavy breathing but little else.

We prepared some spells and entered the room.  It was occupied by the form of the most powerful of the Baatezu, a pit fiend.  After some help from Vannay’s arcane sight, most of us realized it was an illusion.  Uthgar was a bit stubborn about it, but after he attacked it he agreed that it was not real.  A voice spoke to us telepathically, and it invited us to join it in the “great room”.

We made our way carefully through the passages leading to the large chamber.  Upon entering it, we saw the gelugon on the stage in the center.  Vannay also saw four osyluths, bone devils, in the room but invisible.

A large battle ensued.  The devils kept dividing the party with ice walls, which limited our mobility.  They also used illusion magic to make it appear as if there were more of them.  It was a tough fight, but eventually we were able to overcome the fiends.

The Eaters
We searched the room and the adjoining areas.  We found a servant who had his tongue cut out cowering in one corner.  He was genuinely thankful that we were not there to kill him.  We found one room with magmin in it.  They mostly wanted to melt things, but they did say that they were there to keep the volcano in check. Delvanos convinced them that their services were no longer required.

We found a secret passage leading to a large room with many runes on the walls and floor.  As soon as Uthgar stepped into the room, he appeared to change into a creature that looked like a brain with a beak and tentacles.  These aberrations are known as grell, and some of the party battled them at the moathouse.  It latched onto Creden and began pulling him towards it.  Victor acted quickly by moving in to cast freedom of movement.

Vannay saw that there was a powerful conjuration aura in the room, and he surmised that this creature had merely swapped places with Uthgar.  We found out afterward that Uthgar had been transported to a place (likely in the Far Realms) where his mind was being assaulted by alien entities.  Vannay summoned a brelani.  We began to battle the creature, but we had barely defeated it when another appeared and began attacking.  Another round of combat passed before Uthgar finally returned.  The second grell was slain, and the battle seemed to be over.

Vannay and Safadin began to investigate the summoning runes, while the brelani entered the circle to retrieve his dropped weapon.  He promptly disappeared and was replaced by another grell.  The grell grabbed Vannay and Safadin in its tentacles.  Apparently as long as someone was trapped on the other plane, grell would keep appearing.  A total of six grell appeared over the course of the battle.  Once they stopped appearing, we decided to get out of the temple.  We took the maimed servant with us and teleported to Verbobonc.