Session #8: The Escape To Hell

The party headed up the stairs with Akta in tow. At the next floor, they found another long corridor with lots of cells. Azeri briefly checked one or two, but found nothing of interest. They did however run into two more guards, having failed to be particularly stealthy. The guards proved little challenge, though, and the party quickly made their way up to the next floor. From here they could see the exit to the prison, guarded by another human male. They failed to sneak up on this one as well, but he proved no more difficult than the rest of them. (In a particularly epic moment during the fight, the guard shot at Azeri with his crossbow, and both Edge and Taumir used shield effects to turn the attack back on him, killing him with his own attack!)

Exiting the prison, Tselem disguised himself as Regdar, and bluffed the gatekeeper that they were transferring the prisoner to a different location. They made their exit and snuck into the city of Korth. Akta expressed the desire to contact her family, whom she hadn't seen in 15 years. Wary of the House Deneith mercenaries who were surely about to be pursuing them, Taumir suggested they find someplace to hide, then worry about stuff like that. Someone he once knew from his time as a spy lived here in town, a half-elf named Elfrich, so they set out to find him.

Finding Elfrich took some time, but they eventually found his clock shop. He was very surprised to see Taumir, but agreed to help him. He closed the shop, and they all went up into his apartment above it. After some discussion, they asked Elfrich to go and buy them passage on a caravan while they laid low. He agreed, collected 5 GP from each of them, and left. While he was gone, the party and Akta caught up on what she had been doing the last 15 years (not much besides languishing in a dungeon) and how they had come to know she was there. Akta said she didn't really know what Zelian wanted, but had a good idea of what this was about. She pulls up the long sleeve of her dress to reveal that she has a dragonmark! No tiefling has ever, in the entire history of the world, developed a dragonmark, least of all the Mark of Sentinel!

The party was stunned by this development, and realized the danger that this posed. Tselem hit on the idea of hiding the mark using the Conceal Dragonmark ritual. They needed some spell components for it though, so Tselem transformed himself into a nondescript human, went out, bought them, and sent a message that Akta had written down for him. Returning, they performed the ritual, effectively wiping away the dragonmark from her arm. Akta was so relived that she wept.

A few minutes later, Elfrich returned with the tickets, and said they should probably be going now. They snuck out the back of the shop, and found a human guard waiting for them. He was way out of his depth though, and the party eliminated him with a single strike. They quietly but quickly made their way to the caravan office, and within a few minutes boarded the coach that would take them to Varna.

They were able to leave town without further incident, and traveled to a fort across the river (a few hours away). There the caravan camped for the night, and the party was finally able to rest after this exhausting day!

The next morning, the 16th day of Eyre, dawned, and the party roused themselves for breakfast, finally refreshed. As they were about to depart, however, a horrible sound rent the morning air, and a portal opened up in the field nearby them. Out of it spilled three demons and two gnolls. These infernal creatures rushed the party immediately, bent on the their destruction. The party fought responded forcefully, and stood their ground against the beasts. Tselem was particularly effective with a zone of poisonous gas. Before long the abominations had been destroyed. As the dust settled, they realized the other coaches and their passengers had fled, including their own driver, leaving them with a coach but otherwise alone.

Rewards

• 1,750 XP each! Time to level up!
• Edge got 3 GP off that guard.