Cleric Log: After Abjuration date Year 30 (08/11 Session 3)

This was a really cool session, Adam came up with a great idea, and everyone seemed to love it. Thanks a lot.

Kharduum Steepmine (Hill Dwarf Cleric)

Vonmond (Dwarf fighter)

Kamakani (Half Elf Paladin)

Roza Chance (Tiefling Sorcerer)

Rhaenys (Wood Elf Ranger)

Ashford (Human Druid)

Some time had passed since the palaver at the volcano, there had been rumours of strange sounds and shadows in the forest neighbouring the outpost, but the woods were magical in nature, so people didn't seem too worried. Ashford had said that his allotment felt creepy after dark.

Vonmond and I had just finished the Almshouse, keystones were holding and the capstones were polished. We cracked open a couple of ring-pull tankards to celebrate, but we'd barely started supping before we noticed something peculiar, a hatch in the floor, glowing with Abjuration magic, "Do not Enter With Fewer than Five People" read its inscription, very odd, glowing magical signs are rarely written in common. Even more odd, neither of us remembered ever seeing it before.

We stuck our heads out of the door and called out to our friends, no one could recall seeing the hatch before. Rhaenys strolled over with no pretense and pulled open the hatch, narrow stairs headed down and we had to descend single file, the stone was the same as the workshop that we'd used to construct the Almshouse.

When we reached the bottom, there was a 20ft room lit by glowing orbs, with a large vault door emblazoned with the House Cannith symbol. The were runes that read warned us we may face the most dangerous quarry in existence, and once we entered we had to leave within 24 hours, and not take anything with us, there was a large Orb glowing with enchantment magic, I detected that this could be blocked via a simple obstruction if required, there were 5 pedestals surrounding it, and before us another door, this one was locked. From our analysis of the Runes we found that the vault was built by Batholomew Creeditch, Roza felt like she should know of him, but it's almost like a page in her mind had been erased.

Kamakani went back up to the stairs and let the Town Watch know the situation, just in case we ended up trapped.

We put our hands on the pedestals and the door unlocked, but the one we came through slammed shut, the new door opened up into a corridor, there were 6 smashed plaques and 5 doors. Pinned up were two pieces of parchment, Kamakani grabbed them and started reading the first page.

"Hi Guys, Just wanted to let you know that you've been through this before, we're still trying to pick up his work, whatever you do, don't look at the next page, or the real timer will start."

We recognised the handwriting and the signature, Kamakani had written the note himself, but he couldn't remember, and he said he'd never been down here. He also kept suggesting we should kill ourselves, I think that note got to him.

Each door had a note, and they were all from us, the first was a bedroom, it was dusty and seemed untouched, there was a house Cannith robe hung up. A note from me advised us to not mess the room up.

The next room was another similar bedroom, the note said to make ourselves at home, and it seems like we already had.

The third room was a storage room, filled top to bottom with equipment, gems, parchment, plants, minerals, metals and herbs, along with some food.

The fourth room was a lab, huge, but it had seen better days, it was filled with stacks of comprehensive notes.

The fifth room was another lab, this one pristine, with equipment for crafting all manner of magic items.

We went back to the notes, a lot seemed like they were written by us, we decided to go through our own notes, to see what we could make out:

Roza: The vault only open periodically, and has to charge between uses, with the protection spells refreshing every 24 hours.

Kharduum: The opening doors and orb act like some kind of memory airlock, we have to leave before the time is up and have to use to orb to voluntarily erase our memories.

Vonmond: There is something not named encroaching on this plane, it's not natural, we dissected something, it had no working anatomy, what are they?

Rhaenys began going back over the rooms, she looked under the bed, there were eyes multiplied, fixed on her. They disappeared when she blinked.

Vonmond and Kanamaki decide to stay up and carry on reading, while the others tried to rest, as Vonmond stretches his legs, he sees a large grayscale figure, which vanished before the lab door. He followed and heard it above him, watching, saliva dripping from its mouth. It vanishes again.

Quickly, he heads back out into the corridor, but it's there, and it attacks, Vonmond strikes out its legs, Kam comes running, but gets speared clean through by a bone spike that erupts from the creature, Vonmond pulls the creature from him and suplexes it to the ground. The rest of us awake and come running, I hurled a spiritual weapon, a hammer straight from Moradin's forge at it, but to no avail, no one could seem to hurt it.

It vanished as quickly as it appeared out from under our gaze, Kamakani was gravely wounded, Ashford and I used our magic to heal him, and he decided to read the second page of the note we found.

"The creature is from outside, the more we know of it, the worse it is. We have to forget to protect ourselves. We don't think it is sentient, but it lashes out at those who see it."

Restarting our search through the notes, Roza finds writings about a Gem of Seeing, this seems important, especially with what we now knew about the creature. I thought we should be able to craft the item, we had 17 hours left.

We decided to rest first as exhaustion was setting in, Rhaenys kept watch, and kept seeing strange movement, and eyes, lots of eyes. After we're rested, Ashford, Roza and I get to work on the Gem of Seeing, our different magical styles and knowledge should make short work of this. Rhaenys, Vonmond and Kamakani keep searching and watching. They find another note, by a hand they don't recognise.

"*#@$ This, it doesn't make sense, Bartholemew says he made this to save us but it's not working" - Lady Avaleia, it seems she was the one who started destroying the plaques, the first lab and a lot of the documents.

The Gem of Seeing finished, we find that you can hold it up to your eye and see clean through illusions. We step out into the corridor and Ashford looks through the Gem, he sees bodies littered everywhere, seemingly undecayed, like they'd just been temporarily removed from existence, there were also eyes everywhere, looking at us.

Roza takes the Gem and turns invisible, she visits the other rooms to see what she can observe through it, in the bedroom there is a body, it has scrawled "This is not the only shelter" in blood, she heads back and relays this to us, memories of another hatch in the workshop come flooding back. This is where we need to go next.

Creatures start forming ahead of us, we charge through them, Ashford casting entangle to slow them down and we sprint through to the memory airlock. Kamakani insisted we should erase our memories for protection, but the rest of us agreed that it's all or nothing now and we need to stop this creature, many people had already died down here and we were closer to stopping this thing than any before, many had fallen to get us to this stage. There wasn't much time to argue and we covered the orb with a bedroll and triggered the airlock, the creatures slammed up against the closing door and we clambered back up the stairs. The towns watch was at the top, aghast at the sight and sound of us rushing up the stairs in such a feral state.

Kamakani showed Kem Bir the Gem of Seeing, he looked through it in horror, there was no choice now, he had to come with us, we grabbed horses and started galloping towards the Workshop, but the creatures weren't far behind, we were outpacing them, but they were still in sight.

Upon reaching the workshop, Di appeared before us, quickly we asked about Bart Creeditch, he was a registered researcher working on a classified project. There wasn't much time before we heard the creatures approaching the workshop, so we quickly went through open the hatch and found ourselves facing a vault. Quickly, we slammed our hands onto the pedestals and opened the inner door. This vault led to a large domed room housing an enormous, peculiar looking telescope. There was also another brass orb in the room, like the ones powering the workshop above.

In the chair in front of the telescope was a body, Bartholemew Creeditch himself. Kamakani calls out for Di, and she appears in the room, she relays that the device is designed to combat this evil that escaped during the Abjuration, and that Bartholemew believed observation hurts it, that's why it lashes out. A parchment on Barts body says that the memory wiping isn't perfect, that each time he uses it he remembers more, and that puts him in danger from the creature.

That he had recruited people from our Guild to help him, but they didn't survive long, we suddenly remembered, how many ships had set off from the capital, versus how many of us were at the outpost, how many were lost that we couldn't remember.

The note also said that truly seeing the creature was too much for any mortal being, quickly we turned to Di, asking if she could use the device, she advised she'd need a body for that. We started searching the lab as creatures started hammering against the vault door, they'd gotten through the first one and were almost upon us.

There was a Warforged body in the lab, we asked Di if she could download herself into the body, she could, but it would take some time. Everyone else started to barricade the vault door, while I did everything I could to root Di's spirit, consciousness, whatever she truly was, to the Warforged body. It worked and not a moment too late, the unnamed creatures started bursting into the room. Kamakani and I started taking Di over to the device, but enormous bone swords shot forth from the abomination and speared her, I empowered Kamakani and he wrenched her free (most of her) and threw her into he chair, she took the gem and looked through the telescope at some unseen horror. It was over almost instantly, the creatures just turned to dust and were no more.

"Done, how else can I help" Di nonchalantly beamed.

I healed Di's new body and we made our way back to the outpost, our memories returning, as we realised how many people we'd lost.

We made our way back down to the vault and started bringing up the bodies of all of the people, now that they seemed to exist in our place once more. The supplies, tools and equipment were also brought to the surface.

Roza started collecting all of the documents and research notes, and started to assemble a library with Vonmond assisting with the structure. She hoped to install Di as the friendly librarian.

Kamakani continued organising the towns watch, he also wished to teach Di some martial abilities, that should be fun, I'd love to see her throw down.

Rhaenys went back to hunting and ranging the surrounding areas, while Ashford continued tending his allotment.

I started casting greater repose on as many victims of Creeditch and the beast as I my strength would allow, it's only a temporary measure, but hopefully it will give us a chance to save them, Ashford helped me as much as he could.

I wish I could contact my temple, but it is too remote and distant, by Moradin's beard. I truly wish my mentor Lodrom was here, he would have the power to help, If only I could live up to his example, forever I feel I'm but a pale imitation of him.

Whilst we were victorious this day, and expunged a great evil from this world, the cost was high, but hopefully the supplies we found tide the outpost over for a while, Moradin help us.