Session 13 - The Fear of Flames

This is the 13th session of the game Ashes.

Summary
The party waiting in anticipation to begin the fight with the Barlgura, and heard the following coversation in the meantime:

(B is the Barlgura, C1+2 are two of the cultists)

B “I hunger. I desire manflesh.”

C1 “You can have one when we are done questioning them.”

B “That one no longer moves.”

C1 “Avard, do you need the dead man any more?”

C2 “No, those other two put too many holes in him.”

C1 “It’s all yours.”

Barlgura moves to the cage with the man slightly wrapped in a carpet and opens it, starts to eat him.

C2 “How is the progress?”

C1 “We still need more time, The Face requires us to dig deeper, he is angry at our lack of progress. But in all honesty, finding the Soulkeep and this woman has proven to be a goose chase. If the Face cannot find her, how can we?”

C2 “Will it require more manpower?”

C1 “We could use another one like the big guy, but digging isn’t the problem, it’s finding this woman.”

C2 “I will contact the Face, with the way things are going he will have to concede to our requests. He will bring The Hands. The Hands will make us something that can find this woman. After that, we can finish the Rite.

The party then attacked the cultist and the Barlgura. During the fight, Astraea went down several times as it seemed like the Barlgura was targeting her. She was brought up by Elias and Autumn. The fight ended when Themus killed one of the last remaining cultists and kicked him into the cauldron of fire. The party had knocked one of the other main cultists unconscious.

Within the cages were the two carpet merchants that Degdin had offered the party money to find. In another cell, the party found a man named Mikael who was apparently a prisoner who escaped from a city far below the ground and wanted to look for his friends. The last two cells had a gnomish man who died shortly after he was freed due to the harsh conditions. Elias eased his pain before his death. In the last cell was the dead man wrapped slightly in the carpet who seemed to have many knife wounds up and down his body. The carpet merchants explained that they're contract killers and that nobody buys carpets down here to buy carpets. Buying carpets means they want someone dead. The merchants leave to head back to Honeybridge. The party agrees that Mikael can travel with them until he finds his friends. The party investigates their surroundings, both branching tunnels are checked, one seems to be where the Barlgura was digging a hole trying to find the Soulkeep, the other is a very long tunnel heading downward.

Acaelus examined the cauldron and learned that it works as a summoning circle, a teleportation circle, and a communication device. The party tries to push over the cauldron to no avail.

After everyone is reassembled, Emeran begins the interrogation of the cultist they kept alive. He establishes quickly that he will be taking the interrogation seriously. With the questioning, the cultist says a few things about what they are: They are a group of people who worship the flames. They believe that the world and people are impure and that the only way to reach salvation is through the ashes. They were there trying to find Sybil for their leader The Face. After Emeran is satisfied with the information he tossed the cultist into the fire. Acaelus quickly killed the man before he hit the pyre, not wanting to give him a death he would want.

The room became pretty tense after this, with Autumn commenting how the whole affair was intense, and that he's never had to do anything like this before. Acaelus tells a story during his time in the war about letting a group of Blackdale soldiers go because they were unarmed. Those they let go burned the next village over and killed many civilians. He explains that he has had trust issues since then, and has learned to not take prisoners.

The party decided to leave, venture for a time before setting in for a long rest. They found a large enough cave for all of them and settled in for some cards and downtime. Flora won a hand of Buyway Hold 'Em. During this time the discussion about the interrogation came up again. Themus suggested that Emeran had done interrogations before given how comfortable he was with it. Acaelus told Emeran that whatever he could understand what he might be feeling, given his war experience. Emeran hugged him and whispered, "It was much worse."

The party went to rest for the night. Autumn and Acaelus had first watch together and Autumn talked about how his entire village in the Feywild was much the same as the village described in Acaelus's story and talked about how the Long Summer and the Yellow King affected his life. During Elias and Emeran's watch the two of them talked about how they're both holy men but don't seem to follow a specific god or how they might not believe in them, but Elias clarified that he thinks that Yenna is up there, but that she doesn't specifically watch over, or care about him. They also talked about the violence of the death of the cultist. Themus and Astraea talked about how Flora might do well in a cat show, and that she's a great cat.

The party spent the next two days traveling downward with no issue. At the end of the two days, they reached a network of tunnels in the Northern Hub. Mikael seemed to know which direction his friends were likely in and offered to go ahead with Themus to scout it out. Acaelus caught wind that Mikael didn't seem all that honest. Right before entering a chamber ahead, Mikael pulled out a dagger, apologized, and stabbed Themus, shouting ahead "Guys! I got him!".

The party was attacked by some of the Carposi Family thugs, during the first round Themus was knocked unconscious by a volley of crossbow bolts. But despite that, he was picked back up, and the thugs were handily knocked unconscious by the party. The leader of the posse explained that they were there to hunt down and capture a gold-skinned tiefling, Themus's Uncle. After questioning the man, Themus decided to let them go, convincing them that he would kill the golden-skinned man himself.

The party pressed onward into uncharted territory. Another hours journey still turned up nothing, but suddenly Astraea's shoulder started to glow. The mote of light shone through her cloak in the front and out the back like a bullet hole and caused some mild pain. Her eyes were glowing, and her natural tattoos started to glow. It became apparent that she could no longer hide her secret, and revealed to the group that she was an Aasimar.

She then felt a tugging feeling towards one of the cavern walls. The party found a hidden entrance. With Astraea leading the group they marched down the hidden path, seemingly finding what Sybil referred to as a little piece of home. They entered a white glowing hallway which resembled the Ruins of the Allmother, except this stone was active, unlike the inert stone they've seen before. The hall led to a massive chamber, and within a glowing castle made from the same stone, swooping and curved, almost alien. There was a symbol on the castle that appeared to be the symbol of Lanik the Pater. As Astraea approached the door she assumed her full Aasimar appearance glowing golden, with ethereal wings. She touched one of the walls of the castle, and suddenly the door started to open.