Session 27 - Reborn in Stone

This is the 27th session of the game Ashes

Summary
The party finished their rest in Jenny's home and after asking some questions to her about living in Granite, the party headed outside to see the results of the battle between the elementals that had just taken place. As they stepped out into Granite they witnessed the death of a Galeb Duhr at the hands of a quite large Elemental that appeared more like a stone knight than a collection of rocks, and additionally, there were various humanoids seemingly working with the Elementals. The party steadied themselves and began to fight for Granite.

During the fight, Elias was knocked unconscious by the Elemental Knight, and after being picked up only to be knocked back down after two Shatter spells, and rolling a natural 1 on his death save, Elias died. The party finished fighting off the Elementals, and what turned out to be Earth Genasi, and looked over their dead friend. The party considered for a time what to do, as the only person in the party who could bring people back from the dead had died. Ultimately the party decided to try and find the grove where the Galeb Duhr resides to see if they could help, as opposed to going back to Silverton or going forward. Jenny was able to take the group to the grove that the Galeb Duhr watch over, and discover this unusual cave outside of Granite. The party entered a room with the few remaining Galeb Duhr which had 5 raised and curved white stone pillar resembling a hand. Where the palm would be for this stone hand a greyish glowing light. The party asked the Galeb Duhr if they could help Elias. The Duhr told them that there is a chance he could be healed, but said that "he" had not spoken for quite some time, and that maybe he would speak to Elias. The party lowered the body of Elias into the center of the circle where the pillars were.

After some time Elias shot back up alive amidst flashes of glowing white light. When the light faded the party witnessed that he was vaguely taller, his skin had turned greyish, and he bore a runic tattoo on his face that he didn't have before. He claimed to speak with some sort of being from the earth who asked him questions about what his life was worth and said that in order to come back he had to give up his faith to Yenna, the Arbiter. He agreed to the deal, echoing the words of the being, "For a time, you are mine." realizing that he would be changed until he completed some kind of task for what the Galeb Duhr referred to as the Stonespeaker. With Elias back, though changed, the party decided to rest for the evening here in the grove and to try and track down the wizard creating the elementals in the morning.

The next day the party returned to Granite and headed towards their only lead which seemed to be near the end of the road out of the city. On their approach, they encountered the black carriage of Petrov and the mysterious Lady in the backseat. The carriage was broken and laying sideways off of the road. The party approached and looked inside to see the lady distraught over the dead corpse of Petrov. It seems as though she cannot speak, and so Emeran had her write down her name on parchment, her name being Nikita. She agreed to accompany the party, setting torch to her carriage with the help of Acaelus before heading back on the road.

The party reached the end of the road out of town and saw that there was a large boulder blocking the path. They were then surrounded by more earth elementals and Genasi, as well as a mysterious figure who looked to be infected by some kind of blue crystals that ran up and down his body. Emeran called out for the fighting to stop, and one of the Genasi said that they could leave, the large boulder in the path then began floating, seemingly caused by the odd Crystal man. When asked why they were attacking the city the Genasi looked back at the Crystal man and uttered "I don't know." and crazily smiling. The party fought and killed the Genasi, Earth Elementals, and the Crystal Man.