S10E13 - Soulmonger Destroyed

The session picks up with the necrotic levitating aberration polymorphed into a bird and the soulmonger’s pillar destroyed by firebolts.

The bird-aberration darts at Ellie and pecks her. Sophi misty-steps to the platform, snatches the bird, and shoves it into the cage she once used for Coco, her old pet bird. Ellie takes necrotic damage from the caged bird, which is still very much an aberration inside. She walks through the misty archway gate behind her and finds a chapel made of black obsidian and basalt. Inside: a sewn leather bag the size of a human body and six one-eyed dog-like creatures chained to the walls. Not exactly welcoming. She decides against venturing further alone and retreats.

She transforms into a wolf spider, seizes Sophi with her jaws, knocks the caged bird into the lava, then climbs up the wall and across the ceiling of the massive room. A round later, the bird rises from the lava pit, dripping molten rock, and hurls itself at her. Over the next few rounds, Ellie manages to maintain concentration on her polymorph spell despite getting attacked five times. Once they reach the other side of the cavern, Chos casts Sleep on the bird, felling it. They all flee for their lives, following Fionghan, who knows the way out from his previous escape.

Right before they leave the central staircase, once they’re back up to the first level of the tomb, they hear the furious screech of the bird. It has roused from sleep and is struggling to find its way to the room in the dark. The heroes escape through a tunnel Chos opens with a Mold Earth spell, then take a hard-earned rest in one of the buildings in Omu, perfectly happy to have achieved their objective without meeting Acererak, the lich behind the SoulMonger and all their troubles for the last couple of months.

The next day, the heroes visit the yuan-ti, meet their leader, Ras Nsi, who now owes them his life, and rescue Carnivore, who appears to have sustained some damage below the belt, and Sophi’s sister, Ada, who is miraculously alive despite all the torture and abuse but is now blind and barely functional. After that, the party leaves Omu, narrowly avoiding an ambush from the yuan-ti whose gratitude isn’t weighing as much as their desire to keep Omu’s location a secret. Three weeks of travel later, they arrive back in Port Nyanzaru.

Back in Port Nyanzaru, all their friends welcome them, and the city merchant lords celebrate a feast in their honor and gift them land, workers, and materials to build a villa. Then comes the question of what to do next.

Sophi, along with Ada and Carnivore, heads to the Temple of the Hollow Sand in the mountains south of the Red Sea to find a cleric who can regenerate Ada’s eyes and Carnivore’s reproductive organs. Krariak sets out for distant volcanic wastelands after being visited in his dreams by a ghostly warrior who invites him to inherit the Furyfang Axe, which is seeking a new master. Ellie and Chos leave behind their kids and lovers (Tiny Timmy, Skydancer, Betty, and Princess Mwaxanare) and head to the Ice Kingdoms, where Ellie has been summoned.

And that’s the end of this season! Thanks Wizards of the Coast for a great adventure!