A Reflective Transaction, Part 2
Word has reached me of your power and great deeds. I require strong adventurers to carry out an important transaction on my behalf, as I have had a few setbacks lately and can no longer complete it myself. You can expect a handsome reward of gold and treasure in exchange for your discrete services.
- Ezekiel Mendoza
Recap
Merrick, Nyra, Rez, and Yulvik awake the next morning deciding it is time to stir up more trouble. Nyra sneaks a peek into the payment bag and finds a Bag of Holding with a wild amount of coins and gems inside. Merrick later, in front of all, dumps the whole thing out, revealing an aggressive elemental which they manage to shove back inside before things get out of hand. Also, something like a Hags Eye, which Rez immediately destroys.
After making easy work of a difficult trail over icy cliffs, they find themselves at the one landmark they received: an old altar. Two large Nagas stand guard, however, they seem a bit odd and behave more like constructs than true monstrosities. The party realizes there is no getting around them, and with some quick and heavy blows manage to bring both Nagas down despite repeated magical attempts to keep the party at bay.
Nyra shoves the altar aside, revealing an underground entrance to winding tunnels. Yulvik draws excellent chalk lines which makes it incredibly easy to find their way out later. With some keen listening, Nyra guides them to a large cavern where a Liondrake and a lion-like Sphinx lie in wait. The Sphinx asks for the passphrase, which no one knows or can guess, and in the meantime she manages to seriously piss off Merrick with her vague wordplay… combat ensues!
The Liondrake paralyzes Yulvik and Rez with a mighty roar, but it doesn’t last long and the entire party works together to handle the threat. Yulvik shows he’s great at fighting in the dark and Rez survives a direct attack from the Sphinx, demonstrating great bravery in the face of danger after coming out of hiding to support their team. Nyra soaks up and deals a ridiculous amount of damage as Merrick and Fang work closely together in a bloodrage to hack away at the slippery Sphinx. In the end the overly cocky Sphinx tries to retreat, but the team doesn’t let it get away.
The party breaks into the storage room where they do find the mirror for the transaction. Tension ensues as they debate what to do. Ultimately, Yulvik insists on completing the delivery and does not allow the Mirror to be destroyed, carrying it down the mountain himself. The rest wait in the tunnels for a week but no one arrives. At that point they decide to ransack the place and find a good amount of gold and items. Yulvik arrives at Ezekiel’s house to find it many months abandoned… which is strange. The party finds it in the same condition as Yulvik, the mirror hung carefully in one of the bedrooms. From what the party can tell from plant growth, it’s been about 8 years since they first arrived here. Nobody finds this satisfactory but not much is left to be done, so they head back to Luck…
And so the story ends. For now.