Pharast 4, 4712
Following their fight with Yarrix, the Coopers and their henchmen spent the night waiting for Rowen, as he surely will come out of the temporal trap. Eventually, in the early hours of what they think is the morning, Rowen returns, exhausted from all the running.
Roscoe advises the rest of the party that he will remain behind with Omok and Iomane to consecrate this space. They will remain in this room while the Coopers continue exploring.
Entering in the next room, Thorne opens the door and discovers that the whole room itself is a giant trap designed to drop oil and ignite the room, and its occupants, when the far door is opened. Clearly it was thought that attackers would come from the east. Gerald suggests they open the door to set off the trap by hooking a rope to the door and then pulling it open. Thorne retorts it would be better to cast knock. Gerald says he has both knock and open, so he will cast a spell. Unfortunately for him, he steps back in Yarrix's sarcophagus room to protect himself and casts open, forgetting that any spell cast in the room also takes place there. The door opens, the trap triggers and the oil catches on fire. Gerald is flattened not by the explosion in the next room, but by the sarcophagus' lid, which opens up and smashes him.
After the Coopers dig Gerald from under the ruined stone pieces, Darelle, Gerald and Rowen decide to go through the exploded room and check out the door they just opened. Daryle and Thorne, for their part, head back into the main room with the fountain and begin looking for secret doors, suspecting that this room should connect with the area currently being explored by the other members of the party.
Gerald discovers that the next room is a large circular hole, with hand and feet holes strategically placed around the curving wall to allow a person to carefully climb across. The sorcerer begins to move on the northern wall, but then he stirs up some type of cave birds. Gerald backs up and lets a fireball loose in the room. Stepping back into the room, they see that the birds have been vaporized. Gerald begins crossing the room again. In one of the hand holes he discovers a pair of gauntlets. As he reached to grab them, a large bebilith, unnoticed by the party, slitters from higher in the room and silently drops on the sorcerer. Her sting immediately paralyses him and he is unable to scream and let his sister and Rowen know he's being attacked. Darelle, for her part, is looking at the pit and wondering how deep it goes, while Rowen is busy examining the mechanism that triggered the trap in the other room.
While this is happening, Thorne and Daryle check for secrets doors, and the rogue finds one. Entering the room, they discover there are two mummies and an emerald automaton who engage. Upon departing the room, however, they all stop fighting and return to their positions. The Coopers devise a clever strategy to start a series of fire and are eventually able to destroy the creatures and disable the automaton.
Back in the room with the hole, the spider continues to attack Gerald who, even in his misfortune manages to hang on to the wall and the gloves as he passes out, surely due to being fully rigid. Rowen notices Gerald and the large spider munching on him, and he immediately attacks. Darelle follow Rowen and begins to help her brother. The fighting is hard, but eventually the Coopers triumph over the spider. Its corpse drops down in the pit, then drops again from the ceiling. As it continues to drop, it becomes progressively more crushed. If Gerald had fallen, he would have died. Rowen casts fly, and he gently retrieves Gerald's unconscious body from the hand holds. He sees the sorcerer clutching the gauntlets, so he retrieves them and places them in his own bag.
Thorne and Daryle follow the path and enter the pit room from the other side. They carefully cross over the pit. Daryle heals Gerald. Coming back to life, the sorcerer notices that his gauntlets are missing. Rowen and Gerald almost come to blows, but eventually Gerald recuperates the gauntlets.
Exploring the holes, Darelle finds 150 crowns as well as two emerald teeth of fine craftmanship. These coins appear to be Azlanti in origin.
The party returns to see Roscoe. Gerald announces he's got a great plan. Having suffered a catastrophic drop in Constitution, he will kill himself and Roscoe can use the wand of resurrection to bring him back to life. Roscoe says no, he can't abide such a decision. Gerald will have to find a different solution to his problem.
The Coopers decide to return to Fort Inevitable to help Gerald recuperate. Having defeated Yarrix, the seals to the outside doors have been broken, and they are able to leave. Gerald gives Darelle the wand of shield (22 charges), and the party treks back to Fort Inevitable.
Pharast 5, 4712
After a good night's rest, the Coopers go about their various activities. Gerald meets Cassandra on the road to town and she pointedly ignores him.Thorne was successful in acquiring the devil's caravan, and he puts out the word among the upper echelons of the Hellknights that the Mistress of Thorns have failed to provide the food she promised. He also spreads the rumor that the Hellknights have failed to provide the food but he will. The plan is to borrow more money and increase taxes at tax time but food will be on the table tomorrow.
Rowen meets Dr. Mordel and discusses his current phobia.The good doctor tells him that there isn't much he can do for him, as the wizard would be better off with a mental health specialist. He will need to learn how to deal with his own issues. Darelle visit Falandra Nolm and gets news from Abernard. The old man sent her a letter recently stating he had found the rare flower he was seeking in Belfroy and he was on his way back. She also consults the book seller on the emerald teeth. Falandra tells Darelle that these are genuine, and worth much to the right collector.
Seeking a solution to his problems, Gerald visits the temple, where he is not so kindly turned away. He also visits Falandra and offers her mummy wrapping for spell components. He then hobbles to Dr. Mordel, hoping the good doctor will be able to help him. Unfortunately, Mordel also tells him he wants nothing to do with this activity. But assuming that he would participate, Mordel outlines how he would go about removing the aberration in Gerald's chest.
Armed with this knowledge, Gerald gets the wand of resurrection back and makes a deal with Rowen to meet him at the wizard's cottage where Rowen will operate on him. On his way there, Gerald runs into Cassandra again, but this time she seems happy to see him. She asks him if she can come with him, but he declines.
Gerald heads with Rowen to the latter's cottage and they go in the basement. In a very gruesome procedure, Rowen cuts a strange slimy green creature from Gerald's chest while he's still alive, then he kills him. For a few moments Rowen toys with the idea of not bringing Gerald back, but in the end he uses the wand of resurrection and brings Gerald back. Now healthy again, Gerald brings the aberration to Dr. Mordel, but he also keeps several samples for his own personal use. Over the next few weeks Gerald plans on studying this creature with the good doctor.
Pharast 6, 4712
A caravan of four wagons arrive in Fort Inevitable. The simple food stuff is distributed to the starving people, but all of the best food is visibly delivered to the Citadel, per Thorne's orders. The people grumble.
Gerald presents himself at the Temple of the Golden Key to conduct a banishment ritual. He lays down on comfortable bed and for twelve hours the priestess and her disciples sing a lyrical prayer. Upon the conclusion of the ritual, Gerald's creature is banished.
Pharast 9, 4712
Daryle and Darelle get their seeds ready for the garden at Shadowborn Manor. Spring should be coming any day now...
