Mission 8 - High Hall

[!abstract] The Job
Clear High Hall and find help in its catacombs.

High Hall

The keep is partly destroyed and heavily charred. Two hellhounds guard the gate. I charge, but before I can reach them, Mike's lightning bolt and Salah's guiding bolt drop both. The entrance is a column-lined hallway, some columns carved in honor of Torm, others defaced with Zariel's sigil. Beyond a closed door is a foyer.

Behind a curtain, an altar with a lever beside it. A big devil patrols the altar, flanked by six black-robed humans. They spot us, and I yelp a warning.

Thomas sweeps the curtain aside and drops a fireball that turns the cultists to ash and doesn't faze the devil. I rush in, slash and bash. Mike hits it with a ray of frost; nothing. The devil unleashes a flurry on me and I dodge every one. After a few rounds of stalemate, Lulu flies in and blasts it with a trumpet of sparkles, melting it into confetti. I've seen a lot of things die. Confetti is new.

In an alcove north of the altar we find Seltern Obranch, a druid and the last of the temple's defenders to fall in this area. A large force of devils assaulted the cathedral. Everyone left alive fled to the crypts. He's been keeping his friends alive with goodberry. (Finally, someone who understands the importance of a snack.)

Upstairs, a massive pipe organ. Cowering in the northern tower, a guard named Trevick Fanthorm, whom we coax out. Before heading back down, Salah sits at the organ and plays a little ditty that fills us all with inspiration. From the railing we watch a patrol of eight giant crabs and a devil go by, and wait until they're gone.

At the rear of the temple, another curtain hides a desecrated private altar, another devil, and eight more giant crabs. They rush me. I crit the devil and step back out of reach. Thomas lifts the curtain and throws a fireball, killing every crab and doing nothing to the devil. The devil clips Baktha. I step up and crit again. Salah lands a guiding bolt, and Baktha finishes him.

The Catacombs

Two towers behind the altar are destroyed. We head down into the catacombs. In an ossuary to the west, a few survivors are hiding. Salah notices a sarcophagus that's been tampered with and pries it open. A mummy pours out. I whack it, Salah blasts it, it whacks me. Another round and Salah finishes it. It wears bracers of defense +2, which Mike claims, ditching his studded leather, and a golden symbol of Baphomet around its neck. That's a curious thing to find in a Torm temple.

Up the north hallway is a hall of scholars with a potion and some red amethysts. Near the entrance, Baktha notices a greatsword resting in an ossuary. It looks like a sword of legend, but strangely not magical.

We meet Pherria Jynks, timid until she sees Baktha and Salah wearing the symbols of Torm. She carries the tome of the Creed Resolute, a codex listing every citizen of Elturel who has taken the oath to Elturgard. She's reluctant to share more, unsure whether she can protect it. All the names across the ages are in the same handwriting, so someone has been guarding this for ages.

We use a wand at a wall and discover a secret door, and the same wand reveals the greatsword as a Holy Avenger. Salah dips it in a fountain of holy water and says a prayer of reconsecration, and hands it to Baktha. Baktha, delighted with his new toy, hands me his silvered longsword. I hand the mace back to Salah.

The secret door leads to a tunnel to a cemetery on the west side of Elturel. Phyria says Ulder Ravengard left through this tunnel days ago and should be back by now. We take a long rest in the catacombs. Reya decides to stay with her people, as is her charge. We leave a scroll of thunderwave to help protect the refugees, and, after a prayer to Torm, we part ways with her. A quiet, earnest goodbye. I'm not saying it got to me.

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