13.4 The Rune Heart Awakens (Milestone - 14th Level!)

SESSION DATE: June 21, 2025
PRESENT: Rory, Calanthia, Kemurial, Freya

Deep Dive

![[Rory - 13_4 The Rune Heart Awakens.wav]]

Adventure Photos

![[A Skeleton Cannoneer Fires His Cannon.mp4]]

Adventure Song & Lyrics

![[The Rune Heart Awakens.mp3]]

[Verse 1]
Down beneath the stone and shadow
Where the prisoner's face changed form
Old man, young woman, mystery hollow
Truth dissolved in metamorphic storm
Kemurial's light cuts through the darkness
While Calanthia picks each lock with care
Rory's rage burns fierce and heartless
As the dead rise from their lair

[Chorus]
The Rune Heart awakens from its slumber deep
Ancient power stirring from eternal sleep
Through the webs and bones we fought to find the way
The Rune Heart awakens, lighting up the day

[Verse 2]
Ghosts of cannon smoke and thunder
Phase spiders dancing in and out of sight
Driders weaving death and plunder
While Freya's flames burn through the night
Friar Karl's prayers echo softly
Guardian spirits standing at our side
Sacred weapon swinging loftily
As the graveyard's children died

[Bridge]
Three gems of green and purple fire
Fitting sockets like a key
Unlocking what we most desire
Setting bound magic free

[Chorus]
The Rune Heart awakens from its slumber deep
Ancient power stirring from eternal sleep
Through the webs and bones we fought to find the way
The Rune Heart awakens, lighting up the day

[Solo]

[Verse 3]
Ley lines flowing like a river
Through the corridors of stone
Crystal pulse begins to shiver
Power claimed, no longer alone
Thirty-three thousand gold pieces
For the heart we brought to beat
But the real reward increases
When broken magic feels complete

[Chorus]
The Rune Heart awakens from its slumber deep
Ancient power stirring from eternal sleep
Through the webs and bones we fought to find the way
The Rune Heart awakens, lighting up the day

[Chorus]
The Rune Heart awakens, energy set free
Four companions bound by shared destiny
From the depths we climbed to see the light of day
The Rune Heart awakens, showing us the way

World Anvil Journal

sooo... kimiweel wanted to attune hith new thingth tho we wethted again and fwaya wed her buk thome mowe. then thith guawd wuthhed in and whithpewd to makth about the pwithonew and oh boy wath that cwaythee. the woman we cot tuwnth out tho be thome kind of thape thiftew ow thomethin becauth when they took hew to the thtockade the pwithonew jutht dwoppth ded and tuwnth into an old man. WHAT ITH GOING ON. the clewikth awe twying to figuw it out but we decided to keep going and find the wune heawt.

we wint thwu thome mowe doowth and wite away thew wewe undead thingth evewywhewe. goolth and thkewetinth and one of thothe thkewetinth had a big canin and kept thaying AHOY wike a piwate. that wath akshuwwy kind of funny but he almotht bwew kimiweel up. thew wath awtho thith wowwing gwave yawd wevenint thing that wath jutht a big pile of bodieth that twied to pawath... pawathy... make me tho i couldnt move. it wowked fow a while but dady kawl helped me thnap out of it with hith owithonth.

thin we wint to thith woom covewed in thpidew webth and it wath DITHGUTHTING. theww wewe gient thpideth and thome thpidewth that wewe half dwow called dwidewth and thome phathe thpidewth that could dithappeaw and weappew. cawanthia and fwaya buwnth down motht of the webth and i wath bweathing fier to buwnth the wetht. i awtho cot thome of the dwidewth hidin in the webth by acthident which wath gwate.

win we finithhed the thpidew fight we found a puwple jim in thith offithe and cawanthia had a weally thmart idea. she thaid the gween jimth mite fit in the eyth and the puwple jim mite fit in the mowth of that mathkd doow we thaw eawliew. and she wath WITE. win we put all thwee jimth in the wite thpotth the doow opind.

inthide wath thith altaw woom with chaiws and a big twiangle jim that wath all cweer and dead wooking. cawanthia put the thwee jimth fwom the mathk into the thwee thpotth on the big jim and then WHOOTH thew wath thith huge buwtht of wite and enewgy and all thethe magicawl winth thtawted wunning thwough the floow evewywhewe. I THINK WE FOwND THE WUNE HEAWT. it wath jutht like makth thaid it wud be.

we wint bak to makth and he wath tho happy when we told him we wethtowed the wune heawt. he gave uth a big wewawd to thpwit between all of uth. now we need to go tawk to ulwika and find out whath happening with the chaoth fowtheth.

dwaugnir pweethe keep waching ovew uth ath we twy to pwotect thith thity and help theethe people. i no mom and dad wud want me to help whenevew i can. i hope we can thave thith pwathe and maybe find thome cwueth abowt whewe they awe.

Private Notes

• Kemurial wants to reattune items, so we take a second short rest to accommodate that. Freya also reads for another hour, so she's currently at 10 of the required 48 hours.
• At the end of our second rest, a guard rushes into Max and whispers to him. "We have no idea what happened, we're doing an investigation." Kemurial asks what's going on. It seems that as they took the prisoner into the stockades, the prisoner died. She fell to the floor. When they turned the body over, she had turned into an old man. WUT? They're calling in a few clerics. We'll stay down here and finish exploring this area and hopefully find the Rune Heart. In the meantime, hopefully the clerics and guards can do their investigation and get some more information. Rory suggests having the clerics try speaking with the dead.
• We decide to continue through the southern doors in the room where we short rested. Calanthia checks for traps, and finds none. She tries to unlock the doors, and is successful. Kemurial opens the doors. The first thing he sees are a few undead creatures. They notice him thanks to the bright light emanating from him. INITIATIVE!!!

  • Round 1

    • Kemurial - Lightning Lure, targets makes save, Bonus Action Divine Favor.
    • Calanthia - Shoots, hits for massive damage.
    • Ghouls - Move up to Kemurial, misses.
    • Friar Karl - Guardian of Faith
    • Freya - Scorching Rays, all hit.
    • Ghoul - Moves into our room, gets hit by the Guardian of Faith. Two attacks at Kemurial, missing both times.
    • Rory - Rage, moves in, has flanking thanks to Kemurial, CRITS, kills one, hits another, killing it as well. Move up next to Kemurial at the other door to block the path.
    • Ghouls - Move up toward the door.
    • Skeleton - Moves up, shoots at Rory but misses.
    • Skeleton Cannoneer - Moves up, shoots and misses Rory.
    • Skeletons - One of them hits Rory. Another misses Kemurial.
    • Ghoul - Moves up.
    • Skeletons - Move up, fires and misses Rory.
    • Graveyard Revenant - Roiling mound of bodies rolls around the corner, then uses its Haunting Gaze ability. Kemurial makes his save, but Rory fails. Rory is paralyzed. Then it retreats.

  • Round 2

    • Kemurial - Quickened Spell Lightning Bolt, Elemental Affinity to add some extra damage, saves were about half-and-half, but he still killed all but one ghoul in the attack. Awesome! Booming Blade scimitar swing at the remaining ghoul, hitting and killing it.
    • Calanthia - Fires at the remaining ghoul, hitting and killing it.
    • Friar Karl - Orisons on Kemurial and Rory.
    • Freya - Moves up and readies an Eldritch Blast at the first target she sees.
    • Rory - Fails save for paralysis, uses Inspiration, fails yet again. Welp.
    • Skeleton Cannoneer - Readies action.
    • Graveyard Revenant - Don't know.

  • Round 3

    • Kemurial - Walks forward. When he passes a corridor, he sees a skeleton pirate standing behind a large cannon. We hear an "AHOY!" just before he fires the cannon at Kemurial. Kemurial saves, but still takes half damage. Ouch! He continues down the hallway. He looks around the corner where the Graveyard Revenant came from. As soon as he peeks around the corner, he gets attacked by the revenant with Suffocate. It would've hit, but Kemurial casts Shield, then moves back behind the corner. Bonus Action to activate Boots of Haste. Moves in to attack the Graveyard Revenant. Sacred Weapon scimitar attack, hits, dealing tons of damage. Second attack hits, doing some good damage, too. Moves back behind the corner again.
    • Calanthia - Moves up to the first corridor. Readies an attack for the first seen enemy.
    • Friar Karl - Orisons on Rory and Kemurial.
    • Freya - Moves up to the first corridor, Fireballs the room the cannoneer and ghoul are in, killing the ghoul. Nice! Backs up again.
    • Rory - Finally makes his save on paralysis thanks to Friar Karl's Orison. Thanks Friar Karl!
    • Skeleton Cannoneer - Readies action presumably.
    • Graveyard Revenant - Moves up into Calanthia's sight, triggering her Readied action. She fires, hitting it, doing some good damage. The revenant then tries to Suffocate Kemurial again, missing twice. Then it backs up.

  • Round 4

    • Kemurial - Moves up to the revenant, hits with scimitar and does good damage. Second attack hits as well, doing more good damage. Hasted attack also hits, more damage. Divine Smite for some more damage.
    • Calanthia - Moves up, hears a familiar "AHOY!" and nearly takes a cannonball to the face, but she deftly evades it. The cannon also has splash damage. Freya, Kemurial and Rory all save, taking half the damage instead.
    • Friar Karl - Orisons on Freya and Rory.
    • Freya - Readies action.
    • Rory - Moves up and sees the cannon being loaded. Before that could be completed, Rory charges in and takes out the cannoneer with a CRIT. The he moves up next to Kemurial.
    • Graveyard Revenant - Moves up into Freya's sight, so she unleashes her held Eldritch Blasts, hitting it all three times. It tries using Suffocate on Rory, missing twice.

  • Round 5

    • Kemurial - Attacks the revenant three times, hitting all three times, doing tons of damage. Divine Smite adds more damage. Nice!
    • Calanthia - Moves into position to attack the revenant, and does so, hitting and killing it.
  • Combat over.
• The revenant leaves a mound of bodies on the floor. We search it along with the rest of the area to see what we can find. For the next ten minutes, Rory will continue his Rage just in case we encounter anything else.
• At the southern end of the corridor is another set of double doors, but these are covered in green noxious-looking spider webs. Calanthia moves in to look for poison. If there is any, she wants to harvest some poison. She warns us to back away as she burns the webs in case they ignite explosively. Rory does so, but they don't explode. She clears us back in. She checks the doors for traps, finding none. She unlocks the doors. Rory moves up to open the doors.
• Inside is a room coated in heavy webs similar to those outside the door. Rory calls for Calanthia to light these up too, but she doesn't seem to want to do that. Kemurial uses Sorcerous Burst to do some fire damage to it. A fire sparks, and we give it some time to spread. It's not spreading very quickly, but we hear a creature screech after. INITIATIVE!!!

  • Round 1

    • Giant Spider - Fires web at Rory, but Rory dodges.
    • Fiendish Giant Spider - Misses Rory with a bite attack.
    • Calanthia - Fires at the non-fiendish giant spider, hitting and killing it. Bonus Action to hide.
    • Fiendish Giant Spider - Moves up and hits Kemurial.
    • Driders - Casts Web at Rory and Kemurial. We both save. They're poisoned though, so we still take poison damage. Ouch. It moves up and casts three Poison Bursts on Kemurial, missing all three times. Another moves up and uses Faerie Fire on Rory and Kemurial. We both save. Suddenly, behind us materializes a Phase Spider!
    • Phase Spider - Materializes behind Kemurial and Rory. It attacks and hits Kemurial, which triggers Rory's Sentinel ability, so Rory takes an opportunity attack on the Phase Spider, hitting it. Kemurial makes his Concentration check. It then disappears again.
    • Friar Karl - Moves up and casts Beacon of Hope. Nice!
    • Rory - Makes save on the web and poison, taking half damage only. Rages, attacks and kills both Fiendish Giant Spiders, then moves back out of the webbed area.
    • Fiendish Giant Spiders - Both attack Kemurial and miss.
    • Giant Spider - Comes out of the webs in front of the door and targets Rory with another Web, but Rory resists.
    • Phase Spider - Materializes behind Rory and misses both bite attacks.
    • Fiendish Giant Spider - Misses Kemurial.
    • Kemurial - Uses his armor as a Bonus Action to go ethereal and move through the wall and retreat into the nearby room. Action to cast 4th Level Cure Wounds, maxed out thanks to the beacon to heal himself for 69 HP. Nice.
    • Freya - Steps over and "trusts Rory" (uh oh). She disregards the Phase Spider right in front of her and shoots a Fireball into the webbed hallway, killing the Fiendish Giant Spiders and hurting the other Giant Spider. Then Eldritch Blasts the Phase Spider, hitting all three times.

  • Round 2

    • Calanthia - Moves across the hall and attacks the Phase Spider, hitting it and killing it.
    • Driders - Runs across the ceiling and attacks Rory three times, but hits only once. Another does the same thing, hitting once.
    • Phase Spider - Don't know.
    • Friar Karl - Dodge.
    • Rory - Moves up next to the burning webs and uses his Breath Weapon to fire a line of fire at the one spider he can see, killing it. He backs up again and uses Second Wind.
    • Kemurial - Lay on Hands to heal his Poisoned condition. Then casts Greater Invisibility on himself.
    • Freya - The parts of the web that were burning finish burning and are gone now. Readies Scorching Ray.

  • Round 3

    • Calanthia - Readies action to attack a Phase Spider should it appear within her sight.
    • Driders - Comes around the corner, triggering Freya's Scorching Rays. She hits the drider with all three rays. This breaks the drider's Concentration. It then attacks Rory three times, missing all three times. The other drider does the same thing, hitting once. They both move back around the corner.
    • Phase Spider - Don't know.
    • Friar Karl - Dodge.
    • Rory - Moves up into the now-partially-cleared webbed corridor. As soon as he crosses the door threshold, a Phase Spider hiding in the webs appears. This triggers Calanthia's attacks. She hits and kills it, saving Rory. Phew! Rory thanks her and moves up to the eastern webs. He breathes fire as far down the hall as possible, inadvertently catching two hidden driders in the flames. Nice! That reveals them, so he stays and makes a second attack, but misses. He then uses Second Wind.
    • Kemurial - Moves up next to Rory and casts Toll the Dead on a drider. It fails its save, taking full damage. Nice!
    • Freya - Moves toward the corridor and Readies an Eldritch Blast. She also converts a Pact Magic slot to give herself 9 sorcery points.

  • Round 4

    • Calanthia - Jump 30' into the corridor, then attacks the nearest drider, hitting it. It's nearly dead. Bonus Action to attack with a second crossbow, hitting and killing the drider. Woo! Then she moves back a bit.
    • Drider - Attacks Rory three times, hitting once. It then retreats behind a corner.
    • Friar Karl - Dodge.
    • Rory - The fiery webs burn out, leaving a clear path. He moves up and looks around the corner. The drider retreated into a room on the far end of the webbed corridor. Looks like an office or something with a purple glowing gem on a desk. He throws his Javelin of Lightning at the Drider, hitting it, and then moves toward the stairs and uses his breath weapon to burn away some of the webs, making sure not to catch any of the books on the bookshelf on fire.
    • Kemurial - Moves up, peeks around the corner and waits for the fire to go out before moving further. He casts Toll the Dead on the remaining Drider. It takes full damage
    • Freya - Moves up.

  • Round 5

    • Calanthia - Jumps 30' closer to this end of the hallway and peeks around the corner, sees the drider, and attacks it with her crossbow, CRITTING for 50 damage! She moves back slightly.
    • Drider - Attacks Rory three times, hitting twice. Ouch.
    • Friar Karl - Moves up and Orisons Calanthia and Kemurial.
    • Rory - Moves up, stands on the table and swings at the drider, missing once and hitting the next, killing it.
  • Combat over.
• We find the glowing purple gem on the desk. Calanthia Identifies the gem, but can't really identify it. She knows it radiates an Abjuration school of magic. She picks it up and puts it in her haversack. When she does, she notices that the light from all the gems blend to create more of a full color spectrum rainbow light.
• We search the rest of the room to see what we can find.
• Calanthia posits that the two green gems might fit into the eye sockets and the one purple gem might fit into the mouth socket of that masked door. Rory agrees.
• We move westward toward the locked double doors. Calanthia checks them for traps, and finds none. She picks the locks successfully. She opens the doors, leading into the hallway we didn't go down when wrangling the fleeing woman from last session. To the north is the room of statues we were warned could be dangerous if we go part of the way into the room.
• We continue westward down the corridor. As Calanthia moves down the hallway, she detects something's off with the floor tiles. She investigates and finds that everything in a particular area is a pressure plate. Surrounding the pressure plate is a sort of scrape on the stone in the shape of the pressure plates, as if it has been rubbed up against. She looks up and sees a matching square track on the ceiling. She suggests we backtrack and go around instead of attempting to move through or over it, just in case it triggers. So we do exactly that.
• We head to the locked masked door to try Calanthia's hypothesis.
• Calanthia places the gems into their sockets as she thought, and sure enough, the door opens! Nice job Calanthia!
• Inside the room are chairs near a sort of altar, with glowing green lights surrounding it. In the center is a gem that seems dead and translucent. It's a gem, like a diamond, with three receptacles. Calanthia retrieves the gems from the mask to place them into the corners of the triangular gem on the altar. When she does so, a burst of energy emanates from it, lighting up the room with vivid light, and seemingly reconnecting all the magical lines. Rory says "This must be the Rune Heart! I think we found it!" Ley lines begin spilling into all the rooms of the dungeon, as if there are magical conduits in the floor. We're pretty confident we have restored the functionality of the Rune Heart.
• Calanthia suggests reporting back to Max, to which we agree.
• We make our way back through the dungeon to the entrance, where we find Max standing with his hands on his hips, clearly happy. We explain what we did and how we activated the Rune Heart. He asks if we've cleared everything, to which we say we have, apart from some statues that we believe to be protective.
• We are given a reward of 33000g to split amongst ourselves.
• Our next task is to meet with Ulrika to get caught up on what's going on with the Chaos forces and such.

That's it for this session!

Adventure Loot

• Potion of Storm Giant Strength (100,000g)
• Scroll of Contingency (6th Level) (Calanthia)
• Scroll of Destructive Wave (5th Level) (Freya)
• Scroll of Summon Greater Demon (4th Level) (Freya)
• Scroll of Kinetic Jaunt (2nd Level) (Freya)
• Enspelled Armor (Mind Blank) (Kemurial)

Loose Gold Found

Total: 33470g
Converted:
Split: 8367g 5s

• Gold has been split