15.4 The Absence of Your Friend

SESSION DATE: September 06, 13 & 20, 2025
PRESENT: Rory, Kemurial, Calanthia, Freya

Deep Dive

![[Rory - 15_4 The Absence of Your Friend.mp4]]
![[Rory - 15.4 The Absence of Your Friend.mp3]]

Adventure Photos

Adventure Song & Lyrics

![[The Absence of Your Friend.mp3]]

[Verse 1]
The western gate, a line against the snow
The scorch marks on the battered buildings show
A floating cart, a pulse of magic, blue
Empowering the twisted, evil crew
I slide the ladder, fall down to the ground
Then charge into the screaming, bloody sound
A cone of cold, an enemy unseen
A stunning blow to end a mage's scene

[Chorus]
A bitter cost for victories we find
A chilling thought that lingers in the mind
A hollow space the future will depend
Upon the absence of your friend

[Verse 2]
A sudden snap, the air begins to bend
A field where all our magic has to end
My armor's weak, my sword has lost its light
Surrounded in the chaos of the night
But Freya shifts, a tremor in the ground
A giant worm, a terrifying sound
She carves a trench, a terrifying sight
While dragons answer Kemurial's might

[Bridge]
The guards all fire, a volley from the walls
The antimagic engine cracks and falls
The bubble pops, the light returns again
And Freya's worm brings battle to an end

[Chorus]
A bitter cost for victories we find
A chilling thought that lingers in the mind
A hollow space the future will depend
Upon the absence of your friend

[Solo]

[Verse 3]
The fight is done, we stand upon the field
But in the silence, something is revealed
She stays behind, a cackle in the air
A stranger's shape, a face of cold despair
She grows and twists, her gear begins to meld
A story that we never could have held
"It's tedious to take a body," she contends
And with a wicked smile, our journey ends

[Chorus]
A bitter cost for victories we find
A chilling thought that lingers in the mind
A hollow space the future will depend
Upon the absence of your friend

[Chorus]
A bitter cost for victories we find
A chilling truth that shatters heart and mind
A hollow space on which we now depend
Is in the absence of our friend

World Anvil Journal

sooo... we wint to the wetht gate to fight. it wath weawwy wowd an thewe wewe fiweth evewywhewe. we cwimbed up the waww an met a captain named kawwuth. he wath happy we wewe thewe to hewp. we thaw wotth of beethmen an gway thkinned majik guyth gettin weady to attack.

a fwoatin cawt thing came cwothew. it had bwoo majik comin owt of it an made the enemieth thtwongew. it wath wike the bawow fight but backwawdth. it wath makin the thitys majik sheewd weakew.

the fight thtawted. i twied to thwide down a waddew but i feww down. it diddnt huwt. i wan owt an kiwwed a maje an a beethman. evewyone thtawted attackin me. shamans an beethmen an an invithibow maje hit me with a cone of cowd. my miwwow imajeth bwoke. i hit the invithibow maje weawwy hawd an thtunned him. it finawwy wowked.

thin thewe wath a big THNAP an a big bubbow appeawed awound the cawt. it wath antimajik. it made my awmow not ath good an my thowd not ath thiny. it wath bad newth.

but fwaya tuwned into a GIANT DEATH WOWM. it wath THO COOW. she dug a big twench in the gwound. cawanthia jumped off the waww an hooked the cawt with a wope an thtopped it fwom movin. an kimiweel thummoned a DWAGON. thin he thummoned ANOTHEW DWAGON. they bweathed fiwe evewywhewe.

we aww attacked the cawt. the gawdth shot it an fwaya thpit athid on it an the dwagonth buwned it. finawwy kimiweel shot it with hith bow an it bwoke. the bubbow wint away. aftew that we kiwwed the wetht of the enemieth. fwaya da wowm got the wath kiww.

aftew the fight we wint bak to the waww but cawanthia thtayed behind. she thtawted waffin weawwy weiwdy. she got tawwew an changed into a diffewent pewthon. she thed she wath KISHINA an she wath watchin uth. she thed ow fwend wath gone an wan away. cawanthia ithnt cawanthia. i dunno what to do.

we towd the dook evewything. he undewthtood. we found owt thewe awe tunnowth undew the thity with thkaven an iwwithid. thaths cweepy.

kimiweel made a majik manthun fow uth to wetht in. i have my own woom an a ghotht butwew named shade. kimiweel found a bottow with a jeeny in it. he thed he wiww wait tiww aftew a nap to open it.

we found a cwoke of many fashunth. a cawdwon of webiwth fow fwaya. a efweeti bottow fow kimiweel. a poshin of supweme heewin fow me. an a dweem mantow.

dwaugnir pweethe pwotect uth fwom kishina. an pweethe hewp uth find the weaw cawanthia. an pweethe keep my pawenth thafe whewevew they awe.

Private Notes

• We make our preparations for the battle at the west gate. We know arcane magic will be involved, so we discuss using things such as Globe of Invulnerability, Dispel Magic and Counterspell. We also remind ourselves that enemies may have such spells as well.
• Kemurial reminds us that he has the Carpet of Flying and welcomes us to put it to use to stay above the battlefield if needed.
• As we approach the west gate, the tumult of battle rings louder and louder. We see a few buildings with scorch marks where they have been attacked by some kind of flaming weapon. People are running around with buckets of water. Archers atop the wall fire their weapons into the snowy distance. A booming voice is heard directing the army. We see there's a major gate in the middle, as expected. To either side are towers that give both access to the top of the walls and vision into the battlefield.
• We make our way up the stairs and up onto the wall. We meet with a man with a longsword and javelins on his back. We presume he's the one directing the defense.
• Looking out, we see packs of beast men that we've fought before. They're taking cover for the most part, with the city's defenses keeping much of the action at bay.
• Kemurial speaks to the man. He says something's brewing in the distance. Looking out, we see evergreen trees, rocks, ledges and snow as usual. Their army still surrounds the city, just outside of bow range. There are flashing lights and fires of different colors concentrated in a particular spot beyond our vision. Rory asks the guy his name. He responds with "Karlus". Rory says it's nice to meet him, and offers to go wherever he needs us. Karlus says he appreciates the help. It looks like they're building up to something.
• Calanthia notices a cluster of different types of troops, many of which we're familiar with. She also sees a cluster of types we haven't yet seen before. There are clusters of what looks like gray-skinned guys, clearly some sort of cultists or spellcasters of some sort. Villem seems he was correct, in that there is a concentration of magic usage around here.
• Slowly, the flashes of light begin getting closer and closer, the throng of enemies getting clearer through the snowfall. Eventually, several of these cultists/spellcasters step out and begin casting toward the wall.
• Karlus readies his archers.
• The casters begin gesticulating and their attacks fly toward us, though their attacks are being warded by the city's defenses. They don't relent.
• We ready ourselves. Rory enters his Rage and casts Mirror Image. Kemurial summons an air and fire elemental. Calanthia fires at one of the mages and is able to take them out in one hit. Nice! Kemurial also casts a Fireball and hits a couple of mages as well as some beast men. Freya fires up her Innate Sorcery and blasts a couple of beast men, taking them out.
• We can see a floating, levitating cart-like thing approaching. A group of enemies surrounds this wagon/altar thing. It pulses with blue magic. The pulses a flutters extend out to some of the enemies, giving them a blue aura of sorts around them. They continue their approach. Kemurial discerns that it's some kind of weapon, but can't tell whether it's a protective effect or an empowering one. Rory thinks back to our recent Balor encounter, where it was protected by a couple of enemies channeling protective magic into the Balor. This bares some resemblance, but this time the cart is "channeling" the magic into many, rather than the many channeling into one.
• As the procession continues, Karlus blows a horn, calling some reserves to the wall. It's getting serious now.
• The siege cart stops about 300 feet from the wall. We see that there are some sparks now making their way through the city's magical barrier defenses. Rory thinks this could be some sort of antimagic field or similar effect, and suggests we try to keep the cart as far away from the city walls as possible.
• We can also see some Bray-shamans stepping within bow range of the walls. INITIATIVE!!!

  • Round 1

    • Freya - At the beginning of combat, Calanthia uses her reaction (even before Freya gets to do anything) to take an attack. She hits, taking out the mage she was aiming at. Nice! Freya goes now. She uses her Staff of Power to cast a Fireball at a large group of enemies. Becuse of her new gear, her Spell DCs are very high, and means that this time, no one made their saves. Full damage to all!
    • Calanthia - Bonus Action hide. Action to fire at another mage, and hits, killing it. Hasted Action to stealth again.
    • Rory - Runs up to the ladder to descend down the wall. He attempt so slide down the ladder, but gets his toes caught in the rungs, causing him to fall down to the ground below, taking no damage, but falling prone. He gets up and uses his remaining movement and Hasted Dash to move into range of a mage, taking a couple opportunity attacks in the process. One hits his Mirror Image, the other misses entirely. Two Mirror Images remaining. Rory attacks the mage, taking him out, and then moves slightly more to the nearby beastman, taking him out as well.
    • Friar Karl - Finishes casting his held Beacon of Hope, and is able to get us all, including Rory, just before Rory falls. Nice.
    • Kemurial - Has his elementals move and attack beastmen. Kemurial warns us to be mindful of the nearby shaman before attacking the shaman himself with a Sorcerous Burst, doing Psychic damage to the shaman. Bonus Action Innate Sorcery on himself. Climbs down the ladder.
    • Bray-Shamans - Three attacks at Rory. Two would hit, but they both hit his Mirror Images instead. No more Mirror Images remaining at this time. Another takes aim at Rory with Scorching Ray, hitting once.
    • Karlus - Unsure.
    • Beastmen - Every Beastman turns and fires at Rory, and only one of them hit.
    • Guards - Unsure.

  • Round 2

    • Enemy reinforcements arrive at the top of the round.
    • Freya - Staff of Power to Fireball the enemy group near Rory, taking out most of them. Good job Freya!
    • Mage - An invisible mage casts Cone of Cold at Rory, catching a couple Beastmen as well. Rory fails his save.
    • Calanthia - Fires at a Bray-shaman, but misses. Stealth again. Readies an action to attack once anything else does anything else.
    • Rory - Breathes, triggering Calanthia's held action. She fires, hitting a Bray-shaman, hitting and badly injuring it. Rory attacks the bray-shaman adjacent to him a couple times, taking him out. The shaman was able to use Hellish Rebuke before going down, though. But no biggie. Rory moves up to the invisible, but not hidden, mage that casted the Cone of Cold, CRITTING, doing some decent damage. Rory pumps a Staggering Smite into the attack, potentially stunning the mage, and it DOES stun the mage! First time that has worked. Nice.
    • Bray-Shaman - Attacks Rory, hitting once.
    • Friar Karl - Dodge.
    • Kemurial - Potion of Speed. Moves up just south of the broken siege weapon near the wall and casts Fireball at the Beastmen near it. One saves, the other four fail, taking out four of the five. Nice job! He moves up a little more and attacks another nearby Beastman with his scimitar, taking it out. He moves his fire elemental up to another Beastman and kills it thanks to its Fire Aura. He moves it up to the nearby Beast Lord and Berserker, doing some damage to them as well. He moves his air elemental up to the invisible mage and Bray-shaman near Rory, and uses Thunderous Slam, doing some damage to the Bray-shaman. The shaman uses Hellish Rebuke against the air elemental.
    • Karlus - Commanding Presence. Gets two kills.
    • Berserker - Attacks the fire elemental, hitting it.
    • Beast Lord - Aura of Authority, three multi-attacks at fire elemental, two of them it.
    • Guards - One kill.

  • Round 3

    • More enemy reinforcements arrive, namely SIX mages, each with two beastmen protecting them.
    • Freya - Wall of Fire transmuted to Acid placed just in front of the new reinforcements, damaging just about all of them! She chooses the far side of the wall to be affected by the acidic burning effect.
    • Mage - Stunned until the end of Rory's next turn.
    • Calanthia - Hasted Action to attack the Bray-shaman engaged with Rory, hitting, and doing MASSIVE damage, taking it out! Bonus Action to hide. Readies action to attack when anyone does anything.
    • Beastmen - Breathes, triggering Calanthia's Readied attack. Steady Aim to assist, she hits a mage near the Wall of Fire, doing an insane amount of damage to it as well. The beastmen move up to Rory and the air elemental. The elemental gets an opportunity attack, hitting. The beastmen attack Rory, two of the three hits were crits, but he can't be crit! Eleven more ranged attacks at Rory, but only one hits.
    • Mage Apprentices - Move forward. Three attack Kemurial.
    • Rory - Hears more things approaching, and can smell ozone as a crackling sound approaches as well. Rory takes three attacks at the stunned, no longer invisible, mage, hitting thrice and just about killing it. Rory attempts to keep the mage stunned, but it makes its save. Bummer. Rory tells the group about the approaching sounds of crackling and the smell of ozone, as well as the fact the mage is no longer stunned or invisible.
    • Friar Karl - Dodge.
    • Kemurial - Sleet Storm on the group of enemies north of Rory along the Wall of Fire, causing all but one to fall prone. Nice! He moves up to a mage apprentice and proceeds to CRIT him. Also nice! The air elemental uses Whirlwind over the no-longer-invisible mage, killing it! The air elemental moves our of range of many of the now-blinded beastmen to remove himself from the Sleet Storm. The fire elemental does some stuff, but Rory can't see because its behind the Wall of Fire.
    • Bestigor - Not sure, I missed their turn.
    • Beastlord - Can't see the action (behind the Wall of Fire).

  • Round 4

    • We heard a loud snap, as if two power lines touched, which seems to suppress the Wall of Fire and any other magical effect within it such as the Sleet Storm. This also means that those who were caught in the Sleet Storm are now also not blind while within the area. It more or less functions as an Antimagic Field. Within it, no spells can be cast, no magical effects can be created within it, and such. Magical properties of items don't work inside the aura. This is bad news. This reduces Rory's AC from 23 to just 18, and mutes the magical properties of much of his equipment. Kemurial suspects that it's running on its own power
    • Freya - Quaffs a Potion of Speed, moves down the ladder onto the snowy battlefield below, Hasted Dash to get to the corner of the damaged siege tower, casts Polymorph on herself, turning her into a Death Worm (!) and begins burrowing, creating a trench in hopes of slowing or stopping the advancement of the siege cart.
    • Mage Apprentices - Move in a crowd around us and the antimagic siege cart. One of the mages attacks Rory with an Unarmed Strike, doing one single point of damage. Rory plays it up very dramatically.
    • Calanthia - Hides, deftly jumps off the wall landing superhero-style, moves up toward Worm Freya and next to the antimagic field using Hasted Dash, jumps into the antimagic field, moves up to and underneath the floating cart and inspects the underside of it, she sees stone under the siege cart. She hooks her grappling hook to the floating cart.
    • Beastmen - Attack Rory with maces, two hit, more attack Rory with crossbows, a few hit.
    • Bray-Shaman - Unknown.
    • Rory - Action to Recklessly attack the nearly-dead mage with greatsword, kills him, second attack with Breath Weapon, doing very little damage. Move away out of antimagic field, picks up a greataxe on the ground, moves to a mage to the south and CRITS him, taking him out, and then moves up next to another mage just outside the antimagic field.
    • Friar Karl - Dodge.
    • Kemurial - Moves out of the antimagic field, casts Summon Dragon (!) and has it breathe fire from the north toward the south, catching the cart and lots of enemies within it. Grabs his cloak to fly upward 45' and throws a Tangler Grenade down into the antimagic field, catching quite a few enemies in it. The Air Elemental attacks a nearby beastman, missing once and hitting once. It moves away just a bit. The Fire Elemental moves into a couple enemies doing some damage to them, then it attacks a mage, just missing twice. It then burns everything within 10' of it.
    • Guard Captain - Commands archers to fire on the large group of enemies.
    • Bestigor - Restrained from Tangler Grenade, unable to get out of it.
    • Beastlord - Nine attacks at the Fire Elemental, eight of which hit, killing it. Two attacks at the Air Elemental, hitting it. All three attacks at the Draconic Spirit hit. Ouch.
    • Guards - 20 longbow attacks at the magical cart, seven of them hit, doing 43 damage to it

  • Round 5

    • Freya Death Worm - Moves back and forth to finish creating the trench, then moves south of the antimagic field and blasts a Caustic Spray northward, catching nine enemies and the cart in it, and killing a few of the enemies. Nice!
    • Mage Apprentice - The cart moves due west by 10', along with all other enemies. Four attacks at Rory, two hit for 27 Force damage total.
    • Calanthia - Remains under the floating cart and holds the rope taut, pulling it toward the broken siege tower toward the southwest. She's unable to pull it off its course, but it rotates. We notice it from our own positions, but so do the mages. They yell out "Something's messing with the device!"
    • Beastmen - Some attacks at Rory, one hits. Some take aim at the Air Elemental.
    • Rory - Attacks mage, killing him, moves into the bubble slightly to breathe fire at some enemies and the cart, doing some good damage, then moves out of the bubble again to the east to take on the four mages behind the bubble. Rory CRITS one of them, killing them in one swing, then takes his Hasted attack at another mage, hitting him.
    • Friar Karl - Dodge.
    • Kemurial - Cube of Summoning, rolled a 4 for another Dragon! He makes it breathe fire at a large group of enemies and the cart, doing some good damage. He makes his other dragon do the same thing. The Air Elemental moves into a Beastlord's space and uses Whirlwind. It works well, but the Beastlord makes his save, so doesn't fall prone. Hasted Action to throw another Tangler Grenade into the fray, which catches several within it. Bonus Action 4th Level Healing Word on Rory for 37 healing.
    • Guard Captain - Commands the archers to focus fire on the antimagic cart, and it works very well, doing 64 damage!
    • Bestigor - Some attacks at the northern dragon spirit, killing it.
    • Beastlord - Some attacks at the Air Elemental, which take it out. A couple others take aim at the remaining dragon spirit, nearly killing it.
    • Guards- Focus fire on the cart again, doing 51 more damage. We hear a satisfying crack as part of the stone splits. As Calanthia pulls on it, the suspension effect stops, causing it to fall to the ground and digs into the ground. The antimagic field is still up, but it is no longer mobile. Nice!

  • Round 6

    • FreyaDeath Worm - Caustic Burst does not recharge. She moves toward the west northwest side of the bubble and uses her Shockwave ability and knocks down nearly everyone in the radius. All but three failed their save! Decent damage too.
    • Mage Apprentices - Attacks Rory with Arcane Burst, two of three hit him. Both of the ones that hit would've crit, but that Adamantine armor prevents that. Phew! Still decent damage they did to him though.
    • Calanthia - Moves out of the bubble, fires at the nearly dead Beastlord and kills him. Readies action to attack when it's nearly her turn again.
    • Beastmen - Unsure, on the phone.
    • Bray-Shaman - Unsure, on the phone.
    • Rory - Reckless Attack the injured mage near him, kills him. Second attack on second mage, hits. Bonus Action to attack the same mage, kills him. Moves up to the third mage, Hasted attack, hits.
    • Friar Karl - Dodge.
    • Kemurial - Moves up, Sorcerous Burst hits a Beastlord, flies up above the dome, draws shortbow, targets the cart, misses. Dragon Spirit uses "dragony stuff" and hits the Beastlord near it, hitting a couple times.
    • Guard Captain - Commands the archers to fire at the cart. 3/20 hit.
    • Bestigor - Attempts to get out of the restrained condition, fails. Crossbow attack at Freya Death Worm, but she's immune to Piercing damage as the worm. Nice!
    • Guard - Lots of attacks, lots of them hit.

  • Round 7

    • Beastlord - Takes out the dragon spirit, moves over to Rory, one of his two attacks hit. A couple others stand up from their Prone condition, Dashes over toward Kemurial. Another breaks out of the Restrained condition, moves up to Rory, no attacks. Another one fails the Restrained check.
    • Freya Death Worm - Moves to the SSW portion of the bubble (just outside it of course), Shockwave, nearly everyone fails their save, being knocked Prone. Everyone around takes damage as well.
    • Mage Apprentices - Arcane Burst at Rory, misses. Another one runs out of the field, looks for Calanthia but can't find her thanks to her stealth. Another moves out, Arcane Burst on Kemurial, misses. All others try to break their Restrained conditions and fail. At the end of their turns, Calanthia unleashes her Readied attack at the Beastlord near Rory, hitting it for tons of damage as usual.
    • Calanthia - Hasted attack at the Beastlord near Rory, misses. Bonus Action Hide, moves away to the south, Readies action again as usual to attack just before her turn comes up again.
    • Beastman - Move toward the Death Worm. Another two try to break Restrained, fails. Five attacks at Freya Death Worm, some hit. A couple other attacks at her as well, hitting. She makes her Concentration checks.
    • Bray-Shaman - Unsure.
    • Rory - Finishes off the mage next to him, turns attention to the Beastlord. His sword enters the bubble, suppressing its magical properties. Second normal attack hits, nearly killing him. Bonus Action attack misses, but the greatsword's Graze property nicks him just enough to kill him. Hasted attack at the other Beastlord misses. Rory moves away in hopes of drawing the Beastlord out of the bubble. The Beastlord's opportunity attack misses.
    • Friar Karl - Dodge.
    • Kemurial - Final Tangler Grenade, aimed at the enemies closes to Freya Death Worm, 3/4 fail their saves. Nice! Then he flies down and lands next to Rory. Bonus Action convert 2nd Level slot to Sorcery Points.
    • Guard Captain - Commands half the archers to attack the cart, doing some really good damage. The other half focus on the non-Prone mages surrounding the cart, taking out four of them. Great!
    • Bestigor - Still Restrained.
    • Guards - Half their attacks on the cart, hitting for quite a lot. Three of them attack the remaining mage near the cart, killing him. The other seven aim at the Beastlord, doing good damage to him as well.

  • Round 8

    • Beastlord - All but one Restrained fail their saves. The one who does save stands and moves toward Kemurial and Rory. One comes out of the bubble to attack Rory, hitting.
    • Freya Death Worm - Caustic Burst recharges finally. She aims toward the cart from her current position, doing massive damage to everything in its path, taking out all the Beastmen it hits. The cart is looking extremely damaged at this point. Kemurial thinks it might explode, and warns us about it.
    • Mage Apprentices - Arcane Bursts at Rory, missing both times. At the end of their turn, Calanthia's Readied attack goes off. She fires at the Beastlord near Rory, doing massive damage.
    • Calanthia - Hasted attack at the Beastlord, taking him out. Bonus Action to hide, then Readies another attack as usual.
    • Beastmen - The Restrained one makes his save, stands up and moves toward Freya Death Worm to give Pack Tactics to his friends. They fire at the Death Worm, a couple hit, Freya maintains Concentration.
    • Bray-Shaman - Unsure.
    • Rory - Moves up to the two remaining mages, kills each with one attack, moves around the bubble to be next to Freya and moves into the bubble with his remaining Hasted Dash movement, attacks the Beastman next to Freya Death Worm, taking him out, then moves back out of the bubble again.
    • Friar Karl - Dodge.
    • Kemurial - Aims his shortbow at the cart, hits it, and destroys it fully. The antimagic field ceases to exist. Amazing! He then moves up to the nearby Beastlord, attacks with his scimitar, but the Beastlord parries the attack. Bonus Action to convert another slot to Sorcery Points.
    • Guard Captain - Commands the archers to focus on the Restrained big guys to the north. Massive damage, taking out the Beastlord!
    • Bestigor - No longer Restrained, moves up toward Freya Death Worm.
    • Guards - Aims half their arrows at the Bestigor, and half at the nearby Beastlord, who are both near death at this point. They both remain, but only barely.

  • Round 9

    • Beastlord - No one is Restrained anymore. Moves up toward Kemurial. All attacks miss him.
    • Freya Death Worm - Moves northward a bit to align herself with all the remaining enemies and uses her recharged Caustic Burst, dealing massive damage, taking out all but one enemy. Just one left! She moves up with her remaining movement and Freya gets a melee killing blow on the last remaining enemy of this battle. This might be the first time Freya has ever landed a killing blow using melee on an enemy!
  • Combat over.
• The once-floating magical antimagic cart is collapsed, glowing no more. It lays seemingly dormant on the snow-covered ground. We look out and can still see a massive army at the periphery of our vision thanks to the snow and darkness. We might not be able to see them all, but we can hear them.
• Rory quickly quaffs a potion before the Beacon of Hope runs out. Just about then, his Haste runs out as well, causing him to become lethargic for a short time before he recovers.
• We investigate the box. There's a scattering of treasure and magic items that we believe to have been the core powering the antimagic field from within. Inside we find FOUR magical items and tons of gold.
• Rory moves up to Freya Death Worm and hesitantly gives her a pat on what he thinks is her worm back, then backs away. She seems to understand his intentions, so that's a relief!
• As we head back toward the city wall, Calanthia lingers, significantly behind us. We climb the walls and turn and see her still standing in the snow. She cackles in a way not at all like her. She begins growing, getting taller. She turns into a human-shaped person. Her gear begins to meld into her body. It's like a slow-motion Polymorph. Calanthia is no longer standing in front of us. In her place is Kishina! She shouts out "It has been wonderful observing you this past week. I hope the absence of your friend will not hamper your progress too much. Taking a body is always SO tedious." She turns and sprints out of sight. Dang!
• Kemurial and Rory thank the guard captain Karlus for their assistance in the fight. We then make a point to tell them that we had NO CLUE that would happen to Calanthia. We are just as surprised and caught off guard as everyone else. Karlus thanks us and says we're great warriors. We plan to speak with the Duke immediately as we need to know whether the Ice Queen has made it yet, as well as explain as soon as possible what happened to Calanthia.
• We make it back to the citadel and inform him about everything, especially that the battle went flawlessly thanks to Captain Karlus's command, and all about what just happened with Calanthia becoming Kishina.
• We think we should wait for the Ice Queen's arrival before beginning another task, unless something dire comes up.
• Kemurial wants to study up on Praag's tunnels and familiarize himself with them.
• The scholars have been searching. Essentially, they have determined that there is significant influence and signs, tracks, etc. of two main species immediately within the unexplored areas of the catacombs within the city. Up to that point, it's mostly dwarves and humans. Past that, there are two alternate passageways. One seems heavily skaven-laden. The other has signs of illithid. That's just great... They don't know if these paths will lead us to anything, but it's more knowledge than we previously had.
• We can immediately head down there if we want, but waiting might turn up more research, and thus potentially more paths.
• Kemurial uses his Archivist's Key to summon his mansion for us to use. Stepping in, there's a great hall. On one side has an entrance with "Rory" written above the door. The other side has "Kemurial" written above. In butler garb are ethereal spirits waiting to wait on us. Rory's butler's name is Shade. Kemurial's butler's name is Sebastian. Freya's butler's name is Miss Tessmacher.
• Kemurial ponders opening the Efreeti Bottle to see what happens. He doesn't know what will happen, but he knows it will summon an efreeti. Rory doesn't know what an efreeti is, so he's unsure whether that's a good idea. Kemurial knows some things about them, and says they aren't vulnerable to anything in particular, are immune to fire, they are large elemental genies that are generally neutrally aligned, they can attack multiple times with their blade or hurled flames, does a lot of extra fire damage, can cast Wall of Fire, and are very strong creatures.
• Rory notices Kemurial staring at the bottle. Rory says he's not going to stop him. Kemurial says he'd rather wait until after we've rested, just in case the efreeti attacks us.

That's it for this session!

Adventure Loot

• Cloak of Many Fashions (50g)
• Cauldron of Rebirth (Freya)
• Efreeti Bottle (Kemurial)
• Potion of Supreme Healing (Rory)
• Dream Mantle (20000g)

Loose Gold Found

Total: 53050g
Converted:
Split: 17683g 3s 3c

• Gold has been split