Aydan and Jimmy met with Morrigan, the goddess of death, and narrowingly escaped death at the hands of a skeletal dragon. Entering the pillar of light in the Shadowfell sent Aydan, Jimmy, and their friends to another realm but one filled with golden forests and an ever expansive sky. Meanwhile Arcaelus, Brightiron, and Rainer along with Gilda, Nuria, and Doctor Roqet entered the mysterious Vault of Worlds after escaping the fury of an enclave of fire giants.
Previous Episode/Team BAJA Episode Guide
The stony corridor had been dark since their arrival, thankfully Arcaelus summoned some light through his pentagram necklace. Eventually the group made their way to a larger opening, a large room lit with torches and a fountain made of white marble rested in its center. Etched fountain, Arcaelus discovered runes and scripts written in Primordial, with Nuria’s aid the two of them managed to decrypt the ancient words lost by time.
“Lost between the stars, there you will find lost hope buried. End to end, edge to edge, compounded by time and more.”
Uncertain of what the text refers, the group decided that it was best to advance further into the depths of the mysterious Vault. Brightiron and Rainer decided to explore an adjacent hallway before stumbling spirits that seemed to ignore them, until poison tipped arrows struck the barbarian. The halfling Rainer spotted shifting shapes that seemed to have blended with the stonework, dodging into safety the moment he noticed a medusa approaching. The foul creature’s gaze stiffened the barbarian for a moment, Rainer tried to sneak up on it but instead got turned to stone. Meanwhile, from the other room, Arcaelus, Nuria, Roqet, and Gilda tried to deal with a horde of zombies and ghouls that arrived from another corridor.
The dwarf, Gilda, ran for Rainer and whispered words of power to restore the halfling back to his normal form. Behind the horde of undead, a large undead beholder emerged and began unleashing blasts from its empty eyestalks. Arcaelus took the new weapon he acquired from Roqet and unleash the first shot from the Arcane Gun, imbued with the power of a fireball spell. A ball of fire consumed most of the undead zombies but the beholder managed to endure.
A large fire elemental came from a third corridor and began assaulting the party, Nuria tried her best to shield the group from the creature’s flames while brandishing her own magic. Even though she was a fire genasi, Nuria had learned how to still use fire to hurt beings of the Elemental Plane of Fire. To keep the creatures at bay, Nuria and Gilda joined in summoning spiritual warriors to assist their friends. Brightiron managed to slay a few of the camouflaged foes and the medusa, cleaving her head straight off. Rainer covered the loose medusa head with a rag and quickly stuffed it into a bag of holding, Arcaelus unleashed a flurry of arcane power on the beholder and the fire elemental using the fountain for cover.
Once most of the enemies were either defeated or fled, the party decided it was best to recover their strength before journeying further into the Vault. Gilda informs the party that while in the other corridors and rooms, the stonework wasn’t consistent with each other, with some having completely different architecture from others. The dwarf surmised that perhaps this Vault took different rooms and places and that perhaps there were a myriad of rooms and corridors stretched into infinite directions. The news did not boost the groups morale any better, Arcaelus conjured a Leomund’s Tiny Hut and offered the party a safe place to rest for the moment.
The group retired in the tiny hut, until they felt the ground underneath them shake and rumble, pieces of the stone tiles began to loosen and fall into a seemingly dark abyss. The tiny hut tumbled down into the uncertain darkness, Arcaelus cancelled the spell just before the group landed in another room far different from the previous one. Eventually the sound of rumbling ceased and the group tried to survey their surroundings, using the little construct, Artifice to discern their exact location. Unfortunately, the little construct did not have any knowledge of the Vault and due to the dimensional shift, it proved difficult to discern their location or the location of what they were looking for. Roqet instructed Artifice to do reconnaissance, only to be taken by a large, black tentacle through one of the walls. With no means to track their movements, the group had to turn to more traditional methods of mapmaking and try to note their movements.
Several hours passed and the group found themselves in a large cathedral, or at least the inside of one. A large golden statue rested at the end of the spacious room adorned by six stone columns. There were three hallways that exited out of the area, the sound of swords and screams could hear not far from them. Groups of gnolls, kobolds, and tieflings came rushing through the hallways, the group did their best to fend off against the encroaching hordes until Nuria and Gilda noticed that the statue had the same message from the fountain on its base again. Realizing that the writing must have some significance, the team tried to solve the riddle while fending for their lives. Roqet, Brightiron, Rainer, and Arcaelus assaulted the onslaught of creatures while the two clerics tried to solve the puzzle.
Nuria eventually figured out the solution and beseeched Arcaelus to lend her some elemental powers, the wizard approached and offered his assistance. The fire genasi cast a spell to create a cube that could be held within her hand, mixing a bit of elemental flame into it before demanding the other three elements to be presented. Roqet tossed in some lightning bullets and there was vials of acid left in Arcaelus’ bag, the wizard tossed an ice spell into the mix. The four elements mingled within the special device before Nuria placed the cube on top of the base of the large statue. The text began to glow at the base, more rumbling, and a secret doorway opened in front of them. The team made a tactical retreat as the base closed, but before causing the ceiling to cave down on the horde of foes. The group found themselves in yet another dark room, with only the light from the wizard’s necklace giving off some illumination. Once again, the group continue on their journey, deeper into the Vault of Worlds, uncertain what other trials and horrors await them.
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