After making use of a summonable scout, party enters the basement. They do not find the fallen Death Knights immediately. Frustrated, Grez made a lot of noise alerting nearby enemies. Even though the rest of the group tried to shush him into silence, it had no effect. This simply made the Monk seek out even larger things to break.

Velkora used detect magic, worried that wandering around here was too easy. She discovers the party is being tracked via magic, dispels effect said off herself and turns into a cockroach to try and find the culprit.

While she scouted ahead, the rest of the group continued exploring the nearby rooms. It took them a little while to even realize she was gone. Of course, the rest were too busy keeping Grez from alerting all of Innovia of their location

Velkora found the Fallen Death Knights, but was spotted. However, she doesn’t realize she had been caught. However Grez realized something strange was happening since whenever time freezes, it has no effect on him.

Unfortunately for Velkora, she got another tracker placed on her. She decided not to change back and did her best to act like a good little insect.

The rest of party went ahead without their cultist ally and was goaded into confronting the Death Knights. They knew even without seeing said enemy that they lurked nearby. Voice recognition proved that to be clear.

Velkora realized that the rest of the group was charging headlong into a potential trap. She changed back and joined the group. Rose stayed behind to watch for any extra foul play.

The Circle:

However, the moment the party tried to fight the Death Knights, at least the two who happened to be in the room, they fled. Grez tried to chase them, and surprised them by being immune to their time stop powers. However, the second Death Knight possessed some other ability that didn’t make use of time. The monk ended up in the other room again.

As they left, the Time Manipulator Death Knight imparted upon the group that this Necromancer would deal with them. He also warned the minion that his failure would not be tolerated. If he wanted to join “The Circle” he would succeed.

The group fought this unnamed Necromancer who boasted that he was invincible behind his magical shield. But the party had dealt with this tactic before. Sure enough after a bit of stalling, a swarm of Undead appeared. After defeating them all, the Necromancer died quickly.

Failure:

As the Necromancer took his last breath, his corpse turned to ash leaving little evidence that he ever existed. Luckily, whatever spell he tried to invoke, failed to destroy one small scrap of paper.

Unfortunately, the paper was written in a code that the group did not understand. Grez showed the rest of the group where the Fallen Death Knights had fled to and tried to follow them. But when they reached the end of the nearby hall, they hit a dead end. Somehow their enemies escaped.

After exiting the hidden lair, Grez decided to try entering one of the many universities in Scholar’s Way to see if any code breakers could help them. But he was denied entry. Apparently his intelligence was too low to enter.

Of course, Grez being who he is, tried to fly up to one of the rooftops to break in. Rose tried to pull him away from the buildings even revealing her Blue Dragon form to do so. He dodged her attempts. He is adept at avoiding perceived danger after all.

The townspeople gather and insulted his intelligence. But they wanted to talk to Rose and ask her a myriad of questions about being a Dragon. Given the safe environment of this city, they did not fear coming near a Draconic being.

Grez absolutely furious plotted to murder them. Of course, such thoughts triggered the cities defense system. The Monk was humiliated as he was punted past the city’s walls by a force even he couldn’t avoid. The rest of the group quickly left, not wanting to let their friend’s fury last long.

More Failure:

So they returned to Lord Death at his Necropolis. Both the former overseer of the God of Death and Rose berated the party for all their mistakes. Explaining to them in excruciating detail how their very involvement has put more lives at risk and hurt far more than help, the group tried to argue back, but to no avail.

Lord Death explained that there are many minions of Nihilinn magically protecting the Death Knights and that their violent rampages have made it impossible for them to find useful clues. The group tried to beg him to translate the paper quickly, but he said that was impossible.

Instead, the group was told that they would have no choice but to let more innocent people die. Perhaps from here on out, they would be more careful with who they killed.

After a lot of arguing, the party returned to the ruins of Mongress. None were ready to look at the devastation. And Rose was still upset with the group for all the harm they caused on top of that. This was the first time the party had seen the aftermath of the Tarrasque. Not even the roads remained.

There was one landmark left though. The statue depicting the Goddess Charice had been left alone. But why would a mindless monster ignore a statue. Rose brought up that perhaps a Neutral God would respect another God similar in ideals. Specifically Neutral Good in this case.

Madness Manifest:

Before they could do much else, reality shimmered. The party felt a horrific presence and their minds went back to a dark place. A horrible encounter in the Minebuckle Mine that all had wished to never repeat started to play out.

Rose who had not witnessed these creatures before started panicking as the sky melted, the ground faded, and sounds distorted. Velkora, who had been traumatized beyond belief in the groups last encounter, lost complete connection to reality and slumped to the ground like a corpse.

Whatever this being was sent out tendrils to try and consume the group. Most of them managed to fend off the horrific assault which included psychic screaming and mental attacks. Velkora however was incapable of doing such a thing. She was quickly snatched and once again swallowed by the Eldritch Horrors.

The Paladin Caic struck a mighty blow which caused a horrific backlash. Knowing that this could happen didn’t deter him. And unlike Velkora who had slain such a creature before. he refused to succumb to madness through sheer force of will. Well assuming they can be slain at all of course.

The Cultist’s survival instincts overrode all other thoughts, and so despite being slowly eaten by a force beyond her comprehension, she attempted to heal herself. However, she dropped the potion. That should have been her end, but Magic didn’t work as it should in whatever place she had been snatched to.

Instead, the magic reversed itself and damaged the creature. Such pain did it endure, or at least its reality equivalent, that it released Velkora, shaking and looking like a starved animal, back into the world. And at the same time, this caused said creature to manifest in Mongress.

Impressive Feats:

Being in the presence of an Eldritch Abomination is taxing on the mind. But staring at one was an even worse experience. Caic’s brain couldn’t fathom the horrible creature before him. He dared look at it just long enough to prepare a shot from his bow, and shut his eyes to block the horror away. His sanity survived a psychic onslaught. But even then, he almost clawed his eyes out in terror.

Hadron faced down the malefic horror with rage and fury. Despite looking at a being too terrible to even describe, he fought it off and sent it back to where it came from. His sanity remains relatively intact, though his brain tried its hardest to suppress what his eyes saw.

Wrap Up:

This group has traveled to the Abyss and slain some of the most powerful Demons in existence. But creatures such as these are on another level. The group is not safe from them just yet. This battle isn’t over.