Episode 9: An Unmarked Grave

"'Taxi loses control, Br'aad finally grows up, Mountain is actually scared, Sylnan is still alive, and Velrisa inflicts wounds. All this and more as the party journeys into the Barren...'"

Episode Events
The party approach Oriana and Olguart, noticing that now Oriana is dressed in a white dress with golden adornments with a pendant of a holy symbol around her neck. Mountain calls out to Olguart, who happily greets him and the party. Olgaurt tells them that Oriana and himself have travelled around Viecta during the time they were apart, and are heading to the same area but not accompanying the party into the Barren. Instead, they are visiting Rockmarrow, an esteemed dwarven city known well for combat, and they are to enter into the combat arena to earn some money. Taxi slowly approaches Oriana, hugging her. She returns the hug, telling him that he looks stronger.

Ready to depart, Sylnan questions about the shortcut Ander previously mentioned. Ander raises his hand towards the large oak tree that is in the middle of the garden. Two young girls step forward, approaching the oak tree, they begin to perform druid craft as a large portal door opens in the oak trunk. Ander traverses into the tree, Br'aad dives in behind him, the rest of the party behind. Jak, afraid of the portal, pulls back, but Mountain convinces him to go through by the bribery of meat. Oriana and Olguart follow behind into the portal.

The party step onto ground on the other side, Br'aad sliding from his dive in. They notice that the trees and life around them are all dead, brown and charred and there is a thick fog in the air causing a looming darkness even at midday. Ander uses his sword as a torch with radiant light, clearing some of the fog, meanwhile Velrisa uses Eyes of The Dead. Looking around, she notices three outlined undead figures moving towards the party. Ander tells Oriana and Olguart to go before fighting starts, and they move quickly down the path towards Rockmarrow.

The humanoids come into vision of the party, their bodies transparent with a blue outline of their clothes. The creatures eyes are pure white, their mouths twisted into a pained expression. Combat ensues. Ander reaches his hand out, a purple hand appearing behind the creature, and grasps the back of it's neck. Velrisa casts Sacred Flame at the creature, which has no effect. Taxi casts Shalayle, followed with Fairie Fire, highlighting two of the creatures with a green outline. The two of the spectres fade, the outlines dropping, and the third stepping forward towards the party. It screeches, ringing out into the forest. Liveclock, Br'aad, Mountain, and Hilltree get petrified in place, each of them aging 20 years except for Liveclock. Br'aad blindly fires two Eldritch Blasts behind him as he runs away from the spectre, one of them successfully hitting the enemy, the other hitting Hilltree in the back. Liveclock uses both of his eye beams on the spectre, both missing. Hilltree just lays on the ground in pain, as Sylnan throws a returning dagger at the spectre, which passes through the figure but the magical aura seems to stick to the creature. Mountain, terrified, looks at the ghost, noticing that it looks like a clown, and freaks out more. He uses Commander Strike to have Ander attack it, while Mountain and Jak run from the creature. Ander attacks the spectre again, hitting hard as the radient light burns the creature. Taxi runs towards the creature, bashing it with his quarterstaff meanwhile Velrisa uses Word of Radience on the creature. Taxi damages the creature while Velrisa's spell does not effect the creature. Taxi attacks once more using Fury of Blows, passing through the spectre as he hits, yet still damaging.

The spectre grabs Taxi, sucking into Taxi. Taxi can see out of his eyes but has no control over his body as the spectre possesses him. The fright that Mountain, Br'aad, Liveclock, and Hilltree feel dissapears as this occurs. Taxi moves towards the party, eyes compeletely white as he appears almost feral. Taxi casts Thunderwave onto Hilltree, Velrisa, and Sylnan, though Velrisa Hellish Rebukes back as Sylnan Uncanny Dodges the attack. Hilltree falls unconcious as he is thrown ten feet back into a tree. As Mountain runs with Jak, a spectre appears in front of him. The creature lashes at him, missing. Another spectre appears in front of Br'aad, who also dodges the creature's lash. Liveclock uses his eye beams at the creature, one of the beams pushing the creature back thirty feet. Br'aad runs up and puts the possessed Taxi into a headlock and knocks him to the ground. Sylnan just panics, hesistant to attack Taxi.

Mountain slashes the spectre in front of him with Flametounge, hitting. He swings once more, damaging the creature further. Using Action Surge, he kills the creature with a final slash at his neck.

Ander notices Taxi being possessed, runs over, pushing Br'aad off of Taxi and begins chanting as he exorcises the spectre from Taxi. Taxi gets up, swinging his quarterstaff at the spectre. The spectre grabs the quarterstaff, his face forming into a more human male face, and the creature apologises, before letting the staff hit. Velrisa turns towards the final spectre, casting Sacred Flame onto him, missing. The spectre, looking feminine in the face, rushes forward to Velrisa attempting to possess her. Using her radiant energy, she forces the creature back out, avoiding the possession. Br'aad attempts to frighten the creature, but is unsuccessful. Liveclock uses his eye beams once more, missing once but pushes the creature back with the other, shoving it into a tree. The creature takes damage as its energy is pushed out of the tree. Sylnan runs up to stab the creature, landing the hit. Mountain, 75 feet away from the rest of the party, begins walking back to the group casually. Ander takes a swing at the creature but misses, and Velrisa casts Inflict Wounds onto it, but does not effect it. Taxi rushes to the creature and attacks it with his quarterstaff again, following his hit with Fury of Blows, killing the creature. Combat ends.

Velrisa runs over to the downed Hilltree, bringing him back up to full health. Ander asks the group who was impacted by the aging process, restoring Br'aad and Hilltree's ages, but Mountain's lack of awareness caused him to not be included, keeping his increased age.

Taxi apologizes for his possession, as the party apologize back. Suddenly, a deep voice rings out throughout the forest, calling the party intruders and demanding they leave. Mountain refuses, expressing his anger over the spectres looking like clowns, to which he discovered they did not appear that way for anyone else. The group decides to short rest after the fight, feeling unsettled as it feels as someone is constantly watching them.

Ander explains that with all darkness there is a source, and that he is tracking down that source. Br'aad and Velrisa ask about Gayewick, and Ander tells them that Gayewick was a small commerce village that was taken over by the Barren. Taxi suggests they begin traveling, and so the group begins to travel further into the Barren, Ander leading the way.

They travel further and further in, not encountering anything but continuing to feel uneasy as the sound of whispers passes through the wind occasionally. Taxi tries to listen to the voice of nature, but cannot make out any words. As they step forward, they approach an old, broken down structure. A decomposing creature lay on the platform at the top of a staircase, four pillars surrounding it holding up a large stone overhead. The deep voice calls out once more, calling them foolish. A greatsword that was stuck into the dead creature begins to shake as the party watches an armor set form into a humanoid figure piece by piece. It grabs the sword out of the creature, and the party stands eye to eye with a large zombie beholder and an animated armor set.

Combat ensues. Sylnan tries to cut off an eye stock of the beholder, missing. The beholder tries to attack with an eye beam towards Sylnan, but he is uneffected. Ander blesses Velrisa, Mountain, and Taxi, and commands them to attack. Taxi casts Dust Devil, creating a dust dinosaur to attack the beholder. Hilltree throws a dagger at the beholder, hitting it. Mountain attacks the creature, jumping in the air and landing down into the creature with his sword, sticking his longsword into him. Velrisa uses Sacred Flame, hitting. The armor strikes Mountain, Mountain attacking back but not hitting successfully. Br'aad calls out to the party to grab onto him, and everyone but Mountain does as Br'aad uses his ring of dischord, stunning the beholder causing him to fall and land onto Mountain. Liveclock uses his eye beams onto the beholder, frightening him and pushing the beholder into the staircase. Sylnan goes to hit the stunned beholder, slicing off an eyestock. The beholder looks over to Mountain and fires a black, dark energy beam, but Mountain rolls out of the way. Ander moves closer to the beholder, and Taxi summons Ugarth the elephant, nicknamed Ug, from the marble elephant statue, and moves the Dust Devil dinosaur closer to the enemy. Ug stomps the beholder hard, still alive. Hilltree runs up, shanking the creature in the eye, killing the creature.

Mountain gets off the ground, slashing twice the animated armor, damaging it and causing the left arm to fall off. Jak bites the armor, not doing noticable damage. Velrisa swings a warhammer at the creature, missing. The armor slashes at Velrisa, hitting. Br'aad casts Hex onto the armor, then moves towards it, touching the armor's thigh and casting Shocking Metal, causing all of the armor pieces to fall to the ground. As the armor falls, they hear heavy footfall approaching. Sylnan waits to throw a dagger, waiting to see who approaches.

Suddenly, the ground begins to shake next to Mountain, as the beholder jolts up and points his remaining eye stock at Velrisa. The beholder casts out a dark energy beam, hitting Velrisa. Velrisa falls, turning to ash. In her final moments, she looks towards the party, smiling, and thanks them for being her friend, fully falling to ash. The beholder gets up off the ground, looking around at the party once more. Ander looks over at the pile of ash, furiously casting Flame Strike at the beholder, demolishing it into ash. Combat ends.

Ander, heartbroken, punches the ground, shaking the area as he does so. Taxi asks him to bring her back, and he says he cannot with simply ash. Br'aad begs to know a way to bring her back. Ander shoves his sword into the ground and sits before the pile of ash that was Velrisa in silence as he cries. Br'aad sits next to him, attempting to reach out to Ob'nockshai. As he opens his eyes, he sees before him a large tower with a staircase spiraling up to the top. Br'aad begins to climb the staircase for a half hour, reaching the top. At the top, sits Ob'nockshai before a table. On that table sits a small chessboard with a singluar piece on it; a small stone carving of Velrisa.