After emerging from the sewers - and taking long hot showers - the party members reported back to the church of Pelor with Soramar's letter. The priests were sobered by the news of Soramar's death, but they were glad that the party had obtained such useful information.

The high priest then wished to speak with the party again. He was concerned about how dangerous this mission was turning out to be before they had even left the city, so he gave them directions to an artifact named the Tear of Pelor, which was rumored to have mighty powers against the undead. According to him, it was somewhere off the coast of Bazsten, on "an island you can't sail to, atop a mountain you can't climb, through a door you can't touch, down a tunnel you can't see, toward a sound you can't hear, behind a sphinx whose riddle you must answer." He offered to teleport the party to Bazsten, but from there they were on their own.

Upon arrival in Bazsten, the party began asking if anyone knew of an island you couldn't sail to. They discovered that there was an area about a hundred miles off shore where the winds were dead and massive patches of seaweed prevented ships from moving. A dwarven captain named Boris was known to have experience there... but unfortunately his experience had driven him a bit mad.

The party found Boris in The Brawny Kobold watching a goliath burlesque show. With a littler persuasion, they were able to hire him. Sha-Ashar and Dante also rented a flatbottom boat for use when the larger ship could go no further. They sailed about a day before the seaweed started showing up. At that point, Ooka put on Torrin's Wavestrider Boots and everyone else got in the flat-bottom boat. Ooka then pulled the boat behind her to the island.

Upon arriving at the island, the party spotted a massive, solid adamantine pillar in the center of it. The sides were completely smooth, preventing climbing, and it was far too high to build ladders for. The party split to try to discover some way up. Eventually, they met a copper dragon who lived on the island, and after some hard bargaining, the dragon agreed to fly them all up to the top of the pillar.

Atop the pillar were several large rock formations. Dante noticed that one was of a slightly different color than the others. Sha-Ashar climbed atop it - and then disappeared! The rocks were an illusion concealing the entrance to a tunnel! Conventional torches wouldn't work in the ash-clogged tunnel, but fortunately Dante had some Cannith goggles that granted him darkvision. He led the party through the tunnel to an intersection of many different paths. At that point, they were attacked by dire wolves!

After only a few moments, though, the wolves began howling towards one passage and then ran off. The group deduced that the tunnel must have had a dog whistle or something, and they ran down its twists and turns until they encountered the sphinx. They easily answered the question and were admitted into the hidden chamber, the resting site of the Tear.

Labels: shadowfell fortress, side quest, tear of pelor

Even though the battle with the shadar-kai and the oni had left them battered and bruised, the party decided that they needed to continue to investigate the sewers - after all, Soramar had said he would have information and items for them, and they found neither in his home. So back into the sewers they went. The corridor where they had fought the shadar-kai was empty, so they opted to investigate the pipe the oni had fled through.

Everyone trudged through the sludge... except for Sha-Ashar. He insisted on building a makeshift boat from the cooper's barrels. While everyone else was able to easily jump from the pipe to the floor, Sha-Ashar got his foot caught in the barrel! Instead of remaining completely clean, as he had hoped, he ended up more submerged in sludge than anyone.

The room seemed completely empty except for some coins scattered near some mushrooms. Dante, however, noticed a snout barely poking out from beneath the sludge. It was a dragon! And to complcate matters, the oni reappeared too. After a long and difficult battle, however, the party emerged victorious.

They found a barrel floating near where the dragon had hidden. Inside was treasure... and also a silver tube that contained a letter from Soramar. It detailed hsi findings from studying the ancient texts and warned the adventurers to watch out for decoy foci as they set forth on their mission.

Labels: jartor, soramar