Post by hubertbartels on Apr 4, 2020 13:47:19 GMT -5
Having finished a short rest in the parsonage, we were ready to enter the temple of Bane. We saw how many Banites were in the compound so it was decided to be a be more discrete and enter the building through a side entrance. The door was unlocked so we slipped in to find ourselves in a dark nave attached to the main barrel vault of the temple. Forty clergy of Bane turned to look at us.
Kelric cast a fireball, charring most of them. The few that remained cast their spells or charged at us. We cut the evil priests down. Before we moved on, Randall used a charge on his Eye of Revealing. He reported that several invisible imps happened to be in the chamber. Elathrion called on his powers to turn them, making them visible to us. Then we finished them off.
The next chamber was a vestry room. Kelric’s fireball had killed the ambushers lying in wait so we continued onto the following room. This was a mediation room in which the Banites had carved a summoning circle. The Bane priest stepped back from the edge of the circle as an erinyes appeared.
Sunny tried to abjure her but she just grinned. Elathrion unleashed his holy power to smite her, sending her reeling. Aaylea savages the priest as he was about to cast his magic. Kelric’s spell sent the erinyes back to hell while Randall finished off the priest.
A quick touch from Elathrion saved the priest’s life. The paladin made him an offer – if he would forswear his evil ways and lay down the powers of Bane, he would walk away from this. The priest readily agreed. Sunny cast a dis-vesting ceremony on the man. As it concluded, the man tossed his holy symbol of Bane on the floor and quietly told us how to access the chambers in which the Eye of the Dawn was kept.
If we went out into the central nave of the temple and searched, we would find a grave stone dedicated to Sir Lionheart. It would require some heavy lifting but underneath the stone, we would find a stairway leading down. But the man warned us that the guardian of the Eye of the Dawn was not alone – she had four bearded devils with her.
Following his instructions, we descended the hidden stairway to find ourselves in a circular domed chamber. Hanging in the air near the top was a bright orb, giving off light. Around the dome hung the bodies of dead humans, their blood running off their corpses to fill a pool in the center of the chamber. Bathing in it was a very beautiful being with wings of black. Randall tried to use the Helm of Opposite Alignment and an invisibility potion to try and use it on her – but she saw through it and slammed him back.
All the bearded devils attacked Jaggard but he quickly killed two of them. The fallen angel threw out a Circle of Death but standing close to Elathrion’s divine aura, we resisted it. The bearded devils didn’t and died. Our paladin then called on his power and dealt a heavy blow on the fallen angel. Randall finished her off.
The orb hanging in the the chamber was the Eye of the Dawn. Randall nudged it down to the ground where Sunny studied it. It was enclosed in a cage of bronze and amber, impossibly bright and with the power to take water from miles around and convert it to sunlight. It would even kill people to convert their water to sunlight. Elathrion’s insight into Bishop Braccio made us reluctant to entrust such a super weapon to the cleric. It disappeared into out Bag of Holding.
From the Banite treasury, we collected a vast store of coins – including platinum coins minted by Tyranthraxis. He is rumored to be at the Black Network site, about a day’s trip upriver. This is something that we would have to deal with later.
Returning to the controlled part of Phlan, we reported the missing Eye of the Dawn to Bishop Braccio as well as our success in clearing the temple of Lathander. There would be some time to relax as the clerics of Lathander moved back into the temple and secured the Temple District. Our next target would be the Library of Mantor. Sunny would be interested in anything she could find on the Eye of the Dawn – the orb fascinates her and wants more research.