Session 9: Everyone Fucking Dies

At night, the group wakes up to a psychic attack, but there is no perpetrator in sight. They find Lokreth teaching a bunch of the monks how to do the prayers that contain the tree. He suggests that the psychic attack was the curious monks trying to read their minds. The group realises that their memories of the fake Lokreth have become more vague. Suspicious but unable to do much, they chill out until dawn.

The next morning Vica senses a portal near Lokreth’s room. The group runs over and finds the tree surging with energy and surrounded by unconscious monks. Lokreth cuts off his hand as a tribute, appeasing the tree. He explains that the monks didn’t perform the prayers well enough, causing the tree to surge. He still insists on heading out with the group, despite the risk.

When Lokreth and the group try to leave the monastery, they are stopped by the captain of the Red Jasper, along with four bound people with bags over their heads. The monks confront the dragonborn at first, but turn into sludge and slink away upon realising they’re outmatched. The captain commands Lokreth to stay in the monastery and tend to the tree, implying that the trees serve to control the seventh god’s entry into the world. The group insists on taking Lokreth with them, so the captain sends two of his bagged slaves to kill them.

Thorim headbutts one of them, but a large, armoured undead bursts from the slave’s body and grabs his face. Ahrm and Arran attack the monster so Thorim can escape, while the second monster emerges to fight Vica and Vojta. The monsters lay waste to the group with their swords and soul-draining magic, but Vojta summons Trojka the Heal-Bear, who barely keeps everyone alive and fighting. Arran electrocutes the steel-clad monster while Ahrm punches like a madman and Thorim zips around making aerial attacks. Eventually the first monster is killed and explodes, knocking out all three attackers.

Meanwhile, Vica casts an undead-warding spell on Vojta, which keeps him alive as he turns into a polar bear and fights the monster toe to toe. Their claws and arrows prove insufficient, as Vojta’s wild shaping energy is for the first time fully exhausted, forcing him to fight with his sword. Just in time, Trojka the Heal-Bear brings Ahrm back to consciousness, who goads the heavily-wounded monster into impaling itself on his spikes, finally finishing it off (and suffering another explosion).

The heavily-wounded group flees from the exit, which is guarded by two more of the slaves. Lokreth notes that the planar protection around the monastery is gone, and teleports them to the small harbour they arrived at, where they steal an unattended sailboat. None of them know how to use it, but Vojta calls upon knowledge from the spirits and manages to safely set a course towards Old Galead.

Along the way, a hideous horse-human hybrid emerges from the water and nearly capsizes the ship with a conjured wave. It makes skirmishing attacks against the passengers while hiding unseen beneath the waves, until Vojta turns into a shark to find the monster and force it to the surface. The others barrage it with attacks, but it jumps onto the ship and spews a retch-inducing cloud. The group fights through the cloud until Lokreth spends the last of his strength to finish the monster off with a magic ray. The monster’s form disintegrates, revealing it to be one of the slaves from the monastery, dazed but still alive.