c02s04e18 - The River of Souls day 201 Time for a long rest. Day 202 Fire Todd's soul did not come easily. long, metallic, silver grapple lines curled and twisted around black tentacles wreathed in hellfire as THX fishes Todd's soul straight out of hell-- the warforged priest could hear the distant clacking of mechanized clawtips on stone through the ether-- the tunnel to hell closing into a sigularity; vaccuum sealing shut. Fire Todd Freaks out. Only a few hours dead and you can tell.. he regrets ALL his choices. Negotiations were certainly at advantage. Easy enough- he brands his face and swears he won't cross the team if they will just keep him from hell. He's happy to provide information. he doesn't know how much is useful to the team because he's from another corner of reality... his team was intended to provide support to the cyran operatives stationed in the cavern while they stocked up the ships to transport the hell-seeds. They were to trek across the ether sea to the west and along the way knock the team out of commission until the Ritual of Passage is completed... The claim is; the cyran witches found a way to pull one of Kazarak's military strongholds from hell straight into Thrane territory and launch a point-blank attack on the rival nation- they've been stockpiling weapons for months in preparation of the ambush, and the final elements of the ritual were in process right now. Fire Todd knows the ritual of the gate and helps fix the magic circle. Under guards that Fire Todd assures he has no interest in resisting-- with a wish of luck, and thanks for a second chance-- the resurrected wizard sends the team through the gate to cyran nether... ... the team arrives in a crystal-coated chamber awash with ratdiant lght-- a flood of souls rushing through like a river. When the team resists the flow of the current, the souls' life energy infuses and over-flows the heroes' resistance, searing any resistancewith radiance dmange. Frank fights to current and finds a dropped drawbridge with warmek turrets amid the river of souls as though on the bottom of a river bed. After disabling the turrets, they see the turret base bridges a gap of evil winds -- THX deduces the gate took them to the other side of the warmek gate that he and Rogar had investigated at the end of the kazarak monument.. where the plant pollen had been released across Darguun territory via the channeled spell storm... Rogar and Dhraksis connect the dots and realize the hell seeds being loaded into the airships are the same plants that had previously filled the kazarak monument face-tunnel. and suddenly the river of souls ended... the wind cut off and it was eerily quiet. the entire chamber was made of some exotic crystal substance that shimmmered with its own resonating energy that made hair stand on end from the static charge. Rogar and Dhraksis sense human and demonic presence downstream where the cavern funneled down to a 40 foot passageway. The only light is the rapidly receeding light of the souls shooting "downstream" far down the passage. A lightning bolt peels through the cavern-- flooding the chamber with its brillianc; reflecting off the walls, ceiling and floor -- each arc angling towards another hero until the entire team is targeted before the energy runs out of juice. The team readies to close... <end of session> Day 202 (1/3 to level 18)