Session 4 - Ambush of the Grave!

Before session fully started, Gab finished his conversation with the purple light. He followed it a mile or two in the wet rain of the spring evening and came upon some old world ruins. In its center, the ground dipped into a small crater, leading to a metallic, spherical object. The voice in Gab's head affirmed that this was her. She asked him to find an exposed amethyst crystal a few feet above buried in the dirt. Gab did so and touched it. Immediately, he felt the ground beneath him shift. The dirt loosened as the voice-orb winced. Gab stepped back to it and the ground fell to the sides as a large, metallic body rose from its place. The sphere rotated as it revealed itself to be connected to the center of this bipedal, metallic, small Maius. A lengthy cord tied the sphere to its chest as green eyes blinked at Gab, before shifting blue. In reverence and fear, Gab took to a knee, at which the Maius urged him to stand, extending one of the asymmetrical arms to a finger for Gab to hold. The two chatted, and the voice spoke of memories she once had. Gab inquired to her name, and was met with a blank. The Maius asked him to give her one, to which he replied "Melodious Vow". Over time, those blue eyes grabbed a hint of red, turning purple. Vow warned Gab to leave soon or she might accidentally kill him, yet he stayed. She said she couldn't fight it much longer, but the two sat together for another half hour or so, exchanging information and getting to know each other. Vow told Gab to not revere nor destroy the Maius, and there is something special in all of them as with her. Over that half hour, the then-purple eyes drew more and more red, to where finally Vow insisted Gab return from where he came. Before he left, she took her smaller arm and jammed it into her back, pulling out a small purple bead of similar color to the crystal which powered her up. She gave it to Gab as a memento, and to show it to her should they ever encounter again so she might remember him. Thanking Gab for the help, she called it quite the harmonious occasion, and Gab walked back to Alietus with the sun at his back.

***

Immediately after Vordia entered the chamber with the withered flower and was attacked, she dropped to the ground unconscious. Gab and Patch are still in the ceiling, while Onika and Toni stand in the throat entranceway watching this scene before them. Gab immediately casts bless on most of the party to give them an extra boost. Toni takes this chance to dash up and swing at Felitol, and Onika shoots magic missiles at Arraz, which draws his attention to the small goblin. The combatants dance around each other in the exchange before Felitol eventually backs up in the room toward the massive teeth of the Maius. Not long after, Patch locks and loads their arms and delivers one final blow to the bone of the sinus wall, dropping them and Gab into the fray.

Gab takes the chance to get close-range with Felitol. They trade blows while Onika takes the chance to dart from Arraz and stabilize Vordia. Arraz moves to flank Gab with Felitol as combat ensues. Patch jumps on the flank train and flanks Felitol with Gab, who is still flanked by Arraz. Blades clatter and Toni also hops on the flank train, surrounding Arraz, who retaliates by kicking Gab onto one of the teeth, impaling him. Felitol gives one final swipe on Gab to render him unconscious. Arraz disengages from the flank with this and goes to corner Patch with Felitol, but Toni, spurred by the fear of seeing now two of her new friends lose consciousness in the past five minutes, sprints over to Felitol. With pulsing yellow lightning sparking around her eyes, she delivered a striking blow, sparing no mercy as the hammer cracks into Felitol, exploding her head on the massive tooth behind the dying drow. 

With one down, Patch swivels over to Arraz as the fight continues there. Onika darts over to Gab, pulling him off the spike and once again administering any first aid they could. Arraz, calculating, goes on the defensive. The party throws everything they have, from Vordia's eldritch blasts to Patch's spring-loaded punches. Onika makes an attempt to hold Arraz down with graviturgy, but he breaks free quickly. To which Vordia responds with Hold Person, and the rest of the team whittles him down, knocking him unconscious and tying him down while they all take a moment to rest and recover.

As the party rests, they compare notes from their findings, as well as grab whatever supplies Arraz and Felitol had on them for themselves. They find on their combatants both a necklace and a bracelet with imagery of a blue and white flower depicted on them. Ruminating over the strange damage and magics discovered, they decide to try and interrogate Arraz. The party bickers over what would be the best method: Toni intimidating them, or good cop bad cop, or just a plain conversation. Patch notices as they argue though, that Arraz himself had woken up at this point and was slowly shimmying up the tooth to free himself. The robot shouts "Good morning!" over to the dragonborn, at which point the whole party swivels to see the attempted escape. More strings of insults at Arraz are unleashed, but the party learns that he and Felitol are called Seekers amongst a group called Whitebloom. They weren't expecting another group out this soon to come investigate, and that this whole mission they were on is part of a bigger plan. He dances around revealing a ton of information and insists that they all needed to leave quick and their safest bet would be to keep Arraz alive.

At that point the room begins to shake, with a loud grumbling coming from seemingly everywhere.

    "That is what I was rushing for," Arraz points out, as everyone in the room feels themselves almost pressed to the ground, like being in an elevator. Gab points out the hole they'd made into the sinuses, and Onika quickly shoots up a gravity well to get people up and out. Patch, on their way up into the sinuses, tries to do a cartwheel and falls flat on their face. The head of the massive colossus begins to shake like a dog as everyone panics thinking it was trying to sneeze them out. Almost everyone is slammed against the walls. Quickly recovering, Vordia rushes down the nostrils to try to get outside, before quickly grabbing the edge of the bony walls upon seeing a near-100ft drop beneath her. Patch moves to help pull Vordia back in, and Onika darts past her, diving into the open air. Patch, while helping Vordia, sees Onika then shoot gravity glyphs beneath themself and leading up to the skull.

Not seeing this, however, is Toni, who simply dashes out into the open air without a second thought. Entering freefall, she quickly looks for somewhere to land. Between a patch of fur on the chest versus the arm, she aims for the arm as this hulking creature now standing roars through its sealed mouth. The sonic waves of the roar almost blurring her vision, Toni barely catches the side of the arm, digging her claws into the thick hide to try and find purpose, but to no avail. It slows her fall for a moment, but she slips again, falling further toward the ground.

At the same time, Arraz breaks out, yelling to trust the Graviturgist. He scampers along a few of the glyphs, but the monster bucks him off and he lands just barely in the middle of one of its massive tusks. Gab and Patch rush out of the sinuses and clambers to the head using Onika's glyphs. Gab hurls a rope over to Arraz, who sprints out toward the thinner part of the tusk and ties it just as he sees Onika change focus and start to fall. Gab jumps to the rope and slides down before realizing it was nowhere near enough rope to get anywhere safe. Scrambling back up, Arraz reaches out a hand in a truce which Gab takes. The beast roars once more, tilting its head far back as plans change.

Vordia approaches the edge of the skull again and sees now Onika's new string of glyphs running now what was straight up from the monster's movement, which at the end coiled into an arcane bannister of sorts, which Vordia took, sending her down to the chest where she clings for dear life. Meanwhile, Patch is bucked off the top of the skull and down the back, where they spot multiple rocky outcroppings. The adrenaline pumping, they missed a step or two, but otherwise masterfully hopped down each step, ending just at the lower back.

After slipping from the arm, Toni redirects toward the left thigh. She sighs as she lands, sliding to break the momentum. But it doesn't last long. A shadow stretches overhead as the Maius reaches with its right arm to squash her like a bug. Toni picks up the pace and slides just out of the way above the kneecap, but her arm is caught by the massive hand, and the faintest crack can be heard beneath the rumbling of the boulder-sized fist of the Maius. The tabaxi screams in pain as her eyes roll back to unconsciousness.

Onika shouts up to Gab and creates almost a descending staircase of glyphs from the skull to the left arm, as well as one for themself to stand on out in the open. Gab and Arraz descend to the left arm, meanwhile Vordia kicks off and leaps to the right arm still crossed over to the left thigh where Toni was. She slides down to the leg just as the arm picks up and Toni slides off the edge. The moment Gab and Arraz made it to the left arm though, Onika lets themself fall, shooting a column of gravity glyphs toward the ground as they land softly on the ground. Seeing Toni begin to fall in the distance, Onika hastily casts feather fall just moments before Toni would crack against the ground.

Patch, still on the lower back, notices vine-like furs that descend from the backs of the legs. They swing down and make it to the ground, dashing over to Toni and picking them up. They wrap their arm with whatever they have, as Toni comes back to consciousness in Patch's arms suddenly sobbing in the pain.

Vordia clings to the side of the leg. Arraz leaps from the arm to try and sidle up next to Vordia, but misjudges and slams down next to her atop the kneecap, barely managing to shout out "Hey there!" before the impact knocks him unconscious. Vordia slides down after the falling body just as Onika off in the distance manages to cast just one more feather fall on Arraz, shouting to Patch to try and help him up too. Gab leaps to the arm and aims for a similar maneuver as Vordia, but slips atop the leg as it begins to move. Patch and Vordia quickly manage to move under him to catch him. As soon as he's down, Patch dashes over to Arraz, helping him back to consciousness.

The second they're all mobile, Onika sends over all five glyphs of speed and the party takes off running. Vordia looks back to see that their goblin friend left no juice for themself, as well as the Maius lifting a foot to crush them beneath it. Vordia stops her sprint and attempts to unleash a Suggestion spell, but its threads fall short of the paralyzing gaze of the recently awoken Maius. Gab, seeing Vordia turn, whirls around and Commands the creature to halt, just moments before Onika would be crushed. In its woozy state, having seemingly just been reanimated and confused, the Maius fails to resist the magic. This hundred foot tall colossus, made of hide and bone, halts just over Onika's head. Seizing the chance, Onika casts another wave of speed glyphs this time for themself as they barely manage to catch up with the group. With the twin suns beating down overhead, the party--and one Arraz--sprint off back in the direction of Saile.