Well, tonight turned out to be one of those adventures where I hadn't quite tidied up properly from last session, but there wouldn't be time to do that and prepare for the next phase of the adventure. What to do in those circumstances?
Wing it!
In a setup that I was completely making up as I went along, the party end up split (NEVER SPLIT THE PARTY!!), with our cleric in a purging ritual which would allow her to recover her powers at long last (assuming she survived) and the two kids' characters making their way back to the city (having no interest in this religious hokum).
Upon reaching the city, the two find out that the Mages' tower, part of the King's castle grounds, has been the target of several recent attacks in search of the tome which details how to use the unusual stone discovered in the earliest adventure. This stone is currently in the hands of the King's half brother, who wishes to overthrow the King and take control of the city of Geredar.
The players are kind of volunteered to be on patrol on their first night, but fail in their duty. Thankfully, their failure was not a catastrophe, as the leader of the tower mages had a decoy tome in place in the library.
But the thieves had access to some powerful magic, allowing them to teleport and create mildly toxic distractions to affect an escape. The one prisoner they manage to keep alive tells htme that the thieves were only hired to get the book and don't care what's in it. Their captain was being paid handsomely for the tome and awaits the return of the thieves on his ship, The Rapahali.
But then, having decided the book was too dangerous and should be destroyed, the players try to use the prisoner to bring the book to them, rather than risk triggering the magical traps protecting it. Despite their precautions, he had kept two trinkets bundle up in this braids, and broke one to blind the players and another to make his escape, presumably to the ship.
What of the priest? Well, after three days of starvation and sleeplessness, she was sent on the last leg of the pilgrimage facing The Mirror, The Voice and finally the Temple.
At The Mirror, a well above the aquaduct they are walking along (see The Silver Skeleton, a previously published D&D adventure from Wizards), she was shown an image of herself in the guise of The Sainted Devil, a reformed succubus they had rescued the previous week. This was a reference to the Devil's innate evil being overcome on the path to redemption.
At The Voice, a cave from which uninitiated echoes feed out into the world, taunting the faithful for their weaknesses and failings, she was mocked for her selfishness, spite and the loneliness of being without her god.
Finally, as she reached the ruins of the Temple at the highest point on the path, she was given weapons and asked to defend the temple, as had Sonnlinor Stoneheart, a stone giant who converted to the faith of Gered in the past. As the dragon rose towards the Temple, she cast herself towards it, with no hope of success, and the flames reached out to consume her.
The players will not know the true outcome of all of this before the next session, which will hopefully be next week.
