25 Dualahei 838

The Aurora’s watch soldier lays dead on the floor of the study.
Wonders is able to tell that the soldier has been dead for a couple days, by the smell alone.

There is a scream somewhere in the house, but we are unable to tell where it has come from.

Eveneem pops her head into the kitchen, which seems like it has sat unused for a week or more. There is another dead Aurora’s watch soldier laying on the floor of the kitchen. He’s been dead for around the same amount of time as the first soldier. The body is withered in a way that looks like he was maybe drained…

There is a long dark hallway next to the stairs, which Eveneem tosses a book with light cast upon it down, only for the book to disappear completely. A second later, the book falls from somewhere above the team, with light still cast upon it. Wonders tries to go down the hallway and winds up back right next to Eveneem. The hallway seems unable to be traversed.

Eveneem and Ali heead up the stairs and see several doors.

Through the double doors at the top of the stairs, Eveneem finds Question unconscious in a room with a large smashed urn, which splattered black liquid. Question is alive, but injured. Eveneem hears a noise as she checks on Question and sees an elderly man spider crawling across the ceiling with his head on backwards, and he drops from the ceiling to attack. After we kill the old man, tentacles come out, head down the stairs, and infect/posess another corpse. We head down and kill that one, too.

Eveneem heads back to check on Question, while Wonders inspects the leftover pieces of the tentacle creature. It appears to be demonic in nature and from another plane; we surmise that it is from the betrayer’s rise.

Eveneem wakes Question and they interact. Question assesses that the broken urn was a containment device for a demonic creature, named Dybbuk. Dybukk is a posession demon from the abyss. Posession demons take bodies and drain them of their life force.

Question finds some of the Professor’s notes, which detail the urn’s collection but cut off before the opening thereof. There are also some decent sketches of the Betrayer’s Rise in the Professor’s notebook.

With Wonder’s help, Ali finds a note contining a description of a lower level in the Betrayer’s Rise, describing a massive statue bound by chains and being held by three figures. It describes a door in the statue leading to an unknown location, and opened from elsewhere in the Rise. Further, the room appears to be relatively safe, ie: no traps or monsters found while exploring.

Wonders and Ali go to investigate other rooms, finding hte southwest door trapped with a glyph of warding. Zenith triggers it, and Ali and Wonder go in. Wonder finds and takes a Diary, then picks a locked footlocker to find and collect: 150 gold, a scroll of invisibility, and 2 potions of healing.

Eveneem checks the bathroom and finds very nice towels. Wonder and Mick steal them. Mick hunts for drugs and finds a Ritalin.

The last room on the second floor is a guest room with two bedrolls and a fireplace. Eveneem is drawn to the napsacks at the feet of the bedrolls where she finds 50 gold and a scroll of comprehend languages. The napsacks have names embroidered on them: Korthya Alzar (half elf) and Bending Branches(Tabaxi). Question identifies the names as being members of the Cobalt Soul and compatriots who accompanied the professor into the Rise.

Eveneem investigates the study and finds some notebooks that identify the way teh rise works and also that there are rumors of a temple to Avandra inside the rise. She next checks the books in the dining room and finds that they are almost all scribbles and incomplete notes on demonic creatures.

Wonders questions Question about the hallway to nowhere, and she knows a little about how it works, and we find out to walk towards the end of the hall with magical light. Eveneem does this and breaks through. At the end of the hallway is the Professor’s trophy room, and we find that several display cases have been smashed and looted.

Missing items:
Necklace of Breath - mimics the appearance of a necklace of health and chokes the wearer
Wand of Merging Missiles - has 7 charges, can use 1 to cast magic missile, upcast for more charges
Goggles of Gloom - can’t see outside magical darkness
Whip of the Serpent’s Fang - long whiplike strand of muscle has sharp fang
Dust of diasappearance - a small pouch of what resembles fine sand, breathe it in to gain invisibility for 1 hour

Present items:
Staff of Decay - 3 charges, use to deal extra 2d10 necrotic, and con save 15 for dis on ability or saave against str or con
Ruidium Ring of Rage - allows wearer to cast rage

Wonder grabs the Ring of Red Rage, and the Party shoves the Staff of Decay into Zenith’s hands.

We get back to the Ready Room, console Question, and go to bed.

Ali has an epiphiwhatisis about teamwork.
Eveneem has a dream/vision in shich she wakes to the sound of screams. As she bolts up, she is in a child’s body, and gets outside to find her parents (not her REAL ones) being harassed/attacked. The mother calls her Alyxian, shit’s bad.