After resting for the night, you prepare to enter Dreamgate. Nketiah picks up Eclipse, the magic starknife that also serves as the portal key for Dreamgate in Alseta’s Ring. She touches Eclipse to the portal, which causes the stone within the arch to turn into a shimmering curtain of mist.
Stepping through the mist, you emerge into a room that is decorated with tiny, glowing points of light and scratched carvings of butterflies. Upon a short dais at one end between two hallways are two delicate bare feet apparently carved from stone. Chunks of shattered stone around the dais hint at the fate of the rest of the statue. Nailed to the wall above the dais is the preserved corpse of a hideously ugly gray-skinned horned woman. The wall behind her once bore a written message in flowing script, but it’s been scratched out and replaced by a new phrase.
”The old message is Elven. It says, ‘Praise to Desna, for Sweet Dreams,’” Nketiah says.
The body shows no evidence of how the hag died. Her withered hand still bears a ring of lies. A blue gemstone on a silver chain hangs around her neck; it is worth 200 gp.
Pril looks over the body, but hasn't a clue. "Anyone know what that says?" she asks, gesturing to the crude message.
"I cannot read that language," Nketiah says. She looks at the choice of hallways ahead. "So, which way? Left or right?"
Illyiana shrugs, "I can't read it either, no clue."
Not one to get stuck on decision making, the ranger quickly says "Left." and heads that way.
The centerpiece of this room is a tall statue of a willow tree carved from pale marble. Six oversized roots around the base of the tree resemble stone beds radiating out from the trunk, with just enough room to climb into them beneath the statue’s stone branches. An exit leads out from the opposite side of the room.
As Lucius walks by the strange tree, it suddenly animates, its branches lashing out!
Nketiah rushes to the tree to try to disrupt its magical animation, to no avail.
Illyiana tries to work the lever, but is completely stumped by it and curses in frustration. "I should have just attacked it!" she scolds herself, readying her bow and taking a shot instead.
Illyiana’s arrow does little to dissuade the strange tree. It pummels her, Nketiah, and Pril, grabbing hold of each of them and filling their minds with terrifying visions.
Pril flickers out of existence for just an instant, avoiding some of the damage. As it tries to assault her with nightmares.
The gnome attempts to free herself from the device's hold and manages to slip free of its grasp.
Though horiffied, Illyiana is able to slip free thanks to Lucius's spell. Once free, she decides to give up on attacking after her last three arrows all failed and attempt to shut down this thing once and for all.
Illyiana is able to successfully disrupt the magical energies animating the horrible tree. It falls inert.
As the tree falls inert, the ranger sighs with relief "Whew. That was rather unpleasant. Everyone doing alright?"
"Shoulder's a bit wonky," Pril says, as she rolls her shoulder. "But It'll be fine. Let's keep moving."
Illy looks over at Lucious and nods towards Pril, assuming if the monk says her shoulder hurt then it was broken broken in three places given how tough she was.
"Let's go." she agrees, picking up her stray arrows as they walk.
One wall of this room contains an ornate archway of stones carved with symbols of stars, comets, and waves. The space underneath the archway is filled with a featureless stone plug that has been decorated with a complex series of runes scribed in what looks like long-dried blood, while the ground below the archway is scorched black. Four ornate chairs surround a silver cauldron to one side of the room, while a large wooden table with some books atop it stands against the opposite wall. The room contains two exits in the wall opposite the blocked archway.
A pair of hags stand here, each one the size of an ogre with warty blue skin. They are currently engaged in negotiations with a bone devil, its scorpionlike tail tapping on the floor in irritation. When the hags notice your approach, they shriek in indignation. "How the hell did you lot get in here? How dare you interrupt! You'll pay with your lives!" The devil glances at you before promptly turning invisible!
"I can still punch them, though, right?" Pril asks with a grin as she moves forward to do just that.
Pril dashes forward and pummels the nearest hag, hitting twice and leaving her stunned! The hag shrieks as she recovers and slashes at the gnome with her claws, raking her and grabbing a hold.
Meanwhile, the other hag raises her hands, encasing Lucius in a cage built of cold iron fingernails that springs out of nothingness! "Kelleni! Get in here!" she yells.
A look of indignation crosses her face and she shouts at the empty air in Infernal.
"Let go of them!" Illyiana shouts, firing three rapid, blessed arrows at the hag.
Nketiah begins an inspiring chant as she tries to confuse the hag that conjured the cage around Lucius.
It doesn't work.
"I am a hugger, but you need to ask first," Pril says, slipping free from the hag's grasp without a second thought. She then spins and kicks at the creature.
Illyiana lands a shot on the hag grabbing Pril, moments before the gnome slips free and pummels her. She resists the stunning fist, but cries out as Lucius's flame strike scorches her. The other hag dodges some of the blast.
Badly wounded, the hag attacking Pril tries to strike back but fails to hit the monk. Still cursing in Infernal at the invisible devil, the other hag moves to help her sister, slicing Pril with both claws and rending her flesh! The gnome falls!
When Pril falls, Illyiana shouts to Lucius "Cardinal, get her up!" before firing off three more arrows.
Pril opens her eyes in surprise and then with a quick spin is on her feet, kicking and punching again.
Nketiah lends her healing magic to Pril as well, restoring the gnome's vitality. Illyiana shoots the wounded hag before Pril finishes her off with a flurry of blows! The other hag shrieks and assaults the monk again, once more rending her with her claws.
"You ladies are pretty tough!" Pril offers.
She get's her face pummelled repeatedly and she calls us tough? the ranger thinks to herself. She lines up three well-placed arrows and let them fly at the hag.
Nketiah tops off Pril's health with another spell. Illyiana shoots the hag with two arrows, while Pril lands one telling blow. The hag avoids being stunned and is unaffected by Lucius's ray of enfeeblement! She claws at Pril again, landing one hit.
From the southwest hallway, two creatures emerge. The first is a dusky-skinned hag with glowing red eyes and curling horns. The second is a jet-black horse with a flaming mane and hooves! "Took you long enough, Kelleni! Kill them!" the annis hag shrieks.
Kelleni casts a spell, blasting all of you with a burst of cold. The horse gallops through the air around you, scorching you with its flaming hooves, then kicks at Illyiana. The smoke pouring from its nostrils threatens to choke those nearby!
"Wow, you're bringing in, like, every friend you've got, aren't you?"
Illy is hit with multiple types of damages one after the other and gasps in pain. "Cardinal?"
She tries to focus herself through the pain and sets out firing another three arrows.
Nketiah successfully uses her magic to confuse the nightmare! Pril kicks the hag again, and Illyiana lands three precise arrows, the last one catching the hag in the forehead! At last, she falls, causing the cage of iron around Lucius to crumble to rust! Now, only the night hag and the nightmare remain.
The night hag casts another spell, blasting Illy and Lucius with a cone of cold. The confused nightmare races over to the night hag to bite and kick at her!
Illyiana breathes a sigh of relief when Lucius heals her before she is injured again. "Thanks!" she shouts before targeting the nightmare hag with three more shots.
"Some people just seem to want to tap out when they know that they've lost," Pril mutters to herself.
Nketiah draws her longbow and fires on the hag, scoring a hit. Illyiana shoots her once as well, while Pril lands all of her hits, badly wounding the fiend!
"Bah! You killed my coven mates, you'll not get me, too! Sorry, Coalgnasher, you're on your own!" the hag shrieks. She clutches a gemstone around her neck before fading out of existence, becoming ethereal.
The nightmare moves to Pril and bites and kicks at her. It then recovers from its confusion.
"Dang! That horse hits harder than the hags did," Pril says, reaching up to massage her jaw.
Illyiana is bolstered by the Cardinal's words and lands one excellent shot before shouting "Do not let her get away!"
Between Pril's fists and arrows from Illyiana and Nketiah, the nightmare quickly goes down! Lucius fails to dispel the night hag's ehterealness, though, ensuring that the fiend will escape, though she is unlikely to return.
There is no sign of the bone devil. With its summoner's death, it is likely the creature has returned to Hell.
The cauldron in this room is a bountiful cauldron. Most of the books on the table are sinister texts about the nature of the worship of the devilish demigoddess Mahathallah (with a particular focus on her association with death and vanity and not so much about fate). The books are not magic, but nine of them are worth 20 gp apiece for their curious contents. The tenth book is more robust and contains information on two divine rituals: planar ally and resurrect. This tenth volume is worth 250 gp. The resurrect ritual has been heavily annotated in Infernal, making it apparent that the annis hag you killed had been having problems learning this ritual but that she hoped to use it to bring the coven’s original leader, Abelstia, back to life to replace Kelleni. Two dreamstones also rest here.
The stone archway in this room is the exit portal from the Dreamgate waystation, but the runes in dried blood scribbled on the stone within the arch are new.
Nketiah studies the runes. "It appears that the hags were trying to use a ritual to seal the portal here. But they were not successful. We should be able to leave this place when we are ready."
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Lucius examines the book carefully, making mental notes as to the rituals as he goes. "This tome is valuable." He says carefully, "But perhaps more so for the information inside it. It would take considerable study but it may be possible for me to beseech Abadar's intercession in order to raise the dead, or send one of his axiomites to aid us in battle. With your permission I will retain it for study."
"Still, we should continue on and hopefully reach the city proper before we have too much more fighting. Abadar's gifts are running dry."