Session 43 - Dark Gifts Come at a Cost - The tears of an Ape

Mulberry commands - Gorillas ATTACK, and they run in and attack the ghosts. As they fight their way the rest of the party kicks in and makes ranged attacks as Baromar changes his mind and runs back in. They take down the Ghosts in the face of some very disappointed Apes resulting in 4 disapparted Ghosts and 4 crying Apes.

The explore the room and find the mortal remains of 4 thieves who look to have perished at the hands of another Amber Golem who is no longer around. They explore the statue some more and as Gnarvick climbs up to look in the eye of the statue, a cockatrice appears and scurries along the floor. Baromar chases after it making a dive and as his hands catch the beast it vanishes. 

Looking around they see a hallway they are yet to explore, they peek around a corner and see three witches complete with pointed hats and brooms trying to guess the code words to open a door. They sneak up and double fireball them narrowly avoiding having to combat three animated brooms in close quarters and triggering snowballs deep seated fear of animated brooms. 

Looking at the door and seeing no way to open it, they notice something carved into the frame above written in Draconic. Van Helsing is able to decipher the text and as he says Shalax the door scrapes open, he runs and lets the party grow through combat some more as they face off against three more flame skulls. Grimdur runs in and starts hacking away at them using the sun sword, Mulberry instructs the Apes to jump over Grimdur who denies them any thought of this action, and instead Mulberry uses thorn whip to drag one of the Flame skulls out so the rest of the party can have at it. 

The take one down, and in response one of the other ones fireballed the party only to be counter spelled by Pallas, its remaining friend trys the same trick this time however Pallas is not able to counter it and some of the party get a little crispy. 

Denzel takes one down with a long bow, Grimdur slips and falls prone, and Pallas manages to hit the remaining Ape with an eldritch blast before finally the last Flame Skull is down. 

Van Helsing pokes his head around the corner to see the Flame Skulls taken care of and cops a barrage of abuse from Mulberry "you idiot you got my fur babies killed" her ire at him opening the door and resulting in the death of her Fey Apes burning in her words like red hot coals. 

They look in the room and see more Amber Sarcophagi with the mysterious black smoke entities inside. This time Baromar touches one of them.

The room fills (for Baromar) with black smoke and a voice fills the darkness. "I AM SKYANE, the Soul Hungerer I offer you a dark gift.....DO YOU ACCEPT?"

Of course Baromar does, he is imbued by Skyane with the ability to raise the dead. (Casting Raise the Dead Spell 3 times after which the gift will vanish) His eyes change to a sickly yellow color, and he also gets a character flaw of “If I help someone, I expect payment in return.”

Drunk with his new power he decides to touch another one, this time the voice identifies as Tarakamedes, the Grave Wyrm. Tarakamedes’s gift is the power of flight. Baromar after accepting the gift grows skeletal wings and gains a flying speed of 50 feet.

The down side to this one is that Baromar must eat bones or grave dirt to survive. At dawn, he has not eaten at least 1 pound of bones or grave dirt in the past 24 hours, he dies.

He tries for a third and this time is informed that his quota of gifts as been met. They explore the other rooms and find the remains of a bed with 4 gold birds on the posts, but otherwise the room is full of ruined furniture, Gnarvick helps himself to the birds, and in the final room off this hall they find a giant construct, which an arcana check tells Pallas requires an amulet to control and is currently incapacitated without the amulet. 

The return to the area where they first encountered the Sarcophagi and Baromar attempts to grapple Snowball and throw him against one of the Sarcophagi. Snowball slips out of his grasp and instead Grimdur decides to try his luck. "I AM Delban, the Star of Ice and Hate do you wish to accept my gift" Hell yes is the response as Grimdur is imbued with the power to unleash deadly cold. This dark gift allows its Grimdur to cast the cone of cold spell as an action. After it has been used seven times, the dark gift vanishes. Until it vanishes, Grimdur also gains the benefits of a ring of warmth and  the following flaw: “Fire terrifies me.”