Stories of my brain

There is a makeshift temple next to the mouth of the Leviathan, behind it lay several corpses. Adaly walks to them and starts investigating and finds these to be the paladins of the cleansing dawn. She finds a note on them.

Enter the halls of the divine, steady your hand to take the key.

Join the chant unending to pass by the undying guardians.

Wash away the sins of purity in the shower of sacrilege.

Pass unseen by the shelled sentinels and bathe in the glory of the discordant.

Adaly hands it to the paladins “Do you know what that means?” and both shake their heads. The party starts pilling the corpses and starts burning them, while they set down on the beach. Gevaudan looks at Adaly “Who were the tieflings? You seemed to be familiar with them?” Adaly smiles and looks down “Familiar is the correct word. They are my brothers and sisters.” Gevaudan chuckles “Is it common for your family to try to kill each other?” Adaly once more laughs.

“I don’t know how common it is for them to fight each other, but my family likes to try to kill me yes…” Adaly smiles once more while holding her bracelet, looking at Amara. Yes, technically the ebony guard are family, but only Muddy and Amara ever truly felt like family.

They sit like that for a while before Adaly takes the sending stone and sends a message to Jeremy ‘I think the guest I talked about earlier were the ebony guard, I think they will stay away for a while.’ And she gets back ‘Acknowledged. Got letter from Guillemina. Guests of note are: Master Garrick Ilitheran, Count-Dowager Balthazar Trésinois, Lady Eleanora Fitzhelene, Alaric Marlowe, Vivianna Issandra and Lady Callista Valewood’

Adaly starts laughing and the rest of the party looks at her. “I know one of the guests for the auction…. Vivianna Issandra. Also, the pirate Alaric Marlowe is coming, that could be funny.” Sam looks at her, “Is it going to be a problem that you know someone?”

Adaly thinks about that for a second “I don’t think so… She always thought I was a gold digger anyway. She is a friend of my ex. The only problem is she is a noblewoman of Fomeria, so she will have heard of Octavius Belstrad, so darling you need to play a convincing shut in” Adaly smiles towards Sam, who rolls his eyes back towards her. “Does she know him?” Adaly lifts her shoulders “I think not but cannot be sure.”

After a while they stand up and go into the Leviathan. It feels wrong walking into the mouth of this giant demon, but they need to reach the rift between the dimension and stabilize it.

Immediately after the entrance is a weird stair going downward. White stone like material, probably the bones of this creature.

In the next room is a creepy mouth on the wall of the room and a large circular door which blocks their passage. The mouth starts speaking “The slow thief gets the key but be careful to move. One could lose an arm” and the creepy voice starts laughing.

Getting a bit closer to the mouth they can see a black crystal which matches the hole that is in the door. “Well, I am not sticking my arm in there.” Adaly comments and than Amara gets closer, wickedly smiles “Then I will”

Adaly rolls her eyes but steps a bit back and observes her friend getting the crystal, they insert it into the door, and the next room is visible.

The room is filled with creepy goo creatures that are guarding next door. “You need Yemaya’s blessing to continue, the chant should continue… the chant is unending” and the creatures point them to a smaller door to the side. They go into the other room and there is a group present chanting something in a language Adaly doesn’t know, but still, she knows what the next word is.

Adaly, Amara and Sam start following the chant. Adaly can feel the corruption of the Leviathan slipping in, slowly altering her. But she strongly continues, Sam starts looking rough and Adaly looks at Livia and starts pushing him out. Livia helps her and Gevaudan quickly also jumps in, getting Sam out back to the hallway, while Adaly and Amara continue to chant.

Adaly can see black ridges appearing on Amara’s forehead. A few chants later it looks complete and they go back. They walk towards the door and are allowed passage, while the rest of the party gets blocked “They do not have the blessing, you need Yemaya’s blessing.” Adaly throws her sending stone to Amara to Sam “Just stay here, we shall continue and let you know what the plan is.” Sam nods and Amara and Adaly continue walking down the hall.

The hall starts to narrow and there is a stream of black liquid falling down from the ceiling. Adaly swallows “Probably bad to touch that.” “No shit, so how do we avoid?” Amara chuckles.

Adaly looks through her stuff and looks at Amara’s halberd. “With your halberd you can break the stream and then I can walk through” Adaly jokes and Amara immediately starts doing exactly that. To Adaly’s surprise it actually works. There are 2 more streams of black goo in the hallway, but now they have a trick they quickly continue.

At the end of the hall is a right and left corridor. On the left side is a door so Adaly first goes to that one. Once they open the door, they see a corridor with at the end a crystal laying in a basin of water.

Adaly walks a bit closer but uses her mage hand to scope the crystal up. Immediately the back wall erupts, filling the room with sea water and the black ichor that they have been seeing. Adaly and Amara both rush out, get back to the corridor and the water gets stopped by an invisible force field.

In the chaos Adaly lost concentration on her mage hand, so the crystal is still in the flooded chamber. She tries to recast mage hand, but it doesn’t want to penetrate the invisible force field. “I will go back into the chamber, could you anchor me?” Adaly asks while grabbing the rope from her bag.

Amara nods and Adaly ties the rope around her waist giving Amara the other side while she goes back into the chamber.

She swims towards the crystal but can feel the Leviathan’s influence seeping into her body, it being very uncomfortable. Once she has the crystal together with Amara’s help she manages to get out quickly.

She catches her breath, trying to shake the feeling off. It feels like something is watching her, something is after her. She quickly turns around but cannot see anything. “This place… it is messed up” and Amara just chuckles “What did you expect when we walked into a demon’s mouth?” Adaly laughs at her joke but feels off.

They continue forwards and then find a room with 5 shelled creatures crawling around a massive heart. As soon as Adaly and Amara enter the room, the creatures turn to them and start attacking. Adaly and Amara quickly retreat, knowing that even though they are the strongest of the party they cannot face this alone.

Adaly grabs the sending stone ‘Sorry Sam, but we need you guys here, start chanting. Afterward there is black goo coming from ceiling, use your shield to avoid touching.’ Sam, quickly replies ‘Acknowledged, we shall join you shortly.’