I Get Knocked Down, but I Get Up Again

We are standing inside the cavern past the subterranean lake. We stand there surrounded by 6 lit torches, with 3 on each side of the room. In front of us, is a heavily obscured area of purple smoke. We discuss a plan on how to get more information on the vortex in front of us. Brylwynn sends in dancing lights, but these do not change the vortex. Try to come up with a plan, Baptiste and Glittr step forward and once they pass the light brasseries on the right with the purple light, a large figure appears. 

She says, “at last, the shards have been activated, drawing power to Haephaestus, my tool. You seek the penultimate stone? I shan’t make it easy.” This is Beshaba. 

She has glowing purple eyes, putrid, horrible appearing eyes. 

She casts a mass Bane on the group, affecting most of us. As this happens, the swirling purple vortex crackles.

Simultaneously, a figure appears out from the left, that figure being Llirra. She calls out to Glittr and the group, stating that we grow powerful and have enough to battle this creature. She states that if two of us call out to her, she will remove Bane automatically from two people. 

The battle starts, RC starts the fight by attacking Beshaba. He shoots two arrows which go straight through her, realizing this is likely more of an avatar versus a real being. During it’s turn, the lightning cackles and we all take 2 necrotic damage. Pearl is brave, walking up to the vortex and reaching her hand through it. Inside of it, Pearl sees a single, crystalized skull and a Shadow Shard. Inside the sphere, the skull uses Life Drain on Pearl. 

In the next round, RC and Glittr have their bane lifted from Lliira, using her bonus action feature. During a lair action, the skull turns and looks at Pearl. It puts Pearl under the effect of an anti-magic field. She blasts out her breath weapon at the skull. 

We all eventually enter the sphere, fighting the skull off as it lets out howls and necrotic energy at the group. One of these howls instant-kills Caulkin and Glittr. RC uses Conjury Fey as Brylwynn attacks the skull and Baptiste, lands blow after blow upon it. 

Pearl uses her channel divinity to restore Glittr and Caulkin again, but Caulkin is quickly knocked back down again.

The battle roars on with the party getting attacked by sand clouds, frightened, and general attacks by the crystal skull. In the end, we manage to take it down, and once we do the purple energy and mist in the room subsides. We see the avatar of Beshaba disappear, but Lliira still stands. Now, all of the brasseries in the room are lit up with her colors of red, yellow, and orange.

She speaks out to us, “welcome work brave adventurers. You have defeated the lich next to its phylactery. The time is near, are you ready to activate the penultimate shard?” Lliira states that we need to cleanse the shard by throwing it into the fires of forge or mine. She offers us protection so that we can touch the shard and move it into the mines.

We make our way back into the mine and throw the shard into the fire. As we do, the shard seems to levitate as it changes from its purple color to the colors of Lliira. With that, a new shrine to Lliira has been created. The mine will forever be dedicated to Our Lady of Joy.

We feel an overwhelming sense of joy in the Lost Mine, and Llirra seems to glow a bit brighter as a new shrine has been created in her name. 

She speaks to us, letting us know there is 1 last shrine to activate. She gave the memory of how to activate them to the Raven Queen to keep them safe. The good and bad news is that the final shard is more than just physical strength to destroy, but a test of your character. The good news is that you’re halfway to activating it. The final shard requires 2 sources of blood sacrifice. You must spill the blood of a great evil, (to show we’re strong enough to kill Haephaestus), and we must spill the blood of a good creature. We can use the vial of Ki-Rin blood that we received on the mountain. 

We now need to kill Grazet to be able to activate the final shard. 

Lliira turns to Brylwynn and says she is unable to remove the crown from her head, but that she should continue onward with the journey and be able to soon. 

We make our way back into Phandalin to check in with people before we head back to Waterdeep. The townsfolk are friendly and gracious to have received our help. We see them burning the carcass of the dead dragon as we prepare to head back to Waterdeep for the evening. We all feel powerful and level up to 18. 

Back in Wardeep, we meet up with Karp, Droop, and Sister Garael who were all sent away from their safety. There, Kai is also present teaching Droop how to pick a lock successfully. 

We rest up at our home and shop, preparing for our next adventure in Avernus. We meet up with Larael in her keep in the city. She has prepared the spell to be able to teleport us into Avernus. She can teleport us directly into Zariels’s tower. We all hold hands and she incants twice. One incantation juts out around from her as we feel a barrier protect her from the devils in Avernus, and the second is teleport, taking us back to Waterdeep. 

As we teleport, we feel a pressure in our chests. We find ourselves at the base of her tower. She stands up and looks down at us, with a gaze and hatred and ​​contempt. She speaks out to us, threatening “For when you tangle with gods and devils, there’s nothing but pain and hatred ahead.”