Dayant Arakin

Need to go back and gather the parts from before this.

MAL Ep 6

 * Approaching the tower, the party found a creepy graveyard where the Veil seemed thin. Aler cautiously explored it, and found the inscriptions "follow the path" and "to thy perfection" on its two gates. The party then discovered their own names on the mossy tombstones. Suitably spooked, half the party decided to follow the path through the graveyard while the other half decided to skirt it. Swarms of undead mosquitoes flew through the Veil and attacked the three PCs (plus Bay) who had decided to skirt the graveyard. The swarms were eventually dispelled, by the combination of a shower of holy water, force attacks, and galloping back through the graveyard.
 * The party approached the tower, stopping about 500 feet away on the other side of a low hill. The tower appears to be four stories high, with arrow slits, open windows, and crenellations on top. Jon spotted what he believes to be murder holes over the door. Aler sent Syla the owl up in the air to look down on the tower and used Speak With Animals to question her, learning that there were five skeletons (three currently holding bows) patrolling the top of the tower, and a large round circle in a wheel shape (previously identified as a symbol of death) in the center of the floor.

MAL Ep 7

 * Red used Stone Shape to open a hole on the second floor, but the magic of the tower dispelled their invisibility and the skeleton archers started lighting Avery up.
 * Everyone eventually made it into the tower alive, but then Adriel's horse started screaming and she ran back out to rescue him. It turned out the sheep had been infected with some undead plague, had killed Jon's horse, and was tearing hell out of Adriel's. She successfully slew it with her blessed chainsword.
 * Meanwhile, the rest of the party started up the spiral stairs, impeded by inconveniently placed stone protrusions from the center post, and were ambushed there by incorporeal ghosts. They were forced to flee until the ghosts were turned by Zadkiel and Jon managed to use countersong against the magic drum (which he has now commandeered for himself.)
 * Eventually, the rest of the skeletons and their leader were vanquished, and the reunited group went to the ground floor and spoke with the spectral butler, Mr. Jenkins, who at first was friendly to Adriel, addressing her as a "new recruit." When she revealed her demon head and gave her real name as "Steven," Jenkins said that neither Steven nor Red had been properly checked in and attacked them, provoking another combat. It was eventually revealed that the names of the four PCs who had passed through the graveyard were written in the guest book, in blood, in their own handwriting (including Adriel.)
 * Jon found a wax seal inside a hollow book in the same skull-and-snake shape you found on the letter from Harasket.

MAL Ep 8

 * Having forced their way into the necromancer's underground lair and smashed Chavalk's magic mirror, the group decided to rush through the lair, opening side doors and visually scanning the rooms for enemies but not entering them, in an attempt to find and confront the necromancer more quickly.
 * They observed crypt shelves with bodies stored on them, protected by some kind of force field
 * They observed a room with a large black stone circle with a skull in its center, also with some kind of cabinet/cage emitting a moaning sound and a spiky chair. The circle was large enough to have summoned/transported the bone demons your party fought, but Jon did not examine it and so your party does not know whether it was used for this.
 * They observed a room with some kind of large black and gold burner in it, a table, and a wheeled stand of tools. The party used Mage Hand to swipe two scrolls from the tool stand but otherwise did not examine this room.
 * The party entered the room at the end of the hall, which was larger and contained a magical pool, an ornate metal globe, and an orb of necromantic power. They examined only the globe, which radiated an extraplanar power Jon had never encountered before. The creature on Aler's shoulder became even louder and shriller and tried to steer him towards the globe.
 * The necromancer, Dayant Arakin, appeared and spoke briefly with the party before Red attacked. She did not reveal much, but did acknowledge an alliance with Chavalk (who she said she supported because of his policy of tolerance for the undead) and identified the creature on Aler's shoulder as "nothing at all, don't you think?" She also clearly knew Jon and Adriel, and did not recognize Sahree (who Jon was disguised as at the time.) Jon cast Detect Thoughts on her and succeeded at sensing her reluctant choice not to try to turn the party into her undead minions out of a desire to please Chavalk somehow.
 * There was a big messy combat with Dayant, who proved to be a vampire, and two bone demons similar to the ones you encountered in Tell's secret basement earlier. The combat was impeded by a magical trap that caused walls of flame to spout up from the floor, separating party members. Dayant turned to mist and retreated through the barred ceiling while the party successfully killed the demons.
 * During the fracas, the globe broke open, revealing an inky blackness inside which light bent into in an unnerving way. It started seeping into the room, emitting a pull that was difficult for the PCs to resist. The creature on Aler's shoulder detached and disappeared into the void, ending his curse. Characters attempted unsuccessfully to knock the globe closed with a mage hand, a greatsword, a giant snake, etc, but none of those things were both strong enough and able to manipulate the latch. Red, who was capable of both, tried to shut it herself but failed a saving throw and found her arm sucked into the void and damaged, luckily the snake managed to pull her back out again.
 * The party decided to retreat. As they backed down the hallway a giant dissevered hand came galloping past; none of the PCs obstructed it, and it charged into the room and began trying to close the globe. The party then cast some buffing spells on the hand and retreated.
 * The party also encountered two zombies, who Adriel fought briefly but eventually let past her to join the hand in the room with the globe.
 * The party slept in the moors and were not assaulted in the night, much to Jon and Aler's surprise (both were expecting the vampire to return, and she did not.)

Postgame Notes: MAL Ep 8

 * Honestly, it was pretty dangerous to pitch camp so close to the tower at all. If it were me, I'd have taken my chances with the dangers of wilderness night travel rather than sleep in the shadow of a vampire necromancer I'd just pissed off (especially having a druid and a ranger with darkvision at my disposal.) However, in this case Dayant clearly chose NOT to attack you, so make of that what you will.
 * By the way, I'm not sure whether it was apparent during the session or not, but that boss fight with Dayant Arakin was the closest you guys have come to dying since we started playing. Zadkiel the damage sponge was down to *3* HP at one point (he started with 117!), and Jon, cut off from the rest of the party with a demon bearing down on him, would probably have been toast without the quick-thinking application of Wall Of Stone. Also, Aler will tell you later that vampires have DR 10/silver, so Red and Blue were not dishing out nearly as much damage as they thought they were. (They WERE preventing her from casting spells, which was far from useless, but she actually had more HP than she'd started with at the time she disengaged.)
 * That was a really tough fight I threw at you guys there, with all the flaming terrain and everything. It was very good gaming on everyone's part to survive it, so kudos to all.
 * (Also, good restraint on Red's part not to transform into a small snake and pursue the vampire through the grate to fight her one-on-one. That would not have ended so well for Red...)

MAL Ep 9

 * Zadkiel, Aler and Adriel went to the temple of Fantarin to identify the vial of blood from the magic mirror. Vyna identified it as human blood, and theorized that a human sacrifice was probably involved in the creation of the magic mirror, causing blood to leak out of it when it was shattered.

MAL Ep 15

 * The party investigated the Arakin tower again. No undead things attacked as they skirted the graveyard; the PCs did not stop to check the names on the gravestones. When they got to the site, the tower was gone. Only a sinkhole in the ground remained. The party determined that the tower was physically not present, not merely invisible or otherwise hidden.
 * Exploring the sinkhole and using Stone Tell, the party determined that the tower had been teleported away somehow and that the earth then collapsed into the hole left by the departed basement. Some fragments of stone tile were apparently wrenched off and left behind during this event, causing a large brazier and a number of small personal effects to scatter into the dirty. Khirg found a fork, and Aler found a few gold pieces and a letter from Dayant Arakin to a cleric of Alayan named Beyond Jessery, addressing her as a fellow supporter of the League of Snakes and associate of Chavalk's, bemoaning what she perceives as unfair treatment of necromancers, and voicing her opinion that action needed to be taken against the Duke of Peraine.
 * The group deduced that the tower must have been transported to another plane. Red tried to use Scry on Dayant Arakin, using the fork Khirg had found as a personal focus. The spell did not succeed. Red knows there are significant minuses for not knowing Dayant personally and for her possibly being on another plane. Also, in retrospect, though the fork was a great idea, Red's not actually all that sure vampires even eat with forks.