Recap of Session 19

As the last session began,  it was early morning on the 1st day of the 1st Trigon of Elok's Influence.  A day known as the Festival of Death.  A day to give thanks for the summer's bounty and to ask for favor and protection from The Three as winter approaches.  The party had gathered on the Tionchar manor house porch for breakfast along with Captain Barlor Norwood, Lieutenant Rycroft Crestbranch, Lieutenant Arden Galecrest, and Anton Tionchar.  A big day lay ahead for all as the group began final discussions on their plan for the day’s activities.The group decided that their plan from the night before would be good.  This included Landis creating a Leomund's Tiny Hut that would protect the wine and give the others a place to fall back to if things got out of hand.  The only drawback to this was that Landis would have to remain in the hut during the visit.  Captain Barlor assigned Lieutenant Arden to stay with the party during Maggie and the Githinthor's arrival.  Captain Barlor and Lieutenant Rycroft would continue to oversee the patrols around the winery and the Whitfield farm.With their plan set, the party spent the rest of the morning moving the wine to the clearing where the portal would appear and making their own personal preparations for what lay ahead.  Later in the morning, Brell Courtland arrived as promised to Nightingale and Landis.  Brell was confident that he would be able to detect when the portal was going to open.  This would at least ensure that the portal's opening was not a surprise.As the afternoon arrived, the party positioned themselves in the clearing to wait.  One hour turned to two, and finally, Brell gave the warning that the portal was beginning to open.  A tall black stone obelisk began to appear exactly where it had appeared before.  Once the obelisk was fully formed the rest of the portal appeared around it will a roar.The second the portal was open, black smoke began to billow out.  This was not a good sign.  Three figures emerged from the smoke.  A human woman and a Githinthor helping a second Githinthor to walk.  Douglan immediately recognized Maggie and began to run toward her.  Seconds later, three Githyanki warriors emerged from the portal and the fight began.The injured Githinthor was General Varimoc Vyth.  Anton recognized Varimoc to be the Githinthor that he met with every year to give the Alim wine.  Nightingale, disguised as Cory Fairbanks, ran to assist Varimoc.  Varimoc quickly relayed to Cory that the fortress on the other side of the portal was lost to a Githyanki attack.  He asked that the portal be permanently closed by destroying the obelisk that acted as the portal key.  This would keep the Githyanki from using it to enter the Tionchar winery.The battle at the portal opening intensified as a huge dragon-like creature with a rider emerged.  The party did their best to fend off the attack while trying to inflict damage to the obelisk.  It was a tough slog as the Githyanki inflicted both physical and mental damage with each hit.  Landis feared for his friends and made the difficult decision to drop the protection of the hut to join the battle.  Anton remained behind with the wine as Landis raced into the fray.As the battle continued, the party began to hear a horn signaling a call to arms for the Vanguard.  No sooner had the call been made when several heavily cloaked figures began to appear in the forest around the clearing.  The figures began firing upon the party with crossbows quickly creating a second front in the battle.One of the cloaked figures appeared a short distance from Anton and the Alim wine.  The figure took aim at Aton and fired.  The bolt tore through Anton's chest killing him instantly.As Landis arrived at the portal, he summoned great bolts of lighting killing the dragon creature and destroying the portal key.  The portal closed with the same roar it had opened.  The party was able to quickly finish off the remaining foes, and capture one of the cloaked figures from the forest.As the battle ended, the party quickly gathered around Anton.  A few fruitless attempts to revive him confirmed their fears.  Anton was dead.  Lt. Arden quickly dispatched a Vanguard soldier to ride to the city to see if Commander Ranier could arrange for a cleric to attempt to bring him back.  The rest of the party moved Anton's body into the manor house.Landis and Lt. Arden headed to the Vanguard camp to meet with Captain Balor to give him an update on Anton.  The Captain explained that the winery and the Whitfield farm had come under attack, presumably by the Dooms, shortly after the portal opened.  The Vanguard had easily defended against the attack killing most of the attackers while the few remaining fled into the forest.  The Vanguard had captured two of the attackers and were preparing to interrogate them.  Captain Barlor invited the party to join in the interrogation.Back at the manor house, Cory began his own interrogation of the cloaked figure they had taken prisoner.  He decided to play the part of Duran Whitfield and explained that he wanted to get out.  The cloaked figure, who introduced himself as Newlin, told Cory that there were tunnels in the cellar under one of the buildings at the Whitfield farm they could use to get away.  Cory took Newlin and escaped out a back window.  Using a small illusion as cover for Newlin, the two headed to the Whitfield farm.As Landis and Lt. Arden arrived back at the manor house, Lafferty became extremely agitated with the situation as he tried to deal with Anton's death and the events around him.  He demanded that Lt. Arden get Vanguard soldiers to follow Cory before they were grieving another lost friend.  As the agitation grew, Lafferty blacked out and fell to the floor.  When he came to, he found himself back inside the Void Hunter circle.  Across from him stood the Shadow Creature.  It warned him of the dangers of consuming too much Void Water and how it had tried to scare him away before he had become gripped by its power.  Then, the Shadow Creature faded away leaving Enibis standing in its place.  Enibis told Lafferty that he too had consumed the Void Water and been pulled in by its power. Enibis declared that only time would tell if this was a good or bad thing.  With Enibis' final words, Lafferty was once again back in the manor house.The party decided that they did indeed need to follow Cory.  Lafferty had previously sent Pez to follow Cory allowing the rest of the party to catch up quickly.  As they arrived, Cory had Newlin in a magical hold and had directed several Vanguard soldiers to check on the location of the tunnels that Newlin had given him.  As the three soldiers entered, there was the sound of an explosion and a dust cloud erupted from the cellar.  Only one of the soldiers made it out of what appeared to be some kind of trap.  The party left instructions to begin digging for the tunnels.  They collected Newlin and headed back to the winery.At the manor house, Douglan and Maggie had a chance to speak for the first time as they sat with Anton in the main room.  Maggie revealed to Douglan that Jackie and the children were not gone. Instead, their spirits had been pulled into the Between through the Gith portal.  The result of which meant they were neither dead nor alive.  Maggie said that the Githinthor believed that they could be brought back through the Timeless Temple where they would become whole again.  Douglan knew in his heart that this was true for he had never once felt that they were really gone.

Recap of Session 19

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