Through the Mists

Session 15: The Fifth Plinth

At a glance

Summary

Castle Avernus could not agree with itself about the hour. As the party climbed away from the slaughterhouse, Ignatius saw daylight through one opening and night through another. Whatever force had split, frozen, and begun repairing the castle had left its time as fractured as its stone.

The search for Irik Zal’honan’s promised treasure carried the travelers into a chamber sparkling with magical energy. Cages lined two walls. Some held jars, vials, and spell components; others confined ordinary animals, monstrous beasts, a halfling woman, and a misshapen humanoid who immediately begged for help.

His name was Siv—Slippery Siv, a mongrelman who had once worked as a thief and burglar for the Kargat in Martira Bay. He had made the mistake of stealing from Azalin himself. The Dark Lord imprisoned him for it, though Siv could no longer guess how long ago that had been. Time worked strangely in Castle Avernus.

Carver opened the cage. Siv warned his rescuers not to trust the halfling woman, and the party left her and the other creatures confined. Grateful and with nowhere else to go, Siv joined the company as it searched for another path upward. Ooru remained with his companions throughout the exploration, though he stayed clear of the battles that followed.

Carver opens an iron cage as the dog-like mongrelman Slippery Siv steps into the menagerie before Ignatius, Rage, and Ooru.

Slippery Siv stepped out of a cage and into a castle whose time he could no longer measure. View image record.

That path crossed the castle’s inner bailey wall, where two construct guards drew their weapons. Rage tried authority first, demanding directions and insisting that the group had permission to pass. Ignatius then asked Siv to walk between them. Siv did so reluctantly, and one guardian hurled him back.

Rage answered with the voice of command. Bardic magic seized one construct and turned it away long enough for the company to force its way past.

Across the castle and back within the central tower, the party finally found the Treasury. Gold light washed across gilded walls, rare paintings, and chests heavy with wealth. Carver’s spectral hand tested the first lid. Gold and gems waited within; another chest held magic sealed into parchment.

Ignatius told Siv to take whatever he could carry. The party filled Carver’s Bag of Holding with an initial 2,500 gold pieces and eleven gems of varying quality, then claimed scrolls of raise dead and resurrection.

Rage kneels amid overflowing gold and jewels, shoveling treasure into the Bag of Holding while Carver holds it open and Ignatius, Ooru, and Chip watch.

Rage discovered that “enough gold” was not a useful measurement. View image record.

The route out was guarded. A construct struck from the corner of an adjoining tower and battered Ignatius with a flurry of steel, but twice the monk caught the force of its attacks and turned them away. Rage met it recklessly with his greataxe, cleaving through the guardian until it crumpled. Ignatius took one of its scimitars.

Rage was not finished with the treasury.

He persuaded the others to return. Two more guards opened fire along the way, sending four crossbow bolts past him without a hit. Rage’s axe split their formation; Chip’s force hurled one from the battlement; Carver and Ignatius broke the other beneath radiant force, necrotic harm, and disciplined blows. Rage ensured that the fallen construct below would not rise again.

Back among the gold, Rage added another 4,000 pieces to the Bag of Holding. Siv had taken a scroll of greater restoration; Rage bought it from him for 100 gold pieces. The party’s recorded haul now stood at approximately 6,500 gold pieces, eleven gems, and three powerful curative scrolls.

Yet the room below the treasury offered something stranger than wealth. Four ritual plinths surrounded a fifth filled with bones. Papers and books led Ignatius and Carver to believe that Azalin had experimented there with primal wild magic and the forces of the elements.

Carver supplied earth to the first plinth. Dust, rock, and wind rose together as an earth elemental, only to be shattered by fist, axe, radiant spell, and cannon fire. Coals awakened the second. Flame engulfed the room and set Carver burning before a tremendous blast from Chip snuffed the creature out. Liquid poured into the third became a water elemental, which the party destroyed before it could drag Ignatius into itself.

For the final trial, Carver captured the chamber’s mist in a vial and released it over the fourth plinth.

The air answered violently. A whirlwind struck Carver with a thunderous blow and left him unconscious. Ignatius rushed through the gale, restored him with a Hand of Healing, and turned immediately back to the fight. Carver rose behind a protective aura. Rage’s axe carved through resisting wind, a boar drawn from Carver’s Bag of Tricks charged into the storm, and Ignatius’s final forceful strike dismissed it.

The four plinths erupted together. Wild colors and elemental power spiraled inward, then plunged into the fifth vessel—the one filled with bones. When the storm vanished, a crystal remained. The completed experiment had made an enspelled focus capable of summoning a grave elemental.

Carver accepted custody of the crystal and named the grave elemental bound to it Pearl. The party carried its prize back to the treasury and settled among the stolen wealth for a long rest. As sleep approached, Irik appeared in ghostly light. He did not condemn what they had taken.

Four elemental plinths send earth, fire, water, and air into a small crystal above a central vessel of bones while Ignatius, Rage, and Carver watch.

Four elemental powers entered the bones, and Pearl was born. View image record.

They could use the gold for the greater good, he told them.

Key events

  1. Ignatius discovered that different parts of Castle Avernus appeared to exist at different times of day.
  2. The party found a magical menagerie containing reagents, beasts, a halfling woman, and the imprisoned Siv.
  3. Carver freed Siv, who joined the group’s exploration.
  4. On Siv’s warning, the party left the halfling woman and other creatures imprisoned.
  5. Rage used bardic command magic to bypass construct guards on the inner bailey wall.
  6. The party reached the upper treasury and recovered approximately 6,500 gp, eleven gems, and three restorative spell scrolls.
  7. The group destroyed three construct guardians and recovered a scimitar.
  8. Ignatius and Carver identified an elemental experiment built around five ritual plinths.
  9. The party summoned and defeated earth, fire, water, and air elementals.
  10. The air elemental knocked Carver unconscious, and Ignatius restored him during the battle.
  11. The completed ritual created a crystal capable of summoning a grave elemental; Carver became its keeper and named it Pearl.
  12. Irik appeared during the party’s long rest and authorized them to use the gold for the greater good.

Decisions and consequences

  • Carver freed Siv.
    • Siv joined the company and accompanied it into the upper castle.
  • The party trusted Siv’s warning about the halfling woman.
    • She and the menagerie’s other creatures remained imprisoned.
  • The party forced its way past the constructs.
    • Three guardians were destroyed while the group moved between the treasury and the castle’s ritual rooms.
  • Rage insisted on a second treasury visit.
    • The party’s gold haul increased from 2,500 gp to approximately 6,500 gp.
  • The party completed Azalin’s elemental experiment.
    • Four summoned elementals were defeated and their power condensed into a grave-elemental summoning crystal.
  • The group accepted the treasury’s wealth.
    • Irik later endorsed using it for the greater good.

People

  • Siv: Transformed thief whom Carver freed from a magical menagerie.
  • Pearl: Grave elemental named by Carver, its new keeper.
  • Irik Zal’honan: Appeared during the long rest and approved the party’s use of the treasury gold.

Places

Clues, lore, and notable items

  • Castle Avernus displays different times of day in different rooms.
  • Siv once worked as a thief and burglar for the Kargat in Martira Bay before Azalin imprisoned him for stealing from the Dark Lord.
  • Time behaves so strangely within the castle that Siv cannot estimate the length of his captivity.
  • Azalin experimented with primal wild magic and elemental forces.
  • The fifth plinth combined earth, fire, water, air, and deathly remains into a Grave-Elemental Crystal.
  • The castle’s constructs continued to guard the upper routes and treasury.

Story threads

Rewards, losses, and character changes

  • Approximately 6,500 gp gross, stored in Carver’s Bag of Holding as communal treasure; exact accounting is not maintained
  • 11 gems of varying quality
  • One scroll each of raise dead, resurrection, and greater restoration
  • One Grave-Elemental Crystal, kept by Carver and bound to the grave elemental Pearl
  • One construct scimitar
  • 100 gp paid to Siv for the greater restoration scroll
  • Carver was knocked unconscious by the air elemental and restored by Ignatius during the battle
  • Ignatius chose the Fairy Trickster feat, increasing his Dexterity from 17 to 18 and expressing its saving-throw interference as wisps of Castle mist drawn around a target through meditation and the study of fractured time.
  • Rage took his third Barbarian level and entered the Path of the Berserker, becoming Barbarian 3 / Bard 1.
  • Carver chose the Fey Touched feat, increasing his Intelligence from 17 to 18 and gaining misty step and hunter’s mark as Intelligence-based spells.

Memorable moments

  • A construct responded to Ignatius’s plan by throwing Siv back across the wall.
  • Four crossbow bolts passed Rage without striking him as he charged the guards.
  • Chip blasted one construct from the battlement.
  • Ignatius pulled Carver back from unconsciousness while the air elemental still raged around them.
  • Four elemental forces converged upon a plinth full of bones and left a crystal behind.
  • Irik appeared among the treasury’s stolen gold and called it a tool for the greater good.

Open questions

  • Why does time show differently from room to room within Castle Avernus?
  • What did Siv steal from Azalin?
  • Why did Siv warn the party not to trust the imprisoned halfling woman?
  • Who were the other prisoners, and what purpose did the cages serve?
  • What did Azalin hope to achieve with the fifth plinth?
  • What form and temperament will Pearl reveal when summoned?
  • Is Azalin’s phylactery still somewhere in the castle?
  • How will Irik define “the greater good”?

Next session

  • Immediate situation: The party, Ooru, and Siv have completed a long rest in Castle Avernus’s treasury with their recovered wealth and Pearl’s elemental crystal.
  • Likely goals: Decide how much longer to remain in the castle, whether to revisit the menagerie’s prisoners, and how to pursue Snowmane and the road to Barovia.

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