11/10/2022 The party freed the two cages of humans, elves, and half elves. One of the humans introduced himself as Madis and offered to join the party, who graciously accepted. The party investigated the three large chests. To open the first, Gunther cast the Knock spell which triggered a huge ball of fire to erupt from the chest. Fortunately, the party was prepared for this and was standing some distance away. For the second chest, the party moved the chest next to the cage of halflings and repeated the procedure. This time a wave of frost erupted from the chest, freezing five of the halflings. For the third and final chest, the party again moved the chest next to the cage before opening it. This time, a blast of lightning came from the chest, killing all of the remaining halflings. The spoils of the three chests were as follows: two books, The Right Worship of Malia and Whoreson, a Life; a magic harp; a scroll; 10 grey blankets; 25 muslin towels; 3 exquisite linen tablecloths; 12 very fine napkins; a fine blown glass swan; a magic silver chalice; a pouch containing 16 weakly magical gems; a magic painting of a nude lady riding a horse; and an oilskin with tubes containing a white powder. The party spent some time further investigating their loot. Igny immediately took the book of Malia and threw it in the fire. The book began to try to crawl away, at which point Igny stabbed it with Kekax and threw it back in the fire. Goglima’s ring was identified as a +1 Ring of Protection, which was given to Xaris to use. The magical chalice held an inscription that explained its use: when filled with holy water and the proper ritual is performed, the holy water transforms into a powerful healing potion (8d8 + 1 HP). Once the party was done with the looting, they decided to aid the four Balance Cult members who wished to deal with the “sinister and eldritch” threat inside the cave. Once inside the cave, they immediately were drawn to some colorful scintillating crystals at the back wall of the cave. Oddly, the rest of the cave appeared drained of its normal color and appeared black and white. In their minds a voice started speaking to the party. The voice was agitated that the ritual was halted and explained that they sought to release the Old Ones in order to study them. The voice also mentioned it was associated with a figure, “the traveler,” who traveled beyond Zhalindor. Eventually, the party felt it had heard enough, and Dethjak fired a couple of arrows at the crystals with his bow. The rest of the party joined in, attacking the crystals. Meanwhile, the Balance Cult members began chanting a ritual, causing runes to appear in the air above them. Eventually, the crystals responded, sending out several huge waves of energy, dealing great damage to the party and causing Xaris and Igny to become entranced by the crystals and unable to act. Madis and Dethjak both fell unconscious, but Mobec, the cleric of Roazite, used a healing potion to revive Madis, who in turn revived Dethjak. Dethjak may become great one day, but today was not that day: he and Madis fled the cave during the battle. For his part, Chance launched several Eldritch Blasts at the crystals and continued to taunt them, drawing their ire. The crystals focused their attacks on Chance, quickly knocking him unconscious. Fortunately, this was only temporary, as he was quickly revived by Mobec, who cast Aid on Chance and several other party members. Chance, angered by the crystals, launched a fireball at them. At this point, Madis, seeing that the tide of battle had turned in the party’s favor, returned to the cave and delivered a blow to the crystals with his crossbow. The crystals immediately teleported away, leaving behind an opening to a second, deeper chamber of the cave where they had previously stood. In this second chamber, the crystals now appeared in the middle of a portal they were trying to activate. The Balance Cult informed the party that they were close to finishing their ritual and that the party couldn’t let the crystals leave through the portal. Everyone in the party redoubled their attacks, and the crystals were destroyed while the Balance Cult completed their ritual. At the same time, the portal was destroyed, and color was restored to the cave. The party was victorious! The party searched the cave and found: 100 small gems; a journal marked with a stylized letter “i”; and a slime, who immediately agreed to serve Xaris once Xaris used the Talisman of Slimes. Xaris asked the slimes some questions, but ultimately decided to destroy the slime. The journal was revealed to belong to the archmage Iple, but the journal was magically trapped. The party returned to Knight’s Crossing and was awarded 50 wheels for defeating the minotaurs. Walren offered to join the party, not as a combatant, but as someone who would tend to the camp for them. The party agreed. The next day, Godday of Illusion Week, the party headed out to return to Quivera. Along the way, they party ran into Glog of Fourth Honor Company fame, leading a group of orphans to his orphanages. After some cordial conversation, the party headed on their way. Along the road they came across some strange tracks heading away from Quivera. It appeared to be the tracks of pigs, cows, and chickens dragging something. The party decided they did not have time to investigate further and continued to Quivera. Eventually, they reached the Drunken Dog Inn in Quivera, their usual haunt. There they found a distraught Guildo, the priestess of the Ernalda (the herd mother goddess). Apparently, the party's sentient animal survivors attacked Guildo and escaped, taking arbalists and other siege weapons with them. They shouted “death to the morokanth!” as they left. Guildo was very conflicted and wanted to chase after them, but Chance persuaded her not to. And with that the session ended. TLDR: the party killed some talking evil crystals and returned to Quivera to train and level up