The remaining gods return to Gallowhall to discover that the God of Darkness has chosen another: Peter II, a strange ashen man with a longbow and bizarre goggles. He lets nothing on regarding who he is or where he has come from. Our heroes accept him.
Peter Corinthian learns that Semprona is dead, stomps off in a huff, and then is thrown in jail next to Thomas.
Our heroes take a quick sailboat ride to New Auger, where they purchase some supplies.
Then, back at Gallowhall, they decide their next target is Narset. Those guys just need a gentle nudge, right, as they already follow a divine six? Our heroes take a small crew, man the HMS Pinafore and head to Karem'kora, Narset's capital. Gallowhall will follow behind at its slower pace.
On the way they are attacked by a colossal crab (with doubled health), two giant octopuses, and a dire shark. The fight is criminally easy to start. The crab is dealt nearly two hundred damage in one round, before it smashes its own head on the deck and goes unconscious. Jeptha prevents one octopus from getting on board, and the other is pummeled.
Then, when the fight seems all but won, things get hairy. The crab re-emerges and grabs and throttles Rache, bringing him down to 2 hp. When the beastie dies, Rache falls into the water. When a dire shark makes a lunge, Jeptha gets in the way and winds up in the shark's stomach. However, the shark eventually dies to fire and our heroes continue on their way. This was a CR 15+ fight.
The night before reaching Karem'Kora, Thur'Khan receives a message from Kah'Khan, the high priest of Earth. The high priest, who was supposedly dead, was actually spared when Kah'Mat killed the other high priests. Kah'Khan awaits them in a small cave nearby. Our heroes decide to meet with him.
Before entering the cave, Rache uses his scroll of Detect Scrying. He is able to determine that two different individuals are scrying on him, but can glean no information.
Our heroes are greeted by men in brown cloaks, worshippers of Earth. They are also greeted by Kah'Khan, whom Thur'Khan immediately embraces. Then Kah'Khan takes Layric to a small room.
"Just a formality my lord. What is your true name?"
"Kah'duln" replies Layric, listening to the voice in his head.
Kah'Khan enraptured looks turns first to confusion, then to horror. "You are not the God of Earth. Who are you?"
An equally confused Layric attempts to convince the High Priest, then begins to think they have walked into a trap. When Kah'Khan calls in his acolytes, the rest of the party follows. The conversation is tense and confused.
Slowly, Rache says "It's possible that we aren't the true gods."
How could this happen? What is going on? When our heroes tell Kah'Khan their whole story, he hesitantly suggests the following: Narset sent out several colonies about 500 years ago. One such colony may have been on the island that Gallowhall docked with, where the heroes found their powers. It is possible that over the decades, the culture and religion of the colony changed so much that their worship no longer went to the 6 Elemental Gods. This new worship formed small spirits, who believed themselves to be the elemental gods. When the colony died out, the spirits remained until our heroes re-awakened them.
"Then join with us," implores Layric. "Your gods are dead, and we are their replacements."
"I am sworn to the God of Earth, not some imposter. You would have to kill me first. And if you do not, then I will return to Karem'Kora and warn them of your falseness."
"Very well. Then you must die."
"Wait!" shouts a distraught Thur'Khan. "I don't understand what is happening here, but you cannot kill this man. Besides being a high priest, he is one of my dear friends. You would have to go through me first."
It is now March 11th, 15 AC. Our heroes played this level at level 10, Ascension Level 3.
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