As the party moved out of the Library of Kas they were soon surrounded by a group of black robed, knife carrying, face painted figures. The figures had the same leering face painted to look like a one-eyed skull. The Cultists were chanting "blood...blood...blood" in Common. The battle was on as they cultists attacked moving swiftly around the party. Melisana used Curse of the Divine Plague to again daze and confuse several of the cultists. The party then tried hurriedly to move away from the infected cultists before they were also affected. Several cultist minions were soon eliminated and a few of the cultists were bloodied but the kept using "Dance of the Knife" to apply multiple attacks and dance around the party.
Soon Mara and Pretis were bloodied but kept up the forceful attack aided by Demin and Melisana. Lythandar used magic missiles to continue harassing the minions while Gofin tried to teleport out of danger and become invisible. One of the cultists inflicted a critical hit on Mara and then raised his blade in the air and yelled "I have it". The others stopped chanting and yelled back in encouragement. The cultists then took off running away from the scene very swiftly. Demin and Mara took chase and cut the cultist down before he escaped. Meanwhile the party seemed to be having a hard time eliminating the rest of the cultists as attack after attack failed. Suddenly Melisana was also critically hit and she hit the ground as the cultist yelled "I have it" and took off running, he seemed to make a double run apparently using an action point. Demin ran after him firing his crossbow but lost him as the cultist rounded a corner and was nowhere to be found. Meanwhile Alhellara revived Melisana but Gofin then hit the ground. Melisana teleported everyone away from the cultist attack and Lythandar followed with a fireball that eliminated several remaining cultists. Alhellara then revived Gofin, a minion ran away from the fight and directly into Demin returning from his chase. The minion was quickly eliminated as the party finally slew the remaining enemies. After the battle Lythandar found a pair of magical gauntlets on one of the cultists and the party found some gold also. The group then retreated to the burned out hovel to spend the rest of the night.
In the morning they went again to the Lorewards home and were let in quickly. Banquo asked about their foray and they presented the scroll tube and the other scrolls and manuscripts that were found in the Library. Having not opened the scroll tube they did not know yet what they had found. Banquo tried to pry the ruby out of the tube but failed so Lythandar finally opened the tube ... which was empty. Reminding the characters that their own lives may be at stake and the mysterious First Word had to do with the "blood of an outsider", Banquo requested that the party travel to Citadel Cavitius to try and find the Book of Inverted Darkness in the Shadowed Room. Asked what "reward" they might expect, Banquo showed them a headdress that he was willing to relinquish if they succeeded in thwarting the threat to Tovag. The party agreed and returned to Larossa's house to prepare to travel to Cavitius over the Burning Peaks. They were warned that a war was going on between Kas' forces and the Maimed God's army and that Kas had build Border Forts in each of the three passes over the Peaks.
The party left the next morning and wound their way into the middle pass road where they again could see the volcanic eruptions in the distance. After a long day marching up the pathway they camped for the night on a wooded rise. In the middle of the night Mara and Lythandar saw a wolf in the distance and they roused the rest of the group. The wolf didn't seem interested in attacking, and in fact didn't even go after food that Mara placed on the ground. Suddenly a vortex (cyclone) moved through the camp knocking down trees and several party members took damage as they could not leap out of the way. Following the wolf tracks Mara found that they suddenly ended a few paces away from the camp. The rest of the night was uneventful and in the morning the adventurers set out on the path again. They soon came upon a Fort that was manned by some of Kas' troops. Not wanting to attract attention to themselves the group successfully made their way around the fort without alarming the watch. Continuing up the roadway the party then came upon a patrol of Tovagian soldiers. The leader said something along the lines of "There are the Cavitius spies."
Scorecard: The party has reached 8th level and received 420 XP for the battle with the Cultists. The party also picked up 600 Gold from the cultists along with Gauntlets of Remote Action. The group now has 13,583 XP and needs 2917 more to reach 9th level. The ruby on the scroll stopper is worth 4,000 Gold.
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