With the daylight receding and the foliage thinning out near the water, they were able to see the flickering light of a campfire further along the shoreline. Hoping to approach stealthily, Adamir cast a Pass Without Trace spell, extending a veil of shadow and silence around the party. Tessel, however, did not quite grasp what he was intending. “Hail!” she called out, before Ralnur grabbed her and shushed her. Luckily, there was no indication that anybody heard the shout. Led by Adamir and Ardwyn, they crept closer and closer to the campfire until they could see it properly.
Sitting cross-legged beside the fire was a monk with a shaved head and symmetrical red tattoos on his head and body. Further away, sitting still halfway in the water, was a Giant Crocodile. The monk did not seem disturbed by it, nor did he take any notice of the party. Ardwyn emerged from the trees and approached, greeting the monk and asking if they might share his fire. The monk just shrugged disinterestedly and stared into the flames. Adamir asked if he knew about the crocodile lurking nearby. The monk slowly looked over, then back at the ranger, and nodded. Tessel told him that they were seeking the monastery, and the monk shrugged again. “You can’t,” he muttered. “It’s... not allowed. I’m supposed to stop you...” He trailed off.
Their conversation continued like this for some time. The monk showed little concern or interest in anything that they did or said. They speculated that he might be enchanted by the fire in some way, or perhaps drugged. Tessel cast a Zone of Truth around the campsite, magically preventing the monk (and most of the party) from speaking lies. But the monk did not change his story. In the ensuing interrogation, the party began to get a clearer picture of what had happened to the monk. His name was Adso. He had been charged by Venkai, the leader of the monastery, to guard the shore and prevent anyone from crossing over to the island. Apparently, devils had attacked the monastery, though they had been sealed away. He had crossed the lake by means of a Water Walk potion, and he had two more with him.
Ralnur was the first to suggest that Adso might be a victim of Soul Sickness, recognizing the symptoms as a more severe version of those that afflicted his mother. And indeed, it seemed to fit what they were seeing. The monk confirmed that he had abandoned most of his supplies, and he offhandedly mentioned that he had not eaten for at least a couple of days.
Concerned about the enormous crocodile lurking nearby, Ralnur carefully approached it, hoping to get a sense for whether or not it was preparing to attack. It seemed a bit jumpy, and definitely unfriendly, but it wasn’t actively hunting for prey. The party decided that they needed to rest, and decided to stay near Adso to make sure he survived long enough to travel to the monastery with them. They began laying out their bedrolls, and Ardwyn made an attempt to rig up hers as a hammock in the trees. It didn’t look very sturdy, but she did her best to hide her lack of confidence in her handiwork.
Unfortunately, it was at this moment that the crocodile shifted, facing the party and tensed to fight. Ralnur drew his greataxe, looked back at the rest of the party, and announced his assessment: “Guys. It’s crocodile time.”
Everybody moved at once. Ardwyn was the first to rush forward, smacking the crocodile on the nose with the flat of her battleaxe and firmly saying “no!” But the monstrous reptile was only angered. It rushed forward with its mouth wide open and chomped down on the dwarf with frightening force. Bleeding and battered, she lost consciousness and began to slip towards oblivion.
The others hurried to help, and Adamir hit the crocodile with a well-aimed arrow. Ralnur charged forward in a rage, but the wild swipes of his axe missed the beast entirely. Tessel, worried for her friend that was still locked in the monster’s jaws, reached out and sent forth a small burst of healing power, just enough to wake Ardwyn from consciousness. The paladin followed up with a Sanctuary spell. When the crocodile tried to bite down and kill the dwarf, it found itself magically repelled, and instead turned its jaws on Tessel. But the croc’s teeth bounced harmlessly off the paladin's brand new plate armor. Frustrated, it lashed out its tail and struck Ralnur, but the half-orc barely felt the blow in his battle rage, and he managed to keep his feet.
Adamir began to cast a Cure Wounds spell on Ardwyn, but she called out, “why aren’t you fighting?” He drew another two arrows and fired them into the crocodile instead. Ardwyn then jumped forward to take her revenge. “It was fun,” she told it, “but a little too much tongue for me!” With that, she threw her dagger right into the crocodile’s eye. It reared its head back in pain, arcing its body into the air, before it finally collapsed, falling dead on its side. Ralnur, coming out of his battle rage, collapsed as well, exhausted.
Adso, the monk, watched all this with slightly raised eyebrows.
Adamir set to work retrieving the hide of the giant crocodile, while the rest of the party went ahead with making camp. They rested, recovering somewhat from their various wounds, though Ardwyn found that the teeth marks were slow to heal.
The next morning, Ralnur gently took the two Water Walk potions from Adso, who did not resist. Both he and Tessel downed a potion, and they steeled themselves to carry the entire party, including Adso, across the lake. Tessel carried Ardwyn, who held out her battleaxe and called “CHARGE!” as they walked, while Ralnur carried the other two.
(Valra, for her part, transformed into a crocodile and continued to silently haunt the party. She did not like how they treated the wildlife.)
Tessel was feeling quite tired by the time they reached the island, about 3 hours later. They were met by a trio of monks, each dressed and tattooed like Adso. The one in the middle was apparently Venkai, the head of the monastery, and he approached them with a scowl. “Thank you for bringing our brother back to this island. You may leave now,” he pronounced. They told him about Adso’s soul sickness and their fight against Baldric, but he merely told them that the Red Monks would not help them, since they did not involve themselves in politics. He insisted that they were not welcome and must go.
He began to waver, however, when Tessel offered to take care of the devils infesting the monastery. Venkai was surprised to hear that they knew about the devils, but after confirming that the party did not expect any reward in return for slaying them, he reluctantly agreed to allow them to stay. The party asked if they could rest and heal before their battle. Venkai agreed, but told them that he would be posting guards around them at all times.
The monks led them up a grassy slope toward the monastery. This turned out to be a large structure centered on a large dome, but most of the monks appeared to be camping out in front of the building in tents. Nearby were other buildings of a similar kind, but completely in ruins; Ralnur recognized the style as similar to the ones he had seen in his journey to the north, where he had found his crow totem. Many of the monks were milling around, setting up fires and gathering food, but it was clear that they were used to living inside the monastery itself instead of this makeshift camp.
The party was led to an empty tent and surrounded by a rotating group of 5-6 monks. They rested the entire day, but they were not totally idle. Ralnur spoke to the guards, and before long, Venkai returned to speak with them again. “Thank you again for bringing Adso back with you,” he began. “I did not realize how far this illness had progressed. He will not take food or water... I apologize if I was rude to you before.”
In the conversation that followed, he told the party much about the monastery and about the attack of the devils. According to Venkai, the Red Monks were an order dedicated to guarding a magical gateway in the center of the domed building that served as their monastery. They were charged with preventing anyone from passing through, and they had fulfilled this mission for millennia. But six months ago, three Barbazu (“bearded devils”) emerged from the other side of the gateway and attacked. One of the devils was killed, but the others slew the monks nearby. In desperation, the last monk broke the “Orb of Forbiddance”, a magical artifact that served as a defense of last resort. With the Orb broken, the monastery was magically sealed and the gateway suppressed, but control of this effect was tied to the current leader of the order, i.e. Venkai himself. He could maintain the seal and selectively allow certain people to pass, but the spell would be broken forever if he died. The monks were proceeding with caution, but they knew that they needed to kill the devils before they could be safe, and even then it was clear that their mission to guard the gateway had changed forever.
The next day, the party assembled outside the monastery. Venkai gave them strict instructions to enter quickly when he signaled. On the count of three, he opened the barrier to them, allowing them to pass. The burst through the outer doors, feeling the energy of the magical barrier as they passed through it. They found themselves facing an inner hallway leading to the monks’ cells on either side, and a double door to an inner dome right in front of them. Tessel used her Divine Sense and immediately detected the two devils waiting on the other side of the doors, prepared to ambush them. She silently signaled this to her companions, and they readied their attack.
Ardwyn began the assault, bursting through the doors and slashing with her daggers. She landed two blows, but she found that her nonmagical dagger didn’t cut nearly as effectively. Unfazed, she gave a wink and slipped back behind the others. The devils responded in perfect coordination, moving to block the entrance to the inner dome, where the gateway lay dormant. First they struck with their glaives from a distance, then they stepped closer to press the attack. The tentacles on their beards thrust forward, trying to strike out at the front line of the party. But despite their coordination, none of their attacks were able to find a target. The party was unscathed.
Ralnur retaliated with two mighty strikes of his greataxe. He made contact both times, striking the already-injured devil on the left, but again it was able to resist most of the nonmagical blade’s effect. Adamir stepped back and fired three rays from his Spicy Buffalo Rings. Arcing through the air, they twisted around the devil, with one of them hitting him straight in the chest. But the devil absorbed the fiery blast with little more than a grin. Its hellish nature, apparently, protected it from fire.
Tessel was quick to wipe the grin off its face. Infusing her sword with immense amounts of holy power, she struck the devil on the right with two mighty blows, each bursting with radiant energy. That was all it took to send the devil flying backward, crumpling dead in a heap on the ground.
Ardwyn attacked again, striking first with her magical dagger and second with the Ceiling Whacks that she had bought from Jilbin. She successfully attached the wax to the remaining devil, but before it could be slammed into the ceiling, it succeeded in breaking free, shattering the wax into pieces in the floor. The devil, now badly injured, struck out with its beard again, hitting Ardwyn and poisoning her. Then it drew its glaive... but instead of attacking her, it grinned once more and drew the glaive against its own throat. Instead of simply falling dead, it dissolved into a pool of ichor.
The corpse of the other devil lay dead on the floor. Tessel explained that it was truly dead because it had died by the holy power of her blade, while the devil that committed suicide would reform somewhere in the Nine Hells. Adamir, never one to waste an opportunity, began to gather what he could from the dead devil’s horns and hide. Tessel took a horn herself and brought it outside to present to Venkai. Though he barely believed that they had conquered the devils so easily, he was quickly convinced and thanked them profusely for their assistance.
Venkai reaffirmed that he could not bring the monks into the fight against Baldric, but he offered to help them get back to the mainland. Luckily, one of the monks had a scroll of a druidic spell, Transport Through Plants, which would allow them to teleport to any of the trees in the nearby forest/jungle. After some discussion, they asked to be sent to the northern end of the jungle, close to the city of Balenor. On the signal, they stepped through the tree (with Ardwyn unfortunately clipping the edge and stumbling through) and emerged at the edge of the forest...
