Our third campaign, the second one DM'd by me. I succumbed to scope creep a bit—it ran for a full year, spanning more sessions than our previous two campaigns combined. Some of the runtime is accounted for by the fact that occasionally we couldn't get a session together for nearly a month—it is how it is.

In retrospect, I think was on the verge of burnout for a chunk of it, but overall it was still fun, and hey, everyone was satisfied with the ending!

Players:

• Sophie, a human druid
• Marek, the beloved half-orc criminal shadow monk
• Delia Vendictia, the the only marginally-traumatized human cleric; she became a war cleric instead of a life cleric due to, uh, events
• Muzukyu, the frog-following half-elf ranger; she quietly disappears partway through the story—don't worry about it
• Rell Kial'en, an elf rogue; eventually replaced by Levian Swavor, a lovely human necromancer

1

The party completely coincidentally meets up in Subsel, a farm/inn/pub just outside the forest at the foot of the mountains surrounding Arythra—which, totally coincidentally once more, is everybody's destination. After lengthy introductions, they all set off in the general direction of the mountains—stumbling upon a massive bulldrome boar, and eventually a cave entrance. The cave seemed partially natural, and partially excavated, most likely by the huge red beast that the party eventually fought on perilous stone bridges above a presumably very deep chasm. After some spelunking and fighting, the party collapsed in an alcove, exhausted.

2

Continuing their way through the caves, they encounter a squad of Arythran soldiers, who point them towards the nearby mining town of Fulbright. Once they leave the caves, the way there is relatively uneventful. They stay with locals with their own little hamlets along the road. Eventually they reach Fulbright, where some unsuccesful information gathering, vehicle-buying and map-bartering occurs.

After a full night's rest, goaded on by Muzukyu, they go into the forest south of Fulbright, where they stumble upon a shrine of Boi. Whilst inspecting it, the party is beset by hordes of venomous snakes—though with bow, arrow, stick, sword, chunks of ground, and a little bit of divine intervention, they dispose of all of them. Boi rejoins Muzukyu.

3

As the party travels further west, after a short episode involving addictive tree juice and crusty maps, they arrive at a huge ravine blocking their progress. There they meet Vickar, the Arythran army sergeant responsible for the garrison in Fulbright; as well as a number of civilians who were trying to travel that way. The entire group gets ambushed by a tribe of trolls, including a huge hobtroll. In a joint operation, the Arythran soldiers and the party manage to fend off the trolls without civilian casualties. The hobtroll itself got erased from this plane of existence by decree of Lliira, acting through Delia.

Impressed by their fighting prowess, Vickar offers to vouch for the party so they can pass through Corven, a military outpost on the only other remaining road.

4

Together with Vickar, the party continues on their way towards Corven. They come across a wolf-shredded soldier, and give them a proper burial. Eventually, they reach Corven, and spend the night at the Wounded Boar, which is host to a shredding concert by Rell and a very one-sided bar fight involving a Buzuk and some merchant. Marek and Buzuk spend some time catching up, and the party learns that Buzuks brother and other brother are missing after a recent kerfuffle with some local wolves. The party decides to help, after a proper rest... which not all of them were lucky to get, as some bandits attempted to do something to Sophie and Rell, who were sleeping in the streets. Thankfully, a disaster is averted by the use of a slippery floor.

Next day, the party decides to follow wolf tracks. Predictably enough, they run into wolves. Unpredictably enough, they awoo at them. Predictably enough yet again, they kill a few then run away, commandeering a wagon from some dead merchants.

5

The party spends an idle day in Corven, during which Marek and Buzuk get drunk together and Rell has yet another frustrating (though shorter) encounter with the Sketchy Cartographer. Rell and Sophie acquire a new companion for the party—Tiffany, a somewhat dense mule. She takes an instant liking to Sophie in particular, and together with the cart pilfered last time, the party finally has proper transportation. And due to improper handling of Tiffany, Delia learns the hard way how to approach large animals.

Rediscovering his resolve, Buzuk wakes Marek early and departs in search of his brothers. The party follows, and just past the scene of the encounter with the wolves two nights past, they find a small abandoned gathering of huts in the midst of which Buzuk and Buzuk were waiting for Buzuk—though not before Delia and Rell manage to argue about the exact wolf body count in the meadow.

Shortbeard is happy to be reunited with his brother Longbeard and other brother Buzuk; who happens to be Buzuk the Warlock, an old acquaintance (from like half a year ago) of Delia. Their reunion is somewhat underwhelming. Turns out the dwarves came to Arythra in order to hunt down a dragon that burned down a pub just outside Arythra.

Together with the dwarves, the party sets off towards the Patched-Up Boar, a guesthouse at the intersection between Corven and Uxnar; where the dwarves intend to gather more information on their quarry. However, along the way, the party comes across a ransacked hamlet. Whilst investigating the ruins, one of the potential perpetrators—Ard, a grunt in Velen's employ—returns to "pick up some stuff they left behind." The party interrogates Ard, and attempt to have him hand over said stuff (which turned out to be some kind of letters), but a ring capable of throwing a Fireball turns the encounter in Ard's favour. He almost manages to escape, but makes the fatal mistake of attempting to steal Tiffany and the cart... the mule unceremoniously knocked him out.

6

Four days pass amidst a wild whirlpool of sap, depression and conversation. The party fails to extract information from Ard; and travels with the Buzuks to the Patched-Up Boar (where the party and them parts ways). Marek learns of a new objective. Delia loses track of her sapskin. Eventually—and finally—the party reaches Uxnar, where they (very poorly) hand over Ard to the authorities.

7

The party spends some time exploring Ux'nar, and ends up meeting Professor Voltè, who turned out to be the Sketchy Cartographer, and also the Black Raven's main contact in Arythra. People from their network have been quietly going missing, however, and Marek and Rell were tasked with finding out anything they can—including following the trail of Velen, who seems to be part of all of this somehow.

While generally planning to leave for Sothgard, in the end, the party finds an inn/pub/shrine to stay the night, and decide to spend a day sightseeing in Uxnar, hoping to find something interesting or helpful along the way.

8

After smuggling Tiffany through Uxnar with an invisibility spell, the party takes a single step outside Uxnar.

...where they run into another Sweet Sap Tree. The entire party interacts with the tree in various ways (including Marek... stabbing it?), trying to extract either sap or information, however only the former is successfully obtained. As the party attempts to leave, they find out they can't.

Any attempts to leave seem to amount to nothing, the party always circle back to the tree. Eventually Marek finds a snake, which starts a precipitous chain of events culminating in the party being accosted by a massive two-headed snake, as well as several smaller ones. Marek takes this opportunity to try out the magitechnical glove handed to him by the professor, resorting to the Biggest Button(tm): A massive explosion takes out half the snakes, as well as the glove. The two-headed snake survives though and ensnares Sophie and Delia.

As the battle continues a huge golden serpent joins the fray, pressing the already-battered party.

Ultimately the party prevails, slaying the golden serpent—which disintegrates into a blue mist. Thinking the danger over, the party makes to leave again (which is possible now for some reason), but get attacked by what appears to be a snake cultist? Either way, Delia cuts him down with flames from above.

Finally reunited with their donkey, the party decides to spend the evening actually talking about each other.

9

The party managed to capture and (somewhat) interrogate a person spying on them at night; who turned out to be a member of Velen's gang. They agree to lead the party to the meeting spot, and the party actually believes them, the suckers. They get tricked into fighting some completely unrelated mercenaries in a cave, killing two of them. The cave entrance collapses, and the party is locked in together with what remains of said unrelated mercenaries, lead by a particularly large orc named Grushkar. The party sort-of befriends the mercenaries—especially Delia, who continues her affinity for befriending Buzuks.

10

Eventually moving the blockage with a combination of manual labour, explosives and magic, the party parts ways with the mercenaries. As they emerge from the cave however, they realize—shock, horror—that Tiffany is gone! Thankfully Sophie is able to pick up the scent and lead the party to the mule, who had travelled a few hours west somehow.

Which was great, except the entire section of road had been set up for an ambush by some goblins, as the legs of Marek and Delia soon learned. What followed was a prolonged battle against a score of goblins making use of semi-advanced tactics to best our little group.

Alas, they were but goblins. Made of paper, with approximately as much brains as paper—so while the party did get pushed a little bit, they still came out on top.

11

The party finally makes their way to Sothgard—or so they thought. The city is besieged by a rather sizable host of goblins. In an attempt to gain information Delia engages in Necromancy respectful cross-realm communication with the goblin that got bopped by a watchful Marek the previous night. The goblin didn't speak Common though, so that was a waste of time (almost; they learned that there are 12 leaders in the goblin army).

Rell and Delia attempt to bypass the goblin camp via the river, but get noticed and shot at by a fair number of goblins; barely coming away with their lives and getting back to the rest of the party. (a segment that definitely wasn't sponsored by Never Split Your Party™)

12

Now less determined to (but still interested in) entering the city, the party attempts to contact the citizens of Sothgard, and observe the goblin army camp some more. Which is unremarkable up to the exact point that Marek notices a human amidst the goblin army, wearing a strange banner; seemingly inspiring a mixture of fear and awe in the majority of the goblins.

Marek manages to identify the mysterious person as Velen. Slowly regaining their resolve, the party now follows Velen (at least until he disappears via magical means).

The next morning, the goblins are ready to launch their first attack on the walls. The party attempted to sabotage the army subtly, but the effects weren't potent enough.

What happened next confuses Arythran historians to this day. There are some disputes over whether the popular account is accurate—a first shock attack of rolling and burning logs, followed by a cloud of little cherubs descending on the goblin army, protecting the adventurers as they slowly pushed their way through the army; those adventurers ultimately slaying the goblin leaders. Entirely indisputable is the fact however that thousands of goblins were slain with minimal losses on part of the Sothgard garrison, which even with foes as feeble as goblins is unlikely without some extraordinary interference.

13

The party assists the Arythran army in further demolishing the goblin army.

(I'm so sorry I forgot this.)

14

Sophie retrieves Tiffany via courier eagle; and the party meet Captain Vasiri again, who they previously met outside Velagunder's lair. For probably the first time ever, they receive an actual payout for their deeds, on top of relevant information about Burbagog the Bandit and dead prisoners the party wants to interrogate via meeehdgic. However, first the party spends a lavish night at The Wounded Boar—taking turns bribing a young man to do their bidding.

Eventually arriving at the prison they find seven corpses, a number of which Marek and Rell identify as members of the Black Raven's gang; and more unidentified ones. The party learns more information of varying quality, pertaining to destruction and little men perpetuating said destruction.

Party is considering their next move.
Please watch warmly.

15

Whilst skulking around the city, trying to obtain supplies for (probably) upcoming combat, a durrk and mysterious Buzuk accidentally runs into Delia. The party, suspecting some sort of foul play, chases after him. The Buzuk manages to get away once, using a combination of shadow clone-jutsu and darkness. In the end, however, Marek's Swift Fist of Justice reaches and knocks out the Buzuk. The party later learns they accidentally prevented the city's water supply from being poisoned.

In the meantime, however, another excursion into the goblin camp takes place. Rell tries to impersonate Velen, but ultimately the (surprisingly somewhat sharp) red goblin sees through the illusion and Rell is forced to flee. A small skirmish with goblins gets cut short by an increasingly-impatient Sophie, who just straight-up murders the lot. (edited)

16

It's a beautiful day outside. Birds are singing, flowers are blooming...

Sike. Actually, everything is terrible. Talking to Buzuk the Baleful didn't reveal much, Sothgard is now under siege by a greater threat than goblins whilst partially on fire, Sophie went into a near-suicidal near-rampage against Burbagog, who became part of the southern Sothgard siege. In what turned out to be an EXTREMELY close shave, Marek and Delia save Sophie with some quick thinking and/or healing; whilst Rell disappears completely amidst the chaos.

Still reeling from the encounter, the group walks into another town, hoping it finally is Elise. Instead, they are greeted by Atlin, a small town that was raided, resulting in approximately all casualties. Sophie is quite certain this was also Burbagog's work.

Marek, Delia and Sophie decide to continue west...

Also, they "lost" Tiffany.
Again.

17

Solemnly, the party marches westward. They run into a stranger, who seems to have survived the massacre in Atlin. Well; "stranger"—Marek and Sophie immediately notice a striking similarity between that person and Delia. The man introduces himself as Levian, and chooses to join the party, much to Sophie's chagrin.

In the night, there is a small situation where Sophie mistakes Delia for Levian trying things, and attempts to strike her. But thankfully, nothing comes of it.

The party then continues west, until a sweet scent fills the air, and the road abruptly ends.

SWEET WARS: EPISODE 3: THE REVENGE OF THE WOODS

An innocent songbird sings a haunting tune, putting most of the party to sleep—but Sophie's quick thinking drives off the songbird, interrupting the song, and saves the party from disaster. Soon, four more powerful animals join the fray—an eagle that has it out for Delia, a murderous cat launching itself at any fleshy bits it can destroy, an anti-orc turtle, as well as a majestic stag.

A prolonged fight ensues, during which Delia indulges her pyromania once more, drawing the ire of all the animals. But a combined effort of Sophie's goats, Marek's soles and Levian's b o n y a p p e n d a g e manages to shatter all of those clearly magical animals. However, the songbird returns, and this time the party fails to neutralize the threat in time.

They all fall asleep under the burning tree...

18

Not only not dead from burning or random forest animals, but well-rested and in a comfortable bed, the party awakes. They find themselves in some sort of weird wooden hut out in the forest. Initially apprehensive, the party explores the hut, finally stumbing upon a witch friendly old woman performing vile rituals cooking a nice meal. She doesn't quite explain who she is, but shares with the party a tale of Arythra's origins—a fierce monster imprisoned by the roots of the sweetly-scented trees, as well as the conveniently impassable mountain range surrounding the land. Of the band that originally imprisoned the monster under the warrior princesses Elise and Vencaiah; and the subsequent settling of Arythra by the people left behind to guard it. And how the somehow-surviving Vencaiah now seeks to unleash the beast. And finally, how the destruction of the sweetwoods may have been planned all along...

A rather fanciful story, to be fair, but especially to Delia it rings undeniably true.

Having had their fill of story and soup, the party leave the... dream? And awaken back in the forest, guarded by the animals they not so long ago fiercely fought. Sophie makes a gesture of reconcilliation, and the party continue on their way towards their destination, the now more ominous-than-ever city of Elise...

...though it's not long before they find themselves in a stretch of devastated land. Wary of venturing too far into it, they circle around and run into an encampment, where they once more reunite with the band of dragonhunting Buzuks. Convinced it is the dragon that is responsible for creating the desolation, it is decided they shall join forces to slay the overgrown lizard. ...or, failing that, at least to get around it.

A new union that Delia celebrates by getting really drunk with Buzuk the Warlock.

19

Following last night's libations, the party gets their shit together and starts preparing for the encounter with the dragon. On the Buzuk's recommendation, they take a detour to a nearby village, innit—Caelfall, an idyllic fantasy town full of stereotypical shops and guilds (as well as a waterfall). They gather some information about Elise at the Adventurer's Guild, as well as scout out the local chapter of the Church of Lliira. Delia identifies it as a rather radical offshoot of the true faith, even if the architecture is quite similar. Marek has a run-in with a somewhat aggressive shopkeeper who, after some fisticuffs, bequeathes upon him an intricate white bladed spear.

Having further obtained some potions and/or rings of fire resistance, the party returns to the Buzuks to finally take on the dragon. Thanks to said potions, they manage to not be burned into a crisp within seconds of running into it. Its magic breath melted rocks and molded them into golems that threatened to overrun the party, which needed to focus on the dragon itself. However, Delia heroically took a number of burning warhammer blows to the chest to keep their attention; Sophie ran back and forth to keep everybody alive, and Marek fucking wrestled the dragon to the ground.

Certainly a close encounter, but ultimately a clear win for our heroes.

20

Finally finding their way out of the post-dragon, exploding snake-infested wasteland after a few more days, the party resumes their journey towards Elise. Cautiously staying out of the way of a squad of soldiers travelling in the same direction as them, the party eventually, finally reaches the city itself. It lies atop a long staircase going up alongside a steep cliff face.

Up in the city they enter what can only be described as some weird slums—rows upon rows of similar stone huts with no doors or windows, with plenty of people to fill them up. The party slowly learns the layout of the city—a ring of these slums around a somewhat more convential city in the center. Six major plazas built around huge flames erupting from the ground serve as gathering places in the outer ring, while the very center holds a floating castle with an unnaturally tall tower.

At Delia's behest, the party ends up meeting with Queen Vencaiah. It's relatively short, and the party gets invited to a meal with the princess/queen the next day.

21

While offered a place to stay at the castle, Marek and Sophie elect to spend the night at an inn run by a neglectful Buzuk instead. Thus the next morning is filled with shenanigans related to finding each other again. It features a supremely confused Delia being spoken to by animals and disembodied voices, as well as multiple face-first collisions by several people.

The breakfast with Vencaiah is certainly... an event. Whilst devouring pancakes, she delegates a new job to the mildly-terrified party—to dispose of her "failed friend", Velen (for an incredibly specific reward of 8235 gold coins). She also can't seem to praise Delia enough for both her choice in servants friends and actions. She also finally recognizes Marek, and seems delighted that he can be of use to her once more.

All seems to be going well, until a scout bursts into the chamber and explains that "the dragon is dead"—news that Vencaiah seems to take incredibly poorly, as she claims she was given the dragon to "babysit". While she fails to elaborate on what exactly that's supposed to mean, she orders Delia to also dispose of the dwarves that supposedly did it. Still in the middle of a tantrum she then hurries off and seems to very loudly wreck some distant part of the castle.

Taking the cue to get as far away as possible, as quickly as possible, the party immediately leaves the castle—and, after some deliberation, chooses to travel back to Sothgard via Caelfall. In the village they encounter the Buzuks once more, who are shamelessly bragging about having slain a dragon. The townsfolk seem interested, but ultimately decide it is empty boasting (as there "of course is no dragon anywhere"). Longbeard and Shortbeard don't seem particularly inclined to lay low in order to avoid Vencaiah's wrath, but happily sell their now-obsolete dragonslaying arbalest to the party. Meanwhile Buzuk the Warlock has wisely chosen to move on posthaste, a fact he confirms when contacted via magic by Levian.

22

The party leaves for Sothgard, along a previously unused northern route. It's a narrow mountain pass sandwiched between a high wall on the left, and a sheer drop into a river on the right. Initially, the journey is rather uneventful. During the second day, however, they run into a group of goblins and a cloaked magician trying to get into some sort of a magically-sealed door.

A short but brutal fight ensues. Goblins die left and right, as do bandit reinforcements that somehow got teleported in. The mage turns out to be Velen, who nearly destroys the party with a well-placed fireball. Everybody survives and is patched up by Sophie—just in time for a huge Thwomp rock monster to dislodge itself from the wall.

Velen is thrown off the cliff by it.

The party, however, faces it head-on. It takes a while, but in the end, with everybody's help, Delia manages to delete it.

Exhausted from prolonged combat, the party attempts to rest up, but soon get interrupted. A raiding party of goblins and two human mages arrive at the place and another fight ensues. This time it's over as soon as it starts, however, with Marek, Delia and Sophie making extremely short work of them. One of the mages, Svetton, survives.

Though initially wary, the party warms up to him. Kind of. They make him attempt to open the door, which results in him triggering a booby zap (it's like a booby trap, but lightning; get it? c:)

Svetton warns them they really should move on, as Velen will not stop sending people to secure the gate. After failing to come up with a way to delay Velen's attempts at opening the door, the party decides to make camp somewhere further away as to not be interrupted again.

23

Finally getting a solid night's rest without interruptions, the newly-refreshed party makes their way towards Sothgard. And though the goblins are gone, they are met with bad news—or so they think. The soldiers stationed outside Sothgard are NOT part of the Arythran army that is supposed to be in control of the city. Instead it's some unruly fellows the party (Sophie, specifically) make short work of.

Once inside the city, the party goes on a short pub crawl, where they learn that shortly after the guard repelling the goblin siege, a horde of bandits led by Burbagog managed to break through the wall and take over Sothgard. The bandits are now stationed in the centre fort. Delia also learns that they're apparently avoiding killing civilians, AND conducting some sort of digging operation under the fort.

Thus the party hatches a plan—disguise themselves as construction workers to infiltrate the fort, rather than having to assault it directly.

The evening is spent hurriedly assembling... "tools" from pieces of lumber and rubble.

24-25

Next day, the group makes it (barely in time) for morning assembly in front of the castle. After a brief wait, the guards start letting them and the workers in—they all manage to act inconspicuously enough to not draw the guards' attention.

They get led past the prison (where a starving Vasiri and a number of soldiers are held) into some sort of underground digging site. Everybody starts ENTHUSIASTICALLY digging, except Levian, who tries to create a diversion by starting a fight.

He gets his shit punched in by some of the bulkier miners, but it's fine.

A single guard shows up when called for, but doesn't seem particularly bothered by the situation. However, Marek takes the opportunity to ambush and knock them out.

They manage to feed Vasiri and the soldiers, and take out some more soldiers—enough to provide looted gear for Vasiri and two more soldiers. With this newly-expanded manpower, the party decides to take a leisurely stroll sneak through the castle.

Before long, they get spotted by a patrolling soldier.

A prolonged fight ensues—involving the most elite soldiers of Burbagog's, as well as a deacon who seems to represent the local church of Lliira.

Levian manages to save everybody's ass at least twice (once by disabling Burbagog for an extended period of time, the other time by turning into a literal mammoth), but even with this, the party is pushed to their absolute limits. The eventual victory was anything but inevitable.

Burbagog survives the fight.

He does not survive Sophie's interrogation.

26

The party wakes up in the castle; one of the miner's dead. A short investigation ensues (mostly consisting of talking to a corpse), in which the Levian acquires a crystal emanating with great power. And it zaps him when he tries to learn more about it. It also seems to have made the victim go crazy and attack his brother, who struck him in retaliation and killed him.

With that mystery out of the way, the party embarks on a journey towards Uxnar, while Sophie decides to stick with the party, now that her original goal is... no longer her goal, for better or for worse.

In Uxnar, it turns out that the Academy has been destroyed, with Professor Volté being a prime suspect. The party investigates some more, and comes to the conclusion that the Academy's underground archives held another one of those blue crystals.

They're probably keys to the Beast? Maybe? Not that anybody seems to know about the Beast. Huh.

Either way, Tiffany, yay! She's finally back with the party.

27

Back at Sothgard, the party retrieves their cart and gets it fixed by Delia's Dear Friend™️. Whilst trying to pass time waiting for the cart to get fixed, they go back to the center fort, which is now partially collapsed. When talking to Vasiri, they learn that a wizard did it—well, two in this case. One of which is Professor Volté, who they suspected of stealing Uxnar's crystals.

Turns out, he's been trying to prevent Velen from getting all of them. Sadly, he's been doing a poor job, and most likely two out of three have fallen into his hands.

Marek and Sophie receive some gifts from the Professor, and (reluctantly) go back to school—where they learn to make things explode better. Levian robs the city and runs recon via birb.

Overall, a very calm couple of days as they gear up in preparation for things to come.

28

With rested brains, the party comes up with another idea on how to improve their chances at surviving the next week. They go petition Vasiri for support in the form of manpower, a request she grants with minimal persuasion. Thus, a dozen soldiers join them on their quest to stop... whatever it is that's actually happening. Probably. Another attempt to draft the Professor fails, however, as he's already made himself scarce.

Thus they embark. Halfway there, through the eyes of his trusty birb, Levian witnesses Velen enter The Door™️, dragging an unconscious person in with him.

A day or so later, the party arrives as the barricades erected by Velen's goons outside The Door™️, and fighting promptly ensues. The first barricade, manned by goblins, falls quickly, as Sophie strikes down upon them with great vengeance and furious anger pelts them with tiny cold rocks.

The second barricade proves a somewhat tougher challenge. A huge stone wall briefly separates the party, during which Marek gets pushed down the cliff—a loooooong drop into a river below. Sophie turns into an eagle and attempts to catch him, which puts both of them out of commission for the remainder of the fight. Thankfully, Delia, Levian and a literal dozen of trained soldiers are enough to finish off the remaining opponents.

Now somewhat exhausted, the party wanted to sneak in a little rest—but the remainder of Velen's stationed forces is already marching on them...

29

24 highly-trained veterans are on their way towards the party and their dozen soldiers. The party tries various things to gain an advantage (most notably trying to awaken the stone beasts at the top of the cliff—except they seem to only be regular rock cubes after all.

In the end, it comes down to a face-to-face confrontation. It's a short, but bloody battle. Both sides have magical support, thus trading powerful area spells—which end up taking down more than half the friendly soldiers.

Thankfully, at the same time, 24 enemy soldiers get taken down.

The party tends to their wounded, and finally takes the opportunity to rest. With their powers regained, they make their way towards the archway. It takes a while, but they finally remember how to open it up, and go inside. They land in a smooth, gray rock dome™️. It looks like they are stuck, but it turns out it's simply another spell lock, just like in the original archway.

Thus, they continue to travel deeper into the mountain, eventually arriving in a smooth, gray rock dome™️, with a corpse of some random backstabbed mage in it. Confident in his magical door opening skills, Levian triggers yet another lock/trap, but nothing happens—but some more investigating reveals it's simply two traps this time. However, together with Delia, they manage to get past it again.

They follow another corridor, arriving in yet another smooth, gray rock dome™️. This time it is not, however, uniform, like the others—this one has a clear exit door and a warning from "the twelve", asking whoever comes across it to leave.

Not that that stops the party, of course. One heavy and one ornate door later, the party enters a huge room that seems very familiar to Marek.

This is probably where Velen is waiting for them.

30

This is where Velen is waiting for them.

As the party ascended the stairs onto the platform, they (and the entire room) crumbles away, replaced by a mysterious blue mist. They are locked in. Vencaiah secretly contacts Delia, assuring her she will arrive soon to "help".

Velen, most likely empowered by the crystal, toys with them a little bit, but eventually an outright fight ensues. It is a prolonged fight in which both Delia and Sophie came close to death.

Suddenly, Delia erupts into a column of light. She survives, and next to her... is Vencaiah.
Vencaiah proceeds to delete Velen with a single beam of light.

In this tense situation, she demands the crystal that Levian is holding. When he refuses, Vencaiah delegates the task of retrieving it to Delia, who feels incredibly pressured to comply. Now disinterested, Vencaiah turns to the crystal... and infighting breaks out in the party.

Delia keeps demanding the crystal, Levian threatens to throw it into the void. It escalates to violence (...rather, Delia starts attempting to hack up Levian). Sophie takes advantage of the situation, and in the form of an eagle snatches the crystal and makes personally sure it is beyond reach of Vencaiah by divebombing into the mist.

Sophie disappears.

Vencaiah does not take this well. Delia tries to pass the blame, but Vencaiah won't have it. She proceeds to torture Delia. An opening! Marek gathers all of his strength and pushes the distracted Vencaiah off, into the abyss.

However, she was holding onto Delia. Delia tumbles into the abyss.

Levian is shocked. He follows his sister, jumping into the abyss.

...and Marek is alone on the platform, with only Velen's corpse to keep him company. Which he disposes of at some point... who knows when. He doesn't know how much time passes. Wondering what happened to his companions.

But, Velen's designs on the world are thwarted. Vencaiah's irresponsible behaviour, thwarted.

Maybe the price was worth it.

Aftermath

:)