Session 17: To Infinity, and Beyond! (Hopefully not beyond)

Tarsahk 3 continues in Kolat Towers. The Night Cranes pause to attune to their shiny new wand of binding and plot their next move. They decide to investigate the room guarded by the spectator. Shan and Mr. Me turn invisible, and carry a sheet into the room. They drape the sheet over the spectator, rendering it blind! The party rushes in to take pot shots at it, and it almost manages to eat the sheet off of itself, but only manages part of it before Jeramiah Stel Eo blasts the orb away with a lucky hit. Just then, flying snakes swoop down from the rafters, and almost make a meal out of Shan. Marty is able to take one out with an arrow, while Parsain grabs the end of the sheet and turns the beholder-kin into a morning star, knocking another snake out of the fight. Shan turns one into a flaming lantern, while Mr. Me kills the last one after finally getting a hit in with his shillelagh. 

Eat it, USC

After the fight, Parsain tries to pick the locks but, despite thinking he was doing really well, isn't able to get them open. However, a mage hand reveals them to be illusory, and they loot the boxes. Marty investigates a magic circle in the center of the room, and determines it to be a teleportation circle. After some experimentation, nothing they have seems to be the key. Meanwhile, Shan goes downstairs to investigate Dulakh's library, and is rewarded for his efforts with an attack by a swarm of books. Marty has his back though, and they are able to quell the book uprising. The Cranes head back down to the room with a mimic to check out the outbuildings and discuss strategy.

The door from the mimic room leads into a shabbily decorated reading room, where a half-orc is reading Volo's Guide to Monsters. He seems friendly, so the party engages him in conversation. His name is Yorn, and he's been working for the Zhentarim for quite some time. He doesn't mind the change in leadership, as long as he gets paid, and Manshoon has been keeping him quite busy. He's annoyed, too, because he has to climb the tower to get to the teleportation circle every time Manshoon wants to see him, and he finds the empty tower creepy. Parsain says that the party has a meeting with Manshoon, but got lost. Yorn says that the lieutenants have a ring that lets them access Manshoon's extra-dimensional fortress. One is upstairs sleeping, and the other two are downstairs.

Believing that stealing from a sleeping man is the easiest course of action, the party heads into the next room. The apprentices look like the same ones as were summoning the demon. Marty notices that they are wearing rings that look like the teleportation rings Yorn described. Parsain ethers one and takes the ring. They leave the empty bottle of ether next to another apprentice. After taking a short rest to rearrange magical items, they teleport to Manshoon's Extradimensional Sanctum. 

The Cranes appear on a balcony surrounded by swirling purple mists. There is a figure watching them from a window through the mists, and once she sees they have noticed her, announces that they should wait for their host before vanishing. The party decides not to wait for whatever Manshoon has planned, and Parsain picks the lock to the door. They enter a large room with masks on the walls, a Zhent sigil dominating the floor. Jeremiah, Shan, and Groot try on the masks and are rewarded with shocks, but undeterred, they proceed into the room where they saw the woman. Parsain grapples her and Marty ties her up, and the rest of the party enters the room, hoping to avoid what they fear is a chilly reception.