March 23, 118
As the fight continues, most of the party members notice that someone else has arrived on the scene. Quietly approaching the site of the battle is a White Elf woman, wearing scale armor and carrying a spear and a bow (although neither is at the ready). The party are unsure if she is friend or foe, or even where she came from, so they decide to wait to see what she does.
They keep fighting, and they finally manage to down one of the creatures. The leader's claws drop Kaplan as well, but Calanon keeps him conscious with healing magic. Finally, the newcomer steps in and acts. Producing a holy symbol, she holds it forward and Turns Undead, driving the remaining creatures, the leader included, away.
As the four creatures flee the holy light, the woman shouts, in Elvish, for the party to flee before they wake the dragon, and points to a cleft in the wall behind her. Ellyanna relays her command to the rest of the party and they run to where she pointed. The cleft turns out to contain a narrow passageway that wasn't visible from their the entrance to the room.
The mysterious elf joins the party and takes the lead as they flee down the passageway, trying to escape before the effects of the Turn Undead power wear off. The passageway contains many branches, and they soon find themselves in a maze of twisty passages, all alike. But the woman seems to know where she's going, and after about five minutes, they arrive at their destination.
That destination turns out to be a worked-stone room, which one of the icy passages suddenly runs into. The room is about thirty feet square and contains a single exit, and it seems to radiate a tangible aura of peacefulness and safety. It seems that, at some prior time, someone forced their way through the room. The single door has been smashed in from outside of the room, and the wall across from it has been smashed down, creating the opening through which they entered.
Explaining that they're safe here, the woman stops the party and they catch their breath and introduce themselves. The woman is named Feyrith, and she is a priestess of Soloneth, who Ellyanna knows is the patron god of the White Elves, although she doesn't know much about him. Once she realizes that many of them don't speak Elvish, Feyrith switches to Common, and explains that this room is consecrated so the undead should not be able to follow them. She doesn't know who blessed the room, or when, or why.
The party explain their situation to Feyrith, and she returns the favor by explaining what's happening with the White Elves. About two months ago, King Ferelon, the dragon, summoned all of the clan chiefs to speak with him. While Feyrith doesn't know exactly what they discussed, she does know that they were commanded to tighten their patrols to prevent any outsiders from passing through White Elf territory, and told that the black-cloaked figures should be treated as Ferelon's emissaries, and all orders from them should be obeyed as if they were from Ferelon himself.
Since the only real change for the average person was increased patrols along the borders of White Elf territory, none of the common people were very worried about this turn of events, but it seems that Ferelon has also been quietly summoning small numbers of White Elves, priests of Soloneth in particular, to his lair, all of whom have not been seen again. Feyrith believes that, for some reason, he is attempting to quietly destroy the priesthood.
Feyrith herself was summoned, along with a few other elves, about a week ago, and thrown into Ferelon's lair, just like the party was. She was also attacked by the undead, but was able to Turn Undead and escape, along with a few of her companions. They found their way to this place of safety.
The area that they're in is an underground complex of some sort, but Feyrith knows the exit is near, as sunlight is visible at the far end of a long nearby passage. The problem is, the area around that exit is occupied by a clan of bugbears and goblins, who are evidently using it as a lair. The other surviving White Elves are not combatants, and Feyrith cannot fight her way through on her own.
Thus, the reason why Feyrith was nearby when the party was attacked is because she was waiting for some capable fighters to be sent to Ferelon, so that she could rescue them and enlist their aid. That's exactly what she's done with the party, and she asks if they're willing to help her. Since going through bugbears and goblins seems like an easier time than going through undead and a dragon, the party agree.
Feyrith takes them out of the blessed room, explaining that her companions are hiding in a secret area nearby. They've been surviving by stealing food from the bugbears whenever they get the chance. When they step out of consecrated room, they find themselves stepping into the exact opposite. The next room radiates a palpable aura of evil and death, and as they look around they realize that they're in a shrine that's extremely similar to the one they found below Frosthaven.
Feyrith hurries them through the room. Although there are several visible exits, she takes them to the far corner of the room, past the bloodstained altar, where she slides open a secret panel and leads the group through.
Beyond the secret panel is a short passage and two rooms, with a second secret panel at the far end of the passage. The rooms are occupied by the four other White Elves. They move to one room, leaving the other for the party to use. Feyrith heals them with her divine magic and they decide to rest for the night before dealing with the bugbears.
March 24, 118
The next morning, everyone has recovered, and in particular, Kaplan and Calanon, who were struck by the life-draining claws of the undead creature in Ferelon's lair, feel back up to normal. They regroup with the White Elves and begin planning how they'll get past the bugbears.
The elves describe the layout of the area to them. The second exit of the secret area (that is, the one that the party didn't enter through) leads to a passage which, after passing by a few unoccupied rooms, leads to the room where the bugbears store their food. It's usually guarded by three of the creatures, with the rest of them and their goblin slaves living a bit further down the passage.
The party decide that they'll start by getting the drop on the three bugbears in the food storage room, hopefully taking them out before they have the chance to call for help. They send Ash-Daughter ahead to scout, and she heads to the room's door and listens at it. When she returns, she confirms that the coast is clear, and that there are definitely multiple creatures in the room, although she didn't understand the language they were speaking.
Since they'll need to carry a light source, they decide the best strategy is to break down the door and blitz the room as quickly as possible, so the bugbears won't have a chance to see the light shine under the door. Feyrith goes with them in order to help, but the other elves are non-combatants and stay behind.
Arriving at the room, they smash open the door and attack the bugbears, who are caught completely off guard. As Feyrith told them, there are three of the creatures. Unfortunately, they aren't able to kill any of them before they regain their composure and start fighting back. More importantly, they also start shouting for help.
Eventually they are able to kill two of the three creatures, but the third bugbear tenaciously won't go down, and continues calling for help. Realizing that reinforcements are almost definitely on their way, the party begin repositioning themselves into the hallway, so that they aren't trapped in the room when those reinforcements inevitably arrive.
Monday, January 25, 2016
Monday, January 18, 2016
Session 30: Ferelon's Lair
March 23, 118
A total of five drakes approach Kaplan as the rest of the party scramble into position, and they breathe freezing cones of ice towards him. The sum total of five breath attacks is enough to drop him to the ground frozen, though not enough to kill him. The rest of the party arrive, and Calanon moves in to assist Kaplan while Elvish heals him.
It seems that the drakes cannot immediately breathe ice again, and they instead approach to attack by biting and clawing at the party. The battle is joined, and the drakes are much less dangerous without their ice attacks. Only a few manage to work themselves up to a second breath attack before the party finish off all five drakes.
With the immediate threat of the drakes taken care of, the party stop to examine their surroundings. The room that they're in is much wider than the diameter of the pit that they climbed down, and they cannot see any of the walls. On closer inspection, the room is not a natural formation at all - one of Ellyanna's fire spells has melted through a patch of ice, and they see stone floor underneath.
More worryingly, they realize that, during the fight, the White Elves above pulled the ropes back up, and they have no easy way back out. Furthermore, they can hear a low snoring noise off in the distance, like that of a great beast.
During the time that the rest of the party is searching the area, Dark Star instead decides to cut apart one of the drakes, looking for whatever internal organ allowed them to breathe ice. He isn't terribly knowledgeable about anatomy, though, so he ends up with several interesting-looking bits that may or may not be what he was looking for.
The party decide that they need to get their bearings before going anywhere near the source of the snoring, so they move in the opposite direction from it, hoping to run into a wall. Eventually they do, about 100 feet away from where they started. There, they decide to rest for a bit, to recover from the previous fight.
An hour later, they're ready to continue again. During this time, there's been no change in the snoring sound. They start following the wall, hoping to get an idea of the size of the room. As the go, they quickly realize that the room is circular, with a diameter of about 200 feet. However, like the floor, the walls are iced over, so if there are any doors or passages, they're hidden behind the ice.
Eventually, they circle all the way to the opposite side of the room from where they rested. Here, a twenty-foot wide passage exits the room and appears to lead towards the source of the snoring. The ice looks much rougher and more irregular, indicating that the passage isn't iced-over stonework like the room they're in.
Before entering the passage, they decide to circle back and follow the wall through the other side of the room. They discover the same thing - the room is indeed a complete circle, and they cannot see any doors or passages on the other side of the room either. Their only obvious option is to continue into the passage towards the source of the snoring.
The passage goes forward for about 50 feet before emerging into another room, smaller than the one they just left but still quite large. The walls are covered in crystalline ice, and as they enter, the ice reflects and refracts Ellyanna's Light spell such that the entire room is covered in a soft glow.
The most obvious feature of the room is the source of the snoring - a white dragon! The dragon, luckily still asleep, is nearly twenty feet long, not counting its tail, and resting atop a mound of treasure in true draconic fashion. Additionally, a group of black-cloaked figures stands towards the far end of the room.
When the party enter, one of the figures move forward until it is standing next to the dragon and, in Elvish, demands to know who approaches the lair of Ferelon, King of the White Elves. From the sound of the voice, the party can tell that the figure is a woman, and she tells them that, while Ferelon sleeps, she speaks for him.
Calanon and Ellyanna, the two Elvish-speaking party members, explain the entire situation with the undead to the woman, before requesting that they be granted permission to pass through White Elf lands to continue on their quest. The woman considers their words, before asking the other figures in the back of the room (four in total) to join her.
Flanked by her four companions, the cloaked woman informs the party that, unfortunately, they've a miscalculation. She lowers her hood to reveal the pale and rotting features of an undead creature! She and her escort begin advancing menacingly towards the party.
As the five figures advance, Calanon asks the woman how she became an undead monstrosity and what happened to her, hoping he might be able to reason with her. She responds that she willingly chose to become as she is now. Deciding that reasoning with her is probably impossible, Calanon instead signals to the rest of the party to attack.
The woman and her four companions draw swords from under their cloaks as both sides advance, with Calanon and Kaplan taking point for the party as usual. As battle is joined, the woman shrieks and flies into a screaming rage, charging directly at Kaplan. Attacking with lightning speed, she badly injures him before he even has a chance to defend himself.
The party attack back. All five of the creatures are quite fast, but the woman in particular seems to be unnaturally quick, able to dodge most of the attacks directed at her. Elvish tries using a Heat Metal spell on her sword in order to disarm her. It works, in that she is forced to discard the now red-hot weapon, but she simply switches to attacking with her clawed hands. As her claws strike Kaplan, he feels his life-force being sucked away from him.
The party quickly realize that they are outmatched by the creatures, and they'll need to think of something quick if they hope to get out of this situation alive.
A total of five drakes approach Kaplan as the rest of the party scramble into position, and they breathe freezing cones of ice towards him. The sum total of five breath attacks is enough to drop him to the ground frozen, though not enough to kill him. The rest of the party arrive, and Calanon moves in to assist Kaplan while Elvish heals him.
It seems that the drakes cannot immediately breathe ice again, and they instead approach to attack by biting and clawing at the party. The battle is joined, and the drakes are much less dangerous without their ice attacks. Only a few manage to work themselves up to a second breath attack before the party finish off all five drakes.
With the immediate threat of the drakes taken care of, the party stop to examine their surroundings. The room that they're in is much wider than the diameter of the pit that they climbed down, and they cannot see any of the walls. On closer inspection, the room is not a natural formation at all - one of Ellyanna's fire spells has melted through a patch of ice, and they see stone floor underneath.
More worryingly, they realize that, during the fight, the White Elves above pulled the ropes back up, and they have no easy way back out. Furthermore, they can hear a low snoring noise off in the distance, like that of a great beast.
During the time that the rest of the party is searching the area, Dark Star instead decides to cut apart one of the drakes, looking for whatever internal organ allowed them to breathe ice. He isn't terribly knowledgeable about anatomy, though, so he ends up with several interesting-looking bits that may or may not be what he was looking for.
The party decide that they need to get their bearings before going anywhere near the source of the snoring, so they move in the opposite direction from it, hoping to run into a wall. Eventually they do, about 100 feet away from where they started. There, they decide to rest for a bit, to recover from the previous fight.
An hour later, they're ready to continue again. During this time, there's been no change in the snoring sound. They start following the wall, hoping to get an idea of the size of the room. As the go, they quickly realize that the room is circular, with a diameter of about 200 feet. However, like the floor, the walls are iced over, so if there are any doors or passages, they're hidden behind the ice.
Eventually, they circle all the way to the opposite side of the room from where they rested. Here, a twenty-foot wide passage exits the room and appears to lead towards the source of the snoring. The ice looks much rougher and more irregular, indicating that the passage isn't iced-over stonework like the room they're in.
Before entering the passage, they decide to circle back and follow the wall through the other side of the room. They discover the same thing - the room is indeed a complete circle, and they cannot see any doors or passages on the other side of the room either. Their only obvious option is to continue into the passage towards the source of the snoring.
The passage goes forward for about 50 feet before emerging into another room, smaller than the one they just left but still quite large. The walls are covered in crystalline ice, and as they enter, the ice reflects and refracts Ellyanna's Light spell such that the entire room is covered in a soft glow.
The most obvious feature of the room is the source of the snoring - a white dragon! The dragon, luckily still asleep, is nearly twenty feet long, not counting its tail, and resting atop a mound of treasure in true draconic fashion. Additionally, a group of black-cloaked figures stands towards the far end of the room.
When the party enter, one of the figures move forward until it is standing next to the dragon and, in Elvish, demands to know who approaches the lair of Ferelon, King of the White Elves. From the sound of the voice, the party can tell that the figure is a woman, and she tells them that, while Ferelon sleeps, she speaks for him.
Calanon and Ellyanna, the two Elvish-speaking party members, explain the entire situation with the undead to the woman, before requesting that they be granted permission to pass through White Elf lands to continue on their quest. The woman considers their words, before asking the other figures in the back of the room (four in total) to join her.
Flanked by her four companions, the cloaked woman informs the party that, unfortunately, they've a miscalculation. She lowers her hood to reveal the pale and rotting features of an undead creature! She and her escort begin advancing menacingly towards the party.
As the five figures advance, Calanon asks the woman how she became an undead monstrosity and what happened to her, hoping he might be able to reason with her. She responds that she willingly chose to become as she is now. Deciding that reasoning with her is probably impossible, Calanon instead signals to the rest of the party to attack.
The woman and her four companions draw swords from under their cloaks as both sides advance, with Calanon and Kaplan taking point for the party as usual. As battle is joined, the woman shrieks and flies into a screaming rage, charging directly at Kaplan. Attacking with lightning speed, she badly injures him before he even has a chance to defend himself.
The party attack back. All five of the creatures are quite fast, but the woman in particular seems to be unnaturally quick, able to dodge most of the attacks directed at her. Elvish tries using a Heat Metal spell on her sword in order to disarm her. It works, in that she is forced to discard the now red-hot weapon, but she simply switches to attacking with her clawed hands. As her claws strike Kaplan, he feels his life-force being sucked away from him.
The party quickly realize that they are outmatched by the creatures, and they'll need to think of something quick if they hope to get out of this situation alive.
Friday, January 8, 2016
Session 29: Across the Tundra
March 7, 118
The party spend the rest of the day planning and preparing for the journey. They consider taking care of several other issues first - either trying to rescue Corsica, or returning to Duskveil to investigate the murders that Ellesera told them about. However, in the end they decide that they've wasted too much time already, and they need to put those concerns aside for now.
Because they only know what direction they need to go, and not how far, they have some difficulty in planning the expedition. In particular, they have no idea how many supplies they'll need to bring. Since the prelates are funding the expedition, they eventually decide to simply buy as much as they're willing to pay for. In they end, this turns out to be 90 days worth of food and supplies. They also purchase two sleds to carry all of these supplies, two teams of eight dogs each to pull them, and enough food for the dogs as well.
March 8, 118
Having spent the previous day planning their trip and purchasing supplies, the party set out this morning with their dogs and their sleds. Luckily, Kaplan has experience dealing with pack animals from his time living in Frosthaven, and he is able to show the rest of the party how to handle them. They begin their journey following the road to the town of Transmire, which lies almost directly along the direction that the Bone Compass indicates.
March 9, 118
After travelling all of the previous day and most of this day, the party arrive in Transmire in the evening. This medium-sized town, about the same size of Duskveil, is the last stop in settled territory before they continue into the arctic wilderness to the north. Because of this, they take this last opportunity to sleep in a warm, comfortable building and spend the night in the Transmire Inn.
March 10, 118
The next morning, the party assembles and starts preparing to head out, when they realize something is wrong - Dark Star is missing! They search his room, and find that all of his things are still there, and there is no sign of any struggle, but the half-orc himself is gone. It's as if he simply got up and walked off in his nightclothes in the middle of the night.
They talk to several people in and around the Inn, but no one is able to tell them anything or saw anything unusual. Kaplan tracks down the captain of the town watch to ask him instead. As a former watchman himself, he is able to get on the captain's good side and the man tells him that one of his watchmen did see someone wandering out of the town in the middle of the night.
The party question this watchman, who tells them that it was too dark to discern any details about the person. He didn't pursue him because he didn't want to leave his post and, after all, there are no rules against leaving the town whenever you like. He takes the party to the spot where he saw the person, and they search for tracks.
The spot is at the north end of the town, along the same main street where the Transmire Inn sits, and the tracks very clearly head off to the north. Furthermore, they can tell that whoever made them was stumbling or shuffling rather than walking normally - the tracks are those of someone who was barely lifting his or her feet, dragging them through the snow instead.
The party decide that this is almost certainly Dark Star, and, given his likely pace, they should be able to catch up with him if they simply follow his tracks at their regular travelling speed. They return to the inn, gather Dark Star's possessions from his room, and head out.
As they travel, following the tracks, Kaplan quickly realizes that they are actually still travelling in exactly the direction that the Bone Compass is pointing. Apparently Dark Star (if it is indeed him) is going in that direction despite not having the compass to guide him.
Finally, after 3 hours of travelling, the party catch up to the figure making the tracks, and it is indeed Dark Star. As they cautiously approach, they see that he seems to be sleepwalking through the snow, still in his nightclothes as they suspected. They shout at him to try to wake him; eventually Ellyanna is able to slap him awake.
Dark Star awakens with a start, confused as to where he is and with no memory of leaving the Inn. The party explain what happened from their perspective, and ask if he remembers having any unusual dreams. Dark Star tells them that he dreamed of darkness, and of an even greater darkness somewhere in the distance that he felt compelled to go to.
As Dark Star describes his dream, the party think of the White Elf that he met earlier, Vaelac, who described having strange dreams that stopped when he came to the south. They wonder if Dark Star is experiencing the same thing now that they are going to the north.
In any case, Dark Star seems fine now that he's awake, so they continue travelling for the rest of the day. During the three hours they were following Dark Star, they left the edge of the settled lands that are blessed with warmer temperatures by the Priests of Vorn, and entered the true arctic tundra. Their progress is much slower than when they were following the roads, but they'll have to get used to it, since it'll only get worse as they continue to the north.
That night, they make sure to keep a careful watch on Dark Star as he sleeps. Based on the testimony of the watchman and the distance he managed to travel while sleepwalking, they estimate that he left at around midnight last night, so they're extra attentive around that time.
Sure enough, around midnight, Dark Star stumbles to his feet and starts walking off to the north again. They wake him up quickly this time, before he can leave their camp, and he tells them that he had a similar dream. He goes back to sleep, but ten minutes later he starts sleepwalking away again, so they're forced to tie him up. This doesn't prevent him from trying to sleepwalk away, but in his mostly-asleep state, he is not able to escape the rope or get to his feet.
Eventually, about an hour after he first woke, Dark Star seems to calm down, stop struggling, and go back to sleeping normally. The rest of the night is uneventful.
March 11, 118
This day is spent travelling and is uneventful. During the night, the party try a new plan to deal with Dark Star's sleepwalking: they leave him awake and on watch during the one-hour period where he was trying to leave during the previous night. The plan is a success - Dark Star doesn't feel anything unusual during this time, and the rest of the night he sleeps normally.
March 16, 118
A few days later, the party are well and truly into the tundra, still following the direction indicated by Leravith's Bone Compass. Suddenly, as they are passing through a nondescript bit of land, they are ambushed by a group of White Elves. They are taken completely off guard, and before they even realize what's happening, they are completely surrounded by about a dozen of the elves, brandishing weapons at them.
The lead elf addresses the party in the Elvish language, informing them that they are trespassing on White Elf territory and must turn around immediately. Calanon and Ellyanna, the two party members who speak Elvish, attempt to reason with them. Calanon tells them that they are chasing an undead threat and wish only to pass through these lands, but the elf is unmoved and reiterates his demand.
As the party deliberate how they'll get out of this situation, another of the elves approaches the leader and they have a short, whispered conversation. In an apparent change of heart, the leader demands that they explain more about the undead.
After Ellyanna gives them more detail about the undead and what the party is doing, the White Elf leader tells them that, although he cannot let them pass, he can instead take the party to their king, who may be able to help them. The king lives near the one and only permanent White Elf settlement, which is about a four day journey away (for the White Elves, at least - it will probably take longer with the party and their dogs).
Unwilling to risk angering the White Elves, the party agree to meet with the king, and the elves begin leading them to their city, roughly to the west.
March 22, 118
After six days of travel, the party arrive at the White Elf encampment. With the guidance of the elves, they've made better time than they were making on their own, although the elves clearly would have made even better time without the party slowing them down. During this time, their escorts remain aloof and non-conversational, although not outright hostile, and they are unable to learn anything useful from them.
The White Elf settlement is a large tent city, with only a few permanent structures, built on the shores of a great lake, across from a small mountain. The elf leader explains to them that the king lives on the mountain, and that tomorrow they will cross the lake in boats to reach him. For the night, the party is housed in several large, relatively comfortable tents.
March 23, 118
The next morning, the party and their White Elf escort head down to the docks and set out for the mountain across the lake. Their dogs and sleds are left behind in the White Elf encampment, and their transportation consists of several small but sturdy rowboats.
The voyage across the lake is long and takes most of the day, before they finally arrive at the base of the mountain. They land at a set of docks watched over by the king's honour guard, who wave them through to the path up the mountain.
After about an hour's walk, they arrive at their destination: a large entryway carved into the side of the mountain. Inside is a cavernous room, housing a huge opening in the floor that descends straight down into the core of the mountain. Casting a Light spell on a rock and dropping it down, Ellyanna sees that the bottom is at least 100 yards down.
Producing six knotted ropes, the White Elves tie one end of each to rings mounted on the walls, then toss the other end of each down. The leader explains that the king makes his home at the bottom of the pit, and they must climb down to reach him. When they party ask him to guarantee that they'll leave the ropes for them to climb back up, he replies that that's up to the king.
The party begin their descent. Although the height is nerve-wracking, the knotted ropes are easy to climb and no one has any difficulty. Kaplan takes the lead, staying a little bit ahead of the rest of the party at all times.
Kaplan finally reaches the bottom of the pit, which is still lit by Ellyanna's thrown stone. He can see that it is a natural, or at least semi-natural, ice cave, large enough that the Light spell is not powerful enough to illuminate its walls. Kaplan can also tell that he isn't alone at the bottom of the pit, and as the rest of the party approach the floor, several ice blue drake-like lizards emerge from the darkness and attack!
The party spend the rest of the day planning and preparing for the journey. They consider taking care of several other issues first - either trying to rescue Corsica, or returning to Duskveil to investigate the murders that Ellesera told them about. However, in the end they decide that they've wasted too much time already, and they need to put those concerns aside for now.
Because they only know what direction they need to go, and not how far, they have some difficulty in planning the expedition. In particular, they have no idea how many supplies they'll need to bring. Since the prelates are funding the expedition, they eventually decide to simply buy as much as they're willing to pay for. In they end, this turns out to be 90 days worth of food and supplies. They also purchase two sleds to carry all of these supplies, two teams of eight dogs each to pull them, and enough food for the dogs as well.
March 8, 118
Having spent the previous day planning their trip and purchasing supplies, the party set out this morning with their dogs and their sleds. Luckily, Kaplan has experience dealing with pack animals from his time living in Frosthaven, and he is able to show the rest of the party how to handle them. They begin their journey following the road to the town of Transmire, which lies almost directly along the direction that the Bone Compass indicates.
March 9, 118
After travelling all of the previous day and most of this day, the party arrive in Transmire in the evening. This medium-sized town, about the same size of Duskveil, is the last stop in settled territory before they continue into the arctic wilderness to the north. Because of this, they take this last opportunity to sleep in a warm, comfortable building and spend the night in the Transmire Inn.
March 10, 118
The next morning, the party assembles and starts preparing to head out, when they realize something is wrong - Dark Star is missing! They search his room, and find that all of his things are still there, and there is no sign of any struggle, but the half-orc himself is gone. It's as if he simply got up and walked off in his nightclothes in the middle of the night.
They talk to several people in and around the Inn, but no one is able to tell them anything or saw anything unusual. Kaplan tracks down the captain of the town watch to ask him instead. As a former watchman himself, he is able to get on the captain's good side and the man tells him that one of his watchmen did see someone wandering out of the town in the middle of the night.
The party question this watchman, who tells them that it was too dark to discern any details about the person. He didn't pursue him because he didn't want to leave his post and, after all, there are no rules against leaving the town whenever you like. He takes the party to the spot where he saw the person, and they search for tracks.
The spot is at the north end of the town, along the same main street where the Transmire Inn sits, and the tracks very clearly head off to the north. Furthermore, they can tell that whoever made them was stumbling or shuffling rather than walking normally - the tracks are those of someone who was barely lifting his or her feet, dragging them through the snow instead.
The party decide that this is almost certainly Dark Star, and, given his likely pace, they should be able to catch up with him if they simply follow his tracks at their regular travelling speed. They return to the inn, gather Dark Star's possessions from his room, and head out.
As they travel, following the tracks, Kaplan quickly realizes that they are actually still travelling in exactly the direction that the Bone Compass is pointing. Apparently Dark Star (if it is indeed him) is going in that direction despite not having the compass to guide him.
Finally, after 3 hours of travelling, the party catch up to the figure making the tracks, and it is indeed Dark Star. As they cautiously approach, they see that he seems to be sleepwalking through the snow, still in his nightclothes as they suspected. They shout at him to try to wake him; eventually Ellyanna is able to slap him awake.
Dark Star awakens with a start, confused as to where he is and with no memory of leaving the Inn. The party explain what happened from their perspective, and ask if he remembers having any unusual dreams. Dark Star tells them that he dreamed of darkness, and of an even greater darkness somewhere in the distance that he felt compelled to go to.
As Dark Star describes his dream, the party think of the White Elf that he met earlier, Vaelac, who described having strange dreams that stopped when he came to the south. They wonder if Dark Star is experiencing the same thing now that they are going to the north.
In any case, Dark Star seems fine now that he's awake, so they continue travelling for the rest of the day. During the three hours they were following Dark Star, they left the edge of the settled lands that are blessed with warmer temperatures by the Priests of Vorn, and entered the true arctic tundra. Their progress is much slower than when they were following the roads, but they'll have to get used to it, since it'll only get worse as they continue to the north.
That night, they make sure to keep a careful watch on Dark Star as he sleeps. Based on the testimony of the watchman and the distance he managed to travel while sleepwalking, they estimate that he left at around midnight last night, so they're extra attentive around that time.
Sure enough, around midnight, Dark Star stumbles to his feet and starts walking off to the north again. They wake him up quickly this time, before he can leave their camp, and he tells them that he had a similar dream. He goes back to sleep, but ten minutes later he starts sleepwalking away again, so they're forced to tie him up. This doesn't prevent him from trying to sleepwalk away, but in his mostly-asleep state, he is not able to escape the rope or get to his feet.
Eventually, about an hour after he first woke, Dark Star seems to calm down, stop struggling, and go back to sleeping normally. The rest of the night is uneventful.
March 11, 118
This day is spent travelling and is uneventful. During the night, the party try a new plan to deal with Dark Star's sleepwalking: they leave him awake and on watch during the one-hour period where he was trying to leave during the previous night. The plan is a success - Dark Star doesn't feel anything unusual during this time, and the rest of the night he sleeps normally.
March 16, 118
A few days later, the party are well and truly into the tundra, still following the direction indicated by Leravith's Bone Compass. Suddenly, as they are passing through a nondescript bit of land, they are ambushed by a group of White Elves. They are taken completely off guard, and before they even realize what's happening, they are completely surrounded by about a dozen of the elves, brandishing weapons at them.
The lead elf addresses the party in the Elvish language, informing them that they are trespassing on White Elf territory and must turn around immediately. Calanon and Ellyanna, the two party members who speak Elvish, attempt to reason with them. Calanon tells them that they are chasing an undead threat and wish only to pass through these lands, but the elf is unmoved and reiterates his demand.
As the party deliberate how they'll get out of this situation, another of the elves approaches the leader and they have a short, whispered conversation. In an apparent change of heart, the leader demands that they explain more about the undead.
After Ellyanna gives them more detail about the undead and what the party is doing, the White Elf leader tells them that, although he cannot let them pass, he can instead take the party to their king, who may be able to help them. The king lives near the one and only permanent White Elf settlement, which is about a four day journey away (for the White Elves, at least - it will probably take longer with the party and their dogs).
Unwilling to risk angering the White Elves, the party agree to meet with the king, and the elves begin leading them to their city, roughly to the west.
March 22, 118
After six days of travel, the party arrive at the White Elf encampment. With the guidance of the elves, they've made better time than they were making on their own, although the elves clearly would have made even better time without the party slowing them down. During this time, their escorts remain aloof and non-conversational, although not outright hostile, and they are unable to learn anything useful from them.
The White Elf settlement is a large tent city, with only a few permanent structures, built on the shores of a great lake, across from a small mountain. The elf leader explains to them that the king lives on the mountain, and that tomorrow they will cross the lake in boats to reach him. For the night, the party is housed in several large, relatively comfortable tents.
March 23, 118
The next morning, the party and their White Elf escort head down to the docks and set out for the mountain across the lake. Their dogs and sleds are left behind in the White Elf encampment, and their transportation consists of several small but sturdy rowboats.
The voyage across the lake is long and takes most of the day, before they finally arrive at the base of the mountain. They land at a set of docks watched over by the king's honour guard, who wave them through to the path up the mountain.
After about an hour's walk, they arrive at their destination: a large entryway carved into the side of the mountain. Inside is a cavernous room, housing a huge opening in the floor that descends straight down into the core of the mountain. Casting a Light spell on a rock and dropping it down, Ellyanna sees that the bottom is at least 100 yards down.
Producing six knotted ropes, the White Elves tie one end of each to rings mounted on the walls, then toss the other end of each down. The leader explains that the king makes his home at the bottom of the pit, and they must climb down to reach him. When they party ask him to guarantee that they'll leave the ropes for them to climb back up, he replies that that's up to the king.
The party begin their descent. Although the height is nerve-wracking, the knotted ropes are easy to climb and no one has any difficulty. Kaplan takes the lead, staying a little bit ahead of the rest of the party at all times.
Kaplan finally reaches the bottom of the pit, which is still lit by Ellyanna's thrown stone. He can see that it is a natural, or at least semi-natural, ice cave, large enough that the Light spell is not powerful enough to illuminate its walls. Kaplan can also tell that he isn't alone at the bottom of the pit, and as the rest of the party approach the floor, several ice blue drake-like lizards emerge from the darkness and attack!
Saturday, January 2, 2016
Session 28: Loose Ends
March 3, 118
This day, the party split up to pursue different tasks, while they wait for the Grand Tourney to take place in a few days. While Dark Star stays behind at the Eminent Cathedral to study the book he got from Demon's Gift, everyone else heads out. Elvish goes to inform Zorlac of their plan, while Calanon heads for the Undercity to keep Ellyanna up to date. Ash-Daughter, following Ellyanna's wishes, heads into the city to learn if there's any local enchanters who can help Corsica.
While Elvish is on the way to Zorlac's home, he suddenly realizes that he's being followed by a group of a dozen or so cloaked figures. However, he only notices this once several of them start approaching him from the front, while several more close in from behind, as he makes his way along a street. Thinking quickly, he makes a run for it and ducks into a nearby tenement.
Unable to see if the men are chasing him, Elvish sprints through the cramped corridors of the three-story building and makes his way to the roof. When he gets there, he sees several of the men are waiting on the streets below, but most are somewhere out of sight - most likely searching for him in the building. With a running jump, he leaps across to the building behind the one he's on, a shorter, two-story building, then lowers himself down and drops onto a different street. Taking a look around, he doesn't see any of the men, so he takes off down this new street.
Eventually he makes it to Zorlac's home with no further incidents. He informs the wizard of their plan, and Zorlac agrees to release the two Kaplans to them for that day. Of course, if he isn't finished the process of removing the transferred memories by then, he'll need the fake back afterwards. But then, their deal is that he gets the fake once they're done with him anyway, so he'll have to go back in any case.
Being careful to disguise himself and stick to wide-open, public streets, Elvish makes it back to the Eminent Cathedral. There, he finds that Calanon has returned, having told Ellyanna what's going on. Based on what happened to Elvish, they ask Severn to send some of his men out to retrieve Ash-Daughter. They consider going down to get Ellyanna as well, but decide that she's safe where she is.
Shortly thereafter, Ash-Daughter returns along with Severn's men; unfortunately, she was not able to find a suitable enchanter. The group decide that they'd best lay low until the Grand Tourney. They consider going to retrieve Ellyanna, but decide that she should be safe down in the Undercity with Leravith.
Meanwhile, down at Leravith's, Ellyanna continues her research. While she doesn't discover anything exactly like the effect Corsica is under, she does learn a bit about how similar enchantments function. Most permanent enchantments of such strength tend to have a built-in way to break the enchantment. This built-in weakness is what allows the spell to otherwise be so powerful. But, without knowing anything about the specific magic that Zorlac used, there's no way to tell exactly what weakness it has.
March 4, 118
The rest of the party continue to lay low, but Ellyanna doesn't know about what happened to Elvish, and decides to head up to the city to look for an enchanter who can help her. Asking around, she eventually learns about a man who is known to provide enchantment for the various rich citizens of Vornheim, and goes to meet him. She explain her situation, and the enchanter tells her that, without further information, he cannot help her. Furthermore, when she mentions that the person she is trying to help is one of Zorlac's librarians, his fear of the wizard makes him demand a large amount of money in exchange for his services - he will not cross Zorlac for a pittance.
Eventually, Ellyanna agrees to trade him the spellbook they found in the crypts of Frosthaven in exchange for his services. She'll need to actually get Corsica and bring her to the enchanter in order for him to study the enchantment and try to determine its weakness.
Ellyanna returns to the cathedral to update the party on her progress. When she arrives, they tell her about what happened to Elvish - luckily, she somehow managed to avoid getting followed. They convince her to lay low with them. She can't go forward with her plan to free Corsica anyway, because they still need Zorlac and can't risk doing anything that would upset him.
March 5, 118
This is the day of the grand tourney, and most of it is spent in preparation. The party retrieve both Kaplans from Zorlac, who is not yet finished the process of removing the memories from the fake. Afterwards, they head to the colosseum and finalize their preparations for the speech that Elvish will help Severn and Sahril deliver.
Finally, in the evening, the second-to-last round of the tournament completes, and they begin their announcement. Everything goes off without a hitch and, together with Elvish, the two prelates deliver a masterfully executed speech, exactly as planned.
Afterwards, Sahril, who hasn't really had a chance to talk to the party before now, thanks them for their involvement in saving her son from Gorith. She presents them with a reward of 1000 gold pieces, as well a minor relic of Vorn, the Hammer of Saint Alessia, a warhammer that was wielded by a famed witch-hunter a few centuries ago.
The party return to the Eminent Cathedral along with Severn, where they plan their next move. Severn explains that, although they have definitely just won the public's support in the upcoming election, it will probably still take a few weeks for the whole process to finish. However, once everything is done, the presence of a new Arch-Prelate means that the city will be in much better shape in the spring when the mountain passes thaw and the war against the Second Empire continues.
They discuss the undead threat, but Severn is still more concerned about the known threat, that of the Second Empire. There simply isn't enough information for him to commit valuable soldiers against the undead when the Second Empire will already require their full attention. However, he agrees to remain open to any new information the party might discover regarding the undead.
Finally, he advises the party to leave Vornheim as soon as possible. While one of Sahril's first acts as Arch-Prelate will be to remove Gorith from his position, until then, he remains a threat. Of course, the party can't leave the city until Zorlac is done with Kaplan.
March 6, 118
Although the rest of the party heed Severn's warning and stay in the cathedral, Ellyanna doesn't want to waste the day, and heads to the College of Celestial Thaumaturgy in order to continue her studies. This turns out to be a good idea, as during the day she makes a breakthrough and finally puts together some information that seems to relate to the situation they're now facing, as related here.
March 7, 118
On this day, the party receive a message from Zorlac, informing them that his work on Kaplan's double is done. When they arrive at his workshop, they find that the other Kaplan is indeed no longer able to answer questions that only Kaplan would know. Finally satisfied that this Kaplan is the fake, they release the real Kaplan and he rejoins the group.
They decide to pay a visit to Leravith and see if she's made any progress. Using the new route that she showed them, they are able to make it to her home quickly and without incident. Leravith explains that she's continued studying the remains, but still cannot discover any particular reason why they were created in the strange way that they were.
However, she has made progress in one area. Since the energy powering the creatures was external, she's created a sort of magical compass using a bone from one of the corpses that points in the direction of the source of their necromantic power. It points to the north, although beyond that she cannot say much.
The party thank Leravith, take the compass, and return to the surface. They quickly realize that the source of the necromantic energy must be very far to the north indeed, as the direction of the compass doesn't measurably change as they walk from one end of the city to the other. Thus, if they wish to find the source of the undead's power, they must prepare for a long journey into the frozen north.
This day, the party split up to pursue different tasks, while they wait for the Grand Tourney to take place in a few days. While Dark Star stays behind at the Eminent Cathedral to study the book he got from Demon's Gift, everyone else heads out. Elvish goes to inform Zorlac of their plan, while Calanon heads for the Undercity to keep Ellyanna up to date. Ash-Daughter, following Ellyanna's wishes, heads into the city to learn if there's any local enchanters who can help Corsica.
While Elvish is on the way to Zorlac's home, he suddenly realizes that he's being followed by a group of a dozen or so cloaked figures. However, he only notices this once several of them start approaching him from the front, while several more close in from behind, as he makes his way along a street. Thinking quickly, he makes a run for it and ducks into a nearby tenement.
Unable to see if the men are chasing him, Elvish sprints through the cramped corridors of the three-story building and makes his way to the roof. When he gets there, he sees several of the men are waiting on the streets below, but most are somewhere out of sight - most likely searching for him in the building. With a running jump, he leaps across to the building behind the one he's on, a shorter, two-story building, then lowers himself down and drops onto a different street. Taking a look around, he doesn't see any of the men, so he takes off down this new street.
Eventually he makes it to Zorlac's home with no further incidents. He informs the wizard of their plan, and Zorlac agrees to release the two Kaplans to them for that day. Of course, if he isn't finished the process of removing the transferred memories by then, he'll need the fake back afterwards. But then, their deal is that he gets the fake once they're done with him anyway, so he'll have to go back in any case.
Being careful to disguise himself and stick to wide-open, public streets, Elvish makes it back to the Eminent Cathedral. There, he finds that Calanon has returned, having told Ellyanna what's going on. Based on what happened to Elvish, they ask Severn to send some of his men out to retrieve Ash-Daughter. They consider going down to get Ellyanna as well, but decide that she's safe where she is.
Shortly thereafter, Ash-Daughter returns along with Severn's men; unfortunately, she was not able to find a suitable enchanter. The group decide that they'd best lay low until the Grand Tourney. They consider going to retrieve Ellyanna, but decide that she should be safe down in the Undercity with Leravith.
Meanwhile, down at Leravith's, Ellyanna continues her research. While she doesn't discover anything exactly like the effect Corsica is under, she does learn a bit about how similar enchantments function. Most permanent enchantments of such strength tend to have a built-in way to break the enchantment. This built-in weakness is what allows the spell to otherwise be so powerful. But, without knowing anything about the specific magic that Zorlac used, there's no way to tell exactly what weakness it has.
March 4, 118
The rest of the party continue to lay low, but Ellyanna doesn't know about what happened to Elvish, and decides to head up to the city to look for an enchanter who can help her. Asking around, she eventually learns about a man who is known to provide enchantment for the various rich citizens of Vornheim, and goes to meet him. She explain her situation, and the enchanter tells her that, without further information, he cannot help her. Furthermore, when she mentions that the person she is trying to help is one of Zorlac's librarians, his fear of the wizard makes him demand a large amount of money in exchange for his services - he will not cross Zorlac for a pittance.
Eventually, Ellyanna agrees to trade him the spellbook they found in the crypts of Frosthaven in exchange for his services. She'll need to actually get Corsica and bring her to the enchanter in order for him to study the enchantment and try to determine its weakness.
Ellyanna returns to the cathedral to update the party on her progress. When she arrives, they tell her about what happened to Elvish - luckily, she somehow managed to avoid getting followed. They convince her to lay low with them. She can't go forward with her plan to free Corsica anyway, because they still need Zorlac and can't risk doing anything that would upset him.
March 5, 118
This is the day of the grand tourney, and most of it is spent in preparation. The party retrieve both Kaplans from Zorlac, who is not yet finished the process of removing the memories from the fake. Afterwards, they head to the colosseum and finalize their preparations for the speech that Elvish will help Severn and Sahril deliver.
Finally, in the evening, the second-to-last round of the tournament completes, and they begin their announcement. Everything goes off without a hitch and, together with Elvish, the two prelates deliver a masterfully executed speech, exactly as planned.
Afterwards, Sahril, who hasn't really had a chance to talk to the party before now, thanks them for their involvement in saving her son from Gorith. She presents them with a reward of 1000 gold pieces, as well a minor relic of Vorn, the Hammer of Saint Alessia, a warhammer that was wielded by a famed witch-hunter a few centuries ago.
The party return to the Eminent Cathedral along with Severn, where they plan their next move. Severn explains that, although they have definitely just won the public's support in the upcoming election, it will probably still take a few weeks for the whole process to finish. However, once everything is done, the presence of a new Arch-Prelate means that the city will be in much better shape in the spring when the mountain passes thaw and the war against the Second Empire continues.
They discuss the undead threat, but Severn is still more concerned about the known threat, that of the Second Empire. There simply isn't enough information for him to commit valuable soldiers against the undead when the Second Empire will already require their full attention. However, he agrees to remain open to any new information the party might discover regarding the undead.
Finally, he advises the party to leave Vornheim as soon as possible. While one of Sahril's first acts as Arch-Prelate will be to remove Gorith from his position, until then, he remains a threat. Of course, the party can't leave the city until Zorlac is done with Kaplan.
March 6, 118
Although the rest of the party heed Severn's warning and stay in the cathedral, Ellyanna doesn't want to waste the day, and heads to the College of Celestial Thaumaturgy in order to continue her studies. This turns out to be a good idea, as during the day she makes a breakthrough and finally puts together some information that seems to relate to the situation they're now facing, as related here.
March 7, 118
On this day, the party receive a message from Zorlac, informing them that his work on Kaplan's double is done. When they arrive at his workshop, they find that the other Kaplan is indeed no longer able to answer questions that only Kaplan would know. Finally satisfied that this Kaplan is the fake, they release the real Kaplan and he rejoins the group.
They decide to pay a visit to Leravith and see if she's made any progress. Using the new route that she showed them, they are able to make it to her home quickly and without incident. Leravith explains that she's continued studying the remains, but still cannot discover any particular reason why they were created in the strange way that they were.
However, she has made progress in one area. Since the energy powering the creatures was external, she's created a sort of magical compass using a bone from one of the corpses that points in the direction of the source of their necromantic power. It points to the north, although beyond that she cannot say much.
The party thank Leravith, take the compass, and return to the surface. They quickly realize that the source of the necromantic energy must be very far to the north indeed, as the direction of the compass doesn't measurably change as they walk from one end of the city to the other. Thus, if they wish to find the source of the undead's power, they must prepare for a long journey into the frozen north.
Session 27: Back At Leravith's
March 2, 118
As they head down through the Undercity, Ash-Daughter makes a suggestion regarding their route. The last time they explored the area, they took the first right turn they saw and ended up following a long, circuitous route to Leravith's home. In doing so, they bypassed a door that, according to their map, could possibly lead to their destination much more quickly.
The party agree with her suggestion to try the door. Listening at it, they can hear voices beyond. Only Calanon is able to both hear and understand them, and the low, brutish-sounding voices are speaking in Giant. They seem to be discussing food or a meal. Since Giant is mostly spoken by monsters such as giants or ogres, not known for their friendly disposition, the party decide to try to burst into the room and ambush the occupants.
Unfortunately, Calanon makes too much noise trying to get the door open, and by the time he steps in, the creatures inside are looking straight at him. They are a hulking, nine-foot tall ogre, and two smaller, but still huge, half-ogres, perched over the half-eaten corpse of some humanoid creature. After a moment of hesitation on everyone's part, Calanon and the ogres charge each other.
The party has learned some new tricks since they were last in the area, and they find the ogres are not so much of a threat as they once might have been. They dispatch their three opponents fairly easily. During the fight, one of the half-ogres manages to get in front of Ellyanna and nearly drops her with a single blow, but otherwise the party suffer only minor wounds.
They decide to take a short rest before continuing on, so they drag the bed and the chest into the room, and retrieve the five other chests from the demiplane. They use these large objects to barricade all of the doors in the room, then rest up for an hour. During this time, Ash-Daughter and Dark Star search the room, but find little of interest. Dark Star looks at the corpse and identifies that it's an orc. He wonders if it's one of the orcs they met the last time they were here, but the remains are no longer identifiable.
Once Ellyanna has recovered from her wound, the party set out once again. Going by their map, they choose a door on the western wall of the room. After hearing nothing, they head through. They recognize the room beyond the door as one they've previously been to - Ash-Daughter's suggestion has paid off, and they are only a short distance away from the necromancer's lair.
The party pass through a few more rooms, which luckily remain unoccupied, before finding the stairway down to Leravith's home. As before, the entrance to her underground palace is just past the base of the stairs, and is guarded by two undead Elven soldiers. Now that they know the way is clear, they cart down the enchanted bed and the six chests full of undead remains. One of the soldiers fetches a manservant, who leads the party in, telling them that other servants will carry in their heavy burden for them.
The manservant leads them to a chamber where they find Leravith busy weaving a tapestry on a loom. As before, her attire and mannerisms are more fitting for noblewoman attending a formal High Elven ball than a necromancer in a ruin hidden below the city. Putting her work aside, she greets the party and, after some small talk, takes them down to her magical laboratory.
When they arrive, her servants have already brought in the bed and chests, and she makes a cursory inspection of each. She tells them that she'll need some time to study the undead remains before she can tell them anything. The party decide to wait in her home for a few hours to see what preliminary results she can come up with, before returning to the surface before nightfall.
During this time, they split into two groups. Calanon, Dark Star, and Ash-Daughter get permission from Leravith to study in her library, and spend the time reading bestiaries of undead creatures, hoping the knowledge could come in handy if they ever end up facing them. Elvish and Ellyanna spend the time discussing how they can convince Severn to wait until Zorlac's work with Kaplan and his doppleganger is done.
After the few hours pass, the party return to Leravith and ask her what she has discovered. She tells them that there is something very unusual about the remains that they have provided her. Most undead creatures are created by summoning up a source of necrotic energy, then permanently imbuing that energy into them. Even after their destruction, there should be some identifiable residual energy remaining. However, these remains seem to be different.
There is much less residual necrotic energy than she expected given their age, and the energy seems to have been external, rather than internal. It's as if, rather than being infused into the creature, the necrotic energy was stored somewhere else, then magically linked to the creature. She doesn't see why anyone would do this. As far as she knows, there is no advantage to it, and it adds a potential weakness: if the object where the energy is stored is destroyed, the undead creature would be destroyed as well.
Before they leave, Dark Star takes the chance to try to impress Leravith, by asking her about a random necromancy-related tidbit that he remembers from the wizard's spellbook they plundered from the Frosthaven crypt. Leravith seems surprised by his knowledge, and slightly annoyed that she didn't tell her he understood necromancy, as she could have gone into more detail. Dark Star "explains" that he wanted the others to be able to understand her explanations.
As the rest of the party leaves, Ellyanna decides to stay behind overnight, to make use of Leravith's library. The necromancer sends a soldier with them, explaining that there is a much faster path back to the city than the one they used.
Ellyanna spends her evening combing through Leravith's books for any information she can find on enchantment magic, still looking for a way to help Corsica. Obviously, the books are heavily slanted towards necromancy, but enchantment seems to be the second-most common subject. While she doesn't have enough time to learn anything directly useful, there is enough information available that she thinks she might find something, given enough time to study.
The rest of the party arrives back at the surface about half an hour after leaving, having followed Leravith's soldier through a quicker path. They head to the Eminent Cathedral to discuss their plan with Severn, and try to convince him to hold off on retrieving Kaplan. The plan they've come up with is as follows:
There is a public event coming in three days - the Grand Tourney of Vornheim. The Grand Tourney is an annual event in which noble warriors battle against each other in one-on-one duels, until a Grand Champion is crowned. It is a very popular and well-attended event, and the perfect place to hold an announcement.
They propose that, before the event, they retrieve both Kaplan and the doppleganger. Then, before the final match of the tournament, they will announce that they have captured the Archprelate's murderer, and present one of the two Kaplans to the audience. Then, they will dramatically reveal that there is not one but two identical men. They will explain that Sahril's magical knowledge allowed her to discover this fact, and that she was keeping her head down until they were both caught. After saying that they will take the two men back to be put on trial so they can determine which is really the killer, Sahril will announce her candidacy for Arch-Prelate.
Severn is convinced by this plan, and agrees to hold off until the Grand Tourney before doing anything. The party (except, Ellyanna, who is still down with Leravith) rest for the night at the cathedral again.
As they head down through the Undercity, Ash-Daughter makes a suggestion regarding their route. The last time they explored the area, they took the first right turn they saw and ended up following a long, circuitous route to Leravith's home. In doing so, they bypassed a door that, according to their map, could possibly lead to their destination much more quickly.
The party agree with her suggestion to try the door. Listening at it, they can hear voices beyond. Only Calanon is able to both hear and understand them, and the low, brutish-sounding voices are speaking in Giant. They seem to be discussing food or a meal. Since Giant is mostly spoken by monsters such as giants or ogres, not known for their friendly disposition, the party decide to try to burst into the room and ambush the occupants.
Unfortunately, Calanon makes too much noise trying to get the door open, and by the time he steps in, the creatures inside are looking straight at him. They are a hulking, nine-foot tall ogre, and two smaller, but still huge, half-ogres, perched over the half-eaten corpse of some humanoid creature. After a moment of hesitation on everyone's part, Calanon and the ogres charge each other.
The party has learned some new tricks since they were last in the area, and they find the ogres are not so much of a threat as they once might have been. They dispatch their three opponents fairly easily. During the fight, one of the half-ogres manages to get in front of Ellyanna and nearly drops her with a single blow, but otherwise the party suffer only minor wounds.
They decide to take a short rest before continuing on, so they drag the bed and the chest into the room, and retrieve the five other chests from the demiplane. They use these large objects to barricade all of the doors in the room, then rest up for an hour. During this time, Ash-Daughter and Dark Star search the room, but find little of interest. Dark Star looks at the corpse and identifies that it's an orc. He wonders if it's one of the orcs they met the last time they were here, but the remains are no longer identifiable.
Once Ellyanna has recovered from her wound, the party set out once again. Going by their map, they choose a door on the western wall of the room. After hearing nothing, they head through. They recognize the room beyond the door as one they've previously been to - Ash-Daughter's suggestion has paid off, and they are only a short distance away from the necromancer's lair.
The party pass through a few more rooms, which luckily remain unoccupied, before finding the stairway down to Leravith's home. As before, the entrance to her underground palace is just past the base of the stairs, and is guarded by two undead Elven soldiers. Now that they know the way is clear, they cart down the enchanted bed and the six chests full of undead remains. One of the soldiers fetches a manservant, who leads the party in, telling them that other servants will carry in their heavy burden for them.
The manservant leads them to a chamber where they find Leravith busy weaving a tapestry on a loom. As before, her attire and mannerisms are more fitting for noblewoman attending a formal High Elven ball than a necromancer in a ruin hidden below the city. Putting her work aside, she greets the party and, after some small talk, takes them down to her magical laboratory.
When they arrive, her servants have already brought in the bed and chests, and she makes a cursory inspection of each. She tells them that she'll need some time to study the undead remains before she can tell them anything. The party decide to wait in her home for a few hours to see what preliminary results she can come up with, before returning to the surface before nightfall.
During this time, they split into two groups. Calanon, Dark Star, and Ash-Daughter get permission from Leravith to study in her library, and spend the time reading bestiaries of undead creatures, hoping the knowledge could come in handy if they ever end up facing them. Elvish and Ellyanna spend the time discussing how they can convince Severn to wait until Zorlac's work with Kaplan and his doppleganger is done.
After the few hours pass, the party return to Leravith and ask her what she has discovered. She tells them that there is something very unusual about the remains that they have provided her. Most undead creatures are created by summoning up a source of necrotic energy, then permanently imbuing that energy into them. Even after their destruction, there should be some identifiable residual energy remaining. However, these remains seem to be different.
There is much less residual necrotic energy than she expected given their age, and the energy seems to have been external, rather than internal. It's as if, rather than being infused into the creature, the necrotic energy was stored somewhere else, then magically linked to the creature. She doesn't see why anyone would do this. As far as she knows, there is no advantage to it, and it adds a potential weakness: if the object where the energy is stored is destroyed, the undead creature would be destroyed as well.
Before they leave, Dark Star takes the chance to try to impress Leravith, by asking her about a random necromancy-related tidbit that he remembers from the wizard's spellbook they plundered from the Frosthaven crypt. Leravith seems surprised by his knowledge, and slightly annoyed that she didn't tell her he understood necromancy, as she could have gone into more detail. Dark Star "explains" that he wanted the others to be able to understand her explanations.
As the rest of the party leaves, Ellyanna decides to stay behind overnight, to make use of Leravith's library. The necromancer sends a soldier with them, explaining that there is a much faster path back to the city than the one they used.
Ellyanna spends her evening combing through Leravith's books for any information she can find on enchantment magic, still looking for a way to help Corsica. Obviously, the books are heavily slanted towards necromancy, but enchantment seems to be the second-most common subject. While she doesn't have enough time to learn anything directly useful, there is enough information available that she thinks she might find something, given enough time to study.
The rest of the party arrives back at the surface about half an hour after leaving, having followed Leravith's soldier through a quicker path. They head to the Eminent Cathedral to discuss their plan with Severn, and try to convince him to hold off on retrieving Kaplan. The plan they've come up with is as follows:
There is a public event coming in three days - the Grand Tourney of Vornheim. The Grand Tourney is an annual event in which noble warriors battle against each other in one-on-one duels, until a Grand Champion is crowned. It is a very popular and well-attended event, and the perfect place to hold an announcement.
They propose that, before the event, they retrieve both Kaplan and the doppleganger. Then, before the final match of the tournament, they will announce that they have captured the Archprelate's murderer, and present one of the two Kaplans to the audience. Then, they will dramatically reveal that there is not one but two identical men. They will explain that Sahril's magical knowledge allowed her to discover this fact, and that she was keeping her head down until they were both caught. After saying that they will take the two men back to be put on trial so they can determine which is really the killer, Sahril will announce her candidacy for Arch-Prelate.
Severn is convinced by this plan, and agrees to hold off until the Grand Tourney before doing anything. The party (except, Ellyanna, who is still down with Leravith) rest for the night at the cathedral again.
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