Session 35 - The End of Meepo.....?

Mon 11th Jan 19:45 - 23:30

In-game timeline: Uktar 13 - Uktar 17 DR1489

Our "Heroes" leave the kobolds to prepare the body of Venomfang (and Meepo) for cremation and they head off to search the rest of the Fortress for Yussi, prepared to encounter some "haunting" somewhere off to the eastern side that they had been warned about.

Slowly checking out each room, and finding very little of value (though Devon does syphon off some cask-aged goblin brew for later use), our "Heroes" make their way eastwards. They pause outside of the door which they remember contained manacles and chained up prisoners of the goblins and wonder at length where the prisoner of Meepo could possibly be being kept securely? A mystery. As they are about to give up and head elsewhere, Drogan has the brilliant idea to at least give this door a try. It's locked. Despite Drogan having the key, he refrains from telling the others this, and Devon takes the opportunity to show how magnificent his lock-picking skills are - he just shows the thieves tools to the lock and it gives up and opens for him.

Inside, a surprise to no one except our intrepid adventurers, they find Yussi, locked in a cage and very hungry, thirsty and with a large, festering wound down her left side, seemingly caused by a large claw of some sort. Drogan shows he has a well-hidden tender side and scoops Yussi up and carries her back to the rest of her clan, ensuring she has food and water, and Dwarrow tends to her debilitating wound with a Lesser Restoration spell, which starts to heal it effectively.

Yussi is most grateful for her rescue, and for the groups' dealing with the owlbears and Meepo and Venomfang, though, as with the other kobolds, she is sad that it had to mean the death of a Great One. She has nothing to offer the group as a reward, but she does present Drogan with the Friendship of the ScaleMother - her 'dreamcatcher'-style necklace which she says should enable them to be treated as friends by other (non-evil!) kobold clans around western Faerun.

Our "Heroes" head back into the depths of the Fortress, aiming to rid the place of the "haunting" for Yussi. They suspect that the apparition who seemed to come and collect Meepo's soul may be residing in the Fortress, though Alwaith has the feeling that particular apparition was far stronger than the group would be able to handle at the moment. None of them know the name "Sir Alain" that Meepo called out to with his last words.

They arrive back in the previously rat-infested tunnels. Devon scouts northwards, to check out that branch. Despite only being able to see using his twilight glasses, he does spot a curious, and worrying, mound of black ooze that seems to be crawling across the ceiling. It seems to be aware of Devon too, and an oozing pseudopod extends from the mass and swipes at Devon, hitting and causing additional damage from acid that appears to be flowing within the mass itself. The others respond to Devon's plight - Dwarrow uses his staff to cause a writhing mass of vines to emerge from the ceiling around the creature and manages to hold it in place. This allows the others to attack it with impunity. Drogan, of course, favours the hand-to-hand battle and he runs in to take a swipe at it with his axe. The axe hits, but manages to cause damage to its own axe-head from the resulting acid it releases. Not only that, but the creature itself seems to split into two from the attack - the party now have two such creatures to deal with!

Luckily one of these smaller oozes is still restrained by Dwarrow's entangle. The other is free, but the party is in no mood for mercy. Attacks rain down (or rather, rain up, as they are on the ceiling!) upon both creatures and within seconds they are both defeated, their remains slowly dripping through the cracks in the floor. Dogan's axe did take more damage, however, and is now much less effective than it was before.

As the group catch their breath from an easy, though unusual, battle, Alwaith - at the rear of the party - is suddenly set upon by three shadows that silently emerged from the passageway in the south. Surrounding Alwaith they extend their arms and attempt to simply touch him. He manages to dodge two of them, but the third connects - causing minimal damage but Alwaith - not the strongest of figures at the best of times - suddenly feels weaker. Worried that he could easily be further weakened by more attacks before he and his friends can dispose of these undead, Alwaith blinks from existence to avoid their swipes.

Devon, from a distance, manages to make one of the shadows laugh, hideously. A strange sight, seeing a shade rolling on the ground in fits of laughter. D&D is indeed a fantastical game.

Dwarrow, keen to make good use of his not-often-seen ability to scare the undead, calls upon the power of Berronar to smite the shadows. He succeeds in causing two of the shadows to simply dissipate into nothing, destroying them with a simple brandishing of his holy symbol. The third manages to avoid the channelling, and  battles on, turning his attention to Dwarrow, now that Alwaith is nowhere to be seen.

With Drogan unable to see the hidden shadow, Devon blinds it with light, causing it to miss against Dwarrow, who then proceeds to blast it with guiding bolt's radiant damage, reducing it to nothing.

As they cautiously head further south, expecting more shadows to appear, they are unsurprised when indeed a fourth shadow does emerge, and moves in to attack.

Alwaith deals it a forceful blow from a distance with his reliable eldritch blasts, and Dwarrow follows up with his now unmissable guiding bolt, destroying the shadow before it can do any harm. Another undead kill racked up for Dwarrow!

Unsure whether more shadows will appear, or if they have dealt with the "haunting", Drogan decides to show off his strength by standing on one of the 'testing pedestals' and try to open the door they previous went through last time they were here. Luckily his strength alone was (just) enough to avoid the penalty for failure, and he managed to open the door. Heading in, they re-find the piles of skeletons, many of which they previously defeated last time they were here. Noting the names on the five sarcophagi in this room, but little else, they discuss amongst themselves whether there is likely to be any more shadows or similar in the area. After some discussion they eventually conclude/remember, that there were five sarcophagi, four animated skeletons and another that looked to have already been defeated, one previous shadow and four 'recent' shadows. The numbers were starting to add up. In addition, they had previously found 4 necrotic, cursed rings, and they had, just a few hours ago, found a fifth such ring on Meepo's finger. They remembered that this room was the one where Meepo eventually got fed up with their abuse and walked out on them - maybe he had taken a ring with him?

With some members of the party expressing remorse that perhaps Meepo's recent actions were driven by the cursed ring, rather than by his own desires, they concluded that there would be no more shadows or 'hauntings' from here.

Heading back to Yussi they pass on the information, for which she is once again very grateful, and then make an uneventful trip back to Oakhurst.

Back in town they pay a visit to Rurik, the smith, who manages to identify their new battleaxe, Cleave. It seems better suited to Drogan's "style" so he takes the magic weapon to replace his now very rusty and ineffectual axe.

They also visit Mayor Leng, and ask him about the five names they had read on the sarcophagi. The Mayor had read the tome they originally sold to him and he said the names were those of five revered dragon priests in the cult of Ashardalon. A sixth, Eldorath, was a fallen dragon priest. Things all start to make some sense now.

Before they go, they ask about a "Sir Alain". Mayor Leng has to think for a while, but says the only "Sir Alain" he is aware of is Sir Alain Treethorn, leader of the mythical Dark Hunt, which is a folk tale used to scare children all over the Realm.

Our "Heroes" regroup in the Ol' Boar Inn, fully rest up, and plan for their next adventure….