Session 37 - Devon Reveals Himself

Mon 25th Jan 19:45 - 22:45

In-game timeline: Uktar 18 - Uktar 18 DR1489

After some debate, our "Heroes" decide against resting and press on, further into the tunnel in the mountainside. 

Passing a number of torches which are twice explained by the DM as being held at the top of long, square, iron poles inserted into fixed metal brackets (this may become relevant later…), the party cautiously progress deeper and find themselves in a large cavern, well lit by a burning fire in the centre, next to a single tent and a large, natural column.

Devon scouts around the edge of the walls and comes upon something unnatural - it seems like part of the wall has something strange about it.

The whole group gathers round and spends some time investigating the section of wall. Dwarrow proudly announces that it is, in fact, wall. The rest have better luck in working out that the wall in this area has man-made cracks in it that could constitute a door, or worse - a trap.

Whilst some of the group continue to look at the wall, others investigate the tent and fire to find a large amount of blood on the floor, a number of spilled cups and a large, spilled urn, which Dwarrow works out once held some herbal-tea, using similar herbs to those found back in Moonfall.

Devon and Drogan discover three dead bodies in the tent, which have been clawed and bitten to death, and even gnawed somewhat after death. Alwaith finds a set of small, iron keys on one of them, but otherwise nothing.

Our "Heroes" then spend a large amount of time searching around the cavern for some clues. After searching every inch of wall and all the stalagmites in view, and Drogan for some reason burning some bedrolls by the wall, Alwaith finally decides to look at the large, central column near to the tent, and discovers it has a rotating section with two square holes in its sides.

Re-looking around the cave for a means of inserting something into the holes and using it to turn the section of column, they find nothing. Plans to use pitons, rope, crowbars, tent poles etc, etc bear little fruit, though, at a push, a rope and a LOT of effort does look like it could do the trick, though it is not the obvious method of rotating the column.

Finally they decide to go and check the bodies of the guards at the entrance. On the way they spot the torches, which, as was so eloquently described by the DM earlier, sat atop long, square, iron poles. Suddenly the penny dropped for the party, and they quickly used one of the torch holders to turn the column with relative ease.

This opened up the concealed door in the wall that now had burning bedrolls beneath it.

Progressing through, they came upon the villagers, manacled to the wall. As they released the villagers from their chains using the keys, Devon decided to reveal himself. After the initial shock and confusion, the village Elder, a human named Eldred, demanded to know what was going on.

As soon as our "Heroes" delicately explained that the rest of the villagers were dead and all the children bar Suriel were gone, the villagers leapt to their feet and made to quickly head back to town. When the party then told them that Suriel was being looked after by Lispeth, this only made the villagers panic more, and run back to town, with the party following.

Back in town the events were explained in more detail to the group. It seems Lispeth was not exactly as she claimed, and had been cast out from the village 6 months ago as she seemed to be trying to 'turn' the villagers. The villagers of Moonfall were (almost) all lycanthropes, but they fight against their curse, and the herb, tangleweed, helps them in this fight. Lispeth tried, and succeeded in some cases, to persuade the villagers to accept their curse and embrace lycanthropy - a path that leads to evil deeds and likely worship of Malar. It seems she has not only killed the guardians (villagers who were not cursed), and taken all the children, but also destroyed most of the town's supply of tangleweed.

Devon is welcomed as a descendent of Milo, the founder of the village, and some of the village's history is explained, as well as showing Devon a couple of items that Milo bequeathed to the village 200 years ago - a poetic history of Milo's exploits (vol 3 of 4) which details his founding of Moonfall, and a strange relic that Milo was unable to break into, that he found in the nearby Ruins of An-Sen.

The Ruins of An-Sen are a possible place that Lispeth is hiding out, and may even be where she has taken the children. But no one in the town knows how to traverse the marshland to find the Ruins. Elder Eldred mentions one person who may know the marshes better - a tabaxi known as "The Hunter" who lives in the nearby Kings Wood.

Getting more tangleweed is, however, the priority, as the town only has enough for one more night, and there are a few more nights where the villagers may potentially 'change'. The party agree to head to Tangleweed Grove at the edge of the marshes and gather some tangleweed for the villagers (the tangleweed has the unfortunate effect that when taken in quantity, as the villagers do over the time of a new moon, it saps the strength, making the villagers pretty useless at gathering more tangleweed at this time)

And so we leave our "Heroes" graciously heading to the Tangleweed Grove to gather more herbs for the villagers, before attempting to help them recover their children.