Session 39 - Dwarrowsteel - Gone But Not Forgotten. Dwarrow who?

Mon 15th Feb 19:30 - 23:00

In-game timeline: Uktar 19 - Uktar 21 DR1489

Our "Heroes" are tired after a long and almost fruitless trip to the Tangleweed grove and back without any sleep, but ignoring their exhaustion they head to find The Hunter in the nearby woods.

Upon reaching the area that was her obvious house, the group decided to be open in their approach, and they used the clear path to her front door and called out to announce their arrival. A voice replied from a nearby set of bushes, rather than from inside the house, and they also realised that they were being watched… by a sabre-tooth tiger sat high upon a nearby rock.

The party were deferential and respectful in their explanations about who they were and why they were here - a tactic made possible by Drogan keeping very quiet. After a brief question and answer session, The Hunter, a female tabaxi, showed herself and the party settled down by a campfire with The Hunter for some tea.

The Hunter was friendly towards the villagers in Moonfall, and was sorry to hear of the plight of their children and was keen to help them. However, she had problems of her own that she was at a loss on how to sort out. She had been separated from her love - a fey spirit that had been turned into a dryad in punishment for having a relationship with a mortal - named Calista. The now-dryad lived in the Glade of Dreams further in the wood, and until recently Calista and The Hunter were making the best of the punishment that Calista had received, and were happy.

Until a few months ago, when a group of darklings took it upon themselves to inflict further punishment upon the couple for a relationship of which they did not approve. They were preventing The Hunter from visiting Calista on the edge of the Glade, and were also preventing Calista from leaving the area, so the couple were unable to see each other. Despite The Hunter's obvious skill as a ranger, and the ferocious nature of her sabre-tooth tiger friend, Pax, it became clear upon closer inspection that both were of advancing years, and were perhaps a little long-in-the-tooth (especially Pax!) for a fight with fey creatures. The Hunter promised to help the party with their quest for the villagers if they were able to do something about her own problem.

After resting overnight at The Hunter's home, our group of "Heroes" agreed to try their best to help out, and headed off in search of Calista's grand oak tree on the edge of the Glade of Dreams.

They arrived a couple of hours later, and approached cautiously. Or tried to. Dwarrowsteel's clumsiness in his heavy armour seemed to alert most of the entire wood to their presence, and, given that they were *trying* to be stealthy, to their intentions. They spotted an unmoving humanoid figure lying at the base of a large oak tree near to the edge of an obvious glade full of yellow flowers - they had been warned to steer clear of the actual glade as it was supposedly full of Fey magic. They slowly approached the tree.

And were suddenly enveloped in a magical darkness. Blind, and struggling to move in the difficult terrain of bushes and brambles, the party were unable to act quickly. As they tried to get their bearings and before they were able to escape the area of darkness, Dwarrowsteel was targeted by a number of quick and accurate dagger strikes.

Dwarrow could only stand and heal himself, rather than risk more attacks by running away, but the others were able to scramble to the edge of the darkness, and emerge into the light, whereupon they became targeted by a number of tiny, very fast beings who attacked with daggers and prevented the group from doing anything but defend themselves.

Alwaith promptly blinked away, appearing every now and again to launch an eldritch blast in the direction of one of these quick buggers, who proved to be difficult to hit, but easy to kill once hit. Drogan ploughed into them and quickly took some down, but received some damage in the process. Devon likewise managed to defend himself as best he could, and attack when he had the opportunity.

With the rest of the group preoccupied, Dwarrow was alone in an area of darkness. The dagger attacks came thick and fast, and proved worryingly dangerous. The cleric managed to summon his spiritual weapon, but that was only able to wildly flail in the darkness, unable to make contact with anything. Dwarrow was forced to continually heal himself just to avoid going under the next barrage of attacks. Before long the attacks proved too lethal and Dwarrow fell, alone in the darkness, with none of his friends able to help him, or even aware that he had fallen unconscious, bleeding out.

As the rest of the group continued to take down the quicklings that attacked them, Alwaith managed to pop back into the material plane long enough to spot a larger (and luckily slower) creature emerge from the darkness and try (unsuccessfully) to hide. He immediately launched a couple of his trusty eldritch blasts at the dark figure, scoring a perfect hit which, although it did not do excessive damage, was enough to interrupt its concentration and the darkness suddenly lifted.

A grim scene was revealed - three dark fey creatures standing over an unconscious dwarf who was rapidly bleeding out (he had, by that time, failed two death saving throws). One of the dark creatures quickly fell to an attack from Devon. Faced by an obviously powerful group of adventurers, and with all of their quickling friends now dead, the leader of the remaining dark figures stood over the unconscious dwarf and demanded that the group drop their weapons and let the three of them go, or the dwarf would be murdered.

Our "Heroes" did not have much time to decide. They saw how close to death their friend was and took the only sensible option. They dropped their weapons (Drogan's axe, Cleave, was distinctly, and vocally unimpressed at this choice). As the three creatures backed away it turned out that it was too late. Dwarrow bled his last drop of blood (and failed his third death saving throw). The dark fey turned and ran quickly into the bushes, but Alwaith, somehow noticing that Dwarrow had actually died (the DM dropped the ball on that one!) unleashed a couple of eldritch blasts in their direction and managed to hit the chief darkling with a perfectly aimed hit, taking him down, as the remaining two managed to fade into the bushes and escape.

Rushing over to Dwarrow it was obviously too late to save him. Despite all their efforts Dwarrow - honour-bound friend, and the group's moral compass, was gone.

Dejected, the group headed over to the large oak tree. An apparently sleeping dryad lay at its base. The group were unable to rouse her from her sleep, but did notice a thin, silver rope tied around her leg, and around the base of the tree. Drogan went to untie the rope and promptly fell asleep himself. Alwaith decided to slap him around the face a few times, and kick his lazy body, but nothing could wake him. Meanwhile Devon used his mage hand to successfully untie the silver rope and they stowed it in Dwarrowsteel's backpack (which was still on the dead dwarf's back).

Unsure how to rouse the sleeping dwarf, and the sleeping dryad, the remaining two members of the party rested a while. By the end of this rest, Drogan had started to awaken, as had the dryad, and the group related their story of them meeting The Hunter (who Calista, the dryad, referred to as Daisy) and coming to the Glade to try to save Calista, but now having lost a valued member of their party in the process.

Calista was joyful at being freed, but sorrowful at their loss. She went 'into' her oak tree and emerged with a variety of obscure (and some would say, useless) items that were her "treasures". She offered the group to choose one of them as some small token of payment for the good that they had done. There was much discussion within the group about which one would prove the most useful, without wanting to seem mercenary or disrespectful by asking too many questions or casting detect magic… oh - hang on, the only person who can do that is now dead. In the end they chose to take a recipe for "faerie spirit", along with some ingredients to brew it.

Calista assured them that now she was prepared, and ready for them, the remaining darklings would prove to be no match for her should they decide to return, so the group headed back to The Hunter's abode, carefully carrying Dwarrowsteel's dead body with them. Alwaith used the spell of gentle repose that was stored in his ring of spell storing to preserve Dwarrow's body for the coming 10 days (though they would have to be careful in moving him during this time).

Upon reaching The Hunter, she was very grateful at their help in removing the darkling band from the Glade, and allowing her to once again see Calista. She mourned the death of Dwarrowsteel and in some small recompense she handed the party her treasured weapon, Traxiil, a silvered, magic warhammer. She also kept her promise and gave to the group a stash of tangleweed, that could prove useful for the villagers, as well as a recipe for a poison that they may be able to brew from tangleweed which affects lycanthropes.

She spent the rest of the day training Alwaith in tracking techniques, improving his skill in survival, as well as specifically offering advice on how to track lycanthropes. Lastly, she gave the group detailed directions on how to find the Ruins of An-Sen within the Fallen Marshes.

And so we leave our "Heroes", no longer a party of four, but now just a party of three. Perhaps their naming of their freight company, "Three's Company" was a portent of Dwarrow's doom? They face a difficult decision of whether to undertake a long and expensive journey to find a cleric to raise Dwarrow from the dead - either immediately, and potentially delay the rescue of the villager's children by a possibly fatal amount, or maybe do the same after the children have been rescued (assuming they manage to do that with no further loss!), and face Lispeth's group as a party of three? Or should they make use of Devon's monkey paw - a risky endeavour, fraught with potentially dark outcomes. Difficult decisions indeed….