Session 56 - Dwarrow Needs to Grow A Pair!

Wed 5th Jan 2022 20:00 - 23:30

In-game timeline: Nightal 21 - Nightal 24 DR1489

Our "Heroes" awake fully rested - their night was interrupted by some shuffling noises coming from the cavern, but nothing else untoward happened.

They proceed back into the cavern, cautiously, and check out the areas they hadn't looked into previously. The area that contained the injured hook creature was very smelly and contained various bones, but nothing else seemingly of interest. Another area seemed to contain crude living quarters, presumably for gnolls, but they find nothing except an injured gnoll, who tries very unsuccessfully to shoot an arrow at Alwaith. He is obviously no threat, and in fact doesn't seem very able to move, and Alwaith and Devon move on from him, ignoring this minor threat. Drogan and Dwarrow are more bloodthirsty and cautious, and Drogan "humanely" (his words) slits the throat of the poor, unthreatening, pitiful creature.

They reach the chasm that they had spotted before, that separated the cavern from a tunnel heading further into the hillside. The moveable wooden bridge that they had previously seen appears to have been moved and is now in place across the chasm, allowing access to and from the tunnel beyond.

Alwaith and Drogan cautiously head down the tunnel for some distance - it seems to be natural, though has been widened in places. It also slopes downwards, gently at first, but more steeply in places. After about 200 yards it doesn't seem to open out into anywhere, so the two return to the rest of the party. After crossing back over into the cavern, the party suspect that someone or something has crossed the bridge and entered the tunnel.

Dwarrow pushes the wooden bridge into the chasm, and it crashes into the depths below.

The last remaining area that the party haven't investigated yet contains a large pit. The group reach that portion of the cavern, but cannot see any more in that area without progressing towards the pit. Drogan forges ahead, though does spot that some of the shingle at the far edges of the pit seems to be wet with some sort of oil. The dwarf lights a torch and pushes forward towards the edge of the pit with the intention of dropping a torch down it to see if it shows anything. He sensibly ties Ropey around his waist and has Dwarrow holding the other end, and Devon notches an arrow in case anything should appear. Alwaith keeps an eye out behind them.

As Drogan approaches the pit, he suddenly senses the ground beneath him rumble and move. He keeps on his feet due to his Freedom Boots, but unfortunately they don’t protect him against the massive maw that emerges from the pit, rears up and snaps at the dwarf with massive, sharp teeth. The teeth cut through Drogan and cause significant damage, managing to pull him to the ground and start to drag the dwarf towards the pit and into the throat of the giant worm-like creature that attacked him. Devon lets fly his crossbow bolt but misses the only part of the large mouth that he can see.

As Drogan starts to be dragged towards the pit, Devon runs towards him but risks slipping on the oily and loose stones around the pit. He decides to try to help Drogan escape being dragged into the pit by pulling on the rope instead. Dwarrow does the same and pulls hard on the rope to help Drogan, and the dwarven barbarian tries to free himself from the gripping teeth. With all the help from his friends he does just about manage to pull himself free and quickly scrambles back from the pit. The giant worm's mouth retracts down the pit and is no longer seen.

With the new threat of the dark worm in the pit, the group decide to leave that area of the cave system unexplored and instead head outside and make their way back to the previous camp site where they left their gear, and Felix, Lord of All Things and Destroyer of Rodents.

They collect their stuff, and the cat, and set out on the long trudge back to Settlestone.

It takes them three days crossing the plains to reach town, now that they are horseless, but the travel is uneventful.

Reaching town they decide it is too late to set out for the distant tower of Azkael where they hope to find Angelica's bones, so they spend a bit of time catching up with things in town.

Alwaith and Devon accompany Dwarrow to the Town Hall to report back to Khaladum on events at the hyena cave. The Mayor is grateful for their work in clearing out the hyena threat, and pays them the agreed 300gp reward. Alwaith is unimpressed with this and spends some time arguing the case for being paid more money for the work they have done for the city so far. Dwarrow is embarrassed. Khaladum was under the impression that the group was happy to help out Dwarrow and his home town, but the discussion is implying that the group is perhaps more a bunch of mercenaries. He tries to placate an annoyed Alwaith by giving him a lump of silver ore, worth about 50gp, in addition to the agreed reward, and additionally agrees to settle up with the stablemaster regarding the dead horse. Alwaith, Devon and Dwarrow head back to rejoin Drogan.

Meanwhile Drogan visits Paxton and asks about large worms and is happy to find someone who will listen to his tale of almost being swallowed by such a worm.

When they meet up again, Drogan heads with Alwaith to the Brightling Jewellers to talk to Norma about her missing husband, Elrik, who are subcontractors to Drogan's father's business. Drogan asks Norma if she can create a flying raven amulet out of the silver ore given to Alwaith. Norma shows them Elrik's workspace and shows them a letter that Elrik received a couple of days before he disappeared. It seemed to request Elrik to work on a silver wedding ring, but it was a little strange as the request came via owl. Elrik was hesitant to work with an unknown client and refused. Norma has no idea if it had any bearing on his disappearance. The Guard apparently assumed his disappearance was due to the raiding Orcs, who also seemed to be responsible for the deaths of a couple of miners in town around the same time.

Dwarrow heads on his own to Paxton to ask about previous dwarven-Giant battles in the area.

Devon heads out to do his own thing for the afternoon.

Alwaith sends a message to Ahvain in the Council of the Veil requesting more information about the Black Sun. He receives a quick reply implying that the Council knows a lot about the Black Sun. They have passed on the information supplied by Alwaith about the Hunt's apparent target of the Council leader, but need info about the timings. The leader of the Council wishes to meet the group when they are next in Neverwinter.

And so we leave our "Heroes" meeting once again in the inn before planning to spend another night in Settlestone, and discussing their next steps in this town…