Session 61 - No More Heroes Any More (well, ok, one left)

 

Wed 9th Feb 2022 20:00 - 00:30

In-game timeline: Hammer 10 - Hammer 11 DR1490

Our "Heroes" are hoping that their work in persuading Glisten and Kai to leave The Mistloch will be enough to cure the ills going on in that town. Whilst they wait for news, Alwaith visits Paxton (who has never had so many visitors!) to fill him in on the details regarding Azkael and his tower, Devon checks out the Irongull manor, to find that security has been recently stepped up, Drogan visits Norma Brightling to pass on a supportive message from his father, and Dwarrow takes the salt-boned Aboleth bones to the town hall for safe keeping until they can collect them and sell them in another town.

After all these chores, the group decide to head to the Old Fort to check out rumours of Orcs there, who may have played a part in the deaths of the three miners, and the abduction of Elrik Brightling some weeks previously. Dwarrow seems keen to progress this path, the others less so, but they feel at a loose end, so go along with Dwarrow's intent.

Arriving at the Old Fort, the place seems abandoned, though there are signs of fairly recent occupation, and they even find a piece of a banner which bears the sigil of the Notched Cleavers orc tribe. After some snooping around, the party discover a trapdoor, crudely hidden beneath a tarpaulin. Lifting it up they see a set of shallow stairs and some flickering torchlight below.

And this is where it starts to all go wrong.

Drogan, being Drogan, heads down first. Initially cautious, he spots a tripwire and manages to not walk into it. Unfortunately however, when trying to disarm it, he instead triggers it and there is a loud crashing sound as stones are released onto metal cans and pans.

Realising that he may have alerted anyone around to his presence, he hunkers down behind his shield and waits…

And fails to see the arrow that comes towards him and embeds itself into his shoulder. Does he rage and rush towards the assailant? Surprisingly, no. He instead studies the arrow fletching that is sticking out of his shoulder. THEN he runs towards the origin of the arrow, without waiting for the rest of the party to join him. That's more like the Drogan we know. Knew.

He spots a bridge over a pit and takes a running jump to rush towards the halfling that is standing on the other side, pointing a bow at him. Jumping over the bridge, he lands, just in time to be hit with a Hold Person spell, and is paralysed on the spot. As his friends descend into the caverns to join him, the Dwarf is set upon by a goliath barbarian and a halfling rogue, all while he is unable to respond.

Devon rushes down in time to fire off an arrow at the goliath, but just after that an area of darkness appears in front of Devon, covering the end of the bridge, cutting off all sight of Drogan and his assailants.

With the rest of the party isolated from Drogan, unable to see through the darkness, and unwilling to risk crossing an unknown bridge in pitch black, they hold their actions, waiting for the darkness to disappear, or for someone to emerge from it.

Meanwhile Drogan is busy failing to shake off the paralysis and is just being peppered with attacks without being able to respond. In very short time, Drogan falls to all the unstoppable blows. Any hope of recovering from unconsciousness is scuppered when the rogue halfling kicks Drogan's unconscious body into the deep pit, followed by the goliath throwing a javelin at his body.

Drogan is dead.

With the rest of the party unaware of this, they wait on the other side of the darkness. When this darkness clears, there is no one to be seen on the other side of the bridge. Dwarrow runs across the bridge and subsequently falls into the pit, as the trapped bridge falls away beneath his feet. He takes significant damage, but is still alive, though he is now aware of Drogan's fate, as the barbarian's body lies next to him at the bottom of the pit.

Alwaith and Devon pull Dwarrow up out of the pit, unknowing what a disastrous decision this will prove to be, and Devon re-raises his side of the bridge, allowing them to cross. Alwaith suddenly feels his lovely plate metal breastplate start to get hotter and hotter, and the warlock responds by casting Sickening Radiance in the area containing the person who he spotted casting the Heat Metal spell. No further sounds come from that area, and his armour starts to cool down again. That's one assailant taken care of!

Devon rushes across the bridge, using his boots to spring across the half-gap that remains, and he ties off the far side of the bridge, enabling others to come across.

While Alwaith stays at the back, Dwarrow, with his spiritual weapon following, crosses the bridge to join Devon, who is now engaged with the other halfling rogue.

And then Dwarrow turns on Devon.

His Spiritual Weapon hits Devon, and Dwarrow casts Spirit Guardians in an attempt to surround the halfling brewer. Alwaith hits Dwarrow with an Eldritch Blast and disrupts his Spirit Guardians. Devon dodges the attacks from the goliath who also engages him, and rushes back across the bridge to join Alwaith, and breaks the far side of the bridge, dropping it down in order to slow down pursuit.

At this point a figure emerges and points towards Devon, issuing a single command: "Approach". Devon seems to fall under the spell (despite using his inspiration), and is then peppered with attacks from Dwarrow's Spiritual Weapon and directly from Dwarrow's Toll The Dead. Devon then is forced to jump and run across the bridge and stop before the enemy who issued the command. Which leaves him amidst the enemy, who all have a swing at him. The half-orc paladin who ordered him over hits him with a greatsword attack with additional smite damage. The enemy halfling rogue follows up with an attack, reducing Devon's health further.

Which leaves the finishing blow for Dwarrow, who produces an Inflict Wounds to take Devon down to unconsciousness.

Alwaith runs to the entrance of the cavern and spots a wolf approaching from another tunnel. As an unconscious Devon is finished off by the various enemies, including Dwarrow, Alwaith rushes out of the caverns and disappears completely, escaping the enemies at the fort.

And so we leave our fallen Heroes, of whom only Alwaith remains, and a traitorous Dwarrow, with Drogan and Devon dead, their bodies abandoned. Alwaith does not return to Settlestone, but instead heads to the Stone Circle, using the amulet to head back to Neverwinter.

Is this the end? Have the Dark Sun prevailed?