Session 63 - Attack in the Gatehouse

Thu 11th May 2023

In-game timeline: UNKNOWN

Our "Heroes", some new, some old, are in a strange land. At least to three of them. Alwaith seems very familiar with this place and, more than that, seems to know where he wants to head, and strides off from the crossroads in a North-East direction.

Unfortunately Alwaith, being Alwaith, is very reluctant to share any information with the rest of his "team" about where he is going and why he is going there. He does eventually deign to share a little information about the place they are in - the Shadowfell - and how he knows so much about it, though he does this in a manner so "mysterious" and patronising that the rest of the "team" are debating whether to just kill him now, or to wait a while, and whether the real threat to the "party" is from within.

Still, with no other information to go on, they follow the frustrating warlock along the path.

The path leads towards a large town - perhaps a small city - with a tall tower in its centre. As with all scenery around here, the place looks dark and foreboding. They'll get used to that eventually.

As they approach the closed gate set into the city wall, they can see the entire place is in a state of disrepair. It would potentially be possible to scale the wall in some places, and there is nothing to suggest the heavy wooden gate is locked, but rather than upset the locals immediately, the party decide upon an up-front approach. However, as they get to the gatehouse they can hear sounds of a fight within.

Cautiously they push open the door of the two-story building and see three dead bodies on the floor. Masked and pale-skinned elf-like humanoids with tattooed skin, dead, but without much blood around. Nothing is moving, but the fight seems to be coming from the floor above.

As Alwaith and Sanada quickly head to the stairs at the end of the room, Solveig runs over to the nearest body to see if he can do anything to help, followed by Faith. The pair are surprised when some dark shadows seem to descend through the floorboards from the floor above and try to envelop them!

One manages to pass its ghostly hand through the dwarven cleric and sap him of both health and strength. As the other two rush over to help, between them they manage to destroy one of the shadows as the other rises back up through the ceiling, escaping the swings from the weapons below.

Alwaith is first to move. He rushes up the stairs and is confronted by a Wraith standing over another recently killed body, with at least two shadows in the room and what looks to be a ghost standing over the seated form of another elf-like creature who was crying weakly for aid.

As the Wraith summons forth a spectre from the body before him, Alwaith fills most of the room with a sickening radiance. This does have the unfortunate effect of killing the person crying out for help, though it does also cause the undead some problems too. Collateral damage never has been a key consideration of the warlock.

As Alwaith battles the Wraith, he is joined by Sanada, making good use of her ability to move in shadows to hit with advantage and, with the help of some buffing from Solveig, they do manage to bring the Wraith down.

The monk, concerned about the original target of the undead who has just fallen unconscious in the sickly green light, runs in and grabs the body, before realising that she too is badly affected by this radiance. She quickly drags the body, and herself, out of the light. Unfortunately she manages to appear right next to the ghost that has also just escaped the sickening radiance.

Alwaith, Solveig and Faith take care of the spectre and shadows in the room, one of which flees from Faith's Turn Undead ability, then the druid sends some healing over to the unconscious pale elf to bring him round. As they watch, the ghost standing close to Sanada suddenly disappears. 

This would normally be good news, but in this case perhaps not, as the monk looks over towards the others and rushes them, fists and kusari-gama flying! She attacks Alwaith, who responds in kind with Dragonsboon. With some blows exchanged, and with a confused Solveig looking on, Alwaith manages to take Sanada down, rending her unconscious with a blow from the magic longsword.

At this point, and as expected by Alwaith who had seen a Possession before, the ghost reappears next to Sanada. Alwaith dashes over and quickly takes it down with another sweep of his sword that seems to never miss.

Solveig, still confused as to what happened, brings Sanada back from unconsciousness with another heal and the monk sits up, exhausted, as the group starts to question the strange elf, who is still reeling a little from his ordeal.

Bald, masked, covered in tattoos and with a spiked chain stretching from his neck to his lower back, he explains to the group that he and his friends 'borrowed' an item from the Raven Queen - something called the Conspirator's Visage. This is primarily a mask but also something that acted as a "touchstone" - a store of memories if you will - for a previous betrayer of the Raven Queen. The group were hoping to use this item to enable them to steal something from Vecna's keep in order to present it to the Raven Queen to win her favour.

This plan (perhaps worthy of something our "Heroes" would think up?!) failed in spectacular fashion when a group of undead raided their little hideout here in the gatehouse, and stole the Conspiritor's Visage. The Shadar-Kai (for that is what the elf-like humanoid was, as eventually explained by Alwaith to the others) - whose name our "Heroes" did not bother to enquire - is now keen to find Markella in the Court of Empty Desires within the city in order to ask for forgiveness and to explain what had happened. She is apparently the head of the town, and the mouthpiece (self-appointed?) of the Raven Queen here. He also explains a little about the use of touchstones in this place to avoid memories from drifting away towards the Raven Queen's fortress.

Before they can ask him more, or get round to asking his name, the boarded up windows are suddenly pushed in and an unkindness of ravens flocks into the room, swarming around the shadar-kai, pecking at him, and also around the other shadar-kai body in this room. As the bodies disappears under the mass of black feathers, our group of "Heroes" stand back a little, not wanting to get involved. Soon, as quickly as they arrived, the group of birds disappear out of the same window and there remains no sign of either shadar-kai. The similar noise from downstairs hinted that the same thing had happened to the bodies below.

Solveig is relieved that he managed to swipe a magical dagger from the body before it disappeared.

After recovering a little from the shock, our "Heroes" decide to head out into the city, in an attempt to find Markella and perhaps the Raven Queen herself. At least, Alwaith is keen to speak to her…