Session 65 - Let's Dig a Hole in Front of the Main Door

Wed 24th May 2023

In-game timeline: UNKNOWN (2nd day in the Shadowfell)

Our "Heroes" have received a vision from the Raven Queen. They have been tasked with finding the Conspirator's Visage from someone called Ghoriliath - a general of Vecna who is posted on the border between Vecna's and the Raven Queen's lands.

Markella provides them with an escort out of the City of Broken Dreams, ensuring they do not run the risk of losing more memories - at least for now, and they decide to camp for the night just outside the city gates.

Faith's Tiny Hut provides welcome protection from potential denizens of the Shadowfell outside, though it is unable to prevent the general malaise of gloom and despair from affecting those unfamiliar with this realm. Solveig, Faith and Sanada all awake after a sleep feeling rested, but morose. In the case of Faith, he is feeling somewhat mistrustful of all those around him, whilst Sanada is feeling a little hopeless towards their situation - both of which seem to affect their abilities to some degree. Solveig, with his more positive an carefree attitude, seems to have managed to avoid being adversely affected by their location.

Wanting to make good progress, Solveig conjures up some riding horses for them all to ride, ensuring that at least for the first hour they are able to cover a decent distance towards their destination - about a day's journey to the north, apparently. Faith is unfamiliar with riding, and needs some guidance from Solveig, but the path is fairly well defined at this point, and they do manage to cover good ground.

As the desolate plains give way to even more desolate, dead forests, and the riding horses disappear, Solveig turns himself into a giant goat in order to carry the slower members of the party through the grey woodland. They continue to make good progress and it is looking as if they may reach their intended destination before sunset.

The ground becomes soft and somewhat marshy as Solveig turns back into his firbolg form and they progress into the marshy area. Their use of mounts has enabled them to progress without any significant rests, for which Faith and Sanada at least are grateful, given what happened when they last rested. As they trudge through the swampy area in the mid-afternoon, Alwaith spots a Shadar-Kai figure emerge from the mists and approach them.

Out of breath, the Shadar-Kai explains that his troop was attacked by some Slaad. Most of his troop was killed, but they managed to fight off the attackers, though one escaped. He has had to leave one of his company, badly wounded, to try to find help. He is worried that the Slaad may come back, or perhaps something even worse, and finish off his injured companion, and begs the party to help him to heal his friend.

Our "Heroes" are suspicious. They are reluctant to leave their quest, and to leave the path, and interrogate the newcomer to try to find out what happened. After some discussion, the party agree not to leave the path, but to instead hand him a healing potion, and a rope, and to conjure up a goat (?!) to help drag his injured friend back to them on the path so they can help without leaving the path. Reluctantly, the Shadar-Kai take their offerings and heads back into the misty swamp. They do not see him, nor the goat, rope or healing potion, for at least another 45 minutes. Our "Heroes" decide to move on and write off their generous donations.

And an hour or so later, as evening falls, they reach the edge of the swamp and see a large domed structure that seems to be their destination. With little cover between them and the structure, they wait a while as Sanada creeps forward.

As she watches from the shadows, she sees a number of humanoid figures emerge from a metal door in the side of the earthen dome. They move off, seemingly on patrol around the large structure. From an estimate of the size of the dome, and the pace they are moving, Sanada reckons they will take about 30 minutes to patrol around. She returns to the rest of the group to pass on the information.

After some time spent/wasted discussing their approach, the group stealthily approach the door. They see a sturdy metal door embedded into the side of a stone structure that seems covered in mud and dirt. The door seems locked, but there is no keyhole nor handle. They could use force on the door but whilst this looks like it may work, it is likely to make a good deal of noise. Instead, after a good deal of discussion, Solveig decides to transform into a giant badger and attempt to burrow under the door, creating a large enough hole for the others to pass through.

This plan is brilliant, and seems to work well - the ground is soft enough for Solveig to dig through, and he is able to create a hole large enough for the others to crawl through. Only once they are at the other side of the door - in a dark cavernous 'hallway' - do they realise that the guard patrol are due to arrive back very shortly, and there is now a very large hole right in front of their front door. Oops. Solveig quickly changes back from a badger and attempts to force his large frame into the hole in order to use his mold earth spell to fill in the hole using the loose earth already excavated. Although this does work, it is not ideal - whilst there is no longer a hole there, there is a definite area of excavation that was not there before. And time is moving on.

Our "Heroes" quickly move into the adjoining cavern. The ground beneath their feet is sickly-smelling, gloopy and somewhat disgusting - not helped by a general feel of necrotic magic emanating from it. Sanada very quickly spirits over towards the only feature of the room - a closed, wooden door, and she hears some evidence of movement and habitation from the other side. What is worse, she, and the others, suddenly hear the main door behind them open - the guard patrol has returned!

As quickly and silently as possible, the entire group head to a pile of rocks that they manage to hid behind. Remarkably the group of guards - three undead humanoids and another, shadowy humanoid form - do not look in their direction. Instead they head straight for the wooden door, open it and declare to whatever is inside that somebody must have infiltrated the keep! There are signs of excavations under the door! The response from inside is that there has been no one coming that way, so the guards turn to search the room they are in…