Session 68 - Teamwork. The Key to Heist Success

Wed 5th July 2023

In-game timeline: UNKNOWN (4th day in the Shadowfell)

Our "Heroes" awake in their Tiny Hut and realise they are unfortunately still in the Shadowfell. Heading out into the sparse and dead forest, they see a flock of dark birds, looking like large vultures, approaching from the north. As the party tries to hide before they are spotted, an unkindness of ravens appears from the south and attack the vultures - killing some and driving the rest to seek shelter within the keep in the Rotted Heart, before the ravens fly back south. The Raven Queen is obviously rooting for our "Heroes"!

Cautiously, the party decide to scout around the keep, looking for other possible entrances. It takes them an hour, and they find nothing useful, but there are also no guards around the outside of the keep. Arriving back at the door, Solveig opens the door a crack and listens. He hears the flapping, as if a large bird is stretching its wings. Armed with all this information, the party decide (belatedly, some would argue!) to scout out the inside of the keep.

Solveig turns into a spider and spends the next few hours running around the keep caverns, spotting what enemies are within. The upper level seems clear, other than a single vulture-bird keeping close watch on the door. The lower level seems to contain Ghorilliath, who appears to be some kind of Skull Lord, as well as a number of dangerous-looking minions, and the rest of the flock of dark birds. Solveig alto thinks he catches sight of the Conspirator's Visage on the table in front of Ghorilliath.

Returning to the others, they then spend a long, long, long time coming up with a plan. Solveig, for all his attempts at pretending to be chilled and peaceful, channels the spirit of Drogan and talks a lot about fighting everything. Sanada, still very exhausted, demoralised and convinced that everything will always be crap and they can't do much about that, prefers a stealthy approach, though is upset to realise that she is the best person to undertake such an approach.

Eventually a plan is hatched, and they put it into operation…

Solveig uses his knowledge of the inside of the cavern system to work out the best place to tunnel into the keep, appearing away from the lookout. He turns into a giant badger and creates a wide and sturdy tunnel that emerges in the floor of the second room on the top level, hidden somewhat behind the wretcheds' cage.

They stealth over to the hole to the second level. Alwaith attempts to turn the rest of them invisible, but his spell, unable to be boosted by his Patron who has no knowledge of him in this time, fails completely and he has to rely on his shadow touched feat to make only Sanada invisible. Sanada shadow steps below, checking no other guards are nearby, and replaces the ladder that has been moved, allowing the other three to climb down and stay in the shadows below, ready to jump in and help Sanada if her stealthing should fail for some reason.

The quiet, but exhausted, monk shadow steps into the room - her vision boosted by Faith's improved darkvision, so she could see everything in the room. After a little delay for her to, for some reason, return to the others to tell them what she saw, she returns to the room and shadow steps in the dim light, and, benefitting from her continued invisibility, to reach the table where the Visage sits. Ghorilliath's three heads scan the room, and he stares at the mask, moaning about its apparent detrimental effects upon his powers and how he would love to get rid of it.

Without waiting to hear more, conscious that other creatures in the room are moving around and may either sense her presence, or affect her abilities with their innate features, Sanada makes her move.

She grabs the visage from the table, thus making it immediately disappear. As Ghorilliath wonders what is happening, she shadow steps away to the rest of the party, reaching them as Ghorilliath realises that someone may be in the room and calls for his followers to respond and react.

Our "Heroes" make the most of the surprise and their head start, and run out - scrambling up the ladder and into the room above, and dashing for the escape hole. Faith and Solveig both forfeit some of their movement to turn and cast moonbeam down the hole, hoping to prevent or at least delay some of the pursuit.

The plan seems to work. As the druid and cleric turn to continue running, they hear the shrieks of birds caught in the moonbeam. They then all hear the chilling sound of a canine howl echoing through the caverns. Faith is once again fearful of the sound and runs quickly for the exit, dropping his moonbeam spell as he dashes in fear. Luckily Solveig, unaffected by the howl, maintains his spell and they all manage to reach the exit hole before any of the enemy have emerged from the lower level to see where they went. As they escape through the tunnel, Solveig uses his mold earth to collapse the entrance, further hiding their escape route.

With the enemy confused as to where they went, our "Heroes" are able to escape the keep and make it to the tree line before any of the enemy could emerge to see where they were.  The party continue to run until they reach more cover, when Solveig pauses to conjure horses to quicken their escape, though this is a risky move as it takes a while to perform the spell.

As the party, now on horseback, reach the borders of the Raven Queen's realm, a flock of ravens approaches. The party allow themselves to become enveloped by the unkindness of ravens, and they are magically transported back to the Court of Empty Desires in the City of Broken Dreams. They have escaped with the Visage!

Markella channels the Raven Queen and the Queen thanks the party for their recovery of her Conspirator's Visage. She listens to their story, as relayed by Alwaith, and offers to become his patron in this time period, reinstating his powers to the full, and giving him an additional feat that he can call upon. She provides each of the others a boon of their choice, though they have to be careful not to ask for too much. Sanada asks for her memory of her charm to be restored, and Solveig generously asks for Sanada's other memory - that of her abilities in alchemy - to be restored too. Faith asks for a second Gloomshield Boon, to match the one that the Raven Queen offers as a gift, allowing two of the group to benefit from improved protection against the Shadowfell Despair that affects them whenever they rest, though the Queen does warn that Alwaith's protection against this Despair seems to be waning. She also points out that the Staff of Ages, that brought them to this time, seems to be fading in its power somewhat - whether that be through time spent here, or some other draining force taking effect.

The Raven Queen then tells them some useful information about possible leads they can follow towards finding out about the Vessel of the Black Sun (or "Cult of Malar" as it is better known in these times) and suggests they visit the Portal Guild in Evernight, who are currently fighting the Cult and may have better information. She agrees to transport the party to the edge of Evernight, and to give them a seal that will give them relatively safe passage to the Guild's headquarters within the city. She will also allow them a night's undisturbed rest within her city before they leave, allowing the group to recover a little without fear from the Curse of Distant Memories, or the Shadowfell Despair.

The whole party feel inspired at this positive meeting with the Queen (though Alwaith does mumble under his breath that they never get any decent rewards from helping people, and Solveig continues to state that they could have taken Ghorilliath in a fight) and they rest for the night, more comfortable than they have been since they arrived. Tomorrow will be another busy day…