Sessions 79 & 80 - Into The Sorrow Plains

Wed 6th Dec 2023 & Wed 3rd Jan 2024

In-game timeline: UNKNOWN (9th day in the Shadowfell)

Our "Heroes" regather their composure after the attack from invisible Skulk creatures and set off into the Sorrow Plains. They take turns in leading the group, each leader focussing on a particular skill they are good at to take charge for a few hours of travel.

Alwaith takes charge for the first session of travel, and uses his survival skills and his knowledge of the Shadowfell in general to find his way through the plains without getting lost, or wandering into particularly dangerous areas. He manages to spend the next three hours guiding the party in what he hopes to be the correct direction, and ensures they avoid a group of large, black, flying creatures in the distance.

After the first three hours, Alwaith is tired from his efforts of leading the group across the difficult terrain, and Solveig takes over the leading of the group, using his perception to survey the land and spot possible problems before they come upon them, as well as interacting with his mount to see if the horse can help him with his perception. Unfortunately the fog descends and it seems like they are going round in circles for a time. As they try to avoid some nasty looking fetid pools of water, they suddenly come upon a line creature with long arms ending in sharp spikes and a forlorn, lonely look about it. The creature attacks, firing out its long arms to harpoon its target and attempt to drag it back towards it.

Solveig conjures four giant wasps that fly towards the creature and attempt to distract it. Unfortunately it seems to ignore these creatures and focuses its efforts on the humanoids, striking Sanada with one of its long arms, stabbing the monk and dragging her towards it. The shock of this attack causes Sanada further damage and she falls unconscious.

Alwaith decides to shoot the creature with an Eldritch Blast, but fails to connect with his attack. Faith revives Sanada with a ranged heal spell and burns the creature with radiant flames from a Sacred Flame spell. Sanada, now conscious once more, manages to break free from the grapple.

As Solveig hides behind his horses, Faith gets pierced by the other arm of the creature and is being dragged towards the creature, suffering significant damage in the process. Faith responds by Banishing the creature to another plane for a time. This gives the party time to get away from the area and by the time the Lonely returns to the Shadowfell, the party are nowhere to be seen - they have escaped!

Faith takes over the leading of the party and uses his perception skill and a trailing rope to ensure they keep going in an approximate straight line. This method seems to work well, and they make good time, and manage to avoid a wandering sorrowsworn that appears out of the gloom in the distance. 

Not wanting to let an exhausted and depressed Sanada take the lead, Solveig re-takes the leadership role and uses his survival skill to find the paths used by the small beasts in this land to avoid pitfalls and predators. It works well, and this time Solveig manages to lead the group towards what looks to be the edge of the Vale of Shade, avoiding a group of Sorrowsworn in the distance but not spotting another one of these particular Sorrowsworn approaching them from the rear! This particular Sorrowsworn - a Lost - reminds Alwaith of Goldie Chadstone from adventures past.

With one look at its spiked arms, Faith, at risk of attack from the creature, rises above the ground and flies into the air, deciding to Banish this creature before it can do damage to them. Once again, this works well, and this Sorrowsworn is banished to another dimension, allowing our "Heroes" to escape again, this time avoiding any damage.

They reach the edge of the Vale of Shade - a valley below them - which seems to contain some form of camp.

Keen to find out what is down there, Solveig uses his wild shape to scout the valley below and the camp. It seems to be a camp of Black Sun soldiers who are milling around and getting some rest before apparently planning to "do something" the following day. In the guise of a badger, Solveig reaches the edge of the camp, spotting a couple of large, covered cages in wagons, and also managing to make out what seems to be a cave entrance in the hillside about 50 yards further on from the camp. He eventually returns back to the party to recount what he has seen

After some debate about whether to rest - it is very late now but time is of the essence - they decide to press on. Using Sanada's Pass Without Trace ability, the party stealth down into the valley and manage to creep around the edge of the camp, giving it a wide berth, aiming for the cave entrance further on.

They continue to stealth as they enter the cave system, discovering what seems to be some camping gear and the scene of a battle, with dead from both sides showing what is probably some Black Sun soldiers dead on the ground, along with some smaller creatures with serrated-edged fingers and sharp teeth, also dead, seemingly killed by the soldiers.

Pressing on further they descend into a more worked area of the cave system. They struggle for some time to cross a simple pool of acid, with Solveig falling in and the others making a right pig's ear of trying to get him out, causing the druid much distress and not inconsiderable acid damage. Eventually they come upon what seems to be a temple of sorts, along with a worrying stone effigy of a large, single-eyed creature with a large mouth and tentacles ending in eyes of different colours (which are actually different gems in the statue). They creep in further, and smell the scent of cooking meat coming from deeper in. They try to avoid this area whilst exploring more of the "temple", but Sanada, in her exhausted and depressed state, makes more noise than she intends whilst checking out some grated "cells", and Solveig hears some scratching noises as something seems to be alerted and is approaching from the room with the cooking meat…