Tyranny of Dragons - Session 7

Sorry for the delay everyone, but we're back with the session 7 synopsis. We left the group last time after they had just rescued Leosin and were escaping down the plateau. They heard the sounds of alarms and horns being blown from inside the raider's camp and decided that rather than try to hide in one of the many concealed caves in the plateau, they would make a run for it instead.

The characters succeeded on stealth checks and didn't see anyone pursuing them as they took a wide arc to continue back toward Greenest. Slowed down slightly by Leosin's state, the group found their way back to the raider's trail and Ilda, with her dwarven knowledge of rocks, managed to locate the plateau and cave that Eadyan Falconmoon told them about, which contained the menhirite moss that he needed for healing potions.

The group made a few checks for traps and for signs of any life inside the cave before entering, but everything appeared devoid of both. Inside, they found patches of menhirite and some squishy ground in what appeared to be a natural spring. While in the cave, however, the group noticed the muffled sound of falling water, and found that the water was actually coming from behind one of the walls, through a small crack in the stone.

In the back of the cave, Duckie found a looser patch of drier soil, and digging it out revealed a small tunnel that could be crawled through. Scouting ahead, Duckie and Ilda crawled through the tunnel, which rose slightly as they traveled. They entered into a dark, circular cavern with a cool mist pervading the space, the sound of falling water echoing throughout. Activating their darkvision abilities revealed a large cavern with a waterfall cascading into a small pool with dense, overgrown menhirite moss all around them. In the center of the cavern they saw a circular stone slab set into the floor with six robed humanoid figures standing on it, facing outward.

Duckie made a sound with minor illusion, eliciting absolutely no response from the figures. Both of the heroes approached the figures stealthily, still seeing no reaction from the figures. At a closer vantage, Duckie noticed some sort of knife and a wooden rod in the center of the slab, along with some unrecognizable carvings around the perimeter of the slab. Ilda, meanwhile, returned to the rest of the group and brought the rest of them in, leaving Moki to stand guard with Leosin in the exterior cave. Duckie, after Ilda left, decided to step onto the slab. Still, there was no response from the figures. She identified the knife and the wooden rod as very simple, but ceremonial looking in nature.

Ilda, again with her stonecutting proficiency, identified the carvings in the slab to be of elven make, no dwarf would have made anything this delicate. However, the symbols were not anything like elvish, nor like any other language the group had experience with. Lou, with his arcana proficiency, managed to see that the carvings were actually magical runes, but were nothing he recognized. Inspecting the pool further, the group found that the water calmly exited the pool in a stone channel, down to the stone slab, circled it, and proceeded outward in spokes, irrigating the menhirite. In the bottom of the pool, Duckie found some old elvish bones, well preserved at the bottom of the pool.

Lou cast identify on the rod and the knife, finding that the former was some sort of magical key that opened another magical door of some kind, the details were a bit foggy. The knife's magic seemed to serve only for preservation of the tool itself.

Thamior took the rod and, inspecting the slab closer, found a hole in the very center of the slab. As he walked across the slab, the stone around his feet glowed a soft blue color. Then, fitting the rod into the hole, the runes took on the same glow and a low hum began to fill the room. The figures began moving slowly outward, and turned around after about fifteen feet and stopped.

Seeing nothing happening yet, Thamior cut his hand with the knife, watching the knife absorb his blood and simultaneously sealing his wound with no marks. He then commanded the figures in elvish to remove their hoods. They responded all in one voice and in a dialect that was very strange, "Decorum prevents that." When Thamior asked what decorum they were talking about, the figures responded, "It has been set by the Masters." There was no response from the figures asking who the masters were, except that they are masters of the living. The figures also seemed to only respond to elvish. Asking who they are, they answered something along the lines of, "the protectors."

They went on to explain that this was a healing place and that the gate, the stone, had opened causing them to move. Asking if it was a healing place for all or just for elves, they intimated that, "All are elves." Gwen, taking the dagger then and slicing her hand as Thamior did, found that the knife cracked. In shock, Thamior tried it again, noticing that the crack got deeper. Lou quickly cast mending on the knife, repairing it, at least cosmetically.

The party then decided to bring Leosin into the chamber, seeing if they could heal him inside this chamber. Asking the figures how to heal, they said something like, "take the things." Determining the knife might be for harvesting the menhirite, the group cut some and applied it to Leosin and saw a similar response that they saw from the moss in the other room, removing redness and improves some of his vitality.

Inspecting the irrigation grooves further, the party found that one had ruptured and had caused the wall nearby to erode, probably feeding the exterior cave and may have been how seeds from the menhirite travelled out to the exterior cave.

Ilda, touching a figure for the first time, felt cold, sinewy flesh. Revealing that the figures were undead of some kind. With this knowledge, asking why the figures did not attack the heroes, they responded with something like "you did not offend."

A bit frustrated, the heroes took out the staff, causing the figures to move back into their original positions, Lou took rubbings of the runes, and they all left the cave going back to Greenest. Giving the menhirite they had harvested to Eadyan Falconmoon, he expressed that he knew nothing about the secret cave, but told them they might be able to learn something at Candlekeep or some other library elsewhere, maybe north in Silverymoon. Seeing Lou's rubbings of the runes, however, he was able to identify the writing as Druidic. He referred them to Gleriel Moonbringer, a priestess of Eldath, who lived and watched over her glade just outside of town.

The heroes also gave Governor Nighthill the information he had requested and he gave them their reward in return. Nesim Waladra was very thankful for Leosin's return and took him to the Prairie Hen Inn where he and his comrades were staying to nurse him back to health.

And thus ended Episode 2 of the campaign. Some DM's notes:

It was really unfortunate that the players managed to avoid every trap (without really intending to) that I had set for them. The encounter with the undead felt very frustrating and unfruitful. I had set it up such that it would be incredibly difficult for the players to know how to interact with the gate, but there were lots of opportunities to make the undead attack them by disrespecting their shrine, which the players handily avoided. My hope was that this would spur the players on to want to learn more, but I also think I didn't quite give them enough bait other than pure curiosity. There are story reasons why I didn't supply useful magic items or other monsters to fight or traps and puzzles, but I definitely learned from this session that pure curiosity isn't enough.

I'll be back with Episode 3 in a few weeks (hopefully)!