Tyranny of Dragons - Session 9

Continuing the adventure in Episode 3, we find our adventurers taking a short rest in the inner sanctum of the ancient Eldathyn cave. They took lunch from their rations and headed toward the raider camp once they were sated. They moved "stealthily and perceptively," noticing several groups of deer, prairie hens, and other groups of game as they approached. Once they reached the horseshoe shaped plateau, they found that there were several tracks fanning out in all directions, as Nessim had related to them. However, they did also see that the heavier traffic, wagons and more burdened pack animals, had been moving mostly westward. The party also saw a single plume of white-gray smoke rising from within the camp.

Deciding that Duckie should go scout ahead, the gnome made her way into the camp, keeping to the brush and boulders to best hide herself. She found that the watch towers both still remained standing, though they did not seem to be manned. The ramshackle kobold huts on the other hand were all burned down. The sturdier human huts and tents meanwhile were mostly intact, but the flags of the mercenary groups were nowhere to be seen.

Making her way around to the southern end of the camp, she found the campfire near where the prisoners had been kept and where the Storm Blades had encamped. The poles were still staked in the ground but there were no prisoners any longer. Around the campfire though were three human males dressed in hides and leathers with tattered brown and pale green cloaks. They were armed with dirks and had bows within reach. They seemed to be hunters lounging and cooking some food. They also had six horses untacked and grazing in the area with three riding saddles and three pack saddles.

Looking into the cave from her vantage point in the brush, Duckie noticed a single humanoid figure about 30 feet into the cave, moving slightly and watching the entrance. She thought that she, and the rest of the party if needed, could sneak along the edge of the camp toward the hunters and not be seen by the individuals in the cave, but being heard if there was a conflict was a different story. Relaying this information back to the party, they decided to try talking to the hunters, betting that they might not even be affiliated with the cult.

Taking the lead for the group, Lou approached the hunters and with his friendly southern drawl said,"Hi. You seem to be hunters of some sort. My name's Lou," to which he received no response other than a grunt from the nearest human. "You guys mind if we keep walkin' around here? Is that gonna to bother you?" A shrug from the nearest hunter and a look of indifference. "Ok then. Guys I don't think they mind, let's go." As the group made their way toward the cave, Duckie again peeked around the side of the entrance to get a better view of the interior.

The entrance to this cave is broad and tall, but the ceiling quickly lowers to a height of 15 feet. A good amount of dirt from the outside has been tracked onto the stone floors, but much of the mud is dry as if most of that traffic happened some time ago. Light pours in to the cave and much of this part is illuminated clearly from the sunlight outside. You see not one, but two humanoids, one male and one female, dressed in black leather armor with black cloaks and stylized dragon insignia.

Thinking about how to get a surprise off on the two cultists, they party decided to try to disguise themselves and talk to them as fellow cultists. They still had the robes they acquired from Greenest, but they were sized to humans. Unfazed, Duckie climbed up on Gwen's shoulders and with help from Moki and Thamior donned the cloak. Duckie had to cross her arms so as to not look too strange, but with the hood up the disguise was good enough to pass a cursory inspection.

Entering the cave, Duckie announced her presence suddenly to the two guards saying, "Praise Tiamat," in Draconic. The pair of cultists responded in kind and hesitantly asked her who she was. Deflecting, Duckie responded "Who am I? Brothers who are you, what are you doing here?"

"Guarding the hoard, did someone send you back?" the female cultist asked.

"Send me back? Of course! You two are not enough to guard this hoard."

"For what purpose would they send a mere cultist back?" asked the male.

"A mere cultist? This is merely a disguise. You have no idea who I really am, do you?"

Quite flustered and putting their hands on the hilts of their swords, the pair of cultist guards got closer together. "No we do not know who you are. Announce yourself!"

Hesitating a bit too long Duckie finally exclaimed, "I'm here to announce the reign of the Dragon Queen!"

Frustrated by Duckie dodging their question, they reiterated, "What do you mean? Who are you?" Duckie responded simply by showing them the ring on her finger, not wanting to say a name they wouldn't recognize. Not impressed, the cultists asked again, "Who are you? Many have such rings, such trinkets."

Finally acquiescing, Duckie made up a name: "I am the assistant of Reodin."

"We have not heard of this Reodin, they are not a true member of the cult. And I am starting to suspect you of not being truthful either."

Panicking and not speaking proper Draconic, Duckie clarified, "You suspect me of distruth?"

"Yes, I do," the female responded, as the two cultists drew their blades.

Duckie, leapt off of Gwen's back, ditching the robe on top of her dwarven friend, missing with her rapier attack but connecting with a dagger onto the male cultist. Quickly disengaging with her swashbuckler ability, she hid behind a stone column in the cave. Thamior ran into the cave next, missing her entirely with his two strikes, followed by Lou who loosed a witch bolt toward the male, but it shot wide into the column, knocking a chunk off with it's crackling blue energy. After cursing his bad luck, he had sense enough to yell out to his companions, "Take a prisoner if you can!"

The male cultist, playing off of his companion, whipped two scimitar attacks toward Thamior, but missed with both, impressive as they were. These two cultists looked like they were used to fighting with each other.

Moki let fly four white-hot magic missiles at the male, causing him to stumble backward wounded. The female cultist took two swings at Thamior, contacting with both brutal attempts while Gwen burst out of the robes yelling, "Surprise!" and just missed the male's torso with her warhammer. Adolphus rushed into the cave, harrying the male cultist.

Moving up behind the pair, Duckie stabbed her rapier into the male cultist's ribs, causing him to collapse dead. Thamior, Moki, and Adolphus all hit the female cultist before Gwen's command spell stopped her from moving completely allowing Duckie to hit the cultist in the temple with the hilt of her dagger. Tying the human female up to one of the columns in the cave, the party woke up the cultist. Lou, casting detect thoughts, realized she would yell out to alert her allies. Reacting quickly, Lou stuffed a gag into the cultists mouth. Asking her leading questions to get her thinking about the answers, Lou utilized the spell to learn several interesting things while she failed in her attempts to shield her thoughts:

• There are probably more than 40 cult allies in the cave
• They are mostly humans and kobolds
• The caravan of cultists headed to Baldur's Gate

Meanwhile, some other members of the party explored the cave, finding a passage hidden by a cleverly cut fold in the rock at the end of a shadowed alcove. It's obvious having actually walked to the end of it, but was incredibly difficult to spot from elsewhere in the cavern. After finding a T-intersection down the passage, to one side the group found what appeared to be a human barracks filled with at least eight cultists and to the other found an entertaining sight:

This chamber is mostly empty, except for a few overturned boxes, broken items, scattered coins, small gems, and one cultist who is sleeping soundly on the floor. He is surrounded by several bottles of wine, a few of them broken, and has one clutched to his chest, dripping some of its contents onto the man's tunic with each inhalation.

Thamior inspected the room, stumbling over the cultist by accident, stirring him, but put him right back to sleep in his drunken stupor. Investigating the room, he only found about 16gp worth of coins and gems. Duckie, meanwhile, set up a trip wire in front of the barracks with some ball bearings as well. Backing out of the passage now and exploring further into the main cave, the group encountered a large cavern at the back of the entrance:

The entrance to the cave ends here at a 10-foot drop-off. To your right, broad steps are roughly hewn into a natural stone ramp. The cavern below is carpeted with a profusion of fungi ranging from a few inches high to nearly as tall as a human adult. Two paths lead through the fungi: one on the right and one on the left.

Lou descended the stairs to investigate the fungi, but the top stair collapsed sending him careening down into the mushrooms where dozens of tendrils coming from some of the mushrooms lashed out toward Lou, knocking him unconscious. Adolphus quickly followed and cast cure wounds on Lou, pulling him to his feet amidst the six stalking violet fungi.

After a barrage of damage from atop the ledge and down on the ground, the party managed to end the threat. Being able to look around from the bottom, the party found that the left path received heavy use. Too bad the ramp had dumped Lou at the bottom of the right path.

And that's all we have for session 9. More coming after we play session 10 this week. Enjoy!