Session 24 – Slime and Punishment

The party returned to Fillí and gave their sailor-friend Andy Stokowski the green necklace. The sailors thanked them and said that the green gemstone should work in their travel device.

After they parted company, the party went to the marketplace to unload some unnecessary items and find lycanthropy cures for Jack and Dwårfy, they headed off to Darby Cave to once again attempt to enter the Shadowfell.

From the hills above the harbor, the party watched in awe as the Eldridge, anchored just beyond the shore, began to shimmer with an eerie, otherworldly light. The air hummed with an unnatural energy, vibrating through the ground beneath their feet. The surface of the ship rippled like a mirage, distorting the surrounding landscape as if reality itself is bending. A low, resonant hum filled the air, growing louder by the second, until the ship seemed to vibrate with raw power.

Then, in a blinding flash, the Eldridge vanished—leaving nothing behind but a faint, lingering trace of energy in the air. The air was still, but the memory of the ship’s departure will stay with them forever as they witnessed the impossible: the ship slipping back through time to its rightful place, and the fabric of reality mending itself once more.  They thought of Andy and wished him well...hoping he succeeded in getting home.

The party began to wind its through the dizzying cave system. Jack walked point, and Tiv lit up her magical mace in the middle of the group.

Before long, they encountered a section of corridor that was covered in a yellow mold. Remembering the last time they encountered this, they decided that Vedica should hit the mass with a fire arrow to burn it up. Doing so unleashed a spore cloud, unfortunately, and Dwårfy, Jack, and Tiv were caught in it. Dwårfy was able to get out of it, hacking and coughing, but Tiv and Jack went down and were asphyxiating. Vedica, who had been just outside the affected area, pulled Tiv to safety, but Jack was far inside the cloud. Eventually, Tiv managed to use her rope as a lasso to pull him to safety, and the party waited for the cloud of spores to disperse.

Continuing on in more careful fashion did not help them much, however, as a green slime, lying in wait on the ceiling, dropped directly onto Jack. It immediately ate through his sleeve and started to liquefy his flesh and turn it into green slime. Vedica tried shooting it with a fire arrow, while other party members tried desperately to light torches (Tiv’s mace lights up, but not with fire).  Tiv managed to get her torch lit, but had no time left to take action with it. Dwårfy, however, saw an opportunity. He ran toward Tiv and leaped over Jack as he grabbed her torch. Looking for a moment like a dwarven Statue of Liberty, sailing through the air. As he landed just on the other side of Jack, he plunged the burning torch into the green slime with a sizzle.

They got several other torches lit and managed to burn off the green slime, but not without doing some fire damage to Jack.

The party proceeded to get lost in the winding corridors, and ended up battling numerous oozes, slimes, and gelatinous cubes throughout their time in the labyrinth.

First, they found the exit to the Feywild, where they originally entered before finding their way to Tír na nÓg.  Then, they found the exit to the crypts under the Hall of Free Men.

Several slime fights and one fireball spell later, the party finally emerged in the Shadowfell.  They find that the colors are muted, the air feels stale, and over all, a sense of gloom pervading the mere presence of the place.

They don’t have too much time to take in the foul atmosphere, though, as they stumbled into a battle. Three battered elves stand with their backs toward the cave, facing a dozen ghouls led by a gaunt, pale wight, obviously intent on getting into the cave.  Dead elves also littered the ground.

The ghouls swamped the elves and even began attacking Jack and Murchad.

Tiv stepped forward, presenting her holy symbol in the face of the ghoul attacking Jack. It disintegrated on the spot!

The party began taking out the ghouls, but not before the elf leader was badly injured and also attacked by the wight. Tiv rushed in to cure wounds on the elf leader. She was overjoyed at her success, and he looked back to her and nodded gravely. The wight, however, looked at her, too. He reached out and stroked her cheek. As he did, she felt her knees go wobbly and was overcome by weakness and the blood drained away from her face.

Murchad and Dwårfy rushed in to help at the front. Both landed some hits but were bitten and paralyzed in return.

The party did manage to dispatch the ghouls, and Ceangal used his lightning sword to take out the wight.

The elves introduced themselves as Vaelion Starbane, the leader, Sylwen Moonshadow, and Eldrin Duskwhisper. They expressed gratitude for the assistance, but they regarded Ceangal with the deepest suspicion. The elves of the Shadowfell regard the Drow as their mortal enemies. Some explanation from Ceangal and a lot of diplomatic explanation from Tiv smoothed over the unease. Ceangal did just help to save the elves, after all.

They said they were part of the Phalar Elves who live to the east of the cave.  These elves are what remains of the Elves of the Plains. They had long ago taken to living in the treetops for safety, as elves are known to typically do. Like most elves, the elves of Phalar love nature and life, and so they oppose the undead hordes to be found throughout the Domain of the Lich Queen. They strive to keep the range of the undead contained in the Shadowfell but also from using the Cave at the World's End and the Shrine of the Mountains to invade the Material Plane.

They brought the party to Phalar to heal and rest. Upon arriving in Phalar, the PCs are brought before the Phalar leader, Aelthir Nhaelis, a battle-hardened elf committed to resisting the Lich Queen’s forces. He refused to help the PCs unless they first aid his people. He reveals that the Lich Queen has been attempting to reclaim a powerful relic stolen from her—a soulbound obelisk that sustains a growing undead force. The Phalar have hidden the obelisk beneath the ruins of their former city, but the Queen’s forces have uncovered its location. Aelthir tasked the party with preventing its retrieval, either by reinforcing the Phalar’s defenses or stealing the obelisk and relocating it.

He told them that the Lich Queen was originally from Earth. She was Raluca Popescu, the daughter of the High Priest of Bael Turath in AD 1066. That year, as the dragonborn were flooding northward, having conquered all the remaining fiefdoms of the old Byzantine Empire, they met the army of Bael Turath at Edirne. The battle wasn't going well, and, if the dragonborn broke through, Bael Turath would fall, and the rest of Europe would be conquered and enslaved. Raluca begged her father to conduct the second half of the ritual that Bael Turath himself had used to create the tieflings from the human population centuries ago. He refused, and so she slipped the sacred tome -- the Fark Drabek -- from the archives and conducted it herself. In that instant, both armies were smashed. The cities of the dragonborn Arkhosian Empire were reduced to rubble, and Bael Turath became a cursed wasteland of undead, carrying the curse of undeath for which it is known today. Raluca herself, imbued by this dark energy, became a powerful lich, and she has reigned in the Shadowfell ever since.

He also told them that a few days earlier, another human from Earth, Vegvisir Ashbladeson, passed through Phalar and was sent on the same mission. Aelthir told the party that if he was still alive, they might team up to achieve the goal.