Session 27 – Proceeding Wight on Schedule

The party, still reeling from being unceremoniously dumped deeper into the Swamp of Ineffable Gloom by Granny Crabapple, they looked around to see a small pouch on a moss-covered rock. On the pouch was laid a flower.  Upon seeing it was a lily that was on the pouch, Tiv opened it.  The pouch contained a note and seven vials of lavender liquid. Tiv read the note, which simply read: “Hurry.”  Murchad said, “If she wanted to mess with us, she could have done it by now,” and he downed the liquid. He found it to be a very potent healing potion. Some of the party took the potions right away, and others decided to hang onto them.

The party started making its way (again) out of the swamp. Taking a different route to avoid the bridge that gave them so much trouble, the party disturbed an eerie circle of standing stones wrapped in black vines and flickering with green witchlight. A group of troll shamans is mid-ritual, guarded by their loyal but rotting troglodyte servitors. The shamans immediately turned their wrath upon the intruders, seeking to sacrifice them to the bogfiend spirit they serve.

The rot-wreathed troglodytes charged at the party while the three shamans each cast hold person, freezing Tiv, Vegvisir, and Vedica in place.

The enemies scored a few lucky hits while the party managed to eliminate the troglodytes (the trolls were proving more difficult).   On the verge of success, the party watched with horror as a manifestation of the bogfiend rose from the magic circle. The cursed spirit of vengeance, rot, and dread, rose from the waterlogged stones like a silhouette of writhing vines, bones, and broken faces, and its voice echoed from beneath the swamp.

After much struggle, the party managed to destroy the bogfiend. Their respite didn’t last, however, as before they made it back to Phalar, they ran into a wandering patrol of four skeletons. Tiv immediately made quick work of them by destroying them with her Turn Undead ability. Searching the piles of dusty bones, she found a letter.

To Her Sublime and Eternal Majesty, the Lich Queen of OsternethSealed at Visegrad, 9th Night of the Dimming Moon

Your Majesty,

As ever, I remain your devoted vassal and servant in the Southern Reaches, loyal in life and unlife. I write not to question your will, but to bring to your attention troubling whispers that stir among the lower winds of the Shadowfell—voices not born of our kind, nor of the ancient legions.

The entity known as Malek—whose name I speak only with caution and reverence—has grown bolder. His emissaries move not in secret, but openly now, and I have seen shadows gather where once even the dead feared to tread. The Drow, long fractured and faithless, appear united beneath a singular purpose—one that does not serve Lolth, nor the Void, nor you, Majesty. They speak of a promise. A release. A crown beneath the roots of all worlds.

I fear that whatever pact they have struck, it nourishes him.

Already I have lost two border keeps near the Swamp of Ineffable Gloom. The shadows there do not obey. They answer another call.

I do not presume to advise, only to report. Should it please you, I will move against the Drow and tear the truth from their bleeding mouths. But if Malek is indeed more than a myth of ancient calamity, then we must weigh how deep his roots already run.

Your eternal servant,
Eduard StrigoiLord of Visegrad 
Favored Fang of the South

The party decided that the Phalar would love to have this info, and they passed it along when they gave their report about the destruction of the obelisk.  For their part, the Phalar were surprised that the party made it back alive, but they were elated that they did. True to their word, the Phalar gave the party a letter of introduction to the Qu’ellar Elves of the north, asking them to render hospitality and assistance to the party and also to help them use the Shrine of the Woods to return to Hibernia once they retrieve the children. The elves told the party that each of the five shrines in the Shadowfell (and Feywild) would return them to a different place on Earth, so the Shrine of the Woods is the one they would need to return whence they came.

The party healed and rested and then proceeded northward as efficiently as possible. They made it almost to the southern shore of Alu Lhorb -- The Spider Sea.  As they followed a broken road between a creek on their right and a rocky rise on their left. In this open, wind-blasted area where the sky is always overcast and gray, the ground was soft, but no natural growth was found—only withered brambles and bones. Sound was strangely muffled here, as if the air itself was listening.

It was too late that they realized that they were being stalked by two…no three…no four wights. They didn’t see the dozen skeletal hounds that had completely surrounded them until they were charging toward them. Only Tiv seemed to notice the gravecaller necrophant, high on the rocky rise, chanting and directing the action below.

Tiv cast silence on the necrophant, Jack blew his horn of blasting at a cluster of enemies, and several other party members attacked the hounds and then tried to vacate the central space in the pack. Ceangal shouted: “Everybody brace for impact!” and unleashed a level-eight fireball centered on Tiv but encompassing most of the enemies. Thanks to passed saving throws and the red dragon scale armor worn by the party members in the middle of the conflagration, Tiv, Jack, and Dwårfy only took minimal damage. All but one wight was destroyed, however. The party then set about destroying that wight while the necrophage (surprisingly immune to Tiv’s silence spell) cast hold person on Vegvisir, Vedica, and Ceangal.

Tiv blessed the entire party, which then closed to melee range. Murchad landed a hit first, but the necrophage just turned to look at him, and oozed a hoarse command: “RUN.” Murchad had no choice but to turn on his heels and run in the opposite direction. The party dispatched him shortly thereafter, and they went through the resulting loot from the wights and necrophage.

There were four Rune-Etched Longswords of Shadow Binding (longsword +1).  The blade is permanently cold to the touch and smokes faintly in moonlight, and the runes glow slightly when near necrotic energy or undead.  These blackened blades are forged in the depths of Visegrad and carried by the wights who serve the Lich Queen. Each is etched with runes that thrum faintly with shadow magic.  They have a special ability that when the wielder rolls a natural 20 on an attack roll, the runes briefly flare. The target must make a Save vs. Paralysis or be bound in spectral chains for 1 round (unable to move or flee, -2 to AC). Fey creatures suffer a -1 penalty to their save vs. Shadow Binding.  One sword each was taken by Murchad, Vedica, Ceangal, and Jack.

There was also a Blackbone Band from the Necrophant, which grants immunity to silence effects. However, each week worn, the user must Save vs. Spells or gain a nightmare that forces them to speak an unholy word upon waking which could summon a minor undead or weaken a protective ward nearby.

Tiv also took a bone scroll cylinder from the Necrophant. It contained the following spells, inscribed in bone-carved runes:  Animate Dead, Command, Speak with Dead, and Control Undead.  The cursed scrolls can be used by clerics or magic-users, but each spell cast from it requires a Save vs. Death or the reader suffers 1d6 necrotic damage.