Princes of the Apocalypse: Session 3 Part II

[DISCLAIMER: This post contains spoilers for Princes of the Apocalypse.]

Part I can be found hither.

High in the mountains Feathergale Spire pierced a blue sky straddled by banks of white cloud, wind sighing through the crags. Eyes ringed by feathers considered the travellers as they approached. The smallest in the front, striding with his head up, the stout one behind him, eyes down. The girl looking at the sky and the clouds and last the lean man, out of place with everything.

They watched and made note.

Our party are:

David Maltman as Reed Tosscobble, Halfling Rogues Swashbuckler

David Longbottom as Ulfang Strackhelm, Dwarf Cleric of Helm

Amanda Hewitt as Eva Dawnfell, Human Monk Necromancer

Dak’kon of the unbroken circle of Zerthimon, a Githzerai and NPC Companion.

Savra, the guard at the door of Feathergale Spire bade the party enter and they were escorted to the master of this place, the handsome Thurl Merosska. Reed introduced himself by his alias and noted the man’s liars smile as he invited them for dinner.

Dinner was hearty and wine was flowing. Thurl had barely had a moment to hold court when a Knight rushed in declaring that the Manticore had been spotted down in the valley. Merosska raised the ring from his finger and declared the first to bring him its head would win this prize. The party were invited to participate and accepted graciously, being granted Hippogriffs for the task of hunting the beast.

The party would square off against four of the Feathergale Society’s knights on giant vultures. The winners would be the one who slayed the beast and returned with its head. The knights rode their giant vultures off the top of Feathergale spire, and headed east. The party however headed south and Eva, her eyes thinning, immediately spotted the beast amongst the mists that had clouded the valley.

The party lunged toward it, catching it off guard. The dark banks of mist were illuminated by arcane flashes and the sound of a beast’s roar rolled through the valley then was silent at the manticore fell from the heavens and landed, unceremoniously, on the plateau below.

Merosska clapped his hands together with glee and placed his ring into Eva’s palm before ordering more food and wine for his guests, holding them in conversation until the group had thinned. With Savra at his side he spoke of fell cults and how the Feathergale Society were out here protecting Waterdeep from the enemies that would threaten it.

He bid the party raid the Sacred Stone Monastery, and the party agreed, pondering why the Monastery seemed to be such a target for the other Elemental Cults.

As they approached the Monastery they saw that the front gate was ajar, but their last visit to this place had made them cautious. They approached via the rear garden and entered the area where they had escaped from the Gargoyles.

They retraced their steps knowing at least one enemy they had not faced in their last visit, the Lich Renwick. They knew he was a powerful foe and crept up to his doorway, their hand almost at the handle when they heard the thundering sound of hooves and Dak’kon, at the rear of the party, was gored from behind by a giant bull-headed creature and smashed to the ground.

The party turned to assail this new threat, when from behind the door came a shout; “I told you to go away! Stop that infernal racket!”

With Dak’kon down Ulfang stepped up to hold the line, Reed dancing from front to back to strike as Eva cursed the Minotaur, only to see it retreat behind its ally. The party eventually felled the beast, and Eva rushed down the hallway with Reed to lash out at the enraged creature as it smashed through a wall trying to get around the party.

The beast gored Eva to the ground but, thanks to the blessing of Helm, she remained conscious long enough to send three shard like magic missiles through the skull of the beast, just in time for it to collapse upon her.

Their victory was short lived however as the doorway Ulfang was stood by creaked open and he was confronted by the imposing figure of a lich in purple robes with a bored expression on it’s ghoulish face. Dak’kon struck immediately but the lich barely moved under the weight of his Zerth blade and warned them one final time; “If you do not leave I shall fill this chamber with poison gas.” He stated, flatly.

“Suffer not evil to live.” Ulfang replied over the protests of Eva as he invoked the wroth of Helm to smite the Lich.

With a sigh Renwick, a being of incredible power and unbelievable boredom, cast Time Stop followed by Cloudkill and then stepped back into his room, slamming the door. Reed fled immediately but Ulfang managed to gather Dak’kon and drag Eva up from the floor and carried both out of the building to lie, panting but mercifully alive, in the garden.

[DM’s Notes: OK maybe I pulled my punches with Renwick, just a little, although this interaction is exactly as defined in the adventure itself. I probably could have had Ulfang hold his breath as he tried to pull the party out, but with a critical success on his Con save I elected to reward him by allowing him to save his compatriots.]

The party were low on resources but decided to press on anyway, avoiding the Lich’s area to find the main shrine and the path down to where they fought the Umberhulk. They took an alternate route, clearing a crypt full of zombies, before coming upon an empty tomb emblazoned with a name: “Here lies Samular Caradoon” The same Samular no doubt who founded the Knights of Samular, though the party knows he has a tomb in the Undercroft of Summit Hall whilst this one is empty and holds no burial goods.

At this point the party entered a doorway and crept up a flight of stairs only to find themselves face to face, once again with Renwick, having entered his manse from a different side. He attacked Reed who just managed to escape and the party ran as quick as they could away. They headed south through the chamber where they had spied the Orog and Ogre on their last visit and turned the wrong way down a corridor ending up in a dead end near some cells.

Within the cells dead bodies, dessicated and partially rotted, some showing signs of cannibalism, lie strewn about. There are about a dozen and Reed, perhaps overcome with shame at how he’d acted earlier, resolved to bury them. That is until Eva pointed out that they were being chased by a Lich, the bodies were in cells and it would mean carrying all of them up to the surface as the floor here was made of stone.

[DM’s Note: Actually further, the Sacred Stone Monastery is up in a defile that has a stone floor. The party would have to carry twelve bodies by hand down the hills to softer ground.

This area originally held Slave pens, there’s an NPC encounter here but given the party never came this way, and that it had been some time since Hellenrae’s defeat and the Monastery’s abandonment I decided the most likely outcome was this particularly grisly end.]

The party rushed back the way they came and were soon milling through dark passageways until they came to a familiar grate and a stairway leading down. Using the keys they had absconded with during their first visit the party opened the gate and descended the stair.

Way down, 250ft below the surface they found a crevasse and a stone bridge with three Gargoyles lurking near the roof and, low on resources, the party beat a hasty retreat, satisfied that the Monastery at least was safe… With the exception of an ancient a terrible Lich whose machinations might one day threaten the very realms themselves.

Satisfied they returned to Feathergale Spire and the ever grinning Thurl Merosska who slammed his fist on the table, happily, and paid the party for their work. He then offered them a place amongst the Feathergale Society and the party, wary of this man, said they would consider it as they retired to the guest quarters…

How long had it been?

Memory is a funny thing. Some days it was as clear as fresh water that ran through the small brook by their home. Other days it was like a pall that hung over everything and stung his eyes. No. Perhaps on those days what was clearest was the memory of stinging eyes.

These days came and went. Time had stopped having meaning. Lots of things had. He reached out with something that had once been a hand and remembered the touch of stone, the sensation of grief, the flash of anger and the moment of vengeance.

“Yes.” Renwick Caradoon said to the shivering bodies laid about the crypt. “I remember.”