The Dwarven Wedding Session 34

Session #33 of The Dwarven Wedding.

Date: August 26th, 2018

Character Level: 9th

Summary

Veiko walks down a path, it's a forest he knows: The Deepwoods. This is a path he's taken before, but it's all new somehow. The forest starts to turn dark. The trees, the sky, everything turns into a shadow. A voice calls out. A familiar one, but Veiko cannot place it. He's now in the petrified forest. He walks down the path to see a village sign and a sudden coldness hits his skin. Something is lost here. He walks to the entrance of the village and sees it is no longer there. He stands, waiting for something...

---

The gang wakes up to find Veiko is gone. Remnant says he must have gone off to find a toilet.

After some packing of things, they set off to find their friend. After an hour or two of walking, they find a sleeping Veiko at the edge of a giant pit. There is a fog around them, the forest is now a haze. Veiko wakes as they approach him. He explains he was led here in the night.

They notice three large spikes with rope attached to them next to footprints of giant feet. They climb down using clever tactics.

The pace the giant hole. This was magically done. The dirt wasn't dug, it was removed. After a moment, they find a cave entrance, clean cut into the stone they walk. They walk in.

After a moment, they hear voices talking in giant. Verity chimes in and talks with them. On the end of the fork where the giants went, they see that the cave has collapsed with Nisrar on the other side. They’ve been clearing the rubble for the last week. They explored the whole of the gap and found a similar caved in area, but this one wasn’t caved in and they wanted to find the root of this evil. It is their charge.

They explain to verity that there is a door on the other end of the cave they're stuck in. They can't open it, it's magically locked. Nisrar is worried that moving any further rubble could cause the cave to crash down. They felt and heard rumblings...

The gang takes the other fork and skips another fork towards what they believe is the right direction. They hear squabbling ahead in draconic. A few kobolds are yelling about their master. They make an approach, but the Kobolds are not excited to see them, especially since they know Wights are right around the corner. A fight breaks out and their master (a Behir) wakes and joins the battle. Three kobolds die as two other cower at their master's power. The Wights join the fight near the end, but they are defeated swiftly and the fight ends with the death of the Behir. The two other Kobolds scamper away.

Everyone investigates the treasure and finds:

• Potion of Speed
• Potion of Poison
• Immovable Rod
• Two chainmail shirts
• A set of baby’s shoes dipped in copper
• Gloves of Gripping
  • Gives wearer Strength or Athletics advantage on grappling and climbing checks
• 6255 gold
• 1290 silver
• 894 copper

Hadarri also finds the key to the door on the other end of the room. Opening the door, the giants are freed but a wave of dark energy suddenly fills everything. Veiko is entranced.

The giants explain they must leave this foul cave to regroup in order to defeat whatever evil is here.

Veiko is drawn to another door down the passage. The gang hesitantly follows. They try to move the door but cannot. Veiko hums to life with power and the door turns to dust.

The pulse of darkness is overwhelming. They move forward.

In the next room is a small cavernous room. A man lies next to a dark pool as it swirls swirling. The group recognizes this as a similar portal to what Kharza-khad was summoning.

The man speaks, directly to Veiko. This is the man Veiko saw in his vision. He wears tattered clothes, his shirt ripped to shreds. They all notice a symbol, one they saw above Torunn: Hextor.

The man explains that he used the last of his Material Plane power to create this hole down into an underground cave system to find this pool. Once he uses it, it will close.

When he sees Remnant, he smiles and calls it his old domicile. He asks Remnant is he is still Bashrah. (Bashrah, bless her, gave him a sweet moment to escape and he took it.)

He’s relieved that Veiko has found him. He’s been weak, only able to communicate in basic, simple messages. He needed to see him in person before he slipped back into the plane beyond the planes. He needed to bestow unto him one final boon before he left: a Ring of Mind Shielding.

While it has been beneficial for them to be able to communicate, he worries that Lolth may be able to manipulate him. He must not take the ring off as it is his only protection from her entering his mind while dreaming. If he allows it, he can open his mind while sleeping to Hextor, but he must will it before he sleeps.

He asks for help into the pool. Before leaving, he tells them all to find the Knife of Spirit Slashing. An ancient weapon owned by the Dwarves that was forged to threaten Mab and Titania from forging minions in the Material plane (as they are Material Plane adjacent).

It has been lost for ages. If they can find it, they can use it to cut Kharza-khad’s bond from Lolth. Lolth found her way to the Shadowplane (another adjacent plane) somehow and has created a bond to Kharza-khad using forbidden magicks. This knife is guaranteed to work, but will likely crumble upon use due to the severing of magic that will occur.

This should kill Kharza-khad once and for all, and will cause severe pain to Lolth.

As it turns out, Luana HAS this knife, but the choice now is: Kharza-khad or Tolnor?

Finally, Veiko ask, why is he helping them?

His sister dragged him into the last world-ending event and he wasn’t too pleased. It’s one thing to rule the Material Plane, it’s another to destroy it. He doesn’t like that idea. He likes the chaos the world feeds him. It's something he wants to hold on to.

Hextor tells Veiko that he will help him, and Veiko says that he will not hesitate to kill him if he needs to. "Gods can die."

Hextor falls into the pool and it swirls away into clear water. The dark pressure is lifted from this cave.

End of session.

Notes

Everyone levels up to LEVEL 10!!!

Travel information

Start - On the road south to the forest north of Darkfold

End - An underground cave system