Session 71: Into The Shadowfell Report

General Summary

Session 71 – Wednesday February 28, 2024 – Into The Shadowfell

2-hour Social / battle Session 6:00 PM to 8:00 PM

The Stone Bearers. Party of 5

It is the 9th day of the month of Hammer (Deepwinter) in the 51st year of the Age of Enialis (Early Jan)

• Abrash – Wood (Desert) Elf, L12 Druid – Jacob Munson (Remote)
• Ajani– High Elf, L12 Wizard – Nathan Gioconda
• Gazlowe – Goblin, L12 Artificer – Josh Pozsonyi (Absent)
• Cassidy – Human, L12 Blood hunter – Ryan Armstrong (Remote)
• Isabella – Forest Gnome, L12 Barbarian – Jackie Armstrong
• Juan Peyote – Gnome L12 Paladin – Will Johnson

We’re in the Shadowfell, right?

The party all started to wake up. They knew they were in the Shadowfell but didn’t know exactly where they were. They were all wearing very comfortable sleeping clothes. Cassidy started to look for a path. Juan used his divine sense to detect fiends or undead and didn’t detect any within 60 ft. They all got up and started to put their armor back on. Gazlowe got his stuff back into his armor when Cassidy sneezed, and he disappeared.   As he changed his armor, Abrash noticed a small black 2-inch line drawn on the inside of his left forearm. He walked over to Ajani and rolled back his sleeve to reveal the same thing. After a quick discussion they learned that everyone had this mark. They determined it was ink but not permanent like a tattoo, but it certainly won’t come off easily nor will it come off any time soon. Ajani determined it was not magical. Cassidy noted that it looks like the type of Ink Ajani has and it may have been applied with a finger. Ajani noted that his ink supply is a bit lower than he remembered but nobody had ink on any fingertips.

Where exactly are we and what are we missing?

Refocusing on the question of, “Where are we?” Ajani asked Abrash to consult his maps. Abrash looked for the crude map that was given to him by Ashyra, but he couldn’t find it. Isabella cast commune with nature to see what she could figure out. She didn’t sense any celestial creatures within 3 miles but there were lots of undead within 3 miles and in pretty much every direction. She also sensed a cave very close.   Juan summoned his bird and Ajani cast mage armor. The party began an inventory. They noted that they were missing about 2 days’ worth of rations and a couple healing potions. Ajani saw that a couple pages from his daily journal were missing along with a measurable amount of ink. Abrash continued his inventory and found another map that he didn’t remember that had “To Kortar where the Illithid are.” written in a calligraphy handwriting that looked amazing. Whoever wrote this was classically educated in ancient elven and a skilled artist. The depictions on the map were near realistic and simply drawn in ink. The writing was in common, but the script had signs of elven calligraphy. There were a couple of notes on the map. “Stay on path” and “Keep quiet.”

Bunnies?

Abrash heard a rustling from the bushes about 100’ away. He looked and saw tall ears peaking over the bush, kind of like Bunny ears. With no color in the Shadowfell it was hard to identify the creature, but it was clearly attracted the sound they were making. Abrash noticed other movement indicating more than one creature. He told the rest of the party, to be quiet. But simply speaking that, he noticed the ears twitch and seemed to focus on him. Abrash began to cast pass without a trace to help the party be quiet, but the verbal component caused the creatures to leap out of the bushes and five large Aural hunters charged towards Abrash. The creatures had 6 long legs with claws, two very tall rabbit like ears, pincers on the front of their body but no visible eyes or mouth. See Image ->Aural Hunter

Aural Hunters

Cassidy stood perfectly still and didn’t make a sound. The first creature went to attack Abrash, but Isabella was able to throw a rock and distract the creature. Isabella stood perfectly still and hid. Abrash cast guardians of nature to protect himself and then cast poison spray on the creature, hurting it a little. Ajani pulled out a lighter and clicked it several times to attract the creatures and then cast fireball on the group of them. The creatures writhed in pain but made no noise. Vor’pat sliced into one of the creatures twice. Juan critically hit one of the creatures while using his wrathful smite.   Ajani got hit by one of the creatures and was grappled in its pincers. Juan was grappled also. Cassidy moved and hit the creature with surprise because she was hidden as did Isabella. Abrash concentrated his fire on the creature hitting his brother. Ajani cast banishment on the creature that was grappling him, and it disappeared. Juan pierced one of the badly hurt creatures and killed it.   Another creature grappled Juan and with its pincers and squeezed until Juan screamed in pain. The screams of Juan partially healed the creature. Cassidy hid again. Isabella distracted a creature that was trying to hit Juan. She then hit the creature with her axe and killed it. Abrash focused his fire on the creature attacking Juan also and hit it with a firebolt and a starry mote. Ajani joined in and hit it with a chromatic orb. Vor’pat hit the creature grappling Abrash and bloodied it. The creature turned to run, and the party slew it as it tried to leave. Cassidy hit one of the creatures twice with her whips. Isabella critically hit the creature and splattered its guts everywhere.   With all but the banished creature killed, the party gathered next to the spot they know it would return. They tried to be quiet, but Abrash coughed, and Jaun couldn’t control his flatulence. The creature reappeared and heard them both. As soon as it returned Cassidy hit it, Isabella critically hit it and Abrash disintegrated it with a critical hit from a firebolt.

Post battle.

Abrash used a healing kit to heal Jaun and Juan used his lay on hands to heal back up to full. Isabella and Cassidy started pulling parts from the dead creatures. Cassidy extracted a couple sets of ears and gave the better pair to Juan. Isabella and Cassidy pulled half a dozen of the pincers from the creatures. They didn’t dare try to eat the creatures and advised Juan not to.   As Abrash was helping to heal Juan he spotted 2 small puncture wounds on Juan’s neck. Cassidy heard this and examined the mark and quickly knew that this was a vampire bite. They examined the rest of the party and saw that Isabella too had a bite mark on her neck. Juan was excited to turn into a vampire.

Into the cave

Abrash noticed a Cave, not too far away and consulted his map. HE realized this was the destination indicated on the map where the Illithid are. The party went in. The tunnels were long with a few side passages and the party meandered around for about 15 minutes. They heard a low hum and an organic squishy sound down a hall. Vor’pat said, “This is the way to Lord Syuul, he manipulates flesh. Be on your guard, he’ll have sentries posted.” Ajani asked what type of guards they might have. Vor’pat told him of Illithid, floating brains, brains with muscular bodies and the possibility of any sort of amalgamation of creatures from this plane.   They walked down the passage and started noticing sinew and a flesh like substance attached to the walls. It got thicker as they went and formed a bridge into a cavernous opening. The party move slowly and stealthily towards the opening. Cassidy quashed the light from her whips. They saw the beginning of a massive cavern. Without light they couldn’t see the far side. In the middle was a massive ball covered with a flesh like substance, suspended over a deep pit by dozens of fleshy sinewy attachments anchored to the walls. They were on what looked like a bridge made of flesh and sinew the lead to the upper 1/3rd of the ball. They heard a humming sound and crept back into the tunnel. They saw 10 floating brains and an Illithid floating on a disk searching the area. The party didn’t move, and patrol passed by, apparently not noticing them…