The Last Trial of Saint Davor
Saint Davor of the Hammer has one last great trial before him: finding and killing the ancient green dragon Murderwing, whose disturbed slumber brings nightmares and death to the Azer forrest.
To do this they must go deep into the Feywild to find the prison of Murderwing, which has been overrun by madness and destruction.
However, the eyes of something cruel and malicious watches over the Owls, and is prepared to pounce on them when they least expect it.
To do this they must go deep into the Feywild to find the prison of Murderwing, which has been overrun by madness and destruction.
However, the eyes of something cruel and malicious watches over the Owls, and is prepared to pounce on them when they least expect it.
Relations
Allies
Triam the Paladin
Adversaries
Scíaraithe - Murderwing
Scíaraithe is an ancient green dragon, one of the dreaming dragons of old. Scíaraithe fought in the final days of the First War, and after the Worldtree went to sleep he struck out on his own, forming a Red Empire in the Feywild for himself. He also came to be known as Murderwing, for he was a brutal and dangerous dragon. Many early civilizations worshiped him as a god of war and bloodshed.
During the Dreamwar, he refused to bend the knee before the Eternal King, which resulted in his imprisonment in this dungeon. He has been woefully dreaming and spreading nightmares the last few years, slowly growing his influence in the Feywild and the real world through the cracks in his prison. He wants to escape this prison and take his vengeance on the Eternal King and the arrogant wood elves.
Caomhing the Red Blade
Caomhing was a mighty paladin of the Worldtree, and fought alongside the Eternal King in the Dreamwar as one of his champions. It was Caomhing who delt the final blow to Scíaraithe, coating her halberd in the blood of the dragon. Her halberd became permanently red from the dragonblood, giving Caomhing the monicker "the Red Blade". The Eternal King decided to imprison Scíaraithe, and chose to give Caomhing the gift of eternal life, in return for her remaining as the jailer of Scíaraithe, leading her own paladin order of Red Blades.
Caomhing accepted the offer, and for a long time she guarded Scíaraithe while protecting areas of the Feywild with her paladin order. However, Scíaraithe reached out through the bloody halberd in dreams and nightmares, and Caomhing slowly grew more and more violent and brutal. She had a strong will, but many of the younger paladins were driven mad by the bloodlust. Eventually her fortress became a place of civil war, of mad internecine conflict, while the Red Moss was growing throughout the fortress. Caomhing herself eventually found only one solution: in a night of brutal violence she slaughtered her fellow paladins, mad and sane alike, in order to stop the spread of the Red Moss. She now stands as the last palading on her post, between the fortress proper and Scíaraithe's prison. She will let none pass.
While her mind has long since been eroded, all that remains being her loyalty to her post and following her orders, as she has been lost to the Dreaming, her body has lost none of its agility, swiftness and brutality. She fights even now just as well as she did during the Dreamwar. However, the Red Moss has found its way inside her, and if she gets too provoked it may finally overrun her, creating and avatar of Murder.
Altsehashke - the Laughing Wolf
Altsehashke, the laughing wolf, has grown more and more tired of the Owls, their lies and their disrespect. He promised that he would kill Ceren if he ever set his foot in some woods again, but he will show some tactical mercy by trying to kidnap Ceren and using him as blackmail for Blaecbrand giving him the Anathame.
Altsehash is a CR 26 fey lord, a souped-up werewolf.
Scíaraithe is an ancient green dragon, one of the dreaming dragons of old. Scíaraithe fought in the final days of the First War, and after the Worldtree went to sleep he struck out on his own, forming a Red Empire in the Feywild for himself. He also came to be known as Murderwing, for he was a brutal and dangerous dragon. Many early civilizations worshiped him as a god of war and bloodshed.
During the Dreamwar, he refused to bend the knee before the Eternal King, which resulted in his imprisonment in this dungeon. He has been woefully dreaming and spreading nightmares the last few years, slowly growing his influence in the Feywild and the real world through the cracks in his prison. He wants to escape this prison and take his vengeance on the Eternal King and the arrogant wood elves.
Caomhing the Red Blade
Caomhing was a mighty paladin of the Worldtree, and fought alongside the Eternal King in the Dreamwar as one of his champions. It was Caomhing who delt the final blow to Scíaraithe, coating her halberd in the blood of the dragon. Her halberd became permanently red from the dragonblood, giving Caomhing the monicker "the Red Blade". The Eternal King decided to imprison Scíaraithe, and chose to give Caomhing the gift of eternal life, in return for her remaining as the jailer of Scíaraithe, leading her own paladin order of Red Blades.
Caomhing accepted the offer, and for a long time she guarded Scíaraithe while protecting areas of the Feywild with her paladin order. However, Scíaraithe reached out through the bloody halberd in dreams and nightmares, and Caomhing slowly grew more and more violent and brutal. She had a strong will, but many of the younger paladins were driven mad by the bloodlust. Eventually her fortress became a place of civil war, of mad internecine conflict, while the Red Moss was growing throughout the fortress. Caomhing herself eventually found only one solution: in a night of brutal violence she slaughtered her fellow paladins, mad and sane alike, in order to stop the spread of the Red Moss. She now stands as the last palading on her post, between the fortress proper and Scíaraithe's prison. She will let none pass.
While her mind has long since been eroded, all that remains being her loyalty to her post and following her orders, as she has been lost to the Dreaming, her body has lost none of its agility, swiftness and brutality. She fights even now just as well as she did during the Dreamwar. However, the Red Moss has found its way inside her, and if she gets too provoked it may finally overrun her, creating and avatar of Murder.
Altsehashke - the Laughing Wolf
Altsehashke, the laughing wolf, has grown more and more tired of the Owls, their lies and their disrespect. He promised that he would kill Ceren if he ever set his foot in some woods again, but he will show some tactical mercy by trying to kidnap Ceren and using him as blackmail for Blaecbrand giving him the Anathame.
Altsehash is a CR 26 fey lord, a souped-up werewolf.
Backdrops
Locations
Dún Dearg - the Fortress
Dún Dearg, the Red Fortress in old wood elvish, was once a proud fortress from which Red-clad paladins rode out to punish cruel fey spirits and keep the peace in the Feywild. However, now it is a bloody ruin of its former glory, each part of it destroyed in a relentless internecine conflict. From the outside, it looks simply like a hill, with a few tattered red banners featuring red blades drawn out in black. The Dún Dearg is here protected by a skewered Forrest Giant, who has been corrupted by the Red Moss and fights by summoning fey spirits and plants to his side. The Forrest Giant sits in fron of the entrance to the Dún Dearg.
Entering the hill, one walks through a dark tunnel leading to an expansive dark space. In this wintertime, one can see snow gently fall down on a plain, with a tall forrtress in the middle. The snow seems to glow of is own accord, as if reflecting light from a secret moon. This fortress is the Dún Dearg, and once it was a proud bastion of Wood Elven might, but now it is a burnt-out ruin. It is clear to any who look upon it that it has been the site of brutal fighting, with several wings of the fortress burn out and parts of it collapsed in on itself. At the top of the Dún Dearg is a belltower, with a beautifully fashioned bell. Walking towards the tower, the footprints one leaves behind are red. This is because the red moss covers the entire plain around the fortress.
If one tries to fly towards the Dún Dearg, one will not get any closer, the only way to enter the tower is through its front gates.
The inside of the Dún Dearg is marked first and foremost by the many broken bodies inside, broken in fighting eachother, alongside the insidious growing red moss. Should focus on the aspect of ruin in the Fortress.
While the Paladins themselves are dead, the Red Moss still poses a threat.
The Dungeon
Behind Caomhing there is a lift leading down into the Dungeon itself. The Dungeon first looks like a small shrine dedicated to the Eternal King and the Worldtree, and then it leads out onto a white plain with patches of red moss, with a bloodred sun high in the sky. This is Murderwing's dream, an unreal place created by his mind. Here he will face them in the aspect of a fierce wargod he once was, with an army of humans and other creatures at his side.
One Murderwing is killed in the dream, the true dungeon is revealed, a formless place deep beneath the earth created by roots above. Just an expansive inky blackness, where the colossal dragon now stirs.
Both the Dungeon and the Fortress are proof against teleportation and plane shifting , as they were designed to stop a great and powerful dragon from leaving.
Dún Dearg, the Red Fortress in old wood elvish, was once a proud fortress from which Red-clad paladins rode out to punish cruel fey spirits and keep the peace in the Feywild. However, now it is a bloody ruin of its former glory, each part of it destroyed in a relentless internecine conflict. From the outside, it looks simply like a hill, with a few tattered red banners featuring red blades drawn out in black. The Dún Dearg is here protected by a skewered Forrest Giant, who has been corrupted by the Red Moss and fights by summoning fey spirits and plants to his side. The Forrest Giant sits in fron of the entrance to the Dún Dearg.
Entering the hill, one walks through a dark tunnel leading to an expansive dark space. In this wintertime, one can see snow gently fall down on a plain, with a tall forrtress in the middle. The snow seems to glow of is own accord, as if reflecting light from a secret moon. This fortress is the Dún Dearg, and once it was a proud bastion of Wood Elven might, but now it is a burnt-out ruin. It is clear to any who look upon it that it has been the site of brutal fighting, with several wings of the fortress burn out and parts of it collapsed in on itself. At the top of the Dún Dearg is a belltower, with a beautifully fashioned bell. Walking towards the tower, the footprints one leaves behind are red. This is because the red moss covers the entire plain around the fortress.
If one tries to fly towards the Dún Dearg, one will not get any closer, the only way to enter the tower is through its front gates.
The inside of the Dún Dearg is marked first and foremost by the many broken bodies inside, broken in fighting eachother, alongside the insidious growing red moss. Should focus on the aspect of ruin in the Fortress.
While the Paladins themselves are dead, the Red Moss still poses a threat.
The Dungeon
Behind Caomhing there is a lift leading down into the Dungeon itself. The Dungeon first looks like a small shrine dedicated to the Eternal King and the Worldtree, and then it leads out onto a white plain with patches of red moss, with a bloodred sun high in the sky. This is Murderwing's dream, an unreal place created by his mind. Here he will face them in the aspect of a fierce wargod he once was, with an army of humans and other creatures at his side.
One Murderwing is killed in the dream, the true dungeon is revealed, a formless place deep beneath the earth created by roots above. Just an expansive inky blackness, where the colossal dragon now stirs.
Both the Dungeon and the Fortress are proof against teleportation and plane shifting , as they were designed to stop a great and powerful dragon from leaving.
Encounters
Ringing the Bell
In order to ring the bell to undlock the path to the gaol, the Owls must first retrieve two silver knives, which will unlock a puzzle when given to the statues of two paladins. The puzzle revolves around finding the correct progression of notes, from this poem:Our lady triumphant
One perfect moment, a slice of time, and
The beast crippled beneath her
And this poem:
Battle was joined between the lady and the beast
It was morning, on the day of the longsun
A blade of red lay on the battlefield
These are on the two different statues, with a set of corresponding tiles to be slotted into a machine before the bell.
The correct order is:
Retrieving the Knife of the Strong
Commander Lugaid was one of four commanders of the Redblades, and they all switched the knife between them at random and in secret, to ensure an enemy would have to attack them all to get a hold of the knife. When Caoming Redblade went on her rampage, she killed all her lietunants, and before anarchy reigned in the fortress they were buried with honors, Lugaid being buried with the knife. They are thus buried in the spiritgrove, each of the four lietunants with their honors, and their greatest achievemnt written into their spirittree.
When a tree is disturbed to find the knife, a group of Spirit Commanders materialise into the grove. First time enough for an Easy encounter, second time for a Medium and third for a hard and fourth for a deadly.
In order to gain some more insight, the Owls could travel up to the lietunant quarters on the third floor of the fortress. Here they can discover, through clues, the deeds of the different lietunants, and they can also discover the silver lockbox that held the knife in Lugaid's quarters. The different commanders, their achievement and the clue:
In order to take this knife, the Owls must enter the Tower of the Wise adjacent to the fortress. Entering it from the gardens at the ground level results in being attacked by a large group of degenerated warlocks, who have held the tower against incursion. Entering it from the bridge at the fourth floor is a bit easier, but one must then contend with a medium encounter of Redblades.
In the top of the tower there is a scrying pool used by the tower's archdruid. The archdruid's corpse can also be found here, killed and eaten by the Redblades. The archdruid hid their knife when things started turning sour, and sacrificed themselves to ensure that opening the gate to Murderwing would be very difficult. Underneath this top floor, in the third floor, there is a library which is inhabited by a sane young warlock, Emer, who is trying to discover a spell to let her leave the fortress. She knows more than the drunkard in the main fortress, and knows that the archdruid left the knife in here somewhere, behind some sort of magical puzzle. She can detail how everything went to shit in the fortress, and how the paladins, warlocks and squires fought in a grand spectacle of violence that seemed to spread like a disease. A few were unaffected, like herself and the drunkard, but most who were unaffected were killed in the battles.
A DC 18 Perception check reveals two pressure plates at the end of the room by the wall, next to what appears to be a secret wall or door. On one pressure plate reads:
Holding the gaunltet up right materializes the knife in your hand.
If the Owls are willing to help Emer, she wants to send a message to the Order's fortress in Chéad Cathair, so people will know. She asks them to give her 500 gold, so she can create a spell scroll of Sending and send a message home, to help clear up this mess. With all the Dreamwalkers of the Red Fortress dead, it will be difficult for her and other survivors to even leave the fortress and go home.
Fighting the Red Blade
Caomhing the Red Blade stands below her fortress, between the gate and the entrance to the jail. She is holding on to herself with sheer determination, holding on to her oath: no one shall set Murderwing free, and Murderwing shall not pass. She stands as a last living wall between Murderwing and the outside world: and so long as she can hold on and not give in to the Dreaming, Murderwing will be too afraid to try and leave. However, even her willpower cannot last forever, and the Moss is eroding her personality.
When she sees the Party, she will utter a simple warning: "You may not pass."
She will draw her glaive on the ground, looking at them from under her helmet with bloodshot eyes.
If they move to fight her, she also moves quickly in return. She is fast, blindingly fast, and has two turns: one at initiative and one -10 initiative. When they fight her: Caomhing the Red Blade.
She is a souped up Redblade Paladin, with higher AC, more HP and fancy supermoves (Malenia-style), alongside 4 legendary actions. Inspiration from this: https://i.redd.it/ynva9xxdf1v81.png
When she would die, she instead enters her mythic phase. She screams out in pain and gives in to the dreaming, and she grows bigger and more grotesque, snapping her glaive in two. She becomes nearly covered in the moss and becomes draonic and monstrous, with only parts of her armor remaining visible. Her healthbar is now called: Caomhing - Avatar of Murderwing.
Fighting Murderwing
Fleeing from the Laughing Wolf
In order to ring the bell to undlock the path to the gaol, the Owls must first retrieve two silver knives, which will unlock a puzzle when given to the statues of two paladins. The puzzle revolves around finding the correct progression of notes, from this poem:
The correct order is:
- It was morning, on the day of the longsun (sun)
- Battle was joined between the lady and the beast (a blade and a claw)
- One perfect moment, a slice of time, and (an hourglas)
- A blade of red lay on the battlefield (a blade)
- Our lady triumphant (a banner)
- The beast crippled beneath her (a wounded dragon)
Retrieving the Knife of the Strong
Commander Lugaid was one of four commanders of the Redblades, and they all switched the knife between them at random and in secret, to ensure an enemy would have to attack them all to get a hold of the knife. When Caoming Redblade went on her rampage, she killed all her lietunants, and before anarchy reigned in the fortress they were buried with honors, Lugaid being buried with the knife. They are thus buried in the spiritgrove, each of the four lietunants with their honors, and their greatest achievemnt written into their spirittree.
When a tree is disturbed to find the knife, a group of Spirit Commanders materialise into the grove. First time enough for an Easy encounter, second time for a Medium and third for a hard and fourth for a deadly.
In order to gain some more insight, the Owls could travel up to the lietunant quarters on the third floor of the fortress. Here they can discover, through clues, the deeds of the different lietunants, and they can also discover the silver lockbox that held the knife in Lugaid's quarters. The different commanders, their achievement and the clue:
- Dianaim, who held the Pass of Dreams and survived a thousand arrows, a tattered cloak with many holes as a trophy
- Lugaid, who stood fast against evil and pierced a great Wolf Spirit, a bow and arrows with +2 silver tipped arrows, locked in a display
- Érennach, who broke down the gates of the Dreamer and survived her poisonbreath, a few draconic scales in a leather pouch
- Sinech, who entered the lair of the Spider Mother and stole an eye, a small jar with a strange red eye, which seems to stare out. Whoever holds it has advantage on perception checks, but also occasionally sees stuff that isn't there and becomes more jump
In order to take this knife, the Owls must enter the Tower of the Wise adjacent to the fortress. Entering it from the gardens at the ground level results in being attacked by a large group of degenerated warlocks, who have held the tower against incursion. Entering it from the bridge at the fourth floor is a bit easier, but one must then contend with a medium encounter of Redblades.
In the top of the tower there is a scrying pool used by the tower's archdruid. The archdruid's corpse can also be found here, killed and eaten by the Redblades. The archdruid hid their knife when things started turning sour, and sacrificed themselves to ensure that opening the gate to Murderwing would be very difficult. Underneath this top floor, in the third floor, there is a library which is inhabited by a sane young warlock, Emer, who is trying to discover a spell to let her leave the fortress. She knows more than the drunkard in the main fortress, and knows that the archdruid left the knife in here somewhere, behind some sort of magical puzzle. She can detail how everything went to shit in the fortress, and how the paladins, warlocks and squires fought in a grand spectacle of violence that seemed to spread like a disease. A few were unaffected, like herself and the drunkard, but most who were unaffected were killed in the battles.
A DC 18 Perception check reveals two pressure plates at the end of the room by the wall, next to what appears to be a secret wall or door. On one pressure plate reads:
- Hue like amber, fair to men and source of evil, what am I? - Gold
- Fairer still than my brother, though harder to obtain, what am I? - Knowledge (ie a book)
Holding the gaunltet up right materializes the knife in your hand.
If the Owls are willing to help Emer, she wants to send a message to the Order's fortress in Chéad Cathair, so people will know. She asks them to give her 500 gold, so she can create a spell scroll of Sending and send a message home, to help clear up this mess. With all the Dreamwalkers of the Red Fortress dead, it will be difficult for her and other survivors to even leave the fortress and go home.
Fighting the Red Blade
Caomhing the Red Blade stands below her fortress, between the gate and the entrance to the jail. She is holding on to herself with sheer determination, holding on to her oath: no one shall set Murderwing free, and Murderwing shall not pass. She stands as a last living wall between Murderwing and the outside world: and so long as she can hold on and not give in to the Dreaming, Murderwing will be too afraid to try and leave. However, even her willpower cannot last forever, and the Moss is eroding her personality.
When she sees the Party, she will utter a simple warning: "You may not pass."
She will draw her glaive on the ground, looking at them from under her helmet with bloodshot eyes.
If they move to fight her, she also moves quickly in return. She is fast, blindingly fast, and has two turns: one at initiative and one -10 initiative. When they fight her: Caomhing the Red Blade.
She is a souped up Redblade Paladin, with higher AC, more HP and fancy supermoves (Malenia-style), alongside 4 legendary actions. Inspiration from this: https://i.redd.it/ynva9xxdf1v81.png
When she would die, she instead enters her mythic phase. She screams out in pain and gives in to the dreaming, and she grows bigger and more grotesque, snapping her glaive in two. She becomes nearly covered in the moss and becomes draonic and monstrous, with only parts of her armor remaining visible. Her healthbar is now called: Caomhing - Avatar of Murderwing.
Fighting Murderwing
Fleeing from the Laughing Wolf
Parent Plot
Related Locations
Related Session Reports
Comments