Session 2. - Exploring Thunder's Echo Cave
General Summary
14th of Hearthfrost, 1439 A.P.
The party awoke the next day and made plans to explore the Thunder's Echo Cave system and find out more about this Hulil person. When Deadeye didn't show up to breakfast, they checked his room only to find the little Kenku puking his guts out after eating bad eels the night before. He valiantly tried to join the others but was strongly encouraged to stay behind by both the local priest and the rest of the group.
After a quick conversation with Elro to confirm the directions, they headed out promising they'd be back tonight with news. They quickly left the village behind, following an old trail through the woods. About an hour after leaving the village the weather starting to turn and it soon began to snow - a cold, wet miserable experience that ensured everyone was on edge and tired. The snow slowed their track but by noon, the remnants of the old watchtower that Elro had told them marked the half-way point came in to view. Though the snow muffled sound, they could hear a weird sound (a cross between a growl and a screech) coming from the direction of the tower. While the others stayed back by the last ridge before the tower, Oorr silently crept closer to investigate the noise. As he rounded the tower, he saw an owlbear scrabbling frantically at the tower door, trying to get in. The owlbear seemed oblivious to Oorr at this point and so he quietly returned to the others and let them know what was making the god-awful screeching. A short debate broke out within the group. Most everyone wanted to avoid the tower (and owlbear) altogether, with only Oorr and Suljurn both in favour of confronting the beast. As they bantered and debated, someone said that it's not like there's a fair maiden inside the tower that we have to save. At the mention of a possible damsel in distress, Oorr put an end to the debate by running up to the owlbear while it was still distracted and stabbing it from behind, shouting out to "the damsels" that he would save them. The others, baffled at Oorr's behaviour, took a few seconds to follow and get in the fight. They genuinely wondered if he was hallucinating or if he'd eaten the same bad eels as Deadeye, They got in the fight just in time to watch Oorr take a vicious slash from the beast that sent him to the ground. He didn't get up immediately and while Urith and Arbor peppered the owlbear with arrows and spells (respectively), Angrar charged in but was ineffective at piercing the creature's hide. Suljurn called upon his god and brought Oorr back from the brink of death. Oorr immediately jumped back into the fight and promptly took another hard hit from the owlbear that sent him knocking once again on the door of The Lady Most Kind. After managing to revive Oorr once again, the group eventually put the beast out of it's misery. After looking closely at the corpse, it was evident that the owlbear had been starving. They pushed the ruined door of the tower and stepped inside. a short spiral staircase led upwards into the open air. As Urith searched under the stairs, he was startled by a squeak as two giant rats leapt out at him from where they were hiding. They nipped at Urith before trying to bolt between Suljurn's legs and heading for the woods. Oorr managed to skewer one of them before bolting but the other raced quickly out of sight. A quick search of the tower revealed a small pouch of coins and not much else. Feeling ill-used by the owlbear and his lunch they made the humbling decision to sneak back to town and rest up, find some healing for Oorr if possible and try again tomorrow. Unfortunately, they ran into Elro as they made their way back into town who was disappointed in their lack of temerity and begrudgingly pointed them to the local herbalist, Miracle Max, and told them to get back at solving the village's problem. So after a very rushed donation, they got a lousy miracle, and only that because Oorr was "mostly dead". They headed back on the road and when they returned to the watchtower, the corpse of the owlbear was gone. By the tracks, it looked like it had been dragged into the woods by several somethings, by Urith's estimation it was likely the pack of wolves they'd intermittently seen trailing them through the forest. The wolves stayed near the edge of the clearing watching them and as they trekked towards the cave the wolves mirrored their journey, until Urith loosed an arrow at them they scattered into the woods. As they got closer to the cave, the crash of the surf became noticeable. By the time they reached the entrance, the reason for the cave's name was evident. It did indeed sound like like thunder rumbling from within the cave. It was early evening when they reached the cave and everyone was cold, miserable and exhausted but feeling like this would be fairly simple, they decided to explore the cave rather than rest. After a cursory check of the hillside outside, they saw several sets of humanoid tracks coming to and from the darkened cave mouth. They also discovered a tiny natural chimney further up the hillside but it was far too small to fit any of the group. After figuring out who would lead, they went inside the gloom. Urith, being the only one unable to naturally see in the dark, lit a torch and they came across a deep pool of water and what looked like two passageways (or possibly alcoves) leading further into the cave. There was a single wooden beam propped against one side of the water leading to one passage. Being already cold and exhausted, the thought of adding wet to the mix filled everyone with dread and they went to elaborate lengths to avoid the water. Urith decided to walk the beam while Oorr started free-climbing the wall in the opposite direction. Oorr agily made his way to the far side, however Urith was not so graceful. Whether because the log was slippery, or Urith was just exhausted, he made a mis-step and plunged into the icy water. The noise and disruption woke the giant ice frogs that lived in the frigid pool and they attacked, assuming Urith was food. Oorr attempted to climb back and help but slipped halfway and also went in to the water. He was also swarmed by several frogs and as he was still recovering from the owlbear, went down quickly. The others eventually waded in to save him and dispatch the frogs. After an intense fight where Oorr repeatedly went down (again), the frogs were defeated. Afterwards, the party were feeling tired, ill-used and felt they desperately needed to rest before they explored any further. They debated setting up camp just inside the cave mouth, but eventually decided to trek back to the ruined watchtower and make camp. They returned to the cave the next morning, refreshed and healed up, though still feeling the cold. When they got there, the board Urith had used the night before was gone. Rather than get wet again, Urith devised a cunning plan where they would go back into the forest, chop down the largest tree they could find and build a bridge or raft or something to get them across safely. The others initially resisted the idea, feeling it was much too time consuming and elaborate but eventually gave in to his madness as they didn't have any better solutions. They went along with the idea and as they were bringing in a second large tree, they were interupted by the bandits living in the cave who had been attracted by the noise. The bandits slung some insults at the party's craftmanship but weren't terribly interested in witty banter and started shooting the party. Neither group stepped into the water and instead traded arrowshots across the pool. While Urith was able to shoot several, and Oorr tossed a few daggers at them, the rest of the party was somewhat inneffective and quickly became pincushions to the bandits superior numbers. When Suljurn went down, the party realised their tactical error and retreated once again back to the watch tower to heal up (AGAIN!). The next morning, they went back to the cave yet again. This time they didn't even try to build a raft and accepted the inevitable shrinkage and waded across the icy water. The cave was eerily empty. In the side room, they heard bats rustling overhead but they didn't disturb them. Exploring down the other passage, they found a communal campsite that looked recently, and hastily, left behind. It looks like the bandits had left. The firepit was cold but they did find a bottle of mead, some loose coinage as well as a bucket of dead bats that was left near another smaller pool. The cavern continued on and the sound of thunder became extremely loud as they came on another large deep pool. Fearing more frogs, the party were hesitant to get into the water. When they got close to the water's edge, the largest frog they'd ever seen surfaced and eyed them. As the giant frog didn't attack right away, they debated whether he'd let them cross the pool. Having an idea, Arbor ran back and grabbed the bucket of bats. As soon as he returned, the giant frog immediately focused on the bucket, tracking it intensely as Arbor paced on the shore. Eventually, using his magic and the bats as a lure, he coaxed the frog to ferry them across. Once they were across, the frog grabbed the bucket and dove under the water. On the far side they rounded a corner and came across a large cavern with a roaring fire blazing in the center. On the far side of the fire they could see a female Goblin in prayer before an altar to the Goddess Zahriel. A male humanoid in dark robes tended the fire and called out to the goblin when he noticed the party enter. The goblin demanded to know what they wanted. She identified herself as Hulil and the party tried to shmooze their way into her good graces by talking about the affliction and were somewhat successful, learning that it was a disease known as Frigid Woe. They even went as far as to accept a job offer to escort her to her friends in Shady Creek. Without much warning however, Hulil, reacted seemingly arbitrarily and threw a vial of the blue dust at the group. Arbor and Oorr both inhaled copious amounts of the dust while Angrar and Suljurn avoided it.After a brief fight, Hulil and her flunky were defeated. The party searched the room for any further clues and discovered a note stating hulil had sold a blue vial to an Urven Lie. They also found a pair of magic goggles, some magic arrows, a pile of small coins and the rest of the treasure Urgon had sold. Taking their loot, they headed back to the village, hopefully to find a cure for Oorr and Arbor and hopefully to find this Urven Liel character as well.
Rewards Granted
- 237xp (118xp for Deadeye)
- A pair of magic goggles
- 6 magic arrows
- an ornate scroll case
- a jade statuette of a giant
- a silver ring set with a small jasper stone
Missions/Quests Completed
- Discovered the source of the Freezing Sickness
Character(s) interacted with
- Hulil Lutan
Notes
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Oorr Rosetta del Hilltopple
Chaotic Good [Tar] Faun (City Watch / Investigator)
Rogue 4
Sorcerer 1
Rogue 4
Sorcerer 1
37 / 37 HP
STR
10
10
DEX
18
18
CON
12
12
INT
8
8
WIS
12
12
CHA
16
16
Urith Thane
Suljurn sah-Ghad
Arbor Nox
Angrar Ironbrow
Report Date
24 Sep 2022
Primary Location
Secondary Location
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