The Natural Disasters #14: In the Dark

General Summary

The group approach the tablet in the dark wood. They look for writing, and they manage to identify that there is some kind of strange writing on it, but too odd for any of them to know. Luckily, Nix can use some minor arcana to discern it despite this difference. Once they cast their spell, they read out, "A man from a life he left behind. In his time, the summoning of that which takes life was adamant. That which took, gave life to something more" The group try a number of things, but they can't seem to break the tablets power. 
In the meanwhile, Hope cuts through the animals and finds strange taint upon pieces of flesh and organs of the creatures. Strangest of all, she finds that none of the animals have hearts. It is difficult for the group to make sense of any of this. They also try in vain to bait out the frog-like creature they had fought before, but they are unable to gain its attention.
Saddened, the group come to the conclusion that they may need to head elsewhere to solve this riddle. They may need to find the man the riddle speaks of to finish this. It is, difficult, but they all climb out of the valley, Nix revealing access to some strange tendril to help Ariel climb out, and they move to the next tendril of darkness. 
A few days of travel, they make their way into a cave upon the fields of the dead. Inside, they sense a necromantic aura from a troll laying against a pillar. The group look around, see some undead fighting what Raven referred to as the Sorrowsworn and decide to take down the troll, which they manage to do easily whilst it was asleep.
The group then travel away from the darkness and begin to collect treasure from trapped chests. This goes fairly well, and the group moves on towards the darkness, where they speak to a ghost and a couple of mummies about what is happening here. The undead are aggressive, but not immediately hostile. They listen, and although untrusting, they offer to let the adventurers into the cave to fight their enemies if they agree not to take anything. Those three undead then unite with a cadre under the leadership of a wraith.
The group move towards the darkness and away from the undead, but they end up in combat with a skeletal champion who attacks them on sight. This fight is deceptively difficult, but after hit with a relatively powerful bag of sand, it didn't take long for the skeleton to crumble. Then, Nix raised the skeleton as this strange creature that followed their commands.
Moving forward, the group come upon a hole of darkness ahead of them. They are confused by this and work on it for a while until they eventually notice it looks similar to cloth. Ariel leans down and picks up the hole and realized they have found a magical item. Then, two more sorrowsworn, the lost and the angry. The group manage to kill the lost, but the angry continues to strike in its dangerous manner.
In the fight, it manages to strike out and knock Kriv unconscious, and then it turned its attention to Ariel. Now, it prepares to strike into him again as Kriv holds onto life.

Report Date

28 Feb 2021