Mission 4 - A Deep and Creeping Darkness
General Summary
In the hallowed halls of Candlekeep, beneath the first light of dawn, a band of adventurers awoke. Emerging from their quarters, they ventured into the Court of Air, where a figure awaited them—a sturdy dwarf clutching a tome bound in ominous black leather. This was Ormall Emberbrew, a miner of fierce determination, his heart set on reopening a long-abandoned platinum mine that once enriched the distant mountain village of Vermilion. Yet darkness clung to the place like a curse.
With steady hands, Ormall presented the adventurers with his book, titled “A Deep and Creeping Darkness”. Within its pages, vignettes and tales collected from survivors, merchants, and wanderers wove a haunting story. The village of Vermilion had risen from humble beginnings, a settlement built near a bountiful vein of platinum, thriving for a decade before disaster struck. An explosion had shattered the mine’s tunnels, entombing sixty miners beneath mountains of stone. Though sixteen were pulled from the depths, eleven souls remained lost to the dark.
But as Vermilion reeled from grief, a sinister terror gripped the survivors. One by one, they vanished—first the miners who had escaped death, then the villagers who remained. The town fell silent, whispers of a curse spreading across the mountains like smoke. In the end, Vermilion stood empty, abandoned to shadow and snow.
Ormall spoke of wealth and danger, promising the adventurers half the mine’s future profits if they dared to reclaim it. With spirits bold and weapons ready, they agreed. Supplies were gathered, and soon the party set off toward the mountains, their path winding through the bustling town of Marin, where Ormall’s wary brother, Kanuli, awaited. With much grumbling, Kanuli embraced the partnership, and the Emberbrew brothers led them to a humble tavern known as The Bored Weasel.
In the dim, fire-lit tavern, they met Lucas Grovesner, the aging keeper with a smile that hinted at once-great strength. Lucas was a man of Vermilion, his young wife lost in the mine’s tragic collapse. He asked the adventurers for a kindness—to lay flowers upon her resting place and to retrieve a necklace from the heart of the forsaken village. They also met Astra Vorn, a flower seller, who told them of his two mothers, and how his mother the mayor stayed to defend the village. He gave them a bouquet of pleasant caps and ochipaire to lay on Lorna’s grave.
Equipped and rested, the adventurers climbed into the mountains, journeying three days until the lonely silhouette of Vermilion emerged against a stormy sky. Time had claimed the village, its homes crumbling beneath encroaching vines and snow-heavy trees. In the foreboding silence, the party entered the ruined buildings, discovering strange clues that pointed to mysteries unsolved.
In a hollow tree, they found a necklace inscribed “For Lorna, Forever”. The mayor’s house loomed at the heart of the village, dark and imposing yet better preserved than the others. In the dusty library, tomes detailing strange disappearances and creatures of nightmare: meenlocks, twisted fey born from fear, lurking in shadowed tunnels.
Their path clear, the adventurers left the desolate village for the mine—a yawning wound in the mountainside. The air grew thick and oppressive as they ventured into its depths, black moss covering every surface. Dark voices whispered from the shadows, and strange visions plagued the party as they descended, each step pulling them deeper into a labyrinth of cold stone and creeping dread.
In a circular tunnel blanketed in velvety moss, they faced three meenlocks—the twisted remnants of the town’s lost souls, now grotesque creatures of fear. A fierce battle ensued, the adventurers striking with blades, arrows, and magic as the creatures lurked in shadow. The party felled the creatures of darkness, with Rogan piercing the black heart of the town’s mayor. Roux retrieved the ring and earrings from the carapace.
Guided by the light of Magpie’s enchanted crossbow bolt, the adventurers pressed further into the heart of the meenlocks' shadowed lair, the path descending down a slick, sixty-foot slope. At the slope's end, a cavern yawned open before them, vast and grim, its silence heavy with menace. Four stone pillars stood at intervals around the cavern, their surfaces darkened with old blood—a grim reminder of the twisted rites and sacrifices once carried out upon the cold slabs scattered across the floor.
Thinking quickly, Maeve conjured the image of a hound, a spectral figure crafted of light and illusion. Snarling with lifelike ferocity, it drew the attention of the nearest meenlock, which sprang forward to attack. As the creature lunged, Rogan cast a flare of light down the far side of the cavern, luring another meenlock into its glow. With calculated precision, Roux and Maeve surged forward in attack, Maeve taking flight to stay out of reach as she struck from above, while Rogan melted into the shadows, waiting for his moment to strike. One meenlock teleported from the darkness, aiming for Maeve, but missed its mark, crashing to the cavern floor below her.
From above, Maeve caught sight of something sinister—bundles of dynamite lashed to two of the cavern’s pillars. The meenlocks had prepared for intruders. As the party advanced, the creatures retreated, lighting the fuses. In a flash of flame and thunder, two of the pillars exploded, the force killing one meenlock and casting Maeve and Rogan to the ground, shaken and bloodied. Still, they pressed forward. Maeve unleashed a scorching bolt of fire at a third pillar, and it erupted in a shower of dust and stone, collapsing part of the ceiling onto the fleeing meenlocks below.
With only a single pillar left, the chamber teetered on the brink of ruin. The adventurers scrambled to retreat, but in doing so, they left two meenlocks still lurking in the shadowed corners of the cavern. Roux’s sharp eyes spotted the moss on the walls beginning to thin, the lair’s power weakening with each defeated creature. Determined, Maeve cast a powerful gravity spell into the corner, crushing one dead meenlock and revealing that the other was just playing dead.
In its last desperate act, the meenlock threw itself upon Rogan, knocking him into a pile of old clothes, its claws striking with savage force that left him unconscious. As the creature turned to flee, Roux met it with a brutal resolve, tearing its mandibles clean from its twisted face. With a final shudder, the last meenlock fell, and as it did, the black moss shrivelled and disappeared, the lair losing its oppressive curse.
With the air clear and the cavern silent, the adventurers took stock of their reward. Amidst the rotting remains and damp rags, they uncovered 50 gold pieces, an ivory drinking horn traced with intricate platinum filigree, and a set of enchanted goggles that allowed the wearer to see in the dark.
The party explored the now clear tunnels and found a puddle slowly draining away where the long dangling moss once was. Rogan quickly collected some of the fluid with his alchemy supplies before it drained away leaving nothing but dry stone behind.
Victorious, they left the cursed cavern behind and made their way back down the mountainside to Marin, where warm food and beds awaited them. For their bravery, they would rest well, knowing the lair’s evil was at last vanquished.
In the village’s heart, they handed the delicate necklace to Lucas, who received it with tear-filled eyes, and returned Astra the ring once worn by his mother, tactfully omitting the details of her tragic transformation.
The Emberbrew brothers, now wealthy with prospects, hailed the adventurers, and together they forged a pact to reopen the mine under vigilant protection. The “Avengers of Vermilion,” they were named—a title won through bravery and sealed with blood, ready to stand guard against any shadows that dared to rise again in the mines.
4 sessions:
- 30th August 2024
- 14th September 2024
- 27th September 2024
- 11th November 2024
Report Date
11 Nov 2024
- Chunk of platinum ore (25 gp).
- Painting of Tifra Duvezin (town mayor).
- Platinum and diamond earrings (30 gp).
- 50 gp.
- Ivory drinking horn with a platinum filigree (120 gp)
- Goggles of Night.
