Dead in Thay Report

General Summary

1490 DR - Winter - 20, Hammer (1) - Thay, The Doomvault    

• The Chosen take the opportunity in the gatehouse to rest and prepare, planning their dreaded assault on the doomvault.
• They deliberate about the possible points of entry, eventually admitting they feel under informed.
• Syranna enlightens the crew about much information she knows of the Doomvault, which guides their assault. They must attack the dungeons and destroy as many experiments as possible, find the phylactery vault, and disrupt Szaz Tams power source.
• After reviewing the map and gate glyph key they are provided, attuned to their chosen destination (The Forests of Slaughter), they step into the black gate on the floor and are teleported to the black gate entry point, only to be challenged immediately by a Wight and his bodyguard Helmed Horror.
• Huden tries to talk his way through, but something about their presence has tipped the Wight off and they have to fight to defend themselves.
• The first fight is over quickly as they dispatch the door guards, remembering the weaknesses of the Helmed Horror. They acquire a second Glyph key tuned to the same area off the Wight.
• Moving into the next open area , the party is ambushed by a group of large snarling demons, Barghest’s. They demand the keys from them in order to flee, but Huden convinces them he will let them out, they catch a scent of the betrayal when Huden speaks with Syranna through the portal, and the peace dissolves into combat, where the party slays all but one, who transforms to a goblin and flees.
• Continuing ahead they find a pool that helps them recover a little from their combat, and proceed to avoid the expectant looking cat creatures on one side in favor of an empty path east through one of the misty white gates. The glyph key allows them to pass without incident.
• Once continuing forward, they hear a childs cry for help, but upon investigating are ambushed by a pack of Leucrottas, who attempt to corner the weaker members. Their ambush is thwarted and they are slain, although the crew takes heavy damage from the well split ambush.
• Moving on though, they find another pool, but it’s effects are not as helpful to Oudman’s eyes, and contain a risk in multiple uses.
• In the next area, they begin to split up and explore, and Yasen moves toward a large cluster of trees, while the others move to investigate a small clutter of skeletons that have their neck bones crushed.
• Simultaneously, Yasen is approached by two large owlbears, who quickly realize he hasn’t brought them food, and decide he might be the food himself, and the others of the Chosen are assaulted from the trees by long armed humanoids that use their tentacled hands to pull them into the air and begin choking them.
• Yasen is attacked by three more young owlbears and flees to the other group, unwittingly drawing the combats together and creating a pincer attack on the party, putting them in a bind!
• The Chosen fight brutally, with fireballs and an all out attack to attempt to thwart the threats on all sides
• Huden, Llewellyn, and Xifor are strangled in trees and dropped to the ground, Yasen is mauled by Owlbears, and Oudman attempts to keep the group on their feet. Fighting through the dire situation and eventually wearing down the enemies enough to turn the tide.
• With the enemies dispatched and the crew feeling worse for wear, they debate moving forward and how to proceed. They butcher the owlbears to have something meaty to bribe other creatures with.
• They find many White gates along the way but decide to finish clearing and exploring in this forest before leaving the area.
• Moving back to the recovery pool they use the meat to bribe the displacer beasts in the nearby room when they come close to inspect the intruders. After recovering a little, they continue through the next white gate, and encounter a trio of trolls, who seem dubious of their presence and start speaking to them in giant.
• The trolls are bribed momentarily with the remaining owlbear meat, until they realize the crew are not prison guards, and therefore are fair game to eat. The resulting fight is tough, but surmounted through fire and focus. They find another Glyph key on the female troll leader.
• They crew takes a hard look at their tactics, feeling stretched out and already haggard after only an hour exploring the doomvault. They break to evaluate their tactics.