Hunt for the Thessalhydra

Discovery, Exploration

The band of merry adventures meet a group of refugees outside the Chatadee Gate and learn of the legend of the Thessalhydra. It is said to pray on children and come from a cave located a little bit out of the city. They find a horde of Kobolds and find the portal to where the Thessalhydra is coming from. With some information from Gilderoy they discover they are traveling through the Shadowfell also known as the upside down. The meet The Proud Princess and she helps them find a way out of the Realm.

The band of Merry Adventurers' meet a group of refugees outside the Chatadee Gate and learn of the legend of the Thessalhydra. A kind man and leader of the refugee camp outside of Ethios point them toward a cave where the children are not supposed to go. He also reveals to Mozakosh that some 70 years ago a group of mind talkers like her traveled through these parts the leaders name was Rezelkosh.
The party sneaks through the tunnels and find a clan of Kobolds. Miraculously Alcath with a moment of genius convinces the Kobolds they just want to talk to the Chief Ruppu.
  Ruppu is delighted by the outsiders trinkets and clothes and with gifts of a white dress with green flowers and Caias gift of a large feather from the dire crow Chief Ruppu directs the part to the tunnels where the Thessalhydra comes from. They are warned that no one has returned from the cursed labyrinth once they go past the Statue of their dark god, Laogzed.
  Wandering through the tunnels the group quickly gets lost. The wall change as the wander the corridors. After some time they find a corpse that seemed to have died from starvation. On the power is a magical rapier with black glassy metal as its blade. It is a powerful weapon to use in the Shadowfell named "Winters Dark Bite" Alcath claims the sword. Later they see a figure dress in full plate greeting the Circle. The knight is at the far end of a long hallway. He says he knows their quest is to slay a great monster. He'll help them if they solve his two riddles. The party agrees.
  The first riddle is "At my heels you nip in this game we play. But cursed is the maze, and lost am I. So who's chasing whom? Oh, who's to say? The front is the back. Hello is goodbye." The party quickly realizes they should not give chase and head back the opposite direction the knight ran away from.
  The party then see the Lost Knight standing in a doorway at the far side of a large room. He points to three shelves above the doorway. Then he steps through the door, which closes and magically locks behind him. The first two shelves each have two small statues, and the third one has only one statue.
  Shelf 1 Statues. A man with a crown and a bag of coins.
  Shelf 2 Statues. A woman with a crown and a jar of honey.
  Shelf 3 Statue. A common woman wearing an apron and an empty space for a second statue.
  In the room is a large table covered with many small statues, including a cake, a pie, a spinning wheel, a basket of laundry, a plate with a steak, a toy soldier, a sword, and twenty-four sculptures of crows.
  To solve the riddle, they must put the right statue from the table in the empty space on shelf 3.
Gilly puts the The basket of laundry on the shelf. These are the characters from the nursery rhyme "Sing a Song of Sixpence."
The knight appears again and explains that the Cursed Labyrinth is not in our world. It is built in a demiplane. The thessalhydra has found a way to push through it to a place called the Upside Down. The Lost Knight shows the characters how that is done, but warns that this is a one-way passage—they'll have to find a different way home.

With help from Gilderoy the party learns about the The Shadow Plane - Shadowfell also known at the Upside down. They learn it is a mirror of our world where color and life are scarce.
When the party walks though the portal they find themselves is a place very similar to the material plane. They look far in the distance and see a broken down castle and a large dead looking tree that resembles Ethios. The landscape it void of life and color. They soon realize they are being stalked by something in the mist and head toward the castle for clue on where the Thessalhydra is and how to get out the the The Shadow Plane.

When they reach the castle they a found by a single humanoid figure dressed in full plate armor who calls herself "The Proud Princess" She asks the party why they are skulking around the upside down and when the party tells them of the quest to kill the Hydra she offers them advise. She tell them they need to seek out a cavern where a special plant a plant whose flowers bloom in both worlds. These flowers can be used to cross between worlds if you perform a certain ritual. A key component of this ritual is blood from a monstrosity such as the Thessalhydra or a Musk Stalker.

She tells them that the Musk Stalkers are attracted to the smell of blood. The easiest way to get its attention is to spill blood on the ground. She then looks straight at Gilly and asks her "Why have you been bathed in the Blood of the Prince of Demons?"

Gilly confused and confounded by this revelation asks "What" After a brief discussion The Princess confused as well only offers that it may be why the Musk Stalkers are so interested in her. She bids the party safe travels and does not revel more of dealings in The Shadowfell or what she is doing.

The Circle of Six with new found vigor head toward the cave with a few drops of blood that Gilly tried the squeeze from the tentacle she cut off from their previous encounter. All the while the Musk Stalkers are still following curiously at a safe distance.
When they reach the cave Gilly drops the blood into the mouth of the Blooms but it does not seem to be enough for the ritual. With new found courage Gilly then approaches the Musk Stalkers in the shadows. It approaches curiously smelling the air around Gilly. Gilly then took her dagger from her belt and then cut her hand across the palm. It a fury of chaos the Musk Stalker leaped at the Halfling and 3 other appear from the woods attack the party. Fighting and slashing Alcath takes the blood from an attack on a Musk Stalker and completes the ritual on the Bloom. With haste the party jumped through the portal to the Material plane and slashing the flower on the way out closing the portal find themselves in another dark and humid cave on the Material Plane.

Prints in the dirt make it clear that the thessalhydra has come this way often, and the tracks lead into the cave. Also evidence of 30 other creatures that Alcath identifies and Troglodytes.

Winding through the cave the party finds the Thessalhydras den where they narrowly achieve victory with Alcath making the final deadly blow. In the aftermath of the battle they sever one of the heads of the beast and also find a "Staff of the Woodlands" With some other treasure. When they exit the cave the Troglodytes look in awe and wonder and start to worship Alcath as the slayer of their God. They start to construct a statue of his likeness before Alcath quickly leaves.

In the distance they see the city of Ethios. As they start to travel back they are met by a traveling Green Dragonborn merchant heading away from the city. They discover they have not been gone very long and close to the time they left the material plane.

Upon there arrival to Ethios Captian Norric Sylkas gives the party 1000 Gold for there troubles and help defeating the Thessalhydra and the party head back to The Wandering Rest Wandering Rest to plan there next move.