Guild report from Evergrey River - 0.3.7 agf

Hotel California

The party received a letter containing an official invitation to the grand opening of The Leading Light Hotel located near the Evergrey River, a land of undeath.

They arrived to find other patrons waiting to get in as this mechanical system from the immaculate hotel scans their invitations.

Once inside, they are created by humanoid looking things (robots) that tell the party where their rooms are. After walking up, all exits were shrouded in a shadow mist, that turned people around, virtually trapping the party in the hotel.

Once everyone settles in, the PA system turns on, calling all guests to the theatre room. One of the players befriends a pig called Mr Swiggles, who smokes cigarettes and considers himself the hotel mascot.

Once all assembled in the theatre room, a man called Anastar, a high elf, comes out to greet everyone and welcome them to his hotel. He explains that there are free drinks, free food and exquisite beds.

Afterwards he disappears and the players look around more, before most of them dink themselves to sleep or inadvertently, stay up so late they fall unconscious. During the night, alarms and red flashing lights go off, waking the players. They were shut in their rooms and had to break out. Once they did, a single fresh body was discovered outside one of the players rooms.

They discovered countless other bodies upstairs, but they were all withered as their souls have been sucked from them. A secret door lead downstairs opened and the party encountered a single shadow mastiff. They went downstairs to find a laboratory filled with withered gnome bodies.

They found a diary explaining experiments on necrotic energy to induce sleep and something about a subject "X". They found a document on a computer, but were unable to read it as it's in Gnomish.

They entered into a room where shadows are kept in pods, having their energies sucked from them. They then saw a huge creature of pure shadow with glowing eyes and elongated limbs, hunched over. It had a dark a swirling portal behind it. The Night Walker raised its hand and pointed a finger of death at one of the players, immediately frightening them. The players decide to run away as this thing is clearly too strong. It starts to persue them, but they retreat upstairs.

They found a scared survivor who works there and calmed him down. They were told that Anastar has a secret room downstairs.

The party went back downstairs and accidentally ran into subject "X" again. They barricade the room and closed the doors.

They found Anastar clutching a Statue of the Lantern Mother. He told them that they have an artifact that can be combined with some crystals of their making to temporarily enhance its power. It should be able to push the Night Walker back through the portal.

They went to the room which has a giant glowing vat, and found a sun blade inside.

They were able to use the sunlight effect of the sword to repel the night walker back through the portal, sealing it with the same light, but it was more of a band aid solution. It left behind a scar that, with enough force, could easily be reopened again.

One of the adventures died while warding the Night Walker back, having his souls devoured by it in the process.

The place was looted afterwards and Anastar was nowhere to be found.