Session 1 - Zaldara's Keep

General Summary

The session opened with the players crafting an NPC that all the characters knew and were connected to. They crafted an elf named Runa Sindri, an apothecary who they all knew by various means. She died once while on a job but was resurrected. Unfortunately, there is now a death curse slowly killing folks who have been resurrected. The game begins with Runa's funeral, each of the party members gave a short eulogy before the ceremony ended and they were approached by an Elf Woman and another cloaked figure, Syndra Silvane. They offered them a chance to save their friend, all they needed to do was help The Harpers by sneaking into a lich's basement and steal her phylactery. In exchange they would be rewarded with 500gp and a chance to end their curse and bring their friend back. The party agreed. The Harpers provided them with a boat, and a three-day journey later they are dropped off at a cave entrance below the Lich's tower. The Harpers have brought a small army to assault the tower and distract the lich while the party gets in, grabs the phylactery (a spell book bound in humanoid flesh) and gets out. The party makes their way into the cave and finds a door with a skull carved into it, approaching the door they get attacked by a small group of skeletons. They take some hits but manage to win the fight. Investigating the door, they trigger a trap, the eyes of the skull carving zap them with necrotic energy, but they resist. They manage to destroy the skulls eyes, neutralizing the trap, and pick the doors lock. Where they find themselves in a hallway lined with jail cells. They open one and get swarmed by spiders but manage to come out of the fight relatively unharmed. They try one more door. Inside they find a pseudodragon. He introduces himself as Elonast, former familiar of the lich Zaldara (AKA the Duchess of Rot). The psuedodragon and the lich had a falling out, and he is no longer her familiar. But she couldn't bear to kill him, or part with him...so she locked him up Elonast agrees to help the party find the spell book phylactery in exchange for their help in getting free. He leads them down the hall, and into the next room. Alerting them of a trap within it (a trapdoor in the floor that, if opened, causes the other doors to lock and the room to start flooding with water). They wisely take his advice, ignore the trap door and move on through the other door to the next hallway, up the stairs, and into a hallway that smells of rotting eggs. The hall curves and at the other end of they can hear gnashing, gnawing and guttural throat sounds. Luckily, Elonast informs them that what they are looking for is through the door just to their left. They sneak to the door and enter a room with a chest sitting in the middle of two large stone pillars that weirdly hum. As they move to investigate the chest and the pillars, they find a specter guarding the room. Snakebit gets a lucky spell off, casting Dissonant Whispers and wracking the specter with terrible psychic pain. This causes it to flee from Snakebit and take a large hit from Caspian's great axe, ending its “life”. They spend some time investigating the chest and pillars. The chest is locked and bolted to the floor, but they can find nothing else about the pillars Esylde grows impatient with the rest of the party being overly cautious and attempts to open the chest. She fails...since it is still locked and triggers the trap. Bolts of lightning arc from the pillars and Esylde fails to dodge but survives the damage. Elijan and Snakebit do some more digging and find some buttons on the pillars, deactivating the pillars and allowing Snakebit time to pick the lock of the chest. Which contains the liches Spell book/Phylactery, as well as some gold and a few scrolls. They nab the treasure and retrace their steps out of the dungeon where Callbrax (the harper who took them here on the boat) is waiting. He greets them and teleports them to Remallia (the elf woman) and Syndra Silvane. Who greet them, but just as they go to celebrate... Zaldara, the duchess of rot, appears in a puff of black smoke. She is extremely weak from the battle with The Harpers, visibly limping and heavily wounded. She uses the last of her magic to knock Remallia and Syndra Silvane unconscious before demanding the players return her spell book. They counter with a proposal, the phylactery for information on the death curse. Zaldara, in no position to fight, reluctantly agrees. She informs the party that the death curse is related to a powerful artifact known as the Soulmonger. She isn't sure of its purpose but knows that the amount of soul energy it is using is enough for an undead like the world has never seen. She has managed to figure out that it is somewhere on the jungle peninsula of Chult but hasn't been able to pinpoint its exact location. Having fulfilled the bargain, the party returns her spell book and lets her leave before tending to the wounded Syndra Silvane and Remallia. The elf and Syndra Silvane listen to the party as they recount what they learned and offer to bring the group with the remaining Harpers to Chult to investigate further (The Harpers are going no matter what.). The party agrees. After a short trip back to Baldur's Gate for supplies and boats they set sail for Chult. The Harpers aboard 2 of their own ships and the party on the much smaller ship, The Diviner. The same ship that ferried them to the lich's tower. A week of sailing later the ships arrive in the Bay of Chult, the gateway to Port Port Nyanzaru, where they are greeted by Aremag - a giant Dragon Turtle who guards the bay. Aremag addresses The Harpers captain, demanding a fee to enter the bay. The captain grows angry and demands that "this overgrown turtle" let them pass or suffer the consequences. Aremag doesn't take this lightly and begins to attack the ships. Soon the first Harper ship has sunk, the second is attempting to flee, and The Diviner is making a run for Port Nyanzaru. (The diviner being a much smaller and faster ship). As The Diviner makes a run for it, the party spots Syndra Silvane teleporting from the second Harper ship just before it sinks. The Dragon Turtle, having dealt with the insolent Humans, submerges and resumes its guard of the bay. For now, the party has escaped and made it safely to Port Nyanzaru . With their Harper patrons gone, swept into the ocean by the great Aremag, the party is alone in Port Nyanzaru . What will their next move be? And what Happened to Syndra Silvane, their mysterious masked patron?