Session 14: The Kiss of Death

General Summary

The set of armor rushed towards Thorbjörn and after a few moments another one reanimated, threatening him as well. Luckily, those were the only dangers in the room and were dealt with accordingly. Unfortunately, none of the equipment found here was of any use to the heroes. Further down the corridor, a few more abandoned rooms were found. They contained nothing of interest except a few gems among the crumbled debris that Shava's sharp eyes did not miss. The hall led to an open room with a big fountain in the middle that had been dried for many years. Surrounding the fountain, dozens of skeletal remains were scattered. Most of those seemed to belong to people of dwarven build. Thorbjörn, being quite certain that the crumbled fountain must contain some sort of evil magic, carefully experimented poking the structure with a burning torch and trying to throw it in there. But alas, nothing remotely curious was triggered. After a few more abandoned rooms and hidden gems, the group finally stumbled upon something more exciting - behind one of the doors, a beautiful girl rushed towards them, shouting words of gratitude for rescuing her from being imprisoned by an evil mage. She introduced herself as Idalla and told of the mage conducting some sort of experiments on her, keeping her from leaving. She also mentioned an ancient dragon lurking in the lower levels, and that's where the mage supposedly was at this very moment. The woman begged for someone to remain with her while the rest of the party would go and 'take care' of the evil arcanist, but the heroes firmly refused to split up. They told Idalla to remain there and headed on to investigate further. Upon the group leaving, Idalla transformed herself into a beautiful, but fearsome winged creature, clearly of demonic origin and attacked! A long and difficult battle ensued, proving quite a challenge. The creature had the ability to disappear, shifting herself to a different plane, and also magically entice the party members, turning them against their former friends. The fiend also came close to taking Damian's life with a kiss of death, and unfortunately managed to down Pock doing the same.

In the end, the heroes emerged bruised and beaten, but victorious. However, attempts to bring Pock back to consciousness failed, which led to a terrible realization - another member of the Dragon's Bane had their life lost... The group decided to head back outside and regroup for the time being. They tried to explore some areas inside the mountain that were previously uncovered, but after the demise of Skittles, Damian's rat familiar, these plans were cancelled as well. The next goal was to just get back to the horses. The party managed to reach their campsite among a brush of trees with no issues, but just before getting there, the elves realized that something was waiting and ambushing them. Shava made her first attack, and indeed a band of orcish warriors jumped out of hiding trying to flank the party. Another brutal battle ensued downing several group members, but eventually the savages were killed or pushed back. After such a difficult and tasking day the heroes, weighing heavy thoughts about their fallen friends, headed a bit away from the Stone Tooth to relative safety, and did their best to finally get some sleep.

Campaign

Tales from the Yawning Portal

Protagonists