Session 1 Report

General Summary

Three strangers, Orgûn Briarsbeard, Thalkar of the Varjid, and Illrune of Crescent Moon Brook, find themselves waking up in a stone cell, the first two standing up and staring at a pink orb over the door, and the last bound with rope. There is also a fourth stranger stuck with them and a metal owlbear. They all have their items on them. The air is stale, and the light is dim; it is unpleasantly quiet. The silence is broken, just barely, by the footsteps of two cloaked figures wearing metal bands on their heads, with small glowing pink orbs on their foreheads, leading two spaced out commoners after them through the hallway. The hooded figures continue walking even as they’re shouted at; Thalkar investigates the ropes tied around Illrune and orders his steel defender to attack the door, while Orgûn tries shaking the fourth stranger awake. The cloaked figures disappear out of sight. It’s a challenge to get through the rope but eventually, with combined forces from Illrune and Thalkar, Illrune is free from the rope. After some progressively rough tries, Orgûn manages to wake up the last stranger, Reidun Mordai, who was the deest into the trance out of all of them. They inform him of their predicament, as far as they know of it, and Reidun instantly figures that they’re trapped by cultists. They cause quite a ruckus as they spend quite a while breaking down the door, which is made out of byeshk metal which surprisingly draws no attention, but eventually they are able to leave the cell they were trapped in, which Illrune in particular is quick at doing. Thus, they find themselves in a hallway with more cells, three of which contain more prisoners, staring blankly ahead. Thalkar casts detect magic in an attempt to see if they’re under the influence of magic, which tells him that something magical has happened to the prisoners, though they’re not themselves magical. Illrune casts identify on the orb above the door to the empty cell next to their cell, while Reidun and Pup, the steel defender, and Thalkar, checks the corner and finds that the door there is much sturdier, made with the same metal as the bars, while the door opposite their cell is made out of wood. Thalkar finds that the door handle to the metal door is something magic, but can’t really tell what’s up with it. Illrune learns through his ritual that the orb releases a hypnotic pattern spell that causes the person staring into it to be standing in trance. After relaying this information, Thalkar starts to smash the orbs through the bars with his spear. Orgûn is of the opinion that they should just leave, which not everyone agrees with because the other prisoners might have information. Reidun thinks that they could just wake up one group that can handle the rest of the captured people. Thalkar keeps trying to destroy the orb he’s at, and Reidun decides to punch the nearest person; this is discouraged by Illrune, and encouraged by Thalkar. The old man certainly does wake up after the blow. The old man is instantly scared of Reidun, but warms up to Illrune, who treats him kindly. The old man realizes that he’s one of the missing people from the Upper Serpent, but he doesn’t really know anything useful. Thalkar’s spear bounces off the wall and hits one of the prisoners in the head, pulling him out of the trance but into a heap on the floor. The group decides to find keys so that it’s at least easier to get the prisoners out. While Illrune casts identify on the metal door’s handle, Thalkar checks out the wooden door which is not magical in the least. The metal door’s handle, on the other hand, has magical runes of heat metal on it, which means touching the handle will cause fire damage. The wooden door is fairly quickly mowed down, particularly in comparison to the cell door, with Orgûn and Illrune chopping the wood, Reidun and Thalkar attempting to cast fire and acid on it, and Thalkar and Pup bodysmalling it. This allows them access to a room beyond it.

Locations

Prison: An underground half-ruin with six cells.

NPCs

Cloaked figures: People dressed in cloaks, wearing thin bands with a pink glowing orb on their brow. Cultists of some sort.
Prisoners: Various commonfolk, captured, hypnotized, and put inside cells much like the members of the party. One is an old cobbler, another is the butcher’s boy.