The Mouth of Doom: Session 17
General Summary
New Companions
Report Date
06 Feb 2021
The rain that had been present throughout their travel across the area persisted through the evening. Sometime during the night, Sibrwd received a message from a small burrowing animal that explained they were immediately needed elsewhere and as the Wrenjers and their allies listened to the rain hitting the stones, Sibrwd departed the castle heading off into the woods. Some could see the small hooded party awaiting them before they all disappeared among the trees. Before the sun rose, behind the clouds, on the 30th of Zhira, those on watch received a message. Arddan had gone off during the night and had collected another individual as they were now short two of their party. Before the group had returned to the castle after releasing the bear, Zelon had moved on. Those that were awake at the wee hours of the morning, met the Wrenjer initiate Enya. She is a druid recently recruited by the Wrenjers with long dark reddish hair in armor that looked to have been set too close to the fire.
In the great room, they introduced themselves to the new companion. Some rather focused on filling their stomachs for the adventure ahead. Anya is filled in by Leofric, Artem and Arddan about what is happening and how they are here to figure out a way to stop the rise of darkness. They clearly explain that it’s a dangerous place at a dangerous time. The Crown Wrenjer, Arddan, stopped mid sentence as they were receiving a message. He had stopped when they were explaining about the previous group who had fallen and some thought his stop was to control his emotions. However he felt towards the group who had lost their lives to a minion of the Master was not the reason why he had stopped. It seemed that the group would be receiving another new companion.
Moving to the eastern side of the room, he pulled out a sheet of black fabric about six feet in diameter and placed it on the ground and climbed into the darkness. Out of his extra dimensional pace he brought up a massive stone tablet with a circle of arcane runes traced into it. Te’Leyuura, who had wandered in just moments ago had eyed some questionable eggs and ate her Goodberry instead, moved over to make out what her captain had set upon the ground. She quickly brought out her notebook and jotted down the runes. Meanwhile, Arddan calls for Ansible to be present and when the warlock arrives Arddan sends a message and Zetwuzadi steps through the magic circle.
The two Wrenjers embrace as they are now the only two alive from the original group who walked Calaelen’s halls just a few weeks ago, well at least the only two that they know of. Leofric does a full medical inspection of the paladin post zombie and after a thorough inspection is satisfied. After another quick introduction the group talks about what to do next. They all believe that they should bring the body of the massive corvid to Ulman Dark. They made their way to Zelkor’s Ferry, dropped off the body and missed a reunion between Zetwuzadi and Akrad as the captain had been asleep. Before they had set off for the day, Yosser and Jarvis had adjusted all the new armor and various other items and had also set up an alchemy lab near the library.
As what has become a short theme, the group returned to Castle Calaelen before setting off just about noon. They had decided to clear the last marked area on the map, the Dark Wood/Giant Spellcaster indicated by Kanndra Dark. They walk across the waterlogged and swelling plains. The raindrops were giant, drenching everything they touched as the group shuffled across to the forest. Travel to the dark wood is wet, obscuring their vision as the thick rain makes it look like mist farther away, but nothing assaults the group. The clouds above the group block out the sun, making the day darker and wetter than most would like. As they approach the woods, they can see that it consisted of the same trees as the other woods around the area but the conifers seemed denser and thicker than the others. They could only see no more than 50 feet into the trees making some of the less perceptive uneasy.
They moved into the woods and instantly they were washed with this odd sensation with only the newest Wrenjer, Anya, not feeling the effects. All but the elf were tired, the wood had some sort of Sleep spell upon it. But they still press forward and as they progress the feeling doesn’t increase but it doesn’t decrease either. They stumbled upon a trail as they had not searched for a path before entering the woods. Jarvis led the group west, taking note that the trail looked to have been trod by something ten feet wide or a group walking two abreast; however, they only spotted one set of large tracks. The large bipedal creature seemed to have used this trail many times and recently.
Moving as quietly as they could, they followed the trail along the stream which crossed the water and they had to pick the trail back up. They can hear the muffled sounds of a 10-20 foot tall waterfall but as darkness was settling around them, Leofric blessed those without the ability to see in the dark with darkvision. This allowed them to spot light glinting off something atop the waterfall 300 feet away. They saw no signs of violence as they moved into the area. A massive mottled gray hand comes out of the falling water and as they reached out, in giant, “sleep” was cast upon the group.
Only Leofric fell to the spell as the Ogress adorned in skulls emerged from the water and a ghostly, creepy creature crawled out of the jagged mirror. A battle commenced. They all attacked the ogress until the spectre joined the group. Artem is able to shout out that only certain types of attacks could affect the spectre before they themselves brought out a magical arrow to attack the strength sucking creature. Leofric is finally awakened and moved out of the way. Jarvis had tried to make themselves a larger target but the spectre approached the rogue instead and just as the creature was about to lay into them, Lucius activated a rune and the spectre attacked their ally instead. Zetwuzadi swings down on the ogress many times dealing massive amounts of damage on them before a pool of lethargy washes over them and the paladin falls asleep.
Just after they killed the spectre another one climbs creepily out of the mirror. Te’Leyuura noticed this yells to Lucius to focus their attacks on the mirror. The ogress fell to Anisble’s spell and as their body hit the water, the waterfall pulled the body up toward the mirror. They moved up the stairs to the mirror, keeping their attacks on the spectre. Meanwhile, once the body of the ogress caster hit the mirror it is sucked in and within the reflection they could see massive amounts of spectres feeding on the corpse. Between Lucius and Ansible, the mirror is broken into a bunch of pieces at just the right moment. Reflected in Anya’s Moonbeam amongst the massive amount of spectres, a large ogress shaped spectre rose and approached the mirror and yet it was not allowed to assault the group as the mirror was shattered.
They gather all the pieces of the mirror not wanting it fall into unwanted hands. As Te’Leyuura starts her ritual casting, the group spans out and investigates the area. Artem finds a room behind the waterfall with various items. The wizard learns that the mirror was enchanted, connecting Myzelis to the Shadowfell, allowing creatures to pass between the worlds. She also figured that the mirror was probably once more powerful that it had been before they shattered it. The entire wood seems far less dark as they make their way out of it, somehow the trees are now farther apart. Leofric makes casual conversation, talking about how the ogre reminded them of their aunt.
Discussing what they should do with the rest of the daylight, they bring up the unmarked marker on the map left by Kanndra. They follow the edge of the wood, north of the marker and look out across the area. A stone cottage with a thatched roof is sitting there near the river and as they approached, a massive wolf exited the cottage. It seemed to be a lone worg which was odd as they usually run in packs. The worg had to squeeze through the door and as they noticed the larger group set off. Zetwuzadi managed to talk to the worg and after a cautious conversation, the worg approached the paladin to eat the food they had presented. As Zetwuzadi and the worg talked, Artem investigates the cottage finding two extremely torn apart corpses of Wrenjers and a handful of gems.
The worg seemed to be concerned about the group's reaction to what they found in the cottage. However, it is hard to hold a predator to do what is in its nature. Zetwuzadi calms the worg’s concerns and the group moves on following Anisble’s hunch of where the Mouth of Doom would be located. During their conversation, Zetwuzadi had sussed out that the worg must have been born below ground in the dungeon but had been separated or sent out from their family and now was lost. They tried to explain that the land and area the worg had been born into was poisoned and that they were going to bring them back to their home. After scouting the entrance they head back to Castle Calaelen.
