Chapter 1, Session 6: The First Dungeon Crawl
General Summary
Your eyes... some would say a holy colour but not I, I would call them a beautiful pale goldThe party left Emerald Quick-Wick's Mayoral Housing in hunt of the Wailing Woman and were joined by his rather abrupt secretary Bree Applebottom after Emerald Quick-Wick recommended her assistance due to her history as a capable hunter of local deer. The party realised they needed to gain more information about where they could locate The Wailing Woman of Bloomwilt and so they visited a local tavern called The Midden Tick that was known for it's large quantity of The Drifters that stayed there. The party caroused for several hours in the hope of learning more and eventually, after a game of 'what the fuck is up with that?', they encountered Xelene who acted as a recruiter for the Drifters but did not seem to be particularly well respected. They were a good looking drow who was clearly nursing a harsh hangover when the party met them. They first explained they had no interest in joining the Drifters befroe asking about the wailing woman. Xelene explained that a member of The Honour Blades had recently entered Bloomwilt in search of this wailing woman and had been delving into the sewers regularly in the hope of finding this wailing woman but had not been seen since last night. Learning slightly more, the party then resolved to speak to the head of the outer ring of Bloomwilt, Da'Shaw Zalnyx in order to potentially receive a list of the attendees and dead found during the Cirque Arcadia massacre the previous day. Making their way as the outer ring hit the mid-day point, the party found Zalnyx to be an older yet still rather physically impressive gold dragonborn who greeted The Kaechaek Party as 'cousin' due to their shared race. The party were given the list of attendees and survivors from the cirque Arcadia attack and, whilst Fionn and the others read through the list, they also volunteered to assist Zalnyx in an upcoming expedition into the mountains as part of an annual pilgrimage he completes (he promised the party a Sand Speeder as a reward if all went well). While Fionn researched the names, Auriel spoke to Zalnyx and revealed that they did not belong to a dragonborn clan and were actually searching for family. Zalnyx explained that the Da'Shaw clan originally resided in The Drake until they were removed and expelled by Solaire Ardaith upon her glorious return from Mezzatli. He then explained to Auriel that a couple of the Da'Shaw clan stayed in Drake, including two of his cousins; Da'Shaw Calinax who is now the head healer of Sanctuary and Nistal Rennax who was disowned from the clan and now works for Niles Five Eyes in The Wheel. Auriel took this information and moved away from Zalnyx with thanks and promised him that they would return. Fionn and the others looked through the names on the list of Cirque Arcadia attendees and found what he was searching for, an individual with the initials I.C, Igbald Calvert who attended the show with his children and worked in a Blacksmith in Bloomwilt. With that, the party moved off with the information they needed and headed towards the Calvert's blacksmith shop. Upon meeting Igbald, the party discovered that the Dwarf was the one who left a note on Fionn's Wardstone asking for help as he realised The Wailing Woman of Bloomwilt was the responsibility of him and his family and so wanted to get help before he was found by The Venator. Igbald revealed that, a year and a half ago, his wife (a strong miner) was killed in a rockslide due to the conditions her company worked in. Out of grief, he and his family couldn't resist dreaming of her continuing to live and so The Quori were able to move in and manipulate the family's dreams until they completed a realisation and brought their mother seemingly back to life. Though, as was always the way with dreams and nightmares, the mother was changed on her return and had become a screaming wailing woman. Terrorising the family. To fix this, Igbald notified Emerald before the Venator arrived and the alabaster robed spook destroyed her. Igbald thought they had recovered from this but was now asking the party for help due to the clear return of the woman... more powerful than before. He then revealed that the wailing woman was in the sewers and that they had a series of old children's toys taken recently. Armed with this new knowledge, the party prepared themselves and descended into the sewers of Bloomwilt to deal with the Wailing Woman and bind Grand-Daughter Tiana for the final time. That was when shit really hit the fan... The party entered the sewers and were almost immediately caught in a cycle of combat, their inexperience of dealing with Wailing Women clearly shown as they fought constantly against the endlessly spawning foes brought out by the Wailing Woman... with all foes sharing that strange star filled iris look. The party were immediately pinned back and forced to draw on their resources in the opening fight against a variety of dark spores, minor hunters and abstracts. Eventually, as the party fought through, they took a turning in the tunnel and came across a locked chest and an injured half orc with an arm missing. As they healed the orc, she revealed herself to be Honour Blade Ibraim and the party healed them before learning what had happened. Ibraim revealed they descened into the sewer and fought the creatures within and Tiana for hours but was not adequately prepared for the fight (not realising that the enemies constantly respawned) and so was worn down and left for dead by Tiana and the Wailing Woman. With the party's return, Ibraim joined their group and they replanned their approach, deciding on a route of stealth and moving room to room as a unit. Something that allowed the group to cover a significant distance as they travelled efficiently. During their movements, the party managed to reach one of the sewer exit points and found a half decomposed body caught in the grating. Overcoming their disgust, Auriel walked over to the body and search it for identification. She found a couple of pamphlets for a politician named Xandiss Hardbreeze and, upon picking up the dessicated skull, Auriel received a strange vision in which the skull was all they saw and, in one eye they saw a star filled black sky and in the other rotted pit in the skull they saw the letter 'N'. Upon returning from the vision, Auriel saw a platinum necklace that looked as though it was used to garotte and strangle the man. With that, the party found another chest and looted it before once more triggering a fight and drawing more anguished screams from the Wailing Woman as they continued doggedly fighting their way through the sewers. Exhausted and almost all heavily injured, the party eventually found the Wailing Woman and Tiana who was protecting her. In a moment of brilliance, Esmerae, Peregrine and Bree managed to destroy the wailing woman and levelled out the fight into a fair battle against Tiana, who was forced to enter her unwaking state and use her Quori Minor Hunter to battle the party. In her unwaking state, the battlefield immediately started to shift and fill with illusions and chaos that affected the party in a variety of ways. Tiana and her hunter, upon reaching the party, targeted and assaulted Peregrine first due to her being close and they soon lulled her into the Hunters Howl of Reflection that forced Peregrine into a dreaming state though, strangely, it wasn't the dream she was used to:
- A mysterious man speaks to Peregrine in a dream she does not recognise.
Instead, Peregrine found herself being carried through the snow by a good looking yet unsettling man with white hair, pointed ears and red eyes. Peregrine felt the form she was inhabiting say they found the man beautiful, to which they felt the man tell them their eyes were a beautiful pale gold... rather than a holy yellow which Peregrine found deeply confusing.
While Peregrine recovered from her dream, the party continued to battle Tiana and the the Quori Hunter, though Peregrine was knocked unconscious during this time as the fighting raged around the group. Esmerae managed to land the killing blow on the Quori Minor Hunter once again and Tiana became desperate. Casting hypnotic pattern that was mostly resisted with the exception of Auriel who, as a result, was unable to heal Peregrine who remained bleeding on the ground. The group also watched Tiana cast a spell as they saw her mumble several of the groups names during the casting.
Fionn drew on his spook training in this moment to use his silver chain to restrain Tiana and launching his prepared salt and iron at her which began to damage her heavily as well as cause her immense pain. He then cautioned the party to not kill her as she would simply recover and return to life fully replenished and ready to fight once more.
However, before being able to apply the manacles or knock Tiana unconscious, Fionn and the majority of the party were taken out of the fight by another lair action and so Mallus and Bree were left to deal with Tiana. Bree chose to go into melee with Tiana and tried to punch the witch unconscious, taking out several of the Unwaking creatures teeth in the process. Mallus tried to trample the extremely injured witch but fell in doing so...
At which point, the rest of the party appeared and they were able to knock Tiana unconscious. Though they found her unwaking state continued as she was unconscious and this posed a continued danger and inconvenience to the party.
Auriel was finally able to heal Peregrine and held the tiefling, telling her she was 'whole' over and over... seemingly relieved that they were able to save their new friends life.
Ibraim then left the party behind and told them to visit The Blade and the Basilisk if they wished to speak again as Ibraim owed the group her life now it seemed.
But the party, injured, exhausted and victorious, returned to Emerald's mayoral estate and claimed their reward, Fionn went to watch the Drifter's place Tiana in a platinum barred cell, to which he then placed a further request for materials to bind her and left his silver chain behind so that she could remain restrained by it and a significantly reduced threat until he returned to bind her properly.
The rest of the party were escorted down to Emerald Quick-Wick's collection where they browsed and each claimed a magical item as a reward for their work, with Kindness offering to identify the items but notably being strange and uncomfortable around certain characters and still making Fionn nervous.
With their rewards found, the party used Emerald's facilities to wash and rest themselves after their ordeal and they bowed out of Emerald's estate and said their goodbyes to Bree before heading out to Bloomwilt to celebrate their victory and find what was next for them.Rewards Granted
- The Ertswhile's Warden claimed by Auriel as a reward from Emerald Quick-Wick
- Shadow armour claimed by Esmerae as a reward from Emerald Quick-Wick
- A bag of holding claimed by Fionn as a reward from Emerald Quick-Wick
- A cloak of protection claimed by Peregrine as a reward from Emerald Quick-Wick
- Gloves of Thievery claimed by Fionn as loot from the sewer dungeons.
Missions/Quests Completed
The Wailing Woman of Bloomwilt milestone questline completed.
Report Date
21 Feb 2023
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