Session 22
General Summary
Party takes short rest in southern pumps after Felix's near death experience at the hands (and dagger) of Wisk. After a bit of rest, the party head west down the mainline sewer. The party follows a trail of blood into the Huntsman's Larder. Here they find five bodies, bound in strange cocoon-like silk and held against the wall by vines. In the caverns centre, there is a faerie circle. On the floor there is a man partially bound, lying in a pool of his blood and breathing raggedly. Marty tries the same trick to get rid of the vines as earlier with the produce flame cantrip but the vines start to constrict the bodies, as soon as she sees this, she drops the cantrip. The vines relax and noises are heard from three of the suspended bodies - they are still alive. As the party begin to hack away at the vines, the man on the floor stops breathing and bleeds out. The party express regret at not having tried to heal him first and then begin to remove the cocooned bodies from the carved out cavern. Once the bodies are clear, Ella blows up the Faerie Circle in the middle of the cavern and Marty wildshapes into a bear to better carry the bodies to a safe space.
Whilst this is going on, Helgret and Wisk trace the trail of blood in the other direction, up some stairs to the south where they find a small control hut with a smelly old bedroll and some half eaten food in a beaten up pewter bowl. Under the bedroll, Helgret finds a knife and pockets it. She then tries and fails to pull one of the rusted control levers on the eastern side of the control hut. When he sees Helgret do this and fail, Wisk tries and spends a luck point to succeed. This lever causes the northern pumps to activate and start pumping large volumes of stored liquid from the secondary septic tank into the tertiary chamber. Unaware of what caused this sudden activation, Felix lets the party know the water has suddenly started pumping out. Ella shouts out to Helgret and Wisk asking if they'd done anything who then admit that they flipped a switch. Marty starts moving the bodies over to the ladder where the party entered the sewers. The party lay the bodies out and Wisk begins slitting open the cocoons. The cocoons release a foul smelling liquid when opened - the three that hold those who showed signs of breathing are 2 men and 1 woman. They are unconcious with a few abrasions but are otherwise okay. The last two hold bodies that are a kronenbergian nightmare of fused human and meenlock. The party decide to fetch the guards and head up the ladder.
As they lift the hatch and head through, they find themselves in the hollowed out base of a tree, in the middle of a faerie circle, with the hatch they just passed through, nowhere in sight. Each party member is accompanied by a bright flash of light. Looking around the party found themselves in a five-pointed star shaped chamber with stone walls and mossy dirt floor. The air is filled with the small, flashing lights of fireflies and a purplish hued mist swirls gently in a clockwise direction around the tree. The tree and the walls seem to extend up and up until they vanish behind a layer of the purple mist. In each of the five corners of the star is a faerie circle. The party experiment with the relay for a while, with Wisk managing to end up in the same place every single time no matter which circle he chose, whereas everyone else who tried one was able to find a different exit, with Felix and Ella finding themselves in the effluence chamber with extremely fast flowing water (thanks to the earlier lever flipping shenanigans of Helgret and Wisk) and Felix having to fly the both of them out. During this process, they also find that leaving the Fey Relay can cause you to forget what transpired within it.
Eventually the party decide to try to destroy the relay through the means of interpretative Fireball. The party all pile out of one circle minus Ella who systematically destroys every circle apart from the middle and the one everyone else went through. She then lines up a fireball to release as she's leaving through the last circle to destroy the central circle and the tree - but as she passes through, she isn't quite able to accurately predict when she should release the spell and ends up releasing it just slightly too late and fireballing the area the party now find themselves in. Unfortunately the only person to succeed on their wisdom save on exiting the relay is Marty - still in bear form. Once everyone has recovered - Marty returns to her natural form and explains to the party what transpired in the Relay. At this point, the party are pretty tapped and decide to try to return to the surface and rest. Felix hands Snaps a pouch of coins and Helgret hands her the knife she found earlier. The party decide to try to escape via the secret passage that leads into the basement of Raph's Hall. They open the secret door in the rock face and Wisk strides in, the world shimmers about him and he hears a rumbling laugh, "Did you really believe I would let the quarry escape the hunt so easily?" and Wisk finds himself in a small, dark passageway - partially collapsed. The rest of the party see Wisk disappear and decide to wait to see if he would return like last time.
One rock amongst the collapsed rubble has dwarven runes, glowing faintly blue in the dark. They read;
May this place remain forgotten, a tomb for all those who stood and fought against the servants of the Fallen. Midnight’s Eyes hold vigil upon your final rest.
Wisk continues down the passageway and finds himself on the western bank of an underground rive. On the shore, there is a smashed and rotting row boat and skeletonised human remains, partially buried in silt. From the charred remains of a ribcage, stands a long, thin blade - embedded in the mud below. Wisk grabs it and flames erupt from the blade, travelling up his arm and burning him. He continues to pull and the blade comes free. He then spots a ruined journal in the mud, picks it up and flips through it [details below].
At this point the rest of the party pass through the door and are also transported to the same spot. They decide to bed down in the passageway and take a long rest. During the course of the long rest, two watches spot strange eel-like creatures moving up and down the river. The session ends with the party discussing how best to cross the river.
Whilst this is going on, Helgret and Wisk trace the trail of blood in the other direction, up some stairs to the south where they find a small control hut with a smelly old bedroll and some half eaten food in a beaten up pewter bowl. Under the bedroll, Helgret finds a knife and pockets it. She then tries and fails to pull one of the rusted control levers on the eastern side of the control hut. When he sees Helgret do this and fail, Wisk tries and spends a luck point to succeed. This lever causes the northern pumps to activate and start pumping large volumes of stored liquid from the secondary septic tank into the tertiary chamber. Unaware of what caused this sudden activation, Felix lets the party know the water has suddenly started pumping out. Ella shouts out to Helgret and Wisk asking if they'd done anything who then admit that they flipped a switch. Marty starts moving the bodies over to the ladder where the party entered the sewers. The party lay the bodies out and Wisk begins slitting open the cocoons. The cocoons release a foul smelling liquid when opened - the three that hold those who showed signs of breathing are 2 men and 1 woman. They are unconcious with a few abrasions but are otherwise okay. The last two hold bodies that are a kronenbergian nightmare of fused human and meenlock. The party decide to fetch the guards and head up the ladder.
As they lift the hatch and head through, they find themselves in the hollowed out base of a tree, in the middle of a faerie circle, with the hatch they just passed through, nowhere in sight. Each party member is accompanied by a bright flash of light. Looking around the party found themselves in a five-pointed star shaped chamber with stone walls and mossy dirt floor. The air is filled with the small, flashing lights of fireflies and a purplish hued mist swirls gently in a clockwise direction around the tree. The tree and the walls seem to extend up and up until they vanish behind a layer of the purple mist. In each of the five corners of the star is a faerie circle. The party experiment with the relay for a while, with Wisk managing to end up in the same place every single time no matter which circle he chose, whereas everyone else who tried one was able to find a different exit, with Felix and Ella finding themselves in the effluence chamber with extremely fast flowing water (thanks to the earlier lever flipping shenanigans of Helgret and Wisk) and Felix having to fly the both of them out. During this process, they also find that leaving the Fey Relay can cause you to forget what transpired within it.
Eventually the party decide to try to destroy the relay through the means of interpretative Fireball. The party all pile out of one circle minus Ella who systematically destroys every circle apart from the middle and the one everyone else went through. She then lines up a fireball to release as she's leaving through the last circle to destroy the central circle and the tree - but as she passes through, she isn't quite able to accurately predict when she should release the spell and ends up releasing it just slightly too late and fireballing the area the party now find themselves in. Unfortunately the only person to succeed on their wisdom save on exiting the relay is Marty - still in bear form. Once everyone has recovered - Marty returns to her natural form and explains to the party what transpired in the Relay. At this point, the party are pretty tapped and decide to try to return to the surface and rest. Felix hands Snaps a pouch of coins and Helgret hands her the knife she found earlier. The party decide to try to escape via the secret passage that leads into the basement of Raph's Hall. They open the secret door in the rock face and Wisk strides in, the world shimmers about him and he hears a rumbling laugh, "Did you really believe I would let the quarry escape the hunt so easily?" and Wisk finds himself in a small, dark passageway - partially collapsed. The rest of the party see Wisk disappear and decide to wait to see if he would return like last time.
One rock amongst the collapsed rubble has dwarven runes, glowing faintly blue in the dark. They read;
May this place remain forgotten, a tomb for all those who stood and fought against the servants of the Fallen. Midnight’s Eyes hold vigil upon your final rest.
Wisk continues down the passageway and finds himself on the western bank of an underground rive. On the shore, there is a smashed and rotting row boat and skeletonised human remains, partially buried in silt. From the charred remains of a ribcage, stands a long, thin blade - embedded in the mud below. Wisk grabs it and flames erupt from the blade, travelling up his arm and burning him. He continues to pull and the blade comes free. He then spots a ruined journal in the mud, picks it up and flips through it [details below].
At this point the rest of the party pass through the door and are also transported to the same spot. They decide to bed down in the passageway and take a long rest. During the course of the long rest, two watches spot strange eel-like creatures moving up and down the river. The session ends with the party discussing how best to cross the river.
Zee’s Journal The journal is filthy, mudstained, waterlogged and mostly ruined. The leather binding of the book is a rich blue and there are the remains of gold leaf painted on top of raised ridges that make up a beautiful floral pattern underneath the leather.
Flipping through the stained pages, the entries - or what can be made out of them - seem to be mostly dated from the late 750's into the early 760's, with entries ramping up to around weekly in 762. Fragments from a few entries can be discerned, the owner, Zee, was a woman - either long lived or very knowledgeable on history given the references to events from much earlier than the journal's timeframe - who was an agent in the employ of an organisation she refers to only as 'the Order'. The journal pertains mostly to their clandestine struggle with another organisation alternately called the League of Midnight, Midnighters, the Midnight League or simply - the League. The final entry - surprisingly well preserved considering the state of the rest of the book reads thus;
The League draws near, we’ve found their spies sniffing around Angel Gate for the last week. Gave them a proper 'Mosston welcome', but more will come. Centuries of preparation have gone to waste; interlopers threaten our most hidden places and the Thenarch has shown herself utterly blind to my warnings - whether by wilful ignorance or intentional sabotage I cannot say. Everything comes down to the next few hours, the Order will survive or die on our watch.
My brothers and sisters have assembled in the temple to prepare a nasty surprise for them, but they need time. Time that I intend to buy them with my life. This will likely be my final entry. Oghden, if by some miracle the Order makes it through the night and you find this journal, please, honour what we discussed.
His will, by our hands.
Zee
Report Date
06 Mar 2021
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