Chapter 1: Fight Aftermath
The game opens with Boz picking the lock of the house the blue man, Faerl is hiding in. We have killed 3 (2 cult member casters and 1 merc) of his 4 henchmen. Andy, the fourth (a merc) is tied up next to a tree by Atalaya laughing his butt off from Sorrow’s Hideous Laughter spell. Sorrow is guarding him as Atalaya runs up to the home’s window to look in, hoping to catch sight of Faerl. She doesn’t see him. The room looks like a study/living room. Inman is around the back guarding the rear of the building (which is actually the true front of the home. We had entered through the office door).
Boz and Nevil enter the building through the “office” door. Atalaya follows behind them realizing that she isn’t seeing anything through the window. Nevil searches for signs of portals but doesn’t find anything. She calls out to Inman asking if he found any signs. He replies, “No.”
Andy stops laughing. Sorrow continues to guard him.
Faerl is not found. The group tosses the house only finding 35 gold 400 silver and a superior potion of healing. Boz speculates that he left mid battle, running out the front door (the door Inman entered).
Nevil rashly conjures Shep, climbs on his back and beckons Atalaya to join her. With Faerl only a few minutes ahead, they hope to catch up with him on the road to the encampment. However, Faerl is a wood elf in a town, he knows with a setting sun. Boz thinks that Faerl slammed the door shut to initiate the fight, locked it and immediately left through the other door.
But the women have no luck catching up with Faerl. The signs around the house are too confused with so many of Faerl’s prints that Atalaya is not able to determine which direction he took. They continue along the road to the edge of town, but find no sign of Faerl. He probably went into the woods along the road, but Atalaya finds no trace of him. She speculates that he used Pass without a Trace to hide his tracks. In the distance Atalaya can make out a trail that …….. (goes in the direction Mayor Kara indicated the new compound for Lord Viallis is?)
Inman and Boz were not happy about the ladies running off on their own, but they wait at Faerl’s house with Sorrow guarding Andy until Nevil and Atalaya return. When they do, Shep is sent by himself to the edge of town to be bait for the fleeing wood elf. He has instructions to communicate with Nevil if he sees the wood elf.
Searching the henchman, Boz found some jewelry that he “palms” to Nevil. We loot the Vecna amulets and daggers on each of the two cultists, 32 gold in total on the bodies and a standard healing potion. Two cross bows and 2 longswords from the mercs. They wore splint leather armor. Andy has 9 gold pieces on him. (Is that part of the 32 gold pieces?) Total loot: 2 Vecna amulets, 2 daggers, 2 crossbows and bolts, 2 longswords, 32 gp (+9gp???) 2 cultist robes (Boz removes them, Inman “cleans” them and Sorrow “Mends” them.)
Atalaya grabs Andy, and starts marching him towards Mayor Kara’s house as we question him. He does say that he was working for Lord Faerl because he paid well and, yes, he did know that the other two men were cultists. He says the businesses of Lord Viallis/Lord Faerl make a lot of money. He says that he has been to the outside of the old tower (where Lord Viallis has moved to). He says that he doesn’t ask questions of Lord Viallis because asking questions gets you killed. He hopes that Lord Faerl returns quickly because he wants to get paid.
Nevil, true to her calling counsels Andy, “You may want to consider a new type of work….” Andy repeats several times that he doesn’t know much.
Andy doesn’t give a lot of information. We deposit him with the mayor who will keep him imprisoned. She is surprised and maybe a little worried by what we tell her. We inform her that there are 3 dead bandits on Lord Faerl’s lawn. We discuss where to imprison Andy. Mayor Kara tells us that there isn’t a jail here, that he will need to be taken to Waterdeep. It is finally decided to keep him in the ice house under the guard of some burly men from the tavern until we return and take him back to Waterdeep with us.
Chapter 2: Lord Viallis’ Compound
The group elects to quickly heal, gather the horses, and eat on the run toward the encampment.
The group stands before an old rotting tower with some tents scattered around it. There is some indication that the tents have been used recently but no one is here now. There are some signs of construction, with construction tools scattered around, but the tower itself is composed of rotting timbers and a rotting floor. Very little headway in repairing the tower seems to have taken place. We comment on the creepiness of the place.
Boz: “I didn’t expect this.”
Inman: “Is there anyone inside?”
Atalaya: “Or maybe a portal inside?”
Inman: “We need to take a look”
Before we enter the ruin Atalaya wants to send their daily message to Ivar… just in case…
Atalaya: “We are outside of Greenfast, about to enter the cultist tower. If we don’t contact you tomorrow, come rescue us.”
Ivar: Be careful. Don't get dead. If you don't come back by tomorrow night, we're coming.
The group approaches the tower, finding no one on the first floor. Nevil senses “evil” emanations below the floor. and the group plans to go below. Inman and Sorrow put on the robes from the cultists we fought in Greenfast. Atalaya finds a third robe after more thoroughly searching the tents. Seeing how big it is she hands it to Nevil to cover her shinny paladin armor. The group creeps down the stairs. We make our way down, under the rotten floor. The steps take us to the ground floor. This floor is stone and is covered with debris. It doesn’t look like any restoration work has taken place here either. On the other side of the open room we find more stairs heading downward. We decide that we need to go down and start to light torches so that the humans can see where they are going. But then we hear whispers coming out of the depths. Quashing the idea of lighting torches, Nevil grabs hold of Atalaya’s shoulder and Inman and Boz hold onto Sorrow’s shoulders, letting those with dark vision lead the way down. The voices have stopped as Atalaya and Nevil reach the bottom of the stairs. Not seeing anyone they step into the room with an eerie aqua light.
We are immediately beset upon by four cultists who had backed up against the walls to lure us into the room unawares. Nevil begins to bluff. “Brothers, well met, we are reinforcements from Waterdeep.”
The cultists are wary. “Who is that?” referring to the robeless Atalaya.
“We had an unfortunate incident with a horse and some fire. Do you have an extra robe?” They are very skeptical but Sorrow and Inman appearing with robes buys some time. They ask who sent us and Nevil replies, “Brother, you know we don’t share that information.” At their skeptical looks she adds, “We were told to come and reinforce the group here.
One of the cultists says that “I know the ritual is working.”
Nevil replies, “That is why we came. Should we join in?”
Cultist: “No, you can't interrupt it.”
Nevil manages to get the cultists to admit there is a ritual occurring and it is led by the Lord Viallis. Nevil, eager for smiting, intentionally drops cover, “Oh good, he’ll have to die then.”
Chapter 3: Fight with Cultists, under the tower
One of the cultists runs forward at Nevil, hitting her but only strikes her armor, doing no damage.
Inman activates his Blade Song, steps forward and attacks Cultist 2. Both his swings hit for a total of 11 damage. Cultist 2 goes down.
Sorrow: Casts Vicious Mockery at one of the cultists. He takes 2 points of psychic damage and is at disadvantage on his next turn.
Atalaya shoots her arrow at Cultist 1. It hits and kills the cultist. Her second shot hits and kills Cultist 4.
Nevil: attacks Cultist 3, moving in on him and grappling him as she tells him that she is going to give him a chance to make new choices.
Suddenly we notice the air in the room getting colder.
As a spectral ghost appears before us Atalaya has a random thought. She is really glad that Cirilli was left in Candlekeep.
The ghost flies over our heads and goes after Sorrow. It passes into Sorrow’s body and Sorrow shudders. It appears that she is then shoved out and away from Sorrow.
Boz swings his sword and it passes through the spirit’s form. The spirit seems to dematerialize, but then immediately reforms. We cannot tell whether or not she takes any damage from the hit.
Cultist 3 worms out of Nevil grapple and tries to get away from her. Nevil takes an attack of opportunity and hits him causing 12 points of damage. The cultist falls down, dead. Nevil shakes her head and says, “We were just talking about turning a new leaf.”
Again we feel the temperature in the room lower and another ghost like creature appears, flying over our heads. This one focuses on Atalaya and gets up close to Atalaya’s face and makes a horrible face. Atalaya is frightened/terrified and is at disadvantage for her attacks as long as she can see the ghost.
Inman casts Firebolt at Ghost 1. It hits doing 2d10 fire damage. The fire sweeps through the entity and then the ghost materializes as the fire goes out.
Sorrow casts Bane on both Ghosts. Ghost 2 seems unaffected by the sp;ell, but Ghost 1 fails his save and seems to have more difficulty with his attacks (must roll a d4 and subtract that number from his attack and save throws.)
Atalaya draws her sword and attacks one of the Ghosts. Her first attack misses, but her second hits and does 8 points of damage??
Nevil swings at Ghost 1 and uses Divine Smite. Her strike hits for 6 points of damage + 11 points of radiant damage. The ghost turns into smoke but after a moment turns back and is making horrible faces.
Ghost 2 attacks Sorrow. It reaches out its spectral hand and tries to slam it hard into Sorrow’s chest. He misses his strike as Sorrow nimbly jumps out of its way.
Boz: Attacks Ghost 1 with his sword. Pieces of it fly around the room, but then it reforms. Boz is unsure if any damage was done to it.
Ghost 1 does something to Boz. Boz fails his save and something definitely happens to him. He rocks forward on his feet as if he was overtaken by an incredible amount of weakness. His face goes grey and silver hairs appear near his ears and in his beard. He manages to remain standing, but just barely.
Inman: Targets Ghost 1 with the first of his Scrotching Rays. He hits it for 8 points of damage. It screeches and fades to a bluish grey and then fades away. He sends his second Ray at Ghost 2. It misses, the fire passing harmlessly by the ghost.
Sorrow: Casts Vicious Mockery at Ghost 2. The ghost seems completely unaware of any insult.
Atalaya, no longer frightened since Ghost 1 is now dead, turns and faces Ghost 2. She swings and hits with both her attacks, causing 6 +13 damage to Ghost 2.
Nevil: Attacks Ghost 2. Critical failure. She made a wrong move. Her opponent's next turn has a +4 to hit. Her second attack is also a critical failure. She falls prone, drops her primary weapon and is stunned for one round.
Ghost 2: Reaches her hand out to Nevil and touches her (Withering Touch). Nevil takes 21 points of damage and 19 points of necrotic damage for a total of 40 points of damage.
Boz swings at Ghost 2 trying to distract it from Nevil. He hits for a total of 22 points. Again, he is uncertain whether or not any damage is caused, but he has distracted it from Nevil.
Inman: Casts Phantasmal Killer. The ghost makes her save and no damage is taken.
Sorrow: Casts Bane on Ghost 2 again. It fails its save. (-1d4 on To hits and Saves)
Atalaya: Swings her Amaurëa, attacking Ghost 2. The first swing misses. The second swing hits for 13 points of damage. The ghost screams and dissipates.
Boz: leans against the wall.
Sorrow: “What happened brother?”
Boz: I don’t know. ……. I was dizzy for a minute.
Nevil: Boz, you look older. You have crow’s feet around your eyes and your hair is turning silver.
Atalaya runs her fingers through his hair and then his beard, looking intensely at him. “You do look… your hair is silvered.” Turning to Nevil, “Older?”
Nevil: ________________________________
Boz: Is it reversible?
Nevil: I don’t know. We’ll have to figure it out.
Boz: I don’t feel bad. I feel alright.
Atalaya (thinking about Sister Talia and Father Brinehanded) Maybe a cleric can help. We know a few that … (Atalaya just registers that his voice is much raspier.)
[Vasilya’s chronological age is 33. He now looks to be in his mid 40’s. (43, he was aged 10 years)]
Game ends
Future Plans
Continue looking for Lord Viallis in the this tower
Try to figure out how to remove the life drain on Boz
When we make it back to the inn in Greenfast ask Nevil if she has a way of getting information to Seraphina. Atalaya wants to apprise her of the connection of Lord Viallis and the Pact of Lich in Parabor
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