Party
- Deanna — Human Paladin (Myk)
- Ethan — Elf Wizard (Hag)
- Slyvestor III — Halfling Warlock/Rogue (Bear)
- Tenoch — Lizardfolk Druid/Barbarian (Gaz)
Adventure
Catch guided the party away from the village and into the stone-pine forest for several hours before they took a brief rest and discussed how to proceed. They all agreed they want to try and prioritise finding any of the Abductor’s victims who still live. Ethan investigates the lantern and guesses that he might be able to overcharge it in some offensive capacity.
Slyvestor confides in Catch that he’s looking for another world. Catch shares that he has seen an eye like Slyvestor described, peering through the walls of the caverns where he farms mushrooms. He hasn’t seen it since and the village elders thought he was either making it up or hallucinating…
As they journey Tenoch hears the unmistakable sounds of footsteps pounding on the forest floor, heading towards them. Ethan uses his Rope Trick spell to conceal the party before several heavily armed and armoured grey-skinned, short, white bearded and bald creatures charge into the area following the same kind of shadowy hound that caught Slyvestor as he sneaked around the village. The party’s cover is nearly lost when, observing the dog being punished with a device that flashes out blinding light, Slyvestor cries out into the mind of one of the creatures. The party’s cover holds however and the creatures ultimately backtrack when they are unable to locate the heroes.
Descending from their hiding place Tenoch is able to use his Druidic magic to make the party Pass Without Trace as they resume their journey. After several hours travel the party rest for the evening and the tendrils of the Gloam affect Ethan and Tenoch, causing them to feel Apathy.
After breaking camp the party continue following Catch for a few more hours before he stops and points through the thinning trees to a mound. A strange altar like arrangement of stones is visible in front of the entrance, which is barricaded by long spikes pointing inwards and into the mouth of the cavern.
Grasping the Gloam Dowse Ethan is immediately jerked towards the cavern for a moment before the dowse falls limp. Deanna guesses that it may have been the Abductor leaving.
The party debate various plans, including setting the mound on fire, before settling on the idea of disguising Slyvestor as a child and having him play near the cavern entrance in an attempt to lure out the Abductor. Deanna gives Tenoch her Cape of the Mountebank so that he can teleport her next to the Abductor with the Cold Iron Spike at the ready.
As he jumps rope near to the caverns entrance Slyvestor notices that the spikes and the alter are overgrown and that the altar, and surrounding area, are littered with the bones and several desiccated corpses of animals. Paying closer attention to the spikes he discovers they are covered in runes which indicate some form of Abjuration magic.
Realising that things have been this way for a long time and the defenses look to be set to keep the creature in Slyvestor returns to the party. Deanna wonders if this is one of the prisons that Imlit mentioned, built to keep the creature in. Tenoch wonders whether the divining rod’s behaviour was that the creature escaped without having to leave through the entrance.
The party decide that they must enter in order to find the creature. They briefly falter at the notion of breaking through the magical ward on the cave entrance, before asking Bran to break through.
Ethan’s darkvision doesn’t reveal anything in the cave, an alarming development for a creature with life-long darkvision. He pulls out the lantern and the directed beam illuminates a small patch of wall. The darkness of the cavern swallows Slyvestor’s Light cantrip, so they switch the lantern to emit a radius of light and head in.
After wandering many tens of feet down a winding passage the tunnel opens up into a huge cavern, the floor is visible but nothing else falls within the lantern’s radius. The lamp is switched to beam mode and sweeps the cavern — bones and corpses litter the floor. The sight of such a large open grave causes Ethan to retch.
During the sweep Tenoch noticed a glint and the party head off towards it. The bones and corpses shift beneath their feet, suggesting the floor of at least this region of the cavern is lower than they expected, and several of the party sink into the bones taking injuries.
Following the original clue Tenoch finds 9 gems (worth 50gp each) in a rotting leather pouch on an equally rotting leather belt. Unable to find any clues as to their origin by investigating the corpse the party give the cavern another sweep. When the beam dances over what looked like a face it’s swiftly moved back, only to reveal nothing… The lantern is switched to emit light in a radius and the party see six long limbed, grey-skinned creatures with their long tongues lolling as they race towards the party.