Demon Queen’s Enclave – Session 1

DM: Merric

Players:
Greg – Shava, dragonborn cleric 14
Josh – Orthos, goliath fighter 13
Nathaniel – Lienatan, half-elf warlock 14
Adam – Underscore, eladrin wizard 13
NPC – Splug, goblin rogue 14

Descent Into the Depths
The party had spent a month or more in Mooncrest after their defeat of the reborn Troll King, Vard, enjoying the adoration of the townsfolk and with Underscore crafting a number of wondrous items that the group though they might find of use, in particular pairs of bracers of brachiation for both Lienatan and Underscore.

Towards the end of their stay, Underscore’s rituals were slightly disrupted by the appearance of a comet in the night sky, which Lienatan spent several nights watching as it traversed the heavens. Soon thereafter, they received a message from an old friend, Valthrun the Prescient of Winterhaven, who was very concerned with the appearance of the comet. He asked the group to attend him quickly, as there was information he had to impart that could not be trusted to parchment.

Once the group accepted the information and returned to Winterhaven, the site of their very first adventure in the Keep on the Shadowfell, Valthrun held a great feast for all of them. At its end, he revealed that according to his study of the Analects of Tzunk, the comet presaged the appearance of a new Exarch of Orcus, something that had to be prevented at all costs! The group agreed with him, and made preparations to travel into the Underdark; Valthrun could not be precise, but he believed that the group could find the area the Exarch would appear in under the Cairngorm Peaks and could be accessed through a shaft known as the Miser’s Pit.

Winterhaven was on the edge of the Cairngorm Pits, so it was not long before the group were climbing into the mountains. They reached the location of the Miser’s Pit without difficulty, but were attacked by Dire Bears as they attempted to locate a cave in which their horses could shelter until they returned. The bears proved little trouble to such an experienced party, and were soon defeated.

The Miser’s Pit, constructed by a mad dwarf many years ago (and reported to be a place where some of his treasure could be found) proved to have a narrow staircase leading some 500 feet into the ground, winding round and round a 20 foot wide shaft! Shava had some trouble navigating the climb, but Lienatan and Underscore, with their bracers of brachiation and teleportion abilities had little trouble. Eventually, they all reached the bottom, safe and sound.

There, a single tunnel that wavered between ten and thirty feet in width (with many dead-end side passages) led deeper into the depths of the earth. Water from above trickled down it, and many fungi grew in ever increasing numbers as they progressed along its length. Occasionally, gleaming crystals would reflect their light sources, scattering them into many glittering shards about the tunnel.

A stench from ahead warned them of their first challenge: a great cavern with many foul-smelling fungi: mushrooms and toadstools, many of great aspect. The fungi smelt of rotting flesh, and closer examination revealed that many bones were hidden underneath the fungi. Shava, unable to use speak with dead due to the decomposition of the bodies, instead used last sight vision to discover what killed them; he saw the last half-minute of their lives by using the ritual. In that, he discovered that they were part of a caravan of merchants on their way towards the surface who were attacked by ghouls and ghasts from a hidden tunnel in this very chamber!

With the knowledge of where the tunnel was, the party was able to surprise the ghouls before they attacked and Shava, with his angelic aspect and his ability to create great waves of radiant energy was able to slay most of the ghouls before they could threaten the rest of the group. The ghasts fell to the blades of Orthos and Shava and the magic of the two arcanists; Splug mostly ignored the fight, instead locating the ruins of the caravan and looting what he could.

Pressing further on, the air in the tunnel became warmer and the group reached a place where a magma pool was bridged by metal platforms, erected for some unknown reason as the pool could be walked around with ease. Underscore ran across the platform to no ill effect, Lienatan teleported across, and Orthos walked around. Nothing hurt them at all, and Shava mused on the use of the platform as an observation point, but the mystery remained as they left the chamber.

The air got hotter still as they entered a chamber of many hot springs and a few magma pools. Approaching the exit to the chamber, their way was blocked by two Magma Brutes that sprung from the pools, and soon two more brutes were rising from the pool to challenge the adventurers. Underscore and Lienatan retreated and allowed Splug, Orthos and Shava to confront the brutes in melee whilst using their magic to also confuse and attack the elementals.

Unfortunately, a Beholder – an Eye of Flame – had also come to investigate and Lienatan and Underscore were soon hard-pressed with its full attention on them. However, both are masters of the controlling magics and soon Underscore had rendered it immobile and helpless whilst Lienatan trapped it in a globe of necrotic blackness. When the last of the Magma Brutes was destroyed, and there was the sound of the Beholder exploding within the void, they thought it safe to drop the globe and investigate.

However, it was merely a ruse as the Beholder had caused a great explosion to rip from its body which left it unharmed. Lienatan faced the full force of its wrath; the resulting attacks reducing him to within a whisker of unconsciousness and perhaps death (3 hp!) However, he was able to mire the Beholder’s mind so it could not see any of the group, and from there it was easy prey.

Finding its lair was their next occupation, and their they found a lone pair of magical boots; something faintly ironic to find in the lair of a Beholder! With them hurt and weary after their long day, they chose to rest until the morrow.

DM’s Notes:
We’ve not yet properly begun the adventure, although several of the incidents in this tale are suggested by the module. P2 strongly suggests that the trip to the Underdark not be hand-waved: it’s a magical and unusual place, and it needs to feel that way. So, I prepared a group of encounters that I felt might be worthwhile, and then supplemented them with material from the module.

The bears and the ghouls (and the cavern of fungi) were all of my invention. Greg’s use of the last sight vision ritual was quite unexpected, but utterly brilliant and it allowed the segue into the combat with the ghouls very smoothly, and really allowed the party to shine. The ghouls – 13 of them! – were all minions, the ghasts were regular monsters (stench ghouls, if I recall correctly).

The lake of fire and the magma brute and beholder encounter were suggested by the adventure, as were the quest and set-up in general. All combats were played without the use of miniatures, as none were complex enough to warrant their use. This wasn’t a particularly long session and we had several interruptions; probably about three hours of “real” play occurred, but a good time was had by all.

The descent down the shaft - which I did with a series of Athletics or Acrobatics checks - wasn't particularly well thought-out on my part. It was meant to be something of a skill challenge, but I never properly thought about the penalties for failure, so it was quite unrewarding from my viewpoint (although it did allow Nate and Adam to really enjoy their new creations - the bracers!)

All the encounters were strongly in the party’s favour, but I expect more challenging encounters will occur once the body of the adventure is met in full; this was merely setting the scene!