Session 85 - Iwee Beats Up Derrick
12th December 2023
In-game timeline: Start of session: 1490DR Ches 17. End of session: 1490DR Ches 30
Our "Heroes" have faced undead, fey and fiend, dragons and monstrosities. But now they face their hardest challenge to date. One which strikes fear into all their hearts. A slightly damp ladder.
Karoshi, with a dragon almost snapping at his heels, sits down to read up on climbing techniques using the library of books he brought with him for just such a situation. He proposes a method of scaling the ladder to the rest of the party. Their eyes glaze over after the first 15 minutes of explanation and they just nod, keen to get out of this dangerous cave and climb up to the dangerous mine.
The method is put into practice. It proves to be a useful method, as during the long climb first Iwee, then Derrick and Jaxii all slip and fall at one stage of the climb and suffer a little damage, but a lot less than they would have done without all the rope and tackle that Karoshi had rigged up. The damage is still worrying, however, as they are all in a somewhat beaten up state.
They make it! All four of our "Heroes" manage to reach the ledge without falling unconscious, though their health is dangerously low. They decide to take a short rest at the top of the ladder, on the ledge, using Iwee's Tiny Hut for protection.
Somewhat rested, but still a little low on resources, they emerge from their protective Hut and enter the door that leads into the mine system. As they cautiously move down the corridor, they hear Castellan berating them from round the corner. Karoshi runs ahead to try to catch up with him, but sees him disappear, literally, near to a door.
Ignoring that passage, the group decide to head where Castellan hopefully is not, and press forward towards the door to the north. Unbeknownst to the others (for now, though they all struggled, and failed, not to meta-game here!) Castellan appeared behind the group in the corridor and managed to charm Derrick.
This charming of Derrick lay dormant for a short while as the group pressed onwards as quickly as they could safely do. When they arrived back in the main "throne hall" they are set upon by two of the hideous, twisted creatures that they fought previously, as well as the shadow demon that pushed Iwee from the ladder earlier on. Whilst the other three are busy trying to fight off the attack, Derrick spots his chance and tries to grab Iwee and drag her back away from the others. Unfortunately, with his exhaustion, even with his superior strength, he struggles to drag her away effectively, and Iwee attacks him, trying to dispel the charm that they now, justifiably, realise he is under.
As Castellan looks on from the safety of the other side of the room, Iwee, with the help of Karoshi's protective aura, a critical hit, and her own bardic inspiration, snaps Derrick out of his charm - she seems to enjoy the experience of damaging Derrick, and slaps his weapon out of his hand at the same time, and is a little disappointed that she no longer has any excuse to hit him once he breaks his charm.
With the party back at "full strength" once more, they make short work of the creatures attacking them. Castellan, realising that his minions are defeated, expresses his disappointment over our "Heroes" life choices, and informs them that this is not the last time they will see him, before he unfurls impressive, and rather attractive, wings from his back, and disappears into another plane from existence - away from the possibility of their attacks.
With no further obvious enemies, the party search Castellan's room, but find very little other than a note which indicated that Castellan was responsible for the attack on Shining Creek some seven years ago, and has been hunting for the Intricate Web and the Goden Born ever since.
Not wanting to risk losing Kardreth after such trials getting him in the first place, the party decide to head out of the mine completely, avoiding areas they have not yet visited. They head back through the mine, and through the Hook Horror lair and eventually find their way back to Shining Creek and the small community of gnomes there. The two gnomes that they found in the mine had recently arrived back there, though they both suffered a lot with their journey through the Sporerealm, as the myconids attacked them, killing the accompanying Duergar.
All the group manage to level up - Iwee gains knowledge of her next level from her improving attachment with Kardreth; Jaxii receives further knowledge from her ancestors, who are very proud of her actions and achievements, and Derrick and Karoshi are gifted the knowledge and training needed to level up from the inhabitants of Settlestone, who are very grateful that the waters at Mistloch have receded and the winter crop is saved! All our "Heroes" are now LEVEL 8!!