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Dunmari Frontier - Session 13

Abyssal Cleansing: in which the party purges demonic taint

Featuring: Kenzo, Wellby, Delwath, Seeker, Riswynn
Companions: Vola
In Taelgar: Apr 13, 1748 DR
On Earth: Friday Nov 20, 2020
Raven’s Hold

The Dunmar Fellowship battles a demonic plant creature, ending its abyssal corruption and liberating trapped animals.

Session Info

The party departs Raven’s Hold with a number of treasures.

Summary

  • The Dunmar Fellowship discovers treasures and clues about gnolls in Raven’s Hold, including weapons for an army.
  • Delwath senses extraplanar energy and they find a summoning circle on a bridge, which births a demonic creature.
  • After a fight, they cure Kenzo’s poisoning, destroy the circle, and cleanse the river, removing the Abyssal corruption.
  • Seeker persuades the trapped animals to leave; Wellby rides a lion into the valley.
  • They explore the dwarven outpost as they depart, obtaining adamantine and finding a damaged, yet defiant, dwarvish stone construct.

Timeline

  • Apr 13, 1748 DR, late morning: Explore Raven’s Hold and recover treasure.
  • Apr 13, 1748 DR, noon: Find and destroys some demon-cursed plant creature near a summoning circle outside of Raven’s Hold, watch poisoned water be washed away. Careful searching turns up little but a scroll cap from a scroll case. Set a bunch of penned animals free.
  • Apr 13, 1748 DR, afternoon: Pass through Dwarven Outpost (Raven’s Hold), explore mines, and speak with strange giant metal construct of dwarvish origin.
  • Apr 13, 1748 DR, evening: Camp near road to Karawa.

Narrative

We begin as the party is finishing breakfast in the quiet of Raven’s Hold, the silence and stillness broken only by the howling of animals trapped in the stables, while contemplating the secrets of Raven’s Hold. Wanting to figure out the mystery of where the gnolls came from, what the demon was doing, and how this is all connected, the party decides to explore.

In the outer barracks and outbuildings of Raven’s Hold, they find a number of treasures. Some, left scattered and hidden in the ruins of what seemed to have been the lair of a large monster at one point, including a silver helm from Drankor, and an enchanted red gem. Others, locked away in a storeroom dating to the hobgoblin occupation of this fort, including a few useful potions and a very creepy hobgoblin standard. However, the only real clue about the gnolls is the discovery of a number of recently delivered weapons and armor: a scattered mess of various seemingly-scavenged items, some Dunmari of various ages, some older, some recent, crude but effective construction. Enough to arm and equip maybe 100 soldiers, to at least a basic level. 

While the rest of the party is scouting these buildings, Delwath wanders off to look around with his fey sight. Sensing an aura of extraplanar energy lingering over the holdfast, he begins to explore and realizes that the source of this abyssal energy seems to be coming from the valley, not the mists or dark waters of the castle. Wanting to deal with this Abyssal corruption before attempting to free the animals, they head into the valley.

About a half mile down the well-constructed dwarven road, they come to the river and the sweeping arch of a marble and quartz bridge spanning it, beautifully and elegantly constructed by Dwarves. The river itself, however, is dark and sluggish, obscured by mists and fog, and clogged with bruised-looking thorny plants and matted plant material. On the ground near the river is a circle of runes. Delwath, looking with his shadow sight, watching the Abyssal runes form into meaning: “I bind you. I call you. I command you. Enter, and obey, for a month and a day.” 

As Delwath moves to scratch out the circle with his shadow sword, from the river movement erupts, and the tangled vines and thorns coalesce into a ten-foot-tall humanoid creature, which moves to strike. As it attacks and the party fights back, a miasma oozes out from the demonic plant creature, poisoning Kenzo. After a short, intense fight, the creature is destroyed, and Riswynn uses a scroll found in the ruins to heal Kenzo before the poison and disease take hold. As Seeker finishes destroying the circle of runes by reshaping the ground beneath them, the river bursts forth, sweeping away the corruption of the demonic presence here. 

With the corruption fading from the land, the party searches the area, and finds what seems to be the remains of a spell scroll, presumably what was used to create this circle. Turning back to the castle, and the animals trapped within, Seeker uses his ability to speak with animals, combined with weaving compelling magic into his words, to suggest that the largest, most dominant lion lead the pack away from here to live free and disperse on the plains. As the animals file out under the sway of Seeker’s magic and the lion, Wellby climbs on the back of the lion and rides off with them into the valley.

Feeling satisfied that at least the demonic danger has passed, and with some hypotheses about what has happened at Raven’s Hold, the party returns to their horses through the dwarven fortress, avoiding Inakara and her people. On the way, they stop to investigate a large, living statute of stone that Wellby had seen while scouting. It seemed to be guarding the forge and mines, but also to be quite damaged. After some brief conversation in dwarvish, and Riswynn showing the shield of her family, the statue defers to them and lets them pass, although it seems magically resistant to Seeker’s attempts to shrink it for transport. The forge and mine area is mostly destroyed, seemingly attacked by something, perhaps whatever damaged the statue. However, there is some of the adamantine, a valuable and extremely hard metal, left, which the party takes on their floating disk, with the half-plate from the hobgoblin storeroom. 

Returning to their horses, the party heads south in the few hours of afternoon light left, before making camp as the sun sets, near the south road back into Dunmar and the pass north.