Adventure Notes – The Adventurers 40

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Connected Adventures: Adventure 14, Adventure 15, Adventure 16, Adventure 17, Adventure 18, Adventure 19, Adventure 20, Adventure 21, Adventure 22, Adventure 23, Adventure 24, Adventure 25, Adventure 26, Adventure 27, Adventure 28 , Adventure 29, Adventure 30, Adventure 31, Adventure 32, Adventure 33, Adventure 34, Adventure 35, Adventure 36, Adventure 37, Adventure 38 and Adventure 39.

The party utilizes Sephrenia and Morsus’ ability to use the Message spell to reach out to the Lizard People, Mycanoids, and other allies they’ve gained down here (who are also enemies, for their own reasons – of the Drow) to all amass at Thoridun (The Dwarven City) to help fight in the war against the Drow
The leader of the Darklings offers to use the “Fey Shortcut” – where the party will be in the Fey for weeks – but on the Prime Material Plane – only seconds will pass (rather than being escorted up the path that the leader can take them through – which would take several weeks) – he does warn that traveling through the Fey, they may experience things and come out slightly changed
- Those affected –
- Morsus, after stepping through – can no longer see the color purple
- Adrian, after stepping through – now smells of flowers, but it’s overwhelming
- Korra, after stepping through – every full moon her clothes vanish
- Ragnaroc, after stepping through – glows brightly on a full moon (Disadvantage on Stealth checks during full moons)
The party appears in an all too familiar area, where they first entered down into the Shadow Vale –

“X” marks the spot down in the lower right

The party looks around and sees a lot of foot traffic that seems to be primarily dwarves when they’re suddenly surrounded by ten of what appears to be the Dwarven King’s (Thariak Froststorm) Guard who demand to ask what they’re doing down in the Shadow Vale
Sephrenia explains that they’re here to save the King, but the guard sneers that she’s no Dwarf – what is her – and her companions – business down here
Morsus explains that the Drow are about to attack the Kingdom; and her persuades them enough that they believe him – but demand that they surrender their weapons to ensure they’re not a threat and they can bring them to their king
Adrian explains that there should have been three dwarves who returned to the King (Gor Hammerstine, Bran Homeforge and Dran Homeforge)
As the party members are talking to the guards, Don notices that Pren is hiding behind some rocks and gestures to Don to keep quiet about him
Don discreetly tries to inform his party that Pren is nearby watching – giving the thumbs up
The party continues talking to the Dwarves claiming they’d found evidence that the Drow are responsible for a lot of the things happening (the poisoned water – which they cured, the civil war, etc) – and four of the guards say they will return in a moment, and after an hour, finally do return and say, “Our King, and the Drow Ambassador would love to speak with you.”
During this time, Ragnaroc enters a trance state and begins whispering, “Belaros…”
The party is escorted to the King’s chambers, with their weapons – and the double doors are closed behind them – where they see the King and a Drow sitting at the end of the room
As the party approaches the King – Morsus manages to spot some unusual runes on the floor and on the columns – that are very faint – and do not appear to be Dwarvish
The King beckons them closer to address the King
Adrian looks around and doesn’t see Gor, Bran or Dran present – who could have vouched for the party – the party leaves Ragnaroc by the door in his trance-like state
The party looks at the evidence they’ve acquired –
- A note explaining they need to capture more dwarves to mine the admantine
- A note explaining to capture the Changling/Doppleganger because it “knows too much”
Morsus realizes that he’s still wearing King Thoriak’s father’s (Varak Froststorm) crown which Pren explained was King Varak’s
Adrian explains that where they’d recovered the crown, they’d fought a Wraith – and also discovered the Azer and assisted them; who are willing to re-establish trades and help the Dwarves
King Thoriak shakes off the idea of needing help, and says he’s aligned with the Drow to fight a common enemy – the Illithid
Adrian asks about Gor, Bran and Dran – and the King explains that they’d talked to him about some “outsiders” were helping to find a cure for the water. Adrian explains that they met an ally (Nor’Orn) and were able to gather some components and place a cure to the water – and that the poisoning of the water supply came from a Drow named “Doomsilk.”
The Ambassador nods, “Yes, like any society – there are those who are not aligned with our vision. Sounds like this Doomsilk is one of those.”
Adrian asks if Gor, Bran and Dran mentioned that they’d been enslaved by the Drow an that were rescued by the party
The King mentions that they’d failed to mention that
Adrian asks for the King to summon the three of them to come speak about it
They wait about an hour before the three are finally brought into the room; and it’s very obvious that all three of them appear very, very nervous
Adrian asks them to confirm that they’d been the ones to save them – and Bran says, “Yes! That’s them! The ones who saved us from the Illithid!”
Sephrenia asks what he means – it was Drow
Bran explains that (nervously) – that it had been Illithid – and if they saw Drow – then the Illithid must have gotten inside their mind
Morsus decides he will cast Command on Bran – but before doing so – Morsus catches (Natural 20!) that the three of them are staring at the pillars nervously – but still casts the spell, saying, “Why are you lying to the King? Confess.”
Bran fails to save – and he struggles to speak – but fear forces him to keep quiet (since Command can not make someone do something that would harm them – and he firmly believes telling the truth will lead to his demise) – his nose begins to bleed, his ears begin to bleed, and he buckles to his knees, holding his ears, screaming
The King suddenly stands up, “I demand to know what hex you’ve cast on one of my subjects, hill dwarf!” (The king emphasizes hill dwarf, as a slur and indication that hill dwarves are inferior to mountain dwarves)
The Drow Ambassador stands and says, “King Thoriak – I believe the Hill Dwarf has hexed one of your companions!”
Adrian hands over the notes, bowing, “Great King. It was a Drow that vowed that he poisoned the water as a plot – and that they enslaved Dwarves to create a giant statue of a female spider – that models after a forgotten goddess of darkness! We returned your father’s crown in good faith. You are being manipulated – my companion did not hex your subject – rather, your subject is so fearful of the truth that’s been hidden for you – that he dare not speak it – these Drow are not your allies.”
The King reviews the documents – and looks and the Drow Ambassador and shouts, “Guards! Arrest him!”
The Drow Ambassador throws off his cloak, and begins weaving his fingers – and the runes on the columns and floor begin to glow – as Drow and Driders step out

One of the Drow Assassins fires her arrow at Morsus, but he’s able to use Warding Flare to prevent her from landing her shot
Morsus summons a Spiritual Weapon and manages to hit the assassin that fired at him, and then follows up with a Toll the Dead which but they manage to resist – and Morsus shouts, “Save the King!”
Morsus then moves toward the Drow Ambassador
One of the assassins targets Adrian and hits him with significant damage
One of the Drider begins casting an all too familiar spell – but Sephrenia and Korra manages to avoid the effects of Faerie Fire (thus not glowing purple, the traditional color of the Drider’s faerie fire – which Morsus can’t see)
One of the Assassins fires at Don – and one shots him – taking him down
Korra throws down the Azer gift – The Hammer of Return to summon the Azer – and a portal opens and shimmers opening to the Plane of Fire
Korra then makes her way to Don and uses a Medicine check to stabilize him to prevent him from bleeding out (so now he’s officially at 0 HP and just unconscious)
Sephrenia calls out to Adrian to see how he is – and he explains he’s not bloodied yet, but another hit like that and it won’t be good
Sephrenia rushes to Don’s side and casts Cure Light Wounds on Don and restores some health to him
Adrian moves to King Thariak and says, “King, I will protect you – but you must not attack anyone!” and proceeds to cast Sanctuary on the King
And then proceeds to use Lay on Hands on himself
A drider steps up and casts Faerie Fire on Don, Korra and Sephrenia since she sees they’re all grouped together; and they all manage to avoid its effects, even the severely wounded Don
One of the Assassins fires at Morsus, and Critical Fails – and hits the Drow Ambassador instead
The Assassins seem focused on Adrian and Morsus, while the Driders seem interested in the clustered group
As a bonus action (see House Rules) Don quaffs a healing potion and gets more health back; Don fires at the Drider to the right; hitting with a Natural 20 with Sharp Shooter, inflicting severe damage to the Drider; and fires a second shot that also strikes the same Drider
With the ruse broken; the Meenlock reveals itself from behind the King’s throne, the Ambassador’s Invisibility spell on it now broken

It’s mind broken by the Drow, it lunges at the King – but the Sanctuary spell protects him (failed Wisdom save) so it turns it’s attention to one of the King’s guards
The Ambassador turns his attention to the King and slashes the King and in one shot bloodies the king; despite the natural resistance to poison that dwarves have
Gor and Dran, leave Bran – who is still screaming on the floor – and draw their weapons to help against the Driders now that the King has commanded it
One of the Assassins fires at Adrian; but he’s able to deflect the bolt just in time
The King’s guards try to fight the assassins and deal some damage
Morsus casts Faerie Fire on the Ambassador; but the Ambassador is quite dexterous and avoids the effects
Korra fires at one of the assassins and manages to hit; and just then the Azer portal lights up – and the Azer rush into the room to fight the Drow (eight Azer pour into the room)

One of the Assassins fires at Adrian and misses
Sephrenia uses Protection from Poison on Don, giving him resistance to the poisoned weapons that the Assassins are using
Adrian calls Ms. Claws to his side and then casts Shield of Faith on himself
One of the Driders fires at Korra hitting hard with an arrow
Jackson emerges from the Azer portal also – summoned – and Don tells Jackson to give the Help action against the Drider – while he fires on them; his first shot misses, while his second shot lands a hit, dealing significant damage to the Drider
One of the Assassins rocks Adrian’s world with a very hard hit and it’s enough to shatter Adrian’s concentration spell
The Meenlock delivers a crushing blow to one of the King’s guards; bloodying him
The Drow Ambassador swings at Morsus, and hits him hard – but thankfully the poison doesn’t do as much damage as it’s doing to Morsus’ comrades; but it’s still a hard hit
The King continues to flee along the northern wall – trying to get away from the Meenlock, Drow and Driders – but there’s not much in the way of cover
Morsus tries to Faerie Fire the Drow Ambassador; but he once again avoids it
Morsus’ Spiritual Hammer, however, in the meantime, continues to beat on one of the Drow Assassins
One of the Driders finds three Azer on it, so it drops it’s bow and draws it’s sword and takes three attacks, but only hitting one of the Azer once (for minimal damage)
One of the Assassins fires at Adrian and misses
The King’s Guard then proceed to attack the Assassins and Driders, and manage to hit and deal some minor damage
Korra fires at one of the Driders – and deals a lot of damage, due to Sneak Attack, since Jackson (and the Azer) are next to it (placing allies next to it)
Sephrenia casts Guiding Bolt on one of Assassins, hitting them and dealing damage – and now the next attack against it has Advantage
Adrian calls Ms. Claws to stand on the tarp – and the King calls out from the corner, despite being bloodied, he shouts, “Wait! No! Get that beast off the carpet! It’s shredding it! Get it away!”
The Assassin who Korra keeps firing at, fires back at her and misses
The other Assassin scores a Natural 20 – and hits Adrian very hard and instantly bloodies him – leaving Adrian staggering
Don fires at the the Assassin that Sephrenia had hit with Guiding Bolt and despite having Advantage his Sharp Shooter misses; so he fires his next shot and also misses
The Meenlock continues its assault against the King’s guard, striking again, spilling quite a bit of blood
The Azer continuing attacking the Driders and Assassins; one of them landing a Critical Hit (Natural 20!) killing one of the Driders
The Ambassador lunges against at Morsus; and Morsus quickly uses Warding Flare but the Ambassador is still able to hit and do some damage
One of the Assassins manages to hit Morsus also dealing a whopping hit, bloodying him severely
Morsus quickly casts Shield of Faith on himself and fires back with a Toll of the Dead, which the Assassin fails to avoid; but the Assassin manages to barely cling to life
One of the Driders tries to attack the Azer, but manages to Critical Fail and strikes itself for some trivial damage
One of the Assassins attempted to fire a shot, but mishandles the arrow and stabs itself (Critical Fail) for some trivial damage – but enough to bloody itself
Korra attacks the Assassin barely clinging to life with her crossbow and deals enough damage to kill one of the Assassins
One of the Assassins fires at Morsus; and thanks to his Shield of Faith he barely dodges the arrow that would have clearly put him into death saves!
Sephrenia moves up and casts Preserve Life – spilling health towards Adrian and more so, towards Morsus, to give them health
She then points her finger towards the Drow Ambassador with Guiding Bolt, but the shot misses
Adrian uses his last Greater Healing potion as a Bonus Action (getting some health back), then mounts his Raptor, Ms. Claws and proceeds to cast Protection from Poison on himself
One of the Assassins manages to one shot kill one of the Azer who’d been attacking him
Don uses Sharp Shooter to kill off another one of the Assassins
He turns his attention on another Assassin and fires a normal shot and hits another Assassin, dealing some damage
The Meenlock, meanwhile, for a change of pace, actually finally misses the guard
The Ambassador Drow swings and hits Morsus – and thanks to Sephrenia’s previous Preserve Life spell, Morsus is still standing – barely
Morsus uses his Spiritual Hammer to strike an Assassin, but it misses; and Morsus decides to take the Dodge action
One of the Driders kills one of the Azer, but also manages to Critical Fail, inflicting significant damage on itself
Only one Drider and two Assassins remain, and the Drow Ambassador
Korra focues on the bloodied Assassin and drops her crossbow and draws her magical daggers – and manages to hit – injecting poison – and the Assassin barely clings to life
Sephrenia runs up to Morsus and casts a Level 2 Cure Wounds on Morsus to give him more health
Adrian casts Wrathful Smite and goes after the Meenlock, however, both swings miss so the Wrathful Smite does not go off and prepares a Protection Stance to save the guard from the Meenlock
The Assassin fires at Sephrenia, but misses
Don fires his Starbow – and kills one of the Assassins, and he turns attention to the Assassin and fires, but misses
The Meenlock tries to attack the King’s Guard, but Adrian’s Protection Stance forces it to miss
In the meantime, the other Guard – along with the Azer – and Gran and Gor – they manage to kill the last Drider
The Drow Ambassador attempts to hit Morsus – who took the dodge last time – turning the Natural 20 into a Critical Fail, so it hits itself
Morsus sends his Spiritual Hammer after the last remaining Assassin, who takes their first hit; and then proceeds to take the Dodge action
The King’s Guard manages to land a hit on the Meenlock finally
Korra lunges at the remaining Assassin, plunging her magical Dagger into it – injecting lethal poison – and instantly bloodies the Assassin
The Drow Assassin takes offense to being hit – and hits Korra with a poisoned short sword, sending Korra down to the ground
Sephrenia sees Korra going down – falling just where she’d stood before – and quickly makes her way back to Korra and casts Spare the Dying on Korra, which saves her from doing Death Saves
Adrian finally hits with his sword – unleashing Wrathful Smite – and the Meenlock is unable to save – and is now considered Frightened (A frightened creature has disadvantage on ability checks and attack rolls while the source of its fear is within line of sight. The creature can’t willingly move closer to the source of its fear.)
On Don’s turn – as a Bonus Action he moves his Hunter’s Mark to the remaining Assassin and lines up a Sharp Shooter shot which manages to hit – killing the final Assassin
Don looks at the Ambassador and whispers, “My wrath, my fury” – and marks the Ambassador as his enemy – and fires – and hits, and deals so much damage that it bloodies the Ambassador
The Meenlock in the meantime, attempts to flee from Adrian – who takes an opportunity of attack, but misses; and the King’s Guard also swings and misses, as the Meenlock breaks away from them both, allowing it to try and flee
With Morsus keeping the Dodge action, the Ambassador misses
Morsus casts Toll the Dead – as it fails – and dies from the spell
The King’s Guard who had fought the Meenlock runs up to the Ambassador and manages to hit him once
Sephrenia administers a Greater Healing potion to Korra since she’s still unconscious and gives her a boost of health
Adrian moves in on the Drow Ambassador, and his first swing misses; but his second swing hits and unleashes Divine Smite and does a little more damage, but the Ambassador is still standing
Don uses Bonus Action to the Drow Ambassador, then lines up a Sharp Shooter and manages to hit inflicting an incredible amount of damage – but the Ambassador is barely standing, bleeding out
Don fires his second shot normal – and misses (by 1 point!)
Adrian disadvantages the first swing – which misses, but the Ambassador hits Morsus with the second hit (with quite a bit of damage)
Morsus then calls for Toll the Dead – but the Ambassador manages to shake off the effects; so Morsus moves the Spiritual Hammer closer (but it’s not close enough to hit)
One of the King’s Guard manages to land a hit on the Drow Ambassador taking him down
The Dwarven King – explains – with the Meenlock’s presence made known – that it would explain how the King was susceptible to the notion of the Illithid – since Meenlock’s have the ability to twist the mind and feed the fears of the mind
He also explains there are other Drow in the City who have taken sanctuary – that they must take care of
Adrian asks about the Civil War that has been tearing the city apart
The King assures them that he will send delegates to the Blackoak family and set things right
Adrian also mentions they need to talk to Rex Flamebeard; and the King explains, bashfully, that it’s convenient – his soldiers had captured Rex a week ago and imprisoned him – he orders for Rex’s immediate release
Morsus explains that Lizard Folk, Myconids and Bullywugs are on the way to help fight against the Drow
Just then – the front doors crash down – and Pren and six other Blackoak Dwarves burst into the room and shout, “We’re here to help, friends!” And look around and observe that the battle seems to be over. (As a side note, as alluded to earlier – Pren had seen the party seemingly captured – my original intention was to have Pren and soldiers kick down the door a round or two after when the Assassins and Driders were summoned so that there was tension before the big rescue – but the party decided to summon the Azer – and I just went with that instead)
While speaking to the King – Korra notices a wand on the Ambassador’s belt – that Korra manages to stealthfully acquire
Morsus’ eyes suddenly go white – and a woman’s voice that is the Drow’s Priestess says, “I see you killed my Ambassador – I will make you all pay.” Then Morsus resumes control of his mind

Fey Chart Below for those interested –

The World of Kne'Urth

Adventure Awaits.

Adventure Notes – The Adventurers 40