*Pocahontas was absent again today - she might just become a guest player instead!
When we left off on the last session, the group had gone back to The Swinging Sword and decided to sleep for the night. They woke up this morning and immediately hit the ground running, with each member choosing to go chat with various townspeople to gather more information. The weather roll for this day was, "A rare, non-dangerous event where small, smooth pebbles gently rain down, symbolizing earth's bounty."
Falwyn went to see Haeleeya to complete her initial quest from the Zhentarim (she spoke with Phaendra Chansyrl to get information last session per her letter, who directed her to Haeleeya). Falwyn decided to pay for a bath and try to become friends with Haeleeya, who gave her some information she heard from the kids who work for Vallivoe (Falwyn already got this information last session as well, because she somehow managed to do her quest assignment backward).
Durnir wanted to walk around town and see if there was anybody around that needed some nice things done for them. He ran into Nahaeliya Drouth who gratefully accepted his help with carrying some larger crates of poultry into her shop.
Skotizo decided to go exploring some of the areas of town that they haven't looked at yet, and made his way to Gaelkur's. Marlandro stopped him in the doorway and said that he wasn't welcome in his establishment. Skotizo listened to the conversation after they closed the door on him and got the vibe that they don't like strangers or newcomers, and that this is potentially a meeting place for some shady deals. After getting kicked out, he decided to go hunting for some rations.
They all met back up in the town center, and finally decided to start working on some of their quests. They realized that they never got Tricklerock Cave marked on their map, so Durnir and Skotizo decided to go ask Mellikho to mark it for them. Falwyn wanted to go find one of the children in town and see if they could give her more information about Vallivoe or the work they are doing around town. She did manage to find one child, but he was unhelpful and just wanted her money. Durnir and Skotizo got the map marked by Mellikho, and then Skotizo confronted her about her enthusiasm for sending adventurers to their deaths. Mellikho became very defensive and told him to get out.
They stopped quickly at the bakery to get some day-old bread from Mangobarl, who was excited to see them. They asked him about Tricklerock Cave and he initially said he'd never been there, but then seeing an opportunity he excitedly announced that he had been there many times and it was very scary and only the bravest and boldest could go there. Durnir appears to be the only one that's entertaining Mango's lies in an attempt to befriend him.
They decided to head to Tricklerock Cave first, which was about 14 miles outside of town. They walked and chose to camp for the night before arriving on-site in the morning. The weather roll for this day was, "A soothing, gentle breeze that carries the faint scent of flowers." They were presented with an image of the exterior of Tricklerock Cave, which showed footprints leading into and out of the cave area. They spent some time examining them and trying to figure out why they were told that adventurers who went to explore the cave never returned.
After some time outside, they chose to walk into the cave. Durnir took the lead and clanked his way in his chain mail, yelling loudly to see if anyone was there. They immediately started combat with 4 stirges, which proved to be no competition at all and were easily defended. The group was disappointed to discover that there was no treasure to be found in the cave, so they promptly left. As soon as they exited the cave, they were surprised by a figure who appeared in the bog. He introduced himself as Gar Shatterkeel, and very briefly suggested that they join his group before he disappeared back into the bog.
They went straight from this location to the one marked by Vallivoe on the map (he had told them a rumor of a strange skull with a black arrow sticking out of it). They found it easily, and Falwyn did an Arcana check to see if she could sense anything magical going on with it. She rolled very high and was told that she could sense a dark cloud or aura around the skull and arrow. She didn't do anything with that information, however, and Durnir went right to the skull and pulled the arrow out of it. Durnir then handed the arrow to Skotizo and said he should deal with it, since he's the arrow guy. Skotizo pulled the note off the arrow, read it aloud, and was immediately struck with agonizing headaches and visions of his worst nightmares.
As soon as this happened, a figure appeared out of nowhere and introduced herself as Vanifer. She cured Skotizo of his affliction, and suggested that they should join her group if they know what's good for them. Durnir tried twice to use Sacred Flame on Vanifer, but she sidestepped it both times and didn't even acknowledge him. After delivering her message, she disappeared in a show of smoke and sparks.
They left quickly and headed for their final quest location - the site of the infamous ghost story told by Minny's granddaughter. They once again needed to camp for the evening, and woke up in the morning refreshed and ready for the day. Their weather roll was, "A soft, light rain that gently taps on surfaces, refreshing the land."
They arrived at the tomb and were given an image of the exterior of the tomb and the surrounding area. They chose to go directly in without scouting the area or looking around. They immediately set off the alarm that was set on the door, and nobody really seemed to notice or pay attention to it. They walked straight into the tomb and right to the rusted door, where Durnir knocked and asked if anyone was there. The spectre appeared, and he bounced back and forth between reminiscing about his past with Lady Kaylee and reliving the night that she was killed while he tried to defend her. I took a lot of these ideas from the writer of this wiki.
After a few attempts to reason with the spectre, he challenged them to fight because they refused to leave. Skotizo and Falwyn stayed back and fought from afar, but Durnir decided to continue to reason with the spectre and attempt to get him to calm down. After the spectre took a few hits and attempted to hit Durnir a few times, Durnir decided to hug the spectre in the hopes that it would help him remember his humanity. This plan backfired, as now the spectre had perfect access to Durnir to use his Life Drain. One hit of the Life Drain took all of Durnir's life away, and he was killed in combat. Falwyn and Skotizo finished off the spectre in a few rounds after that.
That seemed like an appropriate time to end the session, since I wasn't really sure how to continue after killing off one of the characters so early in the campaign. The other players kept chanting about "CONSEQUENCES," and Durnir's player seemed pretty upset that things were over so quickly for him. After checking with him after, though, it became obvious that he was just hamming it up for the group and was actually excited to have a new character since he was struggling with that one. Now we have to make a plan for how to incorporate his new character into the campaign!