Session 21

Put Me in Coach
10 Eleasis (early morning) - 15 Eleasis (Evening)

The Young Adventurers awaken after fighting trolls during the night and continue their trek east toward Silverymoon. The sky begins to darken and soon they are travelling through a full blown storm, with hard winds and heavy rains. By late afternoon it is as dark as night and the travellers are fully miserable. Eventually they settle in for the night. In addition to the standard tiny hut Ralkor blankets the area in a private sanctum spell.

That night the fake Valadras again visits Sebastian, taking him to a clearing somewhere else in the Evermoors where Sebastian sees an enormous troll with multiple heads and arms. Fake Valadras claims it is Proffit the Dire Troll, who has been living for years by cannibalizing other trolls, leading to his enormous size and mutated appearance. If Eldeth lives to see the dawn Proffit will be coming to kill the party, according to the dream creature.

Sebastian decides against murdering Eldeth but shares his dream with the rest of the party in the morning. Late that day the party is passing a small pond when they are, indeed, attacked by the dire troll who was hiding in the water. Luckily he inhales some water just before the attack, alerting the party to his presence and spoiling his ambush. He is joined by three bog blokes, small animated trees similar to treants. The fight is short but vicious; Proffit is a storm of slashing claws and biting teeth and the bog blokes hit hard with their heavy clubs. Both Sebastian and Kaia fall unconscious to the onslaught but the party is able to put down Proffit and the bog blokes with the help of Ralkor’s now-standard fireball swarm. Sebastian and Kaia are healed and the march continues.

No dreams trouble Sebastian that night and the following day the party finally leaves the Evermoors as they reach the Rauvin River and follow it east. They begin to see signs of civilization; occasional farms with farmhands in the fields and river barges moving both up and down stream. The main road towards Silverymoon is visible across the river.

It still takes two more days of travel, with farms and foot traffic growing more common, to finally reach the gates of Silverymoon. One night Sebastion has a final dream of his tormentor. Over tea they tell him that while Sebastian won this round they still have Valadras to play with and they say their goodbyes, entering a portal to the cave where Valadras is chained to the wall.

Before entering the city Ralkor decides to use disguise self to appear to be a human, despite Sebastian assuring him that all races are welcome in Silverymoon. They have no difficulty entering the city and Sebastian makes his way to the House Invincible while the rest of the party makes its way to the Wayward House to find rooms.

At the House Invincible Sebastian is reunited with his brothers and sisters in Helm, who are pleased to discover he survived the attack at Eastwatch Mine. High Watcher Donovan Ambersword is particularly emotional and regrets not searching for Sebastian in the Underdark. Once Sebastian begins to tell his tale Donovan stops him and tells him the Vigilant Master, the head of the temple, should be told everything. However the Vigilant Master, Beled Jossud, also quickly shuts him down once it becomes clear that the story is of serious importance. He tells Sebastian to gather his travelling companions and all will be questioned under the Eye of Helm, a process similar to a deposition but under a zone of truth.

Sebastian goes to the Wayward House and joins his companions in a bath and a meal before they all return to the temple. The questioning takes place before High Watcher Ambersword and Vigilant Master Jossud with three scribes copying the testimony. One of the scribes was supplied by High Mage Aerasumé and will pass the information to the leadership of Silverymoon. Under the effects of the zone of truth spell the Young Adventurers, along with Fargus and Eldeth, relay their stories of capture and journey through the Underdark. Ambersword and Jossud are particularly interested in everything touching on the demon lords as well as the cults that were working in Gracklstugh. Under their careful questioning they learn virtually everything that happened to the party in the Underdark, though the party manages to spin some of their darker moments in a more positive light.

After the questioning Jossud offers to let the group stay at the temple but they decline. He also promotes Sebastian from Guard to Watcher and advises that he will be fitted for a new set of platemail. Jossud is able to identify the source of Sebastian’s nightmares as (almost certainly) a night hag and the flying heads as vargouille. Kaia asks about healing her unnatural aging but Jossud informs her that it is beyond the power of anybody in the temple and can only healed by “the most powerful magics.”

The party asks what is going to happen now, with Sebastian at least saying he is interested in returning to the Underdark to see this through (Fargus is very opposed to this) and Eldeth asking for a way to travel to Gauntlgrym. The Vigilant Master assures them that the High Mage will hear everything they told him and whatever is to be done next the responsibility is no longer theirs. He will ask the High Mage about arranging to send Eldeth home.

The party, including Sebastian, returns to the Wayward House to discuss their plans. The four Young Adventurers are firm in wanting to be involved in whatever happens next and are worried that they are being cut out by the Vigilant Master and High Mage. Fargus wants out. He says he swore an oath while in Gracklstugh that if he ever returned to the surface he would never re-enter the Underdark willingly. He says he plans to sell his goggles and open an inn with the money (it is not clear how serious he is about this). Eldeth wants to return to her family and king. She says that King Bruenor Battlehammer may have a use for the party; he will no doubt want to do something but Gauntlgrym was only recently retaken and has few resources to mount any kind of expedition to the Underdark.

The party decides to spend at least a day researching at the Vault of the Sages library and will go with Eldeth to Gauntlgrym if they can’t find anything else to do. The next day they spend some time buying supplies around the city then go to the Conclave library where they are allowed to do their research after paying a stack fee. They discover a few things of interest:
 * Demon Lord incursions into the prime material plane are rare and legendary events
 * Demons killed on this plane are sent back to the Abyss rather than killed permanently
 * Certain spells can also return a demon to the Abyss, such as banishment
 * Most hags are evil fey creatures native to the Feywild, but night hags are particularly nasty, live in the lower planes, and are considered fiends
 * Night hags do not follow any demon lord or archdevil in particular but may be followers of any of them (or none)
 * Spells to summon demons are relatively easy to learn and cast but summoning a Demon Lord, let alone multiple Demon Lords, is beyond the power of any known individual spell
 * They could not find mention of any particular person, weapon, or item known for being able to return demons to the Abyss
 * They find out a lot of incidental details about different Demon Lords but nothing that gives them an idea of how to proceed

We end our session there, with our heroes returned to the surface and deciding to do homework instead of relaxing. Tune in next time to find out what sort of familiar Ralkor decides to summon now that he finally transcribed the spell.