← Previous Session: Session 025: First Foray into Wave Echo Cave

14 Mirtul, (Day 50)

Morning

Wave Echo Cave

• The Party hears voices coming from somewhere behind them in the hallway system.
  • The voices sound goblinoid.
  • They get louder for a while as though they are approaching, then begin getting quieter again, suggesting whoever is speaking turned down another hallway.
  •  The voices sound somewhat deeper, more guttural, and more resonant than normal goblins.
  • The Party suspects they may be hobgoblins or some other larger goblinoid.
• The Party discusses whether they should go after them.
  • Vala suggests “surprise murder.”
  • Orthanc acknowledges that he cannot really do the surprise part, though he can do the murder part.
  • Verna flips a coin to decide whether they should go after them or continue exploring.
  • The coin decides that they should sneak past them and carry on with their business.
• Rig uses her medical knowledge to patch Vala up from the ochre jelly attack.
  • Vala recovers the rest of the HP she lost during the fight.
• Mo listens again and confirms that the goblinoid voices continue moving away.
• Vala still has Detect Magic running and senses magic coming from one of the unexplored passages.
• The Party changes course toward the magic.
  • Before they go, Vala gives Rig one of her Potion of Cat's Eye I (Lesser) because Rig likes to run around by herself.
    • The potion gives Rig darkvision for 1 hour.
  • Vala insists that this is alchemy and therefore science rather than magic.
  • Rig decides they are essentially magical pupil-dilating eye drops.
• Verna sneaks ahead of the Party toward the source of the magic.
• Vala realizes she is once again too far forward in the marching order.
  • She remembers that Sildar Hallwinter specifically told her to stay behind Orthanc.
  • Considering she was just attacked from behind by an ochre jelly, she has apparently learned nothing.
• Verna reaches another intersection.
  • There is a stone door nearby.
  • There is also a set of stairs leading upward.
• Verna hears something near the door but cannot identify it.
• Verna sneaks up the stairs to investigate the area above.
  • The stairs lead to the edge of a large cavern, about 10 ft above the floor below.
    • Looking into the room, Verna sees:
      • 2 large tables made of extremely heavy wood.
        • The edges have begun to rot, but they are still mostly structurally intact.
    • Broken and destroyed furniture scattered around the room.
    • Dozens of skeletal remains.
      • Some are dwarves.
      • Some are orcs.
      • A few are humans.
      • The positioning of the remains makes it obvious that the dwarves and orcs died fighting one another.
  • None of the dwarven bodies are recent enough to belong to the Rockseeker brothers or another modern expedition.
• Verna can hear faint scraping somewhere in the room but does not see the source.
• Verna returns to the hallway and tells the Party that the room appears to contain the remains of an ancient battle, but she does not see anything currently preparing to attack them.
• Verna moves to the nearby stone door and listens.
  • She rolls exceptionally well and hears:
    • Faint crunching.
    • Splintering.
    • Wet slurping noises.
  • There seems to be more than one thing making the sounds.
  • Whatever is inside does not sound unusually large.
• Vala examines the door with Detect Magic.
  • Like the other dwarven doors, it has magic protecting it from ordinary wear and tear.
  • Otherwise, it does not appear to be magically locked or trapped.
• Before Verna opens the door, Vala gives her one of her Web Grenades.
  • The grenade replicates the Web spell.
• Verna throws the door open with absolutely no attempt at stealth.
• The room beyond appears to have once been a barracks.
  • Stone bunks are carved into the walls.
  • There is a corroded iron brazier in the center of the room.
  • Orc and dwarf bones are scattered throughout it.
• Three gaunt, gray, hunched humanoids are crouched over the bones.
  • They are breaking the bones apart and sucking out the marrow.
  • They look up when Verna opens the door, screech, and attack.

START COMBAT

• The Party identifies the creatures as ghouls.
• The ghouls immediately rush Verna.
• Rig attacks one of the ghouls with her shortbow.
  • Black and clear fluid spills from its wounds.
• Mo enters the fight with Grew.
• Verna attacks the ghouls with her scimitar and long knife.
• Rae casts Sacred Flame.
  •  The radiant damage is particularly effective against the undead.
• Orthanc rages and begins attacking the ghouls with his maul.
• Vala casts through the Glass Staff.
  • The unstable Weave sends a pulse of magic back through the staff that heals some of Vala’s wounds.
  • Vala then attempts to kill one of the ghouls the way Orthanc would, by simply hitting it very hard with the Glasstaff.
  • The staff strikes it in the torso and releases radiant light, burning a hole through it and killing it.
    • It is not as good as one of Orthanc’s “hot dog cleaves,” but Vala considers it a start.
• Before the Party can finish dealing with the first group, Rae hears screeching and scrabbling coming from the northern hallways.
• More ghouls begin moving toward the Party.
• Some of the new ghouls are smaller and extremely emaciated.
  • They look as though they have been chewing on their own skin.
• The Party uses the narrow hallways as choke points rather than allowing the ghouls to surround them in the larger cavern.
• Orthanc swings his maul through 2 of the smaller ghouls in succession and smashes both into the floor.
• One of the ghouls lashes Rig across the face with its barbed tongue.
  • Rig later decides this particular experience was much better in books.
  • She survives with her pretty face mostly intact.
• Vala has trouble getting a clear line of sight through the crowded hallway without hitting Rig.
  • She readies Chromatic Orb until she has a clean shot.
• When an opening appears, Vala casts Chromatic Orb at one of the ghouls.
  • She hits it for heavy fire damage and leaves it burning and near death.
  • Rig runs in while it is burning and stabs it through the lung, killing it.
  • Rig does not actually see Vala cast the spell and assumes the ghoul has simply caught fire.
  • Vala decides not to correct her.
• Mo moves through the hallways helping block off approaches to the Party.
• More screeching and scrabbling comes from farther north.
• 2 more ghouls appear.
  • One is another small, emaciated ghoul.
    • The other has completely black skin, long pointed ears, and small tufts of white hair still attached to its head.
  • The Party realizes that it was a drow before becoming a ghoul.
• The drow ghoul attacks Orthanc.
  • Its barbed tongue wraps around his leg and tears into him.
  • The injury also deals necrotic damage and the skin around it begins to look swollen and infected.
• Verna is confronted with a creature that is both undead and a drow and therefore has absolutely no reason to like it.
• Rae continues using Sacred Flame against the ghouls.
• Orthanc smashes the drow ghoul into the wall with his maul.
  • It is badly injured but remains alive.
• Rig moves in to attack and stabs it with her stilleto.
  • When she tries to move away, the ghoul hits her.
  • Rig gets angry, uses Action Surge, turns back around, and finishes it.
• One final badly injured ghoul remains near Orthanc.
  • It attempts to attack him again and misses.
• Verna walks over and chops its head off.

END COMBAT

• The Party checks themselves over after killing the ghouls.
• Rig patches herself up.
  • She puts butterfly bandages on the injuries to her face from the ghoul’s barbed tongue.
• Vala asks whether anyone needs a short rest.
  • Rig notes that a short rest would restore her Action Surge, but she can continue without it.
• The Party decides to keep exploring.
• Rig points out that several of the ghoul bodies are intact enough to harvest pieces from.
• Vala wonders whether ghoul tongues might be useful alchemical ingredients.
  • Vala takes some ghoul tongues.
• Verna wants to return to the large room she previously scouted to confirm that nothing else is moving around in it.
  • Vala goes with her because Detect Magic is still running.
  • Rae also accompanies them.
• Rig wanders off in another direction with her bullseye lantern.
  • Vala reminds her that this is exactly why she gave her the Cat’s Eye Potion.
• Verna waits and listens in the large cavern.
  • She does not hear any additional movement.
• The Party examines the cavern more closely.
  • There are 2 large braziers.
  • There are tables and large amounts of broken furniture.
  • Broken cookware and tankards are scattered around the room.
• The Party thinks the room was probably some kind of main meeting hall or Great Hall when the mine was active.
• At the far end of the room is a raised area with a large stone pedestal.
  • The pedestal was carved directly from the cavern floor.
  • It is highly polished and in surprisingly good condition despite being around 500 years old.
  • There was once more furniture and seating around the raised platform.
  • The Party thinks dignitaries, mine officials, or other important people probably stood or sat here to address the room.
• The Party notices that the constant crashing-wave sound is noticeably louder and more resonant in this room.
  • It does not seem to be caused only by the shape of the cavern.
  • They think they are getting closer to whatever is actually producing the sound.
• The cave is also becoming noticeably warmer and more humid.
• While the others investigate the Great Hall, Rig continues down a side passage.
• Rig finds a small room that has partially collapsed.
  • There is broken furniture beneath the rubble.
  • She does not hear anything moving inside.
• Rig continues to another stone door and opens it.
• The room beyond is a storage room.
  • Kegs are stacked nearly floor to ceiling along the walls.
  • The kegs are extremely old and cracked but mostly intact.
    • Rig thinks that moving them around too much might cause them to fall apart.
    • Rig has no interest in 500-year-old ale and leaves them alone.
  • Unlike most of Wave Echo Cave, the room appears to have been largely untouched by the ancient battle.
• Verna continues exploring and enters another large chamber.
• The chamber contains a huge blast furnace.
  • A bellows is attached to a water wheel.
  • A carved channel approximately 5 ft deep runs through the room.
  • The channel is completely dry.
  • There are heaps of coal and what appears to be ore nearby.
• As Verna enters the room, another one of the strange crashing-wave sounds echoes through the cave.
  • Here, the sound is strong enough that Verna can actually feel the floor shake.
• There are corpses scattered around the furnace room.
  • Unlike most of the bodies the Party has encountered in Wave Echo Cave, they are not completely skeletal.
  • They are partially decomposed but still have flesh on them.
• Floating over some of the corpses is a human skull surrounded by green fire.
• The flaming skull notices Verna.
• It screeches.
• Magic rolls out through the room and the corpses around it begin to move.
• Vala’s Detect Magic immediately registers the magical activity from the direction of the furnace.
  • She also senses another source of magic farther east.
• Rig begins making her way back from the storage room.
  

Next Session → Session 027: Mo Suffers Not a Drow to Speak