Previously: Chapter 51: Devil in the Details
Errands
Waking up in the morning, the party spends most of the day doing errands before their meeting with Delphine. Dandelion, sitting in the garden among the snow, takes the mirror they purchased and tries to look at what her tribe is doing. Getting drawn in, her consciousness emerges in the forest, as she observes the tribe eating breakfast. Everyone seems to be doing fine, and she gets a sense that they all appear to be a little bit happier than usual. Sage appears and tells everyone that they should prepare to head out, as they have lingered for too long. As he scans the horizon, Dandelion swears that he stops to look directly at her, before moving on. Eventually her consciousness is drawn away as the spell ends, and she returns to the gardens.
Penny decides that she wants to go look for where Lone Candle might have gone, and checks out most magic shops in the city. At first she finds no sign of her, but as she enters Scry Me a River, she can see Lone Candle in a conversation with Vontara Vishara. As she sees Penny enter, she immediately recognizes her, and runs over to greet her, proudly exclaiming that thanks to her and the party she finally saved up enough to move westwards as they recommended.
Penny and Lone Candle talk about their respective journeys, Lone Candle being amazed by all they have done, and hopes that she can help in any way. Penny says that there might be something she can help her with, as she would like a magical item that can cast Find Familiar. Lone Candle says that is absolutely something she can do, and with Vontara’s help, it should be ready within a week, and that Lone Candle can personally deliver it if she wishes. Penny gladly pays for the item, and Lone Candle happily starts enchanting the ring Penny gives her.
Kal travels to Elvenroth to talk to Vrendol about having her armor enchanted, as she has been told he is the best for the job. When she enters, Vrendol greets her, asking her what he can do for her. They talk a bit about her armor, with Vrendol complimenting the craftsmanship, asking what she would like to enchant it with. As she describes her intentions, he tells her that it could be done in about a month and a half, so Kal says that she will return.
After scrying on her tribe, Dandelion sets out to purchase supplies in order to craft some more healing potions, as the party is running low. Using whatever she has foraged over time, she has enough to make a couple, and realizes that she has to head to warmer areas in order to forage for more if she wants to make enough for everyone. She starts the process and starts fermenting her stock, hoping to be finished within a week.
Former Enemies
As dusk arrives, the party all have returned to the house, in preparation of their meeting with Delphine. Penny and Dandelion are both highly skeptical as the meeting draws near, with Penny even summoning the tiny hut in order to be “safe” from Delphine if she were to try anything. Both Kal and Relic on the other hand seem to be more open to the potential of gaining another ally. Suddenly both Argus and Ira flies in the open window, saying that she’s here. They suddenly hear a knock on the door, with Kal going to open up. Delphine greets her, asking if she can come in, with Kal moving aside, allowing her to enter.
Seeing Penny protected by a tiny hut that has taken up most of the living room, she suggests that they maybe talk in the kitchen. Kal gives Penny a stern look, who reluctantly drops the bubble, allowing them to sit in the living room. Delphine goes over to Relic and introduces herself, asking how Bimble is doing. Relic tells her that he sadly passed away, but that he is still around. Bimble, after getting approval from Relic, emerges from the book, and greets Delphine as an old friend. She offers her condolences, but Bimble seems more than happy with the turn of events, just finding the experience fascinating.
Sitting down, Delphine can sense the tension in the room, and immediately tells the party that she is regretful to how things turned out, realizing her “mistake” far too late, as she didn’t expect Malice to be so aggressive, referring to the fact that she massacred a whole town square in order to free Iarno Albrek, which the party knows as Glasstaff. She only wanted the Key in order to protect her homeland, the Akstan kingdom, saying that Kal should understand. Kal on the other hand says that her allegiance is not with any nation, but for the protection of the world at this point.
Delphine seems genuinely saddened by the fact that Fie paid with his life, asking how it happened. The party tells her that it was an aspect of the forgotten one, and that he died heroically, getting a proper warrior's funeral on the peak. She seems to take solace in this, but the party points out that she tried to have him killed at least once before. She defends herself by saying that Arara might have been overzealous, but that she knew he was accompanied by at least two people who had the capacity to bring him back, which they did.
As it’s clear that they don’t trust her for 5 flat copper pieces, she asks what she can do to make the party trust her. The party says that she has to prove herself, so Delphine takes out a small bundle of pink hair, and throws it to Penny, saying that she will no longer use this in order to watch over the party. Penny seems quite offended by her taking her hair, with Dandelion looking at Delphine coldly. Realizing that it is not enough, she offers up something else.
She tells the party that she and her spies have been looking actively for drow activity, in the hopes of finding Albrek again, and have discovered that there seems to be a drow presence in the ruins of Equinfjord, on the northern coast, north of Ravenforge. They have been observing the area for a few weeks, and the presence seems to be constant, indicating that they are doing something there. Delphine says that it would be a perfect place to hide Albrek, and even if he’s not there, it obviously is important to Malice, so if they disrupt it, they might put an obstacle in her path. Either way, they might get something out of examining the situation.
Delphine makes it clear that she wants nothing in return for the information, she just wants to help at this point. As she and her organization is not a strike force, they are unwilling to go in themselves to check it out, as she realizes that would be suicide, but the party has proven their potential, so Delphine is confident that they can make quick work of the drow intrusion if they so wish. She warns the party that since the ruined city was one of the locations that fell during the Betrayal, there is a significant undead presence of haunting spirits there, so they should be careful nonetheless.
Concerning the feast that is set to happen in a few days, they ask if she or her network have discovered any threats against the party, but Delphine says that there doesn’t seem to be more than the usual chatter. She will be attending the party herself, so if anything were to happen, she will be there to help. Dandelion is still not convinced, and wants Delphine to promise not to hurt anyone in the party. She is reluctant, as she doesn’t know if they will turn against their interests, but as long as they stay true and go against Malice and the Forgotten One, she promises to not interfere.
Penny asks if Delphine can check out the scar from the connection that was broken on her head, with Delphine casting detect magic to examine it. She sees what relic saw, that there seems to be lingering magic, which could mean that she will be able to see the Forgotten One if he is nearby, or, more likely, he will be able to influence her more easily. They decide to leave it as is for now, with Penny saying that he has already tried to influence her, by being in her dreams. Delphine says that he is imprisoned, so it is more likely whoever is his new “disciple”. She asks Penny what it felt like to be under his spell, asking if she heard his voice. She tells Delphine that she even saw him, with Delphine being intrigued, asking to see what he looked like.
Penny casts Major Image, summoning a moving depiction of the Forgotten One. The rest of the party have seen a weak shimmer of him before, but never this clear. His eyes are voids, where light does not reach, and his skin is old and pale. He looks quite disturbing, contrasted by his long beautiful white robes.
Looking at the projection, they ask if she knows of any more shrines that have been corrupted, with Delphine confirming that shrines of Azuna, Phymera and Udall have all been affected, with most of them being cleared, but she will let the party know if she hears of any shrines of Udall being corrupted again. They theorize that, since the temples in towns are places of worship where people go to pay homage, and the shrines themselves channel the faith itself from the area, that the Forgotten One only focuses on the shrines to “steal” the power the faith provides to the gods, with Delphine saying that is not a bad hypothesis.
Dandelion remarks that her god, Faunus, doesn’t have shrines, but Delphine tells her that she knows of at least one, deep to the south of Spiral Woods. Dandelion admits that she hasn’t heard about this, but Delphine is not surprised, as the clan that watches over it seems to be rather… fanatic about it. Dandelion is shocked to hear this, and decides that she has to reach her tribe to talk to Sage about it. Delphine seems genuinely surprised to hear the party confirm that Faunus is a real god in his own right, and not just an aspect of another god.
Kal asks Delphine if she can track down any relatives of Arin, the housekeeper, but Arin shoots in that she was an orphan, and never had a last name, and she is from another region, so there really isn’t that much to go on. She appreciates that Kal thinks of her though.
As the conversation has run its course, Delphine rises, and tells the party that she will be staying in her manor in the city, and if they need help or information, to call on her, and she will do what she can. She hopes that they can move past what has happened in the past, and go forward in a new direction, cooperating instead of working against one another. Penny and Dandelion aren’t convinced yet, and Dandelion is the only one not to shake her hand when offered, but Delphine doesn’t seem offended. She says that she will take “former enemies” as a step in the right direction.
Where To Go
As the party watches Delphine take flight and head towards the city, Dandelion says that she doesn’t trust the woman, even though she did seem to be truthful. Kal commends Dandelion’s character development, but says that she has to take a leap of faith sometimes, and that they have to take what they can get, with Delphine seemingly being an ally for now. Dandelion says that she doesn’t trust people who live in cities, and calls them cruel by nature.
Penny sits down with Arin to ask her about her experiences with Muzak. Arin tells her that he asked her about her life and where she had been, and it was a harrowing experience, but he was polite and nice, even if he didn’t have to be, which she appreciated. The party reflects on what they have heard about Muzak, with Kody having overheard the name Muzak from his fiancee’s father.
Penny asks Arin what he looked like, and she described him as looking like an exotic tabaxi, but his hands were all backwards. Kal and Relic both recognize the description as that of a classic Rakshasa. When they point out that he is a fiend, and a dangerous one at that, as he cannot be affected by magic below a certain power, Arin is taken aback at the fact that she was harbored by something from the nine hells. She decides to go to bed, feeling faint when she realizes the danger she actually was in.
Relic goes outside to fix the fence, and uses magic to forge a solid stone wall, with dwarven design, which looks quite fancy. Dandelion sees this and asks if it means anything in particular, but Relic tells her that it is only to make it look nice. She compliments it, saying it looks quite pretty. As they stand there, they see a person walking over to the shrine of Udall that Kal set up, giving an offering, before returning to the city. Kal gives them a blessing as they pass, much to the person's appreciation.
Unfinished Business
When Penny wakes up, she draws a beautiful drawing of herself, and asks Kal to write on it that she is in Ravenforge and that she is safe, hoping to send it to her commune. She heads to the city and flags down a halfling caravan that is headed south, giving them some gold and asking if they can have the letter delivered to The Emerald Earth Sanctuary. The halflings are headed to Shortlot, but will try to get someone to head east from there to deliver it.
Dandelion says that she would like to visit her tribe soon, as she wants to know more about the supposed shrine of Faunus surrounded by the fanatical tribe, but Penny points out that they have to deal with Wave Echo Cave sooner or later, so might as well do it first, since it could be done in a day or so. They agree that they have the time to do it now, and prepare to travel there via a tree that they know lies nearby. They leave the owls in Arin’s care, with Kal taking out all the dolls she purchased, putting them up on the mantelpiece, saying they will keep her company. As Kal is inside doing this, the rest of the party stands outside, and discuss that they should awaken a tree to protect the house when they are away.
Ready to travel, they head to a large tree towards the mountains, and travel through it. Emerging on the other side, they see that it is snowing, which provides a serene feeling, as the smell of the city is gone. Dandelion takes it all in, being quite pleased with the change of scenery and sensation, before heading southeast towards the entrance.
When they get there, they see that a lot has happened, with many carts and crates being there, apparently being used to bring in supplies and remove debris. There also appears to be a path heading east towards the old entrance, so they decide to head there first. Sneaking through the snow, they see two figures standing in front of the large stone opening to the cave. Ghouls.
Dandelion sneaks up next to one of them, as the rest of the party prepares to attack from a distance, and with some quick spells and teamwork, they manage to take down the pair without anyone else noticing. Relic, who can read dwarven, translates the writing on the entrance, confirming that it is indeed Wave Echo Cave, and that there is a sign to wipe their feet before entering. Using prestidigitation, they clean themselves up, before they venture deep into the darkness below.
Wave Echo Cave
As the party walks along the dark corridor, they can see light and movement in front of them, as a large humanoid shape walks past a statue in the chamber ahead. Sneaking forwards, they don’t appear to be noticed, so the party slowly approaches. To their right, they see a set of double doors, with Penny peeking in, seeing a circular chamber within, with a raised platform. The door appears to be bolted from the inside, so Dandelion wild shapes into a spider, and enters, opening the door to let the others inside.
Within, the party can see that someone has recently been here to cast a teleportation circle. Relic knows that in order for a circle to be permanent, it has to be cast daily, so someone is apparently still sneaking their way inside to cast it, before leaving again, daily. As the writing seems fresh, they apparently just missed them. As the room is a dead end, they decide to head further in, with Relic summoning an unseen servant to lock the door from within. As the party heads outside however, the servant is having difficulty lowering the beam silently, and they hear a large thud as the beam slams into place, alerting the undeads within the cave.
Seeing the shapes move in front of them, Kal starts heading towards the chamber, with Dandelion summoning a cave bear to help them out. Relic manifests the mind of the spellbook, allowing him to see the chamber within, seeing that a large gathering of ghouls and ghasts are preparing for them. Kal, moving up towards the gathering of undeads, suddenly hears a door on her left burst open, as another group of undeads emerge and attack her. She manages to push them back with her wrath of the storm, and pushes onwards.
Penny and Relic stay behind and attack stragglers that are trapped between them and the bear, as Kal moves further onwards in order to make quick work of most of the undeads. They do see one of the ghouls suddenly run away, further into the cave, quite determined to warn someone of their approach. They are unable to stop it in time, and it disappears into the darkness. Kal eventually reaches the chamber and sees the undead horde surrounding her. She channels her divine powers to destroy them, managing to take down most of them in a few seconds.
The bear, having nearly been torn apart by the undeads, Penny, Relic and Dandelion all take care of the remaining undeads in the hallway. Kal can hear a female voice coming from further into the cave, and the undeads who were heading towards them suddenly turn tail and retreat. Having won their first battle, the party regroups, discussing where to go from here.
Remembering from the last time they were here, they theorize that the woman that Gundren described may have taken refuge in the largest chamber, and decide to head there. In the chamber where the dangerous mushrooms were before, they can see that it has been made into a garden, with some lingering undeads roaming within, apparently oblivious to the party’s presence.
They decide to head towards the western entrance of the large chamber, knowing that it is higher up, allowing them to have the high ground if it turns into another fight. As they reach the hallway leading to it however, they see that it is barred by chairs, tables and benches, apparently to block off the passage, and it’s clear it’s to keep them out, not to keep something inside. Kal goes first, and uses shatter to blow away the obstacles, allowing them to enter.
The Necromancer
As the chairs and tables are blown away, they peer inside as the dust settles, seeing a large collection of glowing eyes peering back at them. A horde of ghouls await them, but they seem to not be attacking, but waiting for something, almost as if they have been told to stand down. Kal tells the ghouls to stand back or they will be destroyed, and as she says this, they hear another voice coming from within, saying “that is no way for a guest to talk in someone's home”.
The voice tells them to please come inside. The ghouls retreat slightly, allowing them to enter, and to their left, they see a bald pale woman with glowing eyes and red robes sitting on top of a throne, perched on top of a pile of bones. She introduces herself as Ren Haradi, and Relic recognizes her as one of a group of necromancers that hails from Manath. Apparently they want to be immortal, and will go through great lengths to achieve it. Penny looks through her binoculars and recognizes a few of the town folks from Phandalin.
The party, not dropping their guard, ask Ren what she is doing in the cave, and she tells them that she is looking for the secret of resurrection, being told that an artifact that is supposedly hidden within can grant her control over a god, allowing her to bring back her deceased sister. Penny tells Ren that they have already found the artifact she is talking about, and that it is no longer here. In either case, it would not help her, as the god she talks about would just use her as his pawn. Kal and Dandelion also try to intimidate her to vacate the premises, as she has already destroyed an entire town. Ren retorts that she hasn’t destroyed anything, but rather has granted her “family” eternal life. Relic shoots in that they are undead, not alive, but Ren is unwilling to listen to reason. She does however believe the party when they say that the Key isn’t here, and so tells the party that she will take her family and walk.
Kal says that they cannot allow her to leave with her family, but Ren insists. Realizing that she won’t be allowed to leave with her horde, she tells the party that they are now in her way, and so she will do what she must, asking the party if they are ready. They all look back at her, with a slight smile, Kal staring her down, saying:
“Let’s dance”
Ren immediately casts several spells at the party, hitting all of them, while her ghoul army approaches to tear them apart. Ren steps into the broken soil and disappears into it, emerging at another spot, allowing her to be covered by her undead horde. Two of the ghouls seem to be more dangerous than the others, and they both focus on Penny and Kal, who are the closest, but Kal manages to push one of them back. Dandelion puts out a Bear Totem to help the party stay alive, with Relic using a mind spike on Ren. They notice that she can drain the life of one of her ghouls in order to resist the effect.
The ghouls all come closer and closer, surrounding the party, but Kal positions herself to cover as many as possible, and lets off another divine channeling, destroying most of the ghouls surrounding them. This enrages Ren, who yells in pain, calling for more ghouls, who emerge from the darkness and hallways, as she casts a spell at the cleric. Kal can feel a grasp around her heart, and it suddenly wrangles it, wounding her greatly, but she manages to resist the worst. As even more ghouls approach, Kal lets off another divine channeling, destroying most of the ghouls that have come to reinforce Ren.
Ren, now enraged at the loss of her family, focuses all her attacks on Kal, who has now managed to resist the grasping of her heart. She fires off all her grave bolts at her, managing to make her fall unconscious, despite Dandelion's efforts to keep her up. Realizing that there is little she can do, Ren decides to make a run for it, and travels through the ground towards an exit. The ghast that remains runs over to Kal and starts feasting on her, but Dandelion heals her, waking her back up. Relic, using his manifested mind, can see that Ren is almost at the exit, and fires a beam of disintegration at her. Having spent all her resources, she is unable to resist, and so large chunks of her flesh are torn away from her, exposing the muscle and tendons beneath. It is not enough to bring her down, but Penny, knowing her name, sends a psychic lance at her, striking her directly in her mind. Relic sees that she turns, before dropping down, dead.
Deafening Quiet
As Ren succumbs to her wounds, the remaining ghouls all drop down, dead as well, only being kept alive by Ren’s magic, which has now expired. Relic goes over to loot her body, and finds a ring of protection, an amulet of proof against detection and divination, some gold and platinum, some living gloves, as well as a parchment with a drawing of a circle on it, much like the ones the other party members found when they first entered the cave last time.
They go through the cave, making sure there are no remaining threats, finding the corpses of at least eighty ghouls. But it seems to be safe, so Kal sends a sending to Gundren, telling him that they have cleared the cave, and that it is safe to return. Standing at the Forge of Spells, which is now fully functional, they can hear the distinctive sound of people teleporting in, and then marching of dwarven boots, as a group of dwarven soldiers enter the forge, asking if they are all right. Confirming that they are safe, they call for the “short one” to come say hi to his friends.
Gundren makes his way past the guards, and happily greets his old friends, going over to give Penny a hug. He remarks how good it is to see them, and asks where the others are, referring to Theren, Granny and Demetrius. The party tells him that Granny and Demetrius both are doing their own things, but Theren tragically died in a skirmish not long ago. Gundren is quite saddened by this, but still composes himself to greet the newest member of the party, Relic. They speak in dwarven, with Relic complimenting the cave, saying it reminds him of the Great Forge of Krunbar. Gundren appreciates the compliment, before returning to speaking common as to not leave the rest of the party out of the conversation.
He tells the party that he has their share of the profits stashed away, and gives them over ten thousand gold pieces as payment, and says that for saving his cave for a second time, he thinks a more fitting reward would be to grant them a magic item of their choosing, but says they can think a bit about it, and then let him know, and if it is within his power, he will grant it to them.
Relic is offered to study the teleportation circle they are preparing, so that they can return when it is completed. After this, they are given a tour of the rebuilt cave, with Gundren telling them what they have done to fix the shortcomings of the last cave. While they’re doing this, the dwarven guards have gathered the corpses of the deceased and brought them all outside. Before returning to Ravenforge, Kal holds a symbolic funeral rite for the deceased, with Dandelion making a small effigy of snow, placing it in front of the bodies. It is a solemn gathering, considering that the entirety of Phandalin has been destroyed, and all of the inhabitants have died.
Afterwards, they head back inside, so that Relic can teleport them back to Ravenforge. Gundren gives them all a hug as they depart, saying that they will always have a place to stay if they find themselves in the area. When they return, nightfall has come, and so they decide to return home to rest, Kal feeling more spent than the rest, having almost died.
Dandelion and Penny take their horses to finally retrieve the carriage they ordered, and as they head there, Diamond remarks that he misses being on the road with Penny, with Speed agreeing. Dandelion tells them that they are probably going to head out some time soon, as they have several places to go in order to deal with the approaching danger. After getting back home, Penny takes a ride with Diamond before heading to bed.