Session 11 Summary

December 27, 1479FA
Evening: The party barricades themselves within Krand’s bedchamber to rest for the night.

December 28
Morning: The group lures the giant wolf into the Chamber of Eyes, and heads out to return to the Seven-Pillared Hall. There is some talk of avoiding Surina, or withholding some information from her in order to avoid a fanatical reaction to the news. Also after some brief discussion, they decide to leave the door open and give the wolf a chance to fend for itself within the Labyrinth.

Afternoon: Upon arriving at the Hall, they are flagged down by Charrak the runty kobold. He tells them that Noristo has a message for them, and receives a generous tip for his trouble. The party meets with Noristo and discusses the fate of Krand and his men, and gets some information about Kedhira and her master, Murkelmor. Noristo then tells them that he received a Sending from Irel, with the message “Send them to Lenina. Especially Pype. Some information she has is about the favor he owes me.”

The party walks across the Hall to Lenina’s home, where they are greeted by a cautious Andra. “Lenina has been through much,” she says. “She is frail, has lost an arm and been aged beyond her years. Do not trifle with her, do not upset her. She has seen the worst this world has to offer, so be gentle and kind.” Missa and Balgo are also present and studying.

Andra leads the party upstairs to a large workshop/library/study to meet Lenina, a one-armed woman who appears to be in her 80s. She sits with the group and asks them how she can be of help, and becomes more insistent when they mention they are from Winterhaven. She reveals that she is originally from Winterhaven, and hears the party’s story of the portal, the Sleeper, and the cultist Kalarel.

She then tells them her story:

“More than ten years ago, I was part of a group of companions much like yourselves. “The Light of the Sun” we were, but people just came to call us the Lights.

There was Jayrn, my love, captain of the Lights and Paladin of Bahamut. Eloetha, Poer, and Grunn, a dwarf priest of Moradin. And myself – my much more whole and youthful self. Five people … five good people. Maybe we were brash and thought ourselves invincible, but with Jayrn guiding us, we were doing good works. We had been all over this vale, and even to the outside world from time to time.

At some point we began hearing rumors of something. Something evil. Jayrn began putting things together … a rumor here and there, the dreams of priests and hedge wizards, omens in the clouds. We were helping a settlement deal with a number of goblins raiders when we finally put it all together. Their leader had been making deals with someone, someone gathering a great number of creatures to him. Someone named Kalarel.

Whatever this Kalarel was planning, it would certainly be disastrous for the Vale. So the Lights swore an oath to put a stop to it. It took us years to track him down, but in 1464 we learned he was in a ruin called the Sword Barrow, and preparing a ritual to unleash a great evil upon the world.

So we attacked. For days we pushed ever deeper into the Barrow. There were horrors there. Horrors of flesh and magic, devils and the undead. Grunn was the first to fall. A bad omen, a sign of what was to come. He was dragged screaming into a pit of fiends … and I … he was gone from us. Eloetha was killed the next day; torn to pieces and … and eaten … by some fiend of flesh and chain.

But we remaining three had won through to Kalarel’s stronghold. He was there … before a massive stone arch filled with darkness. A darkness that … moved, it was … alive. There were others there, human and … other things … and they fell upon us.

Poer was killed by … I don’t know. I was concentrating on defending Jayrn, and just … one moment he was there, and I looked again and his body was … burning and … in pieces.

Jayrn and I had driven Kalarel away from the portal, but Jayrn …

She weeps.

I am sorry. Jayrn had his back to the portal, and it … reached out and grabbed him. Tendrils of darkness had him bound by his arm, his leg, his … face. Forgetting Kalarel, I unleashed everything I had at the portal. It started to crumble, to collapse in on itself but … not fast enough.

The last thing Jayrn did as he was taken was to strike the keystone of the arch, destroying the portal even as he was pulled through. His eyes found mine and … and one last glance, then he was gone.

Kalarel and some of his gnolls had fled. I no longer cared what happened to me, so I pursued them. Back through the Barrow. Into the country. For days I went without sleep or food, trying to catch up with them. In the state I was in …

Kalarel had left his gnolls behind in ambush. Some creature in black … took my arm with with a bladed chain, and another … struck me with an arrow. Poisoned with some concoction of Kalarel’s. I ran, escaped, I … got away. Days more went by, but I was certain I was going to die. The poison was stealing years from my body. I was found, by luck or by the gods, near Fallcrest, half dead and the other half mad.

Andra was a healer there. I was taken to her, but I had slipped from consciousness by then. They could restore neither my lost arm nor my lost years, but I did not die.

For two years I slept. When I woke, I recovered. With Andra’s help I retrieved some of my things I had stashed away in this village or that, and sold much for coin. I knew Kalarel was still out there, and he would not stop. I can not face him directly … he has defeated me. But I had the money and knowledge to fund others. Other adventurers, knights, informants, thieves, whoever could lead me back to him. And, after a while, others approached me, others who were hunting him and his allies as well.

I can tell you, Kalarel is not dead. For the likes of him, passing beyond that portal is not the end. Only the … only the truly good die in the Shadowfell. Evil survives. Evil is reborn.”

She also reveals quite a bit of information about the group’s relations and relatives. It turns out that Lenina often employed Peren’s father Darnos, and through him the Evergreen Company itself. She tells Peren that Darnos was killed by an agent of House Oramis named Zirithian. He is a powerful drow who wields a blade called Nightbringer. Zirithian was last known to be somewhere in eastern Sureth, perhaps in the great trade city of Alwhar, hunting for Brynnan and Rayndn. She tells Ionoa and Phaean that Brynnan was a member of the Evergreen Company, and loved an elven woman named Aldara. They had a falling out, which led to the Company being disbanded.

She also tells Saar that the dwarf who ran him out of Hammerfast, Delg, has grown more powerful in the city, and is trying to ruin a good dwarf and ally of House Azaer named Grakas. She also asks why Saar gave up writing, but he offers her no reply.

This sparks much conversation within the group, as this unravels many of their personal puzzles and opens many paths before them.

With all that said, she continues. “You know of the Mages of Saruun? The mysterious arcane order which operates this entire Hall?

Well, the black-robed mage called the Ordinator is not just a single person, but rather each of the Mages of Saruun taking turns at filling the role.

They have asked me to look into the disappearance of one of their own, a man named Paldemar. From what I have gathered, he joined their order two years ago, but recently had a … falling out of sorts.

You have seen the great Minotaur statue in the Hall? Well, there are may like it throughout the Labyrinth, and this Paldemar may have been close to a means to bring them to life under his control.

Naturally this would upset the subtle, and very profitable, role the Mages have established for themselves here, so they wish to stop him.

If you discover anything, please let me know, and I shall offer you what reward I can.”

The party readily agrees to keep their ears open, offers their thanks, and takes their leave.

They then move on to find Surina in the temple. The group decides to tell her everything, although Pype waits outside to mull over his options. She insists they accompany her to the Ordinator to testify against the Grimmerzhul. They reluctantly do so, but the Ordinator dismisses her plea out of hand. They do not trade slaves within the Hall, and that is all that concerns the Mages. Dejected, Surina thanks the group and returns to the temple.

Evening: The course of action open to the group right now is the rescue of the Winterhaven slaves, so they decide to gather what information they can from the duergar in their shop. Conversation with the slavers, tense at first, quickly degenerates into combat. Kedhira and her crew make for a tough battle within the confined space of their workshop, and large, fire-based spells draw a crowd outside the building.

Eventually the party kills the duergar, with Peren landing the final devastating blow against Kedhira. There is time enough for a brief search of the shop (which turns up a map to the Horned Hold) before the ogre “sheriff” Brugg begins hammering the door demanding to know what’s going on.

The PCs quickly slip out the shop’s rear entrance, which leads directly into the Labyrinth. They rest in the darkness, and Phaean, using a ritual to translate the map, discovers that the slaves (except the young boy Jonno) have been taken to the Horned Hold.