Chapter 1: Arrival

Having partied all night long, our heroes had slept through the cruise they were supposed to board. Lady Scylera Biancorossi was generous enough to sponsor them a new ship, but they would have to embark much later in the day—late enough that Old Soloastria would already be covered in darkness by then

With an unfettered will to reach their destination as quickly as possible, our protagonists embarked on a dangerous journey eastward.

Hours of sea travel had passed until the horizon grew restless with stormlight. The captain, a grizzled duergar, squinted into the growing tempest and exclaimed:

“Bugger me blind, Maresvomet’s on her period, lads.” he cursed the malevolent sea deity.

“…What?” Enix worriedly raised his eyebrow at the dwarf’s remark.

“We’re cruisin’ through a bloody storm, boy!” the captain exclaimed. “Come help me steer!”

The two wrestled with the helm, but the storm laughed at their efforts. As if they didn’t have enough worries, they were also rapidly approaching the Nocturne Zone – a sphere of divine origin that obscures Astoria’s sun within its area, shrouding the Old Soloastrian continent in darkness for 18 hours a day.

“Y’sure y’don’t wanna turn back?” the captain asked. “Last chance.”

Ornella ran up to the helm, gripping the steer with all her might with the intent of keeping the ship steady on its way through the storm and into the darkness.

“We haven’t come this far to quit, have we now?” she said. “Go wake up the others, Enix! We’re gonna need some light real soon!”

As the tiefling paladin hurried to the ship’s sleeping quarters, the captain roared:

“Buckle up then, lads!”

“We’ll face this beast head-on!”

Not too long afterwards, the ship was already caught in both the storm and the nocturne zone. The heavy downpour of rain began extinguishing the ship’s lights one by one, trickling down like sand in an hourglass of death.

“Batten down the hatches and bring out the lanterns!” the captain bellowed. “If we go dark, we’re as good as dead!”

The rest of the party finally got up from their berths, hastily securing any portable sources of light.

Aureus instead reached for his sending stone, sending a message to Private Eye Brooks:

“We’re caught up in a storm. Might arrive late.” he explained concisely.

Suddenly, something started creeping towards him from the dark. Slithering, even.

“Aureus! Watch out!” Sylphie exclaimed.

While the wizard was busy with his sending stone, even if for a brief moment, he had made himself vulnerable to the shadows. Without a source of light on his person, inky tendrils began wrapping like coils around him.

“Get in here!” the cleric grabbed the dragonborn by his arm, huddling him closer to her while simultaneously wrestling against the inky tentacles that tried to drown him in darkness.

“I cast Light!” she said. A sparking white flame surged from her hand and into her mace, turning it into a handheld beacon of light. The black tentacles retreated back into the darkness.

“Thanks, Sylphie.” the dragonborn muttered. “They almost had me there.”

“Oi! Stop standing around and help me dog down the doors!” the captain said, exasperated.

Before he could wobble his way to the helm, however, he slipped, losing a grip on his lantern as well. As large waves kept battering the ship, rocking it from side to side like a baby’s crib, the captain’s lantern slid right past him and hit one of the supply crates. The impact shattered it, leaving only a faintly-glowing candle.

“Oh, bloody…” he said.

“Gotta find light.” the duergar said nervously, crawling his way towards the remains of his lantern. Unfortunately, it didn’t take long for the heavy rain to extinguish his last beacon of hope.

Not long after, left hopeless in the pitch black darkness, he was embraced by the very same inky, dark tentacles that had just attacked Aureus.

“What in the bloody hells are you?!” he shouted. “Let go of me! Let go-” he said, but before he could finish his sentence, an almost deafening silence took hold. The calm before the storm, so to speak.

“C-captain?” Sylphie stammered.

As the heroes’ eyes darted around trying to find him, they heard a blood-curdling scream coming from the pitch black. A flash of lightning illuminated the ship’s stern, and the captain was nowhere to be found.

Suddenly, Sylfira’s glowing mace began waning. Growing weaker and weaker, its light would soon shed too little light to cover both her and Aureus. In a panic, the two huddled closer.

“O, Shining One,” she whispered, despairing. “Why do you forsake me at this moment?”

Her holy symbol shined much weaker than usual. The light emitted from it was barely enough to cover her, and her alone. Sylfira couldn’t see anything past five feet away from her.

“We’re in the zone, Sylphie,” a familiar voice spoke from nearby.

Ornella stepped into the range of her friend’s cantrip, lighting her own lantern.

“Your God has nothing to do with this.” the elf said. “Magical light is just much, much weaker here.”

“It’s why the locals have to rely on technology so much.” she said, tapping the glass of her lantern.

“Guys?” another voice interrupted. It was Enix, swinging a torch left and right, trying to find the others.

“How are we going to steer the ship now?” he asked.

Several more eldritch noises could’ve been heard coming from the stern. Worst of all, the sounds of shadowy tendrils slithering towards their next victim.

A spark illuminated the stern once more. A couple more sparks eventually lit a flame big enough to reveal the helm and repel the shadows.

“In the nick of time…” the figure at the stern sighed.

“Hulrik!” Enix and Sylphie shouted in unison.

“Took you long enough. Almost thought you were fish food.” Reverwyn said, stepping into the scene with her own lantern. “As for our course… are we nearing the coast yet?”

“According to Ornella’s map, we’ll be nearing land soon,” Hulrik said.

“Or rather…” he trailed off, eyes wide with dread. “Wait just a second…”

Hulrik realised that the ship was set to collide with a whole beach of jagged rocks, sharp as a predator’s maw.

“Brace for impact!” The dwarf shouted. “NOW!”

The stormy waters propelled the ship right into a minefield of sharp rocks, each tearing the vessel down bit by bit until nothing but a wreck remained. As if that wasn’t enough, several barrels of oil have spilled out onto the beach, promptly ignited by the candles from broken the party’s now-broken lanterns.

A fiery explosion devastated what was left of the ship, engulfing its remains in flames. The storm was beginning to dissipate, but our heroes were out cold on an unknown land mass, surrounded by the charred remains of their ship.

Little did they know, the burning wreckage provided them enough light as to not get consumed by the shadows.

But was it a good thing, considering what was about to come next?

Chapter 2: Fort Hope

Our heroes were woken up by the sound of something clanking against metal. It was a guard, running a metal pipe across the bars of each prison cell.

The cells were dimly lit and could hold anywhere from two to four people in them. In the case of our adventuring party, they were split between three cells, with two party members in each one.

“What a putrid smell,” Reverwyn scoffed. “Would it kill you to cast prestidigitation every once in a while?” she gave the guard a judgemental look.

“W-what’s… Where am I?” Aureus woke up in the very same cell.

“In a dingy dungeon.” Reverwyn replied. “Had you not woken up just now, I would have considered eating you.”

“How very considerate of you.” Aureus said. “Speaking of, I too am starving.”

“Do you feed your prisoners around here?” Aureus asked the guard.

“Shut it. Can’t you see we’re busy?” the guard replied, only to ignore him again and focus on a different prisoner.

The other guard hauled said prisoner out of his cell, throwing him on the floor. Judging by the tattered rags that covered his feathery body, he was some lower class kenku.

(Map credit goes to “CozyMaps”)

(Wouldn’t exactly call this a cozy map, but what do I know?)

“This is Milvus.” the guard said while pointing at the malnourished ravenfolk.

“We call him ‘Badfeather’ around here.” the other guard mentioned. “He’s guilty of practicing the dark arts.”

“We found him at a farm in a thorp not far from Riverside, forcing zombies to work on his crops,” the previous guard said. “Enslaving the dead to do his bidding… Horrid, is it not?”

Suddenly, a tall figure’s shadow emerged from behind the corner, slowly making its way towards the cells.

“And him? That’s warden Vulgus. Vulgus Mastodon.” the guard said with a smug expression. “He’ll show you what happens to unruly prisoners!”

“Beat it, toy soldier,” a rugged voice spoke.

The voice belonged to the warden himself—a black dragonborn of immense stature—he pushed away the two guards with a mere flick of his meaty wrist. He then grabbed Milvus by the throat and started going around the cells, showing him off like a trophy.

“This disgraceful farmer is a heretic!” he started his tirade.

“Enslaving the dead to do his bidding!” the warden said. “Blasphemous!”

“That’s what I said…” Guard no. 2 thought to himself.

Vulgus continued his rant, kicking and throwing around his prisoner while doing so.

“There will be no necromancy on Saint Hilmone’s island!” he continued in his ramblings.

“As punishment, he will be tied to a stake upside down and lit on fire.” the warden said with a smirk. “Burned from head to toe.”

After intimidating the death row prisoner, the dragonborn knight turned to the cells once more.

“As for the six of you, you have been detained for illegal trespassing on the grounds of Fort Hope,” he said.

“Now, this would usually only warrant an arrest, however…” he insinuated.

“We looked through your equipment and found powerful magic items.” the warden said. “After a thorough investigation, we have concluded that…”

“All six of you are guilty of smuggling contraband into the prison!” he exclaimed.

“Your sentence is five to eight years of hard labor down in the catacombs!” he exclaimed yet again, this time clearly enjoying himself. “You’ll be starting work tomorrow!”

Vulgus moved closer to Aureus and Reverwyn’s cell, his acidic breath making them both gag after every word he spoke.

“And if you try anything funny, you’ll join the necromancer.” the warden threatened our heroes.

Once he was done with his speech, he dragged the kenku farmer away, presumably to burn him at the stake like he said he would. Perhaps it is worth mentioning that, throughout this entire interaction, the necromancer remained silent.

The guards followed the prison warden in a hurry, eager to witness Milvus’s execution.

Ornella, thanks to her Passive Perception score, spotted that the kenku prisoner had managed to steal the warden’s keys and toss them in front of their cells. Out of arm’s reach, mind you, but not completely out of the question.

“You thinkin’ what I’m thinkin’?” she asked Hulrik.

“I can’t reach them. Can you?” the dwarf replied.

“Sure can. Give me a minute.” Ornella expended a use of Wild Shape to shapeshift into a mouse, allowing her to easily sneak past the bars, revert to her normal self, and finally grab the key.

“Alright guys, we need to be very quiet about this.” she started to open each cell one by one.

“If we make too much noise, we’re dead. If the lights go out, we’re dead. And if we run into that big guy from earlier?” Ornella asked rhetorically.

“That’s right, we’re dead.” she said once she had finished freeing her party members.

“Any other questions?” she inquired.

“I’ve one.” Enix whispered.

“What do we do with the bad guys?” the tiefling asked rather innocently.

“Hulrik said we don’t kill humanoids.” he said.

“We’ll make one exception.” Hulrik interjected. “The warden.”

“When push comes to shove, we have to do what’s right.” he continued. “Think of the other prisoners here.”

“Gods know what he could do to them if he threw a hissy fit.” Sylfira added.

“Precisely.” Hulrik responded. “Besides, we seem to have landed in a penal colony of sorts.”

“Even if we knock every guard unconscious, nobody will come to arrest them.” he continued. “They own the place.”

While Hulrik was talking, Rev had fashioned herself a rapier made out of sharpened wood splinters from the broken broom in her cell.

“So, shall we actually attempt to escape this rut?” Reverwyn inquired. “Or should we waste more time discussing ethics?”

Aureus interjected by mentioning that the crew should probably first focus on finding their lost items. Taking this advice into account, Reverwyn quickly scouted the other cells, but quickly noticed that there still were some guards present in the block.

“It sounds like someone is being beaten to death.” Reverwyn observed. “Let us move quickly. Better them than us.”

“No! We have to intervene!” Sylphie interjected, sprinting towards the cell.

At that moment, Reverwyn thought to herself:

“She will get us all killed.”

But much to her surprise, the sounds of clanking metal ensued, and then a loud thud could be heard.

“Cure Wounds!” Sylfira’s voice filled the cell.

As the rest of the party approached the battered prisoner, they saw his wounds closing up, much thanks to Sylphie’s healing magic.

“T-Thank you! Thank you, stranger!” the battered prisoner stammered.

“Do not thank me. Thank Suryalus.” Sylphie replied. “That being said, what was this guard assaulting you for?”

“I…” the prisoner tried to recall recent events, still in a state of shock. “I was trying to remove the floor panel.”

“The one with the light?” the cleric asked.

“Y-Yeah,” the prisoner replied. “I wanted to make a run for it. Turns out, there’s nothing there. It’s just a light system.”

“This guard…” the prisoner pointed to the lifeless body of his abuser. “He caught me trying to escape and started beating me senseless with a crowbar!”

Ornella walked up to the prisoner:

“Hey buddy, everything’s okay now.” she said in an uncharacteristically nurturing tone of voice.

“Mind if we borrow the crowbar though?” she followed with her true intent in mind.

After receiving a puzzled look from both Sylphie and Enix, Ornella managed to trade her cell keys for the crowbar and some thieves’ tools. The battered prisoner went on to free the other inmates and lead them through one of the prison’s many paths, wishing our heroes good luck.

Ornella and the others decided to take a different route. Reverwyn succeeded on a Sleight of Hand check with a roll of 23, successfully lockpicking the other door in the cell block and revealing an empty corridor.

Since there weren’t any guards nearby, Rev took her sweet time to examine the shiny rocks she found on one of the shelves.

“Fascinating…” she whispered. “I struggle to remember the last time I have seen obsidian this smooth.”

“Such round, opaque black obsidian—it is as if the abyss itself was gazing back at me.”

“I feel obliged…” she said, greedily stuffing the shiny rocks into her bag. “To take a handful.”

From Enix’s point of view, it looked rather silly.

“What’s the rush?” the tiefling said. “No one’s gonna take them from you.”

“If anything, you’re the one stealing them.” he chuckled.

“I must… Reclaim my hoard.” Rev murmured to herself.

“Your what-now?” Enix inquired.

“Nothing.” Rev bit her tongue.

While that was happening, Ornella and Hulrik had helped themselves to a dagger and a light hammer respectively. Meanwhile, Enix grabbed himself a new longsword. Once there was nothing left in the corridor’s shelves, the crew decided to first breach the next door before taking a turn.

An unsuccessful Sleight of Hand check from Rev with a roll of 11 broke one of her thieves’ tools. Ornella resorted to prying the door open with her crowbar instead.

“Why not do that from the start?” Rev grumbled. “I had to waste my lockpicks.”

“You didn’t let me.” Ornella said.

Behind the door was an armory. Luckily, still without any guards inside.

“Sweet! I’m taking dibs on that half-plate!” Enix exclaimed excitedly.

“A warhammer, huh?” Hulrik murmured to himself. “Guess that’ll do.”

While rummaging through various gloves and gauntlets, Aureus found something that could actually benefit him despite being a wizard:

“Oh that’s terrific!” he exclaimed. “A pair of Bracers of Defence-”

“Shush, everyone!” Sylphie interjected by whispering. “I hear noises from behind that door.”

From behind the unlocked wooden door, the sounds of partying could be heard. Hulrik deduced it to be roughly 3 to 4 guards playing cards and getting drunk, just like the Fioran Krew bandits from last time. Not willing to risk an early confrontation, drunk opponents or not, he suggested that the team should go back and check what’s behind the long corridor to the right.

The party thus found a kitchen along the corridor, populated by 3 guards trying to cook themselves a meal and failing spectacularly.

While they were busy extinguishing the fire that their cooking had just caused, Reverwyn snuck up on one of them with a successful Stealth check roll of 19, slitting his throat and immediately dashing to dispatch the other two guards. Another successful Stealth roll of 26 allowed Reverwyn to massacre their chef cook with a kitchen knife. Then, she finished her masterpiece by choking the remaining guard with a string of sausages, all thanks to her rolling 19 on an Athletics skill contest.

“By the celestial flame, why did you do THAT for?!” Sylphie said.

Reverwyn stood alone in the kitchen, surrounded by corpses.

“There’s no way we’re getting out for good behaviour now, is there?” Aureus sighed.

Reverwyn then used a bucket of water to clean the blood from her weapons. Plagued by a rumbling stomach, she used the very same weapons to cook herself seared steak and roasted carrots.

Each party member gave one another a concerned look while Rev was doing it, followed by a nod of understanding. They have decided that, no matter how disgusting, they have to eat something, after all.

And so they did.

“Peace was never an option.” Reverwyn said casually while munching on carrots.

“Rev… I swear to Suryalus…” Sylphie grumbled.

“Don’t make this meal any more difficult.” she said.

Having stuffed their stomachs full of nutritious food, the party finished their short rest. It was time to resume their daring escape.

As they heard the wooden door from before suddenly creak, they hastily made it back to the cell block.

“Let’s go check up on the others. Maybe they had already found a way out?” Sylfira suggested.

The other door in the cell block was unlocked. Our heroes ventured forth, only to find body bags, coffins, a torture chair, and screams coming from behind another wooden door.

“That does not bode well for the other inmates.” Rev said.

“You think?!” Aureus scoffed.

“Hurry! We can still save them!” Sylphie exclaimed.

She promptly rushed forward and kicked the door in.

“Oh, bother…” Rev sighed.

What awaited them on the other side was a gruesome torture chamber, filled with instruments of terror and grotesque experiments. The pungent smell of rotting flesh that Reverwyn noticed at the very beginning… There was no mistaking it. That was it.

This is where it was coming from.

One of the ‘flenser doctors’ yelled for the guards, but only one came to their aid. Having been cornered in their own laboratory, the two of them decided to unleash their worst experiments on our heroes. Combat was inevitable.

Two flenser doctors, two fleshy, undead abominations, and one guard.

Time to roll initiative!

One of the flenser doctors began the fight by hurling an acid bomb at Sylphie and Rev. They both dodged it without breaking a sweat, forcing the flenser to retreat into cover and command his experiment to protect its master.

Flenser’s Experiment no. 1 ran up to Reverwyn and attempted to grapple her with its Death’s Grip.

Reverwyn’s roll of 17 was unable to beat the experiment’s roll of 23. Upon losing the Athletics skill contest, she became grappled by the foul creature, taking 1 point of bludgeoning damage from squeezing.

As an action, the grotesque undead attempted to sink its teeth into Reverwyn.

A NATURAL TWENTY!

Reverwyn yelped in pain as the putrid creature chomped on her neck. She immediately dropped, failing her first death saving throw.

“No!” Sylphie shouted.

“Aureus, buy me some time!” she shouted yet again. “I’ll get her stabilized!”

“Roger that,” the wizard said. “I know just the spell…”

“Burning Hands!” he exclaimed.

As waves of fires burst forth from the dragonborn’s fingertips, both flenser doctors lost 13 hit points. Dodging some of the flames, the experiment took only half damage, but still had to roll for Frenzy.

It succeeded with a roll of dirty 15, managing to stay sane. The undead abomination was nonetheless still furious, and very much ready to gorge on its opponent. Having rushed at Aureus, it attempted to grapple him much in the same vein as the other experiment did to Reverwyn.

A NATURAL ONE!

And that was the end of that. Having been bested in a strength contest by a wizard of all people, the furious pile of flesh tried to smack him with its fists.

“Shield!” Aureus yelled out, casting said spell as a reaction to give himself +5 AC.

Unfortunately, that spell slot was wasted in vain, as the flenser’s experiment had managed to land both of its attacks, dealing 13 points of bludgeoning damage and knocking Aureus out cold with a one-two punch combo.

“Here goes nothing.” Hulrik murmured to himself as he readied his newly acquired warhammer.

Thinking on the fly, he suddenly came up with a better idea. After another NATURAL ONE, this time for the flenser doctor, the psychopath was bested by Hulrik in an Athletics skill contest, and subsequently shoved (as a bonus action) into a torture chair. The impact triggered the contraption, and manacles shackled him to the chair, preventing escape and sealing his fate to be flayed by a device of his own creation.

Hulrik then turned around to face the other flenser, swinging his warhammer at the cruel, quote-on-quote, ‘doctor.’ A whack with the weapon dealt 7 bludgeoning damage to the flenser and left him stumbling backwards. While falling, he stepped on a sawtooth bear trap, losing his leg in the process. Having died of blood loss, yet another flenser became the victim of his own devices.

“Huh. To think that tidying up their laboratory would’ve prevented this.” Ornella thought to herself. “I think, from now on, I’ll try to keep my lodgings… tidy.”

It was only the guard and the cruel experiments left.

Enix jumped in front of Sylfira to take on the experiment that was heading towards her.

“Come on, hit me!” he taunted the monster, trying to bait out its attack.

The flenser’s experiment didn’t budge, and was instead focused on finishing off Reverwyn.

“Fine. Have it your way.” Enix hit the grotesque abomination with a radiant-powered smite from his longsword, dealing a total of 16 points of damage. NOW he had the creature’s attention.

As promised, Sylphie cast Spare the Dying on Reverwyn, stabilizing her, and then following it up with a Healing Word—healing her friend for 8 hit points.

Completely surrounded, the first undead experiment was struck down by Ornella as she decapitated it with her scimitar.

It was Rev’s turn. This time, she would deal with her enemies from a distance.

A steady shot from her light crossbow dealt precisely 10 points of piercing damage to the unsuspecting guard who was busy fending off Hulrik. The crossbow bolt pierced right through his cranium, dropping him dead on the spot.

Being the only enemy creature left in combat, the last experiment unleashed its fury on Hulrik, willingly going into its frenzied state, dealing 12 damage to Hulrik with a powerful final blow.

The rest of the fight was a forgone conclusion. Our heroes ganged up on the abomination and put it out of its misery. Sylphie stabilised Aureus, and Enix healed him for 10 hit points with his Lay on Hands feature.

Once combat was over, the party searched the torture chamber for anything that could help them escape, managing to find a +1 dagger, a +1 light hammer, a pair of tongs, some engraved bone dice, a stake, and a Vicious Sickle.

Aureus once again found something of interest. This time, it wasn’t a magic item though.

“It appears the so-called ‘doctors’ of this place were actually onto something after all…” he mumbled.

“Huh? What do you mean?” Sylphie asked.

“Look here.” Aureus handed her the papers he had found. “These are their notes on ‘strigosis’—a curse-like disease of some kind.”

“They gave up on trying to cure it, and attempted to just… Remove it with brute force.” he shuddered. “Can you imagine?”

“No, I still don’t understand a thing.” Sylphie said.

“Gimme that.” Ornella swiped the papers from her friend.

After giving them a thorough read, she found the answer she was looking for.

“So that’s what ‘strigoi elves’ really are!” she exclaimed. “See, I’ve read a bit about them, but didn’t know how they came to exist.”

“Ahem.” she began her rant. “The elves of Old Soloastria were once proud and noble people, you see.”

“Their diviners predicted Nocturne’s Gambit and made adequate preparations.” she continued. “One could say they planned a bit too well…”

“As punishment, Nocturne, the god of darkness, inflicted a curse upon them.” she said. “The curse known as strigosis: an incurable, magical disease that turned them into feral, bloodthirsty monsters.”

“These ‘strigoi elves’ hunger for the flesh of humanoids, and avoid light like a plague.”

“In short, they’re to Old Solastrians what vampires are to us!” she finished.

“Could’ve just said they turned into vampires.” Enix said. “Way less boring.”

Sylphie grabbed the research notes and flipped to a page with illustrations of strigoi elves, only to then give Ornella a concerned look. She couldn’t help but shudder while she imagined her friend turning into one of these monsters.

Ornella recognized her friend’s fears:

“Relax, I’ll be fine.” she laughed her concern off. “There’s no way I’d EVER let myself turn into one of those things.”

Aureus took back the research notes and shoved them into his backpack.

“What was your original thesis on strigoi elves anyway?” he asked.

“Well… to put it bluntly, I thought they were a subrace.” Ornella replied. “Good to know there’s a disease I have to be wary of.”

“Guys, sorry to interrupt, but…” Enix interjected.

“I’d really like to leave this place, y’know?” he said. “Can the research wait until after we’re done with this place?”

“Right, right,” Aureus replied. “Let’s get moving.”

The party returned to the armory, but this time, there was none of the commotion they previously heard coming from behind the wooden door.

“How do we go about this?” Ornella inquired.

“Let me handle it. I cast…” Reverwyn spoke. “Disguise Self!”

In an instant, she took the appearance of a tall guard, growing 1 ft or around 27 cm in size.

“Huh? Since when do you cast spells?” Enix asked, confused.

“I am a sorceress,” Rev replied with a thick, masculine voice.

“Oh, the transformation came quicker than I expected,” she said. “Alright, hush now.”

She snuck to the other side of the creaking wooden door, stumbling upon three sleeping guards.

“I got it.” she thought to herself.

A faint, ethereal lullaby began playing. One of the guards even smiled in his sleep. Reverwyn quietly encouraged her teammates to sneak alongside her.

The crew bumped into a chair or two, but no amount of noise was enough to wake the guards from their slumber. Having passed all of them, Sylphie couldn’t wait any longer and just had to ask:

“What was that all about? Another spell of yours?”

“Merely a cantrip.” Rev replied. “I cast Minor Illusion to play a drow lullaby, ensuring these numbskulls do not wake up to put swords to our throats.”

“You use this on CHILDREN?” Sylphie commented.

“How else do you think we get them to stop crying?” Rev asked.

“By the holy light of Suryalus, you drow really are as creepy as they say…” Sylphie whimpered.

Rev shushed her and pointed towards the door in front of them.

“No time to waste.” she said. “Let us get going before my disguise wears off.”

Still disguised as a guard, she barged in through the door and exclaimed:

“I’ve got a whole convoy of rowdy prisoners in here!”

“I’m supposed to take them to the catacombs, but the warden didn’t give me the exit keys.” she said.

“Weird.” one guard said.

“Totally.” the other replied.

“Listen…” the third guard spoke. “The warden isn’t here right now, but he left his keys in his office.”

“Go have a look, we can watch your prisoners for you.” he said.

“Alright then, thanks lads.” Rev replied, nervously sliding herself into the warden’s office.

“That was too easy, and yet, too stressful at the same time.” she thought to herself. “Okay… Focus, Flammentroth. You have to find the keys.”

She rummaged through the warden’s office, finding a hand crossbow, 22 gold pieces, a map of the catacombs, and finally, the warden’s keys.

“Got the keys. Thanks for the help, guys.” Rev said while hurrying her ‘prisoners’ towards the next room.

“No problem, Steve.” the fourth guard replied.

Passing the next corridor went just as smoothly, with the two guards stationed in it barely raising their eyebrows at Reverwyn’s disguise.

It was the last corridor that would give our party a little trouble.

“Look, our stuff!” Enix exclaimed.

“State your business.” said one of the guards in a stern tone of voice.

“I’m, uhh, taking these prisoners to the catacombs for their sentence.” Rev explained, unaware of something… peculiar that was happening with her.

“Right…” The guard squinted his eyes. “Stay there for a moment.”

He pulled some kind of lever, then suddenly, walls of spikes began closing in on our heroes.

Reverwyn saw her reflection in a mirror on the other side of the room and realized what set off the guard. Her disguise was visibly fading.

“Fuck.” Reverwyn said in her usual, raspy voice.

“Hang on, I got this!” Ornella used her Wild Shape to summon her wildfire spirit.

She then used said spirit to teleport herself behind the metal gate and shove the suspicious guard away from the panel with all the levers.

“Hmm…” she pondered her next move. “Eenie, meenie, miney…”

“Moe!” Ornella pulled one of the levers at random.

Surprisingly, she pulled the correct one.

Now with the trap deactivated, Ornella proceeded to handle the two guards while Reverwyn was busy lockpicking the metal gate.

“Almost there…” Reverwyn murmured. “A few more pins…”

The gate suddenly sprung open.

“Done. We. Are. in.” she said confidently.

Enix chuckled, then urged her to turn around.

While Rev was busy fiddling with the lock, Ornella had already managed to knock out the two guards and find the button responsible for unlocking the gate.

“Are you trying to outdo me?” Reverwyn asked angrily.

“You did good so far, Rev.” Ornella said calmly. “But now that we’re not sneaking around anymore, I’m back in charge.”

While everyone else was ferreting around in the containers with confiscated goods, mainly looking for their lost magic items, Ornella took a closer look at the map of the dungeon.

“I’ve got bad news.” she exclaimed. “The surface exit is closed off until Dendoday, and it only opens from the outside…”

Enix gave her a puzzled look.

“I don’t know these peoples’ calendar…” he said. “How long do we have to wait, give or take?”

“Six days.” Ornella replied.

“Oh.” Enix whimpered.

“The only other way out is through the catacombs…” she sighed.

Chapter 3: Buried Secrets

Upon entering the catacombs, our heroes found relieved prisoners who stopped working not long ago. When questioned, they said that the warden had already found what they were digging for.

“An artifact of sorts.” one prisoner said. “We found a shrine covered in rubble. Inside was a pair of golden gauntlets.”

“The warden went to retrieve them.“ he said.

Aureus’s heartbeat suddenly spiked. He knew exactly what the artifact was and what it does. Truth be told, he was looking for it as well.

“We must hurry after him.” Aureus said in an increasingly desperate tone of voice. “Now!”

“Or what?” Reverwyn inquired. “Since the warden is away, we can make our escape-”

“No!” Aureus interjected. “You don’t understand. This artifact is of incredible importance!”

“N-Not just to me, but in general!” he corrected himself. “And besides, didn’t we plan on killing him anyway?!”

“Alright, alright.” Ornella sighed. “You had me at ‘artifact’, no need to sell it even more.”

“I’m not so sure about this…” Sylphie interjected. “I think Rev is right. We should go.”

“Gods, fine!” Aureus groaned. “I’ll go get it myself. You try to find your way out of the catacombs and secure an escape route.”

“I’m coming with you.” Ornella said.

“And so am I.” Hulrik added.

Just as the three of them were about to start searching for the gauntlets, Enix, Sylphie, and Rev decided to ultimately join them.

“We have better odds in a formation of six.” Reverwyn noted.

“Yeah.” Enix nodded. “I’ve heard splitting up doesn’t go very well in dungeons…”

With that said, the team began moving forward, asking the resting prisoners along the way for directions. Ornella and Aureus took several stops to analyze ancient illustrations painted on the walls of the connected cave system. The murals described the story of how Librus, the God of balance and the original deity of Old Soloastria, had been defeated by ancient draconic invaders. The murals also mentioned how Librus had left behind five relics after his defeat, and how an aspiring race of orcish dragon hunters used them to liberate the continent.

Eventually, the party arrived at the ruined shrine—unfortunately, they did so too late. The warden had already gotten there first.

(Map credit goes to “2-Minute Tabletop”)

(Reshaded by yours truly)

“Crap! We’re too late!” Enix pointed out.

The warden turned around, flashing his recently-attuned magical gauntlets. He gave our heroes a devilish smirk and said:

“No no, you see…”

“You came just in time.” he said, readying his Berserker Greataxe.

“Hand over those things!” Aureus exclaimed. “You have no idea what kind of powers you’re dealing with!”

The warden took a quick look at the pair of relics.

“What, these?” he said. “Y’think I’m stupid?”

“I know a weapon of mass destruction when I see one!” he exclaimed proudly.

“When I get all five of these miracle-makers, I’ll reshape this pungent island down to its core.” he said. “I’ll turn the proud Free Colony of St. Hilmone into an EMPIRE to rival even the Hessandrelians!”

“We will establish absolute dominion over Old Soloastria…” he exclaimed once more.

“How?” he asked rhetorically. “By having every other nation subjugated, trembling before our might!”

“I will bend the darkness to my will,” he said. “weaponize it!”

“A glorious victory…” Vulgus entered his battle stance. “One that, rather shamefully…”

“YOU WON’T LIVE TO BARE WITNESS!”

Time to roll initiative!

Ornella started off the combat encounter by summoning her wildfire spirit next to the warden. He didn’t manage to dodge it in time, taking 8 fire damage, but avoiding the spirit’s following projectile attack.

Despite his axe incessantly demanding blood, Vulgus remained calm.

The warden retaliated against Ornella by swiftly flanking our heroes and positioning himself for a breath weapon attack.

The black dragonborn spewed acid at his adversaries, forcing them to roll Dexterity saving throws. Everyone succeeded, taking only half damage.

Enraged with the party’s dodging skills, Vulgus used his extra attack to swing at Enix.

A NATURAL TWENTY!

The warden struck Enix for a whopping 32 points of slashing damage, dropping him unconscious and making him fail his first death saving throw. The young paladin’s body went flying straight into wall with a loud thud, causing a small tremor in the cave.

“Enix!” Hulrik and Sylfira shouted in unison.

“Pathetic!” Vulgus scoffed. “Did nobody teach the boy how to block?”

Reverwyn rolled for Stealth to hide from the warden’s sight.

ANOTHER NATURAL TWENTY!

She vanished into thin air, preparing for a sneak attack next round. Meanwhile, Hulrik had spent two charges of his Handy Handaxe to dish out a Sharpening Strike against warden Vulgus Mastodon, dealing 15 points of damage and healing himself for the same amount after expending yet ANOTHER charge to use Warrior’s Heart.

With his bonus action, he tried to shove the warden away from his teammates, but the physically imposing dragonborn wouldn’t budge.

Next, Enix rolled a 13 on one of his death saving throws. Sylfira ran up to him immediately afterwards.

“Hold still, I’m here.” she exclaimed. “Spare the Dying!”

Enix was stable. For the time being…

“Stay strong for me.” she gently caressed his head and went back to fighting.

Just then, Aureus brandished his wand and said:

“Last chance to give these gauntlets up. Your artifact or your life?”

“Piss off.” the warden grumbled.

“Very well.” Aureus replied. “Magic Missile!”

Three darts of force flung out of his wand, gunning towards warden Mastodon. Any attempts at dodging were futile, as the projectiles were homing in on him. Vulgus Mastodon took 10 points of force damage.

The damage forced out a Wisdom saving throw. The warden’s unsuccessful roll of 8 had sent him into a frenzy, rendering him unable to use any of his other weapons, items, or abilities until his axe slaughters everything in sight.

“Must’ve struck a nerve.” Ornella said. “Good work Aureus!”

Hulrik assessed the warden’s weapon:

“It’s the curse of the berserker.” he explained. “He might be more predictable now, but that doesn’t mean he’s not dangerous.”

“Gotcha.” Ornella said.

She then ran up straight to the warden, completely ignoring Hulrik’s warning.

“Catch these Burning Hands, ya dingus!” she exclaimed in a taunting manner.

The warden failed to dodge out of the way and took 10 points of fire damage, dropping to just 11 hit points. The taunt was already infuriating in of itself, but the added damage made the warden go BALLISTIC.

Before he could go berserk again though, he was hit for 6 more points of fire damage upon being pelted by Ornella’s Wildfire Spirit from a distance.

“RAAAAGH!” the warden shouted, raising his greataxe at Hulrik.

Although Hulrik expended the final charge on his Handy Handaxe to try and use Parry-Snatch as a reaction, the warden still landed his attack roll. Both of them, in fact. One was a roll of dirty 21, and the other, a hate-filled NATURAL TWENTY.

“Son of a-” Hulrik whimpered.

With his cursed greataxe, Vulgus left a nasty wound in Hulrik by slashing him for a total of 50 points of slashing damage. Hulrik tumbled backwards, coughing up blood shortly before passing out. He had already failed his first death saving throw.

The warden slowly turned his head towards Ornella. His face twitching, his teeth gnashing, he roared once again while readying his weapon.

But then, suddenly, Reverwyn jumped out from hiding.

“En garde!” she yelled, catching the dragonborn off guard.

She pierced one of his lungs with her rapier, dealing a total of 17 points of piercing damage after her sneak attack.

Vulgus dropped his axe and fell to his knees, choking on his own blood. As he was struggling to breathe, the curse of the berserker had left him.

Having regained his sanity while on the verge of death, the last thing he saw was Enix shambling his way towards him. With a serious look on his face, the tiefling raised his shining longsword and declared:

In a flash, warden Vulgus Mastodon was no more.

Chapter 4: Escape

Venturing outside of the catacombs, our heroes made it out of the dungeon. Just like the time they had arrived here, a storm whipped up to cause mayhem.

“You know, you should’ve saved that Healing Word for Hulrik.” Enix said while struggling to run with Hulrik’s heavy, unconscious body in his arms. “I mean, thanks a ton, but I really didn’t need it.”

“Oh yeah?” Sylphie said while dodging guard tower arrows. “But didn’t it feel good to put that meanie in his place?”

“I don’t know.” Enix replied. “I… wasn’t quite myself at that moment.”

“Watch out!” Ornella shouted.

A sprinting zombie latched onto a guard that Sylphie was just about to attack.

“Help! HELP ME!” the guard cried out. “Where do they keep coming from?!”

The party stopped for a moment to find cover, only to realize they weren’t being shot at anymore. Several undead of varying races were running free around Fort Hope, slaughtering the guards like pigs. Each of the undead was wearing either a prison uniform or a set of guard armor.

Suddenly, a flash of lightning highlighted a dark silhouette standing on top of a ruined watchtower. It was a hooded kenku, wearing a raven skull mask.

(Couldn’t draw the art in time, so pretend I inserted an illustration of Milvus Badfeather here. In case you’re wondering, he’s standing on a hill by his lonesome. In the background there’s a ruined watchtower and a vicious storm going on. Once again, sowwy! T_T)

The figure took the mask off to reveal a nasty burn scar on its face, promptly putting it back on. Without saying a word, the masked necromancer watched from above as our heroes continued running towards the docks.

“Was that…” Ornella wondered.

“Do not think about it right now. Just. Keep. Running!” Reverwyn hurried her.

The party resumed in making its way out of the island, all while avoiding the undead masses and the panicking guards. Having found no ships at the docks, their only means of escape was a flimsy 6 person canoe that the guards once used for fishing trips.

“Fuck it, I’ve sailed in worse.” Ornella said. “Everybody on board! Now!”

Their journey was long, gruelling, and stressful. But alas, they had made it.

Their canoe was intercepted by the city guard in Bay City’s port district. Hulrik received some healing while our other heroes were told to wait for a bit. Four more guards and one other figure arrived on the scene. Instead of another arrest, they were met with a familiar face.

“Might arrive late, huh?” a bugbear laughed.

“Good to see you three alive and with company.” he said.

“Detective Brooks!” Enix cried out. “I thought we were done for!”

The bugbear detective told the guards he had the situation under control, and urged them to return to their stations.

“Now, where were we?” he said. “Oh, that’s right.”

“Yorvik said you missed your morning cruise.” Brooks said.

“Then, Aureus sent me a message through his sending stone, saying you’d be late.” he continued. “That was TWO days ago.”

“Care to explain what sort of dark juju happened on your way here?” he requested.

“Well, hello… my name is Ornella. Ornella Fievarne.” the elf approached the bugbear. “You see… You’re not gonna believe this-”

“They’re the new members of our adventuring party.” Aureus interrupted her. “We met them in Azure Harbor, and-”

The detective interrupted him:

“Yeah, that I knew. Yorvik told me.”

“I was more curious about your shenanigans on your way here.” Brooks clarified.

“Ah, well, we landed on some sort of prison island and-” Enix tried to explain, but was shushed by Reverwyn who came up with a more convenient version of events:

“…And were unjustly arrested, only to find the island overrun by the undead.” she said.

“We were the sole survivors.” she mumbled.

“Nobody else?” the bugbear inquired.

“Nobody else.” Reverwyn answered.

Private Eye Nikotynievich stood silent in confusion, slightly bedazzled by so many different versions of events, before ultimately returning to his senses.

“Alright…” he broke the silence.

“We’ll get back to this at a later date.” he said. “For now, you clearly need some rest.”

“Oh yeah, speaking of…” Ornella added. “Say, would you happen to know-“

“I had already booked hotel rooms for you.” Brooks interjected. “Four stars, not too shabby. It’s on the house, so long as we still keep in touch.”

“Wow, really?” Sylfira gasped. “Just like that?”

“I’ve got friends in high places.” Nikotynievich replied.

“Speaking of which…” he said.

“There’s something important they can’t help me with.” Brooks said. “I’ll clue you in tomorrow.”

“For now, go get some good night’s sleep, y’hear?” he said. “No partying till midnight again.”

“And don’t forget to report back to me in the morning.”

“We have a lot to discuss.”