Tomb of Horrors Chapter One

We have been in the Mournland for days, we are battered and weakened by the Dead Gray Mist and several battles. We have been seeking a wizard's tower in a mountain area that had some archival evidence that would point to the origins of the Day of Mourning. Warforged approach us on the road and tell us to stand down in the name of the Lord of the Blades.

Quiver fires a swarm of shadow demons at one of the warforged, hitting him, destroying him and causing poison damage to him and the two around him. Erich begins playing a mournful tune on his flute, causing a psionic burst of damage on the four warforged at the end of the pass, destroying three of them. Eldaen summons the divine strength of Teros and swings a resurgent strike through one of the warforged, destroying him and healing Baltazar. The Warforged leader charges and slashes Erich. Baltazar calls out for us to stand tough, healing the group, and then orders Eldaen to strike and finish the last Warforged soldier, except for the leader. Pock launches witchfire at the warforged leader, and then becomes shadowy with his shadow walk.

Quiver fires a burst of shadows at the warforged leader and becomes visible, then lays an assassin's shroud on him. Erich slides the warforged leader off the edge, but he grabs onto the ledge and avoids falling. Erich then plays a soft tune that invades his memory, augmenting it with his psionic power, but the warforged leader resists. Eldaen moves up on the leader, uses his divine sanction and swings his radiant smite on him. The warforged leader shifts in to swing at Eldaen and Baltazar, missing Erich. He mends some of his broken parts with a blue patch of magic. Baltazar uses inspiring word on himself, then uses Stand the Fallen to swing his triple-headed flail, missing him but healing the group. Pock uses Mire the Mind, but he misses.

Quiver fires an arrow, pushing the warforged back, and the grappling spirits swirl around him and miss him. Erich misses the warforged with his disheartening strike. Eldaen uses his divine shield and hunter's quarry and swings his holy strike, missing the warforged. The warforged leader shifts and uses his knight's honor again, hitting Eldaen. Baltazar uses his Warlord's Strike and misses the warforged. Pock assaults him with spirits of the feywild, bloodying him, then casts an illusory sound of the cliff cracking behind him.

Quiver lays assassin's shroud on warforged, fires a swirling burst of spirits at him and releases the shrouds, damaging the warforged further. Erich uses disheartening strike, augmented, on the warforged and misses. Eldaen lays hands on Baltazar, then swings and misses a holy strike. The warforged, dazed by Quiver's attack and affected by Pock's illusion, shifts away from the edge and to a position next to only Eldaen. Baltazar uses a furious smash on the warforged, setting him up for a hit by Eldaen. Pock fires an eldritch blast from his dagger at the warforged, missing.

Quiver fires and misses the warforged, and he shakes off his dazed effect. Erich, now convinced that the warforged is immune to his psionic, begins playing a jaunty tune. Eldaen swings his holy strike at the warforged, leaving a huge scorch mark across his chest. The warforged swings and misses Eldaen. Baltazar uses guarding attack and misses the warforged. Pock fires an eldritch blast and misses.

Quiver fires and hits the warforged, binding him in shadows and casting him to the ground, where he is torn apart.

We take a five minute rest, and Pock sneaks into the tower to look around. He sees that the passage doesn't continue, but is covered in rubble. There is a magic circle engraved in the floor in a room with crates, a ladder and a trap door. After resting, Baltazar leads us into the tower. Erich and Pock identify the magic circle as a Cannith mark used as a small creation forge, as well as for summoning. Quiver looks at the crates and the rest of the room, noticing that there is some sort of copper wiring running underneath the floor, and some of the runes are also filled with copper. One crate looks like it was carted here and left, and doesn't appear to be locked.

Quiver investigates the unusual crate, and finds that it looks like someone's personal affects, including Cyran gold pieces and a sheaf of papers. This includes a list of people's names and supplies, as well as coded sections, and Baltazar determines they are from a caravan that left Metrol three days before the Day of Mourning. The small locked crates, unlocked by Pock, contained the missing seven square tiles and a crystal inscribed with a House Cannith rune that goes in the middle and copper wire to complete the runes.

Before giving in to Erich and Pock's desire to reactivate the runes, Eldaen and Quiver scout the upper floor. They don't find much of anything. Erich and Pock, given dispensation from Baltazar, use mage hand to put the pattern together.

They discover that it could be used to summon elementals, empower magic items or create a portal. Eldaen believes that a portal could be created to Thelanis. As Pock begins trying to put it together, Baltazar tries to recall anything he knows about the history of the area, but can't recall anything in particular. Quiver tries to recognize the pattern to help Pock and Erich put it together, and Erich applies his arcane knowledge, and they believe they've completed the portal correctly. Pock tries to climb up to get a bird's eye (gnome's eye?) view, but the floor is not stable enough for him. However, he does examine it to determine if it's a trap, and realizes that we're putting together an electrical trap.

With that knowledge, Erich tries to put the pattern together differently, realizing that removing the copper wire would only affect the creation aspect of the pattern. Eldaen and Quiver try to examine the new pattern, and try to figure out what we're doing wrong. Baltazar begins barking orders at us, but it doesn't particularly help. Eldaen uses his insight to try and see what the pattern is, and Erich tries again to use his arcana to put the pattern together.

Pock puts the crystal in as Baltazar orders the rest of us to back up and runs in to clear extra debris and crates out. The rune lights up, and a glow fills the area. There is a smell reminiscent of spring. Something begins to manifest in the circle, and a tall, pale-skinned eladrin wearing leather engraved with runes holds his arms out to us, palms up and says in elven "I bring you greetings."

He says that he has heard our names in Thelanis, and that he hopes to call us friends. "The great oracle of my people told me that you might help us." He introduces himself as Paleus of the Gloaming Fey of Quiet Hall, and tells us we'll have to find our own portal into the Feywild. "My people keep a cemetery, the Garden of Graves, that has been a place of peace and reflection for centuries. However, several years ago, a force moved in from outside and began to taint the countryside around it. They've changed the construction, and created buildings, desecrating the gravesite."

He tells us to return to the Wandering Inn, and the prophecy will lead us to the Thelanis portal that we need to find. Pock subtly pockets the crystal used to open the portal. Quiver buries one of the components nearby to prevent anyone from using it. We spend the night to rest in the tower, and head out of the Mournland, three days' journey to reach the Wandering Inn. The bard, known as the Silver Fox, immediately greets us and we are given a warm greeting by the inhabitants.

Telaran d'Ghallanda comes to our table to greet us. She tells us that their Orien contacts are moving them to the edge of Q'barra tomorrow. Baltazar knows of a Cyran refugee town in Q'barra that he wants to check into. We sell the copper wiring for gold.

Early the next morning, there is a big free breakfast and several guests leave, and the rest of us help pack everything up. Baltazar gathers the Ravens together to pitch in, and we gather together into the wagons so that the contracted House Orien operatives can transport us to the new location. We help pack everything back out.

After a day of rest, early the next morning, an alarm horn sounds, and one of the scouts comes running in. The Ravens are planting torches, and a couple of logging wagons, badly torn up, are making their way to the Inn. Baltazar and Eldaen move in to help heal the wounded, and discover that they are covered in tiny cuts and arrows. Pock, after terrifying one of the loggers, determines that it was done by pixies, which is unusual behavior for them.

We set off into Q'barra to find the origin of the pixie attack. Quiver thinks he sees something, and he and Pock scout ahead and find either a human child or a halfling. "What is a little girl doing in the middle of the jungle of Q'barra?" Quiver wonders. When Quiver doesn't move, Pock moves toward the child. Pock makes himself visible and causes the child to scream, drawing Eldaen to the area. She says her name is Mara, and that she isn't lost. She says she lives in the forest with her parents, and a "horse" came and stabbed her dad with its horn. Then it killed her mom by trampling her, and Mara ran.

The rest of us come out and meet Mara, except for Quiver, who is stalking alongside the group. Baltazar picks her up and carries her, giving her some Sarlonan candy. We move up on their cabin, and the place is cleared. Quiver examines the wound on her parents to determine that it is a unicorn wound, and spots blood-ridden tracks into the forest. We go into the house to scout it and get a toy for Mara. There's no indication that they drew this down on themselves.

We go to take the girl to her relatives, and Baltazar tells them that the Wandering Inn is nearby. The uncle tells us that there is a clearing with a standing stone nearby, and Eldaen takes them back to the Inn and then returns.

There are three dead bodies, all young women, surrounding the standing stone, and it looks like they may have been laying here for a while. Eldaen moves up to inspect one of the bodies, and recognizes some sort of illusion magic at work. As he moves back to report, we hear screeches and the dead bodies are revealed as dryads, and harpies fly in to attack.

Dryads move in on Eldaen, and two of them claw him viciously. Two of the harpies begin singing their alluring song, pulling Quiver, Eldaen, Baltazar, Pock and Erich and immobilizing them, and Erich causes infernal wrath damage to one of the harpies. Quiver fires an arrow at the harpy in the midst of the rest of the group, hitting it and anchoring it to the ground with shadow energy, then he activates his cloak of shades. Erich grabs a harpy with telekinetic force and turns it into a living missile, flinging her into the anchored harpy and knocking the original target done, and he is no longer immobilized. Pock curses the anchored harpy and uses shared agony on her, drawing psychic damage on himself for a deadly blast that bloodies her, then teleports back into the woods and is no longer immobilized. Eldaen misses with his holy outrage, but the burning anger of Teros still surrounds him. Baltazar uses war of attrition on the anchored harpy, killing it and giving all of his allies a bonus to attack. As the harpy dies, Pock curses all of the remaining enemies.

Dryads close in around Eldaen, only one of them hits him, bloodying him. The prone (living missile) harpy stands and unleashes a brutal scream on everyone but Quiver, hitting Baltazar and Eldaen. The other harpy uses alluring song on everyone, although Pock avoids it by teleporting deeper into the woods, and then it flies away. Quiver casts a shroud on one of the dryads, then fires a shadow wasp strike at that dryad. Erich pulls the harpy and swings it through the wasps and smashes it into a dryad, knocking it prone, then pulls the other harpy next to Eldaen, causing it to attack the prone harpy, then he moves out of the range of the harpies. Pock moves closer, still in the woods, and fires an eldritch blast at the prone harpy that bloodies it. Eldaen misses the harpy and uses lay on hands on himself. Baltazar uses inspiring word on Eldaen, then orders Eldaen to attack the prone harpy.

Dryad rushes into the woods past Pock, the other two chase after it. The prone harpy gets up and flies away slowly, the other one claws Eldaen. Quiver fires an arrow that bursts into a cloud of bats around the dryads, bloodying one of them. Erich uses betrayal on one of the harpies and misses. Pock uses forceful assault and misses the dryad, doing a bit of collateral damage. Eldaen misses and then saves against being immobilized. Baltazar orders him to strike and he swings and hits the harpy, then uses his circlet to save against being immobilized.

Dryads merge into the tree and then teleport to a different tree. Harpies use their alluring songs on Baltazar, Eldaen and Quiver. Quiver moves the crowd of bats and uses encaging spirits to burst the dryads and harpy away from him, then fires possessing spirits at bloodied Dryad, causing it to attack the other Dryad, and saves against immobilized. Erich uses betrayal and misses. Pock moves in, fires witchfire at the bloodied harpy, and mist seems to be emerging from its fingers and eyes, then uses his action point to mire the mind of that harpy. Eldaen hits other harpy with martyr's retribution. Baltazar misses with bastion of defense.

Dryads move to attack Erich and miss. The bloodied harpy disintegrates into mist, the other harpy claws Eldaen. Quiver fires an escaping shot at the bloodied Dryad, then moves the cloud of bats. Erich uses betrayal on one of the dryads to cause it to attack the bloodied Dryad, turning her into another gray mist undead, and Erich runs away from all that. Pock uses a ring of pain on the remaining harpy, leaving her with a nasty psychic echo. Eldaen throws his trident at the harpy and misses. Baltazar orders Quiver to fire a biting swarm at the harpy.

Dryad moves to attack Erich and misses, the mist one disintegrates. The harpy takes psychic damage and is bloodied, sings its alluring song and pushing Eldaen and Baltazar away. Quiver fires at the harpy. Erich shifts out of the cloud of bats and uses memory hole on the harpy and misses. Pock fires and misses. Eldaen throws and misses with his trident, and is still immobilized. Baltazar uses blood designation on the harpy next to him and misses, uses his action point to order Quiver to shoot the harpy with grappling spirits.

Dryads take ongoing damage from blood designation and ring of pain, move to attack Baltazar, who activates his recoil shield to knock that dryad prone. Harpy takes ring of pain damage, flies out of the cloud of bats and saves versus the psychic damage. Quiver fires an arrow at the harpy, activating the gray mist effect. Erich uses dishearten on the dryads, hitting one of them. Pock blasts that dryad as well. Eldaen uses divine mettle, runs over to flank the dryad and hits with holy strike, bloodying it. Baltazar misses the dryad.

Dryad hits Eldaen, the other one misses Baltazar, and the harpy expires. Quiver fires at the dryad with biting swarm, and Erich uses dishearten on the same one with a critical hit, killing it. Pock fires at the remaining dryad with eyebite, missing it. Eldaen moves between the dryads and swings his strength from valor at them. Baltazar attacks the dryad and sets it up for attack by Eldaen.

Dryad claws Eldaen, bloodying him. Quiver fires a biting swarm ino the dryad, bloodying it. Erich and Pock blast it, reducing it to misty undead. Eldaen takes his second wind, then hits it when Baltazar orders him to. It claws at Eldaen one last time, but can't hit.