light spires.

you may not rest now, there are monsters nearby.

[light-spires]

— the story so far…(03/09/17)

The dungeons of Wave Echo Cave were cold, damp and dark, five small cells lining the walls on both sides, prisoners in every last one of them. The group quickly looked through all the cells, finding two human women; Brilde Kirksdottir and Bruna Eifrahim in the first cell, a human boy  named Gyles Parre, two elves; Darén and Halim and two more human women; May and Sophie in the second cell, a lone human woman named Aynswyth Glaston in the third. They were all broken and dirty, fear in their eyes and torn souls. In the fourth cell there was the motionless body of a half orc, surrounded by rats on the floor. His cell was connected to another with a heavy metal grate, through which Bran spotted his younger sister, lying on the cold floor of the last cell.

Caitriona Dunbar was alive and found. She refused to let her brother go as the group started discussing what to do next. Bree, Rurik and Eddie seemed to want to eave the prisoners behind, still locked up in the cells where they believed they’d be more safe, seeing as they wanted to go back out into the mine itself to find more information. Overhearing this conversation, Aynswyth protested. It seemed she was determined not to be left behind. After a short while, Bree decided to sneak ahead and check the exit, to see if they might be able to send the prisoners out by themselves as the group continued. Bran said that no matter what, he wouldn’t leave Caitriona like that, but the group still wanted to check if this was an option. Bree did find out that the way out wasn’t in any way blocked, but right by the last stretch of hallway, she found two dead guards, shot by arrows through their necks. Confused and slightly creeped out by this, she returned to her friends in the dungeons. They heard, once more, about Bran’s contact, the friend who was helping him find his sister, that they used a bow and might be in the mine somewhere.

After discussing some more, they at least decide to let the prisoners out and help them get out of the mine, to then return inside and look for more information, with or without Bran who was still uncertain of leaving the prisoners alone in the wild. Caitriona convinced them to also bring the half orc, as he had been experimented on by the Black Spider himself and had also protected the other prisoners at the cost of his own health since he’d been put in that cell next to her’s. As they made it toward the way out, though, they were suddenly stopped at the waters edge, by The Black Spider himself.

Now, the Black Spider seemed almost amused at your presence in his mine, but suggested that they return his property, otherwise he couldn’t let them go. When the group refused, the Black Spider had them attacked by some goons. The long battle that ensued was tiering and seemingly hopeless at times. The water was magical and rejuvenating, but there were many enemies. After Rurik sent a whole bunch of undead running away from the group, the Black Spider, declared that he could let them have Bran’s sister, if they left the rest of the prisoners behind. Eddie thought this sounded like an alright idea, Bran refused. 

As more bugbears, orcs and an undead ogre entered into the room, the prisoner Aynswyth had had enough of the Black Spider trying to barter with them as bargaining chips so she grabbed Caitriona, who was still not letting Bran out of her sight, and said they were going to leave no matter if the Black Spider tried to stop them or not. The spider didn’t seem very enthusiastic about this but joked that no one seemed to care what he wanted in all of this, before having his goons engage again. Before the ogre could attack them though, Bran’s friend, a half elf druid named Rosemary, showed up and made sure to get some good shots into the ogre before joining the fight on the floor of the cave with the group.

Eventually, after giving her brother a final hug, Caitriona left the chamber with the other prisoners, closely followed by Rosemary, who promised to see them out safely. By now, the ogre was dead and the Black Spider seemed less calm about this than he’d been before. He joined the fight, asking if Eddie was truly forgettable or just tried hard to be, making Bran call out in reply: “Don’t speak about my friend that way”. The Black Spider answered this by paralyzing Bran with fear and visions of his sister’s dead body and sending giant spiders raining from the ceiling of the cave.

It didn’t look good. The spiders kept coming, their powers were running out, stamina on an all time low and as one of them falls to the ground, near death, time is running out. It was the Black Spider that stopped the fight, sending a wave of necrotic energy coursing through the room, effectively killing most of his own spiders but also severely damaging the friends in the process.

He posed an ultimatum. If Bran stayed behind, the Black Spider would let everyone else go, including all prisoners. If he didn’t stay, the Black Spider promised he’d hunt every last one of them down and rip Caitriona’s heart out of her chest with his bare hands. At this, Bran turned to his friends one last time, a smile on his face as he slowly dropped his pack to the ground, handed his shield to Rurik, his dagger with the Dunbar family crest to Bree, his pouch with money to Eddie and promised he’d follow them when he could, saying they had to trust him, before he turned back to the Black Spider, accepting his offer.

The friends were in shock. Had it not been for Rosemary returning, maybe they would have protested this decision, but Rosemary made them follow Bran’s instruction to get out, keep his sister safe, survive.

The last thing they saw of their friend, before they ran for their lives, was Bran’s strong back, hiding three fire flasks, which he ignited with a flick of his fingers. As the group passed over the bridge, which would take them out of the mine itself, they saw the opening in the wall leading back into the cave, saw a fiery explosion sending bodies of spiders and orcs into the water, as Bran finalized the plan which allowed them all to escape, except him.

He sacrificed himself so that they could live.

Both Bree and Eddie were stoic and realistic about Bran’s prospects. He might have made it, but it was foolish to cling to that hope. Rurik was in denial, insisting they wait by the exit for Bran, Caitriona was beyond grief.

By the time the group, friends and freed prisoners alike, made it back to Phandalin, they were exhausted and hungry. Sildar was devastated by the news of Bran’s death, admitting that he was actually Bran and Caitriona’s uncle, which of course meant he felt the death of his nephew deeply. He promised the group that they still had a safe haven in his home, and that they could always stay in his home. After this, he left them by the table.

There, they sat for a moment in silence, until Rurik got up to leave the room without a word. It was then that the half orc they’d rescued, Caitriona’s friend Yakiv, stepped through the door. He stood there for a moment, looking apologetic but determined, as he finally said: “I want to help you”.

[light-spires]

An important document looted from a doppelgänger at Cragmaw castle and a map of Wave Echo Cave drawn by Gundren Rockseeker.

[light-spires]

— the story so far… (02/09/17)

After running through Neverwinter wood for a couple of hours, making sure to get as much distance between themselves and Cragmaw castle, the friends took a well deserved breather before continuing towards Phandalin. Grundren Rockseeker was woken and he was grateful for them rescuing him, and very happy to see Rurik again. He told the group he’d been investigating the disappearance of Rurik’s adopted son, Anur, whom they had previously believed had been kidnapped and killed for personal reasons, but when Gundren had found out many others had gone missing, he started suspecting maybe Anur’s disappearance was connected to the others as well.

He explained that he had been to the redbrand hideout with a group of newfound friends to investigate, but that most of the others had been killed or taken and he had to flee Phandalin. When he came to Neverwinter, he met with a druid friend of his. This druid had a map marking the whereabouts of Wave Echo Cave as well as the interior of the mine. After this, Gundren met up with Sildar, who was also looking into disappearances and they decided to make their way to Phandalin together after Gundren wrote to his cousin Rurik to come aid him in the small town. However, as the group already learned months ago, Gundren and Sildar were attacked on the Triboar trail and in the process, Gundren’s map of the mine was taken from him.

As the group rest up and make sure Gundren is comfortable, they also look through the papers and such that they managed to steal from the doppleganger Vyerith. There was a letter, adressed from the Black Spider to King Groll, where he threatened the King, saying something about a Lord Atterby. Bran eventually remembered this Atterby person as being the man, or at least the family name of the man his sister was supposed to have married, before she disappeared. But why was he mentioned as being “useful” in the letter..? Amongst many like it, there was also a list of names and stats, like the cattle documents often used in cattle trade. On this specific one, however, the group noticed these names weren’t of cattle at all. They were the names of people. And Bran realized that his sister was listed among these many names. Next to her name, a capitalized “N” and the short note “of interest, sent to wec”. Gundren suggested that “wec” might actually stand for “Wave Echo Cave” as it would be a weird coincidence for the cave to have the same initials as these comments, when he suspects the Black Spider might actually be using these chambers for his keeping of certain prisoners. There was also a small pouch, containing the skull of a rat with a drawn X on it. Bran, pocketing this skull, explained that he had an informant of his that would leave these skulls for him to find, in places where Caitriona had been kept. The question was, where did this skull come from?

Of course, this made Bran very impatient to move on to the mine immediately, so the group made their way to Phandalin first, where Eddie had an appointment and where they could leave Gundren to rest. Eddie went off to meet with his grandfather, who gave him a mission to return to Neverwinter and deliver some medicines the grandfather couldn’t deliver himself. After Eddie’s return, Gundren showed the group the map he had recreated from memory, and although it wasn’t perfect, it was very intricate and a lot more than nothing. Before they left, Eoghan wanted a word with Bran. He explained he was worried about this endeavor and wanted to come with them, but that he had been summoned by Lord Dunbar to return with haste and although he would have loved to go against his Lord’s wishes, that would mark him a traitor. He promised that if the party had not returned by the time he did, he would go look for them and assist them. After a sweet but worried goodbye, he watched Bran’s wide back as the group left Phandalin, a growing feeling of unease in his gut. 

It would be the last time he ever saw the man he loved.

The road took them through the mountains and to their surprise they met now resistance on the way. The entrance to the cave was hidden but marked on their map and they found it without trouble at all. They knew from the map of the interior that the mine itself was a complicated array of paths and rooms and had determined beforehand which paths to take and what rooms to investigate. 

Without meeting much resistance on the inside either, they made their way into the mine. Their first goal to reach the main chamber where they believed the Forge of spells was somehow kept. Whatever it was. On their way, they saw statues of many races, orcs, humans, elves, dwarves and halflings, carrying the ceiling on their strong, stone shoulders. The walls were made of smooth black stone and lit hallways lit with cold, white, magical torches. After looting a storage room, finding a shawl belonging to Caitriona, Bran’s sister, and another skull with an ex on it, the group pushed on, into the main chamber, Bran wearing his sister’s shawl tied around his hand.

The room, shaped like an octagon, was well guarded with orcs and bugbears, was a magical place. From the black crystal walls shot streams of energy in all the colors of a rainbow, clashing in the middle of the space, above a podium in the room’s center, forming a great wave of raw magical power which then swirled up toward the ceiling, so high up into the air it was invisible to the naked eye. After dealing with the enemies, the group pressed on, but not after looking a little more closely at the twelve rods that had been placed all around the podium in the middle of the room. These had been placed just like the ones at the Old Owl Well. In a room off to the side, they found a bed on which lay drawings of different creatures. There were also some kind of notes about an experiment, named only as “Y” as well as similar documents with names as the ones they’d found on the doppleganger. No mention of Rurik’s son, however, which made her worry.

The next stop was the dungeons, to see if there were prisoners being held there. This part of the map was not as clearly defined by Gundren, and the group debated for a while which way to go next. They decided on a rout that soon took them where they wanted to go. They discovered both guards and dungeons and as always made quick of the guards within…

[light-spires]

player characters / yakiv “face full of teeth white but not smiling. all teeth, but not smiling.”

[light-spires]

painted by our own ida, known as lillsparv online.

[light-spires]

player characters / rurik strakeln “hope for the best & prepare for the worst.”  

[landscapelifescape]

[diaphanee]

Castle Island, Roscommon, Ireland

[antigonick]

—the damp red earth and the intense scent of the pine and eucalyptus forests in which a carpet of dry leaves lay steeping after the long hot summer and where the coppery sunlight filtered down through the treetops.

Isabel Allende, The House of The Spirits (via antigonick)

[light-spires]

“During the 100-year war, more than a thousand years ago, a mine was founded by the powers who then governed the area now including Neverwinter Wood. Legends tell the story of a mine so prosperous it could have brought an end to the wars, had it not fallen into enemy hands.

The mine was not only used for breaking precious gems out of the rock, but it also possessed great magical power. It has long been theorized that great veins of magical energy flows deep beneath the forests and planes of the Green Lands, and this mine seems to have been dug right where one vein meets another, in the southern mountains. Spellcasters aligned themselves with others like them, to create something I have ellected to call “the forge of spells”, through which magic items could be crafted.

But the rumors of the mine’s awesome power spread, and before long a battle erupted in its vicinity. The mine, also known as “Wave echo cave”, was lost to the enemy. As far as I know, when the war finally ended, no one was left alive who knew where to find Wave echo cave and the Forge of spells.

For centuries since, rumors of buried riches have attracted treasure seekers and opportunists to the area around the southern mountains (now Phandalin area). But no one has ever succeeded in locating the lost mine.“

- from Urmon’s journal, found by Eddie in the Redbrand hideout

[90377]

Corfe Castle, Dorset by Tony  Armstrong

[unwidely]

[moonskek-deactivated20251028]

[light-spires]

the light spires campaign.

[light-spires]

player characters / eddie “most of the evil in this world is done by people with good intentions.”

[light-spires]

half a letter

Dear Black Spider,

Our work here draws to an end, and although I have been stuck in these wretched ruins for months now, I feel optimistic that we really are coming to some kind of conclusion. These creatures are marvelous in their way of adapting, surviving and thriving. Even though they cannot reproduce themselves, they are elegant in their design and are hard to avoid once they’ve gotten a wiff of you. Truly, a remarkable feet, deserving of recognition. As I write this to you, I am reminded of all you have accomplished, and will accomplish in the future, and my heart is struck with awe and respect, that such a strong individual, such as yourself, may ever read these words I’m writing and feel content with my performance at your mercy. Thank you. One thing which has been worrying me, on the other hand, is the

[light-spires]

bran; Dreams / Nightmares.

1. the tips of her fingers only reach the insides of my knuckles when we put the palms of our hands together. she says, ”bran, you’re so tall already, you’re going to outgrow father one day!”    i lift her up and spin her around until she cries with laughter.

2. she has her hand up against mine again but between our palms are bars  separating us and her hands are not so small anymore. in this pitch black darkness colors are vivid and i want to say something but there are rocks in my throat. she says, "bran, you're so tall but there's nothing you can do now. father has grown away."    i try to grab her through the bars but can't get a grip. she cries.

3. her hand is outstretched towards the small window in her cell. i've found her but it's too late. they all look on, with still faces as dead as hers. she says nothing anymore.    i hold her cold body in my arms, tears staining her dirty face.

[theverge]

Bioluminescent glow worms turned these 30-million-year-old caves into alien skies.