Refresher: Our adventurers Lugs (grung barbarian), Lurk (grung rogue), Aelia (tiefling cleric), and Valas (drow sorcerer) with tagalong Deku (ratfolk cleric) returned to the Rat's Nest from the Sunless Citadel, taking Chadley to get help as well as ferrying the subdued remaining members of the Goblin Gang. Lurk tried to steal the magic items he ordered from Boak's blacksmith while the shop was closed during the night. They also met up with Meepo, who has started helping out around the church and the Yawning Rodent tavern.
Lulu, the church priest, was able to start examining Chadley's condition. Although he looks plant-like now, it seems that he's been transformed into some kind of undead creature. He stayed at the Rat's Nest, knowing he's in no condition to go back to the citadel and save his sister McKennedeigh and remaining mercenary Bradley.
The rest of the party returned to the Sunless Citadel, leaving the Goblin Gang free to leave the Rat's Nest and head towards the next surface city if they so wish. While exploring another shrine room to the red dragon Ashardalon on their way to Belak, Shadows have attacked!
Sunless Citadel spoilers!
The party are caught by surprise as five Shadows rear out from the darkness and strike. Caught in their grasp for just a moment, Lurk feels his strength get drained by the featureless black monster, leaving him weak. The Shadows also seem resistant to most attacks, and even Aelia's fire spells don't do much, unable to penetrate the thick darkness - however, their forms can't withstand much damage, and the adventurers are able to extinguish them. Even Lugs' fire snake companion joined the fight, but after taking some hits from the Shadows, they began to retreat the way they came.
Lugs goes after his fire snake, finding them huddled in the previous room after leaving a small trail of blood. Not proficient in medicine, Lugs reckons the snake is ok, since he loses blood all the time, too, but he's fine. With a "pspspspsps", he manages to convince the snake to calm down and resume following them.
Lurk has a proper look around the shrine room, and finds a loose brick behind the statue - where the Shadows came from. Bracing himself for a trap, he pulls on the brick, but simply finds some gemstones, gold coins, and a golden circlet that resembles interweaving flames and with an inset garnet as the centrepiece. For once, he distributes the gold coins evenly.
As Deku had already had a good search through the ruined library and taken the books and enchantment recipes of interest, the party continues onwards. Lugs tears out some pages from an old book and puts it in his mouth, offering some to Deku. "Ah, I love to consume knowledge, but not really like that..."
Lugs swallows the pages with some difficulty, his face twinged with regret.
They try to start sneaking quietly, but Deku in his large and clunky armour can't help but rattle, and Lugs starts laying out paper for Deku to tread on and crunch for some reason. The next hallway is an underpass, supposedly leading beneath the last arboretum they passed through, and it continues around a corner extremely far. Ditching the stealth, Lurk runs to the end of the hallway, but no traps are set off. He finds two doors, and, after finding them free of traps as well, listens with his head pressed against the wood. He hears nothing from either one.
Lurk goes through the far door, walking into what appears to be a storeroom with crates of dead white tree branches. One of the walls has completely caved in to what appears to be a giant rift that's now become one with the Sunless Citadel, stretching for over 100 feet before a bend where it continues out of view. The floor of the rift is covered in a thick web of dead, sun-starved brambles and shrubbery.
He calls back to the rest of the party in the hallway that it's safe to come in. However, as he walks into the storeroom, twig blights that had been camouflaged amongst the brambles tear themselves out of the ground and start rushing the adventurers! Apart from the brambles proving difficult to safely move through for Aelia and Valas - anyone larger than the two small grung and the ratfolk - the fight is an easy win, as they're used to the aggressive but frail twig blights by now.
Valas, looking down the length of the large rift, spots a humanoid figure in armour just at the bend over 100ft away. The group thinks that it could be McKennedeigh. After they start heading towards the figure, the figure appears to notice them, and begins to shamble their way through the brambles towards our heroes. Their gait is slow and stilted, like they're being controlled with puppet strings. As they get closer, they see that it's a decently muscular human in heavy armour, with short brown hair and pale skin. A second human with long blonde hair, dressed in lighter adventuring robes and with a tome in hand, comes from around the bend following his lead. There's an insignia on her robes that, even from this distance, resembles the Hucrele insignia; she must be McKennedeigh. She's an even paler shade - reminiscent of Chadley's sickly white skin from the experiments performed on him. Deku observes them as they slowly get closer, and says that, if they weren't moving, he would think they were dead, their eyes glazed over and an unnerving shade of red.
From behind them comes a third figure: a human in heavy robes, with a hood over his head. On his back is a quarterstaff, almost strapped to him reminiscent of a plant's stake. He has a cropped beard, and his skin looks like it was once sporting a golden glow and sun spots from working outside, but has since paled and dulled from being underground so long. At his hip are sample collection vials and small gardening implements. He walks more confidently and deliberately behind the two shambling humans, and points a sickle towards the party of adventurers. "Hold a moment, you know not what you do!" he booms out.
Deku is upset and angry, and accuses him of being the one who forced the Goblin Gang to work for him against their will, and experimented on Chadley. He demands that he turn McKennedeigh and Bradley back to normal.
The man - who formerly introduces himself as Belak the Outcast - laughs and says that the two humans are beyond saving now, and that his experiments are great, actually. His previous circle of spellcasters cast him out for his ambitions and experimentations, but he says he has since found his place with the Wizards of the Coast, worshipping Ashardalon.
Behind Belak is a large tree, white and dead in appearance. Belak remarks on this, saying that although it looks dead, it's still alive and is a beautiful wonder. It's called the Gulthias tree, and it grew from a wooden stake that slayed a vampire on this very spot a long time ago. McKennedeigh, Bradley, and Chadley all resemble the tree's white bark, Chadley even more-so with the twigs, leaves, and roots growing out of him.
Aelia and Deku say that Belak will pay for what he's done. Belak, knowing that they already took care of his Goblin Gang employees, is ready. Bradley draws a shield and a longsword with an artful but spiky, jagged hilt, and McKennedeigh takes on a stance that even Lugs recognises to be that of a spellcaster readying a spell. Worried his fire snake will get hurt, Lugs motions for them to retreat back through the storeroom, which they do.
Belak calls out over his shoulder, "Kulket, come! Kill them!"
From the branches of the Gulthias tree leaps out a giant frog, landing in front of Belak to face the adventurers. Belak takes his quarterstaff off his back and uses it to cast Barkskin on himself, armouring himself with a layer of thick and rough skin. With another spell, he casts Shillelagh, and his wooden quarterstaff also starts to split outwards to become jagged and dangerous. The fight begins...
one thing i did not take into account when making my bard a mean guy is that the longest ranged spell i have is vicious mockery and every time i cast it i have to insult the recipient which would be easy for the character, jeremy bardman, but is in fact very difficult for me, the player, so it usually ends up being a kinda weak 'your mum' joke which is fine but does not appease the part of me that constantly needs to be the funniest person in the room
at our last dnd session one of the players saw my lil dice bag i made and was like omg i love that and i was like thanks i made it :D and she was like oh can i commission you to make me one? and i said absolutely not ill do it for free so ive spent this whole afternoon making it and adding some charms to it and its very cute if i do say so myself
