Session 7: Devils in the Dark

Jaden stands outside the magically locked door, flushed but whole after her battle with Erevan. She makes several attempts to defeat the door's magic, but cannot. In the absence of Erevan, she decides to explore, hoping to find some way into the dungeon she knows now holds her companions captive.

Down in the dungeon, Rougi, Kava, and Kriv are crawling along in the tunnel when Kriv suddenly feels something grab her foot. She calls out to Kava and Rougi, but they have already made their way down the tunnel a good ways, and can't turn around easily. Whatever has grabbed Kriv nearly wrenches her leg off, then yanks her out of the tunnel and into the lake room. Kava quickly makes her way back to help her sister, and boldly attacks the creature, a long-armed, pale monstrosity with sharp, gleaming teeth. To her shock and horror, though, the creature pulls Kriv into the path of the blow, and Kriv herself is nearly killed!


Jaden makes her way to the second floor of Erevan's house, only to then hear what she thinks are the sounds of the party below. She makes her way back down into the basement instead. Seeing a locked door, she breaks it down, only to have a fey panther leap out and attack her!

By this point, Rougi has joined the fight, and he and Kava make short work of the creature. Kriv is saved with a healing potion, and the group takes a short rest before going back into the tunnel to continue their search for the exit.

Jaden's battle with the panther ends up being a chase all across the basement, but eventually she conquers the beast and makes her way through the broken door into the tunnel behind it. However, no more than 15 feet in, the ground beneath her gives way and she tumbles thirty feet down into a pit.

Rougi, Kava, and Kriv emerge from the tunnel into a larger room, where, lo and behold, they find Jaden, recovering from her fall. They realize that Rougi can teleport to the top of this tunnel and then cast down a rope; he does so, and they all climb out pretty quickly. Unfortunately, when they reach the top they find that the door has been repaired and sealed with a more powerful arcane lock than before. Trapped once again, they decide the only thing they can do is head back down into the dungeon.

Since it is by now past midnight, the group decides to camp for the night next to the locked door. Rougi keeps watch while he trances, and no creatures attack them while they rest. In the 'morning', they begin to follow the tunnel down. As they do, Rougi suddenly hears a voice in his head, calling him a fool and belittling the life he has chosen. He pays this voice no heed, laughing about it with the rest of the party.

The party soon finds themselves wandering around a series of rooms and passageways criss-crossed with large but decaying spiderwebs and littered with the bones of animals and humanoids. Thankfully, they do not encounter anything, and their wandering turns out not to be so aimless after all - they find several valuable magic items. These include several pieces of armor, a Circlet of Authority, and an Elven Cloak (more details in the rewards section).

Soon enough they find they exit to the maze and find themselves in a much larger room. There, in the center of it, stands Erevan. The party and he share some angry words, and they try to attack him. However, to their frustration, they find that any and all attacks they try to make just bounce off a magic barrier he has placed around his person.

Erevan addresses Rougi, pretty much ignoring the rest of the party. In fact, while he argues with Rougi, he calls a swarm of rats to attack the rest of them, just so they won't bother him. His conversation with Rougi basically entails him viciously deriding the life of a rouge for an Eladrin, or rather the idea of an Eladrin being anything other than a wizard. He says that money is unimportant, and that Eladrins were meant to live in the Feywild, not to deal with these 'worthless' non-fey creatures (e.g., humans, Dragonborns, Tieflings, etc.) He admits to having been part of Qualion's gang, and while he does not directly confess to having robbed Vondal, he doesn't exactly deny it either. He however dismisses it all as something very long ago.

Rougi realizes that Erevan wants something from him particularly, and while the rats are hardly a threat, they've been trapped in this dungeon for a while, and Erevan himself is currently untouchable. He asks what Erevan wants. He responds in an almost pleading fashion that he wants Rougi to 'accept his true self', and become a wizard, become his apprentice! Rougi is a little flabbergasted at his manner of asking, but bluffs the wizard into believing he would be willing to do that. He however insists that the party be let go; Erevan says if they will leave his home and not harm any more of his pets, that he will not trouble them anymore. Rougi tries to negotiate for some reward as well, but he doesn't get anywhere due to Erevan's disdain for wealth.

The party defeats the rats as this conversation is wrapping up, and are shown the way out of the dungeon. They make it through the door, up the stairs, and back to Summercrest.

Rougi, meanwhile, is lead back into Erevan's study (the floor has been repaired and the bookshelf is upright once more). Erevan shows him a shelf full of books, declaring them to be histories of magic that he must read to gain a foundation of wizardry. He says not to talk to him again until he has read them all, and then leaves. Rougi of course immediately pockets some of the books. He skims a few of them but doesn't really explore them. Later, he explores the house; Erevan prevents him on the third floor, telling him it is private and off-limits, but the rest of the house he can consider his home.

Back in town, the party has found an inn and gotten some dinner, resting up after their dungeon crawl. Rougi joins them that evening after dinner. They are unable to find an exotic animals dealer to do anything with the psuedodragons they captured in the forest, and Rougi discovers the ritual and history books he pocketed are not worth very much, though he does manage to get about 1,000 gp for them.

The party is somewhat at a loss for what to do next. They decide to let Rougi carry on this charade of being Erevan's apprentice for a couple of days at least, and to meet back tomorrow night to discuss their plans once more.

Rewards

Jaden: 525 XP, 540 gp
Rougi: 400 XP, 540 gp (includes the 1,000 gp in-game reward)
Kriv/Kava: 350 XP (each), 540 gp (each)

Treasure (whole party):

• Level 3 Curseforged Armor (p. 227 Player's Handbook)
• Level 4 Black Iron Armor (p. 227 Player's Handbook)
• Level 5 Exalted Armor (p. 230 Player's Handbook)
• Level 6 Horned Helm (p. 249 Player's Handbook)
• Level 7 Circlet of Authority (p. 248 Player's Handbook)
• Level 7 Elven Cloak (p. 250 Player's Handbook)

EDIT: The money rewards are now correct.