Averlorn Campaign: The Caverns of the Dweomerblade

Recap from 6/17/2011

The next day when we awoke, the arcane casters learned the spell Read Magic and took another look at the glyphs carved into the stone circle around the 6’ diameter hole in the floor.  They confirmed that it was a spell and that it was a variation of Floating Disk combined with elements of Levitation (more like Levitating Disc).  We surmised that it was used as an elevator of sorts to gain access to the caverns below.  We did not know who the masters were, and knew nothing of their realm below that we had been warned about in the inscription on the wall in the other room.  Nevertheless, we decided to check it out.

Gradwin read the glyphs to cast the spell and sure enough, a 6’ diameter floating disc appeared over the hole in the floor.  We debated a bit as to who should go down first and finally, Gradwin volunteered with a pair of his animated skeletons.  First, he cast Invisibility on himself as a precaution.  He stepped on the disc with his undead companions and said the command word, and the disc began to lower itself into the shaft with the trio aboard.  Then the group above waited for some sort of signal that we should follow.

Gradwin slowly descended into the darkness for a seemingly long time.  When he got past the first 120’ of the shaft through the solid stone, the disc continued to lower itself magically into the open area of the cavern below.  He could hear the sound of rushing water far below that got louder as he descended further into the darkness.  Finally, he got close to the floor of the cavern and suddenly, he was under attack!  Arrows began whizzing by him obviously aimed at the visible skeletons.  When he got further down, he could discern several creatures on a ledge overlooking the peninsula below that were firing arrows at the skeletons.  One of the skeletons was destroyed and went tumbling off of the disc to the bottom of the cavern with a rattle of bones.

When the disc got to the floor, he stepped off of it and moved away doing his best to stay quiet.  He ordered his remaining skeleton to play dead (or undead) and fall to the cavern floor as if it too had been dispatched.  He then said the command word to make the disc return to the surface world and it started going back up through the air of the cavern.  He watched in silence from behind a boulder as three large lizard men crawled down the rocky cliff where they had been firing at him from, to investigate the skeleton that was on the ground.  It was carrying one of his backpacks and the lizard men immediately started rummaging through it.

Meanwhile, after about ten minutes or so, the disc reappeared at the top without Gradwin or his two skeletons.  We took this as the signal to send down the next group and Lucias the human fighter and the two elves, Cyrcla and Teth-en-Aire jumped aboard and said the command word to lower the floating disc into the cavern below.  Again, it took about five minutes for it to descend and again, the trio on board the disc came under attack from the archers on the ledge and at the bottom of the cliff on the peninsula.  Lucias couldn’t do much but the other two spellcasters cast mirror image to protect themselves for the rest of the descent.  As they got to the bottom, they cast a few magic missiles as well and then hopped off the disc to engage the three lizardmen at the bottom.  At about this time, the other three on the ledge scampered down to join in on the fray.

Gradwin, still invisible, commanded his skeleton to come to life again and attack the lizardmen.  During a brief but fierce melee, the two elves and the fighter then made quick work of the remaining lizardmen but the skeleton was destroyed.  We set up a perimeter and sent the disc back up with Teth-en-Aire aboard to retrieve the others.  After a few more trips, the adventure party was whole again and included around ten or eleven total party members including the henchmen.  We decided to scale the cliff to see where the lizardmen had come from.  It wasn’t too difficult but it was steep and there was a smaller tributary to the main river that was cascading down the cliff face as a waterfall to make the footing a little slippery.

So about halfway up, we found the platform that the lizardmen had been firing at us from which was at the edge of the waterfall.  Behind the waterfall, the ledge continued into the cliff face through a tunnel that went on for a good distance.  We decided to keep going up to the top of the rocky outcrop.  At the top, the small stream leveled out beyond the waterfall into another rocky tunnel with a path on both sides of the stream.  We moved into the tunnel and went down it a little ways, when suddenly, another group of lizardmen emerged from the water and attacked!  There were about twelve or so this time and after another fierce melee, the group of adventurers dispatched them without too much trouble.

We continued down the stream tunnel until the path on the right side ended and the adventurers on that side had to switch over the stream to the path on the left side which continued.  The water wasn’t that deep at this point and they crossed the stream without any difficulty.  Eventually, the path opened up into a larger cavern with a large pool in the middle, a ledge on the opposite side and another waterfall at the other end of the cavern and pool where the stream was dumping its water into the pool.  The group was stretched out in a long single file line at this point and when we were about halfway into this chamber, the water started boiling and about thirty or so lizardmen emerged and attacked the group of adventurers!

The back half of the group was still in the narrower tunnel on the ledge and the front half was stretched out on the narrow ledge next to the pool in the cavern we had just entered so they had us at a bit of a disadvantage.  Bellinorn and Kalaneikos were in the back and were nearly surrounded by a number of lizardmen while Lucias and the ranger Taleth were in the front and similarly surrounded on two sides with the wall at their backs.  During the melee that followed, much carnage ensued in the cavern and tunnel next to the stream.  Kalaneikos and Bellinorn were hard pressed but the two stalwart warriors held their own at the rear of the line and slew many of their attackers.  Lucias and Taleth also wrought much carnage on their attackers in the front but the characters in the middle didn’t fare as well since they were the vulnerable ones the fighters at the front and back were usually trying to protect.

Asclepius was sorely wounded but Kaira stood by his side to protect him, and once Cyrcla killed the lizardmen that she was fighting, she came to their aid.  Evelyn was also hard pressed because she was lightly armored but managed to hold her own.  Gradwin was still invisible at the start of the melee and cast fly on himself to rise up above the scrum.  He noticed a group of shadowy figures moving on the ledge on the opposite side of the pool that appeared to go behind the waterfall and disappear from view.  He flew up above the pool to scout it out and make sure they weren’t attempting to reinforce their comrades in the fight. 

So after a wild battle, most of the lizardmen were slain, including their leader who was killed by Kalaneikos and his body started floating away from the group down the now blood red stream.  Gradwin had the forethought to try and keep his body from sinking or being swept away in case he was carrying loot or magic items, but couldn’t catch him before he was swept away by the current.  He did manage to grab his shield though before it sank into the stream and it turned out to be magical.  Gradwin then flew to the opposite ledge and behind the waterfall and discovered the leader’s lair there along with some loot.  That’s where we ended the session.

TO BE CONTINUED…