The Dark Hollow - Sessions - Second Rotation - part 1

From Black Country Role Playing Society

SESSION NINE

THE QUEST UNFOLDS

I

The party returns to Waterdeep from the Isle of Tregarn aboard the Siren. Sardis leaves the employ of Captain Stone in order to join the adventuring party. The party secures rooms for the night in a Waterdhavian tavern and spends several hours relaxing in the tap room - drinking, some friendly gambling, socialising and womanising. Korvo, in particular looks like his luck might be in. A strikingly beautiful female has taken Korvo to one side but it appears that it wasn’t to be his lucky night after all when she suddenly got up and left. All very confusing for Korvo who was in conversation with the mysterious beauty one moment and then staring at an empty chair the next – he simply doesn’t remember her getting up to leave. A very odd thing.

The next day had another very odd occurrence lined up for Korvo as a mysterious figure bumped into him in the busy marketplace and pressed into his hand a piece of paper. By the time Korvo looked at the note, the mysterious figure had disappeared into the bustling crowds. Korvo was suddenly aware of a stinging feeling and a red scratch line on the back of his hand. The world began to spin around him and he felt immediately unwell – poison!

Curing Korvo’s poisoning delayed the party’s departure from Waterdeep by twenty four hours. When securing horses the party met a new acquaintance. Waiting for the party was a cleric of Ilmater (a deva male named Hixiou). Hixiou had been recruited by the clergy of Everlund to keep watch for news of the party’s return from Tregarn. The Church of Pelor was becoming most anxious for news and Hixiou had volunteered his services to be Morninglord Latimer’s agent in Waterdeep.

With horses and provisions sorted the party set out on the eleven day ride to the Silver Marches.

II

Back in Everlund, the party presented their experiences of the trip to Tregarn. With new information to work with the Morninglords began to piece together the evidence and a most disconcerting picture began to build. From the glyphs of the portal frames and the shadar-kai totem taken from the cultist on Tregarn a single word stood out from all else, a name, an ancient name that has long faded from the histories of most peoples – Mara.

Mara is a demon lord who came to Faerûn some 12,000 years ago in hopes of grand conquest. He was defeated by the combined armies of men, dwarves and elves at the battle known as the ‘Clash of Worlds’ and his demonic army was routed. Mara was tricked in battle and magicks were woven that tore much of his life’s essence from his physical body, reducing him to a lesser form and facilitating his defeat. Mara’s essence was trapped and divided amongst four artefacts: an iron gauntlet known as the Hand of Mara, a crystal orb known as the Eye of Mara, an amulet known as the Body of Mara and a sword known as the Might of Mara. The fair folk view these unholy artefacts as abhorrent evil and resolved to scatter them to the world’s furthest reaches to prevent them from ever being brought together again – to the demons they are collectively known as the holy relics. As Mara’s armies were still being slain or banished, some of his followers managed to capture one of the relics – the Hand of Mara - and they smuggled it away back to the Abyss where they kept it safe.

The physical form of Mara, though stripped of much of his life’s essence is still immortal. Mara was imprisoned for all eternity, where he slumbers in the Dark Hollow – a secret place in the depths of the world. Today, the stories of Mara have faded from the memories of most of Faerûn. The location of the Dark Hollow is a secret, supposedly kept by a knightly order known as the Silver Order. A secret order guarding the existence of a secret prison.

The news of supposed cultists being found with one of the portals that may link Mara’s demi-plane of the Abyss to Faerûn is most disturbing. The clergy of Everlund have no clues as to how to find this dark cult of Mara, nor the supposed knights of the mysterious Silver Order, nor the location of the Dark Hollow or the whereabouts of the unholy relics. However, the Maran cult is perceived to be a great threat and cannot be ignored. If they are seeking the unholy relics to resurrect their demon lord, then the Peloran clergy needs to seek them too and discover them first, no matter how disadvantaged the clergy may be by its lack of knowledge.

III

The Morninglords despatch many agents across the length and breadth of Faerûn to uncover all the information it can that might provide them a lead in how to proceed with the quest at hand – to find the Dark Hollow, to recover the unholy relics and to defeat the cult before they can arouse their demon lord form his slumber. Over the coming weeks, the clergy will receive reports from their agents - accounts regarding all manner of cults and also fabled stories of knights and ancient artefacts. The clergy realises that most leads will be red herrings – but they employ whatever resources they can to investigate and eliminate the leads they have. Many agents and adventuring parties are sent abroad in the service of the church.

Four months have passed since you (the party) returned to Everlund from Tregarn and now you have been called upon to attend a council meeting of church leaders. Information has come to the attention of the clergy that if true, may provide the most important lead yet.

The church has heard an account of a middle-aged farmer who lives in a village called Balham situated south of the town of Tammar in Thesk, near the borders of Thay. The farmer is named Tobias Silverman and according to the story is the object of much ridicule in his small village. He is a man who likes to drink and when he drinks he likes to brag to his neighbours that he is descended of noble blood; a great order of silver knights – and this is how he got his name. Locals, apparently, deride Silverman during his bragging sessions and enjoy having a good laugh at his expense. Silverman lives alone, being devoid of charisma he is quite the dullard and finds himself without friends and has gained a reputation for telling tall stories in sad attempts to make himself sound more interesting.

The party is to be despatched to Thesk to seek out this farmer – Tobias Silverman and find out if there is any truth to his story of being descended from an order of silver knights. The Order of Silver Knights were charged with guarding the secret of the Dark Hollow and if Silverman’s story is true he might be able to provide the party with the location of the Dark Hollow.

IV

During the party’s stay in Everlund Bardryn left the party and is replaced by Hixiou. Endril finally delivered the ring to Silas Longbeard that he picked up from Waterdeep. Yana joined the Order of the Blue Fire – an organisation that runs hospices in many of Faeruûn’s cities that are dedicated for caring for spellscarred folk. Being spellscarred is often a social stigma and makes one a target for much prejudice. The administrator of the Everlund Hospice, a dwarf named Tordgrip Ironhammer, encouraged Yana to visit hospices along his path – especially the hospice of Tammar where prejudices against spellscarred folk can often erupt into violence. Sardis received a trio of mysterious visitors from Silverymoon, Korvo received a letter from home and Ang’elda was recognised as the leader of the party by Morninglord Latimer (though not necessarily recognised as such by the rest of the party members). Latimer bestowed upon Ang’elda a blessing from Pelor to help light his way on the path that lies before him and to provide protection to his allies.

V

The party sallies forth from Everlund:

Ang’elda, Avenger, human male Yana, Druid, elf female Endril Greengallow, Wizard, eladrin male Korvo Kul’urian, Rogue, human male Sardis, Swordmage, genasi male Hixiou, Cleric of Ilmater, deva male

Along the road, the party stumbled upon a half-orc locked into wooden stocks – the word thief branded across his chest. Ang’elda was all for leaving the thief where he is at best or lopping off a hand at worst. Hixiou and Sardis were more determined to interrogate the half orc, but the half-orc was unable to speak – his tongue was missing. Ang’elda almost came to blows with Sardis and Hixiuo as they released the half-orc from the stocks. The half-orc was most grateful and communicated by writing in the dirt - his name is Kulddaan, a holy knight of Amaunator. Sardis and Hixiou at least were convinced that the half-orc is telling the truth, other members of the party reserved their judgement for now although Kulddaan was invited to join the party – at least until they could reach a town or village rather than abandoning him in his weakened state in the wilderness.

The next point of excitement was after about six days travel while on the road through Netheril. A river required to be crossed, luckily a bridge was available but unluckily was closely guarded by a quartet of half-orc brothers and a hill giant who claimed that the bridge was theirs, built by their own hands and for which they charge a toll to pass. Inevitably, the cheapskates amongst the party provoked the ire of the half-orcs and a fight broke out. A hard fought victory was won but not without receiving many wounds in the process. Surely it would have been easier to pay the tariff of 30gp each to pass?

SESSION TEN

TINSTOCK

I

Twelve days of constant travelling and the party is becoming increasingly saddle sore and hygienically challenged. The sight of the Netherese village of Tinstock is a most welcome one. The thought of a cold beer, hot meal and a warm bed draws the party to cross the bridge over the Ogre’s Tusk River to enter the village and pay patronage at the Green Troll Inn.

Tinstock was originally settled as a mining camp, but when the local tin mine was exhausted the villagers were forced to engage in a new trade - logging. And so Tinstock became a village of lumberjacks. Fully three quarters of its economy revolves around the timber trade. The Ogre’s Tusk River is used to transport logs to nearby towns.

The village leader, a halfling male named Travis Leadfoot, or Speaker Leadfoot to give him his official title, approached the party. Travis seemed more than a little pleased to see visitors dressed and armed as adventurers visiting his village. The village has been plagued by problems in recent times – crops destroyed, lumberjacks ambushed in the woods and eight days ago feral creatures dressed in rags came into the village under the cover of darkness and attacked several villagers. Four of the village men folk were dragged away. The villagers are obviously frightened – would our heroes agree to help?

After asking around in the village some of the party suspected lycanthropes to be at work Ang’elda, Sardis and Korvo visited Caleb Hammerson, the village blacksmith to ask him about his silvering service. Sardis proved he had the gift of the gab by negotiating a price – Caleb asked for 750gp and Sardis managed to barter for quite some time before finally agreeing to pay Caleb’s full asking price.

Korvo found religion at the village church – a temple dedicated to Tymora. The attendant cleric, Luckbringer Novak, bestowed a blessing upon Korvo to wish him luck on his forthcoming mission to uncover the menace that has the village gripped in fear.

II

It didn’t take long to pick up a trail in the local woods that lead the party directly to the entrance of the old abandoned tin mine. Korvo snuck stealthily ahead but only managed to fall over his own feet due to the party’s insistence on not allowing him any light by which to work. The rest of the party soon followed – with lanterns.

Not far inside the entrance, one of the four kidnapped lumberjacks was lying on the ground – his throat torn out. Sardis approached but immediately became victim of some dastardly fire trap. The rest of the party wisely circumvented the area around the body and left Sardis to extricate himself from further harm by teleporting away.

Away to the left a passage lead down a steep slope to a cavern filled with a pool of stagnant water topped with green scum. Piles of refuse (mostly old mining carts and equipment) stood above the water line and atop of these were laid carcasses and offal crawling with flies and maggots. Suspended above the pool in an iron jib was Tommas, one of the missing lumberjacks.

Rescuing Tommas proved a tad more difficult than might have at first been reckoned. The scum water and refuse made manoeuvring both difficult and unpleasant. Two heroes actually fell into the water. Worst still, the cavern was inhabited – three carrion crawlers sprung their attack from beneath the refuse and water.

III

The party pressed onwards and chose a path that lead through the mine to a large open cavern. The cavern was divided into two halves by an open fissure in the ground over which a narrow wooden board had been placed to use for crossing. In the far corner, a wooden cage held a human captive behind its bars.

The cavern was now home to its newest residents – a clan of wererats. The fighting was furious, trained darkmantles used as guardians took the leading party members by surprise engulfing Sardis in their opening attack.

The clan leader soon made his presence felt, launching fiery arrows from his longbow. Ang’elda leapt across the crevasse to engage him in melee. The archer shifted to his lycanthropic form and the avenger was most surprised and not a little concerned to find himself in hand to hand combat with a ferocious weretiger.

SESSION ELEVEN

THE JOURNEY EAST

I

The last of the lycanthropes were finally defeated but not without considerable effort and three of the four kidnapped lumberjacks were rescued and returned home to the village of Tinstock. One of whom required to be carefully extricated from a gruesome looking collar locked around his throat. The collar had poison-tipped spikes on the inside and a spring mechanism on the lock that looked like it was capable of snapping the collar closed around the neck with considerable force if incorrectly tampered with. After much deliberation on how the party should approach the delicate operation of removing the collar Hixiou simply stepped forward and unlocked the collar using the key.

A night at the Green Troll in a comfy bed was much appreciated by everybody after so many days on the road, although Hixiou was forced to stay up all night nursing Sardis who had not escaped the lycanthrope battle unscathed. The genasi was suffering from the early onset of the diseases filth fever and moon rage.

II

The journey from Netheril to the Dalelands went largely unhindered. A little over thirty days since departing Everlund the party arrived in the port of Scardale Town. The culture of Scardale was very different than that of the north. Buildings were of a different style, dialects were unfamiliar though still of the common and Chondathan tongues. Clothes were worn looser with long shirts and flowing robes and many of the people had dark skin tones. Much of the town exuded Sembian influences. Sembia had not so much supplanted Scardale’s culture through political intrusion but by the mass immigration of Sembian merchant classes over the last century or so.

Whilst partaking of a cold beverage in a local tavern, Endril was approached by a young messenger boy. The boy put out his hand expectantly for a shiny coin in order to deliver his message. After delivering the message the boy skipped away with his shiny coin only to realise afterwards that he had been conned by the cheapskate wizard.

Acting on the message, the party found their way to the main marketplace and entered the soothsayer’s tent. Celedon was a black-skinned man wearing his clothes and hair in the Sembian style. There was no furniture within the tent but instead the décor was of soft drapes and comfortable cushions. Celedon gestured for his visitors to sit.

So, why had Celedon sent for Endril? Why was Celedon expecting Endril to arrive in Scardale?

Endril had been in Celedon’s visions ever since the soothsayer had received an unexpected visit five weeks previously by a Lorekeeper of Oghma named Favin Kesp. Celedon knew that he had to relate the tale of Kesp’s visit to Endril. They were on the same path. But whereas Endril treads his path in the company of able adventurers, Kesp continues alone and in a feeble and corrupted state of mind. Celedon has seen in his divinations that Kesp’s future is bleak. He has seen Kesp languishing in a dark prison – a broken man. But this future does not have to be, if Endril and his companions will intervene to rescue the otherwise doomed Lorekeeper.

III

Kesp related some of his tale to Celedon. He had spent many years in study of an old book from which he learned an ancient history of a demon named Mara.Kesp had been set upon a mission to recover an artefact mentioned in the book – a glass orb known as the Eye of Mara. The location of the orb was recorded in the book and Kesp recovered it from an old ruin in the Great Glacier of Vaasa - the land of the brutal and twisted Warlock Knights.

The Eye contains a part of the life force of Mara himself, trapped within the glass. Kesp attuned himself to the orb and allowed it to guide him across the lands of Faerûn, drawing him ever closer to the slumbering place of its demonic master – an ancient prison known as the Dark Hollow. Kesp believes himself to be a champion on a quest to destroy the evil that slumbers beneath the earth.

It was the orb that brought Kesp to seek out Celedon, the old fortune teller. Kesp was becoming worried by the increase in power that the crystal orb was exuding. Every day Kesp moved toward finding the Dark Hollow and every day, as he drew closer, the orb’s power grew – Kesp could feel it. He yearned for assurance that it was not becoming a danger to him and that in fact he would be able to wield its power for good. He showed the crystal orb to Celedon. As the mystic held the orb and opened his mind to it, he immediately recoiled in terror at the images that flashed into his mind: Images of war, destruction and rage. He urged Kesp to destroy it but Kesp needed the orb to guide him on his path. He attached great hope and importance to it and had no intention of it being harmed. Kesp dismissed the trepidations that had brought him to seeking the mystic’s advice and he left Scardale the next day to sail across the Sea of Fallen Stars.

As the meeting with Celdon drew to its close, the old mystic had one more piece of information to impart. From his divinations - a cryptic message:

“In the land of mist, seek out the one- eyed man of the Wolf Claw – for he possesses a lost treasure of great importance. A treasure that may lead you to ultimate victory”.

IV

The next day, the party secured passage across the Sea of Fallen Stars aboard a ship named the Helios. After seven days at sea they would reach their port destination – Telflamm. The rich Theskian port from which they would follow the famous Golden Way trade road through Thesk to the city of Tammar and the village of Balham where they will follow the instructions of the Everlund clergy and seek out the farmer Tobias Silverman. A man who may hold information vital to the continuance of their quest.