Category DND Blog: EFK Saga

After some brief restocking and the addition of an islander illusionist named Ti’karu, the group returns to Shadowdale. The lands are producing well and revenues are up. Still there is much rebuilding to be done, many social institutions to reinforce – so the party doubles down and reinvests in the area. They tour the countryside, dropping in to the village where they lit the first fires of rebellion (and donated large sums of gold – always good for building up local goodwill – and obtains some sketchy information about the recent arrival of the black dragon to the skies of the north.

With much of the party in bird form, the eyes in the skies allow them to avoid many of the more mundane and ultimately unrewarding encounters that could be had in the area...

Leaving the safety of the lava caves, the group sets out on a last-ditch effort to right the wrongs that need righting and not righting the wrongs that don’t need to be righted. Right? Onwards!
With the help of the jackal map they find the cleft in the rock face that houses the caves of the sentinel. ‘Is that all there is to it?’
asks Dalliance. ‘I don’t see what the big deal is’.

The group wanders through a maze of lethal traps and misses every single one. Providence? Divine guidance? Dumb luck? Take ‘yer pick, but alive is alive.
They arrive at a Wall of Disintegration and use the power of the ring to pass through it unscathed. The ring power also suppresses the hundreds of potentially lethal traps that dot the chamber...

Pausing only to scoop up a few parts of the fallen for use in later resurrection efforts, Barada, Bud Feaster (miraculously healed due to a goddess blessing he picked up a few adventures back), Oryndel and Dalliance depart the lich’s tower at top speed. Dalliance polymorphs into a small dragon and sets about chasing the fleeing Demming and Ron’j!. She herds them together and lands a last ditch dispel magic that breaks their terror stricken state. They immediately reverse course and make the journey back to the vegetation near the tower.
Night has fallen and a sliver of the moon illuminates the barren landscape as the party slowly and a silently as possible starts to climb the slope...

Dalliance wrangles additional assistance in the form of Aftoun Phaxer (10th level High Priest of the church of Lathander) and Kaz’n Ifect (his Ranger Lord bodyguard), Oryndel (a fighter/rogue from the hinterlands), Demming the Druid from the edge of the badlands and she also enlists an old acquaintance – Ron’j! – a 12th level master monk.
Additional defenses in the from of scrolls and a ring of spell storing are also purchased. The group is swiftly reassembled on Sentinel Island – and then teleports to the far side of the Lich’s island paradise. Another set of hurricanes lash the area and the weather does indeed rage between blizzards, howling winds and calm sunlight...

The morning brings frost and a cold snap, but the afternoon is warm and sunny, so the group carpets to the southernmost island. Upon arriving they make camp near a beach and send out scouts while Dalliance prepares to leave with the booty garnered from the tomb of Hestrin the golem-loving merchant. The scouts return from the first flyover and report the ruins of a large structure and a tower are the only buildings. the island is densely vegetated and there is a pride of lions on the plains. Dalliance teleports back to Waterdeep and the scouts go out for another round of looking. That leaves Humbar, Lubbitch and Reza back at camp.
The scouts return and report that the building ruins must be the destroyed temple of hades and it looks as though the place exploded from the inside, collapsing t...