Episode 15: Exploration and surprises

So, we're back to normal sessions, this will be a much more normal read rather than that epic novel from last session. As a reminder, this crew is still learning to work together and consists of:

Unit 2408, the Warforged (humanoid living construct) Barbarian

Luthis, the Kenku (humanoid raven who can not fly) Blood Hunter

Dancing Wind, a Tabaxi (humanoid cat) Wizard

Elniss, a Human Cleric of Ilmater

Evangeline, the Tiefling Paladin of Tyr

When we had last left this party we had snuck into a cave and found nothing occupying it. We did find a magical box with an anchor in it, but have stowed it for further investigation.

The crew formed back up with Luthis in the lead, sneakily scouting for us, followed by Unit 2408, then Dancing Wind, then Elniss, then Evangeline. Elniss decides to throw a light cantrip on his shield, apparently not all of us can see in the dark. Going down this rather plain hall for a bit we come to a dead end. The only thing on the wall is an empty torch sconce. Luthis fiddled with the sconce for a moment, and managed to trigger a very short (about 3' tall) secret door.

We all hang in the plain hall for a few while Luthis sneaks in through the secret door to see what's up. Luthis, even though he has no language of his own, can repeat back to us everything he hears. Quite handy that skill when we realize that the room on the other side of the secret door is occupied.

This room is a decent sized plain room with a large pit in the middle. There's a passel of goblins about chattering, and in walks orcs carrying dead bodies. The bodies are unceremoniously dumped into the pit while the goblins chitter about. Then walks in a fire giant and a tortle. The tortle then proceeds to exhort this crew to get back to their tasks for they attack The Yawning Portal tonight.

Well that's not good. After that bunch left, Luthis popped back through the little door and told us everything, so Evangeline immediately sent off a missive to Rubis the mage to warn him of the attack. It seems Halaster really has it in his mind to destroy the town of Waterdeep, and that Inn is a key link between the two areas, it would be bad if it is destroyed.

After that we all decide to go through the secret door to the pit room, for we saw no other way to get to the stairs to the second floor. And we really don't want this tortle and his minions to gain control over the Inn. As we're exploring the pit room we find dead bodies at the bottom of the pit - 4 of them - and a large mural that's a cross section of this mess we've gotten ourselves into. So Luthis makes a replica of it so we have the information going forward.

While Luthis is doing that, Unit 2408 notices movement at the bottom of the pit. And then a voice calls out "Hey, can someone give me hand". Being concerned that perhaps one of these folks were just injured and not dead, Evangeline went over to ascertain what was going on while Unit 2408 talked with the person in the pit. Turns out his name is Halleth and could we give him a hand up out of the pit?

While debating the wisdom in that Evangeline used a divine sense, make sure he's not evil and all that. And that's when her head snaps up and she practically growls "He's undead!" So Unit 2408 and Elniss get Halleth up to our level while Evangeline kept a very close eye on him.

After some back and forth we got the story. Turns out Halleth is a Revenant. He was a cleric of a good deity - that he can not name - and he must complete a task to break this curse. And the party he was with to try to do this was now laying dead at the bottom of the pit.

He's not showing as evil, and his intent seems genuine, so Evangeline asks if his deity would have a problem with hers. He laughed and said no, they're old friends. Nor would his deity have a problem with Elniss' deity. So we decide to partner up with Halleth, to see if we can take out this tortle and his minions, which will help us, the town of Waterdeep, and Halleth earn his forever rest.

What could go wrong?