The Smack Pack (A DND Campaign)

Session 2.9: Wave Echo Cave

(Arctus has left the party)

As the night continued, Zeke was pulled into another dream and awoke, with the image of green eyes still burned into his mind, to find that Arctus was gone. Waking up Solana the two searched, finding no signs of where their friend had gone, they stumbled upon a letter tucked into the empty bedroll he had left behind.

The letter ad been left behind by someone named M., and with a plea for them not to kill them also asked that they travel to a hidden Valley in the Spine of the World near a town called Mirabar and aid the people there if they could. Waking up the rest of the group, they discussed the strange message left behind and made plans to travel to see what trouble could be found. Settling on leaving it for later, they took the final trek into Wave Echo Cave.

Finding that he and Zalvala lacked the ability to see within the old Mine, Zeke used his druidic abilities to grant them temporary vision within the dark tunnels. As they moved forward, the tunnel grew smaller, and they were forced to move single file with Kerikan leading the way. When the tunnel widened back out, they stood at the entrance to a large cavern and at the site of a long-abandoned campsite. Amongst the supplies left behind, they found the body of Tharden Rockseeker, one of Gundren's brothers but found no sign of the second.

Believing Nundro to be further in, they continued forward and down over the edge of a large pit, before turning down a path to the right which led into a maze of winding paths. As they walked, Zeke picked up a loud booming that seemed to be louder the further they moved in certain directions. Using it to lead the way, they followed the noise to another large cavern where they encountered a group of the undead and a floating skull set alight by green flames.

As the battle ensued, Solana discovered that her bolts of lightning could bounce off the hard stone walls of the cavern, and though it did little against the floating skull, the skeletons that it did hit were incinerated on impact. With the last of the skeleton defeated, the group moved forward down the next tunnel where Kerikan and Solana started to feel this strange magical energy that radiated off one of the buildings. Taking a closer look, Solana discovered that within the room was a brazier of green flames, Gundren confirmed to be the legendary Forge of Spells that was thought to be lost in battle that destroyed in the mine.

Guarding the Forge, however, was a large green monster with four eyestalks on the sides of its body and one large eye at its center. Zeke recognized the description of this creature to be that of a Spectator, a lesser aberration that was much like a Beholder. Deciding to leave the creature alone, the group continued into the next room where they discovered the source of the booming, all that remains of this path is a small cliff along the edge of the room that drops off over 20ft down into the tide of constantly surging water that rises and falls every couple minutes.

Kerikan and Zalvala scouted ahead while Zeke looked down another path that led back into one of the previous rooms via a low dry tunnel that was too small to fit through. Making their way carefully across Kerikan and Zalvala, discovered that this path ended as well, this time into a large chasm where three bugbears were working away under the surveillance of an unseen figure on the other side. Returning to the rest of the group with their info, Zeke suggested that they find another path and they returned to the room where they had fought the flame skull and looked down another path to find a second cliff that sat directly above two of the bugbears.

Seeing the opportunity, Kerikan sped down the cliff toward one bugbear with Gundren while Zeke targeted the one across the cham with the help of Solana. During this fight, Zalvala accidentally shot Kerikan in the back while Gundren climbed up to take out the bugbear above them. Witnessing the unknown figure flee down the tunnel Gundren gave chase down the tunnel where the group soon joined him, scaling back up the side of the cliff with Kerikan's aid.

Rejoining with Gundren, they discovered the captured Nundro, and finally came face to face with the Black Spider.