Chapter 8

Phantom Limbs

Wrenn Lingenhall's performance in the pirates' bloodsport earned them Taln Wolfheart's respect and a chance to join his elite fighters on a secret mission to take out The Dealer. Erastus Wyndhoek and Taln agreed to a joint assault using two ships, but the other ship captain, a brute named Yugin, was suspicious and carrying weapons marking him as one of the Black Saints. The party tailed him, overhearing that he was planning to go through the portal to The Beastlands to kill Trisfina soon, so they beat his team there and broke into The Vile Hunt's fort. Unfortunately, they hadn't been stealthy and Thunivel, Taln's right hand and master assassin had laid a trap in the fort that nearly killed the party, though they were able to fight their way out, defeating the Vile Hunters and Thunivel's elite death squad in the process. The party tried to chase down a fleeing Worms, who they worried would ruin their reputations with Taln. However, they pursued him through the catacombs of the Sapling of Yggdrasil, which were haunted by innumerable ghostly grasping arms and they found themselves tumbling through a portal to The Shadowfell and trapped without a way back. There Aired lost an arm to a cackling nightmare creature and they were able to save the life of a powerful but totally terrified pirate captain named Redley. They journeyed through the decaying gloom to reach the Black Saints' headquarters, the lost Netherese city of Phylornel, where they could recuperate and Cock could reap the rewards of his deadly work with his patron, Pi'za taking his true form here. On the way back to the portal they were attacked by necrotic monsters made of the same blue-green fungus they had found in The Beastlands and Rip was killed, then revived. Meanwhile, Erastus had avoided the Shadowfell portal and he found himself held at knifepoint by a mysterious human who warned him about the traitors he traveled with. This assassin had also killed Void and the Mindwitness, though Erastus was able to revive them. The party tracked down this attacker and found none other than their old companion Feannag MacDamhan, who was now an undead revenant under the control of a spurned Gabriella Starsyx. No magic they possessed could resurrect their friend, but they glimpsed a moment of the true Feannag who revealed his final triumph over Alduin Silversmite before vengeful phantom passed on.

Session 45

Ship's Log 4 (Arnesport Morning)

After the fight where Wrenn Lingenhall cemented their beastial powers Taln Wolfheart invited the party to join him in his abode at the top of the Sapling of Yggdrasil along with some of his best fighters to plan a special mission
They travelled up the trunk and into his lavishly decorated penthouse full of hedonistic and half-dressed attendants
They met Taln, a bugbear pirate named Khonk, and a goliath named Yugin and discussed how to board and take down The Dealer's flagship
Taln was being a bit cagey around the plan and Erastus Wyndhoek didn't trust him, but they agreed to a deal where the party would take Sea Bastion and Taln would send a second strike force on another ship while Cap'n Flameskull's assault distracted the fleet, would leave in 20 hours
Cock used his penetrating vision to see through a blanket hiding a massive weapon in the mold of his own cursed gun, but much larger, which Yugin was hiding
Yugin said he had somewhere important to be in an hour and left, the party declined Taln's invitation to stay and enjoy themselves and instead tailed Yugin
They saw Yugin, who was not a very smart or discreet person, wave at Thunivel, then stop to chat with some others who, like him, carried Black Saint guns and didn't seem to have the animal features of everyone else in the tree
While Yugin was distracted watchin more of the bloodsport, the party demanded to enter the off-limits backstage area by claiming Taln had sent them
Inside they passed through the portal to The Beastlands where they were hailed from The Vile Hunt's fort as if they were here to help
Instead they said they were here to hunt the girl and walked straight to the jungle treeline where they met up with Trisfina and Romper,
After catching up they made a plan to bring back Trisfina as if she were dead then take out the fort from the inside, so they bloodied her up and put her on a stretcher while Romper stood by
They walked back to the fort claiming to have easily hunted the elf, they were let in, then told to help place the body on the wall as a grotesque warning to others
Aired Helelar was injured so he went to the fort's infirmary where he ran into the hunter they had allowed to escape, who recognized him immediately
Outside Wrenn and Erastus were convincing the hunter that they had found and killed Trisfina when they were told that someone else had arrived at the fort just before they returned
Wrenn felt a gun to their back and heard Thunivel's mirthless laugh as he asked what they were doing here

Session 46

Ship's Log 4 (Beastlands)

In The Vile Hunt's fort in The Beastlands Wrenn Lingenhall tried to escape Thunivel but he shot them grievously in the back before dropping his gun from their Heat Metal spell
He escaped over the wall and the party lost track of him
Aired Helelar, trapped in the infirmary with the injured hunter, tried to heal himself after going invisible
Erastus Wyndhoek began moving from hunter to hunter as he expertly defeated them and cleared out the fort
Nira managed to confuse the Gray Render before it could escape its unlocked cage and slammed the door shut, taking it out of the battle
Yugin arrived along with the rest of Thunivel's elite Black Saints death squad and immediately blasted a huge hole in the fort wall, sending the party flying and nearly dropping everyone
Erastus sought cover from Yugin's carnage but got caught by a sneak attack from Thunivel, who knocked him unconscious and teleported with the body over to the portal back to Arnesport
Rip used Suggestion to trick Yugin into turning his fire on his comrades while Aired used the opening to heal Wrenn, who began bringing everyone else back up into the fight
Trisfina called in Romper to maul the distracted Yugin
Thunivel's sniper had been flying above the fort taking out party members but Cock blocked his vision with a clever use of Skywrite
As the sniper dropped lower to get a better look, he came into range of Nira's Vortex Warp, which pulled him right into the cage with the raging Gray Render, mauling him immediately
A moment later she did the same to Thunivel, but he escaped the cage just to be killed finally by Cock
Romper cleaned up the remaining members of the elite death squad, leaving several powerful Black Saint weapons on the field, which Cock absorbed to awaken Pi'za's form

Session 47

Ship's Log 4 (Beastlands - Arnesport Morning - Shadowfell Eternal Night)

As Cock absorbed the weapons of Thunivel's squad Pi'za was awakened, speaking through him to announce that he had reached a new "Eschelon of Sainthood" with this victory, he was flooded with great feelings of satisfaction as he looked at the slain assassins
Cock was invited to return to the Black Saints headquarters to claim rewards and renown
Wrenn Lingenhall took one of the pistols of The Vile Hunt and studied the designs of the drones used against them in the battle
The party looted a Cape of the Mountebank, spellbook, gold, potions, armor, and the beating heart of a giant eagle, but Thunivel's body was nowhere to be found
Aired Helelar found a vial of greenish-blue splotchy moss that he kept but couldn't identify
Erastus Wyndhoek found a collection of 57 coins made of pure darkness that seemed to be made of pure shadow, which Cock immediately demanded since he felt a hatred towards anyone who kept the tokens away from him
Trisfina asked if the party had any plans for the Grey Render, but after they failed to befriend it by dragging out the body of its former master, she put it out of its misery
Though Trisfina said there were still hunting parties of Vile Hunters in The Beastlands, but was satisfied for now with the destruction of their base of operations
The party left the Beastlands through the portal to the Sapling of Yggdrasil in Arnesport
Spoke to the pirate in charge of the portal, told him Thunivel and his crew were dead and sold him the Giant Eagle heart, then he mentioned that Worms had followed them into the portal a few minutes ago
The party thought Worms was using multiple portals to get in and out of the Beastlands so they rushed down into the catacombs toward where they had seen him sneaking about before
After waiting for an hour in the creepy catacombs Rip's Mordenkainen's Faithful Hound alerted them to an invisible presence, which was revealed when Wrenn cast Faerie Fire
Floating above them was a floating magical eye that looked around at the group as they fled down the corridor lined with the grasping spectral limbs of the dead
Wrenn cleared the way with Turn Undead and the party rushed headlong into an inky black portal, plunging them into the gloom of The Shadowfell
Inside the gloom was complete, but those with magical sight could see shadows of winged creatures circling overhead an endless maze of sharp rocky outcroppings that were full of shambling undead and swirling pools of shadow
Pi'za appeared in specter form ahead of the party, welcoming them to his home and stretching as he moved under his own control for the first time in a long time
Erastus, the only human and non-magic user couldn't see through the gloom and was immediately terrified of the plane of shadow and death where he found himself, so he fled back into the portal at the base of the petrified tree

Session 48

Ship's Log 4 (Shadowfell Eternal Night)

The party had just entered the eternal gloom of the shadowfell and were discussing how to get back through the hallway of undead grasping limbs when Wrenn Lingenhall disappeared into the orb, leaving them stranded without a cleric
Pi'za appeared as a spectral human in mage robes floating before them, telling Cock that the fortress of the Black Saints was nearby where they could resupply
Nira heard a faint voice in the gloom calling for help that cut through the moans of the shambling undead, so Rip created Light that barely flickered enough to ward off the zombies and light the path as they set off
Occasionally someone would hear a creepy laugh and the sound of a voice counting coming from uncomfortably close but beyond the area the light illuminated
They approached a river of pure darkness that seemed to draw the life out of those nearby, but Rip's Tenser's Floating Disk spell helped them to cross to an island halfway across
In the middle of the small island was a stone statue of a gaunt figure with outsized limbs and immense claws, no face was carved into the smooth head but spiderweb cracks crisscrossed the form
After they determined that it wasn't moving or responding to stimuli they set about the second half of the crossing, a rickety broken rope bridge with rotted planks and only one rope left
They could see the wood was rotted away wherever it was dangling into the liquid shadow, but Aired Helelar used his agility to lithely cross the line with a rope of his own to help steady the crossing for the rest of the party
As he helped the rest across he was standing just at the edge of Rip's flickering Light spell, and out of the darkness a shriek and a flash of the sharpest steel suddenly erupted, taking Aired completely off-guard and with perfect critical precision lopped off his left arm at the shoulder
With a cackling laugh the attacker retreated into the gloom before anyone could get a good look
As the blood came gushing out of the mortal wound it never hit the ground, instead it flowed through the air, drawn to the statue and filling up the spiderweb cracks with glowing blood as it came to life behind the party
Nira thought quickly and immediately Polymorphed the statue into a sheep, leaving it behind them as they fled across the river to stand and fight the one who had ambushed Aired
The party formed a defensive circle around Aired as they tried to staunch the bleeding, and the cackling creature retreated into the night, but they continued to hear its counting in the back of their minds
A moment later they heard a shaking voice and a Loxodon Pirate stumbled into their light begging to be saved from the nightmares in the dark
He said his name was Redley and that he was one of Taln Wolfheart's captains, but had gotten lost while training with his crew in the catacombs and ended up here where he had become the target of a creature known as The Limbcutter
Redley said he owed them a life-debt as long as they could help him get out of this place, so they set off with Aired cradling his severed limb
After walking for another hour they party arrived at a yawning shadowed canyon out of which rose a floating fortress bearing architecture that was completely unlike anything anyone had seen before, impossible structures and magically carved living stone
Torches burned around the fortress that seemed to ingest the darkness of The Shadowfell rather than providing any light or heat of their own, and a thin bridge was the only way to enter
Pi'za welcomed them to the city of Phylornel and showed them around a bustling market of shades like him, pointing out shops that sold magical items like common commodities and offered necromancy services, all prices in Shadow Talents the dark coins Cock had taken from Thunivel's body

Session 49

Ship's Log 4-5 (Shadowfell Eternal Night)

The party went shopping in the magical fashion store in Phylornel, Cock upgraded his hat to a Hat of Disguise, Nira bought a Cloak of Protection
After bartering the price down they realized Nira's cloak said "Glory to the Netherese Empire" in Netherese, Cock also realized that he could speak Netherese as a side effect of his bond with Pi'za
Then went to Pi'za's home in Phylornel, a magical mansion spell that was amidst rows of similar doors
Long Rest
Wrenn Lingenhall and Aired Helelar stayed up all night working at the forge to create a prosthetic arm for Aired using a Power Core and Lightning Core
Their hard work resulted in a functional prosthetic that could cast Lightning Lure, but their efforts weren't enough to add all the desired abilities
On the way out of the city Cock got the teleportation circle sigil for Phylornel so they could return, then they left the city of dark mages with Redley to travel back through The Shadowfell toward the portal
They took a different path through the darkness to avoid The Limbcutter, but ran into a field of mossy spores just like the ones in The Beastlands
Since disturbing the spores was toxic and shadow beasts attacked anything airborne, they decided to hover their way through the narrow crags and canyons full of moss without touching the ground using various spells
It was eerily silent in this area, none of the corpses were shambling around, rather they were enveloped in the fungus and decayed
Wrenn spotted some magical items on a corpse but didn't dare disturb it
One lone zombie was wandering the canyons, but when they failed to distract it, the body rose up to its full height as a mound of fungal corpses erupted from the ground, revealing a [Necrohulk](Ship's Log 4 (Shadowfell Eternal Night)) that immediately attacked
The party was hemmed in by the oppressive canyon walls an the Necrohulk kicked up noxious spores that quickly brought down many of the party members, but Redley displayed incredible strength and combat prowess as he battered their enemy with his anchor
In the chaos Rip went down and was dragged under the pile of corpses where he suffocated to death in a horrific demise
After the party had driven off the last of the undead scourge they dug out Rip's body and Wrenn was able to Revivify him
They escaped the spore field, but Aired could tell they were being watched, he kept spotting two glowing yellow eyes from the shadows
Wrenn noticed the being was leaving intricate patterns of tiny bones and recognized it as some sort of shy creature that probably would only reveal itself one-on-one
Meanwhile, Erastus Wyndhoek had escaped the Shadowfell but was left alone in the catacombs of the Sapling of Yggdrasil
He began to head back up but was caught unaware and found himself grabbed from behind with a dagger to his throat
He persuaded his attacker to let him go and saw a young human man dressed in all black leveling a crossbow at him
The man had lots of questions about Erastus's companions and warned him that they were dangerous backstabbers and thieves who would betray him the first chance they got
Erastus bolted when he got hit with a burst of fog in the tunnels and got nicked by a poisoned dagger, which he resisted before the assassin disappeared
He then headed back up to the hot springs to lay low until the rest of the party returned

Session 50

Ship's Log 5 (Arnesport Late Morning)

After a Long Rest the party was still missing, so Erastus Wyndhoek went back to Sea Bastion, where it was quiet, too quiet given the rag-tag group they traveled with
He cautiously explored the ship and found Void and the Mindwitness eviscerated and bleeding out on the floor on the brink of death
He managed to revive both of them using his Paladin powers and some incredible luck, but neither remembered much about the incident or what happened
Void mentioned someone snuck up behind him despite his keen senses, and that he succumbed to a poisoned dagger quickly, the Mindwitness said that one of his previous masters had returned and ordered it to self-destruct
The Garlicle didn't see nuttin' and ay whadahya think he's some typa snitch? Fuggetaboudit.
Erastus noticed bloody bootprints leading away but stayed with the ship to guard the ailing crew
Meanwhile the rest of the party escaped The Shadowfell but Nira almost died in the grasping undead limb hallway, she was saved by Redley who threw her to safety
When Nira regained consciousness she noticed a neat little pile of freshly shorn wool on the floor of the tunnel, which she recognized immediately as one of her flock's, she also saw a strand of yarn leading away from the pile down a different tunnel deeper into the catacombs
Still suffering grievous wounds from their undead encounters, the party convinced Nira to rest first and they went to the baths to rest up
Short Rest (benefits of Long Rest)
Afterward the finally returned to the ship to meet up with Erastus and when they compared stories Wrenn Lingenhall figured out that the human assassin tracking them with access to Nira's wool might be a former ally
Together they headed back down the Sapling of Yggdrasil to investigate the mystery in the catacombs, but on their way they saw Worms scampering upwards on the opposite staircase
Nira Vortex Warped him over and they tackled him, pulling him into an alcove to question him
He said he was going to The Beastlands for his own pleasure working on a personal project, but he didn't count himself as one of The Vile Hunt
He tried to lie and escape, but after some intimidation he was convince to keep their fight with Thunivel secret as long as they didn't tell Taln Wolfheart about his trips to the catacombs and the Beastlands
Cock pulled one of the blue-green mushrooms off of his face to bottle it but got poisoned in the process
They let him go and went down to the catacombs to follow the yard to an obvious trap where several Twig Blights attacked and they were ambushed by none other than Feannag MacDamhan, who didn't seem to be himself
A few blows were exchanged but Nira noticed he had some sort of magical metal collar on and she managed to dispel its magic
Immediately it fell away from his neck, revealing a gaping wound that sputtered blood as he choked and collapsed
Wrenn tried to heal him, but healing doesn't work on the undead, so he died in their arms
Cock beseeched Pi'za to grant him the necromancy powers to speak to the spirits of the dead, and they were able to get access to Feannag's spirit with Speak with Dead
His memory was fuzzy but he said that he had managed to kill Alduin Silversmite in Nira's burning house as his last desperate act of vengeance before he died, he recalled being dragged out of the fire as his life expired and hearing someone casting powerful magic near him as he lost consciousness
With his spirit departed they searched the body, finding Teleportation sigils for Arnesport and Neverwinter, a note from Gabriella Starsyx, and 500 gold