Episode 7 Part 2 "The Manor in the Fallen Grove"

Session #13: 9/7/2019

11 Torul 2350 of the 5th Age

Recap

 * The session began with the party standing in Nedan's garden with Lotra Dov, the loxodonian leader of the Order of the Earthen Fist.
 * Nedan missed his 9am meeting with the Good Samaritans and Lotra confided in the party that she was concerned for Nedan whose behavior has become stranger and stranger over the past several months.
 * Lotra entreated the Good Samaritans to find out what ails Nedan. She sent Captain Korra Orai along with the party to provide local knowledge and report back to her.
 * Liosynth used her locate spell to attempt to locate Nedan's staff and briefly caught it heading northwest away from the city just before it blinked out of range.
 * The party decided to head to the house where Kandra had seen Nedan disappear the previous day and give it a more thorough investigation.
 * Along the way, Kandra decided to stop off at a runners dispatch to hire someone to head back to Thrinn and retrieve Hermes enchanted collar for her. The runner is scheduled to return with the collar at 6pm the next day (12 Torul).
 * The party turned a corner onto the street with Nedans strange house only to see someone exiting it in a hurry. A small, shift looking man pulled his hood over his face and began walking the other way.
 * Vendrin called out to the man and stopped him, before interrogating him.
 * The small man said that a frightening man in a gray hood had hired him to pick up crates of food and barrels of water and bring them through a magic portal hidden in the house. He told them that he had never opened the barrels and that he had only ever met the man twice, and that once he was crying. He also told them the keyword for the portal: Undervine.
 * The party allowed the man to scurry off after Korra threatened to arrest him if she caught him skulking around there again, and together they went into the house and through the portal.
 * The party arrived on the other side of the portal and found themselves suddenly in a huge underground cavern with light gently filtering in through a crag in the ceiling. And in the center of this cavern, illuminated by the shafts of light, stood a dilapidated old mansion.
 * The party briefly discussed how best to go about their mission. Both Korra and Liosynth insisted that if Nedan is within the house, they capture him alive. Though Thokk and Zevah seemed ready to kill him if need be.
 * The party sent Thokk ahead with his Boots of Spider Climb to check out the house. He snuck up the side of the building to peer in through a large stained glass window on the second floor and saw a gray hooded figure dissecting a corpse and happily singing to himself.
 * Thokk quickly crept back down, and peered in through a first-floor window as well, seeing a huge shambling mound of vines and earth thumping around the building.
 * Thokk went back to the group and filled them in on what he saw. While he was doing this, the party was confronted by a small orb of glowing light. Thokk and Hermes were intrigued, and while Kandra pulled Hermes back, Thokk tried to grab it. The orb electrocuted him.
 * The party then began hearing whispers in their minds trying to turn them against their teammates. They quickly hurried away from the orbs and into the house.
 * Once in the house, the party found it filled with bizarre and frightening noises and creatures and slowly fought their way through the first floor encountering Plant Zombies, Shambling Mounds, Mimics, Cloakers, and giant vines.
 * Thokk also saw that in the chasm beneath the house, there was some great shape roiling in the darkness.
 * The party moved up to the second floor and found it partially demolished. Many of the walls had been knocked own.
 * Kandra crept across the open space to the door that the party believed to lead to the laboratory Thokk had seen. She investigated the lock and found it trapped.
 * Meanwhile, Vendrin happened to look up and see that hanging above the party were hundreds of three-foot-long metal spikes dangling on strings. Thokk decided to walk up the wall and cut some of them down to create a safe path across the room, but when he cut one, they all fell.
 * Kandra narrowly avoided being impaled by the spikes as they thunked into the floor, but did survive.
 * The party decided to abandon stealth, and Vendrin sent a flaming sphere careening across the room and through the door.
 * The laboratory door exploded open in a crash of fire and lightning and the party stormed into the room to find a confused and frightened Nedan begging to know what was happening and why he was there.
 * Thokk convinced Nedan to let him tie his hands so that they could safely return to the city, but as Thokk reached out with the rope, Nedans entire demeanor changed.
 * Nedan produced to daggers from the folds of his sleeves and attempted to stab them into Thokks chest, but Thokk was able to back away and grab his wrists.
 * What followed was a BRUTAL fight. Nedan, or as he called himself "The Gray", proved himself to be a powerful necromancer and set Plant Zombies and Ghouls on the party as cast horrific spells to slay all of them. Both Hermes and Tennebris were nearly killed when he cast a Circle of Death in the room.
 * Zevah, in a fit of rage over her animal companions injuries, nearly killed Nedan, but ultimately spared him at the behest of her comrades.
 * Finally, Captain Korra was able to grab Nedan long enough for Thokk to knock him unconscious with the flat of his axe. Thokk hurriedly tied his hands together and gagged him so he would be unable to cast.
 * The party then had a moment to breath, before having to contend with the fact that Vendrins sphere had lit the manor on fire.