Little Raven, "Street Witch" - Arand
Doug (Blaster), Barbarian - Johnny
Bree Swiftfoot (Master), Halfling Ranger / Rogue - Prince
Alaric Liamfeld, Half-Elf Ranger / Cleric - John
Neverwinter is often raided by buccaneers from Luskan. Our group is often contracted by the city to aid in its defense and/or scout.
Recently there's been a surprising quiet from the north. Few scouts have returned, and those that have report that Luskan has closed its walls, and there is a growing orc presence in the area. The orcs are well equipped and hardier than normal. The Neverwinter garrison has been unable to reach their normal contacts inside either.
They offered us 1000g to investigate why a garrison north of Luskan couldn't be contacted by any means. We argued them up to 1000g up front and 1000g if we successfully returned.
They gave us all the horses and provisions we'd need for the journey. It was about a week, and there were no surprises on the road.
However, once we reached Luskan, we could see there was an orc encampment on the road. It wasn't a siege per se, but they were definitely prepping for one and controlling entrances and exits from the city. These were the well-equipped orcs we'd been warned about; they looked like they were from many tribes, and seemed to be waiting for more reinforcements. They seemed to have some spell casters among their numbe as well. They were largely quiet as it was day time.
We gave the area a wide berth, and camped about 10 miles away. We found a low bluff that would give us a little bit of overwatch on them, and sheltered our camp from their patrols.
However, during the night, a group of five orcs seemed to track us up the road. We surprised them, and killed all but one.
We noticed their axes had some kind of necromantic enchantment. He admitted they called it shade steel. The prisoner wouldn't tell us where they got them. They were led by their great king, Grognor. They noticed the signs of our horses and followed it to us. While they weren't supposed to engage, we forced the issue.
Not everyone had the shade steel weapons, but the leader had a longbow and arrows with shade steel arrowheads. Carrying the steel would be a bad idea for us, certainly. They would corrupt the wielder over time. If exposed to sunlight, they would lose their enchantment over a few days.
We gave the prisoner the death he was asking for, cleaned up the bodies and dispelled the weapons. In addtion, we found a total of 180 g. We split it evenly.
The rest of the night passed without incident. We would have another day and a half or so to reach the garrison.
Mid-day the following day, we noticed an orc ambush on the road; about 4 of them. We dispatched them with little resistance. Their equipment wasn't worth much, but we captured 100g from each of them.
Just when we thought it was safe to continue, we were dazed by a Hypnotic Pattern. There was a second phase to this ambush. Two demonic orcs and a bard ambushed us. It was a hard fight, we won, but the bard got away.
We safely rested. The next day as we continued we were ambushed by an orc ranger and his pack of dire wolves. We killed him successfully, took his armor and weapons, and his 560g.
We reached the keep in the end. It was surrounded by about 100 orcs, and 4 giants. We would need to formulate a strategy to get in.
11th Level
Surveying the camp from a distance, it looked pretty normal as far as siege camps went. We noticed some of the orcs active in the camp appeared to be performing very repetitive tasks. It was obvious over time that at least some of them were illusions. There were also 4 hill giants, one of which was wearing better armor.
We captured one orc who'd gone into the forest. He confirmed our suspicions, and told us that the mage in the nicest tent renewed the wards every evening.
We waited, and watched. As evening came on, one of the hill giants went into the forest to dump trash. We surprised it and killed it quickly. While we formulated our next steps, we saw most of the orcish army load into carts and head into the hills. The largest hill giant escorted the mage out to the walls, protecting the mage with a truly massive shield. The mage was beginning to renew the wards around the city.
We attacked. We were able to kill the two hill giants before they could get into an effective position. The fight against the mage's elite guards was difficult, but we managed to kill them, the elite hill giant, and the mage went well.
We found 16k gold in the mage's quarters, and split it evenly. Two diamonds, each worth 500g; useful for Raise Dead. Three rubies, worth 500g each. There were some additional items as well; the mage had magical robes, several staves used in his work mostly, and a Staff of Withering that Raven took, a Ring of Resistance that Bree took, MORE HERE
There was a group of prisoners at one end of the camp. We freed them; it included a Luskan captain that gave us a small signet and told us to present it in Luskan if we ever needed help.
The garrison was relieved to see us. They told us that duergar were mining in from behind, they'd been fighting on two fronts. They immediately began packing; they were going to march to Luskan and abandon the garrison for now. They told us the information they'd been keeping - there was a tunnel in the direction the orcs had gone. The mine was where the shadesteel came from. The garrison's caster told us Neverwinter was relieved to hear from us - and offered us 5,000g each to cut off the supply.
We took a long rest at the garrison as they completed their preparations to leave. We traded the robes for a modification to Doug's boots - an additional +10 speed. We traded the mage's spellbook to get Boots of Orcish Aggression for Alaric.
The garrison was well on its way as dawn approached. We moved into the hills, and watched the orcs reform on the road. There were about 30 orcs with their now heavily laden wagons and two additional columns of 10 orcs each. We decided to avoid them for now.
At the top of the trail was a wall around a butte, protecting the entrance to a mine. There were some dead animals inside the circle, but we couldn't find any traps or anything. However, two gargoyles entered as soon as we walked into the ring. They were resistant to many of our attacks, but we overcame them.
The doors to the mine were closed, metal, and barred (as far as we could tell). There were viewports at dwarven and giant height. The top viewport was large enough that Raven could probably get through it. She used Mage Hand to inch it open; it was just dim enough for her to use her cloak to fly up to it.
Once inside, she could see the bar. We threw a rope to her through the viewport and hoisted it gently off. Raven heard some voices from the shaft farther down - she cloaked the door in Darkness while we opened the door, all slipped in, then closed the door and viewport. Finally, we hoisted the bar back in place.
The oncoming group were, it turned out, invisible Duergar. With a combination of spells and combat arms, we dispatched them handily.
After taking a short rest, we continued deeper in. We ran into some sort of poisonous lizard, its mate, and three children. That one hurt, but we were still successful.
Searching the nest, there was a Potion of Invisibility (to Alaric), a Potion of Flying (to Bree), a Scroll of Healing (written in Elven, taken by Alaric), quiver of 10 single-use Arrows +3 (to Bree) and 200g (split evenly).
After another short rest, we continued exploring. We found a shaft leading down, with mechanical workings for an elevator. There was no way to call the elevator however. Raven used her cloak to fly down and assess the situation. The shaft went about 200 feet down, to a chamber around 30 feet high. There were beasts of burden down below tasked with the workings. Raven cast Featherfall on all of us and we floated down stealthily.
We found a group of miners down one of the shafts. They were easily dispatched, except for the last, which we interrogated. Terrified by Raven's companions, he told us everything he knew. The ore they were mining was iron, nothing special. They combined it with a metal provided by a Drow merchant. The final ingredient was necromancy - the forgemaster had a ghoul that could consume the soul of a surface-dweller and imbue the raw shadesteel with its magic.
We killed the miner, and continued our descent. It didn't take long to run into some additional soldiers. The soldiers charged, and weren't too difficult, but there was some sort of Drow Bard with them that had Greater Invisibility. He was tricky, but finally we got him pinned long enough to get him stunned, also long enough to kill him.
The Drow had 4000g in assorted gems, 200g, a Dark Crown of Inspiration (taken by Raven), a +2 shortsword that also did poison damage (taken by Bree), Ring of Protection, (taken by Doug) and a Ring of Fire Resistance (also taken by Doug).
We knew we needed to be rested before we went deeper. We pulled back, slaughtered the beasts that ran the elevator, and used Fly to return to the upper chamber. We were able to take an undisturbed long rest.
12th Level
Raven used her cloak to descend as a raven, and see what had changed during our rest. The beasts had been removed, and we assumed, butchered. The mine was quiet. If there wasn't an ambush waiting for us, the miners had retreated to avoid us. As she descended further, the air grew hazy and he only heard hammering at, she assumed, a forge.
Entering a large room, 40' on each side, Raven saw a line of cages along one wall. They held people - some garrison guards, some orcs, and assorted other surface dwellers. Across the room was a stack of steel billets, a large obviously undead creature, and a human. It was obviously transferring the life of a prisoner into the steel; the billets slowly turned black as Raven watched. It did seem to notice her presence.
She flew back up, brought us back down by Featherfall, and we began our descent. We reached the chamber without encountering anything else. Bree's first arrow told us it was vampiric in some way. It healed some amount of damage each time we hit it, while damaging us. We used a variety of techniques to deflect some of the damage, and eventually prevailed.
With its death, the necrotic feel of the room eased. The hammering also stopped. A prisoner whispered, "Careful now, the master is coming."
We repositioned, put Spike Growth in the tunnel, and arranged ourselves behind Alaric's Guardian of Faith. We heard hard, pounding steps as the forge master charged down the hall at us; the smoke was too thick to see him. It was a giant of a duergar, literally. Clad in a magical shield and adamantine armor, the fight was tough. We prevailed in the end, to the cheers of the prisoners.
We unbuckled and packed up his Adamantine full plate. The shield and hammer were shadesteel, unfortunately. There was
5000g assorted gems, 1000g, a humanoid sized suit of Adamantine full plate, a suit of Dwarven plate (sized for a Dwarf), +2 two-handed axe, a Staff of Healing, Slippers of Spider Climbing, a set of gauntlets of Ogre power, a potion of Fire Giant strength, and a potion of gaseous form.
We dispelled the forge, fed the prisoners from the stores in the master's quarters, and then ferried everyone up. It took some time but we were able to make it work. The return to the garrison was uneventful, though they were very to see us. The orcs we'd freed parted ways during the walk back.
The garrison was happy to see so many of their people returned. They gave us horses and a wagon to carry the looted armor back to Neverwinter.
Along the journey back, we were ambushed by an Orc Bard that we'd thought defeated on the road up. He targeted our horses first, using Fireball, was tricky, and his friends were tough, but thanks to a timely Grapple and Hold Person, we were able to defeat them.
3 diamonds, worth 500g each, suitable for use with Raise Dead. There was another 2000g in miscellaneous coinage throughout the camp, and a great deal of loot from other travelers. There was a Quiver of Ehlonna which Alaric took, and a Cloak of Elvenkind.
13th Level
We continued our march, slightly slower since we were now towing our carts directly. This seemed to attract the attention of a gargantuan green dragon as we prepared to camp one night, who tried to sneak up on us. We gave as good as we got, until the dragon fell screaming into the night. We'd clearly best it, but it fled screaming into the night, faster than we could follow.
We moved our camp and rested. Near dawn, we noted an Orcish patrol passing relatively close to our camp. We ambushed and killed them, except for their leader. We got as much news about the situation at Luskan as we could.
The leader couldn't tell us much, but he did pass along some of their propaganda. It seemed the Orc army was trying to poison the water sources of Luskan, Mirabar, and Neverwinter.
Raven was able to locate some horses nearby. It looked like they'd run from an ambush after losing their riders. Alaric was able to get them in hand fairly easily. The carts turned easier after that.
We continued our journey towards Luskan, with our prisoner. Eventually we ran into roughly 6 squads of orcs. Each group had one chieftain and 4 orcs, all wielding greataxes. They never got to us - between Fireballs and other spells, and Doug's aggression, they didn't stand a chance.
The patrol had raided something fairly lucrative recently. We picked up 400g from them.
Mirabar was fairly close. We went there to see if we could stop the poisoning, and get to Neverwinter fast enough to end the poisoning there too.
Our cart load of Adamantine armor turned a lot of heads when we entered Mirabar. An ad hoc consortium of dwarf merchants worked with us to barter and (and pay) for some excellent upgrades. Alaric upgraded his *Breastplate
Mithral Half Plate +2, Sentinel Shield +1 Staff of Frost, Portable Hole (Lil Raven) Belt of Fire Giant Strength, a book helping with the raising of dirt dragons, and an enchantment that added +1d6 of thunder damage to his maul A ring of Dexterity, adding +4 to Dex and working above 20. (Bree)
It cost half of our gold in addition to our salvage and anything we were trading in.
When we were done and rested, the Mirabar guard told us the Neverwinter garrison had been in contact. The city was in dire straits with the poisoned water, and wanted us to get back as soon as possible. Mirabar had a teleportation circle that went to the Neverwinter garrison.
We were greeted by the captain of the city guard. He took us directly to the church. There was a small brand of priests, purifying enough water to keep the garrison going. The whole water table was contaminated, and people were starting to go mad. It was some kind of necromancy.
The people were starting to get restless, as many of them were quite ill. The guard gave us horses and supplies, and escorted us to the gate. The people were even more restless than we feared. A crowd of about forty surrounded us as we approached the gate. Most of them dispersed with a Fireball in the air overhead, but a few seemed completely out of their wits. We did our best to get out of the way of the guards, but when they were forced to kill one of the agitators, there was a serious problem. After a few moments, the dead citizen rose back up as a ghast. We rode back through the gates to give aid - the guards would be quickly overwhelmed otherwise.
The fighting was fierce, but we made short work of them.
14th Level
We went upstream, following the river from a safe distance. The necromantic effects of the water extended on shore a little ways. This was uneventful for the first two days; then we were ambushed by a group of eight hill giant skeletons and two ghasts. We dispatched them quickly, mostly using area-of-effect spells. The ghasts appeared to be in control. There was no loot on the bodies.
We restarted our long rest, and then interrogated one of the ghasts with Speak with Dead.
Who or what raised you into undeath? The plague demon.
What is the name of the plague demon? The plague demon.
Where is the plague demon located? Further up the river.
Does the plague demon usually stay in one location or does it change locations frequently? One location.
How heavily is the plague demon guarded? The head laughs.
The terrain roughened as we continued upstream. Eventually we crested a ridge, looking down into a small river valley. The necromantic miasma was visible from the ridge at this point, thickly carpeting the floor of the valley until it dispersed into the river, downstream.
Doug tried checking the center of the fog with Clairvoyance, but there was no visibility at the center. We couldn't go much deeper than the very edges of the miasma; it was highly toxic to living creatures.
We explored the surrounding area. Alaric found footprints from the ghasts and skeletons, that led up into a nearby clearing that was outside the mist, near the the stone sides of the valley. There were disturbed graves, with headstones and spacing appropriate for hill giants. It looked like we'd killed about half of the skeletons that had been in these graves. There were traces of a large ritual along with orcish bootprints.
And, set in stone, was a deeply set iron door. It had dwarvish runes on it, three unlit sconces around it, and tracks leading in and out. The orcs that performed the ritual appeared to have come through this door, because their footprints did not continue outside the clearing.
Raven used an Unseen Servant to move one of the sconces. Three demons, the size of yetis, manifested and attacked. The Unseen Servant was immediately destroyed, and the demons disappeared as soon as the immediate threat was neutralized.
They hit very hard; Doug nearly died on our next attempt. We discovered that the sconces were providing a large regneration.
Killed, globe of darkness, had to dispel each torch
After a long rest, Alaric dispelled the door to open its remaining lock. Inside we could see something that looked like a permanent dimension door, some red tapestries, and a tunnel generally leading down towards the area underneath the river.
We went through the door. Doug read a plaque marking this as the resting place of the great knight. Undead came out of the tapestries around the room, attempted to stun, and attacked.
We recognized one of the figures as a knight who was historically significant because of his fall from grace and corruption. It immediately attacked Doug, who was stunned. We felled it and its companions; a tapestry on the wall burned as each one of them died again. The knight's necrotic sword was obviously incredibly evil. Raven used Mage Hand to usher it into her Portable Hole for safekeeping, along with the other arms and armor.
Another portal became active as the final knight died. Beyond we could see a thick mist, and something moving within it.
We took a rest in a Leomund's Tiny Hut, prepared our spells, and went in. The plague demon looked like a cross between a locust and a praying mantis, and it was very large. Necrotic miasma came from its wings as it moved around.
We attacked. There was a lot of ongoing damage from its wing buffets and the necrotic fog. It was a strong opponent but we succeeded. And when it died, it detonated, damaging everyone in the area.
The fog began to dissipate on its own as soon as the plague demon died. Alaric called on Corellon to intervene and consecrate the area - and he responded. A wave of light coursed down the river, cleansing its waters all the way back to the city. In addition, we were all healed.
We could see there was another portal, which led into a small extradimensional space. It was about the side of a studio apartment. We could see a fair orc, who was particularly beautiful (for an orc). She clearly had an unseen servant bringing her a snack.
We entered the room. Doug, as a half-orc, was taken to be our commander. We convinced her to come with us. She told us her name was Vola, and her father was a king in her world, which was different from ours. Her father was working with the army on our side to colonize this world, and enslave the populace. Raven noticed a hairbrush with some coarser hairs, next to a bust of a male orc. The woman helpfully told us that the king had been here three weeks ago, and she had made sure he was well groomed for an appearance after he left. Raven quietly took that in case the hair was helpful.
Her unseen servant brought out a great deal of luggage. However, when we tried to take her out, she was unable to leave. Powerful magic kept her from leaving, and it didn't seem to be within our abilities to change that.
When Alaric stepped outside the room again, he immediately received a Sending from one of the wizards in Luskan. Corellon's gift had coursed all the way down the river within a few minutes, healing all those who drank it. They'd only seen a flash of light in the distance. Alaric provided a succinct but accurate description of the party's location. The wizard Teleported in so that they could survey the situation more fully.
The wizard was unable to do anything to free Vola either, but enjoyed a conversation. It seemed likely that the leader of the orc army was trying to start a new royal line with her. We decided to stay in the area and see who might come to visit her.
Within a few hours, we noticed a shadow as the green dragon we'd recently fought passed overhead. She didn't come close, but landed nearby. She also seemed content to wait for now. The wizard told us that magic in the area seemed to be dampening. He recommended immediate departure; an army was likely on its way, and he had no idea what was able to dampen magic in the area. We agreed, and he took us with him back to the city. The wizard was visibly shaken as we appeared. Though the Teleport had succeeded, something tried to interfere or divert us.
The city was otherwise in a celebratory mood. The river had never been so clean, and all who survived the water shortage were healthy once again.
In payment, the city's wizards helped us with a few items. Raven picked up several scrolls, and they wrapped her Cloak of the Bat in permanent shadows so it could always be used to fly. Doug got some help with his dirt dragon egg. They could get it hatched and bound with him within a few days. Alaric's Sun Blade, Corellon's Vengeance, was further enhanced so that it could be thrown and would return on its own.
We were staying the mage quarter for now. After we'd been in town a few days, they told us they'd deflected several scrying attempts on us. They gave us each an Amulet of Proof against Detection and Location, which we gladly accepted. They offered to get us to Luskan, which would get us into the area where we could find the captain.
The teleport took us to the docks. We presented the captain's signet to the keeper of the largest inn - he was something similar to a dock master. He examined it carefully before agreeing to take us to Captain Gerard.
Captain Gerard recognized us right away. We explained our situation, and he was happy to send for the pirate captain we sought; he called him Captain Tony. He had plenty of room at his residence, and was happy to provide room and board.
Within a few days, Captain Tony returned and took us aboard his caravel, the Sea Snake. We took ship for 1000g, split evenly among us. Once we were out to sea, we heard some whispers among the crew. They though their might be a reward out for the Gray Company (as we styled ourselves).
As the night grew darker, wyverns attacked the ship. Six of them, and riders, attacked the ship. We fought and killed them; five sailors died in the process.
We rested, policed the bodies and saved poison from the wyvern singers. It wasn't much longer before we were beset by sahuagin.
The sahuagin were probably related to the wyverns - a coordinated attack. Hopefully the rest of the journey would be less eventful. They also brought a giant octopus, which we also slew.
It took some time to clear the deck and get the crew back under control. We promised each of the remaining 17 sailors 25 gold each, with 75 gold at the end of the voyage if we made it safely. It quelled the crew without the need for further fighting, and we were able to take a long rest.
16th Level
The captain struck the sails as we approached the island. The winds were magically altered, always blowing unpredictably, and always away from the island. The fog lifted as we closed under oar power. The island was a large, bustlying free port.
The captain wasted no time getting us off his ship once we docked. He also set out recruiting crew. He warned us that Teleport would work from point to point on the island, but not across the coastal winds. If we needed to teleport out, we'd have to get outside the fog.
We located a reputable inn; it was expensive but the service was good. After taking some time to clean up and eat, we left for the bard's guild, where the Oracle should be. We were greeted by a man named Tyler, who was a bit creepy but seemed to be in charge. He told us the Oracle would be available after sunset.
We returned to the inn and passed the time idly. Once we the sun set, we returned to the bard's guild.
Well, we tried to. We were ambushed on the way by several elves that seemed to be high level arcane tricksters. It was very close, in fact Alaric was knocked unconscious. Doug's Bead of Force got us enough separation that we survived and they broke off their attack.
They split up in all directions. Doug used scrying to track them to a guild hall dedicated to the craft of the arcane tricksters. The scrying couldn't penetrate the building's wards. Using Alaric's flying carpet, we went to the arcane trickster's guild to confirm its location, but didn't attempt any kind of assault. We took the carpet to the bard's guild. This guild hall had a landing spot on top, which we used. The sentries on the roof were only slightly surprised to see us.
Tyler came up shortly and led us inside. He was more surprised to see us than the sentries had been. He told us we there was a price on our head. This wasn't a surprise to us, but we hadn't expected the crewmember's tales to carry so quickly.
Tyler took us to the Oracle. She heard us out and attempted to divine the orc king's location. She was slowed greatly by powerful magics around the orc fortress. She told us it would take several days to ensure she was actually looking at the right place. Tyler extended the guild's hospitality to us in the interim.
We enjoyed the company. They talked to us freely. It came out that they'd heard of us through contacts, and the grace of the captain in Luskan. We also found out that the foursome of arcane tricksters we'd encountered were a particular team. It was definitely that guild coming after us. We'd be safe here though.
The next night, we heard that there was a commotion at the guild hall of the arcane tricksters. Some sort of vampiric presence. One of their members stumbled into the bard hall. He was pale, wounded, and shocked to see us. He told us that the tricksters guild tried to tell the orcs that they had us anyway. When the orcs came to collect, they tried to double-cross the orcs. Instead they were attacked by a vampiric demi-god.
The room went dark; the vampire was there. It attacked Alaric first. Once he could cast Daylight on his shield, we could all see the monstrosity. It could fly, it had nasty saves, and it made us move all over the inn.
The vampire was difficult, and we destroyed most of the bard's hall in the process of killing it. However we were successful. At its death, we all gained the ability to use Legendary Resistance once per day, resetting with each long rest. It also empowered Alaric's sword, granting it an additional bonus to hit and an additional damage die.
17th Level
We rested. The bards would no longer charge us room and board; they were very happy to have us around. After some time, the oracle told us she'd be ready for us in an hour or so, and we should be ready to go. We finished some final preparations and arrived at the scheduled time.
The oracle told us that the trick was that the king seemed to be in two places at once. Part of him was in a forest within a forest, with an ancient protector (possibly the green dragon), and she couldn't see it. The other part she could see, in the mountains, with his army. She teleported us to them.
We appeared in a smallish room with the king, a large guardian, and some sort of witch doctor. We quickly overwhelmed the witch doctor, killed the guardian, and finally the king. When the king died, his body disappeared very quickly, along with his Unholy Avenger. We suspected he'd become a lich.
We found a Ring of Protection, two potions of supreme healing, a Belt of Fire Giant Strength, a +3 battleaxe, a +2 Shield of Missile Attraction, and another Ring of Protection. Doug took the potions, Alaric took the Belt of Fire Giant Strength, Bree & Raven each took a Ring of Protection.
The oracle teleported us back to the island, and then out to Neverwinter. We'd need to take on the green dragon, destroy the lich, and then its phylactery.
The wizards in Neverwinter told us they could teleport us to the High Forest, east of Mirabar. We could meet a druid there, Balthazar, who could guide us in. Balthazar reported that something was corrupting the area, which we now new was the corrupted lich. The druid was about an hour from the dragon's lair.
We consumed a Heroes' Feast and took the Teleport.
Balthazar was ready for us. He told us he'd been fighting the orc army as long as we'd been, and had identitied the entrance to the dragon's lair. The centaurs were on our side, fighting the corruption. The dragon was now the keeper of the king's soul. The dragon was linked to the king, but was not itself a lich. The king was forming an immortal, undead body at the site of his phylactery.
Balthazar imbued us with tree striding, and we moved swiftly through the forest. Within a few hops, we reached a deeply thickened wall of brambles. The thicket itself was maybe a hundred yards across, but inside it was its own pocket realm. Balthazar led us into a narrow passage through the wall. This was not the front door.
Every time it turned, there was a universal feeling that we were going the wrong direction. The key seemed to be to take the way that seemed to be the worst decision. Eventually, we made our way through to a swampy, sickly, green forest. Everything had thorns, even trees that shouldn't have thorns. Bugs immediately started landing and biting. Not a specific swarm, just a lot of nasty, little biters.
Balthazar told us there was a massive thicket of trees that made a wide stump hundreds of feet across. He had to leave us here; if he stepped too far into the realm, the dragon would know where we were. He further warned us that, if we were to fly above the canopy, we shouldn't stay up there long.
We entered the forest. Raven made herself Invisible and flew above the treeline briefly so she could point us towards the center.
She ranged ahead of us, scouting. There was a party of about 15 trolls that seemed to know roughly where we were, and were closing on us. We dispatched them, fairly quickly.
We continued on. The we ran into a band of shambling mounds, but decided to bypass them instead of fighting. There were some quicklings as well, which ran away once we showed we were serious.
We heard a rumbling, growing closer. It was something like a Kraken, but it's environment was the land. It hit hard and often, but we dispatched it.
As its corpse slumped down, we saw a line of centaurs behind it. They'd been tracking the animal. They greeted us as friends. We saw they were covered with tattoos - wards against the corruption.
They offered us a safe place to rest, and a path to the queen's lair.
They brought us to a shelter that was the result of endless years of carefully nurtured growth. Beautifully interwined trees and vines brought us a sense of peace and protection. As we prepared to rest, they empowered us with an ancient ritual.
20th Level. Yes, we skipped one.
We prepared another Heroes' Feast, and listened to one more inspirational speech. Raven told us she was on loan to the world of the living long enough to right a cosmic wrong, and the Raven Queen was likely to take her back after this. She regaled us all with her retelling of our adventure.
The centaurs told us that the spreading undeath was spreading to the trees. The decay of the forest was one of the reasons we were able to get in. There might be some smaller dragons, which were likely her children. They weren't undead but they were somewhat affected by the aura of undeath.
We entered the lair, and were beset by three young adult dragons. They were somewhat undead; part of their breath weapons was necrotic damage. We were able to handle those three without expending many resources.
As soon as they died, the large green dragon teleported in, invisible. She became visible when she breathed on us. She attacked us with wing buffets, swallowed Raven (who used Dimension Door to escapte), but we prevailed.
As the dragon weakened, a dark mist began to coalesce on the other side of the lair. It was the lich. The lair fought us as much as he did. Doug nearly died four times, but with Corellon's help, we made it thorugh without succumbing to the lich or his hex of undeath.
We destroyed the phylactery as the lair collapsed around us; we were able to escape with enough treasure to make us all quite wealthy. Raven bid us adieu, and faded, returning to the Raven Queen's realm.