The Clerics Three – Session 5 (5e)

When we last left our heroes, they had continued their search for Ulfar in the caves of the Hollow Hill. They also made the acquaintance of a trio of less than competent and reluctant bandits…Nefton and his sons, Kolbjorn and Pedr. The Clerics Three showed mercy and rescued Kolbjorn and Pedr from death’s door after having sent them halfway through. The interior of Hollow Hill was somewhat cavernous and the heroes had a few harrowing and smothering encounters. A blue light, softly glowing from deeper under the hill, soon became their guide and goal. As they set off to find its source, Delg and Pallas saw tentacles begin to wrap around the head of a soon to be surprised Otilia. That is where we pick up after the break.

There are potential spoilers for “The Glow from Hollow Hill” from Black Abbey Press. This write-up is from yours truly but my my GM comments are still in [brackets and italics] as usual. Unfortunately, this session was almost two weeks ago as such this might be a shorter and less fleshed out. RJ was missing this session and so Muse played both Delg and Otilia.

As Otilia climbed up the wall to the tunnel above, three slender tentacles wrapped her head and yanked her up and into the tunnel. As Delg scrambled up after them, the creature dragged Otilia up another wall to an alcove above. Pallas, meanwhile, was attacked by another of these creatures…a small rubbery humanoid. Pallas’ counterattack struck the creature in the head and it retreated into the darkness of the cavern. Delg and Pallas were able to both revive and rescue Otilia from the creature. The alcove above looked to be a lair or “dining room” given the various small animal bones scattered about.

Scrambling back down to the tunnel, the trio pressed deeper in, following the blue glow. It led to a large cavern filled with mushrooms, bat guano, lots of insects, and a fairly high ceiling perhaps some forty feet up. Glowing blue spores were floating throughout the cavern. Various passages provide additional exits from the cavern. A body was on the far side of the cavern. The group circled around the edge of the cavern to reach the body without walking through mushrooms, thinnest near the edges, and passing by a passage that smells like rotting meat. The body was that of a human and was dessicated. Lamprey-like bite marks on the body looked like they could have been from the rubbery humanoids earlier. The body had an old breastplate that was somewhat ill-fitting. [Later the group would learn that this was Anders, the wood cutter who had gone up to the hill to search for Ulfar.]

Continuing on, Delg dislodged a stone near one of the openings. Two massive bats fly out from the passage, disturbing dozens of normal sized bats. Remaining calm, the trio also remained still and all of the bats slowly settled back to their roosts.

The glowing blue spores were concentrated near one end of the cavern and the group headed to the small opening at that end. The smaller cavern beyond had some sort of lichen covering the far half of it, an opening in the roof of cavern had some natural light shining down on a young boy lying in the middle of the lichen. Thick vines were wrapped around the boy and more slender vines looked to have pierced into his body. Despite this, he looked to be breathing shallowly, but he did not respond when Pallas called out Ulfar’s name.

Standing back a short distance, an unlit torch was tossed onto the lichen. As it struck, glowing orange spores shot out from the lichen almost reaching the party. Depleted and exhausted, the trio felt that they had no choice but take time to recuperate themselves before trying anything else to aid the boy. Before leaving, Pallas did attempt to heal the boy [Channel Divinity: Preserve Life], but there was no change in the boy’s status.

Heading back to where they had left Nefton, Delg and Otilia crossed the fragile chamber first. As soon as Pallas was alone, the remaining tentacle-fingered creature quickly charged out of the darkness and attacked. Pallas, fortunately, felled it with little effort. Returning to the “bandit” lair, the trio spent the night with Nefton and sons. Nefton shared some of the little pickled fish wine that he had remaining with Delg and the pair quickly got drunk. Soon Delg was singing Dwarven songs and Nefton became overly emotional and began crying. [Pickled fish wine is strong stuff.]

The next morning, the trio decide to find a way into the cavern from above, having previously noted a couple of openings to the outside from within. After a couple of false starts, they make it to the top of the hill and Otilia finds a cave mouth that leads directly into the “mushroom” chamber. With the use of some rope, they are able to get down.

The lichen has spread more and Ulfar is looking even more pale and drained. Sensing that the boy had little time left, Delg casts burning hands at the lichen. The flames cause spores to burst forth but also burns away the lichen. He casts it again, trying to clear a path to Ulfar, but he is struck in the face by some of the glowing orange spores. He passes out with a smile on his face. Otilia takes over and casts sacred flame on a patch. It has a similar, if smaller, effect as Delg’s spells. Slowly pruning it back, all of the lichen is destroyed except for that immediately around the boy.

Pallas starts to cut away the vines wrapped around the boy, but he too succumbs to the exploding spores, joining Delg in blissful sleep.

Unable to rouse either of her companions from their slumber, Otilia was left in a difficult situation. If she tried to cut away the vines around Ulfar, she might succumb to the spores and then they’d all be left to the mercy of the Hollow Hill. If she “burned” away the lichen right around Ulfar, he’d be damaged as well. She elected for the latter in the hope that she’d be able to immediately heal the child and thus prevent his death. Her spell destroyed the lichen and as she went to heal Ulfar, she realized it was too late. He had been too drained to survive.

[I thought this was the best option too and was thinking, oh yeah, she should be able to heal him. Then I realized, he had been drained to a Constitution score of 1 by the lichen. This meant that his maximum hit points was one. The spell did something like five points of damage which was enough to “instant kill” the child. Sad…but sometimes that just how things fall.]

Using a potion found under the Wizard’s Tower Brewing and labeled Potion of Vitality, Otilia was able to rouse Pallas. The pair of them were able to get both Delg and Ulfar’s body out of the cavern and down the hill. As they were climbing down the hill, Delg regained consciousness. Their first stop was Ulfar’s home. As they explained to Celine that the plant had killed him and there was really nothing they could have done to save him, she simply told them to hand over her son’s body and then shut the door.

With that cold response, the trio headed off to the Fisherman’s Flagon where they informed Peder of the fate of Ulfar and Ander as well, noting that the glow may also be gone from the hill.

Since they had also found a soft spot in their hearts regarding the plight of Nefton and his sons [who had remained in their “lair” at the hill], they asked if he was truly banished from the village. Sadly, Peder confirmed that he was…he did have sex with a pig after all. So the trio thought about how they might relocate Nefton and sons and also about the fate of Charisma, Winsome’s cousin, who was rumored to have gone into the hill and to whom the footprints belonged–or so they believe–that were spotted in the third tomb, leading deeper into the hill. No other sign of her or her passage had been spotted.

[And that is pretty much where we ended the night. If not the happiest, it was still some closure as to what had happened to Ulfar and Anders.