36: Death House Part 2

The Shambling Mounds

Though the Shambling Mounds were massive and intimidating, they were no match for adventurers of this calibre. Morthwyl met them head-on, a whirlwind of steel and precision. She dodged their heavy, slamming strikes with ease, weaving through their leafy appendages. Her blade sang as it severed thick vines and scattered foliage across the stone floor; within seconds, the towering plants were nothing more than a pile of harmless mulch.

To the south, the floor declined into shallow, murky water blocked by a heavy steel portcullis. From beyond the bars, the rhythmic chanting of the cultists grew louder and more feverish: "She is slain, she is risen!"

Looking through the gate, the group saw the grim reality of the ritual. In the centre of the room sat an octagonal dais rising from the water. Atop it stood a stone altar drenched in fresh blood, dripping from the lifeless body of a woman - likely the nursemaid, Brigetta - suspended from the ceiling by heavy chains. A ceramic stake was driven deep into her chest. Guarding the sacrifice was a towering, terrifying fiend wielding a wicked, crimson-stained spear.

A Relentless Impaler

Using the chime of Joe’s magical item, the portcullis hissed upward. Morthwyl charged instantly, her focus on the cultists, but the fiend - a Relentless Impaler - teleported directly to her to protect its summoners. It lashed out with its spiked fists and spear, but the distraction was exactly what the group needed.

While Morthwyl kept the fiend occupied, Bessok waded through the water and reached the altar. He grabbed the ceramic stake, pulling it free to reveal the Rod of Seven Parts fragment hidden within the woman’s chest cavity.

Seeing their ritual interrupted and the fiend under heavy fire, the cowardly cultists fled to the far end of the room. With no one left to protect it, the group converged on the Impaler. The battle reached its inevitable conclusion as the fiend collapsed, dead, onto the blood-slicked dais.

Bessok attempted to interrogate the remaining cultists, but they offered only fanaticism. "You will answer to our Master," one hissed. "He is Ancient, he is the Land!" they chanted in unison.

As the words left their lips, the very essence of Death House shifted. A violent gust of wind tore through the subterranean halls, and the temperature plummeted to a bone-chilling frost. Every candle and lamp was snuffed out, only to be instantly relit with eerie, dark-purple flames.

The wind howled with the sound of screeching bats and baying wolves, then suddenly - total silence. In that heavy quiet, the group heard a sound from far above: the house’s front door creaking open, then slowly swinging shut with a crisp, final click.

Turning back to exit the ritual chamber, the heroes found the path blocked - not by stone or steel, but by a void of absolute blackness. With no other choice, they stepped into the nothingness.

Strahd von Zarovich

In the blink of an eye, the damp basement was gone. They stood at one end of an impossibly long wooden dining table inside a grand stone keep. The table was set with gilded plates and goblets of blood-red wine. At the far end stood the master himself: Strahd von Zarovich. Tall, pale, and regal in his red garb, he offered a chilling toast:

“Welcome, my guests. May you find the eternal hospitality of Strahd von Zarovich to your liking. Should at any point you wish to leave, simply find me and ask.”

Bessok, choosing to show respect to their "host," raised a glass and drank. The wine was thick, tasting of cold metal. As he swallowed, his vision blurred into a deep crimson, and his form faded away before the eyes of his companions. When the others hesitated, Strahd’s patience evaporated. He dissolved into a massive swarm of bats, a whirlwind of screeching and biting that consumed their vision.

When the chaos cleared, the group found themselves back in the homes dining room. They were covered in crumbs, yet no food was in sight. A heavy sense of unease settled over them - how much time had passed? What had they done while under the Count's influence?

Determined to leave this cursed place, they headed for the front door, only to find the Mists still standing guard, thick and impenetrable. They were still trapped. Avoiding another black portal that seemed to lead back to the basement, they headed upstairs, guided by Joe and his Wand of Detect Secrets.

Joe’s wand led them straight to a room, a Library, where three Priests of Osybus - the very ones Sarusanda had warned them about - were waiting.

A Priest of Osybus

Joe didn't hesitate. He unleashed a barrage of scrolls, firing a volley of arrows then moving with supernatural speed, striking all three Priests before they could fully mount a defence. As the rest of the group joined the fray, they discovered the Priests' horrifying resilience. Each time a Priest was struck down, they rose again in a more twisted form. One Priest's body withered away entirely, leaving behind a blazing Flaming Skull that spat fire across the room.

The battle threatened to become a war of attrition until Morthwyl remembered Sarusanda’s crucial advice: Destroy the tattoos.

Shifting their tactics, the group stopped aiming for vitals and started carving away the soul-inked skin of the Priests. With a focal point for their fury, the combat ended swiftly. Without their stolen souls to fuel them, the Priests crumbled, their dark magic finally extinguished.

The secret door Joe had detected held very little, so the group continued their exploration into the room opposite, a Music Room. Behind them, the door turned black so, in an attempt to bypass the sinister black portals, Vinthanamel and Joe tried to escape through the windows. Whether leaping into the void or shuffling along the ledges, the result was the same: the Mists reached out like freezing tendrils, pulling them back into the house and dropping them unceremoniously onto beds in separate rooms.

Meanwhile, Bessok and Morthwyl took the risk of the black portal. They emerged in a warped version of the Music Room, where Strahd von Zarovich sat at a harpsichord, playing a haunting elegy for a gallery of contented spirits.

The hospitality was short-lived. When Bessok disrupted the atmosphere by opening a window, Strahd slammed his hands onto the keys in a fit of pique and vanished. The spirits, their peace broken, turned murderous. Bessok realized the key was the music itself; as he took over the harpsichord and finished the elegy, the spirits found their rest and faded away, taking the spectral version of the room with them.

Sarusanda

The group reunited near the attic, where they found Sarusanda emerging from a secret passage. Her confidence that the front door was the exit seemed misplaced given the Mists. Still, she seemed certain, and so they followed her out into the corridor where she stopped, raising a finger as if an unknown sense had triggered. Out of nearby doors and from upstairs, three Osybus Priests suddenly attacked. Checking the faces, Sarusanda became enraged, lashing out angrily. Hearing the nearby combat, Vinthanamel peeked out from his room on the other side of the corridor and latched a spell onto one of the Priests, causing him to fall to the floor in hysterical laughter.

After the dust settled, the source of Sarusanda’s uncharacteristic rage was revealed. Her own father had joined the Cult of Osybus, committing atrocities that she had failed to stop because of their blood bond. He was supposed to be here, and her failure to find him and bring him to justice weighed heavily on her soul.

The group decided not to leave empty-handed. They scoured the upper floors and descended a hidden staircase back into the basement to claim what treasures remained.

However, as they ascended the trapdoor back into the main hallway, they realized their "host" was tired of games. Standing in the corridor, flanked by two snarling Vampire Spawn, was Strahd von Zarovich. He wasn't playing the harpsichord or offering wine this time; he was blocking the only way out.

Strahd von Zarovich, tired of games and soliloquies, moved with predatory speed. He dismissively waved Sarusanda away, allowing her to leave, before he and his vampire spawn swarmed the group in the Hunter’s Den.

The Darklord was a blur of lethal motion, but the group’s tactical coordination held firm. Vinthanamel landed a decisive blow, trapping Strahd within a magical sphere. While the master of the house could only watch from behind his shimmering prison, the group efficiently dismantled his two vampire spawn.

Impressed by their resilience and lethal potential, Strahd conceded. He gave his word - which in Barovia is law - that they could leave. The group wasted no time, sprinting through the hallway and plunging into the Mists.

The transition was jarring. The breathable air of the house's foyer turned to choking, acrid smoke. As the Mists cleared, the heroes found themselves not in the sleepy town they remembered, but on the docks of Daggerford - and the world was on fire.

Daggerford in Flames

The town was a charnel house. Victims of fire, dark sorcery, and brutal blade-work lined the streets. Among the dead were Cultists of Vecna, many of whom had been sliced clean in half by a weapon of incredible power. The group recognized the handiwork immediately from their time in Eberron: Kas the Betrayer had been here.

The sound of combat led them toward the main keep, where Joe spotted the flash of black and red armour. In the marketplace, a massive fiend - wielding a whip of fire and a lightning-sheathed sword - stood amidst the ruins.

A Balor

Kas struck from the shadows, his speed so great he was nearly invisible to the creature. Sensing the group’s arrival, the fiend declared them its "prize" and teleported to attack. It was a fatal mistake, as the group brought their largest abilities to bear upon it. 

A disintegrate from Vinthanamel removed one shoulder and almost severed the arm, Morthwyl slashed her vorpal sword with precision, causing untold amounts of damage to the creature, while Joe unleashed multiple slaying arrows, the second of which was enough to finish it, the huge fiend falling backwards to the ground where it remained.

Kas the Betrayer

Kas the Betrayer emerged from the smoke, having missed the end of the fight. He informed the group that the Cult of Vecna had occupied Daggerford specifically to ambush them, though their divinations had failed to account for the group's detour into Ravenloft.

Kas revealed he had been moving ahead of them, "clearing the way" to keep the Cult off their backs. Joe, ever confident in his own ability to handle threats, was less than appreciative of the unsolicited help.

Before vanishing, Kas handed the group a page torn from a diary. This fragment promised to explain the machinations behind the Cult’s arrival and the larger war at hand. With a final, enigmatic look, Kas walked toward the town exit and vanished into thin air.

The Page from the Diary

With the fiend defeated and Kas gone, Bessok called upon his divine connection to the elements, shifting the atmosphere until a steady rain began to fall. The downpour slowly doused the fires consuming Daggerford, though the town remained a charred skeleton of its former self. After performing the grim but necessary duty of consecrating the dead, the heroes returned to the Sanctum.

The atmosphere in the Sanctum was thick with tension. Tasha paced the halls in a rare display of concern, while Alustriel lay motionless, her eyes darting as she performed the titanic mental labor of masking their presence from Vecna's divine divinations.

Mordenkainen

Mordenkainen took the group aside to reveal the true scale of the threat. Vinthanamel recounted the massacre at Daggerford, but Mordenkainen dismissed the loss of the town as a "casualty of war"—a necessary sacrifice to save the multiverse.

When asked about Kas, he explained that he had reached out to Kas before the Wish that brought the group to them had even begun. Kas had killed Vecna in the past, and so he seemed like the best person to stop him again. Having read the Book of Vile Darkness, Mordenkainen explained that Vecna had been preparing this ritual for a long time, even before he had become divinity. 

The ritual described using a primordial source to reshape the multiverse, the only known source being Miska the Wolf Spider, who was contained in a prison that the ritual would also help remove. Once the prison was down and Miska was within his grasp, Vecna would sacrifice Miska and use the primordial power to complete his ritual.

The Rod of Seven Parts defeated and imprisoned Miska long ago, and so Mordenkainen had set the group on the task of recovering it, to ensure the Wolf Spider's destruction before Vecna could capture it. This would stop Vecna's ritual in its tracks and would also likely be the perfect weapon to stop Vecna himself.

Mordenkainen also issued a chilling warning about Kas. While the Betrayer's goals currently align with theirs, his name is not a coincidence. The Wizards fully expect Kas to betray the party once his own ends are met.

Tasha

Just as the path seemed clear, Tasha arrived with a report that shifted the group's concern from "dangerous" to "suicidal."

One of the remaining fragments of the Rod has been located, but its position is catastrophic: it is currently within Avernus, the first layer of the Nine Hells. Worse still, it is nestled deep within the Lair of Tiamat, the Queen of Evil Dragons.

Tasha is attempting to use her considerable (and likely dark) contacts to have the piece moved or stolen, hoping to avoid a direct confrontation with a goddess. For now, the group can only wait and pray that they don't have to look the Dragon Queen in her five sets of eyes.

With that in mind, the ritual to find the location of the next rod piece began, with Vinthanamel taking the place of Alustriel, performing some of the easier spells and leaving the more powerful sections of the ritual to the two remaining wizards. 

As before, an image opened in their minds as the world the Rod piece was in became visible, then downwards to a continent, a dark mountainous region with a foreboding castle nearby, and downwards again to a huge tree that was obviously dying, its bark broken and torn, leaves long absent.

Mordenkainen explained that this was the world of Krynn, a place where magic was different, where the Gods themselves were exiled due to something called a Cataclysm. More information could be found in the Sanctum library about the area, but the wizard did explain that Bessok might have trouble there, due to his God being unable to channel power to him. 

Asking Vinthanamel to focus on the tree and the surrounding area, he explained that the world also didn't have teleportation circles, so they would have to teleport in blind and then to this tree to find the rod part. With some assistance from Joe, the pair tried to remember as much as they could about the area, and then it was time to continue along their path.

The group left the Sanctum through the gateway, returning to the Sword Coast for a few moments, long enough for Bessok to shift the group through dimensions to the land of Krynn. 

Marthammor Duin meets Bessok

Moments after casting, however, Bessok found himself pulled out of time and space to a location that looked like the clearing of a forest, huge trees towering upwards into a night sky filled with unrecognisable star constellations. In the middle of the clearing a campfire was burning, roasting a variety of meats, and in front of it sat a single Dwarf, radiating with the glow of the divine. Marthammor Duin had summoned Bessok directly to him.

Asking him to sit, the pair had a brief conversation, as the God told him what he already knew, that the land of Krynn was locked to the divine. Instead, he took Bessok's mace, pulled a single hair from his head, and began wrapping it around the haft of the weapon. The weapon itself glowed with power as the hair became one with it, and then the God offered it back to his follower. He informed Bessok that he could draw power from the weapon, but that it was limited, it was but a hair after all.

Before Bessok could ask another question, there was a rushing sound as time and space returned and the group, now whole again, appeared on the land of Krynn. This wasn't the best location to arrive in, they were surrounded by draconic, regimented troops, thousands upon thousands of them. There were not the Dragonborn of the Sword Coast, they were more akin to dragons than humanoids, with their bodies covered in scales, draconic wings on their backs, dark eyes and lizard-like tongues. Overhead, a huge temple flew upon the top of a section of ground, as if the whole thing had been torn out of the earth and into the air. Dragons of all colours flew above, as well as smaller dragons that seemed more like mounts for the leaders than the larger, fire-breathing kind.

A Draconian Army advances on an unknown Keep

Vinthanamel acted instantly, throwing some dust into the air that made the group invisible. The brief second caused a few curious looks from the nearby draconian troops, however, and as Vinthanamel began casting the teleport spell to get themselves quickly out of there, so a massive red dragon flew close to the ground and over the top of the group, the resulting wind almost knocking them over. But then the spell completed, and the group were instantly moved to another location, the huge tree up ahead of them, waiting to be discovered...