Vanrakdoom IV

…after taking out the vampire that tried to escape to the west, the party ventured east, after the other two escaping vampires. Seeing no sign of them down the southern hall, Shady checked and opened the eastern door, presumably the path that their adversaries had taken in their wall of force-blocked attempt to flank our heroes.

That chamber (19) was lightly obscured by fog. The eastern corner held a statue carved from black marble, in the likeness of a cloaked woman wielding twin daggers. Before her knelt a black-and-purple-robed figure, supplicant and silent. At the statue’s feet were the bones of at least three skeletons, barely discernible in the gloom. Shady silently circled the kneeling figure, only to discover that it was not a figure at all–only an empty cloak. When touched, it collapsed to the floor, and Shady added it to Pix‘s bag of holding. The doors to the northwest were slightly ajar, but there were no signs of the escaped vampires.

Shady unlocked the doors to the south, where fog and gloom choked the chamber (20) whose walls were once lined with magnificent tapestries, which have since been shredded. Tatters laid heaped in a corner, some depicting coastal scenes. As he waded through the mist, a vision consumed Shady’s mind:

His eyes fell upon a windy cliff overlooking the rough seas. A noble dressed in adventuring attire turned to him and murmured, “I cannot mount this expedition without you, Glyster. The Black Jungles teem with horrors no man can face alone.”

The noble lays a hand on his shoulder. In the man’s eyes, Shady saw ‘himself’: a regal gentleman whose eyes were the color of freshly worked bronze and whose countenance was creased by frequent smiles. He offered a grin to the nobleman, who asked, “We are the best of friends, Glyster, are we not?”

Shady, or, rather, “Glyster,” nodded. “Aye, Vanrak,” came the voice from Shady’s throat. “Aye. Until the end of our days, you and I. You and I against the world.”

The nobleman shared his own smile. “May Selûne watch over us and this expedition. To Chult we go. Together, as always.”

As the scene faded away and Shady’s mind reeled back into the gloom of Undermountain, the contrast of friendship and darkness stood stark in his very heart.  Shady relayed this latest vision to the party, then proceeded to investigate the room. The monk, Thaminor, and Leo searched the room and examined the tapestries.  They found tapestries that appeared to depict the Black Jungles from Shady’s vision and Waterdeep‘s coastline, among other scenes.  They appeared to have been shredded by massive claws, the size of… a dragon?

When nothing of apparent value was found, the party looped out and back to the south via the purple-lit corridor. They investigated to the west, completing their look at the hall they had seen from the other side soon after arriving. Shady carefully checked and opened one of the doors to the south, entering the large room (21) within. Out from the choking mists loomed iron hooks set into the walls. Once decorated with portraits, they laid barren, forgotten, and red with rust and neglect. Hanging from a hook was a golden war horn, encrusted with rubies, sapphires, and moonstones. As his eyes made out that gilded horn, his mind reeled back with a vision of the past:

Gone was Shady from the foggy chamber, instead finding himself in a great hall buttressed by six columns. Stone-hewn steps climbed to a dais whose far wall was flanked with marble black statues, one carved in the likeness of a cloaked woman wielding a dagger—and the other in the visage of the Mad Mage himself. The two statues glared at one another as if they were mortal enemies.

He looked about, noticing that ‘his’ immense body was scaled and clawed. A hollow voice called out from the dark, “Give these fools the death they deserve, Umbraxakar!”

He looked out: bound to each column was a blindfolded prisoner, six in all, all weeping, all wavering before their doom. Sucking in a breath, he unleashed a blast of shadow that swallowed the nearest prisoner—a dwarf. As his body withered away, a shadow rose from his corpse, bowing to the dark.

With the shadow’s bow came the present, delivering Shady from the wretched past. He relayed this tale as the party continued to search the room, ensuring that nothing was missed. Back in the hallway, the party ventured to the east, then southeast, where two tunnels converged on a 20-foot-high chamber (22) that contained two 12-foot-tall obsidian statues standing atop 5-foot-high blocks of stone in alcoves, facing one another and with their backs flush to the wall behind them. Each statue depicted a faceless robed woman holding a silver thread taut between her outstretched hands. A thin, translucent curtain of shadow stretched between the statues and extended from floor to ceiling, rippling like black cloth in a light breeze.

Pushing on the curtain caused it to wave slightly, but it did not part and there was no way to circumvent it. Shady and Thaminor investigated the statues, finding no hidden buttons or levers. Pix performed a ritual to detect magic, seeing a strong aura of necromantic energy around the curtain, and conjuration on the silver threads. When Shady attempted to walk through the curtain, he was assaulted with a surge of necrotic damage and pushed back. Hoping that his curse would prove a boon, Thaminor stepped up and pushed through successfully.

Beyond the shadowy curtain was a 12-foot-tall arched double door with an ornate carving of a bronze dragon above it, its wings forming the door frame. Draconic letters were carved into the floor in front of the double door, above which was a small, 3-inch-deep keyhole. Thaminor realized that the silver rod/key they found earlier fit the hole–but it did not turn, as there appeared to be no lock mechanism in the hole. Unable to read the inscription, Thaminor began copying the glyphs onto some parchment. Outside the curtain, Shady decided to watch the rear and investigate the hall to the northeast (23).

Elder Rune

Not interested in waiting any longer, Nym fired an arrow, which sliced through one of the silver threads. While the thread disappeared, a glowing red Elder Rune (as Pix would later explain) appeared momentarily in between one statue’s hands, sending a ray of flame to knock Nym to the ground. Dusting himself off, Nym let fly another arrow at the second thread, cleanly slicing through that as well. When it disappeared, a different Elder Rune momentarily glowed blue in front of the other statue, and blasted Nym off the ground with a beam of magical force that left him unconscious. The ploy was successful, however, in disbursing the shadowy curtain.

Thaminor, nearly done with tracing the draconic script, looked up in shock and lamented the useless waste of his parchment. Molish tended to Nym while Pix translated the inscription on the floor to read “The shadow is the key.” Realizing that the inscription was a riddle, Thaminor brought over a torch and began experimenting, casting shadows from its light on and around the key. Between the eldritch knight, Molish, and Leo, they figured out that they needed to cast the shadow of the key on to the door, for when they did, it opened.

Beyond that dragon archway laid a gloomy hall (24) decorated with the bones of the dead and gone. As they stepped over the threshold, a wave pushed through their bodies as if they had just dived into a black sea. The world seemed to drain away, colorless and forlorn, dark and foreboding, as the depths of the lightless earth.

Thaminor, Pix, and Molish would make no mistake: they had left Faerûn for another plane, one all too familiar:  a world without light, without warmth, and certainly without hope.  They knew, deep in their bones, the merciless truth: they had once again entered the Shadowfell.  Shady scouted briefly south, down the hall, before returning and proceeding to the door just west of the dragon archway.  Once the door parted, the world quivered as he experienced a vision once more:

He was locked in a vicious brawl against a warrior dressed in a mithral chain shirt.  The warrior’s fist slammed against his jaw, but ‘Shady’ repay him in kind, flattening him against the tiled floor.

“Vanrak—!” ‘Shady’ cried, disgusted by this violence and eager to see it resolved.  “Cease this madness!”

The noble warrior stumbled to his feet and reached for a bladeless hilt.  With an arcane word whispered from his lips, a blade of pure sunlight burst forward.  “Remember this, drake?  Your gift to me?  Challenge me again, and I’ll carve out that big heart of yours and eat it!”

Shady felt his body twist and enlarge, scales replacing skin.  His perspective elevated as he looked down at Vanrak, his comrade, his brother.  “Vanrak!” he cried again.  “I’m your friend!  Listen to me—listen!  She’s using the pain of your father’s death to lead you down the darkest of all paths!  For the love of Selûne, turn away from Shar!”

With that impassioned plea, shadows surged in to devour Shady’s world and return him to the present, where he relayed this tale.

Around the corner and just to the east, Shady inspected and opened the door to an oval room (25). Along the room’s perimeter were padded wooden chairs and fine tapestries that had fallen apart with age, leaving piles of moldy lumber and tattered cloth. An oval rug covering much of the floor was tattered and severely worn with age. When Shady stepped into the room, a menacing draconic form took shape in the fog. The draconic form loomed in the middle of the room a moment before lunging at Shady, its mouth opening wide. Used to these encounters by now, Shady no longer flinched as its maw closed over him and dissipated back into the fog. While examining the rug, the party noticed that it bore a large, faded crest of a silver crescent moon and four silver stars set against a field of royal blue–the crest of the Moonstar family of Waterdeep.

Down the western hall and around to the south, the party found a room (26) with 10-foot-high ceilings that was cluttered with decayed furnishings and the skeletal remains of adventurers and monsters killed long ago. Because of the detritus, the floor of the room was difficult terrain to cross, and proved to hold nothing valuable.

They exited through the southern door, continuing to follow the direction that Pix’s divinations with the Rod had indicated. Shady inspected and unlocked the door just to the southwest. Opening the door, however, revealed that Shady needs to search for traps a little better, as a fiery explosion blasted him back from the door!