The Sunless Six

The Heart of Destruction
2nd Day of Uktar

The Sunless Six find themselves in a large chamber after teleporting via a large crystal. Quin noticed an urn on an altar with a green mist billowing from it. As the group approach the urn, the mist begins to form into a humanoid, revealing the vampire Guilthias. With no time for talk the Sunless Six start to do battle with the vampire, only to see Guilthias once again turn into the green mist and escape under a door. The Sunless Six relentless pursue. They enter into a large chamber with a huge statue of Ashardalon, the red dragon in the center of it. The statue comes to life, and the group hack, slash and throw all sorts of magic on the dragon golem until only a pile of rubble remains.
The enter into the only other door and find themselves in a crypt. A stone coffin sits in the middle surrounded by stone pillars. Seeing green mist flowing from the seams Ash jumps onto the coffin. He feels movement from inside as the coffin is flung open with great force.
Guilthias once again rises, and the Sunless Six aggressively battle the vampire. The group seem to have defeated the vampire, as the green mist desperately tries to return to it’s coffin. Anakis pulls out her Acacia Stake, staking the vampire within his coffin. The vampire lies unconscious as the group look around the room. They notice an axe in the wall at the back of the chamber. The group take turns trying to pull the axe from the wall, as Xanath eventually dislodges the axe. Xanath then gets a vision on Dydd the Druid using the axe to carve out the heart of Ashardalon weakening the dragon before banishing the beast to hell. A hidden stone door opens revealing a room containing a large pulsing heart, Xanath begins slashing away at the heart.
dragonheart.pngThe Gold Dragonborn continues to slash away, feeling life draining from himself with every swipe. Anakis moves in to heal Xanath, as he deals a final blow shattering the heart. The shatter echoes about the chamber knocking Anakis ans Xanath unconscious. Ash moves in a licks the wounds of his fallen comrades, bringing them back to consciouness. The group then looks into the coffin of Guilthias, and see nothing but ashes. The threat of the Vampire that they had brought back to Faerun is gone, hopefully for forever this time.

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Broken Magic
1st of Uktar

After the battle with the Wights, the Sunless Six investigate the crypt. Xanath finds the head Wight to be a Dragonborn type humanoid. He noticed the Wight adorned with sigils of the Platinum dragon.
Investigation into the rest of the room finds nothing of interest, as the group push further into the cellar. They find a large double door, sealed shut by magical means. Ash produces a key he found in the drawers of a desk in the library. Using mage hand, Xanath opens the door to reveal a large hyena-like demon standing guard on a crystal floating in the hands of a statue. the group rush in and attack the demon.
The group then attempt several times to dislodge the crystal from hand of the statue. It appears to have magical field surrounding it, preventing it from moving.
The Sunless Six decide to leave this room and look for any other threats in the basement. Xanath finds a room containing many cells, he hears a bloody cough in an adjacent room.
The group enter to find a severely beaten male elf. They recognize the man as Perriguis. After some questioning the group deduce that Perri was captured before their arrival to Scorchridge. The vampire Guilthias then disguised himself as Perri to lure the group into the manor. Ash heals Perri enough for him to attempt his escape from the manor.
Sunless Six then head back to the floating crystal. Feeling restless, Xanath suggests that Grisduin should hit the crystal. Grisduin agrees, and with one solid strike with Twinkle, the crystal is shattered.
The Sunless Six them head back up to the library and find the force field surrounding the teleportation gem is gone. Not wanting to allow the vampire Guilthias anytime to recover, the Sunless Six leap through the teleportation circle and find themselves in an entrance way to a throne room of sorts.

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The Cellar of Dispair
1st of Uktar

The Sunless Six take a moment to catch their breath and devise a new plan. They decide that that their best course of action is to descend into the cellar of the mansion.
Resting in what they presume to be the servant’s quarters, they make their way slowly, being unsure if they should find vampire spawn along the way.
Sure enough, they hear movement from behind a door. The servants have been changed, and are now attacking the group. The battle does not last long as the group take down and stake 2 vampire spawn. They proceed down the dark narrow hallway.
Quin finds a room that seems untouched. She assumes it is the pantry. Upon further investigation, the group find the Casslanter’s stash of fine wines and liquors. Anakis stores them in the bag of holding for a gift to Stubbs.
Quin creeps further down the hall and is surprised at a glowing pair of eyes at the end of a dark hall. She moves back and informs the group. Xanath proceeds to move down the hall casting an offensive flurry of magic towards the perceived threat. The rest of the group move in and begin a long battle in a large chamber populated by wide pillars.
vlad.jpgEventually the Sunless Six surround the champion of the wights and take him down. Anakis picks up Wight’s greatsword and examines the fine craftmanship. The greatsword’s hilt is sculpted to resemble platinum dragon wings and a pommel shaped like a platinum dragon’s head clutching a black opal between its teeth.

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Would you like some pasghetti?
1st day of Uktar

The group enter into the mansion and investigate a great hall. They enter into a chamber through 2 large door and are greeted by a group of specters sitting down for a meal. The group join the specters, but meal quickly turns aggressive and the group take down the specters.
The travels further and find a secret door which leads to a room full of skeletons. they conclude these are the archers that were attacking them from outside the threshold. They easy destroy the skeletons.
The group then head back into the great hall and move into another hall with large doors on either side. As they approach the opposite side of the room, they begin to hear an echoing sonata played on piano through the door. The group then notice that their comrade, Perri, had secretly disappeared.
They decide to enter into the room and see a pale, but handsome man playing the piano. He ends his song then tells his guest to enter. He explains that it was him disguised as Perri that lured him into his liar. The vampire Guilthias now stands infront of the Sunless Six with a proposition. He knows that Anakis is the blood of Dydd, the binder of his master Ashardalon. He asks Anakis to give herself to him, and they can bring back the great red wyrm to the realm. Together they can rule over Faerun. Anakis does not support this idea and the group say they would rather kill the vampire. A fight breaks out as Guilthias summons hoards of bats and rats into the room. The group fight exhaustively against the hoards, as the vampire turns himself invisible. Grisduin finally gains the upperhand and strikes at where he believes the vampire to be. Guilthias appears before the drow with a look of astonishment on his face. Guilthias did not think this group was capable of competing with his power. With that, the vampire morphs into a puff of green mist and soars through the room and under an adjacent door, making his escape.
The group pursue into a large spiral stairwell and up into the second level. They are now in the balcony above the piano chamber and appear to have lost the vampire.
they decide to investigate the second floor. They come upon a large library with a strange glowing crystal in the middle of the room. They deduce this to be a teleportation crystal, having used the magic with Wilderem many times before.
The crystal is guarded by a force field which the group find to be impenetrable.
They decide that their best course of action now is to move into the cellar to see is they can find and clues. Before they leave, Ash investigates the drawers of a desk within the library and finds Ammalia Casslanter’s diary. He reads the most recent entries, recounting her excitement of their new house guest, Barnadas Collins, the great thespian and playwrite.

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Into the Rotting
1st of Uktar

The group reach the town of Scorchridge late in the afternoon. The town looks desolate and empty. The rain is falling hard from dark skies above as the group make to the nearest inn to seek refuge.
Upon entering they are greeted an empty pub, save for the proprietor, a half-orc man named Edwont. He is pleased to see the group since business has not been good since the Cassalanters have decided to shut themselves into their manor. People have went to investigate the manor, but no one has come back. The town has been on edge because people are starting to disappear, especially after nightfall.
The group say their are here to find out what is going on, as Ash drops a nice sack of gold for Edwont to stay the night. He is happy to finally have paying customers.
The group decide to rest for the night. Anakis is roused by a very soothing voice suggesting she come to him. She ‘sees’ the vision of a very handsome man beckoning her. She rises from her slumber and starts to make her way out of the room as Quin sees this. She questions the teifling, who seems to be in a sleepwalking state. Ash, taking watch, sees this odd behaviour and alerts the others as he moves to block the doorway that Anakis is heading towards.
The group finally snap Anakis from her sleepwalk as they hear a ruckus outside on the street. Ash peers out into the rainy muddy streets to see 2 vampires in combat with an elf. The Sunless Six exit onto the street to aid the elf. By the time the entire group get to the street, the vampires do not stand a chance, as they are felled. Anakis proceeds to stake the vampires with her Acacia Stake, turning their bodies into ashes. They then approach the Elf, who identifies himself as Perriguis, the vampire hunter. He is curious of the weapons the group wield, specifically Anakis’ Acacia Stake and Quin’s Soninblade. The group tell Perri they found them in the depths of the Sunless Citadel. Perri berates the group for disturbing the site and halfhandedly blames them for the release of the vampire Guilthias back onto the world. He tells the group that he believed the vampire has infected the Cassalanter and taken up residence in their manor. His suspicions were right, and the group just killed the vampiric versions of Victoro and Ammelia Cassalanter. Perri says he finds it suiting that the group should be aiding him in destroying Guilthias, as they were the ones to break the vampire’s containment in the tree of the Citadel. Brushing off Perri’s comments, the group decide to head up to the Manor in the morning with Perri to see if the vampire they are looking for does indeed reside there.
The Sunless Six wake the next day to a hearty meal prepared by Edwont and his wife Lyali. Edwont greets the group good luck and hopes to see them return soon. The day is a heavy overcast, with a thick mist running through the streets as they group make their way through town and up to the Cassalanter Manor on the top of the hill.
They investigate the ground and come to the conclusion that entering through the front is their best option. As Ash moves to threshold of the mansion, he is attacked by arrows on either side. He quickly pushes open the door to reveal a small entrance chamber with 2 suits of armor on either side. The armor animates and moves to attack the Tabaxi as the rest of the group make their way through the arrow gauntlet to aid their ally. They fell the armor, and move to enter further into the liar of the vampire.

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Strength Regained
30th of Marpenoth

The Sunless Six clean up the bar after the battle between Aesino and his thugs. They strip the assailants of their remains, and decide to burn the body of Quin’s father, to completely rid the world of his vile treachery.
Accompanied by Ash, Grisduin returns to visit his children in the newly renovated Promenade of the Dark Maiden. Grisduin asked his daughter to perform the ritual to regrow his arm. After a few days the pair return to Waterdeep.
Meanwhile, Anakis, Quin and Xanath are busy selling their loot that has been building up in the bag of holding. They return with a king’s ransom. The group then spend the rest of their time relaxing and browsing the shops in Waterdeep as they await word from Wilderem’s contact.
Grisduin returns to Woopedu, to learn more on the black smithing trade from Halwreck. He returns the now unneeded magical pauldron to Wilderem. Appreciating the gesture, the Wizard moves some enchantment to a bow and gifts it back to the drow.
By the end of the tenday, the group reconvene at Trollskull Manor. Stubbs gives the group a sealed letter. The letter is from Wilderem’s contact, a vampire hunter named Perriguis. The letter states that Perri had tracked down a vampire he believes to be Gulthias to a town called Scorchridge. He included a map on how to reach the town.
The Sunless Six, feeling well rested, decide to hit the road in search of Scorchridge to meet up with the vampire hunter.

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Anakis' Heritage found, Quin's heritage destroyed
21st day of Marpenoth

Confronted in the Feywild by Willow, the group questioned the Dryad. Willow reveals the importance of The Grandmother Tree and how it ties into Anakis’ heritage as a decendant of Dydd the Druid. She explains the souls trapped in the weapons are there to help seal the Dragon Ashardalon into hell after The Battle of Moonshae Atoll. She also explains that the Wizard Keraptis was instrumental in defeating the dragon, and was a longtime ally of Dydd.
The group then teleport back to Woopedu via Wilderem’s teleportation device. Caution about the wizard, they share a tense conversation, until Wilderem opens up and reveals the truth, that he was in fact an apprentice of Keraptis. He discovered that his master was one of many false Keraptis’, a long line of Wizards that got so caught up in the original Keraptis’ works that they began to believe themselves as being the Wizard himself. Learning this, Wilderem was cautious to not falling down the rabbit hole many of his predecessors had.
He decided to seal the Wizard’s dungeon in White Plume Mountain, and was shocked to receive the note about acquiring the legendary weapons. Glad the Sunless Six were able to retrieve the items before they fell into the wrong hands, Wilderem, along with the group decided to split the weapons, Wilderem sealing Whelm away in a magical locker in his shop. He encouraged to find a good place for the other 2 weapons to hide. Wilderem then suggests the group meet an ally of his in Waterdeep.
The Sunless Six teleport to Stubbs’ bar, Trollskull Manor. They meet their old friend, and begin to catch up. Stubbs introduces the group to a bard that has been singing in his bars, attracting more customers in. The bard leaves, but returns with 2 other very intimidating people, a half orc and a beefy human woman carrying a longsword.
Quin, suspicious of the newcomers, sees the bard signaling the toughs. Before they can get up to attack, Quin moves and attacks the bard. A fight ensues, as another combatant enters into the bar. The group quickly recognizes the man as a burn scared Aesino Silenta, father of Quin and once ally to Ash. They battle on, eventually felling the assassin and getting revenge for the death of Quin’s mother and Ash’s monastery.

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The Oni and the Grandmother Tree
20th day of Marpenoth

The group enter in through the door at the bottom level of the terrarium. A short hallway leads them to a lavishly furnished room and the greetings of a friendly halfling. The halfling claims that he is trapped here by the Wizard, sentenced to guard a treasure. The group prod further, getting too close to the point that the halfling eventually attacks, revealing his true form as an Oni.
oni.jpg The group take down the nightmarish fiend, and tie his up as they examine the treasure, Blackrazor. The wake up the unconscious Oni to question him, the Oni attempts to escape, so the group take him out.
Having all three of the legendary weapons, the group decide to leave the wizard’s dungeon. They exit into the forest to find they were part of a strange time dilation effect while in the mountain.
As set themselves to return to the village of Grey Wolf Cave, they are greeted by Wilderem. The wizard appears to be acting odd, requesting the 3 legendary weapons right away. Anakis senses this and further questions the gnome. The conversation gets heated, and realizing his ploy was discovered, the false Wilderem disappears and summons wolves to attack the group to ease his escape.
Feeling the call of the wild from the howls of the wolves, Ash starts feeling weird, more primal. He begins viciously mauling the wolves. Grisduin notices the strange savageness in this friend. Once the wolves are taken care of, Ash settles himself. The group then find their way back to the village, finding an Inn to get a decent rest.
Grisduin confronts Ash about his savagery, and they deduce he might be cursed with lycanthropy after being attacked by Snarla, the werewolf wizard in the White Plume Mountain. The group encourage Ash to seek help in breaking the curse, but Ash is reluctant, seeing the lycanthropy as controllable and possibly being an advantage to him.
The next morning, Anakis and Quin head to talk to Bodhmall the druid. She advises Anakis on how best to find the Grandmother Tree. Confident she will find it, Bodhmall heeds warning about the guardian of the tree, her ill tempered sister.
As Anakis lead the group into the forest, they eventually come upon a large lively tree. they believe this to be the The Grandmother Tree. As they approach they notice a large Annis Hag carving a piece of wood. They approach the Hag. She recognizes Anakis, and eventually lets the group pass through the threshold into the chamber within the large bol of the tree. As the group question the Hag, she says that these questions would best be answered by her other sister. The group then feels themselves being wrapped and taken in by the tree itself. They flake off branches that covered them to find themselves in a different place of fantastic light and colours, although still very similar to the forest they were just in. They are then threatened by a very small man in a large red cap wearing iron boots. He tells them to drop their possessions and head back to where they came from. Anakis complies, but he rest of the group is uncertain about this little man. They turn defiant against the red capped man, and find themselves surrounded by many other similar small men wearing red caps. The red caps turn aggressive and a melee between the two groups ensues. Feeling that they misread this group of visitors, the Red Caps start to flee. As they flee, the group see a rider approaching them. The rider is a dryad with long fiery hair and olive skin. She approaches the group on her steed seemingly made of plant material.
dryad.png

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The Terrarium
18th Day of Marpenoth

The Sunless Six enter into the terraced terrarium as all the beast start to approach, looking for live meat. Xanath summons a stream of lighting, collapsing parts of the glass barricading between the sections of the aquariums, and hitting a few of the beasts.
After getting hit my the quills of the manticore’s tail, Grisduin casts darkness on the bottom section. Anakis creates spike growth to help impeded the manticores, taking them out of the fight. The group then proceed to take down the attacking creatures, as the water from the aquarium stream down into the lower levels.
After sometime, the threats of the menagerie of beasts are quelled, and the group look into the submerged lower levels of the terrarium. They notice the waters slowly filtering out somehow, and Quin sees a chest in the manticore’s level, with a door directly across from it.
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Sir Bluto
18th day of Marpenoth

The Sunless Six find themselves in a long hallway. The hallway is bound by 2 pits on either side. The floor, walls and ceilings look to have a sheen to them. Ash ties a rope to himself and leaps over the first pit. Luckily, he is able to maintain balance on this frictionless floor. As he approaches the pit on the other side, he successfully leaps over. Holding the rope tight, the rest of the group cross, but Grisduin slips into the pit and is wracked with pain. They pull their comrade out, and Anakis gives Grisduin a potion. Gris eventually fights off the disease.
The group then venture through more hallways and come upon a room with a floating river running through it. Xanath scouts the river, but turns back after he find it too far. The group then jump into kayaks to travel the river. As they come to the entrance to another room, Ash leaps from his kayak and bolts into the seeing a group of armored men preparing nets to trap the Sunless Six. He disrupts the group enough to make the trap ineffective. The rest of the group enter. Anakis and Xanath take out half the enemies, as Grisduin and Quin go into melee with the leader of the group.
As the fight continues, 9, the group’s newly acquired Flesh Golem starts going beserk. The group fell all the enemies, as Xanath tries everything in his power to save his befriended golem. He is unsuccessful and the group need to put 9 down before he becomes too large a threat.
The Sunless Six acquire a key from the fallen Sir Bluto and head to a locked door they found earlier. They enter into the chamber and discover a huge terrarium containing many levels and different creatures. They see a door in the bottom layer.
Feeling unfit to the challenge, the group decide to rest in a secret hallways they found earlier.
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