Storm King’s Thunder: Session 23. The Wyrm in the Woods

9^th-10^th Alturiak 1458DR

They head towards the eastern door and found an ancient library. Tattered books and scrolls lined dusty shelves. As they perused the shelves they found several items of interest, including a moldy history of the ancient kingdom of Elfrin, a spell scroll of Stinking Cloud and a written account of a soldier who claimed that his battalion had been lured into an ambush by Claugiyliatmar under the guise of an elven maiden named “Tenaria”. Carlan recognised the name instantly and realised that they had been tricked into coming here.

Heading into the next room they found a room with a chest in it’s centre, locked but seemingly lacking a keyhole or mechanism. On it’s lid was an inscription: “The lock yields to the name of grief”. They noticed around them were a series of murals carved into the stone walls:

i. 2 Zombies shambling forward

ii. 1 Mummy laying in a sarcophagus

iii. 3 Banshees howling in grief

iv. 4 ghouls stalking the shadows

v. 1 Revenant screaming in hatred

They were puzzled for some time: the pictures seemed to be relevant somehow. They guessed several words until Carlan recognised the number of creatures in each picture and the corresponding letter in their name lead to an anagram and called out the word “MOURN”. The chest sprang open, seeming to contain only one item:a sword. Darius held it up. It seemed a magnificent weapon, seemingly sharp and light despite it’s time in the chest and chased up the blade with an engraved dragon. It was doubtlessly magical. Casting Identify Maganose found it was a Dragon-Slayer Sword. Possibly Lord Dalbrek’s when he was a mortal man?

They head north back into the room with the chasm and into the door that had been guarded by the Helmed Horrors and Wights and found a long room lined with sarcophagi, some still closed but some open and empty. At the far end was another door, flanked by an ancient skeleton that rested motionlessly against the wall. Names lined the sarcophagi and the Griffons decided to search them for anything they may find useful in the trials ahead. Carlan wrenched open several with a crowbar and found ancient coins and a cursed dagger. Darius was struck by a name on one of the sarcophagi: “Grinnus Helstryke”, feeling that was a name that must have inspired awe in friend and foe alike. Concerned about the skeleton that seemed to be watching them, Maganose cast Mage Hand and pushed it, resulting in the moldy bones and armour tumbling onto the floor harmlessly.

They head through the final door to seek out Dalbrek. Opening the room they found a chamber that was part laboratory and part crypt. Immediately in front of them shambling dead forms stared at them as they entered and at the back of the room weird lights and a pair of wights flanked a dark and sinister figure, who addressed them. “And so the intrepid adventurers have ventured into my lair: why have you despoiled my sanctum?”. Over the next few minutes they argued with Dalbrek about the attacking of Westbridge, the abduction and imprisonment of Sarissa and he explained that he was gathering an army to destroy the evil Claugiyliamatar and Sarissa was actually a recently turned vampire spawn who he had imprisoned as punishment. When no peaceful solution could be met Dalbrek commanded his minions forward and drew his sword and the battle commenced. Maganose case Storm Sphere and the air in the room became a swirling maelstrom. Into this Korrak, Darius and Amadeous advanced and the heroes soon cut down the zombies. Dalbrek himself fell to Amadeous blade, a spectral cloud appearing above his body that then appeared to float into the room at the rear of the chamber. Maganose found himself under assault from Will-O’-Wisps that were driven away by Fenris’ blades and Carlan’s Eldritch Blasts. A vampire spawn managed to grab Darius and drag him away but was cut down by Korrak and Amadeous.

The room silent, they head into the room at the rear of the chamber and found the form of Dalbrek resting in a sarcophagus, inert but seemingly not permanently dead. They tried stabbing him with the cursed dagger they found earlier and Amadeous tried with his Adamantine spear, but neither seemed to do any damage. Fenris then had the idea to form a stake from the ruined furniture in Dalbrek’s main chamber and Maganose thrust it into Dalbrek’s chest. His eyes lit up and he howled as his life force was exorcised permanently before his body withered away. Searching the rest of the chamber they found 2 chests: the first contained ancient coins from Elfrin and a scroll of Polymorph. Reaching out for the second one Amadeous found his hand stuck instantly to it and it spawned gigantic teeth and jaws: it was a Mimic. After a few brief seconds of frantic slashing it fell dead.

Exhausted, they barred the doors and decided to rest. After they had recovered, they head out of the crypt and were instantly shocked by the pale dead body of Kaela on the ground outside, her eyes staring up at them lifelessly. Her weapons and armour were gone and examining the body they found a pair of puncture marks on her neck. Sarissa was nowhere to be seen.

In the distance they saw a figure approaching them: an elven woman dressed in chain mail that the recognised as Tenaria. She thanked them for stopping the evil Lord Dalbrek and his growing army of the undead. Carlan called her out for who she really was: the dragon Claugiyliamatar. Tenaria started to laugh and her form started to change. Within seconds she had changed into an enormous green dragon. They were finally face-to-face with the ancient wyrm.

She asked why they had sought her out: she had seen what they had told Tifalin in Waterdeep but wanted them to explain their true motivations. They explained the trouble with giants and the chaos they were causing across the Sword Coast, which they felt much surely be a problem for her as well (especially given the ancient enmity between giants and dragons). They presented her with the magical tome “Ancient Green” that they had been given in Waterdeep, which also went some way to persuading her. Claugiyliamatar then agreed to tell them the location in return for doing something for her: she presented the seed of an unknown plant to them and told them to plant it outside the temple and muttered something about “teaching that arrogant bitch a lesson” but didn’t expand further. She waved a claw and the earth reshaped itself in front of them to form a map showing the mountains known as the Spine of the World far to the north. “In the Spine of the World, North of the Lurkwood and East of the Dwarven city of Mirabar you will find the temple of the misbegotten children of Annam”. They marked it on their map. She then said they should leave her forest and told them she would teleport them away to a location of their choice. After some debate they decided to go to Triboar.

She waved a claw and they felt themselves start to fade. As the world started to go white the wyrm leant towards Darius and said “When you find that miserable blue bitch, you can twist Dalbrek’s little knife in her guts and tell her that I’m gifting it back to her!” Confused, they then teleported away and found themselves back in the town square of Triboar, in front of Darathra Shendrel’s tower.