Beneath the Red Shroud

**Beneath the Red Shroud** is the 6th session of the New Dawn Memories campaign. It is part of the Return to Sender story arc.

# Synopsis

In the dungeon beneath the Underways, the party realizes that they are about to awake a long forgotten power from the past in order to find a way back to the surface.

# Development

## Part 1

While Kilijan is telling Mycha about his fascination with Ostar, the red dragon that saved them from the oozes, Weneon and John approach the corridor to the west. They stumble across a small room containing a wooden chest, from which Weneon retrieves a green hat labeled First Cap.

An ooze approaches and repeats the sentence "Don't trust... dragon... be with us" as if recorded. Lorkhan casts a fire bolt at him, chasing it away.

Crossing the hallway, they arrive at a bigger room with stairs leading to a stone altar covered with a blood-soaked shroud. To the south: another nest of oozes. Lorkhan inspects the altar and notices a golden mask and a sacrificial dagger laying on it.

He attempts to remove it, but is wounded by necrotic energy. A voice whispers to them: "More... what is your price?"

## Part 2

Weneon decides to cut himself and bleed onto the dagger. The knife absorbs the blood and leaves Weneon weakened. Lorkhan does the same, and so does Mycha.

After arguing for a while whether Kilijan and John should sacrifice their blood too, the voice commands Mycha and Lorkhan to attack them.

Lorkhan tries to tackle John, but is grappled by him. Mycha charges towards Kilijan with his scimitar, landing a critical hit into his abdomen, knocking him unconscious. As soon as the blow hits, Mycha comes to his senses and tries to heal Kilijan with his potions, but to no avail.

John sacrifices a bit of his blood too, and Kilijan's blood is also absorbed by the dagger. The shroud starts taking the shape as if a warrior in full-plate armor was lying on it. The voice then says: "One more..." as the oozes, who have been gathering massive numbers at the bottom of the stairs, create a pathway to the sleeping dragon.

## Part 3

Mycha, still in shock from what just happened, grabs Kilijan and goes to the dragon. He speaks to him, demanding more assistance. The dragon says to him that he already gave them a quest to do. Mycha, not convinced that Ostar is giving them all he can, cuts off his own left hand and offers it to the dragon.

Ostar is mesmerized by the smell of human flesh, which he states he hadn't tasted for years. He grabs the hand and eats it. Mycha demands help, but Ostar just jumps up while his collar chain pulls him back down, frustratingly shouting that he cannot do anything more.

Lorkhan uses the opportunity to stab the dragon, to which Ostar loads his breath weapon. The party runs through the hallway towards the oozes, but is caught in the fiery blaze of the dragons' breath.

Mycha falls unconscious and sees John burnt to a crisp, falling onto Kilijan whom he was carrying. Lorkhan runs to the altar, seeing Weneon dying underneath burnt oozes, and drops the dragon blood onto it, while Ostar tries to recharge his breath.

As Lorkhan feeds the blood to the shroud, a masked knight manifests before him. The masked knight leaps toward the hallway and to Ostar, killing him with a mortal hit to the chest with his golden dagger.

After returning to Lorkhan, the knight tells Lorkhan that he will now give back the price they paid. Just before drawing their mortal breath, Weneon and Kilijan are given back just enough life force to keep death at bay.

Weneon wakes from the embers of oozes on him, while Mycha sees Kilijan getting up and shaking off the burnt dirt and ashes from his body, unaware that it is John's remains he got all over him. He sees Mycha and stumbles towards him: "I will kill you." he says, but falls unconscious to the ground next to Mycha.

The masked knight reveals to them that she is Adona Lonewalker, a knight and dragon rider. She tells Lorkhan to push the altar to the side. As he does, a staircase is revealed, leading to, as Adona explains to them, to the forgotten city Old Oeble was based on: Neverwinter.