Session 31

Death's Keepers stand outside a large cave entrance, considering what to do. Kyrie suggests someone should go ahead of them if the group wants to be stealthy. Echo changes his glamour armor to match the cave colors and then stealths forward. He gets to a room of worked stone with a lit brazier. He tries to put out the brazier with his cloak but it catches fire. He goes back and gets the others, and they all return together.

They find writing in the room, stating that it's dedicated to Vecna. Hearing noises on the other side of a door to the left, they burst through the door, finding some cultists, whom they quickly disable. The leader tells them he had nothing to do with burning the inn down, and Shade is the one to talk to. On cue, someone comes seemingly through a wall and hits the back of Kyrie's head.

The group interrogates this new person, who insists that they leave, and that what the followers of Vecna are doing here is none of their business. When the conversation goes nowhere, Kyrie Fey Steps behind them, badly injuring them, and they discorporeate and flee, leaving Death's Keepers to finish the fight with the cultists, which they do easily.

Finley uses a spell to detect Shade moving very quickly up the mountain. They try to interrogate one of the remaining cultists, but he refuses to tell them anything about Shade. Everyone but Echo explores, finding some dungeon cells. Echo shows the cultist his Silence coin, but still gets no information from him, so he knocks him out. The group finds a prisoner, an Aasimar who introduces himself as Niam Carheart. Finley and Echo recognize the name as being among the noble families of Senmarria.

Niam shows them a cache of weapons, which also contains his own belongings. They find a double-bladed scimitar, 4 healing potions, a bag of dust of disappearance, a +1 shield, and a +1 mace. Finley notices a book on the bookshelf that's slightly out of place and tries to pick it up, causing a click as the bookshelf slides away revealing an opening.

Finley immediately recognizes a collection of items dedicated to the Raven Queen. Echo offers Kyrie a reinforced shield, but they tell him that theirs is pretty special to them. Finley finds a number of things of interest:

* A magical shield with an embossed Shadar-Kai
* A grave cleric's field guide
* A set of calming bandages
* A beautiful black circlet which lets off a dark glow
* A small crystal whistle
* A silver pendant in the shape of a raven
* A dark steel mace with a white handle

Kyrie goes to Dev, and they discuss recent events. Dev then explores the area further, finding another room that they haven't been in. They find a number of foodstuffs, and a set of shelves with books about liches, which they put in their bag of holding.

Echo, finding himself alone with Niam, he asks about how Niam ended up there. Niam tells him that his parents and younger brother were kidnapped from him. Since then, he and his sister have been investigating various groups and the terrible things they have been doing. He says he doesn't expect to find his family members, but does expect to figure out why certain families have members disappearing. Echo tells him that he hopes to convince the realm that there is a positive side to necromancy, and Niam says that he reminds him of Elena Macierre, who has been away from society for quite some time.

Echo goes and finds Finley, who is distractedly looking through the Raven Queen items. She says she'd like to send some people to collect the rest of the things eventually. They go looking for Kyrie and Dev, who are exploring more of the tunnels. Dev finds a room with a sarcophagus, that has a spike trap in the door way. The group reunites there, and Finley determines that there's an undead creature in there. The group opens the sarcophagus and destroys the mummy inside. Echo is cursed with mummy rot in the process, but Finley is able to cure him.