035 Escape to Languard

Cautiously entering the chamber, the heroes searched through the ruin of an obvious common room or dormitory. Rotting and rusted personal possessions lay about the floor. In the centre of the mess lay the decomposing body of a human clad in leather armour.

Searching the room revealed a few coins and other odds and ends. Colzo investigated the body, and with the clever and subtle use of his longsword, determined the corpse had no brain–clearly the unfortunate was another victim of the intellect devourer the party had slain the day before.

But one way-–a natural set of stone steps–remained to explore. The steps led down into a natural passageway that swung around to the north. In short order, the passageway linked up with the raised part of the beach-cave the party had spied as they rowed into the cove. The beach was current awash–it was high tide–and so Horsa transferred himself into his bat-familiar's consciousness. Exploring the roughly crescent-shaped cave, he found a watertight door to the east, which was out of sight of his companions.

In no rush, the party waited for the tide to subside–no-one (except Horsa) seemed keen to battle the water elemental in its own element.

In a few hours, the tide had gone out sufficiently to allow the party to reach the door. The door was swollen into its jam, and required some effort to open. Beyond, another set of steps led downwards into a small cavern strewn with treasure. Another corpse lay amid the ruin. Hell'en entered to search and was surprised by a tremendously powerful shove from some invisible force which pushed her back against a wall, injuring her. Her friends leapt to the attack. Quickly it became obvious the heroes were fighting a powerful invisible poltergeist. However, the creature was no match for the party and once Grand Silvertongue–taking Luther's subtle suggestion–had outlined it with faerie fire it was doomed to destruction. The undead abomination was quickly destroyed, and the treasure–mainly coinage along with a fine quiver which Luther quickly claimed–recovered.

With the cave network explored–and still no sign of Dennan or his captors–the party returned to the dock to assist Caiden with completing the escape raft. A few hours later this was complete and dragging the raft and the party's single remaining rowboat along the rickety wharf the heroes made their escape. Electing not to continue sailing north to hunt down Dennan they instead returned to the Sentinels at the Murkwater's mouth to summon Laina to rescue them.

Thus it was that five days after their expedition began, the party returned to Languard. One of their number–Artur–was dead, and another–Dennan–was missing, presumed kidnapped or eaten by demons. The aforementioned demons were still on the loose somewhere in Gloamhold's depths and several of the heroes worried about the threat they might present.

However, now was the time to put such thoughts away–at least briefly. Many of the heroes were exhausted and needed rest. Treasure had to be divided, taxes paid and plans laid. The party also had to decide what to do with Artur's remains and Colzo spoke of the nagging suspicion his beloved magical sword–wrested from Gloamhold's undead–may be cursed. Meanwhile, Hell'en revealed she has been suffering from terrible dreams–the last of which seemed to feature Dennan...