MAL Ep. 50

Returning to Hastenport for their rendezvous with Naruah, the party learned that an unknown assailant had tried to abduct Kit, but was thwarted by the guardian treant. Everyone who witnessed the attack (Kit, the treant, and one of Jon's nieces) said the mystery attacker was not visible, but Aler was able to find a scrap of gray cloth torn off on the fence where it was grappling Kit. Questioning Kit, they learned that she had attracted her attacker's attention while exploring some kind of ruin under the junkyard.

The party decided to check out the ruin, finding a small chamber that had apparently been revealed when an underground tunnel collapsed after a recent rainstorm, causing a sinkhole to the surface which Kit had climbed down into. The exposed wall of the underground chamber was curved and seemed to be made from dragon hide. The party recognized the design of the chamber as similar to the snake-eye portal they had discovered while investigating the Corrigar complex back in session #27, which they had linked with Harasket. Tanya remembered that there had been invisible catches in the earlier dungeon, and used See Invisible to locate an invisible button opening the chamber's door. The place seemed long deserted except for Kit's footprints (Kit later confirmed that she had happened upon the invisible button while feeling around the wall,) but there was a faint dweomer of necromantic magic present. There was a golden statuette of a stylized web in the center of the room, which the PCs appropriated without setting off a trap by means of a rope and stashed in their Magic Hut.

After doing a bit of shopping in town, the party met with Naruah and Aldrayeth and headed into the Plane of Shadow. They arrived on a gray sand beach by the shores of a dark river. The plane is dimly lit and devoid of hue (everything, including your own selves, appears in greyscale like an old black and white movie,) and as Naruah had warned, you found your magic spells to be slightly less effective here. Vanima Kaimelar pounced into the sand and caught a smallish shadow critter, which Jon released.

The party stealthily approached a building they had spotted to the south, which turned out to be a small gray structure made of some unnatural adobe-like substance with a hexagonal shape, asymmetrical domed roof, open windows, ornate front door with no visible opening mechanism, and blurry carved runes. Aler observed a magical distortion effect over the window, through which he could make out a mirror or picture on the far wall and a table with some scrolls on it. The party had a difficult time deciphering the runes, since they were too blurry to focus on and rubbings and drawings of them were equally blurry. Eventually Aler used True Seeing to view the runes clearly and then ESP to transmit the runes to Tanya, who translated them as spelling out VECNA, the name of a notorious semi-divine lich. Jon recalled that one of the Lords of Shadow, named Enessiet, had played a role in Vecna's ascension to lichdom according to legend.

Making their morale check, the party decided to investigate the building anyway. There was clearly a magic spell over the open windows, making the PCs reluctant to send the thief climbing in, however a handle seemed visible on the inside of the door, so the party adopted defensive positions and Red cast Mage Hand through the window and used it to open the door from the inside.

The door swung open, revealing the room within, of which the most notable features were the table with three scrolls on it, a strange altar, and a large picture of a cat which shifts back and forth between skeletal form depending on the angle from which you view it. The party has not yet entered this building nor touched anything in it.

As the session concluded, the party was approached by an odd shadowy figure who addressed you in Malachian, expressing surprise that people such as yourselves would be on the Plane of Shadow, particularly Tanya, who readily agreed that this wasn't really the plane for her. Jon asked the figure if he were Lord Enessiet, and he laughed and said "No, I am not she," then gave his name as Henneran.

And there we broke off for the day. We will begin the next session exploring the Vecna house and/or conversing with Henneran.

Onward!