Chapter 61
Moving down the staircase on the right side of the long hall, Gven overtakes Grindlefoot to take the lead position. Knowing she’s better prepared to handle a surprise attack, the halfling nods in appreciation.
After descending a dozen steps, they enter a room that is fifteen feet across to the other side and twenty five feet wide, from the west side to the east. Evenly spaced in the middle area of the room are six pedestals, each one with an object hovering over it or laying on it. Looking to their left, in the northeast corner of the room, they see another set of stairs proceeding updward.
Moving into the room, Dolor approaches a pedestal where a beautifully crafted gold necklace has been carefully placed. The ostentatious pendant attached to the herringbone sautoir reads, “My breath is yours, Evisha. Take it.”
“There’s a sign on this one,” Grindlefoot tells the others from his vantage point in front of one of the pedestals. Reading aloud, “What good are treasures when home is denied.”
Dolor responds, “This one too.” Looking around at the other pedestals and their unique objects, “These must have belonged to the Dolindar family. Perhaps there’s something of use.” The tiefling proceeds to investigate each pedestal, searching for hidden traps and finding none.
In addition to the necklace, they find a pedestal laden with gold coins, and one with an ornate golden helmet. Another has a spinning orb floating above it, one with a thick leatherbound book, and on the sixth pedestal rests a circular stone base holding a translucent orb.
Mond walks over to the spinning globe and reads an inscription, “Gateways to Outlands.” Turning to the others, “I’ve heard of the Outlands. It’s another plane, one filled with gates to other planes. A kind of transfer station between worlds.”
Moving to the crystalline orb, the sorcerer sees that it’s a tiny replica of Neverwinter with pin-sized white flecks covering the miniscule roads, parks, and rooftops. Curious, he picks up the globe and turns it sideways then back to rightway up and it suddenly appears to be snowing inside. A smile comes to his face, “Clever.”
Intrigued by the elaborately crafted helmet, Bilwin casts Identify to discover if it has any magical properties. Alas, it’s merely an overly decorative warrior’s helmet that was created by a left-handed artisan.
Turning to the pedestal next to the helmet, Bilwin scoops the pile of gold coins into his hand and with some slight movement of his hand, measures their weight. “About twenty two hundred in gold coins. That’ll be useful, don’t ya say, Dolor!”
Curious about the large tomb, Gven walks to the pedestal to read the title, “Out of the Endless Prison.” Elden responds, “I know that one. It’s refering to Carceri, an outer plane also known as the Red Prison where demons and devils war endlessly. Nasty place. Right up your alley.”
Anger beginning to twist her face, Gven says to the elven scholar, “What’s that supposed to mean, little man?” Knowing that elves consider humans beneath them, Gven’s insult hits its mark.
“An orc wouldn’t understand every tenth word in that text, but your savage ways would blend in seamlessly on Carceri.”
Pulling Tempest Edge from its sheath, Gven barks at the elf, “Come closer and tell me more.”
Elden brings his hands together in the beginnings of a spell, “With pleasure.”
Dolor sees the trouble brewing and, as quietly as he can, gruffly yells at the half-orc and elf, “Stop it, both of you! This is no time or place to continue an ethnic feud neither of you started.”
In a huff of anger, Elden stomps off towards the stairs that ascend back to the higher level. Reaching a closed door at the top, he kicks open the door without regard for what might be on the other side and passes through.
“I want to explore too”! Bilwin follows the elf up the stairs and through the hastly opened door. Glancing at Gven, still fuming from her encounter with Elden, Dolor realizes she needs a moment—or two or three—to calm down and goes after the dwarf and elf. Mond and Grindlefoot follow behind, leaving Gven to her anger, pacing around the pedestals.
Dolor finds Elden at the top of the stairs, mumbling about stupid, gray-skinned, tusk-mouthed orcs. Looking around, the tiefling sees that they’re in a small antechamber with two doors, one directly in front of them, across from the stairs, and another to their right. The door to their right, on the eastern wall, is ornately carved wood with tiles inset into two lines, one above the other. The top line reads “DOLINDAR” and the bottom spells out “NO WORLD TO RETURN.”
“Must be the puzzle door that Newmy mentioned.”
Bilwin takes a quick look at the lettering and tiles, “Let’s keep going this way. That door looks hard.”
Before anyone can stop the dwarf, he opens the door on the north wall and descends into the darkness of the stairway. Shrugging in acceptance, Dolor follows him through the doorway.
Reaching the bottom of the stairs, Bilwin enters a room with two coffins, one of them broken open. Standing between the coffins is a creature standing on two legs, waving five arms, with each one ending in harpoon-like spikes.
It lets out a low, sorrowful moan and advances on the dwarf.
Dolor enters the room right behind the dwarf with his hand on Gleaming Blades hilt, ready for any trouble. He sees the creature moving towards them and draws the magical blade with ease, pushing past the bewildered dwarf to attack. The tielfing’s strike is true, slicing through one of the creature’s arms, although no blood spews forth. The non-magical shortsword in his offhand follows quickly after the first, cutting the arm again.
Responding to Dolor’s attack, the monster rapidly extends another of its arms, digging the claw into the tiefling’s leg and yanking backwards. It pulls Dolor closer and grapples him with two other arms. The rogue immediately uses his uncanny dodge to reduce the damage, but realizes he’s in trouble.
Just then, another creature erupts from the closed coffin, growling with eagerness to attack.
Dolor yells as loud as possible, “Gven!”
An arm extends from the second creature with amazing speed, its claw piercing Bilwin’s armor and digging into his shoulder. The dwarf screams in pain as Grindlefoot steps into the room, with Mond and Elden immediately behind.
Seeing the two monsters engaged with Dolor and Bilwin, Grindlefoot realizes that caution is warranted. He casts Stoneskin on himself, improving his resistance to melee damage. The halfling moves towards the wall, looking for a vantage place to attack from as he casts Shillelagh on his staff.
Hoping that these are undead, Bilwin holds forth his magical stein and says a prayer to Hanseath, “With your great anger at these creatures for their inability to enjoy beer, make them go away!” Unfortunately, the creature in front of him makes no move to leave, rather it growls at the dwarf in response.
Mond quickly lashes out with a psychic spell, Tasha’s Mind Whip, causing both creatures to wail momentarily at the pain inside their minds.
Elden, the professorial elf, quickly looks around the room and understands their peril. “Shit. Sorrowsworn.” From his raised hand, a bright streak of light shoots towards the monster holding Dolor, hitting it square in the chest—and avoiding the tiefling. It shrieks in pain at the injury, obviously hurt.
Bilwin sees this and yells, “That’s my spell!”
Gven crashes into the room with Tempest Edge drawn, just in time to see the flash of the elven cleric’s spell. The half-orc invokes her barbarian rage and readies for combat.
The creature holding Dolor is suddenly emptyhanded, as the tiefling dissolves into a mist and reappears behind it. Still wielding both of his blades, Dolor attacks viciously. Gleaming Blade strikes first, severing one of the sorrowsworn’s arms from its torso followed quickly by the shortsword that removes a sharp clawed hand.
After the guiding bolt and multiple sword wounds, the first sorrosworn wobbles unsteadily before attacking Dolor. First, one arm strikes out and then another, but only the second one connects with the tiefling. The claw pierces the armor along his side, but the agile rogue is able to twist his body just enough to minimize the damage.
The second sorrowsworn lashes out with two of its arms and pulls Bilwin in to its torso, holding him tightly and squeezing. The dwarf’s breath is forced from his lungs and his eyes bulge, just a little, from the grappling maneuver.
Grindlefoot jumps into the fray, smashing his magicked staff against the second creature’s knees. It doesn’t acknowledge the attack and continues to squeeze the dwarf, who is having trouble maintaining consciousness.
With a final surge of energy, Bilwin points his finger up at the monster’s face and releases a Guiding Bolt. It rears backward and howls in agony, then puts renewed effort into squeezing the life from the dwarf.
Bilwin’s eyes close and his body goes limp as he succumbs to the creature’s continued crushing. The dwarf’s body slumps to the ground when the monster lets go, already looking for its next victim.
Mond yells, “No!” A ball of fire erupts from the sorcerer’s hand and flies at the creature, hitting it square in the chest and driving it backwards half a step.
Before realizing that Bilwin has been hurt so badly, Gven attacks the monster closest to Dolor. She swings Tempest Edge from her hip, striking upwards, the force removing the creature’s head from its body. Turning to her side, she sees the dwarf lying motionless on the ground. The rage inside her grows as she launches herself at the remaining monster, who evades her deadly attack with a step backwards.
Elden runs over to the fallen dwarf, “It’s not your time yet, dwarf.” He lays his hand on Bilwin and closes his eyes for a brief moment, calling forth his druidic healing energy.
The dwarf’s eyes suddenly open and his mouth gapes wide, pulling in a deep breath of air.
Rushing to Bilwin’s side, Dolor thrusts Gleaming Blade into the monster’s midsection, feeling it sink deeply as the creature twists in pain. The tiefling’s offhand blade misses its mark, barely scratching his opponent’s arm.
Responding quicker than Dolor expected, an arm ending with its sharp claw thrusts forward and attempts to wrap around the tiefling, who deftly dodges backwards and to the side.
Speaking lowly to himself, Grindlefoot looks to Bilwin and makes a slight gesture with his hand. The dwarf appears relieved to feel mildly better.
Still lying on the ground, Bilwin turns to the monster that almost took his life and defiantly states, “Not today!” Again, a blinding bolt of light shoots from the dwarf’s hand into the creature’s chest, leaving a large incendiary hole in its wake. In its death throws, the large sorrowsworn stumbles forward and falls on top of the dwarf with its arms and claws splayed out to the sides.
Obviously trapped under the monster’s weight and girth, Bilwin struggles to move. “A little help here, if ya don’t mind.”
With the sorrowsworn vanquished, Mond moves to investigate the two coffins. He finds silver plates adorning each one. One reads “Nolan Dolander - Beloved Brother” and the other states “Evisha Dolander - Beloved Sister.”
“This plane of Shadowfell must have used their exceptional loneliness and strong siblings bond to somehow turn them into lonely sorrowsworn, as you identified, Elden. An interesting development.”
While the others are preoccupied with their surroundings and helping Bilwin out of his predicament, Dolor sneaks up the stairway in the southwest corner of the room. It returns to the lengthy hall where they entered the burial chambers. Newmy is busily polishing a bust in front of a crypt, characterizing one of the Dolindars.
Gathering themselves after their battle, the group eventually makes their way up the stairs in the southwest corner, back to the puzzle door.
The intricately decorated wooden door is larger than most and has no handle. Tiles form two lines across the door, set high enough that a halfling can reach them. The top line reads “DOLINDAR” and the bottom spells out “NO WORLD TO RETURN.”
Dolor pushes a few of the tiles, finding that each one remains inset, but there’s no indication that the door responds. Several seconds later, the tiles pop out and they’re all flush again.
“I think this is an anagram, or similar to one. I have an idea.” Mond moves to the door and begins pushing buttons, spelling out “WORD TO TURN.”
Immediately, everyone in the group feels a deep sadness that envelopes their soul. The emotional pain is strong enough to push Elden, Dolor, and Gven to kneel on the ground. A large keyhole appears centered beneath the word puzzle.
A minute later, Dolor regains his focus, comes to his feet, and investigates the magically revealed lock. Retrieving his lockpick from a pocket, the tiefling inserts the pick and moves it around in various directions, attempting to shift the tumblers in just the right way. Hearing a loud click, the door slowly inches open.
Eager to see what’s beyond, Bilwin pushes past Dolor and opens the door to enter the next area. Rolling her eyes at the impestuous dwarf, Gven immediately follows.
The dwarf and half-orc enter a large chamber, roughly sixty feet wide from the north side to the south, and thirty five feet across to the far side, from west to east. They stand on a platform that extends the width of the room, but only about ten feet outwards toward the far side. Where the platform ends, the floor is a few feet lower and filled with swords, daggers, and the pointy ends of all sorts of weapons sticking up out of the stone. The recessed floor extends for fifteen feet, creating a dangerous trench before another platform raises to the same height as the one they stand on.
The platform on the far side of the chamber mirrors the one they’re standing on; it runs the length of the eastern wall and is roughly ten feet deep. In its center there is a large stone coffin. Even from thirty feet away, Bilwin and Gven can see the ornately carved symbols that cover its exterior.