s4e3 -- ShadowCult When we left our heroes, there were in the Base of FriendFell confronting a collection of Elves forcing human refugees to continue work on the magic circle. It's clear the elves are being possessed by little shadowyrms in the spirit world, that are forcing the corpses of those possessed to rise like zombies until further destroyed forcing the little demon spirits from their hosts... squishing them in the spirit world is easy enough but they have much bigger cousins as well. Feng in the spirit world starts batting the lil bests from the souls of those possessed, splattering them as they emerge. But the bigger shadowfiiends skulk the spirit world as well... ... Right away a MASSIVE Demonic Undead Shadow Dragon Mage burst from the river, flying fast down the hall swallowing Chuck in one gulp along with a slew of elves and humans then it rushes out of sight down the dark interior passages of the FriendFell structure. Feng pulls the remaining teammates into the spirit world in time to not be caught in a second pass-- further ahead there' must be another entry point to the river that the huge creature is using to flank the team's tunnel. during the second pass, the creature responds to the team in the spirit world and roars frustration as it again darts through the tunnels. large shadowfiends skulk the spirit world dripping black ooze that's sticky to the touch and caustic with necrotic aura... they can't stand up for long against the three heroes but they do too much damage to ignore. Killing them turns them to inky goopy necro stains on the ground that other shadowfiends can absorb and super power their own supernatural abilities.. that are mostly just screaming at you , making you stunned for a round. Something that Gang is rather vulneragle to.. but maheva's radiant spell cache does some serious damage to fiends and they all goop pretty fast. Down the corridors, the team knocks down some more fiends as they search for the heart of the matter... they curve about inside the structure and find the second river entry point the massive dragon fiend used to circle around-- and there's a nest of the little shadowyrms past the rive breecah. Slaughterign the little wyrms is easy. srtamp stamp stamp. There's a large roof leading up above the river, the shadow dragon descends-- njow in the spirit world along with shadowfiends... the team huddles under gang's mask solace for a long rest while the fiends patiently wait for another round of fighting. ... which they get plenty of. the huge dragon fiend breathes a nasty necrotic breath weapon as well as a path of necrotic shadow that paralyzes the unwary. This plus sizable strength and damage... same goopy ooze of necroitc shadow leaves gang's firewand stuck to the beast as the creature puts the team on their back heels until they retreat nearly dead from the structure and hide under the mask solace in the winter fields for another long rest. turns out Chuck crawled out of the fiend's somach and fell into the river, eventurally depositing in the river lair beneath Blood Crescent where he also has a long rest in the Mansion of Quality Leisure, ready to met up with the team and reassess their strategies. time spent in game: about 20 hours. it is now mid morning 2/3 to level 16.