"Ring That Gong, Madelynn"

On our journey north, we saw the frozen bodies of previous travelers. Brylywnn, Caulkin, and RC see a flying castle flying overhead. This castle is much larger than Zephyros’, and seems to be a full castle rather than a tower. It is flying south along the path we are on, as we walk north. We continue further and further north, as more of the group takes on exhaustion. Just ahead of us, we see a giant cave that has pillars at the mouth of it. The cave is about 100’ ahead of us. We walk towards the entrance and look inside. We see torches along the walls, and the talking coming from within the cave (not giant, elvish, celestial, or common). The pillars themselves have serpents carved into them. Brylywnn recalls from her history knowledge that this might be a cave dedicated to spirits, made by the Great Worm Tribe.

• “I can take my armor off”
  *Crowd Boos*

We stand at the entrance of the cave and come up with a plan. Brylywnn casts invisibility on herself and sneaks into the cave. As she enters she sees a large cavern about 300’ wide. Straight ahead she sees a very high platform with ridges along the edge, with two medium ledges on the side. On the sides, there appear to be statues. 

• As she looks around, on the peak (top level about 70’ above her), there are about 3 more statues with torches illuminating the area. She also sees dozens of people walking down on the lower level. She sees that all of the people present are either women, children, or elderly. She was able to get about 30’ away from entrances that appear to be bedrooms. 

• She is about 100’ into the cave at this point. Brylywnn sends a message to us, describing what she sees, but her concentration breaks. But, as she sends her message invisibility breaks and she becomes visible. However, she is quickly able to resume invisibility and escapes without detection. 

Brylynn shares all of this information with us. She decides to reenter the cave to try and get closer and get additional information. She gets closer to one of the bedrooms, and hears basic human conversation. “Mommy they’ve been gone for days. They’ll be back soon!” Other conversations reference fathers or dads not being home right now, but that they will be home soon. 

• She hears two women whispering, and exchange “This is bad. We can’t hold out much longer. The blizzard must be slowing them down. Worm Blood is leading them, he’ll never lead them astray!”

• As she turns around to leave, she passes one of the bedrooms and she sees two men who are gravely ill, being tended to by a healer. In her head she hears, “Please. I sense your presence. I need your help. These people need your help. I fear they will not be able to handle it in their state.”

Brylywnn comes back to the mouth of the cave and shares updates with us, including the voice in her head that was asking for health. We come up with a plan to approach the persons living in the cave, trying to appear non-threatening. Brylywnn and Pearl go in first as Brylywnn is a woman and Pearl is injured. She casts dancing lights to go ahead of them first down the cave entrance, and they follow, flanked by the other two lights.

• Adult women are standing there, examining the lights and Brylywnn and Pearl walk in. With ‘Understand Languages’ Brylywnn hears someone say “go and fetch Matilda. She understands languages. And go see if one of the men can be here!’

The older woman comes over and says that she does speak some Common. One of the two injured men hobbles out, covered and bruised, and almost skeletal.

• The woman exclaims that Brylwynn needs to heal Pearl, or leave. Unable to heal exhaustion, this proves to be quite a battle. She casts Healing Word on the injured man, healing him somewhat.

• The woman shares that their men left a few days ago and the blizzard has been going on for days and days. They had been avoiding a temple for days, but Worm Blood thought this temple to the north may have something to do with it.

• Brylwynn heals the other injured man. The woman leads us to a cavern on the second floor and offers us a place to stay until Worm Blood returns. We see two snake statues that appear to be overlooking the entrance to the cave.

The cavern we are in, we see a large circular cavern. In the middle, there is a long gong. The cavern we are staying in is about 300’ back into the cave. We rest for the night, keeping a watch on our little alcove as we sleep. As she sleeps, Brylwynn has some of the deepest sleep of her life. 

• In one of her dreams, she sees darkness out in front of her. A creature appears in front of her. It is a large snake with wings. His name is Elrem. He is a large blue-green serpent with orange wings. 

• She is told: These people need your help. They are in a danger they do not foresee coming. There is a creature sleeping under their home. I have become fond of these people. They have erected shrines in my honor. If you aid them, I will award you. To awaken the monster, you must hit the gong. The payout is going to be the receivers of magical gifts, and the gong which we will want to take with us. 

• The gong itself is a relic of a long deceased giant clan that may come of use. 

During their second watch, Brylwynn shares with Pearl the message the voice gave to her. We decide to tell Matilda this message. She is doubtful that Brylwynn heard a message from Elrem. She visits their altar to him and comes back, now believing our message and warning. 

We ready ourselves after the townsfolk are safe on the second level. The gong is run and 30 seconds later, we hear a bunch of loud screeches and burrowing up from underground. Three horrible monsters appear and battle ensues. 

• During the battle Caulkin cuts the monsters, which spew out liquid and burn him.