HighRollers: Lightfall/Episode 1

Campaign Summary
The caravan our adventurers were travelling with has halted for the night. As they set up camp they are suddenly attacked. The last thing they saw being the pale face of a hooded figure before they were knocked out.

Some time later they come to in an ancient underground ruins. Thin beams of light break through the cracks in the ceiling, just barely illuminating the room. Cam Buckland, Elora Galanodel, Jiǔtóu Zhìjī Jīng and Trellimar Aleath find themselves thrown on a stone floor, hands tied with vines, and their weapons and supplies taken from them and stashed away behind a wall of vines.

The ever-charismatic Cam is first to break the ice between the group by introducing himself and making jokes. Jiǔtóu has little interest in his sense of humour however, and only listens to him momentarily when he mentions that he has seen other Tieflings before, but she goes back to ignoring him when he reveals it was quite some time ago. Elora is friendlier towards Cam, and after releasing herself from the vines binding her with a druidic spell, she also frees Jiǔtóu and Trellimar.

Elora recognises the vines as Razor Vines and notes that they appear to have been purposefully placed rather than having grown naturally. The vines have also been warded, but she suspects fire will be able to destroy them. Trellimar decides to use an Eldritch blast against the wall and manages to punch a small hole through it. Jiǔtóu then uses her tail to retrieve her guandou from the other side, which she then uses to slash a bigger hole in the wall for the party to crawl through.

The group follows a short corridor that leads out to the main entrance hall of the ruins. As they approach one of the piles of sticks and vines begins to move and rise up. Trellimar alerts the creature to their presence by accidentally stepping a stick, initiating the first fight for the team. Jiǔtóu makes an incredible first attack, deftly running across the wall and lands a flying kick into the middle of the creature. However her attack awakens two similar but smaller creatures, one of which attacks Trellimar. Elora quickly casts a spell that successfully entangles the two smaller creatures in vines, restraining them. This provides Trellimar with an opportunity to retaliate against the creature that attacked him, and he hits it with an Eldritch blast. Cam makes a follow-up attack, throwing one of his daggers into the same creature, finishing it off. Jiǔtóu takes out the remaining two with a single swing of her guandou.

With the fight over the group have time to look around the room. They recognise the pattern of stars on the floor as the holy symbol of Corellon Larethian, god of elves. They know that this symbol is always depicted with silver stars, however some are painted gold on this particular design. Despite noticing the lamps on each side of the stairs are hinged, they are unable to make them function properly, and so they proceed to investigate the next corridor.

No light is filtering into the rooms beyond this point, so Cam lights up one of his daggers, which he calls Duracell, and throws it down the corridor into the next room. Glimpsing some bodies he decides to extinguish the light in case it attracts more creatures. Cam heals Jiǔtóu, but makes an exaggerated effort to touch her as much as possible in the process, leaving her feeling rather uncomfortable. Cam immediately fears losing his dagger and goes to reclaim it. Crawling along the floor, his hand touches flesh and blood on the floor as he enters the next room. The others follow with torches and they identify the bodies on the floor as other members of the caravan who were travelling with them. Vines inside the bodies animate them and begin to fight, Jiǔtóu starts this fight off with a similar move to before, and the adventurers swiftly destroy them. In this room there is an alter which Trellimar loots, secretly taking two urns, and also 2 vials which he does reveal to the others as potions of healing. As Cam rests Elora learns that they are actually in an ancient, royal burial chamber. Moving to the next room they discover Tomas, who was their caravan's master, badly beaten and injured. As Cam tends to his wounds, Tomas says he was in the same room with them not long ago but was taken by the creatures, leading the group to realise they would have been next in line had they not escaped. He blames himself for being complacent and not anticipating the caravan being attacked. Tomas also reveals that he knows the one who led the attack, a druid by the name on Renwyn. He states that Renwyn was someone who once cared for the land, and that he seemed in great despair when he attacked. The group learn that the vines listen to Renwyn and he can control them, and that a young girl has just been taken into the next room ahead of Thomas.

Stealthily entering the next room the group witness a Dryad and another creature made of vines holding up the body of the girl. They appear to have just finished draining the life from the girl when the Dryad detects the presence of the group, however she does not attack and instead speaks softly and coaxes the group out. They begin to see her as less of a threat as she reveals that her name is Gulthia, and that the place is being corrupted by the spirit of the elven queen Ayandris mourning her daughter. The spirit is too powerful for Gulthia to defeat so the only alternative she knows of is to try and appease the spirit by killing these innocents. She is regretful of her actions and is willing to let our heroes attempt alternative means so no more will have to die. Gulthia hands over the circlet that once belonged to the elven queen's daughter to Jiǔtóu in the hopes that they can bring it to the spirit to calm her.

Gulthia leads the heroes to Renwyn, who is in an even greater depth of despair about what is going on and feels terrible remorse for his actions. He reveals more information about Ayandris, stating that her daughter Dehal was slain by a chieftain Giant, and that a mace that was won in the battle is believed to be cursed and controlling Ayandris. The group decide to head to the burial tomb where Ayandris is, but before leaving Gulthia offers to cast armoured skin to one of them. Jiǔtóu is chosen to receive it since she is the only member to not already have some form of armour. Renwyn stays back to heal Tomas.

Cam manages to trigger a trap in the floor of the next room that results in him being badly poisoned. The group manages to quickly sit him down before he triggers any further traps. The effects of the poison soon start to wear off due to the small dosage and Cam requests a potion of healing from Trellimar. Trellimar is not so willing to help his team-mate however and only surrenders a potion when Cam trades him a handkerchief.

As they move to the burial room they realise there are no vines or mist anymore, only a severe cold. While carefully inspecting the tomb Jiǔtóu tires of Cam and pushes him onto it. He can see the mace inside when suddenly the spirit of Ayandris appears as a green figure. Jiǔtóu quickly pulls out the circlet but this ignites fury in the elven queen and she attacks, screaming MURDERERS.

The Meta-Game
Everyone introduces their characters at the start of the session. It is also revealed that both Katie and Matt had not played D&D before. Kim played a long time ago but is inexperienced. Mark and Trott play regularly in different campaigns. They mention that they have watched Critical Role to help them understand how the game works.

During the session, Trott can regularly be seen drinking from a mug which has "I'm a Twat" printed on the base.