Scarlet Citadel Session 54 – The Chained Thing

Here’s the write up from our first Scarlet Citadel session of 2024, in which we continued the battle between the PCs and their ally, the Shadow River Lord, and the lich Llagel, and the adventurers finally encountered the Chained Thing.

You can read earlier posts here. This post contains spoilers for Scarlet Citadel.

---

As the Shadow River Lord and Llagfel fight on, the green miasma from the braziers continues to harm the adventurers, reducing their maximum hit points when they fail their Constitution saves. Tunde dashes across the crypt to the south door and checks it for traps. Maya and Tricksy follow, while Clairmont remains in the centre of the room.

When Tricksy brings Vardesain’s Ghastly Stave close to the door, it starts to glow and a skull symbol becomes visible. The elf opens the door and Tunde enters the chamber beyond where the hideous Chained Thing awaits. The foul creature emits a wave of necrotic energy which incapacitates Maya. Clairmont casts wall of fire to burn the Chained Thing, Tunde attacks with her eldritch blasts, and Tricksy sneak attacks with his rapier. Badly injured and unable to regenerate thanks to the ghoul light, the Chained Thing dies in the wall of fire at the start of its turn. Maya stumbles to her feet and break its chain with her battle axe, sealing the portal to the Dry Lands at long last!

Clairmont bursts into radiance, scorching the phantom wights, then does it again, killing around half those still standing. Tunde kills Llagfel with eldritch blast, and the shadow skeletons mop up the last few wights. The characters and their allies are victorious!

The Shadow River Lord takes Vardesain’s staff from Tricksy and declares himself to be the new ruler of this level of the Scarlet Citadel. More shadow skeletons emerge from the Black River to take their place at his side. 

Before throwing the characters out of his new throne room, the Shadow River Lord tells them they need to find and destroy Llagfel’s phylactery. Maya searches the throne, Tunde checks the braziers, while Tricksy examines the statue in Vardesain’s shrine. Tipping it over with Maya’s help, he discovers the phylactery – a mummified quipper with gold and silver accents sewn along its fins and gills and with aquamarine stones in its eye sockets. Maya hits it with her axe but fails to damage it. When the group asks the Shadow River Lord how to destroy it, he suggests throwing it into the “sphere of darkness” in the Howling Halls below. 

The Shadow River Lord refuses to let the adventurers sleep in the corner of his throne room, so they return to the Golden Pyramids room to have a long rest in the company of the two large spider corpses. 

---

That night, everyone has the same strange dream in which Gellert the Gruesome appears, saying “It is time we met. Come to my apartment on the Black River.” The characters see the landing where they have been teleported to the summoning chamber on Level 3 by the monolith champion. 

---

The group decide to decline Gellert’s kind invitation. Instead, Clairmont casts commune and establishes that the “ice level” Professor Yaffle scouted holds the “sphere of darkness”. Maya ties Llagfel’s phylactery to the front of the ghoul light so it is constantly bathed in its radiance as long as the candle is burning. 

As they head towards the Frog Shrine to investigate the stairs up, they spot the monolith champion on the opposite bank, holding a tray of drinks. They steer their raft in the opposite direction.

When they reach the shrine, the characters find it occupied by a group of deep ones who are leaving offerings at the feet of the frog statue…. 

---

If you’d like to keep up to date with my Scarlet Citadel campaign and other posts, please do join my mailing list – there’s a sign up form on the home page and subscribers receive a free Parsantium supplement. 

---

Main image by David Auden Nash