Heroes of the Vale – Chapter 2, Episode 16: Death's Door

"Here we go again."

—Alyndra, Heroes of the Vale

Watch Heroes of the Vale – Chapter 2, Episode 16: Death's Door

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Dramatis Personae

Our heroes are 8th-level characters:

Todd Kenreck as the Dungeon Master
Keen, Eladrin Eldritch Knight Fighter played by TJ Storm
Briv, Half-Orc Oath of Heroism Paladin played by Adam Bradford
Penelope, Halfling Circle of Land Druid played by Hope LaVelle
Alyndra Alexandria Garanahil Sarrbarand, Lorekeeper of Rime Spiro, Kinscribe of Clan Monkeymouse, High Elf Cleric/Wizard played by Jen Kretchmer
Orkira, Dragonborn Light Domain Cleric played by Lauren Urban

Full Summary

Three months have passed as the Heroes have traveled through space on their stolen illithid ship. They have done their best to figure out where the soul of Penelope Half-Pint has gone while working to keep her body alive and healthy. Alyndra contacts the mechanic in Avernus that Penelope called her uncle, and while his suspicious replies to her questions lead them to believe something is going on in the Hells, they are unsure if it’s their halfling friend or something more sinister.

Now they hover over their homeworld, watching in despair at the flashes of explosions as the war continues to rage on the surface. Suddenly there is a loud thudding sound and metal scraping on metal as a small craft with strange pearl sails has arrived, attaching to the side of the ship and burning through the hull. As the group prepare to repel the invader they see a small, brown skinned halfling with a mess of bright red hair, and realize it’s Freely! Their former mind flayer friend is humming the music he heard in Penelope’s head when he first encountered the Heroes, and happily asks where he can find his fellow halfling. As Keen is introduced to Freely and their meeting explained the eladrin checks out the inside of the new vessel. The small ship is covered in handwritten notes recounting meeting the group, simple drawings of what he thinks Saranthis looks like, and a list of items he knows do not work.

On explaining the sad fate that has befallen Penelope, Freely remembers he had information to share. Pulling a piece of parchment out of his boot he reads the note he made for himself, “Saranthis told me the location of a prison holding Vale, and the githyanki are trying to open the prison and let the old god loose. Also under no circumstances tell them I told you this or turn over the…” and then he stops abruptly to attempt to hide the rest of the note. He even has a map showing the location of the prison. As Keen and Alyndra work on repairing the hole in the ship and affixing a door, Freely tries to convince Orkira to let him see Penelope. The cleric is resistant to the idea as she thinks it would be creepy and strange to show off the unconscious body, urging him to wait until after they rescue her soul.

Alyndra asks for the coin containing Saranthis’ soul to be returned, but Freely claims that he used the coin to pay for his craft. He continues to push to see Penelope, so Orkira finally relents and brings him to see the comatose body. She explains how this is because of pulling the Void card from the deck of many things, how Penelope hoped to pull a good card that would help save the world. Orkira calls her friend a hero, but sadly admits that things go wrong for the group on a regular basis and so now they’re trying to rescue the halfling. Hoping to help find out where her soul has gone to, Freely touches Penelope’s hand and uses gaze of two minds to see what the druid is experiencing. He observes a gigantic suit of armor holding a tiny crystal shard walking through a glade to a massive tower. At the top is an ancient, unblinking wizard behind a massive stone desk, and as the suit of armor places the shard on the desk wizened figure announces “Four to go.”

Freely relays everything he witnessed, and Orkira recognizes the old robed wizard as the same Count that gave them their first mission to capture Ruin all those years ago back in the Nentir Vale. Now with a location to go to, the Heroes offer Freely the opportunity to join them in rescuing their friend, and he is all too happy to accept. But before any more plans can be made the ship is rocked by an explosion as alarms begin to blare again! Alyndra can feel that something has gone terribly wrong with the source of magic on the ship, and the temperature increases several degrees as strange whispers can be heard. Freely silently asks the coin in his boot what is happening, and Saranthis replies that “she” has arrived. Alyndra and Orkira rush to check on the control center but a sudden wave of necrotic energy causes the wizard’s eyes to turn black and a horrific, high pitched scream to spill out of her mouth. Lesser restoration snaps her out of it, but seems to confirm that Saranthis is involved and that Freely might be untrustworthy.

In a panic Freely grabs Penelope’s body and heads for his ship, intent on fleeing to safety. As Orkira rushes after him, Alyndra can see Walton on a nearby control panel. The chiwinga is stabbing the electronics with his spear, gleefully demolishing everything and excited to destroy the ship. Alyndra uses her mage hand to grab him and place him into her bag of holding, only to turn and see a second Walton standing nearby in confusion. Both are quickly deposited into her bag and begin to battle.

Just as Freely reaches the door to his ship the dragonborn catches up to him, insisting on an explanation before he can flee with their friend. There is a tap on her shoulder and a familiar taunting voice, and Orkira turns around to find the black eyed Neverember grinning up at her. Frustrated at everything falling apart and trying to deal with one problem at a time, Orkira tries to cast hold person on the evil druid. Neverember resists the spell and then tries to return the favor, but the cleric also resists being held. As Freely ducks into his ship with Keen and Alyndra right behind him, Orkira lets loose her weakening breath on Neverember and prepares to tackle the halfling to the ground, but Alyndra manages to cast banishment and send the evil twin back to the Shadowfell.

Orkira demands answers, and the evil Walton claims they were sent here by the Pit Fiend by way of the magic crystal in the ship to assist the Heroes. However he got sidetracked having fun destroying the ship, and admits it was a bad idea. Alyndra can release her spell before a minute has passed to let Neverember return, and she asks her friends if they have a preference. Orkira wryly points out that conversation will take more than sixty seconds, but that they can always try to banish her again if necessary. Evil Walton loudly petitions for the return of his Penelope, then jokes that the dragonborn looks like a giant monster lizard who breathes fire, and with uncharacteristic anger Orkira growls back demanding the chwinga be quiet or she will step on him.

Neverember appears in a twisted illithid ship filled with vampiric mind flayers, casting wall of fire to protect herself as she curses how evil everyone is. Just before she is overrun Alyndra drops her banish spell causing Neverember to reappear in the Material Plane, and she promises to be good to prevent being sent back. She collects her Walton and confirms his story that they were sent to help find Penelope Half-Pint, admitting she needs Penelope as much as the Heroes but avoiding answering why. Despite sensing the evil coming off of this halfling, Freely comes forward to introduce himself and offers to help as he believes Neverember is missing something, explaining the location of the crystal containing their friend’s soul. With powers granted to her from her fiendish patron, Neverember creates a portal to transport everyone to the Nentir Vale and jumps in. After a moment of hesitation Freely, still holding the body of Penelope, is ushered into the portal with Keen. With only Alyndra and Orkira remaining, the dragonborn growls out loud in frustration and depression about how tempted she is to summon the Phoenix and burn it all to the ground, before entering the portal. Alone for a moment, Alyndra collects whatever notes Freely has left behind, memorizes the controls of the ship, and with a sigh she follows into the portal.

Everyone appears in the Nentir Vale, back in the once destroyed silver mining town now rebuilt and inhabited again. Keen heads off to find the gold tree planted many years ago near Avren’s grave, and finding the spot pulls down a single gold piece hanging off a branch. The grave is complete undisturbed, and the eladrin sits at it’s side and recounts to his departed friend the story of what has happened since they lost him all those years ago. Keen admits how hard it is to know what has really happened since the timelines have become complex, but how he misses his friend and will keep his memory alive by planting trees of gold. A single raven lands on the tree to caw at Keen, then flies off and poops on the head of the Evil Walton.

Something about this place disturbs Alyndra, and she sends a message to her father asking if he is alright. After a long pause, he responds “Well, four to go.” Alyndra falls into a distraught silence.

Freely once again uses his powers to see through the soul of Penelope, and can get enough details from the room to realize that everything seems fake. Even the unblinking wizard is some sort of automaton, and the suit of armor at the base of the tower registers as undead evil. Relaying everything he saw confirms the tower is back near Fallcrest where they originally met, and the group begins the trek through the woods. Since the assumption is the wizard is seeking the other four members of the Heroes of the Vale, Freely and Neverember think they can use that to their advantage. As they walk the raven returns, scaring Freely before landing on Keen’s shoulder and regurgitating gold coins into the eladrin’s pocket.

Eventually they reach the tower, with the same imposing suit of armor standing at its base. Orkira approaches the figure and nods at it silently, repeating her actions from their first meeting. The armor nods in return, and the cleric walks into the tower without hesitation. Alyndra sends her familiar flying to the top to try and enter through the window, but Grif is disintegrated as soon as the owl enters the building. While resummoning her familiar, Alyndra notices that there are stairs headed down into the ground hidden by an illusion, and calls out for everyone to wait. No one is sure if upstairs is a trap, or if downstairs holds any answers. Keen believes they should go upstairs and talk to the wizard first, and while Orkira agrees she says she will follow Alyndra if her friend wishes to descend. The wizard is unsure, feeling a horrible sense of foreboding, and takes a coin out to flip and leave the choice to chance. Before she can toss it in the air Orkira reaches out to take hold of her hand, “Haven’t we left enough to chance? What do YOU want to do?”

Special thanks to B. Dave Walters for returning as our special guest! Find out what happens to everyone in the apparatus on September 18th at 2pm PT on twitch.tv/dndbeyond!

Lauren "OboeCrazy" Urban is the Community Manager for D&D Beyond, as well as a professional classical musician on oboe and English Horn. When she's not playing a Bard in real life she's a prolific Dungeon Master and player on a variety of livestreams and podcasts. She lives in Seattle, Washington with her husband Luke where they spend their free time playing video games and drinking tea. The best way to keep up with Lauren's busy schedule is to follow her on Twitter at @OboeCrazy.