Shrine of the Three Hungers

Morning and equipment

The party wakes at the Last Gourd and collects the benefits of the snake bounty. Mruno stays behind to recover from the previous night's drinking. Roland, Valen, Grenak, and Reese travel to Dartfang Forge.

Roland buys a Sword of Lifestealing and a Sword of Wounding. Valen buys a Staff of Defense. Grenak obtains a Berserker Battleaxe and keeps two handaxes. The weapons carry subtle red responses that connect them to the Dark Weave corruption.

Grenak immediately tests the new axe indoors, producing concern from the shop staff. Stella, the lizardfolk clerk, manages the sale while the unnamed smith remains focused on the metalwork.

The corpses and the shrine riddle

On the trail back to the altar, the party finds three dead adventurers. Each corpse appears to have died from a different attack type: one burned, one torn apart, and one struck by arrows.

The party finds a note:

> “Feed us as we crave: by spell, by fang, by distant sting… satisfy us and the way opens.”

The note appears to describe three methods of feeding or activating the shrine: magic, melee, and ranged attacks.

The shrine puzzle

The shrine contains a cracked red altar, a fountain, faint runes, and three stone chests. The party debates the riddle and decides to activate the chests simultaneously.

Reese casts Eldritch Blast at one chest. Roland fires an arrow at another. Valen attacks the third with melee. The attacks satisfy the three conditions and open all three targets.

The chests reveal themselves as mimics. They initially behave as guardians rather than immediately attacking, but the situation turns hostile when the party continues interacting with them.

Roland faceplants into the fountain. Valen follows with a fountain disaster of his own, giving the shrine one last moment of slapstick before it becomes lethal.

Reese is pulled through the portal

The cracked altar flares crimson. Red energy tears open a portal and pulls Reese away from the shrine. Reese disappears mid-conversation, leaving the party without one of its core members.

The portal event is not a normal movement or voluntary teleport. Reese is forcibly removed and becomes missing. The party cannot follow before the portal closes.

The mimic fight

The mimics attack. Valen lands repeated staff and unarmed strikes. Grenak fights with handaxes before switching to the Berserker Battleaxe. Roland maintains Hunter's Mark and fires into the creatures.

Red crystal fragments spill from the mimics. The creatures fuse into one massive mimic, which grapples Valen and deals psychic and necrotic damage. Valen is dropped to zero hit points by a necrotic pulse.

Grenak continues attacking while enraged. Roland maintains pressure and searches for a way to bring the creature down. The party is close to defeat when the shadow of the Storm Wraith crosses the swamp.

Rhogar's entrance and the kill

Captain Rhogar Skyscale rappels from the Storm Wraith into the shrine. He introduces himself with a dramatic line about arriving late for dinner and asks what is on the menu.

Rhogar fires a lightning-charged crossbow bolt through the mimic's core. The attack kills the creature and ends the immediate threat.

After the fight, Rhogar confirms that he is the same dragonborn captain who transported the party earlier. With Reese missing, Rhogar remains as a continuing member of the group.