DIDx4

TL;DR

After having entered Obscurus for the first time, the players...

• The players stumbled around in the Shroud blindly, using canes and other objects to navigate without sight.
• The group was lured into a near fall into a ravine by voices before Shein was lured into falling into a canyon after seeing apparent attackers shooting at them from within the darkness.
• Toban was grabbed by a flying creature in the Shroud and carried away. The players briefly battled it, but it didn't put up much of a fight once it was out of its element.
• The group found a Gauntlet, one of Umos' skill tests. Their first challenge was a floor that had several tiles that heated up to show a path only Toban and Shein could see. After some initial mishaps, they managed to find their way across.
• The second challenge in the Gauntlet involved the group's shadows detaching from them and attacking them. The shadows kept coming back even after being killed. They had to burn themselves by lighting up the room to banish the shadows for good, after which the door unlocked.
• The third challenge found the group in a dusty library with a giant wraith of an old woman with intense glowing eyes who shushed them as she moved around the room.

Full Summary

After a brief explanation from Toban about what they could expect to find in the Shroud below, the party descended the platforms down to the wispy blackness emanating from the ground. Each of the party pulled something out of their packs to help them navigate, using canes, staffs, and other objects to poke around in the darkness. Some didn't have anything suitable and had to keep contact with the others. The group moved into the darkness, feeling the temperature drop and adjusting to the unnerving tension of being suddenly blinded. They began to move across uneven, uncertain terrain, with Toban and Shein keeping their heads on a swivel looking out for any potential threats lurking in the darkness. They continued on, changing elevation periodically and squeezing through tight passages until after a few hundred feet, the group heard voices in the distance. Proceeding cautiously, Scarf decided to scout ahead, hoping her lack of special darkvision that the Vesperkin possessed would be compensated for by her quiet movement. However, despite following the voices appearing to be right ahead of her, she had a brief lapse in attention and nearly fell into a ravine, after which the voices immediately cut off and she heard a clicking noise above her. She slashed above her with her Flow daggers, but hit nothing. Pulling herself up, she stumbled around in the darkness using her sense of smell to find her way back to Zero, bumping into him.

Continuing along their path and taking a wide berth around the ravine, the group made it another several hundred feet before Toban and Shein could make out the heat signatures of what appeared to be people up ahead. Two of them rose from a seated position and trained bows on the party, appearing to look right at them, despite clearly being of Human or similar height, while the third drew a sword and began to advance towards them. The party, unsure of what to do, tried calling out to these unseen figures, but received no response, and only saw the figures nocking arrows and crossbow bolts in response. They persisted, trying to reason with these figures, until one of them appeared to loose an arrow, after which the group heard the sound of something striking the ground behind them. Shein decided to throw a dagger at the archer in response, but despite being certain of his aim, he heard only the clatter of the dagger hitting the ground in the distance. Hoping their assailants were just beyond the Shroud, Rainer decided to pull out his Bullseye Lantern and proceed forward to shine it upon their would-be attackers. However, as Shein moved forward to lead the group out of the Shroud, he suddenly fell off of a cliff and hit the ground hard. Rainer hurried forward and tossed down a rope to Shein, who suddenly saw a giant form of some manner of creature swoop through the canyon he had fallen into past him, as if trying to attack him, before flying off into the distance and out of range of his vision. He began to frantically climb the rope, not wanting to confront the creature alone, but then Rainer above, who was holding the rope along with Zero, heard a whooshing noise and something large suddenly slammed into his back, nearly sending him over the cliff. However, Zero caught his arm just in time and managed to pull him back. As Shein reached the top, the group took up defensive positions, but without being able to see anything, they were unable to see any threats coming; though Toban and Shein noticed the sudden lack of the humanoid figures they had previously seen attacking them. As the group moved around the canyon, something suddenly swooped down and grabbed Toban, rapidly lifting him into the air. Not wanting to lose track of them, Zero made the quick decision to cast Faerie Fire on Toban and the unseen creature, lining them in violet light, which began to burn Toban as well as the creature. As they followed the creature, they came to the edge of the Shroud and exited, seeing the glowing form of the creature carrying Toban off into the distance over a high ridge. Quickly scrambling to the top, they saw the creature flying off to the side of some sort of large building blocking the passage through a pass. As they caught up with the creature, Shein quickly loosed an arrow, followed by one of Scarf's Flow daggers, causing the creature to drop Toban. The creature then landed in the midst of the group, scorching them all with the light emitted by Zero's Faerie Fire, and they finally managed to get a good look at it.

The creature charged at Rainer, attempting to bite him, but he managed to use a Shield spell to protect himself. Shein then managed to pierce it in a vital spot with an arrow, and Scarf took the opportunity to circle around behind it and finish it off with a devastating blow to the back with his Flow blades. With the creature dealt with, Toban shook off the encounter despite his burns and noticed the building blocking their passage forward, which he quickly identified as a Gauntlet -- the very thing Delvers make their way into Obscurus to find. He explained that they were challenges laid forth by Umos herself to test mortals' mettle. Excited to his skill, Zero proceeded toward the building, noting the placard above the door with a carving of a common depiction of Umos' face on it. After opening the door, they were greeted by a long hallway with what appeared to be a section of it with slightly different floor tiles. Approaching cautiously, Shein and Toban were greeted by a very brief vision of a path being lit by heat signatures underneath specific floor tiles, apparently directing them to the correct path to take. Toban seemed to think it pretty cut and dry, though admitted he didn't have a good view of the floor because he wasn't expecting it. It fell to Shein to dictate the path, and he began traversing the floor, trying to remember the way. However, about half-way there, he stepped in the wrong place and was immediately teleported back to the beginning, feeling his very bones freeze and lock up painfully. After explaining what had happened, Zero offered to be the sacrificial lamb, as he could always cast Mending on himself if needed, and then proceeded to walk along the path according to Shein's direction. It took a few attempts, but he eventually reached the other side, after which the rest of the group followed suit.

Proceeding through the door to the next room, they found an oval-shaped room with two walls parallel to the outer walls extending away from them, connected by another wall, forming four little alcoves that were hidden away from the central area. After entering, the door locked behind them, and they felt a pulling sensation as they felt something being drawn out of them. Looking down, they saw their very shadows stretching away from them until they detached. The shadows then rose from the ground and became solid, after which they lunged at the group to attack them. The group began to fight back, noting that the shadows looked just like them and used the same weapons. With some quick thinking, Rainer decided to take out his Bullseye Lantern, shining it upon the shadow creatures, which caused them to let out anguished moans and quickly vanish in wisps of black. After beating back all the shadows, they thought they were done, but after only moments, the shadows began to reappear within the darkness, and swarmed Shein, quickly knocking him unconscious. Rainer quickly ran over and healed him before Zero, believing them to possibly be a form of undead, used his Channel Divinity to Turn Undead, which banished two of them, but seemed to not affect the rest. Rainer, put off guard by the sudden reappearance of the shadows, accidentally turned and caught Shein in the light of his lantern, rendering him unconscious from the burns. After healing Shein again, he tried to open the opposing door, but found it locked. On the opposite side of the room, Toban was overrun and knocked unconscious, followed by Junyall. Zero, not knowing what to do, prayed to Umos for guidance, and heard a voice in his head telling him "*You can't fight a shadow in the shadows...*" He got the message, and told the group to light up the room, and then proceeded to light a candle and leave it in the center of the room, which banished one of the shadows. The group began to move around the room, lighting it up, being burned by the light along the way. However, once the room was completely lit, the sense of anxiety they felt quickly vanished and the candles all went out. The group saw the forms of their shadows reattach themselves to their bodies and the door on the opposite side of the room clicked open.

After helping Toban and Junyall to their feet, the group proceeded into the next room, where they were greeted by the sight of what appeared to be a dusty library, with piles of books in heaps around the room amongst the unkempt bookshelves, and old wooden floors. As they looked around the room, their eyes settled on the form of a huge wraith of an old woman with intense glowing eyes moving about the room, paying them no mind. After a few moments, it passed by them again and turned to regard them. It placed its finger up to its lips, as if to shush them, before continuing on its path around the room...