View source for Beyond the Palace Gates (Blighted City 10)

{{Infobox expedition log
| title             = Beyond the Palace Gates (Blighted City 10)
| date              = 8/17/23
| storyteller       = Dag
| tier_of_play      = Master
| player_characters = [[Kali]], [[Grist Vanafeld]], [[Hiromi]], [[Zeal]], [[Miles Ender]], [[Cyrus Leyvald]], [[Satori the Insatiable Armorer]]
| rewards           = 325 exp, 1800 gold, wayfinder (formula), Vanishing Wayfinder, Earthbinding rune, Energizing rune, Giant-Killing rune, Bitter rune, Swallow-Spike rune, Retaliation (lesser) rune, Boots of free running (lesser), boots of bounding
| result            = Success
| author            = Zeal
| downtime_days     = 1
}}
== Log ==
As per the council's request, this was only ever meant to be a scouting mission. Get in, scope out the situation, get as much information as we can on the dangers inside, and get out alive. With the help of Cyrus conjuring steps up to the top of the wall, we were able to scale the 60 foot height without much issue. Soon after came the true issue, which was that the entire area beyond the wall was pitch black. At first I surmised it was just an issue of my lack of darkvision, but those with it could not see in either. Magical darkness as it was, we found that not only did Hiromi's dancing lights only create a bubble of light when cast outside and sent in, but when light was cast inside the darkness it could outright dispel the darkness with some effort. We would need Kali and Cyrus to constantly dispel the dark as we went, but with a climbing kit and some spare rope between Miles and Hiromi we were able to lower ourselves into the darkness. Areas of dark were unnaturally cold, it turns out. It didn't play a significant role in this expedition at all, but it's worth noting.

Not long after we began traversing the darkness, a bevy of shadows attacked us. They were joined by a greater shadow and some wraiths. Aside from the shadows draining my strength, and Satori's to a lesser degree, they didn't cause us any issues that couldn't be quickly fixed. After Cyrus and Kali lit up the area we headed deeper in, into the courtyard. Some of the group was growing worried about progressing deeper as they saw more shadows in the darkness, including something Kali thought might be a devil. It hardly mattered however, we were already spotted. A dread wraith, a couple of wraiths, some shadows and two greater shadows began attacking us. One greater shadow stayed back and kept casting darkness back upon us to stop the sunlight from coming down, but with the help of Cyrus the presence of the light continued to weaken the wraiths as much as possible. Before we struck down the dread wraith I heard a voice in my head. It spoke infernal and said "You first." before firing a beam of necrotic energy at me. The harm spell, if I recognize it from when I've seen an undead use it to heal other undead back in the graveyard fight. I was able to completely resist it, but I concerningly still couldn't see it. Others were getting pulled in by an aura of some sort and enfeebled the same way the shadows were doing to me, to a lesser degree. 

As Satori approached the source of the harm spell and Cyrus gave us more light, it became more clear what we faced. A huge winged creature that looked as though it was leaking shadows from its body. It was no fiend, I knew that much. Satori identified it as a Vanyver, a type of Darvakka. It is native to the shadow plane and has both a weakness to good energy and silver weapons. There was a catch to it however, as it seems very capable of dispelling magic with ease. As I launched my first attack on it, it caught my halberd in its teeth and devoided it of magic for the next ten minutes, leaving me significantly less effective for the entirety of that fight. It had crushing blows, and delivered one such strangling grip onto Miles after grasping him. It also attempted to carry him into the pit using its powerful wings to fly away, but the rest of the team were thankfully able to stop it from doing so by killing it. 

The pit, and anything else beyond the courtyard, remains untouched. The next expedition there should come prepared with powerful sources of light without question, and a way to capitalize on the weaknesses of creatures such as the Darvakka that may be encountered deeper in. Before my halberd's powers were taken from it I was able to confirm they are harmed by disrupting energies the same way undead are, leading me to believe they function in a similar way. That is all the information we managed to gather before being forced to retreat.