Church of Sorrow
Type: Location — Shadowfell cathedral; Sharran-adjacent site of the lost and the grieving Region: The Shadowfell — mountaintop; exact position relative to Letherna's geography not yet established Status (latest): Nave cleared; party departed. Full party entered in session 037, fought the Shadovar, and exited into the Shadowfell exterior in session 038. A Drider mercenary group (Brigharth and his crew) was en route to the Church during session 038 to collect a component from the Chorus — the nature of the extraction and its effect on the choir are unknown. The broken stained glass window remains a point of egress; the portal to the Temple of Shar presumably still functions. First Reference: Session 036
Description
A vast Gothic cathedral in the Shadowfell, on a mountaintop. The vaulting is ribbed stone, pale against dark sky visible through high lancet windows. Frescoes or murals run along the nave walls — imagery from a world, or from many worlds, that no longer exist as they were: grief-imagery, loss-imagery, the weight of remembrance sealed in paint. The style predates the Shadowfell; it looks like it was brought here rather than made here.
Above the nave, in the atrium space: a choir. Incorporeal forms — the lost souls of the Church of Sorrow — float and sing. Their voices operate in registers that press against the inside of the skull. For the grief-attuned or the Shadowfell-native, it is almost manageable. For others, it may not be.
What the Party Knows
- The portal from the Temple of Shar connects here. The transit is instantaneous; step through the dark mirror in the inner sanctum and emerge in the Church of Sorrow.
- The choir is lost souls. Per the Dark Mother: people whose grief was too great for them to release their hold on the living world. They could not depart to their proper rest. Shar tends them. These are not the Raven Queen's wards — they are on the margins of the proper dead, and the Raven Queen's courier system apparently does not route through here.
- The Chorus of Sorrow is a live mechanical hazard: DC 13 Charisma check each round; failure = disadvantage on checks and attacks that round. Ubys (Shadar-Kai) has advantage on these checks. Crowley failed his Round 1 check — the Chorus resonated with his sister's soul and his returning memories, hitting him like a physical blow.
- The nave has pews and statues — pews offer cover from arcane burst but not fireball; statues offer solid cover. The ceiling is 80–100 feet high.
- The stained glass windows are high on the walls; colors washed to diffuse blue by the Shadowfell. One window is broken — the escaped fourth Shadovar mage slipped through it to the exterior.
- The portal back to the Temple of Shar was still open after the combat. The party controls the nave.
Session 037 — The Battle of the Nave
Four Shadovar mages plus two Shadow Mastiffs ambushed the party upon entry. Combat lasted approximately four rounds:
- Both Shadow Mastiffs killed in Round 1 (breath weapons + Whisper blade).
- Mage 1 (fireball specialist) killed by KeYs + Falkor aerial grapple.
- Mage 2 killed by combined Lessie Call Lightning + Moist Scorching Ray crit.
- Mage 3 (Echelon, the cell leader) restrained by Iron Bands of Binding (thrown by Crowley), then executed by Ubys with Voidfang. Soul marked for the Raven Queen.
- Mage 4 (invisible from Round 1) escaped through the broken stained glass window. Current location unknown.
Session 038 — Departure and the Brigharth Thread
The party exited the Church of Sorrow through its exterior door onto the Shadowfell mountaintop. As they prepared to travel northeast, they encountered Brigharth the Drider approaching with a mercenary crew. Brigharth was heading to the Church of Sorrow to collect a component from the Chorus — described as an ingredient for a great spell; he does not know what the spell is, only that he was hired to retrieve it and deliver it via the Underdark. The party did not interfere with his mission.