28 June 2019

The Obelisk

Jimjar runs back into the room just in time to see the last zombie put to rest. He tells the group of what he found when scouting ahead. Seb confirms that the path to the obelisk is through the iron doors. The group approaches the doors cautiously. Kais opens the door quietly, and sees a room studded with the same magic stones that we have encountered elsewhere in the Underdark. Here they give off a white light, almost like sunlight. In the glow, a raised mesa is visible with two platforms - one supporting a metal obelisk, and one supporting a very large red egg. This almost has to be the dragon's egg, and as the group watches a female duergar approaches the obelisk, lays her hands on it, and there is a flash of light and an object falls to the floor. She picks it up and laughs.

Autun and Caius decide to go into the room to try to talk to her. Kais trains an arrow on her, ready to fire if anything seems amiss. Autun is hit by two visible beams from above and behind him - he shakes off their effects but it is clear they were not benign. They turn to see a Spectator - a sort of junior Beholder with four eyestalks. The dwarf seems to pay them no mind. For Kais, Caius's horrified face is sufficient evidence that things have indeed gone amiss, and he launches an arrow through the duergar. She manages to crawl off to behind the obelisk. Bree attacks the Spectator with two Eldritch blasts, but one of them is deflected into Ezri while the other is abosrbed. Bree then inexplicably becomes invisible. Caius runs to catch up with the duergar while the rest of the party takes on the Spectator with arrows. Ezri, in spider form, webs the thing. After being pincushioned by surprisingly few arrows, the Spectator splats into a puddle of goo, revealing a chest on the ledge behind it. Ezri makes a web rope for Kais to climb up, so he can pick the lock of the chest. The chest seems to contain a number of valuables (see list below).

Meanwhile, Caius managed to get close to the injured duergar, but the duergar lays her hands on the stone and suddenly disappears. The lack of footprints in the pool of blood under the obelisk suggest that she is genuinely transported and gone, not just invisible. She left behind a small coin which appears to be a contemporary surface coin, and a notebook with a list of other small objects. All seem to be ordinary things and we presume that it's a list of things that were brought through by the obelisk. There is no note of "surface" by anything, so we presume it's all surface objects. During this investigation, Bree becomes visible once more.

Kais tries to commune with the stones, but only gains a sense that it is the energy of the stone going through the obelisk that's causing the effect. There is no evidence that anything Abyssal came through here, and no particular note in the notebook around the time of the explosion. We manage to stuff the items from the chest and the dragon egg into the Bag of Holding (possibly having to unload some zurkhwood and other easily-replaced objects to make room).

We figure that we aren't far from the exit by the Darklake, so we head in that direction. We encounter a pool with strangely swirling water, with a level passageway to its left and a raised passageway to its right. We decide to take the raised passageway. Halfway across the path the water rises from the pool like a vertical cylinder and a single tentacle emerges from the cylinder. Luckily, the tentacle smashes itself against a stalactite, thus all we get is wet.

Once back at the entrance, we bid Seb farewell, and caution him not to talk of meeting us - we know that the Darrow are involved in this business with the demons, and there's no telling who we can and cannot trust. Caius gives him a single gold coin and tells him that it will protect him if he keeps his secrets. The party gives Seb some salted fish to take as well as a few handfuls of copper coins, and Seb seems genuinely grateful. After a kiss from Ezri, he runs off.

Back in the city, we head back to the hotel to drop off Rumpadump and Shuushar, with the plan to rest and then see the Keepers of the Flame. However, as soon as we arrive, we receive a message that Hgraam wants urgently to see us. Although we are exhausted from not sleeping and from fighting, we honor their request. We arrive about four hours later, mid-morning, to hear that Hgraam has arranged an audience with the Deep King. Of course we agree to go. We first unpack the chest from the bag, and lock the back of holding in the chest (along with our potions of acid and other potentially questionable items) and leave them under the guard of the giants.

We take a hair-raising mine cart ride to the Deep King's castle, during which Bree somehow manages to complete a Comprehend Languages ritual. We arrive at the castle, which is an enormous, impressive building with fountains of lava. We are greeted by a duergar who speaks an archaic form of Common. He tells us that we must hurry - the Deep King's lucid moments are getting rarer, he says.

We are led into a great hall, where a very old duergar is sitting on a throne, with a young, very beautiful and very human woman standing behind him....

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Prior: 14 June 2019, All: Play_Sessions, Next: 5 July 2019

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Inventory

Gained

• 467gp
• a large pouch of incense worth 10gp
• 6 perfumes worth ~2gp each
• 12 pouches of potpourri containing surface flowers
• bolts of velvet, silk, and linen worth 5gp each
• a feather of some unknown bird
• 5 furs worth 3gp each
• 1 ball of amber
• a pouch of surface coins. The pouch of coins seems to correspond to the coins in the notebook for the last week or so.
• notebook with documentation of objects retrieved by the obelisk
• a red dragon egg

Lost

• a few arrows, including one of Autun's +1/+1 arrows
• a bit of food
• some handfuls of copper coins
• some zurkhwood
• a night's sleep

Party inventory (excluding Gained and Lost items above)

• 251cp 760sp 937gp 19pl -cost of rooms
• misc gems worth 20gp
• 7 gems x 2gp each
• 3 amythysts worth 10gp each
• 2 rings from Wurtz (value?)
• 12 small gems worth 1 gp each (held by Jimjar)

• all of our original possessions, except disposables

• Potions of Greater Healing, 1 each (4d4+2)
• 2 potions of healing
• 2 gourds of antitoxin (gives 1 hour of advantage on saving throws against poison)
• 1 flask of holy water (carried by Autun)
• 11 unicorn hooves (goodberry)
• spell component pouch x2
• diamond worth 300gp
• 2x spell components for Find Familiar
• 23 pygmywort mushrooms
• 16 bigwig (embiggen) mushrooms
• 2 potions of greater healing
• Potion of fire breath
• 8 ampules of poison
• A jar of salve (5 doses of aloe)

• Stone Speaker Crystal
• bag of holding
• scroll of Protection From Fiends in a box of surface wood
• one pair of spectacles of darkvision
• a Quiver of Ehlonna (carried by Kais)
• Bree's Book of Shadows
• bag of magical rubies for delivery
• recipe for Alchemist Fire with ingredients for 2
• recipe for Vial of Acid with ingredients for 4
• hobbit-sized walking stick (Rod of the Pactkeeper)
• pendant in the shape of a scroll (Pendant of Messages)
• A spell scroll (gentle repose: now copied into Bree's spellbook)
• A note from Droki addressed to Nerrick

• detached hand of a deep gnome wearing a 2gp ring (hand to be returned to Blindenstone)
• A book with 3 wizards' spells
• A chest with a key
• 1 surface coin (carried by Bree)
• a hairy belt from an unknown surface animal (worn by Kais)
• snuff box with bits of incense (~1gp worth)
• a surface leather belt (worn by Caius)
• portrait of Ilvara, the drow priestess
• some crappy poetry about gemstones
• insignia from the dead drow priestess (3 headed flail?)
• book on drow heresy
• one set of bone dice (carried by Jimjar)
• 5 drow insignia
• fishing tackle x4
• thieves' lantern (carried by Kais)
• pouch with incense (worth 5gp)
• a Dwarvish recipe book
• a Dwarvish poetry book
• a bone flute
• a strange hourglass (worth 2gp)
• bracelet (silver) worth 6gp
• silver hand mirror
• small wood box
• silver headdress
• 3 rings with gems (from dead drow)
• 2 longbows (one kept by Kais, one kept by Autun)
• necklace with 3 headed flail
• decorated quiver (5gp)
• drow underwear
• a bunch of hairpins (fished out from between the teeth of the elf-Quaggoth)

• plush purple velvet cloak (worn by Autun)
• shield (carried by Caius)
• silvered sickle (carried by Ezri)
• 1 studded leather armor (kept by Kais)
• 1 bag of pitons (kept by Kais)
• 2 short swords (kept by Kais)
• 3 daggers (kept by Kais)
• 1 hand crossbow (kept by Kais)
• 1 bag of caltrops (kept by Kais)
• some rope: mostly hemp + 50 feet silk rope (1GP & 10GP)

• 24 +1 arrows
• some arrows
• some spears
• some crossbow bolts

• 200+ rations
• a lot of salt
• a lot of fish
• blue cap mushroom spores
• water orbs
• shambling mound debris (tinder)
• fire lichen

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Prior: 14 June 2019, All: Play_Sessions, Next: 5 July 2019