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 dwarf. She manages to crawl off to behind the obelisk, and Bree inexplicably becomes invisible. Caius runs to catch up with her 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 dwarf, but she 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 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. 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 zirkwood 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, and a bridge over it. We decide to cross the bridge, and a tentacle of water raises from the pool. 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...
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.
Lost
- a few arrows, including one of Autun's +1/+1 arrows
- a bit of food
- some handfuls of copper coins
- a night's sleep
Prior: 14 June 2019, All: Play_Sessions, Next: 5 July 2019