12 July 2019

Tying up Loose Ends

When we last left our brave adventurers, they had just been flamed by an angry red dragon's fire.

[Meta-game: The next section was a Skill Challenge. Players are given a situation and must decide which skill they will use to address it, and come up with a plausible way in which the skill they chose helps to solve the problem at hand. A player with proficiency in the skill must roll to try to make the challenge.]

It is suggested that our plan should be to try to get someone to help with the out-of-control dragon. We decide to split the party to get help from Errde and the giants. Ezri transforms into a horse to carry Bree and Jimjar to the giants. Bree casts invisibility to make them less of a target for the dragon (the horse is still visible). Kais, Caius, and Autun head for Errde's office. Kais recognizes a route out of the dragon's lair and directs the group out onto the street. A litter is passing by with a member of the Council of Savants. Bree casts Fey Presence (fear) and Ezri takes on the appearance of a charging nightmare, with a coal-black coat and flames streaming from her mane and tail. The derro scatter out of their path (and are probably found by the dragon shortly thereafter). Jimjar recognizes the way to the giants' cave, and they make good time. Meanwhile, Autun charges into the hold, diving past a group of guardsmen to reach Errde. He breathlessly tells her of the dragon's attack. She seems unimpressed - isn't that the [[Keepers of the Flame |Keepers] problem? Caius reminds her of the blood-curdling things a rampaging dragon can do to a city, and Errde decides she should probably raise some guardsmen to stop it. Meanwhile, Bree, Ezri, and Jimjar have reached the stone giants, and tell them of the problem. Hgraam feels the stone and confirms that the dragon is indeed destroying part of the city - the giants rush in to help. When the Stone Guard and giants arrive, the derro have been holding off the dragon, keeping it from breaking into the rest of the city. There are heavy losses among the derro and Stone Guard, and one giant dies, but by the time our group reconvenes and heads toward the fight, the dragon is killed.

Errde asks what happened. Kais explains to the best of his knowledge - the Keepers said they could not lie to the dragon, so we came up with a plan to confess their deception to the dragon in a way that might not be too unpalatable, and yet when speaking to the dragon the Keeper decided to lie anyway. She asks how we escaped the dragon - we explain that we barely survived, and only managed with the use of some healing potions gifted to us by the Myconids.

That night, Caius sings a rousing tale of the battle with the dragon, accompanied by illusionary visuals from Kais. At Autun's request, Caius manages to wedge in a few lines about "and the derro helped too". He ends with encouragement in standing united in the battle yet to come, against the insidious demons. Kais shows the warnings we've seen - figures with a sudden onset of extra fingers and women who appear different to different people.

Bree is weirdly quiet. Alone in her room, she prays for forgiveness - perhaps red dragons are an animal sacred to her patron.

We also do some shopping: 120gp of spell inks, 120 arrows, 100 gp to gift-wrap the surface black bear as a gift for the Deep King's menagerie.

Finally, we rest. The next day Jimjar, Kais and Autun go to rescue the cave bears. On the way in they encounter a xorn - Autun manages to distract it by throwing a 2gp gem at it. In the room with the bears they find the derro moving the surface bear. One of the cave bears has died. Cursory examination does not tell us what killed it. We ask the derro how they recommend moving the cave bears, and they suggest going via the Darklake. Kais suddenly realizes that the narrow passage into this tunnel *is* big enough to fit a cave bear after all. Autun casts Speak with Animals and convinces the bears to follow him. We proceed uneventfully out, with only a few salt fish as rewards and a small struggle to get the bears up the ladder. They reach the Darklake and swim off to freedom. "Well, I didn't think that would work," says Jimjar, with apparent satisfaction.

We meet with Errde to tell her all we've learned. She says that she has a gift for us from the Deep King, and a gift from the Stone Guard for Kais. The gift from the Deep King turns out to be a Folding Boat that will open with one command word and fold back into a small box with another. She advises to choose the command words carefully, as it's not picky about who says them. The gift for Kais is a pair of boots of elven make, which Kais will soon discover are Boots of Elvenkind. She also says she recommends leaving, as someone is likely to question how exactly we escaped the dragon.

Inventory

Gained

• A magic box that turns into a boat on command.
• Boots of Elven Kind (Kais)
• 450gp payment from Stone Guard
• 23gp for performance of Caius
• BUY: 120 arrows, 2x components for Find Familiar (10gp x2)

Lost

• 15sp spent at market (Caius)
• 1gp gem thrown to distract Zorn
• 7 salted fish used as bear food
• 1sp for postage of message to Stone Guard
• 100gp paid for bear rescue
• 120gp used for magic inks to inscribe Gentle Repose
• 5gp for arrows

Party inventory (excluding Gained and Lost items above)

• 50cp 760sp 1404gp 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 x3 (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 x2
• 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

• 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
• 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: 5 July 2019, All: Play_Sessions, Next: 19 July 2019