Entering the Exeter

Session 45

 * Google Document (12-31-21)

During the first week of our preparations, Jorah also purchases five potions of healing with the funds provided by the emperor, which he distributes to Ashara and Reides. One day, Kain also gathers all of us and takes us to a bar in Falas to discuss our options with the Everburn Longsword. He says that we may be able to seal the blade along with the evil if we gather all the Abyssal Crests. That would be the most difficult way of dealing with it. Kain suggests that submerging the sword in an anti-magic field, like the one in the emperor’s palace, would disrupt the blade’s ability to summon a lieutenant of Alzrius. Kain admits that he’s not an expert in demonic magic, though. We’re also a little concerned about someone taking the sword out of the palace, especially considering that there’s a mole inside the palace. Kain promises that he would keep a direct watch on the sword if we leave it with him. He has an alternative idea, though. If the sword were sent to a different plane, it would be very difficult to track or retrieve. Some mages are able to create their own small demiplanes, which would be almost impossible to access except by the mage who created it. Ashara asks if we could use the bag of holding for that, but the rest of the party has decided to actually use it to hold items, like Reides’s backup spellbook. Also, we’ve now learned from experience that the bag of holding isn’t exactly secure when dealing with demons and mages. If we had a sheath for the sword that would block the sword’s flame, however, the bag might be a good temporary transport method for it. Making a sheath that sufficiently suppresses the flames would take time, though. Ashara points out the sheath might be less of an issue if they had an adamantine. Kain raises an eyebrow at her. He recommends heading for Atemcester if we want to pursue creating a demiplane, since he’s not well-versed in planar magic. His forte is defensive and trapping spells, which is why he thinks he could create a safe place for the sword in Falas. If anyone tried to get to it, they would at least get a face full of magic. Ashara is worried that we’re being forced into handing the sword over to the emperor, but Kain assures her the decision is ultimately ours and Eurystheos isn’t that kind of ruler. Ashara accepts this in the end, but she has seen people thrown in chains for less. Kain recommends that we give this task to a mage we trust, considering that the creator of the demiplane would still have fairly easy access to the sword. Unfortunately, Jorah doesn’t really know any mages from his time in Atemcester. He suggests tossing it in the ocean to rust, but Reides points out again that he has a god who would very strongly object to that. Jorah accepts this, and we end up deciding to get a sheath from Kain to suppress the flames for now so we can keep it in the bag of holding on our travels. We admit that we’d all feel more comfortable with the sword destroyed than sealed away though, especially after our Tyrian experience. Kain tells us that Atemcester would be a good bet for destroying the sword too, but if we find the right dwarf in the Exeter, we might be able to have it destroyed there too. He doesn’t know anyone specific, but the dwarves there tend to be very skilled at both making and breaking magical artifacts. He says he’ll get to work on the magical sheath, and we go our separate ways. Before returning to Port Valor, Kilwin tries to find a merchant willing to take a letter to Vila’s Watch. Since the werewolf issue is over and Vila’s Watch is open again, it’s not hard to find someone already heading that way.

Also during the first week, Jorah takes our new horse, the carriage, and the owl that Reides requested back to Port Valor. We name the new horse Cricket. Jorah has no idea what the owl is for! Reides takes the owl and goes to see Dillan. He’s playing fetch with Pepega (who has been staying with him this whole time) outside the temple. He looks like he’s doing much better than he was when we first met him. Reides greets them, and Pepega flies to him. Reides tells Dillan that he could be a professional owl trainer if he keeps at it and thanks him for making Pepega so strong for him. He reveals the birdcage he was hiding behind his back. Inside, there’s a tiny brown owl. Dillan asks if that’s Pepega’s family. Reides says he is, even though they’re not related by blood. Reides doesn’t think that’s important to being family, though. He also says that the new owl wanted to meet Dillan! Dillan asks what his name is, and Reides introduces him as Monka! Reides hands Monka’s cage to Dillan, and Dillan holds it tightly. He’s really happy to meet him! Reides tells Dillan that he has to look after Monka. It’s a responsibility, but Reides thinks Dillan is up to it! Dillan is really excited! He admits that he was worried about Pepega leaving when Reides eventually has to go back on the road. She’s been with him since so soon after it happened, and Dillan thinks she helped him get through it a little bit. Reides thanks Dillan in turn for keeping Pepega safe for him. Reides still leaves Pepega with Dillan for the rest of the time he spends researching in Falas, so that she can continue keeping Dillan company and get to know her new little brother. Pepega feels a little threatened by the introduction of another cute little owl, but like her summoner with the new wizard, she’ll power through and get to know him first.

One night during the first week, Kilwin casts Sending to send a message to Slumberjack. He tells them that he hasn’t given up and that they’re going to meet again, when the party will bring them back. They’re friends! He waits for a response until eventually, he realizes that one isn’t coming. He sighs and goes back to what he was doing.

On a day near the beginning of the second week, Kilwin is near the Temple of Alethus when he’s startled by Kain suddenly appearing next to him, along with a small group of people in white and red robes. He tells Kilwin that the idea of recruiting more priests and clerics turned out to be a good one, because these people jumped at the chance to help. One of the priests in particular runs up to Kilwin and takes his hands. It’s Kima, who Kilwin met at the Temple of Alethus in Falas. She’s glad to see him again and is here to help with this burden. She can’t imagine what Kilwin’s been going through this past week. Kilwin admits it’s been very difficult for him to process! He thinks it’s worse for the people whose souls were taken or who have lost someone directly, but it’s still been a lot to process. When Kima says that Alethus has given him a heavy load to carry, Kilwin can’t bring himself to disagree. He feels fortunate that he doesn’t have to carry it alone anymore, though. Kima promises that she and her fellow priests from Falas will keep the bodies preserved after Kilwin has to move on with the rest of the party. He thanks them and admits he was worried what would happen to the bodies after he left.

Near the end of the second week, Ashara finds Kain to discuss pod materials. He’s in the same library as her and Reides, trying to research the Everburn Longsword and the Abyssal Crests. She unloads her stack of relevant parchments on top of the books he already has open. She admits that she had no idea that adamantium was so rare on this continent. Kain says it’s that rare throughout the entire world. She’s discovered that the amount of adamantium needed could be greatly reduced by using potions of healing instead of water in the preparation process. Special restorative adamantine would allow more of the pod to be built with lesser materials. Someone could cast Gentle Repose through the pod to fake a connection to the astral plane, which would last for up to a month. Some of the other alternate materials include gorgon essence to induce stasis through partial petrification and metal from a fallen star. It would still take months to build one, so the priests are still the better option for now. Kain admits that, while it’s not going to be easy, this version of the schematic at least seems possible to actually build. Options and time might be running out, but Kain promises to try to get one running. Ashara, looking uncomfortable, also writes Kain a note indicating a location near present-day Bastion, where the remains of her pod still are, just describing it as a prototype. She warns him that it’s dangerous and the people there are mean. Kain is pretty sure he can handle mean people! Ashara warns him about the bandits, bugs, and sand too. She warns him to be careful and also not to tell people what he finds in the ruins. If he does, she’ll know and find him. She also tells him not to take any of the bodies because the world doesn’t need anymore warforged. Kain has never heard of warforged, so Ashara explains them. Kain warns Ashara that between gathering the new pod materials and rooting out the mole in Falas’s court, he won’t really be able to assist us directly with much else. Ashara would love to accompany Kain on a return trip to the ruins at some point, though, after this situation is under control.

On one of his visits to Port Valor, Reides tells Kilwin he has a question for him. First, he asks how Kilwin is doing! Kilwin admits he’s not great! He is glad to have help at this point, though. Reides isn’t doing so great either. He tells Kilwin that he has a friend from Port Valor who he’s concerned about. He asks if Kilwin has found any dragonborn among the dead. Sadly, Kilwin did find one dragonborn. He asks Reides what color their scales were. Reides describes them as a very tall bronze dragonborn with metal rings pierced on their brow and horns. They ran a piercing and tattoo shop. Kilwin breaks the news that they do match the description of the dragonborn he found, although they’re currently under the effects of Gentle Repose. Reides is upset, although he’s glad to hear that his friend’s body was recovered. He tells Kilwin that his friend’s name was Needle. He’s not that surprised, though, since he didn’t think Needle would’ve ever abandoned Port Valor. Being a dragonborn is tough, and Needle wasn’t the type to run away with their tail between their legs. Kilwin asks if Reides wants to see them, but he doesn’t because he thinks it would just make him sad. He’s relieved, though, that if nothing else, he’ll be able to send them off how they would’ve wanted. He will have to research dragonborn funeral customs at some point, though. Reides lets Kilwin know to ask if he needs anything and Reides will try to help, even if it’s just a hug or something. Kilwin admits that a hug sounds very nice right, and they give each other a tight hug.

At the end of the second week, we reconvene in Port Valor. Kilwin is a little reluctant to talk about his weeks, but he does let everyone know that other priests did arrive to help out and take over for him. Ashara admits she’s sad to leave, even if that’s strange. It’s the longest she’s stayed in a single place since waking up. Jorah jokes around about it, but admits he gets it too. He’s mostly been on the move for the past seven years. Ashara asks what you do when you lose that sense of stability. Jorah’s suggestions are drinking or, more seriously, trying to find it again. Reides thinks that it helps to keep moving. Ashara asks if any of us wonder why this is happening to us. She does, although she acknowledges that we’ve all been dealing with this for much longer. We all agree that we’re overwhelmed, and Ashara is a little comforted that she’s not alone. Ashara is very excited to ride in a carriage, though! There’s enough room in the carriage for all of us to ride with one person driving the horses. There’s only room for two people to sleep comfortably inside though. We could technically sleep in shifts and keep moving overnight, but the horses need rest and so does Jorah, who expects to be doing most of the driving because he has the most experience with horses. Ashara thanks us for our hospitality again, and we thank her for coming along and helping out! She and Reides enjoyed their time in the library, although Ashara might not recover emotionally from an incident where she almost dropped a heavy book on Reides, killing him instantly. They also discuss a bread encyclopedia that Ashara found. She loves bread, and she loves writing about knowledge, but she cannot imagine having that many things to say on a subject or enough time to write it all down. Reides agrees that surfacers are a delight. They agree to try making bread together at some point. Ashara can even make the bread glow with Faerie Fire! She adds glowing bread to her journal’s list of things she’d like to research.

Jorah thinks his research was unimpressive, although he shows off that he manages to learn some working Abyssal. It’s a little rough since he was only able to practice with a few Falas locals who were fluent, but he should be able to converse with some demons now, preferably with a crossbow aimed at them. Everyone thinks that learning a new language is very impressive! Jorah is uncomfortable with the praise. He asks Reides what the owl and fishing tackle were for. Reides says important things! He thinks that he might be able to fish more effectively by grabbing the fish with his hands, but he wants to try it this way! He might be able to get us some food. Jorah thought it might’ve been for use in a spell. Reides asks if Kilwin knows how to fish, but he’s never done it before either. Ashara isn’t familiar with fishing gear at all, so Reides runs her through the basics. He mentions that the bait is appealing to both fish and hungry tritons. Jorah hopes Reides isn’t speaking from experience. Reides clarifies that he’s only been fished up once, and it was in a net and on purpose. He has stolen bait before as a snack. Jorah says to pretend he never asked. He thinks he loses a little bit of sanity each time he learns something new about Reides, and he doesn’t have that much sanity left at this point. Kilwin chuckles a bit at this exchange.

Ashara is about to go to sleep before we set out in the morning, but Reides wants to share the results of his research. Ashara meditates instead of actually sleeping anyway, so she perks right up. She also has information she’d like to share. In his studies, Reides found some notes on the spell Water Breathing, which he has now learned. It lasts for 24 hours, so he’ll be able to refresh that at reasonable intervals when we’re in Aquos. He also learned about some magical items called the Cloak of the Manta Ray, which bestows water-breathing and easy underwater movement on its wearer, and the Helm of Underwater Action, which allows the wearer to move like a triton underwater. If we don’t find items like that, the rest of us might have a hard time moving around in Aquos, even if we can breathe. There’s a chance we could get something like it in Atemcester, though! He also learned that sufficiently powerful demons are able to gain dominion over their own realms of power. These demons are called demon lords. Alzrius is one such demon lord, called the Lord of Infernal Light. Although scholars disagree on the subject, its realm is generally believed to be called Conflagratum. Ashara brings the rest of us up to speed on the pod situation with the same information she gave Kain. We all turn in for the night.

We pack up the carriage and leave Port Valor. While Jorah considers hunting and foraging to keep our food supplies stocked, Kilwin tells him that he has it handled. After the first day of travel, he begins to cast Create Food and Water daily to feed the part. The food he creates looks very tasty and resembles the cooking of Mother Honora from Cowersby, but sadly tastes like absolutely nothing. Reides thinks it adds to the charm, though.

It takes us 16 days to travel to Quadroad. The trip is uneventful, and any travelers we encounter are heading away from Port Valor. There’s not many signs of life until we spot the familiar dust cloud of Quadroad on the fourth day of Green Harvest. Jorah and Reides take a moment to secure their coin pouches. Amelia may have left Quadroad and found a more honest way of sustaining her brother and friends, but the trauma she inflicted remains. We stock up on supplies. Reides looks for a sturdier spellbook, but doesn’t find one. He’s not honestly expecting to find what he’s looking for until we reach Atemcester though. Ashara spends 4 silver on a sunhat with a veil, to keep herself in the shade for the rest of the summer. While he’s shopping for some basic supplies, a shopkeep strikes up a conversation with Jorah. He asks where Jorah is heading, and Jorah tells him that we’re heading west to Hommlin. He also mentions that we’re coming down from Port Valor. The shopkeeper thinks that what happened in Port Valor is a tragedy, but seems to blame the emperor for how she’s been running things. He tells Jorah that if he’s planning to go through the Exeter, he should be careful heading through Gutsnake Gorge. Jorah’s not familiar with the gorge- he’s from out west, but he traveled to the Falasian Empire by boat. The shopkeeper has just heard news of travelers being run out, even killed. He recommends that Jorah keep his wits about himself. Jorah thanks him for the advice!

We leave Quadroad and head west. On the way to the Exeter, the paths start to get rougher and head uphill. We enter some thick woods that eventually give way to an amazing sight- the Spine of the World, possibly the tallest mountain range in all of Alethustria. The Exeter is on the tallest of these mountains, obstructed from view by the clouds. Eventually, the path starts to level out and head down into a gorge. This is Gutsnake Gorge, and the monotony of the stone walls is broken up by faces carved into them. Jorah tells the rest of us about the shopkeeper’s warning. None of us like that! We decide we want to try to sneak through, but we’re going to prepare to be attacked anyway. Reides casts Mage Armor on himself in advance, while Jorah puts the barding on Gin. Kilwin climbs to the front of the carriage to help Jorah keep watch, so Jorah has to move his loaded crossbow out of the way. Jorah also tries to cast Pass Without Trace on us to at least cover the carriage’s tracks, even if it can’t completely muffle the sound of the wheels. We keep going, and nothing happens at first, but the faces carved into the walls keep staring, almost as if they’re following us with their gazes. It’s very unsettling! Reides thinks it over, but nothing about Gutsnake Gorge has ever really come up in his research, so he doesn’t know the significance of the faces.

We travel for another hour when we begin to see a new type of stonework. These are free-standing, full-body statues of people in various poses. Jorah takes a look and notices that they have an incredible artistry to them, almost life-like. The statues are in some strange poses, though. Some are covering their faces, and others seem to be running in fear. Ashara, having recently researched gorgons in connection with the stasis pod, knows of at least one creature that can turn people to stone. We all hear a sound that sounds like heavy breathing. Then we hear a deep voice wondering aloud what it seems. It tells someone named Gordask that their next meal has arrived. On the ridge of the canyon, we see a creature that looks familiar to most of us. The last troll we encountered, however, didn’t have four arms. There’s also a big lizard-like creature with eight legs, which appears to be sniffing the air. Reides and Ashara get out of the carriage, and we get ready to fight.

Ashara casts Hunger of Hadar at the top of the ridge, which opens a tear into the void. Light doesn’t penetrate the void, obstructing the troll and basilisk from view. They take both cold damage from the void and acid damage from the milky tentacles within, brushing against them. Strange shapes move in and out of the area. Kilwin bestows the blessing of Alethus on his companions. Jorah aims his crossbow at the cloud of darkness and fires a shot at the basilisk as it emerges and slides down the slope. Unfortunately, he misses. The four-armed troll also slides down the slope and comes up to Jorah and Kilwin. The wounds he sustained from Hunger of Hadar are already starting to stitch up. The basilisk turns its gaze on Reides and he feels his body stiffen, but nothing takes hold. He backs up and warns the rest of us that the lizard turned the people to stone and to keep away from it. He then casts Mind Whip on the troll, hurting him and restricting his actions for a bit. Ashara hits the troll with Burning Hands and the troll’s regeneration immediately stops. Kilwin summons his spiritual weapon to hit the lizard. Jorah starts to feel himself locking up and turning to stone, but the stone chips quickly fall away. He manages to land some shots with his heavy crossbow. Undeterred, the basilisk continues to slither toward us. The troll bites Kilwin, making him lose focus on Bless, and lashes out with all four of his arms, but only manages to hit with one. Reides fries the troll and basilisk with Lightning Bolt. The basilisk gazes at Ashara, but she wills the stone off herself. She doesn’t look good in gray! She stabs the basilisk with her dagger, which she has magically lit aflame. The fire jumps off the basilisk in the form of a woman and leaps gracefully onto the troll, who explodes into fire and dies. The basilisk gazes at Kilwin, who feels the effect spreading up his body. His legs turn completely to stone before the stone reaches upward. He recasts Bless, but on himself this time, along with Jorah and Ashara because they’re the closest to the basilisk. The stone continues creeping up Jorah chooses not to avert his gaze from the basilisk, trusting in Kilwin and Alethus’s blessing to protect him and fires a crossbow bolt in between its eyes.

Reides is about to take a look at the basilisk’s corpse when he realizes that Kilwin hasn’t stopped turning to stone with the creature’s death. He figures out that if there’s some way to assist Kilwin in resisting the petrification, that would be good, but none of us have anything other than Kilwin’s Bless. Reides tries kicking at the stone, but Kilwin doesn’t feel anything. Kilwin actually wishes he could feel himself being kicked this time! Ashara suggests breaking off the stone, but Kilwin clarifies that his legs have become the stone and he would really like to keep his legs. Ashara reaches into Kilwin’s mind to give him some words of encouragement. In a last ditch effort, Kilwin tries casting Remove Curse on himself, but the petrification isn’t technically a curse. The stone begins to creep up Kilwin’s throat, making it difficult to breathe. It continues making its way up, approaching his eyes. Kilwin looks up at the light and the last light he sees is the light of Alethus. He concentrates as hard as he can and frees himself from the stone.

Ashara picks up one of the stone flakes that came off of Kilwin and makes it glow red with Faerie Fire. She names it Rocky 2 and gives it to Kilwin to comfort him. He thanks her and puts it in her backpack. We wonder if there’s anything we can do for the people here. Kilwin is aware that powerful clerics can reverse petrification, but his magic isn’t that strong at this point. Ashara tries to contact Kain about it, but he’s in the middle of fighting a gorgon and can’t really talk or help. Ashara is very worried and wants to find and help him, but the rest of the party tries to assure her that Kain can handle himself. Jorah points out that the rest of the party is familiar with a cleric who’s much closer to Gutsnake Gorge than wherever Kain is- Pandora from the Temple of Cysebelle in Quadroad. Kilwin and Reides agree to keep her in mind, but we might be able to get help faster by heading to the Exeter and asking in person, due to travel times. Ashara thinks we could convince them if they’re not willing to help. Reides extracts the basilisk’s eyes to study them, while Jorah searches the troll’s effects and finds 50 gp and 200 sp. Kilwin is having a moment and asks to ride inside the carriage now, so Reides sits up front to keep Jorah company. He writes what he learned in his journal as we move on.

We stop to camp for a night before we reach our next destination. Kilwin says some extra prayers and thanks to Alethus that night. The road turns directly toward the face of the Exeter. It’s an extremely tall mountain, with clouds forming a vortex near the top. There’s enormous stone gates with extensive engravings, depicting scenes from dwarven history and folklore. There’s also a small stone building next to the gate. The path leads directly to the gate, but there’s also a pile of dirt formed from people stepping over to the building. The carvings on the gate depict a number of tales, including that of Audha Wyrmaxe, a great dwarven hero of the era when dragons ruled over Lyvernus. She was born clanless, but forged her own clan and worked with Emperor Lyvernia to drive away the dragons. The gates also depict the Tale of the First Dwarven Ancestor Mountain. Even before the dragons arrived on Lyvernus for the first time, the dwarves would entomb their deceased heroes in mountains that were in tune with their souls. Audha Wyrmaxe, for example, is now housed in the Exeter’s peak. There are also tents, both large and small, set up across the ridge. People are milling about, including some jugglers and other performing types. It appears to be some kind of traveling troupe, but they’re just going about day-to-day stuff for now. Reides wants to see them! Jorah keeps watch over the carriage while Reides and Kilwin approach.

As they see that new people have arrived at the Exeter’s gates, people perk up and start to talk amongst themselves. The troupe includes a wide variety of people, including humans, tieflings, elves, and half-elves. Some of them rush past us to investigate the gorge. The first person Reides can find to talk to is a red tiefling, who’s excitedly talking with a dwarf. He has large horns that spiral back to the back of his head. He asks us if they might be able to go home now, since we’re the first new people any of them have seen in two weeks. We explain that we cleared out the troll and basilisk, so Gutsnake Gorge should be safe again. The tiefling and dwarf are very happy to hear this! They’ve been stuck here since they heard that the gorge was unsafe. They do have a medic with them, but they can’t do anything about the petrified people. The tiefling says that you’re lucky enough to get an arm sewn back on if you lose it. The circus is a rough life! Ashara approaches and asks if their medic is just bad at their job. The tiefling clarifies that they’re simply a mundane healer. The troupe’s travels would have taken them through the Exeter on their way back to Atemcester, but it was closed because of something that happened up north. He doesn’t quite remember where, but he knows it was a port town, and recognizes Port Valor when we prompt him. We do have a writ of passage from the emperor, but we’re not sure if that will get us through the gates. Reides asks if he can see the tiefling perform, and he agrees to do some juggling for us. The dwarf gets his juggling sticks for him and juggles three to demonstrate how they work. The dwarf adds in a fourth and fifth stick before tossing them over to the tiefling without warning. The tiefling calls him a scamp, but catches the sticks and continues juggling them without missing a beat. As the dwarf leaves, the tiefling says that he hates when the dwarf does that, but finishes his act and takes a bow. Reides and Kilwin applaud! Reides asks the troupe’s name, and the tiefling says that they’re the Flying Otters. We love it! The tiefling agrees that otters are the cutest. The ringmaster never explained to him why they’re named that, but he thinks sometimes you don’t need to know! He walks away with his tail happily swishing behind him. We return to the carriage, where Reides informs Jorah that he missed a very cool juggling performance.

As we approach the gate, a voice calls out from the building, telling us that the Exeter is closed to outsiders and we should head north to Davenport and get a ship if we need to go farther west. Inside the building, there’s a dwarven warrior seated at a small desk. Kilwin tells him that we have good reason to come to the Exeter and shows him the writ of passage from the emperor. The dwarven guard examines it and admits that our credentials are good, but a town being wiped off the map isn’t an everyday occurrence, so the higher-ups are apprehensive about letting anyone in. He does have an idea for us, though. A noble could grant us passage into the Exeter, but we would have to do the noble a favor first. We admit we have to know what the favor is first, and the guard agrees that’s very fair. We can always say no! To the north, there’s an abandoned dwarven hold where something sinister is going on. There’s been strange happenings in the countryside, and a flesh golem attacked in some mines near Hwen. Jorah has heard of flesh golems and knows that they’re generally frowned upon in Atemcester. None of us, guard included, know what a flesh golem could be doing out there and none of us like it. A foreman of the mine saw a strange figure going in and approached it. He touched it before realizing it was made of cold, clammy flesh. He ran away and came back with a wizard from town. They found the golem in the mines again, and the wizard loosed a fire spell at it. The golem turned on the mage and smashed him to pieces, left the foreman alone, and walked away, strange scraps of metal in tow. The noble currently responsible for handling the flesh golem situation is named Orrin Stormshield. Since he’s both a dwarf and nobility, he should have the pull to get us into the Exeter, and the guard thinks that he’ll be willing if we do this for him. Kilwin thinks this might be worth looking into regardless of if it gets us into the Exeter, and Reides agrees that a flesh golem on the loose sounds bad. However, Reides knows how nobles are and that we’re just going to be doing Stormshield’s dirty work. The guard agrees that Stormshield is absolutely going to take the credit for this. Unfortunately, since the actual settlement of the Exeter is another ten days up the mountain, the guard isn’t able to introduce us directly to Stormshield or get a guarantee from him that he’ll let us in. However, he’s confident that Orrin Stormshield is a man of his word and will get us into the Exeter. Accomplishing whatever we hope to do there, however, will be up to us. Reides finally asks the guard his name, and he introduces himself as Korbo Sunderhill. We also introduce ourselves to him. Korbo is sympathetic, but points out that we don’t really have any pull in the Exeter, since it’s so isolationist, so we’ll simply have to trust Orrin Stormshield. Jorah points out that we have the most up-to-date information on the situation in Port Valor, so we could help the rulers of the Exeter figure out how to secure themselves against something like what happened there. Korbo personally thinks that’s a good point, but also says that Jorah’s assuming the rulers of the Exeter even want that information. Ashara gets mad and says that closed doors aren’t going to help anyone here. She accuses the leaders of the Exeter of being selfish. Jorah tries to defend Korbo, who seems to just be doing his best here. Reides want to prioritize the petrified people in Gutsnake Gorge and tells Korbo about them, in hopes that someone from the Exeter will help. Ashara claims that one of the petrified people was a dwarf to try to convince Korbo that it’s the Exeter’s problem too, even though she didn’t examine any of the statues closely enough to know this. Korbo doesn’t want anyone to be stuck petrified, though, and promises to send word back to the main city. Reides also shows Korbo the basilisk’s eyeballs. Korbo is a little creeped out! We decide that we should probably cast Sending to Pandora anyway, just in case no one from the Exeter agrees to come out and help. Despite Korbo’s assurances that the nobles of the Exeter are people of their word (if nothing else), Ashara asks if there’s any reward for taking care of the flesh golem other than (non-guaranteed) passage into the Exeter. Korbo says that we’re free to take whatever we like from the dwarven hold. Ashara is reluctant to steal anything, but Korbo says that no dwarves have lived in the hold for a long time and, while they may return to it someday, none of the objects there have had owners for a very long time. It wouldn’t be considered stealing if we took them, since the dwarves don’t really own them anymore. The main issue is that the dwarves can’t have a flesh golem have its way on old dwarven stomping grounds. It’s a matter of pride! The prevailing theory is that the flesh golem is the work of some kind of mad mage, and Korbo is inclined to agree. If we destroy the golem and kill this mage, we can bring back the mage’s spellcasting focus as proof that we finished the job. Korbo tells us that there’s a side path behind his guardpost. If we follow it north for a day or two, we should reach the hold, which is called Kahzdurga. Kilwin and Jorah recognize that the name translates to “Iron Mountain Hold.” Beyond that, though, Jorah knows nothing about it.

Session 46

 * Google Document (1-7-22)

With our new destination in mind, we start the journey two days north toward Hwen and Kahzdurga. The path narrows too much for the horses and carriage to travel not much past the guardhouse, so we leave them at the guardhouse with Korbo. Reides also leaves Pepega behind to watch over the carriage and horses.

On the way, Kilwin asks if Jorah had anything fun he liked to do in Atemcester when he lived there. Jorah says that he stayed away from the actual city as much as he could, but the woods around Atemcester are wonderful and the weather is never too cold. Kilwin thinks that sounds nice, although that’s clearly not the answer he was hoping for. Jorah is curious why he asked. Kilwin admits that’s been thinking since almost being turned into a statue on top of everything else that’s been going on lately, and he’s realized that he hasn’t exactly been having a lot of fun lately. He doesn’t think it’s a priority, but he’d like to have a fun evening at some point if there’s a chance for it. He was mostly just curious! Jorah thinks he understands, but admits he’s not really the person to ask.

Kilwin also finds a note that got wedged into his journal somewhere in the past few weeks. It’s a goodbye letter from Slumberjack. It states that their guide told them they didn’t fit in with the party and would receive an invitation to join them soon. They felt that their guide might have a point, and they also needed to do this to learn more about their purpose, mentioning that their mother told them that their nature was a gift, but they feel it’s more of a curse. They apologize for leaving like they plan to, but ask him not to look for them or mourn them. They ask Kilwin to share their well wishes with the rest of the party and to look out for himself more, since they worry he’ll act too selflessly without them there to corrupt him and get hurt. They also tell him that they hope they can return and teach him Celestial. Kilwin shares the letter with the others, who reflect on it. Kilwin is upset that Slumberjack wrote that only something twisted could accept them, when they had friends who accepted them in the party. Still, he’s relieved Ashara thinks this means that Slumberjack’s earlier lack of response to Kilwin’s attempt to contact them was an attempt to keep him safe.

The path gets harder up the mountain, and we get a nice view of the Cyviran Wood below, where the trees grasp toward the sky. The weather gets worse as we ascend, with gray and unforgiving sleet. We find a small cave off the cliffside path to rest in for the night. While we’re setting up camp, Kilwin finds a small green stone that glows slightly. It seems like some kind of naturally occurring ore. No one in the party knows exactly what it is, but Jorah recognizes it as the same stone used in the construction of the bases of mages’ floating towers, and there’s a big one in the bottom of the Tower of the Eight. The rest of us are amazed by floating towers. Reides thinks it’s frustrating that none of us can float naturally on the surface, since it’s easy to move up while swimming underwater. Kilwin thinks we should keep it because it might be valuable, if nothing else. Jorah and Ashara are a little skeptical of the weird magic rock, so Kilwin offers to keep it in his alms box to keep it away from everything else. He’s reluctant to put it in the bag of holding, since we don’t know exactly what it is and the Everburn Longsword is in there.

We set off for Kahzdurga the next morning. It continues to get colder as we climb. Around noon, we see a break in the rock wall to our left and spot some masonry through the ridge. There’s a stone platform with stairs leading to a wooden door, flanked by a pair of dwarven statues with battle hammers and braziers that are still lit, despite their age. We collect ourselves before Kilwin opens the door. The walls and floors inside have stone tiling, and the floors are very grungy. The ceilings are about ten feet high. Kilwin also hears a metallic scraping sound from nearby, probably just around the corner. He thinks he hears about six entities making the noise. He warns the others, and Reides casts Mage Armor on himself, and Ashara sets up Dancing Lights. Kilwin walks a bit further in to let his friends inside and is faced with six suits of animated armor.

Ashara casts Ice Knife, which misses one of the armors but explodes in the middle of them. They approach the party menacingly and attack Kilwin, Jorah, and Ashara. Jorah suggests using the entrance to bottleneck them, since we’re outnumbered and tries to attack with Quickbrand, but misses. Reides casts Shatter on the armors, sculpting it around Kilwin and Jorah. A sudden loud noise erupts, which the armors seem especially susceptible to since they’re made of metal. Suddenly, most of them aren’t looking very good. Ashara casts Burning Hands, destroying two of the armors, and goes outside. Kilwin and Jorah continues to get punched by armors, but Jorah guts one with Quickbrand in response. Reides kills another with Ray of Frost before stepping out. Kilwin steps back to block the doorway, dodging a swing from one of the armors on the way. Ashara continues running away from the hold, frightened by her first real taste of combat. The rest of the party finishes clearing out the armors, and Reides follows Ashara to make sure she’s okay. He catches up with her and she says she’s okay, but she feels a bit silly now. For a moment, she thought the animated armors were warforged. Reides assures her that it’s okay and that the armors were pretty scary. Ashara admits that the safest place is probably behind Kilwin, and Reides admits he agrees! He points out that she has her friends to support her, so we can do this!

Ashara and Reides re-enter Kahzdurga, and Reides asks if Kilwin is okay. Kilwin (who actually doesn’t look great) says he’s fine and asks how Ashara is doing. She says she’s fine now and apologizes for running. Kilwin asks Jorah (who is looking even worse than Kilwin) if he needs some help, but Jorah says that he can handle it himself and casts Cure Wounds on himself. Reides asks if there’s special metals involved in the creation of the warforged. Ashara explains that when the council discussed creating the warforged, she was one of the few objectors. She didn’t feel it was right to enslave sentient creatures. When the warforged project was greenlit, she distanced herself from that type of magic. Jorah points out that the animated armors were made using a similar type of magic as the helmed horror, but they’re weaker. None of us like that! Ashara identifies the school of magic as either enchantment or conjuration, since necromancy wouldn’t be responsible for animating non-organic objects. Ashara recommends leaving the rock from the small cave behind, since it might be used to track us, but Kilwin points out that we have a vague idea of what it does, and we’re all carrying a lot of larger magical items that could be used to hypothetically sense us. The sound from Reides’s Shatter spell probably also alerted anyone else nearby to our presence. We decide to try to move stealthily anyway, but the rock stays in the alms box.

Jorah checks the doors in the corridor to our right and finds that they’re both closed but unlocked. There’s also a set of large double doors to the left, which Jorah and Reides would prefer to avoid because there’s more likely to be something big through there, and we’d like to avoid that for now. Jorah opens the right door, but it’s dark inside so he can’t see. Reides tells him it’s just a little closet. Jorah prepares to get a torch out, but Kilwin casts Light on himself so he doesn’t need to. Jorah finds a small chest inside the closet and opens it. It just has dust and cobwebs inside. Jorah realizes he should’ve predicted this, since this place is already inhabited, but he’s mad about it nevertheless. Behind the left door, there’s a corridor leading to more doors. We follow another corridor with more doors branching out from the left side of this corridor, but after a while, we realize we’re just going to the double doors that we decided to avoid for now, so we turn back to the main corridor. Jorah leads the way! A bit farther down, there’s an open door on our right. There’s a lot of bookshelves in this room, along with a lot of books scattered across the floor. They seem to be various arcane writings about reanimation, in relation to the creation of flesh golems, and metallic materials, related to a project that requires a lot of them. Ashara takes the notes about metals in hopes that they’ll be helpful in engineering stasis pods, but unfortunately, she soon realizes that this person was working with fairly mundane materials. We all end up searching the library for clues as to what’s going on here. Ashara finds a scroll she can’t read, but Kilwin and Jorah both can. It’s a spell scroll for Find Traps. We discuss how it might be useful in here, and Jorah ends up holding onto it. Jorah finds another scroll under the desk, and he ends up being the only one who can’t read it. It’s a spell scroll for Continual Flame. While Reides could technically try to transcribe it into his spellbook, it’s a pretty niche spell so Kilwin just holds onto the scroll for now. Kilwin hears a faint rustling sound from above and finds another scroll wedged into a ceiling tile. He manages to jump and grab it, and passes it around. Only Reides can read it, and it turns out to be a scroll for a spell called Rope Trick, which allows someone to use a rope to create a temporary extradimensional hiding place elevated off the ground. We all stare at the ceiling a little bit and hope that no one is up there spying on us. Kilwin gives the ceiling a little wave. Reides reads through some of the arcane musings in the library. It involves a list of body parts needed to construct a flesh golem. None of us like that! Jorah’s met necromancers before, but none of them are exactly around to ask about ethical flesh golem creation. Ashara questions how Jorah knows any necromancers, since there were supporters of slavery in the Vrinian Empire, but they drew the line at necromancy. Jorah says you just meet a lot of different people as a bounty hunter. Ashara wonders how someone gets into bounty hunting. Jorah explains that if you’re lucky, you have a contact that gets you into the business, and if you’re unlucky, you end up bound and gagged by a criminal organization and forced to work for them. Kilwin, concerned, asks if Jorah is lucky or unlucky. Jorah says he’s lucky! His worst bounty hunting stories are about not getting paid and needing to track down his clients until they do.

We return to the corridor and, following Jorah’s maze-solving technique, follow a path to the right. As we continue down the corridor, Jorah’s foot hits a raised tile and dust starts falling from the ceiling. He rushes forward, a pillar crashes down from the ceiling where he was standing, only clipping the back of his leg. The pillar goes back up, and Jorah now notices the cracks in the floor around the raised tile. Kilwin casts Light on the raised tile so we can all see it, and carefully steps around it to heal Jorah. Reides and Ashara also gingerly make their way around the raised floor tile as we press on. Jorah is okay to keep leading the way. Through the next door, there’s a random dead end to our right and more corridor to our left. Jorah spends about 10 minutes checking the dead for anything of interest, but finds nothing. The rest of the party waits for him politely. Nervous about traps, Reides opens the next door with Mage Hand. It’s safe! Behind the door is a room with lots of cages, collars and torture devices. There’s also three pillars in front of a place where the room narrows and there’s some thick curtains. There’s also a desk with some documents on them. Ashara is interested in the documents, and Reides offers to grab them with Mage Hand. Jorah looks behind the curtain and finds coils of copper wire. He has no idea what it does. Reides and Ashara examine the diagram that was on the desk and discern that it’s some kind of water purification device. It’s fairly sophisticated, but Ashara has seen much better. Reides figures that we could probably sell this, if nothing else. Neither Reides nor Ashara understands the writing on the diagram, but when Reides shows it to Kilwin, he immediately identifies it as Dwarvish. It’s just instructions for building the machine!

There’s another set of double doors that we agree to ignore, but we go through another door to more corridors. Jorah continues to lead the way. We find a storage room with rubble, some crates, and a barrel. Jorah opens the barrel and finds rotten fish inside. He’s not sure what he was expecting. To the south, there’s another door that leads to the same room as the double doors. There’s a mechanical whirring noise coming from inside. None of us are exactly eager to run into peril, but Kilwin suggests we take a peek inside anyway. Ashara has hated this so far, and she’s reluctant to go in. There’s no enemies in the room, though, just a large mechanical device in the middle of the water flowing on the other side of the room. The mechanism is spinning, emitting a humming noise and some sparks. There’s a large sapphire at the top of the machine. The water is fairly shallow, three feet at its deepest. Reides looks in the water for fish, but there doesn’t appear to be any. Ashara offers to stick her warforged arm into the water to test it out, but Reides uses his Mage Hand instead. Nothing happens. Without any idea what this machine does or anything else in the room, the only point of interest in the room is the sapphire. Kilwin is worried that taking it would break the machine and possibly cause something very bad, though, so he thinks we should leave it there. It’s just not worth it! The rest of the party agrees, and we move on.

Farther down the hall, there’s a bridge over the water that’s flowing into the room with the mechanism before a part of the hall that’s flanked by three statues of humanoid figures standing their hands clasped in front of them. We all hate the statues! Jorah takes the lead again, checking the floor and ceiling for signs of more traps. He doesn’t see any and makes it over the bridge and past the first statue without issue. Just as he begins to relax, the second statue reaches out as he passes and attempts to grab him. He dodges out of the way. Ashara hates this! Kilwin approaches it and sees some ball bearings in the joints of the statue’s arms. He tries to attack its shoulder with his mace and manages to scrape them up a bit. He takes a deep breath and steps in front of the statue. Nothing happens! He asks Jorah if he’d rather give Kilwin a turn leading the group, but Jorah says he’s fine. He crosses in front of the last statue, which appears to just be a normal statue. Kilwin follows, with Reides behind him reluctantly, and Ashara behind him even more reluctantly. As Jorah reaches the next corridor, he notices a door to the south that closes as he comes into view. We figure the mage we’re after is probably that way, so we may as well end this. Ashara thinks we should leave and forget about the dwarves. The rest of the party assures her that we have her back. If she’s injured, Kilwin will heal her! Jorah points out that he’s been setting off all the traps in the place, so she has nothing to worry about as long as she keeps letting him go first. Kilwin asks if he’s sure about continuing to do that, but he’s determined to be a human Find Traps spell today. Ashara still doesn’t like it, but agrees to keep going. She curses the dwarves under her breath, though, and the elves for good measure. She says if she dies in this place, she’s coming back as a revenant. Reides asks her to please not say that word.

Jorah moves toward the closed door and about halfway down, the floor splits open under him and he begins to fall. Reides casts Featherfall to slow his fall, and Jorah manages to catch himself and get to the other side of the gap, which is filled with spikes. We are all freaked! Jorah, out of breath, points out that Ashara is still no danger! He’s got this for her! The gap in the floor is fortunately small enough that we’re all able to long jump over it. Reides is very nervous about it, because he’s not the most athletic, but Jorah promises to wait on the other side to catch him. He lets out a little yelp as he successfully clears the pit trap. Jorah opens the door to the south, while keeping his crossbow pointed at it. Inside, there’s whirring and humming noises, along with a frail man and long, matted hair and a beard. He’s hunched over a table. Jorah can also see some large, grotesque feet on the edge of a platform to his left. The mage says he won’t let us take Hylos or Master, and the fight begins.

Kilwin enters the room and sees the flesh golem lying down on a table on the east side of the room. He backs away from it to let someone else in, and the golem flails at him but misses. Kilwin casts Shield of Faith on himself, and then hits the flesh golem with Sacred Flame and asks the mage what on earth is going on here. Ashara attempts to cast Crown of Madness on the mage, but he shakes it off. Jorah strikes at the flesh golem with Quickbrand and his crossbow. The flesh is rotting and stinky. The crossbow also isn’t as effective as Jorah would expect. Reides casts Mind Whip on the golem, psychically restraining it. An orb in a corner of the room sparks with arcane energy and flashes at two other orbs in the room. They send out electrical impulses, zapping Kilwin, Jorah, and Reides. The golem, limited in what it can do, attempts to swing out at Jorah without moving, but misses. The mage already has Mage Armor cast, since he apparently heard our fight with the animated armors. He begins to channel a lot of energy, which Reides attempts to counterspell, but the mage unfortunately counterspells Reides’s counterspell. The mage successfully casts Fireball, which Reides manages to avoid, but the rest of us are hit with the full force of. Ashara is barely still standing. Kilwin channels divinity on the party to try to keep us alive. Ashara casts Mind Whip on the mage and the golem, successfully restraining the golem, but not the mage. After getting hit with a fireball, Jorah decides to revert to his usual strategy and changes his focus to the mage. He casts Hunter’s Mark on him and drops his crossbow so he can wield Quickbrand with two hands. Jorah lays into the mage, the dwarven blade resonating with the hold, and the mage barely survives. Reides casts some magic missiles into the room, hitting the golem. The mage shields, however. The golem continues to flail wildly from the slab, successfully hitting Jorah in the stomach one time. The mage attempts to calm the golem, who is thrashing around, addressing him as Hylos. The flesh golem actually does calm down, and the mage assures him that he won’t forget him or Master. Kilwin casts Mass Healing Word to fortify the party. He’s confused and weirdly touched by the mage’s display of affection for the flesh golem. He tells the mage that he’d like it if he could explain what’s going on here, but he’s not sure his friends will give the mage that chance. Ashara confirms that she has no intentions of waiting for an explanation. She casts Mind Whip on the mage and golem, which melts into the mage’s brain. He calls out for Hylos and Master as he dies. Hylos convulses on his slab and stops moving. The orbs around the room let out one more spark, zapping everyone inside, before they all shatter simultaneously.

Ashara apologizes to Kilwin but points out that we all saw what this mage did. Kilwin agrees it was probably for the best and isn’t upset with her, but still couldn’t bring himself to do it in the moment. Ashara sets about examining the mage’s body for useful items. She finds his spellbook, which is frayed and tattered, which she gives to Reides. It has a few spells he doesn’t know yet, so he’ll hold onto it to study later. There’s also a workbench with a locked drawer. Everyone looks to Jorah, and while he admits he looks like he’d be the roguish sort, he’s actually not and he doesn’t usually carry thieves’ tools. Still, Reides lends Jorah his own waist knife so Jorah can try to jimmy the lock open. He tries and something clicks, but it doesn’t open. He broke it! Reides retrieves the mage’s arcane focus, a small crystal. Reides still wants to break the lock open, and Jorah has an idea. Reides offers to help however he can! They both grab some metal objects and push on the lock from both sides. The pressure eventually cracks the lock open. Inside the drawer, there’s a wand. Reides casts Identify on the rod, while Kilwin begins to cast Gentle Repose on the mage (who is slumped against the wall) and the golem (who’s been reduced to lumps of flesh in the corner). Reides determines the wand is a Wand of Binding, which allows the user to cast spells that bind people or monsters. He gives it to Ashara. A treasure reward for the trials of adventuring! We decide to take a short rest in the room and tend to our wounds, making sure to keep an eye on the door.

Session 47

 * Google Document (1-21-22)

Reides takes a look around the room once more before we leave to explore the rest of Kahzdurga, but he can’t find much that we haven’t already. We head to the west and south, where Jorah spots some steps leading up to a platform with a chest on it. Jorah absolutely does not trust this chest. We head north instead and find a room with two large pipes running from the back wall to the middle of the floor. In between the pipes, there’s a console with several levers and switches. The roof of the cavern opens up into a giant hole, where light from outside flows in. On the south wall, there’s a large metallic statue of a dragon standing on a platform. Jorah examines the statue to see if it can move and finds a hinge in one of its forearms. Ashara examines the panel of levers and determines it’s made of mundane metals like iron. It’s not obvious to her what anything does, and there’s no apparent labels on any of the levers. Kilwin examines the pipes and hears some kind of fluid flowing through them. He tries to see if the sound extends to the area where the dragon statue is to see if the dragon is fluid-powered, but if it does, he can’t hear it. There’s also a set of stairs leading downward, which we walk down in hopes of getting a better look at where the pipes go.

The room downstairs is fairly small and doesn’t give us a good look at how the pipes from upstairs are set up, but there are more wires and valves and pipes, along with consoles with more switches. There’s lots of controls for the piping, but Jorah deduces that one of the switches doesn’t connect to the piping or anything else, so he tries pushing it and opens a secret passage. Inside is a chest, which Jorah is much less suspicious of since it was already hidden. He still examines it for trap mechanisms, but it seems fine. It’s unlocked, and he finds 230 copper pieces inside. We throw them in the bag of holding until we feel like doing some math. Ashara wonders how on earth anyone operated this stuff without labeling anything. Kilwin examines the control panels downstairs and notices that there were labels at some point, but they’ve eroded away with time. He can still make out some dwarvish writing by some of the switches. We go back upstairs, and Kilwin examines the levers again, looking for similar faint markings. There aren’t any, though. He guesses that this might have been built more recently, instead of being part of the hold’s original infrastructure. It also might have been built specifically for the dragon statue. Reides judges that the dragon statue could probably fit through the whole in the ceiling, although Jorah doesn’t know of any statues that can fly. Still, Kilwin points out that we found a stone nearby that has some kind of levitation-related arcane property, and Reides points out that he’d never heard of a flesh golem before and we all learn new things every day. Kilwin looks at the layout of the levers, but there’s nothing really enlightening about it. Ashara theorizes that the reason Kilwin couldn’t hear water near the dragon statue is because the levers are off and there’s no water flowing currently. It might still be hydraulic-powered! Unfortunately, the platform is made of stone and the statue is metal, and they don’t seem to be connected. In fact, there’s no obvious way of powering the dragon statue. Ashara taps on the stone base, but it sounds solid. Kilwin pokes at the hinge that Jorah found, but it doesn’t budge. We surmise that the statue might have been built as a shrine to a dragon when the dragons ruled Lyvernus. Chromatic dragons are very vain, so it wouldn’t be out of character for one of them to want a shrine. Kahzdurga is old enough that Kilwin thinks it might have been built to appease a chromatic dragon during that time, especially since humanoids couldn’t build larger settlements and were subject to the whims of their draconic rulers during that part of history. Ashara and Reides both like the idea of leaving an offering for the dragon and leave one gold each at its feet. Kilwin asks if he should push harder on the hinge, but Jorah tells him he’s unlikely to move it. Kilwin tries anyway, but he can’t move it so he admits that Jorah was right. We decide to go south again and leave this room for now, but Ashara admits that it will haunt her forever if we don’t find out what the levers do. Reides is willing to try operating them with Mage Hand from a distance, but wants to have an easy out in case the dragon statue is dangerous. We decide that when it’s time to mess with the levers, we can hole up by the hallway on the north end of the room, which goes east and then leads south to the exposed pitfall trap. If things get rough, the dragon might not be able to fit through the corridors. We make a note to come back here once we’ve finished mapping out the hold.

South, past the platform with the conspicuous chest, there’s the double doors from the entrance hallway and a weird dead end where Jorah finds a mechanism that reveals a hidden passageway. We explore the new passageway and find a small room that seems to have housed soldiers in the past. There’s broken weapons and broken beds, along with one intact foot locker. Ashara tells Jorah to open the chest since he’s a rogue. He corrects her and then suggests she ask more nicely. She asks more nicely, Jorah opens the chest, finding a pile of five nice shirts. There’s a layer of dust on them, but they’re nicely crafted, if dwarf-sized. Reides is very excited about the prospect of crop tops! He and Ashara also talk about possibly dressing up the dragon statue, or at least blindfolding it before we mess with the levers. Ashara ends up taking the shirts with her. There’s also a storage closet, which contains two shelves with old, rotten supplies. There’s some bread covered in layers and layers of mold. Ashara is disgusted and wants to never eat bread again. Kilwin tries to console her by telling her that there’s plenty of bread in the world that doesn’t look like that. Ashara says she’s heard of a bread called ciabatta and she’d still like to try that. Kilwin doesn’t know what that is, but he thinks it sounds delicious! Ashara doesn’t actually know either but agrees. As we leave the barracks behind, Reides scans the room one more time. He notices that the tables and other furniture are small and dwarf-sized, which he enjoys.

We return to the platform with the chest. Jorah examines both the pedestal and the chest, but finds no obvious trap mechanisms. He uses the spell scroll for Find Traps anyway, and the spell detects the presence of a trap. Reides takes a look, but there’s no arcane markings or other signs of a magic-based trap. He volunteers to use Mage Hand to open the chest instead of having Jorah risk it. Jorah goes a bit north of the chest, while Reides and the rest of the party gather up down a hallway to the east, where we had just found a bunch of doors earlier. Reides’s Mage Hand opens the chest and a dart fires through the hand and toward Reides. Jorah yells out for Reides to duck, and Reides successfully dodges the dart, which lodges itself in the wall behind him, cracking the wall and seeping liquid into the cracks. We all hate it! Jorah examines the chest, which appears to just contain the mechanism to propel the dart. We wonder what kind of person builds a chest that’s literally just a trap like that.

We return to the room with the dragon statue and hole up in the northern corridor. We discover yet another door, leading to a collapsed room filled with rubble and two skeletons. They seem to have died by being crushed by ceiling tiles. There’s spots of bare earth above where the ceiling tiles once were. Suddenly, most of us would like to not be in a cave anymore. Kilwin whispers a brief prayer for the long-dead dwarves. Jorah also spots a divot in the wall across the pipe room and wonders if there might be another hidden passageway there. He checks, but finds nothing. We regroup in the northern corridor again. Ashara volunteers to stand in front of Reides since he’s doing this to sate her curiosity. Reides’s Mage Hand reaches forward, dripping some spectral water, and pulls the largest lever. There’s a loud sound as the lever is pulled back and an electrical current surges from the southern end of the room. We all hear a magical echo of the now dead mage’s voice saying “Master awakens!” as metallic sounds begin to come from the south end of the room.

Jorah turns the corner into the actual room and sees that the dragon statue is now animated, its eyes glowing blue. It’s about the same size as Blighthorn, the young green dragon we previously fought. He casts Hunter’s Mark on it and fires two crossbow bolts into it before running back into the corridor to warn the rest of the party. Kilwin enters the room and summons his Spiritual Weapon and fires a Sacred Flame, but both miss. He stays in the room though, having bad memories of Blighthorn’s poison breath and hoping we can stay spread out. The iron dragon flies up, streaks of electricity trailing behind its wings, and lands on one of the pipes near Kilwin, eyeing him. It summons a charge of electricity in its mouth and fires it at Kilwin, leaving him barely standing. Reides comes into the room and is very concerned about Kilwin, but thinks he can do more for him by helping to kill the dragon than feeding him a potion. He casts Shatter on the iron dragon, shaping the spell around Kilwin. Ashara also fires a spell at it but misses. As the dragon turns to her, she asks if it enjoyed the coin she left. Jorah re-enters the room and decides he can also do more by focusing on offense and leaving the healing to Kilwin. He fires a crossbow bolt right into the iron dragon, shattering one of its eyes. Kilwin runs around to the south side of the room to spread out and channels the divinity of Alethus to heal himself. He also slaps the dragon with Spiritual Weapon, but its tail catches it. The dragon looks around the room, but focuses on Jorah. It leaps down in front of him and Ashara and fires another stream of lightning directly at Jorah, knocking him unconscious immediately. Reides ducks under the pipes and runs near the console. He casts Shatter on the dragon again, sculpting it around the rest of us. Ashara casts Mind Sliver on it, doing psychic damage and rendering it more vulnerable on its next saving throw. Kilwin casts Healing Word on Jorah, bringing him back to consciousness and also healing himself with some of the residual magic. He hits the dragon with Sacred Flame and continues to back away from it. The dragon takes two swipes at Ashara, missing her at first, but slashing her across the chest on its second attack. It flies toward the middle of the room, closer to Reides, and Ashara carves into one of its legs with her dagger. Jorah continues to lie on the floor. Reides casts Shatter yet again, and for a moment, it looks like the dragon is going to fall, but its energy resurges again. Ashara casts Ray of Frost at it, and a freezing sound cracks from within it. The crunching spreads out to the previously damaged parts of the dragon and it bursts in midair, showering the room with debris.

Kilwin walks over to check on Jorah and Ashara as Ashara helps Jorah up. Jorah pries out the dragon’s other eye to keep. Ashara checks the metals of the dragon and discovers that they’re also pretty mundane, but she’s also able to surmise that this construct was built by some kind of mage, probably the one we killed. From growing up in Atemcester, Jorah knows that before Lyvernia kicked out the dragons, it was fairly common for dragons to keep pet mages who served them. While the dragons left Lyvernus, the wizards they kept didn’t necessarily go anywhere. The man we killed earlier might have been one of these pet mages and built this as a copy of his master, which would make him over 500 years old. Kilwin is shocked that a human could live for that long. Jorah figures he was artificially extending his life and checks with Reides that that’s not a totally uncommon wizard thing. Reides isn’t sure about that though, since wizards are pretty rare in Laverathia. Kilwin, Reides, and Ashara each take a part of the iron dragon to show someone in the Exeter, which we store in the bag of holding for now. There’s also a crash from downstairs. Ashara wants to burn the mage’s body, although we’re not sure if that would be appropriate for the flesh golem. Kilwin, having already performed the proper rites, is fine with that. As he leaves the room, Reides grabs the gold coins he and Ashara left and gives Ashara’s back to her. In the room with the dead mage and golem, Ashara lays one of the shirts over the flesh golem as a sign of respect. Jorah investigates the crash downstairs and discovers that the destruction of the iron dragon has disturbed and revealed another secret passageway that we missed. He calls the rest of the party down there. We take a rest for an hour to tend to our wounds before actually investigating the new room because we got wrecked by that dragon.

Inside the newly revealed room, there’s two human-sized dwarven statues by a partially closed curtain. There’s also a table with a small chest, a lantern, and various supplies on it. One of the statues is wearing goggles, and the other is wearing a robe. Ashara wafts some fumes from the bottles on the tables, and they smell like expired potions. Jorah checks out the chest and finds 800 gp inside. We divide it among ourselves, along with the copper we found earlier. Reides casts Identify on the goggles, which have an owl motif and learns they are Goggles of Night, which either give the wearer darkvision or extend their darkvision if they have it naturally. Jorah claims them, since Kilwin can cast Light if he needs to see. Reides then identifies the robe as a Robe of Useful Items, which is covered in patches that become the item or creature represented on the patch when the patch is removed while the robe is worn. It becomes a regular robe after all the patches have been used. Reides offers the robe to Ashara, who agrees to take it and folds it up to keep in her backpack. Reides then asks if Kilwin wanted it instead and he says it’s okay in a way that makes it really obvious that he did want it. Kilwin and Ashara gently argue about how the other one should keep the robe for a while, and Kilwin ends up wearing it in the end. We decide that he should pull off the patch containing a pouch of 100 gp and divide that up now. Jorah puts his goggles over his bandana.

Jorah admits that he really still wants to try to get the sapphire from the room we passed up earlier. We all agree to go with him. Reides attempts to remove the sapphire from the machine with Mage Hand, but it’s not strong enough to get it out. Jorah has to jump onto the machine and pull the jewel out himself. He jumps back down to the dry floor as the machine stops and the water begins to rise. It forms itself into some kind of large water creature that prepares to attack us. Kilwin summons his Spiritual Weapon again and manages to hit the water elemental, but it sloshes around Sacred Flame. Ashara also hits it with Mind Sliver. The water elemental moves out of the pool and envelops Kilwin and Jorah, who can’t move and quickly realize they can’t breathe. Jorah attempts to free himself from the water, but fails. Reides runs up and manages to pull Kilwin out of the elemental. He coughs up some water and quickly runs around the elemental to pull Jorah out. He then runs back to one of the walls. The elemental takes a swing at him, but whiffs. It lashes out at Reides and injures him. Reides casts Misty Step to move away and then casts Ray of Frost on the water elemental. It hits and freezes part of the elemental’s body, freezing it to the floor. Between Reides and Ashara being able to cast Ray of Frost, the water elemental does not successfully manage to move ever again. Eventually, Jorah drops his crossbow and thrusts Quickbrand through the water elemental two-handed. The ice breaks apart and the water elemental loses its form, collapsing and putting out one of the braziers on the floors. Jorah did successfully get the sapphire though! He senses that it has some kind of arcane property, so he asks Reides to take a look at it. Reides casts Identify on it and determines it’s an Elemental Gem, which can be broken to release a water elemental that will fight alongside the gem’s user. Jorah holds onto that! He’s looking pretty bad again, so Kilwin heals him over Jorah’s protests that he can heal himself. Jorah also points out that there was that strange dead end, which might be worth another look now that we know how many secret passageways Kahzdurga has. We think we’re good to ignore it, though! As Reides is identifying the sapphire, Ashara prepares a bonfire for the mage. Kilwin also examines the mage’s body before it’s burned, now that he knows he was unnaturally old. He just looks like a regular elderly man, though, and Kilwin can’t find any obvious signs of magical effects or surgery. Once our work inside Kahzdurga is finished, we leave and get to enjoy fresh air again.

Session 48

 * Google Document (2-19-22)

The party finally leaves Kahzdurga behind, with a day and a half’s journey back to the gates of the Exeter. On the way, Kilwin casts Sending to contact Pandora and let her know about the petrified people in Gutsnake Gorge. He also mentions the current status of the revenant situation. Pandora responds that reversing the petrification is also beyond her abilities. She’s also glad that Reides is okay and lets Kilwin know that Stardew Farm is doing well. Kilwin passes this on to the rest of the party. Reides thinks it’s good that at least more people are aware of the situation in the gorge. Reides also takes some time to study the mage’s spellbook and learns Fireball.

We arrive at the gates of the Exeter around 6 AM on Green Harvest 20. The circus has moved on, but our carriage is still there. Kilwin and Reides check it out and everything is still there. There’s also no stowaways! Reides gives Pepega a big hug and she nestles into him. Next, we check on the guardhouse. Korbo is still inside, but he’s snoring at his desk. Kilwin wonders if we should just wait for him to wake up or if it’s better to disturb him, but Reides eventually claps very loudly outside the guardhouse’s window. Korbo wakes up with a startle and observes that he must have dozed off and could use some coffee. Reides doesn’t know what coffee is! Korbo explains that it’s a bitter drink that wakes you up, and they sell it in the Exeter. He asks if we completed our mission, and Reides shows him the mage’s crystal. Korbo takes it to send with a letter to Orrin Stormshield. The mail system in the Exeter is really efficient, so Korbo’s already heard from Orrin that he’s approved us to get into the city, and the guards in the Exeter proper will have advance notice that we’re coming. The trip down the Rune Road will take ten days, so Korbo tells us to pace ourselves. Jorah is used to walking, but Ashara wonders why there’s not some kind of cart system. Korbo explains there’s braziers lighting the entire length of the Rune Road, so we can follow them. It goes a mile underground, but it’s generally pretty safe, especially at this time of year. We also tell Korbo about the iron dragon, which catches his interest. Kilwin gives him one of the iron dragon parts to examine and send to the city. Korbo comments that it looks like the iron golems that Dunan Slagmeld, the warden of the prison underground, uses. He doesn’t know how either device really works, though, so he’s just saying it based on them both being iron creatures. Ashara wonders if Slagmeld might have made the dragon on commission for the mage, but Korbo clarifies that Slagmeld actually commissioned his own golems from Atemcester. Korbo opens the gates to the Rune Road for us, and we can see the braziers lighting the pathway, which slopes gently downward. We thank Korbo for his help and head out!

There’s about ten feet between each set of braziers, leaving dark spaces in between them. Jorah has his new darkvision goggles, so he can still guide the horses. Kilwin is the only one who can’t really see, so he just rides in the carriage with a Light spell. There’s runes inscribed in the walls of the caverns, down the entire length of the road, which are dwarvish but in an old style that Kilwin doesn’t recognize. Jorah has come through here before and done some research, so he can interpret them for the party. There’s archaic versions of runes for things like “protection,” “safety,” and “May the ancestor mountains lead you home, children of the earth.” They were carved over the course of generations to provide protection for travelers on the Rune Road, especially dwarves. We are all amazed by the craftsmanship and dedication of this. During the trip, Reides spends some more time studying and learns Fly and Detect Magic from the Kahzdurga mage’s spellbook. He lets the rest of the party know that he can bestow the power of flight on us if we ever want! Jorah very deeply doesn’t want this, despite his interest in airships. It’s different when it’s magic he’s not familiar with! He’d like to learn how to use the grappling hooks he bought in Falas, though, but the dimensions of the cavern don’t really lend themselves to practicing.

Ashara wants to get to know the rest of the party a little better. She considers making a stew for them that her mother used to make, but doesn’t have the ingredients on hand, so she has to keep an eye out for them. She also asks for feedback on a gift she’s making for Kain- a pair of bracelets that can cast Sending between them. Unfortunately, no one really knows anything about enchanting items. Ashara figures out that she’d probably need to seek out some kind of magical creature with telepathic abilities and use some special material from it in the crafting if she wants it to work. She also strikes up a conversation with Reides about his family, asking if he misses his parents. He’s not really sure how to respond, since things are very complicated. He confirms that they’re very much still with us, though. He also didn’t have much of a chosen family underwater, although he misses his sister Lotlyn. Outside of her, the party is the closest thing to a chosen family Reides has. Ashara notes that other than Reides, the rest of the party are all orphans. Jorah expresses surprise that Ashara is also an orphan, although she clarifies that she is now. She was fairly young when she entered the stasis pod, roughly the human equivalent of 19. She didn’t even get a chance to finish her studies. She’s wondering how the rest of the party copes with something like that. Jorah thinks he’s a bad example of coping, but Ashara thinks he turned out fine! Jorah admits that he’s never known what he wanted to do with his life, and even now he’s really just going with the flow. He’s been on the road for about ten years straight now, and has been plagued with money problems pretty much the whole time. He blames himself for that, since he sends a lot of what he earns back to Julia, but he feels like he needs to repay her somehow and it’s at least a way of showing her that he’s still alive. Ashara still thinks he’s doing great! She also expands on her family situation. Her parents died fairly early on during the warforged uprising. It started in the outskirts of the empire, sweeping through the farming villages before reaching the Studium in the capital. By the time the Studium was willing to admit any culpability and try to intervene, the warforged were upon them and it was too late. Kilwin is a little surprised that Ashara is also from a small farming village! She shares with the group that her mother used to make a stew that she called a magic stew. Before her father joined the Studium as an arcanist, they would work the fields and her mother would make stew with what was left of the harvest after the empire took its share. Ashara would look forward to it every year, and she’d like to bring it into the new world and share it with the rest of the party. Everyone is pretty enthusiastic about it and is willing to help her try to figure out substitute ingredients for anything that might have gone extinct in the intervening millennia. Ashara asks how the rest of the party does with spices. Reides has a good track record with them now! The only thing he can’t handle is milk. Ashara’s family could never afford milk. Kilwin lets her know it’s cheap in Cowersby because of all the cows, but Ashara thinks that milk might make her stomach fuzzy too. Jorah could occasionally get milk in Hommlin, but not in Atemcester, since it didn’t travel well from Terrath, where most of Atemcester’s food comes from. There is a lot of seafood, though!

Ashara casts Dancing Lights and shapes it into the form of her mother. She tells the party that her name was Rhaella, and she was 200 years old when everything happened. Her father was named Charius, and Ashara doesn’t remember much about him. He was nice and Ashara thinks he was doing the best he could. He didn’t spend much time with her, though, because he was consumed with his studies, leaving Rhaella and Ashara to work the fields on Mlezzane Farm. Ashara doesn’t fault him for it, but she wishes that the warforged hadn’t come and that Charius didn’t have a hand in creating them.

Kilwin asks Reides what his other brother’s name is. Reides says his name is Dhudus, and he’s Reides’s younger brother. They were never close and don’t really have much in common- Dhudus is a bit of what they call a meathead on the surface. Reides says Dhudus isn’t as smart or investing in protecting the kingdom as Viglis is, but not nearly as bad as Reides himself is. Kilwin argues that Reides is actually the best at protecting the kingdom since he’s dealing with the Abyssal Crest situation and also possibly the smartest person Kilwin has ever met. He also asks what Reides used to do for fun in Aquos. Reides was pretty insulated from the taverns and things like that, but he used to sneak out of the castle a lot and explore shipwrecks. He found lots of really interesting items from the surface! Sharks would sometimes come for him, but he had learned his magic already and was fine. He admits it feels a little silly now that he’s constantly surrounded by items from the surface. Kilwin thinks that sounds super cool and mentions that he’s never seen a shipwreck before. Jorah points out that you usually don’t want to! Kilwin warns Reides that he’s probably going to be super overwhelmed and fascinated by things Reides thinks are really mundane when they go to Aquos. He asks if we’ll be the only surfacers that most tritons will have seen in Aquos. Reides says we definitely will be, and there’s a pretty good chance most of them will be hostile to us. He offers to lend the hat of disguise to someone when we’re down there so one of us can blend in, but isn’t sure how things will go for the other two. He admits that what he knows about triton opinions on surfacers is just from the noble point of view, and commoners might be different. It would depend on how his father’s rule is going, though, and when Reides left, it was going extremely well. Kilwin asks if Reides has checked in with anyone from Aquos since we left Port Valor. He hasn’t, but might at some point eventually. Kilwin thinks he should also send a letter to Father Glasny when he has a chance, since he hasn’t updated him on the situation since they were in Port Valor. He mentions he might not be able to go back to Cowersby by the planned day! He seems a little stressed!!

Reides mentions that he noticed Kilwin sneak off with a letter in hand when they were in Falas. Kilwin admits it was for Grinlief. He didn’t want him to think that we were standing him up for drinks, especially since it might be a long time before we can visit again. Kilwin gave him a really vague idea of the situation and told him to stay safe and take care of himself. Reides realizes that Ashara has never met Grinlief before realizing that she also doesn’t know anything about Tyrian. As much as Kilwin would rather talk about Grinlief, he thinks Tyrian should probably come first. Ashara gets a bit distracted for a moment though because she realizes she can cast Sending and ask Kain some questions. Kilwin notices there’s a skip in her step as she leaves the conversation to talk privately and draws some conclusions.

When Ashara comes back, she gets the full story on what happened with Tyrian and what we know about his relationship with the Burning Knight. Ashara thinks he sounds like a warlock! She doesn’t know much about revenants, so Kilwin gives her the copy of Revenants: A Dark Oath. Kilwin then describes Grinlief for Ashara (and Jorah who only met him briefly and when he wasn’t in the best shape). He’s a detective who’s not very good at his job and doesn’t seem to have a lot of friends, but he’s nice! Reides objects to Grinlief being described as nice when he said some very insulting things about him, and Kilwin admits that Grinlief sometimes says things that are hurtful and problematic, but Kilwin thinks he’s capable of being nice and also just likes him! He’s still hoping that we can visit him again once things have settled down or if we need to pass through there anyway. He’s about to say that Ashara and Jorah would like Grinlief, but actually thinks about it for a moment and realizes that, while there’s a chance Ashara would like him, Jorah almost definitely wouldn’t. Reides also wishes that Ashara could meet Slumberjack! Ashara would like that too. Kilwin would also like to see Slumberjack again and introduce them and Ashara, but hopes that Slumberjack will be in an okay headspace when we next see them. Likewise, Jorah hopes that the person we meet can still be called Slumberjack. None of us have given up on them though!

Reides brings up his first friend from the surface and mentions that he was in Atemcester when we were in Port Valor. He’s not sure if he’s still there, but hopes he is. Kilwin thinks it will be nice if Reides gets to see him again! The party also briefly discusses how old the mage from Kahzdurga was. Since the Era of Dragons ended roughly 600 years ago, he had to have been a powerful mage for at least that long. Jorah can’t even conceptualize that amount of time. He points out that he can’t trace his genealogy back that far. Reides can! Kilwin can’t trace his genealogy any farther back than himself, but points out that Father Glasny is about 400 years old. Jorah didn’t know that! Gnomes, man! Ashara also mentions that speaks Celestial and offers to teach Kilwin so he can surprise Slumberjack with his language knowledge. Kilwin says he’d like that!

While none of us are super familiar with the Exeter, Jorah has traveled through it once, but as far as we know, it’s not particularly isolationist and the blockade at the gates is just a response to the situation in Port Valor. The Underempire is a little insular, but the Exeter is its main trading hub with the rest of Alethustria, so they’re generally used to seeing outsiders. After ten days of travel down the Rune Road, we see a literal light at the end of the tunnel and it begins to get warmer. Eventually, we reach another set of massive doors engraved with depictions of ancient dwarven historical events. Everyone also gets blasted with a wall of heat from all sides. The city itself is carved into the interior of the mountain. We can also identify the source of the heat as a moat of lava surrounding what seems to be the palace. There’s also more streams of lava throughout the city, providing heat and light. There’s a main street leading to the keep in the distance, and large statues between the buildings, which all have flat roofs. There’s also another small guardpost, much like the one at the gates. Reides doesn’t handle heat well, and Kilwin is still heavily armored, so neither of them are feeling great. Kilwin offers to lend his hair tie to Reides, since he thinks he’s a lost cause down here, but Reides just puts it in a braid instead.

We approach the guardhouse, and Jorah and Kilwin notice that cooler air is coming out from the window. We introduce ourselves, and the guard informs us that Orrin Stormshield is away on business today, but wants to meet with us tomorrow. He’s made arrangements for us to stay at the Paragon’s Rest, the most popular inn in the Exeter, in the meantime. We can follow the slope down to the Ancestor’ Course, the main thoroughfare, and take a right. It’s surrounded by hulking statues. The guard also gently teases Reides and Kilwin for not being able to handle the heat, but assures them that it’s more comfortable down in the main city. The palace to the north is also called Bannsun Palace. The guard also gives us a letter from Orrin Stormshield, asking us to bring to him the mage’s arcane focus at his home the next day. His estate is in the Diamond District, and we can find it by heading toward Bannsun Palace and making a left at the statue of Audha Wyrmaxe. He’s also very particular about us arriving no later than an hour before noon, but invites us to explore and enjoy the city in the meantime. The guard also gives us back the crystal that we gave to Korbo. Kilwin asks how the mail system works that it got Korbo’s letter to the city in two days instead of ten, and the guard explains that there’s a system of tubes that launch letters between the gates and the city at very high speeds. Ashara asks why they can’t do that with people and becomes disgusted that she’s the only one who knows what a train is. Apparently, they tried it with a gnome once, and it didn’t end well. Reides asks about coffee, and the guard tells him that if he can’t find it at the Paragon’s Rest, he can probably buy some in the Emerald District. The guard also tells us that there’s a cooling rune inside the guardhouse that makes it bearable to stay in there for long periods of time. As we thank him for his help and take our leave, he also recommends we check out the Wheatmont Brewery while we’re here.

As we walk down the slope, the temperature falls from sweltering to comfortably cool, since the hot air was concentrated at the top of the cavern. Jorah keeps an eye out for shops where he could look into upgrading our carriage, while Reides is hoping he can buy a magically enhanced spellbook here. Along the Ancestors’ Course, we pass by Fluxtwist’s Forge, an armory called the Shield Maiden’s Closet, and, a bit deeper into the Emerald District, a general store called the Laden Gauntlet. We eventually reach the Paragon’s Rest, which is a three-storied building with a chimney. There’s plenty of dwarves milling around, as well as some gnomes and halflings, but there don’t seem to be many humans or elves living in the Exeter. We enter the inn and meet the innkeep, a dwarf with platinum blond hair tied back and gems woven into their beard. They greet us and we introduce ourselves. When we tell them that we’re meeting with Orrin Stormshield, they tell us that our rooms are covered for us and we’re very lucky. Kilwin says we’ve heard really good things about the Paragon’s Rest, and the dwarf says that if we hadn’t, their name wouldn’t be Ragni Quartzhenge. We infer that their name is Ragni Quartzhenge! Reides asks if they have any coffee, and Ragni says they do, along with stone brew ale, diamond draught, forge whiskey, and magma wine. Kilwin is apprehensive about the magma wine and asks Ashara not to try it, which Ragni thinks is pretty funny. Kilwin also thinks it might be a little early in the day to start drinking, but he might have something later. He is, however, surrounded by dwarves who are day drinking. Reides buys a cup of coffee and asks if Ragni can mix in something alcoholic. They’re willing to throw in some forge whiskey for an extra 5 copper. Reides drinks some and loves the taste, but almost instantly gets drunk on it. He wants more, but wonders why it’s suddenly so hot again and starts getting a bit jittery. Ragni observes that he’s a bit of a lightweight! Reides thinks everyone needs to try this, but Kilwin is a little concerned for him and would prefer to stay sober so he can keep an eye on him, Ashara is scared of trying strange alcoholic drinks after her experience with fire whiskey, and Jorah thinks getting plastered is more of a day 3 thing for a new city. Reides leans on Kilwin for support and is fascinated by Ragni’s beard decorations. He says he would do that if he could grow a beard. They point out that he could just put them in his hair. Reides is amazed by this concept and immediately tries to braid the pearl from his component pouch into his hair. Ragni tells him it would work better if he had a blacksmith or a jeweler make some kind of fastener for him, so Reides gives up for now. Jorah asks about accommodations for the carriage, and Ragni says he can park it in the stables for one gold per week. As for how we’ll spend the rest of our day, Ragni says we could check out the statues or the palace. They say they shouldn’t recommend the brewery since we’ve definitely already heard that, but they mention it anyway. Reides asks if Ragni knows a place where he might be able to shop for a spellbook, but they say that, while there’s some traditional magic users in the Exeter, it’s mostly runesmiths. Reides might be able to find some merchants from Atemcester who are stranded by the closure, though, and there’s a chance one of them will have something he might be interested in. Ragni has no idea when the Exeter will reopen, and King Thoros doesn’t seem keen on doing it anytime soon. We ask what Ragni knows about our patron in the city, and they say he’s hardly the worst noble out there, but very meticulous and a stickler for agreements and contracts. We also ask about the king, who’s been on the throne for a while. He’s generally considered pretty honorable, if a little naive. We get ready to head out for the day, and Ragni asks Reides to name his new coffee-whiskey concoction. He says he’ll think about it!

The party goes to the Emerald District for some shopping. Reides and Kilwin find the merchants from Atemcester, but they mostly stock fish and small items with minor enchantments, like cloaks of billowing. Kilwin takes a look at a cloak of billowing, but sees that it’s 150 gp and decides it’s deeply not worth it. Ashara manages to find some meats and basic ingredients for her stew, but can’t find all of the spices she’d need. The materials she would need for the Sending bracelets, however, are typically shipped directly to Atemcester for use in crafting when merchants get them. Jorah has been curious about clockwork since seeing the clockwork amulet that we found in the Traveler’s Boon. He looks for a timepiece and finds them fairly easily, but they’re intricate and pretty expensive. He’d prefer one made of a sturdier metal, but after looking at the prices, settles on a brass timepiece. He’s also interested in upgrading the loading mechanism on his hand crossbow, and the clocksmith directs him to Fluxtwist’s Forge where he could commission that, although it would cost him. At Fluxtwist’s Forge, the party encounters a dwarf soaked in sweat at the forge. He wears his black hair in a bun and has a short, singed beard. As Jorah enters, his eyes immediately go to Quickbrand and he asks where Jorah got it. Jorah explains the story, and the dwarf recognizes Galnur’s name, although he apparently didn’t know he made it to Falas. The dwarf is Fron Fluxtwist, and Galnur is his grandfather. Galnur went missing from the Exeter a long time ago, and is apparently still up to his old tricks, like putting his name on everything he forges in big block runes, which is what got Galnur kicked out of the family business. Jorah asks about his crossbow, and Fron offers to build a better loading mechanism for him in exchange for 500 gold. Jorah contemplates it for a bit, but decides to hand over his crossbow and the gold. As an added bonus, Fron will even avoid writing his name on it.

Session 49

 * Google Document (3-4-22)

As the party leaves Fluxtwist’s Forge, Kilwin uses Sending to tell Glasny where he is and that he plans to write but can’t because the city is closed. Glasny responds that everyone from home is with Kilwin in spirit and that Len is doing fine. Kilwin is reassured by this. Reides wants to find some candy, possibly lava-based candy, but unfortunately no one can direct him to a dedicated candy shop and he’s quite a sight in the process of searching. Jorah tries to gauge the mood of the city and picks up on some mixed reactions. Most people are going about their business as usual, since they trust that the doors will protect them from any evildoers, but others seem nervous and are speaking to each other in hushed tones about what happened in Port Valor. Apparently, the city hasn’t been sealed off like this in many, many years.

The party still has most of the day ahead of them and nowhere to be until the next morning, so Kilwin suggests checking out the Wheatmont Brewery that multiple people have recommended to them. He also thinks that they should try to be a little earlier than an hour before noon, since Orrin Stormshield only specified that they shouldn’t be later than that and seems a little uptight about this kind of thing. No one has given us directions to the brewery, but the organization of the city is easy to follow and the brewery itself is very famous, so it’s easy to find people who can point us in the right direction. On the way, we realize that it will take six days to leave the Exeter on the other side. Not ideal, but inevitable when you gotta travel!

The brewery has two stories and is adorned by quartz pillars adorned with gold detailing. The doors are huge slabs of stone with iron handles. The windows are very tall, almost like large arrowslits and are filled with high-quality glass. Still, they seem to emphasize function over form. It’s easy to take a peek at the inside, which is filled with casks and dwarves milling about. The party enters, where they find stone patchwork floor, a desk, and a blonde dwarf with their hair parted in the middle and braided into their beard. They notice our entrance and introduce themself as Heran Wheatmont. They welcome us to the brewery. Ashara asks if they have mead, and Heran assures her that they not only have mead, but many other high-quality alcoholic drinks. Apparently, this was the birthplace of forge whiskey. Heran offers Ashara a free sample of forge whiskey, which she enjoys! She says she would like another, but quickly realizes that this one will cost money. She purchases a bottle of forge whiskey for one gold. We start thinking that we might want some lunch, but the brewery doesn’t serve any food. Heran recommends a small place down the street to us, though. Before we leave, Jorah asks if the brewery has any cider, since he’s well-stocked on the harder stuff for now. Heran offers him a bottle of apple cider for one gold. Jorah is a little skeptical about the price, but gives in. At Heran’s urging, he takes a swig out of the bottle and it’s the best apple cider he’s ever had. The brewery is famous for a reason!

We take our leave, and Heran thanks us for our business. We find the restaurant they mentioned, which is named the Deep Diner. It’s a smaller place, but we sit down at the one open table and settle down to eat. The menu includes things like steak, root vegetables, goat milk and cheeses, salads made with moss (which Reides is hyped for), and mushrooms. Most of the food is covered with a hearty amount of rock salt. As we eat, we start discussing our next moves. Most of the party wants to know why Orrin Stormshield let us into the city. Jorah lists out some useful information we might want from him: what he knows about the Abyssal Crests, anything he might know about the Burning Knight and Alzrius, any connections he might be able to leverage with the other cities on the list to warn them of the possible danger. Ashara and Reides are inclined to distrust Orrin at this point though, and Ashara would like to visit a library to do some genealogical research and make sure the Stormshields didn’t rise to power very abruptly or suspiciously. Kilwin’s not particularly suspicious of Orrin, but he does think we should probably be a little cautious about what information we share. Since the Abyssal Crests in Port Valor and Falas were in the custody of those cities’ rulers, we figure that someone in the Exeter’s nobility will have this one, mostly likely King Thoros. Kilwin also speculates that Malino’re’s Crest was being kept by the Council of Elders, since the hags infiltrated them, which would keep the pattern. We decide that we’re not sure if we’re up to the task of effective research now, but it might be good reassurance later. Kilwin also wonders what we’re even going to do with the Crest if we manage to secure it. As long as the Burning Knight is missing a single Crest, he can’t release Alzrius, but since the Burning Knight has previously had no problem getting things we’ve tried to keep safe before, Kilwin doesn’t feel comfortable taking it with us, especially since we’re hypothetically going to continue interfering after this, and we definitely don’t want to collect them ourselves. It might be for the best to leave the Crests where they are, but make sure those places remain safe. The most important thing is making sure the Crests don’t all end up in one place. Jorah takes a quick look around the restaurant, but it’s noisy enough and we’re isolated enough that it’s unlikely anyone is listening in.

Inspired by the good food, Kilwin asks Ashara if she might be able to help him with flavoring the food he magically creates. She agrees and starts making a list of spices that might help. Jorah isn’t sure if she’s going to recognize all the modern spices or know how they work, but he admits he’s no chef and she thinks she can figure something out from the smells. Besides, it’s about experimenting! Reides asks if the restaurant has any desserts, and they have a goat cheesecake. Reides has some reservations since he’s lactose intolerant, but Kilwin really wants to try it. He also offers to try to heal Reides’s fuzzy stomach if Reides really wants to try it. Reides ends up getting some too. It’s not as sweet as regular cheesecake, but still very good. Fortunately, Reides’s stomach is unaffected. He might just have an intolerance to cow milk!

We don’t think we have anything we need to do before our meeting with Orrin Stormshield, although Jorah mentions dusting off his set of fancier clothes. Ashara doesn’t think her ancient robes are appropriate for meeting with nobility, so she decides to do some dress shopping. Kilwin wonders if he should wear the fancier vestments he got in Thorak’s abbey, but Jorah advises him against it, so he’ll just wear his normal vestments. We resume our shopping trip! Ashara helps Kilwin pick out some spices to buy- they’re easy to find but a little expensive, but Kilwin thinks it will be worth it. Ashara also buys a nice black dress for 15 gold. She also sells the shirts she got in Kahzdurga for 100 gold. We then head back to the Paragon’s Rest. Reides tells Ragni that he’s come up with a name for the concoction he drank. He announces that he’s decided to name it after the one Dwarvish word he knows- it will be called Pog Coffee. He suggests adding it to the menu, and Ragni says they might because they tried it after he left, and it was pretty good! The party spends a quiet evening at the inn and goes to bed, awakening on the first day of Goldsky.

Session 50
We wake up the next morning, a little nervous about our meeting with Orrin Stormshield! Although a trip to the library is still on the table, we figure that should wait until after the meeting, so we can try to get a read on Orrin first. We also don’t want to be late! Ashara also considers using Sending to update Kain on what’s happening, but decides to wait until after the meeting just in case anything significant happens there. Kilwin thinks we should maybe come clean with Orrin fairly easily, since everyone working with the Burning Knight presumably already knows about the Crests and where they are, although the rest of the party thinks that could draw unwanted attention to us. They might not know we’re trying to interfere! Ashara also reflects on what she knows about Seaton from her travels, since it was also on the list of cities with Abyssal Crests. It’s the largest port city in Lyvernus and trades with every other port city on the eastern seaboard, sending many goods to the northern part of the continent. The city itself is built into the slope of a small hill that goes into the sea, and people travel via canals that flow downhill. The water from the canals reenters the hill through portals that send the water back to the top of the hill.
 * Google Document (3-11-22)

We decide to leave the Paragon’s Rest at 8 AM so we can take the scenic route to the Stormshield estate and still show up a little early. Our walk is fairly uneventful. We pass some dwarves who are going about their business, expressing a similar mix of attitudes about current events that we observed yesterday. We also notice that there’s grates in the middle of the road with lava visibly flowing beneath them. However, they’re not actually hot for whatever reason. Kilwin has some totally unfounded anxiety about accidentally dropping something important into one of the grates.

We arrived at the gates of the Stormshield estate in the Diamond Ward at 10:45 AM, exactly as planned. The building is three stories tall and surrounded by low outer walls. Inside the walls, there’s a small garden with actual grass, which is a little surprising. The main building is quite wide and has tall stone doors in the center, adorned with a large metal knocker. We knock and wait a while, and eventually a finely dressed dwarven butler with a cloth over his arm answers the door. He recognizes us as the expected adventurers and looks us over, raising an eyebrow at Jorah (since he’s the scruffiest of us currently). We are allowed in and escorted through an entrance hall adorned with ornate tiles to a sitting room, similar in setup to Mayor Irwin’s in Vila’s Watch but nicer. The chairs and tables are made of stone and set into the ground. After we sit down in the smaller chairs, the butler steps out for a moment and returns with another dwarf. This dwarf has medium length gray hair tied in a ponytail and a neat gray beard. He’s wearing an intricately patterned dark blue robe, white pants, and dark boots. He gives us a tight smile and welcomes us before sitting in the room’s largest chair. The butler stands behind him. Orrin thanks us for bringing him the arcane focus, taking it from Reides. He admits that he’s lucky we came along, as he’s been staying out of the political sphere recently and has fallen out of favor with King Khaduum. After being prompted by Kilwin, Orrin clarifies that the king’s full name is King Thoros Khaduum. Orrin thinks that the gift of the arcane focus of a mad wizard who created a metal dragon will at least get him enough favor with the king to get back on the guest list for the Bequeathing Ceremony. We ask what that is! Orrin explains that every year, the ruling monarch of the Underempire chooses a loyal subject and rewards them for their service by bequeathing them with an item of their choosing from the royal armory. Orrin isn’t that interested in the Bequeathing itself since being selected involves a lot of grandstanding and flattery, and he’s not that interested in the arms to begin with, but he usually enjoys the accompanying party. Reides agrees that court is a big pain in the butt. Orrin seems to relax a little at this. Orrin thinks that King Thoros has a good heart, but is kind of a sucker for flattery. He really hates the whole atmosphere of it. Orrin does, however, really enjoy the food at the king’s banquets, so each year, he tries to make a good enough gift to be invited so he can eat. Ashara is a bit outraged that we asked to undertake such a dangerous task for such a frivolous reason, but Jorah and Kilwin think it was something that someone needed to take care of anyway, and Reides can respect the ulterior motive. He suggests taking a bag of holding or something like it to take home as much food as he can. Orrin enjoys the idea, but he’s pretty sure he’d get uninvited from all future banquets and doesn’t want to risk that.

Jorah asks who’s most in favor with the king. Orrin admits he’s not a very good source since he stays out of court as much as he can, but he would guess Warden Dunan Slagmeld. Orrin has only met Dunan in passing, but he’s getting the item, so he was the most successful bootlicker of the year. Orrin really doesn’t know much about Dunan’s character though: At court, he meets people, forgets them, and then hopes he never has to see them ever again. Reides gets it! Jorah then changes the topic of conversation. He says that’s been trying to figure out people’s opinions on what happened in Port Valor. Orrin thinks it’s a terrible tragedy, but hadn’t heard any of the details that Jorah mentions, like the presence of raiders or the fact that they were looking for something. He’s very sincerely saddened by what he’s heard from merchants who just avoided the blast. Orrin asks us for news from outside, and we tell him that there’s a rebuilding effort, although it will take quite some time. Reides asks how the Exeter is doing in terms of safety, but Orrin thinks the only thing we should worry about is some possible xenophobia, although he thinks we could probably blend in and avoid most of it. Reides thinks he kind of inherently sticks out, which Orrin concedes.

Ashara telepathically asks us if she should try to read Orrin’s thoughts. Reides is opposed to this, Jorah thinks trying wouldn’t be a bad idea so long as she can avoid tipping him off to doing it, and Kilwin thinks Ashara would be the best judge of it. Ashara decides against reading Orrin’s thoughts, since it’s not something she’s very comfortable doing anyway. Jorah decides to stop beating around the bush, apologizing to the party since he didn’t really talk it over with them. He explains that we traveled here from Port Valor and are trying to stop anything similar from happening in the Exeter by looking for powerful artifacts that the forces behind the tragedy in Port Valor are also looking for, to ensure their security. In each case, the item was in possession of high-ranking nobility and targeted by a threat from within. Currently, Jorah thinks that trying to learn everything we can from Orrin is our best option. Orrin is willing to believe this, and tells us that, if we’re correct, the Plate of the Ancestors is probably the artifact we’re looking for, since that’s what Dunan has selected for the Bequeathing. Kilwin asks if the plate has some kind of design emblazoned on it, perhaps a crest. Orrin has never seen the Plate, though, since it doesn’t come out of the armory normally. It was actually outside of the Exeter for a long time, but it was returned about ten years ago. Kilwin explains the objects we’re looking for are called Abyssal Crests, and Jorah mentions that people searching for them have caused mass death in Port Valor and Malino’re. Orrin is very concerned because he hadn’t heard anything about Malino’re, but Kilwin explains what happened there and assures him that it’s as safe as anywhere else currently.

Jorah thinks that Orrin is pretty trustworthy, and the worst things we’ve heard about him have come from Orrin’s own mouth. They weren’t even particularly bad! Orrin admits that he just wants the Exeter to be safe. He’s not entirely sure about these Crests, but if they are a thing, he thinks they would be in the king’s armory. Kilwin asks if the armory is well-guarded during the Bequeathment Ceremony. Orrin says it has to be opened to get the desired artifact, but it’s not like it’s open to the public. Orrin is a little concerned about Kilwin’s intentions, but Kilwin swears he’s just asking in case the Bequeathing is actually providing an opportunity for someone other than Dunan to steal the real Abyssal Crest. He doesn’t even want an Abyssal Crest with him! Orrin admits there’s a lot of other artifacts in the armory which may or may not be important to our quest, but he doesn’t know many of them. He does mention an item called the Earthbreaker Maul, though. Reides tells Orrin that he needs to start kissing ass immediately to try to get the Bequeathment instead of Dunan, but Orrin says it’s a bit late for that, since the ceremony is in a week’s time. He’s also unlikely to be able to get us invitations, since the atmosphere in the city is a little more hostile than usual, and he barely had the pull to get us into the city in the first place. We realize that we might need to investigate the jail and Jorah suspects that the easiest way in would be in chains, but none of us really want to do that, especially Reides. Kilwin thinks Dunan’s prison is probably much worse than the cages in Vila’s Watch and that experience made him want to avoid imprisonment at all costs. He clarifies that he did not actually commit a crime, he was just bitten by a werewolf, and also he is not actually a werewolf. Jorah comments that Kilwin has an alarming habit of oversharing! Kilwin also asks how insular the Exeter is- if a dwarf were to just suddenly appear in the city without being known to people, would anyone think it was unusual? Orrin is a little confused by this line of questioning, and Kilwin is just on the verge of letting the beans spill about the Hat of Disguise when Jorah slaps him on the back. This interrupts Kilwin, who apologizes for talking too much. He promises it’s fine that Jorah hit them because they’re friends! Orrin is still confused! He’s sorry he can’t do more to help us, but we assure him that he’s helped us a lot, even just by getting us into the city. We do ask, though, that if he learns anything new or finds anyone who might be able to get us into the Bequeathing Ceremony, he should let us know. He knows where to find us! Before we leave, Orrin assures us that King Thoros has a good heart, and his first decree as king was that no one would go hungry again. We also ask where we might be able to find Dunan Slagmeld. Orrin can only think of Magma Slag Rock, the prison that Dunan runs. It’s about a mile north of the city, on an island in the center of a lake of lava. Orrin isn’t really sure how people get back and forth from the prison. We thank Orrin for his help again, and take our leave.

After we leave, Jorah pulls us aside and apologizes for sharing so much with Orrin without asking us. Generally, we’re pretty sure that Orrin is trustworthy and we’re not overly worried about it. We do think that we should try to research Dunan Slagmeld instead of Orrin when we hit the library, though. We make that our next destination and spend about an hour getting directions to the library in the Sapphire District. Jorah keeps an eye for anyone following us, but doesn’t notice anyone suspicious. The library is smaller than some of the ones we’ve seen, only a single storey tall, but as wide as the Stormshield estate and a bit deeper. Although Kilwin and Jorah are the only ones able to read the books that are in Dwarvish, they show Reides and Ashara the runes they should keep an eye out for. Ashara attempts to research Dunan Slagmeld, but quickly realizes that no books have been written about him, so she shifts her focus to the Bequeathing Ceremony. Reides looks for information on Magma Slag Rock, and Kilwin and Jorah work together to find what they can about the Plate of the Ancestors.

Jorah and Kilwin find decent information, mostly confirming what Orrin told them about the Plate. There’s no information about its origins, whereabouts before ten years ago, or any powers it might have, but they do find a physical description of it: A set of armor with a golden hue, emblazoned with the image of a shield with a flame across the chest. Reides finds a lot of information about the prison, confirming that it really is in the middle of a lake of lava. He learns that the prison is accessed by placing a pair of special amulets on pedestals at the same time, which summons a bridge from within the lava. Cooling runes on the bridge quickly negate the hazard of walking across it. Magma Slag Rock has existed for about 400 years, and the book goes into detail about a former head warden named Bervo Gemmgarl, who was likely Dunan’s predecessor. The position of head warden isn’t hereditary, but is given to a noble and it’s a life position. Reides can’t find any information on the qualifications or selection process for the position beyond that. Magma Slag Rock houses the worst criminals in the Underempire and conditions inside are generally pretty horrid. Strict rationing is fairly common, since the lake of lava sometimes prevents shipments from arriving. Ashara reads that the Bequeathing takes place once a year and rewards one person the king deems to have been the most helpful. The bequeathment is generally temporary, and the items are returned once the reigning king dies in order to continue the tradition. However, in rare cases, the royal family allows someone to keep an item permanently, and occasionally items become lost. However, it’s considered an important tradition, so the royal family continues it despite the risks.

Jorah points out that Dunan might not even be involved with our quest at all, but Reides thinks all that flattery is suspicious. We don’t have many leads to go on yet, though. Jorah also doesn’t like this idea, but points out that we’re four obvious outsiders to the city, so it might be wise for us to split up into smaller groups if we decide to investigate the palace or the prison. Kilwin sees what Jorah is saying, but also agrees that he hates the idea. Reides is pretty sure he’s going to be clockable no matter what, though, and desperately needs some water. Kilwin offers him his waterskin. Kilwin thinks we could ask Ragni if there’s some way for commoners to interact with the Bequeathing Ceremony, which the party generally thinks is a good idea.

We head back to the Paragon’s Rest to talk to Ragni. They ask what we’ll be drinking, so Kilwin orders an ale, but everyone else just wants water. We ask if they’ve heard of the Bequeathing Ceremony, and they describe it as “some noble gets some cool shit.” We act very interested in seeing it as a cultural ceremony and ask if there’s a way for commoners or outsiders to get in. Ragni assures us there isn’t. Jorah asks if they might be looking to hire help for it, but Ragni knows that the royal palace is very well staffed currently. They say we could try, though! They also say we could just try to sneak in, although the consequences would be steep and we might get sent to Magma Slag Rock. Reides pretends to have never heard of Magma Slag Rock, as does Jorah, and they manage to fool Ragni. They explains the basics of what we already know and tell us it’s a terrible place where people only get two meals a day. A few former inmates have come to the Paragon’s Rest, and none of them were happy about their time there. It’s a rough place, and from what Ragni’s heard, the main problems isn’t necessarily the guards, but they do allow it. They’ve heard word of terrible violences, including some kind of tournaments. Reides asks if Ragni has seen any of their ex-con friends around lately, although Ragni says that once people leave Magma Slag Rock, they usually leave the Exeter all together so they never have to go back. The main ones they know left for Falas. Reides admits he’s had his prison experience, so he can’t blame them at all. Ragni is a little surprised, but Reides’s coin is good, so they don’t mind. They say his names are good too, and point out the addition of Pog Coffee to the official menu, available for 1 silver. Someone arrives at the door, and Ragni leaves the bar to see who it is.

We take a moment to talk among ourselves. Kilwin remarks that this information has lowered his opinion of Dunan Slagmeld even more. None of us want to go to jail. As for the palace, Jorah is unsure if Kilwin’s idea of using the Hat of Disguise to infiltrate the palace is a good idea though. He’s probably the best party member to go on a subterfuge mission alone and let the rest of us in, but he doesn’t think he could pull it off. Reides is extremely charming and thinks confidence could get one of us a long way, but doesn’t speak Dwarvish. Despite floating the idea of using Ashara’s telepathy to ferry translations between Reides and one of the two Dwarvish speakers, Kilwin thinks that might be too complicated to actually work. Jorah is also unsure if Reides would be able to convincingly portray a servant as a (former?) noble, although Reides doesn’t think he has enough actual court experience to actually blend in with the nobles anyway.

Ragni comes back holding some papers and asks which direction we came from. We tell them we came from Quadroad! They ask where we came from before that. Jorah carefully says we came from the north. Ragni spreads out the four papers they’re holding so we can see them. Each one has an illustration of one of us and text explaining that we are to be apprehended dead or alive by the order of Dunan Slagmeld for our role in the destruction of Port Valor. Ashara tries to telepathically tell Ragni that Dunan is going to cause the apocalypse, while Reides examines the wanted posters. The illustrations are decent likenesses, definitely recognizable, and our attire matches what we were wearing when we first arrived in the Exeter proper. The posters don’t have our names on them, since we didn’t actually identify ourselves to the city guards. Kilwin, unaware that Ashara is talking to Ragni in their mind, takes out the emperor’s writ and tries to explain that we actually did what we could to save Port Valor. Ragni signals to one of their coworkers and asks them to take the counter for them for a while, and they escort us to a back room, lined with kegs of various alcohols.

Ragni asks us what the fuck is going on! They don’t think we seem like a bad sort and doubt that Dunan’s accusations are true, but they want an explanation. Ashara explains again that Dunan is up to evil and wants us out of the picture before we can stop him, but Jorah provides them with the full context. Ragni asks if this is why we were asking about the Bequeathing Ceremony and Magma Slag Rock. Reides admits it was and apologizes for lying to them. The arrest warrant is really a pretty major point against Dunan not being involved with the Burning Knight! Ragni speculates that, if everything we’re saying is true, Dunan probably contacted the Knight as soon as he learned outside adventurers entered the city. We realize that he would also know that Orrin let us into the city, so Ashara casts Sending to tell him that he could be in danger. He wants to know what on earth we did, but thanks her for the warning and will try to get safe. Jorah points out that we can’t keep staying at the Paragon’s Rest and should leave Ragni out of this. We check the posters again and realize there’s a bounty of 1000 gold each on us. We all urge Reides to use the Hat of Disguise to have a chance at blending in, so he takes on the appearance of a tall dwarf with flaming red hair and jewels in his beard. Ragni says that’s both flattering and useful! Reides admits they’re his fashion inspiration. Jorah apologizes for getting them involved in this, but Ragni says that, as a barkeep, they actually love being involved with things. This is a bit above their pay grade, but hey! Ashara attempts to give them 20 gold as thanks for not ratting us out, but they refuse, saying that we’ll need it more than they will, since we’ll probably have to bribe some people to stay safe.

Ragni suggests that those of us without a Hat of Disguise try to use mundane methods to disguise ourselves. Anything we could do to change up our appearances could help! Reides admits that he’s imagining Kilwin without a beard and freaking out about it. Kilwin admits that he really doesn’t want to shave off his beard, but it is on the table! Ashara is freaking out because the last time she was wanted, she lost her arm. She takes her prosthetic off, but quickly realizes that she can’t cast spells without it, so she reattaches it and wraps it in her robe (since she’s wearing her new dress). Jorah starts by undoing his bandana and putting his hair up in a bun. He also rubs some of his clothes on the floor to dirty them up. He thinks our best move would be to go to a part of town where no one really wants to go. Ragni suggests the Topaz District, which is the Exeter’s slums. Ashara doesn’t think that sounds that bad, and Ragni admits it’s not as bad as Falas’s slums. Still, Reides remakes his glamour without the beard jewels, just to be a less tempting target. Reides worries about what Pepega will do. Although Jorah thinks that she might be useful if she runs away and will likely have an easy time keeping away from danger, Reides is worried about how there’s no way she won’t stand out wherever she goes. He temporarily dismisses Pepega to a pocket dimension, although he can easily resummon her if he needs her help. Jorah admits he’s worried about Gin, but Ragni promises to take care of our carriage for us. Jorah also realizes that he is never going to get his hand crossbow back. Ragni offers to try to get that to him too, but Jorah doesn’t think it’s worth the risk to them. Jorah tries to stow away his remaining crossbows, giving one to Ashara to hide. Kilwin changes out of his vestments into his commoner clothes along with a set of studded leather armor that Jorah loans him. He’s not sure what else to do! Ragni recommends changing up our hairstyles. Jorah takes Quickbrand and starts cutting his hair off. It’s chin length instead of mid-back when he’s done. Ashara and Reides are pretty distressed by this! Kilwin assures Jorah that it looks nice, though, especially considering he did that himself with a sword! Jorah points out it will grow back. Ashara is horrified by the thought of cutting her hair. Kilwin says she doesn’t have to and undoes his own ponytail. He offers her the hair tie, so that they can trade hairstyles, but Ashara’s braids are still the ones that her mother did for her, and she never wants to undo them. We suggest using wine or charcoal to dye her hair without messing with the style. In the end, she accepts Ragni’s offer of using wine to dye her hair red. She also takes off her sunglasses, and fortunately she can see since we’re underground. Kilwin asks if he can use Reides’s charcoal to dye his hair black, and Reides helps him do it. Ashara wraps herself in a bedroll. Kilwin offers to take anything valuable in the bag of holding, and Jorah gives him Quickbrand. Kilwin is surprised, but Jorah thinks it could make him a target.

Jorah asks Ragni if there’s a back exit we could use, and Ragni leads us toward a ladder to the cellar doors. They suggest we get moving, but we know where to find them if there’s something else we need. We decide that it’s best if we split up, since people know we’re a group of four. Since Ashara has the weakest disguise and Jorah has stealth-enhancing magic, they’ll go in one group. Kilwin and Reides will take another, longer route to the Topaz District, since their disguises will hold up to a bit more scrutiny. This way, we’ve also split up our more muscular companions, as well as our spellcasters who have Sending prepared in case things go south for one of our groups. Reides says that Kilwin can pretend to be his husband! Kilwin agrees to this! We decide to make some fake names for ourselves, even though our names weren’t on the poster. Jorah decides to be Keras and Reides’s dwarfsona is named Ragnar Stormborn. Kilwin dithers a bit, but decides on Len because he knows he’ll react to hearing that name. Ashara takes the name Rhaella. We say our goodbyes and tell each other to stay safe before splitting up, hoping to find sanctuary in the Topaz District.

Session 51

 * Google Document (3-19-22)

Reides redoes Ashara’s hair in a bun, while Kilwin casts Death Ward on Jorah. The two groups then go their separate ways, planning to coordinate a meetup once they reach the Topaz District.

Kilwin and Reides, in the guise of Len and Ragnar, take a leisurely stroll along the scenic route to the Topaz District. They hold hands, since they’re pretending to be married. Both of them keep an eye out for anyone who seems to be paying too close attention to them, but most people don’t seem particularly interested or suspicious of them. However, they do notice a massively increased guard presence that wasn’t around earlier in the day. The guards seem to be questioning people that they pass. One group of guards starts walking in Kilwin and Reides’s general direction and, after a moment of deliberation, Reides pulls Kilwin into an alleyway. He seems to have a plan, but Kilwin is confused! The alley has some barrels, some wooden planks strewn around, and trash in some of the corners. Kilwin hears the guards getting closer and hears them asking people specifically if they’ve seen the party. As they come closer to the alleyway’s entrance, Reides asks Kilwin to get against the wall, which he does. He asks if Kilwin would be okay pretending to be caught in an intimate moment. Kilwin turns red, but agrees. Reides pushes Kilwin against the wall, and Kilwin puts his hand on Reides’s shoulder. The guards’ footsteps get closer, and most pass the alley by. Kilwin hears him mutter “Odan’s beard, desperate times, I guess” in Dwarvish. After he’s gone, Kilwin tells this to Reides and wonders if it was possibly referring to him, but Reides encourages him to just not dwell on it. They leave the alleyway to a number of raised eyebrows from bystanders. Reides’s head is held high, but Kilwin is avoiding eye contact with everyone.

Jorah and Ashara, disguised as Keras and Rhaella, briefly discuss their approach before trying to take a more direct route. They’re going to try to blend in as much as they can. Jorah has Ashara lean on him, with her metal arm toward him to try to hide it from view a bit more. She’ll also walk with a limp to seem injured. Jorah tells her that if something happens, he plans to cast Pass Without Trace and thinks they should try to get to the roofs. Ashara plans to drag everyone to hell, herself along with them, but promises to give Jorah a head start on running. Jorah’s a little skeptical of this plan, but we’ll see how it goes! The direct route leads them to a bridge across a lava flow. A group of guards have set up a checkpoint on the other side of the bridge, and there’s no other way across the lava flow nearby. Jorah thinks they should try to find another way around. Ashara wants to attack, but Jorah just pulls her away. Jorah thinks he might be able to bluff his way through the checkpoint, but worries about Ashara. Since the bridge across the lava was the direct path, Jorah and Ashara essentially have to make their way to the path Kilwin and Reides were taking and go that way. They follow the lava flow northeast, keeping on the side of the road away from the lava in case they need to run. Eventually, they encounter a group of three guards who happen to be coming from the other direction. They decide to try to just act natural and walk past, but Jorah says he’ll do the talking and that he wants Ashara to run and hide if he pushes her away from him. He’ll try to run and hide too, but he’ll go through them instead. Ashara agrees and asks if it’s okay if she pretends to be deaf. Jorah thinks he can go with that. As they approach the guards, one stops them and tells them they’re on the search for suspicious characters. Jorah assumes the role of a citizen of the Exeter and says he thought they locked up! The guard tells him that a noble let them into the city, but will be standing trial for that soon. Jorah swears about nobles and technically isn’t lying! Jorah asks how they can help the guards. Another guard interrupts to ask why Ashara doesn’t speak. Jorah explains that’s Rhaella, who’s deaf and won’t respond unless you get her attention first. The guard starts waving his hands in front of Ashara’s face, and she turns away from Jorah and waves awkwardly at the guard. The guard seems to accept this. The first guard says that there are checkpoints set up all over the city, so it won’t be difficult to find a place to report the outsiders. He tells Jorah and Ashara to be on their way and stay safe. As they start to go, the third guard stops them again and asks where they’re going. Jorah says they’re meeting some friends up north- he can’t quite remember the name of the place but say it’s just along this flow. The guard then asks how long they’ve lived in the Exeter. Jorah explains that he and Rhaella have lived in the Exeter for about four years at this point. They came through with a group of bounty hunters and decided to stick around. After a tense moment, the guard allows them to go on their way.

As Reides and Kilwin continue on their way, Reides spots an elderly dwarf pushing a cart filled with small, colorful things. He realizes it’s candy. He points it out to Kilwin and looks at him pleadingly. Kilwin deliberates for a moment before deciding that life is for living! He agrees to handle the talking. He greets the candy seller and has Reides pick out what he wants. Kilwin is about to pay for it when there’s a flash of recognition. The candy seller stutters and screams “Port Valor!” in fear. Kilwin and Reides are scared and unsure what to do, but ultimately decide to keep going and see if they can talk their way out of it if the candy seller successfully gets a guard who believes him. Reides considers changing his disguise, but Kilwin points out that he’s the one who’s suspicious and can’t really quickly change. He does think he should maybe ditch the beard next time if they ever have to do something like this again, though. Reides collects some of the candy that fell off the cart, and they continue on their way.

As Ashara and Jorah continue, there’s fewer and fewer alleyways for them to duck into. Ashara thinks Jorah will have some ideas, but he’s more used to being the hunter than the hunted. Soon, he hears the movement of a lot of plate armor approaching them. While Jorah and Ashara look for somewhere to get out of the way, they hear a voice telling them to come over quickly. A door to a nearby house has opened and a dwarven woman is beckoning to them. Without a better option, Jorah and Ashara duck inside. The woman closes the door and says that she’s not sure why the guards are like this now, but it’s best to not let them harass anyone clearly not from the city. The woman introduces herself as Denja. Jorah thanks her, and Ashara decides to drop her deaf act and thanks her too. They both admit it’s a little obvious they’re not from around there. Jorah tells Denja to stay safe and pretend she never saw either of them, and Ashara gives her a gold coin. Denja agrees and sends them on their way, telling them to go in shadow. Ashara and Jorah agree that that was a really weird turn of phrase, but neither of them recognize it and they don’t really have time to dwell on it.

Both groups successfully make it to the Topaz District and look for a safe place to hide out. Ashara finds a rundown inn called the Smoldering Ingot, with lots of dark corners to hide in. Reides finds an abandoned park, with overgrown grass and a large tree that curls upward. There’s also some lamps that are focused on the tree, which seem to be providing some false sunlight, but some of them have gone out. The Smoldering Ingot is emptier than one might expect, which makes Ashara wonder if the guards have already swept through. They sit down at a booth, drawing little attention from the other patrons. Jorah gets two ales from the bartender, a gruff dwarf with a scraggly beard, who’s polishing glasses with a dirty cloth. He also learns that there’s rooms for a silver per night. Kilwin uses Sending to contact Ashara, and they decide to meet at the Smoldering Ingot. That way, Reides can recast Disguise Self in a room and not worry about the spell while sleeping. Reides refreshes his disguise, and Kilwin puts his component pouch and journal into the bag of holding and gives it to Reides for safekeeping. Just in case! Reides takes it but doesn’t think it’s necessary. Kilwin admits it will just put his mind at ease. Reides also offers Kilwin some floor candy, which he accepts.

The buildings in the Topaz District are weathered, and there’s large cracks in the pavement and walls. It takes Reides and Kilwin a while to find the inn, especially since it’s not on the path they expected Jorah and Ashara to take, but they find it after about an hour of searching. Ashara uses her telepathy to tell Kilwin that he and Reides can sit with them or pick a different table if they’d like. We decide to all sit together. Reides offers Ashara and Jorah some floor candy; Ashara takes a handful, but Jorah passes on it. Kilwin tells Ashara and Jorah he was recognized once but no one seemed to follow them after that. We start planning our next moves. Kilwin looks around and sees that no one seems to be specifically listening to them, but since there’s not a lot of other conversations occurring and fire is low, we keep our voices quiet. Kilwin sees our two main goals as clearing our names and interfering with Dunan getting the Plate of the Ancestors, especially since we won’t be able to leave until the blockade is lifted and/or we’re known to be innocent. Doing either one would more or less resolve the other, probably, but Kilwin’s not sure where to start with either of them. Jorah and Ashara recount their encounter with Denja, and Reides and Kilwin agree that the phrase “walk in shadow” probably means something significant, possibly an affiliation with a thieves guild? No one recognizes it, though. Kilwin asks if there’s rooms, and then asks Reides if they want to keep up the act. They have a brief understanding where Reides thinks Kilwin is asking if they want to keep pretending to be a married couple. They decide to share a room for the night.

Jorah has dealt with the bounty hunters guild in the Exeter, but he doesn’t have strong ties to them and doesn’t know anything about local thieves guilds. He thinks we have three options: Infiltrate Magma Slag Rock and try to get evidence against Dunan there, wait a week and infiltrate the Bequeathing Ceremony, or wait until after the Bequeathing Ceremony and try to confront Dunan once he gets the Plate. Dunan possibly also has an estate, but we don’t know where it is and going there is probably as risky as the prison. Jorah also thinks that if he had something big to hide, he’d do it in the maximum security prison where he works, not his house. Kilwin doesn’t want to go to prison, but definitely doesn’t want to wait a week without doing anything! Ashara suggests ditching the whole place and letting what happens to the Exeter happens. She doesn’t care about this city that wants her dead! Kilwin isn’t willing to just leave, though, even if we physically could. He argues that Ashara didn’t see the Burning Knight and Kilwin’s not willing to let him get any closer to his goals if there’s anything he could possibly do about it. In that case, Ashara would like to murder Dunan. Kilwin isn’t sure that’s the best idea either, at least not without a lot of research, since he could come back like Tyrian and we could have two revenants to worry about. Ashara thinks destroying him utterly could avert that, but Kilwin is pretty sure that’s beyond our capabilities right now. Reides thinks they are maybe both getting a little bit ahead of themselves here. He thinks he could probably chat some people up, like the barkeep, and learn a bit more about the general opinion of Dunan Slagmeld here (probably bad) and who might be able to help us. Jorah thinks Reides will mess this up. Kilwin objects to this assessment of Reides’s small talk skills, as does Reides! Ashara considers using Sending to tell Ragni safe and where we are, but the rest of the party thinks we shouldn’t give them too much info that they’ll need to lie about, she decides not to contact them. Reides and Kilwin obtain their room key. The barkeep, still polishing glasses with the same dirty rag, barely looks at them, so Reides leaves him alone. Jorah gets a room key for himself and Ashara as well. As Kilwin suggests that Jorah take point on trying to track down the thieves guild and see if they’ll help us, Ashara takes some time to update Kain on the current situation. Kilwin offers to go with Jorah as backup if he’s willing! Jorah isn’t enthused about this idea, since he hasn’t been on that side of the law for a long time and isn’t sure if leaving the Topaz District at all is a good idea. Kilwin is surprised to hear that Jorah actually was once involved in this kind of thing, but Jorah doesn’t want to talk about it and calls it the legacy of a misspent youth. That doesn’t make Kilwin any less curious, but he lets it go for now.

Unsure of our next steps, we contemplate trying to sleep on it. Four people then enter the Smoldering Ingot- a dwarf with splintmail, two swords, and a crossbow; a heavily armored dwarf with a crossbow and greatsword; a robed dwarf; and an elf with a bow slung across her shoulders, who crosses her arms and leans against the bar. Kilwin starts eavesdropping and overhears the elf suggesting that they head back to the inn we were staying at to look for clues. She mentions that the robed dwarf, Kieran, has a spell that could track us if they find something of ours. They get their drinks as we think over our next moves and eventually start debating which group of us is going to try sneaking upstairs first. Eventually, Jorah and Ashara make the attempt. No one moves to stop them, but Kilwin notices the elven woman’s eyes follow them up and just barely makes out her telling her companions that they found their marks. Jorah and Ashara make it to their room and lock the door. Jorah starts stringing his crossbow as Ashara uses her telepathy to ask Kilwin what’s happening downstairs. He tells her the bad news. There’s a window in the inn room, so Jorah attempts to open it, but it’s locked. Ashara casts Darkness to impede the other group of adventurers. He asks Ashara to ask Kilwin to get Quickbrand out. Ashara tries to break the glass with her hands, but doesn’t have much success until she gets her mace out. Jorah puts on his darkvision goggles and jumps down, catching Ashara at the bottom. As the other adventurers head upstairs, Kilwin and Reides leave the tavern. Kilwin asks for the bag of holding and gets Quickbrand out, but then gives the bag back to Reides. Reides thinks this is getting a little silly! Jorah casts Pass Without Trace as he gets Quickbrand back and we all head for the park. The elf curses from above and looks out the broken window, but doesn’t spot us.

We make it to the park without incident, but as we pass through the archway, we spot a cloaked dwarven figure standing under the tree. After some deliberation, Reides approaches him. He says it’s a nice tree! The dwarven man agrees. He has a black beard tied in a thick braid and the rest of his hair is slicked back. He’s wearing leather armor emblazoned with the symbol of an eye surrounded by a cave. He says he knows we’re in a tight situation, and Reides asks if he’s planning to make it tighter. He knows we’re not behind the destruction of Port Valor (and is aware of the rest of the situation), though, and is willing to help clear our names if we do something for him. As he talks, he mostly looks at the rest of the party, and seems a little confused by Reides’s Ragnar disguise. The dwarf wants us to turn ourselves in and be taken to Magma Slag Rock. Kilwin is unable to discern if he’s trying to stop us or not. The dwarf continues, telling us that there’s a job for us inside. If we complete it, he can guarantee that we’ll be released, we’ll be publicly pardoned, and we’ll have access to Dunan’s office when he returns from the Bequeathing with the Plate of the Ancestors. Ashara asks permission to cast Detect Thoughts on him to see if he’s lying. He says he keeps many secrets, so he gives her permission to look at his surface thoughts. Kilwin asks if our things will be taken from us in the prison. The dwarf says they will, but assures us that they’ll be given back to us. He has no proof that he’s not working with Dunan other than the thoughts Ashara is reading, and Ashara can see from his thoughts that he thinks Dunan is a slimy coward. When asked about the phrase “walk in shadow,” he says he walks in shadow every day, and apparently so do we. Kilwin objects that he doesn’t do this kind of thing very often! The dwarf also says that he’s not part of a thievery organization, Ashara catches the phrase “Deep Watchers” from his thoughts. Kilwin asks him if he knows why the Plate is important, and he says he does. Ashara detects that he knows about the demon. Apparently, he tracked us using Jorah’s hair from the Paragon’s Rest’s cellar. If we take him up on his offer, we’ll have to be in the prison for a week, but he can arrange it so we’re housed near each other. He thinks we’ll find it Interesting inside. We really don’t have any better options, so we agree to take him up on it. Ashara suggests that Kilwin take the time to contact Glasny, since she used subtle casting to update Kain again, and he might not get another chance. Kilwin decides not to worry him so soon after telling him everything was okay. Reides contemplates telling Viglis about this to give him a heart attack, but doesn’t have the spell prepared. Reides asks if they’ll cut his hair, but the dwarf assures him that they only care about causing suffering in Magma Slag Rock, not what his hair looks like. Reides isn’t super reassured, but admits that he’ll be suffering anyway if he has to keep pretending to be Ragnar Stormborn. He assures Kilwin that he enjoyed their fake marriage, though. Kilwin admits he had fun with it too! The dwarf also tells us what he knows about Alzrius. He knows it’s the demon lord of flames and served by an army of armor knights and babaus. Ashara does not enjoy the image this conjures in his thoughts. When finally asked what we should call him, the dwarf says his name is Soruza Blackmines. Soruza will leave it up to us if we kill Dunan or what we do with the Plate of the Ancestors, assuming we can get it. He does say that if Dunan survives, he could face trial for his crimes. Reides asks about the tournaments we’ve heard about, but Soruza just says we’ll find out in due time. Apparently, that’s the job! Without any more questions from us, Soruza says he has other business to attend to. Reides offers him some floor candy, which he gladly accepts, having already stolen a single piece out of Reides’s bag.