Ivric, Verget the 15th, 838 ID
As the party proceeds deeper into the caverns, they find yet another of the deep gnome statues they ran into in the medusa/basilisk lair, and by the mercy of Ballyhoo, decide to return it too into the realm of flesh. This time, the svirfneblin doesn't flee, introduced itself, and claims to hail from a far off city of its kind, Ilindolph. He was seeking a long estranged clan of his people in this particular area of the Underdark, when he happened across the medusas, and attempted to flee. He is quite shocked to hear that the date is roughly 200 years later than the one he could remember! At any rate, he decides to stick with his saviors for the time being, who might help him find the lost clan he has been sent to reconnect with. It doesn't take terribly long to uncover some evidence, since the next cave is full of smashed crates and deep gnome equipment caches. The following chamber is hung with gruesome beast trophies, including troglodytes, and beyond that, they come across some sort of museum of small armor suits. Unfortunately, they trigger a quartet of these, and a battle ensues. The animated constructs wield humming swords and get into an excellent position to deal with the PCs, but our heroes eventually win out, rendering them into piles of plates and cans...
The armor museum is a massive cavern with several exits, and they decide to travel west, when they encounter an odd dead end where two chests, each with three parallel locks of strange sizes, are set into the floor. Baro uses knock on one of the chests, which lifts its lid, but also spawns a massive incendiary cloud which begins to sear the characters until they run out of range. They seem ready to give up, but once Monch discerns a sliding/shifting wall beyond those chests, they come up with an alternate solution: Wendel first jams the chests to disarm the cloud trap, and then both Gutwrench (the new gnome) and Wendel to simultaneously pry open the locks on each side, using Baro as a backup to knock another one if they blunder the timing. Had they but one lockpicker, it might have proven impossible, but as they moved from the outer locks to the smaller, closer devices, it became gradually simpler. After popping the inner locks, the lids flew open and the wall spun, depositing the pair into a grisly looking torture chamber. They managed to figure out how to use the chest lids as levers, and then retrieve the rest of the party before pressing on. They find a feeding shaft which is crammed with viscera, especially brain matter, and Solveig wild shapes into a rat to search through it, finding an unfinished note from a fell halfing explorer, Hal Hosspotch.
Moving into the next area, they find a pair of ghastly abominations guarding a stone door engraved with tentacles. They engage, Baro and Mistlethroe wielding deadly magics that almost fully cut down the creatures, but not before a good chunk of the party is mysteriously put to sleep. But the PCs do make short work of the things, which deflate into oozing giant pustules on the cavern floor. Some study of the forms reveals that they are related somehow to illithids...perhaps a more primal version, or 'pets' of the mind flayers. They collect some random treasure littered about the area, and discover that the next chamber contains a glowing, pulsating glass sphere set into a stone shaft, which seems to ebb abjuration magic, the source of the teleporation block located in the Hazard Shafts area of the Crowslode! The rest of the PCs back off, and Badger shatters it, allowing them to now use these magics in this region of the Underdark.
Evalais, Verget the 16th, 838 ID
After a long rest, interrupted only when Gruulsh-ling hears a group of frustrated bugbears arriving at the dead end where the chests used to be, Mistlethroe and Baro teleport the party successfully back to Floivin Keep. Monch and Gruulsh take the rapidly aging dwarf offspring to Gnarlbottom Manor, and Wendel says his goodbyes, though he does mention he might hang around the Keep for some time. Then the group sells some of their new stash to Teven the Worm, hands out some of the gear, and prepares to return to complete this almost impossible task.
PCs: Badger, Ballyhoo, Baro, Graygear, Gruulsh, Solveig
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