Session 8: Illumination

Night, Kelehess 3rd - Early Morning, Kelehess 4th
(6 total days survived)

Underdark Bridges
The fighting above collapsed the passage, effectively trapping the group on the Underdark bridges, with a vast mushroom forest sprawled a hundred feet below. With careful steps, they crossed the first stone bridge over the yawning chasm, and discovered two passages up. Isabella sent Portia up to scout the first.

The Lab
Portia worked her way up to a dead end, or so it seemed, until she managed to uncover a false stone which opened up the wall. From there she entered a grizzly laboratory, with long tables lined with potions, vials, weights and measures, used surgical tools and splatters of blood. Clockwork fragments littered the floor, along with trace amounts of Black Powder.

Lining the walls were naked humans, shackled to the wall with bags over their heads. Each of them had wicked scars, with something bulging underneath, threatening to tear their sub-par stitchings. They all seemed unconscious, some of them perhaps dead.

There were two doors, but both of them were too thick to listen through, and the keyholes too small to see through. She decided to return to the group with bits of evidence.

Black Powder, Clockwork and Human Bombs!
Portia returned and reported what she had found, facts that shocked and angered the group. Initially they thought to rig the room to explode, but there were too many risks involved. They decided it best to escape and then return to enact their revenge and foil whatever plot involved mysterious clockwork and black powder devices, which some suspected were being used to create human bombs.

Toss
The group tallied their rope in feet and tried judging the drop to the mushroom forest, but decided it wasn't feasible or safe to enter the greater Underdark. As rocks and hammers sounded from the blocked Drow Quarter, that left one last option, the second path up, which sat on a cliff beyond a fifteen foot gap.

Hulda tied a rope between her and her brother, then tossed Giers over.

The Fanged Cave
Giers explored the stalactite-ridden cave, which wound up like a throat and into a larger cavern. Unfortunately the rope around his waist prevented him from getting any good look, but it felt clear enough and he went back down to the mouth and called the others over.

Toss, Toss, Toss, Leap
One by one the scions were pitched over the sprawling gap over a hundred foot plumett and to the safety of the far landing. Kaylan first, then Isabella (who ended up crashing into the cleric's arms instead of Giers), and finally Portia. Clicking her magic shoes, the half-giant cannonballed off the side, only to teleport in a flash of green fey magic behind everyone else. And up they went without a moment to lose, as the remainder of the blocking debris was blown out and a rush of dark races poured into the area. The group, luckily, fled unseen.

The Lair
The fanged cave opened up into a large, low-ceilinged space with many pools and mineral drips from walls and shadowy heights. This cavern forked left and right, and the group chose right, coming eventually into another cavern dominated by a humungous stone door... and treasure, gold, silver, copper, a cart of bolts, two crossbows and rare spices. There were also two lion-sized beds.

Isabella ended up taking a suit of cloth armor the color of fulgin, the blackest black there was.

The Stone Dragon Door
The stone dragon door dominated a wall's worth of space, and Isabella thought it was just a wall. The more perceptive of the party noticed mechanical gears like hinges allowing for it to swing open and shut, though the exact mechanism eluded them. The paladin and cleric gave it a thorough examination, but found nothing to open it. Even as they searched, the idea dark races and drow hunted them left their hearts pounding and tensions rising.

Easy for a Rogue
At their wit's end on how to open the damned thing, they turned to the boggart. She gave it a good study, passing her fingers over suspicious spots. She found, then, a loose dragon in the relief, which could be dragged across the carving's horizon and to the other side. With a quiet grate of stone and mechanical genius, the door swung open. Surely this architecture was made by someone other than drow or dark races.

Kaylan's Folly
Kaylan attempted to get a vantage point in which to look out. Unfortunately, as she backtracked into the Underdark, she kicked up enough rocks and noise to draw the attention of some scouring drow and dark races. They cried murderer and fired crossbows, all of which fell short. It seemed that the dragons, having killed Lhekrina, pinned the murder on the group. The drow were out for blood and the entire compound in an uproar.

Kaylan gathered herself and ran back to the stone door just as it was opening, warning the others trouble was on its way.

Hob Guardians
The door led back into the drow compound, into the infamous South Wing. They looked to make a run for the main line, then the stairs out, but a contingent of hob guards blocked the way. Luckily they were facing out, expecting any unwelcome visitors to be coming from the main line. Unfortunately Giers loud armor alerted them to the group and they quickly turned and attacked.

The Power of the Mages
Though the grunts, and even the seasoned soldier, were mere push overs to the scions, the mages proved incredibly difficult. Their ability to manipulate force and lightning was used for knocking the group back, toppling them, electrocuting and crushing them. Worse, they proved capable at dodging and deflecting blows through speed and force magic. It wasn't looking good...

Frederick
Suddenly a Norsman burst out a hall door and slammed it shut behind him, absorbing the scene before him and grumbling about no room being empty anymore. Turning on the hobs, he aided the group in their attacks for whatever good it did. He looked wild and ladent with weapons, but swung mostly with his fists.

Escapes
As time burned and wounds compounded, Haw eventually retreated. His apprentice died in the process, though, which seemed to come as a heavy loss to him. Isabella wanted to finish the mage off, who'd bested her in several matches of arcane force, but the cleric dragged her with the rest of the group for the light. They were tired, wounded, and in a rush. A great clamor of troops, weapons and armor followed after them.

Freedom!
The scions ran down the main line, up the steps and into the cold open air, under stars, clouds and moon, amidst whispering trees and babbling stream. Almost immediately they were envigored, after having spent so long in the tomb of the earth.

They fled into the night woods, cold and dark, wanting to be anywhere but The Screaming Caves and knowing full-well a search party would be sent for them so long as the night endured.

Becoming Friends
As their three-hour trek continued, Kaylan had words with Isabella, warning her not to throw her name and title around so much. This grew into a conversation and offering of advice and friendship.

Meanwhile, Giers and Frederick shared words, the former gathering very little about the Norsman, but the Norsman gathering that Giers was always after tail. Hulda remained a calm, quiet presence who hid their tracks, while Portia played with the precious.

Three hours they travelled, during the end of which time Kaylan demanded Frederick leave them. Small wonder or not that a half-elf wouldn't trust a Norsman, she even spoke his language in her demand. He refused, wanting to help the group out of the woods at least, and more so wanting strength in numbers in case the drow, Inquisitors or whatever else came for them.

Thank Gods, an Inn
The scions came upon a small green with many mossy boulders strewn across it as if some jotun child had a tantrum. A few were imbedded in the foundation of a rather large, old three story inn. However these catapult shots were ancient, and had been left, it seemed, for flavor. The style of the inn itself was traditional Nors, dark wood, earthy mortar, stone and iron wrought, with three chimneys. There was a light on in the downstairs, despite it being 5 in the morning.

The sign on the boulder nearest the door read, "The Weeping Stone", and engraved above the doorway was "Good people in here". There was also a small red-painted stable off the side, the doors closed up, and a cellar off the side.

Half the group resigned to remain without the inn, not wanting to cause any more commotion or fight any more this morning. Isabella and Kaylan went in.

The Kiss
Urged by Kaylan, Isabella went right up to Giers and gave him a passionate kiss. It left the paladin bewildered, but wanting more. He'd try later on that morning to expand upon her desires, but she would deny him, liking this new game of groins and hearts.

Higliac and The Weeping Stone
The girls entered the inn, where they found a one-armed innkeeper sitting behind a counter half-dosing. He was friendly and polite, introducing himself as Higliac. For a mere six silver a person, he agreed to house them and include baths and breakfast.

In passing conversation, he mentioned something strange. Kaylan pressed him to tell, in which he told a tall tale about possessing THE Weeping Stone, a rock that was rumored to cry before every war. And it just started crying. Kaylan mused on having met the cause of such war and went to have a look, after Isabella squared the deal. The stone was as tall as she was, carved into a face and sitting in a common room. It felt warm to the touch. A dozen pots and pans were overflowed around its chin, and the floor carpet was soaked, all with its fresh water deluge.

Isabella went to offer the coin, at which point she realized the innkeeper was blind. Quickly taking advantage of the boon, she motioned the rest inside, and said she'd more friends outside waiting for rooms.

Friendly Folk
Frederick eventually got sick of waiting outside, deciding to go in after the girls. He'd stayed here once or twice before and was confident he'd be welcomed again. And so he was, Higliac recognizing the Norsman's voice and having a light jest with him.

The Precious Visions
Suddenly The Heart of the Wild began to glow green, shedding its painless heat, as they neared the inn. Portia called on Giers' aid in the examination, as it showed things in its green face. First was a man-sized stone carven with a face crying in some inn's common room.

Then the paladin asked it to show them the baths, at which point the gem revealed a strange moss-choked ruin of pillars and half-temples, flooded and steamy, where all sorts of exotic women bathed, some of them human, others of strange skin or likeness beyond the variety of Othyr. All of it was encompassed by a lush, verdant wild, under a green sky and a green sun.

The lusty paladin asked to see home, then Hulda's home, both requests failing. Then in one last plea, aided by Portia's request for something new, Giers asked for naked women. He was shown a harem of hundreds of women of all races and species, many of which looked alien, even grotesque, while others shined with unfathomable beauty, and each with a golden collar and a chain leash leading back to an ancient throne. Upon it sat a mound of vegetable matter, heaped and heaped again, that held the chain. From deep in its rotting folds, green eyes flashed open, seemingly looking right through the gem and into the eyes of Portia and Giers. Then gem suddenly leaped out of the ethrey's hands and onto the floor, whereupon Portia folded it back up into her care.

Giers went on after Frederick for the inn, entering even when signaled inside. Hulda and Portia followed.

Petunia and Marro
As the others entered the inn, a girl of fifteen came barreling into the foyer with a pot overflowing with tear water. She proclaimed the stone wouldn't stop crying, at which point she caught sight of the new guests, namely a boggart, ethrey and even a urias!

However instead of calling out to her sightless father, she turned then to Frederick and blushed. She batted eyes at the Norsman and dumped the pot out the front door. Then she rushed back into the common room with a shy giggle.

Higliac called on for Marro to lead the guests to their rooms upstairs. A huge, gray shaggy wolfhound padded into the foyer and waited at the bottom of the stairs for them to follow. Hulda made efforts to befriend the gentle beast, whose fur was tinged gray with years, and he seemed to like her well enough.

A Well-Deserved Respite
And so everyone retired for a few hours of needed rest, during which time some got... closer than ever before, while others simply conked out on their pillows. Three rooms were given, one for Isabella and Kaylan, another for Giers and Frederick, and a third for Hulda and Portia.

It also seemed three other rooms were occupied in the affordable and out-of-the-way inn. Early morning passed to morning, and eight hours later the lunch bell rang from downstairs.


Experience: 232 each (2250 thus far, LEVEL UP 3!)

Magic: Fulgin Cloth (Isabella)

Loot: pinch of Black Powder, clockwork scraps, a dragon crossbow and 40 bolts (Portia)

Money: -44 sp (Isabella)

NPCs:
Haw, Hobgoblin Mage [real name unknown]
Hw, Hobgoblin Apprentice (dead)
Higliac, Innkeeper of The Weeping Stone
Petunia, Higliac's 15 year old girl
Marro, Higliac's Wolfhound

Monsters: Hob Soldier, Hob Warcaster, Hob Advanced Warcaster, Hob Grunts

Places: Underdark, The Sibling's Lair, The South Wing, The Weeping Stone


Fulgin Cloth
A shade of black darker than any earthly black, this cloth armor hails from the shadow plane of Cadavera. Stylized with angled shoulders, elbows, hips and knees, it reflects no light at all but for a swirling platinum inlay like smoke tendrils on the breast and sleeves. No doubt this belonged to some planar native.
Level: 4
Price: 840 gp
Armor: Cloth
Enhancement: +1 AC
Property: Gain a +2 item bonus to AC against the first attack made against you in each encounter.