| Session Date | July 16, 2021 |
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| Base XP Gained | Carry Over |
The party continued their casual explorations, discovering a secret passage leading under this level towards the Dark Market area, ending in trapdoor. Form here, they proceeded to enter the Dark Market through the usual entrance, finding that weird place much as they'd last seen it. Not long after arriving, they were greeted by Lornalt, the chief of security. He seemed genuinely pleased to see the party though, after some chit chat, said he was sorry to inform them that they were under arrest. Of course, he could accept a small fine from them in lieu of arrest..maybe 200 gold coins. The party gave a flat no which rather startled the man. In his most reasonable voice, he urged the party to consider, but that he could accept 150 given their shabby appearance. The party began to back out of the area, which seemed to confuse Lornalt who said 120 would certainly do. Things were not going as he seemed to expect when the party turned to run, with him shouting "80!" after them. The party fled through the secret passage they'd previously found and were back into the dungeon proper (I think that's how it played out).
They next ran into some ghouls (easily turned) and then into a lone Dark Folk skulking about (probably lining up to rob the party). Captured, the squat fellow claimed he knew of a "great treasure" he could point to if the party let him live...and gave him a hundred gold. This the party did. Invisibility 10' radius was thrown over everyone but the Dark Folk who led them back to the Dark Market. There, he waited until no one seemed to be looking and opened a secret door in the fountain in the middle of the Market. The party filed in and the door shut. Spiral stairs led far below, a hundred feet or more. They ended at another secret door that opened into a small chamber that in turn opened on a wide, underground thoroughfare running northwest-southeast. The prisoner said that, perhaps a mile up the passage, it ended at the "Orchard" wherein was hidden a great deal of Elder Ambergris, a material of great value throughout the Underworld. They would make back many times their small investment. Leaving the small creature, the party proceeded up the clearly much used passage.
In time, they came to three side passages, each with a rune, which Knar translated with comprehend languages (the first read "dead end," the second was a circle with no particular meaning, and the third an equilateral triangle with a vertical line dividing it in half, also of no particular linguistic meaning). The first was a dead end, though the room at the end was filled with several rusty hooks form which dangled skeletons. Another room had a scorched wall and a crack which formed a natural chimney. Attempts to detect minerals and metals revealed nothing. In one area, the party found a VERY narrow and low passage, a mere crawl way. Nobody was interested in trying it out. They also found what appeared to be a very large winch and elevator going down a shaft. Finally, they found a room with very old murals depicting dancing serpent people. The walls were splashed with old blood and two skeletons of serpent folk lay on the floor.
They moved on and soon encountered a pair of weird men in iridescent robes like priests standing to either side of a 10' tall statue of a snake-headed man sitting cross-legged on a pedestal, a tail curled around him., The statue exuded a sense of peace and well-being. The two began to talk, each finishing the thought of the other in perfect harmony. They extolled the marvelous produce of the Orchards which were nearby, gushing enthusiastically about the wonderfulness of the produce. The party said they'd take "one of each" and, not long after, a zombie of a serpent man carrying a brain in its hand came from further ahead. The two men then charged the party 100 for the zombie and 250 for the brain and urged them to come again. A little disgusted, the party left. But, they took the zombie back to the crawl space and ordered it to "go get something." Minutes later it returned with a sealed urn. ZZ used an Augury to determine if it should be opened but the sense was to keep it sealed.
The party now decided to try the winch and elevator. It proved easy to use and lowered them all to a tunnel running north leading to a second elevator. Continuing north, the party ran into a camp of Drow. The party was quite hostile but the Drow seemed disinclined to fight. When asked about Vorlissa, a look of obvious fear flickered across them. This seemed to lighten things a bit and a parley resulted. They were clearly brigands set on robbing travelers, though obviously not large, well-armed parties of adventurers. When the party mentioned Elder Ambergris, they seemed very interested, though they knew nothing of it nearby.
After some additional exploring, the party returned to the two priests to seek a way past them...