| Session Date | June 6 2024 |
| Start Date | 3 Harvester 1273 |
| End Date | 3 Harvester 1273 |
| Starting Location | Natural Caves, lvl 3 (?) of Eburnean Vaults |
| Ending Location | Kazakh, Dwarven Kingdom |
| Player Characters | Helga, Burt, Nesticus, Mord*, Deaglan*, Sirius, ZZ |
| Base XP Gained | Hans 4286 XP, Nescitus Notum 18857 XP, all others 40,071 XP |
| Player Notes | ZZ's Notes |
The party left the Goblin lair and continued exploring around the natural caverns. In one large cave they found an immense skeleton of a dragon, albeit larger than they’d ever imagined. Inside its rib cage was apparently a primitive shrine of some sort. The area radiated a sense of hostility and Sirius detected magic of a low-level variety throughout the area. Deaglan did a circuit without finding anything further. With no traps detected by spell, they approached the shrine and found it to be a primitive altar made of bones, rock, and oddly seashells. One shell seemed to contain congealed blood, perhaps a sacrifice of some sort. The party speculated that this might be some sort of sea creature and Sirius examined its digits to see if they might be commensurate with such a thing and it certainly appeared possible. Finding nothing else of note, ZZ took the huge skull and cast a bless upon the altar, which seemed to break its seeming hostility and left it inert.
They moved on and found a few extremely narrow caves but were in no mood to try to slip into those using magic. A much larger cave further on was found to contain a central pit in the stone filled with sand. Tossing some food in the sand caused no reaction, and ZZ could sense mineral wealth within the sand column. Burt then used a wand to cast a dig spell which expelled the sand rapidly around the cavern, along with a small amount of coin and gems, plus bits of bone and other debris. The revealed stone shaft was about 40 feet deep and the party could see some sort of weird, furtive humanoid creatures below, peeking up at the party but seemingly afraid of them. Mordecai cast know alignment and showed them to be neutral.
The party now returned across the level to the room with the Brown Mold. ZZ kicked open the door to an icy blast while Sirius smashed the mold with an ice storm, killing it. They found a number of frozen corpses under the mold and a small amount of treasure. Graffiti on the back wall read “Happy is the tomb where no wizard hath lain, and happy the town at night whose wizards are all ashes.”
The party now considered their next action. Burt cast the bones to receive an augury about assaulting the jungle area and its dark druid, and received an affirmative answer. As they readied to head there, they encountered a lone human who introduced himself as Nescitus Notum, who’d been sent by Astraharsis to join them. He was welcomed openly and the party decided to make a move on the dark druid.
Arriving at the jungle area, ZZ detected evil and noted several sources within the jungle, the most significant to the northeast. Sirius now summoned a fire elemental and sent it in, which caused the jungle to quiver to life and brough the evil presence rapidly towards them. Also, an insect plague suddenly filled the entire area, including the passages south of the jungle room. Fortunately, the fire elemental created enough of an insect void to raise a wall of fire within which the party advanced. The fire burned the jungle away fairly rapidly.
Moving northeast, the party was attacked by a band of wererats jumping through the ring of fire. They did not fare well. However, the wall of fire suddenly dropped from a dispel magic. Another weird effect hit the party but a previously cast minor globe of invulnerability blocked it. Just then, an earth elemental attacked the party’s fire elemental, leading to a rather dramatic clash. But ZZ was able to dispel the enemy earth elemental while Nescitus re-raised a wall of fire. Shortly thereafter, a man in dark robes leapt through it and attacked Sirius, striking him and breaking his concentration on the elemental (he seemed to be hasted, as well). The man seemed desperate, and he soon succumbed to a hit from Helga, while Sirius was able to dispel the now uncontrolled fire elemental. The other sources of evil previously sensed all withdrew form the party when the druid fell. The party soon found his lair and a tool or work room, both of which were found to contain large amounts of treasure and magic (and the book So You Want to Grow an Evil Garden in the Underworld). ZZ also took a quaff from a bottle of some strange, black wine which did weird things to his mind, allowing him to see infrared, ultravision, ethereal, and invisible for a period of time, though he felt a little bit loopy while the effects lasted.
The party now decided to rest in the Lich’s tomb but, on route, they ran into two dwarves, none other than Floi and Dimbul the Dextrous. They’d been sent to recall the party for some sort of dire emergency (Dimbul having been sent because he’d been with the party in this dungeon previously). The party decided to leave the dungeon immediately with them, and they indicated the passage to the surface was open. They made their way thither without incident and exited through a very strong dwarven guard and were soon back in the nearby dwarf city. Without delay they were brought to the citadel of the city and into the presence of the War Council, with a number of elves and dwarves present, including Nali.
The party was informed that a few days past, the Giant King had launched a surprise attack against an elven and dwarven force besieging Manston, utilizing a fleet of pirate ships that had snuck up the Blueflood (the elves had obliterated a previous fleet). Worse, the enemy army was supported by a number of demons against which the elves and dwarves were not well prepared or equipped. Further attacks supported by demons had occurred down the Dwarf Road to the west. The siege of Manston had been broken (both by this sudden onrush AND the arrival of another army from the north led by Copper and Gold) and numerous allied forces were in retreat. In response, the War Council had called for the total mobilization of both the Elven and Dwarven kingdoms, something that had not happened for centuries. But, while larger and stronger forces were gathered, the council had decided that the demons were the immediate danger. Utilizing divinatory magic, they had learned that the source was a portal or gateway deep below the Giant King’s citadel. The council wished the party to enter the citadel and destroy this gate as soon as possible. With this destroyed, the Giant King would have no chance against the fully mobilized kingdoms. Additionally, the council informed the party that killing the Giant King should be considered a secondary mission. And, any Drow encountered should be killed or captured, if that were possible.
The War Council suggested using a small unit of elves on pegasi to cause a distraction while the party flew in form another direction, but the party countered by offering to use the cubic gate and a series of plane shifts to pop themselves into the dungeon area they were once held in. From there, they would find the gate and destroy it, whatever that might entail. Also, such an entry would be less dramatic and might not be detected for a longer period of time. But though the council wished immediate action, the party insisted on a full day to rest and recover from their recent fighting. Reluctantly, the council agreed…