| Session Date | March 30, 2019 |
| Start Date | 23 Sunsback, 1272 |
| End Date | 27 Sunsback, 1272 |
| Starting Location | Party Quarters, Kazakh |
| Ending Location | Eburnean Vaults |
| Player Characters | |
| Base XP Gained | Carry Over |
The party rested three nights in Kazakh, recovering from wounds and weary from their recent delve. During this time, Cadwallider reported that he felt a hand touching his Dwarf Ring of Power, and whispering that he would "lose the ring soon." Detect invisibility revealed nothing, and no sign of what was doing this was found.
The party headed out early, meeting Dimbul the Dwarf thief at the northern gate. They quickly made their way to the Dwarven defensive position guarding the entrance they'd carved into the dungeon. The Dwarves reported some movement in the darkness, but nothing had come too close or otherwise caused trouble. This time, the party headed north, exploring some areas previously noted but not cleared. At one point the party ran into a lone Ghoul. It seemed non-hostile and indeed proved to be quite well spoken. When asked, it told the party that it was there visiting a friend, and that it wished no trouble with the party. The party let it past and it departed with a somewhat brusque "good day!"
The party searched for a time without any notable results, but then ran into a band of ghouls. These acted much more normal, i.e. hostile, but were easily driven off by ZZ and Sir Rowan. After exploring a room with some dead Bugbears, and passing through one that seemed to look out into an underwater scene through small portholes, the party encountered some weird demon creature. This creature proved to be very powerful. Quickly, Sir Rowan found his armor begin to heat up, and some it began to burn him badly. It also seemed to be doing other magical attacks, but without effect. Worse, though, it proved to be resistant to magical attacks by Cadwallider. As the melee continued, ZZ was cut down by a horrible blow and killed instantly. The demon was eventually slain, its body vanishing, but leaving behind a small treasure of note.
With ZZ dead, the party immediately retreated form the dungeon, hoping to have their dwarf friend raised by a Dwarf cleric. They made it from the dungeon without further incident and back to the city, where the chief cleric of Moradin was enticed to raise ZZ, which he did successfully. After a night of rest, the party returned to the dungeon, first stopping for ZZ to share some gemmed-wine with the Dwarf garrison.
Back in the dungeon, they continued their explorations, running into a wandering band of Bugbears that proved tough but manageable. Not far from them, they found the statue of woman with a gag. Removing the gag, the statue began to scream very loudly before it could be silenced; however, the noise induced terror, causing Iban, Dimbul, and Aldeberon to flee for a time (fortunately, they did not run into anything). Further on, the party ran into a room full of Trolls that were easily softened up by a lightning bolt from Cadwallider. In addition to some treasure, there was a strange, pallid humanoid about 4' tall apparently also slain by the lightning. It was bound and clearly a prisoner; it's race was unknown to any in the party, so they took the body to possibly question later (ZZ did not have speak with dead available).
Not far from there, the party encountered a Hill Giant in its lair, with a giant lizard pet or guard. It hit someone with a rock (forgot who!) and a melee ensued. The Giant was quite strong for a "mere" Hill Giant, but it was no match for the party. After plundering some sacks of treasure and trash, the party came to a large room with a rickety wooden door with some writing on it in an unknown language. Inside was a large, box-like table filled with sand; faded heraldry along the sides. Rummaging through the sand, the party found a number of small figures of warriors in red and blue livery. Unsure of what this meant, the party dumped the table over and spilled the sand on the floor, but found nothing of interest.
The party now moved back into the wide hall encircling much of this dungeon, where they ran into a pair of Duergar. The party hailed them for a parley, saying that they'd met others of their kind previously. These two, they said, were looking for an expedition sent up here previously, and soon the party realized that the departing Duergar they'd let go had not made it home (the party was able to convince the Duergar as they knew of their interest in the Earth Dragon and the impending war between them and the Serpentine Lord). Iban now used his crystal ball to hunt for the Duergar leader, but could only see darkness. Meanwhile, ZZ talked down to the evil Dwarves, and showed them his Earth Dragon ring, which seemed to impress them. They named themselves Trombil and Nalfun, when asked by Cadwallider. They would return to report downwards to reprot what they'd learned, and the party decided to continue their northern explorations...