| Session Date | May 25, 2019 |
| Start Date | 2 Greenmonth, 1272 |
| End Date | 5 Greenmonth, 1272 |
| Starting Location | Party quarters, Kazakh |
| Ending Location | Ebrunean Vaults |
| Player Characters | |
| Base XP Gained | 2500 |
The party returned to the Dwarf city and rested several days to recover from wounds. During this time, they decided to approach the senior Dwarf clerics of the city about casting Commune for them regarding the new dungeon. The chief clerics of Moradin and Clangeddin were somewhat leery of doing so, stating that they had used these spells for information gathering quite a bit of late, and their respective gods were becoming a bit irritated by it. However, a pile of coin to each temple (10,000 SP equivalent) persuaded the chief priests to ask their gods a series of yes/no questions. Of note, the party wished to first know if they'd missed any large treasures on the uppermost level of the dungeon.
Starting with the chief cleric of Moradin, and using their dungeon map as a reference for the questioning, the party asked:
Did the party miss any large, concealed treasures in areas cleared? (Y)
Was it worth looking for? (Y)
Is it in the northeast quadrant area? (Y/N) <-- the "yes and no" answers began here and caused a good deal of confusion and consternation. Two treasures? Moving treasure? Geographic vagueness?
Is it west of the Earth Dragon temple? (Y/N)
Is it north of the Earth Dragon temple? (Y/N)
Is it in the Earth Dragon temple? (N)
Is it concealed by a secret door? (Y/Y)
Is the secret door south of the Earth Dragon temple? (Y/N)
Is the treasure or secret door in the inner section of the level? (N/N)
Is the shortest route through the arch of the encircling snake? (Y/N)
Is the treasure moving? (N/N)
With these questions complete., the party turned to the chief cleric of Clangeddin to aid them in the same manner (and for the same price).
Is the secret door in the hall of arches? (N/N)
Is the secret door in the 20' wide corridor, northeastern portion? (N/N)
Is there a secret door undiscovered in any room/chamber to the northeast? (Y)
Does that secret door lead to treasure? (Y)
Is that room >400 sq-ft? (Y)
Greater than 900 ft-sq? (Y)
Is it "this" room? (Y)
Is there a secret door near where we saw the wizard eye? (Y)
Is it in "this block" area? (N)
This gave the party a good deal to consider when they rested.
Iban also took the time to scry. He first looked for Dimbul the thief, finding that he was in the local tavern right around the corner form their quarters, where he seemed to be in high spirits and in animated discussion with several local Dwarves. Iban slipped invisibly in to spy on him and found that he was telling exaggerated but largely accurate stories of the party's exploits. The locals seemed to be treating them as tall tales ("A Drow, near here? Impossible!" "Draugar? They're a myth!"). But, he was throwing coin around to buy drinks and had an audience. Iban slipped out, became visible, and reentered, presenting Dimbul with a magic shortbow and telling him that all the other loaned gear was now his permanently. He was quite pleased by this.
The party returned to the dungeon a few days later without incident. However, when they entered the hall of arches, they heard a horn call and Dimbul could hear booted feet running south. The party did not pursue and immediately went to the area indicated by the Dwarven gods and soon found a secret door and a sizable treasure, enough to have made the initial expenditure worthwhile. Pleased, Iban cast invisibility 10' radius and the party moved south along the 20 foot-wide corridor and began a search for secret doors, eventually finding one. Opening it they were greeted by a harried-looking but officious man in foreign attire. He named himself Kemal, Vizier of Lord Zinush. He was angry that they "did not have an appointment" and the party considered taking him out. ZZ quietly cast augury and decided that was a bad idea. Cadwallider called up a globe of invulnerability from the Book of Infinite Spells just in case.
Instead, they finally were granted an audience with Zinush, a Bothnian from far to the southwest of the Central Sea. He proved to be quite welcoming, albeit a little bit sketchy. He was quite talkative and provided the party a fair amount of good advice. Avoid the Drow Vorlissa, he warned, she was extremely dangerous and not entirely stable. There were Serpentmen about and were evil to the core, hating all warm-blooded life. The Serpent Lord was NOT their lord, but a powerful entity with its own powerbase. In the end, they made a deal with the Ziush to explore the dungeon and exchange information (my notes are sketchy on the details here and I don't recall them precisely -- what was YOUR take on it?). (Also, note, Brian recognized Zinush as an NPC encountered in the Crusade campaign, although the PCs would not know him, of course).
As the party parted with Zinush in what passed for friendship, Iban scried once more on the priestess they'd parleyed with before and found that she and her sisters were clearly preparing for battle. The party was undaunted and headed back to the hall of arches, turning south towards the realm of the Torture Cultists...