| Session Date | July 13, 2019 |
| Start Date | 11 Greenmonth, 1272 |
| End Date | 12 Greenmonth, 1272 |
| Starting Location | Eburnean Vaults |
| Ending Location | Astraharsis' quarters, Eburnean Vaults |
| Player Characters | |
| Base XP Gained | 3000 |
From their camp is the former Medusa lair, Iban scried for Vorlissa, the Drow adventuress. He found her in a tavern, the same one he'd seen before. She was scowling and clearly in a terrible mood, which only worsened when she sensed that she was being scried. Iban then shifted to look in on the torture priestess on the level above, finding her in a large temple observing several dozen Hobgoblins being given a red sash in some sort of ceremony. His scrying did not seem to be detected. This accomplished, he then gathered the party and cast invisibility 10' radius on them all. This done, they headed out to continue exploring this level.
Not far from their night camp they ran into a force of Trolls in a large room. The Trolls, unable to see the party, could obviously tell someone was there and several of them went out to investigate. The party made a little noise and dragged them east for a little ways to spread them out some. When the Trolls lost interest and turned back, Cadwallider followed them. When the Trolls had reentered their room, Cadwallider cast globe of invulnerability on himself, then dimension doored into the room, where he then cast a fireball, blasting the entire room. Meanwhile, Iban cast mirror image on himself and the rest of the party then rushed into the room to kill the scorched trolls (none had been killed by the fireball). A general melee ensued. During it, a female priestess came from a nearby door and began to throw spells at the party. She tried to silence Cadwallider but his globe prevented it; he, in turn, tried to hit her with magic missiles but they were absorbed by a broach; the priestess returned the favor with a flame strike that overpowered the wizard's globe. Meanwhile, a follow-on hold person spell paralyzed Mordecai and took him out of the melee. But, the softening up form the previous fireball spelt the end for the Trolls, who were finally cut down, one by one, to be followed by the priestess.
The party decided to check for traps on the door from which she'd come and found it was protected by glyphs of warding; Cadwallider summoned a pair of goblins to see to them. They soon came to another room, her quarters, which contained two trapped chests. The party spent some time using dispel magic spells on them, as there were two glyphs on each chest. Finally, they were opened, one being empty but the second with a goodly treasure. Departing back to the troll room, they found the body of the priestess was gone; a blood trail went a ways east but soon disappeared. Iban tried scrying her but without success.
The party now debated whether to continue exploring this level or return to the 1st level and perhaps depart the dungeon to recover for a time, or possibly deal with the cult so as to not have an enemy between them and the exit. Iban therefore levitated up the stairs to the archway room and noted a small force of Hobgoblins posted there, wearing the same red sashes he'd seen in his crystal ball. He returned to report this to the party, and they decided to continue exploring this level for a time. As they wandered the halls, they encountered a group of four heavily cloaked and hooded figures that also saw them. They clearly were wary but not hostile, and slipped away from the party with an odd, shuffling gait.
The party now entered an area of windy corridors filled with many pit traps (Dimbul fell in two before ZZ cast detect traps to make passage safe). ZZ also used his Ring of the Earth Dragon to sense for minerals, but without success. In this area the party found a room full of Wights, but Mordecai was able to easily turn them; seeing nothing in their room, the party slammed the door shut and continued on. As they passed to the other side of the trapped halls, they found a secret door that led to a hall and short stairs down. At the end was another secret door, but it proved to be wizard locked. Mordecai (?) cast silence on a coin and carried it away from the door so that Cadwallider (?) could use a knock spell to open it. The party now found themselves in a bare 10x10 space where a magic mouth appeared and began to speak, though they had no idea what it was saying. Cadwallider, however, took out his magic quill and it worked to transcribe what had been said in the small space by the magic mouth:
“Who dares approach the lair of the Lady of the Underworld, Discover of Secrets and Bane of Darkness?” There was a secret door to the south they easily found, as well. Liking the sound of "bane of darkness" the party opted to knock on this secret door rather than burst through it.
The door opened to their knock and they found themselves in a large but crowded room. The silence having expired, they were greeted cautiously by a tall woman, perhaps in her 40s. She named herself Astraharsis, and spoke with an slightly odd accent (she later told the party she was a Halicarnim from the city of Pandrogas to the south). She dwelt here, she told them, and had for some time, hinting that she had many powerful enemies that sought her out. She had a very extensive library and a small laboratory crammed in the room, and clearly she had been here for some time. She proved to be friendly, especially when she learned that the party had come from the Dwarf Kingdom (she was rather shocked to learn of the new entrance to the surface, going so far as to tell the party she had chosen this place because it was formerly a dead end of sorts). She proved to be quite pleasant and seemed genuinely happy to have visitors.
When asked, she said the party could stay here as they wished, so long as they were not followed back by any enemies of hers or theirs. She did say that the Dark Market was relatively safe if the party were careful, but when they told her they'd slew a few of the "Dark Folk" she said they should in that case be very cautious. Of the factions of this place, she told them that she would rate the Serpentine Lord as the most dangerous, as he had a cadre of wizards in his service. She was interested in learning more herself, she told them, as she seldom ventured forth and then only in disguise (the party allowed her to copy their maps, which greatly pleased her). She was also interested in their talk of the Earth Dragon, of which she had at least heard something, it appeared.
Iban then asked her if she could help remove the curse on him; she said she would investigate it, but that it was clearly a powerful curse of Chaos (she noted that they all seemed tainted by Chaos, notably ZZ).
Cadwallider asked if she knew the spell Enchant An Item; she indicated that she did, and the wizard noted to the rest of the party that she was clearly more powerful than they were. With that, the party found what little floor space they could to camp and Astraharsis treated them to a good meal and fine wine she pulled out from somewhere or other.