Blingdenstone, the City of Speaking Stones Part 2:
The Hauntings
Dramatis Personae:
Thecker Powdercraft, the Deep Gnome Wererat Gunslinger and Inquisitor of Bahamut
Lady Claire Thundersword, the Human Wererat Swordcaptain of the Purple Dragon Knights
Hans, Claire's Basalt Wolf Figurine
Sajin Silvertongue, the Deep Gnome Wererat Assassin who can't sneak
Mezzem, the Kobold Wererat Priestess of Bahamut
Natali, the Tiger Therinthrope Beastmaster
Yklwa, Tali's Deinonychus animal companion
Lady Claire Thundersword, the Human Wererat Swordcaptain of the Purple Dragon Knights
Hans, Claire's Basalt Wolf Figurine
Sajin Silvertongue, the Deep Gnome Wererat Assassin who can't sneak
Mezzem, the Kobold Wererat Priestess of Bahamut
Natali, the Tiger Therinthrope Beastmaster
Yklwa, Tali's Deinonychus animal companion
Topsy and Turvy, the Deep Gnome Wererat Rogue Twins
Comrades we have lost:
Ront, the Orc Fighter- turned into hamburger by Pwent
Buppido, the Derro- smashed by Orvald
Eldeth Feldrun, the Shield Dwarf- killed during escape
Hera Adaar, the Abyssal Tiefling Wild Sorceress- swept away
Luna Trelawny, the Human Divination Wizard- skull caved in by rock thrown by Fidget, then finished off by black pudding
Sarith Zekarit, the Drow Scout- drowned
Phillip Johnson, the Human Cleric- in a seemingly irreversible coma, left in Hemeth's care
Jim Jar, the Deep Gnome- eaten by grell
Prince Derendil, the Quaggoth- killed by sea troll
Shuushar, the "Awakened" Kuo-toa- turned into shuushi by sea troll
Hemeth, the Duergar Arms Dealer- parted with group in Gracklstugh
Thimblepwent Battlehammer, the Dwarven Battlerager Barbarian- turned into dog food
Orvald Abershaw, the Mousefolk Barbarian-became a squeaky toy last seen in Bahamutsville under Zin-carla
Zenit 'Dracon, the Drow Fighter-abandoned the party because Orvald died last seen in Bahamutsville
Lythana Belmyr, the Half-Drow Blood Hunter of Eilistraee- sacrificed to Demogorgon
Codsworth, the polite Flumph- shredded by crossbow
Zarrus, the Tiefling Favored Soul Sorcerer of Mephisto- vanished during gnoll fight
Ol' Sparky, the Deep Dragon- last seen thrown into a portal to the Abyss by a glabrezu
Aura, the Air Genasi Storm Sorceress- accidental self-vaporization (bitch blew herself up)
Kyri, the Minotaur Scout- vaporized by a jackass
Thimblepwent Battlehammer, the Dwarven Battlerager Barbarian- turned into dog food
Orvald Abershaw, the Mousefolk Barbarian-
Zenit 'Dracon, the Drow Fighter-
Lythana Belmyr, the Half-Drow Blood Hunter of Eilistraee- sacrificed to Demogorgon
Codsworth, the polite Flumph- shredded by crossbow
Zarrus, the Tiefling Favored Soul Sorcerer of Mephisto- vanished during gnoll fight
Ol' Sparky, the Deep Dragon- last seen thrown into a portal to the Abyss by a glabrezu
Aura, the Air Genasi Storm Sorceress- accidental self-vaporization (bitch blew herself up)
Kyri, the Minotaur Scout- vaporized by a jackass
Fidget Stonegear, the Deep Gnome Inventor- big badda boom
Miarielle, the Lythari Priestess of Corellon- bigger badda boom
Kazul, the Copper Dragonborn Shadow Monk of Bahamut- skull caved in by another rock from Fidget
Glabbagool, the Gelatinous Cube- stayed with the kobolds
Kara Reginleif, the Half-Valkyrie Wererat Champion from the Zhentarim who compulsively keeps everything she finds- vorpaled to pieces by demon Easter bunnies
Kazul, the Copper Dragonborn Shadow Monk of Bahamut- skull caved in by another rock from Fidget
Glabbagool, the Gelatinous Cube- stayed with the kobolds
Kara Reginleif, the Half-Valkyrie Wererat Champion from the Zhentarim who compulsively keeps everything she finds- vorpaled to pieces by demon Easter bunnies
Stool, the Myconid Child- unwilling dance partner to drunk stone giant
Rumpadump, the Myconid Child- frozen by demon Easter bunny
Quests in Blingdenstone:
Discover where the ooze infestation is coming from
Parley with, or exterminate, the Goldwhiskers
Tell Yanthal Coaxrock the location of Entemoch's Boon
Destroy Vazuk
Recover Udhask's remains
Harvest samples of elementals corrupted by Ogremoch's Bane and return them to Nomi
Try to banish Ogremoch's Bane
Quests in Blingdenstone:
Discover where the ooze infestation is coming from
Parley with, or exterminate, the Goldwhiskers
Tell Yanthal Coaxrock the location of Entemoch's Boon
Destroy Vazuk
Recover Udhask's remains
Harvest samples of elementals corrupted by Ogremoch's Bane and return them to Nomi
Try to banish Ogremoch's Bane
Cleanse the Steadfast Stone, a temple that has been corrupted by Ogremoch's Bane
Kill medusa and bring Sark her head
Friendly fire overall: 132
NOTE: Things will be mostly from Claire's perspective, anything with italics is from a third party, since the knight can't be everywhere at once.
***** Eleasias 29, 1489 DR (The Year of the Warrior Princess)
A short time after we passed through the gate to head to the Goldwhiskers part of Blingdenstone, we came across a ten-by-ten foot pressure plate that was taking up the majority of the tunnel; it was not going to be easy to get around without setting the damned thing off. Sajin decided to try to disarm the trap, but it was a fucking pit trap, not something you can really disarm; to make the stupid trap even worse, the pressure plate was really a concealment cloth. As Sajin realized this more ground fell away from us- everyone except Sajin was able to jump back in time.
As Sajin began to fall, Thecker tossed her grapple at him, trying to reel the jackass in, and they both fell into the stupid pit... Thecker noticed something almost moon-shaped embedded in the wall of the pit, but before she could investigate, a group of wererats attacked them. Wererats appeared out of nowhere and began firing poisoned crossbow bolts at us- I saw Sajin and Tali stiffen up as the bolts struck, they were paralyzed. I felt my muscles tense briefly in response to the poison, but I was able to shrug off the effects.
Thecker shot at two of the wererats, killing them instantly, while Mezzem paralyzed one of them. I stepped up and terrified them with my Rod- that power is pretty cool. The paralyzed one managed to pull itself free of Mezzem's magical grasp, and began to move away, and I saw Tali twitch- she was breaking out of the poison, good. Thecker attempted to get them to back down, since we just wanted to talk to them, not kill them, but they wouldn't listen- none of us were in the right form for it. Topsy shoved two of them into the pit, spearing them on their own spikes- I think they died instantly. Turvy managed to knock one out, and as I surveyed the area, I realized the unconscious guy was the only one we hadn't killed. This wasn't going well.
Sajin, still in the pit, decided to collect some of their poison, and the asshole poisoned himself in the process- he dropped unconscious... I used the ladder function of my Rod and gave us a quasi-bridge to get over the stupid pit. Mezzem climbed the ladder upside down in hopes that she could reach jackass and revive him. I try not to wish my comrades ill, but Sajin makes that hard. He's been horrid to me since the moment we met because I'm human- so I thought it served him right if he died from his own stupidity. I feel like the Underdark is making me a harder person, and I'm not sure if I like it. Kazul would know what to do, I miss her so much. Anyways, Mezzem was just barely able to reach and revive jackass.
Topsy tied up our prisoner, in one of the most elaborate fashions I've ever seen, and everything is elaborate in Cormyr. While she worked on that, Sajin decided it would be a good idea to try to collect the poison that had just almost killed him again. Fucking brilliant idea. This time he didn't fall and begin bleeding, though he did poison himself again. He crawled at a snail's pace to the rope we had for him to get himself up- Mezzem was still using my ladder so she could fix him again if need be.
Thecker began talking to the prisoner in gnomish- I swear sometimes she doesn't realize she's even doing it, and other times it's totally intentional. She announced to the rest of us that he was having trouble breathing, so we'd have to let him out of his bonds before he could speak- that sounded like as good of an idea as Sajin collecting poison. Sajin attempted to untie him, but Topsy's knot was too elaborate, and he got his fingers tangled in it instead- was hilarious watching him try to get free; Topsy untied the prisoner when she was done laughing at Sajin.
The wererat told us something would devour us all- though I have no idea what. Before we could demand he elaborate, he squirmed free of us and dodged Thecker's attempt to tackle him; only to be caught by Tali's snake bow, and tackled by Sajin and Mezzem. Topsy through the really big bag of holding I got from Kara over his head, and he, Sajin, and Mezzem were all sucked into it. Mezzem was able to wriggle free, but as she did, the bag sucked Topsy in. Turvy managed to grab his sister, and I grabbed hold of the wererat, while Tali grabbed Sajin. We knocked the ass out and shoved him back in my bag.
As we continued on, we began having trouble sniffing out the path, there was a strong, acrid scent in the air that masked everything else. Since we couldn't sniff out which way to go, we chose to go north- and that stench increased. Tali did something that was supposed to allow her to sense wererats, but she was only picking up Mezzem and I; Topsy tried telling her they were only rats from the rings, but she knew they were full of shit. Svirfneblin have an innate ability to make themselves undetectable by any divination magic or scrying sensors, which the therinthrope didn't know.
After a while Sajin began insisting he needed to rest, apparently poisoning himself and not contributing to actual battle is taxing on him. He found us a cavern that appeared safe, and the smell was more tolerable. We split up to explore the place to find somewhere securable to rest.
Tali came across a xorn, who was asking her for money, but she didn't speak Terran and didn't know what a xorn was; it ended up getting frustrated and hitting her. Thecker and I came up behind Tali as this elemental thing was hitting her. Thecker attempted to talk to it, but she doesn't speak Terran either- we really need to learn that damned language apparently.
Sajin found a nicer looking house that appeared unmolested, and found what he believed to be a banshee inside. He used his boots of speed and ran to the rest of the party to ask for help. Sajin skidded to a stop beside us and announced there was a banshee in a nearby house. Thecker and I left to deal with it, and told him to handle to elemental thingy. When we entered the house, Thecker was immediately slammed into the wall. Sajin fed the xorn 12,000 gold worth of gems... more than a xorn tends to eat in a lifetime, and scampered after Claire and Thecker.
Sajin came bursting into the house and was thrown into the ceiling, which was fucking hilarious. As I laughed at him, I suddenly felt a pressure on my mind. Claire was possessed by the spirit in the house- it wasn't a banshee like Sajin had thought. Sajin was acting weird, so Thecker thought he was possessed instead of Claire, and she shot him. Claire swung her Rod at Thecker, and the gunslinger responded by hitting the Purple Dragon with her shield. The twins appeared out of nowhere and stabbed Claire in the back, while Sajin knocked her out.
It claimed Tali's body next and went to take out the healer, the one who could hurt it the most. Sajin stepped on a trap and dropped as it went off- he had again almost killed himself today- though Mezzem revived him right away. Tali pounced at Thecker, hoping to trap the svirfneblin beneath her claws, but Thecker turned at the last second and Tali missed her mark. Sajin, seeing this, shot at Tali. The spirit announced that Thecker was the one who was possessed, not Tali, but Mezzem knew it was lying. The twins had spotted a safe in the room, and as Thecker went for it, Tali jumped in front of her screaming "mine!" It did not want them to open that, which meant they had to. Topsy and Turvy knocked Tali unconscious, making the spirit leave her.
In an effort to keep the party out of its safe, the spirit dropped a stone slab on top of Thecker and Sajin. Thecker dodged out of its path, while Sajin crumpled beneath it- the safe was sealed. She spotted a cupboard across the room, something that one wouldn't go for if the safe was available- that had to be where its bones were. She gathered the bones and began dumping salt on them. The twins managed to get the slab off of the safe, and Mezzem attempted to help them crack the lock- only making it worse... She revived Sajin and Tali instead.
Stone slabs began flying across the room at Thecker, as the spirit tried to keep her from burning its bones. It missed, but succeeded at scattering the bones, making Thecker's job a little harder. Topsy and Turvy got the safe open, and the entire room began to rumble, random things flying everywhere, trying to hit whatever they could. They grabbed the contents of the safe, and cleared the room as Thecker set it on fire. Mezzem downed a fire breathing potion to make the flames hotter. They collected the unconscious Claire as they cleared the building.
I came to back in the tunnel outside of that house, and saw smoke billowing out of it; we decided to get back to town to rest, and to lay low for a couple of days- the Goldwhiskers would likely be looking for us once they found the bodies of their kin. The weird elemental thingy popped up again as we were leaving, and Thecker tossed it a sizable bag of gold, which was apparently all it wanted. The Underdark is strange.
Once we made it back to town Thecker took the ashes of the spirit's bones to the catacombs below the Ruby in the Rough to la them to rest. A ghost approached her when she got down there, calling himself Burrow Warden Jadger, and asked her for assistance in clearing up the ghost problem the city was having. Jadger asked Thecker to destroy a spirit named Vazuk, and to recover the remains of Udhask in the Rockblight district and return them to lay him to rest.
In exchange for every person she laid to rest down there, he would answer one question for her. She put both the spirit and Fidget to rest, and learned from Jadger that the rats were near the old smith location, and that the oozes were in the north eastern area of the city. Thecker agreed to his requests, and returned to tell the party of their new missions and new information.
***** Eleasias 30
This morning we decided to deal with some of our other missions before we returned to the Goldwhiskers area. The rat we'd stuffed in my bag apparently escaped when we weren't looking- likely while we fought that damned spirit yesterday- and that meant the rest of the clan would be expecting us. We decided to deal with Vazuk first, then head to the Stoneheart Enclave to tell them about that weird circle.
When we got to Vazuk's house we discovered he wasn't a ghost, he was a poltergeist, so no bones, we just had to beat the shit out of him. He smacked us around a bit before we realized he was different, and Thecker and I managed to take him down while he wailed on Mezzem.
After that was over with, we went to the Ruby in the Rough to get directions to the Enclave, and to see about getting some healing. Glyphic was in the middle of helping someone else when we entered, and Sajin being the jackass that he is, demanded the lad stop what he was doing and come heal him right away. We slipped him some coin to "help" Sajin, and he dislocated Sajin's shoulder! That was hilarious, so I slipped him a few more coins, just for the entertainment.
He threw Sajin out of his temple, and by threw I mean I drug the jackass out. While I kept Sajin outside, he gave the others directions to the Stoneheart Enclave. We headed out shortly after that.
***** Eleint 1
About halfway through our travels we entered a cavern that sounded like the one from Glyphic's directions. It seemed this time we weren't getting ourselves lost. Good. An hour or so later we finally found the Stoneheart Enclave, which was marked by a huge elemental guarding the place. Yanthal wasn't there, so we were directed to speak with Nomi Pathshutter instead, it sounded like she was second in command.
We found Nomi easily enough, and gave her directions that circle thing in the basilisk chamber. She told us that she had made protecting elementals from Ogremoch's Bane her life's work, and that she needed our help with that. Nomi asked us to bring her samples of elementals who had been corrupted so she could study them further. She believed that it she could get more samples to study, she might be able to find the key to saving elementals; we agreed to help, and shortly after that we turned back toward Blingdenstone.
During Thecker and Topsy's watch an elemental randomly appeared in camp, petting the party's elemental lizards. The mephit had returned again, and it gave Thecker a stick of dynamite it had made from her gunpowder.
***** Eleint 2
We made it back to Blingdenstone about halfway through the day, it was nice having the elemental lizards that we could push a little harder. When we got back we decided to go to the Rockblight district to deal with the many missions we had centered in that place.
As we approached the gate to enter Rockblight we were approached by a man called Gurnik Tapfinger, a priest of Smoothhands, and he asked us to the Steadfast Stone, a temple to his god, that was in that district. He gave us something that would make it hallowed ground, and told us we'd have to defeat three generals in order to cleanse the temple, they were corrupted by Ogremoch's Bane.
Since we had heard that a guard around Rockblight needed help with something, we asked the guard on duty there about it when we reached the gate. Sark Axebarrel, the guard there, told us that there were reports of a medusa in Rockblight, and asked that we kill her and bring him her head as proof of the deed.
After we made it through the gates that led to Rockblight we heard the sounds of water and battle coming from up ahead of us on the path. A ghost appeared, scaring the hell out of Turvy and Sajin- it was hilarious, they both turned tail and ran. The ghost yelled at us that "they're coming, everyone must hide,"* then ran further up the path, in the same direction as our cowardly svirfneblin. We followed the ghost to a little house, and inside we found a skeleton sitting on the floor next to a little bed. Mezzem talked to it, and it said the drow were coming, and his heart had given out while guarding his treasure. This was Udhask, who had apparently been stuck living the same moment over and over for a century. His final request was to sleep, and we gathered his remains so he could be laid to rest.
We moved into the next chamber in this cavern to find "a shallow, swiftly flowing stream bisects this cave. Crystalline formations sprout from the floor on both sides of the stream, and rough-hewn staircases at the back of the cave climb 30 feet to a barren stone ledge with a pair of winged statues perched atop it."* The stairs were flanking a waterfall, and the scene was breathtaking, though still disturbing. We headed for the stairs began climbing, Tali and I still having trouble doing so since these stairs were all made for tiny gnome feet.
As we neared the top of the stairs the gargoyles came to life and launched themselves at Thecker... right, gargoyles are earth elementals. Thecker and Sajin stabbed it, and Topsy threw her boomerang at it- she barely touched it and it crumbled. An elemental- one that was obviously so, not one faking being a statue- popped up next to us, so Mezzem shot it with her radiant light, outlining it for me, and I came in behind her with my Rod activated as a flame tongue; apparently it didn't like that, it turned its huge fists at me.
Tali shot the remaining gargoyle and Mezzem finished it off, while I landed the killing blow on the elemental. We were able to collect samples from all three of them, and in the center of the elemental we found an emerald.
Friendly fire overall: 132
NOTE: Things will be mostly from Claire's perspective, anything with italics is from a third party, since the knight can't be everywhere at once.
***** Eleasias 29, 1489 DR (The Year of the Warrior Princess)
A short time after we passed through the gate to head to the Goldwhiskers part of Blingdenstone, we came across a ten-by-ten foot pressure plate that was taking up the majority of the tunnel; it was not going to be easy to get around without setting the damned thing off. Sajin decided to try to disarm the trap, but it was a fucking pit trap, not something you can really disarm; to make the stupid trap even worse, the pressure plate was really a concealment cloth. As Sajin realized this more ground fell away from us- everyone except Sajin was able to jump back in time.
As Sajin began to fall, Thecker tossed her grapple at him, trying to reel the jackass in, and they both fell into the stupid pit... Thecker noticed something almost moon-shaped embedded in the wall of the pit, but before she could investigate, a group of wererats attacked them. Wererats appeared out of nowhere and began firing poisoned crossbow bolts at us- I saw Sajin and Tali stiffen up as the bolts struck, they were paralyzed. I felt my muscles tense briefly in response to the poison, but I was able to shrug off the effects.
Thecker shot at two of the wererats, killing them instantly, while Mezzem paralyzed one of them. I stepped up and terrified them with my Rod- that power is pretty cool. The paralyzed one managed to pull itself free of Mezzem's magical grasp, and began to move away, and I saw Tali twitch- she was breaking out of the poison, good. Thecker attempted to get them to back down, since we just wanted to talk to them, not kill them, but they wouldn't listen- none of us were in the right form for it. Topsy shoved two of them into the pit, spearing them on their own spikes- I think they died instantly. Turvy managed to knock one out, and as I surveyed the area, I realized the unconscious guy was the only one we hadn't killed. This wasn't going well.
Sajin, still in the pit, decided to collect some of their poison, and the asshole poisoned himself in the process- he dropped unconscious... I used the ladder function of my Rod and gave us a quasi-bridge to get over the stupid pit. Mezzem climbed the ladder upside down in hopes that she could reach jackass and revive him. I try not to wish my comrades ill, but Sajin makes that hard. He's been horrid to me since the moment we met because I'm human- so I thought it served him right if he died from his own stupidity. I feel like the Underdark is making me a harder person, and I'm not sure if I like it. Kazul would know what to do, I miss her so much. Anyways, Mezzem was just barely able to reach and revive jackass.
Topsy tied up our prisoner, in one of the most elaborate fashions I've ever seen, and everything is elaborate in Cormyr. While she worked on that, Sajin decided it would be a good idea to try to collect the poison that had just almost killed him again. Fucking brilliant idea. This time he didn't fall and begin bleeding, though he did poison himself again. He crawled at a snail's pace to the rope we had for him to get himself up- Mezzem was still using my ladder so she could fix him again if need be.
Thecker began talking to the prisoner in gnomish- I swear sometimes she doesn't realize she's even doing it, and other times it's totally intentional. She announced to the rest of us that he was having trouble breathing, so we'd have to let him out of his bonds before he could speak- that sounded like as good of an idea as Sajin collecting poison. Sajin attempted to untie him, but Topsy's knot was too elaborate, and he got his fingers tangled in it instead- was hilarious watching him try to get free; Topsy untied the prisoner when she was done laughing at Sajin.
The wererat told us something would devour us all- though I have no idea what. Before we could demand he elaborate, he squirmed free of us and dodged Thecker's attempt to tackle him; only to be caught by Tali's snake bow, and tackled by Sajin and Mezzem. Topsy through the really big bag of holding I got from Kara over his head, and he, Sajin, and Mezzem were all sucked into it. Mezzem was able to wriggle free, but as she did, the bag sucked Topsy in. Turvy managed to grab his sister, and I grabbed hold of the wererat, while Tali grabbed Sajin. We knocked the ass out and shoved him back in my bag.
As we continued on, we began having trouble sniffing out the path, there was a strong, acrid scent in the air that masked everything else. Since we couldn't sniff out which way to go, we chose to go north- and that stench increased. Tali did something that was supposed to allow her to sense wererats, but she was only picking up Mezzem and I; Topsy tried telling her they were only rats from the rings, but she knew they were full of shit. Svirfneblin have an innate ability to make themselves undetectable by any divination magic or scrying sensors, which the therinthrope didn't know.
After a while Sajin began insisting he needed to rest, apparently poisoning himself and not contributing to actual battle is taxing on him. He found us a cavern that appeared safe, and the smell was more tolerable. We split up to explore the place to find somewhere securable to rest.
Tali came across a xorn, who was asking her for money, but she didn't speak Terran and didn't know what a xorn was; it ended up getting frustrated and hitting her. Thecker and I came up behind Tali as this elemental thing was hitting her. Thecker attempted to talk to it, but she doesn't speak Terran either- we really need to learn that damned language apparently.
Sajin found a nicer looking house that appeared unmolested, and found what he believed to be a banshee inside. He used his boots of speed and ran to the rest of the party to ask for help. Sajin skidded to a stop beside us and announced there was a banshee in a nearby house. Thecker and I left to deal with it, and told him to handle to elemental thingy. When we entered the house, Thecker was immediately slammed into the wall. Sajin fed the xorn 12,000 gold worth of gems... more than a xorn tends to eat in a lifetime, and scampered after Claire and Thecker.
Sajin came bursting into the house and was thrown into the ceiling, which was fucking hilarious. As I laughed at him, I suddenly felt a pressure on my mind. Claire was possessed by the spirit in the house- it wasn't a banshee like Sajin had thought. Sajin was acting weird, so Thecker thought he was possessed instead of Claire, and she shot him. Claire swung her Rod at Thecker, and the gunslinger responded by hitting the Purple Dragon with her shield. The twins appeared out of nowhere and stabbed Claire in the back, while Sajin knocked her out.
It claimed Tali's body next and went to take out the healer, the one who could hurt it the most. Sajin stepped on a trap and dropped as it went off- he had again almost killed himself today- though Mezzem revived him right away. Tali pounced at Thecker, hoping to trap the svirfneblin beneath her claws, but Thecker turned at the last second and Tali missed her mark. Sajin, seeing this, shot at Tali. The spirit announced that Thecker was the one who was possessed, not Tali, but Mezzem knew it was lying. The twins had spotted a safe in the room, and as Thecker went for it, Tali jumped in front of her screaming "mine!" It did not want them to open that, which meant they had to. Topsy and Turvy knocked Tali unconscious, making the spirit leave her.
In an effort to keep the party out of its safe, the spirit dropped a stone slab on top of Thecker and Sajin. Thecker dodged out of its path, while Sajin crumpled beneath it- the safe was sealed. She spotted a cupboard across the room, something that one wouldn't go for if the safe was available- that had to be where its bones were. She gathered the bones and began dumping salt on them. The twins managed to get the slab off of the safe, and Mezzem attempted to help them crack the lock- only making it worse... She revived Sajin and Tali instead.
Stone slabs began flying across the room at Thecker, as the spirit tried to keep her from burning its bones. It missed, but succeeded at scattering the bones, making Thecker's job a little harder. Topsy and Turvy got the safe open, and the entire room began to rumble, random things flying everywhere, trying to hit whatever they could. They grabbed the contents of the safe, and cleared the room as Thecker set it on fire. Mezzem downed a fire breathing potion to make the flames hotter. They collected the unconscious Claire as they cleared the building.
I came to back in the tunnel outside of that house, and saw smoke billowing out of it; we decided to get back to town to rest, and to lay low for a couple of days- the Goldwhiskers would likely be looking for us once they found the bodies of their kin. The weird elemental thingy popped up again as we were leaving, and Thecker tossed it a sizable bag of gold, which was apparently all it wanted. The Underdark is strange.
Once we made it back to town Thecker took the ashes of the spirit's bones to the catacombs below the Ruby in the Rough to la them to rest. A ghost approached her when she got down there, calling himself Burrow Warden Jadger, and asked her for assistance in clearing up the ghost problem the city was having. Jadger asked Thecker to destroy a spirit named Vazuk, and to recover the remains of Udhask in the Rockblight district and return them to lay him to rest.
In exchange for every person she laid to rest down there, he would answer one question for her. She put both the spirit and Fidget to rest, and learned from Jadger that the rats were near the old smith location, and that the oozes were in the north eastern area of the city. Thecker agreed to his requests, and returned to tell the party of their new missions and new information.
***** Eleasias 30
This morning we decided to deal with some of our other missions before we returned to the Goldwhiskers area. The rat we'd stuffed in my bag apparently escaped when we weren't looking- likely while we fought that damned spirit yesterday- and that meant the rest of the clan would be expecting us. We decided to deal with Vazuk first, then head to the Stoneheart Enclave to tell them about that weird circle.
When we got to Vazuk's house we discovered he wasn't a ghost, he was a poltergeist, so no bones, we just had to beat the shit out of him. He smacked us around a bit before we realized he was different, and Thecker and I managed to take him down while he wailed on Mezzem.
After that was over with, we went to the Ruby in the Rough to get directions to the Enclave, and to see about getting some healing. Glyphic was in the middle of helping someone else when we entered, and Sajin being the jackass that he is, demanded the lad stop what he was doing and come heal him right away. We slipped him some coin to "help" Sajin, and he dislocated Sajin's shoulder! That was hilarious, so I slipped him a few more coins, just for the entertainment.
He threw Sajin out of his temple, and by threw I mean I drug the jackass out. While I kept Sajin outside, he gave the others directions to the Stoneheart Enclave. We headed out shortly after that.
***** Eleint 1
About halfway through our travels we entered a cavern that sounded like the one from Glyphic's directions. It seemed this time we weren't getting ourselves lost. Good. An hour or so later we finally found the Stoneheart Enclave, which was marked by a huge elemental guarding the place. Yanthal wasn't there, so we were directed to speak with Nomi Pathshutter instead, it sounded like she was second in command.
We found Nomi easily enough, and gave her directions that circle thing in the basilisk chamber. She told us that she had made protecting elementals from Ogremoch's Bane her life's work, and that she needed our help with that. Nomi asked us to bring her samples of elementals who had been corrupted so she could study them further. She believed that it she could get more samples to study, she might be able to find the key to saving elementals; we agreed to help, and shortly after that we turned back toward Blingdenstone.
During Thecker and Topsy's watch an elemental randomly appeared in camp, petting the party's elemental lizards. The mephit had returned again, and it gave Thecker a stick of dynamite it had made from her gunpowder.
***** Eleint 2
We made it back to Blingdenstone about halfway through the day, it was nice having the elemental lizards that we could push a little harder. When we got back we decided to go to the Rockblight district to deal with the many missions we had centered in that place.
As we approached the gate to enter Rockblight we were approached by a man called Gurnik Tapfinger, a priest of Smoothhands, and he asked us to the Steadfast Stone, a temple to his god, that was in that district. He gave us something that would make it hallowed ground, and told us we'd have to defeat three generals in order to cleanse the temple, they were corrupted by Ogremoch's Bane.
Since we had heard that a guard around Rockblight needed help with something, we asked the guard on duty there about it when we reached the gate. Sark Axebarrel, the guard there, told us that there were reports of a medusa in Rockblight, and asked that we kill her and bring him her head as proof of the deed.
After we made it through the gates that led to Rockblight we heard the sounds of water and battle coming from up ahead of us on the path. A ghost appeared, scaring the hell out of Turvy and Sajin- it was hilarious, they both turned tail and ran. The ghost yelled at us that "they're coming, everyone must hide,"* then ran further up the path, in the same direction as our cowardly svirfneblin. We followed the ghost to a little house, and inside we found a skeleton sitting on the floor next to a little bed. Mezzem talked to it, and it said the drow were coming, and his heart had given out while guarding his treasure. This was Udhask, who had apparently been stuck living the same moment over and over for a century. His final request was to sleep, and we gathered his remains so he could be laid to rest.
We moved into the next chamber in this cavern to find "a shallow, swiftly flowing stream bisects this cave. Crystalline formations sprout from the floor on both sides of the stream, and rough-hewn staircases at the back of the cave climb 30 feet to a barren stone ledge with a pair of winged statues perched atop it."* The stairs were flanking a waterfall, and the scene was breathtaking, though still disturbing. We headed for the stairs began climbing, Tali and I still having trouble doing so since these stairs were all made for tiny gnome feet.
As we neared the top of the stairs the gargoyles came to life and launched themselves at Thecker... right, gargoyles are earth elementals. Thecker and Sajin stabbed it, and Topsy threw her boomerang at it- she barely touched it and it crumbled. An elemental- one that was obviously so, not one faking being a statue- popped up next to us, so Mezzem shot it with her radiant light, outlining it for me, and I came in behind her with my Rod activated as a flame tongue; apparently it didn't like that, it turned its huge fists at me.
Tali shot the remaining gargoyle and Mezzem finished it off, while I landed the killing blow on the elemental. We were able to collect samples from all three of them, and in the center of the elemental we found an emerald.
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Photo from Out of the Abyss Adventure Module by Wizards of the Coast
*Author's note: Many of the events, locations and characters that occur in this story are from the Out of the Abyss Adventure Module by Wizards of the Coast. Anything with an asterisk next to it is a quote from the book.
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