Session 42 - September 5, 2019 Report

General Summary

World Date Fall, Second Moon, Lamlar (8th Day)

• Roth and the party head up the stairs to regroup after the issue with the musical stair puzzle.
• Roth wants to go scout ahead, and get Scarlett to cast darkness on his dagger. Ari and Scarlett went to the top of the first musical puzzle, Roth pulls out the darkness dagger and he then uses the cloak of the Raven to fly down the stairs.
• Roth explores all 5 flights of stairs, confirming the puzzle is on each flight in the middle, with the icons of boat, book, cat, ox, and dog going down.
• Roth then explored the base of the stairs and the large cave beyond. At the base of the stairs were a few bodies and Roth found some +1 leather armor and a ring of resistance to necrotic damage. He then flew back up the 5 flights of stairs to the party, who were waiting for him.
• The group discusses the camels and guide waiting outside, and the party then goes out to speak with him around dinner time. The guide, Jarett, tells them he has enough food and water for 4 more days. Baeshra casts good berry so that it gives the guide one more day to wait for the party.
• Scarlett explains about the spell, the food, and how she does not want Jarett to leave them. John then explains he can cast message to Jarett, letting him know if there is a delay or any issue with the party getting out in the expected time frame.
• Jarett takes the berries for the next day and after dinner with the party, reads a bit before the party goes back into the center room of the pyramid to take a long rest. Roth sees the book is on gemes and mining, but when no one is looking, takes out a romance novel about pirates.
• The party goes back to the center room and takes a rest for the evening. The wizard, John, messages the ship to let them know they are still on the quest and fine. Merry casts Tiny Hut, and the party spends the night in the hut, nice and warm.
• The watches are Baeshra (nothing), Ari (nothing), Scarlett (nothing) Roth, sees ruins appear in the moonlight (quarter moon) and light up words on the lid of the coffin, which he wakes Merry up to point out. The words say "Beneath this body lies the route". Merry is annoyed to be told something she already knows.

• After a long rest, the morning sun rises and the party goes down the stairs. Ari uses dancing lights and Merry uses Minor Image to cast small lights over the steps on hit to produce the correct notes and melody. The golem was a bit clumsy and summoned one dust mephit, which he promptly killed.
• At the base of the stairs, a large cavern is found, 60 ft wide, 40-50 ft tall and at least 120 ft long, and a road of smooth paved stones that leads down the tunnel/cave. The party also explores the pile of bones, and finds them pretty decomposed. There is also not a lot of dust in the room. Merry tries to find gems with her compass, and after all gems went to the bag of holding, there were none present.
• The party continues on the way, 250 ft down the cavern, the entire space was caved in, and impassable. Roth looks around and sees a rock and that seems out of place. Ari then puts her hand through it, showing it for the illusion that it was, and reveals another passage.
• The party goes through the passage, almost 2 hours of winding tunnel, clearly carved out by people/humans(?). At the end of the tunnel was a road and a large cave, Baeshra and Roth heard the sound of water.
• Roth scouts around (34 perception) and found the source and water and hears voices a long ways off. Roth returns and tells the party about this. The party hides in the tunnel they came in while Roth is sneaky and flies over to scout the voices.
• Roth spots a cart being pulled by 2 large creatures, with 4 gray skinned people, dwarf-like, who are speaking a language the he does not understand. Roth assumes they are traders.
• Roth tells the party what he sees, tells the party to stay hidden, and he casts comprehend languages, and waits in the middle of the road. The person driving the road notices him when they are 80-90 ft away, surprising Roth with their perception.
• Roth is able to speak with Joran, the leader of the traders, who is wearing a small pin which allows him to comprehend languages. The party (minus John and Golem, Tim), come out of hiding and see all the wares that the chart holds, after Baeshra scares the merchant with a bright light.
• Upon opening several chests with food, water, trinkets, jewelry and books, Ari buys a spider silk cloth (2 yards) and a spider web ring (asking about Lolth, not a ring of their followers) 7 gold, Scarlett buys a silver necklace with slate and sapphires (15 gold). Insight checks reveal they think they got a good deal.
• Merry buys 3 books in undercommon, 1 on the history of the 11 Duergar City-State Alliance, 1 on the art of blacksmith-ing, and 1 "recreational" novel, a romance between a Drow and Duergar.
• The merchant speaks to Roth about the large city-state they are traveling to, Reykjavík, 11 days away, and how his cousin runs a food stall in the market, blue tent, red squares. Master chef is named Larkin who runs the stall, who is Joran's cousin.
• Roth sells 3 rubies at 45 gold each, and shows the traders that he had 5 of them, all of high quality and good cut. Joran only wanted to buy 3 in gold.
• If the party wants to visit Reykjavík, they need to check in the guard at the gate and then go the Merchant guild, which is a good place to pick up jobs.
• Roth then asks about a path to find this artifact that is a possible cut off further up the path.
• Joran, the head merchant goes away and asks his traveling companions about possible side paths which we could be asking for. One of the guards mentions some giant scorpion incursion he recently heard about off a side tunnel. Roth then surprises the group by loudly announcing, "Giant Scorpions? That is where we want to go".
• Joren and Roth then negotiate what it will take to get a guide to that area, rubies were offered, an the Roth brought in the golem as an intimidation technique.
• A consensus was reached that the party will take out 1 "toll booth" which tax the merchants of the area, a Duergar Warload and 2-3 underlings.
• The party is wary of getting involved in the politics of the underdark and duergar, but agree once they realize that this person is not sanctioned by any government or city-state.
• After agreeing for giving the traders 15% of any found "tolls", the party travels the 3 hours to the bridge (of stone) over lava.
• The trading party agrees to wait about 100 ft back from the battle/bridge and wait for someone to return to let them know that the toll collectors have been handled.

Rewards Granted

1 ring of resistance (necrotic) and one set of +1 leather armor

Character(s) interacted with

Meet with deep dwarf traders