Session 53: Mossy Eyes Report

General Summary

Session 53 – Wednesday September 13, 2023 – Mossy Eyes

4.5 Battle and shopping session 5:30 PM to 10:00 PM

The Stone Bearers. Party of 5

It is the 11th day of the month of Nightal (The Drawing Down) in the 50th year of the Age of Enialis (Early December.)

• Abrash – Wood (Desert) Elf, L9 Druid – Jacob Munson
• Ajani– High Elf, L9 Wizard – Nathan Gioconda
• Gazlowe – Goblin, L9 Artificer – Josh Pozsonyi
• Cassidy – Human, L9 Blood hunter – Ryan Armstrong (Remote)
• Isabella – Forest Gnome, L9 Barbarian – Jackie Armstrong (Absent)
• Juan Peyote – Gnome L9 Paladin – Will Johnson

Undead journalists

The battle continued, but Cassidy sneezed, and Isabella disappeared. Cassidy whipped into one of the spirits and cast shield of faith on Ajani. Juan looked at the creatures and became frightened. One of the spirits touched Cassidy’s mind inflicting psychic damage. Abrash too got hit. Gazlowe critically hit one of the creatures and Cassidy helped by eliminating the creature’s resistance to thunder damage. Abrash cast faerie fire on 3 of the spirits making them stand out and easy to hit.     One of the fane spirits moved through the bookshelf and its face appeared right in front of Ajani. It reached into his mind causing psychic damage and made him forget everything that happened since they entered the library. Ajani confused looked for the door and ran out of the room into the hallway. Juan and bird focused on one of the spirits and destroyed it. Cassidy destroyed one of the creatures with her whips. When she moved and one of the creatures hit her. Another spirit hit Juan and as it fled into a bookshelf, Juan, Abrash and Gazlowe punched it.     Gazlowe punched one of the spirits with his thunder gauntlets and destroyed it. Another spirit walked out of a bookshelf near Cassidy, and she smacked it as it walked past her. Ajani came to his senses a bit and shot an orb at one of the spirits, badly wounding it. Juan hit one of the creatures critically and smited it, completely obliterating the spirit. Juan, and Cassidy focused on one of the spirits and destroyed it and then Cassidy destroyed the last spirit with his whip. Ajani came in from the hallway and said, “It looks like the ghost is clear.”     The party examined the books, they were all on the history of the Dwarves. Each book had one page written over and over and over. There were a few different volumes, but each only had 1 page of text that was simply duplicated over and over. Ajani scanned the books and learned that this Dwarven mine was an excellent source of Iron and the Dwarves forged excellent weapons here. They did find a stack of blank volumes plus some ink and parchment (see below for Treasure found.)

Grimloock

The party left the library. They had come from the west and now the hallway went north and south. They heard sounds of undead in both directions and distant sounds of hammers hitting anvils. Gazlowe was able to discern the sound of a wounded goblin in the south and led the party in that direction. They came to a small tribe of slaughtered goblins with one survivor. He was badly wounded and had a purple shard sticking out of his leg. The goblin pulled out his sword (glowing green because there was a human nearby) and yelled “Stay back!”     Gazlowe opened the portal on his armor and stepped out of it. Gazlowe spread his arms out an open posture, trying to calm the goblin down. The goblin gripped his sword and asked what they’re doing in the Endless caverns and Gazlowe told them they’re searching for a friend’s stolen shadow. This seemed to put the goblin at ease a bit. He ripped out the shard from his leg and tossed it aside and asked for a bandage. Gazlowe gave him a regular potion of healing. The goblin said, “Thank you friend.” He introduced himself as Grimloock (Grim- lo͝ok.)

Capitalism

Grimloock and Gazlowe continued their conversation in Goblin for a bit and after Gazlowe assured him his friends are safe they switched to common. Grimloock told Gazlowe about an easy way to make money and he called it “Capitalism.” The idea is to get a bunch of stuff (Capital) and then sell it (ism!) He explained that the dwarves have a massive forge where they have been making swords for many years. His party of goblins come in here once a month or so and simply collect the swords and then take them to a market where other people buy them. It's usually easy money.

Grimloock explained that this time however they ran into 2 problems. First, they hit a set of oozes where their leader (who had a very special magical sword) was lost and Grimloock became wounded. As they carelessly fled, they ran into a group of undead dwarves that took out the rest of his group.

Grimloock, not wanting to lose the opportunity to make some coin, asked if the Stone Bearers would be interested in participating in his capitalistic endeavors. He’d give them a portion of the profit, plus if they wanted to finish off the oozes to clear the way, they could keep his leader’s magical Scimitar. Afterwards, Grimloock will help them find Doje the Shadow Lurker.

Crystal Oozes

Grimloock led the Stone Bearers to a ruined passageway where a goblin was completely encased in a green crystal. Near the green crystal was a purple and ruby colored ooze. Grimloock pointed to the goblin in the crystal and told them that the scimitar he holds is a Scimitar of Life Stealing and that they just need to kill the oozes to get to it. Grimloock was still hurt and backed out of the room while the Stone Bearer’s planned their attack.

Abrash wanted to make the ground difficult terrain but there was no plant life in the area that he could utilize. Instead, he summoned his fey creature. The Fey struck the Green Mineral ooze and then Abrash followed up with a starry mote. Cassidy hit the mineral ooze with a couple of crossbow hits, one of them was critical and the creature died and hardened into a solid form. Ajani hit it with a firebolt, but it did not break.

The Ruby ooze shot a line of acid at Abrash’s Fey creature and Cassidy. Juan rode Bird around shooting his chill touch hand at the oozes. The purple ooze failed to hit anything. Gazlowe hit the purple ooze with his chill touch. Abrash hit it with a fire bolt and a starry mote and then his summoned fey hit it. Cassidy walked into the dead green crystal ooze to try to extract the sword, but she couldn’t pull it out. Ajani shot a thunderous chromatic orb a the purple ooze, badly wounding it.

The Ruby ooze shot a line of acid at Gazlowe and Ajani, Ajani was about to get directly hit but Gazlowe had a flash of Genius and moved him, saving his life. Juan continued riding Bird, having fun with his chill touch hand doing necrotic damage to the purple ooze. The purple ooze smacked Gazlowe twice and then it turned into a solid crystalline form.

Gazlowe’s eyes grew wide as realized his opportunity, he cast shatter on the 3 oozes cracking the green one and hurting the others. Abrash shot a firebolt at the purple one and his summoned fey hit the ruby ooze. Ajani shot the purple ooze at point blank range but missed, he decided not to move and just wait. The Ruby ooze shot its acid ad Cassidy and the Fey Spirit, leaving the Fey spirit barely alive.

Shadoobie… Shattered!

The purple ooze shattered its outer shell sending sharp shards of crystal into Ajani, Gazlowe and the fey spirit, badly wounding Ajani and killing the Fey spirit. The ooze hardened again and Gazlowe hit it with Thunder damage. The thunder damage caused the purple ooze to again shatter its outer shell sending shards again into Gazlowe and Ajani. Ajani fell unconscious to the ground. Abrash cast a healing spirit next to Ajani to help heal him and then he shot another starry mote at the ooze.

Cassidy walked up to Ajani and stabilized him. Ajani got up and healed a little from Abrash’s healing spirit. Seeing the oozes right by him, he grabbed Cassidy and dimensioned door to the other side of the hall, leaving Gazlowe alone with the oozes. The Ruby ooze struck at Gazlowe but missed. The purple ooze smacked Gazlowe hurting him badly and then it hardened again. Gazlowe healed a little from the spirit and pounded the Ruby ooze to death. Gazlowe took a little acid damage and then disengaged from the purple ooze.

Abrash cast polymorph on Gazlowe turning him into a giant ape. Cassidy couldn’t see the last ooze and shot at it in the dark but missed. Ajani too shot at it, but he too missed. Juan tried to hit it with his chill touch but couldn’t. Gazlowe, as a Giant Ape, jumped over to the ooze and pummeled it to bits with his fists. He then turned to the green crystal and smashed it, freeing the magical sword from its encasement in the crystal.

The Scimitar

Ajani picked up the sword and cast identify. He learned that it’s a Scimitar of Life stealing, the sword does an extra 10 necrotic damage on a critical hit and transfers those HP to the wielder as temporary HP. Ajani had no interest in the sword and tossed it over his shoulder. Abrash put it in the bag of holding.

The sword supply.

Grimloock led the party to the dwarven forges on the lower level. Cassidy remined everyone, “Don’t mention the war! We did it once, but I think we got away with it.” Everyone carefully walked past the Undead Dwarves who were busily hammering out swords of various kinds. Even though the Dwarves were dead, the quality was excellent. They carefully gathered 99 completed swords and loaded them into bags strapped to Bird and the bag of holding and everyone carried as much as they could. They quietly walked away with what Grimloock excitedly called “The capital.”

Mossy Eyes

Grimloock explained they were heading to a wonderfully wretched hive of scum and villainy called Mossy Eyes. He explained the city near it is run by drow, but all sorts of creatures go there to buy many things. He told them of the armory, and the weapons and the magical vendors. He warned them to stay away from the peddlers in the open area and focus on the Drow establishments as their prices may be a bit higher, but the items are all good.

Grimloock told them that Goblins won’t have a large issue going in and out, but the Elves and humans and gnomes will be questioned. It would be best to go in as a Drow and he knew someone who could help. Grimlock offered the party 30% of the loot. Abrash enhanced Gazlowe’s ability to negotiate and Gazlowe persuaded Grimloock to a 50/50 split.

Woon Chu and Voohoonu

They entered a large, cavernous area and the air was noticeably colder. Grimloock called out “Woon Chu!” Another goblin with a thin mustache that hung down to his jaw line approached. Grimloock introduced the Stone Bearers to Woon Chu Wannanno and told him that they wanted to get into Mossey Eyes to do some trading. Woon Chu told them they’d have to disguise or go in wearing chains as slaves. He told them that he has a friend who could get them in.

Woon Chu laid out the options:

• For 12,000 gp, he can sell a L9 True polymorph spell
• For an additional 1,000 gp for 30 minutes, 2K for 45 min or 3K for full hour, he'll have a powerful spellcaster concentrate on the spell for you.
• for 1,000 gp he will cast L5 Seeming but only lasts 8 hours. For 2,000gp it will last 16 hours.
• For 300gp he can sell Tongues scroll (he has 5)
• or for 500gp, will cast Tongues on up to 6 people. For an additional 100gp/person, he can make the spell last an additional hour, up to 16 hours.
• for 100gp he can provide “disguise self” scrolls.
• For 10gp each he’ll put them all in chains so they can get in as slaves.

The party debated for some time but couldn’t afford the True Polymorph so they accepted the Seeming spell and Tongues for 1,500 plus Ajani purchased the Tongues scroll. They pooled their funds and handed the coin to Woon Chu. Woon Chu called out “Voohoonu!” A Mind Flayer Alhoon floated out from the darkness wearing a Dark red helmet (like a Magneto Helmet.) He carried a spell book in his long grey fingers and telepathically asked what services to provide. Woon Chu told him what they paid for and Voohoonu cast the spells. They were told to stay together and not to get too close or let anyone touch them as seeming is just an illusion that can be seen through if someone examines them too closely.

Something for almost everyone

They walked into the darkness and saw lights in the distance. After a short walk they came to Mossy Eyes. The area was cavernous, the ceiling going higher than their vision could make out. The area was dimly lit all about with coldly glowing eldtrich fires in torches. There were several dwellings carved out of massive stalagmites and stalactites in the background. In the market area there were several establishments built into the walls of the cavern. A large open area about 2 acres in size was filled with food vendors and open spits along with traders with carts selling questionable items.

The place was filled with a variety of creatures. It seemed to be 50% Drow and the Drow clearly ran the place as there were patrols all over. There were Orcs, Ogres, goblins, Mindflayers, Derro, Duergar, Minotaurs, trolls, Tieflings and some humans. Many of the non-drow were in chains but many wandered about perusing the various booths.

There was a goblin with 3 huge bugbears next to him talking to a mind flayer. Behind the goblin was a sign that read, "Fresh Brains" in undercommon and behind the sign, were cages with a variety of Kobolds, Grimlocks, Orcs and even a Drow. The main places of business were:

• Parandeeda's potent Poisons
• Precilla's Practical potions
• Malagar's Marvelous Munitions
• Algenon's Alluring Armor
• Wuzlun's Wrathful Weapons
• Arcane Accoutrements
• The Cavern Taverns
• The Stalactite Quarters

As they walked through the market, they saw many other vendors selling a variety of food and services and entertainment. They saw a table of magical trinkets in front of a man below a sign that read “Nick’s Kinck Knacks and more. Next to him was “The Harry Potter” where a hairy burly man with a long beard sold clay pots of dirt.

First things first

They went to Wuzlun’s Wrathful Weapons first to sell the Dwarven weapons. Abrash again cast enhance ability upon Gazlowe. In the shop they saw just about any standard weapon they would want. They met the Drow Wuzlun who told them that the weapons were all Elven made. Each weapon had a very subtle and tasteful spider etched onto the hilt or the blade or some component of the weapon.

Wuzlun recognized Grimloock and asked if he had more Dwarven weapons to sell. Gazlowe did the negotiations and Grimloock agreed the Dwarven weapons were well made indeed but they’d still be touched up to look more elven in style and he needed to make a profit. Gazlowe asked for 800gp and Wuzlun agreed. The party didn’t buy anything at the moment and wanted to go back and look at Nick’s Knick Knacks.

They purchased many things from Nick and sold him the dwarven artifacts for 15,500gp. They eventually hit all the major stores and purchased items listed below.

Rewards Granted

Treasure found.

From Library of Fane Spirits

• 400gp worth of ink and parchment.
• Gazlowe took an empty book.

From the Gem oozes

• Scimitar of Life Stealing

Items purchased:

• Sold dwarven artifacts and earned 2,583gp each
• Abrash – Golden Sickle - 50gp
• Abrash – box of bones – 100gp
• Abrash – pot of awaking – 200gp
• Abrash – staff of adornment – 150gp
• Abrash – Nolzur’s Marvelous pigments for 1,500 gp.
• Abrash – Bead of Refreshment – 10gp
• Abrash – Boots of false tracks – 150gp
• Abrash – Purple worm Scale mail – 1,800 gp
• Ajani – Wand of conducting for 150gp
• Ajani purchased 2 greater healing potions at 225gp each.
• Ajani – Invulnerability potion – 4,000 gp
• Cassidy – NPT-48 – 500gp
• Cassidy traded 2 vials of Aboleth mucus +20 gp for a potion of flying.
• Cassidy traded a black dragon tongue, a powered dragon horn and a Basilisk eye for Crawler Mucus poison.
• Gazlowe – Pole of collapsing for 100gp
• Gazlowe purchased 6 Dreamlilly’s for 10gp.
• Gazlowe purchased the Ear horn of hearing for 250gp
• Gazlowe – pulled off 2 of his gem patches to get 2,000 gp and all his gold for a Neckless of fireballs with 6 beads for 7,680gp
• Gazlowe – scroll of fire protection for free
• Gazlowe – horn of silent alarm – 300gp
• Juan - cloak of Billowing for 100gp
• Juan purchased the remaining 4 Dreamlilly’s for 7gp and some Brackish water.
• Juan – Heward’s handy spice pouch – 500gp
• Isabella – Gem of Brilliance 5,000gp
• Isabella – 4 +2 Arrows – 600gp
• Isabella - Potion of Speed – 700gp
• Isabella - Potion of Flying – 750gp
• Isabella - Potion of Growth – 500gp