Session 4: Travel Farther Report
General Summary
After the party returned from their previous venture they rested heavily and surveyed the work that had been done in their absence. The progress was staggering, they had the gates set up and a pulley system to lock iron bars in place and protect them from the south that had proven to be a source of high populations. The next focus became planning on their return to the northern tunnel at a later date as well as a trip to the south so they could survey some metal that was noted when the large caravan originally made their way to the Underdark. There were ideal conditions for some mystical metals in a settlement site that had been rejected due to a lack of water, other natural resources and it was hard to defend properly.
The trio consisting of the Elven Paladin, the Minotaur Fighter and the Genasi Red Mage were selected for the task of scouting and travel as they were well enough armed to deal with the more populated tunnels to the south and had a few disciplines of magic to rely upon. They set out early during the day and made their way to the crossroads that many creatures frequented, though they still had no idea of the name of this area it was quickly coming to be familiar to a few like Barnum and Reinys who had traveled it more than a few times already. When they stopped to rest and eat some rations, in doing so they had time to survey the area around and were surprised to find it recently deserted by a large creature. The tracks were immense in stature, identifying the creature as Giant-kin and the party came to the conclusion that it was one of the lesser giants known as a Cave Troll. The party talked among themselves and decided that they had no desire to track and stalk or even walk after a Cave Troll due to their well developed sense of smell so they devised a plan to lure it back to them instead.
The Minotaur and the Gensai hid themselves, the Minotaur covered himself in mud and earth as he hid among some rock formations at the edge of the cave while the Genasi used his climbing kit to find purchase among the rock formations on the ceiling. The Elf took up residence in the center of the room, in plain sight and facing directly towards the tunnel that the troll tracks went down. Then she started using magic to create the smell of fine cooked foods, roasted meats with savory seasonings that dripped with enough fat to entice any creature that didn't subsist on vegetation alone. This process continued for about 30 minutes until the dull, soft footsteps of the troll was heard making its way back to the crossroads. The creature was unceremonious in its intent, it sniffed the air visibly and hung at the entrance to the cavern for only a moment before slowly walking up to the Paladin in a somewhat curious and peaceful manner. Then it bellowed and hefted a great, spiked club and tried to crush the Paladin. The group quickly surrounded the creature and made short work of it before the Red Mage gave it a christening blaze of fire to bring the creature's mortality into perspective. The party then set about the grueling and disgusting task of burning the corpse to ash, while nasty the black ashes of the creature would prove invaluable as an alchemical or a smithing component. They also found a bag that the Troll had been carrying that had coins and a Crystal Ball.
After this ordeal the group set about on their original venture, taking care to remain silent with a rope tied between them so that the Paladin could lead them in the dark tunnels. As the hours passed they began to hear beating drums in the depths, from small tunnels, crevices and seemingly all around that would start and stop suddenly as if to pass information between tribal entities. This meant little to them as they continued towards the settlement site that they deferred, as they neared the area in question the party could hear an argument. The words were difficult to catch from far away but there seemed to be a disagreement on goods or price, the party took up residence just before the tunnel opened up to the larger cavern and watched. The Paladin was the only one with eyes good enough to make out even shapes at the distance and she judged there to be a party of Orcs along with a leader of some sort that were engaged in discourse with what appeared to be some time of Elven spellcaster, the fact that she wasn't a Drow immediately stuck out. Within the next second the Orc leader struck and crumpled the spell caster to the ground and the party decided to engage. Reinys moved with impressive agility and magic, covering the distance with the aid of Misty Step and set upon the creatures. The rest of the party offered support from afar with magic and arrows as they closed the distance more cautiously. The smaller Orc warriors were fierce but they quickly fell under the surprise attack combined with various magic. However, when Reinys engaged the Orc leader in combat she found herself matched because while she could strike the Orc could strike faster and he used little more than his bare hands to knock the Paladin away with a single strike. The party surrounded the Orc and tried to bring him down, though they found themselves nearly matched even all gathered and they were thrown about, into each other and knocked away. The Paladin finally ended the fight with a Smite and she was left spent.
Immediately after this fight they gave aide to the fallen spell caster and questioned her about her associations. She explained the nature of the Underdark and how there was a need for absolute neutrality to survive and do business. Several things were noted to be off about her appearance to include the fact that she was a surface dwelling Elf and she had long, wicked finger nails that were a glossy black color and seemed to be more suited to be claws rather than nails. The group learned that she was expecting another shipment of goods that had a Crystal Ball among them, they returned her Crystal Ball and were offered safety for the night. She invited them through a secret opening in the cavern that led to a ladder and a cozy if not strange dwelling that held many distilling liquids, cauldrons and herbs. In the morning the party departed with a few "Potions of Fate" as thanks and the group pulled a few samples of ore from the cavern walls, Putrid Steel. Though they found their travel back to the Mitrhil Mantle to be disturbing in many ways. The Drums that had spoken in small patterns and verse the day before seemed to have a constant, never ending beat to them now that increased whenever they came into a wider area. They made haste to the Crossroads and down the tunnel towards their settlement to relative safety.
Syndra, the Rune Mage was filled in about their exploits and she sent her familiar to spy on the Crossroads while the entire settlement hastened their preparation of defenses in case of an attack. The psuedo dragon stealthy made its way to the crossroads in time to observe an exchange between an Orc war party and an entourage of Drow from that seemed to originate from the direction of the Drow city of Monatrex. The dragon could not understand the speech that passed between these creatures but the body language and posturing indicated that there was some sort of a turf war in effect and that the Orcs would not be allowed past that point without a much larger conflict being set into motion. The familiar returned with this information and the settlement began to understand their current position in the larger politics of the Underdark around them.
Rewards Granted
50 lbs of Troll Ash
10 lbs of Putrid Steel
4 Potions of Fate
Character(s) interacted with
Unnamed Spell Caster of Elven descent that the party seems to believe is a witch if not a wizard of some sort.
Phineas T. Barnum
Level 3
Genasi
Chaotic good Red Mage
(story teller)
(story teller)
/ 23 HP
Zanus Zambith
Report Date
11 Jul 2020
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