Session 25 - The Glitterhame

General Summary

14 Quickening - contd.

Pushing open the door, Jilken led the way inside quietly. Looking around the room quickly, the ceiling soars thirty feet high in the center of this impressive chamber, and the walls are carved with images of dwarves at their forges. Two large stone doors exit to the north and south. Several old skeletons lie scattered near the northern door. In the center of the floor, a natural rift descends sharply. Dozens of stone steps lead down into darkness. The party can hear the distant sound of running water and a curious buzzing coming from far below.

As the rest of the party entered a half dozen large red bugs came swarming down for the ceiling. Ell was the first to react and fired off two Eldritch Blasts, but both bugs swerved out of the way. Denye, ever efficient ran to the stop of the stairs, both talons glowing with red/orange energy. With only a quick shout of "Cover your eye," she unleashed a fireball centered practically on herself. Masterfully sculpting the spell to avoid herself and her friends, she managed to catch all of the Strige.

The party spent a few minutes examining the room and debating if they should explore some of the other doors or just head downstairs. When asked Han shrugged, "We're not even close to the actual stronghold. The old dwarf was a paranoid bugger. He wouldn't have built this close to the surface."

Both Ell and Denye wanted to explore more on this level, but agreed that they could do that on the way out. As Jilken pointed out, "So far we've escaped detection, let's try to keep that advantage. Mission first...and then we loot."

The stairway twisted and turned, following the natural cavern, always sloping downward. The floor has been cut into hundreds of shallow steps, but the walls and ceiling are still natural rock. About eighty feet down, a rushing stream spilled from a narrow crack to the south and crossed the stairway, disappearing into a narrow, winding tunnel to the north. The rill is only two or three feet wide, but likely could be traversed.

As the party descended, that sound of buzzing began to get louder. And while it was hard to get precise direction, it seemed to be coming from the bottom of the stairs. Deciding that it might be wise to show up unexpectedly, the party took the stream route, the fast moving stream picking up speed as the grade dropped. Ell stumbled over a shifting rock and bumped into Denye and would have fallen if Janora hadn’t caught him by the coat.

Along the way was a small cave off to one side with another five striges. Jilken popped two with bolts and Denye Shattered the remaining three bugs. The spell also shattered the skeleton that lay on the floor covered in moss. Ell looked in on the skeleton, but only found a couple of coppers for his trouble.

Following the stream further the party found a high-ceiling chamber and the end of the stairs leading down. They also found another four bugs. Ell tried to create a Minor Illusion of Denye running up and casting a fireball, hoping it would scare the bugs. When it didn't, the real Denye popped them all with a Thunderwave. After reminding everyone that they were, in fact, trying to sneak through, Janora tried to follow the stream through a low tunnel. But when the roof dropped to only 6-7in about the surface, the witch backed out on hands and knees.

In addition to the stairs and the stream there were two other passages to explore. Jilken and Han explored the northeast passage and found another openish area with multiple tunnels leading off as well as an angry brown bear behind a rough wooden gate. Moving into the room for a better look, Jilken got bit by a troglodyte who was camouflaged and Han barely escaped the same fate. Jilken got her revenge by electrocuting her assailant as Han hammered the other into the wall. Deciding to leave the bear for now they head back and down toward Janora and the others, but not before Han found a shiny longsword and inhaled some poisonous spores.

Janora, having gone southeast, found a number of carved marble sarcophagi with images of grim-faced dwarves arranged on this higher platform with a large open cavern chamber stretching into darkness. Another set of stairs, at the far end of the ledge descended into the large cavern. As Ell and the others joined the witch they pointed to dwarven runes carved on several of the tombs.

Ell invoked his patron to translate the runes and explained that they marked the graves of three dwarves; Borgol the Old, Gharin Troll-Doom, and Numik the Unlucky. The other runes translated into warnings of doom for all those who disturbed the dead. Investigating further, it was clear that all of the others were empty with no name or death dates. None of the party seemed inclined to risk the curse and Janora scouted ahead into the enormous glittering cavern.

As the witch moved along between large glittering crystal formations, striated in purple and green, they found another set of steps leading down along the southern wall. As the others followed behind, using the telepathic rings, Janora told the others what they had found as they hurried down the stairs. The chamber below was long and somewhat narrow with a floor that tilted downward toward a stream. Likely, the same stream, it emerged from a passageway to the west and flowed eastward swiftly before crashing over the lip of a large chasm.

Unfortunately the ground was covered in moss and slime and the witch slipped, fell into the fast moving water and over a 60ft waterfall. Janora began to call out a warning over the link but it quickly dissolved into some quite inventive cursing as the witch landed in a pool below. 

The others hurried after, managed to avoid falling in, and found a spiral staircase leading down. Everyone except for Han, that is. She slipped on a large patch of slime and flew over the falls as well to land near Janora. The others hurried down the stairs and found their two companions dripping near the pool. The pool let out into another stream that rushed down and through the southern wall near an open archway. Along the eastern wall were two stout wooden doors that appeared to have swollen shut. 

Denye broke one down and found quite a bit of rotten foodstuffs with two arches visible on the far side of the room. The wizard only explored the first room long enough to confirm that nothing was salvageable. Jilken tried the other door but found only an empty series of three chambers beyond. 

The southern passage opened into a long narrow cavern that ran east to west. The stream emptied in fast moving river and there is a stone bridge arching over with another ledge running alongside. A series of steps down led to a room that was half flooded, but it was clear the water was polluted with something. No one felt the need to risk it and the party followed the ledge to stairway leading across the river and up into a further stone arch.

It was only a dozen steps before passing beneath the arch and finding another long chamber. The river flowed about 6ft below the edge of the ledge with another higher ledge on the far side. As they entered, they were treated with the ghastly sight of this large stalagmite split into a gapping mouth with several long crusty tentacles pulling white fish out of the river below.

At the light surrounding the party, the Roper reacted by pulling it's tendrils back. Ell took that opportunity to dash across the room. Casting Viscious Mockery as he ran, the young man called out, "You stupid hunk of rock." Unfortunately it seemed the monster was quite secure in it's lack of intellegence.

In response several of the tentacles lashed out and grabbed Janora by the waist and Jilken by an ankle. A third tried to hit Ell, but he danced out of the way of it in the nick of time. Lifting it's two captives off the ground it pulled them across the river and the higher ledge.

The creature pulled Jilken in for a bite, but the elf managed to pull up her crossbow and jam it into the Roper's mouth. With quick motions Jilken fired the heavy crossbow down the things throat and followed it up with one from the light crossbow.  

Both shots seemed to hurt the monster quite a bit and it began flailing it's arms. Denye put it out of it's misery with a quick Firebolt and both Jilken and Janora dropped to the ground on either side of the monstrosity. Before rejoining the party Jilken sliced into the Roper and found several gems as well as a silver ring etched with arcane runes. 

Janora grabbed one of the tendrils and swung themselves across dropping down next to Denye with a three-point landing. Jilken tried to copy the half-elf witch, but caught her foot on the ledge, letting go of the tendril and falling toward the river below. Luckily, the nimble elf caught herself on the other side and pulled herself up with a small grunt.

Once the threat of the Roper was gone Ell began investigating a stout iron door that had been ripped off it's hinges. The room beyond held several cells, the last of which was closed and locked, with a skeleton inside. Ell pulled out the lockpick set and soon had it open. It proved to be the skeleton of a dwarf. Rummaging through the pockets of the stiff leathers, Denye found a pouch with a handful of platinum. 

Realizing this was a dead-end, the party started heading back to see if they had missed something. Getting back to the main chamber with the waterfall and the spiral staircase. Janora suggested that they take a rest and the others had just agreed when a strange whirlwind sprang up around the four primary party members.

Filled with swirling silver sand, the wind blocked all sight, but did not seem to touch the adventures. Suddenly there was a sense of coming untethered from the group and falling upwards.

Report Date

12 Jun 2021