After the umberhulk attack, the party accepted a supper invitation to the Cusp of Sunrise, an elite private club on the upper echelon of Cauldron. At the Cusp, an ancient dwarf named Davked Splintershield tried to hire the party to go into the Underdark north of town to find his lost son, Zenith Splintershield. Davked was obviously so old his skin was turning to dust, lending some urgency to his request because he wanted to make peace with his lost son before dying. A large fee was offered if the party would undertake this mission. The party expressed interest but also said they had another matter to attend to, then they went back down into the Kopru Ruins to finish clearing out any rooms they might have missed in their first pass.
After finishing up in the Ruins, the party went back to Keygan's Lock Shop (their home base since Keygan has gone missing) and from there set about investigating how they might use
stoneshape to tunnel their way down into the obsidian fortress beneath the lost city of Jzadirune (all of which is under Cauldron proper and accessible via the Lock Shop). Agar Splintershield, merchant within the Cauldron and a friendly NPC, was helpful in pointing out the faultline in the stone and warning of a potential cave in in the area where the PCs were tunneling. Agar expressed shock to hear that Davked Splintershield had been seen alive in Cauldron, for the last Agar knew, Davked died 15 years ago.
While the party cleric was stoneshaping and tunneling down into the obsidian fortress, Yuathyb, the dark skinned sneak in Jzadirune, was hunted down and queried for information. When asked, Yuathyb said he learned the little common he knows from a "black skinned dwarf who left via the Howling Stair" before the Jzadirune cave in. Yuathyb shows the party the leg of one of the dead Stormblade adventurers responsible for causing the cave in and the Howling Stair. During this time, Michael spider climbed down the elevator shaft leading from Jzadirune to the obsidian fortress. 200 feet down at the bottom of the shaft, Michael made out the broken wood planks of the shattered elevator, only a little stone rubble, and the hidden door at the bottom. From Michael's report, it definitely seems as if the obsidian fortress is still accessible. Also during this time, Gurnezarn the blacksmith brings a letter to the Lock Shop saying that Bolarron's relative has died in the Nordlands and that there will be a funeral once the frost clears.
I have a note that it will have taken 34 days to stoneshape the elevator shaft free, which as far as I can recall was what the party had done. You all figured the best way to get into the Underdark to go after Zenith was to go in through the obsidian fortress and since you wanted to make the fortress your new home base, you were killing two birds with one stone by having Nyla stone shape a new entrance (the original entrance was demolished during the cave in). The elevator shaft was 30 feet in diameter and 200 feet deep. Nyla could tunnel 576 feet of stone per day.
As it now stands, the party will need to decide whether to go to the funeral up north or to pursue Zenith into the Underdark. I am prepared for either of these or any other course of action the party may wish to take. Michael will probably part ways to set up that Gruesome Carnival he'd been collecting.
