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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Jeremy" data-source="post: 9761102" data-attributes="member: 4036"><h3>3/26/22</h3>The floor and walls of the duergar portion are clean, decorated, and reinforced.  It is a shocking difference from the rest of the underground complex.  The dwarves have amassed tools, weapons, food, and treasure in their area.  There is an enormous collapsed tunnel to the west.  Grath steps forward in greeting past the initial two guards.The duergar have an obvious leader who is bedecked and armored.  He gestures to the end of a table for the party to sit.  Grath is diplomatic and formal.  Veldra and Rho are silent.  The duergar’s eyes are narrowed with suspicion that Veldra returns in kind.  The leader however is strangely apathetic.  The leader introduces himself with some dwarven name that is more consonants and apostrophes than any distinguishable sound.  He requests more information about the complex that the party has discovered.The information he wants in particular is that of Alexander, the founder of this complex.  Grath volunteers that he has found several of his journals.  The dwarf offers a possible escape and a guide in return for a tribute of an interesting or powerful item.  Grath sizes him up at first thinking weapons might work but given the ornamentation and scholarly bent of the dwarf reasons that trinkets of interesting properties might be more effective.  Grath thinks about the orb but regrets having smashed it earlier.  He goes digging through the bag of holding.Grath offers a wizard’s spellbook, a magic blue book of riddles, and a magic platinum coin.  The duergar wants to know what they do but Grath admits we have no idea.  The duergar is pleased with both the spellbook and the riddle book.  Accepting this, he reveals that there is a large central chamber with a confused creature with many eyes and an enormous locked door.  After that he summons up a guide from further into their chambers.  When Grath describes Clorox the duergar king raises a hand and shakes his head revealing the creature he speaks of had only four eye stalks and an enormous central eye which differs considerably from Clorox’s configuration.As the party is dismissed Gribitz tries to steal a snack but is caught by an extremely alert duergar who yanks him out of Rho’s backpack.  Things turn hostile and Grath tries to command them to let Gribitz go.  Rho stares down at the dwarf that has Gribitz like a pull-toy between them.  In return the dwarf grows and grows and grows until he towers over Rho and looks down on him.Grath again tries to be diplomatic, calling to mind that an agreement was reached.  The duergar is honorbound to follow it.  He motions and the dwarf shrinks in size and relinquishes Gribitz to a small smirk by Rho.  The party is escorted out the back of the chamber through a dwarven hall filled with banners and stories.  The party is led through various doors and hallways, the duergar gets more nervous as he approaches the main chamber and is reluctant to continue any further.Magical terror tries to overcome Grath as he reaches for the door but his desperation to get out of this dungeon or die trying mutes the fear as inconsequential.  Beyond is a decaying chamber with many entrances and one enormous twenty foot door in the back.  As promised there is a floating beholder of some kind conversing with a smaller adoring gazer.  There are other small eye orbs floating about the room.  Grath takes a steadying breath and strides into the room drawing multiple eye stalks from about the room.The main creature grins a toothy grin and is excited to have visitors.  Grath asks if the creature is Alexander.  The insane aberration changes demeanor erratically at the name and devours the gazer nearest it.  The creature proclaims it is no longer a slave to Alexander and that all of this is now its sole domain.  Grath asks for an exit, the creature suggests we turn on each other and slay one another to escape in spirit, he offers to assist.  Grath declines and throws a bead of Fireball at the monsters and immediately vanishes from sight, turning invisible.Rho charges out from behind a pillar and charges the spectator.  It floats out of reach of his first swing taunting the dragonborn only to be interrupted by the backswing of his maul clocking it across the jaw.  The pillars in the room start to spin and one of them electrocutes Rho with a bolt of lightning.Fozzie and the Bearoness are summoned forth and begin attacking the various abominations while Gribitz cowers and hides from the aberrations.  Veldra charges forth, slashing another gazer out of the air as her form splits in two and her echo slashes at the spectator.  From out of thin air a massive Guiding Bolt slams into the spectator, it is visibly rocked as its various eyes spin around searching for the invisible Grath.The spectator vanishes and reappears about the chamber but Rho continually chases it down.  His thunderous blows shake the chamber and the rotting roof begins to cave in.  Finally, one of the magical eye rays of the creature takes hold on Rho and he freezes in place.  The spectator cackles madly to itself, ichor dripping from all of its rents and gashes and one of its eye stalks hanging limply.  It moves its floating maw over top of Rho then freezes in place itself, Veldra’s sword bursts forth through the large central eye from behind.The bloated and beaten form of the spectator almost deflates as the remainder of liquid runs out of it on the floor and its whole body slurps and slumps to the floor.  Pillar begins cackling about our victory again before his voice and the runes on the pillars fade away to nothing.  A key appears and descends in the center of the chamber, Grath grabs it and picks Gribitz up, putting him on his shoulder and opens the enormous door.On the other side of the door are 8 large magical vases and a magical chest.  Laz solemnly asks that he be burned.  Gribitz hardly waits an instant before gleefully throwing fire multiple times before anyone else can form a thought or protest.  As the sentient spellbook burns away to ashes, there is a knocking sound from one of the vases and an old humanoid falls out of one weakly and dripping with goo.  Alexander Lazandrias III feebly makes his way to the chest and dons some rich purple robes from it, takes up a green crystal staff, and finally dons a large purple and gold wizard’s hat.  His shoulders settle back into place and his back straightens somewhat before he turns to face his new/old friends.Grath bursts into tears and embraces the old wizard and begs to be released from his dungeon.  Alexander smiles through his white lustrous beard and gestures, opening a portal to the outside.  Gribitz launches himself through and immediately entombs himself in the ground, surrounding himself in the Green once more.  Grath returns Alexander’s journals and asks the wizard some of what he remembers.  Gribitz chastises him for summoning up all manner of aberrations against the Green trying to extend his life.  Alexander explains that this form is one of his contingency Clones he created.  He wants to go traveling the planes trying to find wherever he blasted his tower off to as he gestures ruefully to the nearby ruined foundations the party had first delved into what seems like weeks ago.The party has only been in his tomb of horrors for four days.  They tiredly make their goodbyes to the now re-personified Laz and trudge back to Honeywood. Gribitz turns into a hare and hops around enjoying being back in nature.  Thromshfulsk sees the party coming into town and greets us excitedly to see what bounty of ichors we’ve returned with, but Grath is incredibly done and tells him to find us tomorrow, reiterating it with a magical shout when the tiefling tries to question us further.The party recuperates and recovers and drinks and eats at Kruk’s tavern.  There isn’t a lot of physical exhaustion or injuries to recover from but the mental toll is eased by ale and meat and chocolate.  Veldra’s headaches don’t really ease but she dismisses it, she had actually been drained of intelligence by some of the aberrations of the wizard's lair but didn't fully comprehend what had happened and no one else had seen it happen.  The next morning Rho brings up the next side track to keep him from visiting the dragonborn tribes, that of Grath’s holy relic but Grath cuts right through that emphasizing that Rho can’t run from his past forever.Grath is much more complacent towards Thromshfulsk in the morning and relays the success of our mission.  The remainder of our pay is collected and the party sets out to the east riding out while Grath immerses himself studying his tome.  So immersed that he doesn't notice the wagon going east towards his relic rather than south towards Rho's clan.</blockquote>

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