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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Kid Charlemagne" data-source="post: 773" data-attributes="member: 93">Shadow Springs, Vokal Mountains, December 24th, AE 419Some identification of items takes place the next day.  Aris has finally managed to learn the identify spell, and is eager to try it out.  The party recovers Batista’s bow and boots from the dead human, as well as a ring with a white and black spiral design, and a sword with a leafy motif.Aris identifies the ring as a ring of humanoid control, capable of charming orcs, and ogres and such. The sword appears to be a Goblinslayer blade, with extra powers that Aris can’t discern.  The party saw the sword’s wielder vanish into a tree, so Batista gives it a try.  After some experimentation, he is able to transport himself from Shadow Springs all the way to Belluin!  The sword gets passed around a bit, as no one really seem perfectly suited for it, but eventually Batista gets it, for now.The sword’s extra ability is transport via plants.  The sword’s full 3e workup can be found in the ENWorld Rogue’s Gallery forum, along with 3e writeups of several PC’s with more to come.  Batista took the sword initially even though he’s not very good with a longsword.The party manages to sneak the dwarves out of the Sky Temple the next day, and several days later, they trudge into Oakendell, where they introduce Valarin to Count Rovan.  They dimensional fold to Belluin with Kassaroth, so that he can take the news to the Duke of Belluin and from there to the King.  After that, they fold back (along with Vekkoth) to Shadow Springs to continue on to Kazathun, and the Lake of a Thousand Waterfalls.The Lake of a Thousand Waterfalls is so named because it is a massive reservoir of fresh water in the Underdark of the Vokal Mountains.  Fissures in the rock allow melting snow and rain water to seep into the Mountains, and the Lake has hundreds upon hundreds of areas where water is pouring from the ceiling and into the Lake.  The dwarves use tarpaulins to keep the barges that they use on the Lake dry.Vekkoth explains that it will likely take three or four days to reach Kazathun.  He takes the party to a Iron Smelting factory in town, and into the basement, where a secret door leads into some ancient mines.“The path from here to Kazathun is not an easy one, and not one suitable for trade, so no improvements were ever made,” Vekkoth tells them.  “The entrance was kept secret.”They walk through seemingly endless mines, until they reach a depression in the mine floor.“Interesting,” Vekkoth says.  “This is the entrance, but ordinarily it is hidden by a pool that conceals it.  The water is drained off by pumps whenever someone needs to use it, but it looks like the mechanism has been broken.”“I’ll go first,” Gavin says, waving off Jalea.Gavin steps onto the top step at the bottom of the shallow depression, and there is a flash as writing along the edge flares up brightly.  All of a sudden, Gavin is contorting in all sorts of strange ways.“What’s the matter?” Reana asks.“Spiders!”  Gavin yells.  “Little, biting, spiders!”  He shakes his body trying to get the multitude of tiny spiders infesting his armor off of him.  He begins pulling off his breastplate.That’s when the Guardian Daemon attacks.Unfortunately for the Guardian Daemon, the party is ready for a rumble, despite Gavin being essentially hors de combat.  The Daemon’s bite is worse than his ability to absorb bites, and he goes down quickly and noisily.“Maybe I should go first,” Jalea says, smirking as Gavin shakes the last spiders out of his clothes.“Yeah, why don’t you do that,” Gavin grumbles.They are in caverns now, leaving the mines behind.  They climb deeper and deeper, until they find a very deep cavern that they must traverse by climbing down one wall using ropes.  The cavern is partly carved out, apparently used as a burial ground in the distant past, much like the Druidic burial ground under Axehead Peak.  The dead here pose no threat however, and they continue onward and downward.  Jalea takes a quick look, but their possessions must have been plundered long ago.Not long after that first climb, Vekkoth decides to make camp.  “We’ll have a long journey tomorrow, and a couple of places where we’ll need to scout very carefully.  The Drow may have set up other traps or defenses to guard against any intruders from the west side of the Vokals.”They camp in the caverns without incident, and move on the next day.Early the following day, Vekkoth has the party dim their lights.  He explains that they are coming up on one of the major chokepoints in their journey, and they need to be careful.  The cavern ahead is almost 350 yards long and 20 to 30 yards across, with a constant slope upwards.  It would be a perfect defensible location for the drow and their orc allies.  Jalea moves up ahead to scout it out.Jalea sneaks along the cavern wall, and about 30 yards in, he sees a lone orc, hiding behind a roughly built ten foot high stone wall.  He pulls back his bow, and prepares to take the orc out with one shot.He wings him.  The orc drops back behind the wall, although he is not dead.  Jalea hears the sound of a couple of crossbow bolts fring in his direction, and bolts hitting the cavern wall near him.Back at the end of the cavern, Aris looks at Jovah.“Does this seem in any way familiar?” the bladesinger asks.  “What part of ‘scout’ does he not get?”They rush forward to check out the commotion; Jovah takes one of his softball-sized continual light rocks and tosses it up so the humans can see.  With more illumination they can tell that the wall runs the width of the cavern, and has a gate that appears to be made from the shields of dwarves of Kazathun.  Jalea appears near them, coming out of the shadows.“They fired and fell back further into the cavern.  There were only two.  I thought I could take the one that I saw.  Sorry.”They take cover behind their side of the near wall as a hail of crossbow bolts falls near them. Vekkoth climbs up the wall, and peers over.“About 45 feet up a steep slope to another wall.  I can see eight orcs up there.”They clamber over the wall, and rush the second wall.  Another hail of crossbow bolts lands, with a few hitting their marks.  This wall is taller than the first, and there are stairs built to allow passage through, but only through a very narrow channel.  As Gavin and Brennen reach the channel, the orcs collapse the wall on them!  The orcs get in a few pokes with spears, and fall back further into the darkness.  Aris and Batista jumped over the wall and took down a couple of orcs, but at least six got away.Vekkoth helps the others dig out the two fighters.  They’re bruised and batteredbut not horribly injured.  “I can’t see anything further down the cavern.  If there are any more fortifications, they’re out of my range of sight.”Jalea goes down to check it out and comes back this time, having learned a lesson.  “One more wall, a pretty high one.  Lots more orcs, maybe twenty.  There’s a steep stair going up the center of the wall to a higher area behind it.  Its about two hundred feet over level ground.  We’d have to rush them and take the bowfire.”“Not necessarily,” Aris says.  “Light an arrow and fire it down there as close to the wall so I can get a line of sight, Jalea.  I’ll take care of them.”Jalea sneaks a little ways down and sets an arrow on fire, and fires it at the wall.  As soon as Aris sees the arrow hit, and can see the wall, he casts a fireball about fifteen feet behind the top of the wall.   The orcs are screaming, and on fire, and the party charges.  The otherwise occupied orcs don’t get many crossbow shots on them as they rush the wall, and Brennen and Reana hit the stairs at full speed, only to find that it has been greased.  They fall back, ignominiously, to the base of the wall, where the few unfried orcs pepper them with rocks and crossbow bolts.  The wall is too high for Aris to merely jump over, but Jovah motions to him.“I’ve a got a new trick I’ve been waiting to try.  I can get us both up there,” the gnome luck-priests says.Aris is skeptical, but just then, is hit by a flurry of magic missiles.“Alright, let’s go!”Jovah casts etherealness and grabs Aris.  The two find themselves in a greyish, insubstantial world, only vaguely reflecting the true world.  Jovah and Aris pass through the wall, and rise up behind the orcs.  Aris is looking for the spellcaster, and soon finds him; stuck securely to the ceiling by virtue of spider climb.  He also sees about two dozen bodies fried by his fireball, some large, orcish, some shorter, perhaps goblins, Aris thinks.  He nods to Jovah, who ends the spell.Aris immediately lightning bolts the unsuspecting spider climbing wizard, who promptly drops like a rock from the ceiling, utterly electrocuted.  He is Drow.Meanwhile, Batista and Reana have made it up the stairs and are slicing up the few orcs that weren’t taken out by the fireball.  Soon, Vekkoth, Brennen, Gavin make it up to the top.That’s when Aris realizes who the smaller figureswere who were killed by the fireball he had blindly cast up onto the top of the wallDwarves.Dressed in rags, malnourished and skinny, weak from being used by the orcs as slave labor to build the defenses in the long cavern.  Former citizens of Kazathun. Chained to a pillar so they couldn’t escape.  Twelve in all.Vekkoth looks at the carnage, and slowly turns his gaze on Aris.  He is shaking in rage.“You!”  he screams.  “Elf!  Does it ever occur to you to think before you throw your spells around!”Brennen and Gavin hold the furious dwarf back from the bladesinger, who stands there, shocked.  Aris looks at Jovah.“I…  I didn’t know they were there,” he stammers.  “How…”“How could I have known they were there?”</blockquote>

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