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Message: <blockquote data-quote="S'mon" data-source="post: 1651223" data-attributes="member: 463">The Summoning ChamberFjorent, Leo and the others talked with Maugraign’s Shade for a long time. Over the hours, it grew less overbearing when it began to understand that Leo and the group were not treasure hunters but genuinely here to rescue kidnapped dwarves if possible but also to put a stop to duergar plans. It drew a detailed map of the Halls, revealed the progress of duergar occupation and above all related that to summon Ustroda Eloth, the duergar needed several things. Mysterious ritual scrolls, two arcane anvils and a greatly dweomered sword. A little mischievously, he revealed that the duergar believed they already possessed the sword but it was not the right one. The true sword was locked in a cave leading from the Summoning Chamber. He showed the group where the other items were situated with the warning that the last Scroll, one which controlled Ustroda Eloth, had been destroyed. Leo thought that Maugraign must be a little desperate to give out so much information. Then again, by his calculations, the miners were very close to breaching the rubble to the Summoning Chamber. Once they had done so, it would take the Duergar little time to begin the summoning and potentially flood the halls with lava. This lava could potentially erupt to the surface, creating havoc. Discussing the information given to them, the group decided to try to obtain the sword. It was close and it was the one unique object that was needed for the summoning. Without it, the duergar would fail. Maugraign had one last piece of wisdom to impart before he went back to the spirit world. The amulets would tell the dwarven guardian spirits that the wearer was an ally and not be harmed. So the group made ready. Everyone rested. Spells were regained. Fjorent changed into a hawk and wore her amulet. The rest of the group was changed into vapour by an effect from Tarquin. This allowed them to fly at great speed. Thus they set out. The first part of the journey was uneventful. Then the group came to a spiral staircase as had been shown on their map. The group moved down when suddenly they started seeing bits of green mould appearing on the stairs. It was green and looked quite feathery. Any steps would disturb it scattering it into the air. A glimpsed room ahead was full of the stuff. Cailin concentrated. Moments later she said that she could hear banging from the room where they had been resting recently. People solidified. Fjorent said she was not going to be affected by any of this stuff and she moved forward with a torch. A little later she was came back, looking smoky. She said one could burn this stuff but it was very slow. At the same time, the pursuit was getting too close so Leo made a stone wall appear behind them, blocking the stairs. Tarquin was able to make the group temporarily immune to poison. Then the group made their way down the stairs towards a door. Cailin used the keys she found in the Temple and opened the door. Inside the next room were two elves!One was obviously a warrior of some type. He was armed, had a bow and wore armour. The other wore no armour but his eyes glowed an eerie blue colour. As soon as Leo saw that, he recognised the effect. He had it. It was useful to an extent, letting the caster know the relative power of the people he was looking at, especially if they were spellcasters. He himself rarely used it as the blue eyes made you very conspicuous to everyone, and to people with the right knowledge, it immediately told them that you were a wizard. “The one with the blue glowing eyes is a wizard”, Leo called out. Fjorent, first inside the room, said: “Who are you and what are you doing here?”The stranger replied: “You first,” but then his eyes widened as the rest of the group came in. His eyes seemed particularly fixed on Leo. “Archmage”. Leo could hear the whisper. Dammed arcane sight.Muttering, Leo put his magical amulet back on.  “Ah, hum” he said, “my name is Elaith. I am here searching for woundrous dwarven weapons. Unfortunately we ran across some duergar a few minutes ago and I had to run away from them. This is where I ended up. This is my companion and bodyguard Kai. Errr…you wouldn’t want some temporary companions would you? Just until we get out of here that is.”Leo looked at the others. “They are elves. If we leave them here they’re dead meat. Whatever we do, we have to do it soon.” The others nodded. The room contained two doors. One of the left wall and another on the front one. Instructions from Magraign said that the group should go to the front door and turn left as and when they could. Everyone got into their order and Cailin opened the door. Looking through, Cailin could see a large opening. In it there was a large lizard like creature, at least 20 foot long with a long armoured tail and a duergar rider. This must be one of the fabled duergar war beasts. Other duergar were dotted around the area. Cailin closed the door without being noticed. The group held a quick consultation and in the end it was decided that a direct confrontation was the best course of action in this case. Xiang opened the room and moved into the room. A stream of acid shot from the Black Spear and hit the beast. Cailin also moved in. She shouted that there was another beast and rider next to the one she had seen before as well as more duergar. The Fjorent loosed one of her fire spells at the creature and the rider. Leo moved next to her and did the same and Elieth, not to be outdone, repeated the procedure. The beast hissed, but looked more angry then hurt. The group realised the beasts were much tougher than expected. A lot of the duergar were scorched to death thankfully. Tarquin moved forward into the room,  putting a glow on Xiang, making him more difficult to hit. Then, ponderously, the beasts swung their tails and both hit Xiang, staggering him. He had several dents in his armour and blood started seeping down one of his arms. A small cloud of arbalest bolts came flying towards him and two struck, causing more bleeding. Fjorent shouted for everyone to get back into the room. The fighting would be more advantageous there. Leo saw she was ready to ready to shut it but she had to wait for everyone. Xiang moved out as did Cailin. Leo saw an opportunity. He moved forward and again cast the multi coloured light cone he had used before. This time, the effects were equally impressive. One of the of the war beasts simply disappeared. The other was racked with electricity and briefly contorted, hissing in pain this time. Several duergar simply fell over having been licked by fire, electricity or acid. A few turned to stone and one stared vacantly into space. Then Leo used his new ability and transported himself back into the room. After that, this group of duergar was quickly dispatched. That left two problems. One was the very secure secret door. To follow Magraign’s directions the group had to go through it. Luckily, Cailin realised that she needed to wear one of the dwarven amulets to open it. She opened it very expertly. Behind it was a corridor. Elaith told everyone that there was strong magic emanating from it. Then the group realised that they did not have enough amulets for everyone to go through the area of the spirits. It was decided that Tarquin, with his transport ability, would wait outside and then use his magic to join the group once they came back and instructed him. So the group moved forward. They were moving when many, many stone fists, claws and limbs suddenly came out of the wall and seemed about to strike. Then they froze in their positions. It was eerie. There was shout from Cailin that Tarquin was under attack. Everyone ran back only to find the priest in the corridor. The duergar had found them already. Cailin moved forward and shut the secret door. Dorn, looking very dubious, was put into the portable hole and the group moved forward. The corridor ended on a landing in front of a door. Above it was a banner carved into the stone.  Moving forward, Leo and Elaith were both able to read the dwarven runes. “The Hall of the Kin,“Ware all who Enter.”Cailin quickly opened the door which led into a large chamber. The front section of it was separated by a row of columns across the room. Beyond this row was a vast pit. This matched the Maugraign’s description. The group almost there. Then Elaith said there was very strong magic emanating as a barrier between the columns. After a little discussion, Leo cast another of his spells which suppressed magic around him for a period of time. Thus he was able to create a passage through the barrier. The group then examined the room. There were several chests, magical candlesticks, two lecterns and two large iron tubs in the room. The group left most of these alone although the chests and a book were put into the portable hole. The group turned vaporous and flew down the shaft. The two elves and Fjorent were going down by other means. The first inkling that the vaporous group had that there was a problem was when they slightly buffeted as a large bear dropped past them down the shaft. It landed with a loud thud. Leo winced. They flew down as fast as they could and then they solidified. The bear had turned into Fjorent, looking angry and bloody. Tarquin healed her.  She and the two elves had been flying down when they were attacked by a group of large scaly gargoyles. Evil flying creatures. Fjorent told us that all three of them had been grabbed and she turned herself into a bear. She became too heavy for them to lift. So she dropped. She didn’t know what had happened to the others. Suddenly, Elaith floated down to the group. When he was asked about Kai, his face said it all. Diplomatically everyone held a moment’s silence for the elf. “One hundred and fifty years…..” whispered Elaith.Then the group looked around them. It was a huge chamber. From the description, the summoning chamber. Cailin looked around and found the expected concealed door. Quickly she opened it, revealing a cave which contained a chest. The group moved forward. Cailin took a little longer in opening this chest. Muttering to herself about bloody dwarves, she gave several clever twists and extracted a spike from the lock. Then she set to work again and this time opened the chest. It revealed a little cache of jewelry, some platinum coinage and a large, beautiful, expertly crafted, very magical greatsword. By its description, this was the sword needed fort he summoning. So, the group now had the means by which to stop the duergar summoning. The next step was to rescue the dwarven prisoners. One side of the summoning chamber had collapsed. The miners were on the other side of that rubble. Leo changed his shape into that of an earth elemental and went under the rubble to take a look into the cave beyond. He saw many more slaves, including gnomes, humans, orcs, hobgoblins as well as the dwarves. There were also a group of duergar guards. Leo came back to let everyone else know. A plan was hatched. It would involve a major change in spells for Leo and Elaith but it was the only way they could attempt a rescue. They would have to rest. Elaith created a little pocket of extradimensional space. Leo stoneshaped a little gap of stone in the cavern wall and hid the portable hole and the bag of holding inside it. The chest containing the sword was emptied and left in the middle of the cave. Then the group started resting. The group had almost finished resting when Cailin woke everyone up carefully. She pointed to four duergar and one other who looked like a senior priest. This one moved forward to the centre of the room and opened the chest. Finding it empty he snarled something into the air. Then his eyes widened and he started gesturing at the pocket plane. He had obviously found the spell and he was trying to disrupt it. Suddenly he seemed to realise his position and he barked an order. All the duergar withdrew and he shut the door. The group quickly organised themselves and then Leo transported them to the Temple. There they finished learning their spells. A plan was quickly discussed and the group reached a decision. They would attempt the rescue but if they couldn’t do it, the priority was to stop the duergar from summoning Ustroda Eloth. If the rescue was not feasible then the priority was to get out. Having made their preparations, the group was transported into the large cave which Leo had scouted before. Much had changed. There were only about a dozen slaves. The rest had gone. The group could see three war beasts. The duergar had also made a little encampment at the far end of the cave. The three war beasts were enough for Leo. With so much of his magic tied up for the rescue it would be suicide for them to remain here. A moment later, he transported them all to the main bridge outside the duergar cave. Then Tarquin made everyone vaporous again and he also gave himself an unerring sense of direction, which would lead them out. As they flew at great speed, on one occasion Leo saw two beings about which he had only seen vague references. Drow or dark elves, with white hair dark skins. They looked surprised. A couple of hours later, Tarquin’s direction magic wore off and the group relied on Dorn’s tracking. Some time later the group arrived back at Goldhammer Hall. The group was welcomed back although the dwarves were still reserved. This reserve visibly melted when the group produced the sword. This was a mighty artifact which would aid the dwarven nation greatly against their enemies. Leo then closeted himself with Filum and related everything that had happened in the Underdark. He also promised the dwarven sage that he would write all this down and give him a copy as soon as he was able. The dwarves also purchased the dwarven jewelry from the Halls. Then the group was transported back to Gaxmoor. There everyone briefly saw Kanor, who had been made and Archduke, and then they left on their own devices. Leo had much to do.</blockquote>

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