ADVENTURE 38: WHAT'S UNDER THAT DURNHILL?
PC Roster:
Cramer Appleknocker, gnome cleric 13
Jhasspok, lizardman 3/barbarian 3/fighter 7
Khari Hammerslammer, dwarf fighter 13
Marlo Pendragon, human sorcerer 13
Utred "Buckets" Butterflinger, dwarf barbarian 13
Game Session Date: 4 August 2021
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With a slap, the severed dwarven hand landed on the stone surface of the floor, drawing the attention of the figures in the room there.
"What's that?" asked Cramer, looking over at the pillar in which the Greenvale end of the Shadow Gate was situated. Looking down at the floor, he saw the severed hand and noted it held clenched in its grip a rolled-up sheet of parchment. He went to pick it up off the floor, noting the blood still dripping from the wrist; the hand had been severed recently, by the look of it. There was no one else in the room with the five adventurers but a small handful of Greenvale scholars; the hand had apparently been sent through the Shadow Gate.
Jhasspok turned to look at the hand as well, although he didn't particularly care what was on the parchment - it wasn't as if he could read any words that might be printed there, in any case - but rather was drawn by the intoxicating bouquet of the scent of fresh blood. Knowing his friends' general squeamishness about such things, he was fairly certain nobody else was going to want to eat the severed hand but him.
"What does it say?" Marlo asked as Cramer pulled the parchment from between the fingers of the severed hand. As Jhasspok had anticipated, the gnome cleric left the hand lying there on the floor and focused his attention on the writing on the sheet of paper. The lizardfolk sidled over, scooped up the discarded dwarven hand, and ambled back over to where he'd been standing. He waited until the others had gathered around Cramer before enjoying his snack, to avoid disturbing his friends at the sight of him devouring the hand - mammals could be so squeamish about such things!
"It's in Dwarven," the gnome noted. Indeed, Dwarven runes covered both sides of the sheet of paper and with his magical helm Cramer was able to read at least one side of it. "Some kind of instructions to find 'The Keeper of the Key,' whoever that is," he said. "The other side uses Dwarven runes as well, but it's magical writing - my helm can't translate that." He passed the sheet of parchment over to Marlo, who cast a
read magic spell before looking over the back side of the sheet.
"Whatcha eatin'?" Khari asked the lizardfolk, after having already lost interest in whatever the piece of paper might say.
"Nothing," replied Jhasspok, swallowing down the remains of the dwarven hand, which was technically true - he wasn't
eating anything right now, for he had already finished his unexpected snack. Khari shrugged to himself and looked back at the others, leaving Jhasspok to lick any last traces of blood from his scaled mouth with his forked tongue.
Marlo read aloud the translated runes: "Focus runes inward and instructions will follow."
Utred and Khari shared confused glances. "That mean anything to you?" the burly barbarian asked. Khari shrugged and shook his head. "Nah, me neither," Utred admitted. He turned to Cramer and asked, "So what does that mean?"
"I'm not quite sure," Cramer admitted. He held the parchment at arm's length and tried focusing inward, eventually crossing his eyes in concentration. Nothing happened.
Marlo tried holding the runes up to her forehead and concentrating on them. Nothing happened.
Jhasspok suggested that maybe "focusing inward" meant eating the paper the runes were printed on but nobody wanted to try his suggestion. He likewise lost interest. Eventually, Marlo and Cramer decided to leave the parchment with the scholars there in Greenvale, while they pressed on with their own agenda: finding a mind flayer who could read
The Book of Uboros and hopefully translate the locations of the nine other Writhing Gates. Marlo and Cramer had both read the book but the locations meant nothing to them; the gnome had explained it was as if the illithids referred to Greenvale as "the sun-drenched city" in their writings instead of the name the sunborn drow (and other surface dwellers) called it - they could translate the words in the book but they didn't mean anything to them. Hopefully, a mind flayer could translate the locations of the other Writhing Gates so the group could see what they could do about shutting them down. In fact, of the ten total, one of them was already supposed to be destroyed, so if the heroes could destroy three more there wouldn't be enough left for the Dying One to use to return to the Material Plane, for doing so required a minimum of seven gates - and making the transition with less than all ten of the Writhing Gates would destroy the world.
And the one mind flayer ally they'd had, N'zorthal, the Administer of Discipline for House Jalamir, had given his body up as an avatar of the Dying One. The heroes had been forced to slay him while defending the Crossroad Keep during the drow invasion of the surface world. Now they needed another mind flayer, and hopefully a friendly one more interested in helping to defeat one of its own Elder Gods than eating the brains of the heroes destined to save the world from catastrophe.
Fortunately, the sunborn drow scholars of Greenvale were able to help them on their current quest. "We know of a mind flayer colony called Tardinessk," offered a drow scholar with bright green hair tied in an elegant ponytail. "It is a trek of several weeks through dark tunnels from the Overreach. However Lauren's divinations suggest a faster way to get there is to find the temple of the abandoned sun in the city of Durnhill."
"Durnhill?" asked Utred, recognizing the name. "We been there?"
"We skirted around it, mostly," Cramer replied. "But that's where we first found Lauren and saved her from that pair with all the elementals trying to kill her." He turned to Lauren, whose face was covered in the tattoos that suppressed all magic but divinations. "So there's an abandoned temple in Durnhill that will lead us to the mind flayers?" he asked. "Hopefully friendly ones?"
Lauren nodded and explained that "Durnhill" was the name not only of the entire kingdom but its major city as well. "We will teleport you about an hour's walk from the city gates," she said, "for there is some kind of magical protection preventing anyone from teleporting directly into the city itself. But I have two further bits of advice. First, beware the pale lady, for she has connections to the evil wizard responsible for the rune-marks upon my face. And second, I would have the lizardfolk wear your
hat of disguise while within the city."
Utred pulled the magical hat from his pack and passed it over to Jhasspok. "Here," he said. "Make yourself look like somebody who won't attract no attention inside a mostly-human city." Jhasspok put the unwelcome head covering on the top of his head - it wriggled and altered shape to do so, to accommodate the lizardfolk's crest running down from the top of his head along his spine - and promptly took on the semblance of an ogre.
"No, too big, too scary-looking," chided Utred.
"It's a mammal," argued Jhasspok.
"Smaller," insisted Utred.
Jhasspok sighed and altered his appearance to look like a dwarf. After all, his two closest associates among the quintet of heroes were Khari and Utred, dwarves both, as neither of the three of them had any spellcasting power and relied on the more dependable power of the strength of their limbs and the deadliness of their weapons. "There," he said. The dwarves nodded their approval while Jhasspok idly swatted at the illusory beard apparently growing out from all sides of the lower half of his face. He could see it sticking out in his peripheral vision - how did his friends deal with constantly having the equivalent of a small shrub growing out of their faces? Weird!
After having been given directions to Durnhill, the group of five was teleported across the miles from Greenvale and set about on their path - just a human, a gnome, and three dwarves walking to the big city to make their fortunes, should anyone ask. They were allowed entry into the city - after Marlo advised Jhasspok to remain quiet and let her and Cramer do the talking for the group - and were soon wandering its streets, looking about for an abandoned temple of the sun. However, a shop caught Cramer's eye and he popped inside for a quick purchase.
"What's he want in there?" asked Utred, reading the sign on the door. "It looks like it sells...pets?" But Cramer was soon back out with the group, smiling to himself and carrying a sack containing his new purchases in one hand. The sack bulged and wriggled.
"Dare I ask?" Marlo inquired, but Cramer ignored her, turning to face Jhasspok instead, still magically disguised as a dwarf.
"Hey, Jhasspok, do you still want to eat Truffles?" he asked. The dwarf's eyebrows shot up as Jhasspok spun his head in eager anticipation. "Then catch!" the gnome called out, tossing a toad from his sack over at the disguised lizardfolk. Jhasspok caught the toad and popped it into his mouth, as Marlo gave a stifled scream and put her hand in the pocket of her robe, immediately reassured by the comforting touch of Truffles' tentacle-covered body.
Jhasspok was halfway through devouring his snack when he remembered what Marlo had told him months earlier about toads bursting into flame when you tried eating them. He narrowed his reptilian eyes at the sorceress, but was immediately distracted from his suspicions when Cramer tossed him another toad.
"Hey, guys?" asked Utred. "I dunno if anybody's noticed, but we're being followed. Three women, all of 'em human."
As one, the five heroes spun in place and faced their followers, not bothering with any pretense that they might not have noticed their silent pursuit. Cramer tied the top of his bag of toads to his belt, freeing both hands in case it came to a fight. Jhasspok finished his current toad snack and watched the approaching women, as Marlo cast a
magic circle against evil on herself, anticipating combat.
One of the women, wearing an elaborate helmet and armor filled with right angles, called out to the group, "Come with us. We'd like you to answer some questions."
"We're perfectly willing to answer questions," answered Cramer immediately. "But I see no reason we can't answer them right here." He didn't know who these women were, but right now the odds were five-to-three in his group's favor and he wasn't sure he wanted to do anything to alter those odds, if it came down to a fight.
Another of the women, this one wearing dark robes, cast a quick spell and turned to the samurai, apparently the leader of the trio. "They don't register as evil,
Mikito," she said, relaying the results of her spell. This, as well as their cooperative demeanor, was not at all congruent with Daleth and Orion's account of these five interlopers - including the lizardman pretending to be a dwarf - having attacked them and aiding in the escape of a known member of the Seekers of Eternity.
"Show us your necks," commanded Mikito, stalling for time. Then she amended her order as the three dwarves started lifting their beards: "The backs of your necks." None of them wore the tattoo of the shattered hourglass.
"Are you willing to be subjected to a
zone of truth spell?" asked
Anuja Graveshadow, the dark-clad cleric of Wee Jas.
Cramer lifted his arms from his sides, showing his open hands held no weapons. "Subject away!" he offered.
Anuja cast her spell and the interrogation began. The gnome and human were very forthcoming, spilling a tale about saving the world from an illithid Elder God who currently existed in the Far Realm as an enormous severed head with a hundred tentacles. The three dwarves just stood by, waiting as their two leaders told their tale. The women's brows furrowed at the strangeness of the tale being told, but Anuja concurred that they were telling the truth - or at least, she amended, the truth as they believed it to be.
"But you admit to aiding the escape of a Seeker of Eternity?" Mikito pressed.
"Who, Lauren?" Cramer asked, adding, "Young lady with runes tattooed on her face? Yes, we rescued her from an elven wizard and a halfling on a riding dog. They tried killing her, and us, lobbing
elemental gems at us - one of each, as I recall."
"The water elemental had a fish in it," Jhasspok pointed out.
"What do you think?" the dark-clad cleric asked the third of the women, a light-skinned blond woman in a white dress.
"We'd better take them to Daddy,"
Dow suggested.
Mikito turned back to the group. "If you surrender your weapons to us and come quietly," she told them, "we will take you to our leader,
Skevros, who works directly for the king. He will no doubt have further questions for you."
"Will the weapons be returned to us upon request?" countered Cramer. Upon receiving a reply to the affirmative - still under the
zone of truth spell, which affected the three women as well as the five visitors from the Overreach - Cramer agreed on behalf of the group. "It might take us a while to disarm, though," he warned, looking at Utred, who was a walking arsenal of weapons.
"Wait - I have a question," interrupted Jhasspok. He spun and faced Marlo. "You lied about toads bursting into flame when you try to eat them, didn't you?" he accused. "You used some magic trick to make Truffles burn in my mouth."
Marlo sighed and shook her head in disbelief; they were being disarmed and brought before a representative of the leadership of the kingdom of Durnhill, who believed the five of them were some sort of terrorist assassins or something and in league with the Seekers of Eternity, a perfectly harmless group about which Durnhill apparently had some serious misgivings, and the foolish lizardfolk was more worried about having been tricked into
not eating her familiar! "Yes, Jhasspok, I tricked you so you would stop trying to eat Truffles. You're my friend, but Truffles is also my friend and I don't want him to be eaten, any more than I'd want somebody to eat you."
That at least made some sense to the lizardfolk: Marlo was apparently addle-brained enough to want to make friends with food! He actually kind of felt sorry for her now, having to cope with such a debilitating limited intelligence.
Fortunately, Dow had a
bag of holding into which the assorted weapons of the five heroes (almost half of them belonging to Utred alone) could be stored for easy toting, and the three women led the group to a small tavern at the edge of the city. Utred, grumpy at having to hand over all of his weapons, had his spirits lifted at the sight of the tavern (the
Enchanted Flagon, according to the sign on the door) and the prospects of getting some decent alcohol.
Once inside the tavern, the group was greeted by a tall, gaunt man introducing himself as Skevros. Cramer scowled at him and wondered why he was instinctively filled with distrust at the sight of the king's adviser. "Ah!" he suddenly called out. "I know why I don't trust you - you fit the description of the evil wizard who covered Lauren in those tattoos!"
Skevros at least had the good grace to look embarrassed. "Yes, well, in my younger days I was...somewhat of a different person for a span of time...." He pulled out a black book from a pocket in his red robes and flipped through it. "Hmmm, yes, it seems at one point I was hired by Arcturus of the Council of Guilds to perform an experiment in divinatory magic," he admitted. "I have no recollections of that span of time, but it's entirely possible I did as you claim." He turned to the group again. "Tell me," he asked, "have you ever heard of the Mithral Mage?"
"Never heard of him," Cramer answered immediately.
"Wait," pointed out Jhasspok helpfully, "wasn't that the guy we freed from Dwarven Hell?"
The
zone of truth spell, having been cast out in the streets of the city, was no longer a factor and Anuja admitted to not having another such spell at the ready, but Skevros dismissed her concerns. "I think I can tell when someone is lying to me," he assured her, looking pointedly at Cramer. He then asked the group to tell their side of the tale about the attack upon Lauren, and how the group had ended up fighting off Orion and Daleth, both of whom apparently worked directly for Skevros. He also wanted full details about how - and, more importantly, why - they had freed the Mithral Mage from Dwarven Hell. Cramer, the talkative one, spun not only those tales but brought the adviser up to speed on the Dying One and the threat he posed to the entire world if he tried returning to the Material Plane using less than the full ten Writhing Gates and filled him in on the various factions within the Seekers of Eternity, pointing out how the Seekers provided with refuge in Greenvale had helped fight off a drow invasion from the Underdark. It was a tale long in the telling; fortunately, a silent barmaid named
Karen provided Utred and Khari with tankards of ale with which to while away the time while Cramer talked and talked and talked.
Once Cramer had finished - and accepted an ale for himself, finding himself parched after all that discussion - Skevros agreed that at the very least the gnome believed everything he said to be true. "I shall want to do some research myself into this Dying One of yours," he admitted.
"While you're at it," suggested Marlo, "can you offer any insights into what 'focusing runes inward' might mean?" She briefly explained about the parchment they'd left with the Greenvale scholars.
Skevros mulled it over for a bit before offering, "It sounds like it might refer to psionic magic. Rather exceedingly rare, I'm afraid - I don't know a whole lot about it." Then he came to his decision. "Return their weapons to them. You are free to leave, as long as you don't cause any trouble within the city. This 'temple of the abandoned sun' you seek is the Temple of Pelor, boarded up once it was discovered it sits upon caverns leading to the Underdark." He gave them directions on how to find the temple and permission to break into it. At Utred's request, he also gave them a small keg of ale.
The group had no difficulties finding the temple, nor in pulling down the boards sealing up the front door. As described, there was an area designated as an orphanage at the rear of the building, inside which was a secret tunnel leading down into a cavern below the structure. They were greeted almost immediately by a telepathic voice inside their heads.
<It seems you are looking for one such as I?> queried the voice.
"Aaah!" cried out Jhasspok, his usual response to sudden voices in his head. But the voice belonged to an unusually tall mind flayer named
C'thorlumbrox. <If you are willing and trust me, I can levitate each of you down,> the ulitharid offered.
"I've got my own way down," replied Marlo, casting a quick
Rary's telepathic bond spell on the group and then stepping into the vertical shaft, using her
boots of levitation to slow her descent. Khari also had his own way down, using his
earthglide warhammer to tunnel through the rock and appear in the cavern at Marlo's side. The other three (Jhasspok having resumed his normal appearance now that he wasn't visible to the townspeople of Durnhill) took the ulitharid up on his offer, figuring if he meant them harm he had had ample opportunity to attack them before they were even aware of his presence.
Once everyone was gathered around the ulitharid, Jhasspok came right to the point. "We're trying to kill one of your Elder Gods," he said. "Can you help us?" Marlo just closed her eyes and silently wished the lizardfolk would leave the talking to those better equipped to do so. She could feel the beginnings on an incipient headache forming behind her temples.
<You speak of the Abomination.>
Cramer took that as a good sign that C'thorlumbrox was not a fan of the Dying One. For a third time that day, he found himself explaining the background of Uboros and what would happen if he were able to reform the rest of his body from his severed head and try to return to the Material Plane without all ten Writhing Gates functioning. "We'd like to destroy the Writhing Gates, or at least as many of them as needed to prevent the Dying One - the Abomination, that is - from even making the attempt."
Marlo handed over her copy of
The Book of Uboros, showing him the passages that denoted the locations of the Writhing Gates. "We know where one of them is, in the tunnels and caverns outside the drow city of Overreach," she explained. "We need the locations of the others deciphered for us."
C'thorlumbrox scanned the pages. <It is written in an archaic form, using older names,> he advised. (In fact, if not for the weird temporal effects of the Far Realm the book would likely be so old as to crumble apart at the merest touch.) <Translating it will take some time. But I can tell you what I know of the Writhing Gates.>
Cramer and Marlo leaned forward in anticipation. Utred opened the flask of ale and he and Khari settled down for what was likely to be another long bout of exposition. Seeing their inattention but judging it an easy way to keep them from interrupting, Cramer wordlessly handed over the sack of toads and Jhasspok focused his attention on another light snack, politely offering a toad to the others and being shooed away for his efforts.
<Destroying the Writhing Gates will not be easy,> explained C'thorlumbrox. <It took a special weapon to destroy the one Writhing Gate, and the weapon was itself destroyed in the process. Unfortunately, an artifact of that power could only have been created by the Primordial Avatars - the versions of the gods that first set foot upon and created the world, and from whom most myths about the gods are born. After a Primordial Avatar disappears from the world all future avatars of that god pale in comparison. That means, of course, that such a weapon can no longer be created today.>
"But there are other of these primordial weapons that can take out a Writhing Gate?" pressed Cramer.
<It is possible; I will research the problem at hand. But such favors are not to be provided free of charge.>
"Are you going to try to eat one of our brains?" asked Jhasspok around a mouthful of toad, surprising everyone by proving he'd been paying attention to the ulitharid's mental conversation.
<Yours would not be worth eating,> C'thorlumbrox replied. Then, looking disdainfully at Khari Hammerslammer, he added, <And there is something wrong with that one's.>
"So what's the payment to be?" asked Marlo.
<There is a duergar outpost that my colony needs pacified. It would be advantageous for those not affiliated with Tardinessk to do the deed.> He gave the group directions and said he would await the party's return.
"Sure, we can handle a group of duergar for you," Cramer reassured him. "Guys! Drink up! We're off on a mission!"
"'Bout damn time!" Utred agreed, sealing the keg back up and grabbing up his greataxe.
The way to the duergar outpost started at the bottom of a deep chasm off to the side of the cavern in which C'thorlumbrox had been conversing with the former arena slaves. Now, after having been levitated down to the bottom of the chasm and following miles of a twisting passageway, the group approached the long cavern said to house the group of duergar they were to slay for the mind flayer colony. Anticipating imminent combat, Cramer advised it was time for the standard bevy of pre-combat spellcasting. Marlo said there was still plenty of duration left on the
Rary's telepathic bond spell, so she left it as it was. Cramer cast a
mass bear's endurance on the group, as well as his standard
longstrider spell upon himself. Then, casting a
detect evil spell as he did so, he stepped foot into the cavern.
He immediately noticed an evil aura emanating from, of all things, a stalagmite directly across the way from him. He puzzled on this for a mere moment before the reason became apparent, as the "stalagmite" opened its cyclopian eye and fired a strand at the little gnome, striking him in the chest. Cramer effortlessly shrugged off the roper's attempt to drain him of strength through its strand, then smirked as the tip of the adhesive appendage slipped off his armor and flopped to the ground. That was one of the many advantages of being a cleric of Fharlanghn: the ability to will into existence a
freedom of movement effect that shielded him from such attempts at impeding his progress.
But now that there was an enemy at hand to deal with, Jhasspok charged - literally - into combat. Speeding past Cramer in a few long strides, the lizardfolk raced up to the roper with his battleaxe raised over his head. The roper proved to be much more maneuverable than the stalagmite it resembled, darting its trunk forward to bite at Jhasspok as he approached, but the roper got the worse end of the exchange as the reptile's axe-head buried itself in the upper part of the creature's body, near the single eye.
The sounds of clomping boots on stone brought the group's attention to the gaggle of duergar racing towards them from the far end of the cavern. The eight gray dwarves fired crossbow bolts at the only two combatants they could see thus far - Cramer and Jhasspok - splitting the targets between them. Of the barrage, Cramer was hit by only one bolt, and that was a superficial hit that barely scratched the side of his arm.
Utred raced along Jhasspok's path, ending up beside the lizardfolk, bringing his magical greataxe to bear down upon the roper. With Marlo in the way in the cramped tunnel leading into the cavern, Khari opted to
earthglide through the stone beneath her, popping up off to one side of Cramer - and directly in front of a second roper standing motionlessly against the wall opposite from its fellow monstrosity. This second roper leaned forward, biting at an astonished Khari with its sharp teeth, catching the Hammerslammer dwarf in the shoulder.
Marlo stepped into the cavern and decided to do something about the duergar they had been sent here to deal with - as usual, the guys had gone full-out against the first combatants they had spotted and ignored the real reason they had come here in the first place. She summoned forth the required mystical energy and caused a circle of writhing, black tentacles to rise up from the stone cavern floor and encompass themselves around the struggling duergar. Try as they might, none of them could find release from the
Evard's black tentacles spell Marlo had cast their way.
The first roper reeled in its ineffective strand and fired off two strands each at Utred, Jhasspok, and Cramer. All six struck true, but none of them was able to siphon off any physical strength from its foes, and once again the two that struck the gnome failed to find any permanent purchase. It snapped its teeth in frustration at Jhasspok, but the lizardfolk managed to scramble sideways out of its reach. The other roper had only Khari as a target, so the dwarven fighter was struck by no fewer than six strands; fortunately, as a dwarf he was built with a solid constitution and he had no trouble at all resisting the strength-draining attempts of the roper's strands. This second roper also chomped at its target in frustration and this one was much more successful in its bite attack than had been its counterpart; Khari's upper body became firmly lodged in the roper's massive mouth as teeth pierced the dwarf from front and back. The fighter's legs kicked furiously as he was lifted from the ground.
Cramer, looking at the eight duergar imprisoned by the
Evard's black tentacles spell, thought they were lined up rather nicely and cast a
blade barrier spell over six of the group. Flashing blades stabbed and sliced at the screaming gray dwarves as blood flew in all directions. The two duergar not caught up in this second spell's effect yelled just as loudly, redoubling their efforts to escape the squeezing tentacles before the swords came their way as well - to no avail. Marlo's spell had them all but bound and helpless.
Jhasspok swung his battleaxe at the first roper again, catching it in the side of the mouth and sending a few spiky teeth flying off to the side. Utred hit the same roper with his
flaming greataxe, noticing the fire seemed particularly effective against the creature. He broadcast his findings over the telepathic link, eliciting another yelp of surprise from Jhasspok.
Khari was half inside the second roper's mouth but he was far from out of the fight and he was damn sure he wasn't going to be swallowed by the monster. He brought his warhammer crashing into the creature's throat, causing it to shake him back and forth in its mouth like a dog with a rag toy. But then Marlo, listening to Utred's advice, cast an
empowered scorching ray at the first roper and just like that it was dead, the strands that had been adhered to Jhasspok and Utred falling limply to the stone floor of the cavern.
Cramer then focused his attention on the second roper, still gripping Khari in its mouth and shaking him back and forth. He cast two spells in rapid succession: a
flame strike covering the two in holy fire, followed almost immediately by a
quickened cure serious wounds spell on Khari, healing up some of the damage he'd just inflicted on the dwarf as an unwelcome side effect of damaging the roper. "Sorry!" the gnome called out to Khari; any verbal response the dwarven fighter might have made was absorbed in the interior of the roper's mouth.
Utred switched weapons as he crossed the cavern, striking at the second roper with his
life-flame whip as he did so, causing a burn mark stripe across the roper's stonelike skin. Jhasspok sped across the cavern again, leaping over Cramer and Utred's heads as he crashed into the roper, his battleaxe just barely missing the darting creature's eye. But despite the efforts of his friends, it was Khari himself who provided the killing blow that finally finished off the roper that had been trying to eat him. As the roper crashed sideways to the ground, Khari extricated himself from its vile mouth. "It's stinky in there!" was all he had to say on the matter.
The two remaining duergar started pleading incoherently as they saw the feared Marlo Pendragon walking their way. Their pleas were not heeded; Marlo finished them off with an
empowered lightning bolt spell. She then released her black tentacles, which dissolved back into the ground from which they had sprung. The group gave the entire cavern a quick perusal but there were no other duergar about, nor did the eight they'd slain have much in the way of valuables among them, just a few basic supplies stored here and there in the cavern. They did note their armor had been coated in some weird, slimy substance, apparently to fend off the ropers' strand attacks; as effective as they might have been for that purpose, they had proven entirely useless against Marlo's black tentacles.
Returning back through the twisting passageway to the bottom of the deep chasm, Marlo and Khari made their own way back up while C'thorlumbrox levitated the other three. "It's done," Cramer reported and the ulitharid bowed his appreciation.
Marlo then took the opportunity to hit the ulitharid up for what he might know about "focusing runes inward," the phrase Skevros had hinted might involve psionics. <It is indeed a psionic message,> C'thorlumbrox agreed. <Focusing runes inward refers to the way psionics, unlike arcane or divine magic, is willed into existence by mental power alone.>
Their mission accomplished for now - and C'thorlumbrox reaffirming he'd contact the group with the results of his findings about the Writhing Gate locations and how to possibly destroy them - the five heroes departed the city of Durnhill. Once well outside the city proper, Cramer was able to cast a
teleport spell that returned them to Greenvale. There, they briefed the Greenvale scholars on what they'd accomplished and what they'd learned about the phrase written on the parchment.
"Hey, maybe you're secretly psionic," joked Utred to Khari. "That might be what's so wrong with your brain that even a mind flayer don't wanna eat it."
"You jest, but that's actually a distinct possibility," admitted Marlo. At her request, the parchment was returned and she handed it over to Khari. "Here, try focusing these runes inward," she suggested. Khari took the parchment, looked at the Dwarven runes inscribed on it, focused his will - and promptly passed out, spilling into a limp heap onto the floor.
"Wha' happen?" Khari asked blearily when the others had slapped him awake.
"You passed out," Cramer explained. "You know, if the 'wrongness' C'thorlumbrox mentioned about your brain is some sort of malady, it's possible a
greater restoration spell might fix it. Are you willing to give it a try?"
"Sure, I suppose so," Khari shrugged.
Cramer cast the spell upon the dwarven fighter and in an instant, Khari remembered. He remembered everything.
As a wee child, Khari had first developed psionic potential. A dwarven elder had used that potential to seal the key to Brunniir inside his mind. Unfortunately, the process effectively lobotomized him, leading to his lowered intellect.
"Are you okay?" Marlo asked, concern written across her face.
"I'm fine," Khari replied, scowling. He was trying, repeatedly, to focus the runes inward and this time he received in a flash a series of images showing the way the key was to be used to gain entry to the city of Brunniir. "'Instructions will follow' - that's what the magic runes said on this parchment," Khari said, flipping the paper over. "It worked: I'm the Keeper of the Key and I know how to get us to Brunniir."
- - -
Well, it looks like we know where our PCs will likely be heading next! We've already guessed that Brunniir is the city we saw along the Path of Shadows, but now we might be able to actually do something about it.
We surprised Logan by not fighting Anuja, Mikito, and Dow and being so reasonable with them and Skevros. But we knew we were in the right and that our actions had all been warranted. (I suppose we also had a little bit of player knowledge that Skevros and company were good guys and wouldn't likely hurt us; no matter how much you try to ignore knowledge you have but your PCs do not, it's often difficult to partition that knowledge.)
So as a result of the
greater restoration spell (Logan handwaved away the normal XP cost of casting the spell since it was being cast for story purposes), Khari Hammerslammer's Intelligence 5 has been permanently restored to its (apparently original, although this was unknown even to Harry) score of 12; in addition, he's gained the bonus feat "Wild Talent" from the
Psionic Handbook, which will allow him to progress and gain psionic levels (in classes like psion or psychic warrior) if he so desires. Harry emphatically does not so desire, wanting to keep Khari on the path of the fighter for the full 20 levels. And that's fine with Logan, although he's a big fan of psionics overall and would no doubt like using them more in the campaign if the opportunity ever presented itself.
