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Message: <blockquote data-quote="(contact)" data-source="post: 1022907" data-attributes="member: 41">76—The Cavern of MistsElgin is unable to instantly restore Taran, having cast the last of his heal spells on Gorquen, but after several lesser invocations, Taran reports that he is healed enough to continue.  Merkatha examines the body of the dragon in awe, commenting that this was not the dragon who briefly held her captive—this one is much larger.  Taran is too badly wounded and exhausted to gloat, but he gives her an “I told you so” look and sends her out to round up any refugees who survived the dragon’s assault.While Taran is exultant over the victory against one of his most hated mortal enemies, his experiences in Isk have sobered him, and gone is the schoolboy-on-a-jaunt persona he had previously applied to the adventure.  In its place, Taran is cheerless and quiet, given to silence and long pauses before answering even the simplest of questions.  Merkatha reacts negatively to this change, keeping herself apart from him wherever possible, and avoiding his company.“Ceredain’s got her claws in him,” she mutters to no one in particular.----All in all, the party finally arrives in Storm’s Rise with only half of the people they started with, and Taran announces that this is unacceptable.  The souls of the slain are trapped within Kor’En Eamor, denied both their afterlife and a chance at resurrection.  A sticky metaphysical wicket, to be sure.Elgin promises to bring the full power of Lathander and the pasoun to bear for these people, and after several divinations, he has discovered a way to call individual souls from the ethers within Kor’En Eamor and place them into gemstones, where they can be physically removed from the Delve and returned to life.  Lathander smiles upon this application of His might, and Elgin is able to accomplish this feat for all twenty of the slain Iskian commoners with a single miracle spell.The individuals have no memory of the period they spent between lives, and everyone agrees that this is probably a hidden blessing of the Morning Lord—Kor’En Eamor is a tragic and haunted place, and the souls could not have been in good company during their short afterlife.After Elgin’s miracle, the group is able to see to it that the refugees are safely housed in Storm’s Rise, and put to work in this new wonderland of bounty, devoid of rampaging abominations or wide swaths of diseased and scorched earth.  Taran spends some time with each of them, promising them that someday they will return to a healed and welcoming Isk.  Thelbar and Elgin counsel the refugees, and offer each of them an opportunity to re-dedicate themselves to the new Ermathan Pantheon, and embrace the Risen Goddess.-----Armed with the knowledge of what follows death in the Great Delve, each of the adventurers are equipped with a gemstone sufficient to contain his or her soul should the unthinkable happen.They rest for the night, and return to the Great Delve after making morning absolutions and preparing spells.   They travel through the massive Fungal Forest to the area known as All Roads Meet.  Merkatha explains that she has been here before with her previous adventuring companions, and encountered a band of hostile duergar.  She explains that her group came here looking for the lich known as the Uqeraq.  They knew he was somehow connected to the worship of Hepis and the Curse on Kor’En Eamor, and they had hoped that killing the Uqeraq might loosen Ceredain’s grip on the Delve.“Sounds like an admirable plan,” Taran says.  “Usually, if you kill the right people your problems tend to solve themselves.”-----All Roads Meet is a nexus of connecting warrens that form the bulk of Kor’En Eamor’s main level.  Following Merkatha’s lead beyond the nexus, the party enters a large cavern bisected by an underground river.  “There aren’t many souls here,” Taran says, gazing at the area through his goggles of stalking.  “Not like above.”At the cavern’s mid-point, a stone bridge crosses the river, and here Merkatha signals for a halt.  Her superior darkvision lets her spot a huge, vile-looking earth elemental standing guard on the far side of the bridge, supported by a phalanx of pale-skinned and white-eyed dwarven sentries.  The party flies toward the bridge, and Elgin dismisses the fiendish elemental, while Thelbar destroys the dwarven formation with a well-placed meteor swarm.  Taran and Gorquen make quick work of the surviving duergar, and after a moment, only one opponent remains alive.The dwarf glares at his enemies and sullenly speaks up in a stilted and thickly-accented Chondathan.  “I will not betray my house or my goddess, upon pain of death.” “Good to know,” Taran says dismissively, as he ties the dwarf’s hands securely behind his back.  Merkatha glares at the dwarf for a moment, and runs her fingers lightly across the scars covering her face and neck.  “There are worse things than death,” she observes.The dwarf spits.  “I look at you and I laugh.  You are all elves and less than elves in my eyes.  You wield death as a tool, but you know nothing of its truth.  I am of Ceredain Mother-to-Death, and you bring me no terror.” “Okay,” Taran smiles.  “That’s fine.  Where is the Uqeraq?”“I will never tell you.  The Uqeraq will give you all to the Goddess.”“But how can he smite us if we don’t even know where he is?” Taran asks, beaming proudly at his display of debating skills.“Pathetic elves,” the dwarf sneers.Taran’s smile fades.  He reaches out, takes the dwarf by his beard, and swiftly wrenches his captive into the portable hole.  “Live it love it, f-cker,” Taran mutters in Isenthanian.Thelbar’s voice whispers in Taran’s head.  “Brother, there is only enough air in there for ten minutes of breath before he suffocates. ”“Yeah, I’ll let him out after each battle,” Taran thinks.  “We’ll let him see first-hand what the ‘pathetic elves’ can accomplish. ” -----The passageway guarded by the dwarves is wide enough to march a phalanx twenty-abreast, and three times as tall. After several hundred feet, the tunnel ends at a stone-and-steel guardhouse that blocks the passage completely, and prevents entrance into the cavern beyond.  The guardhouse has a crenellated walkway which leaves enough head-room for dwarves to rain projectiles down along the length of the passage.Bypassing the guard post proves easy enough, as the party make themselves invisible, and fly into the area beyond.  What they see there is a fully-realized dwarven city—built within a massive stalactite-spackled cavern, its primary concentration of buildings rise around and on top of a trio of mesa-like outgrowths.  A pair of waterfalls bookend the cavern, and they feed into a y-shaped waterway that exits from an unseen passage well beyond Merkatha’s vision.   They both give off sprays of mist that play across the cavern, and coat nearly every surface with a slick wetness.In the center of the cavern, a huge tower sits on an island of stone separated from its surroundings by a deep moat-like crevice.  The top half of the tower gives off an eerie greenish light that faintly illuminates surrounding buildings and reflects off the mist in the air, creating a foul halo that flickers like candlelight.  A thin walkway runs along its circumference near the top, but no entrances are visible.The two companions signal to one another, and move unseen thorough the quiet and subdued dwarven city.  Everywhere they go, they see deep-dwarves going about their daily tasks and directing large groups of slaves, who clean, repair and otherwise maintain the city.  The slaves are of all races, including those common to both the surface and the underdeeps.  Humans, dwarves, elves, kuo-toa, orcs, kobold, giants and even stranger creatures shuffle along listlessly at the behest of their masters.“Hey, Merkatha,” Taran whispers.  “I think I’ve killed at least one of everything here!”Merkatha sneers at this braggadocio, but she is too well-hidden for Taran to notice.A second large underground passageway gives an exit from the city to the North and East of the party’s entrance point.  This passage is much larger—a space that would be called a cavern in any lesser complex, and is protected by a heavily manned wall, complete with ballistae and catapults.They find that the whole city is maybe twice again the size of Mistledale, but more sparsely populated.  The dwarves seem to have fallen into three castes:  Soldiers, who live exclusively within a barracks compound near the entrance where Thelbar, Elgin and Gorquen wait; priests, who make their dwelling within a large low-lying building near the lit tower; and workers, who herd and direct the slave-brigades.Taran slips behind a group of unattended slaves, and in a flash, grabs an older elf and covers his mouth, pulling him into the shadows.“Relax, buddy,” he says in the man’s ear.  “I’m here to set you free.  Nobody’s going to hurt you.”Merkatha repeats this phrase in Undercommon, and the elf nods.The man does not seem frightened of Merkatha, or rather, not unduly surprised to see a drow, and he tells the group that he was captured by pirates many years ago while sea-fishing in his home-world.  He was sold to “a creature with snakes where its mouth should be,” and taken to a “world of eternal darkness, where no sun ever shines.”  He was eventually stolen from his master by a band of raiding dwarves, and after a grueling force-march, he found himself here.  He confirms that the city is structured around a harsh caste system, and as a slave, he possesses no rights or expectations.  He does know who the Uqeraq is, but informs the group that the name is in fact a title given to the chosen of Ceredain—in this case, a dwarven lich of tremendous power.  He says that the Uqeraq is only seen coming or going from the main temple, and rarely at that.  When asked what his role is, he says that he is a scribe to King Arduin.“Ah, ha,” Merkatha says.  “Does this king worship Ceredain as well?”“Yes,” the elf replies quizically.  “Of course.”“Have you ever been within the temple?”“For a slave to enter the temple is death.”Merkatha nods.  “Does the Uqeraq ever leave the temple?”“Only on great occasions,” the elf replies.“What would be a great occasion?” she asks.“Setting the town on fire,” Taran answers. He pulls Merkatha aside.  “We’ve heard enough, let’s get this poor bastard into the bag.  You talk him into it; you’ve got better people skills.”The elf begs to be released, promising to tell no one of his encounter, and points out that if he is missed, he will surely be killed.  Taran argues briefly, but decides not to force the man into the dubious company of an aggressive adventuring band, and releases him.“We should get back,” Merkatha says.  “I think we know what to do.”“Yeah,” Taran says.  “They’re probably worried about us, anyway.  We’ve been gone . . . oh, crap.”  Taran’s face sinks.  He reaches into his portable hole, but the dwarf he removes is lifeless and cold.  “Goddamnit, Merkatha,” Taran curses.  “You forgot to remind me to air out the dwarf!”</blockquote>

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