The adventurers regroup after a brutal battle with the duergar. They scour the rooms for any valuables and other useful items. Thokk begins his frantic collecting of anything he can get his hands on, as he obsesses over collecting, arranging and counting his items over and over again, a remnant of his brush with madness earlier on in these madness infused tunnels. Sarith continues to hold Karis to prevent Karis from eating any more dirt than she already has, a side effect of the brush with her madness during the last battle.
H moves further down into the unexplored cavern filled with various mushrooms while the others continue to explore the duergar's alchemical laboratory. The room is filled with ingredients both natural and unnatural as well as vials of various potions. Thokk begins collecting all the potions he can, barely taking the time to note what each of them are.
Azalea comes across an odd piece of, what she takes for metal, sitting on the workbench. It is blacker than black and feels smoother than anything else she has ever felt. The shape of it is odd, as if it has been broken from a larger piece, as one of it's ends is jagged and non-symmetrical, like the rest of it. She pockets the oddity for later study.
Sarith, in the meantime, yells for some help as he has been holding back the raving Karis for quite some time now. The others arrive and begin to tie up the elf, preventing her from further inflicting damage upon herself. As the move about the small cavern, H notes a small passage further down the cavern hidden amongst a patch of growing fungus. Azalea also yells back that she has noticed an odd looking wall back in the laboratory. She pushes upon it and the wall swings inward revealing a small darkened room. In the center of the empty room lies a opening in the floor with a ladder leading down.
Thokk, jumps down to investigate and finds a tunnel that leads off into the darkness. The party debates then finally chooses to explore the darkened tunnel from within the hidden room. Azalea and Thokk takes turns trying to light a torchstalk mushroom to illuminate their way but time and time again, the torchstalk bursts into a explosion blackening their faces and leaving their skin singed. Finally, Stool is encouraged to light one and his unfortunately bursts into a small explosion too, leaving H to drool at the smell of broiled mushroom. Finally lighting one properly, they move on.
Parade Of Fools 1,210 XP
Travelling down the tunnel for quite some time they come to the end of the tunnel which has a panel of zurkhwood lying over top blocking the way. Thokk, as stealthly as he can, lifts up the panel to peer into the room on the other side. Noisily jostling the zurkhwood panel, he pokes his head up to see several myconids dancing silently in the center of a room.
One by one the party emerges from the tunnel to stare wondrously at dancing myconids. They do not seem bothered by the appearance of the group, if they have even noticed them at all. They dance around in a spiraling pattern of fungus which is several inches tall marked on the floor in vast rings. There seems also to be several quaggoths covered in fungus, sitting quietly off to one side. They make no movement whatsoever.
Stool cries out that he recognizes one of them. In the far corner is a myconid sprout, little larger than Stool himself. Stool says that it is Rumpadump. The other sprout looks nervous and begins to tell Stool that all is not alright.
Finally one of the myconids approach the group. He introduces himself as Voosbur and invites the group to join in the dance. "Join 'The Lady' and take part in her 'Gift'", he speaks to them using the same telepathic spores that they are used to from Stool.
H, pauses briefly before accepting. A burst of spores eminates from Voosbur and H breathes them in and begins to dance. H experiences thoughts, feelings and senses that up till now his mind could not even imagine existed. He dances and dances. As he moves into the spiral of fungus his body joins with the fungus as he moves further along the spiral.
The others are not so sure about this. They look around at each other and notice that Sarith, the drow elf, is struggling with something. His sores on his face are brighter and more colorful and he tries to speak but is unable to. As they try to mentally take everthing in, Voosbur releases his spores.. Each of them do their best to avoid breathing them in. Karis is able to avoid the spores as well as Azalea, who also shields her friend Stool from the spores. Thokk is not so lucky. He begins to dance.
Alternate Pic
Karis and Azalea seem to be the only ones not affected by the 'Lady's Gift' and as they try to get to their companions the quaggoths, covered in fungus, rise up and begin to attack, defending their masters, the myconids. Karis is able to throw up a wall shield of magical daggers, using bladeward. This at least hinders the quaggoths but they soon find that the quaggoths have to compunctions as to heading straight through. Emerging on the other side of the bladeward, they are heavily damaged but continue to attack. As Azalea and Karis attack they find that not only do the quaggoth spore servants still have much strength but they are covered in a yellow mold which is poisonous. Thokk and H, of course, continue to dance.
The battle is hard won with H and Thokk finally coming round, back to sanity.
A Friendly Face
As they regroup and tend to their wounds, Thokk comes across a pen, where he finds a human male tied up within. He is tall and handsome and holds himself proudly. He asks for assistance in loosing his bonds. H hesitates while grueling him with questions.
It would seem that his name is Sandar and he is a noble from the house of Torval. His father harassed
him for being to coddled and so he set out to make a name for himself and seek out adventure. He fell in with some dwarves and eventually made his way into the Underdark. He has survived by his intellect alone.
H and the others quickly deduce that he has survived on his good looks, ample money and pure luck.
Azalea approaches to see what all the fuss is about and she is immediately smitten. She cuts his bonds after he has promised, and signed a contract to, being her personal assistant (slave? love toy?). He asks the group for a weapon in order to defend his lady fair. Thokk refuses to give over any of his plentiful spears. Azalea happily offers one of her battle axes.
The group asks is Sandar has seen any suspicious derro lately. Specifically, one with a large brimmed had with tentacles. Sandar says that he has and begins to lead the way he has seen the derro go.
After moving through the tunnels some way they come to a narrowing in the tunnel where a large patch of fungus grows. Sandar who has up till now been leading the way, pauses and says that he normally is not the type to be heading first into unknown territory. His skills lie elsewhere, as he raises a seductive eyebrow at Azelea who smiles back.
Exasperated, Thokk steps forward and the patch of fungus he is near begins to shriek loudly. Soon the entire patch of fungus is shrieking, filling the tunnel with such a volume that no one can hear anything else. Thokk immediately responds by throwing magical fire at the patch and the shrieking slowly turns to pained screaming and then nothing. The tunnel silent save for the sound of burning and the air is filled with black smoke.
H decides to move further on but he forgoes the empty patch between the patches of burning fungus and goes right through the fire. He emerges from the fire safely on the other side while patting out the small fires on his pants.
Thokk decides to move through the more sensible path which is not on fire, and immediately falls into a whole in the floor. He emerges covered in green slime. It hisses and pops as it eats away at his clothes, weapons and exposed skin. Thokk begins to scrape it off with some of his spare clothes. He looks up at H, who simply smiles a knowing smile.
H sees an odd looking mushroom on the ground. He has seen this one before. It looks like a little tongue. More red than pink. He takes a small bite. It is good. Really good. He eats the rest. He tells the group that it's pretty good. Except that he doesn't just tell them, he yells it. Everything he says he yells at the top of his voice, even when he tries to whisper. He decides that he should perhaps not talk at all for a while.
'Two Heads Are Better Than One' Ritual 3,000 XP
The group moves out of the tunnel and into a vast cavern. The cavern is lit with an eerie green glow. The same glow that they have occasionally seen in parts of these tunnels. There are also burning braziers of red coals.
H sees a cage with a dog in it, so he approaches it. Calmly holding his hand out to show the dog he means no harm, the dog turns it's heads towards him. H now sees the dog drool and bare it's fangs, from both of it's heads. Safe on the other side of the cage, H's outstretched hand slowly lifts and he raises his middle finger at the dog.
The derro who has watched this interaction from the other side of the cage, walks around the corner and opens the cage door. The death dog charges at H.
Thokk, who was standing nearby, runs in front and intercepts the death dog's attack. In the meantime, the others have joined in and are now trying to hold off attacks from other derro. The derro are in the middle of a vast ritual circle that glows with an intense green glow.
The derro sling spell after spell at the group. At one point a lightning bolt spell arcs out and hits both Thokk and Karis. Thokk manages to doge the majority of the damage but Karis takes the spell full force. Karis falls.
As the others are fending off the derro, an ettin who has been resting on a bed nearby enters the fray, protecting his masters. H fires shot after shot at his enemies but his guns jam. He watches as Thokk is felled by a derro spell. H watches as Azalea is felled by the ettin and Sandar running to her side to protect and aid her. He watches as Karis;s body, failing to hold on to life, explodes in a fiery green blast. H feels that this is the end.
He is frantically, trying to load his remaining gun when his hand falls on a heavy lump in his pack. The stone the Stone Giants have given to him as thanks for trying to save their comrade. Daergryn's Stone.
He pulls out the stone and throws it towards the center of the derro mages that are attacking. The stone sails out in a smooth arc landing very near to the exact center of the derro. It lands with a thud and sticks to where it lands, not rolling at all.
The ground begins to shake violently until the ground near the derro begins to rip apart. Crevices begin to grow around and underneath the derro, most of them falling into the crevices, never to be seen again. The remaining derro try to stand and move but are unable. The sound of rock wrenching
and crumbling fill the cavern.
The lone derro that now faces the group, decides that the tides have turned and vanishes from sight.
H moves from companion to companion aiding where he can until each of them are standing once again. They look around and there is no sign of Karis anymore. Each find a safe spot to collapse in exhaustion while stool and his friend take watch.
The next morning, feeling more like their old selves, they explore the cavern further. H, finding he an talk at a normal volume again, finds an odd scroll with confused derro writing and can make little of it. He hands it off to Thokk for investigation. H finds that in the middle of the ritual circle is a statue that bears resemblance to one of the stone giants. In fact, inscribed along the base of the statue is the name, 'Dorhun'. Dorhun being one of the stone giants they had met. This statue though has an extra head grafted onto it's shoulder. H takes a swing at the statue's extra head and breaks it off.
Azalea explorers and finds a jar. It is filled with a thick green ointment, which smells faintly of aloe. She tucks it away for later study.
H also come across a large tunnel that has been newly bored through the stone. It is large and perfectly circular and goes straight into the darkness.
The Obelisk
The group now moves through their newly made tunnel, a product of the stone giants' gift. It is not long until they come to a cavern. Inside are two stepped pyramids. At the top of one is a large black obelisk. A spire of dark black material rising like a tower. On the other is a small red object.
The next morning the group awakes. H and Karis are still at one of the small duergar forges. The duergar within being taught by H, the secret to forging firearms. The evening was productive but the gun still lies incomplete. H goes outside to find morning from within Gracklestugh is simply colder, quieter and less brightly lit because the smelting furnaces fires within the forges have died down during the night.
A Pool Fouled
He walks to a nearby pool of water and, after a quick glance around, with no one in sight, begins to empty his bladder, contributing his waste water to the pool. Mid stream there is a growl and a tap on H's shoulder. He turns to see several duergar, armed with war picks and seemingly very angry. They begin to yell at him in undercommon. It would seem this is a pool used for drinking water. H can only hold up his hands and mumble his apologies. He yells for the duergar, with whom he has been working with, for help. Both the duergar and Karis exit the small smith workshop and H attempts to explain in his best attempt in undercommon. After a bit of explaining and help from his work companion, the duergar leave. Some walk away while others simply vanish from sight.
The others, Azalea, Thokk, Sarith, Eldeth and Stool awaken in the Shattered Spire, the inn for those in Gracklestugh who are not duergar. Each awake groggy and unobservant and some like Azalea and Thokk find the acidic and smoky air of Gracklestug hard on their lungs as they cough up black mucus. Azalea walks to her door and nearly runs into Stool who has been patiently been waiting by the door. He doesn't quite understand Azalea's last number of hours spend unmoving and quiet. She tries to explain the concept of sleep to the myconid, but doesn't seem to get very far. After the group breaks fast in the common room, Azalea, accompanied by Thokk and Stool, decides to prowl the city for suitable bodily companionship.
Azalea On The Prowl
During their explorations, and failed attempts at finding anything more attractive than the dour looking duergar to flirt with, Thokk notices movement past some of the buildings, of a massive red dragon. He watches it move from forge to forge, lighting with his breath the furnaces. Parading in front of the dragon, are several duergar dressed in ceremonial robes making way for the dragon. As he turns to point out the site to Azalea he also notices a small derro darting around the market place, deftly pilfering various items while the storekeep looks the other way. The derro is remarkable for his odd, wide brim hat which seems to have tentacles attached to it.
Finally their explorations of the city are halted as they approach the main part of the city, which is walled off by massively constructed walls, which the gates of are heavily guarded. They decide to return to the Shattered Spire and wait for H to complete his job. As they sit in the common room, they all begin to hear the sounds of rocks being shattered and deep loud howls coming from outside.
Rampaging Giant 3,000 XP
They run outside the inn to witness the site of a large stone giant breaking though the city walls howling madly and flinging duergar aside as he strides along. As several duergar begin to descend upon the giant, the others run to join in. By the time they get to the giant, H and Karis, who have also heard the noise are arriving from the other side of the market area. They all notice that this is no ordinary stone giant. This one has two heads, both howling loudly.
Duergar begin to throw their javelins, not wanting to get too close to the rampaging giant. The group decides to join in. Perhaps helping defend Gracklestugh will ingratiate them to their hosts. As the battle begins, some of the group notice that while one of the giant's heads is howling with a wild insane look, the other is looking at the other head with frightened horror and is screaming at the opposite head.
H holds his shots as he tries to figure out what is going on. Azalea does likewise but Thokk simply jumps into the fray and begins to throw his spears. After deciding that it is better to side with the duergar rather than the rampaging giant, H begins to fire and Azalea attacks as well. Shortly the giant is felled. As the duergar rush to begin repairing their wall the group approaches the giant and begin to inspect it.
H searches the giant but finds nothing of interest but does notice that the giant's second head, which seems to have grown out of the shoulder seems less formed and is even beginning to loose it's structure. He begins to cut if off. As he is doing so he notices the giant is not quite dead. Though after some debate and finishing hacking off the extra head, the giant finally bleeds out and dies. H cracks open the deformed head and finds that it is mostly filled with some sort of fungus. He pokes around inside with a dagger then tosses the head aside.
Noise of excited duergar alert the others. As they look up they see another stone giant approaching from the same direction the other did before it. This one has, the normal number of heads. one. It walks carefully and holds it's hands up in deference. Everyone watches as it approaches the fallen giant, a look of profound sadness on his face. He kneels down and talks to the group still around the fallen giant. The group explains what happened and that they didn't seem to have a part in the killing. The giant introduces himself as Dorhunn and explains what happened.
His fellow stone giant was Anthor, a student of the great Stone Speaker, Hgraam. They were in deep meditation and conversing with the stone when Anthor began to scream. Soon a second head began to sprout out of his shoulder and Anthor began to scream in fright and ran. Apparently he ran until he came upon Gracklestugh.
Dorhunn thanks the group for doing what they could and invites them to visit Cairngorm Cavern. There they can meet the great Stone Speaker, Hgraam. Perhaps he himself can bestow upon the group his personal gratitude for trying to aid poor Anthor.
The group moves to follow but are interrupted by a group of duergar dressed in ceremonial robes. Thokk would recognize them as the group which proceeded before the great red dragon earlier in the morning, but he has spend the last half and hour, missing everything which occurred with talking to the giant, because the was trying to find all of his spears. He has found all but one.
Finally, frustrated with watching her companion furiously, and embarrassingly, scrounge around for a single spear, Azalea stealthily pulls out one of her many spears and tosses it on the ground. When Thokk finally finds Azalea's spear, he proudly grasps it, stands up and announces to everyone, "Found it!"
MetaGame Spoiler Inside
(DM Note: I loved Thokk running around missing everything that was going on because he was obsessed with finding his spear. So much so that I used it for inspiration for Thokk's next failure at resisting a Madness check.
The Keepers Of The Flame
The duergar introduce themselves as The Keepers Of The Flame. They attend the great red dragon, Thumberchaud. Thumberchaud has extended to them and invitation to meet with him. It is a great honor and they should depart to meet him immediately.
They are allowed into the city proper accompanying the duergar priests. After walking some great distance, they pass a large crevice which spans the entire width of the city. They pass over it by one of several land bridges. As they cross they look down into a darkened pit where the derro live in crowded filth and anarchy.
Finally after reaching near the back end of the massive cavern which holds all of Gracklestugh, they arrive at the cave of Thumberchaud. The priests take time to instruct the group on the proper etiquette when addressing the dragaon and finally allow them into the presence of Thumberchaud.
Thumberchaud is a massive red dragon. Massive in size and great in girth. He has lived a life of luxury and plenty and it shows. He is obese beyond imagining. Folds of scaled fat overlap in unsettling ways as he sits atop his treasure trove of gold. He addresses the group in draconic but soon stops, puzzled and then pleased.
He brings his nose down and nearer to the group inspecting them until he finds Azalea with Stool nestled on her back. Thumberchaud smiles and says, "What a neat little trick he does.". Azalea brings the sprout of a myconid into the folds of her arms protectively. "Can he stop that?". Stool immediately stops emitting his rapport spores and the group can no longer hear the psychically translated speach in their minds. "Ah, that is better" and begins to speak in elvish.
Now that Thumberchaud's conversation with the group can no longer be understood by his attendants, he tells them why they are here. Someone has stolen his egg. It was to be his heir. He was to pass on to it all his power and privilege while he retired into a life of leisure. His duergart acolytes say they are doing everything they can to find it but he is unsettled by something and doesn't trust them. The group, as outsiders, have taken no sides and thus would be perfect for Thumberchaud's mission.
He tells them to report only to himself and then dismisses them. The duergar ask Karis what was discussed but Karis feigns ignorance, saying he doesn't speak draconic. The group is tasked by the duergar to find Thumberchaud's egg and that they suspect the derro. Specifically, they suspect a derro named Droki, a renowned and uncatchable derro thief.
The group is given badges designating themselves as deputized by the Keeper Of The Flame, which should grant them access to anywhere in Graclestugh.
A Deadly Toast
The group follows H back to the market area as he has to collect his equipment before carrying on. H returns to the forge where he and the duergar had been making a pistol firearm. He explains that they will not be continuing their project as he has been recruited by Thumberchaud for something else. The duergar is incensed. He has paid good money to learn this craft. H, aided with Karis, convinces the duergar with displays of their badges and H is able to collect up his equipment, and even a bit of the duergar's.
H retrieves two simple cups of water, while superstitiously stirring the duergar's water with his dagger, still covered in the vile fungus that was within the fallen giant's extra head. He presents the cup to the duergar and toasts to "no hard feelings". They drink and H and the others leave.
Cairngorm Cavern
The group decides to follow up with the giants and accept the invitation to visit Cairngorm Cavern, the home of the stone giants. The path is easy enough to follow as there is a trail of destruction leading from Gracklestugh through the rock tunnels and finally to a large cavern where the group finds several rock giants sitting in meditation.
Each rock giant sits near a wall of the cavern, reaching out a hand to touch the rock and all emit a low rumbling chant which permeates the cavern. While the group tries to decide what to do, Thokk boldly approaches the largest and most central rock giant. The rock giant sits atop several fractures in the ground which emit a dim green light. He holds his hands above the cracks with a look of deep concentration. Thokk sits down beside the giant an prepares to join him in his meditations.
The great rock giant immediately opens his eyes and yells a loud, "No!" and pushes Thokk away with such force that Thokk is thrown into the nearby wall. The giant gets up and approaches Thokk but without malice. He holds his hands out to aid Thokk in getting to his feet which Thokk takes. The great rock giant introduces himself as Hgraam, the great Stone Speaker.
Hgraam explains that Thokk was about to approach the area in which the unfortunate Anthor had been sitting in when he began to grow another head and went insane. Hgraam has been since trying to keep the vile energies at bay and perhaps cure the ailing rock of Cairngorm Cavern. The other giants approach and they too explain that the rocks, not only of Cairngorm Cavern but of much of the underdark, have been crying out in pain and sickness. And it has only been growing worse recently.
Hgraam thanks the group for trying to aid the now deceased, Anthor and moves to retrieve something nearby. When he returns he holds a spherical rock. In his hands it looks only to be a pebble but placed in H's hands it's size requires H to hold in both hands. Hgraam explains that this is Daeargryn's Stone, It will aid the group if ever they are in desperate trouble. It will, when thrown cause a massive earthquake, with the ground opening up and create a tunnel through which the group may escape.
MetaGame Item Info
Daeargryn's Stone:
cast Earthquake (phb p. 236) cast at level 16; spell save DC 17
for 100' radius it is:
difficult terrain
creatures must make Con save (17) for Concentration
at the end of each creatures turn they must make Dex save (17) or fall prone
several fissures (1d6), 10' deep, 1d10 feet long by 10' wide will open up (DM discretion)
Open a tunnel (10' x 10') burrowing until it meets with another tunnel
The group thanks the giants and they swear that they will do their best to find what happened to their comrade. With Daeargryn's Stone in hand, they leave.
Outbreak
Returning to Gracklestugh they return to rest at the Shattered Spire. There they talk with some of the other denizens of the inn and there is much rumor as to what the significance of the two headed insane giant. H gently probes as to the well being of his previous duergar forge colleague. The room goes quiet as one of the inn's guests approaches H and asks in a surprised tone, if he has not heard of the horrific event. H says he has been away and has not heard of anything.
The room begins to tell him of the duergar who began to grow another head and that the duergar went mad with the occurrence. It took several duergar to put the deviant creature out of its misery. H gives Karis a sidelong look. Karis wonders aloud if it wasn't something in the water. The entire inn puts down their drinks in frightened suspicion.
Azalea, counters with, "that's not what's frightening. It's that it could be in the air."
With that the entire inn goes mad with fright. It is not more than a few minutes before the panic sets in and spreads through the entire city. Soon the group decides to move on and finds the city a very different place. The streets are bare and activity is not to be seen anywhere.
The group walks up to one of the city gates but even with their badges, the guards refuse to let them enter. The entire city is being quarantined. No one from the infected market square area may be permitted entry.
Azalea calls to the guards above and shows them a container of water. She claims that the group is well and healthy because they have imbibed the antidote to the curse. She is willing to give it over if they are allowed through the gates. After the duergar retreat from the wall to discuss they return and agree to the trade. The gates are quickly opened and the "cure" hastily grabbed and downed by one of the duerger. The other duergar angrily demand their own, to which Azalea gives them the recipe for the cure. Zinc dissolved in water.
The duergar think briefly before one of them says he knows of an existing vein of zinc ore in one of the mines. The duergar abandon their post leaving the group to enter and wander the city at their leisure.
Laduguer's Furrow
H is determined to find the derro, Bupido, with whom they arrived in Gracklestugh after escaping the drow back in Velkynvelve. Perhaps he can assist in their mission. He did after all allude to the fact he was a god more than a few times. They arrive at the derro quarters of the city, Laduguer's Furrow. A massive crevice running the width of the city. As they approach the furrow near one end of it, they look upon a massive iron door over a hundred feet tall, sealing off the crevice from the rest of the cavern from top to bottom.
H yells for Bupido but all he gets in return are several derro peeking out of their holes in the sides of the crevice, looking at him. H kneels and prays to the god, Bupido, and is joined by Thokk. Their prayers do not seem to be immediately answered. Each descend into the crevice, H Thokk and Sarith jump, slide and fall to the bottom while Karis and Azalea use flying to gracefully descend to the bottom. There they encounter numerous derro each scampering over each other trying to get away from the intimidating party. Finally, H is able to locate one of the holes from which a derro had peeked out in response to H's calling out the name, Bupido.
They pull the frightened derro out and explain they are friends of Bupido. This immediately excites the derro as he runs to show them the shrine dedicated to the god, Bupido. He brings them to a small hole in the side of the crevice. The birth place of Bupido. There are numerous offerings left at the shrine, most of it scraps and leavings most would consider garbage. H and Thokk kneel and give reverence to the shrine. Looking into the hole, H notices is goes back very far. Climbing up and into the hole brings gasps and mutterings of shock from the derro but H, undeterred climbs further back into the hole. At the end he finds a pile of garbage, mostly cloth scraps and pieces of zurkhwood.
Pushing aside the pile he finds an exit. A hole which descends down. From the hole emanates an odd pale green glow. H descends down into the hole. After some short distance the tunnel opens up into another larger tunnel. H stands and looks down the long dark tunnel which is lit by veins of pale green glowing material within the rock. Thokk stands, exiting the smaller tunnel and joins H.
Bupido's True Shrine 900 XP
The pair move through the tunnel util it branches. H takes one branch, Thokk the other. H finds a small cave with a cluster of mushrooms growing in a far corner. Thokk finds Bupido.
Bupido is atop a tall dais made of bodies and body parts. Each of the many bodies is arranged in a spiral arrangement which rises and moves up until it reaches the spot upon which Bupido is sitting cross legged. The room is lit with the odd hand raised up out of the mass of bodies holding what seems to be a clump of body fat which burns with a oily sickly light. The walls of the cave are splattered with the blood of many various creatures. The collection of bodies has definitely occurred over time as some of the bodies near the bottom have rotted considerably making walking across the room difficult.
The horrific sight attacks the senses of Thokk. He is unable to cope with the madness that Bupido has created. The only thing he is able to do is yell for H. "I've found Bupido"
H enters the room and Bupido invites him to kneel and receive his blessing. H approaches and kneels cautiously at the feet of Bupido. As Bupido raises his knife to sacrifice H, H jumps backward firing his guns upon Bupido. Bupido is shocked to see bullets penetrate his flesh leaving him badly wounded. Bupido begins to chant and several of the bodies lying within the dais rise and begin to attack. The battle is short. H is able to quickly recover from his jump and fires repeatedly until Bupido, is hit several more times.
Bupido laughs at H's futile attempt to kill an immortal god. Even as he spouts blood Bupido laughs, until he collapses dead upon the body pile he created. The resurrected bodies collapse too, as the source of their power dies.
Chasing Droki
The sound of gunshots alerts Azalea, Sarith and Karis to trouble and they make their way down below, into the tunnels. As they approach the small cavern where Bupido had made his shrine of death, Azalea catches a glimpse of a derro in an odd wide brimmed hat running down the tunnel into the cave opposite to Bupido's. She follows him and witnesses the derro, scoop up some mushrooms from the mushroom patch, pick out one, eat it and the derro shrinks to such a small size that he is able to fit in a small crack in the side of the cave and disappear into it.
Azalea quickly notifies the others and they all gather at the mushroom patch. Looking at the patch they find that it contains several very distinct looking mushrooms. Which one did the derro eat. Azalea grabs a bunch and holds them up for Stool to inspect. The junior myconid looks through them, finally holding one up for Azalea and exclaims, "This one."
With no hesitation she eats it and shrinks in size. The others do the same and they enter the crack in the wall. Shortly the tight passage leads them to a larger tunnel. Karis runs ahead scouting for the derro, while the others puzzle over another fungal patch, trying to figure out what the others do. They, with the help of Stool, find the proper mushroom to grow back to normal size while H discovers a mushroom which when struck, ignites and serves as a torch to light the inky blackness.
Some of the group note that Thokk has been acting odd ever since his encounter within Bupido's shrine. He has taken to collecting anything and everything he can get his hands on. He has collected and organized many of the mushrooms he has found and has begun a collection of any weapons he comes across, regardless of their condition. All the while muttering to himself and counting each item in his collection over and over again.
Azalea shrugs. She's seen weirder.
The Cavern Of Voices
The group moves on. Trying to find traces of Droki's passage on the floors, H begins tracking Droki through the maze of tunnels in which they find themselves. Eventually, they come across a large cavern in which their is a rocky ramp which leads up to a platform. Around the platform, descending from the ceiling are several large stalactites which all point towards a central point near the top of the rocky platform. Each of the stalactites's tips are cleaved off exposing a hollow center within the stalactite.
H cautiously walks up the ramp to the platform which ends near the center of the cavern. Once in the center, at the focal point of all the stalactites he is barely able to hold on to his sanity as his ears and mind are assailed by numerous voices, conversations and noises all seeming to originate from within Gracklestugh. Once he manages to stay sane, he is able to focus his mind on just a few of the converstaions. He overhears:
the duergar priests of the Keepers Of The Flame hope that once the group has recovered the dragon's egg they will kill off Thumberchaud. He has grown lazy and demanding. They can restart with a new dragon that they may raise their own way.
some drow have entered the city and are inquiring as to the whereabouts of the group of escaped prisoners matching the description of those who have been seen around Gracklestugh for the past few days. They offer a rich reward for their recapture.
insane derro mutterings
the nearby voice of Droki, the derro thief, who they are in pursuit of. He is muttering that he must quickly rid himself of the package he bears and make it back out of the Whorlstone Tunnels.
The group seems to have reached a dead end. Before having to retrace their steps H begins inspecting the cave and finds a small crevice in the wall. He finds evidence of Droki's passage. They again eat some of the pygmywig mushrooms and shrink down to follow.
The Alchemists Cave
1,800 XP
Travelling through more tunnels they soon come to a tunnel which leads to a locked zirhkwood door. Azalea decides to set fire to the door. Soon tunnel is filled with a choking black smoke but they are able to barge through the door.
The fire has alerted the duergar within and they attack. Two of the duergar grab from a nearby table filled with various bottles and glass vials and begin throwing them at the group. H is set aflame and Thokk runs in and begins to bash in their skulls.
Karis runs up to help and when the duergar attack, the elven witch uses her teleport to escape harm. This time though when she steps through the portal to a teleporation plane, something within the alternate plane assaults the elf's mind and the portal closes, leaving her where she began. Something in that other plane has broken her mind. She falls to her knees and begins scooping up handfuls of dirt and detritus and starts to shovel it into her mouth.
Azalea is attacked from behind as two more duergar emerge from the other side of the cave. One of the duergar has a device strapped to his back which is connected to a large tube which he holds. Suddenly the device begins to emit a foul smelling green plume of gas which burns everyone's lungs.
Sarith seeing Karis putting handful after handful of foul dirt into her mouth to the point where her stomach must soon explode, runs and grabs her and drags her out of the cave. He spends the remainder of the encounter holding her arms such that she cannot ingest anymore dirt, stone and other such non-edibles.
Soon the duergar succumb to the pummeling of Thokk who finishes each one off by crushing their skulls with his mace. After his enemies are vanquished he begins to collect each of their weapons and begins rifling through the caves contents, counting, organizing and recounting.
H also come across a large tunnel that has been newly bored through the stone. It is large and perfectly circular and goes straight into the darkness.
