Chapter 4 - Fighting Back the Shadows

Wednesday 10th September

After Owyn was able to move from the eastern balcony the group relaxed slightly, if by "slightly" you mean watching the shadows for movement and maintaining a grip on our weapons. Owyn had to consume another potion after the attack.

Using the vantage point we planned our next moves, the corridors east and west from the room were blocked by the rough wooden walls, obviously to ensure the Grell never escaped from this room.

As we started down to the main floor Owyn took the time to kick the Grell a few times.

We moved to the wrought iron doors and the huge lock that they held. Owyn sighed and started to pick the lock. He then stopped and stood up, looking slightly puzzled, and pushed on the doors. They swung open easily. Jamming the doors open, we looked around the room we had just entered. Seeing four more gear doors made our hearts sink a little, each were marked with the now familiar Gnomish runes. In the case of these doors the runes were:

N – Door in east wall
U – Door in south-east wall
E – Door in south-west wall
R – Door in west wall

While the groups pondered which door to attempt first, I walked back to the room Owyn had opened just before he was snatched by the Grell. Carefully I looked through the door to ensure I was not going to be attacked as soon as I entered the room. I could see web encrusted looms and spinning wheels. As I entered, the loom and spinning wheels started into life, clattering to the instruction of long since departed hands. The whole thing was very disturbing, after taking a moment to compose myself I painstakingly searched the room. After a few minutes I discovered a stone that could be depressed, a secret door unlocked and gently swung open. The door opened into a corridor that was wide and obviously of Gnomish construction.

Not wanting to explore a secret corridor on my own I went back to the rest of the group to discover that Owyn had opened the doors marked with the “N” and “R” runes. Apparently they had searched these rooms thoroughly and found nothing of interest amongst the wreckage and detritus that we were growing more than a little used to in Jzadirune.

Owyn then opened the door marked with an “E” and we again found nothing, the room very similar to the last two searched. Finding sacked and empty rooms was starting grow tedious and very frustrating. We then quickly turned our attention to the last door, marked with a “U”. After just a few moments Owyn successfully opened the door and in doing so exposed a room with a pile of rubble in the centre of it, a Skulk tunnel in the East wall and a lever on the West wall. We all started searching through the rubble; it was Owyn that thrust a dusty hand into the air holding another Gear Door Key Rod, this time marked with a “Z” rune.

After finally breaking our run of empty rooms Owyn celebrated by moving the lever on the wall much to everyone’s horror, a mechanical noise could be heard from the West. Kellen looked up at the ceiling and with a wry smile said, “At least nothing fell on us”.

We returned to the room with the heavy iron doors and Owyn started searching it very carefully. After a few minutes a secret passage was discovered in the southern wall, as we moved down the corridor Owyn detected another of the infernal tilt-a-pit traps, this time it was already deactivated. At least now we knew what the lever did.

The passage ended with another secret door that lead in to the entrance hall with all the gilded masks on the wall. This discovery will allow us to circumvent a lot of Jzadirune when entering and leaving, hopefully reducing the risk we face.

We went back up the secret passage, while I explained the passage I had found and the corridor beyond. Once we had returned to the wrought iron room we consulted the map and determined that the secret passage, the blocked off corridor, and the Skulk tunnel all ran parallel with each other and would likely meet up.

As we were already near the Skulk tunnel we decided to use that as a method of moving into the next area of Jzadirune; we had quickly discounted the idea of dismantling the barricade in the eastern corridor as that would make far too much noise.

As we moved as quietly as possible down the Skulk tunnel we came to a branch leading south. We chose to ignore this and continued to move east. We exited the tunnel in the south-west corner of a moderately sized room. Against the western wall was a cot with a sleeping figure, even from a distance and in the dim light it was painfully obvious that this was not a Skulk.

Deciding that discretion is the better part of valour Owyn decided to kill the creature as it slept, maybe not the most ethical course of action but certainly the safest for us all.

Once Owyn had completed his grisly task I examined the creature; almost straight away I recalled the description of the creature it was a Dark Creeper; quite an evil race that inhabited the Underdark.

Searching the room yielded the following:

4 Engraved copper cups
A silver cloak pin with a bloodstone
3 Zircons
A gold comb with citrines
26 Shillings
130 Pennies

We headed north and entered a corridor, as expected the west was blocked by the rough hewn barricade. Further down the corridor were two doorways, one to the north and another leading south. To save us blundering into any traps or ambushes Cass sent her raven out to check the room to the north and then the south.

Cass felt no concern from the raven in the north room; in fact she reported the raven felt slightly bored. The southern room was different though; here the raven did not feel fear but was slightly concerned and very curious.

Knowing that there were now Dark Creepers in Jzadirune both Cass and I decided to cast light spells on rubble, throw it into the room and then charge in; Kellen first, followed by Anari. The rubble emanating light went in, closely followed by Kellen and Anari, with Owyn and myself following, then Cass and Khandalar ensuring that none of the creatures were able to attack us from behind.

The room contained an overturned table against one wall, a Skulk tunnel, and two doors marked with the runes "A" and "J". We searched the room and couldn't find anything, Anari checked the oven and I even looked under the table. Owyn then took more time searching the room more carefully and was able to identify a secret door behind the table.

As he started to move the table to get to the door he was attacked by a creature that suddenly became apparent, it shouted at Owyn in what I assume was Undercommon and slashed at him.

Thankfully the creature missed Owyn and its blade bit into the wall instead; Cass then dazed the creature with a rapidly cast spell and I charged into and hit it with my rapier hoping to further subdue it. Owyn had other plans though and returned the favour on the creature, he did not miss though.

As Owyn’s blade slide through the creature’s chest its scream turned into a gurgle and it slumped to the floor. As we looked at the body we realised it was slightly transparent, from its size and features I was able to identify it as a Dark Stalker. As it lay dead on the ground it faded further and then vanished, no trace of a body was left; I know for certain that this is not the normal death for a Dark Stalker.

Searching the room and the clothes that had been worn by the Dark Stalker produced:

A short sword
4 Javelins
A potion - mint green in colour
A potion - brown in colour
A key rod marked with a rune representing "D"
5 Glass vials with sticky green liquid
60 Pounds

Once we had searched the room we all braced ourselves for another attack as Owyn opened the door to the secret room, as the door opened nothing happened the relief from the group was palpable.

We entered into the room cautiously; the room was different to all the others as it has a green tiled floor and murals of mushrooms and other fungi painted on to the walls. In the centre of the room was a suit of Gnomish armour and a clay urn with two handles.

Investigating the urn we discovered:

622 Pennies
958 Shillings
75 Pounds
3 Silver rings
A tiny locket with ash inside
2 Plain gold rings
A platinum bracelet with the inscription "To Sondor my deepest love, Lorthan"
Masterwork thieves tools
A Highly polished wooden stick engraved with a closed eye
A potion - purple in colour

I carefully examined the suit of armour and lifted the visor with my rapier; inside the helm it was full of coins. Nudging the suit with my rapier caused the suit to collapse and spill onto the floor 4,500 shillings.

We looked around at all the bounty and surmised that this was were all the money and effects from the kidnapped people was stored by the Dark Ones. Owyn asked if he could have the masterwork thief’s tools to replace his basic set; the group happily agreed to this.

As we continued to carefully search the mural room, two more secret doors were located; one to the East and the other to the South.

Opening the Southern door first exposed a room with three chests, Owyn checked them and they appeared trapped. Khandalar who moments before had been ensuring no creature crept up behind us checked the chests. He was able to tell us there was magic at play but not the nature of it.

We decided to move to the other room, Owyn went in first and I followed. In front of us was a chest with a big lock, behind the chest there was another suit of armour holding a Gnomish hook hammer. Not heeding my plea for caution and wanting to try out his new thieves tools Owyn started working on the lock.

As he did so the armour swung its hammer at him striking hard and staggering him into the wall. I charged in and attacked with my rapier shouting for help, my blow seemed to do the armour very little harm. Anari arrived in a heartbeat and swung at the armour but seemed to be unable to penetrate it.

The armour swung its terrible hammer at Owyn again, another fearsome strike shook Owyn and he collapsed to the floor looking very near death. Cass rushed in and dragged Owyn from the room, with Kellen joining in the attack on the animated armour.

Kellen's first strike failed to get past the armour as did the attacks from Anari and myself. The hammer swung again and this time picked me out as the target, blow slammed me into the wall and made my ears ring and vision blur.

Kellen again failed to strike a good blow on the armour while Anari was able to land a blow that caused no apparent ill effect to the suit. I swung again and failed to hit the creature, not surprisingly as I could see two of them.

Owyn shouted from the other room to withdraw into the next room, as we did I was stuck again by the hammer and was enveloped in blackness.

When I was brought round coughing on a potion administered by Khandalar I weakly surveyed the scene; Owyn was looking healthy again but breathing hard from the fight as were Anari and Kellen, Cass looked drained from casting another spell. I got to my feet, thanking Khandalar for apparently pulling me out of the way of the rampaging armour and saving my life. I drank another potion that returned me to nearly full vitality. The armour was in several pieces all over the floor. Kellen was kicking them further and further apart.

Owyn went back to the locked chest and opened it, empty. Our hearts sank, two of us nearly died for an empty chest. In disbelief Owyn put his hands in to the chest. He was able to feel objects within it grasping hold of each in turn he pulled out:

3 Statuettes of a Shrew made out of smoky quartz
A mother of peal inlaid game board and pieces
3 White pearls in a silk bag

Khandalar claimed the pearls so that he could use them as spell components, he was handed the bag and a smile played across his lips as he took them, the smile suited his face far more than the scowl he normally wore.

Owyn went back into the first secret room we had visited with the three chests and again tried for minutes to disable the traps but was unable to. In frustration he threw back the lids and found no traps or contents.

We returned to the main room were we had fought the vanishing Dark Stalker, Owyn opened the door on the East wall marked with the "A" rune. The room, as usual, was covered in dust, small copper scales stood on the desk as did a pot of dried ink with a quill stuck fast. I searched the room carefully and found a door rod marked with the rune for "R" stuck to the back of a desk draw.

We went back to the corridor and went into the Northern room which appeared to be an abandoned smithy. Again I searched the room carefully and discovered another door rod this time with the rune for "I" as well as the rod a secret door was opened which connected to the corridor that I discovered, what seemed like a long time ago.

When we got to a branch in the corridor leading North, Owyn checked for traps and discovered that the whole floor seemed to be one giant trigger. Trying to deactivate the trap Owyn unwittingly triggered it and we watched in horror as spears flew from the apparently solid was and then retracted back with out leaving a mark in the wall, more illusionary spells.

Owyn worked on the trap until it was deactivated, we crossed the corridor and entered a large room which was empty, with nothing to provide a clue to its purpose. At one time, we speculated, it must have been full of treasure, why else would it be trapped and hidden so carefully.

Upon discovering the room and its associated disappointment we suddenly realised how very tired we all were. The day had been very long and fraught with real perils so we agreed to leave with our bounty and return in the morning.

As we left we were heartily met by Zyn, who again asked about the children. Although disappointed about the fact we had not found the Missing Children yet he appeared fascinated by the stories of our encounters so far.

In fact he seemed so taken with them he took the time to share with us a story of a Dwarven enclave under Jzadirune called the Malachite Fortress.

The Malachite Fortress had been commanded by the Dwarven Defender Zenith Splintershield before he decided to lead his best warriors into an attack upon the denizens of the Underdark. They never returned and since then both the Malachite Fortress and Jzadirune have been abandoned.

We all looked at each other and I slowly pulled out the divination – the reference to the Malachite Hold had to be a reference to the Malachite Fortress. The children were not in Jzadirune they were under it.

The other town guards also regaled us with stories from Cauldron itself and commented that our exploits were becoming one of the main talking points of the town.

After bidding the guards a hearty farewell for the evening we visited Tygots Old Things to see what would be of interest to him. We managed to sell the following items:

4 Engraved copper cups

8 pounds

A silver cloak pin with a bloodstone

45 pounds

3 Zircons

150 pounds

A gold comb with citrines

160 pounds

3 Silver rings

15 pounds

A tiny locket with ash inside

10 pounds

2 Plain gold rings

50 pounds

A platinum bracelet with the inscription "To Sondor my deepest love, Lorthan"

175 pounds

3 Statuettes of a Shrew made out of smoky quartz

225 pounds

A mother of peal inlaid game board and pieces

250 pounds

Gnomish armour

200 pounds

The other items we suggested taking to Skie and an armourer. Tygot was also kind enough to convert all the pennies and shillings into pounds for us, which meant we lightened our load considerably.

We headed back to the Drunken Morkoth, now knowing that we needed to get down into the Malachite Fortress to rescue the Missing Children. In the morning we would need to buy more magical healing before heading into Jzadirune, hopefully, for the last time.

Bran Journal Session5