The Mystics of Trollskull Manor planned their next move. Etlenda took Glom the Wretched aside, "Glom, you said you knew how to find the stairs down to the next lower level?"
"Yes. Yes. Glom know. But too dangerous. You go back to surface, yes?"
"No, Glom. You're going to take us to the stairs going down."
Glom sighed, defeated, "Okay. Glom show you. But very dangerous! You not go!"
Glom led them back to the hall of the Goblin Bazaar. As they entered, Etlenda held up his arms in triumphant return. He waited for all the goblins to hail his return with a cry of "Pigmud!" Instead, his return was met with a momentary pause in the normal proceedings punctuated with a single cough. The goblins shrugged and returned to their regular work.
Tempus noticed that Copper Stoneforge was missing - he had chained the dwarf prisoner there only a few hours earlier and hired goblins to watch him. "What? Where'd he go? Dammit!"
Tempus angrily tried to get the attention of goblin passers by, demanding to know what happened to Copper Stoneforge, but none of the goblins appeared to understand Common. Tempus poked his head into the audience hall of Yek the Tall but the dwarf was nowhere to be seen.
Yek the Tall, meanwhile, saw Tempus. The goblin chieftain pointed at Tempus and shouted, "YOU!"
- Winterfrost of House Silverspear - Chaotic Good Moon Elf Noble and Fighter. The daughter of elven diplomats, raised among dwarves.
- Etlenda, aka "Exile" - Neutral Good Eladrin Outlander and Paladin. Exiled from the Feywild and raised by wolves. While exploring the Feydark he crossed over into the Underdark and emerged into the Mortal World.
- Tempus Vegvisir - Lawful Good Human Trade Sheriff and Cleric of Helm. Husband and Father.
- Push-ta "Bearbite" Tok - Neutral Half-Orc Former Smuggler and Rogue, secret member of the Zhentarim.
- Kem Hearthfire - Chaotic Good Half-Orc Former Gladiator Priestess of Gond.
The Legion of Azrok
Yek ordered his bugbear guards to detain Tempus. Tempus retreated from the room, "We had a deal, Yek!" He rejoined the group, "We should probably go."
At just that moment, the exit to the south was thrown open. Behind the door was an entire unit of hobgoblin warriors led by a battle-scarred commander. The commander shouted at full military intensity, "Step aside for the Legion of Azrok!"
The Mystics of Trollskull Manor parted and allowed the platoon of eleven hobgoblins to enter. They marched to the center of the hall in tight military formation. The hobgoblin commander shouted something in goblin.
Etlenda asked Glom what was going on. She explained that the hobgoblins were recruiting warriors to fight the drow.
Winterfrost said, "What do you think?"
Etlenda replied, "Not our problem. Lets stick to the plan!"
The party exited through the south door.
The Owlbear Challenge
The party traveled down a long corridor heading east. They came across a four-way intersection decorated with colorful frescoes depicting dwarves at work. Glom indicated the passage to the south.
Tempus said, "Glom, hold up. Now that you are safely away from the bazaar, we're going to need that back." He took the circlet from her head. Glom, startled, reverted back to her goblin form. "Oh," she said, disappointed, "Glom was getting used to it."
The passage turned east again. As the party neared a rupture in the north wall, they heard music swell from no discernable source - it was Halaster's music. A glowing magical rift appeared as a voice declared, "Our heroes press on. Let us see if they can handle a little unexpected challenge. AN OWLBEAR!" A large bear covered in feathers with the head of a giant owl stepped through the rift. It roared aggressively at the party, "HOOOOT!" It charged them with rage in its avian eyes.
The owlbear was quickly defeated. It disappeared into a glowing blue mist. The magical voice said, "Well done! Better than expected! But don't get too cocky, next time there'll be TWO!"
The Zombie Beholder
The passage then turned south, then west. A side passage led to the south. Glom pointed and said, "Stairs down that way, but Glom not go. Too dangerous. Guarded. Don't go. Too dangerous."
Etlenda assured her everything would be okay and sent Push-ta, who now insisted on being called by his goblin name "Bearbite" down the corridor to scout ahead.
"Bearbite" returned a moment later, his half-orc face pale, "You're not going to believe this. Its like some kind of zombie beholder! Its hovering near the ceiling out of melee range. Also, there's a whole group of people in the room beyond fighting or wrassling or something."
The party was hesitant. Do they turn back? Do they confront a dangerous guardian? They decided to take care of the problem now.
Bearbite moved stealthily ahead of the others. He was unnoticed by the zombie beholder. He aimed his crossbow and loosed a deadly bolt. The attack caught the beholder by surprise. It retaliated in anger, sending a beam of paralysis towards the half-orc "caravan guard". Bearbite's muscles began to freeze. He fought off the paralysis and backed up around the corner and behind cover.
DM - The spacing of the assault was awkward. Some of the characters had surprise on the beholder, but they were too far back to effectively charge into the room and attack - it would have required a double-move. So there were a few turns of movement and jostling and positioning for optimum coverage by the paladin's aura before they pressed their attack and they wound up losing their surprise round.
That being said, Push-ta/Bearbite did 51 points of damage on his surprise round sneak attack, which ain't bad!
The party charged down the long corridor and into the room. Winterfrost threw a lasso made of magical lightning at the beholder, pulling it down from the ceiling.
Etlenda, astride his holy war-wolf, attacked the creature, impaling it with his sword.
The zombie beholder opened its mouth to emit a dry raspy scream as it perished.
DM - Lightning Lure for 12 lightning damage. Wolf claws for 12 slashing damage. Then a Natural 20 for 20 points of damage followed by 19 points of smite damage! The undead beholder didn't last more than one round and took WAY more damage than it could overcome and reanimate.
Nadia the Unbent
A woman shouted from the next room, "Shut up! Someone's in the entrance! Get them!"
A tall muscular woman led a contingent of human thugs and bugbears into the entrance hall. She stopped when she saw the intruders, "As I thought! It's the ones our masters warned us about! You were told not to enter Undermountain! Now you will learn what it means to defy Xanathar and his guild! None shall pass Nadia the Unbent! Kill them!"
What followed was a tough fight as Etlenda engaged Nadia the Unbent while her thugs fanned out and harassed the party with crossbows from cover. The bugbears and a few thugs joined Nadia in a huge scrum in the center of the hall. A handful of bugbears hung back as reinforcements.
It was a slog! Despite her name, Nadia fell early in the battle. Etlenda was beaten nearly to unconsciousness on two or three separate occasions, only to be reinvigorated by healing prayers from Tempus and Kem. Winterfrost and Push-ta took the flank and made a drive towards a door to the south - a door the thugs seemed keen on defending.
The bugbear reserves eventually joined the fight while a single thug disappeared through what appeared to be a secret door in the back of the next room. A few moments later more bugbears emerged from the secret door. Their arrival was too little too late and eventually all the opponents lay defeated upon the floor.
The Rust Monster Gate
The party rested for a bit before continuing. Winterfrost took Nadia's great axe as a prize.
Once they caught their breath, they found and entered the secret door. The passage beyond branched to the left and right. The left was a dead end. The right turned towards the east and terminated in another dead end. However, the dead was framed by an archway, similar to the one which turned people invisible on the level above. A rust monster was engraved on the keystone.
Bearbite thought about it for a moment before saying, "I'm doing it." He passed through the arch -
- only to slam face first into the wall.
As he rubbed his nose he felt his clothing and armor shift. He looked down to see the rivets in his studded leather, the buckle on every belt, all his crossbow bolts, everything he owned made of iron or steel, turn to flaky rust.
"Wh-what??"
Winterfrost watched in shock, "Oh shit!"
The Armory
Etlenda and Tempus, meanwhile, searched the dead end to the south and found another secret door. Beyond was a long room filled with racks of old dwarven weapons and armor - an armory.
There were dozens of suits of plate armor, chain mail shirts, shields, spears, polearms, axes, and hammers. Unfortunately, they were so ancient that all the leather straps and cloth had long ago become brittle or decayed. The wooden hafts of weapons were rotten. Nothing could be used.
Tempus, searching through the racks, found a badly injured thug - the sole survivor who had fled the battle - hiding behind one of the racks. The thug surrendered.
Tempus told the thug to leave, get out of Undermountain, and never come back, and to remember the mercy they showed him.
The thug ran nervously past as he escaped with his life.
Tempus started loading several suits of plate armor into his magical bag of holding. Bearbite said, "What are you doing?"
Tempus replied, "Plate armor costs like 1500 gold pieces per suit! This is treasure! I'm taking it out and selling it!"
"It's useless!" said Kem, examining some of the decayed leather and cloth.
"It can be repaired! Heck, YOU could repair it! We'll fix it up and sell it! You'll see!"
Kem thought about it and shrugged, "Maybe."
The Ballistae
Bearbite recovered what crossbow bolts he could from the defeated thugs as well as some leather armor. So reequipped, the party prepared to open the south door.
Beyond the south door was a long gallery to the east. At the end of the gallery were two uncrewed heavy ballistae. The party watched the ballistae carefully. Tempus saw one shudder while the other scratched one of its legs. They were magically animated.
They avoided the long gallery and took the door immediately opposite on the south wall.
DM - Apparently the players could see the label on the icons in Roll20 "Animated Ballistae". Winterfrost's player said, "I get the feeling they might be animated ballistae."
TWO Owlbears
A long passage led west, then turned south. After the turn, the passage turned back to the east.
There they heard Halaster's music again. A magical voice appeared, "Ladies and gentlemen, we've seen how they handled one owlbear. But can they handle TWO?" Two magical rifts appeared, one in front and one behind, and an owlbear emerged from both.
Etlenda hopped off his spirit world and ordered Glom to get onto the saddle. He moved towards the back to help defend Tempus and Kem while Bearbite and Winterfrost took on the owlbear in the front.
The battle was more challenging this time and it took a little more effort but the party was ultimately able to defeat both owlbears. Once again, the dead owlbears disappeared in blue glowing mist.
"Well well well! It looks like they defeated both! Who knew they had it in them?"
The Stairs Down
Before them, the eastern corridor descended down some long stairs.
The music changed, swelled, became more ominous. The voice became more foreboding, "And so, our contestants persevere in the face of their countless shortcomings, saying goodbye to the Arcane Chambers and hello to the dwarven ruins of Stromkuhldur—but, we wonder, can they weather the storm of spiders and venom that is House Auvryndar? Can they escape the wretched drow? Or shall they too become pregnant with the demon goddess's foul children?"
"Find out this and more next week on Dungeon of the Mad Mage!"
Tempus shouted out, "We're not going down yet!"
There was the sound of a needle scratching on vinyl, "Wait- what?"
Etlenda added, "We just wanted to find the stairs and map it. We're headed back to do some exploring."
"Oh. Oh. Okay. Well, FINE! You're not fun at all!"
The party turned and headed back the way they came.
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