The Mystics of Trollskull Manor, plus their new associate Randall, slew the last of the quaggoth guards outside the entrance to the ancient dwarven Temple of Dumathoin.
Two dwarf-sized packets of something wrapped in spider silk cocoons flanked doors of the inner entrance.
Tempus produced a knife and began cutting the silk cocoons. Inside he found...
- 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.
- Randall - Chaotic Good Human Scout and Smuggler. The child of minor nobles slain by Manshoon - or one of his duplicates, he now leads smugglers down the River Sargauth to Skullport.
- Glom the Wretched - Chaotic Neutral Goblin NPC, former thief and guide to the Arcane Chambers.
Troglodyte Slaves
...a statue of a dwarf. The giant spiders of the drow had cocooned the statue of a dwarf.
Tempus turned to the others, "Want me to cut open the other cocoon?"
Etlenda gave Tempus a look of annoyance, "No, let's just keep moving."
They opened the bronze doors of the inner entrance and found another room. The walls of this room glittered with exposed veins of gold. Several bipedal rock lizards chipped away at the gold, collecting the flakes and nuggets into buckets. Their stench was overpowering!
The high ceiling was choked with sheets of ethereal spider webs. Webbing shot down from the darkness, barely missing Winterfrost.
"Ranged fighters, forward!" she called.
At the appearance of the intruders, the troglodyte slaves huddled by the large pair of bronze doors on the far wall, scratching and trying to escape.
Tempus moved in and sent several magical bolts of fire towards the spider, dangling by a thread near the ceiling. The spider died and fell to the ground, its burning flesh quickly extinguished.
The rest prepared weapons to fight the troglodytes but it was clear they were armed only with pick axes and had no wish to engage these intruders. The party gave them a means to escape behind them - past the carcasses of half-a-dozen dead quaggoth guards.
The Magic Door
The heavy bronze doors were closed and locked. The doors were decorated with a bas relief of mountains - the symbol of the god Dumathoin. Despite it being locked, Bearbite could find no keyhole, and none of his tools were able to lift the bar keeping the doors closed. He examined the recessed depression, the size of a fist, in the door. He had an epiphany. He took out a valuable bloodstone he had liberated from the chambers of the drow priestess and placed it in the depression.
The door opened, revealing a darkened hall beyond.
Temple of Dumathoin
Etlenda, astride his giant spirit wolf mount, charged into the center of the cathedral-like chamber. Quarrels sent from small crossbows filled the air! Giant spiders skittered across the web-covered ceiling, and dark humanoid forms maneuvered within.
Winterfrost and Bearbite were covered in spider webbing sprayed upon them by the giant spiders. They were immobilized. Hu-man Patty Johnson helped cut Bearbite free while Winterfrost flexed her muscled to break out.
Etlenda engaged a line of four drow defenders in the dim gloom. He could only barely make out more drow and more giant spiders scurrying towards the rear of the room. One of the drow defenders cast a spell of shadow, blocking the line of sight between those in the rear and the rest of the room.
Winterfrost and Bearbite passed through the gloom behind Etlenda but were soon beset by giant spiders that had dropped from the ceiling! Tempus, meanwhile, cast a spell onto his bat familiar, Edward, giving it the ability to breathe ice like a white dragon.
Edward flew towards Etlenda and breathed deadly ice onto the line of defenders, killing three of the four! The zone of shadow disappeared!
A drow mage in the back of the room spoke an incantation and a demon of shadow arose in the gloom near Bearbite. The demon slashed at the half-orc rogue, nearly killing him! Bearbite staggered, then took a breath. He was badly shaken but still alive!
The shadow demon ducked and weaved, slipping through and around Bearbite, Tempus, and Winterfrost like a creature made of shadowy quicksilver. Randall, likewise, moved like a creature made of smoke - appearing and disappearing into the darkness.
A streak of green light appeared out of the darkness from the back of the room, briefly illuminating the high priestess of the drow. She sent several bolts of poison magic at the party from her position of safety in the rear.
Etlenda abandoned the lone drow defender and charged the drow mage. Multiple giant spiders closed in around Etlenda to block his movement. The mage, gravely wounded, disappeared in a puff of silvery smoke, reappearing on the other side of the room.
The lone drow sent a crossbow bolt at the flittering bat that had killed his colleagues. The bat disappeared in a puff of magic. Tempus shouted, angrily, "Damn it!"
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Tempus cast a magic fireball onto the rear of the room. The explosion killed the drow who had just killed Edward, the drow mage, most of the giant spiders, and badly burned the priestess. With the death of the mage, the shadow demon disappeared.
DM - The players were having a hell of a time with that shadow demon. When the mage died and the demon disappeared, there was much rejoicing and congratulations for Tempus and his fireball!
The priestess summoned forth a swarm of insects to block the path in the center of the room, engulfing Etlenda and Winterfrost in a cloud of biting poisonous magical insects.
Suddenly, surprisingly, Randall appeared out of the darkness, stabbing the drow priestess with his rapier. She fell to the ground, dead, and the flies vanished.
Some Much Needed Rest
Winterfrost removed the holy symbol of Lolth from the neck of the drow priestess. This was their prize and their mission. The priestess also bore a ring of iron keys.
They found a living survivor cocooned in silk on the back wall. They cut him loose and were surprised to find a drow. The drow said he had displeased his priestess and thus was his fate. They asked how they could find the River Sargauth. The drow told them to head south and keep heading south. The party let him go, telling him to escape through the doors in which they entered.
The party then dragged the bodies of the spiders and the drow out into the entrance chamber and re-closed the bronze doors. There they spent several hours resting, identifying magical items, evaluating treasure, and getting some sleep while the elven-folk meditated.
Dungeon Grimlocks
After resting several hours, the party prepared themselves to explore more of the temple complex. They opened the bronze doors to find gricks feasting on the corpses of the dead. They quickly moved past to the door on the south wall.
Within they found a prison dungeon. A group of blind grimlocks were harassing the prisoners held within the cells. The grimlocks turned their attention to the new intruders. The Mystics of Trollskull Manor made short work of the subterranean bullies.
Within the cells they found a human lamplighter named Geldax Breer. He had been kidnapped off the streets of Waterdeep late at night and had no idea where he was. The next cell held a hobgoblin named Lurrash. He demanded to be set free so that he could wreak righteous vengeance against his oppressors in the name of Warlord Azrok!
The final three cells contained fully armed and armored drow. The drow, for reasons unknown, were locked in prison cells. The drow began shooting their hand crossbows at Winterfrost. One quarrel struck the elven warrior and she staggered as the poison in the tip coursed through her veins.
Geldax and Lurrash were freed and the party quickly moved out of range of the drow. Lurrash wished only to kill the captive drow. This the party prevented and ultimately Lurrash exited to the north. When he saw the bodies of the drow priestess, he cheered and proclaimed the Mystics of Trollskull Manor to be heroes! He begged for them to accompany him back to be introduced to Warlord Azrok as heroes but they respectfully declined.
The Sun Elf
In a separate cell they found a sun elf chained to the floor, meditating. She showed signs of lashing and torture, but she patiently waited. When the door opened she said, calmly, "Has your mistress finally - Oh? Who are you?"
The party introduced themselves. The elf's name was Marta Moonshadow. When asked about her presence in the dungeon, she explained that she had been captured by pirates and sold as a slave in Skullport. Her story seemed off - Randall knew pirates didn't sell slaves in Skullport anymore. Etlenda, too, had a strange feeling about her, but thus far had no reason to distrust her.
She said, "If you please, I am a wizard and I am bereft of my wand and spellbook. You haven't perchance found one among the drow have you?"
Winterfrost nodded and said, "Oh, yeah, hold on-" before being abruptly silenced by both Etlenda and Bearbite, "NO! No, we have not. I'm sorry." Etlenda stared deeply into Winterfrost's eyes and she understood, "Oh, right, my mistake. No we haven't."
The party, now with Geldax Breer and Marta Moonshadow in tow, ventured further south.
House of Pain and Pleasure
They reached a complex of rooms that appeared to be a series of torture chambers. They could hear whipping and the cries of pain echoing off the walls. They approached cautiously.
Suddenly Marta Moonshadow called out, "Beware! Intruders from the surface approach!"
Etlenda said, "I knew it!" and they party charged ahead. They came upon a room with four drow guards. A large magical circle was drawn in the floor with fresh entrails, magical symbols were written in wet blood around the circle.
The guards had drawn their weapons and prepared themselves. A fierce battle ensued. Bearbite remained behind and slammed his club into the face of Marta Moonshadow, knocking her into unconsciousness.
Soon more drow, female leaders in armor, emerged from the side chambers. Randall moved like a shadow - invisible in the gloom, as he slipped from drow to drow leaving death in his silent wake.
Eventually, all the drow fighters were eliminated.
They found a male drow still bound to a water torture device in one of the rooms. He asked to be freed - so that he could kill the intruders and avenge his comrades! When interrogated, he boldly claimed that this force was but an advanced vanguard of a larger invasion of Waterdeep to come! That his mistress T’rissa Auvryndar was perfecting a means of creating new larger giant spiders out of the bodies of victims kidnapped from the streets! Soon more drow will arrive and the outrage perpetrted here today would become meaningless!
When he was told that he would not be set free, he changed tactic. He begged to receive the test of Lolth! Allow him to enter the circle of the test. If he is worthy, he will live and his victory against his enemies in battle would be assured. If he failed, he would return as an abomination and seek exile.
Randall said, "I kind of want to see what happens."
Etlenda laughed, "Yeah, uh no." They disabled the water torture device but left him strapped to the table. They bound Marta with other restraints easily found hanging on walls.
They prepared to enter the rough hewn tunnel leading south - from which could be felt a cool wet breeze.
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