Week 6 - What do you MEAN it isn't 'here' anymore?!?!?!?

OOC Humor –

1. Lynus revealed to the group that ritual candles for Warlocks are indeed special-made as they are generated from rendered baby fat… also a special ingredient of both Beef Lo Mein and Frosted Flakes… They’re Grrrreeaatt!!
2. Bluie was eventually able to play even though his cell phone has somehow incorporated an Aspect of the San Andreas Fault…. BZRRRRRZZZZZZZ!!!!
3. Lastly, it turns out that select parts of the carpet now have 100% resistance to water.. but are probably weak to Flame

The group picked back up in the mushroom cavern, seconds after a spore laden Brom had fallen THROUGH the thin layer of moss, disappearing into a dimly lit cavern below, an instant before the moss sealed behind him. Strom, in a panic over his closest ally disappearing begins to slam at the moss with his mace, almost killing the whole party by kicking up a mess of toxic spores.

Finding no other ways out of the cavern besides the column they’d come in through, the team decides to chance the underground river with a faint glow showing through the water. First in is Lynus, with his Ring of Drowned Souls granting him unending breath… as he goes in however, a perceptive Del’anoth notices that the current seemed to all but drag him away… realizing that even if the lock hits danger, he will likely be unable to return, Del’anoth warns Strom and then dives in on Lynus’ heels. Strom, hating water, stalks around for a few seconds, very less than amused at the situation, before falling into the water like a large, bulky, (smelly – he should clean that undershift sometime) stone. The whole group pops out at the first opening, though they see that the river clearly moves on into the dark unknown.

Upon climbing out of the water, they find themselves on a white sandy beach within a cavern that it illuminated by a dim yellow glow from another cave at the far end of the cavern. The roof of the cavern is peppered with holes that disappear into darkness but the team isn’t able to see anything in them. Del’anoth scouts the dimly lit cave mouth, gesturing for the other two to follow him. They do so, and the scene that opens up before them is a group of dwarves in seeming celebration… pounding on a drum, dancing, and drinking ale… Unsure as to whether these dwarves would be hostile or not, the group sends their resident Dwarf, Strom, forward… halfway into the room, the drumming stops suddenly, with the drumming dwarf looking in Stroms direction. The other dwarves turn and scatter for the nearby buildings. The lead dwarf runs to a beetle (Glick) he’s been using as a mount, and pulls two giant axes off. He rushes at Strom and throws an axe right past his head. Lynus and Del’anoth, just starting to move forward for what seems like an imminent battle, have the axe fly right between them, practically cutting Del’anoths hair… as they twist their heads, they see the axe slam right into a giant cave spider which had been about to take off Lynus’ head. A pitched battle ensues, the spider quickly realizing it had bit off more than it could chew and being dispatched.

After the fight, the group talks to the dwarves, who reveal themselves as the resident of this small town, Stalacton, who have been engaged in a pitched battle against these cave spiders, who they had thought defeated. With so much sadness associated with their town due to murders by the spiders, they have decided to move on, and are actually leaving in the morning. They offer the group a paid position as caravan guards for their trip to Daer’goth due to their prowess in battle. The group responds that they’ll consider it, but that they need to find their missing member, Brom. With the help of Bae’lor, the dwarven leader, they find the cave Brom fell into and he rejoins the party… but seems to be the focus of some inner turmoil.

The group splits off… Strom unsuccessfully trying to buy goods at the traders, Brom hitting up the Tavern, and Lynus and Del’anoth checking out the library, which is mostly devoid of anything good… except for an old book, written in Draconian that a pair of old dwarves seem to be studying. As a whole, the group comes back together in the tavern, and Brom, drunken, and all but in tears, breaks down and confesses that he doesn’t know where the truth lies anymore… he has a secret that he’s been sworn to keep, but feels that the group needs to know about it as they’ve proven themselves in battle by his side and he doesn’t know who to trust. (That story shall immediately follow this one in blog order)

The group takes his information in, stunned… the rift between Del’anoth, Strom, and Brom seems to mend as it becomes obvious that the two religiousy types have been carrying quite a load on their backs… and though he’d fought beside them in battle, these were the sort of things you didn’t lightly share. They settle down for the night to process the news… in the morning they set out with the caravan, having decided that it will present the best opportunity to discern what was going on at Brother Anton’s temple.

The way to Deargoth is long, and filled with several bad omens… the caves are more immense than the party had ever imagined… as they had never before seen the Underdark, and were stunned at how much space could exist underground. Their arrival in Daer’goth was greeted in silence…. No one moved on the streets… an initial look around revealed houses filled with corpses…

They moved into the inn and found it had been the last bastion of hope for some poor survivors…. Only one pre-made pack was missing from a wall full of similar bags, and it looked like it was under the name of a female elf… an idea which should be considered silly considering where they were at the moment… further investigation of the inn showed the remnants of a pitched battle between a Mindflayer, his human thralls (all brothers of Anton’s temple), anda handful of dwarves. The group is revulsed by what they see, and after only a cursory examination they report back to the caravan with the news. Bae’lor thanks them, and lets them know that his dwarves will stay and remake the town as it is a central point for groups in the Underdark. With his blessing, the group heads back to Stalacton and back up to Anton’s temple. They quickly leave the temple and head for the main Temple of Mauradin, looking to speak with the head Cleric of the faith.

Brom fills the head cleric in, and he is very stoic about the knowledge… and then reveals that it makes sense, and he’s convinced that Brother Anton has been corrupted by a dark influence… he asks the group to keep this knowledge from the Brother, and in fact, to try and subvert as many of the brothers of that temple as they can.

Following this conversation, Strom goes to retrieve the Shard of Korindal, and realizes that it’s been stolen from the hiding place where he’d left it. This news is relayed to the group, who are very less than amused at the situation. They are unable to track it themselves, so enlist the help of Ty’rol, who tracks it to a certain temple of Mauradin before losing the scent. He says it could either have been teleported out, or remain within, only obfuscated… to give an example of how badly his magic is muddled, he trys to work a scrying of Urik Haarken.. which reveals that he never existed.. despite the fact that, as it turns out, Ty’rol and Urik were part of a band of adventurers similar to our own roughly 100 years previous. Their quest, it was revealed, was to try and seek out and destroy as many of the Shards as possible… for it is revealed that when a Shard is destroyed, it’s power, and that of all it’s sub-shards, is denied to the main shard of Kordinhal…. Thus limiting the power of the wielder of that dread hammer. The group decides this is a worthy mission, and decides to pick it up, while at the same time following the request of the head Cleric of Mauradin, to bring a letter to the Dwarven King which should send them on to the kingdoms of either Elves of Humans. They shall attempt to go to the Elves first, and gain the use of one of their master ships in an attempt to gain entry to an underwater temple which is said to hold many of the shards.