Session 65 - Penniless Scum!

 

17th February 2023

In-game timeline: Start of session: 1489DR Alturiak 26. End of session: 1490DR Alturiak 27

Our Heroes loot the bodies. I know. How strange. They come away with some oversized metal bracers from the barbarian, a jaunty hat, a hand crossbow and a rapier from the bard. They do notice that each of the dead bodies is sporting a symbol of the One-Winged Demon somewhere about their person. They find no gold, much to the disappointment of Jaxii, who wanders around calling them "penniless scum!" for a while. They do find a few keys.

Iwee meanwhile is moving towards the sound of the voice that replied to her shout, hoping to find Silvermoon. She finds a closed and padlocked door, and introduces herself to Silvermoon, who is apparently behind the door. When the others have finished stripping the bodies, they arrive with a key that fits the padlock and they release Silvermoon from her imprisonment.

Silvermoon is a very old gnome, somewhat undernourished, but looks to be pretty resilient for her age. Introductions are made and Iwee immediately shows her true colours - literally - and Silvermoon is very taken aback - recognising the golden skin of Lily/Iwee. She asks to see the daylight as she has been underground for quite a while.

Before the group head out, they spot another door to the south. Jaxii and Derrick head for the door and use another of the keys they found to unlock the door. Inside they spot a table with some papers on it, a pile of rucksacks and a sturdy, wooden chest. In the corner is a wooden ladder leading up to a bolted trapdoor above.

Jaxii roots around the backpacks and finds the usual kind of adventuring gear. Derrick runs for the chest and throws it open. A puff of gas hits Derrick fully in the face and Derrick immediately falls to the floor and starts to snore. Jaxii loots Derrick while asleep. She discovers he only has 6gp on him. She takes it anyway (but later does give it back to him). Frustrated, she then looks in the now open chest. In the chest is a small, flowery purse, which turns out to be a purse of holding, a rod with a button on it, which turns out to be an immovable rod, and small, black handkerchief and some scrolls (slow, invisibility, identify, enhance ability, lesser restoration). They later use the Identify to work out what the handkerchief is, and find it is a mini portable hole (when opened out, it forms a hole in whatever solid object it is placed upon). The purse of holding is small and only Iwee can actually put her hand fully in it, so Jaxii gives it to her.

The papers on the desk seem to show a map of Settlestone, with Silvermoon's house clearly marked. The trapdoor leads out into the open, so the group head up the ladder, open the trapdoor and get out into the area outside of the Old Fort. They then remember that Derrick is still asleep in the cave below.

Creating a strange mechanism using the immovable rod and Lionel the rope, they bump Derrick up the ladder. Iwee kindly stops him banging his head as he goes up. Eventually, fed up with hearing Derrick snoring, Iwee gives him a very rough slap, causing a small amount of damage to the sleeping Knight, and managing to wake him up.

They head back to Settlestone, with Silvermoon riding on Sully's back to ensure they make good time, and they arrive back in the town in the mid evening. Back in the room, Iwee talks for a straight 5 minutes without taking a breath.

Silvermoon spends a while trying to take in all that information, and then, while she eats a good meal for the first time for a few months, she tells the group all about her capture, her kidnappers, a strange man called Castellan who tried to contact Kardreth and seems to be looking for the Intricate Web, and all about the ritual that Iwee / Lily has already gone through in order to connect to Kardreth. Silvermoon suggests that maybe re-performing the ritual may re-establish the bond again. Unfortunately, Castellan used the last of her supply of bluecap mushrooms when he tried (and failed) to do the same thing. For the ritual to be performed, more bluecap mushrooms will need to be found.

The only nearby source of bluecap mushrooms known to Silvermoon are to be found in a place called the Sporerealm - an underground "city" of the Myconid folk. An entrance to this place can be found at the edge of Lurkwood. The party decide to head there to try to get more bluecap mushrooms for the ritual.

Silvermoon is distressed to hear that the problem of the rising waters at Mistloch have only got worse during her absence. She fears not only for the dwarves of Settlestone, but also for the few families of gnomes who have recently returned to the gnomish towns within Lurkwood - they are not established enough to have their own food supplies yet, and have been reliant upon the supplies from Mistloch. The party, surprisingly, decide they would like to see if they can help out in this too, and resolve to visit Mistloch on the way to the entrance to the Sporerealm.

Before they retire for the night, Iwee tries to contact Kardreth, though receives no immediate response. Karoshi asks her to contact Kaster to ask if any more of the Kovacs Tome has been repaired and restored. In his response, Kaster relates a key paragraph, that he wonders if it may be relevant - Karoshi notes it down but cannot immediately see a significance in it. Jaxii then asks Iwee if she can check upon her mother, Tamara. She does so and receives a disturbing reply - Tamara is fine, but the members of her clan that she was expecting have actually arrived in Neverwinter, but they have apparently been arrested and are currently incarcerated.