Expedition: Neegan - Orb Quest - 19 August 2021

[GreyWolfVT]

Galmit "I'm startin ta think ya should seen if we coulda gotten a couple dwarven priests ta join us Neegan."

[Jernau35]

"No, I have nowhere hear the skill or ability to replace the runes if we break them", Tollander replies.

"People like to say that the gods work in mysterious ways. Other gods perhaps. But there is nothing mysterious about Gwanwen. His plans are premeditated and designed to place you in impossible situations. And from there you must chose your fate".

Tollander counts out the choices on his fingers. "If we go forward and break the runes, there's nothing to stop others," he pauses, emphasizing the word, "removing the Orb in the future along with whatever else is down there."

"What other evils would we be responsible for releasing upon the world?"

"If we search for a pass or a key, we can cross the runes safely. But the runes can still be broken in the future and all the contents of the vault accessed".

"We can return to civilization and hope to recruit more help. We may succeed. But the runes can still be broken in the future."

"Our problem is bigger than the runes. Our problem is that now the location of this whole dungeon is known. And the password to enter it is known. Once this information gets back to the world, anybody with evil designs can come here, break the runes and access the vault".

Tollander looks into the faces of Neegan and Galmit. ""Do you understand what I'm saying? That information must never be in evil hands outside of this dungeon".

The cleric waits briefly, hoping the dwarves understand what must be done before the party leaves the dungeon. If they ever leave. Loyal servant of Gwanwen, he is at peace with his fate.

"Neegan. I prefer to search for something that would allow us to pass without breaking the wards. But we may not have enough torches and oil to do that in time. If you want to break the runes, so be it. Just remember my words."

[Dram]

Neegan - I'm think I agree with ya cuz. But we are here now. Let us search the rooms we did not search. Tollander may be correct there may a key or something they left here to get past the wards.

[Marullus]

Again, if youre heading back, please be explicit about where you're going back to. All side rooms were described in posts.

[Dram]

OCC- Weren't there were rooms we secured and did not check?

[Marullus]

Okay... I relent. I already described them and wanted you to go back and look instead of re-presenting it here with less details. Please go back for details.

You came down through the food storage room, kitchen, and dining room. On the other side of the hallway, you saw furniture/trade good storage, a large workshop hall, and an infirmary which you haven't gone into deeply. You saw more doors at the back of the infirmary. You explored the common dwarf bedrooms that connect to the dining hall but not the Noble/officer hallway. On the next level down, you found closed black doors labeled as "the honored dead" and below that is the end of the dwarfhome and beginning of the Spiral Vault, where you are now.

If you are backtracking, I need you to re-read those and be more specific.

[Dram]

Neegan- We should check the officer quarters. There may be a something there.

[GreyWolfVT]

Galmit "Officer's quarters it is then."

[Jernau35]

"Come on Billy, we're off back upstairs. Let's hope Gwanwen guides our search", says Tollander. He tries to position himself in the marching order where he can keep an eye on the two men from the White Tower.

[Marullus]

Neegan makes the decision to return up to the dining hall and to investigate the better-apportioned hallway. The group turns and follows him, Sir Justin still bringing up the rear. The roaring of the flames and the blinding illumination it provides both stop abruptly as the party rounds the bend towards the black doors of the crypts, dark silence once again between you and the Spiral Vault below.

Your lantern casts shadows up and down the long stairs of the main hallway of the dwarfhome and you find no more of the wolfish undead dwarves as you climb back up past the crypt doors to reach the dining hall. The dining hall is quiet when you enter, to your relief. That relief passes quickly as you note a difference in the room... The corpses of the dead dwarves are gone, bloody smears marking the floor where they were dragged into the adjoining chamber where you found the deep cistern.

The doors to the second hallway stand open, closer to the cistern room than the previous hallway of bedrooms you explored. The hallway is lovingly engraved with murals of dwarven military valor, one engraved wooden door on the left within the reach of your lantern light, another dimly visible down the continuing hallway.

Actions?

Date: 26 August 2021, 7:40pm
Light: Lantern (until 10:30pm)
Distance: None
Effects: None
Injuries: Tollander (Minorly Injured)

[Dram]

Neegan - That is unsettling. Shall we should investigate this, be ready Sir Justin have your colleague this at the door for what may be waiting on the other side. Neegan cocks his crossbow with a silver tipped bolt.

[GreyWolfVT]

Galmit does find this a bit unnerving "Aye Neegan. This be strange indeed. Be alert everyone." the dwarf adds readying his weapon again as he follows Neegan in investigating following the drag marks to the room with the cistern.

[Marullus]

Unclear: are you going into the Noble hallway and opening doors, or are you investigating the cistern?

[Jernau35]

Tollander keeps his sling at the ready, hoping to get off a shot before whatever lurks out there gets close enough to be dealt with by his Blessed Knuckles.

[Dram]

Moving slowly towards cistern room

[Marullus]

Previously...

Your lantern light shines out onto the Common Hall, the dining room and center of a dwarfhome's activity. It is about 50' across and 100' wide. The air is musty and dank here, the room silent as the stone it is cut from. The stair opens at the back of the room, a pair of double doors dimly visible as they gape open onto the hallway in the opposite corner. The room itself is filled with long stone tables spaced about somewhat haphazardly, perhaps three dozen wooden chairs either surrounding them or kocked akilter on the floor. Shelves along the walls house stacks of dusty, cobwebbed stoneware plates and cups. Near in front of you is a clearing on the floor where a table was shoved out of the way, the black, bumpy texture indicating something was dismembered there and the viscera left to dry.

An open archway stands to your right along the near wall, a smaller chamber visible through the opening, most of it concealed around the corner. There are also two sets of ornate doors, one in the center of the wall behind you, the other on the far wall to your left.

Looking at the dried viscera and the layers of dust on the floor, Tollander determines that whatever died here died many years ago. The table doesn't look moved in that time. There are drag marks on the floor, however, more recently disturbed, near the archway. Footprints from large rats crisscross the room.

Neegan and Galmit advance to the archway, peering into the other room. A winch on the ceiling dangles a rope with evenly spaced buckets on it. In the floor below is a huge cistern 20' across, rings of water stains showing evaporation down about 15 feet to where the surface of the sludgy, dark water now remains. Stone ladder rungs are carved in the far side of the well, leading to the bottom. Round, slimy pipe holes about 4' diameter open about five feet below the cistern lip, leading away to somewhere deep in the stone.

The group tiptoes towards the cistern, led by the pair of dwarves, the fresh smears of ichor and drag marks now clearly from something larger than rats. The trail leads to the edge of the cistern and then drops off, the bodies presumably falling into the sludgy water below. The cistern itself looks about the same as it did before, except that ripples dance on the surface of the water, legacy of recent movements within.

Actions?

Date: 26 August 2021, 7:50pm
Light: Lantern (until 10:30pm)
Distance: None
Effects: None
Injuries: Tollander (Minorly Injured)

[Dram]

Neegan - Whispers to Tollander. DO you have a light spell to cast down into the cistern just above the water level?

[Marullus]

*bump*
Actions?

[GreyWolfVT]

Galmit digs through his pack and lights a torch while waiting for Trollander to reply to Neegan.

[Jernau35]

"No, I have nothing like that", Tollander replies. "I'd have to rest and pray for a while to do so."

"Given our limited supply of torches and other light sources, maybe we should let whatever is down there be. It's probably happy to feed on what it has just taken. We need to find someway to cross those runes, and we don't have a lot of time to do it. We'll just have to watch our backs as we search".

"Whatever we need isn't down that well".