Enola Yarn – blogpost 28

We choose not to investigate the room with the armored Troglodytes but others adjacent to the balcony. Valentine listens at the first door and doesn’t hear anything behind it. Farryn opens it. It is a small room with a wardrobe opposite the door. Furthermore, we spot a mirror with the frame covered in skulls. Valentine holds an old, stinking Naga tongue near it and pushes it against the mirror. It leaves a trace on the surface, and I almost gag from the stank coming off of that thing. I investigate the mirror shortly and see some writing. I cannot read it; for my helmet of comprehending languages to work, I need to touch it. So I do: “The death know the secret”, it says. We try to open the portal we suspect is behind the mirror. We try a lot, also with skulls within glass globes, but nothing works. Farryn is distracted and opens the wardrobe but only finds old clothing, nothing of value. As a last resort, I try using chill touch to open the allegedly mirror-portal, but nothing happens. Frustrated, I follow the rest out of the room.

Next, we choose a room to the west. It seems to be a guest room. Valentine inspects the fireplace and finds a hidden compartment! Within that compartment, she finds a potion of greater healing. The rest of the room is rather dusty as if no one has been here for a really long time. Zeph plays on the bed: he is jumping up and down – making a lot of dust fly up and scatter around the room. I cough a couple of times during inspecting the room. After a couple of minutes, we leave the room, heading for the next one.

The room to the northwest of the balcony is also a guest room, and also with a fireplace. However, nothing is found in the hidden compartment. Zeph already flies off, Valentine and I walk off to the balcony and leave Farryn. We wait on the balcony for Farryn to join us again. We go to a room in the east – Zeph is already there, seeing the glitter that is stuck around the door handle. This room is also a guest room, together with a fireplace and wardrobe. Again, Valentine finds nothing in the secret compartment. She and I get up and walk to the last room in the southeast, without Farryn and Zeph. The last room is ALSO made for guests – surprise, surprise. However, this room has a pile of dirty clothes lying in the corner. First, we check the fireplace but don’t find anything. Valentine kicks the dirty clothes, they fall off something: a chest! “Close the door!” she whispers urgently. I do so, let’s not share this with Farryn and Zeph for now. This might be very interesting, and it is good that Valentine finally wants to share something with me. We both pull the lid but it doesn’t open – I fall over backward. Ouch! Next, we try to force the lock with our daggers. Luckily, that works! We find a pile of platinum coins shining inside the chest, thieves’ tools in lizard hide, and a valve with some liquid. We put the items and most of the platinum in our bags, and call Farryn and Zeph afterward. However, they’re not coming. I walk back to the previous room to look for them. Suddenly, I know and FEEL Zeph and Farryn are invisible: I hear some fluttering of wings and mechanical squeaking of Gronds’ armor. I try to grab Zeph in the middle of the air, but miss.

“EW!!” I yell. Zeph has apparently ordered Brightwing to stick his tongue in my ear, as he has done before with someone else. Laughing, Zeph, Grond, and Farryn stop their invisibility. We explain we found some money in a chest in the room, but Farryn doesn’t believe us. We bluff and say: “Yeah, okay, that’s true… We also found thieves tools and some oil…” Farryn leaves us, but still is cranky – as if he believes us, but not completely. He insults us under his breath, and in unison, Valentine and I cast a mage hand that slap him both in his face from different angles. Nasty little gnome! HOW DARE YOU!

Fighting, we walk downstairs. Suddenly, when I step onto the floor, I hear Zeph scream in horror. “MONSTERS, BONES, THERE!!!!” I cannot see the enemy, and my magic feels thin, but I need to help the party. With my evocation cantrip firebolt, I attack. However, the Undead Shambling Mounds are resistant to fire! “FUCK” I yell. In the distance, I suddenly see a lot of flames: Valentine cast a wall of fire. I now see Zeph surrounded by three Undead Shambling Mounds. I curse under my breath. The only damage I can really do is fire-related, as my other cantrip is only packed with necrotic energy, where of course undead are not really affected by. Valentine transforms into a T-rex again, but the second before she does, she yells: “Zeph is down! GO TO ZEPH!”

Stressed, I dash to Zeph and use my last magical energy to get to him. Suddenly, as I crouch down next to Zeph, he opens his eyes – healed by Farryn. In the corner of my eye, I see the T-rex turn back to Valentine. Shit. This means that she is really hurt! The enemy grapples Valentine as well. “Don’t worry! I’ll handle them!” she shouts. However, it doesn’t seem like she can handle them, so I stay with her and come closer. She teleports and attacks from a distance. The enemy is confused but sees me and grabs me.

In total panic, I reach my hands to touch the monster and perform a shocking grasp. The monster still doesn’t let go. Luckily, Valentine saves me with her dimension door and places me on the balcony. She says: “Help Farryn!” From a safe distance, I can help Farryn with casting firebolt. Farryn and Valentine both kill their enemies and I can walk down again.

We quickly discuss the battle. Zeph is still very shaken about the fact that he almost died. We comfort him. Then, we talk about the Troglodytes in the other room upstairs. They look like guards. Maybe they’re protecting someone? We decide not to go there yet, we would like to rest. Farryn wants to go further, but seeing the rest of us – a bloodied, tired-looking mess, he obliges. I walk upstairs with Valentine. We pick a guest room and I create a tiny hut. It is now early in the afternoon. I take my time to research Spites’ books. Farryn barricades the door.

During my study, I hear patrols in the hall, but no talking. Around dinner time, I put my books away, because Zeph wants to play a game: ‘what is up with that?’ Zeph asks me why I want to meet Hallaster because the Wizard Academy was filled with evil-aligned creatures – ‘what is up with that?!’ he squeaks. I explain that I want to learn from the best of the best, and now, I THOUGHT I met the best, but that turned out to be an Arcanaloth, so I want to still go to Hallaster, regardless of his alignment. Valentine asks Farryn what he wants to find here in Undermountain. He answers he wanted to be a master in alchemy, but he adapted his goal a bit: he wants Grond to exceed all expectations and create the ultimate weapon with him.

Suddenly, we hear a whisper: “Ignore the false reports about the attack on our stronghold in Stromkuhldur. It should be taken by Trissa Auvryndar. Skullport will follow. Praise to Lolth!” This might be a lie, we ignore it for now.

Zeph asks me a question: “That sister of yours, she transforms into you all the time. What is up with that?!” I answer that I think it’s some kind of insecurity. She has gotten me in a lot of trouble though: she always went on dates looking like me, so I couldn’t travel through Skullport without getting harassed by her past dates or exes. It was a real inconvenience. Zeph is quickly a bit distracted. He hears something in the hallway – another patrol. He is a bit nervous. Apparently, the guy he wants to find, the one with the stinger that looks like a scorpion, is very dangerous.

As Zeph returns, I ask Valentine a question: “Who is your patron?” “The man whom I love,” she answers. “Let’s call him Freek,” she adds. “He found me after mom and dad died. He loves me, and I love him. He wants me to be able to protect myself.”

After this moment of honesty, we decide to stop playing. We make some plans for this level, first, we’ll investigate this level, after, we’ll head for Waterdeep to take a break. There must be a portal on this level to bring us back…