Enola Yarn – blogpost 31

After a portal activation and a brisk walk through level 1, we get to the Yawning Portal. When we get pulled out from the hole – Zeph flying of course – we look around for Obaya, the woman who buys magical items from the dungeon. We find her, and Farryn does the talking, we are positive we’re getting the best prices and finally, we sell Nylass’ spellbook for 100 platinum pieces and the evil candle with the two sides for 1800 platinum pieces. When Obaya sees the last item, she is very excited and tries to compose herself with great difficulty. Farryn also shows a cursed spider trinket – a small statue of Lolth, but she isn’t interested. Valentine shows a shard of the mirror on level 10 where we saw Hallaster in, but that isn’t of value to Obaya. The same yields for a nice painting of Jim Darkmagic the party found a while ago.

Zeph is getting annoyed: he wants to go outside to sniff some fresh air and see the sunset. We walk outside and walk to the great castle near the mountains. In the middle of a giant square, Valentine walks up to a big tree and touches it. “Are you all ready? We need to be quick!” she says. She opens a portal through transport via plants and we walk out the portal on top of the mountain! “AAHH!! FRESH AIR!! Finally!” Zeph shouts. He starts playing on his flute and together we watch the sunset. After this nice experience, we walk over the ridge back down to Waterdeep and Trollskull Manor where we meet up with Smokey.

Valentine decides to first perform her commune ritual to contact Freek to ask some questions. We wait downstairs but first add some questions she can ask. For example, Zeph wants to know the truth about the Drow houses Freth and Auvryndar. Farryn would like to know if we’re banned from the Wizard Academy and if we can go back if needed or if we’ll get murdered when we put a toe over the entrance line. We stay downstairs and order dinner for everyone, but have a drink first. In Trollskull Manor, there are quite some adventurers sitting at tables, sharing their stories as we do. We decide to talk to Smokey. We tell him about our adventures and ask how business went. The bar made almost 250 gold pieces, Smokey explains; it was a good couple of days. Smokey continues with tales of Undermountain he heard from people inside the bar, some of them are indirectly or directly correlated to our actions.

When we’re talking for a while, we suddenly realize that we know each other shorter than a tenday. Farryn and I know each other for 10 days, but Zeph just joined for 6 days. So weird, but yet so common that we sometimes have some trust issues (especially with Valentine involved). We talk a bit about the party. I’ve come to the conclusion that I want to find Hallaster after being let down in the Wizard Academy, but have also decided to look for knowledge ‘close to home’. Meaning: learning skills from Farryn so that I can brew potions and such, and talk more to Zeph to gain knowledge on the Feywild. We are all positive we’re going back to Undermountain together. When Valentine returns from her room, she has some answers, but first, we ask her if she feels the same about the party. Valentine says she also wants to stick together going forward. So, we’re all agreeing to go back to Undermountain together after we do some shopping. We continue the evening with some ‘never have I ever’.

“Never have I ever pretended to be my sister and charmed men in town,” I say, laughing. Valentine drinks a sip of wine. 

“Never have I ever embezzled money from the party.” Farryn continues. Now, Valentine and I both drink. “Let’s split it equally going forward,” Farryn says. 

“Never have I ever flew on a giant bug,” Zeph says in his upbeat voice. No one drinks. “Oh… yeah, I can fly myself!” Zeph facepalms himself. 

“Never have I ever kissed someone.” Only Farryn drinks. “Haven’t you kissed Freek?” he asks Valentine. “No… We didn’t get to that stage yet…” she responds in a hushed voice. 

“Never have I ever, stolen a spellbook.” I continue. We all drink. 

“Hey Valentine, last time we were here, we were on a date!” Farryn recalls.

“Yeah, I was under influence…” says Valentine.

“What? Are you trying to poison us with this drink?!” Zeph asks frantically.

“No… No Zeph, she just means alcohol.” 

“Well, when Valentine suggested I worked on myself, Grond was born. That’ll make you Gronds’ mom.” Farryn says. Valentines’ face suddenly reddens and she stays quiet.

We talk a bit more about stuff we’ll have to do in Undermountain. We agree not to charm, suggest, or use the Rod of Rulership on each other during our time downstairs. I am feeling a little woozy and think I’m whispering: “I’ll take the Rod of Rulership. I’ll keep my sister in check.” “OOOOHHH!!!” the whole party shouts. 

Valentine finally speaks: “Zeph. Do you remember you were so sad about killing Skrianna? You thought It was your fault? Actually, it was mine, and I’m very sorry.” I am now waving the Rod of Rulership and shouting: “You are under my spell, and you, and YOU!” “I think you need to go to bed, Enola…” Zeph says.

The next morning, during breakfast, everyone is behaving oddly. Valentine and Farryn want to go back to Undermountain as soon as possible. I know adventurers can get crazy in Undermountain and don’t want to leave – like ever – but I don’t feel like that today. Zeph is not down yet, so I go and get him. From his room, I hear: “Go away… Go away, go away go away!” I knock on the door. “Oh, hey Enola… I had a nightmare.” “Let me guess. It was about Undermountain.” “Kind of. It was about Hallaster. I woke up with a shadow hanging over me. But now I’m awake – let’s go to a park, and then go back to Undermountain again!” I am flabbergasted. We go downstairs to eat breakfast. The party is talking about how soon we can go down the Yawning Portal again and I’m starting to doubt myself – why don’t I want to go back to Undermountain so soon?

Zeph goes to a park, and the rest of us head for the city center where we can buy our adventuring gear. I am searching for an Atlas of Endless Horizons or a Ring of Spellstoring, but unfortunately, I don’t have any luck. Farryn buys a stone of good luck for Zeph and six potions of healing for the party. When we get a message from Zeph to go back to the Yawning Portal, we decide to end our shopping spree. In the Yawning Portal, we divide the potions of healing, and Farryn gives Zeph the stone of good luck. “Oh, but I already bought one of those!” Zeph says. “But you told me to get one for you!” Farryn says annoyed. “I’ll have it,” I interrupt. “I can benefit from some extra luck.”

We decide to travel to Skullport, but the ‘normal’ way – just to check if some things have changed. We are lowered into the pit to Undermountain and I sigh in despair when I see the light getting dimmer and dimmer as we descend into the dungeon. Zeph tells us he saw his dad briefly during his time in the park, and that his dad told him to pursue his own dreams and goals instead of the Queens.

At level one, we see no one. There is little activity, and so, we walk to level two. When we come down the stairs, it is also empty. This is particularly weird because there should be a marketplace filled with Goblins here. We walk a bit further to investigate the marketplace, but to our horror, we see many dead Goblins there. It seems like some sort of massacre… Suddenly, my eye falls on the symbol of Zhentarim – that faction must’ve done this. While we walk towards the stairs down, we sometimes see drow (looking like rats) moving in the shadows. They are avoiding us, but it feels ominous… We see a giant skeleton of a beholding rotting away near the stairs – Smokey told us about this one, I thought it was a load of rubbish, but the gunpowder and splatters are still on the walls and floor, so he must’ve told the truth. At level three, we walk past a little village. There are some moldy spiders there, but no other activity, so we can walk to Skullport easily and without being noticed.

We enter Lower Skullport and see the grave of someone named Delvin. I remember Smokey telling us about the poor boy that was lost and wanted to get back to his father and got shot by a drow. Zeph grows a flower on the grave with his magic. The flower is beautiful and light compared to the dimly lit, damp environment. We say goodbye to the grave and walk to Middle Skullport, to the inn. Inside, we find the sisters Turbulence and Violence. “O my god it is SO awesome to see you!” Turbulence says, walking up to us. She tries to hug Valentine, but she steps back, rejecting the embrace. Turbulence turns to me and hugs me amicably instead. I awkwardly tap her on the back, trying to return the hug. “It was a journey, but we got here eventually.” says Violence.

We sit down and tell them about Muiral and the level below the Wizard Academy. At the end of our conversation, Farryn mumbles that it could be nice to try to find the items here that we couldn’t find in Waterdeep. I agree, and start looking for the ring of spellstoring again at the shops scattered around Skullport. In all sorts of shops, Zeph tries to help me: “This one? This ring? Maybe this one? This one?”, but it doesn’t help that much. We get a lot of attention during our shopping. Probably because we’re looking for some weird and rare items – Valentine’s looking for a rod of the pact keeper, for example. After a while, Valentine gets approached by a man who says he has a rod of the pact keeper. He brings us to his shop and shows us the item. I look at it to see if he’s telling the truth: I use identify, and nod towards Valentine – it is the real deal. We try to convince the man to give it to us for 8000 gold pieces instead of 10.000. Farryn offers the guy a deal: we sell our found treasure to him first, so he has the first pick. He responds that he has a nice network of people already and that he would love to have us in it, but not for a lower price. Farryn pretends to be insulted, and tries to get the party to leave the store – I know he isn’t insulted and this is just a trick, but the man falls for it. He offers to sell the item for a total of 9200 gold pieces. Finally, we make a deal for 7250 gold pieces and Valentines’ old rod or rulership. He takes it and when he puts the money in his pocket, he waves his hand and disappears.

Suddenly, we’re inside a shabby shop instead of the nice one we were in earlier. What, this is weird. Was it all an illusion? Or did he transport us without us knowing? Valentine holds a piece of parchment: “Thanks for your purchase”

We go back to the inn to take a rest. Anong the way, we agree on a suitable party name: the Never Evers!