Session Date: 5/14/2023
We feed the cave dragon by taking it to a pack of bathounds, and then we continue our way with Iskra in the lead and Hamir helping. Captain Kearney is clearly uncomfortable being so deep within the earth, but she’s trying to pass off that she is not scared. Iskra tells Inky and the captain that he needs to blow something up for the kobold mob around this time.
We have another day of walking before we get out of the tunnels.
Inky is hit with a vision of the tunnels and going down further, and further, and further into the core of the dearth. Everyone else sees it as well, though not as intensely as Inky. Arythas recognizes that this is a type of fey influence, something playing a game with us. Inky yips in surprise and it echoes through the caverns. Ahead, a man in a tent a little ways away calls out asking who is around and what is going on.
We approach and he explains he is Professor Heidan Farstar. He’s an older elf that writes adventuring 101 type books, popular 1-2 generations before us. He hasn’t published a new work in a while. He is down here doing research and has gotten himself lost. He’s been here a few weeks and is tired, hungry, and acts very self-important. We offer him the direction out and he says that “we” tried to go that way. Upon questioning, he explains that he had a manservant and a ranger with him but they were separated (he actually ran away in fear). Professor Heidan has negative thoughts about the bugbear that gave him the map of the caverns, and he explains they heard a roar and their party got split up.
The Professor explains where he thinks his companions are, and we figure out we need to pass by that area to get out of the caverns anyway. He explains that his manservant is a dwarf called Famir. Hamir explains we need to worry about Famir due to what happens to dwarves when they leave the dark caves deep in the earth.
Dwarves are not meant to leave the deep caverns their kin have made their homes — living too close to the surface is dangerous for them. This is a rather private topic among dwarves, and Hamir won’t elaborate, but we all may be in danger. Privately, Arythas knows that dwarves wear containment suits because their ancestors made a deal with the fey. They cannot go to the surface because of this deal: they can thrive in the deep earth at the cost of never returning to the surface. The surface causes them to grow unstable. Dwarves refer to the surface as overburn.
Hamir explains that if the dwarf went “derro” — their term for that dwarves that have fallen to that instability — then there is no way for them to reverse it and save him. Hopefully he is okay, though Hamir is clearly not hopeful about this.
We start off down the tunnel and the Professor continues to talk very loudly as we progress. Rohan notices a footstep into the wall and he stops to look at it, realizing the caves are likely shifting as we move through them. We hear the earth rumble, but continue on. We find a small recess in the stone and find a meditating bugbear: the missing ranger. The ranger wishes to negotiate his pay, but Dia asks what of the dwarf. He explains that the containment suit fell off and he is changed, and that he has no desire to deal with a derro.
The ranger confirms that whatever is making their lives hard is a fey and is rather powerful: a count or higher. He also confirms that it is shifting the caves and says that this is a game to entertain it, but fey don’t necessarily realize that mortal beings need food and water to live.
Iskra tries to commune with the fey — the echo of Iskra’s paws hitting the ground echoes too much and a growl sounds as heavy footsteps approach. Four paws with wicked talons, horns, and the face of an elongated skull appears from the darkness. The fey creature looms over us and says that Iskra smells familiar, suddenly lunging forward to grab Iskra. There’s a very tense moment, then the creature laughs and its mood lightens as he introduces himself as the Duke of Depths.
It is a rather jovial creature as it exclaims that we helped his niece and that we are friends of the fey because of this. Iskra explains that we are on a quest to stop the forces that made the Frosty Princess sick to begin with, and he is glad to help us with this. He asks what to do with the derro and Hamir explains he wishes to meet with him, and Dia manages to talk him into letting her join him.
Some of us go with Hamir down the hall that the Duke of Depths gives us access to. The derro is there and we find him frothing at the mouth, partially embedded in the wall. The corrupted dwarf has an arm turning into tentacles, an eye splitting into two, and his body is mutating overall. Hamir puts the poor dwarf out of his misery and the body is swallowed by the earth. He explains to those that came that this is the price his people have paid, and he admits that it is likely too steep. He wishes to find this man’s family and tell them what has happened here.
Iskra stayed behind to speak with the Duke of Depths and share information with him. For example: making a maze feeding on anguish and the fear of others? Pretty horrifying, actually! The Duke admits that he eventually lets people go, but they are traumatized. The conversation eventually leads to the Duke admitting that he is thinking he will go find somewhere else to live for a while, bored with what Oceanscar has to offer (or doesn’t have to offer).
The rest of the party returns and the Duke of Depths let us out of this area, and as we head out we realize the entire tunnel system behind is now gone. We exit the tunnel and find ourselves back inside the city. We walk up and at the end of the hall is a stone ladder that leads back up to the upper city. We get up and find ourselves rather close to the Bloodsoaked Banner and Temple of Bane. After walking a while, Kestrel St. Clair makes himself known and teases Rohan, saying he needs to be better at looking at his surroundings.