The party continues to explore the first level of Undermountain, the ‘Dungeon Level’.
The party rests in the tiny hut, and Tygorr keeps watch. After what must be a few hours, the door to the large room opens, and in tromps an old man with long, bedraggled white hear, wearing a robe covered in blinking eyes. The old man drags a hapless Tang Wu along, now apparently freed from the cursed sword. The wizard sees the magical dome covering the party, and begins banging on the side of it, demanding to speak with it’s occupents. Shining Brow goes out to talk. The wizard releases Tang Wu, and claims to be looking for a woman named… Hysteria? His words are fast, and hard to understand. The wizard asks for a fee to replace ‘his janitor’, the gelatinous cube, and disappears, leaving behind a lead grey box. Inside the box, the party finds a note that says…
Dear Halaster,
Please replace the wand of wishes.
Love, Halaster
The box seems to be designed to hold wands. Mantis places it in the bag of holding.
Tygorr and Tang Wu wake the rest of the party, and investe their surroundings. The doors are all unlocked, except for one, which is stuck. It seems to have swollen in it’s frame, until it became stuck. After three failed attempts to open the door, Mantis, Tygorr, and Tang use a rope to pull it open, and are injured by a blast of water that erupts from the doorway. The room beyond it filled with old furniture and books, all waterlogged and ruined. Mantis finds a 15 inch wand of unknown power.
The party decides to leave the room through a different door. The passage beyond splits left and right. One direction leads into darkness, but one seems lit, and voices can be heard in the distance. Shining Brow scouts in the direction of the lit rooms. He spies two rooms that are occupied. One contains a group of bugbears sleeping on pallets. A second room nearby has a group of humans eating hardtack, speaking in a language he cannot understand. After returning to the group, they decide as a committee to move along. The group spends some time wandering the dark halls, finding themselves walking around in circles.
The group begins to see frescos painted on the walls. The paintings seem to tell the story of a wizards failing spectacularly. In on, theres’s a group of them turning into a cursed beast called a Nothic. Shazuu, interested by this, takes the lead. The group follows this hallway which leads to a well lit room. Inside, the har the sound of a harp. From the doorway, they see a woman lounging within, being fed grapes by an invisible creature. Her weapons are sitting on the table in front of her. The remainder of the room is set up like a lounge, lined with bookcases. A painting of a wizard hangs on the wall. When they enter, the party sees she has two holy symbols, one of Waukeen, and one of Shar.
She shouts at Mantis to leave, and when he refuses, she commands her ‘servants’ to attack! Invisible creatures attack the party, but they dispatch the enemy quickly. She seems taken aback, and her attitude changes quickly. She introduces herself as Midna, a cleric. Mantis speaks with her, asking for some of her food. She offers food, but the conversation goes downhill, and she quickly tires of the party, and asks us to leave.
The group moves away from the room, and reconvenes to discuss this strange woman seemingly vacationing in a dungeon. She made both Shazuu and Tang uncomfortable. This leads to a discussion, but ultimately, the group decides to move back to the room full of humans and try to negotiate with them. Mantis leads the way, and when he enters, sees a strange insect like creature who appears to be their leader. This leader asks Mantis to retrieve an item in exchange for a map of this complex. Mantis notices they bear the symbol of the Xanathar. The bug/man says that a drow is working with the wererats elsewhere in the dungeon, and it possesses a map, along with a key. The offer for this job is 50 gold, so the party declines, and moves on.
They head back in the direction that they came from, and walk down several hallways. They find one hall blocked by an unmovable grate and a passageway trapped with pressure plates on the floor. From the darkness beyond, Xanathar thugs yell insults at the party. The group heads back south, and follow more twisting passages. The group encounters a door with a combination lock that will not open, but they manage to avoid a rather nasty energy-beam trap built into the lock.
Moving on again, Mantis leads the party further south. He spots a large chamber ahead, and as he looks up to the high ceiling, sees a greying beholder floating above. Mantis hears sounds of battle from a passageway across the room. Tygorr steps forward, and uses his wand to cast a hold spell on the beholder. Shazuu rushes across to the next room, and joins the battle, while Shining Brow begins to work on a door in the room with the beholder.
Shazuu enters the next room and sees a huge woman standing in a circle. She is surrounded by bugbears and thugs who are trying to knock her down. Seeing this as a training exercise, Shazuu jumps into the circle and strikes the woman. This precipitates a combat, in which the party efficiently corrals and eliminates their foes. As they search the room, Tang Wu shoots the beholder in the next room. A quick viscous battle follows, ending when Shazuu drags the beast to the ground and shreds it. The beholder seems to have been a zombie of some sort. Searching the room, Mantis finds a secret door.
Next time:
- The group continues their search for magical items.
- Durnan mentioned the “Arcane Chambers”, “The Willowood”, and “Selune’s Tears” in his letter
- Return to the Mirror of Wands when strong enough (Lvl 11)
- Return to the map room and figure out how to activate it