Into Darkness Report

General Summary

Lozado Smouldur was escorted to the Fen Watchtower by Reni Sixen, who helped him escape the custody of the Drill Lodge. The newly reconstituted band recovering from their encounter with the Soulbound Doll descended into the next level of the Undercitadel of Szitrag. Surface light no longer reached them, Hide manifested fire in his hands to provide light. Dropping into a corridor, the band planned their approach on this lower level. Facing a moldering door, Mellwell sent Toni under the door to scout the next room. Inside she found seven square alcoves, each containing strange magical apparatuses or alchemical sets of tools, ringing this damp stone chamber. The alcove to the north contained a large glass tank filled with liquid. A goblin’s corpse, clad in outdated servant’s clothing, floated inside it. A semicircular worktable covered with tools, moldy papers, and a large open book stood in front of the tank. The goblin in the tank was the preserved corpse of Borbo , once Vaidun’s devoted servant. Borbo volunteered his body and soul for a technique that Vaidun promised would grant immortality, though being turned into the Soulbound Doll was not exactly the immortality that Borbo had in mind. Still, Borbo, has thus far remained loyal to Vaidun. The corpse was well preserved in the tank. Toni also found a false wall that led to a stair further down.
In an attempt to force open the door, Chaz pounded the wall that blocked the the way to the secret stairwell. The force shook a toolbox open that was attached to the wall. Investigating the box, Hide pulled a switch that was disguised to look like a tool in the box, opening their path to the lower level.

Szitrag Library

Further down to another level of the Inverted Tower. another set of stairs to the west lead up to another area on the level above. The band crept to the east where they found a large library chamber Hundreds of stone shelves were carved into the walls of this fifteen‑foot‑wide hallway. The band was spotted by a pack of ghouls Four Ghouls and a Ghast all dressed in long, pale-blue robes were working here when the band stumbled upon them.
Chaz positioned himself to absorb a frontal attack, While Hide fired a few arrows into the pack of approaching ghouls. Mellwell slung Magic Missiles at them. Bobbin quickly mixed a Moderate Ghost Charge, and Lozado gazed off into the distance. Toni was quickly swarmed by ghouls; They obliterated her physical form and she blinked into Nix. Chaz swept the ghouls' legs out from under them with his gaff; Bobbin spiked his ghost charge on a fallen ghoul that dissolved into brilliant light. Snapping to his senses, Lozado tangled another ghoul in his chain while Mellwell telekinetically pushed her dagger into its skull.
Shocked by the sudden slaying of two ghouls, the Ghast and the remaining ghouls broke and fled back from where they came. Both Hide and Lozado worked together to fell the last ghoul, while the Ghast escaped to rally reinforcements. Hearing the clamor of another wave of undead, the Crackers decided to retreat back up to the Apprentice Island Island complex. At the top of the stair, Hide resealed the passage.

Apprentice Island

Taking additional time to search this abandoned workshop thoroughly, Mellwell found a limbless doll resembling a goblin. It had an indentation in its back the same size as the Soul Focus Gem the band acquired after they defeated the Soulbound doll. After inserting the soul focus gem, the doll sprung to life; Borbo, the soul trapped in the gem cried out,"Master!, Master!, Master!." The gobbo's doll eyes flitted around the room when he realized Vaidun had abandoned him, the dismembered doll let out a wail. Finally agreeing to assist the band in their mission to recover the lost thieves. Borbo noted that a few weeks ago four men moored a small boat and disappeared into a flooded cave under the boathouse; He assumed that the Morlocks that had taken up residence in the Servants Quarters had eaten them. When asked about his master, Borbo volunteered, Master Vaidun was a “powerful mastermind Drow occultist artist-craftsman” who had a relationship with a “book lady down below” and who worked for “Mistress Dretha, who is very frightening and absolutely none of my business.”
Across from the Workshop the band explored a suite of rooms that served as the personal chambers for Borbo and Vaidun, searching this space the band found a small stash of treasures Borbo collected: a shard of jade worth 15 gp, a silver statuette of two succubi worth 35 gp, and an oily-looking Slick Rune. In Vaidun's Chamber the Crackers found a list of books the Drow used to affect his own longevity and Borbo's current condition.

What The Worm Knows, Grave Feasts, and Secrets of the Skull

— Transcription will take months, but I’ll try to have these books back to you as soon as possible, my love!

  In a spirit of thoroughness, the band searched Vaidun's Laboratory to the south; A large metal table fitted with leather straps and iron bands sat in the center of this room. A strange contraption that looked to be part spyglass and part mechanical drill near the head of the table. Slurking on the far side of the room a giant leechlike creature rose at the smell of fresh blood in the room. Bobbin opened hostilities by tossing a blight bomb at the bloodsiphon; the oversized vermin absorbed the miasmic fumes and advanced toward the crackers. The Leech wrapped around Lozado and tried to feed off of him. Chaz connected with a few solid blows and the Blood siphon was finished off with a well-placed Ghost Charge.

Rewards Granted

180 XP

• a shard of jade worth 15 gp
• a silver statuette of two succubi worth 35 gp
• Slick Rune

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