Session 31: The conundrum of the stolen safe

General Summary

Having freed Skrik, we now had to focus on doing the actual mission that we accepted to get down to Donner city. The guard escorted us a little further to the army camp that was protecting the city against the drow. Besides the camp, we could see a wide crevice that lead far below.   Within the camp we arrive at a tent where several other dwarves are gathered around a map showing several tunnels. Some tunnels are scratched out on the map and several new ones have been drawn onto it recently. Apparently this map shows the tunnel system down below in which the army and the drow have been fighting, at least part of it.   One of the dwarves in the tent is Ybag Cinderblaze, the commander of the army and the one who posted the mission. He explains that we are to retrieve some stolen plans of a new weapon. It was stolen together with the safe it was in. If we can bring him the plans, the safe, and the head of the thief, he will give us 1200 gold pieces as a reward. We’ll also be allowed to keep anything we loot down below. Doesn’t sound like a very worthwhile mission, but it got us to Skrik and that is what our goal was. Let’s get this done and get to better paying missions. Before we leave to inspect the crime scene, Ybag tells us that we can recognize the thief by a black handkerchief.   At the vault, where the theft happened, we heard from the guards that during the theft everything went dark for about a minute. All of the guards are dwarves, so that everything went dark is strange to say the least. Janey mentions that there is a spell that does that. Skrik says that even if it was dark for 1 minute, it would be near impossible to get into the vault and back, not to mention while carrying a giant safe. Looking at the spot where the safe stood, we see markings of the safe having moved and then, nothing. This is all very strange! We conclude that whoever stole the safe must’ve used magic, but we don’t know what kind of magic. Skrik says that it could also be that some of the dwarves were bribed to look the other way while it was stolen, but we can’t know for sure until we question the thief. With nothing else to be found here we get escorted to the giant elevators at the crevice that lead to the Underdark.   Down below the guards lead us to where they lost the thieves track, it is up to us from here. The tunnels are indeed a maze, they stretch out in all directions. We find ourselves in a large room with lots of stalagmites and stalactites and make sure none of them is one of those living ones we encountered a few weeks ago. The ground here is all rock and we are unable to find any tracks, so we decided to check all the tunnels one by one. The first one turned out to be a dead end, but the second seemed to lead somewhere. There’s a problem however, black sludges are hanging from the ceiling, and slowly moving towards us. We tried to take them out from afar, but one dropped on us. We dealt with them before they could dissolve my new armor, disgusting things! Their ‘corpses’ have made the tunnel full of corrosive stuff though, and we didn’t see any tracks this way, so we decided to check the last tunnel in the previous room.   This tunnel leads to another room with a weird creature. It has three legs, a huge maw, and three tentacles. One of the tentacles has eyes on it, the other two are filled with spikes. I hear a voice in my head that says ‘FOOD’, most likely coming from this creature. Janey throws it her waterskinn with honey and it eats it in one bite, even taking some of the ground with it. It wants even more, so I throw it one of my ration packs. I’m not using it anyway with Valstrax around. Janey enlarges it with her magic, but the thing still manages to eat it all in one bite. Again I hear its voice, ‘MORE’. Since this thing seems to only be hungry, I make a trail towards the slime ‘corpses’ with some more ration packs and return to the others; keeping a safe distance from the thing.   While I was leading the creature away, the others found some tracks. These weren’t elf shaped though, more dwarf shaped. We decide to follow them anyway, and find a rundown battering ram. They seem to be recycling the metal plates on it, as the tracks lead back from where we came. Perhaps they know where to find the drrow, so we decide to pay them a visit.   We find a wall with a door in it, hammering can be heard from behind it. Janey knocks, but there is no response. We decide to just go in and check out what is going on in there. Skrik picks the lock in a fraction of a second, I’m starting to think there’s no place he can’t get into. Inside, four Duergar are hammering on two anvils side by side. I can hear the forge they’re using roaring down the tunnel to the right. It took the Duergar quite a while to notice us, they didn’t even respond when Janey said hello when we entered. The conversation went pretty well actually, they told us the drow camp was ‘right around the corner’ from where we found their ram. We returned to the ram, and took the right tunnel. We ran into another one of those three legged creatures with tentacles, but this one didn’t try to ask for food, this one just charged Valstrax. The creature was able to wrap around Valstrax, but he returned the favor. We soon took the creature down, and decided to take a short rest before continuing. The Thief had stolen the plans two days ago, I’m sure a couple extra hours won’t hurt. While Janey was setting up the hut, Valstrax harvested the creature for meat. The dish Valstrax prepared from the creature was average compared to his usual dishes. I doubt anyone would’ve been able to turn such a thing into something tasty, so I’m still amazed with how it turned out.   After this short breather we will continue to the drow, and will probably have to fight them. I just hope this thief is there so we can get out of here.

Rewards Granted

24635 xp total