The Journey Inward

So, like most of these adventures, this one seemed to start up right when we arrived from our last adventure. Little rest was awarded, but I do hope we're in time to see through the mysterious task that Portentia has for us.
 
Anyways,
 
We found most of the crew and halflings iin high spirits when we docked. Jeeves happened to have a long list of items to go through with us and a long list of expenses we needed to pay out. After all the boring paperwork, we went for a long awaited Gerald over at the Inn. I got absolutely smashed, but not before finding out about a few of our crew from the farm going missing. After a groggy morning, we found ourselves checking in with Nelethorpe.
 
Nel was excited to see us(at least I think so), but was definitely very interested in the Aqua Regia that we obtained in Ironfall. This viscous yellow liquid, also known as Kings Water, was a small beginning to a catalyst that will repair the golden scroll we found. I'm THAT much closer to being able to understand the Name of Fire that I spoke all those years ago. So, thats exciting; We just need to find a GIANT CRYSTAL about as far south from us as we just traveled north to face that giant.
 
OH! Almost forgot, we found a new ship! A couple of shaken crew members were also aboard it, but we took them aboard and asked them to be a part of our crew. Does that make me an Admiral now? Or just a pirate? I'll have to study up on all that as we head south to retrieve that giant crystal. Anyways, I made Andredalis temporary captain of that ship with Peter Tucker as his First Mate. Andredalis seemed VERY excited to jump at the opportunity; We're gonna send them west to sell some supplies and some ale that our Alemaster has been brewing. Maybe we can have some kind of partnership form in Watersdeep! Passive income is always a fun way to make money.
 
SO
 
ONTO THE JOURNEY
 
We followed up with the halfling that appeared most shaken by the disappearance of a couple of the other ones. This guy was REALLY rattled, he kept saying the same phrase over and over again...I wish I could remember it, now. It made no sense if taken at face value, so we thought there MUST be some hidden meaning or metaphor behind it all. After some digging through his belongings(we asked and he motioned something like it was okay...i think), we found some old books and a journal. The books indicated some children's stories of not wandering too far into the woods, etc. etc. His journal, however, indicated that he is a songwriter! We did our best to figure out what the words meant, but just decided to venture to where he was last working to figure out the rest of this puzzle.
 
In the lighthouse, we followed a clue from one of the lines of his song to check under the rug in the center of the room. Under this rug, we found a black ichor with some kind of an earthy grimy smell to it. Flux was disgusted and prestidigitated it right away(I gotta have Them teach me that). Feeling around on the stones, we could kind of see a design in the ground, I used what I knew of magical items to try and see if I noticed anything out of the ordinary. The stones had some strange magic on them and what I could hear in the back of my head, oddly enough, was a single note. I'm no musician, but I tried my best to combine the note I could hear and the lyrics of the halflings song.
 
THE GROUND SHIFTED BENEATH US. As we backed up, we saw the stones slowly shift and move. Levels were starting to be formed by the stones as they shifted further and further down into the tower. We found a staircase!
 
Trying to prepare for a HOPEFULLY quick journey into the depths, Flux and I thought it best to call for backup. We grabbed Baldric, Peter, and Andredalis and headed down the stairs into the great unknown. Seemingly magically, before we went too far, we found a map of the underground; the first task we needed to figure out was which direction we were entering into the map from haha
 
We looked in most of the major rooms, generally staying left as we wanted to try and head towards the back of the cavern? The dank musty smell grew as we walked deeper and deeper into the darkness; luckily for all of us, we had Flux and myself, lighting the way(mostly Flux). As we crept cautiously through these caves, we grew uneasy about our surroundings. The walls seemed to shift just out of the corners of our eyes. Then, just ahead of us, humanoid creatures COVERED in moss and mushrooms lurched towards us. We fought them off fairly well, but most of us had breathed in spores or had been touched by the creatures. The poison(im assuming) melted at our skin and pierced our lungs as we kept pushing further.
 
Trying to explore all of the rooms we could, we came across a door ajar. As we got closer, we noticed movement behind it. Expecting these creatures to have one of our halflings, we pushed open the door and lit up the room(sorry Andredalis). To put an end to the fight, I tried using a spell I haven't used before called Fireball. It seemed right and well used, but I singed Andredalis pretty bad(man, if I had a health potion I would've given it to him). Another reason why I would like to know the name of fire. We learned we needed to find an Altar.
 
We salvaged a few pieces of important paperwork, a nice dagger, some mail armor, and I believe a sword or two.
 
We needed rest.
 
We sat there for a moment to collect ourselves and headed out and around to the next room. Here, we were greeted by stairs that led up to a hallway just filled to the brim with mushrooms and moss. We could try an squeeze through, but after encountering those mushroom people, we decided firepower was necessary. Firebolt after firebolt was blasted into these mushrooms as creatures started emerging from the walls. We burned through all the mushrooms we could and found that the narrow hallway was a recipe for disaster if you were in the front. After changing our order a couple times, we finally made it to the top of the stairs and into a large room glowing green.
 
All of us were badly beaten up and decided on another rest with Baldric watching. Before that we found a small humanoid looking creature at the back of the room... on an Altar; Mushrooms covering her and creating a cocoon-like throne. After our rest, there was a bit of mental excavation I wanted to take. I really tried to figure out if the person in the cocoon was still mentally present. Flux, similarly, was trying to have a conversation with her. Struggling for a moment, we both managed to break through to her. DAHLIA. It was like she was under water, muffled, and crying out for help.
 
I decided to bless Dahlia to potentially give her a little extra help to free herself. It proved a little more trouble than previously thought. Thinking fast, Flux grabbed Dahlia and, luckily, was able to help free Dahlia from the control of the mushroom throne. The throne started glowing a red color as soon as we released Dahlia from her prison. More mushroom creatures came at us, and Dahlia, in a state of panic, ran off down the hallway. Once I was able to free myself from the control of the mushroom throne, I cast the highest level of fire I could at it and destroyed the rest of it.
 
Dahlia slipped past Peter and continued down the hall. Worried, I ran after her at full speed with Peter in tail(haha). She neared close to the edge and I saw pain in her as she leapt off the cliff into the darkness.
 
Time slowed. My heartbeat quickened. I focused on Dahlia and the pain that I felt and cast the only spell I knew could help on her.
 
We listened.
 
No thud.
 
The sympathetic bond with her pain and (mainly) her name, allowed me to cast featherfall on her and to drift gently to the ground. Peter and I jumped after her, knowing that we needed to make sure she was alright. She reached the ground just before us and darted off, but Peter leapt and was able to hold her, just long enough for us to tie her up( for her own safety of course[ive seen this done to many at the college who were higher level studiers and decided to try something outside of their level of magic]).
 
Dahlia was safe.
 
Flux tried to find more loot, but ended up coming out empty handed after facing some undead that decided to pop out and attack them.
 
Some of the halflings, actually A LOT of them though it a good idea to go in after us, so after getting to a safe area, we went back in looking for those poor lost little ones. Traversing through, we seemed to find a couple of them, but moreso found trouble in the form of a disembodied floating skull on fire. Being as beaten up and tired as we were, we needed to come back to deal with that. Then, rounding out the area, we came upon some gelatenous cubes and I did my best to singe them out of existence.
 
We didnt really find the other halflings, but we have yet to meet back up with baldric and his search party.
 
To Be Continued...