Session 16: "Depths of Dolsharn", 1 Eyre 998 YK Report

General Summary

Welcome Back to Eberron...

Condensation drips from the ceiling of the makeshift jail cell and lands on a stone sculpture leaned against the wall. The bead of moisture works it's way down through a tangle of marble hair before crossing the forehead and making it's way to a tear duct, accentuating the mood in the room. The gnome face is pulled back in an angry expression, and the moisture gives the statue a look of tearful fury.
It's hard to look at the statue, a perfect representation of the artificer Glittergem Boondiggles. It's not just because the statue is all that is left of her body, but because part of it is missing. A left leg, broken below the knee from the petrified form of the gnome, is lying somewhere in the series of tunnels that Harash took to get to this place.
You are sure that this room has not always been a cell, the door seems woefully inadequate for the task, but it has been converted to that purpose by your captors. It is a small room, made of a familiar black stone, that is only 20 x 20 feet, with a thin layer straw placed in the corner as makeshift bedding. While there is no one else in your cell, you know that there have been other prisoners taken and you expect them to be held in rooms nearby.

Therin was a despondent prisoner, lamenting the loss of the double-bladed scimitar he inherited from his mother. Though largely left to his own devices, he would suffer random attacks by the goblin guards who fired stray crossbow bolts into the small rooms whenever they grew bored of gambling. The elf was too focused on his recent losses to commit his mind to the events around him, but he was loosely aware of the gorgon Harash leaving the prison, and the general location of Delakash and her retinue.

The Breakout

After several hours, one of the guards from outside the prison ran in to tell the rest of the goblins that adventurers were headed toward the prison. The goblin boss ordered the detatchment to head to the front of the building and prepare an ambush. A short while later, Therin heard a creature trying to break into the cells. Diggory Smith, having heard that his friend Gem had been captured, made it his mission to rescue her. He followed Erisna, Rare, and company as they descended into Dolsharn, and took the opportunity to slip into the prison unnoticed while they resisted the goblin ambush outside. For more on that adventure, see Bonus Side Quest: Rescue Party Report.
Erisna, Rare, Keth, Tinker, and Ashe burst into the room just as Diggory picked the lock. Rare presented the double-bladed scimitar entrusted to her by Seraphina Boromar, and Erisna gave the rogue a rousing speech to clear his mind for the task ahead. Ashe was able to replicate the same restoration ritual she used on Rare to return Glittergem to her flesh and blood. The gnome tried to ignore the missing limb, choosing instead to strap herself to the back of Keth to continue onward.
The party decided to face Delakash and figure out what was going on in this prison. Tinker, Diggory, and Ashe elected to stay in the barracaded room with the other prisoners as a safeguard.

Delakash, Cavallah's Newest Lieutenant

Listening through the door, Rare discovered the orcs and the hobgoblin minions in the room were unaware of the recent events in the prison. The Sharn Dragons decided to use this information to their advantage and launch a surprise attack. Of note in this battle, Rare made excellent use of her spell Slow and Glittergem dealt the final blow to several occupants of the room with her blunderbuss, Hand to God. She killed Delakash with a final shot to the head, sending the lieutenant reeling backwards into her wooden throne. The party recovered 500 galifar from her corpse.
The only survivor of the battle, a hobgoblin named Cutter surrendered to the party. Through interrogation, they discovered that Delakash had only been promoted in the past week, and Cutter had been assigned to her at that time. He had been part of the Daask's "auxillary" and was well informed on the particulars of any specific operations. Binding his wrists, the Sharn Dragons decided to deliver the hobgoblin to the Boromar Crime Family.
After recovering most of his gear (his mother's double-bladed scimitar and his Potions of Greater Healing nowhere to be found), Therin discovered a strange glyph on the wall of the room. After some trial and error, the party discovered that the glyph was powered by magic and controlled a secret door. Using a "touch" spell on the door, Therin was able to open the door to a secret room.

Cavallah's Laboratory

In the center of this small room are a series of arcane runes, painted onto the surface of the stone in a dark sticky substance. Bookcases, filled with thick tomes and loose scrolls, line the walls. The musty air is filled with the acrid turpentine smell of potions or tinctures being left to spoil in their pots. This room seems to have been left abandoned. Along the back wall you see a spindly spiral staircase made from the same dark metal (byeshk) that you've seen throughout the rest of the building.

Cavallah's laboratory had been abandoned for what appears to have been a month. The runes on the floor were drawn on the floor in the same sticky black ichor the party encountered beneath the Blackstone Cathedral (see Session 8, 12 Therendor 998 YK, Session 9, 12 Therendor 998 YK, and Session 10, 12 Therendor 998 YK for more). Searching the bookcases, the party found two unidentified arcane scrolls and a host of books concerning manifest zones. Above one of the bookcases was the hilt of a broken goblin sword made of the rare byeshk metal. Finally, the party also collected a series of writings (Cavallah's Journals) made by Cavallah herself, chronicling her life since she left Droaam in 990 YK.
Using the spiral staircase in the back of the room, the party was able to usher the rest of the captives to the ruins of Dolsharn and make their way back through a horde of angry goblins. As soon as they returned to the surface, the crew from Tinker's Green Dragon returned to their pub with Gem. Erisna, Rare, and Therin delivered Cutter to the Boromar's at the mansion. There, Therin had a brief reunion with Seraphina and his homunculus, Muninn. She informs him that Saidan Boromar's condition continues to worsen. She knows that members of the Boromar Crime Family have been driven to vigilante justice, beating "Droaamites" in the street to try and get information on how to reverse the poison that courses through his system. He is in immense pain, and there is no amount of healing energy that has had any effect. He is unable to eat, and has not woken from his sleep since the morning.
Afterwards, the three of them walked to the mansion to listen to the final comments in a meeting held in the great hall. While the party was fighting their way out of Dolsharn, the city had rapidly formed a new organization to combat the threat posed by the "Droaamites" in Sharn. The Council of sharn has begrudgingly allowed this new Sharn Alliance to form as a special interest group to hire a team of adventurers in the interests of stopping Cavallah, but has not offered them any official deputized status.
While listening to the meeting, the party discovered that three attacks were carried out against "Droaamites" (the creatures of Malleon's Gate and Gate of Gold districts) in the first day since the attack on the Boromar mansion. While no one in the group were willing to admit that the victims of those attacks were innocent, they did admit that no ties were found between them and the Daask. To make matters worse, much of the Sharn Watch has been withdrawn to the Middle and Upper Wards, leaving the Lower City to its own devices. Curiously, as many of the guards of the city have retreated upward- the goblin population seems to have migrated downward into the Dhakaani ruins the party has just escaped. Many in the Sharn Alliance fear that this behavior is a precursor to a much larger attack from the bowels of the city, and Commander Iyanna ir'Talan has been vocal in demanding a stronger security force to protect the people of the Lower City.
The Citadel has not authorized the use of its forces to fight Cavallah and her gang, citing this as "gang violence" that would best be left to the local authorities. In confidence, Ilyra Boromar admitted that deploying the King's Swords would likely do more harm than good, causing the people to panic even further.
The Sharn Alliance consists of the following individuals:
Ilyra Boromar
Larian ir'Morgrave
Thora Tavin
Millicent ir'Orsay
The Spider (in disguise)
Commander Iyanna ir'Talan
Mayne Jhaelian
These concerned citizens have pooled their money together, offering a 100,000 galifar reward for the capture/ destruction of Cavallah. They have agreed to pay 10,000 galifar for each of Cavallah's lieutenants (the unkown person from Morgrave University, Zaeran, and Harash) and the remaining 70,000 for the destruction of Cavallah herself. The group has put their agencies to work to find the identities or locations of Cavallah's lieutenants, believing them to be instrumental to her power in the city. They suspect one (or all) of them knows their leader's current location, making them even more valuable.

New NPCs

Cutter the Hobgoblin is a prisoner of the Sharn Alliance who does not seem to know much about the particulars of the Daask operation. He is currently being held by the Boromar Crime Family. It isn't clear what his future utility will be.
Mayne Jhaelian, a member of the Undying Court of Aerenal and the only creature that can return Rare's wife Ea to the material plane.
Larian ir'Morgrave, the headmaster and benefactor of Morgrave University.

Loot

2x Unidentified Arcane Scrolls
50x books, many stolen from the library at Morgrave University and focused on the subject of the manifest zones
a broken goblin sword made of the rare byeshk metal, unusable in its current form but a valuable metal nonetheless
Cavallah's Journals
500 galifar

Campaign

Flight of the Sharn Dragons

Protagonists

Glittergem Boondiggles

NG Rock Gnome (Guild Member (Fabricator's Guild))
Artificer 5

38 / 38 HP

STR
10

DEX
11

CON
14

INT
17

WIS
12

CHA
12

Rare Mavari

Report Date

22 Feb 2021

Loose Threads

Who is Thora Tavin, and what does she know about Rare?

What has happened to the Crooked Mirror?

What kind of poison was used on Saidan Boromar? Was it Daask that poisoned him?

Who is Cavallah's lieutenant at Morgrave University?