S1 E39: The Treasures of Quindarin
General Summary
In which the Party fires up the experiment, and finds themselves on Quindarin's demiplane.
- After some back and forth about how to power up the transplanar vehicle, Zalock is talked into allowing them to use Deep Scream herself as the power source, despite having been turned into a spider crab; given any opportunity they can rest assured she would have murdered them all, and their world with them, if she could have. The crab is deposited in the fuel compartment and the smoke on the ceiling comes down to the floor
- They find themselves in a strange hot springs clearing in a forest, near a large ivory-colored tower on a hill, with similar decorative elements and accoutrement as the ruins of the tower the gang found in the forest. Quindarin speaks in Zalock's head and tells them one person can enter through the wall of force surrounding the tower.
- Lorfel goes inside and finds a museum of oddities that makes Willow's collection look like it was put together by a toddler. He finds instead of a gigantic dragon or human-ish wizard, an amethyst version of himself - he favors purple anyway, but this tortle is a little translucent as well, like grape jelly glass. The being speaks with authority and is soon revealed to be Quindarin himself. After some introductions and explanations, he invites the rest of the party inside as well.
- In a lengthy discussion, the party gets a distinct feeling that Quindarin is hiding something from them, not through maliciousness but because he's more than a little out of it. He explains that the hot springs outside his door are the work of Borem, and that the worlds are physically and metaphysically out of balance, and it's more or less his fault, from trying to help the Stardonyx race (which may or may not have actually wanted his help; how he got mixed up with them is left unexplained).
- He explains a few options that he's come up with for stopping the damage from the conjunction, but for the most part doesn't tread new ground. He seems hesitant, not because he doesn't care, or because he doesn't want to stop it, but because he gets caught up in some idea of 'paying the price' and that he needs to work through others rather than directly involve himself. He plays this off as if it's to keep Willow from pestering him, but everyone has doubts, and wonders why after 200 years this is the best he can do - drop a dead god's body on the moon, or an Astral Dreadnought (a really really big one) or somehow make it more dense...it all sounds like dodging the actual problem or solution, but they can't get more out of him. Not because he's holding back, but because if he had better ideas, he seems to have forgotten them. Perhaps puzzling over his diagrams written in more lucid days can add more insight.
- However he does evidently know of one thing the party didn't - that the cultists may themselves be controlling Borem, rather than the other way around, and they have his heart locked away in the Temple of Borem. If they get control of the heart, he thinks that the party can likewise control the Sentient Lake of Boiling Mud. Great idea, where's the temple? Well, we just don't know that, Quindarin admits, but he suspects that some higher level cultists might have something. And some higher level cultists have been mucking around here on his own demiplane - which seems weird, but OK - and if they can convince them to spill the secrets maybe the gang can find it. Or they may have a map or something like that.
- He also gives each of them one or two items that he feels would help them, since he's spent twenty minutes getting to know them. Granted, he is VERY intelligent, though he doesn't lord it over them the way some of their foes have tried to do. Most of these items require attunement, so they aren't of use in the fight against these local Boremites, but they take the fight to them nonetheless.
- The episode ends as a the fight ends, and as Lorfel admits he wants to return to his study to take a deeper look at things from the inside, while they continue to work on the problem directly.
Rewards Granted
For Blizzard:
- Ring of Charisma +2 (https://www.dndbeyond.com/magic-items/2122917-butterfly-ring)
- Scroll of Legend Lore (https://www.dndbeyond.com/spells/legend-lore) - intended to be written into his Spellbook. Note that spells can also be written out of the spellbook and back onto scrolls. See https://www.dndbeyond.com/sources/xgte/downtime-revisited#ScribingaSpellScroll
- Embroidery Thread of Nondetection (https://www.dndbeyond.com/magic-items/6183631-embroidery-thread-of-non-detection
- Banner of Ambush ( https://www.dndbeyond.com/magic-items/6182344-banner-of-ambush)
- Ring of the Snake (https://www.dndbeyond.com/magic-items/6183602-ring-of-the-snake)
- Lance of the Dragonkin (https://www.dndbeyond.com/magic-items/6182201-lance-of-dragon-kin)
Missions/Quests Completed
- "Deep Scream, Defeated"
- "Into the Amethyst Whirlpool"
- "Never Meet Your Heroes"
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