RD
On the stone wall behind
Lat'num Leng | Githzerai Artificer a freshly carved (still smouldering) message read:
GF,
The only way I can give it to the farmboy is if you give it to the boy here.
RD
Gorgoroth Flamesbreath | Dragonborn Psi Warrior told his team about a strange present that he received when he was a farmboy. When Lat'num described
Zeitspringer | Human Artificer, it sounded to Gorgoroth like an elderly version of Randus Duthane.
Lat'num admitted that he'd pursued Zeitspringer here in hopes of accessing the human's magical device, the Orb of Time and Space, though he didn't go into details about why he wanted the Orb.
Orion
The party asked
Orion Dragovic | Undercover Resistance Operative about the artifacts they searched for. He advised them to seek out the Slud clan of gully dwarves, who might have access to magic items. He had no information about the Dragonlances or the Orb of Time and Space, but knew that the gully dwarves had taken
Erathis' Charter to the caverns below.
Orion was confident he'd be able to create a diversion outside on the surface that might last 12 hours. He told the party to keep a low profile while searching the undercity so as to not draw attention from
Sephadex | Adult Black Dragon.
While Orion spoke to the others, Lat'num repaired
Bit | Monodrone. He noticed that Bit's exterior plating had numerous gears and tiny movable parts that had nothing to do with her normal operation. He suspected that they might be part of a incredibly intricate locking mechanism. If he had an hour or two he might be able to work out the sequence to open... whatever is locked. In the meantime he asked to join the party.
Bupu
The group followed
Bupu | Gully Dwarf Shaman through a long sewer tunnel that sloped downwards to the upper city streets of
Xak-Tsaroth, now buried underground. Bupu warned them not to disturb "the quiet ones", ghostly apparitions that haunted the perfectly intact buildings.
At a waterfall the group saw the undercity, scores of roofs still five hundred feet below them below a cloud of mist. They took the better part of three hours carefully climbing down vines that grew near the waterfall to avoid the risk of falling.
Once on ground level, Bupu headed towards her leader, King Highbulp. They saw the chains of the elevator system and a single draconian guard standing near a brass dragon statue. He saw them coming and rang the statue like a gong four times before he was killed by the party. Five gongs sounded from above. The group hit the statue again and again, answers sometimes coming from above, sometimes not. Then they left the area and met King Highbulp.
The King seemed disinterested in the group's arrival, but did voice his frustration at the "Masters" (draconians) and how much easier his life used to be before the creatures. He ordered Bupu to take the strangers to the disgusting, dirty, home of the Slud clan.
Very nearby, the Slud clan operated out of a pristine white, immaculately clean showroom. The few Slud that the party interacted with were depressed and took no pleasure in being caretakers for the magic, non-dwarven artifacts on display.
Bhaskar
They found the Dragonlance, a 22-foot riding lance, hung in a place of honor on one wall. While Berov and S'thom looked for a way to get it down and into the bag of holding, Lat'num purused a bookshelf and found
Erathis' Charter.
When he opened the book and inspected one of the Discs of Civil about holidays of orc cultures, the party was instantly teleported to a banquet hall where orcs feasted, drank, danced and wrestled. A human man called to the newcomers from the end of the hall and asked them to join him.
The man was
Bhaskar Distan'Vwaje and the party was once again in Palace Egressingress.
Renestrae | Eladrin Celestial Warlock and Lat'num had never met Bhaskar and needed to get caught up.
Bhaskar was the architect of the
Hexabeyance, sixteen artifacts that were constructed to aid Bahamut in his eternal struggle against his sister, Tiamat. Individually, each Hexabeyance was a powerfully magic device. Together, they could resuscitate a dead god.
The 16 artifacts were grouped into Quadrants (four groups of four):
Erathis' Charter is one of the Divine Cordons.
Aufklarung is one of the Symbolum Auctoritatis (Symbols of Authority). Bhaskar hinted that the team already possessed two other Hexabeyance, one of the Prevailing Equinoxes and one of the Ascendencies, but refused to go into detail. He could only give one hint, either about a named Hexabeyance, or about one of the Quadrants.
Upon the party's request, Bhaskar told them the names of the Hexabeyance in the Ascendancies quandrant:
- Rod of Logos
- Orb of Zeitundraum
- Blade of Tzu
- Band of the Magnate
Sephadex
The party rested fully at Bhaskar's palace. At their wish, they returned to the home of the Sluds, where they packed their bags with new gear found in the magical storeroom.
In the cavernous city, they heard Sephadex above the layer of mist, screaming in rage at someone because the intruders had not yet been caught.
Berov tried to trick the dragon with his Thermaturgy spell again, creating the sound of thunder. This time however, the sound came from within the safety of his subterannean lair, not from the dangerous skies outside.
The trick failed.
"THIEVES!" Sephadex bellowed.
Gorgoroth ordered them to take cover inside a nearby building. A torrent of acid came raining down and reduced the bricks and timber to slush. The roof collapsed upon the party as the dragon swooped down from overhead.
Prayers went out to the heroes from across the multiverse that they remember what
info they learned about Sephadex while imprisoned after their last defeat.
Lesson 1
You can't win every fight
Draconians easy in small groups but can overwhelm you when they have numbers
Need to assess the strength of enemy and determine if winning is option
Look for other options besides direct combat (interact with environment, negotiate, surrender/escape, flip an enemy to your side, find their weakness, set them against each other, etc)
You're absolutely not strong enough party to take on an adult dragon head-to-head, but that doesn't mean you can't even the odds "somehow"
Lesson 2
Sephadex spends almost all his time in the undercaverns
Almost never comes to the surface / swamp, when he does its straight to the water and under the brush
Never comes out when it's raining or overcast, only clear blue days
Constantly shivering - nicknamed the Twitching Lord
Deathly afraid of thunder and lightning because he was attacked by Windrex during the Scales of War
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