(Dec. 12, 2004) Chronicler: Isaku
Month 11, Day 2, Year 1562 –
Ashiko and Hatori teleported back from town with Noku, and two new folks: a Vanara named Abu and his animal companion, an ape named Zim. Abu carried a message for Til’k. Til’k and Abu turned out to be old friends, so Til’k introduced Abu to the rest of the party and invited Abu and Zim to join us. They accepted.
We continued back down the main passage, away from where we encountered the ogres. After a while, Til’k whispered that someone’s coming, and attempted to hide in the shadows. Isaku cast a Bless spell on everyone except Til’k, who was just out of range.
Zenako, Gorvak and Mulan ran up to find 6 mind-flayers hiding in the shadows. Mulan and Gorvak were stunned by the mind-flayers for a few minutes. Noku fried the three front mind-flayers with a Fireball.
Ashiko cast Haste on the folks still in range (everyone but Til’k, Mulan, Gorvak and Zenako). Til’k knocked down one of the 3 remaining mind-flayers. Another mind-flayer disappeared (maybe plane-shifted), and the last one tried to sneak away, but Zenako followed and killed it. We speculated that the mind-flayers may have had Spell Resistance or Evasion, since some of them escaped the effects of Noku’s Fireball.
Each mind-flayer had: 1 Pouch of odd platinum coins, with spider motif. (50, 20, 40, 30, 30 coins) 1 Piece of artwork, with spider motif. (140, 1000, 500, 500, 1300 GP)
We continued down the main passage, where the mind-flayers came from. Til’k spied what appeared to be a three-handed giant up ahead, where the main path went over a bridge. The giant seemed to be fishing, but dropped its spears when it saw us. Most of the party ran up and got ready for possible battle. Mulan struck the first blow hitting the giant with 2 arrows. Til’k cast Shield Other on Zenako, and Noku cast Magic Missile on the giant.
The giant yelled in Giant language, "Why you hurt me?" and picked up its spears again. Ashiko ran up and cast Blade Barrier to create a ring of blades around the giant, and yelled to the rest of the group, “Don’t shoot!” Hatori ran up and shouted to the giant to be careful of the blades, and that we would try to heal the wounds we caused. Mulan shouted an apology. The giant shouted back that he accepted the apology, and was only fishing. Ashiko dropped the Blade Barrier, and she and Mulan healed the giant’s wounds.
The giant experts in the group informed us that the creature was not truly a giant, but some kind of huge aberration. The "giant" said his name was Blog, and his people are Athach. Hatori told him that we were passing through in search of the squid-headed beings (mind-flayers). Blog agreed that the mind-flayers were nasty. Abu sold Blog some meat, which Blog enjoyed. Hatori and Blog made a truce, agreeing that we would not attack each other again, and we would let Blog know if we left any "food" behind that we weren’t planning to eat. Blog warned us against the barbed creatures, Hamatulas. We continued on our while, while Hatori reminded us of the party’s "Rules of Engagements": Sentient humanoids or near-humanoids should be spoken with before attacking (unless they attack first). The same goes for potential foes that drop their weapons or otherwise appear to surrender.
We found an alcove in the main passage to spend the night. During second watch (Isaku, Til’k, Birkat, Zenako), two hoards of mindless humanoid creatures (Lemure) came towards us from both directions in the main passage. Isaku sounded the general alarm and ran to Hatori to wake him up. Gorvak charged the hoard, killing two Lemures.
Ashiko cast Blade Barrier in front of the hoard by Til’k. Isaku cast Castigate on the hoard by Gorvak, damaging several and killing one. The Lemures cast Orders Wrath and Unholy Blight on us, affecting some of us but not fatally.
The hoard near Til’k was pureed when they attempted to pass through the Blade Barrier. Til’k managed to pass through the barrier and found four of the barbed creatures (Hamatula) on the other side. Til’k shouted a warning to the rest of the party and attacked.
Zenako and Birkat joined battle with the hoard near Gorvak and Isaku, but the battle ended when Ashiko killed the Lemures with a Holy Smite spell. Isaku ran forward and found four more Hamatulas, and attacked. Zenako rushed up and killed two of them. The remaining two thought better of their plan, glared at Zenako and Isaku, and disappeared.
Two of the Hamatulas by Til’k tried to disappear, but Hatori prevented them. Til’k, Mulan, Hatori and Zenako finished them all off. Ashiko cast Healing Circle to fix up our party.
Hatori attempted to Scry the older Hamatula that got away, and saw him talking to a Beholder. The Beholder ended the Scry spell, so Hatori was not able to learn anything more. Hatori then cast Divination to ask how to find the Beholder and its minions, and got the following message:
"Walk and Scry to find the Eye Down and down to shattered town Stay together like a tether (Once a poet, gotta know it)"
The rest of the night passed uneventfully.
Month 11, Day 3 –
We continued down the main corridor, and had a quiet day. Hatori again tried to Scry the Beholder, with Abu looking on. Hatori was only able to see it a few seconds before it ended his Scry spell, but Hatori could see that it was blowing up stone with its giant eye.
Month 11, Day 4 –
Again we continued down the main corridor. Ashiko used the eight-diagram coins, and got the following message:
"Stay together, use your talents and tactics and you should be fine; slaves are less threat than floating eyes, stay focused on the leader."
Month 11, Day 5 –
We continued down, heading east and north at various times. The day and night passed quietly.
Month 11, Day 6 –
We continued down. The day passed quietly, however the night was more eventful. Hatori had an odd dream, involving the spirit world. He saw in a ruined city in the real world, watching various slaves carrying loads of rubble. The same city seemed to be intact in the spirit world, and had some kind of temple with a huge spider god. Hatori thinks he could find the city in the spirit world, and cast Divination to determine that we should continue down the main passage.
Month 11, Day 7 –
We found evidence of recent tracks and something being dragged along a branch off the main corridor we were following.
Til’k scouted ahead under an Invisibility spell. He found a hole in the roof of the tunnel with a cable hanging down, and could just make out what might be the Desmodu we had heard about. He called out “Hello, we come in peace!” and told them that we were after the Beholders. The Desmodu replied that some wanted to fight the Beholders, and some wanted to trade with them.
Til’k introduced Miya Hatori as the leader of our group. The Desmodu wanted to sell us a slave (apparently a merchant) for 50 spider coins. Hatori agreed and the exchange was made. Noku unbound and un-gagged the merchant, named Veday. Veday thanked us, because he was going to be sold to the Beholders as a slave. Hatori made the Desmodu promise not to take any slaves from the surface, as they were members of the Drakaran Empire.
Veday told us that six generations ago, the Desmodu were at war with the spider folk. The Desmodu sages learned how to control the forces of the earth, and destroyed the spider city by diverting a lava flow through it. A recent earthquake revealed the way to the ruined city, and the Beholders came in to loot the city. The Desmodu are debating whether they can sneak some things out of the city, whether to fight the Beholders, or whether they can set up some kind of trade, like they currently have with the Salamander folks. There is a fourth faction that prefers to sit back and see what happens. Hatori suggested it might be possible to set up trade between the Drakaran Empire and the Desmodu.
We stopped and setup camp about a day away from the entrance the ruined city.