Uktar 11
Uktar 11, 1369:
High = 40, Low = 20
No precipitation
Wind gusting to 20 mph from the prevailing direction.
Cloudy.
The (full??) party entered Undermountain via The Yawning Portal.
The first place they went was the metal web room. As soon as the
party lead (Stewart) entered the room, they turned on the null
magic zone. Cassie confirmed this by getting a headache. The
party decided to go look for the Shining Sons.
At the base of the stairway marked with claymore & horns, they
encountered two massive minotaur-like creatures wearing chainmail
loincloths and rings in their noses. They had more oxish features
than bullish and seemed stronger than normal minotaurs. The party
killed them and took their loincloths. Ew.
2000xp to party for minotoxen
Leaving there, they were surprised by a disapearing stairway trap
which slid Stewart, Maanamere, Narthan, Gomsha, Henkles and Steve
into a room with no exits, all sustaining minor injuries. They
did find the body of someone who they guessed was a laborer of
some sort, whose body had been stripped of valuables. He appeared
to have died of a broken neck in the fall. The party managed to
climb back out.
Next they came to a large room with scafolding about most of the
walls. Up on the scaffolding, three minotaurs dressed in kilts
and armed with claymores were painting a crude but huge mural of a
massive battle between minotaurs like themselves and minotaurs
wearing light tunics and torcs around their necks and fighting
with battle axes. On seeing the party, all three rushed to
attack, one of them executing a spectacularly daring flying leap
onto Maanamere. The party managed to kill the minotaurs with some
injuries. They collected 31sp, 30gp and three claymores.
1000xp to Targo'aahr the minotaur for dying with great honor
4200xp to party for artistic minotaurs
Next the party encountered five minotaurs, one of them possibly a
leader, sleeping on piles of tanned hides. Much damage was taken
by the party before they were slain. The party used 25?
goodberries and many heal spells afterwards. They collected 2
g. lizard hides, 4 claymores, 1 oversized claymore, 66sp, and
46gp. They named the room "Room 7".
7600xp to party for sleepy minotaurs
They found a room with more piles of sleeping skins, but moved on,
attracted by the smell of smoke. The smoke led them to a smoke
room where various meats were being cured. Amound the carcasses
was one human, who the party suspected of being a Shining Son,
with some parts missing. They decided to take his head and move
on.
Nearby, they found a privy. They put itching powder in the leaf
bucket and around the hole.
600xp to party for creative nastiness
Next they found a wizard locked door, which Stewart dispelled.
Behind it they found two minotaurs, apparently dead of starvation,
21sp and 9gp.
A little while later, the party encountered 4 minotaurs, who were
holding wrestling matches but were happy to stop to greet the
party in the usual manner. In the ensuing fight, a wild surge
from a spell cast by Darius apparently charmed a minotaur!
Afterwards the party used more healing spells and collected 3
claymores, 34sp, 27gp and a minotaur.
4200xp to party for uncharmed minotaurs
Maanamere had had enough of minotaurs by that point and
volunteered for deep rear guard.
The party explored several empty rooms after that, including one
with multiple staircases leaving the room at multiple elevations.
Darius did some secret door hunting with his uncle's sword. The
party explored a corridor off of the room with many exits and
found that it led to a 20' stairway. Stewart performed an augury
regarding going up the stairs and learned "those who survive will
be pleased". This sounded good to him, so headed for the stairs.
The party minotaur, who they had nicknamed "Moo-Moo", seemed to
think that this was a bad idea and franticly tried to explain why
the party shouldn't go up the stairs. Since nobody understood
minotaur, they decided to go up anyway. Moo-Moo finally gave up
and stood aside so they could go up while he waited at the bottom
of the stairs. When the trapped stairs gave way under them and
they tumbled back down to land at Moo-Moo's feet, he said a very
pointed "Moo!" to them.
Stewart decided to go up the wall anyway and give people a rope to
get up. Unfortunately, when he had climbed to the top, there were
5 minotaurs, one of them exceptionally large, waiting to whack
him, which they did. Stewart managed to jump backwards down the
stairs before too many of them hit him. After he landed he hit
the one who was watching him from above with a few rocks. Darius
was worried that they would run for reinforcements, so he
snowballed them and Ursula tried the Wand of Small Fires. She
guessed 6, which she learned was fire telekinesis. This was
usefull to know, but not very helpful at the moment. After that
the minotaurs wisely moved out of range.
The party decided that elsewhere was a good place to be and headed
up a flight of stairs within the previous room that led to a
landing with an exit to more stairs. Half the party was past the
landing and out the room, when 5 slightly chilled minotaurs ran
into the room. Those who could fired down on them from above.
Ursula tried 5 this time and got a particularly effective Type II
Sidewinder Fireball, which killed all but one of them. The last
minotaur fled out they way he had come in, and Darius and Henkles
started yelling for somebody to stop him before he gets help.
Stewart and Narthan both lept off the stairway, sustaining minor
damage from the fall, to get shots at the escaping minotaur, which
they killed. A search of the bodies recovered 49sp, 52gp, 4
claymores and an oversized claymore.
7600xp to party (minus Maanamere) for roast minotaurs
500xp ea. to Narthan & Stewart for daring-do
While the party were searching the bodies, 4 more minotaurs
wandered in. Ursula attempted to repeat her previous success with
Sidewinder II, but only did single-digit damage. The rest of the
party finished them in the conventional way, with Moo-Moo taking
some serious damage but doing well. The new minotaurs had an
additional 43sp, 35gp, 3 claymores and an oversized claymore.
6200xp to party (minus Maanamere) for medium-rare minotaurs
When they had finished searching the bodies, the party returned to
the sliding stair that Stewart had previously climbed and climbed
up. They found themselves in a room they had previously explored
(and named "Room 7"). They took the time to go through the five
piles of sleeping hides more carefully and collected the following
(including the two giant lizard hides from before):
2 Giant Lizard hides, good condition
1 Cloaker hide, fair condition
1 Moose hide, good condition
1 Human hide, fair condition
1 Wyvern hide, poor condition
1/8 of a Black Dragon hide, good condition
After that, they decided to call it a day. Unfortunately, a
passing manticore didn't realize that and livened up the trip
back. Not for long though.
975xp to party (minus Maanamere) for a manticore
After that the party departed Undermountain via the Yawning
Portal. Moo-Moo elected to stay behind.
While Henkles went out to sell all but one of each type of used
claymore, raising 450gp (plus tax), Ursula, Narthan and Jan went
to House Silmerhelve with the head they had collected. The
servant who answered the door at house Silmerhelve recognized the
head and brought them to house Ammakyl, where another servant went
and fetched Luth Ammakyl, the head of the household. He informed
them that that was the head of Gulthraask Ammakyl, his son. He
questioned the three of them about where and how he had been found
and what signs the party had seen of the rest of the Shining Sons.
He explained that his youngest son, Staric, was also among the
missing. At the group's suggestion, he showed them a portrait of
Staric, who seemed a bit delicate for an adventurer and was
pictured holding a lute.
Luth asked if and when the party planned to search again. When
they explained that they would be going in in a few days, once
they had had the chance to heal up, he offered to have the
families send clerics and healing spells by their house that night
if the party would go back in in the morning. Ursula, Narthan and
Jan tentatively agreed on the parties behalf. After that, the
servant from House Silmerhelve led them to House Jhansczil.
At House Jhansczil, the three were introduced to Harkas and
Arrikes Jhansczil, the father and older brother, respectively, of
Dagar Jhansczil, the leader of The Shining Sons. Both of them
were tall blonde men who carried themselves like warriors. Harkas
looked to be in his late 50s but still very fit. Arrikes looked
to be in his mid 20s and very powerfully built. Harkas used a
jeweled walking stick that looked more like an excuse for a handy
club than something he needed for his (very slight) limp. They
repeated the whole line of questioning and reiterated that clerics
and potions would be sent over in exchange for the party's timely
return to Undermountain. Our colorful trio were shown a painting
of Dagar, in plate armor and bearing a shield with the familly
crest, next to a painting of Arrikes, in plate armor and bearing a
shield with the familly crest, both of which were near a painting
of Harkas, in plate armor and bearing a shield with the familly
crest. Arrikes seemed to want to accompany the party in to
Undermountain, but Harkas indicated that the matter had already
been discussed and closed.
Finally, the trio accompanied the servant back to House
Silmerhelve, where they were introduced to Laerlos Silmerhelve,
head of the household and father of Yanrask and Yanrivar, both of
whom were members of The Shining Sons. He took them to see
pictures of the young men in question and repeated the usual line
of questioning. When they had answered his questions, the trio
bid him good night and returned to Fair Winds.
Steve and Darius, in the mean time, spent the afternoon doing more
research into the matter of the great door.
The party also spent some of the afternoon dealing with their
existing loot. They had 19334gp from sold items and found cash,
which they decided to divide evenly amoung all party members
(after an interesting offer from Ursula to "earn" her share). The
remaining 4gp were put into Mrap-M'rap's beer fund. Narthan,
Henkles and Maanamere also paid off their respective debts to the
party, which resulted in another 165gp for each party member and
6gp for the party treasure.
It was decided that Cassie should wear the Ring of Magic Missiles
on the party's behalf, that Steve should continue to wear the Ring
of Gargoyle Repulsion, and that all other unidentified items
should be tabled until later. The human hide from the minotaur
lair was given to the House of the Moon, along with 117gp from
Stewart and 50gp from party treasure, for proper burial. The
beat-up Wyvern hide was left with Gulkker and Mrs. Amtirask to see
if they could make a dust-cover for the wagon from it. The matter
of the Ring of Protection, +1, +4 vs. Andarol Gutreaver was tabled
after much heated argument and it was given to Cassie to wear for
the time being. The Delusion of Invisibility Potion was labled
"Invisibility" and left on a shelf in the den for someone to
steal. The gold ring was added to party treasure and the key
ring.
The three unused chardalyn were assumed into party treasure with
the stated intent of having Darius cast spells into them. However
no spells were chosen that afternoon and no one was designated to
carry them, so they were left in the chest.
The magic dagger was sold to Jan (Misery Jones) for 600gp. The
following items were just shared out: Rainbow Hues Potion to
Stewart, Aid Potion to Maanamere, Stoneskin Potions to Ursula,
Cassie, Dexter, Darius, Blur Potion to Jan, Enlarge Potion to
Narthan, Sweet Water Potion and Oil of Fiery Burning to Steve, and
the Scroll of Protection from Normal Missiles to Darius. The
scroll of high-level Wizard spells was declared a party item and
stored in the strongbox. The scroll of low-level Cleric spells
was declared a party item and assigned to Narthan, who was already
carrying it.
Some of the party decided to address their excess cash situation
and headed to the First International Bank of Waterdeep. Stewart
purchased 3 1000gp letters of credit (@ 1100gp ea.). Maanamere
and Steve each purchased 2 1000gp letters. Henkles simply
depositted all but 100gp of his cash into an account (costing 5%
annually). Darius opened an account with 600gp. After that they
went to Greg's Gem Store, where Darius bought 5 amethysts on
Stewarts advice for 370gp ea. They were later established to be
100gp gems. Cassie just decided to store 2000gp of her money in
the party chest. The chest itself was moved from the wagon to the
library in Fair Winds and the party agreed to have Stewart create
some noismaker traps to protect the room at party expense (at a
later date).
That evening, as promissed, three house clerics, with 2 Cure LW
spells each arrived along with the servant the trio had met
earlier. The servant had also brought 4 Healing Potions and 1
Extra-Healing Potion. The party agreed to go back in the next
morning and accepted healing from the clerics. Dexter also asked
the servant to see if articles of the missing Son's clothing could
be brought by in the morning for Elvis to sniff. Predictably,
after the visitors left, the party decided to return to
Undermountain slightly wounded rather than use any of the potions.
The four Healing Potions were distributed (as party items) to
Cassie, Ursula, Dexter and Darius. The new party Extra-Healing
Potion was given to Steve to carry.
