Game-Summaries:5/22/2020 Recollections

Recollections by Jeroy

Our new compatriot Gawyn has summarized the larger points and so I will cut to the quick. After defeating Wendonai for a second time we have recovered the Wand of Orchus. Orchus gifts this to only its most loyal servants. The wand itself is very much cursed and should be treated with extreme care and caution. In addition we were gifted what the Dwarves of Durmannus called Oricalcum, a mythological ore that according to Kord - does not exist. I spoke to him after the mission and he sais that what we were granted was merely "Mythril with some impurities" but these "impurities" appear to be more than just minerals. The rock has a texture that is unnatural for stone, and those that have handled it says it feels somehow "alive." Iago and Loco are researching the ore and I will add more details as we uncover them.

Recollections by Iago

Jeroy has requested us to return to Durmannus Hall. I join him along with a few others of The Eternal Order. I teleport us there and lead us to the entrance to the Halls. Dodon and Dogrol, a pair of very curious and young dwarves, greet us at the hall and question Jeroy's authenticity. Though once he has mentioned his adventurous and lascivious aunt (or great-aunt, or great-great-aunt), we are admitted in. I question this method of validating who Jeroy is - by their train of thought - it seems everyone would know about her and claim a relation! They also spoke a very odd phrase upon letting us in, The Obsidian is Polished. Regardless, we find a tavern, as instructed by the front-guards. Though perhaps not the tavern they had intended us to find.

On the way to the tavern, we walk a circuitous route and discover some interesting things about the Halls. There is bio-luminescent fungi everywhere. Not standard Dwarvish fare, but it's there. There is also a well that seems to have some magic nullification properties. Curiousor and curiousor.

Back to the tavern we found. It's a pretty muted affair. It's not very Dwarvish at all - boring in fact. However, Jeroy and I get up to no-good. He convinces the old man in the tavern (looks to be the same age as Jeroy actually, so not really that old) and I shadow them invisibly. They go to a gambling hall where Jeroy looses a couple hundred gold. I left shortly after to let Jeroy get information on his own. When Jeroy returns, he tells me that they could see me the whole time! That's simply incredible. Apparently one of the defenses of the hall against their most common trading partners who have the ability to invoke indivisibility (Duregar and Svrifneblin).

I'll skip over the boring details and skip to the fun part.

We go to the main tavern to await a so-called "Deep Bard" who I am ecstatic to compete against! Shortly before she shows up, there is giant first-come-first-serve feast, so we quickly get some food and what looks like a Duregar walks into the fall from the East and starts playing a really bizzare sounding and looking lute. It is creating a magical effect in the room and causing emotions to run wild, as if I'm surrounded by 100 versions of Jeroy while in battle rage. It's frightening. Rezik Holds her while the King of the Hall seizes her with his guards. She mutters I am the deepness on repeat in a language that I am unfamiliar with, but I can understand through my magic. I stash away her lute for later inspection, however that seems like it was the wrong thing to do. It filled me with the most vile and disgusting thoughts and I behaved in ways that...well, they were an abomination to say the least. Let's not recall that part. Once I'm also Held, the lute is cleansed in the well along with the Duregar. The lute is of very odd construction and we put it away for inspection and the Duregar mutters She returns! before collapsing.

The King of the Hall informs us that She always returns, which seems rather ominous to us. We ask to enter the deep mines and he happens to have a perfect replica map of the mines, which he offers us if we are to help him. We delve into the mines and encounter a strange area that has some form of natural lighting and an incessant buzzing sound. After a few minutes of walking around there, we are set upon by several Chasmes! While I manage to elude them, the rest of my group fights them off. While they are distracted, I am able to spot a Glaberzu that is sneaking by to snipe them, but my discovery thwarts it's advance. They are quickly dispatched, however shortly after Jeroy find the true resident of this cave, a Balor that goes by the name of Wendonai (we find this out through its taunting of Jeroy).

Jeroy Lenkins, I've been waiting for your kind to come back down here.

After an incredibly epic battle (I have not been forced into combat such as this in a number of months, even my guile can't get us out of this) we (or I) learn a few things.

1. Wendonai serves the Demon Lord Orcus
2. The Obsidian is Polished refers to the dwarves having dug too deep and running into Orcus' followers
3. Wendonai was in possession of the Orcus Wand (we have it now)

Upon return, the King Dwarf offers us immense wealth and riches and a very favourable trade contract (for mithril, Orchalcum, platinum, etc)

The Orcus Wand must be kept under extreme secure and safe conditions. It is Vile in itself. It will corrupt that which touches it.

Recollections by Gawyn

Jeroy assembled our team to investigate Kord's ancestral halls, a place uncovered during their excursion to the Pardor Pass to prevent an army of the Dreadhorde from doing to Aethelfirth what had been done to my homeland of Folcom Keep. We began as the Order is apparently wont to do when not pressed by an encircling army, and spent several hours after our arrival to the Halls of Dormannus in what they call "Investigation" and in what a saner individual may describe as "faffing about". After exhausting our faculties with the acquisition of details about the Hall of Dormannus, its residents, their trade habits, their gambling habits, their hierarchy, the curious fact that no one appears to be above the age of 60, and the presence of a cleansing water fountain at the entrance to the halls, we elected to wait around until a great feast that had been planned for that evening, and which would be attended by a Deep bard. This proved to be the key to our investigation, as the bard, a duergar equipped with a suspiciously mycotic lute, whipped the revelers into a frenzy that almost devolved into violence. It was interrupted by the lord of the halls, who ordered the seizure of the bard.

Acquiring the lute, Iago exhibited signs of an odd psychosis, whose details I will skip over. I was able to wrest the lute from him, and cleanse it fully in the fountain, removing its maddening taint. Now having an in-road with the Lord Dormannus, we were informed of a recurring demonic incursion in their mines that would slaughter a generation of dwarves on a cyclic basis. We volunteered to do what we do best and kill the demon(s), and were given a map to the likely location of the next incursion after a little persuasion. Descending into the mines, we arrived at the entrance to that section of the mines via a set of conveniently-tracked minecarts. Proceeding in, we slaughtered several demons with minimal effort, and then slaughtered a greater Balrog the others recognized as Wendonai with considerably more effort. Retrieving an obsidian wand from his remains, we returned with further proof of our deed to the Halls and were rewarded appropriately.