We made landfall on another beach. Spooks was able to see a wall far beyond where even our elven eye, a curious and terrible development.
The boat came ashore after we made it known we were aware of it. To our horror, Mara came ashore. Naturally, I cast a slight glow onto my necklace and stepped in-front of Ava in an attempt to hide her existence from the master assassin. It seemed to work initially, whatever that was worth.
Mara explained that she was previously employed the by a mage that she believed was corrupted by the mindflayers. He had intended to summon his god using a number of arcane objects, importantly one of celestial nature... Not unlike what Ava detected on their boat..
I found it prudent to wake our captive dwarf and begin the interrogation process. We brought the dwarf to the water and revived him from his present state. I held him above the water and began the dark deed. He initially screamed, and I dunked his head underwater until the bubbles stopped coming up. After initially being unable to persuade the dwarf, Spooks helped by transforming into the draganoid we slew earlier, and threated his life. We broke his will and he surrendered the information we needed.
However, we needed his cooperation to guide us into the city itself, which he revealed was the location of the mindslayers. Spooks charmed him and we made our way up to a shorter area on the walls. the dwarf revealed that we needed to scale the walls as without assistance from the mindslayers, we would not be able to do so. After some difficulty scaling the wall, Spooks noted the statues standing sentinel over the city. The dwarf revealed they were guardians that would note any intruders that made landfall into the city.
Mara and her crew landed on the rooftops ahead of us, triggering no apparent alarm. I requested Jezebel lower me down to the city grounds, and as soon as my feet touched the stone walkways, all of the guardian flames lit, alerting the city's denizens of our presence. Jeph remove the flame from the closest sentinel's torch to allow us to find our way out, should we be able to even leave. Strangely, the city seemed empty and abandoned. Ancient stone structures that have long feel into disrepair. It was clear that the flayers had no intention of keeping their captive dwarf civilization around for any longer than its immediate use. A good reminder of what we are up against, and who we are here to fight.
We concluded that we'd need to restrain our captive and find shelter for the night to recooperate our wounds and spells. We found an abandoned two story stone structure and we sealed the door shut for the night.
Jeph and Filber took the first watch, which concluded without incident.
During my watch, I perused one of the history books we picked up, which revealed more about the story of Camoy and how he employed the dwarves to help build this city, Kish. He placed at the center of the city, a volcano! This volcano would heat and operate the forge at the center of the city. This would create the godly implementations and... Amano chained him to the anvil as punishment when he was defeated. The other gods Auya, Enu and Mara, fought off the other gods trying to destroy industry and humanity... This is quite disturbing, and contradicts nearly everything we had heard and seen so far.
Long Rest
During Ava and Spook's watch, our captive friend cast enlarge to escape his bonds and gag. They awoke us with a shout! It was over in an instant, and Jezebel cut him down before he could even make an escape!
However our victory was short lived, and javelins crashed through the windows of our stony abode, striking Jezebel and missing Filber. It appeared Granitestone's cries for help were not unanswered.
Enlarged dark dwarfs surrounded our entrenched house and made their way up into the house using a series of ladders. A vicious battle ensued! Jezevel and Ava made their way upstairs to battle off the opponents that scaled the walls.
We exchanged a series of blows! The dwarves downstairs fighting us managed to hit Jeph while taking a number of strikes, while Filber managed to strike at the dwarves several times while in badger form, but was ultimately stricken out of his magical form but an onslaught of blows.
Upstairs we heard the distinct sound of metal and curses both in dwarvish and common!
Spooks and Steph both reduced their enemies to ash in a joint attack! As I dashed upstairs, Jezebel dispatched the final dwarf upstairs.
We made our way outside to find Mara cleaning their blades from dwarvish blood. They clearly hit a scouting patrol of their own. Mara asked us what our next plan of attack should be. Looking back at our slain prisoner, I conceded that we have little choice other than a direct assault on the central corridors.
We proceeded down to the market square, and find a pit bearing down 100 feet. I found a stairwell leading down and we made our way down into the pit.
I take a look at these trees.. They seem to have some glow about them, swaying back and forth... We take a walk up to one of the nearby temples. The temple was a large structure, seemingly cut from the same piece of stone.
In the temple, we came upon a mechanical dragon statue with runic words describe a dedication to Camoy. Filber activated the dragon and it started to raise itself to the ceiling, revealing a passageway downwards! What luck!
Spooks lead the way downwards and guided us down into the secret passage. Thankfully, we managed to do so stealthily enough to avoid detection by the various patrols of dark dwarves and mindflayers
The Citadel in the Cave
Jeph cast a fire inside the citadel, illuminating the room and revealing the inhabitants. A chant arose, and dwarves and mindflayers went into a panic and began searching the entrances. Jeph noted a wizard central to the ceremony and redirected his spell to him and all hell broke loose. Screams broke out in our minds as the mind flayers began screaming into our minds before committing a mass suicide.
TBC