Session 12: To the earth do we return.

Griffinsday, 13 Blooming, 998 Y.K.   Milli's and Bell's first stop of the next morning was the local Sharn Watch office to report the kidnapping. However, as much as the desk sergeant wanted to help, missing people had to be gone twenty-four hours before the police could take action, unless there was an eyewitness account. With no such evidence, they told the party their best bet was to pursue it themselves and cancel the report if they solved the problem. Thus emboldened, the two went to prepare for their trip into Sharn's sewers. However, on their way to market, they were interrupted by Rakela stating that she wanted "in." When Bell pried the Brelish military agent what she meant, Rakela mentioned multiple Sharn reports of a drunken brawl in the Cogs that took several agents to address. It seemed that several of the loudest participants blamed the event on a "giant warforged and a tiny unicorn!" Based on that, the Khorvaran guessed something was in flight and wanted to be involved. They quickly filled her in on the details of the rescue, and she told them to meet her in Ashblack at the Sewer Reclamation Project office in a few hours.   While Milli and Bell were out, Relic and Spark went in search of Barrer, to invite her to come on the rescue mission. The young forged readily agreed and fell in behind the others as they converged on the Red Hammer. Crucible had offered to find them help, and the barkeep did not disappoint. She sent Spark back to one of the spare rooms only to find Ploughshare waiting for them. The forged had seen better days, but their mood was much brighter since last they'd met with the party. Milli was overjoyed to see her friend again, and the two promised to catch up later and share stories. With Medya, the party was nine strong proceeding into Sharn's sewers.   The Sewer Reclamation Plant's offices were an unusual model of governmental efficiency despite being half-focused on feats of magical engineering and half on serving the soldiers that guarded the engineers and fought back the horrors that had come to live in the muck. The quartermaster on duty issued Zer a pair of dark glasses that shielded his eyes against the light, and everbright headlamps for the rest. With boots and gloves shielded from the worst of what the sewer could offer, the party proceeded towards the staircases down.   On her way, Milli passed a pile of scrolls tied with nice ribbon from beneath a display stand printed in bold red lettering: Feverdance: Know the Signs Apparently the sewers were home to a bright red fungal mat that clung to flat surfaces and was naturally inimical to most life. Contact with feverdance could cause shortness of breath, uncontrollable shaking, and something called "salty bile." The pamphlet didn't explain further, and Milli didn't ask. She merely followed the group down into the darkness with a shudder.   The sewers were themselves a twisting maze of stone and brick, following ancient pipes and the occasional open channel of muck deeper and deeper beneath the city. They found the first satellite office not far within, where maps of the upper levels could be found. Thus armed, the group headed quickly down several stairwells, where the few lit torches gave way to inky darkness beyond the radius of their lanterns. Wet burbling echoed around them, along with the steady drip of water that echoed as it dripped. At the edges of the map, they found a crude shrine hastily assembled that memorialized the fallen of an earlier party.   The party came to a three-way junction; one path was mostly blocked by a cave-in, while the other led to a crude barrier -- little more than a few scraps of wood -- which Spark carefully nudged aside. Beyond, a group of goblins had made an old dry cesspool into a mushroom farm littered with leantos. They warily eyed the group of forged that entered and asked if they were here to fight. Bell said no, they merely needed to know where the Temple of the Dark Six was, in order to rescue Transom. The goblins considered, then made two requests of the group. First, the goblins used to have a home on the water, where they could fish and grow seaweed, but they were driven away by the "dream-eaters." Occasionally, one of their number would try to retrieve something from their old home, but most who went back came home "empty." They asked the party to help them reclaim their home. Second, in the heart of Khyber's Gate, there was an alchemist's shop, in which the party could find strange hard black cubes; the goblins wanted those cubes taken and destroyed. Having made their requests, they showed the party deeper into the sewers.   Past a recently sealed passageway, Rakela found a hollow recess in a wall. Tugging against it, a section of the brickwork swung away to reveal a ladder going up. Spark quickly followed it up through a network of stone tunnels, eventually leading to another ladder, with a trap door above. The door wouldn't budge, so in frustration the wandering monk punch upwards, only to be drenched immediately by the sourest of beers. Above the ladder was a storeroom, probably in Khyber's Pass from the stench of the brew. With the weight of the door gone, Spark popped her head above the ground to see racks of sausage and haunches of meat hanging from netting on the walls, the clear signs of a tavern. However, the sound of an opening door in the distance made the monk withdraw quickly, disappearing back down the ladder and meeting up with the party. The hidden door latched shut with a clack, and the group made their way deeper as quickly as they could go.   It was about this point that the party noticed, leading away from the door, two fresh scrape-tracks through the layer of filth coating the sewer floor. Someone had recently come this way, dragging something behind them, likely a body. With that in mind, the party began to follow the new trail deeper into the darkness, until they came to a sealed door marked "CESSPOOL." The tracks led through the door, along a narrow walkway, and then across a metal bridge over a rank-smelling filter pool to another door on the far side. Bell stepped up to cross the bridge, but the forged slipped on the muckslick metal and landed on her rump, making the whole structure shake and rattle.   Summoned by the noise, a thick black tentacle rose from the muck in the cesspool and slammed into Bell's leg, acids on its surface instantly pitting the finish. Moments later, the muck began to churn and rise as oozes and slimes slowly crept from the pit. The party leapt into action, each struggling against the slimes. Relic, Spark, Rakela, and Barrer lashed out with fist and soul. Zer thrust mental energy while Milli and Bell cast magical forces into the pool. Medya and Ploughshare roused the party's spirits, and what started as an ambush became a pitched battle. In the end, though, the party was victorious, if deeply wounded, and they found it necessary to stop for a short respite once beyond the room.   The party descended further and further into the sewer complex, now well past their maps and relying on their own memories of one stretch of darkness versus another, but in time they began to see flickering lights in the distance: torches set in sconces, some still burning. Near one of the torches, Rakela found another secret door, this one leading into an oddly clear corridor, quickly rising to a ladder that went upwards for some distance. Not wanting to wait for a climb, Zer sent one of his crystal companions, Eid, up to explore the path. At the top of the ladder was another door, this one slightly open, through another short hallway, and then face-to-face with an all-too-familiar metal gorgon insignia: House Cannith.   Not waiting for a response, Eid came rushing back down the passage, terrified of having been caught, and it took Zer some time to comfort his crystal that nothing would chase them. Meanwhile, the party hastily pushed closed the concealed door and continued their trek, quickly coming to the end of the lights and another fork in the path. One led to a worked stone hallway, the other a wider passage lined with columns carved from the rocks. The party followed the columns around a long bend, coming finally to a natural cavern that had been carved into an amphitheater, complete with cloth-draped altar at the front. At last, the Temple of the Dark Six.   Cazha had told them Transom was in the upper alcoves, in a darkened room with basilisks. Up the center aisle of the empty church, to a second hallway at the back, this one lined with rusty iron doors. Behind the first was a small storeroom containing racks of dried meat and jars of tooth-ragged bones, along with barrels of sour wine and other sacraments to the gods worshiped at the altar below. The second, however, was lit from beneath, and as the party attempted to sneak past, a voice from within bellowed something in a language none of the group knew.   Quickly, the party scrambled, but before they could hide, the door opened, and Zhakil poked her head outside. The bard's eyes swept across the party slowly, then stepped into the hall and closed the door behind her. A deep craggly voice -- not Cazha's -- boomed within, and Zhakil shouted something back through the door. She then looked at Bell and said only, "third door on your right. Be quiet." The party stood for a moment, confused, then made haste, whispering thanks as they did. She remained at her post, guarding the occupied door, or perhaps blocking it, until the party was out of sight, the storage room door closed behind them.   Within the room, all was darkness, and Transom was somewhere within. The forged was nowhere to be felt, and the party knew of the non-detection magics the bard could wield. However, they couldn't hear or otherwise sense the forged, which meant they had to be unconscious or otherwise incapacitated, and likely stored. With that in mind, they began quietly exploring the room, working around the sibilant hissing of several basilisks prowling about. Zer encountered a crate that was far too heavy for its size, and Medya pushed her crooning to the test to put one of the beasts to sleep. It landed with a thud against the box, and Zer and Relic worked carefully to secure the crate. As they did, Rakela found a back way out of the alcove, leading back into the sewers, and the party rapidly made haste for the surface, their missing comrade in tow.   Once back at the Heart and Hammer, the party opened the crate to find Transom secured and subdued, battered but alive. As soon as Milli and Bell had him resuscitated, Barrer dragged Transom off to a private room, and Medya proclaimed that to be a fabulous idea and did the same with Milli. After, Bell proclaimed the next three days a spa cycle, with all forged in Sharn encouraged to come get their shells polished and their spells renewed. Ploughshare went to spread the word at the Red Hammer, and Rakela went in search of salvage forms for the party to lay claim to the rest of the contents of Cazha's stash.