Jinx OOtA 4- King Bruenor and the Factions

We found a way out of the underdark. But we had to kill a high ranking Drow woman and her two guards to do it. She was the head of the Drow tribe that had captured us in the first place and she was determined to get us back so she wouldn't lose face.   I don't pretend to understand Drow society so it made no sense to me but we defeated them. Among their remains, we discovered a couple of magical items. One was a Rod of Tentacles that Kromdar now carries. Another item was a wand of viscuous globs. Eldredge has taken possesion of that. We also found armor, shields, and +2 Drow weapons but nobody has volunteered to take them. They are in the bag of holding I carry and I hope to sell them at some point.   We came out at the Spine of the World. We made our way to Gauntylgrym much to the delight of the majority of our party, which means all the dwarves. Huldir was especially excited to meet the great King Bruenor Battlehammer. He hoped he would get his own battlehammer or some such thing dwarves used. I was pulling for him.   One night I got into a drinking contest with Huldir and I don't even remember what happened except he won.   After telling our stories of all the awful things happening in the underdark that are so close to Gauntylgrym, to the Dwarven King, he suggested we meet up with all our factions and tell them our story and seek help from each. As members of the Harpers, both Eldredge and I were to meet up with Sir Roryingham who sought a game of chess. I could see Roryham was impressed with our own noble and looked forward to playing chess and discussing things with him (Eldredge).   Before I had to play chess, there was a big feast at King Bruenor's table. Thorand was approached by a red headed dwarf lady representing the Lords' Alliance. He got to talking to her and found out she was Eldith's sister. He blushed crimson red beneath his dark beard that had strands of Eldith's hair woven into it. When Eldith's sister asked about the hair, seeming to recognize it as her sister's, Thorand was terribly dismayed when her sister went running off crying. I know it's terrible but the rest of us laughed at him. He sure has a thing for red headed dwarven ladies.   Letting Eldredge lord it up with Roryingham was fine by me. But as it turned out, someone needed to meet with the lady representing the Lords' Alliance and who better than our lord Eldredge himself? So it fell to me to meet with the Harper representative. I was told if I could win against him in chess, we would receive invaluable aid in the form of a Shield Guardian. I used to play chess with Captain Goodhope but I wasn't about to tell anybody that. And I'm glad I didn't because I got my butt whipped.   I was so desperate, I tried to put on a show of tears to make him want to help us anyway but I don't think that had as much affect on him as our obvious helplessness did. He decided we couldn't manage the trials ahead without his Shield Guardian. As the lone Harper faction member, I was given the Amulet to control Frank as I decided to call him.   The Emerald Gauntlet faction gave Kromdar troops. The Lords Alliance offered up spies and guards, and the King offered Dwarven Scouts that Huldir would command.   The Zhentarim faction offered 8 thugs to be commanded by Eldredge. Each of us would represent one of the factions when we got to the underdark. But it didn't work out that way. Eldredge very persuasively convinced me to give up the Harper faction gift of the amulet that controlled the shield guardian to Thorand. His thinking was that since the Shield Guardian could have a spell cast into it, that Thorand would be best suited to cast spells into the Guard because he has the highest level of spells at his disposal. I couldn't argue with that logic.   We all got faction rings and a ring of protection. I was grateful for that.   But somehow I got left out of commanding any of the troops that were given to us. I suppose the others think a woman can't command troops and so Huldir is in charge of not only the Dwarven scouts, but  the Lords' Alliance Spies while I'm in charge of nothing. Thorand is in charge of the Shield Guardian as well as the Alliance Guards. I admit it irks me.   Huldir, my dear friend, keeps forgetting about the Lords Alliance Spies and leaves them behind and doesn't command them. Everyone gets to command a group or two of troops except me. I could probably just sit behind a rock and nobody would notice.  Women just aren't appreciated at all. When we go into battle, I'm forgotten completely. It takes so long for me to get a chance to hit anything that I'm going to start taking naps.   Thorand has done nothing with Frank other than put him right in the way. Eldredge constantly positions his thugs where I have to crawl through them to try to hit an enemy. I get it. I will be quiet and stay out of the mighty male warriors' way.   Well, I wrote that and then everybody got so tired of Huldir forgetting to put his troops to work that I was given command of the Lord's Alliance spies.   I couldn't believe we were enlisted to go back into the underdark we had been trying so hard to escape for so long.   The Zhentarim led us 180 miles on the surface to lead us to the place to go underground to Mentol Derith. Mentol Derith is a place where underdark denizens meet to trade.   A high elf of Silvery Moon with the Lords' Alliance and had special instructions. He wanted us to find Khella Draga, another Silvery Moon elf disguised as a Drow.   Davra Jassur, the human representing the Zhentarim told us to look for Ghasram Dulock. He will give us the map to Graven Hollow which is the centrail library of the underdark. Who knew the underdark had a library?   Our plan was to leave an outpost behind every 10 days. We did for a while.   When we got to Mentoll Derith, we could tell something was wrong. The people who are supposed to be trading stuff there were fighting each other instead. The Duergar were killing the snirvelings ....the deep gnomes. I don't know how to spell their name properly.   We met a Snirveling named Gabble Gribskillet who told us a strange tale about her friend Yentha. She said that there was some kind of special gemstone that she picked up that changed her. She had disappeared with it. Gribskillet indicated the thing was infectious. She asked us to find her boss Yentha before the Duergar do. She gave us each a present. Huldir got a potion of invulnerability. Thorand got a bag of beans with 7 beans that are supposed to be magic. I got a pair of sending stones. Kromdar got a potion of giant strength, and Eldredge got a Periapt of Health.   We managed to rescue the gem from Yentha. I had to wrap it in something and put it in my bag of holding. It was a gem that belonged to some old dude from the abyss. FrazierBlue or something like that. It was definitely dangerous and meant to cause problems. It took everything we had to keep the Duergar from killing Yentha, they even held a trial but we came in at the last minute and rescued her. She was very grateful.   Then we had to fight some gargoyles and Eldredge tried to disguise himself as a Drow and got caught. We were just about run out of that place.   We found Ghasrim Durlock and he gave us the map to Graven Hollow.  He gave us a star ruby that will lead us on the right path.   And yet, we ran into a young red shadow dragon.  I am ashamed to admit that I didn't want to get close to that thing. He might be young, but he was huge. I kind of pulled off into the distance from him and tried to make a minor illusion with my mirror. It didn't work but it kept me out of the fight. Next time, I'll be right in there. Next time we have to fight a dragon, I'll be on top of it.   We got a whole bunch of loot from that dragon.  We just made it to Graven Hollow.