Session 9

September 27, 2019

The party is reunited, and confronts the caster, Sanbalet. The missing dwarves are rescued and the party commandeers Sanbalet’s ship back to Saltmarsh.

Synopsis
Malcolm, Vel, and Emmett depart through the sloppy hole, as Dora and Kayle watch from the cavern hall. Dora resolves to give them 10 minutes to return or else she's going in after them, Kayle decides to go in immediately. Dora fashions them a distress signal that tells her to pull Kayle back. Kayle sprints into the cave, and winds up in the room with the giant tadpole monster. Randall insists that they leave immediately. He signals to Dora to pull him back. Kayle discourages her from going in, she refuses, seven minutes until she goes in. Kayle throws rocks into the cave.

-Meanwhile-

Malcolm, Vel, and Emmett emerge in a dusty stone room, resembling a cellar, the same size as the study Malcolm was in earlier. Malcolm has a feel that the dust is made of bone. They find a sliver of gold in a dust pile, Vel can't desearn if its real or not, but knows that it's the same material as the gold rose. Vel asks where Malcolm found these, he produces the Philosopher's Stone book from the study, in it are arcane diagrams, ramblings about equivalent exchange. The owner of this book has been transmuting objects into gold.

-Meanwhile-

Kayle has run out of rocks. The dwarves advise them not to go in, but hold Kayle and Dora's pullback ropes. Dora holds her poetry book with the events of the last 24 hours open to her chest, she and Kayle hold hands and enter the cave. Dora intends to end up with the group and loses her memory, whereas Kyle intends to stay connected to her, and retains his. Kayle passes clean through, and sees the sloppy hole. Dora is not with him, she feels pressure againsts her head and watches the large one-eyed tadpole monster emerges from dark water. A voice echoes in her head that she is disturbing its sleep. She apologizes and tugs on the rope to return.

Kayle feels Dora's hand tug, but and tries to pull her into his room, but instead watches her fall into the hallway behind him. Kayle crosses through the sloppy hole. Their hands pull apart and Kayle's rope disappears.

-Meanwhile-

Kayle is flung into the room with room with Malcolm, Vel and Emmett, who question where Dora is. He assures them that she's safe, but doesn't know where she is. Vel learns that Kayle's sword, Randall, can talk. They investigate the door, and hear snoring on the other side. They ponder whether to go through the door or wait for Dora.

-Meanwhile-

Back in the tunnel, Dora reads through her notes to regain her memories. She resolves to dive in again, handed her rope to the dwarves, who hold it, but protests for a lunch break. One of them scrawls on a clipboard, Dora tries to read it, but it's in Dwarvish. She tries entering again, tripping this time, dropping her poetry book, and losing her memory. She spots the dwarves who are holding a rope attached to her, and her book on the ground. She turns back to the dwarves, who catch her up, frustratedly. She makes a note in the poetry book how long they've been in the tunnel and how many times she's lost her memory. She enters once more.

-Meanwhile-

Realizing they've been in the mine for a full 24 hours, the party takes a moment to rest. Malcolm shaves his face and etches into his shield that he shaved at the end of day one in the mine. Kayle surveys the snoring on the other side of the door, and also hears footsteps and stone grinding against stone. Malcolm tends to the two arrows sticking out out Vel. They brace themselves and Emmett opens the door.

-Meanwhile-

Dora steps into the cavern directed through the arch way, her memory intact. She surveys where the portal used to be, looking for a trail of where her friends went. A few skeleton bodies on the ground, one near a crossbow bolt she recognizes as Vel's. She finds evidence of transmutation and illusory magic, and begins looking for a hidden door or trap door. McKoye, the demolition expert, offers to blow up the wall for her. He sticks his chargers to the wall, and connects them with chalk lines, and the wall collapses to rubble.

-Meanwhile-

Malcolm, Vel, Emmett, and Kayle hear the explosion in their room, which scars Vel into firing her crossbow. The bolt grazes one of the sleeping figures. They awake suddenly, and screams at the sight of intruders, calling the name Sanbalet. From around the corner, another door flies open. Sanbalet, a human wizard, steps into the doorframe, produces a ball of energy, and hurls them at Kayle and Vel. The energy hits the door frame and covers it in frost. Sanbalet orders the sleeping figures to clear the room, and they escape through a stone door.

-Meanwhile-

Dora steps into a dusty study, containing a desk and several golden objects. The dwarves begin to clear the rubble, and they plant their next explosive charges.

-Meanwhile-

Malcolm joins Vel, Emmett, and Kayle in the room, where there are 10 beds, a long table, various chests, and a small kitchenette. The door has been blown off its hinges, the frost melting. Malcolm carves Lathander's symbol into the door in case Dora comes this way. Vel makes sure that no one is coming back for them. Malcolm finds small lockers at the foot of each bed, and a staircase that leads to a trapdoor in the ceiling. Vel finds another nicer bedroom through the doorway, and finds an oil-skinned coat trimmed with green silk in the wardrobe, and cannot open the chest at the foot of the bed. She hands the coat to Malcolm. Emmett smashes into each chest, looking for anything worth noting. He finds a dark green hat with a pheasant feather. Kayle finds the outline of a door in the wall. Kayle opens the stone door, another explosion is heard.

-Meanwhile-

Dora steps into a cellar, and spots her friends about to open a door in the far end of the hallway. She calls out to them. Malcolm runs across the room to hug her. Kayle and Dora introduce themselves once again. And the party heads through the stone door.

One the other side is a staircase, leading into a natural cavern, filled with fresh salty air. The tunnel splits, Bastille is sent down the left tunnel, turns several times, and is blinded by a bright light. They party heads down the right tunnel. Green slime covers the wall, Vel uses a crossbow bolt to poke the slime, it melts the bolt, its acid. Emmett looks for signs that the people who ran from the room went this way. While walking the acidic goop drips onto them, none hitting the party, but lands on their path. Vel attempts to clear the path using ''Produce Water. ''The rest of way across, Malcolm burns the goop away with fire. They step into another natural tunnel, which also splits left and right, they head right again. They spot footprints, and detect illusory magic.

Vel checks for traps, and throws her crossbow bolt ahead. Malcolm casts Detect Magic and finds a wall of illusory magic. Dora uses Malcolm's caduceus to tap ahead of her, as she steps through wall Malcolm detects, a bright light flashes, blinding Dora, her vision returns after a minute. They continue forward. Ahead of them is a small blue dragon, sitting contently, staring at them, electricity jumps off of it.

Malcolm attempts to speak to the dragon in Draconic, that they just want to passby, the dragon doesn't seem to understand him. Watching the dragon's repetitive movements, they realize that the dragon is an illusion, and just pass by.

At the end of the hall is a storage room. Out of the doorway steps Sanbalet, clapping sarcastically, along with two henchman and hobgoblin towering over them. Combat ensues.

By the end of the fight, the hobgoblin has destroyed his sword by repeatedly slamming it into the ground, the two henchmen are dead, and Sanbalet attempts to negotiate a truce. Its revealed that Sanbalet is involved in the smuggling job that Vitaelius offered to Vel, and that there are indeed people in the barrels stored around the corner. Malcolm binds Sanbalet's legs and wrists. Dora goes to check in the barrels, and finds 10 dwarves bound and gagged inside, releases them and returns to the party. Malcolm searches Sanbalet's person, finding a key, a set of metal dice and a long thin wooden pipe. Vel pulls out the books she took from the bedroom; a Salmarsh almanach, a red tome with the name of Iuz, and a blank black book.

The dwarves recount to the party how they were captured by Sanbalet and his men. Malcolm casts Detect Magic on the books but doesn't find anything. Kayle skims through the book of Iuz, finding it full of broken Abyssal descriptions of torture, murders, and punishment performed by devils, and praise for Iuz. Malcolm knows that Iuz is a country that he travelled through, a place with no positive qualities. Randall knows that Iuz is a demigod, reviled in the god community as Iuz the Evil for unspeakable horrors.

Kayle pulls out a rag with a symbol of the people who killed his family, which Sanbalet recognizes, this enrages Kayle. Malcolm opens the black book, its filled with crudely drawn pornography, with the occasional recognizable figure, like the hobgoblin, Gellan, and Xendros.

Vel heads back to Sanbalet's bedroom and uses the key to unlock the chest, in it she finds two spellbooks and several bound scrolls. The spellbooks contain; Dancing Lights, Comprehend Languages, Floating Disk, and Shatter in one, and Dancing Lights, Minor Illusion, Ray of Frost, Charm Person, Colour Spray, Magic Missile, Silent Image, Magic Mouth, and Scorching Ray in the other. The scrolls appear to be contracts, signed with GP, a wonky cross stamp like the one on Kayle's rag, and finally a lizardfolk tribal pattern.

Malcolm and Dora have an aside, in which he calls her tenacious, and she hopes they don't get separated again. Kayle asks Vel if they're a thing, Vel isn't sure, they never said.

The party resolves to give the dwarves a ride back to Saltmarsh on Sanbalet's ship.

Featured Characters
Emmett

Velaeria

Malcolm

Theadora

Kayle

NPCs
McKoye

Stanni Augurite

Sterek Augurite

Sanbalet

Quotations
"Shit. I ran out of rocks." -Kayle

"We’re gonna do this until we get it right." -Dora

"I defer to your expertise" -Dora

"Are they a thing?" -Kayle, to Vel, after Malcolm and Dora reunite

"You need Lathander." -Malcolm to Sanbalet, after discovering his porn book

Trivia

 * Session Length: 4:46:05
 * This session covers 1 day in universe, the party has now known each other for 16 days
 * Continue Count: 3
 * This session is named after Stone Age SmackDown, the 9th film in the Flintstones franchise
 * Chat Names:
 * Duncan: Continue (x36)
 * Alie: Tale As Old As Time
 * Marcus: Lathander 3, Hadar 1
 * Erynn: Band's Back Together
 * Zach: Skeleton Key
 * Each character's success rate in the mine across Sessions 8 and 9:
 * Vel entered the cavern 1 time and lost her memory 1 time
 * Emmett entered the cavern 1 time and lost his memory 1 time
 * Malcolm entered the cavern 3 time and lost his memory 0 times
 * Kayle entered the cavern 4 times and lost his memory 1 time
 * Dora entered the cavern 5 times and lost her memory 4 times