In Search of Tunnelly

Seventh Session - October 13, 2013

Squidhead

We're in the round room with the well... looking for Tunnelly in the gnoll fortress. Everyone picks a door and listens to it. Swifty hears tiny scratching and squeaking. Ben hears chains clinking. Solara hears what sounds like hunting dogs. We each take different stairways upwards to see what is beyond. One of the stairways leads to a very loud area (sounds like a kitchen). Another stairway leads 15 feet to a pitch black area: a round room devoid of any sounds or light.

The party heads up the stairway to the dark room. We produce some light to see the room. Off to one side of the room is a small humanoid with a squid head; it's floating off the ground. The squid guy psionic blasts the party for two rounds. We then rush it and kill it. Searching about the room, we find a stack of mummified humanoids. All of them have their skulls split open with the brain removed. Two more bodies are found in the living area portion of the room. They have been flayed open with organs removed (this is one sick puppy). We find a chest (locked) within one of the cabinets. Searching the mind flayer we find two scroll tubes and two flasks containing liquids. Scrolls: Cure Serious Wounds and another that is unidentifiable.

Further searching in the mindflayer's room, we find a chest containing:
500 copper
100 silver
400 bronze
900 gold
40 platinum
32 gems

Voldemort heads back down one level to make sure nothing is coming up behind up. He sees that two gnolls have entered the room. He sneaks back up and alerts the party to their presence. We organize a plan to eliminate the gnolls, then head back down to the room below us and find that they are gone. We decide to try and find the two gnolls, then change our minds and head up another staircase, which leads up for quite a while. Solara sees a faint light ahead and advances to investigate. A few moments later, we hear some screams (one of them being Solara) and another that sounds doglike. The party rushes ahead to join Solara. We find the same two gnolls engaged with Solara that were in the lower well room several minutes ago. Combat ensues.

We overpower the two gnolls and question one of them. The main host of the complex are out on a hunting mission. Whatever gnolls are here, are in the main common room. He says that prisoners are kept on the main level of the fortress. We find the lieutenants' quarters and rummage through their belongings: a few weapons and some clothing is all that is there.

Heading back downstairs to look for Tunnelly, we encounter Scarg and two other gnolls. More combat ensues. We best Scarg and his two buddies. There is a ring of three keys on Scarg's belt. We unlock the trap door within the main room, walk down stairs and find Tunnelly bound and gagged, but in otherwise good health. Searching Scarg and his accomplices, we find 20 sp and 13 gp.

The party rests for the night. In the morning, Swifty has an epiphany and realizes that the gnoll fortress and surrounding area looks an awful lot like the map of Cloudyhead that is being kept in Koric's tomb. We then head southeat, looking for the Sisters of the Swan, located in a valley somewhere in the Ardenian Mountains. The Sisters of the Swan are the sworn enemy of Ocsychirax. En route, we stop over in Combe for the night.

Back in Sard: talking with Ulian and researching the scroll and potions. We found out from local townsfolk: Mordenkainen was a resident of Sard since it was founded. About 40 years ago, the town came after Mordenkainen and lost. He agreed to leave the town alone if they left him alone.

Swifty meets with Ulian and informs him that a group of gnolls is living in Cloudyhead, and that an ithylid had been taking up residence there, but is now dead. Ulian says that ithylid have not been seen in a long time. He says that he is going to send a group to Cloudyhead in order to rout the gnolls.

Mordenkainen: Not as Bad as Folks Think

Storch meets with Mordenkainen to have the scroll identified. Mordenkainen decides to humor Storch and agrees to identify the scroll and will waive his usual fee of 1,000 gold if Storch agrees to tell Mordenkainen everything about his adventure when he encountered the ithylid. Storch tells him of our quest to find Thyjack. Mordenkainen says he has two pieces of advice: 1) that Thyjack is dead, because he killed him, and 2) the second piece of advice is that the person who is saying they are Thyjack is most likely getting their information and their power from the ithylid. If this person is in league with the ithylid, they are most likely very powerful; find the ithylid and you'll find Thyjack. Storch then asks if there is a way to protect oneself from the psionics of a mindflayer. Mordenkainen's answer: a ring of mind shielding or the Mind Shield spell. Mordenkainen then identifies the scroll: Protection from Possession. Storch asks if he might trade the scroll for one or more Rings of Mind Shielding. Mordenkainen said to give him one day, in the meantime he will check with his contacts in Sard. When Storch left Mordenkainen's tower, two guardsmen follow Storch back into town.

The party meets with Mordenkainen that evening and tells him of their adventures thus far, all the way back to the initial meeting with the necromancer in Ruhd. In the end, Mordenkainen tells us that the Staff of Skulls must never get back into the hands of the person calling themself Thyjack. He would also be interested in purchasing the Silver Medallion for 25k gp. He then asks if Mistress Thune ever told us of her history with the Silver Shadow. She was an initiate in the Silver Shadow. Mordenkainen warns us that a man in the Silver Shadow will also offer us cash for the medallion. None of the members of the Dark Circle are known. They go to great lengths to keep themselves anonymous. Dark Circle is a small group of mages that live on "The Hill" outside of Onyx. They are wealthy and eccentric. Mordenkainen says that he's fairly certain that the leader of the Dark Circle is a council member of Onyx.

We also learn why Mordenkainen is interested in all of this. During the great catastrophe, he was a captain for Karm, who was Koric's cousin. Thus, there is a personal interest for Mordenkainen in all of this. He was present at Koric's funeral and in attendance at the raising of the temple in his honor. Jax mentions to Mordenkainen that he is skeptical of Theodoric's suicide. Mordenkainen lets the party know that we are marked by whoever it is that wants the Staff of Skulls. He then says that he believes the head of the Dark Circle most likely knows who this fake Thyjack is. He tells the party in confidence: "necromancy spells, in particular, are the most feared, hated, and untolerated spells in this world. Thus whoever this Thyjack is has most likely gotten their hands on a rare and powerful tome." Mordenkainen is working to rid the world of the Staff of Skulls due to its power and nature.

Mordenkainen then presents to the party a simple gold ring that is a Ring of Mind Shielding which he will trade straight up for the Scroll of Protection from Possession. He then agrees to identify the two potions that we obtained; we will have to come back to his tower the next day for the results. The potions are: Oil of Slipperiness and Potion of ESP. Mordenkainen then gifted us three Healing Potions and two Extra Healing Potions. His final bit of advice is that the Sisters of the Silver Swan do not have any information that could help us; it's pointless to visit them on our quest.