Session 26

Into Mantol-Derith
28 Eleasis(evening) - 6 Eleint(afternoon)

A search of the hideout finds a Zhentarim survivor named Krea in a storage area. She states that she has been hiding since the kuo-toa and allies attacked and there may be more survivors in the prison area. She believes Murk was holding survivors there and questioning them, looking for treasure. The prison is down the tunnel Murk told them not to go down so they decide to wait until morning to look. Krea is given to the Zhentarim henchmen to look after.

The Young Adventurers decide to sleep in one of the buildings inside the hideout that night while the rest of their followers camp outside. During the night they hear movement outside the door--something heavy creeping around near the river. They do not check on it.

The following morning they search the tunnel Murk ordered them to avoid. They find a second survivor in the prison, Leo. He has been horribly burned by acid, presumably by Murk, and breaks down when he realizes he is being rescued. Leo has no useful information, beyond the fact that Murk was trying to locate any treasure the Zhentarim might have, and is turned over to the other Zhentarim for care. The party also finds a den behind a waterfall which may have been where Murk was staying but there is nothing inside. Of the dragon himself there is no sign.

The Young Adventurers gather their group together. Nero says he would like to leave Leo and Krea behind along with a couple of his guards to hold down the base until the Zhentarim can send reinforcements. The rest of the group loads into large barge-like rafts (and the Young Adventurers break out their folding boat) and head downstream on the underground river.

The journey is mostly uneventful. At night there are eye hooks to tie up on while they sleep or river banks to pull their boats on to. One night Sebastian, keeping watch, hears howling noises from far off down a cross tunnel but they do not investigate. After four days on the river they end up at an underground lake with a dock and bunk house. They spend three days overland, encountering only a solitary rocktopus which their Order of the Gauntlet vanguard deals with easily. Much of two of the days is spent in Faerzress, leading to strange dreams. Nero says that the Faerzress has grown recently; it used to be a much smaller area.

Finally the Young Adventurers arrive at Mantol-Derith. Nero suggests leaving the followers outside so as to not upset the delicate balance in the trading post. In particular he thinks Roary might make the other factions nervous considering that the Zhentarim already have a “significant strength advantage.” Ralkor decides that no, he will be bringing his giant robot along.

Inside the trading post it is quickly clear that something is amiss. Nobody is trading at either of the market areas and shouting is heard from the east. The group investigates and finds several enlarged duergar warriors attacking two deep gnomes. A third deep gnome is hiding under a table nearby. The party intervenes, slaying the dwarves. The gnomes say that the duergar are attacking their enclave and ask for help and the Young Adventurers agree. At the enclave they see four enlarged duergar breaking into the stone enclave door with pick axes. The group attacks and eight more duergar reveal themselves, having been hiding invisible nearby. The ensuing combat is mostly a curb stomping for the Young Adventurers, but unfortunately their new deep gnome friends are both killed.

The party returns to the market and finds the third hiding deep gnome. He says his name is Peebles and he is just passing through town. He has no idea why the gnomes and dwarves are fighting. He came to the outpost because he heard there was a beholder at the Zhentarim enclave and he is fascinated by aberrations. Nero confirms to the party that one of the Zhentarim faction leaders in Mantol-Derith is a beholder, and suggests the group check in with the Zhentarim faction to find out what is going on. Peebles quietly tags along.

In a large tent outside the Zhentarim enclave the party sees several drow women waiting around. When the party slows down to take a look one of them hisses at them to move along. At the enclave itself Nero speaks with the guard who says that the faction leaders, Ghazrim DuLoc and the beholder Lorthuun are coming out to speak with the drow shortly about the recent outbreak of violence. The guard says that the Zhentarim do not know what the fighting is about.

The party is waiting to one side when they see DuLoc, some guards, and the beholder Lorthuun emerge. The beholder, they note, is old and injured, missing several eyestalks. DuLoc briefly speaks with Nero, telling him that the meeting with the drow shouldn’t be long and he’ll share what little he knows after it is over.

Within seconds of the meeting starting the party hears shouting and the beholder bellowing in pain. The Young Adventurers leap to action, entering the tent and attacking the drow. Based on the confused shouting they gather that one of the drow warriors launched a surprise attack on Lorthuun. It seems that the other three drow women are as confused as everybody else but are fighting alongside the attacker. The drow instigator is highly focused on the beholder, landing several devastating hits on him, and is shouting in elvish that she has to kill the beholder for her house. Nobody knows what she is talking about. The fight is ended with surprisingly little bloodshed--the drow instigator is killed when Lorthuun bites her head off and the rest of the drow back down when he tells both sides to stop fighting. The drow chief negotiator tells DuLoc that there will be no further fighting but she is taking the dead drow with them and DuLoc agrees.

As the party watches the drow retreat back to their own enclave they witness a gargoyle attack them with what sounds like a wail of despair. The drow easily kill the gargoyle. DuLoc and Lorthuun are baffled about what is going on.

We end our session here with everybody inside Mantol-Derith thoroughly bemused. Tune in next time when the Young Adventurers get to the bottom of the mystery (not really, we already played the next session and they still don’t really know what’s going on. Oh well!)