2024-11-22 – Shadowed Keep

Characters

Chartreuse (pp 17 Inv 20 Ins 11) – the call of the gem is strong here.
Eldrox (pp 16 Inv 10 Ins 16) – gnomes shape stone like he shapes nature.
Helm Hobbs (pp 17 Inv 10 Ins 17) – What strange gods lurk down in the depths.
Radon (pp 14 Inv 10 Ins 11) – The kuo toa and turtlefolk come from the same ancestry.
Voxi (pp 11 Inv 17 Ins 11) – Deep gnomes manipulate stone like the artificers manipulate magical constructs.
Zaffre (pp 14 Inv 14 Ins 11) – The sliver of lolth wants to be free from the demonweb.

Strong Start

Two earth elementals and the svirfneblin.

Scenes

Meeting Trosli and the Svirfneblin. – Outpost of Bedrock
The tomb of Asberdies
Thoopshib's Barge
The Shrine of the Kuo Toa

Secrets and Clues

Asberdies the lich hides in a tomb behind the rock near the Gray Spire Cavern. He travels beyond worlds and knows much of the monoliths and the Black Cathedral.
Far beneath the surface of the earth dwell the Svirfnebli, the Deep Gnomes, a race related to the gnomes of the bright world. Small parties of these demi-humans roam here and there in the underworld mazes of small passageways, always in search of gem minerals.
Kuo toans hate other humanoid races, using them as slaves and food. They worship Blibdoolpoolp the Sea Mother.
Blibdoolpoolp resides in the Elemental Plane of Water.
The Kuo Toa captured a drow scouting party led by Derinnil d’Noquar. She is the only one remaining and is being prepared for ritual disembowelment.
The ziggurat of the kuo toa hides a monolith beneath tied to the Elemental Plane of Water and one of the ancient monoliths of the Black Cathedral.
A continual cold war exists in Erelhei-Cinlu. House Eilservs rules the other houses of the city, but is constantly threatened by the other houses. Matron mother Eclavdra dEilservs is the matron mother of Erelhei-Cinlu.
Priest-Prince Va-Guulgh leads the kuo toa of their ziggurat. He is vain and bloodthirsty. He believes he is a chosen child of Blibdoolploop.
Va-Gullgh is served by his Master of Assassins – Quolp-Ool.
Several gods and demon princes seek to use the Black Cathedral as their conduit to Oerth – Orcus, Demogorgon, Lolth, Blibdoolpoolp the Sea Mother. Their followers war with one another to make it so.

Fantastic Locations

Svirfneblin Outpost of Bedrock – sleeping stone giants, spiraled gemcrusher, natural stone huts and firepits
Unholy twilight grotto – Crumbled statues, broken glyphed wall, cold-fire braziers, fountain of necrotic fluids
The underground river – kuo toan boat and monitor lizards

Notable NPCs

Trosli Garnetgetter – Svirfneblin lead prospector.
Asberdies the Lich – Seeks chaos and the outer worlds
Thoopshib the Kuo Toa Bargemaster – Likes gemstones.

Monsters

Tomb Guardians CR 5 AC/DC 15 HP 95 Atk/Prof +7 DPR 35 Atks 3 × 1d6 + 9
Asberdies CR 13 – Lich of the cavern – travels the outer worlds. Seeks an amulet of the planes worn by Eclavdra.
Thoopshib the Kuo Toa rogue. CR 6
Priest-Prince Va-Guulgh – priest-prince of kuo toa. CR 8 AC/DC 15 HP 136 Atk/Prof +7 DPR 53 Atks 3 × 1d6 + 15
Quolp-Ool – Master of Assassins. CR 6 AC/DC 15 HP 112 Atk/Prof +7 DPR 41 Atks 3 × 1d6 + 11
Kuo Toa CR 1 AC/DC 12 HP 33 Atk/Prof +5 DPR 12 Atks 2 × 1d6 + 3
Kuo Toa Monitor CR 4 AC/DC 14 HP 84 Atk/Prof +6 DPR 28 Atks 2 × 1d6 + 11
Giant crocodiles (MM 446)

Treasure

123 SP, 2927 GP, 123 PP
Svirfneblin stormy hammer that casts Lightning Bolt once
2x dust of superior healing
Figurine of Wondrous Power (Onyx Dog)

Game Notes

The characters met Asberdies.
The characters met the kuo toa minotar rogue who takes them across the river.
Halfway across the river two giant crocodiles attack.

Dan's Notes

We meet Trosley the gnome from Bedrock who is accompanied by two earth elementals. He is a svirfneblin, or Deep Gnome. He is upset that a priest prince Va-Goolg is wearing a crown with a gemstone stolen from us called the frozen sea, a saphire. We follow him into a swirling portal he created in the cave wall and end up in an underground chamber with glowing gemstones in the walls. There are houses and a twisting spire and a bunch of hibernating stone giants. One of the deep gnomes is aware of the role of the obelisks and the black cathedral, she mentions that Ogremak, the elemental prince that they serve/fear wants to come through via the black cathedral, but they do not want to bring him. She notes that many groups and their dieties will stand in our way if we try to close things down. She tells us that the Kou Toa have a monolith beneath their ziggarat and they are trying to use it to bring their deity, "glibdoploop" through it, and some drow trying to observe them were captured. She gives us two pouches of dust of superior healing, (probably a controlled substance), a stormy hammer with a gem that can be used once to inflict chain lightning, information about which tunnels to take, and a stone that can (sometimes) let us open portals in rocks to take us back to our camp area or to the deep gnome area.
We follow paths and get to a chamber with a grotto of black liquid (similar to the stuff we saw at the first obelisk). The area has tons of webs and mummified creatures. We see a large glyph with a crack through it carved into the wall, Zaffre has a vision of a creature seated on a stone throne with a tarnished silver crown, with 3 pairs of eyes and a voice saying "You have come to me. It was inevitable." The glyph with the crack breaks free revealing a dais with a throne with the 6 armed, 6 eyed undead creature with a crown. Four of the mummified half humanoid half spider creatures stand up and the main guy says his name is Asberdies. We kill the guardians. Asberdies normally explores the stars in his astral form, but he's here for Zaffre's sword who, he explains, has spun webs and plots and schemes and controls people all around. (Radon remembers hearing that over a thousand years ago a dude named Asberdies betrayed a king and was "killed" but he said that death was not an issue.) He gives us a ring of protection. He tells us to listen for the sounds of running water.
As we walk, we find ourselves walking on a narrow path along the side of a bottomless chasm, we come to an area blocked by an underground river. On our size is a carved stalagmite with a stone bell atop it and a hammer. Eldrox rings the bell, and a kou toa comes out from the campsite on the other side of the river. It sends over a raft on a rope, we pay it handsomely to take us across. Halfway across the river, two giant crocodiles attack us. If only Chartreuse were here to save us...