Hammer 16, 1489
Dre'zel my love,
As we were preparing to interrogate the duergar prisoner, he shrank to his normal size, while JoJo still held him in a tight bear hug. Soon after, the deceased Durth grew to his normal size, forcing Talyth to drop him on the ice.
Talyth cast Zone of Truth, and, unable to overcome her enchantment, the prisoner revealed that the last shipment had left several days ago and that the chardalyn dragon was more powerful than any real dragon.
Attempting to probe the prisoner for more information, Saritu claimed to be a priestess of Deep Duerra, but duergar’s faith in Xardorok was too strong, and all she could learn was that there were about two score duergar at Sunblight fortress.
Tiring of the constant threats the duergar strewed with each piece of relevant information, I gave him a mercifully quick death.
Almost immediately afterwards, Captain Arlaggath appeared from the shadows, along with a hefty contingent of guards. She shared that because of a werebear attack a couple of weeks ago, JoJo was no longer welcome in Easthaven. Despite this, she expressed her gratitude for all JoJo and the rest of us had done for Easthavem and gave him two sets of cold-weather gear. Quietly furious at these accusations, I was partially assuaged by her gesture and informed her that JoJo had only been cursed the day before we returned to Easthaven. Without disputing the claim, she shrugged and wished us well. I was tempted to resist, but it seemed foolish considering we were in a hurry to leave anyway.
But there was more. Steve was detained for vandalizing the town. I wonder if this is what he and Taimen had been doing together. After his recent behavior, the charge did not seem out of character. Meanwhile, Ambrose was called off to comfort Aurata.
Once Ambrose, Aurata, and Steve departed with Captain Arlaggath and her guards, Taimen asked everyone to leave the Zone of Truth so she could have a minute alone with Talyth.
It was still dark, and I slipped into the shadows, just outside of the zone, letting my curiosity get the best of me. As much as I trust Talyth's capabilities and intentions, after her recent decisions, I’m afraid her judgment might be questionable due to her gullibility and naïveté. Ironically, these flaws, if that’s what they even are, probably come from the same place as her purity and good nature—the things that make her special.
Consumed by my own inner conflict, I could barely hear them whispering, and I only caught the end of their conversation. Talyth seemed placated by whatever Taimen had confessed. I suspect the dragonborn admitted to taking part in vandalizing Easthaven with Steve. That would explain why she had been too embarrassed to share her misdeeds with the rest of us. Talyth was probably the only one of us that she knew would forgive her. Had Steve actually suggested this course of action during the séance?
It was still early morning when we left the docks and returned to the White Lady Inn to retrieve our belongings.
While I was alone in our room, I spoke to Prudence’s flying serpent, Sssusssannah. She said she would join us as long as we fed her, preferring not to hunt, which I found disappointing. She also shared that she used to belong to Naerth, but was handed off to his assistant when she started getting old. More importantly, she revealed that Naerth had been installing lackeys in high positions across the Ten Towns in order to have himself elected as ruler of them all! JoJo could barely restrain himself when I shared this information with my companions.
As we were leaving town, Vellynne approached with Graven and two dog sleds. She offered to assist us, and we all agreed that she should catch up to us with Ambrose and Steve once they were permitted to leave.
Crossing Redwaters river, we followed the shore southwest, following the duergar’s preferred route.
After two hours, we had passed the frozen Redwaters lake and turned south toward the Spine of the World. At least a hundred feet ahead, great glowing blue antlers revealed a herd of reindeer. Explaining that this was no magic we needed to be concerned with, we continued south as the leader led the herd on their way.
It was afternoon when we turned into a valley leading directly into the Spine of the World mountains. Using his Beast Sense, JoJo saw through Sssusssannah’s eyes as the serpent agreed to scout out the valley for us.
JoJo suddenly shouted a warning, and we were immediately assaulted by two carrion crawlers as they emerged from the snow.
Saritu summoned a Shadowspawn, frightening the monstrosities. But Talyth was paralyzed by the last one, which was about to tear her head off before I landed a fatal arrow in its mouth!
As we took a short rest, JoJo explained he had seen some kind of strange ship buried in the snow, and we agreed to investigate it.
It didn’t take us long to find what appeared to be a large cephalopod partially buried in the snow where it had clearly crashed. Glowing with a reddish-purple light, it had tentacles as large as trees.
It had three decks, all of which appeared to be abandoned, and a ten-foot-tall frost-covered door. The lower two decks were armed with ballistae.
Saritu cast Clairvoyance inside the main deck and reported seeing loads of cargo, three cages, and a creature composed of stitched-together flesh with a few small tentacled creatures.
She heard someone speaking from above and recast Clairvoyance inside the second deck. There she saw two short illithids!
Suddenly, they emerged from their vessel and began speaking in Undercommon. The size of gnomes, they introduced themselves as Vorrin and Dredavex, and called out to Talyth to wait.
I withdrew into the shadows and slowly backed up as they explained that they had sensed the presence of the “psi crystal” we had retrieved from the gem mine near Termalaine, and that they were lost travelers who needed it to return home.
Explaining their flying ship’s travel limitations, they began to panic as they detected the crystal moving further away. I stopped backing up and eventually returned as Talyth negotiated with them. I was very reluctant to make any deals with these illithids, but Talyth seemed to trust them, and this seemed like a good opportunity to be rid of the crystal and potentially find a way to travel quickly ahead of the dragon, should it take flight and attack the Ten Towns. Was it possible that these illithids were different from the evil enslavers of the Underdark? Were Talyth and I not exceptions to the stereotypes of our people? I was torn but decided to trust Talyth’s judgment. Insisting that they had very little time before their ship would become permanently inoperable without the crystal, they promised her they would wait up to three days before they departed this place. She also managed to convince them to give us each one of their eldritch wands, an enchanted monocle, and a magical slug.
Two hours after we had departed the nautiloid, we were crossing through a mountain pass when Saritu yelled, “Landshark!” as a bulette quickly rose out of the snow.
Leaping onto a nearby rock, I buried two arrows deep into its carapace. Talyth cast Bless. Mounted on Princess Skullcrusher, Taimen charged, piercing it with her lance. But it leaped over her and landed on JoJo and Saritu. JoJo held half of it aloft, but Saritu was crushed in the snow under its mass! As Talyth rose into the air, I landed another arrow into it, and JoJo split it in two!
As this new monstrosity was toppled over, Saritu’s form was barely recognizable! After fearing I might have to kill this half-elf-turned-duergar so many times, it seemed unfair that she should die now that we were rid of the curse that had overtaken her. My thoughts quickly turned to Talyth, who would blame herself, but she was already rushing over, a diamond in her hand. A rainbow aurora appeared as Talyth cast Revivify on Saritu, and the duergar rose, weary but alive once more!
As we took a short rest, I determined we were only two hours away from the valley of Sunblight’s fortress, and we were soon on our way once more.
It was evening when we first spotted the massive fortress, a virtual wall of stone carved out of the mountainside itself, hundreds of feet high. A narrow stone staircase zigzagged up one side of the fortress while rows of arrow slits dotted its walls.
I cast Pass Without Trace, and we silently approached, making our way right to the bottom of the cliffside, where Talyth cast Tiny Hut in a secluded area where we could spy on any who arrived or departed from the fortress while we rested.
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