(Jan 19)
The Prisoner
Underground Temple
Autumn 73
Kaisi and Peach talk to the white pudding, which tells them it once was friend to all and provided healing, but was betrayed by those who grew to fear it. A part of itself was once something terrible, and it set out to destroy it, but could not, so set it apart; that separated piece committed horrible deeds. It thinks that it was imprisoned rather than killed due to incapability or fear on the part of its jailers.
The riddle over the plaque on the other door:
Riddle of the Watchman
Wings endured the loss of flight;
An intractable persistence of sorrow.
He suffered countless ills;
Indeed, such ills were his beak’s companions.
In that lost place
Where no eyes shone fondly.
Nor that which gleamed so sweet
The clock was always right.
That if wings pass: this also may.
A dwarf named Fayne joins them, reading the Dwarven plaques for them (mostly the Old Ways, which the Mayor and Town Council shared) and insists on joining them.
Esmund and Aureya solve the puzzle by sending Zephyrus in through the little hole above the door, seeing through his eyes, rearranging a tile into Shocking Grasp formula and casts Shocking Grasp on the orb that was then revealed.
Ixtalan, scouting, finds the source of the drums, a large room where a number of gray-skinned and white-skinned dwarves are mustering. Already an initial party are heading up the ramp toward the temple, so she races back to warn the town dwarves of the incoming raid, then down the stairs to the others.
After much debate, Kaisi elects to free the white pudding; it refuses to swear fealty to him since they know nothing of its nature, but it agrees to not harm him or his friends; it’s only interested in harming the cave dwarves. They all race upstairs to join the beginning fray.
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