Santander is not yet able to figure out anything about the staff. Anyone else want to make an Arcana check and see what they can learn?
Kevaras trusts in his people's gift with the arcane to ascertain the nature of the weird green staff.
He studies the form of Naubos, expecting a reversion to its true form or something.
Vernal casts a lazy eye in the direction of the staff.
Naubos stays a warped thing. Vernal can tell the staff has an affinity for cosmic magic, the sort that Star Pact warlocks or Cosmic sorcerors use.
Santander feels a strange affinity for the staff, "Can I keep it?"
Santander feels a strange affinity for the staff, "Can I keep it?"
"Knock yourself out. I'm not going to take it."
Kevaras tries to identify the entity associated with the altar.
He can't make out anything. If it's dedicated to a god, it's not Lolth, Torag, or any other diety that he can ascertain.
After a 'night' of rest, the party continues onwards. While there is no evidence how the surface group got here, they had plenty of supplies and for now the party has enough to eat. Indeed, they likely are having various surface foods for the first time, so the fare might even be considered exotic.
After a few days travelling along the highway, the group comes to the sign of a battle. A caravan was attacked by something, wrecked wagons are everywhere. Bodies lay around the wagons - duergar, drow, kobold, all dressed in the same uniform. Nothing of value remains and even the lizards that were pulling the four wagons are dead.
There is a side tunnel here - it seems the wagons were coming out of it when they were ambushed. It might also mean a settlement is nearby.
I’m going to be without internet for a week or two more so please DMPC me until I can get back online.
Vernal spends the next few days testing the various surface foodstuffs and coming to the conclusion that he likes them.
"I may have to find someone to rob. This is ... intriguing."
No, you don't recognize the uniforms. The wagons were carrying ore, iron ore, and likely often. There are scraps of it in all of them. Whatever attacked the caravan did it quickly and with overwhelming force, it feels less like a battle and more like a massacre when you look it over.
"Someone knew what they were doing. How disturbing. I do love an incompetent enemy."
Malize does not share her twin's liking for the "Surfacer pap" as she puts it.
"Who cares? Let's get to whatever goddess-forsaken hole they came from and find a proper bed."
"Oh, dear. Is the flavouring too subtle for you, sweeting?"
"What, you drivelling halfwit? Can this honestly compare to flambeed cave lizard?"
"A la mode de drow is over-rated in my opinion. It is possible to have a meal that doesn't involve spider venom, although of course you wouldn't know that. Darling Lolth is so possessive."
Like a bear that's acquired a taste for picnic baskets, Kevaras can't go back to Underdark food. He casts a covetous eye towards the sunlit realms.
Vernal looks horrified as he feels the Spider Queen sucking power from him, and then suspiciously at Malize.
"Is this your doing?"
The group moves into the side passage which not at all wild. It's well taken care of and a few hours later you all reach a mining complex.
It's been destroyed. Most of the buildings were made from mushrooms and they've been burnt, acrid smoke still lingering in the air. There is one partly intact building of stone, and the tunnels leading into the mine have been collapsed.
"Wonder if whoever did this is still around?"
Vernal looks around vaguely. Nothing appears to be a kitchen, so he rapidly loses interest.
Kevaras' detective skills quickly emerge. He's able to figure out that whoever did this destroyed the wagons, then came down the path much as you all did and fell on the camp, and did a pretty good job of destroying it.
However, in the one ruined partly stone building, he finds something that they missed. Hidden under an altar to Lolth is a trap door.
The altar hints that drow ran this outpost.
While pointing at the trapdoor, Kevaras holds up a cautionary hand, warning, "We should be careful. Chances are whoever built this also left behind surprises for potential pursuers."
The trap door has no traps on it, and while it takes some time to open, you all manage it. There is a shaft below and a rope, so you need to repel down. It's not that hard, and you all make it. You find yourself at the end of a hallway that leads north into darkness.
The Map shows what you can see so far.
Kevaras proceeds quietly in a northwards direction.
Vernal ambles into the darkness, thinking of surface food.
Ovid creeps forward at Keveras' side.
As the group sets off down the hallway the walls begin to glow. There is also a strange sound in the air, one that none of you have ever heard before.
The illumination is coming from glowing incriptions of simple geometric patterns at waist level. In places the bands are highly detailed, but in others the walls look like they've been hacked with primitive tools. Flakes of ancient paint - a strange mix of purple, yellow, and black - clings to the walls in places, hinting that at one point, the hall was very colorful.
As you reach the first intersection, alcoves open to either side of you. The alcoves are somewhat shallow. The walls in the alcoves look to be very damaged. There are dozens of marred etchings along the walls, and in the western alcove, there seems to be a pile of cloth.
Kevaras goes over to look at the pile of cloth.
"Edible?"
Vernal drifts behind Kevaras.
The pile of cloth is a bedroll, brittle with age. There are some wooden shaving, the residue of someone carving, that lay around it.