Jahnas’ Journal Day 18 – Kythorn 29 1497 DR/139 PR

I feel a great deal better after the others let me get a full night’s sleep. My spells restored, my body nearly restored, and a little mending on my robes has gone a long way. Again we head towards the way deeper into this stronghold. We were ready for the stirges this time and took care of them with ease. We managed to steal some nice looking equipment from a caustic mold, and we have come across a wand of light which will be very helpful.

This was clearly a dwarven stronghold, given all of the dwarven architecture, but if that wasn’t enough, we also stumbled across a dwarven tomb. We opened it, I think more to determine if there was danger than anything else. Inside was an old dwarven warrior, interred with a dragon-shaped ring and a warhammer. We left them in the tomb out of respect. Further down we found an iron door which Fox unlocked. Over the door was written, “Durgeddin’s Foundry.” We don’t know what that means, if it means anything other than the literal. Before going through this iron portal, we again decided to continue exploring this level. Unfortunately, it was large and seemed split because of the water running through. A large white lizard was across a stream and guarded some potions which aid physical abilities like jumping and swimming.

Our biggest challenge came after meeting up with some koa-toa at the bottom of a descent near a pool of water. Initially, they ran from our long range fire. They were just luring us further into their lair where their large chieftain resided. We prevailed, but it was an extremely difficult fight. We almost added all four of our skeletons to this increasingly awful place. We discussed turning back after this fight, considering that we had successfully dealt with the upper levels where the goblin raids were initiating. However, once the suggestion was voiced aloud, we all looked at each other and knew that we had to continue. It wasn’t over until we could say for certain that no danger would be found in this place. It wouldn’t be finished until we could tell the nearby settlements to try and reclaim this stronghold and keep it from falling into the wrong hands again.

It does seem that there must be some connection to the Underdark here as well, with the drow, a koa-toa tribe, and now this duergar problem. As I write this we are resting behind a barrier of stone that Magda has magically erected in front of the iron door. After the koa-toa fight, we returned to the iron door and opened it, thinking it may be a simple forge room. Instead we were greeted with a large area with huge dwarven statues holding up the ceiling. A harsh voice warned us to go back and we were attacked invisible. Dask scored an incredibly lucky, or maybe it’s skill now, hit and decapitated one. That sent them reeling, but with their invisibility, we were stymied. When they started to cast spells at us, we retreated and Magda barred the way. We will rest as we think of a plan to deal with them tomorrow.

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