Having either killed the human enemies or driven Azard the efreeti back to his home plane, the party was able to search the adjoining chambers and found a significant stash of treasure (Azard's "business funds" while on this plane). In perhaps their biggest treasure haul of the campaign, they found 900 copper pieces, 9,350 silver pieces, 2,201 gold pieces, 140 platinum pieces, 10 50GP gems, 3 potions of healing, a potion of greater healing, a scroll of Light (cantrip) and a scroll of Longstrider.
Leaving the main lava chamber, the party explored the last bit of the dungeon, which was the guard chambers and a small makeshift jail. No enemies were left, and the place was empty. A staff was found (later determined to be the staff of Dahlgren, the wizard in Zarya Udak's ambushed party), which was later Identified to be a Staff of the Explorer. The staff is not a combat item, but can conjure all manner of useful items, serve as a compass, point the direction to known locations, etc.
Two prisoners were found locked in the jail cells. The first was Amala, a member of Zarya's party and Zarya's good friend. The second was Gommek Leadback, and old dwarven prospector. Amala was able to tell that the rest of the survivors of the group had been taken from their cells earlier in the day, and she didn't know what became of them. Gommek had been captured days earlier while exploring the nearby hills (and had no connection to Zarya's group). Amala indicated (behind his back) that Gommek was perhaps a bit nuts...or at least eccentric. Which would seem to be true.
Gommek speaks a different dialect of dwarvish, but as previously noted, in this world, all dwarven languages are closely related enough that anyone who speaks dwarven can communicate with anyone else who also does. So we had a more effective way to communicate. Gommek spoke dwarvish and the local tongue, and everyone in our party speaks dwarvish, courtesy of the reward boon of Grandar from the Traniska/Alberneth Underdark story arc.
Gommek told tales of searching for great gemstone riches in the nearby hills. Which is fairly typical stuff for dwarves, and may or may not be true. He said he was originally from the nation of Astillon far to the north, and after discussion with him, Zarya and Amala, the party was able to determine that they were indeed in Illurya, and more specifically, they were in the southern part of the city-state of Durn, the one outlander realm in Illurya. By their best estimate, knowing what they knew of the world's geography, they were perhaps 2,000 miles due south of their home base in Linden. The directional piece was confirmed by use of the new Staff of the Explorer, which indicated first which way was north, and then which direction Linden was in. The directions the staff pointed to were almost identical.
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| City-State of Durn (Hexographer, 6 mile scale) |
Being told that the nearest village was Jonka, perhaps 6 miles to the east downstream, the party had time before nightfall to get to the village. On the way, they passed the ruins of a log palisade enclosure that Zarya and Amala indicated the locals thought was haunted by undead. They kept going, and said they might come back later. [GM's note - I messed these distances up during the session. Looking at the local map drawing a few pictures below, the ruined log fort is the first mark to the west, 3 miles away from Jonka. Another 3 miles west is the Arafas gate. Another 6 miles west is the lava temple at the end of trail. So 12 miles from Jonka, not 6. Oops.]
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| Ruined Log Palisade Fort |
The village of Jonka itself was a small collection of simple but stoutly built log buildings. Each house had the appearance of a tiny fortress, with narrow windows and thick shutters. One small walled compound was the only larger structure, and there was a three story tall wooden watchtower. A bell could be seen on the upper floor of the tower, and a pair of banners, black and red, flew from the roof. Amala said that a red banner meant a report of danger nearby, but a black and red banner meant "danger confirmed".
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| Jonka |
Gommek took them to the village's one small tavern, the Staff and Sickle. He claimed to be a friend of the owner, Banarik Ashstone, also a dwarf. Bursting into the tavern, Gommek was acknowledged by the crowd and then quickly ignored. A dozen or so locals filled the establishment, and showed some limited interest in the party, who gained some good will by buying a round of drinks for the house.
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| Jonka area of southern Durn |
Banarik Ashstone proved to be a friendly dwarf with intricately braided fire-red hair and beard. He reacted very favorably to the Mark of Grandar (Thalmyr's god of vengeance) that each of the party members carry on their left cheekbone, treating them deferentially and calling each of them "my lord." He intended to kick a small group of travelers out of their room (the only place to stay the night), but the party declined, and asked permission to sleep on the common room floor after closing instead.
Regarding the "danger" banners flying from the watchtower, several locals told tales of sightings in recent days of monsters that they referred to as Red Reavers, a hulking brute of a creature. They were said to be hairless and red, being tall (7 or 8 or 10 or 12 feet tall, depending on the teller), muscular, and with 2 or 4 or 6 arms, again depending on who was relating the tale. Despite the difference in description, there were many similarities, and all accounts agreed that they were red, large, strong, fierce and of evil intent.
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| A Red Reaver |
Before turning in for the night, the party agreed that they might spend a bit of time in Illurya, looking around...
Next - Out and about in Illurya...
GM Commentary - As intended, this session was very low on combat, given that the last two sessions were a dungeon crawl followed by an epic boss battle that lasted almost an entire 3 hour session. We needed something else for a change of pace. As it happened, we had one of those rare sessions where not a single die was rolled in combat. I don't think anyone minded...
XP for this session by the book for 5e would have been zero. No monsters killed. No imminent threats avoided, etc. Which is why we don't do XP that way. All but one of our characters are within 3-5k XP of 34,000 which is 8th level. Our 8th level druid is 13k away from level 9. Given all that they learned about the world, maps they were able to fill in, a large treasure trove "liberated", NPCs met and talked with, and freeing some captives and doing good deeds was collectively deemed to be worth 1,500 XP. I like this kind of session, and I need to make sure that while the players also seem to like them, I don't undermine that by taking their XP award away. So 1,500 XP per character, plus a 250 XP for anyone with an adventuring motivation of "Exploration" and a 500 XP bonus for anyone with an adventuring motivation of "Riches". Riches doesn't trigger bonuses all that often since I am not big at throwing tons of loot at the party, but this was a big one, and should be rewarded as such.
Interacting with the World (what the characters learned...or were reminded of): A whole lot of stuff, which is what made the non-combat session fun nonetheless. They are indeed in Illurya. They are specifically at the southern edge of the wilderness of the city-state of Durn. They learned a little about the local area, and some potential threats.
Present: Duncan, Badric, Niam, Malachy (all level 7), and Melior (level 8).
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