Episode 27: Return to the lair of Halaster

When last we left this party they were finally getting some much needed rest in Blackstaff tower, having done their minor part in securing Waterdeep from Halaster's minions. It was an expensive and taxing few days and the rest was needed. As a reminder, this party consists of:

Unit 2408, the Warforged (humanoid living construct) Barbarian

Luthis, the Kenku (humanoid raven who can not fly) Blood Hunter

Dancing Wind, a Tabaxi (humanoid cat) Wizard

Morlech, a Human Druid with a penchant for fire

Evangeline, the Tiefling Paladin of Tyr

In the morning, after a bit of breakfast, Jarvis informs us that Rubis is already out on other matters but that we're to resume our original mission: find out what Halaster is up to. Fair enough. After a bit of restocking of supplies, travel rations and the like, off we go to the Yawning Portal.

There we find Durnan, the owner of the Yawning Portal, and the bar itself in good shape. They were in an area that wasn't hit as hard in the fighting, plus Durnan can handle himself. After a few pleasantries we head for the well. And that's when we realized Morlech didn't actually know what was going on. So Evangeline demonstrated the bucket ride down the well to Halaster's domain. She likes to go first anyway to secure the area while the rest come down. Unit 2408 is always last as he can lower us down saving us some gold. Durnan then lowers Unit 2408 last. This time, of course, he had to show off and one-hand the crank that lowers the bucket, and Unit 2408 weighs a LOT.

At the bottom we form up in our normal pattern and head out to the room that once housed the white dragon, as it has all the portals. We were in a hurry last time we were here so we decided to spend a few minutes exploring the archways and how they may work. The frost from the white dragon's lair has pretty much receded at this point as well, which makes things more comfortable.

Poking about we have come to the realization there's a token of some sort that operates each portal, and there appears to be one per floor, at least known floors. Some sort of flower operates the portal to the 5th floor, and it appears the anchor we found in the magical box eons ago works the portal to the 14th floor.

Deciding the 14th floor may not be a wise choice at this point, and not having the flower indicated by the 5th floor's portal, we pull out the coin we received for fighting in the arena. Activating the portal to the 4th floor, and with a word of warning to Morlech to keep his wits about him, we return to the bar in the arena's rest area.

There we find things pretty quiet. It's a little early for the normal denizens of this area. Dancing Wind walks right up to the bar tender and starts asking questions. The bartender, though confused with some of the questions, is quite forthcoming with information. He also pushed hard for the "Slaughterhouse 5" to be put into the rotation for tonight's festivities, apparently the party made him some money the first time we fought. We politely decline, for now, but are able to get the information we need from him to navigate the arena more successfully. He did suggest we talk with others who fight in the arena, and Evangeline said the rest of the party can no one would talk to her. The bartender, relatively politely, agreed with that notion.

Being a Lawful Good Paladin of the diety of Justice in a no limits underground fight club ran by a green dragon is pretty much like having the FBI/state cops in uniform try to casually chat up any seedy character in a criminal organization/area. Not likely to produce good results.

Anyway, we follow the bartender's directions and find the front door to the arena. Good information to have as we will likely need the arena, and it's denizens, again.

Also, when you serve the diety of Justice, getting paid to kill some of the evil here isn't a half bad gig.

Outside the doors of the arena we find a small encampment of people in a large cavern with several tunnels. Inspecting the encampment we get the definite impression it's along the lines of a homeless camp, those down on their luck.

The tunnels are helpfully labeled, in undercommon. Thankfully Morlech does read it and translated. The 3 smaller tunnels on the left are labeled kobold warrens, some sort of drow city, and something that isn't translating well. The big tunnel across from the arena appears to be for the green dragon lady. The smaller tunnel on the right is labeled Wyllowwood.

Having intel that tells us Wyllowwood is on the 5th floor of the lair, that is the direction we go. We find ourselves following a dirt trail that kinda meanders back and forth and about, sloping downhill. Our Druid friend Morlech and the ever aware Luthis picked up the scents first, but we all figured it out when we got to the bottom of the trail. There's a forest. Underground.

And that was this week's game - told you I was caught up - more soon!