Reconvening after a long time, the party found its way back to the dungeon, descending to level 20. Right at the entrance, there was a death trap; after that, smooth sailing for a while. They skipped a deep chasm and ran into a myconid colony. The Sovereign, a nice lady called Floot, offered them some potions in exchange for destroying the rock giants and rock demons plaguing the level. While still in the telepathic range, Szivem started debating whether to kill her for her fancy glowing hat. Understandably, the myconids asked them to leave the colony.
The party then headed towards a cavern where they heard some rocks banging, happening on a rock golem beating another golem, and then attaching its body parts to itself. The adventurers killed it, then turned towards the main cavern. Therein, a large stalagmite housed a blue glowing runestone. Groin sat on Gasus[1] and flew up to shoot at it, at which point it turned orangey red, and started spewing profanities and spells. Groin tanked a meteor swarm and fell to the ground, dead. Tari and Solid tried to retrieve his corpse, but also fell unconscious. Brienne, Szivem and Ireth ran back to a cave entrance.
Ireth created an illusory terrain, and the adventurers then tried sneaking back for their friends, all the while Solid was rolling death saves. On his last leg, Brienne laid her hands on him, then him on Tari, then a fighting retreat hauling Groin's dead ass. A last short fight ensued against a giant hand squeezing Ireth and knocking her around, but the adventurers fled successfully.
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The second session started with a longer RPG segment, as the adventurers ascended into Waterdeep and searched for a cleric good enough to resurrect Groin. I had them roll for the most popular gods - Pelor, Tymora, Umberlee. Hilariously, they rolled 1 below the required threshold each time. In the end, they decided to look up the druids of Silvanus. They sold Groin's Cloak of the Bat, and in the end the cheery old dwarf had to leave the halls of Lliira, again.
And then they were back at it. Quickly scurrying across the large cavern with the blue glowing rune, they explored the side passages. Some stones - bits of statue, a stalactite - had auras of magic around them, but Brienne dispelled each without bothering to learn what they did. Other elements were less friendly, and the adventurers soon found themselves battling animated statues of Halaster.
The golems were tough, but the party quickly destroyed them.
Their efforts were rewarded after finding an old battle site. Reptilian skeletons were surrounded by broken statues, and a side chamber hid a small treasure hoard.
The adventurers then found a magical statue overgrown with mushrooms. Brienne started to remove them; they sprayed her in the face with spores. A greater restoration took care of her, and a firebolt took care of the mushrooms.
The next chamber held a stone puzzle. The picture was of Halaster riding a dragon, but one piece was missing.
The next puzzle was a gateway made of puzzle pieces. Szivem removed one, and a beholder appeared. The fight was at least interesting, with Szivem getting frightened and running into another room, right into more golems. Ireth was picked up telekinetically and slammed into the wall. Various other effects bounced off the dwarves, and the beholder soon died.
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During the third session, the adventurers regrouped after their fight with the Beholder and looked for things to do, other than the main chamber. They advanced into the chamber where Szivem had previously run into two golems. Besides the Halaster simulacra, gargoyles animated and descended from the ceiling. Nothing the party couldn't handle.
Then we had a very cool room with acid tentacles erupting from the walls, floor and ceiling. While Tari and Solid could easily dodge them, everybody else was caught. Solid walked back to free Szivem, who flew out, and Brienne teleported. Using his superior athletics, Solid walked out as well. Groin spent a lot of turns in the room, spending his low level healing to counteract the acid damage, waiting to cast guidance, then trying to get out with his mighty +3 STR. After a while, everybody reached the far room - a dead end with a giant snail (represented by the dinosaur, yes I forgot a box of minis at home).
The snail's shell was shiny gold, so Solid killed it and the party harvested the gold. Then a short trip back through the tentacles. This time Brienne carried Groin in a bag of holding and teleported through.
Finally, in a desolate cavern, the party found treasure lying around. Solid made Gasus take a diamond, at which point dwarven mummies animated all around.
Exactly one fireball later, the mummy lord stood alone. He did some damage, but went down soon enough.
As a joke, the party burned the mummy lord's heart in a jar, at which point I gave them blessings from the gods.
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After a month long hiatus or maybe more, due to Christmas and my leg injury, we reconvened virtually.
The adventurers explored the rest of the level, killed a couple of duergar, and then... had no idea how to continue. They asked their guilds about side quests they remembered having but not how and where... I sighed and we discussed the genies from the previous level, as well as the young watchman asking for a piece of the Runestone, and what that is, exactly. Hint: it's the giant crystal with a rune floating in it.
Armed with all this new information, the adventurers decided to stalk out the cavern of the Runestone. They noticed a small dragon flying about. Tari went in all alone to talk to the dragon, and managed to calm it down with an offering of food. Just then, an undead mage stepped out of the stalagmite and engaged the elf in conversation. Tari told him she was part of an adventuring group but she's lost, and looking for her mates. Also they are here to kill Halaster. The lich then invited her in for a cup of coffee.
Just as they disappeared into the stalagmite, the others rushed in and found the secret door. As they touched the door handle, vampires misted out of the rock, but were quickly defeated.
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At the start of the next session, Tari's player was unavailable, so we retconned that actually Ireth had gone inside. The lich Ezzat [2] actually summoned some coffee for her and they were discussing common goals, as in getting rid of Halaster; but then he was alerted to the break-in and they went to the front door. The party convinced the lich that they were actually just reunited, and so discussion was joined. Groin got unto the lich's good side by playing a game of Warhammer[3]; losing, but only just.
After some talk, Ezzat decided to help them; he was playing the long game, researching Halaster's weaknesses, but it doesn't hurt to hurl an adventuring party at him either. He shared whatever meagre information he had on Halaster, picked out of hundreds, if not thousands, of fantastical accounts of the Mad Mage. He also agreed to give the party a piece of the Runestone.
All happy, the adventurers ascended to the surface to complete their quest. The young watchman, accompanied by Volo, was indeed very grateful for the fragment. He couldn't give the party the promised magical sword, and said that its owner was sad to give it away, and would like to meet the party. Given the circumspect conditions of the meeting, the adventurers were wary: Brienne wore a piece of jewelry the next day at noon at a certain intersection in Waterdeep. But they were only met a young dandy, who gave over the sword, and invited them to his villa. The adventurers went, only to be well groomed in advance of a noble masked ball. Mirt the Moneylender, their gracious host, bargained for his sword back, promising whatever anti-magic trinket he could conjure in return.
[1] Brienne's pegasus
[2] The plot thickens.
[3] The book mentioned a chess like game with hand painted figurines, so you know.
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