The sky was gray and the air chill when the party awoke. While most were weary from their battle with the Volstrucker the night before, Eris was in the worst shape. Her condition, seemingly worse this morning, rendered her prone to fits of coughing. Brett, on the other hand, was more concerned about Danbol Zex’s disappearance than anything else. The Kryn sorcerer just couldn’t wrap his head around why his trusted comrade would desert them. Sympathetic to Brett’s plight, Endrin Triple J, and Conan agreed they could spare a day to search for Zex before heading to the Ashguard Garrison with their Volstrucker prize, Nyx, in tow.
The group surveyed the scene of the battle once more and, in the light of day, discovered a trail of poorly concealed footprints lopping around towards the Brokenveil Bluffs, a span of the Ashkeepers leveled during the Calamity. FCG followed the footprints to the sheer cliff face of the mountains. There, they discovered a narrow craggy switchback path winding its way up cliff’s bade. Soren, too sickly to traverse such terrain, elected to stay behind and guard Nyx. Brett, worried that Soren was too sickly to be able to restrain the Volstrucker, despite her being bound and gagged, chose to stay behind and keep watch as well.
Endrin, Triple J, and Conan set off up the narrow, rocky, path. Endrin, who’s legs were burning after about 30 minutes of traversing the incline, offered to float the party up on his disc. Conan and Triple J gratefully accepted. As the spell dissipated, Conan decided he felt like walking for a bit. However, after nearly slipping and barely avoiding a 2000ft fall, the warrior happily hopped back up on the disc.
When the group reached the top of the cliff side switchback, they were met with a towering drop at the abrupt end, and a narrow crevice a few feet above them on the cliff side. Confident, Triple J attempted to jump up for a peak, however, the bard’s legs failed him on both ascent and descent. After failing to reach the crevice, Triple J landed awkwardly on the slim, jagged, path and fell. As Triple J plummeted, both Endrin and Conan leapt after him in unison. Air rushing past them, Endrin caught Triple J’s right arm while Conan caught his left. Endrin whipped out a feather and cast fly on both he and Triple J, while Conan, having reached the extent of his plan, continued to plummet. As Triple J attempted to fly up, Conan nearly ripped the slender bard’s arm off as he continued to fall. Luckily the combined strength of Endrin and Triple J was enough to stop Conan’s fall, and the trio safely returned to the path, this time flying all the way up to the crevice above.
Triple J went through first to scout, narrowly avoiding the jagged rocks lining the crevice, and found himself in a large rocky grove nestled amongst the towering cliffs still above. With the coast clear, Endrin and Conan followed. The trio spent a grueling hour climbing and traversing the jagged terrain before finally stumbling across a long fissure with a fresh cut rope dangling down into it. Confident that Zex had fled down into the fissure, the group pursued, using the rope to climb down a few hundred feet into the fissure. The narrow passage at the bottom was blocked a ways down to the left, so the party took their only option, proceeding right instead.
A short while later, the sky above vanished as they entered a cavern leading deeper below into the mountains. They were eventually met by the sound of rushing water as they came upon a small subterranean river running perpendicular to their current path. The trio decided to explore the river upstream, to the left, first. After a short trudge up through the shallow river, they came across a faint orange / reddish glow emanating from a cavern up ahead, just to the left of the river. Triple J went up ahead to investigate and discovered an odd entity, poorly disguised as a rock, hiding in the back of a gem filled cavern. The group cautiously entered.
The strange rocky elemental, not sensing hostile intent from the group, resumed gorging itself on the various gems within the cavern. Triple J took a moment to serenade the creature as it ate, while Endrin began casting comprehend languages, attempting to understand the creature’s intent. Meanwhile, Conan broke off one of the gemstones from an un-gobbled geode. Angrily, the creature scampered over to Conan and began berating him in an unfamiliar language. Right on cue, Endrin’s spell completed and the gnome was able to understand the creature’s language, Terran.
The group learned that this was the creature’s rock garden and that all rocks and gems here were his to eat. Conan mimed an inquiry regarding Danbol and then the gems to the creature, and, in response the creature offered to trade Conan a rock for a rock. Conan offered a single gold piece to the creature, which it consumed immediately, and in exchange, it let Conan hang on to the ruby he had just plucked. Endrin’s eyes doubled in size at the exchange, and he threw sacks of coin at the creature’s feet. While the creature hungrily ate Endrin’s money, and received some welcome scrooches from Triple J’s mage hand, Endrin chiseled out a few gems for himself. For a moment, the gnome contemplated killing the creature and taking all the gems, but his good natured companions convinced him otherwise, and the group resumed their search for Danbol Zex.
They traversed back down the river as it widened and deepened, eventually reaching a 60ft waterfall. The group climbed up onto the narrow banks before haphazardly traversing down the side of the waterfall by means of a short rope and Conan catching his companions at the bottom. After taking a quick glance around, Conan deduced the only way forward was further down the river and hopped right in, the river being a fair bit deeper than it was up above. Triple J followed suit while Endrin took flight above them.
The banks eventually shrunk and disappeared entirely as the cavern narrowed and the river’s pace quickened. Quickly, Conan and Triple J realized the severity of their situation as a massive waterfall came into view. Triple J clambered for a grip on the slick cave wall to no avail while Endrin failed to slow Conan with a gust of wind. Swept along by the river, it appeared Conan and Triple J were headed for certain doom. Frantically, Endrin soared out ahead of them, out into a 600ft shaft, and readied himself at the top of the waterfall. As both Triple J and Conan came flying out of the cavern’s mouth, Endrin channeled the force of gravity, repelling his companions back upstream, buying them another moment to embed their blades in the cave wall and secure themselves.
With but minutes until his flight spell expired, Endrin darted to the bottom of the shaft, eventually discovering a deep pool with three adjacent passageways at the bottom. Quickly he returned to the top and ferried his companions down. With no immediate sign of Zex, the group all took a moment to catch their breath and dry off before venturing further into the dark…
