Abyses 56: Dr Uergar's Big Day

# TL;DR

* Ivis argued with the head of Clan Rabblerouser, and lied and walked out on the Deep King while using Oundrock Rabblerouser's appearance.
* The Acquaintance's successfully got Errde Blackskull removed from her position as captain of the Stone Guard.

# Gartokarr the Corwardly Duerg

* Gartokarr invisibly snuck in to the Cairngorn Cavern to get a better understanding of the party's plans for convincing the Deep King of Errde's negligence.
* The party was able to convince Gartokarr that they could get the Deep King to side with them, but couldn't get him to get over his fear of Errde outing his own negligence in allowing the red dragon egg to be stolen.
* He refused to stand against her in the coming talks, but did say he would instruct the Keepers overseeing the trial to cast zone of truth over Errde's party.

# The Talks

## Prologue

* The Deep King and Ylsa are wearing identical cloaks, they are red felt with a faint pattern depicting a simplistic silhouette of a horned figure drinking from a chalice. Bernhol feels he has seen such cloaks before but is unable to recall their significance.
* Of the diverse selection of guards present in the discussion hall, there were notably no Stone Guards.
* Deep King Horgar Steelshadow V is tall for a dwarf, standing at about 6 feet. And has a fine set of armor and two hammers, all of which appears to be magical. He speaks pridefully, but calmly. Not at all like the unhinged ramblings present in the contract the party found in the ESK's lair.
* Hgraam, Ylsa, Bernhol, and Ivis were present to speak against Errde. Bernhol applied a non magical disguise and claimed the identity of the fictitious Dr. Uegar, a doctor of forensics who lent his expertise to Clan Blackskull on occasion. Ivis used the ring he borrowed from Ylsa to assume the guise of Oundrock Rabblerouser, a named member of the clan responsible for running the arena.
* The ring's disguise would need to be reapplied every hour, Ivis had decided he would remain at the trial for the first 2 hours, then take his leave when Errde appeared rather than draw the Deep King's attention by excusing himself every hour throughout the trial. With this in mind the party decided to present what they perceived as their most compelling evidence first.
* A Keeper of the Flame then cast a spell resembling Zone of Truth, but it had no effect on the party.

## Pt. 1: Brains and Books

* Ivis as Oundrock presented the first piece of evidence. It was the young elder brain the party had taken from the ESK. Ivis claimed that the Rabblerouser's acquired it while obtaining creatures from the Whorlstone tunnels to compete in their arena. The Deep King had a member of Clan Steelshadow verify the creature's nature. Upon looking into the pot the guard immediately began reeling as the brain attempted to modify his memory.
* Bernhol as Dr. Uergar presented the second piece of evidence, the Gray Alchemist's journal which he had taken the time to annotate so that the Deep King might fully understand its significance in a reasonable amount of time. Hgraam, being aware that Ivis' disguise was close to expiring, suggested a recess until Errde arrived under the pretense of giving the Deep King ample time to thumb through the journal.

## Pt. 2: Blackskull's Big Blunder

* Shortly after the party returned from recess, Errde arrived with two influential duergar to speak on her behalf. Nezbit Thrazgad head of the armorsmithing clan, and Lazlo Rabblerouser head of the clan that runs the arena.
* Nezbit was equipped in a magically infused set of adamantine armor, and removing his full help revealed a fully iron jaw.
* Lazlo was older than any of the other Rabblerousers the party had seen, he wore a tophat and even in the Deep King's presence spoke like a showman. He gave the disguised Ivis an incredulous look as he passed him.
* The Deep King made Errde bow to him for several minutes before allowing her to take a seat, expressing a clear dislike of her before she even began defending herself.
* As the Keeper of the Flame cast Zone of Truth on Errde's party, Errde was clearly caught off guard because she resisted it. The Keeper notified the Deep King of this which infuriated him.
* The Deep King commanded Errde to "grovel", and as he did Ivis was able to spot a faint trickle of blood dripping from his ear and staining his white beard.

## Pt. 3: Testimonies

* Nezbit claimed that any artifacts that appeared to be of Illithid origin were purchased by him so that he could study them for weaknesses. His stock had been hit in the recent string of robberies, which could explain why they were out being used.
* Ylsa told the narrative she had already shared with the party about knowing Errde before she became captain and bearing witness to her gradual corruption. Ylsa also claimed that the uptick in robberies following Errde's appointment as captain was evidence enough of Errde's negligence.
* At this point Ivis dismissed himself for the remainder of the discussion, which the Deep King expressed displeasure with.
* Lazlo claimed that none of the Rabblerousers caught any whiff of mindflayer activity in the Whorlstone Tunnels, which directly contradicted Ivis/Oundrock's earlier claims.
* Bernhol/Dr. Uergar did his best to rectify this. While he was ultimately unable to explain the contradiction he did produce evidence that there were in fact illithid-related creatures in the city, regardless of the exact details. He did this by presenting the creature parts Ivis collected while in the tunnels. No one on Errde's team had any response for this.

## Pt. 4: Errde Ousted

* Seeing the discussion had turned against her, Errde claimed she was the victim of a conspiracy and attempted to denounce Garokarr and the Acquaintances but was silenced by the Deep King.
* Seeing that Errde had nothing left to say to discredit the evidence mounted against her she was carried off to be held in a dungeon while a more extensive investigation took place.