Session 21

### Session 21 - don't think Telmund is very compos mentis, mate.

We follow Telmund into the house, and bumble around for a bit. Trip and Eva try to stealth it downstairs and Telmund joins them. The three of them figure out that there’s a secret room hidden behind a bookshelf because they can hear voices through the wall. Trip unlocks the hidden wall and we see Telmund’s NPCs: Ilsi Silverhand (mother in law), Njørdi Oremantle (uncle), Ulric Oremantle (brother). They give us the rundown again about the whole needing to stealth into the cave because it’s on lockdown. It’s a super emotional reunion and we head off with them to sneak into the skull cave. They create a distraction and we sneak in to go help Telmund find/save his wife and brother.

As we enter into the caves, we see unnaturally formed veins and stalagmites of amber, which Ejholan states his concern about. Telmund waves the concerns off, stating that the dwarves in Mueawal have been farming amber for as long as anyone can remember. We decide to rest in a clearing to regain our strength (and spell slots), but Trip recognises a wall and a large shining orange stone. Trip recalls that she travelled through this cave once, whilst travelling from home through a teleportation network. Telmund sees the wavering lines around the stone, and he reaches out in his mind to the entity that speaks to him. He hears nothing back, but just feels the urge to go to the stone, stronger and stronger. There’s a back and forth and he eventually absorbs it into his wand and he gets a bit more powerful. We take a rest, and Maggie and Trip talk about their home caves. Eva checks in with Telmund who says he’s coping well.

We sleep and get up and head over to check out what’s ahead. Trip bets there’s going to be spiders, and Eva has a little pep talk with Telmund and he gives her a flapjack and she gives Ejholan some because he can smell food. Maggie is a caving pro who leads the group through the caves without issue. Maggie can see light ahead. The brightest light she’s ever seen, and wants it in her jar. Eva checks the cave, and sees a carved stone staircase. Unusual, because we haven't seen carved stone for hours. A carved platform that radiates divination magic. Xia and Maggie were so excited by the light that they wanted to investigate it, and disturbed some of the webs. Melchior and Coda were a pair of lemons and just stood there while the gang fought a bunch of spiders with daggers. Noticeably there were cobweb sacks in each corner of the room that looked like people were probably wrapped up inside. Trip checked one of the sacks and found a partially digested kobold inside. One by one, the group passed through the light, transporting away, as the spiders in the room multiplied. Ejholan decided to risk it all to check one more web sack before leaving and saw a Dwarf skeleton, before getting vortex warped away by Xia.

Falling through the portal of light, Eva (the first to arrive) sees a room of bubbling lava with shallow pathways of brown rock. She is greeted by three sexy fire ladies who immediately screech intruders and start attacking.

### Quotes:

* 'The last month of my life has been a museum of disappointment.' - Ulric Oremantle

* 'It is better to fight and fall, than to live without hope. I plan to fight, and I plan to hope. And I will hope for the both of us if it needs be, brother.' - Telmund

* 'On with the butter!' - Ejholan

* 'I detest snow.' - Melchior

* ‘Aw Heck…’ - Maggie

* 'I don't think I have bones...' - Maggie

* 'He could sleep bum shuffle!!' - Xia

* 'Are you like - compos mentis- mate?' - Eva

* 'It's like if I - all of a sudden - saw this wife and was like, oh yeah, forget this jar!' - Maggie

* 'I do not know what strength is in my bones' - Telmund

'Calcium...' - Trip

* 'Everything is okay, because it has to be. And if it is not... then it has to be.' - Telmund

* 'Can taste the defeat' - Eva