Journal Day 5

We prepared to enter the secret passageway into Balgron the Fat’s chambers. We decided that we should go in as stealthily as possible, and we decided that we some of us should go stay with Jalfred, who had stayed above ground when we entered the keep, so Kelissa, Liam, and Dillius went back to the surface. Splug remembered that he had left some of his gear back in the torture chamber, so he and Krusk went and got his suit of leather armor, holy symbol of Sehanine and a dagger. It turns out that Splug is a cleric/rogue and given how he comported himself for the rest of that day, quite a fine one. He has expressed interest in staying on with us at least until we finish dealing with Kalarel’s cult. When we first took him with us, I must say that I expected him to betray us the first chance he got, but then in very short order he had a number of opportunities in which to do so and he remained loyal, indeed he went above and beyond the call of duty.

(Our original agreement was for him to work for us in return for us sparing his life and returning the vial of his blood that Balgron held. That agreement, I think, is insufficient now. We should discuss it as a party, and discuss it with Splug, but I would be in favor of some much more generous pay to him—I am thinking something like giving him a half-share of whatever coins we find [i.e., by the end of this 5th remove of adventuring, the three PCs and Splug found 599 gp, so each of the PCs would receive 171 gp and Splug would receive 86.]) I am open to other suggestions for how to remunerate Splug, should he continue to adventure with us, perhaps more of a flat-rate: at the end of our adventures in the keep, once we’ve foiled Kalarel’s plan, we pay him 200gp or whatever.)

Once Splug returned with his gear, we went through the secret door right into Balgron’s sleeping chamber, which was separated from a larger room by tapestries. We heard one goblin guard on the other side of the tapestry wall, so we decided that Yonah should grab and intimidate Balgron while the rest of us tried to jump the guard and kill him before he could sound a general alarm. We were successful. We tied up Balgron and began questioning him. He tried to lie but when Yonah applied a little physical pressure he very quickly broke down. He told us:
• Kalarel is indeed in the lower level, performing a ritual, and is guarded by many undead.
• We’ll need a password to get into the lower level. After much pressure, he said the password is: “Life fails in the dark.”

When Splug said smthg about taking the symbol from around his neck, which he could use to raise his goblins from the undead, Balgron freaked out and managed, within an instant, to shrug out of the ropes that we had bound him with, tumble out of the bed and through the tapestries, then to get halfway down the hallway. For such a big creature, he moved with incredible speed. We chased after him, and he ran straight through the locked door at the end of the hallway without so much as unlocking the door, let alone opening it.

Yonah charged willy-nilly through the door and after him, and ran right into a large group of goblins who had by that time been alerted that we were coming. It was a pretty nasty fight for just the four of us, but we eventually turned the tide and were taking them down, when Balgron snapped the symbol from his neck and smashed it on the ground and all the goblins we’d killed were raised from the dead and rejoined the battle. At one point, all four of us were badly bloodied, but eventually the only enemy left was Balgron and he was backed into a corner and seriously wounded. I raised the idea of trying to capture him to question further but before any of us really had a chance to even decide, Splug sank his dagger into Balgron’s chest with a killing blow. When Balgron died, a blast of black energy burst out of him, knocking us all flat, and then a ghost reflection of him rose from the body and was sucked screaming into a magic pit that opened beneath him.

We took an extended rest in Balgron’s chamber and then set out to explore those last caves on this level before heading down to the lower levels. We found a wide natural cavern full of rocks and debris, and then were attacked from some vicious Rats of Unusual Size, followed quickly by an attack from an ochre jelly. The rats were no trouble at all, but that jelly was a tough bugger. He was an amorphous jelly who could shift easily through the hazardous terrain and used a tremor sense track us. When he was bloodied, he split into two separate jellies, and then split again.

We found no treasure at all in the room but we did find a secret door that led to a small shelter stocked with a bedroll, rations, and a few other supplies. This seemed to be a little shelter for Balgron, where he could escape to and hide.

As we were talking amongst ourselves, one of us mentioned the rift and Splug chimed in that this rift in Shadowfell is probably one of “The Nine,” a prophecy that speaks of 9 seals created to keep at bay a supernatural disaster that would destroy the world. There were 9 Keepers appointed to stop those rifts from opening.

There were two exits apparent from the jelly’s cavern, a set of bronze double doors and a long hallway. The bronze doors were greened with verdigris and fungus, and scratched into the fungus were the words “Stay out. Really!” in the common tongue, so of course we decided we should go in there first. We found behind the doors fungus coated stairs the led down to a well of water with a small island in the center of it. We were soon attacked by a Blue Slime, a creature a lot like the ochre jelly but which usually lives in water, which used acid sprays as its main attack. The slime absorbed a helluva lot of damage but we eventually destroyed it, though when it died it erupted with a spray of slimy acid.

We searched the island and found some coins, a potion of healing, some magical chain mail armor, a potion of healing, and a wooden message cylinder.

Inside the cylinder were three sheets of velum:
• A map that showed the kobold lair region, Winterhaven keep, and a burial site (S of Winterhaven but west of the kobold lair)
• A message: “Remember, don’t wet the nodule unless Kalarel is not receptive to my offer, then wet it only from a distance and immediately turn and run. Water will bring the creature out of dormancy and it will consume everyone it can reach.”
• Another message: “Greetings, Kalarel, I have recently learned of your activity in the area and I have an offer for you. During your time in this region, if you capture humanoids we’re eager to buy them. We have Durgar allies in Thunderspire in need of slave stock. If you’re interested, send an envy back to me. My messengers will show you the way. Signed, Chief Krand of the Blood Reivers”

It would seem that this message tube was never really opened, since the note to the messenger remained with the other note. My guess is Chief Krand sent this Blue Slime as an assassination attempt on Kalarel, but this messenger one way or another triggered the slime in this well.

We had taken a fair amount of damage by the end of this encounter so we decided to stop there for the night. We’ve earned an extra action point for facing 2 encounters without an extended rest.

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The Loot
13 leather armor
50 javelins
club
crossbow & 20 bolts
8 short swords
5 spears
2 sunrods
2 days trail rations
waterskin
aleskin

599 gp
157 sp

Magical Items
Key of Ghostly Walking (can attune the key to a specific lock & then anyone holding the key can pass through the door without opening it or unlocking it) [Kelissa?]
Bracers of Archery [Gareth]
Potion of healing [Gareth]
Mithril chain mail armore +1 [Jalfred]