- The party began the session watching Kriick welcome the new baby girl kobold into Vala as she climbed out of the cracked egg.
- He named her Sarack, and she was a bundle of energy and hungry as a diamond without a karat, as Jon Marston might say.
- She called Kriick “dada”, but was also drawn to Marston because of the “fatherly” way he had developed from his vast experience as a father to a mushroom child.
- The drow climbed down the Rope Trick (which has been cast a total of 1 time in this campaign) and announced that he was the Teak D’Hara, true King of D’Hara.
- After being quizzed on his family history, he confirmed that his mother was Earilel, which matched the name the party had read in his journal.
- He asked about his backpack, but no one let on that they had it, and he dropped the subject.
- He explained that his mother was Nero’s second, secret wife and that she was a drow.
- He explained that because he was half-drow, the drow rejected him and the surface dwellers despised him, not believing that he was related to Nero.
- He claimed that Nero knew the truth but did not advertise it—instead, he asked Teak to take the Oath and protect him.
- Teak claimed to have taken the Oath along with about 50 other Grey Cloaks—the original group, which at one point had swelled to 200 but was now less than 12.
- Teak explained that to carry out his duties of the Oath, he had led the Grey Cloaks for years and was based out of the Grey Citadel.
- He explained that the Grey Citadel was a fortified town sitting in the middle of a river on top of a waterfall, and that it contained the secret of how to enter the “real” Grey Citadel, where the “Lock” was hidden.
- The Grey Cloaks’ job was to protect that Lock, but they had been driven out by a bastard of Terrance Dharan named Barak Vasak.
- He also expressed grave reservations that the current king, Edward Roswell, was capable of leading anything—after all, he had no blood connection to Nero or even Terrance and was only a merchant.
- The party bantered with him about his claim and why he was hiding up a rope— and in response, he stated that his goal was to secure the locks, keeping D’Hara safe, and then publicly make his claim to the throne. He did not want bloodshed when he took the throne, unlike both his father and his uncle.
- Next, the party talked to the Wood Sprite, who had helped them in the last fight with the cultists.
- She spoke in a haunting voice that echoed (echoed… echoed….), and then the Silverstand Fox appeared.
- When they were physically together, her spirit merged into the fox, and they spoke in unison.
- They called themselves “We are”.
- After some dialogue with them, the party discovered that the fox was Burle Perk, an important ranger who had served Nero and had scouted much of D’hara, and was responsible for building Burle Keep and creating the trade road to Saltmarsh.
- They also learned that the Wood Sprite was perhaps an archdruid that resided in the forest to protect the “Second One Tree” – the party didn’t ask much about that tree, so they only had heard the name now. They did hear that Burle Perk and the Archdruid had met and had communed.
- When the party asked about the dragon/serpent living in the Crystalline Caves, they learned that it was possibly an extremely rare creature called an Andrenjinyi, which was rumored to be an offspring of the Rainbow Serpent, a possible God (now a constellation among the stars) that had assisted Beren the Builder in carving the very landscape of D’Hara.
- This creature’s name was Lukka, and she had a long-term peace with the drow. She also, for centuries, had a tentative peace with the Grey Cloaks to assist in guarding the Lock, but in the past months she had failed to live up to the bargains. Something had happened to her.
- The party gave the fox Bruce’s seed as he promised to give them to Tana so she could start the process of re-growing Bruce.
- The party interrogated a Cultist who, under a suggestion spell, revealed that he was a servant of Barak Vasak. Along with other cultists, he was tasked with bringing magic items, including certain magic trees from the forest, to the Grey Citadel. He had never been to the “real” Grey Citadel, and he also had never seen Lukka. He explained that the secret way to the Grey Citadel was through a locked gate, which can only be opened by a key kept in a temple in the caves. He also was forced to called Barak “bastard no. 512.”
- Finally, Feng carried him out in the woods, Argone sliced off a hand, and he was buried alive. As the party put the last shovel of dirt on him, the balloon spiders appear and started to spin a web around his grave, probably preparing for lunch.
- Teak tried to recruit the party to serve his throne, but they only promised to help him secure the Lock
- After a long rest, the party headed towards the Crystalline Cave and was attacked by a drow patrol lying in ambush for them as they crossed a river.
- Feng used a Message spell to tell the Grey Cloak elves that Teak had been found.
- Darkness spells were everywhere until Avari brought Daylight’s power upon the area, putting the drow at a significant disadvantage. The fight took many rounds as Feng in octopus form had to run across land, and Jon Marston had to climb cliffs and also fall off of them.
- Kriick had to stay at range to protect the baby kobold, and Teak was swarmed by the drow.
- Finally, after the battle was over with two drow escaping, the party looked inside the caves and saw that they were full of various colored crystals.
- Session ended.
