Morgot follows Bilyur and sheepishly says 'I know we dwarves are meant to be hardy, but this stuff was so strong it knocked me straight out!' He holds up the bottle he had on him, which is just an unlabelled green-glass bottle, like ale usually comes in, filled up with a strange whitish fluid that smells of nothing. He goes on to say 'I'll explain what happened; me and the rest of the crew were partying in the other room, and we ran out of ale, so me, our chronicler Tebet and our chef, Eliza, went to go find more. We only found this bottle in the store cupboard, so I headed back to inform the party, but as I went, I took a swig just to try it and then boom! I was out...' He then enters into the next room and nearly drops the bottle with a cry of shock as he spots the body, getting down on his knees and shaking the dead rock gnome, crying 'Tebet! Oh, Tebet! I should have never drank that nasty stuff, if I was awake I could have saved you!' He then wipes his tears on his sleeve and murmurs 'If Tebet's here, then that means two things; the killer is somewhere close, and Eliza's probably with them!'
[Yep, Bilyur would have heard stories about vampires!]
Sly is utterly transfixed by the book, her eyes widening as she ruminates over its contents. She completely misses the discovery Bilyur and Salamander made and the probably reason for the dwarfs death. Her entire mental faculties are trained on the manuscript before her. This was what she had been searching for! So much knowledge contained in one work. Truly magnificent. She couldn't wait to get lost in its pages.
She only snaps out of it when Morgot comes rushing in and shouting the mages name.
Sly sheepishly inquires. "Was Tebet your ships alchemist as well as its chronicler? This book contains much knowledge to that effect. And what a strange manner of death."
The tiefling already holds the book in a protective manner, clearly not willing to let it go.
"If Eliza was with him, perhaps we can pick up hers or her killers trail. I'm afraid I'm not much good at tracking."She turns to Salamander. "What do your goblin eyes see?"
Morgot sniffles and says 'No, he was just fascinated with books he was. Carried them around in his satchel, and he found that one when we raided an old alchemist's tower, thinking he could turn sea water into grog! Good times...' He then snaps back to reality and says 'We won't be needing many of these books now; aboard ship Tebet's role was to keep track of how far we travelled, record the weather and the course of where we sailed, but in these dungeons he had little to write about.' Digging through the satchel, which you see is filled with mundane tomes (a few of them are oddly garden related, and you wonder if he took them from Evaltrini's bookcase), he pulls out a little black notebook, sat next to what looks to be Tebet's personal copy of the Turtle Of Tyraa myth. He hands over the notebook and says 'Everything Tebet picked up or knew about these dungeons, he put in here. I don't know how much you're aware of already, but ye might glean something from his notes!'
Begrudgingly tearing her eyes away from the alchemical compendium, Sly has a look at the black notebook.
"Thank you."
The tiefling lets her eyes wander quickly over the contents, looking for anything that sticks out. She pays particular attention to the end of the notes, interested if Tebet had written anything about Soron's Cabin.
She doesn't try to read everything, because she feels that any delay may decide Elizas' fate, hoping she would have time later.
"If this lad was killed by a vampire then it may be best to burn the body. Wouldn't do us any good to him to rise up all bitey." says Eggo Lass. She listens to the pirate's words about the bottle, "A single swig and you were knocked out? Let me check that." She takes the bottle and holds it to the light, trying to get a gander as to what it is.
Xarkris bends down over the dead gnome’s body and INVESTIGATES the puncture marks, but is not able to learn anything from them (rolled a 4).
While staring at Morgot, he uses his DIVINE SENSE to determine if he or the dead gnome are a fiend or undead, or anything else that this ability will reveal.
At the mention of another dwarf possibly being a prisoner of the killer, Bilyur's eyes immediately sharpened in concentration. He hurries to the end of the hall, looking for signs of passage.
Survival: 12.
If there are any animals or beasts in the vicinity, he will use speak with animals and ask them if they've seen a dwarf pass this way.
Sly examines the notebook for any information, and finds that the majority of the points are either things you know, or stubs of theories that don't go anywhere and don't make much sense. However, there is a short passage that intrigues you.
Past Shadow Weave Casters:
The Cobweb Queen: A Shadowfell Dread Lord from tens of thousands of years ago, who was the one to create the spell Summon Shadow Weave. There is little evidence left of her, her Dread Domain, or even any casting of the spell. Conquest: A Mammon Tiefling War Mage, who lived a couple thousand years ago. After conquering the layer of Hell known as Minauros, under the ruler Mammon's command, he moved onto a planar crusade, where he discovered the lost knowledge for the Summon Shadow Weave spell. He is the first recorded person ever to use the spell, as records say whilst defending a town from a siege, he ensnared each of the 100 buildings of the town into the Shadow Weave to slow down and confuddle the enemy. Madithal Rellish: Human Wizard who was the head of the Brightblade party. As the greatest mage to ever walk on Tyraan soil, he must have been aware of how to cast the Summon Shadow Weave spell, but never used it. 4th Caster: Created the 100 Dungeons using the spell, their identity is unknown.
Meanwhile, Eggo examines the mysterious bottle Morgot had. It's definitely not alcohol, that's for sure, but with her Drow heritage, she's had enough experience with this type of fluid to identify what it might be; venom. She's unsure what type it might be but is confident that it's at least some type of harvested venom. As she comes to this conclusion, Xarkris scans a 60 foot area for any unholy presence as he opens his divine senses, but detects nothing, ruling out the possibility of a vampire killer. Meanwhile, Bilyur hunts for any tracks or evidence left by the killer; whilst there aren't any beasts around to discuss with, he does check both the doorways leading off from this room, to little results. One leads to a fairly large mess of a storage cupboard like Morgot mentioned (even the exposed wooden rafters filled with clutter!) and the other simply goes into a very dark, cool room, empty of anything else. He can't track anything further without going inside one of them.
Sly stuffs the book in her backpack and summarizes its contents for the others. "Tebet had knowledge of at least four people that had the capabilities of summoning the shadow weave. It seems the spell was created by an entity called the Cobweb Queen, originating somewhere in a domain of dread within the Shadowfell. This matches with my theory that the shadow weave utilizes, or perhaps exploits, shadow crossings. Two of these entities, Conquest and Madithal, were skilled mages. The last, unnamed, one, is presumably the Blood Archivist himself, although there is no mention of his true identiy."
[As a mammon tiefling herself, does Sly remember anything in particular about Conquest?][History: 14]
She looks to the others, keen to follow if any of them enter one of the rooms. Also, she renews the enchantmens on her transportation device for the emerals, proofing it for the next hour.
"We should try to find this Eliza as soon as possible." she suggests.
[Sly's knowledge on Conquest would vary depending on her parentage, since Tiefling's could have two human parents, a human parent and a tiefling parent, or two tiefling parents. Depending on how much of her ancestry is Tiefling would change how much she would know, since if she had Tiefling parents they would probably teach her about him in some way or another. If she just had human parents or was orphaned, then she'd probably know a little less, but could still recall a little due to her scholarly nature]
[I see. Sly was brought up in high society to wealthy merchant parents, both tieflings. But her parents had never visited Minauros, nor had their parents. The origin of her fiendish lineage has been lost in the mists of time. It's up to you if that means that Conquest would've been a mere footnote in their common history.]
[Sly is fine to follow whichever direction, since we don't know in which direction the killer could've gone.]
Bilyur decides that making a decision fast is more important then making the right decision when it comes to the crossroads, and immediately begins to run down the west passageway, telling those behind him, "Friend Xarkris, you have ruled out the possibility of an undead killer. Eggo has discovered that the bottle Morgot drank from holds some kind of Venom, and the dead dwarf had two puncture marks in the neck. Conclusion: Large snake." And continues to run down the passageway, keeping his eye out for any tell-tale marks of a slithering snake.
Sly remembers a slight bit about Conquest; she recalls his name in a tome on the most influential mages of all time, and a few details on how he conducted his planar tour, but other than that she can't remember much more on him, considering he lived so long ago and is a fairly distant figure when it comes to Tyraan history. Despite his fame and the fact he shares a species and subspecies with her and her family, she doesn't remember any mention of him in her childhood, either. As she tries to recall any minor details on Conquest, Bilyur makes a quick decision, coming to the excellent conclusion that the threat they're after is a large snake.
[The west passage is locked off, so you'll need a key to go search it, which Eliza had on her before she went missing. Therefore the threat is going to either be in the cluttered storeroom (south) or the dark, empty room (north). Which one do you choose to go into and search?]
Eggo Lass seals up the venom bottle and turns to Xarkris, "Might be something worth using on your battleaxe here and there for some extra oopmh." She smiles, reminiscing about past times, "You know my Aunt Julia had just the absolute most adorable giant spider as a pet when I was a little girl. Made the cutest sound of delight when she'd milk it for venom to put in a specially designed channel in her rapier. Oh you should've seen the look on this one svirfneblin's face when he thought he'd gotten away with merely a nick only to wind up paralyzed for the next hour." she mimics a confused and motionless visage for a moment before chuckling.
Getting back to business he says, "Perhaps we'll try the uncluttered room first? Better for us if it's there than behind the boxes."
Xarkris looks at the poison and calmly puts it down. “Poison is not the way of the Paladin”, the Dragonborn replies. He then heads south to search the cluttered room, using his PASSIVE PERCEPTION of 22.
It takes a while for Salamander to register that there is a body there, not just a drunk one. "What I see?" he croaks. It's not that he wasn't used to seeing bodies, heck they literally some an hour earlier. It's just this time it was just so jarring for a reason that he couldn't put his finger on. His whole body shivers.
He pats Morgot on the back and hands him some random pebbles he found on the ground that he carved faces onto. "It's okay buddy, ya didn't know." He sniffs the corpse for any signs of clues but it seems Bilyur already beat him to it. A smile crawls across his face at the mention of venom.
Salamander bursts out laughing at Sly's recollection even going so far as to slap his own knee. "Should've gone mongoose."At the mention of it, he turns into a giant one, a creature notorious for being immune to snake venom.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
<---- me irl slow reader, even slower writer easily jumpy thanks for being patient
DM: Drakkenheim Mind and Matter + Blood Secrets + What's in the Here and Now;
[Is Xarkris searching the cluttered or uncluttered room? Unsure whether it was a typo as Eggo suggested the empty one first rather than the cluttered one]
Morgot follows Bilyur and sheepishly says 'I know we dwarves are meant to be hardy, but this stuff was so strong it knocked me straight out!' He holds up the bottle he had on him, which is just an unlabelled green-glass bottle, like ale usually comes in, filled up with a strange whitish fluid that smells of nothing. He goes on to say 'I'll explain what happened; me and the rest of the crew were partying in the other room, and we ran out of ale, so me, our chronicler Tebet and our chef, Eliza, went to go find more. We only found this bottle in the store cupboard, so I headed back to inform the party, but as I went, I took a swig just to try it and then boom! I was out...' He then enters into the next room and nearly drops the bottle with a cry of shock as he spots the body, getting down on his knees and shaking the dead rock gnome, crying 'Tebet! Oh, Tebet! I should have never drank that nasty stuff, if I was awake I could have saved you!' He then wipes his tears on his sleeve and murmurs 'If Tebet's here, then that means two things; the killer is somewhere close, and Eliza's probably with them!'
[Yep, Bilyur would have heard stories about vampires!]
Xaul Lackluster: Half-Orc Fathomless Warlock: Warlock Dragon Heist
Borvnir Chelvnich: Black Dragonborn Barbarian: Dragons of Stormwreck Isle
Pushover Gerilwitz: Tiefling Wizard: Acquisitions Incorporated
Callow Sunken-Eyes: Goliath Arctic Druid: We Are Modron
DMing The 100 Dungeons of the Blood Archivist , The Hunt for the Balowang and Surviving Tempest City!
Killer Queen has already extended this signature, though not by much!
Sly is utterly transfixed by the book, her eyes widening as she ruminates over its contents. She completely misses the discovery Bilyur and Salamander made and the probably reason for the dwarfs death. Her entire mental faculties are trained on the manuscript before her. This was what she had been searching for! So much knowledge contained in one work. Truly magnificent. She couldn't wait to get lost in its pages.
She only snaps out of it when Morgot comes rushing in and shouting the mages name.
Sly sheepishly inquires. "Was Tebet your ships alchemist as well as its chronicler? This book contains much knowledge to that effect. And what a strange manner of death."
The tiefling already holds the book in a protective manner, clearly not willing to let it go.
"If Eliza was with him, perhaps we can pick up hers or her killers trail. I'm afraid I'm not much good at tracking." She turns to Salamander. "What do your goblin eyes see?"
Morgot sniffles and says 'No, he was just fascinated with books he was. Carried them around in his satchel, and he found that one when we raided an old alchemist's tower, thinking he could turn sea water into grog! Good times...' He then snaps back to reality and says 'We won't be needing many of these books now; aboard ship Tebet's role was to keep track of how far we travelled, record the weather and the course of where we sailed, but in these dungeons he had little to write about.' Digging through the satchel, which you see is filled with mundane tomes (a few of them are oddly garden related, and you wonder if he took them from Evaltrini's bookcase), he pulls out a little black notebook, sat next to what looks to be Tebet's personal copy of the Turtle Of Tyraa myth. He hands over the notebook and says 'Everything Tebet picked up or knew about these dungeons, he put in here. I don't know how much you're aware of already, but ye might glean something from his notes!'
Xaul Lackluster: Half-Orc Fathomless Warlock: Warlock Dragon Heist
Borvnir Chelvnich: Black Dragonborn Barbarian: Dragons of Stormwreck Isle
Pushover Gerilwitz: Tiefling Wizard: Acquisitions Incorporated
Callow Sunken-Eyes: Goliath Arctic Druid: We Are Modron
DMing The 100 Dungeons of the Blood Archivist , The Hunt for the Balowang and Surviving Tempest City!
Killer Queen has already extended this signature, though not by much!
Begrudgingly tearing her eyes away from the alchemical compendium, Sly has a look at the black notebook.
"Thank you."
The tiefling lets her eyes wander quickly over the contents, looking for anything that sticks out. She pays particular attention to the end of the notes, interested if Tebet had written anything about Soron's Cabin.
She doesn't try to read everything, because she feels that any delay may decide Elizas' fate, hoping she would have time later.
"If this lad was killed by a vampire then it may be best to burn the body. Wouldn't do us any good to him to rise up all bitey." says Eggo Lass. She listens to the pirate's words about the bottle, "A single swig and you were knocked out? Let me check that." She takes the bottle and holds it to the light, trying to get a gander as to what it is.
Investigation: 13+0+1 = 14
This is a signature. It was a simple signature. But it has been upgraded.
Belolonandalogalo, Sunny | Draíocht, Kholias | Eggo Lass, 100 Dungeons
Talorin Tebedi, Vecna: Eve | Cherry, Stormwreck | Chipper, Strahd
We Are Modron
Get rickrolled here. Awesome music here. Track 48, 5/23/25, Immaculate Mary
Xarkris bends down over the dead gnome’s body and INVESTIGATES the puncture marks, but is not able to learn anything from them (rolled a 4).
While staring at Morgot, he uses his DIVINE SENSE to determine if he or the dead gnome are a fiend or undead, or anything else that this ability will reveal.
At the mention of another dwarf possibly being a prisoner of the killer, Bilyur's eyes immediately sharpened in concentration. He hurries to the end of the hall, looking for signs of passage.
Survival: 12.
If there are any animals or beasts in the vicinity, he will use speak with animals and ask them if they've seen a dwarf pass this way.
[A paper drops out of a flash of light and drifts to the ground at your feet] -(extended sig)-
Sly examines the notebook for any information, and finds that the majority of the points are either things you know, or stubs of theories that don't go anywhere and don't make much sense. However, there is a short passage that intrigues you.
Past Shadow Weave Casters:
The Cobweb Queen: A Shadowfell Dread Lord from tens of thousands of years ago, who was the one to create the spell Summon Shadow Weave. There is little evidence left of her, her Dread Domain, or even any casting of the spell.
Conquest: A Mammon Tiefling War Mage, who lived a couple thousand years ago. After conquering the layer of Hell known as Minauros, under the ruler Mammon's command, he moved onto a planar crusade, where he discovered the lost knowledge for the Summon Shadow Weave spell. He is the first recorded person ever to use the spell, as records say whilst defending a town from a siege, he ensnared each of the 100 buildings of the town into the Shadow Weave to slow down and confuddle the enemy.
Madithal Rellish: Human Wizard who was the head of the Brightblade party. As the greatest mage to ever walk on Tyraan soil, he must have been aware of how to cast the Summon Shadow Weave spell, but never used it.
4th Caster: Created the 100 Dungeons using the spell, their identity is unknown.
Meanwhile, Eggo examines the mysterious bottle Morgot had. It's definitely not alcohol, that's for sure, but with her Drow heritage, she's had enough experience with this type of fluid to identify what it might be; venom. She's unsure what type it might be but is confident that it's at least some type of harvested venom. As she comes to this conclusion, Xarkris scans a 60 foot area for any unholy presence as he opens his divine senses, but detects nothing, ruling out the possibility of a vampire killer. Meanwhile, Bilyur hunts for any tracks or evidence left by the killer; whilst there aren't any beasts around to discuss with, he does check both the doorways leading off from this room, to little results. One leads to a fairly large mess of a storage cupboard like Morgot mentioned (even the exposed wooden rafters filled with clutter!) and the other simply goes into a very dark, cool room, empty of anything else. He can't track anything further without going inside one of them.
Xaul Lackluster: Half-Orc Fathomless Warlock: Warlock Dragon Heist
Borvnir Chelvnich: Black Dragonborn Barbarian: Dragons of Stormwreck Isle
Pushover Gerilwitz: Tiefling Wizard: Acquisitions Incorporated
Callow Sunken-Eyes: Goliath Arctic Druid: We Are Modron
DMing The 100 Dungeons of the Blood Archivist , The Hunt for the Balowang and Surviving Tempest City!
Killer Queen has already extended this signature, though not by much!
Sly stuffs the book in her backpack and summarizes its contents for the others.
"Tebet had knowledge of at least four people that had the capabilities of summoning the shadow weave. It seems the spell was created by an entity called the Cobweb Queen, originating somewhere in a domain of dread within the Shadowfell. This matches with my theory that the shadow weave utilizes, or perhaps exploits, shadow crossings. Two of these entities, Conquest and Madithal, were skilled mages. The last, unnamed, one, is presumably the Blood Archivist himself, although there is no mention of his true identiy."
[As a mammon tiefling herself, does Sly remember anything in particular about Conquest?][History: 14]
She looks to the others, keen to follow if any of them enter one of the rooms. Also, she renews the enchantmens on her transportation device for the emerals, proofing it for the next hour.
"We should try to find this Eliza as soon as possible." she suggests.
((Go west and clear it out before heading East?))
[Sly's knowledge on Conquest would vary depending on her parentage, since Tiefling's could have two human parents, a human parent and a tiefling parent, or two tiefling parents. Depending on how much of her ancestry is Tiefling would change how much she would know, since if she had Tiefling parents they would probably teach her about him in some way or another. If she just had human parents or was orphaned, then she'd probably know a little less, but could still recall a little due to her scholarly nature]
Xaul Lackluster: Half-Orc Fathomless Warlock: Warlock Dragon Heist
Borvnir Chelvnich: Black Dragonborn Barbarian: Dragons of Stormwreck Isle
Pushover Gerilwitz: Tiefling Wizard: Acquisitions Incorporated
Callow Sunken-Eyes: Goliath Arctic Druid: We Are Modron
DMing The 100 Dungeons of the Blood Archivist , The Hunt for the Balowang and Surviving Tempest City!
Killer Queen has already extended this signature, though not by much!
[I see. Sly was brought up in high society to wealthy merchant parents, both tieflings. But her parents had never visited Minauros, nor had their parents. The origin of her fiendish lineage has been lost in the mists of time. It's up to you if that means that Conquest would've been a mere footnote in their common history.]
[Sly is fine to follow whichever direction, since we don't know in which direction the killer could've gone.]
Bilyur decides that making a decision fast is more important then making the right decision when it comes to the crossroads, and immediately begins to run down the west passageway, telling those behind him, "Friend Xarkris, you have ruled out the possibility of an undead killer. Eggo has discovered that the bottle Morgot drank from holds some kind of Venom, and the dead dwarf had two puncture marks in the neck. Conclusion: Large snake." And continues to run down the passageway, keeping his eye out for any tell-tale marks of a slithering snake.
[A paper drops out of a flash of light and drifts to the ground at your feet] -(extended sig)-
Sly remembers a slight bit about Conquest; she recalls his name in a tome on the most influential mages of all time, and a few details on how he conducted his planar tour, but other than that she can't remember much more on him, considering he lived so long ago and is a fairly distant figure when it comes to Tyraan history. Despite his fame and the fact he shares a species and subspecies with her and her family, she doesn't remember any mention of him in her childhood, either. As she tries to recall any minor details on Conquest, Bilyur makes a quick decision, coming to the excellent conclusion that the threat they're after is a large snake.

[The west passage is locked off, so you'll need a key to go search it, which Eliza had on her before she went missing. Therefore the threat is going to either be in the cluttered storeroom (south) or the dark, empty room (north). Which one do you choose to go into and search?]
Xaul Lackluster: Half-Orc Fathomless Warlock: Warlock Dragon Heist
Borvnir Chelvnich: Black Dragonborn Barbarian: Dragons of Stormwreck Isle
Pushover Gerilwitz: Tiefling Wizard: Acquisitions Incorporated
Callow Sunken-Eyes: Goliath Arctic Druid: We Are Modron
DMing The 100 Dungeons of the Blood Archivist , The Hunt for the Balowang and Surviving Tempest City!
Killer Queen has already extended this signature, though not by much!
Eggo Lass seals up the venom bottle and turns to Xarkris, "Might be something worth using on your battleaxe here and there for some extra oopmh." She smiles, reminiscing about past times, "You know my Aunt Julia had just the absolute most adorable giant spider as a pet when I was a little girl. Made the cutest sound of delight when she'd milk it for venom to put in a specially designed channel in her rapier. Oh you should've seen the look on this one svirfneblin's face when he thought he'd gotten away with merely a nick only to wind up paralyzed for the next hour." she mimics a confused and motionless visage for a moment before chuckling.
Getting back to business he says, "Perhaps we'll try the uncluttered room first? Better for us if it's there than behind the boxes."
This is a signature. It was a simple signature. But it has been upgraded.
Belolonandalogalo, Sunny | Draíocht, Kholias | Eggo Lass, 100 Dungeons
Talorin Tebedi, Vecna: Eve | Cherry, Stormwreck | Chipper, Strahd
We Are Modron
Get rickrolled here. Awesome music here. Track 48, 5/23/25, Immaculate Mary
Xarkris looks at the poison and calmly puts it down. “Poison is not the way of the Paladin”, the Dragonborn replies. He then heads south to search the cluttered room, using his PASSIVE PERCEPTION of 22.
Bilyur steps ahead of Xarkris, ready to reduce any attack against him that includes Bludgeoning, piercing, or slashing damage by 8.
[A paper drops out of a flash of light and drifts to the ground at your feet] -(extended sig)-
It takes a while for Salamander to register that there is a body there, not just a drunk one. "What I see?" he croaks. It's not that he wasn't used to seeing bodies, heck they literally some an hour earlier. It's just this time it was just so jarring for a reason that he couldn't put his finger on. His whole body shivers.
He pats Morgot on the back and hands him some random pebbles he found on the ground that he carved faces onto. "It's okay buddy, ya didn't know." He sniffs the corpse for any signs of clues but it seems Bilyur already beat him to it. A smile crawls across his face at the mention of venom.
Salamander bursts out laughing at Sly's recollection even going so far as to slap his own knee. "Should've gone mongoose." At the mention of it, he turns into a giant one, a creature notorious for being immune to snake venom.
<---- me irl slow reader, even slower writer easily jumpy thanks for being patient
DM: Drakkenheim Mind and Matter + Blood Secrets + What's in the Here and Now;
Player: Dragonlance
[Is Xarkris searching the cluttered or uncluttered room? Unsure whether it was a typo as Eggo suggested the empty one first rather than the cluttered one]
Xaul Lackluster: Half-Orc Fathomless Warlock: Warlock Dragon Heist
Borvnir Chelvnich: Black Dragonborn Barbarian: Dragons of Stormwreck Isle
Pushover Gerilwitz: Tiefling Wizard: Acquisitions Incorporated
Callow Sunken-Eyes: Goliath Arctic Druid: We Are Modron
DMing The 100 Dungeons of the Blood Archivist , The Hunt for the Balowang and Surviving Tempest City!
Killer Queen has already extended this signature, though not by much!
[I don't know about Xarkris but Bilyur wanted to do the not cluttered room.]
[A paper drops out of a flash of light and drifts to the ground at your feet] -(extended sig)-