"He didn't seem to fear for his life when I stabbed and left him alive but bleeding out. He was just stalling until I think his friends heard him," Kastix comments, "Remember this is their domain as it were,"

"I know.   This place is very sad.   I don't understand how anyone can live down here. We need to find Rhayna and catch up with the others. "

Kaylyn heads for the cave Rhayna went to to look for her. 

The flumph's thoughts continue to come into Zeno's head. It seems to be a simple creature with simple thoughts. Some of the derro worship a demon. They make monsters with two heads. Perhaps they worship the demon from the lake. The giants are good people. I want to help you. I will come with you.

Sekkar: make an Intelligence check please.

Kastix and Kaylyn make their preparations to catch up with Zeno and Sekkar, but when Rhayna doesn't return, Kaylyn crosses the passage to have a look. Rhayna stands at the far end of Buppido's stinking cavern, just by the tunnel leading east. Slumped at her feet is a figure that appears to be Sarith, and they watch as Rhayna lifts her pendant and a bright moonbeam engulfs them both and then fades, leaving Rhayna alone.

When Rhayna's spell hits the doomed drow, he gives her one final look of relief? gratitude? His face is aglow with the light of a moon he has never beheld, but in a moment the light leaves his face, and Rhayna sees in his eyes the moment that his soul departs as his body slumps to the ground for the last time. As she kneels beside him, the bulging in his head continues, and suddenly the top of his head bursts open and some form of dark yellow/green fungus spills out. Spores scatter across the ground and into the air, and Sarith's limbs spasm momentarily, almost as though he is about to rise up again. Fighting the nausea that the sight induces, Rhayna quickly calls on Selune again and casts Gentle Repose on Sarith's body, and immediately the convulsing stops. The fungal hyphae writhe for a few moments more and then they too go still. For the final time Rhayna holds forth her pendant and prays, and this time the beam of moonlight that engulfs Sarith turns his body and the fungus to ash.

(Sorry Wolfy, but as much as I loved your description, I just needed Sarith intact a little longer)

Pure Int check: 19

(wow!)

Sekkar thought he recognised the voice, but now he's decided perhaps he didn't.

Nevertheless, he will try to remember it (hopefully, Dawnbringer could hear it as well, if only in Sekkar's mind, to remind him should they come across the talker)

Go ahead and make an INT check for Dawnbringer then. Modifier +1

Int Check for Dawnbringer: 5

That moment when you find out your sword is smarter than you...

Sekkar telepathically confides in Dawnbringer that the voice seems familiar, upon which the sword responds: Really? I thought so too. It sounds like that grey dwarf sergeant that stood by when you were disguised as a dragonkin and talking to the captain.

Well, "the smart ones" are banned from lizardmen villages and hunted after that. Sekkar learned, of course, that brain might be of some use in the world outside the swamp, but still had this nagging feeling that nutrition factors overweight any other usefulness.

Anyway, he nodded (in his head) to his smart companion: "Don't know what came over me there, but glad you remembered." Out loud he simply informed Zeno: "I think we found the one who makes it all tick here. Remember that sergeant of the Stoneguards? Me neither. But it's his voice giving orders to everyone. Should be him."

"Well then....You still sane?" Kastix question as he tries to stealthily reach for his wand.

"Rhayna!  Are you OK?"  Kaylyn calls as she rushes forward, concern on her face.  "We need to get moving again. Tell us what happened on the way.  Things seem to be happening fast."

After the bright beam of moonlight dissipates, Rhayna prays to the Goddess that she was able to hit her mark. Seated on the cavern floor, with both arms extended, she finds herself clutching her pendant with both hands as tight as she has ever held her holy symbol. Her arms are shaking, and her whole body also shakes from the extreme experience. The cave now is silent, and without any movement. Rhayna adjusts her spectacles to make sure that there are no fungus present.

Rhayna hears a muffled voice to her side that startles her. “AHHH!!!” Both hands clutches again her pendant, and points toward the voice, and she stops herself short of casting a spell. With a heavy sigh of relief, she realizes it is Kaylyn and Kastix. “Sarith... Sarith is gone. I am sooo sorry. I tried, Goddess knows that I tried. He was brave, very brave til the end...” Rhayna starts to breathe faster. “And then... And then.. Some, some fungus came out of him!! Burst through his head!! And then...” Rhayna freezes at the thought of fungus. She turns, and look at the passage to the other cave where Stool is. “Stool!! Stool might be in danger!!” Says Rhyana as if Kaylyn and Kastix are not present. She shouts towards the other cave. “Stool!! Rhayna is coming!!” Rhayna stands up, and runs towards where Stool is.

Kastix look at Kaylyn with wand in hand, shrugs, "Let's just keep an eye on her for now," Before Kastix go to follow.

Zeno nodded back at Sekkar.  “That thing wants to come with us.  Should we keep looking here or do we have enough to go back to the captain with?  Maybe the derro are using whatever ability you tapped there to mess with the cairngorm.”

To the flumph he think-says, “The little derro with the funny hat...what did he do in this room?”

Sekkar finally noticed the creature that Zeno was somehow communicating with (considering talking sword, talking fungus and a miniature dragon they had as companions, it was not even that strange). "Come where? Out of the cave and into the city? What can it do?" (Does Sekkar know anything bout flumphs?) Lizardman tried to poke the creature with his finger, then answered the question: "I think we know enough, but do not like the idea that we can be arrested. Somehow returning does not look that attractive anymore. Still, we can not just sit here. Let's get others."

They could talk on the go, and Pensive has left already, so he was ready to leave the moment Zeno is done here. once outside the right mushrooms was consumed (Sekkar caught himself on the thought that he is getting used to the taste) and they met the group normal sized.  

Rhayna runs back into the room with the group of dancing myconids to see Stool still standing beside Rumpadump. The little creatures release a puff of spores to again communicate with the human: Rhayna said to wait so I wait. Rumpadump is telling me about the grown ones, how they came here by traveling through the Lady's dream. They say the Lady loves and guides all myconids. We have never heard of her. Maybe they teach us this when we are older. Rumpy is also telling me about the other one like you that lives in the next cave. Rumpadump then adds: Not like her - like that one pointing to Kaylyn as she and Kastix enter the cave.

The flumph replies to Zeno, and Sekkar also hears it in his mind (another in the collection): The fast one. He did not stop. Few come here. None climb up. Except you both. And one other like you. I am safe here.

(As the Underdark is his favoured terrain, Sekkar would be familiar with flumphs, but perhaps not encountered one - other than the two that appeared in the tomb where Dawnbringer was found).

"Trust a flumph," mumbled Sekkar the 1st rule of dungeon survival, trying to push the cacophony of voices to the background. "I would should they not live by mundflayers so often."

He tilted his head and looked at the flumph suspiciously: "The other one like us - is he here?"

Not like you. Like him. replies the flumph, giving Sekkar the impression it is referring to Zeno. Comes from that way. It is lost. The flumph indicates the normal-sized tunnel on the east of the cave.

Sekkar look Zeno up and down - if that "lost one" was like his companion, then by any standards he should be capable to take care of himself. The question was, would he be able to "take care" of them, given the chance. "Is he alone? The lost one?" regardless of the answer, Sekkar moved towards the tunnel "I'll take a look. In that place - you never know." He slipped into the tunnel.

Stealth: 21