Flamerule 6, 1373, a cell

Beowulf looked into the pot. We were all relieved to hear that whatever it was the ettins were cooking, the bones in the stew were not humanoid.

Areon and I went back to investigate the storeroom. I stood there a moment, wondering if anything else in these caves could morph itself into a normally inanimate object such as a barrel, or grain sack. Areon is way too good at reading me (so much for 50+ years of practicing hiding my emotions!) and started to open barrels by himself. That got me moving. We eventually had taken inventory: two barrels of wine, two of water, several sacks of grain and dried meat, 6 large javelins, 3 large nets, a chain shirt (too big for a halfling), a rather nice set of nunchaku, a bone scroll case, and, best of all, nearly 1500 gold pieces. Areon was able to stow the weapons on himself. I was trying to calculate how to best carry 30 pounds of coin, when our very clever druid companion simply dropped the entire bag into his haversack. It apparently holds a lot more than it should! We’ll have to pour some of our other loot in there too, if he doesn’t mind.

We all decided to bed down in the storage area, and tried to get Deitricha to purify the wine. She resisted for now— I wasn’t going to insist she drink any of it! Areon and I took separate shifts again, so I got to ask both of our human companions lots of personal questions, none of which were answered entirely to my satisfaction. I am fairly sure Beowulf is not a Zhent, at least. I also think that Deitricha is developing feelings for Rosorc, though of course I would be amazed if anything came of it. Then again, Rosorc treats her the way I would expect a dwarf to treat a prospective mate— as an equal. Even when he was “wooing” me, he was much more open and happy around Deitricha. Perhaps Tassar noticed that too.

When I wasn’t grilling the humans, I decided to do some reading. I popped open the scroll case and looked over the contents. The parchment inside contained two spells: one for summoning monsters, and one for animating a rope. I’m not sure I’d trust myself to use these in an emergency, but I’ll hold on to them as none of my comrades use arcane magic.

Eventually all felt rested up enough, and Deitricha was able to heal some more of the wounds from the previous night. We headed to the room where the black creature had waited— the doorway beyond showed a 5’ passage stretching into the darkness. In a rare moment of solidarity, everyone suggested that I lead so that we could look for traps. I didn’t find any by the time we arrived in a crudely worked room with some tunnels leading off of it. I snuck ahead a wee bit until I heard guttural voices in the distance, then crept back to the group to tell of my findings. I was going to creep forward a bit more to see what all was there, but Beowulf reminded us that he could cover more area quickly and quietly as a bat. He transformed and flew off through each tunnel in turn, then came back to report a rather large group of humanoids (no halflings) and dire rats in one direction, and a minotaur in the other. The minotaur’s direction also had a closed door beyond it, so we decided to try and slip past it. I was surprised, but pleased that we were going to leave the humanoids alone so that we could cover more ground quickly, but of course, we still had to get past the large creature down the next hallway. I snuck past the minotaur’s room first, followed by Areon, and so on to Rosorc (being the least quiet in all his armor). Areon and I got past well enough, but the minotaur must have smelled us or had amazing hearing, because he charged up his side tunnel at us, brandishing a very large axe. The creature was so large that I could no longer see my companions on the opposite side of its bulk. Areon pushed me back a few feet and took a mighty swing, and then another, with his greatsword as I prepared to aim my crossbow. I heard Rosorc’s war cry as he apparently was chopping into it from the other side. Areon stabbed forward with all of his might, and.... the monster dropped dead. We didn’t have time to stare in awe though, as we heard the sounds of battle beyond the fresh corpse. Areon scrambled up over the beast, and I followed, with Beowulf clambering up behind as we waded into a room full of goblins and dire rats. We made quick work of them and followed a short tunnel, eventually finding ourselves behind the group Rosorc and Deitricha were fighting. We met up moments later as Rosorc was wiping gnoll blood off of his axe.

I am sorry to say that, even though my friends politely waited while I checked through the equipment of our slain adversaries (one of which was a gnome, which seemed out of place), there was nothing of value on any of them. We made sure there was nothing in any of the other little cracks and crevices in the little caves surrounding us, then went to the doorway beyond the minotaur carcass. I picked the lock and the closed door swung open. There were two bugbears waiting on the other side. I slipped into the room behind Areon and pulled out a poisoned bolt to take one out, but pricked my own finger instead! Thankfully the poison didn’t affect me right then, but it might have been a blessing if it had, for moments later, a humanoid with a tentacled maw entered the room— a mind flayer! It cast some sort of hold over all of us but Beowulf and his wolf, who bravely attempted to attack it— moments later, they too were paralyzed by the illithid’s power.

I am not sure if I succumbed to the drow poison or the mind flayer did something to us to knock us all unconscious. I came to in a cell, with none of my weapons or belongings (though I was relieved to find the gifts from Areon weren’t removed). I can sense that he’s nearby, and I believe I’ve heard some whispering from our friends on the other side of this wall....