Deep in the basement of the Lich's safehouse the party had just retrieved the Lich's backup spellbook. Upon exiting the room the group runs into a pack of ghouls that run up and swarm Celadon paralyzing him. Seph tries to protect him but Kylorin actually does a lot to defend him while the rest of the group start to lay into the ghouls quickly eliminating them but not before Seph gets poisoned and Eddie winds up carrying the sickened dragon in his arms on the way out. The group get almost to the entrance retriggering the first magic mouth “During your epic journey into the tomb of the Lich king Acererak (Ack-er-ack) by mistake or foolishness you became trapped in his unescapable dungeon. A bone chilling howl shakes your soul as you are surrounded by a pack of ghoulish reanimated-werewolves, Arwoooo".
While no more wolf skeletons appear the group's curiosity is triggered and they explore a set of winding caverns littered with magic mouths that narrate the epic journey they are on until they reach a cavern with strong winds and a narrow stone bridge crosses a chasm open impossibly deeply into the earth. This narrow span of rock arcs up and across to the other side of the chasm but was subject to gale force winds. A face appears on a nearby wall and intones as follows :
"Having escaped the maze of madness you reach the pass of despair. The way forward is across but wind howls around you threatening to pitch you into the void."
The party looks at the narrow bridge and all the warriors say, "No way" and turn around as a result they run smack dab into a group of zombies dressed like Lightbringers as they are walking out of a solid wall while the magic mouth nearby intones.
"Out of nowhere assassins from the Lightbringer's have found you and will kill you for consorting with the undead. Don't let their arrows touch you!"
and this is the point when the party decides to disbelieve just about everything and they all succeed revealing the whole caverns, the walls everything to be elaborate illusions. The lightbringers who appeared to be geared in adamantium are actually in cheap gear painted a grey silver.
The group makes fast work of the "Lightbringer party" using the illusionary walls for cover against them and soon they loot an impressive haul of gold from the corpses. The group then chooses to go through the wall the zombies came from and find a glowing room and encounter another magic mouth that says
"Finally, Dumonte breaks free of the Lich kings lair. Surrounded by riches he says the magic words and gets sent home. Happy birthday brother"
Celadon thinks for a minute and says "happy birthday" and disappears Eddie who was halfway through saying the same thing stops and coughs before starting to cast a spell to figure out what happened. First there is the sound of Celadon saying "Cool i am invisible guys" (which is clearly an Eddie Illusion) and then Eddie actually starts to ritually cast detect magic. Halfway through the casting the party hears the howling of the first magic mouth start up again but soon Celadon shows up and says he was just dimension doored up to the top of the cliff and he found a leaded magic box. Lindal finds no traps and opens it and Eddie states that the Magic glass ball is magic but the letter next to it isn't.
The letter reads - "to my dearest brother whom I swear never did learn to read without moving his lips. I hope this bauble enlightens and brings lightness on your birthday. May the sun never set. Your twin, Z."
But the globe floats into the air and starts glowing and then flares like the sun as the words are read. Kylorin is ecstatic and begs, "will it work for me? Can I take it? Oh, my god I have never seen something so beautiful in my life. But it was for someone else, I am torn." The group does decide to take it and Eddie recalls when it worked and then the type of object that it is only works once a day for each light effect, Each spell lasts for one hour buttons but can be turned off by the same person repeating the activating word a second time. The activation words are levitate and follow whoever says "enlighten" light up on "lightness" and cast daylight on "Sun never set". Eddie also looks around with magic sight and sees that there are a lot more spells and that the corridors the part skipped are covered by wards that confuse and slow and the party decide to leave even as Seph comments again about a smell of the brother but its toast. The party does not realize he was trying to say it smells like the brother is dead nearby and they leave. On the way back to town they recover a bit and go see Sindra Sylvane.
She is impressed with the party's accomplishment but is terrified that they brought such an identifiable book and the Lich's Familiar to her manor and so wards Seraph (His actual name) and offers to teleport the group to another of her estates in Fenggang which is much closer to Chult, has a good market for buying supplies, is a good place to book passage and last but not least is nowhere near the Lich's base incase he comes back. The group acquiesces and find themselves in a manor very similar to the last one but this one in a warmer climate with salt laden breeze off the sea.
The party negotiates with Sindra for some funds, Eddie using some tricks he picked up to maximize the amount they can get. She promises the group magic items when they are done helping her but for now she offers the group 250 gold to upgrade their gear before they sale to Chult because she warns that the goods in Chult are much more limited and some items like armor are several times as expensive. Especially heavy armor because the climate is so hot that more people wear lighter armor.
She also requests that they book a ship to Chult and to remain in port to help the part as often as is needed and believes that she can buy agreement via a set of sails from her old merchant fleet's flagship guaranteed to let the boat sail in any amount of wind and able to double the speed of any ship using these sheets but she wants to make sure the party picks a trustworthy captain because a dishonest one will be tempted to take the sheets and run. Also whichever boat they book they need a cabin with a door. Non negotiable for the trip to Chult as she needs to anchor a spell to keep Linora and her from getting jostled or seasick and it is best to anchor it to an doorway and she is trying to lay low so she prefers to conceal that she is making magic that powerful.
The party screen a couple ships but chose the smuggler because he has the fastest ship. One of the other her ships was haunted by a night hag and the third was a Zhent ship and the party had bad blood with those forces already. Passage booked. The party was warned that the port Nyanzaru is "guarded" by a dragon turtle who will shake down vessels for money whenever they try to enter the harbor. With the offer of the sails they secure the services of Ortimay despite Freya's objection since he is a giant of a surface dwarf. (six feet tall and very broad of chest). But his ship was fastest ship in the harbor and with the sails should be capable of traveling 10 miles an hour which is an extraordinary speed for a sailing vessel at this time.
The party earned 800 xp (160 each => 320 cumulative - Now officially 2nd level)
The following items :
283 gp
A Driftglobe - (wonderous, uncommon) small sphere of thick glass weighs 1 pound. If you are within 60 feet of it, you can speak its command word and cause it to emanate the light or daylight spell. Once used, the daylight effect can't be used again until the next dawn. You can speak another command word as an action to make the illuminated globe rise into the air and float no more than 5 feet off the ground. The globe hovers in this way until you or another creature grasps it. If you move more than 60 feet from the hovering globe, it follows you until it is within 60 feet of you. It takes the shortest route to do so. If prevented from moving, the globe sinks gently to the ground and becomes inactive, and its light winks out.
Tempest Sails (wondrous, Very Rare, requires attunement, Installed on the Brazen Pegasus) - During the day, these sails change color to resemble the current color of the sky. These sails, the mast, and their rigging can’t be damaged by wind of any strength. As an action while you are aboard the ship, you can treat the wind in the sails as if it is one degree stronger than it is. Additionally, as an action while you are aboard the ship, you can treat the wind in the sails as if it were blowing in the direction of your choice. (That is, you can change either the speed or the direction.)
Companions:
Captain Ortimay of the Brazen pegasus
Seph - a Psuedodragon traveling companion and his 3 gold coins