Day 17: In the Secret Hold of the Gray Elves

With Sora leading the way, the party walks into the Great Forest of Suprora to find the mysterious stump. Sora points out stirges nesting in the canopy. While walking, the group cannot shake the sense that somebody is following them. It turns out to be Taniya Dawnstorm, a fellow Adventurer's Guild member who was in Treebrane hunting down a rogue Guild member. She overheard the party talking to Old Licheneye, realized they were on to something big, and followed them here to ask to accompany the expedition. Winnpernickel points out that Taniya has some rank in the Guild and they can't really say no, so Taniya joins the party.

The party finds the stump and digs out the tunnel under it. Underground, they find a stone slab carved with archaic Elvish runes that read: "WE ARE THE LAST." They pull down the slab and enter the hold.

Exploring, the party finds a hallway with four more stone slabs and eight ghouls scratching and clawing to get through them. The ghouls attack, and after a lengthy battle that sees half the party paralyzed, the party slays them and enters the slab-sealed rooms. In each room, they find a mummified elf corpse laying shrouded on a bed. Hinonk takes a wooden ring from one of the decedents.

The party investigates another room, which appears to be a kitchen, and finds a rust monster that must have eaten its way down there through the stove chimney. They retreat, leaving the rust monster unmolested.

Down another passage, the party finds a room with a mass of tree roots protruding through the ceiling and a stone cistern embedded in the floor. Stirges fly out of the tree roots and attack. After defeating them, the party examines the cistern, finding it full of clean, clear water. The water reacts strangely to their touch, and they soon realize the cistern contains a water weird. After defeating it, Taniya dives into the water to retrieve several objects, including a magical sword. When Utter takes the sword in his hand it speaks: its name is Daemonrazor, and it belonged to a paladin who entered the hold through the stirge tree a century ago and was drowned by the water weird. The sword is disdainful of the party and only agrees to be wielded by Taniya, as she is the closest thing (in terms of race, class, and alignment) the party has to a paladin.

Wanting to rest, the party checks in with Sora outside, who agrees to return for them the following day. They sleep in the cistern room and are attacked by more stirges during the night. After killing them, the party rests peacefully.

Accounting:
Hinonk loots a wooden ring with magical properties from a mummified elf.

Utter uses up his potion of healing.

Eryn burns up 1 torch.
Taniya burns up 1 oil flask.
All party members consume 1 day of rations.

The party loots 19 GP, 3 SP, 2 CP, a pearl necklace worth 300 GP, and a Longsword +1, +2 vs creatures from the lower planes (Daemonrazor, INT 15) from the cistern.

All party members gain 191 XP each.
Grabathor, Gnaurm, Chumsalt, Hinonk, and Taniya each gain 89 XP from the water weird.
Grabathor, Chumsalt, Gwindle, and Hinonk each gain 66 XP from the nighttime stirge attack.