CHAPTER 22: THE SPECTATOR IS FINISHED
As the adventurers head back towards the Forge of Spells, they all individually think how the Spectator can be defeated.
As they descend back to the Starry Cavern and climb down the stairs into the area, the adventures all notice that there was another door into the Forge of Spells, on the north side of the building.
Lofty asks the party what they had among them that could help with the fight against the Spectator or insight into the second human building inhabited by the Spectator.
Galdor remembers that he had a ‘Magic Scroll’ with the ‘Clairvoyance’ Spell and they decide to use it to see what lays behind the walls of the building. Galdor casts the Spell from the Scroll and the letters and symbols disappear from it, Galdor raises his head and his eyes rollback into his head.
Galdor: “I can see that…”
FORGE OF SPELLS:
This large workshop was badly damaged by the ancient spell battle that laid waste to the mine. Worktables taking up two corners of the room are scorched, and the plaster has been burned off the masonry walls. In the middle of the room, a stone pedestal holds a small brazier in which an eerie green flame dances and crackles. The brazier and its pedestal appear to have been untouched by the forces that destroyed this area.
Behind the brazier of green flame floats a spherical creature measuring roughly four feet in diameter. Four eyestalks protrude from its central mass, two on each side. In the centre of the body is a large eye that stares at you.
Galdor also points out that he can see another door in this chamber to the north. It appears intact, but it also shows signs of burning and charring caused by the Magical Battle that took place. There is also, on the worktable in the southeast corner of the room, what could be the last items the Spectator was charged to protect, A ‘Mace’ and a fine ‘Breastplate’.
The party had a better idea of what was inside the building and made their way to the escarpment and the last remaining Gazer.
Leif ‘Lofty’ Bilberry: “Maybe the Spectator will not leave the Forge of Spells and we can afford to leave her there in peace for now.”
Galdor: “You may be right Lofty.”
Leif ‘Lofty’ Bilberry: “Also, we wouldn’t want to do all the work only for the Black Spider to come and take it from us.”
Astrid Bilberry: “Aye.”
Between the 3 adventurers they come up with a plan that they think may just work, Tymora permitting, if not it will at least give them better odds and Galdor says that is a good think indeed.
The Cleric will first cast his Spell ‘Silence’ onto a distinct rock, so it will cover the adventures movements and attempts in opening the side door. This will then allow the Rogue to move up to the side door to the Forge of Spells, investigate and hopefully open the door itself.
If all goes to plan then the adventures would enter the side room within Forge of Spells and from there the Cleric would once again use Tymora’s divine help provide the adventures with her protection, ‘Bacon of Hope’ is cast by Galdor allowing the party an extra aura of protection versus the ill effects of Spells and Evil.
Finally, the Monk is tasked with engaging with the Spectator, to the death, and allowing the Rogue and Cleric to use their ranged weapons.
Astrid finds that the internal door into the Forge of Spells is not stuck and catches the Spectator completely off guard. Unfortunately, this also catches Lofty off guard and severely delays the joint combo attack that the brother and sister often use to permit the Rogue to use his special, and always favoured, Sneak Attack move.
Our Heroes manage to take the Spectator by surprise, as she floats in the air in the eastern side of the Forge of Spells and behind the brazier of green flame. Astrid immediately concludes that she would need to gain elevation to attack the Spectator as she was barely 3’ foot tall and the female Spectator was off the ground.
With the grace of a dancer and the athleticism of an acrobat, the Monk was able to time her jump so as to let her brother the Rogue fire his ‘Magical Meatal Arrows’ at the Spectator before she engaged it with her ‘Magical Shortsword’.
The Rogue is successful with his Shortbow as is the Monk who deals 2 terrible slashes to the Spectator. Galdor is the last to fire, before the surprised Spectator is able to act, and the Cleric misses presumably because he was still concentration on his protection from his ‘Bacon of Hope’.
The Spectator fires one of his Eye Rays at the Monk first the second is aimed directly at the Rogue, they both need to use up his protection from the ‘Bacon of Hope’. The Rogue then notices that the Spectator looked directly at the Monk for a while and then moved westward into the corner of the ceiling, as if she knew what the Monk was going to attempt to do next.
Once more the Monk calculated the angles and trajectory needed to reach the flying Spectator and deduced that she would need to use the stone pedestal to leap off and attempt an attack.
Lofty fires first again and is able to hit the Spectator, the Monk was successful again and was able to inflict more damage on the Spectator but Astrid could now see that its skin was thick and covered with horns, a tough old girl. Lastly Galdor fires his Longbow and strikes.
This time the Spectator fires his Eye Ray at Galdor and even the Cleric needed to use the last of his ‘Bacon of Hope’. The second is fired at the Rogue and he needs to dig deep and he is not affected.
For a third time the Monk attempts to jump but fails to make a perfect leap, but then the ‘Potion of Advantage‘ kicks in and she twist enough to make her hit. That is after the Rogue fires of course, but he misses and needs to use an Inspiration from his Deity and wondrously hit his make. The Spectator ahs taken many hits and Galdor is last to go and succeeds.
The Spectator appears to be very mad by now and it fires its Eye Ray’s at Galdor, who has to use the Luck of Tymora to resist, then again, he is targeted and needs to use Luck once more.
The battle continues and The Monk hits the Spectator after the Rogue manages to hit it as does the Cleric. The Spectator then turns his attention to the Heroes one more time and the Rogue resists the Eye Ray from the Spectator, but Galdor fails with no obvious effect.
For the final round the Monk misses his target, whist the Rogue is effective and the Cleric hits his target which happens to be Astrid and not the Spectator. It was now obvious the effect from the Spectator Eye Ray had caused the Cleric to be confused.
Lofty has the pleasure of finally dispatching the Spectator, which falls to the floor landing with a sicky splosh noise.
The adventurers take stock of their situation and each is set a duty. Astrid stands guard by the main doors into the Forge of Spells, Lofty takes an initial exploratory look about the Forge of Spells which out touching anything and Galdor spends time in his Ritual of casting and equips himself with the ‘Detect Magic’ Spell.
Galdor then spends 10 minutes in his Ritual which enables him to cast ‘Detect Magic’, which he then uses it with the forge of Spells. Most items that do radiate Magic appear to be parts or components of Items and are not usable. The only thing that the Cleric truly discovers is a Mace and a Breastplate.
The Mace and Breastplate are found to be famous and known to Lofty, who uses his Arcana Knowledge on both items and being legendry items of the surrounding area, the Arcane Trickster knows them to be called Lightbringer and Dragonguard.
LIGHTBRINGER:
This ‘+1 Mace’ was made for a Cleric of Lathander, the God of Dawn. The head of the Mace is shaped like a Sunburst and made of solid brass. Named Lightbringer, this weapon glows as bright as a torch when its wielder commands. While glowing, the Mace deals an extra 1d6 Radiant damage to Undead creatures.
DRAGONGUARD:
The wearer has a +1 bonus to AC while wearing this armour.
This ‘+1 breastplate’ has a Gold Dragon motif worked into its design. Created for a human hero of Neverwinter named Tergon, it grants its wearer Advantage on saving throws against the breath weapons of creatures that have the dragon type.
The adventures then elect to head back to the Booming Cavern and continue their search of Wave Echo Cave in that direction. The explores pass by the Booming Cavern again and move on through without venturing into the Smelter Cavern, the residence of the Flame Skull, or time taking a closer look at the surging body of water that is causing the rhythmic booming sound.
The Heroes continue northwest and follow the ledge that hugs the water-filled cavern. The adventures then reach a passage that is barely 4’ feet high.
OLD STREAMBED:
This passageway is barely four feet high and is obstructed by rounded boulders and pebbles. It might have been a streambed, though no water flows here now.
The Rogue stops and listen and is glad that he did so as he hear the sound of rock and boulders being moved and accompanied by the grunts and conversations of Goblinoids.
Leif ‘Lofty’ Bilberry: “Shh, I can hear several Bugbears talking and moving rocks ahead. Let us proceed quietly.”
The party continues to move ahead westwards through the cramped passage, Galdor having more of a problem moving through the 4’ foot tall passage than the 2 Halflings.
As Astrid pears out from the passages exit, she now clearly sees that they have found their next target, the Black Spider and his associates. One of the Bugbears spots the stealthy Monk and the alarm is raised. Astrid can see the following:
COLLAPSED CAVERN:
A wide rift fills the eastern half of this cavern. A stream can be heard cascading out of the west wall, then tumbles down into the rift and flows out again to the north.
There are 3 Bugbears standing on the western side of the rift holding Javelins and now all looking at the area from which they emerged. Accompanying the Bugbears is a tall Male Drow wielding a Staff.
The first creature to act is the Drow called the Black Spider and he retreats westwards into the darkness of a Dwarven cut stone corridor.
Several ropes are secured to iron stakes along on the western edge of the rift, leading down to the chasm floor.