In this session, the party completes their quest for Vindus in the Gray Crescent Mountains. Finnith admits something. Nala apologizes to a frost salamander. And Allora—along with the rest of the party—gets a pretty big surprise.

These campaign diary posts are where I talk about the campaign I play in and what happened in the most recent session!

What’s SBotLL?

That’s the name of the campaign I play in! It’s been running for over four years now. There are two parties, one on the surface and one in the Underdark. I play in the surface squad as the elf bard Finnith, and my two friends play the dragonborn rogue Nala and the tiefling ranger Allora. The Underdark group is made of the changeling rogue “Wethryn,” the tiefling monk Baala’rug, and the drow ranger Eliera.

The Underdark group has reached the surface, but our party remains unaware of that…

Recap

Last session, Nala communicated with an absent NPC, Amuulqalo, through the dream spell. This conversation brought up many things for her to think about. Allora secured a safe spot for the tieflings of the Awoken Flame to evacuate to if needed in the coming battle with the Coven of Eternal Light. Finnith tried to lend a listening ear to Nala as she sorted her thoughts out.

In this session…

The group is ready to leave for the Gray Crescent Mountains ahead. They set forth, only to run into a human who seems out of place. His name is Sebastian Wintersbane, an aspiring treasure hunter. He’s not dressed for adventuring and doesn’t seem to know what he’s doing. The party is concerned that he’ll get himself killed out here, so they allow him to tag along.

Sebastian makes himself a nuisance, especially to Allora. He almost throws himself into danger a few times, and he won’t stop talking even when the party is trying not to draw attention to themselves. But, after Nala speaks with the frost salamander who encased her stuff in magic ice, he reveals himself to be… not who he seems. Nala realizes that he’s a shapechanger. He invites the party to a place in the top of a mountain.

There, Sebastian reveals himself to be the Eternal Diamond, an ancient diamond dragon. He uses his human persona to test people who approach the mountain. Thankfully, the party passed. As a gemstone dragon, the Eternal Diamond has great power. Specifically, he has the domain of knowledge. Each gemstone dragon is unique (for example, there’s only one emerald dragon, and so on) and has a particular domain.

The Eternal Diamond removes the magic ice from Nala’s stuff. Finnith asks if it’s okay for him to ask the dragon some questions—after they place the sigil of Vindus in its proper place (they do so, and yes, Finnith can ask questions). The party gains some interesting (and troubling) information. Lolth died centuries ago, but the drow supposedly still worship her (what force is using her name?). The Embers of Creation, which Neroth has, aren’t supposed to be on this plane—they were supposed to be protected by the emerald dragon, whose domain is protection, on a different plane of existence. The demon lords have pacts with the dragonborn clans, not contracts (there is a difference). There’s a lot of information to sort through! But eventually the party bids farewell to the Eternal Diamond, who invites the party to come back and visit if they’d like—he might even have something for them to do later.