Rhustyne lead us through the cavern. The surrounding crystals gave off an almost dry ice like burning sensation when touched. Snax tried to dig one out of the ground, but was unsuccessful.
Nitro seeing Snax struggling with any sort of athletic attempt, took her axe and cracked a chunk off of a crystal that was sprouting from the ground. Snax passed it over to Otto in case the Soots came across any
dark caverns again.
As we went through the cavern Rhustyne ran through the history of the area. The keep was an offshoot of high hold before the quest for sky - a small commune of dwarves hit a precious resource vein in the mountain
and set up shop.
We found our way to...
A tavern in the middle of the crystal cavern that served boulder head bock to the locals. Snax partook a stone mug full of it.
The Soots introduced themselves as Stefan, Urkel, & Echo. Rhustyne introduced herself as Rhustyne...
The dwarven bartender introduced herself as Sronwa. She gave us a rundown of the area and some unkind troublemakers that she called "TheGreys".
Sronwa also explained that she never leaves the tavern / room.
Nitro attempted to draw the greys based off of Sronwa's description. Through teamwork, we were able to piece together these dwarves as Hryngar or grey dwarves. Their demeanor is quite different than regular dwarves, they dabble in slavery, sacrifice, and have lots of psychic abilities. The Grey Dwarves worship the DarkSmith.
Sronwa also explained that she has not been relieved of her bartending post for quite awhile. Nitro, concerned with the dwarf's work/life balance dug a little deeper into her deal. She has no outside of work friends, but did describe the regulars that she sees:
All of whom are also dwarves.
We Speculated that Sronwa is just unable to hear the whistle that ends the work shift inside of The Rock Bottom.
We took leave of the Rock Bottom and continued on...
The soots stumbled across a broken statue. Rhustyne suggested we put it back together.
After a successful placement of pieces, Rhustyne was able to determine that the statue was of Torag - the god of dwarves.
Moving on to...
We entered another alcove, and discovered a dwarven woman laying on her back; her breathing was labored and she looked pretty injured.
Otto approached her to offer assistance. She had a piece of stalagmite sticking into her back. It was pretty concerning.
A few failed medicine checks later, Rhustyne figured out that these dwarves are actually specters stuck in limbo. She can help them move on to the next plane.
Otto and Rhustyne were able to help her move on.
As the soots moved along, we came across a broken bridge / chasm that was about 13 feet across - however there appeared to be no bottom to the chasm. Gulp.
Snax mirror imaged himself across the chasm. Otto tossed him the rope, he secured it, and the rest of the group shimmied across the chasm.
The soots entered a room with a giant bridge in the middle of it, they came across some dwarves performing a ritual. The ritual involved disembowling another dwarf. The individual performing the ritual appeared to be the same one from Nitro's drawing.
She took her drawing, folded it into a paper airplane and launched it at the dwarf performing the ritual. The airplane was thrown so well that is caused damage to the dwarf.
Initiative rolled.