Uktar 5, 1372 DR (9:00 AM) Deep Wastes: Lake of Shadows

The next morning, Tebryn gathers together all the magical loot the party had collected since they left Szith Morcane. He conjures powerful spells of divination and examines each item in turn.

"Much of this is fairly uninteresting," he comments. "The suits of studded leather armor, the cloaks of resistance, the scimitars and such are all barely enchanted, providing only a small amount of additional protection or combat bonus, as appropriate. But some of these items are unusual enough to be of interest to us. The full plate that the cleric had is enchanted to help the wearer be extra stealthy, both to move more silently and to hide more effectively. And her great axe is also enchanted to store a spell, which it will deliver along with physical damage. It holds a fairly hefty inflict wounds spell, at the moment."

"I like that," says Kress. "I'd rather have a one-handed axe, like my beloved battle axe, but I would like this one."

"Very well," says Tebryn, handing him the axe. "I don't think anybody else ever uses an axe! Hmm. These bracers provide a little more magical armor protection than the ones you currently have, Yol. Anybody else interested?" Everybody else shakes their head and he hands the bracers to Yol.

"And this silver brooch that we found in the Matron Mother's quarters and initially gave to Dessa is a drow "House Brooch". This one lets the bearer cast a shield spell once per day."

"Really?" says Igor. "I wouldn't mind wearing that." Tebryn hands him the brooch. "What about the glove?" continues Igor. "Is it one of those gloves of storing I've been looking for."

"No," says Tebryn ruefully. "It's a glove of swimming and climbing. The other must be at the bottom of the lake."

"Which one is it?" asks Hazen. "The swimming glove or the climbing glove?"

Tebryn snorts. "It doesn't work that way. You need both gloves in the set, and then you can do both things better. One by itself is useless - except that it should be possible to make a matching left glove to complete the set for half price. I'll save it, but it won't help us, for now. Similarly, this used to be a cloak of elvenkind, but it's ruined. It might be repairable."

He then picks up a pair of weapons. "A magical hand crossbow. I'd like it, except it's no better than the one I already have. Still, this is only the second enchanted weapon of this sort that I've seen."

"Let me carry it," suggests Yol. "I'll use it to deliver drow poison, just as its original owner did."

"Certainly," agrees Tebryn, handing her the missile weapon. He then picks up the finely crafted drowish dagger. "And this dagger is actually quite a nice little item. It does lots of damage and has a freezing bite to it."

Brianna raises her hand. "I could use that. I have an acidic dagger, and a cold dagger would go well with it."

Tebryn looks around the room. "Any other interest? No?" He hands the dagger to Brianna and picks up the wooden box. "Which brings us to this. This is actually a folding boat. It has three forms: this box, a rowboat, and a small ship. I know the command words to change it into each form. This might help us cross the lake."

"I don't know, Tebryn," says Veracity. "What about the kraken?"

"Yeah!" agrees Hazen. "That's right, Veracity: focus! What about the kraken?"

Veracity rolls her eyes. "I am focusing on it. I think it attacked us because we were attacking the giants on their raft, and made the water turbulent. When it came up, it saw us. But if we weren't in the water, I don't think it'd see us and attack. I mean, it's underwater. Have you ever opened your eyes underwater? You can't see what's above the water, although you can see shadows and such on the surface. But, if it's dark down below and dark up above, there are no shadows."

"Let's avoid disturbing the water," says Tebryn. "We can fly."

"Some of you can fly," says Brianna. "I cannot. But, my phantom steeds can water walk. That won't disturb the water, as the hooves will be a couple of inches above the surface. And they're very fast, too."

"Yes!" says Hazen. "Fast! Flying! No kraken!"

"Sounds like a plan," says Veracity. "But, what do you say - shall we pay a visit to the kuo-toan temple, before we proceed?"

"Why?" says Igor. "How will that help us in your quest?"

"Oh, yes!" says Hazen. "We need to make allies of the kuo-toans! You know me: friends with everybody! We should pay our respects to BlooPoo! I'm a religious guy, you know. It pays to be pious."

"Can we talk to them?" wonders Igor.

"I'm sure they speak Undercommon," says Veracity. "That'd mean everybody but you can talk to them, Igor. I don't care if we ally with them. But I think it'd be interesting to see what's up at the temple."

"I'm not sure I see the point of this, but I'm done arguing about it," says Igor. "The island isn't far off shore. We can fly there easily enough."

"Yes," says Kress. "We can ferry out the non-fliers. Shall we go now?"

"Let's go tomorrow," suggests Brianna. "I'm out of spells today, since I had to cure up you and Yol and myself."

Veracity smiles. "First thing tomorrow morning."