Upon returning to camp, Jasper found multiple messages waiting for them. Blurg – the hobgoblin scholar they had met in the Underdark – was concerned about his partner the rogue Illithid Omeluum. He had disappeared while investigating Mind Flayer involvement in the troubles in Baldur’s Gate – and was last seen in the Docks District.
The Deep Gnome Barcus – whom they had met several times in their adventures – had also sent a message. It seemed his friend Wulbren – leader of the Ironhand Gnomes – was planning something drastic to stop the Gondian Gnomes from helping Gortash construct his Steel Watchers. And while Wulbren blamed the Gondians, Barcus believed that they were being coerced by their families being imprisoned.
And they still needed to locate and rescue Wyll’s father. All of these threads seemed to lead to a similar hot spot. Gortash was maintaining a secret political prison somewhere, and they could not move against him without endangering those hostages. So it seemed a prison break was in order.
They picked up their investigation near the docks – as both Mizora’s information about Wyll’s father and the last known location of Omeluum led in that direction. As they searched, they realized they could hear singing coming from a nearby temple. Approaching they discovered it was a Temple of Umberlee – and they were holding a funeral
Speaking to the Wavemother Allandra, they learned that a priestess named Holli had died swimming in the harbor, She had been slain by a “wretched metal monstrosity” which had been “bleeding polluting black blood into Umberlee’s pristine waters”. The Wavemother wanted vengeance upon “the Master of the Beast”. And while Jasper was no fan of Umberlee – this seemed worth further investigation.
Speaking with fishermen around the harbor, Jasper learned that most of the fish pulled from the harbor recently had been fouled with oily muck. They eventually found the two who had discovered Holli’s body – and learned that they had glimpsed something large in the water near Flymm Cargo warehouse.
Picking the lock to enter the warehouse, they found it defended by wild Wargs – clearly no visitors were expected.
After dispatching the Wargs, they searched until they found a hidden trapdoor leading down below the warehouse.
Beneath they found an entire steamworks, with various unknown contraptions of apparent dwarven make.
Exploring for a bit, they eventually came upon a dwarf inventor named Redhammer working on a bizarre bronze vehicle. He had apparently accepted Gortash’s offer of funding to develop his fantastical ideas. He had been using it to transport prisoners to a hidden undersea facility. He did not appear to like where the job was going, but it paid well enough that he was overlooking the “complications”. Even worse, he was aware he had hit “something” on his last trip, *knew* that waveservants had been investigating his presence in the water, and was utterly unconcerned that he had killed one who had been “obstructing his path”. He was also aware of and completely unconcrened with the massive amount of foul gunk he was dumping into the harbor.
Jasper was *not* impressed with this odious man, and immediately insisted – at Minsc point – that Redhammer take them to this undersea prison.
This would be a one shot mission, with likely disaster if they failed. They needed to get in, find the prisoners, and get out as rapidly as possible. And there would be limited room in the vessel given they needed space to return with prisoners. This called for speed and strength (Minsc and Karlach) versatility (Jaheira) and cunning (Jasper).
Before long they could see the ruins of an old sunken building ahead.
As they approached an magical projection of Gortash appeared in their vessel. It warned them that their interference “would not be tolerated”. And there would be “consequences” if they insisted upon maintaining course. Jasper informed him that there would be no turning back.
To which Gortash responded by ending the communication… and triggering an explosion in the prison!!! The facility was not destroyed, but it was clearly taking in water. They would have very little time to find and rescue captives before they all drowned!
As they docked and entered, a psychic projection of Omeluum appeared and spoke to them. It told them exactly where they could find the captive gnomes and Duke Ravengard, and urged them to hurry and rescue them before it was too late. Jasper pointedly asked where Omeluum himself was being held, but the Illithid insisted that he was secured too deeply in the prison. They would not have time to rescue both him and the others, and the Duke and the Ironhands were more important to Baldur’s Gate.
They were quickly confronted by Sahuagin guards converging from all over the prison, and so Jasper adapted the plan and set everyone to their tasks.
Minsc took on the Sahuagin – keeping them occupied as only he could.
Jaheira used her shapechanging capabilities to quickly locate the captive Gnomes and then led them to safety.
Karlach raced through the corridors and find and rescue Omeluum. The Illithid may have considered itself an acceptable sacrifice, but Jasper had no intention of leaving him behind.
When she found and released him, he was able to teleport them both back to the submersible.
And as soon as Jasper got past his own Sahuagin obstacles, he made his way to Duke Ravengard’s cell to rescue and retrieve him.
In the end the all made it back to the submersible in the nick of time, sealing and releasing just as it finally failed.
When they returned to the hidden docks, the WaveMother and her forces were waiting. Jasper still didn’t care much for Umberlee, and Redhammer was certainly not the instigator for all that had happened. But Jasper found him no less noxious. He had not been forced or blackmailed. He had simply been paid. Gortash still controlled the courts. There would be no justice there. So he allowed the Wavemother to claim the dwarf. He would not protect him from the consequences of his own decisions.
Wyll and his father had a happy reunion, as through tadpole memory-sharing Wyll was finally able to make his father see why he had made the pact with Mizora and why he had chosen the path of the adventurer.
But their battle with Gortash had just begun. And they still needed to eliminate his control over the Steel Watchers before they could confront him directly. And for that, the rescued Gondian Gnomes were only too happy to tell them everything they needed to know.
Author’s Notes: Most of these images were still generated with Bing/DALLE-3. A few were generated using the new capabilities of OpenAI’s SeeDream model – which actDave recently discovered and pointed out to me in his own blog. I will be highlighting the possibilities this brings to the table in an upcoming AI article. In the meantime, I will leave it as an exercise to the reader to ponder which of the above images were made with help from SeeDream.
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