Unnatural Bargaining 

The Spectator’s co-workers descended upon the party who had been busy going around in circles on how to deal with the Spectator. *So I rolled on the random encounter table… * Quick as a whip both Merric and Wendel charged the zombies, downing one in the first round. -.-

A couple more rounds passed of the zombies not scoring a single hit *As a DM I’m thoroughly convinced my dice are cursed. * The party reconsidered the floating Spectator who hadn’t moved from the adjacent room.

“Oh what lay abouts!” exclaimed the Spectator referring to the dead zombies. “Told you they were lazy, look at them just lying there not even bothering to pretend to be working.”

The party looked at each other. It was becoming quite clear to them that the Spectator’s grasp on reality had slipped, if they could only reason a way around the employment contract with it then they could perhaps get away without fighting it. Any attempts to discuss the terms of its’ contract was rebuffed as “impolite talk in the work environment.” Then Aurelia had an idea.

Grabbing an apprehensive Gundren she approached the door to the Spectator’s room. Addressing the creature, she explained that the mine was under new management and that Gundren was the new owner of the mine. After the Spectator clarified a few of the details and some very successful persuasion rolls by the Warlock, the Spectator informed them that his employment contract had been fulfilled and had no desire to enter into a new one.

A shimming of air with a slight pop of noise and the Spectator had returned to it’s plane of existence, allowing the group to explore the new room without interference. Buoyed by their success the party entered the Forge of Spells. The workshop was badly damaged by some ancient magics that occurred during the fall of the mines’ original inhabitants, with scorch marks and burnt plaster walls.

In the middle of the room stood a stone pedestal that held a small brazier with an eerie green flame that danced and crackled. The pedestal and brazier alone appeared untouched by the forces that had destroyed this area. Aurelia’s detect magic signalled a strong presence of magic coming from the pedestal and some magical aura on some items on the workbench on the far wall.

The items turned out to be a mace named Lightbringer (+1 mace, that can glow on command and deal +1d6 radiant dmg to undead when aglow) and a breastplate named Dragonguard (+1 Breastplate, grants advantage on saving throw versus breath weapons from dragon type creatures). The party divided up the loot with Asterin opting for the breastplate whereas no one had any desire to use the mace so it was added to storage.

*We opted to use the special rule for identify on short rest and attunement. I allowed people to roll arcana checks on the items, unfortunately no one rolled high enough to determine all the benefits, only the +1 nature of both items. *