The group finds themselves crashed within a large cavern. The tunneling vehicle is intact but in need of urgent repairs. Everyone disembarks from inside the vehicle and move about the darkened cavern. A lone torch, thrown by Gotrek lies a few feet away illuminating a small section of the cavern. The floor is tiled with black polished stone but into perfect tiles. There are columns of the same stone, polished and perfectly symmetrical.
Theldek goes to the rear of the vehicle to begin looking into repairs accompanied by Thokk. The others move about the cavern keeping close to the vehicle and the torch. Sarafina moves towards one of the large columns. As she moves around the column she comes face to floating face of a beholder. It floats far above the small halfling and she freezes in fear. Gotrek turns round to see her predicament and runs towards them. As he approaches Gotrek shoves Sarafina aside behind the column and swings his battle axe at the the beholder.
The Scientist 6,150 XP
The beholder explodes in a shower of yellow-green spores showering down upon the dwarf. Sarafina fortunately is shielded by the column. Gotrek is covered in poisonous spores but fortunately the dwarf is hardened against poisons. As the group looks around for more threats, they hear a voice, somewhere high up in the chamber. It welcomes them and is overjoyed that it will have new subjects for his investigations. With that several torches begin to light up around the room. With each new torch the group sees, frozen in ice, creatures of all sorts displayed in various states of autopsy. Some displaying their internal organs, others show carefully flayed musculature. Each of their faces show agony, as if they were 'investigated' while still alive.
As the chamber becomes more illuminated, the adventurers see several more beholder-like creatures. Yeava, who has retreated back within the tunneling vehicle, peers out and notices that these creatures do not look and behave quite like the beholders she has heard of. They have to eye stalks and do not seem to move quickly or with much purpose. She yells this out the the others. While she confers with her new sentient sword. The sword advises to keep away from the beholder, attacking only with ranged attacks and to keep close to cover.
Thokk, meanwhile has been assisting Theldek in getting the vehicle up and running again. He continues to hand Theldek the items he needs until the vehicle begins to hum with magical life once more. Theldek yells to whoever is in the cockpit that the machines wands should now work but he still has to fix the tunnel bore before they are able to leave. Thokk hears the commotion coming from in front of the vehicle and runs out to see if he can help.
Thokk runs to the middle of the room, as central as he can from each of the creatures and sends off a volley of magic missiles to each of the floating creatures. As each magic missile hits its target the gas spore explodes in a plume of poisonous spores. Thankfully Thokk has rendered each one useless while still far enough away from everyone that they pose no threat.
The real beholder then descends from its vantage point near the ceiling yelling at the group for killing his companions. He begins to tell them of his intellect and how he will discover that magic is just a form of science that no one, as of yet, has figured out. He will use their bodies to find out how, through science, the natural world works. He turns his gaze towards the closest creature to him, Gotrek and fires a ray from one of his eye stalks. Gotrek stops as his body begins to turn to stone.
Yeava, standing in front of the control panel of the vehicle sees all the switches pulsate with magical light and ponders which switches to throw for only a second before she grabs the bunch of four switches in front of her and flicks them. A burst of magical energy blasts from 3 of the wands in front of the vehicle, the fourth just sputters ineffectually. One of the magic wand energies flies out towards the beholder but fades to nothing as the beholder turns its huge middle eye to stare directly at the blast. Unfortunately, Thokk does not have the same ability and falls unconscious as the ray hits him.
Theldek is finally able to get his contraption running. The magical engine roaring to life. The group decides a fast retreat is the best option and they begin to move back towards the vehicle. Sarafina runs to Thokk and is able to revive him. Yeava and Azalea are able to provide covering fire of arrows and javelins. As the vehicle moves it, Theldek steers it up beside Gotrek. He flips a switch on the console and a wand nearest to Gotrek fires and Gotrek is revived, back to his normal, non-stone self.
The retreat is working well but Theldek points out that the tunneling bore is still not running. Thokk offers to run out and behind the vehicle and fix it. As he makes his way to the back of the machine he looks into it's engine and is confounded by the myriad of moving and glowing parts. He fortunately has been paying attention whenever he has been with Theldek fixing the machine. He grabs a tool and jams it into where he thinks it goes and pushes. The tunneling bore stirs to life. Thokk returns to the cabin inside.
Their retreat is going well but Gotrek is still outside. He yells that he will cover their escape and turns to battle the beholder. It does not last long. The others are gone as the beholder freezes Gotrek and immediately begins peeling, layer by careful layer, his flesh from his body. A new addition to the beholder's grizzly science project.
The party moves through the rock, making their way upwards towards the surface. Thokk has taken his place behind Theldek as they pilot through the rock. The others are cramped into the cargo hold below. It is noisy and bumpy but not for too long.
Soon, there is the all too familiar loss of drilling noise and immediately after a sickening shift as the vehicle begins to tilt downwards. They have hit another pocket of empty space. The group below are able to brace themselves sufficiently, but above Thokk as jarred forward. There is a lot of switches and levers in the cockpit. As Thokk is tossed forwards he grabs for purchase. He grabs a lever and pulls it forward with him. There is a loud banging sound and then the vehicle abruptly stops its forward tilt. Everything is still.
Theldek looks at Thokk bewildered at Thokk's quick thinking. "How did you know that was the anchor harpoon? Well done." Thokk smiles and shrugs as if it were nothing.
They get everyone out the back hatch, crawling along the now quiet engine. When everyone is out standing behind the vehicle, they see that the vehicle is being held by a steel wire anchored into the tunnel ceiling with a barbed bolt. Thokk quickly takes credit for the ingenious move which has perhaps saved them all.
Yeava climbs under the vehicle and move as forward as she can in order to find out what their options are. She finds a small hole to peer out of. All she sees is the inky blackness of empty underground space. She tosses out a lit torch and watches it fall and land on something about a hundred feet down.
The group discusses what they should do next but Thokk solves it by walking up to the anchor tethering the vehicle and cuts it with his axe. The vehicle begins tipping once more and then falls out and into the dark abyss. They wait to hear the crash to determine how far down the cavern goes. They wait for a long time until they hear what they think may be the faint noise of the crash, far far below. They combine their ropes, with Sarafina mending them seamlessly together to fashion a rope two hundred feet long. Yeava is the first to go down the rope. Sarafina has applied the spell light to the end of the rope so Yeava can see clearly when she alights upon a small ledge about 70 feet below the tunnel they were in.
The Web Runners 4,600 XP
Scanning around the cavern is vast with no bottom or opposite side within sight, save for a network of spidery webs attached to the ledge and leading out into the darkness. Yeava looks back to the cliff-side of the ledge and notice many crevices and possible tunnels. She ties the lit end of the rope to one of her arrows and fires it into the largest crevice. It finds purchase and she hears a surprised sound and then a stupid sounding chuckle. She stealthily moves forward towards the crevice.
Sarafina decides to follow Yeava, in case she needs help. After shakily descending the rope she watches as Yeava peers into the crevice using her mirror. Yeava sees two goblins, scrawny and with their faces painted with garish yellow streaks, smoking something fowl smelling. She decides the forward approach is best. She pulls herself up and into the crevice and introduces herself and asks if the goblins know of a way out of the Underdark.
The goblins, Yuk Yuk and Spiderbait, say that they will help the group, for a price. They negotiate but they are quickly sidetracked and end up bargaining against themselves. They will take the group for a few silver, to Blingdenstone, or at least close to it. They aren't allowed back there. They tell the group that they will have to traverse the webbing that crosses over to the other side of the abyss.
The two goblins prepare as the rest of the group descends down to the ledge. Theldek has decided not to accompany the group that has destroyed his best work. He detaches the rope and tosses it down after the last of them has descended. The goblins tell the group to apply "drek" to their hands and feet, so they don't stick to the webbing.
A few ask what "drek" is as the approach the softly mounded grey pile of "drek". The two goblins giggle and chuckle but do not explain. The group reluctantly dreks-up. The goblins jump on one of the web strands and surf it out, crouched and arms extended looking like they have done this for fun more than a few times.
Meta Game Spoiler
DM Note: Yes, Thokk, "Drek" is spider shit.
Yeava, Sarafina and Azalea, with Stool lashed to her, head out after the goblins trying emulate the goblins actions. Yeava and Azalea fall more than a few times barely able to grasp the web before plummeting into the abyss below. Thokk, with Eldith close behind, simply grasp onto the web and, hand over hand, begin crossing laboriously slow.
The goblins spot something wrapped up in webbing, struggling within the strands up ahead and head off in that direction. Before they are able to get to the creature trapped in the webs, the creature frees itself and pulls itself out of the web. Artemis, the winged elf jumps out over the abyss and flies out of reach. At the same time Azalea and Sarafina fall off the webs once again. They are able to grab hold of the strand before falling down into the abyss. Both see something fly quickly by below them.
Two vrocks fly out and attack the group. Yeava is hit and is just able to grab hold of the web strand. Hanging upside down she uses some of her rope to create a type of truss to hold her to the web as she sits in a rope sling sliding down along the web strand. While sliding along she is able to fire off arrows at the vrocks.
The vrocks in the meantime have attacked and killed one of the goblin brothers. The other brother sliding back towards the vrock in a rage trying, in vain, to slay the creature in revenge. The other vrock is able to knock Sarafina off of the web. She tries to grab hold of the web strand to avoid falling. She misses.
Sarafina's arms pinwheel in panic as she plummets towards her death. Seeing this Artemis flies down at full speed and is able to catch the halfling. Artemis flies Sarafina over to the other side of the cavern and drops her off on the opposite ledge. The fight is too far out over the gorge and Sarafina tries desperately to help but cannot see whats happening. She can only hear the screams of the vrocks and wait. Yeava is able to kill one of the vrocks using her arrows while sliding along the web strand in her sling.
Eventually the group approaches close enough to the far side and Sarafina can see one vrock still harassing the group. She fires her crossbow and kills the creature. One by one they climb off of the web strands to stand on the ledge waiting for quite sometime for Thokk and Eldith to finally make their way to the ledge.
On To Blingdenstone
The distraught goblin is able to point them in the right direction to Blingdestone. The group makes their way along until eventually arriving at a well secured and guarded entrance to Blingdenstone. The city of the deep gnomes. There is a wide set of stone steps rising up several feet before being blocked by a set of massive stone doors. The group ascends the stairs and call out.
Two small slots open up along each side of the doors. Enough to rain spells and arrows at any intruders. The deep gnomes tell the group they must prove their trustworthiness before being allowed into the city. They offer the group a few missions that are currently important to them. But the group will have none of it. They are so close to getting home and they are not going to be stopped by a stupid stone door and some svirfneblin.
Thokk tosses a gem he has taken from the crystal tomb into the opening and ducks down. Hoping for a usefull spell that the gem has absorbed he is rewarded with sounds of an explosion and fire along with the sounds of screams from the burning deep gnomes. Seeing this, Artemis, launches an ice storm spell into the other slot and there is soon silence in the Underdark, save for the sounds of the rest of the group hammering away at the stone door with all they have. Spells and weapons alike.
Azalea pauses a moment, and asks aloud that if they are still the good guys.
Meta Game Spoiler
DM Note: I wondered the same thing Azalea.
Soon the door crumbles before them. They look to each side of the door to inspect the destruction they have wrought. Sarafina approaches one of the newly dead deep gnomes and revives him with just enough life to act as a guide and a hostage as they move through the city.
Little eyes everywhere dark behind cover as the group angrily moves through the city. The goal of getting to the surface so close at hand. They are finally brought to an ancient set of steps behind a set of ancient stone doors. The group tosses the svirfneblin aside and begin the long climb out of the Underdark.
Finally, they reach the surface, climbing out and into bright sunlight.
The group has climbed along the rise which brings them to meet Phylo, the other myconid leader within the Neverlight Grove. Here he invites the group to join him in the great celebration. The group declines politely as they try not to tread upon the heads of the many bodies which lie half buried in the fungal growth on the ground. The Garden Of Horror 2,600 XP
As they begin to back slowly away from the insane myconid, Azalea yells out for Stool. Where is he? Does he know that his colony has been infiltrated by insane myconids? As they start back down the slope they are blocked by another myconid who has come from behind. It is barely recognizable as a myconid. It's bloated form hulks along and it's body is riddled with red angry nodules of spores which pulsate. Ooze and putrescence flow from its many orifices. The group begins making excuses to leave but before they can get very far, this one, Yestabrod, gives off an explosion of spores which envelopes, Thokk, Gotrek and Eldith. Gotrek is able to hold his breath and turn away from the spores but Thokk and Eldith have already breathed them in. They stand there in a stupor.
Near the others, Yeava and Azalea witness the many bodies that have been buried in the fungus begin to arise. Bodies of the drow elves, now deformed with fungal growths invading their bodies, begin pull themselves out of the ground and Phylo laughs and begins to sway in time with the music heard within his head. He beckons his spore controlled warriors to attack.
Azalea hears the familiar call of Stool. He has come as fast as he can. She had called. But now he finds them fighting his people. Why? Azalea tries to explain that they have done nothing wrong and that these creatures attacked. Stool stays off to the side witnessing the horrific battle.
Gotrek, lower down the slope now sees several spore infected quagotths approaching to attack. They rip and claw at the dwarf. Meanwhile Thokk and Eldith remain frozen, their minds numbed by Yestabrod's spores. One by one the group dispatches the spore servants and turn their attention to the myconid leaders. Gotrek attacks the bloated myconid, Yestabrod, and cleaves him through. But as Yestabrod's body falls it begins to shake violently and explodes in a shower of caustics spores covering Gotrek.
Finally, when the area has been cleared of enemies, the party explores a little further on. Just past the rise they see a massive cavern with a mushroom which dwarfs all others. It reaches to the ceiling of the cavern and it's cap giving off a eerie green glow to the ground far below. It's stalk is a massive structure that the group sees many different creatures moving in and out of. Along the ground are several hundred bodies of various creatures in various stages of decay. The great mushroom's fungal tendrils spread across the bodies in a great web-like pattern.
As the group stands there trying to make sense of what they see, they see a vision. The air is filled with the spores of the great mushroom and under their influence they see within the great mushroom a vast and huge demon. It sleeps at the moment but it is using its influence, through the mutation of the myconids spores to take control of the colony. The colony must feed it until it is strong enough.
The group decides this would be a perfect time to leave. Fast.
They run back down to the main colony and approach the older leader, Bisidia. They attempt to explain what they have seen and try to convince him that he should evacuate his people. With the aid of Stool they seem to get through to him and he begins giving orders to see to the preparations for his people to leave. It is then that he tells Stool to prepare to leave with the colony.
Azalea, looks at Stool puzzled. Stool is coming with her. Isn't he?
Stool stands between both his home leader and his best friend Azalea. Both Azalea and Basidia implore Stool to choose themselves. Stool looks torn but soon runs to Azalea who scoops him up in her arms.
They leave.
Thokk leads them unwavering back to the junction at which they had encountered the purple worm. They had been teleported there and that is as far as his skills can lead them. Yeava scans the ground and finds traces of odd spongy foot prints. The footprints of the purple worm farmers. They have taken to wearing footwear that gives off very little vibrations in order to put off any creature that has tremorsense. They follow the prints until they reach an underground river. They follow the river upstream for many hours. The river has no banks upon which to rest just a tunnel filled with rushing water for many miles.
Eventually they come to an area which has a ledge but they decide to push on. Again after about an hour they come to a waterfall. Half of the water goes into the river they have been following and the other half falls down into a cavern with a about a 60 foot drop. After each has looked down into the abyss and tossed various illumination spells down to discern what they can, they decide to backtrack to the small ledge. There they rest and talk of plans. Sandar attends his mistress, Azalea, cleaning and drying her as best he can before preparing her bedroll.
When they do push on they find a tunnel leading from the ledge away from the river. They follow it for some time until they come to a cave in. Thokk and Gotrek begin pulling rocks from the blocked path hoping that the collapse does not go far. They continue moving rocks until they uncover a previously hidden tunnel. Some of the group notice that Sandar seems particularly excited about this discovery.
Thokk travels down the tunnel alone to investigate. He moves through the small tunnel until he comes to a small room. On the far side of the room is a single door. A large strong door. He calls to the others of his discovery. As the rest of the group arrives, Thokk takes time to inspect the door. It does not seem to be trapped in any way he can discern. No odd hinges, wires or other suspicious mechanisms. He tries the door. The doorknob turns, so it is not locked, but the door refuses to open.
Thokk brings all of his considerable strength to bear upon opening the door. With a loud rushing sound of air the door whips open and Thokk and Gotrek are sucked out of the door and into a volcanic shaft on the other side. The rushing hot air sweeping them up and up.
Back in the room, with the sound of rushing air in everyone's ears, Azalea, Yeava and Eldith turn from their handholds, keeping them from being sucked out of the room, scanning the room to see who is left. They see Sandar holding Stool with a dagger to Stool's stalk (neck?). Sandar calmly tells the rest of the group that he would like their assistance in retrieving an item of some importance for him. Yeava and Azalea begin to approach Sandar but he holds them back with a nudge of his dagger against Stool as well as the beginning of his transformation.
Sandar looses the blonde locks and strong jawline of a handsome noble and begins to transform into a hideous death slaad. His monstrous face now that of a abonimation smiles at Azalea, "I didn't even get around to bedding you yet. What a pity." He orders them to go out into the shaft and about 60 feet above they will find a ledge. After the ledge they will find a cavern. Inside they will find a weapon. That is what he wants.
Thokk and Gotrek have already found the ledge. On their wild ascent up the volcanic shaft they had grabbed hold of it and collapsed safely upon it. Thokk takes one of the torchstalk mushrooms and lights it. He holds it over the edge, it's glow brightening in the wind, and lets it go. It rapidly shoots up and up until some ways above him it shatters into a shower of tiny sparks and embers. Their is a roof to this volcanic shoot. Perhaps it would not do to let yourself fly to the ceiling.
Yeava has pulled out her climbing equipment and has secured several anchors into the floor and secured several feet of rope through them. She tosses the rope out and up and the others upon the ledge grab hold and secure the other end. Yeava carefully ascends the rope until she is at the upper ledge. The three of them move back until they find an entrance to cavern and they enter.
The Crystal Tomb 3,300 XP + 100 XP
As Thokk, Gotrek and Yeava enter, they see a massive glittering cavern. Every inch is covered in bluish-green crystals. Most are scattered along the ground but other grow in huge clusters. Some as large as trees. Yeava picks up a small crystal and throws it as far as she can. As it lands it shatters and huge green plant vines begin to grow until a huge area is covered in a tangle of vines in a matter of seconds. Thokk moves into the cavern he picks up a crystal and throws it. It shatters but not too far from them. The shattered crystal gives off a brief explosion of light and the group's metal items begin to glow red hot. Thokk and Gotrek's metal armor begins to burn them and they rush to doff their armor.
While they are painfully occupied, Yeava moves further into the cavern, watching her steps carefully. There is a frozen pond nearby as well as a huge wall of ice at the far end of the cavern which rises from the floor of the cavern to it's ceiling. She pauses as she hears the sound of crystal footsteps, clinking. She looks around to see three crystalline slivers taking position to surround her. Thokk decides to forgo his armor and he pulls his spear magically from his alternate plane of existance to appear in his hand.
Yeava moves through the cavern making short work of the sliver creatures. At which point, Gotrek returns to them weapon in hand armor donned and ready for action. A little too late.
Thokk and Yeava moves further down the cavern to inspect the large wall of ice. Thokk decides to melt it with firebolt. He fire off the spell again and again until the ice is smooth as glass with a watery sheen flowing down over it. Through the now smooth ice they can see a faint figure. It looks like a human holding a sword above himself. Another creature, only a dim shape looms further behind the human. Both Thokk and Yeava pause to inspect the figure and the sword.
That's when Thokk hears the voice in his head ask why he stopped. It is an impatient and condescending voice. It implores them to carry on and free it. Thokk begins to talk back to the human on the other side of the ice, while Yeava only looks on with concern. She hears nothing. The voice tells Thokk that the voice isn't that of the human, he's inconsequential. It is the sword talking to him. The sword introduces itself as 'The Harvester'.
"There are battles to be waged. Enemies to be vanquished. Blood to be soaked in. Hurry up and free me."
Thokk and Yeava break through the ice carefully enough that they can now retrieve the sword without disturbing anything else, including the human. Thokk pulls it out and speaks to it. It has been locked in the ice for what seems like a millennium. Thokk decides to see what else he can get out of the ice and begins to chop at the ice with his new sword. The sword is furious. It is no common ax.
Yeava tells them of the death slaad and it's threats against Stool back down in the other room. They have to return with the sword. They return back to the ledge and there they see Sandar with Stool still in his grasp. Azalea has been glaring at the death slaad waiting for her chance to attack. When the others return each is on guard and demand that Sandar release Stool.
Gotrek in a barbarian rage, demands Sandar let Stool go or he will send a spell to shatter the largest cluster of crystals and kill them all. Yeava, Thokk and Azalea all simultaneously attack Sandar. But their attacks go uselessly through Sandar. It is simply an illusion.
They make their way back down to the room below and there is Sandar with Stool still at his mercy. There is a lot of yelling and threats made back and forth but ultimately, Sandar realizes that the group will not be intimidated and he threatens to throw Stool into the volcanic shaft. The entire room is tense but no one gives in, all the while Stool crying quietly.
Finally, Sandar in disgust throws Stool towards the door. Stool will be sucked up and be thrown against the stone ceiling shattering into a million little fungal pieces. Azalea rushes to intercept Stool and with a dramatic jump and catch, pulls Stool into her chest, throwing her arms around him to protect him, falls to the floor and with a roll, stands with Stool safely back with her.
Meta Game Spoiler
"DM Note: One the most memorable times of a crit roll. Awesome catch Azalea.
Now with Stool safe, the rest of the group unleashes all their fury and attacks. But Sandar has other plans. He summons a portal, jumps through and with a snarl and final threat of revenge, he disappears through the portal. "One day when you feel safe, I will find you!"
Theldek's Contraption
Returning back to the tunnels, Thokk and Gotrek resume excavating the collapse until they make a hole large enough to make it through to the other side. Apart from a small recollapse which unfortunately happened while Gotrek was still making his way through the rubble the group make it safely to the other side and continue on their way.
Thokk and Gotrek make noise with their music and singing, while the rest of the group slips in lyrics that poke fun at Gotrek's rock engineering skills but Yeava moves silently ahead of the group. She hears hammering of metal and sees faint torch light ahead. She rushes back to silence the others. Yeava makes her way stealthily back and finds a slight opening in the tunnel ahead. In the widened tunnel there is a machine. Large and metallic. It is about 20 feet long and 8 feet tall and cylindrical. There are several torches each staked into the ground around the device. On the far side, Yeava moves in to see a pair of dwarf's feet sticking out of the contraption while there is loud hammering from within.
The dwarf pops out and looks directly at Yeava. They introduce themselves as the others come out of the tunnel into the small clearing. The dwarf is Theldek and he is trying to get his tunneling machine working again. He calls it the "MUWAMICAR", MUlty WAnd MIning CAR. (The title is a working title only). He is very proud of it and shows them around. He is an inventor and shows them one of his other inventions. He reaches into a sack on his hip and produces a mechanical insect-like creature. It flies menacingly with a huge stinger on its backside until Theldek calls it back.
"Impressive no? Patent pending."
The group asks if he can assist them in returning to the surface. He doesn't see why not. He can get them at least part way. He is going to revolutionize dwarven mining and excavation and has to do it in secret so he can't return back to Gauntlgrym but can at least get them part way home.
Once his contraption is running again he takes Thokk on a ride back to his hold where he can dump off his days results of mining. He blindfolds Thokk while he empties out the cargo hold. Thokk dutifully waits, not peeking in the least. Once the cargo hold is empty they return back to the others. Thokk watching carefully all the while at how the dwarf pilots his contraption.
Once back the others pile into the vehicle and into the cargo hold. Thokk can stay up above just behind the drivers seat. With the roar of the engine and sparks of magical energy moving around the ship they move on. The ride is horribly bumping and uncomfortable for those in the cargo hold. The metal wheels have to forgiveness to flesh. The travel like this for some time until silence crashes down around them. The noise of the tunnelling blades have gone silent, as if they no longer are boring through rock.
There is then a sickening sense of the entire vehicle tipping forward. The vehicle begins to fall and its occupants are in free-fall for what seems too long to be safe. They come to a sudden and painful stop and the vehicle tips back down. The cargo hold door opens and Thokk peers in to make sure everyone is all right. They each exit the contraption while Theldek begins to attempt repairs.
It would seem they have broken into an empty cavern. The floors, save where they have crashed down, seem to be a polished, black reflective stone cut into perfectly level and symmetrical tiles. The cavern is vast and dark. The others call back to Theldek and ask where they are. He is inside his contraption and so they describe to him what they see. He calls back to them that they must hurry and seems in a panic to complete his repairs. This just might be the cavern of a beholder that is rumored to haunt this area. The rest of the group return to the inside of the vehicle.
Looking out through it's narrow slit of a view port they see in the dark distance, one large eye float into view, a toothy smile growing slowly beneath it. Then is slowly fades as it retreats back into the darkness.
The group finds themselves in a large cavern with two stepped pyramids joined at their bases. The cavern dimly lit by the eerie green glow that they have become familiar with in these tunnels. Each rise of the steps is about twenty feet and the group cautiously approaches the bottom of the nearest pyramid puzzling over what to do.
The Oblesik 3,600 XP + 500 XP
At the top of the pyramid, at which they are at the foot of, there is a black towering black obelisk. At the far end of the cavern, atop the other pyramid is a large red object. It would seem to be about the size of a red dragon's egg. As H and Azalea wonder how to scale such vast heights, Thokk grabs a mushroom out his pack and tosses into his mouth. Immediately he begins to grow. He continues growing until he about 12 feet tall. With that H begins to scale him and with Thokk's help he is able to just grasp the edge of the top of the first step of the pyramid.
H dangles there at the edge of the pyramid, unable to go any further. He sees movement above him and calls out, "A little help here?".
The movement comes closer to H until H is able to see it is a derro. A small creature with white eyes, a scraggly unkempt head of white hair and black skin. H looks helplessly up at the derro who sneers and begins to draw a hooked spear. H, who is being held up by Thokk below him, draws his guns, with a flourish, and fires. The report is deafening in the cavern as the sound echoes infinitely around the rocky space. The derro falls back wounded. With a push, Thokk sends H up to stand upon the first landing of the pyramid. There he faces two derro and a creature who is barely more than wisps of supernatural smoke begins to surround H.
Meanwhile on the other side of the cavern, Eldith who has been rescued by one of her kin, Gotrek, a dwarf from Gauntlgrym who has come looking for survivors of the orc attack. Eldith and Gotrek have come in search for Eldith companions, without whom she would never have escape from the drow prison. She owes them to come looking from them. At the sound of gunshots they rush forward through the tunnels until they come to the same cavern in which the other are in. They are, though, on the opposite side of the pyramids.
Azalea begins to climb Thokk, but her climbing skills are found wanting. She doesn't make it up but instead claws through some of Thokk's armor. Thokk decides to ingest another bigwyg mushroom. He begins to grow again. Now about 16 feet tall he but his armor is biting horribly into his body as his armor did not grow along with him. Azalea tries to climb Thokk again, this time succeeding in time to see H being assailed by a specter and two derro.
As Azalea climbs into sight of the spectre, it yells out to get the shard from the creature, pointing to Azalea. The 'shard' it's referring to must mean the metal piece she found back in the derro cultists cave. They begin attacking her. Her battleaxe simply cuts right through the specter leaving a wispy trail of ectoplasm which simply reforms around the creature. H concentrates his fire power on one of the derro. Thokk witnessing this from below reaches up to grab one of the derro by the leg and pulls. The derro flies across and down the pyramid coming to a crumpling landing at the feet of Sarith, the drow who has hung back. Sarith quickly stabs the derro.
Azalea decides to charge her battleaxe with her holy radiant power. Now with each swing now leaves a glowing trace of damage to the creature. Between this and Thokk's chromatic orb and wichbolt the spectre succumbs to the warriors. H having dealt with his derro runs across the bridge connecting the two pyramid peaks, to the unprotected dragon's egg.
Azalea approaches the obelisk and examines it. It seems to be made of a strong smooth material which she has never seen before. The lines are sharp and perfectly straight, save for the one spot which is missing a piece. She pulls from her pack the metal shard which she found earlier, and with only a brief thought reaches to fit the piece back into the obelisk.
The piece pulls out of Azalea's hand once it nears the obelisk and it joins perfectly with the obelisk, leaving no signs that the object was ever once damaged. There is a loud harmonic humming which reverberates throughout the cave. It makes everyone's head hurt and their vision waver. Lines of light, with that eerie green glow which they know well, begins to traversing across the pyramid in strange patterns. Intricate lines and designs begin to draw themselves across the surface of the obelisk. Very soon the lines of light begin to traverse down onto the pyramid itself and continue to grow along and out from the obelisk.
Once at the peak of the other pyramid, H is surprise attacked by two derro who have been lying in wait. H is able to shoot one and kill it but he and the remaining derro chase around the peak holding the egg trying to get one another. The derro is eventually killed by spears thrown by Eldith's rescuer, Gotrek. H walks up to take the egg from it's pedestal but it is remarkably heavier than he anticipated.
Once all the enemies have been felled, each of the party look to see where everyone is. They are spread out across the cavern but soon the light patterns have nearly encompassed the entire cavern. Thokk who has climbed to the top of the pyramid with the obelisk, eats a pygmywig mushroom to grow back to his normal size, much to the relief of his body and armor. He looks around the cavern and with a grunt, swings his hammer against the obelisk.
The harmonic hum which had been filling the cavern now becomes a deafening roar as the obelisk activates. The room becomes everywhere at once. Each of the adventurers see all manor of places. From places known, like home and other places they have visited, to places unknown both beautiful and horrifying. As the various locations superimpose themselves on top of each other at a rate their brains can barely keep up with, each tries to concentrate on that particular place they wish to go.
Each of them think of home, in some manor or other.
MetaGame Spoiler
DM note: I wasn't sure if anyone was going to hit it or not. It had to be hit to be activated. Thanks Thokk.
Only H is able to concentrate enough.
H finds himself back inside his wagon. His horses still there, if a little thinner after grazing as much as they could around them. His belongings still where he left them. He sits down, sighs and lights a cigarette. Smiling he is glad to be home. There is a little thought of the others. What happened to them? Are they okay? But he doesn't linger to long on these thoughts. There are weapons to be crafted. Secrets to be discovered. Life is good.
For the others life has not given them a break.
They find themselves in a darkened tunnel. Gotrek lights a torch and all they can see is a tunnel which leads off into darkness. The tunnel is odd though. It has spiral shaped grooves all along it making huge patterns around the circumference of the tunnel. It is smooth and almost organic in shape and feel.
They do not have long to ponder about their fate, or even the absence of H, when they running footsteps. Soon enough they see several humans running towards them at a breakneck pace. The group readies their weapons but the approaching group begins to yell at them.
"Run!"
The humans soon run up and past Gotrek who has stood his ground but the others decide to run as well. Gotrek holding the torch soon sees what they were running from. A large mouth, nearly the size of the tunnel itself, ringed with massive rows of teeth surrounded by a purple looking flesh.
Recapturing The Purple Worm 5,000 XP
The humans running from the purple worm begin to trail behind them a metal mesh-like net behind and between them as they run. Thokk, still running, begins throwing his javelin at the purple worm but the humans yell at him, telling him not to kill the creature. It is theirs.
Gotrek, meanwhile still standing his ground, watches as poor little myconid Rumadump is swallowed whole by the purple worm. Gotrek meets the worm and attacks. He ends up in the maw of the beast but, even though grasped within the beast's mouth, he beats at it with his axe until he in unable to do even that. As the mouth begins to swallow him he begins yanking at individual teeth with pliers but soon is only able to barely keep from being swallowed whole while acid is pouring over his entire body.
The purple worm farmers, meanwhile have set up their net and begin crawling up with wall, using spikes on the front of their boots. The net trailing behind them and now above the worm as well as below. They wait.
Azalea decides that being in front of the worm is the wrong end to be at. She finds a small indentation in the cave, enough to press herself and Stool into. She holds her shield in front of her as the purple worm passes. The thorny, poisonous skin of the purple worm scraps along her body inflicting damage, but once the creature has passed she relaxes, knowing she is safe from the creatures massive toothy maw. As the dust settles from the worms passage she doesn't notice the assassin, Yeva Abrmovich, who skulks behind, very near.
Yeva watches as Azalea, her guard down, is impaled with the purple worm's stinger. It's huge stinger the size of a spear head impales itself into her chest and begins pumping it's poison into the dragonborn. Azalea falls unconscious and dying but still standing, being held up by the worms stinger.
The farmers have dropped the net on the purple worm and begin clamping the open end shut while one of them, a druid begins talking soothingly to the worm in a language they do not understand. The worm's writhing soon calms then stops. It removes the stinger from Azalea's body as she slumps to the floor.
As the others rush to Azalea's side and try, in vain, to give her aid and revive her, Yeva watches dispassionately and notices a drow in their midst. Unseen from behind, Yeva approaches the drow and with one quick stroke kills the drow. No one sees.
Yeva calmly approaches the fallen dragonborn and bends down, slices along a poisoned vein and begins milking out the poison applying something from her own poisoner's kit. Soon Azalea is breathing, slowly and a little raggedly, but breathing. Yeva introduces herself.
Yeva has come to the underdark in search of exotic poisons, like the poison from the purple worm. She talks to the farmers and makes some important connections for later. She can help the others return to the surface. For now though they must seek shelter and let Azalea rest until she can heal herself.
A Dumping Pit Is Not A Good Resting Place 1,860 XP
Tired and weary after dragging Azalea's unconscious body, upon her shield all day, the group decides to stop. As they make preparations for camp, Azalea regains consciousness and once she is able to concentrate enough she performs a healing spell on herself and is soon walking once more. Some of the group explore the immediate vicinity.
Gotrek comes across a massive pile of refuse. A pile of bodies, garbage and other filth is collected into a corner of a cave. He hears giggling and the 'plunk' of rocks hitting something. He looks around and sees a little quassit demon entertaining himself by throwing stones at a decomposing head and trying to get it into it's rotting mouth. Gotrek sneers, raises his crossbow and fires hitting the head right through the mouth, wrecking the quassit's little game.
It has also awoken something.
The huge pile of garbage begins to move and rise. As it reaches a great height, the garbage, bodies and body parts begin to fall to the cave floor revealing the hulking form of a Otyugh. Standing on massive three legs and waving several arms, each tipped with grasping barbs and a mouth filled with teeth, it begins to approach the group.
Everyone awakes and attacks. The battle is fierce but through it all, Azalea grumbles about how she just wants to go to bed once and not be awoken to fight some awful creature. The quassit tries to escape by changing into a frog and hops right up to the feet of Gotrek. Fortunately, Gotrek fears frogs and flees. Smiling to itself, the quassit soon hops up to Eldith and bites her. She immediately drops unconscious. The quassit transforms again this time into a bat and begins to fly away. Thokk throws his javelin and kills the little demon with one hit.
Once the otyugh is killed the group settles down to resume their rest. Azalea simply collapsing in the middle of the cave floor where she stood.
Unfortunately, the rest is short lived.
There is soon a repeating sound of scraping. Frustrated, Yeva awakes to investigate as the rest of the group grumbles. Yeva comes across a single disembodied hand pulling itself along the cave floor. The hand is old and rotting. It's skin blackened and pulled taught. Yeva steps on the piece of the radial bone to hold the hand still while he stabs down. Killing the already dead hand.
The next morning comes too soon for the group. They awake and Thokk investigates Yeva's kill. The hand is still there the next morning. On it's finger is a black obsidian ring. Thokk takes it. Looks at it. Puts it away for later thought.
Azalea's man slave, Sandar, has been busy preparing Azalea's morning breakfast and begins to clean her up by scrubbing her scales and polishing them. All the while seemingly in bliss at the pleasure of serving her.
Stool has been scouring around the garbage pit, continually saying that he smells home. Yeva decides to help by pushing some of the filth and debris out of the way for Stool. In doing so, Yeva discovers an ancient mason jar. It is sealed closed with clasps holding the lid down and ancient runes covering the jar itself. The group passes the jar around but no one can make anything of it. Yeva puts it away. It's a interesting jar. Perhaps something will come of it.
Yeva's moving of the pile has also help Stool. Stool exclaims excitedly that he has found the way home. The group finds a small hidden tunnel. Stool who has already begun to move through it beckons the others to hurry up and join him.
The Neverlight Grove
On the other side of the tunnel the group emerges into a vast cavern of light. There is every type of mushroom growing here. From the tiny ones carpeting the entire floor to ones that tower above them mimicking the towering forests of the surface world. The entire cavern is lit from different colored glowing mushrooms. Soft colors bath this secluded world and Stool is overcome with joy.
The group is met by one of the colony's leaders, Basidia. He is happy that Stool has been returned.
Stool, being very happy to share his joy with his friends that he has made along the way, shows them his home. The group moves through the various areas of the colony. They see the large pool which provides all their water and moisture for growth. They see the small farm of junior myconids, barely inch high sprouts. They talk to one of the hunter leaders, Loobamub. He is responsible for finding food, which ends up to be dead bodies, and returning them to the colony for growth material.
Loobamub, does not seem impressed lately of the changes going on in the colony. There is another leader who has come to the colony recently. His name is Phylo. He has very different ways and is convincing many of the colony into his ways. Sharing 'The Lady's Dance' as Phylo puts it. Loobamub doesn't have time for such things.
The group asks if there is a quick way to the surface. Loobamub says that they do not go to the surface. Too dry and too bright. They do not get many outsiders. He is glad for Stool's return but outsiders are usually trouble. A couple of weeks ago some drow arrived looking for people. Phylo says that he showed them the way home.
Loobamub is more concerned with a shambling mound which is using up all the nutrients of a stretch of earth nearby. Also there is a grick alpha which is killing some of their myconids in the tunnels. He asks if the new friends of Stool would wish to aid in such a task.
The group demures and moves on. Eventually they come to a rise which is secluded from the rest of the colony. It is bathed in a predominantly green glow. There they meet Phylo. He invites the others to see the work he has done.
They walk along on the carpet of fungus until some of them notice that there are bodies buried in the fungus at their feet. One of them looks like a drow. She is covered in fungus. It has taken over most of her body and face. She then opens here one good eye, looks at the group and begins to wail...
The adventurers regroup after a brutal battle with the duergar. They scour the rooms for any valuables and other useful items. Thokk begins his frantic collecting of anything he can get his hands on, as he obsesses over collecting, arranging and counting his items over and over again, a remnant of his brush with madness earlier on in these madness infused tunnels. Sarith continues to hold Karis to prevent Karis from eating any more dirt than she already has, a side effect of the brush with her madness during the last battle.
H moves further down into the unexplored cavern filled with various mushrooms while the others continue to explore the duergar's alchemical laboratory. The room is filled with ingredients both natural and unnatural as well as vials of various potions. Thokk begins collecting all the potions he can, barely taking the time to note what each of them are.
Azalea comes across an odd piece of, what she takes for metal, sitting on the workbench. It is blacker than black and feels smoother than anything else she has ever felt. The shape of it is odd, as if it has been broken from a larger piece, as one of it's ends is jagged and non-symmetrical, like the rest of it. She pockets the oddity for later study.
Sarith, in the meantime, yells for some help as he has been holding back the raving Karis for quite some time now. The others arrive and begin to tie up the elf, preventing her from further inflicting damage upon herself. As the move about the small cavern, H notes a small passage further down the cavern hidden amongst a patch of growing fungus. Azalea also yells back that she has noticed an odd looking wall back in the laboratory. She pushes upon it and the wall swings inward revealing a small darkened room. In the center of the empty room lies a opening in the floor with a ladder leading down.
Thokk, jumps down to investigate and finds a tunnel that leads off into the darkness. The party debates then finally chooses to explore the darkened tunnel from within the hidden room. Azalea and Thokk takes turns trying to light a torchstalk mushroom to illuminate their way but time and time again, the torchstalk bursts into a explosion blackening their faces and leaving their skin singed. Finally, Stool is encouraged to light one and his unfortunately bursts into a small explosion too, leaving H to drool at the smell of broiled mushroom. Finally lighting one properly, they move on.
Parade Of Fools 1,210 XP
Travelling down the tunnel for quite some time they come to the end of the tunnel which has a panel of zurkhwood lying over top blocking the way. Thokk, as stealthly as he can, lifts up the panel to peer into the room on the other side. Noisily jostling the zurkhwood panel, he pokes his head up to see several myconids dancing silently in the center of a room.
One by one the party emerges from the tunnel to stare wondrously at dancing myconids. They do not seem bothered by the appearance of the group, if they have even noticed them at all. They dance around in a spiraling pattern of fungus which is several inches tall marked on the floor in vast rings. There seems also to be several quaggoths covered in fungus, sitting quietly off to one side. They make no movement whatsoever.
Stool cries out that he recognizes one of them. In the far corner is a myconid sprout, little larger than Stool himself. Stool says that it is Rumpadump. The other sprout looks nervous and begins to tell Stool that all is not alright.
Finally one of the myconids approach the group. He introduces himself as Voosbur and invites the group to join in the dance. "Join 'The Lady' and take part in her 'Gift'", he speaks to them using the same telepathic spores that they are used to from Stool.
H, pauses briefly before accepting. A burst of spores eminates from Voosbur and H breathes them in and begins to dance. H experiences thoughts, feelings and senses that up till now his mind could not even imagine existed. He dances and dances. As he moves into the spiral of fungus his body joins with the fungus as he moves further along the spiral.
The others are not so sure about this. They look around at each other and notice that Sarith, the drow elf, is struggling with something. His sores on his face are brighter and more colorful and he tries to speak but is unable to. As they try to mentally take everthing in, Voosbur releases his spores.. Each of them do their best to avoid breathing them in. Karis is able to avoid the spores as well as Azalea, who also shields her friend Stool from the spores. Thokk is not so lucky. He begins to dance.
Alternate Pic
Karis and Azalea seem to be the only ones not affected by the 'Lady's Gift' and as they try to get to their companions the quaggoths, covered in fungus, rise up and begin to attack, defending their masters, the myconids. Karis is able to throw up a wall shield of magical daggers, using bladeward. This at least hinders the quaggoths but they soon find that the quaggoths have to compunctions as to heading straight through. Emerging on the other side of the bladeward, they are heavily damaged but continue to attack. As Azalea and Karis attack they find that not only do the quaggoth spore servants still have much strength but they are covered in a yellow mold which is poisonous. Thokk and H, of course, continue to dance.
The battle is hard won with H and Thokk finally coming round, back to sanity.
A Friendly Face
As they regroup and tend to their wounds, Thokk comes across a pen, where he finds a human male tied up within. He is tall and handsome and holds himself proudly. He asks for assistance in loosing his bonds. H hesitates while grueling him with questions.
It would seem that his name is Sandar and he is a noble from the house of Torval. His father harassed
him for being to coddled and so he set out to make a name for himself and seek out adventure. He fell in with some dwarves and eventually made his way into the Underdark. He has survived by his intellect alone.
H and the others quickly deduce that he has survived on his good looks, ample money and pure luck.
Azalea approaches to see what all the fuss is about and she is immediately smitten. She cuts his bonds after he has promised, and signed a contract to, being her personal assistant (slave? love toy?). He asks the group for a weapon in order to defend his lady fair. Thokk refuses to give over any of his plentiful spears. Azalea happily offers one of her battle axes.
The group asks is Sandar has seen any suspicious derro lately. Specifically, one with a large brimmed had with tentacles. Sandar says that he has and begins to lead the way he has seen the derro go.
After moving through the tunnels some way they come to a narrowing in the tunnel where a large patch of fungus grows. Sandar who has up till now been leading the way, pauses and says that he normally is not the type to be heading first into unknown territory. His skills lie elsewhere, as he raises a seductive eyebrow at Azelea who smiles back.
Exasperated, Thokk steps forward and the patch of fungus he is near begins to shriek loudly. Soon the entire patch of fungus is shrieking, filling the tunnel with such a volume that no one can hear anything else. Thokk immediately responds by throwing magical fire at the patch and the shrieking slowly turns to pained screaming and then nothing. The tunnel silent save for the sound of burning and the air is filled with black smoke.
H decides to move further on but he forgoes the empty patch between the patches of burning fungus and goes right through the fire. He emerges from the fire safely on the other side while patting out the small fires on his pants.
Thokk decides to move through the more sensible path which is not on fire, and immediately falls into a whole in the floor. He emerges covered in green slime. It hisses and pops as it eats away at his clothes, weapons and exposed skin. Thokk begins to scrape it off with some of his spare clothes. He looks up at H, who simply smiles a knowing smile.
H sees an odd looking mushroom on the ground. He has seen this one before. It looks like a little tongue. More red than pink. He takes a small bite. It is good. Really good. He eats the rest. He tells the group that it's pretty good. Except that he doesn't just tell them, he yells it. Everything he says he yells at the top of his voice, even when he tries to whisper. He decides that he should perhaps not talk at all for a while.
'Two Heads Are Better Than One' Ritual 3,000 XP
The group moves out of the tunnel and into a vast cavern. The cavern is lit with an eerie green glow. The same glow that they have occasionally seen in parts of these tunnels. There are also burning braziers of red coals.
H sees a cage with a dog in it, so he approaches it. Calmly holding his hand out to show the dog he means no harm, the dog turns it's heads towards him. H now sees the dog drool and bare it's fangs, from both of it's heads. Safe on the other side of the cage, H's outstretched hand slowly lifts and he raises his middle finger at the dog.
The derro who has watched this interaction from the other side of the cage, walks around the corner and opens the cage door. The death dog charges at H.
Thokk, who was standing nearby, runs in front and intercepts the death dog's attack. In the meantime, the others have joined in and are now trying to hold off attacks from other derro. The derro are in the middle of a vast ritual circle that glows with an intense green glow.
The derro sling spell after spell at the group. At one point a lightning bolt spell arcs out and hits both Thokk and Karis. Thokk manages to doge the majority of the damage but Karis takes the spell full force. Karis falls.
As the others are fending off the derro, an ettin who has been resting on a bed nearby enters the fray, protecting his masters. H fires shot after shot at his enemies but his guns jam. He watches as Thokk is felled by a derro spell. H watches as Azalea is felled by the ettin and Sandar running to her side to protect and aid her. He watches as Karis;s body, failing to hold on to life, explodes in a fiery green blast. H feels that this is the end.
He is frantically, trying to load his remaining gun when his hand falls on a heavy lump in his pack. The stone the Stone Giants have given to him as thanks for trying to save their comrade. Daergryn's Stone.
He pulls out the stone and throws it towards the center of the derro mages that are attacking. The stone sails out in a smooth arc landing very near to the exact center of the derro. It lands with a thud and sticks to where it lands, not rolling at all.
The ground begins to shake violently until the ground near the derro begins to rip apart. Crevices begin to grow around and underneath the derro, most of them falling into the crevices, never to be seen again. The remaining derro try to stand and move but are unable. The sound of rock wrenching
and crumbling fill the cavern.
The lone derro that now faces the group, decides that the tides have turned and vanishes from sight.
H moves from companion to companion aiding where he can until each of them are standing once again. They look around and there is no sign of Karis anymore. Each find a safe spot to collapse in exhaustion while stool and his friend take watch.
The next morning, feeling more like their old selves, they explore the cavern further. H, finding he an talk at a normal volume again, finds an odd scroll with confused derro writing and can make little of it. He hands it off to Thokk for investigation. H finds that in the middle of the ritual circle is a statue that bears resemblance to one of the stone giants. In fact, inscribed along the base of the statue is the name, 'Dorhun'. Dorhun being one of the stone giants they had met. This statue though has an extra head grafted onto it's shoulder. H takes a swing at the statue's extra head and breaks it off.
Azalea explorers and finds a jar. It is filled with a thick green ointment, which smells faintly of aloe. She tucks it away for later study.
H also come across a large tunnel that has been newly bored through the stone. It is large and perfectly circular and goes straight into the darkness.
The Obelisk
The group now moves through their newly made tunnel, a product of the stone giants' gift. It is not long until they come to a cavern. Inside are two stepped pyramids. At the top of one is a large black obelisk. A spire of dark black material rising like a tower. On the other is a small red object.
The next morning the group awakes. H and Karis are still at one of the small duergar forges. The duergar within being taught by H, the secret to forging firearms. The evening was productive but the gun still lies incomplete. H goes outside to find morning from within Gracklestugh is simply colder, quieter and less brightly lit because the smelting furnaces fires within the forges have died down during the night.
A Pool Fouled
He walks to a nearby pool of water and, after a quick glance around, with no one in sight, begins to empty his bladder, contributing his waste water to the pool. Mid stream there is a growl and a tap on H's shoulder. He turns to see several duergar, armed with war picks and seemingly very angry. They begin to yell at him in undercommon. It would seem this is a pool used for drinking water. H can only hold up his hands and mumble his apologies. He yells for the duergar, with whom he has been working with, for help. Both the duergar and Karis exit the small smith workshop and H attempts to explain in his best attempt in undercommon. After a bit of explaining and help from his work companion, the duergar leave. Some walk away while others simply vanish from sight.
The others, Azalea, Thokk, Sarith, Eldeth and Stool awaken in the Shattered Spire, the inn for those in Gracklestugh who are not duergar. Each awake groggy and unobservant and some like Azalea and Thokk find the acidic and smoky air of Gracklestug hard on their lungs as they cough up black mucus. Azalea walks to her door and nearly runs into Stool who has been patiently been waiting by the door. He doesn't quite understand Azalea's last number of hours spend unmoving and quiet. She tries to explain the concept of sleep to the myconid, but doesn't seem to get very far. After the group breaks fast in the common room, Azalea, accompanied by Thokk and Stool, decides to prowl the city for suitable bodily companionship.
Azalea On The Prowl
During their explorations, and failed attempts at finding anything more attractive than the dour looking duergar to flirt with, Thokk notices movement past some of the buildings, of a massive red dragon. He watches it move from forge to forge, lighting with his breath the furnaces. Parading in front of the dragon, are several duergar dressed in ceremonial robes making way for the dragon. As he turns to point out the site to Azalea he also notices a small derro darting around the market place, deftly pilfering various items while the storekeep looks the other way. The derro is remarkable for his odd, wide brim hat which seems to have tentacles attached to it.
Finally their explorations of the city are halted as they approach the main part of the city, which is walled off by massively constructed walls, which the gates of are heavily guarded. They decide to return to the Shattered Spire and wait for H to complete his job. As they sit in the common room, they all begin to hear the sounds of rocks being shattered and deep loud howls coming from outside.
Rampaging Giant 3,000 XP
They run outside the inn to witness the site of a large stone giant breaking though the city walls howling madly and flinging duergar aside as he strides along. As several duergar begin to descend upon the giant, the others run to join in. By the time they get to the giant, H and Karis, who have also heard the noise are arriving from the other side of the market area. They all notice that this is no ordinary stone giant. This one has two heads, both howling loudly.
Duergar begin to throw their javelins, not wanting to get too close to the rampaging giant. The group decides to join in. Perhaps helping defend Gracklestugh will ingratiate them to their hosts. As the battle begins, some of the group notice that while one of the giant's heads is howling with a wild insane look, the other is looking at the other head with frightened horror and is screaming at the opposite head.
H holds his shots as he tries to figure out what is going on. Azalea does likewise but Thokk simply jumps into the fray and begins to throw his spears. After deciding that it is better to side with the duergar rather than the rampaging giant, H begins to fire and Azalea attacks as well. Shortly the giant is felled. As the duergar rush to begin repairing their wall the group approaches the giant and begin to inspect it.
H searches the giant but finds nothing of interest but does notice that the giant's second head, which seems to have grown out of the shoulder seems less formed and is even beginning to loose it's structure. He begins to cut if off. As he is doing so he notices the giant is not quite dead. Though after some debate and finishing hacking off the extra head, the giant finally bleeds out and dies. H cracks open the deformed head and finds that it is mostly filled with some sort of fungus. He pokes around inside with a dagger then tosses the head aside.
Noise of excited duergar alert the others. As they look up they see another stone giant approaching from the same direction the other did before it. This one has, the normal number of heads. one. It walks carefully and holds it's hands up in deference. Everyone watches as it approaches the fallen giant, a look of profound sadness on his face. He kneels down and talks to the group still around the fallen giant. The group explains what happened and that they didn't seem to have a part in the killing. The giant introduces himself as Dorhunn and explains what happened.
His fellow stone giant was Anthor, a student of the great Stone Speaker, Hgraam. They were in deep meditation and conversing with the stone when Anthor began to scream. Soon a second head began to sprout out of his shoulder and Anthor began to scream in fright and ran. Apparently he ran until he came upon Gracklestugh.
Dorhunn thanks the group for doing what they could and invites them to visit Cairngorm Cavern. There they can meet the great Stone Speaker, Hgraam. Perhaps he himself can bestow upon the group his personal gratitude for trying to aid poor Anthor.
The group moves to follow but are interrupted by a group of duergar dressed in ceremonial robes. Thokk would recognize them as the group which proceeded before the great red dragon earlier in the morning, but he has spend the last half and hour, missing everything which occurred with talking to the giant, because the was trying to find all of his spears. He has found all but one.
Finally, frustrated with watching her companion furiously, and embarrassingly, scrounge around for a single spear, Azalea stealthily pulls out one of her many spears and tosses it on the ground. When Thokk finally finds Azalea's spear, he proudly grasps it, stands up and announces to everyone, "Found it!"
MetaGame Spoiler Inside
(DM Note: I loved Thokk running around missing everything that was going on because he was obsessed with finding his spear. So much so that I used it for inspiration for Thokk's next failure at resisting a Madness check.
The Keepers Of The Flame
The duergar introduce themselves as The Keepers Of The Flame. They attend the great red dragon, Thumberchaud. Thumberchaud has extended to them and invitation to meet with him. It is a great honor and they should depart to meet him immediately.
They are allowed into the city proper accompanying the duergar priests. After walking some great distance, they pass a large crevice which spans the entire width of the city. They pass over it by one of several land bridges. As they cross they look down into a darkened pit where the derro live in crowded filth and anarchy.
Finally after reaching near the back end of the massive cavern which holds all of Gracklestugh, they arrive at the cave of Thumberchaud. The priests take time to instruct the group on the proper etiquette when addressing the dragaon and finally allow them into the presence of Thumberchaud.
Thumberchaud is a massive red dragon. Massive in size and great in girth. He has lived a life of luxury and plenty and it shows. He is obese beyond imagining. Folds of scaled fat overlap in unsettling ways as he sits atop his treasure trove of gold. He addresses the group in draconic but soon stops, puzzled and then pleased.
He brings his nose down and nearer to the group inspecting them until he finds Azalea with Stool nestled on her back. Thumberchaud smiles and says, "What a neat little trick he does.". Azalea brings the sprout of a myconid into the folds of her arms protectively. "Can he stop that?". Stool immediately stops emitting his rapport spores and the group can no longer hear the psychically translated speach in their minds. "Ah, that is better" and begins to speak in elvish.
Now that Thumberchaud's conversation with the group can no longer be understood by his attendants, he tells them why they are here. Someone has stolen his egg. It was to be his heir. He was to pass on to it all his power and privilege while he retired into a life of leisure. His duergart acolytes say they are doing everything they can to find it but he is unsettled by something and doesn't trust them. The group, as outsiders, have taken no sides and thus would be perfect for Thumberchaud's mission.
He tells them to report only to himself and then dismisses them. The duergar ask Karis what was discussed but Karis feigns ignorance, saying he doesn't speak draconic. The group is tasked by the duergar to find Thumberchaud's egg and that they suspect the derro. Specifically, they suspect a derro named Droki, a renowned and uncatchable derro thief.
The group is given badges designating themselves as deputized by the Keeper Of The Flame, which should grant them access to anywhere in Graclestugh.
A Deadly Toast
The group follows H back to the market area as he has to collect his equipment before carrying on. H returns to the forge where he and the duergar had been making a pistol firearm. He explains that they will not be continuing their project as he has been recruited by Thumberchaud for something else. The duergar is incensed. He has paid good money to learn this craft. H, aided with Karis, convinces the duergar with displays of their badges and H is able to collect up his equipment, and even a bit of the duergar's.
H retrieves two simple cups of water, while superstitiously stirring the duergar's water with his dagger, still covered in the vile fungus that was within the fallen giant's extra head. He presents the cup to the duergar and toasts to "no hard feelings". They drink and H and the others leave.
Cairngorm Cavern
The group decides to follow up with the giants and accept the invitation to visit Cairngorm Cavern, the home of the stone giants. The path is easy enough to follow as there is a trail of destruction leading from Gracklestugh through the rock tunnels and finally to a large cavern where the group finds several rock giants sitting in meditation.
Each rock giant sits near a wall of the cavern, reaching out a hand to touch the rock and all emit a low rumbling chant which permeates the cavern. While the group tries to decide what to do, Thokk boldly approaches the largest and most central rock giant. The rock giant sits atop several fractures in the ground which emit a dim green light. He holds his hands above the cracks with a look of deep concentration. Thokk sits down beside the giant an prepares to join him in his meditations.
The great rock giant immediately opens his eyes and yells a loud, "No!" and pushes Thokk away with such force that Thokk is thrown into the nearby wall. The giant gets up and approaches Thokk but without malice. He holds his hands out to aid Thokk in getting to his feet which Thokk takes. The great rock giant introduces himself as Hgraam, the great Stone Speaker.
Hgraam explains that Thokk was about to approach the area in which the unfortunate Anthor had been sitting in when he began to grow another head and went insane. Hgraam has been since trying to keep the vile energies at bay and perhaps cure the ailing rock of Cairngorm Cavern. The other giants approach and they too explain that the rocks, not only of Cairngorm Cavern but of much of the underdark, have been crying out in pain and sickness. And it has only been growing worse recently.
Hgraam thanks the group for trying to aid the now deceased, Anthor and moves to retrieve something nearby. When he returns he holds a spherical rock. In his hands it looks only to be a pebble but placed in H's hands it's size requires H to hold in both hands. Hgraam explains that this is Daeargryn's Stone, It will aid the group if ever they are in desperate trouble. It will, when thrown cause a massive earthquake, with the ground opening up and create a tunnel through which the group may escape.
MetaGame Item Info
Daeargryn's Stone:
cast Earthquake (phb p. 236) cast at level 16; spell save DC 17
for 100' radius it is:
difficult terrain
creatures must make Con save (17) for Concentration
at the end of each creatures turn they must make Dex save (17) or fall prone
several fissures (1d6), 10' deep, 1d10 feet long by 10' wide will open up (DM discretion)
Open a tunnel (10' x 10') burrowing until it meets with another tunnel
The group thanks the giants and they swear that they will do their best to find what happened to their comrade. With Daeargryn's Stone in hand, they leave.
Outbreak
Returning to Gracklestugh they return to rest at the Shattered Spire. There they talk with some of the other denizens of the inn and there is much rumor as to what the significance of the two headed insane giant. H gently probes as to the well being of his previous duergar forge colleague. The room goes quiet as one of the inn's guests approaches H and asks in a surprised tone, if he has not heard of the horrific event. H says he has been away and has not heard of anything.
The room begins to tell him of the duergar who began to grow another head and that the duergar went mad with the occurrence. It took several duergar to put the deviant creature out of its misery. H gives Karis a sidelong look. Karis wonders aloud if it wasn't something in the water. The entire inn puts down their drinks in frightened suspicion.
Azalea, counters with, "that's not what's frightening. It's that it could be in the air."
With that the entire inn goes mad with fright. It is not more than a few minutes before the panic sets in and spreads through the entire city. Soon the group decides to move on and finds the city a very different place. The streets are bare and activity is not to be seen anywhere.
The group walks up to one of the city gates but even with their badges, the guards refuse to let them enter. The entire city is being quarantined. No one from the infected market square area may be permitted entry.
Azalea calls to the guards above and shows them a container of water. She claims that the group is well and healthy because they have imbibed the antidote to the curse. She is willing to give it over if they are allowed through the gates. After the duergar retreat from the wall to discuss they return and agree to the trade. The gates are quickly opened and the "cure" hastily grabbed and downed by one of the duerger. The other duergar angrily demand their own, to which Azalea gives them the recipe for the cure. Zinc dissolved in water.
The duergar think briefly before one of them says he knows of an existing vein of zinc ore in one of the mines. The duergar abandon their post leaving the group to enter and wander the city at their leisure.
Laduguer's Furrow
H is determined to find the derro, Bupido, with whom they arrived in Gracklestugh after escaping the drow back in Velkynvelve. Perhaps he can assist in their mission. He did after all allude to the fact he was a god more than a few times. They arrive at the derro quarters of the city, Laduguer's Furrow. A massive crevice running the width of the city. As they approach the furrow near one end of it, they look upon a massive iron door over a hundred feet tall, sealing off the crevice from the rest of the cavern from top to bottom.
H yells for Bupido but all he gets in return are several derro peeking out of their holes in the sides of the crevice, looking at him. H kneels and prays to the god, Bupido, and is joined by Thokk. Their prayers do not seem to be immediately answered. Each descend into the crevice, H Thokk and Sarith jump, slide and fall to the bottom while Karis and Azalea use flying to gracefully descend to the bottom. There they encounter numerous derro each scampering over each other trying to get away from the intimidating party. Finally, H is able to locate one of the holes from which a derro had peeked out in response to H's calling out the name, Bupido.
They pull the frightened derro out and explain they are friends of Bupido. This immediately excites the derro as he runs to show them the shrine dedicated to the god, Bupido. He brings them to a small hole in the side of the crevice. The birth place of Bupido. There are numerous offerings left at the shrine, most of it scraps and leavings most would consider garbage. H and Thokk kneel and give reverence to the shrine. Looking into the hole, H notices is goes back very far. Climbing up and into the hole brings gasps and mutterings of shock from the derro but H, undeterred climbs further back into the hole. At the end he finds a pile of garbage, mostly cloth scraps and pieces of zurkhwood.
Pushing aside the pile he finds an exit. A hole which descends down. From the hole emanates an odd pale green glow. H descends down into the hole. After some short distance the tunnel opens up into another larger tunnel. H stands and looks down the long dark tunnel which is lit by veins of pale green glowing material within the rock. Thokk stands, exiting the smaller tunnel and joins H.
Bupido's True Shrine 900 XP
The pair move through the tunnel util it branches. H takes one branch, Thokk the other. H finds a small cave with a cluster of mushrooms growing in a far corner. Thokk finds Bupido.
Bupido is atop a tall dais made of bodies and body parts. Each of the many bodies is arranged in a spiral arrangement which rises and moves up until it reaches the spot upon which Bupido is sitting cross legged. The room is lit with the odd hand raised up out of the mass of bodies holding what seems to be a clump of body fat which burns with a oily sickly light. The walls of the cave are splattered with the blood of many various creatures. The collection of bodies has definitely occurred over time as some of the bodies near the bottom have rotted considerably making walking across the room difficult.
The horrific sight attacks the senses of Thokk. He is unable to cope with the madness that Bupido has created. The only thing he is able to do is yell for H. "I've found Bupido"
H enters the room and Bupido invites him to kneel and receive his blessing. H approaches and kneels cautiously at the feet of Bupido. As Bupido raises his knife to sacrifice H, H jumps backward firing his guns upon Bupido. Bupido is shocked to see bullets penetrate his flesh leaving him badly wounded. Bupido begins to chant and several of the bodies lying within the dais rise and begin to attack. The battle is short. H is able to quickly recover from his jump and fires repeatedly until Bupido, is hit several more times.
Bupido laughs at H's futile attempt to kill an immortal god. Even as he spouts blood Bupido laughs, until he collapses dead upon the body pile he created. The resurrected bodies collapse too, as the source of their power dies.
Chasing Droki
The sound of gunshots alerts Azalea, Sarith and Karis to trouble and they make their way down below, into the tunnels. As they approach the small cavern where Bupido had made his shrine of death, Azalea catches a glimpse of a derro in an odd wide brimmed hat running down the tunnel into the cave opposite to Bupido's. She follows him and witnesses the derro, scoop up some mushrooms from the mushroom patch, pick out one, eat it and the derro shrinks to such a small size that he is able to fit in a small crack in the side of the cave and disappear into it.
Azalea quickly notifies the others and they all gather at the mushroom patch. Looking at the patch they find that it contains several very distinct looking mushrooms. Which one did the derro eat. Azalea grabs a bunch and holds them up for Stool to inspect. The junior myconid looks through them, finally holding one up for Azalea and exclaims, "This one."
With no hesitation she eats it and shrinks in size. The others do the same and they enter the crack in the wall. Shortly the tight passage leads them to a larger tunnel. Karis runs ahead scouting for the derro, while the others puzzle over another fungal patch, trying to figure out what the others do. They, with the help of Stool, find the proper mushroom to grow back to normal size while H discovers a mushroom which when struck, ignites and serves as a torch to light the inky blackness.
Some of the group note that Thokk has been acting odd ever since his encounter within Bupido's shrine. He has taken to collecting anything and everything he can get his hands on. He has collected and organized many of the mushrooms he has found and has begun a collection of any weapons he comes across, regardless of their condition. All the while muttering to himself and counting each item in his collection over and over again.
Azalea shrugs. She's seen weirder.
The Cavern Of Voices
The group moves on. Trying to find traces of Droki's passage on the floors, H begins tracking Droki through the maze of tunnels in which they find themselves. Eventually, they come across a large cavern in which their is a rocky ramp which leads up to a platform. Around the platform, descending from the ceiling are several large stalactites which all point towards a central point near the top of the rocky platform. Each of the stalactites's tips are cleaved off exposing a hollow center within the stalactite.
H cautiously walks up the ramp to the platform which ends near the center of the cavern. Once in the center, at the focal point of all the stalactites he is barely able to hold on to his sanity as his ears and mind are assailed by numerous voices, conversations and noises all seeming to originate from within Gracklestugh. Once he manages to stay sane, he is able to focus his mind on just a few of the converstaions. He overhears:
the duergar priests of the Keepers Of The Flame hope that once the group has recovered the dragon's egg they will kill off Thumberchaud. He has grown lazy and demanding. They can restart with a new dragon that they may raise their own way.
some drow have entered the city and are inquiring as to the whereabouts of the group of escaped prisoners matching the description of those who have been seen around Gracklestugh for the past few days. They offer a rich reward for their recapture.
insane derro mutterings
the nearby voice of Droki, the derro thief, who they are in pursuit of. He is muttering that he must quickly rid himself of the package he bears and make it back out of the Whorlstone Tunnels.
The group seems to have reached a dead end. Before having to retrace their steps H begins inspecting the cave and finds a small crevice in the wall. He finds evidence of Droki's passage. They again eat some of the pygmywig mushrooms and shrink down to follow.
The Alchemists Cave
1,800 XP
Travelling through more tunnels they soon come to a tunnel which leads to a locked zirhkwood door. Azalea decides to set fire to the door. Soon tunnel is filled with a choking black smoke but they are able to barge through the door.
The fire has alerted the duergar within and they attack. Two of the duergar grab from a nearby table filled with various bottles and glass vials and begin throwing them at the group. H is set aflame and Thokk runs in and begins to bash in their skulls.
Karis runs up to help and when the duergar attack, the elven witch uses her teleport to escape harm. This time though when she steps through the portal to a teleporation plane, something within the alternate plane assaults the elf's mind and the portal closes, leaving her where she began. Something in that other plane has broken her mind. She falls to her knees and begins scooping up handfuls of dirt and detritus and starts to shovel it into her mouth.
Azalea is attacked from behind as two more duergar emerge from the other side of the cave. One of the duergar has a device strapped to his back which is connected to a large tube which he holds. Suddenly the device begins to emit a foul smelling green plume of gas which burns everyone's lungs.
Sarith seeing Karis putting handful after handful of foul dirt into her mouth to the point where her stomach must soon explode, runs and grabs her and drags her out of the cave. He spends the remainder of the encounter holding her arms such that she cannot ingest anymore dirt, stone and other such non-edibles.
Soon the duergar succumb to the pummeling of Thokk who finishes each one off by crushing their skulls with his mace. After his enemies are vanquished he begins to collect each of their weapons and begins rifling through the caves contents, counting, organizing and recounting.
