Tales from Toril- The Underdark Escapees: Book One, Chapter Three

Dark Lake Part 1:
The Giant

Dramatis Personae:

Phillip Johnson, the Human Cleric

Aura, the Air Genasi Storm Sorceress who injures the party almost as much as the enemies

Orvald Abershaw, the Mousefolk Barbarian

Fidget Stonegear, the Deep Gnome Inventor

Zarrus, the Tiefling Favored Soul Sorcerer of Mephisto

Miarielle, the Lythari Priestess of Corellon

Lythana Belmyr, the Half-Drow Blood Hunter of Eilistraee

Stool, the Myconid Child

Zenit 'Dracon, the Drow Fighter and Orvald's wife

Prince Derendil, the Quaggoth who thinks he's an elven prince under a polymorph curse

Thimblepwent Battlehammer, the Dwarven Battlerager Barbarian

Topsy and Turvy, the Deep Gnome Wererat Rogue Twins

Jim Jar, the Deep Gnome

Shuushar, the "Awakened" Kuo-toa 

Glabbagool, the Gelatinous Cube

Comrades we have lost:

Ront, the Orc Fighter- turned into hamburger by Pwent

Buppido, the Derro- left with duergar merchants

Eldeth Feldrun, the Shield Dwarf- killed during escape

Hera Adaar, the Abyssal Tiefling Wild Sorceress- swept away

Luna Trelawny, the Human Divination Wizard- skull caved in by rock thrown by Fidget, then finished off by black pudding

Sarith Zekarit, the Drow Scout- drowned

Friendly fire overall: 9
Friendly fire dealt by Aura: 3
Party members killed: 5
Overall party members lost: 6

NOTE: Things will be mostly from Lythana's perspective, anything with italics is from a third party, since the hunter can't be everywhere at once.

***** Mirtul 15, 1489 DR

       As we traveled we heard some roars and scuffling up ahead of us in the tunnel; a few moments later we heard some snuffling, like some creature sniffing or snorting. The mouse and his spider kisser were supposed to be scouting ahead, but they were so fucking loud they were probably just calling more attention to us than was necessary. I heard what sounded like a pig scream and looked up just in time to see what looked like the rear-end of one vanishing around the corner. Orvald caught and terrified it- turns out it was a nug, so it played possum, but I saw it breathing and decided to carry it. The little shit squirmed out of my arms and ran from me- Aura caught it, and when I tried to take it back it hit me in the eye with pee. I get that it was scared, but that was just disgusting. Wish I could take a proper bath. I always wanted a pet nug, but now I'm not so sure. Aura said it smelled of shampoo, and looked well taken care of- as if it was somebody's pet.

       We still heard the roaring noises and scuffling further up the tunnel, and continued on in that direction. After a sharp turn the volume suddenly increased, and we saw a stone giant fighting a hoard of skeletons. I noticed a few larger skeletons in the back with horns that seemed to be directing the others: minotaurs. Orvald launched himself at one of the minotaur skeletons, tackling it; they both landed on the ground with a clatter. Another minotaur charged at the spider kisser, I hoped it would take her down- I knew she would never choose to come into Eilistraee's light. Elle, Pwent, and I swarmed the other minotaur.

       With so many new targets entering the fray, the skeletons abandoned the giant and began running at us- mostly Orvald and Pwent. The insane mouse grabbed one skeleton and used it as a weapon against another one, causing it to fall to pieces. Fidget began launching rocks at one of the minotaurs while the giant helped Orvald by taking out some of the skeletons that were running toward him. Elle used her divine powers to make some of our attackers run away, thinning the herd a little bit. I saw Orvald brandishing a minotaur as his weapon, and successfully taking down some of the smaller ones with it; he then hurled it at one of the ones that was escaping, shattering it before it could flee. I've never seen something so small use the enemies as a weapon and have it work. The mouse is weird, but he's definitely effective.

       Suddenly, the giant scooped Orvald up and began cradling him, calling him "Squishels;" I realized he must be the nug's owner, and apparently a bald mouse looks enough like a nug to him. The final minotaur charged Elle, slamming her into Aura; Pwent cleaved through both it and the final skeleton, leaving only the giant to deal with. Even though it had helped Orvald, I wasn't sure if it was actually on our side, especially since it seemed to think the mouse was a nug. The giant realized Orvald wasn't Squishels, and hurled him away from us; it then began moving toward, and through, us to get to its damn nug. We began backing off to let him get to his nug, but Pwent was still enraged, and began climbing it with his waraxe; it was a gory sight. The deranged giant began crawling into the tunnel most of the group- including the nug- was in, and when it saw Derendil holding the nug it attacked him- and missed.

       Zenit grabbed Squishels and hurled it at the giant- she missed, and the poor thing was injured. It swiped at Derendil again, and this time hit, sending the quaggoth into a rage and causing his highness to reciprocate the assault. Pwent continued his ascent up the giant's back, and Orvald joined him in the climb. With its dying breath, the giant cradled his nug in his arms, and cooed "Squishels" at it; then the spider kisser finished the poor giant off. I've never felt so guilty about a kill as I did at that moment. The giant just wanted his pet, and instead of giving it to him, we killed him and his nug; this will haunt me for years.

       As we collected ourselves from that horribly depressing battle, Derendil became catatonic; we couldn't snap him out of it for about ten minutes. Shuushar thought he smelled fish, and insisted that Dark Lake was nearby. We went in the direction the kuo-toa indicated, and eventually we heard water in the distance; we entered a mushroom grove, and decided to spend some time harvesting the mushrooms for food. Shuushar wandered off in search of the lake instead of helping us, not that he's terribly helpful anyways- a while later she came back and announced that we had indeed arrived there. We chopped down some Zurkhwood to make rafts, and spent the afternoon making four longboats/rafts to cross the lake with; we decided to camp in the grove for the night, and begin our trip in the morning.

       I took this opportunity to slip away and do my devotion to the Dark Maiden, though I would not do it sky clad, it's too risky to be nude in the wilds of the Underdark without backup. I found a fairly secluded area next to a little pond and began my dance. Unbeknownst to Lythana, Zenit saw her slip away and decided to follow her. About halfway through Lythana's dance, Zenit noticed a ripple in the water, and some of the water began creeping out of the pond, toward Lythana- a water weird. I was suddenly enveloped in water and being drug toward the pond, it pulled me under too quickly, I think I was drowning. Zenit shot at the weird as it grabbed Lythana, but didn't hit it hard enough to force it to drop the half-drow. 

       Zenit plunged into the water after Lythana and wrested her from the weird's grasp, getting her to shore before she could drown. After dropping the half-drow on the shore, Zenit was grabbed by the weird and pulled back into the water. Elle and Orvald arrived at precisely the right time; the lythari rushed to her pack sister's side, while the barbarian freed Zenit from the weird's grasp. As soon as Zenit was free the weird grabbed Orvald, though that was the barbarian's plan. Elle went into the water to help Orvald escape, but he refused, he was determined to kill it. 

       I stood at the shore of the pond- is it a shore if it's only a small pond? I may look into that later- and waited with bated breath for Elle to surface. At that point Aura and Pwent arrived, and apparently Aura is a complete idiot. The airhead cast a lightning spell on the water, electrocuting everyone; she may have gotten Elle killed in there. Nobody attacks my pack sister. I stalked toward the idiot and stabbed her, she responded with some spell that pushed me away, which couldn't deter me when Elle's safety may be on the line, so I stabbed the stupid bitch again; Aura attacked me again, and I tumbled into unconsciousness.

       While Lythana was beating on Aura, Orvald drug Elle to the surface of the water; Fidget threw a grappling hook at the pair to reel them in, and he missed. Pwent, always ready for a fight, jumped in the water and hacked at the weird until there was nothing left of it. Everyone else got out of the water while the dwarf was killing the creature. When the dwarf broke the surface of the water, he was able to catch hold of Fidget's grapple, and Orvald yanked him out of the water. 

       When we got back to camp, I attempted to explain to the little idiot why she shouldn't electrocute water, but she just didn't understand. Aura is a liability and she is going to get herself, or one of us, killed.

***** Mirtul 16

       In the morning Orvald decided to go back to the pond to look for the sword I had lost during the fight the night before. My sword was gone, except for the hilt, and the mouse also found a potion of enlargement; I shudder to think of how he may use that with the spider kisser. After Orvald's hunt we had a mushroom breakfast and climbed in the boats to begin our journey; we had Glabbagool set up to haul all of our boats, since we didn't have oars for them.

       About six hours into our boat trip Shuushar began insisting that we were almost to Sloobludop, he said we only needed a couple more hours and we would be at her home. I heard a splash and saw some ripples in the water, then kuo-toa began appearing and surrounding us. Phil was pulled underwater and vanished, and nets began flying onto our boats, grabbing people. I sliced the one that landed on Elle off before they could pull her overboard, and yelled at Shuushar to talk to his people.

       Orvald wrestled a net off of Aura, and out of the kuo-toa's hands. Stool was snatched and pulled overboard before anyone could save the sprout. A bigger one jumped in my boat and attacked the twins, but Topsy kicked it overboard before it could do much damage to us. Orvald attempted to go after Stool, but Zenit caught him and refused to let him go look for the myconid. Of course, the moment the drow looked away Orvald dove in anyways; he didn't understand that per drow hierarchy he was supposed to bend to her will. Unfortunately for Orvald, Fidget caught him with a grappling hook, and Zenit reeled him back to the boat, with the mouse fighting all the way. 

       We had just finished off the kuo-toa who were swarming us, when we heard a bell and another kuo-toa began speaking to us. I again told Shuushar to speak to her people, but who knows what he was saying. The attackers got away with Phil and Stool.

Photo from Out of the Abyss Adventure Module by Wizards of the Coast

*Author's note: Many of the events and characters that take place in this story are from the Out of the Abyss Adventure Module by Wizards of the Coast.