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

Gracklstugh, the City of Blades Part 2:
The Whorlstone Tunnels: Buppido's Shrine and the Massacre of the Myconids

Dramatis Personae:

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

Miarielle, the Lythari Priestess of Corellon

Lythana Belmyr, the Half-Drow Blood Hunter of Eilistraee who has another presence in her head

Topsy and Turvy, the Deep Gnome Wererat Rogue Twins

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

Thimblepwent Battlehammer, the Dwarven Battlerager Barbarian who can't take anything seriously

Stool, the Myconid Child

Glabbagool, the Gelatinous Cube
Ol' Sparky, the "blind" Derro Beggar with a magic cane
Codsworth, the polite Flumph
Rumpadump, the Myconid Child

Contacts in Gracklstugh:

Ylsa Henstak, duergar merchant

Errde Blackskull, the captain of the Stone Guard

Gartokkar Xundorn, the leader of the Keepers of the Flame

Themberchaud the Wyrmsmith, the adult red dragon who keeps the forges burning

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

Phillip Johnson, the Human Cleric- in a seemingly irreversible coma, left in Hemeth's care

Jim Jar, the Deep Gnome- eaten by grell

Prince Derendil, the Quaggoth- killed by sea troll

Shuushar, the "Awakened" Kuo-toa- turned into shuushi by sea troll

Zarrus, the Tiefling Favored Soul Sorcerer of Mephisto- vanished in a puff of smoke and brimstone

Hemeth, the Duergar Arms Dealer- parted with group in Gracklstugh

Quests in Gracklstugh:
Find out how the derro are getting surface coin and jewelry for Ylsa in exchange for directions to Blingdenstone.
Meet with Errde as soon as business with the Keepers of the Flame is concluded.
Comply with whatever the Keepers of the Flame ask, but report everything to Themberchaud first.
Find the Gray Ghosts, confirm their involvement in the disturbance, and bring their magic to Gartokkar.
Find Pelek's hand and lay it to rest in Blingdenstone.

Friendly fire overall: 38
Friendly fire dealt by Aura: 16
Party members killed: 8
Overall party members lost: 12

Derro killed: 41

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.

***** Kythorn 11, 1489 DR (The Year of the Warrior Princess)

     After spending several days collecting debts owed to Mephisto, Zarrus was sent to an empty room in Ghohlbrorn's Lair in Gracklstugh- the inn the rest of the party had been lodging in.

       I woke up to the sounds of fighting coming from the common room, and hurried out with swords in hand to see what the fuss was about. There was a group of derro tearing up the common room, likely in retaliation for the airhead killing Droki. Orvald came up to the room and shouted at them to stop, which resulted in three of the fuckers charging at him- one of them was instantly killed by the mouse. Aura turned the other two into ice statues- without hitting Orvald. Another pair of derro killed a patron of the inn, who had the misfortune of choosing to have breakfast shortly before the attack; Orvald and Pwent were on it in a second, and the barbarians made short work of him. I saw a couple of them hurl bottles at Elle, which thankfully missed, and before either of us could respond, Aura killed them off.

       Turns out there was a full scale riot in the streets, with derro everywhere. Before we could sort out anything, we heard "a thundering roar and the sound of crumbling rock."* We turned to see "a two-headed, gray-skinned giant burst through a gate, howling madly and lashing out left and right, littering the plaza with rock and stone debris. As he bellowed, one of his swings connected with a duergar soldier, whose broken body flew through the air and crashed near us with a sickening crunch."* Orvald embedded his dagger in the giant's chest, while I rushed forward, slashing my palm to activate a blood rite as I went. Just as I reached the giant, his fist slammed into me, knocking the breath from my lungs momentarily. Aura threw a bolt of electricity at the giant, hitting Orvald too- fucking airhead. the blast knocked the giant unconscious, and it died quickly.

       Another giant came through the gates as the first fell, and hurriedly conferred with the guards about what the fuck had just happened. He gathered the heads of his fallen brethren, and left the way he'd come, shaking his head sadly. Orvald heard the giant muttering to himself about the Stonespeaker not being happy that another giant had died.

       With the insane giant disposed of, we were able to turn our attention back to the riot, which seemed to have paused during the giant's assault. The derro swarmed out of the buildings, all of them seemed to be coming right for us. We hacked through the little bastards in a matter of seconds, they provided no challenge for us whatsoever; I killed twice the number Pwent did, he challenged me so of course I had to win. After we surveyed the carnage of that mess, we decided it was time to get back to the West Cleft District, and see what was beyond the fissure Sparky had shown us yesterday.

       The gate to West Cleft was slightly ajar, and the area was eerily quiet- it seemed deserted. We couldn't have possibly killed all of the derro that lived in this district. Elle asked the twins to check the gates for traps, the pregnant silence made it feel like we were walking into our doom. The jackasses set off a bunch of firecrackers at Elle's feet- didn't hurt her, but my Sister was not pleased- especially when I started laughing along with them. As we walked through the open gate, we saw the bodies from last night were still strewn about the street, but they had all been stripped, and their entrails were hanging out- the derro had salvaged what they could of their fallen kin, and eaten the rest. I fucking hate derro.

       Sparky was not waiting for us at the entrance to the tunnels like he was supposed to be, so we went in blindly without him. We walked into a cavern that was lined with stalagmites and stalactites, with water dripping from them to form small pools. "The glow of faerzress casts an eerie soft light across this cavern, swirling into spiral patterns lining the walls. The air smells and tastes slightly metallic, and the sound around us is strangely muted. The dripping of water makes no echo, as if we stood in open air."* This place was fucking creepy. We decided to fan out to explore.

       I spotted three yellow quaggoths- I've never seen them come in yellow before- in a small trench which I promptly fell into. I landed on my feet, which would have made me feel better if yellow spores hadn't ballooned out of them on collision- poisoning Elle. One of them made a swipe at me, while another tripped, and the third lashed out at Elle. With each move they released more of those stupid yellow spores, and I saw Elle fall.

       Aura threw one of her stupid ice knives at them, and more spores erupted, hitting both Elle and I. The spider kisser dumped a potion down Elle's throat and drug my Sister away from the toxic quaggoths. Orvald leapt into the trench, and another cloud went up- this one poisoning poor Stool. Pwent followed him into the fray. Zarrus threw a bolt of flames at one of them, and all of the mold on it burned up- we had to set the assholes on fire. Fidget took Stool to safety, and discovered the myconid was on the brink of death, he quickly healed the sprout. 

       I tore into one with my blades and it fell, but the cloud that erupted from it hit me hard- I felt myself falling, then I knew darkness. Zenit frantically tried to set one of them on fire with her flint and steel- she failed, so Orvald took it from her and managed to get that one burning. I felt the warmth of Elle's healing course through me as I came to my senses. I saw a rock cave in the head of one of the quaggoths, and it knocked its friend over as it went down- the cloud hit me hard again, and down I went- though I don't think I was out for long, since I came to in time to watch Orvald set the dead one on fire... those fucking spores hit me again, and I felt myself slip back into blackness. The next time I came to they were all dead and Fidget had wandered off.

       Fidget found Sparky just around the corner, filthier than ever; while derro was using an illusion to appear sparkly clean, the svirfneblin saw right through it- though he didn't bother to tell anyone. Fidget decided he needed to harvest some of that fucking mold for bombs, and asked Aura to create a breeze that would push them into a bedroll that was inside of a tent- that was his version of containment. That backfired, and the spores hurt not just Fidget, but also Aura and Orvald. The mouse snapped and completely went off on the inventor- it was really funny. He told the gnome that if he wanted the spores, he had to harvest them himself, then he stormed off in anger.

       While Fidget worked on his stupid spore collecting, the rest of us moved a little further into the cavern to rest, and get the fuck away from any accidents he would create. The glowing patterns of the faerzress crystals made me dizzy, and I couldn't quite keep my balance. Pwent suddenly started laughing hysterically at nothing- I think the poor dwarf lost his mind. He lost the ability to take anything seriously, and the more serious something is, the more hilarious it is to him.

       Fidget rigged up the spore pack with a grapple hook so it could be moved without anyone touching it directly. There was a small patch left on the ground, and he called for someone to burn it away- the twins quickly obliged. Somehow, even though Orvald had just told Fidget he wouldn't help, the svirfneblin got Orvald to carry the venomous bundle. We all made sure to get clear of that. Of course I wasn't surprised when the mouse dropped the stupid pack, and it exploded- badly injuring himself. After that nonsense, we all decided we needed to rest in the cavern- but Orvald wandered off to explore instead.

       Orvald found a small, narrow crack in the wall of the cavern, with a ton of mushrooms surrounding it. The crack was the one that the party had just come through, but the mousefolk had gotten turned around in his anger, and didn't realize it until he slipped through it. He looked around a bit more, and found something shiny sitting in the spore patch- a buckler that was completely intact. After a moment it shrunk to fit the mousefolk.

       Aura randomly decided it would be a good idea to eat some mushrooms we couldn't identify- the one that looks like a human tongue- and as soon as she swallowed began talking to herself. After she finished rambling to herself, Sparky demanded his promised reward- sex. Aura went back and forth with the derro for a couple of minutes on the subject, before she finally decided that she would go through with it. Eew. They started walking away and completely vanished. After an hour they came back, and while Aura's memory was hazy, she was pleasantly surprised by the encounter.

       We began heading into the next cavern, and were greeted to "a stench of rotting meat... The floor was carpeted with humanoid remains in varying stages of decomposition, arranged in a spiral pattern around the cave's center. An off-key humming came from a hunched humanoid figure working busily at something on the floor.

       'Oh, there you are!' The figure is Buppido, [I learned later that he was someone who had escaped the drow camp with the others]. He wiped his hands on his vest and smiled viciously. 'I didn't expect you to find me here, with my shrine nearly finished! And power! My faithful are finally honoring me! Are you...? Yes. Yes, I sense that you are ready to receive my truth into your hearts!'"* Orvald decided to play along with this insane derro, the others seemed to know. Every corpse in the room had been a sacrifice he made to gain power. The spiral pattern in the room looked similar to the pattern the faerzress produced in the room we had just come from.

       Orvald told him we were just going to get him some more sacrifices, and turned to leave when the room flared with power. The mouse leapt across the room and knocked Buppido out instantly. Sparky whirled his cane around and a spectral mule-like creature landed on the derro's body. It looked like Orvald had killed Buppido, but the spiral was still glowing with power. I watched in horror as the derro stood up, and sprouted another head. All around us zombies rose with him, and they all had two heads- one of them was a fucking ogre. When Orvald killed Buppido the first time, he provided the last sacrifice the derro needed to increase his power. 

       As one, the zombies swarmed Orvald, trying to protect their God. He dropped one zombie quickly, but it kept getting back up. I ran forward and hacked one of the nasty undead to pieces, while Orvald made Buppido fall again- though knocking the derro down didn't stop the zombies. Sparky whirled his cane around and all of Buppido's wounds dried out- he had cast a blight on the derro to keep him down. The zombies kept coming at Orvald, while in front of me the ogre ripped its own arm off and attempted to use it to club Pwent- its hand slipped and I got hit with the arm instead. Zarrus launched a fireball at Orvald, and killed all of the zombies around him- the mouse didn't seem to be phased by it. Pwent and I hacked laboriously at the damned ogre while the others finished off the rest of the brood. Pwent and I got trapped in a web that Sparky loosed from his stupid cane, and the ogre's fucking arm animated and grabbed my thigh... That fucking hurt. The spider kisser finished off the ogre, but the severed arm kept squeezing me. Zarrus loosed some magic that ended that. Ow.

       Before we were able to really collect ourselves from that battle- have I mentioned ow?- a fucking ghost popped up in the middle of the spiral. He said his name was Pelek, and that he had been traveling from Blingdenstone when Buppido came across him. The derro had killed the svirfneblin not terribly long ago, and hacked him into pieces to become part of the shrine. Pelek asked us to take one or more pieces of him to Blingdenstone, and lay them to rest so his soul could move on; the problem was that there were so many parts of various creatures we couldn't tell what was his. He recalled a strange magic that animated his hand and it wandered off- but he couldn't tell us which way the hand went. Pelek asked us to look for his hand- which we would know was his because of an obsidian ring. We told the poor soul that we would try to find his hand. I looked around a bit, but there was too much gore for me to find the prints of one tiny gnome hand.

       As we left the carnage behind, a voice rang out in all of our heads, saying "You can help!" A flumph emerged from the shadows beyond, and introduced himself to us as Codsworth. He told us he had been following the telepathic energies of derro cultists in the cavern system, and wanted our help to stop them from whatever it was they were doing. "They must be stopped," he told us- I'm not sure what they were up to, but we seemed to be here to kill derro anyways. We asked if he'd seen Pelek's hand, and Codsworth said he had, it was near where the cultists were. He asked if he could accompany us, which we agreed to, though he tended to stick closer to myself, Aura, and Elle- the others were too douchey for him I guess.

       With that settled we continued on "the tunnel opened into a natural cave, wherein we saw several fungal creatures dancing to a silent tune. Three of them stood five feet tall, while the others were half as tall. One of the small ones from the rest, its movements not nearly as frantic. Hunched nearby were two larger creatures that resembled apes covered with mushroom growths and yellow mold."* Great, more fucking moldy quaggoths. Stool pointed out to us that myconids don't dance, and said the one who wasn't dancing was his friend, Rumpadump, from the Neverlight Grove. The sprout was completely mortified that his kin was dancing. Codsworth told us they were his associates. Fidget heard the silent tune the myconids danced to, and began resisting the urge to join them. 

       They all seemed too caught up in their dancing to notice us, until Fidget announced he needed to save them from the music, and shot Rumpadump with his grappling hook- knocking him unconscious- Elle revived him instantly. Of course they responded to our attack with violence of their own- and telepathically projected the pain of their fallen friend onto Fidget as punishment- Stool was close enough to feel it too, and the poor boy winced in pain. One of the quaggoths slammed into Fidget, releasing a cloud of yellow mold- which hurt poor Stool badly enough that he fell unconscious as well.

       A wisp of light came from the tip of Sparky's cane, and Zenit crumbled to the ground- I think he just killed the bitch. At the sight of this, Orvald's mind cracked, and he became revolved by Sparky for the next 9 hours, and was compelled to run away from him whenever he could see him. The twins were nowhere to be seen, and Zarrus set fire to the mold on one of the quaggoths. Aura, Elle, and I were yelling at the others to stop, but no one would listen to us. Fidget froze, stunned by one of the myconids, while Orvald threw himself at Sparky. This was becoming a fucking madhouse. I killed one of the quaggoths, since they weren't victims in this like the mushrooms were.

       Aura revived poor Stool, and just as he came to, another spore cloud knocked him out again; Elle revived him that time. Zarrus burned away more spores, and I got hit by a psychic blast that stopped me in my tracks. Sparky woke the spider kisser up- apparently he had only hit her with a spell that fakes death- dammit. Orvald, seeing his love revived, slayed one of the myconids. For some fucking reason, the airhead decided to attack the shrooms, even though they only seemed to be attacking those of us who had harmed them, and screamed "stop!" Of course they reciprocated her assault, while a spectral horse came out of Sparky's cane... He's fucking weird. Elle finished off the last quaggoth, while Orvald and Pwent killed the last two adult myconids. The sprouts began running away, even Rumpadump. Elle went after Rumpadump, and Sparky hit him with a spell to hold him in place until she could get to him.

       The rest of the sprouts ran into the small mushroom patch in the room, and Fidget felt compelled to follow them. They vanished as they reached the patch, and the moment Fidget got there, I heard him chant something and vanish too. Fidget had transported through the mushroom into another cavern where the sprouts had escaped to. That was a really weird fight.

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

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

*Author's note: Many of the events, locations and characters that occur in this story are from the Out of the Abyss Adventure Module by Wizards of the Coast. Anything with an asterisk next to it is a quote from the book.

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

Gracklstugh, the City of Blades Part 1:
The Pursuit of Droki

Dramatis Personae:

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 who has another presence in her head

Topsy and Turvy, the Deep Gnome Wererat Rogue  Twins

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

Thimblepwent Battlehammer, the Dwarven Battlerager Barbarian

Stool, the Myconid Child

Glabbagool, the Gelatinous Cube

Hemeth, the Duergar Arms Dealer

Contacts in Gracklstugh:
Ylsa Henstak, duergar merchant
Errde Blackskull, the captain of the Stone Guard
Gartokkar Xundorn, the leader of the Keepers of the Flame
Themberchaud the Wyrmsmith, the adult red dragon who keeps the forges burning

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

Phillip Johnson, the Human Cleric- in a seemingly irreversible coma

Jim Jar, the Deep Gnome- eaten by grell

Prince Derendil, the Quaggoth- killed by sea troll

Shuushar, the "Awakened" Kuo-toa- turned into shuushi by sea troll

Friendly Fire: 30
Party members killed: 8
Overall party members lost: 10

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.

***** Kythorn 7, 1489 DR (The Year of the Warrior Princess)

       We had to sneak into the city by stopping the ship at one of the more secluded docks, since we knew there was no way we could just walk in. As we moved closer we began to see "an orange glow in the distance,"* which was shortly followed by the echoes of metal, as if the ghost of a forge was near us. The glow slowly grew to "illuminate massive columns with structures built around their bases."* We began to feel the air warm as piers came into view, "jutting out along the edge of the huge cavern."* The docks to the east seemed to be the least crowded, making them the easiest for us to sneak into.

       As we stepped into Gracklstugh, Zarrus vanished in a puff of smoke and brimstone. It was as if the land itself repelled his presence and banished him- and it looked really cool.

       We found ourselves in the Darklake District, the only part of Gracklstugh that outsiders were permitted to be in. While the district seems open, with streets wide enough for merchant wagons, the city itself feels unwelcoming. "A wave of heat"* smashed into us as that damned acrid smog attempted to choke the air from our lungs. This is really the kind of city that belongs on the surface, where there's actually airflow, so people won't risk choking to death because they happen to live there. I'd been here once before, and fucking hated it- it still sucks. Hopefully we won't be here too long, this place has always given me the creeps; I have more trouble feeling Eilistraee's light here than anywhere else I've been in the Underdark.

       Peering through the smoky haze that wafts through the City of Blades, we saw two duergar appear and begin stabbing a merchant to death with glowing swords. Of course Orvald had to get involved, and once he approached, one of the assassins told him to stay out of this- which meant the mouse needed to stab him. The assassin died instantly, and before the other one could react, the barbarian had killed that one too- he then quickly dumped the bodies in the lake. The merchant vanished while Orvald was taking out his attackers. Aura had moved up to join the fight, and Orvald reprimanded her for it, then slapped the twit across the face- it was kind of funny.

       After that odd encounter, we decided to head to the Blade Bazaar to try to get some shopping done. One of the first stalls we came up to had a merchant who kept changing the price of items every time we asked how much they were- and insisted that we were the ones changing the terms. Haggling isn't permitted in Gracklstugh, so that made the merchant even weirder.

       Bewildered, we left the Bazaar and went to Ghohlbrorn's Lair, the only inn in the city that allowed outsiders. Orvald asked for the best room they had for himself and Zenit, which I don't think there is any difference in the rooms here, but there's really no arguing with that insane little mouse. Fidget got a room with Topsy and Turvy, and Elle and I bunked with Pwent and Stool; Aura decided to sleep in the stables for some fucking reason. Once we had our rooms squared away, we decided to head to the Shattered Spire for a meal. Elle decided to stay in our room with Stool and Pwent- who was angrier than normal because he was surrounded by duergar. The spider kisser and the twins also stayed at the inn, the bitch probably because of what she is, and who knows why with the twins.

       When we reached the Shattered Spire we learned that no weapons or magic were allowed in the establishment- fighting was fine, just so long as it was done with fists. There was only one table in the tavern that appeared defensible, and a lone duergar sat at it. Orvald approached and asked if we could join him, and the ass said the table was reserved- at which point a couple of guards came to sit at the table. Fidget asked them if they could give us directions to Blingdenstone, and they told us to speak to a woman named Ylsa Henstak, who ran caravans there sometimes.

       A couple of tables over a fight broke out between two duergar, but no one moved to break it up, since they were only using fists; it was probably a good thing we left our seething ball of dwarven rage back at the inn, Pwent would have been all over this fight. Orvald began placing bets on who the winner would be, but the guards broke the fight up before a winner could be declared. Neither of the fighters could recall why they came to blows, and were really confused about what had just happened- they had probably had too much ale.

       Once the fight was over, Orvald challenged the entire bar to an arm wrestling competition, and the duergar who was sitting at the table we wanted took him up on it. That was the most intense arm wrestling match I've ever seen. Both were struggling madly, and every time one would start to gain advantage, the other would push him away. Eventually Orvald won, no surprise there, but that was an interesting match to watch.

       After the wrestling match we were allowed to sit at that table with the dwarf, and Fidget ordered a bottle of the best for us- that shit was strong, I passed out quickly. The duergar also passed out from the liquor, and Fidget was so drunk he was wobbling. Somehow Aura was completely fine, as was Orvald- though the mousefolk did start talking to the unconscious duergar as if he were awake. Eventually they gathered an unconscious Lythana and helped the stumbling svirfneblin back to the inn for the night. 

***** Kythorn 8

       The next morning I was awoken with a pounding headache to the sound of Elle coughing- that damned smog had gotten to her. Zenit was also affected by Grackle-Lung, the illness that anyone who spends too much time in the city can get. We all gathered in the dining hall for a quick breakfast, and decided to head to the Blade Bazaar to look for Ylsa.

       Upon our arrival in the Bazaar, we saw two guards mercilessly beating a merchant, shouting accusations of heresy. They took something off the merchant and tossed it aside; Topsy found it, it was a gold pin. Adornments for the sake of adornments are not permitted in duergar society, but that was a major overreaction to a small pin if you ask me. Orvald decided to raid the poor merchant's stall since he was unconscious- big fucking mistake. One of the guards spotted him and beckoned him closer. The jackass threatened to send us all to the slave area, and told the mouse he had to buy our freedom- he wanted Orvald's dagger. Of course the barbarian said no, and somehow managed to persuade the douche to accept a crossbow instead- but we had to take it to a middle man, he couldn't just give it to the guard for some fucking reason.

       We finally found Ylsa, and after asking about a caravan heading to Blingdenstone or the Neverlight Grove, she invited us into her well-guarded office. On her desk sat a pile of coins and jewelry from the surface, which Ylsa said were coming from the derro as payments for food. She said that while she didn't have any caravans leaving for a while, if we found out how the derro were getting these surface items, she'd give us directions to Blingdenstone. Since it was the only lead we had for the moment, we agreed to help her; then Fidget arranged storage for his stupid apparatus thingy.

       After we left Ylsa's office, we spotted a small figure that was darting between stalls; he was dressed in rags that were styled to resemble a fancy coat, with a hat that had two displacer beast tentacles sewn to it. He had a large satchel with him, and was muttering to himself. Topsy split off from the rest of us to follow him, but she quickly lost him in the crowd. We spotted him again shortly after that, and followed him west, where we lost him again, and this time his trail was cold. Orvald was bored after that, so he decided to head back to the tavern.

       Fidget decided to ask around the market for information on that derro, but none would tell him anything- not even other svirfneblin. The merchants had passed around a drawing of the inventor, saying he consorted with drow, making him a persona non gratis among his kind. 

       Orvald stopped and payed some guards for information on the derro. The mousefolk discovered that the derro was from the West Cleft District, which was the home of all derro, dating back to when they were still the duergar's slaves. The party could not enter West Cleft to pursue the derro, since outsiders weren't allowed outside of the Darklake District. The guard suggested Orvald ask around the docks for more information. He looked around the docks for Hemeth, but his ship was nowhere to be seen- he didn't know that Hemeth's ship folded up into a box, so he assumed Hemeth had left. 

       We began to notice guards in the Bazaar talking to some of the merchants Fidget had approached; apparently we had drawn attention to ourselves, which wasn't good. We decided we needed to lay low for the rest of the night and headed back to Ghohlbrorn's Lair to rest.

***** Kythorn 9

       The next morning I awoke to Pwent hacking up a lung, which Elle fixed straight away. As soon as we walked met up with the others, we saw Orvald was coughing too, and Elle had to fix him; the mouse is no good to us if he's too ill to fight. Over breakfast in Ghohlbrorn's Lair, the serving girl told us about the Council of Savants, a group of derro who acted as a government for their people; enjoying luxuries that came with their titles while the rest of the derro lived in squalor. There were thirty-six members of that council, and a the entrance of a new member usually followed the demise of another. They had their filthy little fingers in control of members of several duergar clans through their use of magic, and seemed hungry to gain more power and control. She also told us that the derro inhabited both the East and West Cleft Districts, which was kind of surprising to me- you wouldn't think the duergar would let the derro be so spread out.

       After breakfast we headed to the Eastern Docks to look for more information. On our way we heard a fearsome roar that shook the entire cavern. A flame streaked across the ceiling, and a red dragon followed it; the dragon was just flying around as if this was perfectly normal. Of course our damned mouse wanted to go slay the beast- but no one around us seemed to be concerned or even care about the dragon's presence. We asked some passersby and were told that was Themberchaud the Wyrmsmith, the dragon who kept their forges burning. This was definitely a dragon we didn't want to mess with- the entire city would come down on us if we actually managed to slay him. Orvald still wanted to go after him, and shouted "dragon" at the guards- who completely ignored him.

       When we finally got Orvald to leave the damned dragon alone, Fidget went to look for Glabbagool to check in. He told the cube that there were other oozes who acted as street cleaners, who came out once a tenday, on Seconday, so it would be safe for him to come out and be social then. The svirfneblin then went to look for secret entrances into the other districts. Some guards took notice and were confused as to why he was looking, since the rules about outsiders leaving Darklake were clear. 

       Since we were laying low, we decided to spend the day fishing on the pier- that seemed like a safe thing to do. Aura wandered off while the party fished, and found a large pipe in the water- which she didn't tell anyone about. The pipe the genasi found was actually an entrance into the Gray Ghost's secret cavern system that was underneath the city. We heard a commotion coming from behind us, and turned to see Topsy rolling an empty copper keg toward us. Shortly after that a group of guards started walking toward us. They accused us of causing disturbances, specifically inciting a riot toward them, interfering with an investigation, there were complaints of harassment, and two missing people. They said they were taking us to the Overlake Hold and bringing us before Captain Errde Blackskull, the captain of the Stone Guard, to discuss the charges. Fuck. That didn't bode well for us- and I don't think we had anything to do with any of that shit.

       We agreed to go peacefully, since we didn't really have any other choice in the matter if we wanted to save our necks. Good thing we left Pwent in the inn, this would have gotten ugly fast if he'd been with us. Our darling airhead attempted to stay behind, but they wouldn't let her- I don't know why she thought she could avoid arrest. As they put us in a formation, two guards with lances flanked us, another duergar named Gartokkar intervened, saying we were to go to Themberchaud first. Great, now the fucking dragon wanted to see us. We're so dead.

       Up ahead a group of six drow and some quaggoths were approaching, and I noticed some derro that seemed to be following our group. The drow told Gartokkar that we were escaped slaves from their prison camp, and that we had to go with them; they began arguing over who could take us, them for an audience with Themberchaud, or the drow to recover their slaves. Great. This just kept getting worse. We're totally fucked. Apparently the Wyrmsmith took priority over the guard, and certainly over the drow. We were instructed to report to the Overlake Hold as soon as we were done with whatever Themberchaud wanted; the drow bitch was not pleased.

       Before going to meet the dragon, we had to go back to the inn to gather the rest of our merry little group- apparently he wanted all of us to come, even Stool. I wasn't keen on the idea of letting Pwent out of our room, but we didn't have much choice. The Keepers of the Flame paid for our rooms for another two nights, but there was a contingency- shocking. It had to be better than the drow though; I could tell none of them would choose the Light.

       We were greeted at Themberchaud's Cavern by Gartokkar, the leader of the Keepers of the Flame. Gartokkar led us into a large building that was carved from the stone, when "the ground tremble[d] slightly, and a thunderous voice echoe[d] against every wall. 'Gartokkar,' the voice call[ed] as the reptilian behemoth [came] into view, its scales the color of lava, its bright yellow eyes glowing in the shadows of the cave before coming into the light. 'You didn't say I was having surfacers for dinner tonight.' The dragon chuckle[d] at his own wit."* I certainly hoped he was joking. "His massive body gave the distinct impressions that he was overweight, indicating eating habits that didn't bode well.

       'Foreigners,' the duergar priest said with great reverence, 'meet the Father of Flame, the Everburning, and the Foundry's Heart- Themberchaud, the Wyrmsmith of Gracklstugh.'"* The dragon was lazing on a massive pile of gold, and after our introduction, he shooed everyone from the room to speak to us alone. I really hoped he was joking about eating us. Once alone he demanded to know why we were in his city, and Orvald began giving him a long, drawn out story. That mouse should have been a bard. Themberchaud wasn't patient enough to listen to the barbarian's tale, and interrupted him to tell him he had an offer for us.

       The Wyrmsmith told us that he has been aware that the Keepers have been withholding information from him for a long time, but he decided to wait and observe them instead of demanding to know what they were hiding. He explained that the Keepers seemed to think they were the ones calling the shots, but he was clearly supposed to be the one in charge. It has been hard for him to try to talk to people to find out what the fuck is happening in the city, so he has taken the Keepers' interest in us as an opportunity to get agents of his own in the city.

       Orvald told him that the majority of us were his slaves, which we had been trying to ignore, and the damned dragon bought our "contracts" from the mouse. I'm not sure which is worse really. Once our contracts were purchased, Themberchaud told us that our first mission was to do whatever the Keepers asked of us, but to report to him before them. He assigned Gartokkar to be our liaison, and ordered badges for us, which would allow us to access other parts of the city.

       It was no surprise when we exited the chamber that Gartokkar demanded to know what the dragon had wanted of us. We said he wanted to know why we were in Gracklstugh, and that we should do whatever the Keepers required. I'm not sure if he believed all of it, but I don't fucking care. Honestly, I just want to go home. I miss the sun, and Eilistraee's Light. Gartokkar told us he sensed a disturbance in the Underdark, like a hole was being torn through the world. He said the Gray Ghosts were a group of outcasts causing trouble and we needed to stop it. He believed that they were the ones responsible for this tear, and that we needed to confirm their involvement and bring him whatever powerful magic they were using.

       The derro we had tried to follow yesterday was an agent of the Gray Ghosts named Droki. Gartokkar knew that Droki carried messages and supplies for the Ghosts, and used the West Cleft to contact them. We were told to locate this derro and follow him to the Gray Ghosts. Once we agreed, we were each given a holy symbol of Laduguer and a gold pin with Themberchaud's profile. Gartokkar told us that these would allow us to leave Darklake, and while our movements would still be somewhat limited, we should be able to get around the city fairly well with them. Before we left, Aura asked permission to electrocute people, apparently the twit thought if she got permission from him, we couldn't be pissed if she accidentally zotted us.

***** Kythorn 10

       The next morning Grackle-Lung had once again grasped Orvald, but this time he refused Elle's healing. There was a letter waiting for us in the inn when we got up and moving that contained a writ to get us basic equipment that would be billed to the Keepers. I could finally get new scimitars! It had been way too long since I'd lost my last pair. The little shortsword and dagger I had were sad replacements, and my belt felt uncomfortably light. Needless to say, we spent the bulk of the day in the Blade Bazaar, instead of coming up with a plan to catch Droki.

       When we finally finished our shopping, we decided we would just stake out the West Cleft gates for Droki, since we knew he'd pass through there. At the gates were two empty guard houses, so we split up and prepared to ambush the derro as he passed through the gates.

       After about three boring hours of waiting, the twins went to the market to attempt to flush Droki out. About an hour later, we saw an odd dashing movements from below- it was Droki. Fidget shot a net bomb at him and missed horribly, spooking Droki and making him bolt. Other derro saw the shot and shouted, rushing the towers we were in. As I charged down the stairs, I saw one stab poor Fidget, so I cleaved him in half- the derro, not Fidget.

       Orvald leapt out of the window of the tower, landing on ones head and cleaving him in half, the deranged mouse proceeded to lick the blood off the dagger. Another derro dove behind a pile of rocks for cover.

       I hacked two more down on my way out. Aura levitated out of the window, and hit one with a frost bolt, killing it instantly.

       It seemed the chase was on, though I was so fucking slow thanks to that stupid troll, that I didn't think I'd be able to catch up. I dashed past a couple of giant rats, not bothering to slow and kill them. A blind beggar stepped in Orvald's way, the barbarian flicked a coin into the derro's cup and kept moving. A crowd appeared in front of me, so I shouted "move or die" at them- I was a little testy today- alright fine, I'm always a little testy. They moved... I was hoping to cut some of them down. Just ahead of me I saw Pwent running into a brawl- his battle cry roared and he began mashing them into jam. When I caught up I yelled at Pwent to dodge, and dropped a flask of oil and a lit match at my feet. I blew up all 18 of the fuckers.

       The rest of the party was much farther ahead of Lythana and Pwent, pursuing Droki. The beggar appeared in different places a few more times, as if traveling by magic. Aura hit him with frost a couple of times from a distance to slow him, and she eventually lost sight of him. The genasi decided to land to survey the landscape, and slipped on the derro's frozen corpse.

       Pwent and I ran into another brawl and had some fun smashing the fuckers. By the time we caught up to the group, a ring of derro was forming around them and the popsicle formerly known as Droki. Great, the twit killed our lead. Fidget showed the derro his badge, thinking it would make them back off- they moved closer. Orvald scared the assholes away before Pwent and I could kill anymore of them, much to our disappointment.

       We nabbed the beggar who kept getting in our way, and convinced him to take us to the Gray Ghosts. He called himself Ol' Sparky. Sparky led us to a small fissure that was just big enough for someone my size to slip through, with wisps of an eerie fog seeping out of it. We needed to go rest before we went into whatever was waiting on the other side of the fissure. Sparky said he'd wait at the entrance for us if we paid him, and if he got to screw Aura. The twit told him she might, if he bathed first. Eew. I knew she was lacking in wits, but I didn't think she was that stupid. We agreed to pay him, and began heading back to the inn for the night. On the way we grabbed Droki's body and delivered it to the Keepers of the Flame.


***** Quests in Gracklstugh:

Find out how the derro are getting surface coin and jewelry for Ylsa in exchange for directions to Blingdenstone.
Meet with Errde as soon as business with the Keepers of the Flame is concluded.
Comply with whatever the Keepers of the Flame ask, but report everything to Themberchaud first.
Follow Droki to the Gray Ghosts, confirm their involvement in the disturbance, and bring their magic to Gartokkar.

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

*Author's note: Many of the events, locations and characters that occur in this story are from the Out of the Abyss Adventure Module by Wizards of the Coast. Anything with an asterisk next to it is a quote from the book.

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

Dark Lake Part 4:

The Search for Lythana

Dramatis Personae:

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

Topsy and Turvy, the Deep Gnome Wererat Rogue Twins

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

Thimblepwent Battlehammer, the Dwarven Battlerager Barbarian

Stool, the Myconid Child

Shuushar, the "Awakened" Kuo-toa 

Glabbagool, the Gelatinous Cube

Hemeth, the Duergar Arms Dealer

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

Phillip Johnson, the Human Cleric- in a seemingly irreversible coma

Jim Jar, the Deep Gnome- eaten by grell

Lythana Belmyr, the Half-Drow Blood Hunter of Eilistraee- captured by sea troll, possibly drowned

Prince Derendil, the Quaggoth who thinks he's an elven prince under a polymorph curse, and that he's the best at everything- killed by sea troll

Friendly fire overall: 29
Friendly fire dealt by Aura: 13
Party members killed: 7
Overall party members lost: 10

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

***** Mirtul 28, 1489 DR (The Year of the Warrior Princess)

       The party spent some time trying to figure out where Lythana had vanished to, with Glabbagool telling them she had been taken by the troll. They asked which way it had taken her, but the cube was not good with directions, though he tried to give them a general way to go. As they debated, rocks began falling from the cavern above, so they high tailed it out of there, going the direction the cube had indicated. 

       After some time sailing, Orvald thought he heard Lythana calling out for help among some stalagmites, so he called for the ship to stop, and disembarked to investigate. The mousefolk found an elven female chained up in a cave- she said it was a troll's cave. She introduced herself as Iris, and told Orvald there was a strength potion inside a desk in the cavern; if he drank it, she claimed he'd be able to free her and help Lythana. At first, the barbarian refused to drink it, arguing with her about why he needed to, but then she claimed to hear the troll coming, so Orvald gave in and downed the vial. Iris became more beautiful to him than Zenit- it had been a philter of love. 

       He unchained Iris, and took her back to the ship- she glamoured herself to look like Lythana. The mousefolk tried to convince her to look like herself, since that was the form he was enamored with, but Iris insisted the group wouldn't accept her if she looked like herself. She made herself look like she had been badly beaten and as if her throat had been previously slit, and not healed enough to remove the line.

       What Iris didn't know, was that Orvald had a sentient dagger that could see through not only her glamour as Lythana, but also the glamour Orvald thought was beautiful. The blade showed Orvald what was really under "Lythana's" face, and instructed the barbarian to act normally. 

       Once on board, Iris told the group they needed to go after the trolls, and drew a map to their supposed den. Hemeth didn't want to go to the den, so Orvald bribed him- that duergar is extremely greedy. 

       Iris also didn't realize that Elle was Lythana's Pack Sister, so she was surprised when Elle announced that the woman in front of them was not who they thought; Elle could smell the difference, and most glamour illusions don't change the person's scent. Iris attempted to strike Elle after this announcement and failed miserably. Orvald, still pretending this was "Lythana," contradicted Elle trying to feed the lythari the lie that Lythana didn't smell right because of being in the smelly troll den. The priestess tried to freeze the impostor in place, but she shrugged the spell off. At about this point, Elle realized Orvald knew this wasn't her Sister, and decided to walk into the trap the others were sailing toward, fully prepared for a fight. 

       When they got to the den, Elle smelled two more beings inside, who smelled identical to Iris; they were hags. They entered the cave through a narrow tunnel, and instantly got hit with a lightning bolt- the party had lined up perfectly for the shot- Elle fell unconscious.

       Zenit shot Iris with her hand crossbow, as Iris cast a spell to hold the drow in place; she ordered Orvald to "take care" of Zenit, which according to Orvald means to fuck her. He gladly began following his orders, and was hit with another lightning bolt from a different hag, just as he started. The mousefolk began hitting that hag because she was getting in the way of his orders to "take care" of Zenit; apparently the barbarian doesn't take kindly to being interrupted. The rest of the party was grateful for the interruption, since none of them wanted to see those two screw- EVER.

       Aura sent a lightning bolt of her own at the hags, and promptly fell unconscious afterwards- Fidget quickly woke the genasi back up, while Zarrus revived Elle. Upon waking, the poor sorceress was hit with a spell that made her run away in terror. One hag vanished, while another turned Zenit into a mouse, which probably made her sexier to Orvald... Iris attempted to run away, but the lythari was faster, and stopped the hag.

       Aura overcame her terror and returned to throw an ice knife at a hag and Iris- hitting Pwent and Orvald in the process... The damage Pwent took from Aura weakened him enough to allow the hag to knock him out- Orvald finished that one off. With that hag dead, Zenit was turned back into herself. Suddenly, the invisible hag reappeared and grabbed Iris, making her vanish too. 

       Orvald took off for the exit, he had to find Iris- Zenit shot him in hopes of knocking him out with her poison, but the mousefolk shrugged it off. Aura moved to tackle Orvald, and instead tripped and fell over- he stabbed the genasi as he ran by. Zarrus cast a spell to hold the barbarian in place, but that also failed and the tiefling was also stabbed for his efforts. Zenit latched on to Orvald just as he set himself on fire to force the group to stay back; but his drow wouldn't let go. Zenit spilled a potion on Orvald, and the mouse began smoking purple- just then the drow fell unconscious- Orvald took the opportunity to flee.

       Alone, the mousefolk found the hags actual lair, and proceeded to raid it. The potion finally wore off while he was pillaging, so once he was satisfied that he had taken it all, he returned to the ship.

       Zenit began trying to convince the group to just move on and stop looking for Lythana- since she despises the half-drow, she wanted to take the opportunity to rid the group of her. Aura sort of agreed with the drow, thinking that if Lythana was still alive she would head toward Gracklstugh, so they should just continue on their way- even though Lythana wouldn't really have the means to get to the City of Blades on her own. The ship turned around and made its way back to about where it was when Lythana vanished. 

       On the way, Orvald held an odd mask he found in the hag's lair out to Aura, attempting to compel her to duel him; he failed miserably. She damages the party enough unintentionally, it could have been interesting to see how she did intentionally. 

***** Mirtul 29

       The next day, the ship reached a lock system that was in place to traverse a waterfall, which was manned by armed duergar. Hemeth bribed the guards to get clearance to pass through; while it was granted, they were currently doing repairs, so it wouldn't be usable for a couple more days- yesterday's earthquake damaged it. The party was ordered not to leave the ship- if they did, they'd be shot. 

***** Kythorn 1

     Repairs were completed on the system, and the ship was cleared to go. While they were between two levels, Orvald spotted a figure floating in the water, appearing dead. When he inspected it closer, the mousefolk realized that the form was Lythana. He swam out and hauled the hunter back to the ship- she looked like she has drowned. On whim, Aura gave Lythana CPR, and it worked! 

       I came to sputtering, water forcing itself out of my lungs, with Aura towering above me. Somehow I had made it back to the ship! Elle was beside herself when she saw me, whining excitedly- in elf form- and pawing all over me. She had spent three days thinking I was gone. I recanted what had happened to me, and Elle was astonished when she saw my body healing itself. I knew I'd make it back to my Sister.

***** Kythorn 5

       That evening after everyone had finished rowing for the day, rocks began falling and the ship started getting banged up by them- it felt like another damned earthquake, until balls of darkness descended on us. I felt something hit me as everything went black, and I couldn't move- something had me stuck.

       It was darkmantles that had flown onto the ship, they were causing the darkness. Orvald hit the one attacking Zenit hard enough to knock it out, ending the globe of darkness that was on her- but in the process of getting Zenit out of the beast's grasp, it woke again- but was smart enough to fly off before the barbarian killed it. 

       Elle used a daylight spell to cancel the darkness surrounding her, then, after surveying where the other globes were, she cast one in the darkness she thought Lythana was in. If being stuck in darkness with something attacking me wasn't bad enough, suddenly my head was engulfed in a bright, white light. Elle had accidentally dropped the daylight on her Pack Sister's head. Blindly I struck out with my scimitars, hoping to connect with the thing attacking me, and not hitting Fidget in the process. Whatever I hit made a gurgling noise after, so I'm pretty sure my aim was true. The half-drow had killed the darkmantle on her. 

       I suddenly felt something else grab me, and then I was falling... I landed with a painful smack into the waters below. Zenit pushed Lythana overboard to get rid of the daylight spell. I couldn't see, and I hadn't had time to take a breath before hitting the icy waters of Dark Lake- I frantically tried to swim up, but I didn't know if I was actually going up; I could have just as easily been swimming further down. Then I felt a tug from something around my waist- I was being pulled by something. Orvald was pulling the hunter to the surface of the Lake so she wouldn't drown. I felt the waters part over my head, and took a satisfying breath. We managed to get that infernal sun off my head, but I still couldn't see- that didn't last long though, I felt Elle's hand on my arm, and my sight was restored.

***** Kythorn 6

       Hemeth was pushing us really hard today, insisting that we were really close to Gracklstugh; I hoped we'd get there today, I'm getting really fed up with this fucking lake. As we were rowing, we felt the ship collide with something- debris, I think. Sturges flew off the debris right for us, and Fidget tossed a bomb... which instead of sailing through the air, landed at his feet- the svirfneblin blew himself up. He wasn't dead, but that had to have hurt. We all charged the sturges and made very quick work of the little beasts.

       Orvald and Elle worked on clearing the debris, and soon discovered that the debris was covering a metal keel boat, but before we could do much more than announce our discovery, the little boat flipped over, sending Orvald and Elle into the water. The fucking trolls were back- they'd better not kidnap me again. Elle managed to break away from the trolls and began climbing the rope back to the ship, all the while yelling "trolls!" She seemed unharmed for the most part, but Orvald wasn't so lucky; he was badly injured, but still managed to climb the rope back to the ship. I sliced my palm and prepared my blood rite, placing acid on one of my scimitars- I was ready for the fuckers. We watched, waiting for them to surface.

       We still had that fucking boat to move before we could get away from the damned trolls; we scrambled to get it done before they could act.

       Down below, the rowers heard scratching on the bottom of the boat, as if the troll was trying to cut an entrance down there, sinking the ship. Instead, the troll burst through the wall in the hold, grabbed Shuushar and swallowed him in one bite. As the troll reached for Aura, planning to cleanse his pallet with a genasi, the twins yelled for backup.

       Just as we got that damned keel boat on board, we heard Topsy and Turvy yell that there was a troll in the hold- fuck. That explains why the ass monkeys hadn't surfaced to attack yet. Their ringleader had to be the one who experimented on me, which meant he was smart- the douche could strategize.

       As we moved to go fight the ass in the hold, Aura came running up looking super fucked up, with Stool in her arms. She deposited him in what she hoped was a safer spot than the hold, and went straight back down. While she is an idiot, she's got some stones. If she had the brains to go with them, she'd be formidable.

       Orvald charged at the fuckers, and both of the trolls somehow squeezed out of the portholes and fucking escaped. What. The. Fuck. This has turned into a monstrous fuckpuddle. I heard the douchebags climbing the side of the ship, and went back up.

       As soon as one of the trolls reached the deck, he promptly stuffed Fidget in his mouth. Then he and the other one surrounded Zarrus and knocked him unconscious- they remembered he had fire spells from their last attack. 

       I saw Zarrus go down, and Fidget sticking out of one of the trolls mouths, and charged them. Orvald and I wailed on the fuckers, and apparently hurt them badly enough to make them jump overboard. The mouse jumped in after them- shocker- I didn't have that circlet anymore, and even if I did, I kind of hate water now... if I never swim again, it'll be too soon.

       The mousefolk caught up to one troll and killed in instantly- explains why it had escaped. In the center of its forehead was the same Y-shaped spiral scar that was now covering every part of Lythana's body. He then caught up to the larger one, who had two heads and seemed to be the one calling the shots. It spat blood in Orvald's eyes and swam back to the ship. 

       While we stood waiting for Orvald to surface I saw Zenit get grabbed and yanked off the ship- the troll was back and wanted the spider kisser's blood. Zenit managed to wriggle out of the troll's hands, but it grabbed her ankle when she attempted to swim back to the surface. Aura jumped in after the bitch, since apparently she doesn't have to breathe- which explains a lot really, her brain must be oxygen starved, no wonder she's a dumbass. The sorceress instantly unleashed a spell that not only hurt the troll, but herself and the drow as well. 

       Orvald managed to catch up to the troll and hacked its heads off- that one would not be bothering the group again. Once again, Zenit was saved by her mouse just in time, had he been any later, she would have been dead. 

       Later that night, after we had recovered from the attack and repaired the ship, Hemeth demanded that Elle hand over a magic bow she had found; of course she told him no, and he gave her a look that said she had made a mistake. He'd better not try anything with her.

***** Kythorn 7

       The next morning Hemeth emerged from his cabin in beautiful full plate armor that was covered in dwarven runes. I think he thought we would try to rob him or something, which was tempting, but the Dark Maiden would never approve of such an act.

       Apparently everyone was going to act weird today- Aura randomly decided she needed to pet Orvald- his dagger insisted he stab Aura for that, an idea it was given by Zarrus. Of course the mouse stabbed the little idiot for that. Like I said, the dumbshit has some stones, but without brains she's going to get herself killed.

       Hemeth continued to push us hard to get to Gracklstugh, saying we should be there by the end of the day- he was right. Before we could disembark, the asshole jacked up the price of our fair, by far more than any of us could afford. The mouse paid for us, but claimed we were now his slaves- something the spider kisser enjoyed- I'll have to rectify that soon.

       We left Hemeth's boat a much smaller group than we began with, and we left Phil in Hemeth's care, since we can't very well carry the poor unconscious human around until he wakes up or dies. I fear Hemeth will just kill him now that we're gone, but since we can't pull him out of the coma, that may be a kindness.

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.

Tales from Toril- The Underdark Escapees: Book One, Chapter 5.5

Lythana and the Sea Troll

Dramatis Personae:

Lythana Belmyr, the Half-Drow Blood Hunter of Eilistraee

*****

       I came to, feeling groggy and blurry eyed, with my head pounding and a sick, wet feeling down my hair; I was chained securely to a rough stone wall. I was vaguely aware that most of my clothing had been torn away, and my nerves were on fire with the sensation of hundreds, if not thousands, of tiny cuts covering my flesh- like I had lost a war with a book and was coated in paper cuts. I sensed movement in that was just beyond my field of vision, and a I heard a deep, guttural laugh before the world went black again.

       The next thing I remember is the strong, acrid scent of acids, fluids, and bases burning my nostrils. The chamber I was in was thick with clouds of multicolored smoke. My eyes watered and stung as the crust gluing them shut was broken open. As my senses seemed to clear, a large figure stepped up to me and roughly grabbed my face, forcing some vile concoction down my throat. It felt like it was stripping the flesh away from my tongue, throat, and stomach as it went down. The pain radiated out from my core, first to my lungs and chest, then into my extremities. I began to shudder and convulse before tumbling back into darkness. 

       I have no clue how much time passed before I next came to. When I did, I felt queasy, but otherwise better than I have felt in years. My flesh was tight with hundreds, if not thousands, of small spots, that as my vision focused on them, I realized were small spiraling "Y" shaped scars- my entire body was covered in them. I could worry about the scars later, I needed to figure out where the hell I was, get out of the chains binding me to this wall, and get back to Elle.

       In one corner of the chamber was a broken alchemy lab strewn across the floor- likely the cause of the smoke- and the bleeding corpse of a large troll that was nearly bisected through the skull, and halfway through his chest and torso. Under the body was a large two-headed battleaxe that was rusted and pitted, but somehow looked freshly sharpened. I began working to wriggle out of these damned chains. White-hot pain lanced through my shoulder as it dislocated, and the flesh from that hand got stripped away- but I was free. The hand was mangled and broken, but that was the least of my worries; Elle could fix it once I found her. 

       I inspected the alchemy set and found absolutely nothing of use- the set was completely destroyed. With my broken hand, I couldn't even heft the battleaxe. The troll began twitching, so I left through a hole in the ground. It ended up dropping me into a tunnel of water, I was somewhere in the depths of Dark Lake, probably with those damned trolls who kept attacking our ship. 

       After swimming for a ways I came into another dry chamber- a bed chamber- with two snoring trolls. I crept past them and opened a chest, finding a short sword and a dagger. I felt a little better now that I was armed again. I exited that chamber through another hole in the ground, and found myself in a tunnel that had tons of crates in it. I decided to poke around in those in hopes of finding something useful; I found some leather armor that looked disgusting, but when you're desperate and naked, any armor is better than none; when I next emerged for air I discovered that the armor smelled even worse than it looked.

       Behind the crates I found a secret passage to another bedchamber, but this one was much fancier. I guess it was the head troll's room, though I didn't think until now that trolls actually had a societal structure. I found some weird looking potions in that room, that I figured might be worth keeping. I hadn't found that damn circlet yet, I hoped it would pop up soon. The next room I swam into looked like a dining area, with nothing of use in it. 

       The next tunnel I swam down brought me to a cavern of glowing purple and blue crystals. Lythana didn't know what faerzress crystals were, since she didn't grow up in the Underdark in drow society. I walked through it for a minute, with my skin tingling more and more as I did. There seemed to be another voice in my head, telling me to just lie down and take a nap. When it seemed I was getting nowhere fast, I turned around. 

       I came upon an alcove next, but that was a dead end, so I circled back to the dining area I had last passed through. I took a different branch of the tunnel I'd used to get there originally, and found myself swimming into a large, open cavern. Before I could enjoy that I had possibly just escaped, a current caught me and slammed me into a rock, knocking all the breath from my lungs. Lythana fell unconscious and was swept away by the current. 

Photo from deviantart.com

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

Dark Lake Part 3:
The Assault of the Sea Trolls

Dramatis Personae:

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

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

Prince Derendil, the Quaggoth who thinks he's an elven prince under a polymorph curse, and that he's the best at everything

Thimblepwent Battlehammer, the Dwarven Battlerager Barbarian

Stool, the Myconid Child

Shuushar, the "Awakened" Kuo-toa 

Glabbagool, the Gelatinous Cube

Hemeth, the Duergar Arms Dealer

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

Phillip Johnson, the Human Cleric- lost in boating accident

Topsy and Turvy, the Deep Gnome Wererat Rogue Twins- lost in boating accident

Jim Jar, the Deep Gnome- eaten by grell

Friendly fire overall: 22
Friendly fire dealt by Aura: 8
Party members killed: 6
Overall party members lost: 10

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 19, 1489 DR (The Year of the Warrior Princess)

       This morning Orvald decided it to use poor Jim Jar's entrails as fishing bait. It was a good idea, but still a little unsettling to see someone I've fought alongside be reduced to bait; I'm kind of surprised he was able to get them from Glabbagool, I figured the blob would have devoured them by now. The mousefolk was on to something though, he ended up catching a huge cavefish for us, which should make a decent dinner. Fidget decided to use the fish's guts to make faerie fire bombs, hope he uses those before they start to stink, otherwise, I really hope he doesn't chuck them at whoever I'm locked in melee with- I really don't want to get hit with that nastiness.

       Hemeth had marked on our map the location of a potential mushroom grove, so we decided it would be a good idea to hit that and get some more provisions; our food stores were getting dangerously low, and we had a lot of mouths to feed. It felt like it took forever for us to find the stupid island grove, and we decided to spread out so we could cover more ground to harvest.

       As Elle walked past a group of mushrooms, an ear-piercing shriek rang out, and tendrils lashed out of the shrooms, hitting my Pack Sister. The shrieking mushrooms were working in conjunction with the violet mushrooms. Fidget decided this was the opportune moment to test his stupid fish bomb- the godsbedamned svirfneblin missed the fucking mushrooms and hit me with his bomb. That was one of the most disgusting experiences of my life, and not having a warm bath to scrub it away in just made it worse. The moment that stupid bomb hit me a group of fifteen sturges swarmed Fidget, myself, and Aura.

       Fidget activated a different bomb on himself- of course the jackass didn't activate one of his bombs of disgusting fish guts on himself, to kill the sturge that had attached to him, while I neatly sliced up the two that were on me. Orvald and Pwent ran to assist with the violet mushrooms, and the pair of barbarians quickly pulverized the fungi. Another stupid sturge attached itself to me, and I felt myself slipping into unconsciousness. Once the barbarians were finished making mushroom soup they turned to move toward the onslaught of sturges, but the shriekers had yet to be silenced. Zenit attacked those, but not before their call had maddened Pwent; he kept attacking the same one over and over, even once there was nothing left- the dwarf could still hear their cries, even once they had been silenced. When I came to, the battle was over, the sturges were gone, and the only sound was Pwent sputtering and rhythmically smashing the stone over and over.

       For some reason, Fidget decided to use Pwent's rage to get a Zurkhwood mushroom chopped down. The suicidal svirfneblin antagonized the dwarf into chasing him around the base of the fungi until it finally went down- right on top of Pwent. Of course the damn thing was really close to the edge of a rise- and both the tree and the dwarf tumbled over the edge. It was hilarious.

       We utilized the wood to make a smoker house, and spent the night there smoking the fish we'd caught, and the mushrooms we'd harvested. This should make our provisions stretch for a while.

***** Mirtul 20

       We decided it would be in our best interest to continue harvesting mushrooms and fishing, the more food we could gather, the better our journey to Gracklstugh would go. Orvald hooked something huge on his line, and began fighting to reel it in. It immediately bit Orvald, a quick snap and release with its massive fangs...

       I heard Orvald exclaim that he was under attack, so of course we all rushed to his aid. I had never seen a demon like the one before me, the beast that looked like a rabid bear, with large pointy fangs, and in place of its arms, it had small sharks- it was a demonic sharkenbear. The thing grabbed Orvald and the spider kisser with one of its shark arms, and suddenly the area was shrouded in darkness. The sharkenbear dove back into the lake, taking the mousefolk and the drow with it. 

       Orvald was able to get out of the beast's grasp, but Zenit was not so lucky; the drow couldn't escape its shark-hand jaws, and she began to drown. The mighty mousefolk saw his lady love drowning, and hurriedly put the Circlet of Water Breathing on Zenit to get her breathing again. It didn't matter though, those jaws clamped down on the drow and she began bleeding to death. Orvald quickly slew the sharkenbear, and swam to Zenit in time to stabilize her and prevent her death.

       After what felt like forever, Orvald resurfaced with Zenit- still alive, unfortunately- and the carcass of the shark-bear-demon-thingy. We resumed smoking mushrooms and fish.

       A few hours later Hemeth and the twins found us, but there was no sign of Phil. We asked him where the human was, and Hemeth claimed the Phil had been in a coma since the boating accident, and they hadn't been able to snap him out of it; Elle tried to no avail to revive Phil.

       We were offered passage by Hemeth to Gracklstugh on his beautiful boat, but we would have to pay- and work- during the trip. The boat Hemeth was using was the foldable one he had conned Zarrus out of. He tried to buy that apparatus thing that Orvald found, but Fidget insisted we needed to keep it so he could fix it up. Supposedly it'll be useful if the svirfneblin can get it running. After some haggling, we agreed on a gold price for passage, and were shortly underway.

       Once we got settled on the boat, Aura asked Hemeth for soap, something the duergar doesn't use. He said he had lard that he used on his beard, and I suggested he give her that- the little idiot doesn't speak Undercommon, so she had no clue what I was suggesting. All I told her when he gave it to her was that it was what he uses in his beard.

***** Mirtul 28

       Eight days into their journey to Gracklstugh, the party had settled into a routine, splitting themselves into shifts to row. Unbeknownst to the party, three sea trolls slipped onto the ship, and one grabbed Orvald and slammed him hard into the side of the ship. Zenit yelled "Trolls!" to get the rowers attention. 

       I heard some thumping up above, and thought something interesting might be happening, then we heard the spider kisser sound the alarm. I jumped up and began heading toward the stairs to help, after so many days of rowing I was starting to want some action.

       The troll that had grabbed Orvald began gnawing on the mousefolk, while another began ripping into Hemeth. The third troll held the doors to the downstairs closed, blocking the reinforcements from coming. Orvald was thrown overboard by the troll who munched on him, but the barbarian had a jump ring that let him soar back on board. He landed on top of the troll that had been chewing him, and began swinging. 

       Aura didn't want to wait for the group to get the doors open, instead the genasi went out one of the oar holes, joining the brutal fight that was happening up above.

       We decided to put our combined strength together to get out to the fight. Something was barring our passage, and Pwent and I really wanted to get in on the fight we heard. We all heaved on the door, and after a couple of attempts we busted the stupid thing down, to find a fucking troll on the other side who immediately began stomping at Elle and I. Zarrus hit it with a fire bolt, drawing its ire, and when it charged at him I was able to kill it.

       I saw Hemeth grow larger, then begin wailing on the troll that was attacking the spider kisser- maybe it would kill the bitch before we killed it. The troll Orvald was kicking grabbed him and dove overboard; the mousefolk escaped the troll's grasp and began swimming back toward the surface- allowing the troll to escape. As we converged on the troll that Hemeth was beating on, Orvald came sailing through the air and landed gracefully on deck. That troll turned toward the mousefolk and began attacking him- our combined efforts killed the damned thing, but Orvald nearly died in the process.

       Three hours after the troll assault, Derendil was secretly pulled overboard and killed by the escapee troll. His body floated straight into Glabbagool, who was quite pleased with his surprise snack. The ooze happily told Orvald about the snack, alerting the mousefolk to trouble.

       Elle suddenly complained her oar was stuck in something and wasn't moving. As she struggled with it, it suddenly snapped back and hit her in the face. It didn't hit her hard enough to actually damage her, and I couldn't contain my amusement at the scene- my Pack Sister glared daggers at me. Then it clobbered her in the back of the head, knocking her unconscious... not funny.

       Above deck the troll grabbed Zarrus' leg and yanked him overboard; the troll was disposing of the mages who could cast fire and acid spells at him. Orvald leapt overboard to go after the tiefling, hooking him with a grapple- when the mousefolk went to cut the rope to tie him off, he accidentally hacked into the tiefling's leg too- knocking him unconscious.

       I tossed a health potion at Aura and told her that if Zarrus didn't come down to heal Elle, that she was to give her the potion- I went upstairs to get the lecherous tiefling. Lythana didn't know that Zarrus had troubles of his own above deck. Within seconds of the half-drow going up the stairs, the impatient genasi poured the potion down Elle's throat to revive her. Elle stood and began to head toward the stairs when another oar smacked her in the face, knocking her unconscious again. 

       Orvald managed to get himself and Zarrus back to the safety of the ship, and attempted to stabilize the sorcerer, only injuring him further. Zenit poured a potion down his throat and revived him, undoing the damage her mouse had done. 

       Aura realized something was in the water and decided to electrocute it, even though she had been told to never to that again. Fortunately, she did it right after Orvald and Zarrus got back on the ship, otherwise she could have killed one or both of them. 

       Pwent and I got above deck just in time to see Zarrus stand up, and immediately get yanked down again, by something... I didn't see what, but Pwent claimed he said a hand and claw- the dwarf leapt at it and hit the spider kisser instead... That was awesome. If only it had killed the bitch. Suddenly Orvald was tanked under the longboat that was on deck, it would seem our adversary was under there. Pwent tried to lift the boat, but it was awkward for the barbarian to do on his own. The spider kisser dropped to the deck and rolled under the boat- and stabbed Orvald instead of the troll. Aura came up, and seeing what was happening, decided to use her ice knife spell- hitting Pwent, Orvald, and the spider kisser, in addition to the troll.

       The longboat flew at us as the troll threw it off of itself, and Orvald grabbed on tight to it. The troll jumped overboard with the mousefolk still attached. I asked the spider kisser for the circlet of water breathing, so that I could go after Orvald- my blood rite allows me to use acid even underwater, making me the best person to try to help the mouse. Of course she was hesitate at first, because according to her, the mouse will always come back. No one noticed Zenit coat a needle in drow sleep poison, and attach it to the circlet. Eventually the bitch gave me her stupid circlet, and I tied a rope around myself and dove in. I saw some murky thing in the water that looked like an ixitxachitl- I really wasn't in a place where I could fight the damned thing. The ixitxachitl was actually Orvald, who had broken away from the troll and was heading back for the ship. He only looked like a manta ray because of his cloak. 

       I was beginning to contemplate going back up, there was no sign of the mouse anywhere, when I felt my eyelids getting heavy. I don't know why I was so tired all of a sudden, but this was not the time to pass out. The sleep poison took hold of Lythana and she was out. Up above, the line she was tied to got snagged and broke, it bean slipping into the water. Fidget attempted to catch it and fell in the water in the process. Orvald reached the surface and helped Fidget get back on board, then went back down to look for Lythana. but there was no sign of her anywhere. The troll had taken Lythana captive. 

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.