The Deep Roads
Dramatis Personae:
Lady Claire Thundersword, the Human Wererat Swordcaptain of the Purple Dragon Knights
Riddle, Claire's baby basilisk
Hans, Claire's Basalt Wolf Figurine
Urthstripe. Claire's Alabaster Badger Figurine
Rosebud Goldenrod Petunia, the Halfling/Shetland Pony "Centaur" Wererat Berserker, "The Destroyer;" who sees magic where there is none and collects things that aren't there
Lily Trillium Petunia, the Green Dragonborn Lore Bard, and Rosebud, Geophry, and Flimflam's "Momma;" champion of the Living Dungeon
Astrid Rockham, the Longstrider Shifter Evocation Wizard
Calipso, Astrid's Lizard Familiar
Kazul, the Copper Platinum Dragonborn Shadow Monk of Bahamut- skull caved in by another rock from Fidget was restored to life by her god
Riddle, Claire's baby basilisk
Hans, Claire's Basalt Wolf Figurine
Urthstripe. Claire's Alabaster Badger Figurine
Rosebud Goldenrod Petunia, the Halfling/Shetland Pony "Centaur" Wererat Berserker, "The Destroyer;" who sees magic where there is none and collects things that aren't there
Lily Trillium Petunia, the Green Dragonborn Lore Bard, and Rosebud, Geophry, and Flimflam's "Momma;" champion of the Living Dungeon
Astrid Rockham, the Longstrider Shifter Evocation Wizard
Calipso, Astrid's Lizard Familiar
Kazul, the
Seluna, the Moon Elf Drow Totem Warrior Circle of the Moon Druid and Silverstar of Selûne
Niles Rubusthorn, the Moon Elf Shadow Dancer
Twyla Alderleaf, the Moon Elf Scout
Geophry Cherry Blossom Petunia, the chair that used to be a boy
Amin of Citadel Adbar, the Shield Dwarf Alchemist
Mithrilye, the Sun Elf Entertainer who will do anything to achieve her goals, and believes that anything that can bring her pleasure should be enjoyed immediately, not saved until later
Lith, the Bronze Dragonborn Scholar
Fitzzle, Lith's violet faerie dragon familiar
Flimflam Pebblehead-Petunia, the Deep Gnome Arcanist who has to collect everything he finds and thinks everyone should be gluttonous
Arwenel, the Elf Scholar
Falkryn Stonekey, the Shield Dwarf Ruin Raider
Schnella Stonesneak, the Deep Gnome Deep Delver
Niles Rubusthorn, the Moon Elf Shadow Dancer
Twyla Alderleaf, the Moon Elf Scout
Geophry Cherry Blossom Petunia, the chair that used to be a boy
Amin of Citadel Adbar, the Shield Dwarf Alchemist
Mithrilye, the Sun Elf Entertainer who will do anything to achieve her goals, and believes that anything that can bring her pleasure should be enjoyed immediately, not saved until later
Lith, the Bronze Dragonborn Scholar
Fitzzle, Lith's violet faerie dragon familiar
Flimflam Pebblehead-Petunia, the Deep Gnome Arcanist who has to collect everything he finds and thinks everyone should be gluttonous
Arwenel, the Elf Scholar
Falkryn Stonekey, the Shield Dwarf Ruin Raider
Schnella Stonesneak, the Deep Gnome Deep Delver
Comrades we have lost:
Ront, the Orc Fighter- turned into hamburger by Pwent
Buppido, the Derro- smashed by Orvald
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
Hemeth, the Duergar Arms Dealer- parted with group in Gracklstugh met group briefly on route to Mantol Derith for trade
Thimblepwent Battlehammer, the Dwarven Battlerager Barbarian- turned into dog food
Orvald Abershaw, the Mousefolk Barbarian-became a squeaky toy last seen in Bahamutsville under Zin-carla
Zenit 'Dracon, the Drow Fighter-abandoned the party because Orvald died last seen in Bahamutsville
Lythana Belmyr, the Half-Drow Blood Hunter of Eilistraee- sacrificed to Demogorgon
Codsworth, the polite Flumph- shredded by crossbow
Zarrus, the Tiefling Favored Soul Sorcerer of Mephisto- vanished during gnoll fight
Ol' Sparky, the Deep Dragon- last seen thrown into a portal to the Abyss by a glabrezu
Aura, the Air Genasi Storm Sorceress- accidental self-vaporization (bitch blew herself up)
Kyri, the Minotaur Scout- vaporized by a jackass
Thimblepwent Battlehammer, the Dwarven Battlerager Barbarian- turned into dog food
Orvald Abershaw, the Mousefolk Barbarian-
Zenit 'Dracon, the Drow Fighter-
Lythana Belmyr, the Half-Drow Blood Hunter of Eilistraee- sacrificed to Demogorgon
Codsworth, the polite Flumph- shredded by crossbow
Zarrus, the Tiefling Favored Soul Sorcerer of Mephisto- vanished during gnoll fight
Ol' Sparky, the Deep Dragon- last seen thrown into a portal to the Abyss by a glabrezu
Aura, the Air Genasi Storm Sorceress- accidental self-vaporization (bitch blew herself up)
Kyri, the Minotaur Scout- vaporized by a jackass
Fidget Stonegear, the Deep Gnome Inventor- big badda boom
Miarielle, the Lythari Priestess of Corellon- bigger badda boom
Glabbagool, the Gelatinous Cube- stayed with the kobolds
Kara Reginleif, the Half-Valkyrie Wererat Champion from the Zhentarim- vorpaled to pieces by demon Easter bunnies
Glabbagool, the Gelatinous Cube- stayed with the kobolds
Kara Reginleif, the Half-Valkyrie Wererat Champion from the Zhentarim- vorpaled to pieces by demon Easter bunnies
Rumpadump, the Myconid Child- frozen by demon Easter bunny was raised by Mezzem and went missing, it is believed that Stool ate him
Sajin Silvertongue, the Deep Gnome Wererat Assassin- got stoned and kissed a pretty Medusa
Yklwa, Tali's Deinonychus animal companion- devoured by corbies
Natali, the Tiger Therinthrope Beastmaster- wished herself home
Roswyn Darkshooter, the Deep Gnome Delver- grick kibble
Mezzem, the Kobold Wererat Priestess of Bahamut who plots the murder of anyone who slights her- stayed in Blingdenstone
Vadania Nailaza, the Wild Elf Oakroot of Rillifane Rallathil- dust in the wind
Thecker Powdercraft, the Deep Gnome Wererat Gunslinger and Inquisitor of Bahamut- retired in Blingdenstone
Stool, the Myconid Child- stayed in Blingdenstone
Galothel Nightbreeze, the Moon Elf Alchemist- MIA after the Battle of Blingdenstone
Topsy and Turvy Goldwhiskers, the Deep Gnome Wererat Rogue Twins- stayed in Blingdenstone
Friendly Fire: 216
Party members killed: 24
Overall party members lost: 36
NOTE: Things will be mostly from Claire's perspective, anything with italics is from a third party, since the knight can't be everywhere at once.
***** Uktar 26, 1489 DR (The Year of the Warrior Princess), Deep Roads
When we stopped to camp tonight, Geophry pulled out a deck of cards that he said was a Deck of Many Things. I've heard of these, they're very rare. He offered us each a draw from the deck. Lily drew first, pulling out the Throne and the Rogue; which I don't know what either of those mean, but he seemed pleased about the Throne card. Rosebud drew next, he only took one card, and got the Flames. I went next, and drew the Ruin card and all of my money turned to dust, then I drew the Skull card and an avatar of death appeared before me. I had to fight the damned thing, and I barely beat it; after drawing it Lily adopted me into the Petunia clan. Flimflam was next to draw, and he got the Euryale- which made him shudder- and the Key, which caused a magical staff to appear in his hands. The odd platinum dragonborn drew next, taking two cards; she drew the Sun, causing an Iron Flask to appear in her hands, and the Void, which made her keel over.
We didn't know really anything about this quiet dragonborn, but someone said her name was Kazul; that must be a common name for dragonborn. Lily used a spell that gives him information on things and people, asking me to tell him about my Kazul, so I did, even though it was impossible for that one to be the same. Somehow though, Lily's spell came back saying that it was my Kazul, but that doesn't make sense, how could it possibly be her? I stared at Lily, stunned and trying to process this information, when a cry of surprise was made by Rosebud behind us.
While Lily had been working on that spell, Geophry had picked up the iron flask Kazul had been holding, but since he doesn't have hands he convinced Rosebud to open it for him. A nalfeshnee demon came out of the flask, and turned to look at the halftaur who had just released it.
Some hideous demon thing was staring at Rosebud, and it told him to say its name; to which Rosebud said "my name." The demon pressed, and Rosebud apparently said its name on accident, causing him to lose control of the demon- who promptly turned to attack us. It scared me, and I began to run away from it, as did Mithrilye and Geophry.
The nalfeshnee turned to Rosebud and bit him, hurting the barbarian badly. Lily summoned his Hand, and accidentally hit Rosebud with it instead of the demon- the halftaur was very badly injured now. Rosebud grabbed the horn he'd gotten in Blingdenstone that summons gargoyles to fight for him, using them as a distraction so he could take a couple potions before the nalfeshnee got anymore blows in.
Astrid Rockham had escaped the drow who had taken her and her crew prisoner, and had been lost for what felt like days in the tunnels of the Underdark. She heard the sounds of combat coming from the chamber up ahead and began moving toward them. Then she slipped and fell, tumbling head over heel, and landing in a chamber where an odd group of adventurers was fighting a nalfeshnee.
Lily and Flimflam were both hit with the demon's fear, and turned to run, leaving Rosebud mostly alone to deal with it. His elementals did some damage to it, but really it hurt the elementals more than they hurt it. Rosebud noticed the nalfeshnee was covered in piercings, and he grabbed a ruby nipple ring and ripped it out- the demon collapsed from the pain, allowing the gargoyles to rip into it. Astrid sent some magic missiles at it, and with that the demon flew up and away- getting a few more lashes from the gargoyles- and said it would be back, as it ran away.
Rosebud presented a ruby nipple ring to Lily when we had all gotten our wits about us. Lily said it was a phylactery of some kind, and turned to Astrid- the wizard who had stumbled upon us- to draw a circle so he could identify it.
I recognized Astrid from Cormyr, when I'd arrested her for piracy early in my career. She had escaped from me, by using that mist spell that Flimflam uses to get away from things. It was good to see a familiar face down here, even if it was someone I had arrested.
Lily said the soul in the ruby was humanoid, and his lore spell told him the soul had entered the ruby very recently. He had Rosebud put the fake Kazul's body in the circle, and then smashed the ruby to release the soul. Rosebud smashed the stone and a boom reverberated throughout the cavern; I felt more than heard it. Ruby dust went everywhere, the circle was trashed, and the soul returned to the body. I cannot believe that this is Kazul, if it was my cherie she would have said something to me before we left Blingdenstone. She needs to stay away from me.
Before we retired for the night, Geophry offered Astrid a draw from the Deck of Many Things, which she accepted. She drew the Moon card, and Momma said that gave her one wish.
***** Uktar 27, Deep Roads
When we set up camp for the night, the impostor Kazul approached me, she wanted to know why I wanted nothing to do with her. She also recognized the holy symbol and prayer book that I had taken as tokens to remember my cherie by. So she recognized a couple of small things, but cannot remember the friend who stood by her for months. I tossed the book at her, kept the holy symbol, and told her to stay away from me. I want nothing to do with this impostor. The rage that filled me was somewhat overwhelming, and I was surprised that I did not attack her- I really wanted to.
I learned that Astrid can turn any liquid into alcohol. She's amazing, I think we'll become good friends.
***** Uktar 28, Deep Roads
We found what Momma said was an ancient dwarven way marker, but none of us could read it. Momma even tried using my Belt of Dwarvenkind as a focus, and he still couldn't get anything. Even though we couldn't read it, we figured it would be best to just follow the marker; it was most likely to take us where we wanted to go.
Schnella stopped us at a chasm, she said it was newly formed- with as large as it was, that was troubling. We traveled alongside it for a while since Schnella said that was the way we needed to go. After a while, we heard dretches, and saw about fifty of them coming out of a tunnel on the other side of the chasm, chasing a lone dwarf. She got to the chasm and jumped- Momma tried to use her dimensional spell, but the dwarf jumped before she could cast it; instead the spell beheaded a dretch that had started to go through the door. Several more of the dretches lemminged off the cliff.
Something metallic flew up from the dwarf, and hit the ceiling, it seemed to be some sort of portable grapple, because she was now swinging toward us. The dwarf's name was Falkryn, and she was separated from her group. Since we were trying to get to Gauntlgrym to reach the surface, she said she'd tag along for a while.
Eventually we were able to find a cavern that was big enough for us to put up the Tower. I'm sure those who were in it were relieved to be able to get out and move around. Falkryn said if we gave her a day, she could figure out where we were.
All night we could hear dretches, but none approached us.
***** Uktar 30, Deep Roads
Falkryn said she was pretty sure where we needed to go to get to Gauntlgrym, the problem was we needed to go down a fifteen foot cliff to get to the tunnel we needed. Getting there and then down the cliff took most of the day, but eventually we found whatever it was Falkryn had been looking for.
***** The Feast of the Moon Holiday, Deep Roads
Astrid found the remnants of an ancient doorway or gate that we needed to go through. It was a tight squeeze, and Flimflam had to shrink Rosebud to get him through the door. When we had finally all squeezed though the door, we found ourselves in an ancient dwarven fort that looked fairly intact. The room appeared to be a foyer, since there was another set of doors in front of us, and there were signs that it had been opened recently.
Falkryn used that knock spell to open the door, but used an ancient form of dwarven- that we only recognized because of Momma's spell. On the other side of these doors was a set of dusty stairs that went down into darkness. The room at the bottom of the stairs appeared to have been a storage room at one time, and even though it was clear that the door above us had been opened recently, Schnella and Twyla couldn't find any tracks. Falkryn began to search for a secret door, and found it within a couple of minutes- she's really good at this. Behind this secret door was a dark tunnel.
The tunnel ended at a large room with some sort of odd dais in it. On the dais was a huge circular gate-looking thing that was ringed with runes, but three of them were missing. Schnella had found one of them up above in the fortress, and we began to search around for the other two. It was very dark in here, and I offered to light up the cavern with my Driftglobe, but the others said it wasn't necessary. Suddenly a globe of darkness appeared, and a figure in very heavy armor emerged from it.
An angry voice rang out, "took you long enough, lay down your weapons and surrender now." We were surrounded by drow. The figure was Zenit, which the party didn't know, since no one was left that had known her. Kazul tried to sneak around to flank one of the drow but was spotted instantly. Of course we would never surrender that easily, but a crossbow bolt flew out and dropped poor Niles; it was likely drow poison though, so he wasn't dead, just asleep. A cloud appeared over the gate, causing Lith, Mithrilye, and Twyla to fall unconscious. Rosebud summoned his gargoyles to aid us.
Schnella was the next to fall from a crossbow bolt. As each attack hit, a globe of darkness dropped. A command rang out to drop our weapons, and that seemed like a good idea. I began to unchain my Rod from my wrist. Seluna activated her Driftglobe, and we were bathed in moonlight; her globe dispelled the rest of the darkness, and we saw exactly how many drow were surrounding us. This was not good.
Not-Kazul began pounding on the drow nearest her, while Momma dropped a Hut over our unconscious friends. Rosebud was hit with some sort of spell that made him look very uncomfortable, and one of his elementals woke Mithrilye up and got her out of the cloud. The other elementals followed suit and began waking up our fallen friends. An odd looking shadow mouse (Orvald) picked up Rosebud's discarded hammer and began hitting him with it, while a drow came at him too. Geophry jumped off of Rosebud's back, and somehow managed to wrestle Rosebud's hammer away from it, then he fell over. It was odd to watch.
I threw my Rod out of the Hut, up on one of the ledges above us, right before it was dispelled. Spiders began to crawl all over the place, slowly covering the floor and walls with their disgusting little bodies. Astrid used some sort of flame spell, targeting one of the driders; instead it hit Lith and she fell. Mithrilye grabbed the arm of one of the drow and convinced him to attack the quaggoth that was looming over her; she's damn good at that.
Astrid was the next to fall, and as she did the drow who seemed to be in charge called for our surrender again. Mithrilye telepathically told Lily to activate the gate; she then told Rosebud to feign surrendering. Mithrilye randomly said "now," then seemed to teleport across the room- reappearing as a succubus... that explains a lot. She cut herself and told Momma to use her blood to activate the portal. As the portal began to open, Kazul quickly jumped up to where Claire had thrown her Rod and grabbed it for her.
The portal opened and Graz'zt himself stepped out; using the blood of his daughter brought him there.
We barely escaped the drow, but Schnella, Falkryn, and Twyla were unconscious and got left behind. The landscape of our destination was disturbing, there was a throne with webs behind it, and a shadowy figure in the webs. Momma announced we were in the Abyss, in Azzagrat, the home of the Demon Lord Graz'zt. Kazul handed me my Rod and bent over to check on Mithrilye, who was unconscious and bleeding profusely. Suddenly we felt disoriented as Astrid said "I wish myself, Astrid Rockham, Claire Thundersword, Rosebud, Lily, Flimflam, and Geophry Petunia, Seluna, Niles, Twyla, Lith, Mithrilye, Kazul, Schnella, Falkryn, George, and Fred are all safely standing before the front gates of Gauntlgrym."
Sajin Silvertongue, the Deep Gnome Wererat Assassin- got stoned and kissed a pretty Medusa
Yklwa, Tali's Deinonychus animal companion- devoured by corbies
Natali, the Tiger Therinthrope Beastmaster- wished herself home
Roswyn Darkshooter, the Deep Gnome Delver- grick kibble
Mezzem, the Kobold Wererat Priestess of Bahamut who plots the murder of anyone who slights her- stayed in Blingdenstone
Vadania Nailaza, the Wild Elf Oakroot of Rillifane Rallathil- dust in the wind
Thecker Powdercraft, the Deep Gnome Wererat Gunslinger and Inquisitor of Bahamut- retired in Blingdenstone
Stool, the Myconid Child- stayed in Blingdenstone
Galothel Nightbreeze, the Moon Elf Alchemist- MIA after the Battle of Blingdenstone
Topsy and Turvy Goldwhiskers, the Deep Gnome Wererat Rogue Twins- stayed in Blingdenstone
Friendly Fire: 216
Party members killed: 24
Overall party members lost: 36
NOTE: Things will be mostly from Claire's perspective, anything with italics is from a third party, since the knight can't be everywhere at once.
***** Uktar 26, 1489 DR (The Year of the Warrior Princess), Deep Roads
When we stopped to camp tonight, Geophry pulled out a deck of cards that he said was a Deck of Many Things. I've heard of these, they're very rare. He offered us each a draw from the deck. Lily drew first, pulling out the Throne and the Rogue; which I don't know what either of those mean, but he seemed pleased about the Throne card. Rosebud drew next, he only took one card, and got the Flames. I went next, and drew the Ruin card and all of my money turned to dust, then I drew the Skull card and an avatar of death appeared before me. I had to fight the damned thing, and I barely beat it; after drawing it Lily adopted me into the Petunia clan. Flimflam was next to draw, and he got the Euryale- which made him shudder- and the Key, which caused a magical staff to appear in his hands. The odd platinum dragonborn drew next, taking two cards; she drew the Sun, causing an Iron Flask to appear in her hands, and the Void, which made her keel over.
We didn't know really anything about this quiet dragonborn, but someone said her name was Kazul; that must be a common name for dragonborn. Lily used a spell that gives him information on things and people, asking me to tell him about my Kazul, so I did, even though it was impossible for that one to be the same. Somehow though, Lily's spell came back saying that it was my Kazul, but that doesn't make sense, how could it possibly be her? I stared at Lily, stunned and trying to process this information, when a cry of surprise was made by Rosebud behind us.
While Lily had been working on that spell, Geophry had picked up the iron flask Kazul had been holding, but since he doesn't have hands he convinced Rosebud to open it for him. A nalfeshnee demon came out of the flask, and turned to look at the halftaur who had just released it.
Some hideous demon thing was staring at Rosebud, and it told him to say its name; to which Rosebud said "my name." The demon pressed, and Rosebud apparently said its name on accident, causing him to lose control of the demon- who promptly turned to attack us. It scared me, and I began to run away from it, as did Mithrilye and Geophry.
The nalfeshnee turned to Rosebud and bit him, hurting the barbarian badly. Lily summoned his Hand, and accidentally hit Rosebud with it instead of the demon- the halftaur was very badly injured now. Rosebud grabbed the horn he'd gotten in Blingdenstone that summons gargoyles to fight for him, using them as a distraction so he could take a couple potions before the nalfeshnee got anymore blows in.
Astrid Rockham had escaped the drow who had taken her and her crew prisoner, and had been lost for what felt like days in the tunnels of the Underdark. She heard the sounds of combat coming from the chamber up ahead and began moving toward them. Then she slipped and fell, tumbling head over heel, and landing in a chamber where an odd group of adventurers was fighting a nalfeshnee.
Lily and Flimflam were both hit with the demon's fear, and turned to run, leaving Rosebud mostly alone to deal with it. His elementals did some damage to it, but really it hurt the elementals more than they hurt it. Rosebud noticed the nalfeshnee was covered in piercings, and he grabbed a ruby nipple ring and ripped it out- the demon collapsed from the pain, allowing the gargoyles to rip into it. Astrid sent some magic missiles at it, and with that the demon flew up and away- getting a few more lashes from the gargoyles- and said it would be back, as it ran away.
Rosebud presented a ruby nipple ring to Lily when we had all gotten our wits about us. Lily said it was a phylactery of some kind, and turned to Astrid- the wizard who had stumbled upon us- to draw a circle so he could identify it.
I recognized Astrid from Cormyr, when I'd arrested her for piracy early in my career. She had escaped from me, by using that mist spell that Flimflam uses to get away from things. It was good to see a familiar face down here, even if it was someone I had arrested.
Lily said the soul in the ruby was humanoid, and his lore spell told him the soul had entered the ruby very recently. He had Rosebud put the fake Kazul's body in the circle, and then smashed the ruby to release the soul. Rosebud smashed the stone and a boom reverberated throughout the cavern; I felt more than heard it. Ruby dust went everywhere, the circle was trashed, and the soul returned to the body. I cannot believe that this is Kazul, if it was my cherie she would have said something to me before we left Blingdenstone. She needs to stay away from me.
Before we retired for the night, Geophry offered Astrid a draw from the Deck of Many Things, which she accepted. She drew the Moon card, and Momma said that gave her one wish.
***** Uktar 27, Deep Roads
When we set up camp for the night, the impostor Kazul approached me, she wanted to know why I wanted nothing to do with her. She also recognized the holy symbol and prayer book that I had taken as tokens to remember my cherie by. So she recognized a couple of small things, but cannot remember the friend who stood by her for months. I tossed the book at her, kept the holy symbol, and told her to stay away from me. I want nothing to do with this impostor. The rage that filled me was somewhat overwhelming, and I was surprised that I did not attack her- I really wanted to.
I learned that Astrid can turn any liquid into alcohol. She's amazing, I think we'll become good friends.
***** Uktar 28, Deep Roads
We found what Momma said was an ancient dwarven way marker, but none of us could read it. Momma even tried using my Belt of Dwarvenkind as a focus, and he still couldn't get anything. Even though we couldn't read it, we figured it would be best to just follow the marker; it was most likely to take us where we wanted to go.
Schnella stopped us at a chasm, she said it was newly formed- with as large as it was, that was troubling. We traveled alongside it for a while since Schnella said that was the way we needed to go. After a while, we heard dretches, and saw about fifty of them coming out of a tunnel on the other side of the chasm, chasing a lone dwarf. She got to the chasm and jumped- Momma tried to use her dimensional spell, but the dwarf jumped before she could cast it; instead the spell beheaded a dretch that had started to go through the door. Several more of the dretches lemminged off the cliff.
Something metallic flew up from the dwarf, and hit the ceiling, it seemed to be some sort of portable grapple, because she was now swinging toward us. The dwarf's name was Falkryn, and she was separated from her group. Since we were trying to get to Gauntlgrym to reach the surface, she said she'd tag along for a while.
Eventually we were able to find a cavern that was big enough for us to put up the Tower. I'm sure those who were in it were relieved to be able to get out and move around. Falkryn said if we gave her a day, she could figure out where we were.
All night we could hear dretches, but none approached us.
***** Uktar 30, Deep Roads
Falkryn said she was pretty sure where we needed to go to get to Gauntlgrym, the problem was we needed to go down a fifteen foot cliff to get to the tunnel we needed. Getting there and then down the cliff took most of the day, but eventually we found whatever it was Falkryn had been looking for.
***** The Feast of the Moon Holiday, Deep Roads
Astrid found the remnants of an ancient doorway or gate that we needed to go through. It was a tight squeeze, and Flimflam had to shrink Rosebud to get him through the door. When we had finally all squeezed though the door, we found ourselves in an ancient dwarven fort that looked fairly intact. The room appeared to be a foyer, since there was another set of doors in front of us, and there were signs that it had been opened recently.
Falkryn used that knock spell to open the door, but used an ancient form of dwarven- that we only recognized because of Momma's spell. On the other side of these doors was a set of dusty stairs that went down into darkness. The room at the bottom of the stairs appeared to have been a storage room at one time, and even though it was clear that the door above us had been opened recently, Schnella and Twyla couldn't find any tracks. Falkryn began to search for a secret door, and found it within a couple of minutes- she's really good at this. Behind this secret door was a dark tunnel.
The tunnel ended at a large room with some sort of odd dais in it. On the dais was a huge circular gate-looking thing that was ringed with runes, but three of them were missing. Schnella had found one of them up above in the fortress, and we began to search around for the other two. It was very dark in here, and I offered to light up the cavern with my Driftglobe, but the others said it wasn't necessary. Suddenly a globe of darkness appeared, and a figure in very heavy armor emerged from it.
An angry voice rang out, "took you long enough, lay down your weapons and surrender now." We were surrounded by drow. The figure was Zenit, which the party didn't know, since no one was left that had known her. Kazul tried to sneak around to flank one of the drow but was spotted instantly. Of course we would never surrender that easily, but a crossbow bolt flew out and dropped poor Niles; it was likely drow poison though, so he wasn't dead, just asleep. A cloud appeared over the gate, causing Lith, Mithrilye, and Twyla to fall unconscious. Rosebud summoned his gargoyles to aid us.
Schnella was the next to fall from a crossbow bolt. As each attack hit, a globe of darkness dropped. A command rang out to drop our weapons, and that seemed like a good idea. I began to unchain my Rod from my wrist. Seluna activated her Driftglobe, and we were bathed in moonlight; her globe dispelled the rest of the darkness, and we saw exactly how many drow were surrounding us. This was not good.
Not-Kazul began pounding on the drow nearest her, while Momma dropped a Hut over our unconscious friends. Rosebud was hit with some sort of spell that made him look very uncomfortable, and one of his elementals woke Mithrilye up and got her out of the cloud. The other elementals followed suit and began waking up our fallen friends. An odd looking shadow mouse (Orvald) picked up Rosebud's discarded hammer and began hitting him with it, while a drow came at him too. Geophry jumped off of Rosebud's back, and somehow managed to wrestle Rosebud's hammer away from it, then he fell over. It was odd to watch.
I threw my Rod out of the Hut, up on one of the ledges above us, right before it was dispelled. Spiders began to crawl all over the place, slowly covering the floor and walls with their disgusting little bodies. Astrid used some sort of flame spell, targeting one of the driders; instead it hit Lith and she fell. Mithrilye grabbed the arm of one of the drow and convinced him to attack the quaggoth that was looming over her; she's damn good at that.
Astrid was the next to fall, and as she did the drow who seemed to be in charge called for our surrender again. Mithrilye telepathically told Lily to activate the gate; she then told Rosebud to feign surrendering. Mithrilye randomly said "now," then seemed to teleport across the room- reappearing as a succubus... that explains a lot. She cut herself and told Momma to use her blood to activate the portal. As the portal began to open, Kazul quickly jumped up to where Claire had thrown her Rod and grabbed it for her.
The portal opened and Graz'zt himself stepped out; using the blood of his daughter brought him there.
We barely escaped the drow, but Schnella, Falkryn, and Twyla were unconscious and got left behind. The landscape of our destination was disturbing, there was a throne with webs behind it, and a shadowy figure in the webs. Momma announced we were in the Abyss, in Azzagrat, the home of the Demon Lord Graz'zt. Kazul handed me my Rod and bent over to check on Mithrilye, who was unconscious and bleeding profusely. Suddenly we felt disoriented as Astrid said "I wish myself, Astrid Rockham, Claire Thundersword, Rosebud, Lily, Flimflam, and Geophry Petunia, Seluna, Niles, Twyla, Lith, Mithrilye, Kazul, Schnella, Falkryn, George, and Fred are all safely standing before the front gates of Gauntlgrym."
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| Photo from Out of the Abyss Adventure Module by Wizards of the Coast |
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