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 One

The Escape from Velkynvelve

Dramatis Personae:

Hera Adaar, the Abyssal Tiefling Wild Sorceress 

Luna Trelawny, the Human Divination Wizard

Phillip Johnson, the Human Cleric

Aura, the Air Genasi Storm Sorceress

Orvald Abershaw, the Mousefolk Barbarian

Stool, the Myconid Child

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

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

Ront, the Orc Fighter

Thimblepwent Battlehammer, the Dwarven Battlerager Barbarian

Topsy and Turvy, the Deep Gnome Twins

Buppido, the Derro

Sarith Zekarit, the Drow Scout

Eldeth Feldrun, the Shield Dwarf

Jim Jar, the Deep Gnome

Shuushar, the "Awakened" Kuo-toa 

Friendly Fire: 3

NOTE: Things are mostly from Hera's point of view, anything in italics is from a third party, since she can't be everywhere at once.

***** Tarsakh 29, 1489 DR

Phillip Johnson was captured by drow slavers and taken to the camp Velkynvelve, and added to a cell that was already occupied by Stool, Prince Derendil, Ront, Thimblepwent, Topsy, Turvy, Buppido, Sarith, Eldeth, Jim Jar, and Shuushar. 

Tarsakh 30

                Orvald is captured by the slavers and drug to their camp, joining the others in their cell.

Mirtul 1

                Luna Trelawny is taken by the drow, and due to her nature as a diviner, she is rendered unconscious before they reach the camp. Her unconscious body is dumped in the cell.

Mirtul 3

                While I was chasing down what was probably just another dead end, some bloody drow snuck up on me. Before I could begin barraging them with magic missiles, they hit me with one of their damned poisoned bolts. When I awoke I found myself a prisoner in a cage that was very full.

Mirtul 4

                A peculiar slave has joined the cage today. She is apparently new to the material plane, and came from the Elemental Plane of Air. Aura is her name, and she is an odd person, even by my standards. Perhaps another sorceress will be key to getting free of this stupid cell so I can resume my search. There's footprints leading away from the door now, something beat me to it.

***** Mirtul 7

                When our captors came in today, I was instructed to clean their quarters, along with one of the svirfneblin twins; I’m not sure which one, they don’t talk much and it’s hard to tell them apart. I swear they dirty their quarters just to give us something to clean.

                Earlier that morning, before the drow came in to delegate responsibilities, Phil had asked Eldeth to carve him a new holy symbol, with his magic he thought he might be able to begin an escape. When the dwarf pointed out she didn’t have any tools, he said he would try to steal something next time he was on duty in the mess hall. Lucky for Phil, today was the day he was sent to the mess, along with Aura and Sarith.

                Upon reaching the mess, Phil asked Aura to try to make a distraction for him. The genasi planned to just drop something to distract the guards, but she’s incredibly clumsy. Aura’s feigned trip, turned into a real one, and the bowls in her hands went flying; knocking out one of the drow who was watching them. This gave Phil an even better distraction than he had hoped for, and he was able to sneak around the remaining guard, who was wholly focused on the sorceress, and get his hands on a knife and fork.

                Aura was grabbed by one of the quaggoths the drow use for muscle, which sacred the little genasi so badly that she peed herself. The beast carried the terrified girl out of the mess hall, and held her over a ledge high enough up that it was unlikely she could survive the fall; except that a giant spider web was stretched across it. Aura was dropped, and landed on the web, the spider instantly started going for her.

                Phil was not the only one who used Aura’s peril to his advantage, Sarith took this as an opportunity to stab a guard, and managed to make it look like an accident.

                The other guards began leaving the rooms they were guarding to see what the commotion was about- the quaggoths had congregated around the ledge Aura was dropped from, and were watching in twisted glee while the spider prepared to eat her.

                Orvald was cleaning the supply room at the time, and when the guards in his room left, he began looking for his stuff. The mousefolk had had a philter of love taken from him when he was captured, which he found, and soaked a crossbow bolt in it. He then took a length of chain and walked out to the ledge, using it to hook Aura, and began reeling the unconscious genasi back to safety- though he did further injure her in the process. He knocked a quaggoth over the ledge in the process, and the spider fell upon its new prey quickly.

                When the drow vacated the room I was in to investigate the commotion, I sent the deep gnome that was with me to look for help; little did I know that would mean he would go find his brother. The drow don’t seem to keep useful things in quarters like these, so I went to the door to see what was happening outside.

                By the time the odd mouse had pulled the genasi out of whatever trouble she seemed to be in, a full uprising seemed to be happening- I joined gladly. I saw the mouse stab a drow fighter in the leg with a crossbow bolt, and suddenly she was on our side. He must be some sort of mage. With that drow on our side, the battle was over quickly, and the others decided we should jump down the waterfall to escape- the same waterfall we’d been dumping waste in. Glad I have wings.

                After we reached the bottom of the pool, we heard new commotion above, and saw a group of vrocks and demon insects fighting above us. While we were watching that, a grey ooze attacked us, but we made quick work of it. We had a brief discussion of where to go, and since we couldn’t agree on where exactly to go, we decided to head to Dark Lake, and decide when we got there if we would take Stool back to the Neverlight Grove, go to Gracklstugh like the derro wanted, or go to Sloobludop like Shuushar wanted to do. We realized we would need Stool in order to gain access to the Grove, and I flew back up with Orvald and his pet drow to get him and the unconscious human. We also got gear, including an odd wand that lightly vibrates when I press a glowing button on the top of it, I was able to turn it into a new arcane focus. It seemed that all of our stuff was there, except for our arcane focuses, sucks to be the rest of the casters. 

                That night after making camp, we learned that there were less drow at the camp than there should have been, which is why our escape had been so easy. Zenit, Orvald’s pet, said that one of their caravans had been attacked by a beholder and some kobolds, and they had dispatched reinforcements to help with the beholder. The caravan that was under attack is the same one that Teegan rescued the Ironfang Eight from; had he not saved them, they would have found themselves in the same camp with this party.

***** Mirtul 8

                In the morning, or when we woke up, since we have no sun to tell us if it’s actually morning down here, the human girl finally woke up. We learned her name was Luna, and she instantly made friends with Stool- adding her voice to the requests that we take the lad home first.

                Later in the day, we heard voices up a tunnel who were fighting about being hungry. Orvald decided to go investigate, but because his sword is bigger than he is, the sounds of it dragging along the rock alerted them to our presence. It turned out they were a group three of goblins, who began shooting at Orvald the moment they saw him. The little mouse responded by hacking one of their arms off, which terrified one so badly that it curled up in the fetal position and began rocking; another was so scared it began babbling incoherently. Ront charged in and took one of the goblins out instantly, I used magic missile to kill another, and Orvald polished off the one whose arm he had taken.

                That night at camp, after I had gone to sleep for the night, along with most everyone else, I was awoken by Zenit screaming, and found everything cloaked in magical darkness. Pwent, thinking the foe was next to him, smashed poor Ront to a bloody pulp, turning the orc into hamburger. He then swung again, hitting Zenit instead of the foe. Orvald began pounding on the thing hurting Zenit, and managed to wrench her out of its grasp. I blindly slung a magic missile in the direction the sound was coming from, I think I missed though based on the sound I heard after casting.  Luna slung a spell blindly at it, killing it and causing the magical darkness to fall away. Zenit, realizing that Orvald had just saved her, went completely mad, and permanently fell in love with the mouse.

                When the darkness slid away, we discovered that our attacker was a giant rocktopus. We also found the fleshy smear that remained of Ront, no one is sure what happened to him, since the hamburger that was the orc wasn't near the giant rocktopus. Orvald decided to cook some of the rocktopus for us, that barbarian has odd tastes- though it was pretty tasty.

***** Mirtul 9

                Our day was blessedly uneventful, something that rarely happens in the Underdark. I wondered how long we had until the drow bitch turned on us, and how long before the rest of her friends caught up to us.

                As we made camp that night, we heard voices and odd skittering noises coming from the tunnel, which this time were not something coming to attack us. We met a small party of duergar merchants, and Buppido asked if he could join them. The derro was anxious to get to Gracklstugh, and didn’t want to wait until we made it there.

                Orvald, not realizing that duergar don’t haggle, attempted to do so with the merchants, who were unintimidated by the tiny mouse.

***** Mirtul 10-11

                The next two days were peaceful. I enjoyed this brief break, for I knew it wouldn’t last long. I hope I'm getting close to my door. 

***** Mirtul 12

                We stumbled into a cavern of mushrooms, and decided to harvest some for food and water; Stool helped us identify which ones were edible, and showed us the Zirkwood mushrooms, which are the Underdark equivalent to lumber.

                Derendil, not wanting to lift a royal finger to help us, got himself attacked by mushroom stalks- his flesh where it had touched him looked rotten. Pwent and Orvald, always ready for a fight, ran to his rescue; I also helped since I was close enough. I used an ice spell and froze the stalk, allowing Pwent to shatter it, saving Derendil from the threat- or so we thought.

                We all turned back to what we were doing, when Derendil got attacked by three more of the bloody things. The insane quaggoth went into a rage after getting his arse handed to him by a group of mushrooms, and attacked Pwent. Pwent went into a rage of his own, and whacked his highness with his waraxe. Derendil somehow managed to knock Pwent unconscious, and Orvald knocked his highness out in turn.

                The rest of our night of harvesting was rather uneventful.

***** Mirtul 13

                The next morning we discovered Topsy and Turvy were missing. There were some tracks around where they had slept that looked like they were made by large rodents, heading south. We decided we needed to go rescue the twins.

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 and characters that take place in this story are from the Out of the Abyss Adventure Module by Wizards of the Coast.