"The Holy Radiance of Lathander" - Out of the Abyss, Chapter 37

Cordon shook off his grogginess. Had he been asleep? If so, how was he standing?

He looked around, confused. He was surrounded by thin emaciated people wearing shifts and loincloths made of coarse material. There were humans, dwarves, blue-skinned elves, drow, and deep gnomes. They looked as confused and disoriented as he did. Each of them had an eye tattooed onto their foreheads. Cordon noticed that he was wearing the same shift and loincloth. He touched his forehead wondering if he too bore the same mark as the others.

They were all milling about in some kind of stone chamber. The only light came from magically glowing crystal sconces growing from the walls. The sounds of fighting could be heard echoing down a nearby corridor. He and a few others cautiously advanced.

He saw a motley group in life-or-death struggle with a massive floating beholder in a massive vertical shaft. The group consisted of a pint-sized male halfling, a brutish male orc, a male human knight, and a female human wizard. They were traversing a corkscrew walkway that wound its way down the wall of the shaft while the beholder flew, hovered, and weaved.

Suddenly the halfling leaped up onto the beholder. The beholder moved out over the shaft as the halfling began stabbing it. The two plummeted over a hundred feet and crashed to the floor. Cordon winced at the meaty sound of the impact.

A few moments later the halfling was joined by his companions as they seemed to be butchering the beholder.

Cordon and a few of his fellow captives advanced. Cordon held up his hand and smiled, "Greetings, I am Cordon the Morninglord, the Holy Radiance of Lathander!"

OUT OF THE ABYSS, CHAPTER 37

"THE HOLY RADIANCE OF LATHANDER"

Five heroes scour the Underdark

in order to find the ingredients

of an arcane ritual

that will banish the Demon-Lords

back to the Abyss

from which they escaped.

After defeating the purple worms

at the worm nursery

and obtaining six purple worm eggs

the expedition now travels

to the mysterious Vast Oblivium

in order to harvest the central eye

of a dangerous beholder...

THE LEADERS OF THE EXPEDITION
Sir Valerius Adeques - (PC, human paladin 11) Defender and champion of the old gods of nature.
Willow - (PC, human wizard 11) "the solution is always fireball!"
Phwee-toop - (NPC) Salix/Willow's owl familiar.
Ront - (PC, half-orc barbarian 11) Savage orc of the Iron-Thews tribe seeking redemption for his failures.
Pain Grille' - (PC, halfling rogue 11) Wily street urchin from Waterdeep, was turned to stone in Blingdenstone but got better.

INTRODUCING
Cordon - (PC, human cleric 10) Priest of Lathandor the Sun God, was on a holy quest when he was captured and enslaved by Karazikar the Beholder

THE SURVIVING MEMBERS OF THE EXPEDITION
Thora Nabal - (NPC)  human warrior of the Order of the Gauntlet
Sylrien Havennor - (NPC)  human warrior of the Order of the Gauntlet
Elias Drako - (NPC)  human warrior of the Order of the Gauntlet
Tamryn Tharke - (NPC)  human warrior of the Order of the Gauntlet
Feral Killmander - (NPC)  human spy of the Lord's Alliance
Pok-Pok - (NPC) winged kobold.
Sparky - (NPC) trained fire-beetle.
The Shield Guardian - (NPC) a contribution from Lord Zelraun Roaringhorn of the Harpers.

THE PARTY SPLITS
The freed slaves of Karazikar consisted of:

• 21 shield dwarves from Gauntlgrym including Anzar the Brazen of the Lord's Alliance, Brim Coppervein and Thargus Forkbeard of the Emeral Enclave, and famed explorer Amarith Coppervein.
• 17 humans including Cordon the priest of Lathandor, Lhytris Ilgarn of the Black Cloaks of the Zhentarim as well as Zilna Oakshadow and Hilvius Haever of the Lord's Alliance and Olaf Renghyi of the Order of the Gauntlet. 
• 11 moon elves
• 9 drow
• 5 deep gnomes
• 23 goblins
• 15 orogs
• Derendil the intelligent quaggoth.
• An insand modron

All of the slaves wore simple shifts and loincloths and each bore the tattoo of an eye on their forehead.

The heroes discussed their plans with the freed slaves.

The orogs simply left without a word with the goblins in tow. Likewise the drow vanished with nary a farewell. Derendil, however, desired to continue his quest to find Gravenhollow.

The deep gnomes offered to lead the dwarves, humans, and elves to Blingdenstone. There they could accompany a trade caravan to Gauntlgrym and the Overworld. The journey would take sixteen tridons.

Ser Valerius and Pain decided to lead Derendil to Gravenhollow with their contingent of warriors and guards. Using the magical Tablet of Garmin the journey would take eighteen tridons to travel there and return.

Ser Valerius announced that they had no time to waste so they gathered all the food they could carry on the pack lizards and set out for the fabled library of the Stone Giants.

Cordon informed Ront and Willow that he had no wish to return to the Overworld. He had important work to perform in the Underdark and wished to continue his mission. Cordon was disappointed to learn that his weapons, armor, and magic shield had not been found within the Vast Oblivium. He was outfitted with an extra mace from the party's inventory.

WE ARE MODRON
A short while later, Willow asked Cordon if he could pray for a miracle of restoration for the insane modron. Cordon prayed for the bio-mechanical creature and the modron's wits were returned.

Willow followed up by casting a magic spell which allowed everyone nearby to telepathically communicate regardless of language barrier.

The modron and the Overworlders found it difficult to communicate. The modron communicated only in plural pronounds. The modron had no sense of individuality and constantly referred to themselves as "they" and "we" and "us". Indeed, they had no sense of "you" or "it" or "me" or "him" and the modron became confused when Willow or Ront would use these strange words. This greatly complicated attempts by Ront and Willow to communicate with them.

Ront, Willow, and Cordon soon learned that the modron was part of "the Great March", an event that Willow understood to be a great modron tour of the multiverse. The modron, which identified themselves as "duodrone", explained that they had became lost, then they were captured, then they lost it completely, then they were returned to order.

When asked about the Maze Engine, Duodrone admitted that they knew of nothing by that name. However, they could detect an Orderer approximately 289 miles south of their present location. The Orderer brought order to chaos and set things right.

Willow looked a the others, "The Orderer must be this Maze Engine."

Cordon observed his new friends in reserved silence.

A CHAT WITH THE DECEASED
While Ront and Cordon scoured the rest of the Vast Oblivium for anything useful, Willow prepared the bodies of Karazikar and Shedrak for use with the Stonespeaker Crystal.

She touched the crystal to the beholder. The magic returned a semblance of life to the butchered aberration. She interviewed the creature regarding the modron and the maze engine. She appealed to the creatures vanity and self-importance by promising to create for it a stone mausoleum and crypt if it truthfully answers her questions.

Karazikar, flattered by the prospect of an imposing tomb, answered as best he could but the questions were poorly chosen and his answers were ultimately vague and unhelpful.

Willow turned to Shedrak. She once again offered an imposing burial place in exchange for truthful answers. Shedrak wanted only to be entombed forever with his beloved master. She agreed. She asked the dead wizard about the slaves' belongings. He told her that he traded them to drow merchants for food. The drow merchants had last visited three tridons ago and were likely on their way to Mantol-Derith.

Afterwards, Willow kept her promises and, via the casting of stone-shaping spells, created imposing tombs for both villains..

ENCOUNTER WITH OROGS

Told that the drow merchants had left only three tridons ago, Ront decided to take a contingent of dwarven scouts and decided to explore the area around the Vast Oblivium to search for signs of their passing.

After a few hours of reconnaissance the dwarven scouts came running back around the bend ahead. They were being chased by two mutated orogs!

The orogs were highly deformed. One of the orogs had two heads and carried a weapon in each arm. The other had one head but four arms. The dwarves made it behind Ront. The orog attacked Ront with each weapon. Ront counterattacked with his greatsword. After another attack Ront cleaved through the orog, cutting him down. Ront continued forward and slew the second orog with a single strike!

The search party continued their search but returned to the Vast Oblivium after finding nothing.

JOURNEY TO BLINGDENSTONE
Ront, Willow, and Cordon decided to accompany the deep gnome expedition to take the humans, dwarves, and elves to Blingdenstone.

From there they would continue on to Mantol-Derith to find Cordon's belongings. They left a note at the Vast Oblivium telling the other expedition of their quest and asking them to meet up with them in Mantol-Derith.

They walked until they were tired, resting until they were sleepy, and sleeping until they were awake. Thus they traveled for over a dozen cycles, encountering various hazards and wonders of the Underdark.

On the fifteenth cycle their route took them to a vast chasm spanned by a frayed rope bridge. Willow once again cast her stone shaping spell and crafted a stone bridge which they were able to safely cross. She decorated the bridge with the mark "W".

After sixteen cycles they arrived at the secret entrance to Blingdenstone. Ront was welcomed as a returning hero. Ront informed the guards that he needed to return the royal gemstone. Ront and the others were ushered to an audience with Dorbo and Senni Diggermattock, co-regents of Blingdenstone, who had since moved their base of operations to the throne room within the royal geode.

Blingdenstone was active. The population had doubled since they left from just over three hundred to over six hundred. Repairs were being made, stone elementals were carrying heavy loads and reopening tunnels, life was returning to normal.

On the way, Ront encountered two familiar faces: Topsy and Turvy. The twins were as annoying as ever and Ront did his best to resist the urge to murder them where they stood. Willow was unable to determine whether the twins still suffered lycanthropy or not. When the twins were told that the party was on their way to speak with the co-regents, the twins became evasive and ran away.

The meeting with Dorbo and Senni went well. They greeted Ront warmly and welcomed his new friends. Ront presented them with the gemstone recovered by the box carried by the succubus pretending to be Gabble Dripskillet. They thanked Ront and brought him up to speed on what has happened in Blingdenstone and Mantol-Derith since they left. Ront and Willow provided news on their own adventurers.

Ront asked about the fate of Kettle and Angolwen, the two party members who were turned to stone along with Pain by Neheedra the Medusa. They told Ront that the same alchemy that saved Pain saved the other two and that they were searching the Underdark for clues to the fate of the royal family of Blingdenstone.

Dorbo then took Ront aside and offered him the use of a dozen Svirfneblin guards to accompany him on their mission to destroy the demon lords. Ront refused their aid for the greater mission but did ask if they could accompany them to Mantol-Derith. Dorbo agreed.

The team re-equipped and resupplied themselves in Blingdenstone. Cordon sought out a tattoo artist to convert the eye tattoo on his forehead into a sun, symbol of his god Lathander. The work took the better part of a shift but the results came out better than expected.

They stopped off at the Foaming Mug where they were treated as honored guests and encouraged to tell their stories to the innkeeper. Ront asked about the dour barmaid but was embarrased to discover that he had confused the inn with the Grohlborn's Lair in Gracklstugh.

After a comfortable rest, Ront, Willow, and Cordon left the humans, dwarves, and elves in Blingdenstone. The next trade caravan would take them to the Overworld. Ront, Willow, and Cordon then took a complement of a dozen deep gnomes to Mantol-Derith.

ONWARD TO MANTOL-DERITH
The next leg of their journy took them to Jewelshine-on-Darklake. The journey was uneventful. They took a long boat from Jewelshine-on-Darklake to Mantol-Derith.

The boat arrived in a hidden niche on the shores of Darklake, the secret Svirfneblin entrance to Mantol-Derith. There they saw an elven druid sitting on a rock dangling his feet in the water. A shoulderbag and staff sat nearby.

"Hello there," said the druid, "care to join me?"

SLADIS VADIR
The party introduced themselves from the safety of their boat. The elf introduced himself as "Sladis Vadir", a name Ront immediately recognized. Morista Malkin of the Emerald Enclave tasked Ront with, should they find Sladis in the Underdark, returning the druid safely to Gauntlgrym.

Ront surreptitiously gave Sladis the secret hand-sign of the Emerald Enclave. Sladis provided the correct reply and Ront came ashore.

When asked what he was doing there, Sladis answered that he had been a member of a mission. The mission failed and Sladis was the only survivor. He tried to keep a positive outlook, however, and was just sitting on this rock enjoying the beauty of the Darklake.

Sladis asked about the recent travels of the party. Ront explained that they had come from Blingdenstone and were on their way to Mantol-Derith.

"Ah, Blingdenstone. I've been there."

Ront decided to give Sladis a little test, "What the name of Inn there?"

"Hmm.. Right, the Foaming Mug! I love that place! The patrons there are delicious."

Ront replied, "Yes, well... wait- you just say patrons delicious?"

"What's that? Oh no! I said the pastries there are delicious!"

Ront narrowed his eyes, "Hunh." He shared a glance with Willow.

"You say you are heading to Mantol-Derith? I've never been there! I've been all over the Underdark but that location has yet eluded me! May I join you?"

Ront cautiously answered, "Yes. But way is secret. You need wear blindfold."

"That is acceptable!"

With that, the druid gathered his shoulder bag and staff and accepeted the blindfold.

The party passed through the secret door.

As they passed through the long dark tunnel that led into the city, Cordon walked up next to Ront and Willow. "Ahem. I thought I should tell you now. I think I trust you well enough to tell you about my mission.  I was sent by the high priests of Lathander to find the Maze Engine. We believe that the Maze Engine can be used to banish Demon Lords back to the Abyss. This may be a solution to the Demon Lord problem. I just thought you should know about what because I think we need to journey to the Labyrinth and find it and activate it. Good? Thanks. Right then."

Ront and Willow exchanged glances of disbelief that the priest waited until now to share that bit of information.

TO BE CONTINUED...

DM Notes - This was a fun week. We had lots of time to role-play and the return to familiar locales was a treat to the players, allowing them to interact with known NPCs and see the effect their actions have had on the world. Nothing builds a sense of place like returning to a known location and meeting known NPCs, especially old friends. 

"The Vast Oblivium" - Out of the Abyss, Chapter 36

Valerius Adeques held the sun sword "Dawnbringer" aloft, its brilliant light illuminated the long dark tunnel ahead of them. The tunnels of the Wormwrithings were smooth and round and mostly straight, the trails left by the burrowing of gargantuan purple worms.

"Pain, where to next?"

Pain Grille' consulted the flat rectangle of smokey black glass. Glowing runes indicated their current position and the location of their next objectives.

"The tablet of Garmin says the next closest objective is located in the Vast Oblivium, only four leagues down this tunnel!"

"What's the objective?" asked the armored paladin.

"Um.. it's the central eye of a beholder," the halfling thief winced.

"We better rest first. The worm nursery was exhausting!"

The expedition unloaded their packs and lay down in the tunnel to rest.

Somewhere on a nearby stone wall, a large glassy eye opened and looked around. No one noticed.

OUT OF THE ABYSS, CHAPTER 36

"THE VAST OBLIVIUM"

Five heroes scour the Underdark

in order to find the ingredients 

of an arcane ritual

that will banish the Demon-Lords

back to the Abyss

from which they escaped.

After defeating the purple worms

at the worm nursery 

and obtaining six purple worm eggs

the expedition now travels 

to the mysterious Vast Oblivium

in order to harvest the central eye

of a dangerous beholder...

THE LEADERS OF THE EXPEDITION
Sir Valerius Adeques - (PC, human paladin 10) Defender and champion of the old gods of nature.
Willow - (PC, human wizard 10) "the solution is always fireball!"
Phwee-toop - (NPC) Salix/Willow's owl familiar.
Ront - (PC, half-orc barbarian 10) Savage orc of the Iron-Thews tribe seeking redemption for his failures.
Pain Grille' - (PC, halfling rogue 10) Wily street urchin from Waterdeep, was turned to stone in Blingdenstone but got better.

THE SURVIVING MEMBERS OF THE EXPEDITION
Thora Nabal - (NPC)  human warrior of the Order of the Gauntlet
Sylrien Havennor - (NPC)  human warrior of the Order of the Gauntlet
Elias Drako - (NPC)  human warrior of the Order of the Gauntlet
Tamryn Tharke - (NPC)  human warrior of the Order of the Gauntlet
Feral Killmander - (NPC)  human spy of the Lord's Alliance
Pok-Pok - (NPC) winged kobold.
Sparky - (NPC) trained fire-beetle.
The Shield Guardian - (NPC) a contribution from Lord Zelraun Roaringhorn of the Harpers.


DM Note - before we started, Willow's player showed off a new book she had printed with her spells. The outside resembled the cover of a spellbook and the inside was a printed spreadsheet with all her spell details. I was very impressed. That was enough to make up for all the weeks she missed in November so I caught her up with everyone else level-wise. 

PARANOIA
It was during the third watch and the orcish barbarian known as Ront was lazily keeping his one good eye on the dark passage. He could hear the human female Tamryn Tharke perform her bizarre human mating ritual at the human male Feral Killmander. Ront rolled his eye and sniffed as Feral continued to reject the woman's lurid advances. The human brood mother was obviously in heat. Ront's natural orcish fecundity became momentarily aroused but he pushed the impulse away. Ront had rejected the orcish ways. He would not succumb to his bestial nature.

Ront

Suddenly Ront saw a large eye the size of a halfling's head open in the rock wall and look around. Ront stood up and approached the eye. It closed and disappeared!

"Wake up! Wake up!" He roused the leaders of the expedition and recounted what he saw. Willow examined the wall and detected the rapidly disappearing afterglow of magic, like the fading heat of a hand that had touched a cold surface.

Pain Grille'

The halfling Pain expressed doubt that Ront had seen anything. Ront was offended and the pair began to argue.

By this time everyoen was awake and sufficiently rested so the expedition decided to pack up and continue on to the Vast Oblivium

Ront saw another smaller eye about a league into their journey. This eye was smaller and appeared on the back of Pain's head. The eye peered around. Ront got close and made eye contact before poking the eye with his finger. Pain cried out at the sharp jab and the loud argument recommenced.

By the second league everyone had the distinct sense they were being watched. After three leagues even Pain admitted that he had seen a mysterious eye appear and disappear.

Eventually the tablet of Garmin indicated their arrival at their destination. A second tunnel branched off the main tunnel at a right angle. This tunnel was likewise round and smooth but was too smooth to have been dug by a purple worm. Steps led down into the darkness.

TURNED AWAY
The expedition left the pack animals and the Order of the Gauntlet at the main tunnel. They descended into the side tunnel. The smooth walls gave way to hundreds of small round nodules carved into the walls. Each nodule resembled a stylized eye with a hole in the center. Pain Grille' examined the holes and caught the acrid whiff of a flame trap.

They continued until they entered a spherical foyer. On the far end of the foyer was a round entrance with twin brass doors. An emaciated dwarf stood near the door. He was bound around the neck to a chain attached to the wall. He had glassy eyes and a slack mouth.

Without looking or otherwise acknowledging the newcomers the dwarf rasped in Undercommon, "Who approaches the Vast Oblivium?"

Pain stepped forward and spoke for the party, "We are explorers from the surface. We wish an audience with the lord of this realm."

The dwarf continued to stare blankly at the ceiling, its mouth speaking the words of another, "My lord Karazikar does not entertain visitors. What do you offer in tribute?"

Ront, Willow, Valerius, and Pain quickly exchanged panicked glances. Pain quickly decided, "We bring for him the fresh egg of a purple worm."

The voice was silent as it considered the offer. A moment later it replied, "That is insufficient. Your true motives are clear and you will not succeed. You are not welcome here. You will leave immediately or I will activate our defenses."

Another voice hissed a whisper from the wall, "Pssst. PSSSTTT!"  Against the wall hid a deep gnome, perfectly camouflaged against the rock wall. It was Peebles, the beholder hunter from Mantol-Derith! "You're, ah, not going to get in that way. Meet me back in the main hallway. I gots an, ah, proposition!"

Peebles the Deep Gnome

DM Note- I described Peebles as the disheveled deep gnome wearing a leather satchel over his shoulder. You once saw him cut off beholder eye stalks and put them in his satchel.

My players suddenly realized the joke, "No, are you telling us the satchel is..."

"That's right. It's an over-the-shoulder beholder holder."

"GROAN!!!"

A BACKUP PLAN
Peebles was a skinny disheveled svirfneblin with a leather satchel. He was a collector of beholder eyes for a mysterious master. Rumor had it that his master was a beholder who somehow surgically grafted to their body the eyes of other rival beholders. No one trusted Peebles and Ront wanted very badly to kill him on principle.

"Look, ah, it's not really safe to speak here."

Willow intervened, performing a ritual that allowed everyone on the team to communicate telepathically.

"So, I, ah, I can speak and nobody can hear me?"

"No, Peebles. You don't have to speak out loud. Just think what you want to say."

"Right, so I think it and say it."

"No! Just think quietly!"

"Got it. I say what I need to say and then think about it quietly."

This went on for some time until Peebles was finally able to communicate silently with the rest of the party.

"So, ah, does this mean I'm a part of the team? Is there an initiation? Do I get a nickname? Oh, what's our team name?"

"Peebles! What is your plan?"

"Oh, right, ah, the plan. Okay. You're here to kill Karazikar, right? I get it. I'm with you. I'm here to kill him too, if I can. Only, you're not going to get in the front door. You see, he, ah, he already knows everything about you and why you're here."

He paused before continuing, "But, ah, see, I know a back way in. Only, it's, ah, it's not easy and I can't do it alone. I need your, ah, your help. It's what you might call, ah, guarded. I can show you the way. All I ask is for some, ah, alone time with Karazikar after you're done. I just want a few eye stalks for, ah, for reasons."

The party deliberated and agreed to Peeble's plan.

Peebles led the expedition to a spot a few hundred feet away from the entrance to the Vast Oblivium. There they found a hidden alcove. Within the alcove was a round vertical shaft. Peebles said the shaft dropped down about a hundred feet. It was a secret escape tunnel for Karazikar.

The expedition dropped ropes and descended the tunnel, leaving the Order of the Gauntlet behind to guard the pack animals. While the others clambered down ropes, Willow gently descended on her flying broom.

Ser Valerius, Ront, and Pain dropped into a round room with a single exit and moved out of the way of those still descending. Suddenly, Ser Valerius and Ront were attacked by an invisible force! It was as if the air itself hammered against them. As the invisible force struck Ser Valerius, the paladin lashed out with a counterattack. The counterblow caused the invisible force to emit an unearthly and bloodcurdling scream. Ser Valerius followed up with another attack, striking the empty air before him and killing his invisible foe.

Meanwhile, the other invisible assailant attacked Ront once and fled down the sole exit in a gust of wind.

THE VAST OBLIVIUM
The expedition followed the invisible attacker down the corridor that opened onto a one hundred foot deep vertical shaft. Other corridors and openings were cut into the walls of the shaft which were connected by rope ladders and rope bridges. Pain sniffed the breeze and determined that the attacker fled down another passage.

The chase led them to an even larger vertical shaft. This shaft was easily over a hundred feet wide and six hundred feet deep. The corridor opened about a hundred feet below the top of the shaft. The top of the shaft was a huge convex carving of the likeness of a beholder. The pupil of its central eye formed a smaller vertical shaft in the ceiling. The smaller eyes were opaque glass hemispheres that glowed, providing dim illumination throughout the shaft of dark stone.

Ten concentric ledges were built into the outside wall of the shaft. Each ledge was connected to the next below it by stairs. Each ledge allowed access to a different horizontal corridor cut into the wall of the shaft.

As the Ront, Pain, and Ser Valerius stood in the entrance to the corridor examining their surroundings a voice called out from the corridor on the next lower ledge ring. It was the voice that greeted them at the entrance.

"Who dares invade the sanctity of Karazikar, the Lord of Eyes? Infidels! For your blasphemous tresspass, you will suffer my harshest punishment, for I am none other than my lord's greatest hierophant, Shedrak of the Eyes!"

The man wore the robes of a wizard and carried a staff topped with a moving eye encased in a glass sphere. The man's bald head was adorned with tattoos of eyes with a large central eye on his forehead.

Shedrak cast a fireball spell at the party. Willow stepped forward and dismissed the spell with a gesture. Shedrak glared at her!

Willow then reached out her hand at Shedrak and the wizard's staff flew from his hand. It moved slowly through the air towards Willow's waiting grasp. Shedrak shouted, "Fiends! Infidels! You will pay for this outrage!"

Shedrak produced a scroll and cast a spell of invulnerability which would render Willow's magic harmless against him. Pain ran down the stairs towards the wizard with his shortsword drawn. The wizard turned and fled back down his passage but Pain gave chase. Using his magical boots of speed, the halfling rogue easily caught up with the wizard and dispatched him out of sight of the others.

Ront ran forward down the stairs but was once more beset by the invisible attacker. Ront swing wildly at the air as the invisible combatant retreated after each attack.

KARAZIKAR THE EYE TYRANT
Suddenly a voice boomed from the small shaft in the center of the carving in the ceiling, "Fools! I know why you are here! You will fail in your mission! The modron is mine! You will never find the Maze Engine! Only I will possess its power!"

Pain sent a confused glance at Ser Valerius. The Paladin shrugged. Pain replied to the others, "Anybody know what that is?" Everyone shook their heads.

A large spherical form descended from the shaft, hovering twenty feet above the uppermost ring. It was Karazikar the Eye Tyrant! His spherical body was ten feet wide and possessed a single large eye and a wide toothy mouth. Its skin was thick and scaly. Ten short tentacle-like stalks, each topped with a single round eye, writhed and waved. Each eye was a different color.

The beholder cast the gaze of its large central eye on the group at the entrance. All magical and magical items within the beholder's gaze was rendered inert. The sword Dawnbringer winked out. Magical armor became heavier and bulkier. Meanwhile, it turned one of its smaller eyes towards Pain. Pain found himself charmed by the gaze of the eye, he could take no action to harm the beholder. Feral Killmander was likewise struck by a deadly eye ray and almost died. He was pulled back and ordered to stay behind the rest of the party.

Willow

Willow knew that the gaze of the central eye of a beholder could cancel out all magic within its view so she sprinted down the stairs to escape its effects.

Willow turned and case a polymorph spell on the beholder. The beholder barely spat out, "Your puny spell will never work on-" before he turned into a goat!

The goat hung motionless in mid-air for a moment as it realized what happened. It then fell five hundred fifty feet and crashed into the floor far below!

DM Note- Karazikar's saving throw is +7 vs this. So of course I rolled a 4! The goat had, I dunno, 10 HP. It fell, took damage, and the remaining damage went to the beholder. I did some quick math. 520 feet fall = 52d6. 52x3.5 = 182 damage, -10 from the goat = 172 damage. The beholder had 8 HP left!

Willow peered down into the darkness. Ser Valerius sword burst once more into brilliance. He held it over the side of the ledge. The momentary silence was cut short by a croaking voice echoing from below, "How dare you! You will never take my modron!" They could barely make out the shape of the injured beholder far below flying into a side passage.

DESCENT
Ser Valerius, Pain, Ront, and Willow began their descent down each ring. Feral and Peebles stayed behind on the top level. Their way was constantly hindered by grabbing tendrils every minute or two. In addition, several spots on the wall opened into small eyes and blasted a member of the expedition with one of the beholder's magical eye rays.

The expedition reached the fourth level down when Karazikar and the surviving invisible stalker reappeared from below.

A long fight ensued as Karazikar used his disintegration beam to destroy a section of floor beneath the expedition. He then maneuverd to hover fifteen feet over a section of ledge about sixty feet away.  Ser Valerius found himself trapped on the far side of the gap. Ront and Pan were on the near side and charged at the beholder. Willow fell through the gap, landing badly on the next level down.

The beholder pointed the anti-magic gaze of his central eye at Willow and stayed out of reach of the orc and halfling who were skilled hand-to-hand fighters but ill equipped for ranged fighting.

The invisible stalker would harry Ront only to retreat after each attack.

Ront and Pain found themselves being constantly charmed, paralyzed, or petrified by the beholder's smaller eye stalks in addition to the occastional death ray, enervation, or disintegration beam.

Pain was charmed and unable to attack the beholder so he quickly developed a plan. He ran away to get some distance then turned and charged at Ront. He then used Ront's shoulders as a springboard to launch himself at Karazikar. Pain grabbed the hovering beholder in mid-air, grasping him in a tight hug.

Pain vs Karazikar

Pain wrestled with Karazikar to maneuver in front of the central eye. Despite Karazikar's struggling and writhing, Pain succeeded and stared squarely into the beholder's central eye. The anti-magic gaze of the beholder's central eye also cancels the effects of the beholder's own magic, so Pain was no longer charmed! Pain smiled, drew his short sword, and began stabbing the beholder.

DM Note- I liked the ingenuity of the solution. I had Pain make a DC 20 acrobatics check to leap onto the Beholder, then had him make contested Acrobatics checks to scramble around to get on the beholder's central eye, all of which played to Pain's strengths.

The beholder screamed in pain and moved out over the chasm. Pain ignored the danger and stabbed again, killing the beholder. The dead beholder plummeted 160 feet to the floor with Pan holding on for dear life. The beholder and Pain hit the bottom of the shaft with a loud wet impact.

DM Note- Pain's player realized his dillema too late. Luckily he had the HP for it. I described the impact as the loud echoing "TANK!" of a dodge ball hitting cement.

Pain got up wheezing. He began cutting out the large central eye while the others ran down the stairs to join him. Peebles appeared out of nowhere and began cutting off eyestalks. Ront and Pain, in an effort to prevent Peebles from adding more power to his master, crushed the other eyestalks under their feet. In the end, Peebled managed to gather four eye stalks and ran away into the darkness shouting, "Thank youuuuu....!"

AFTERMATH
In the aftermath of the battle, several dishevelled figures began to appear from the various side tunnels. They were a mixture of dwarves, humans, a few elves, some drow, some quaggoth, some orogs, and some goblins. Many were disoriented as if waking from a long sleep. They ranged in age from the very young to adulthood. They were the slaves of Karazikar, magically dominated by Shedrak of the Eyes.

Shockingly, a few of the faces were familiar to the party! They were the members of the expedition that had mysteriously disappeared! They had been captured by invisible stalkers and brought here to act as slaves. They had no memory of where they are or what they were doing here.

These included:
Lhytris Ilgarn of the Black Cloaks of the Zhentarim. Zilna Oakshadow, Hilvius Haever, and Anzar the Brazen of the Lord's Alliance. Brim Coppervein and Thargus Forkbeard of the Emerald Enclave. Olaf Renghyi of the Order of the Gauntlet. Also found were Derendil and Amarith Coppervein.

Amarith and Brim hugged each other in a warm embrance, tearfully shouting, "NOBODY KILLS A COPPERVEIN!"

Amarith Coppervein

Brim Coppervein

Derendil

Willow then took Pain through the shaft in the ceiling where they located a treasure room filled with piles of gold and platinum as well as a magical Robe of Eyes, a Gem of Seeing, and a Necklace of Adaptation.

A large round vault door was sealed shut and eluded Pain's attempts to open so Ront was brought up to force it open. The orc barbarian easily pulled the door open. Inside they found a strange creature. It had the body of a cube cut into two horizontal halves. The bottom half had to spindly legs. The top half had two spindly arms and wings as well as large eyes and a friendly mouth. The thing looked almost mechanical.

It spoke only in chirps, buzzes, and whistles and did not seem to be able to understand the language of its emancipators. When presented with the treasure room it immediately began neatly and efficiently sorting and stacking all the coins.

Willow knew the creature was a modron and that they came form the plane known as Mechanus but little else.

What did Karazikar want with the Modron? How can they speak with the Modron? What is the Maze Engine?

Find out next week!

TO BE CONTINUED...

DM Notes - I had a lot of fun with this encounter. I modified it to make it more of a challenge as well as add plot details to integrate it more with the campaign. The players later told me that this was a really fun encounter and that it was appropriately challenging. 

I'm glad. I was worried that a) it would end in a TPK, which it might have had I not halved the beholder's HP, and b) it would have ended in the first round with a polymorph, which it almost did! Luckily the beholder had enough HP to survive (seriously, PURE LUCK there!) and my giving him half HP for the second half of the fight was just the right amount. 

Also - Level up! Everyone is Level 11 now!

"The Worm Nursery" - Out of the Abyss, Chapter 35

Tamryn Tharke was developing a huge crush on Feral Killmander.

Tamryn was a warrior and a member of the Order of the Gauntlet. She was tall and possessed a thick powerful build with strong muscles. Her husky voice rasped like a  bag of gravel. Her body was a patchwork of burn scars and battle wounds. She was proud and confident and deadly.

But when she was around Feral all she could think about was his thin wiry frame, his beady eyes, his hare lip, and his stubbly head. Feral aroused feelings in the she-warrior that she had long suppressed. When she looked at Feral, her mouth watered, her palms became sweaty, and her loins, how they ached.

At first she dismissed her feelings for the spy. He was an agent of the Lord's Alliance. He did the bidding of tyrants and autocrats - the very concepts to which the Order of the Gauntlet stood in opposition. She ignored him for months. As the weeks bore on and the expedition delved deeper and deeper into the Earth, the expedition lost more and more of its members. Where once there were dozens now there were only five. It was becoming evident that she might not survive this campaign. She decided she would not die without knowing the love of the disfigured assassin.

She finally worked up the courage and, for the first time in over 120 days of traveling together, spoke directly to the object of her affection.

"Feral. Feral. Hey Feral. Feral." rasped Tamryn.

Feral glanced her way, his eyes narrowing, his cleft lip a sneer, "What?" His thin paranoid voice extruded the word, stretching it out like suspicious taffy.

"Feral. Feral. We should totally, you know, breed. Together. Hey Feral!"

His eyes narrowed to slits. His lips became a taut grimace, "Pass."

Rejection.

But Tamryn was not one to capitulate easily. She was persistent and she knew one thing: she would get her man.

OUT OF THE ABYSS, CHAPTER 35

"THE WORM NURSERY"

Five heroes scour the Underdark

in order to find the ingredients 
of an arcane ritual
that will banish the Demon-Lords
back to the Abyss
from which they escaped.

The heroes have arrived
at the location where they
were told they'd find
the Egg of a Purple Worm
only to find an empty corridor...

THE LEADERS OF THE EXPEDITION

• Sir Valerius Adeques - (PC, human paladin 10) Defender and champion of the old gods of nature.
• Virtue - (PC, human paladin 7/warlock 3) A mysterious wild card of unknown allegiance.
• Santaka - (NPC) a baby red dragon, loyal to Virtue.
• Willow - (PC, human wizard 8) "the solution is always fireball!" 
• Phwee-toop - (NPC) Salix/Willow's owl familiar.
• Ront - (PC, half-orc barbarian 10) Savage orc of the Iron-Thews tribe seeking redemption for his failures.
• Pain Grille' - (PC, halfling rogue 10) Wily street urchin from Waterdeep, was turned to stone in Blingdenstone but got better.

THE SURVIVING MEMBERS OF THE EXPEDITION

• Thora Nabal - (NPC)  human warrior of the Order of the Gauntlet
• Sylrien Havennor - (NPC)  human warrior of the Order of the Gauntlet
• Elias Drako - (NPC)  human warrior of the Order of the Gauntlet
• Tamryn Tharke - (NPC)  human warrior of the Order of the Gauntlet
• Feral Killmander - (NPC)  human spy of the Lord's Alliance
• Pok-Pok - (NPC) winged kobold.
• Sparky - (NPC) trained fire-beetle. 
• The Shield Guardian - (NPC) a contribution from Lord Zelraun Roaringhorn of the Harpers.

COLLAPSE
The tablet of Garmin indicated that they had arrived at the Worm Nursery. Pain looked at the glass tablet then looked around. The expedition was standing in the middle of a long smooth tunnel. There were no side passages. No entrances. Nothing to indicate the presence of the Worm Nursery.

Suddenly, a massive tremor caused the tunnel floor to give way beneath their feet! Several members of the expedition fell twenty-feet feet into the sinkhole below. The others were able to avoid the fall. After regaining their bearings, Pain noticed a passage out of the sinkhole. They secured ropes and lowered the remaining members of the expedition. Once reassembled, they set off down the new passage.

The passage branched after about thirty or forty feet. The left branch entered a grotto filled with fungi, mushrooms, and lichen. It appeared to be well maintained like a garden. The right branch rose sharply. Bones lay scattered at the bottom of the rise.

Phwee-toop was sent ahead with Pok-Pok to scout the next room. Willow, observing through her owl's eyes, reported that the room was filled with assorted bones of humanoid creatures. Pok-Pok explored a small fissure on the far end of the room. The owl joined the flying kobold and saw a deep well. Wind was slowly and regularly pulled into and blown out of the well as if it were breathing.

The expedition entered the room of bones and began to search. The bones were knee deep. Nothing could be found. Willow even tried to sense the presence of magic but found none.

Again they found themselves in a dead end. Pain scratched his head and wondered why the Tablet of Garmin would lead them here.

After ten minutes of searching, the bones in the room began to reverberate and rattle with the approach of a gargantuan purple worm. Ser Valerius quickly led everyone back to the fungus room.

There was another falling of rocks as the ten-foot-wide worm entered through the recently collapsed ceiling. The worm then followed the passage past the fungus room and into the bone room. The giant worm then dug a new passage in the wall of the bone room and disappeared.

The expedition slowly emerged from the fungus room and followed the worm's passage. The worm left a tunnel that sloped downward forty feet and opened into a large chamber.

THE CRECHE

Pain and Ser Valerius crept down the slope of the newly dug tunnel and peered into the chamber beyond. The chamber was a large round room nearly two hundred feet wide. The sixty-foot ceiling was covered in stalactites. There were exit tunnels to the right, left, and directly opposite. Seven clusters of large round spheres were suspended from a large network of hard resin strands the size of tree trunks. Each egg was a three foot diameter sphere likewise covered in the hard resin.

DM Note- I built the creche using styrofoam balls cut in half and suspended on dowels with other dowels showing connections. My original plan was to glue everything together using a glue gun and make it look all creepy and biological but I ran out of time.

The worm slowly circled the room. Pain and Ser Valerius retreated to the bone room to wait in the hopes that the worm would soon leave. Willow sent Phwee-toop to fly around and monitor the worm's movements.

Fifteen minutes later, the ground began to tremble heralding the approach of another worm. This new worm entered from a different direction, creating a new exit from the creche. The team cursed their luck but continued to wait.

After ten more minutes past, another worm joined the first two. It seemed the worms weren't leaving. The team continued to wait, committing to waiting at least an hour.

Five minutes passed and a fourth worm entered the chamber. DM Note- I rolled for random encounters every five minutes. I rolled a 19, indicating another worm's entry.

They waited for the remaining thirty minutes with no sign of additional worms and no sign of any of the worms leaving. DM Note- I figured if I rolled a 1-2 on the random encounter roll, one of the worms would leave.

Their hesitation now meant they had to deal with FOUR purple worms!

THE PLAN
Pain and Willow formulated a plan.

Willow directed Ser Valerius to join her on her magical flying broom. The pair then flew into the room and hovered within sixty feet of one of hte worms. Willow using her free hand, cast a polymorph spell on the worm, turning the gargantuan beast into a sheep. She then dropped near the sheep. Ser Valerius jumped off the broom, grabbed the confused sheep with one hand, and re-mounted the broom.

DM Note- I asked Willow's player what she turned the worm into. She said, "anything fluffy and safe." So I grabbed a handful of plastic barnyard animal toys I use for minis, held them in my closed fist, and had her pick at random. Sheep it was!

While Ser Valerius held onto the sheep with one hand and the broom with the other, Willow steered the flying broom out of the creche and back into the bone room. Ser Valerius hopped off the broom and dragged the wriggling sheep through the narrow cleft towards the windy shaft. He then dropped the bleating sheep down the shaft.

The sheep could be heard bleating for several seconds as it fell. There was a the sound of a sickening wet explosion as the sheep reverted back to the form of a purple worm on impact.

DM Note -  The plan required the worm to fail its Wisdom save (purple worms have +4 Wisdom saving throws), then Valerius had to make a successful grapple against the sheep. The first worm rolled a 2 for its Wisdom save. Valerius made his grapple easily. When a polymorphed creature is reduced to 0 HP, it reverts back to its original form and takes any carryover damage. At 1d6 per 10 feet, that's 100d6 or 350 points of damage. A sheep has maybe 4 hp. A purple worm has 250+. The purple worm exploded!

Willow and Ser Valerius reset and executed the maneuver again, with equally lethal results for the worm.

DM note - second save = 5

They flawlessly performed the maneuver a third time.

DM note - third save = 1

On the fourth attempt, the worm began to change shape but the worm fought back, willing itself to resist the spell!

DM note - fourth save = natural 20. 

Willow had used the last of her polymorph spells. The worm immediately attacked Ser Valerius, swallowing him whole! The worm's tail then whipped around and impaled Pok-Pok in mid-air! Pok-Pok screamed and fell to the ground dead.

Battle was soon joined as Ront, Pain, and Ser Valerius' celestial lion mount rushed into the room and attacked the worm.

Pain quickly joined Ser Valerius within the worm's digestive tract!

Ront and the celestial lion continued attacking at melee while Willow hurled fireballs and fiery chromatic orbs at the worm. The worm was eventually killed.

While Ront worked at cutting his companions out of the worm, he was struck by a poison crossbow bolt from a hidden location and fell unconscious.

THE DARK HUNTERS
Curtains of magicall darkness fell around the Ront and the body of the purple worm, hiding both Ront and the remains from view. Additional crossbow bolts at Ser Valerius' celestial lion as drow hunters swarmed in and surrounded the beast.

One of the drow hunters cautiously probed the writhing body of the purple worm. Ser Valerius exploded out of the body of the worm and eviscerated the drow hunter with righteous carnage!

Willow flew around to a gap in the walls of darkness, "Stop fighting! We have one of your own! Her name is Hanne Hallen!"

The imperious voice of a female drow cut through the din of battle, "STOP FIGHTING! What is this you say about my daughter?"

Willow and Ser Valerius explained the circumstances of their encounter with the young drow Hanne and her subsequent accompaniament. Hanne was brought forward and reunited with her mother. The drow commander thanked them and informed them that House Myzzen was forever in their debt.

The curtains of darkness were dispelled and the drow hunters set about their work harvesting the eggs of the purple worm from the resin matrix. The drow cut the eggs free from the resin using sinuous knives before lowering them to the ground in fine mesh  nets suspended by spider silk ropes. The team observed and took notes before they split up and cut down six eggs of their own.Their tools and techniques were much less refined than the drow experts but they managed to safely lower six eggs using Willow and her magical flying broom.

As the expedition prepared to exit the creche, the drow commander informed them of an easier exit and warned them to take the right tunnel. The guardian of the creche rested in poisoned slumber in his chamber down the left tunnel.

As they left they came to the chamber with the left and right branches. The chamber produced extraordinary echoes thanks to finely tuned resin strands. The members of the expedition did their best to make as little sound as possible so as to not wake up the sleeping guardian.

Tamryn, however, took the opportunity to whisper her crude affections towards Feral. Feral rolled his eyes and tried to ignore her. Willow was forced to hush Tamryn into silence. Tamryn was cowed by the wizard's withering glare.

The expedition made their way back to the main tunnel and loaded their six eggs onto their pack lizards. They checked the tablet of Garmin for their next destination: The Vast Oblivium, only twelve miles away.

TO BE CONTINUED...

DM Note- We ended somewhat early at 10:30pm. When I told the players that a fomorian was sleeping in the other room, they expresed their disappointment for not being able to fight it. That being said, they also worried for the outcome. Their only memory of fighting a fomorian was a very difficult encounter in Fourth Edition. Fomorians were TOUGH in 4E. 

"The Spawning Pool" - Out of the Abyss, Chapter 34

Willow thought the deep gnomes were making progress. The wizard had stayed behind the Chasm Bridge to help rehabilitate the two former slaves. When she found them, they were hooded and chained to a wall. They were meek, cowed, and afraid. They were the unfortunate play-things of a human named Mistle, an evil wizard that had hired ogres to collect an exorbitant toll to cross the Chasm Bridge. Willow and her companions had defeated Mistle and sent him fleeing into the Underdark. Since then she had learned that the former slaves were traveling to Blingdenstone when they were captured by the nearby gargoyles and given to Mistle as tribute.

Willow had learned their names: Derilogit and Toroukil. The two deep gnomes were typically dour and circumspect. She had spent days working to rebuild their independence and confidence after their months of forced servitude and indoctrination.

One day, she was sipping tea and having a conversation with the deep gnomes when there was a voice at the entrance to the cavern that Mistle once called home.

"Those belong to me!"

"Excuse me?" said Willow as she carefully put down the cup and stood to face the intruder. The human intruder hobbled into the light of the room.  He wore the robes of a wizard. He was missing his left leg and used a staff as a crutch.

"I am Mistle the Mage and I've come back to reclaim what is mine. Those two there are my slaves. They are mine. This whole place is mine and I have come back to reclaim it."

Willow's eyes narrowed and she tightened her grip around her flying stick, "Over my dead body."

"That can be arranged. Accourding to the rules and traditions of the wizarding guild of Waterdeep, I challenge you to a wizard duel."

"You're on."

OUT OF THE ABYSS, CHAPTER 34

"THE SPAWNING POOL"

Five heroes scour the Underdark

in order to find the ingredients 
of an arcane ritual
that will banish the Demon-Lords
back to the Abyss
from which they escaped.

En route to the Wormwrithings to 
procure the egg of a gigantic Purple Worm
they heroes come across
a large force of Troglodytes
arguing over a sword...

THE LEADERS OF THE EXPEDITION

• Sir Valerius Adeques - (PC, human paladin 10) Defender and champion of the old gods of nature.
• Virtue - (PC, human paladin 7/warlock 3) A mysterious wild card of unknown allegiance.
• Santaka - (NPC) a baby red dragon, loyal to Virtue.
• Willow - (PC, human wizard 8) "the solution is always fireball!" 
• Phwee-toop - (NPC) Salix/Willow's owl familiar.
• Ront - (PC, half-orc barbarian 10) Savage orc of the Iron-Thews tribe seeking redemption for his failures.
• Pain Grille' - (PC, halfling rogue 10) Wily street urchin from Waterdeep, was turned to stone in Blingdenstone but got better.

THE SURVIVING MEMBERS OF THE EXPEDITION

• Thora Nabal - (NPC)  human warrior of the Order of the Gauntlet
• Sylrien Havennor - (NPC)  human warrior of the Order of the Gauntlet
• Elias Drako - (NPC)  human warrior of the Order of the Gauntlet
• Tamryn Tharke - (NPC)  human warrior of the Order of the Gauntlet
• Feral Killmander - (NPC)  human spy of the Lord's Alliance
• Pok-Pok - (NPC) winged kobold.
• Sparky - (NPC) trained fire-beetle. 
• The Shield Guardian - (NPC) a contribution from Lord Zelraun Roaringhorn of the Harpers.

WIZARD DUEL ON THE CHASM BRIDGE
Willow and Mistle stood at opposite ends of the Chasm Bridge. Willow was flanked by her owl familiar Phwee-toop and her the ten foot tall automaton that served as her shield guardian. Mistle supported himself on his crutch behind two duergar fighters wearing brass chain mail.

Willow, Phwee-Toop, and the Shield Guardian

The two wizards stared at each other. A strong wind blew threw the cavern whipping their cloaks and hair. Minutes passed in silence. The duergar became restless.

Suddenly, as if in response to some silent signal, the wizards sprang into action!

Mistle and his Duergar Warriors

Mistle cast an ice storm spell. Willow immediately dismissed the attack with a counterspell and became invisible. She mounted her magic tree branch and took flight. The winds made it difficult to control.

The shield guardian cast a confusion spell that Willow had prepared for it earlier. One of the two duergar stood dumbfounded but the other charged forward across the bridge. Phwee-toop fled the scene and hid behind some rocks.

The first duergar became a giant and engaged the shield guardian in melee combat. The second duergar finally overcame his confusion and joined his companion in charging the other side of the bridge.

Mistle became frustrated at his inability to target Willow. He tried to become invisible himself but suffered another counterspell!

Willow cast a fireball at the charging duergar but was, in turn, foiled by Mistle's counterspell.

The two wizards traded spells in this way. Mistle was eventually wounded by a few of Willow's chromatic orb spells and was forced to order his duergar to retreat. The wizard then disappeared in a puff of silvery mist. The two duergar became invisible and disappeared.

Willow flew down to the passage at the far end of the bridge. She shouted into the darkness, "Eat shit, asshole! Never come back!"

A SENDING
Willow was convinced that she had lost her companions forever. She had no way of knowing where they were or how to find them.

One day her shield guardian shuddered. Its movements became suddenly fluid and natural. It looked at its mechanical hands, turning them over in front of its "face".

The shield guardian ran its hands up and down its body as if feeling its hips and chest and face.

A voice magically emanated from where its mouth would normally be, "Well, hello there! I simply MUST get me one of these!"

The voice emanating from the shield guardian was refined, elegant, and decadent. The words poured languidly over the strange accent in a way that made the listener feel dirty and uncomfortable, like you needed to take a shower afterward. Its movements were serpentine and lithe.

Willow was confused, "Um, hello?"

The shield guardian seemed to be suddenly reminded of why it was here, "Oh, right. You are Willow, correct? I am Vizerian, former Archmage of Menzoberranzan. I have a message for you."

"Go ahead, I guess?"

"Your companions have been to Gravenhollow. There they met me. We are working together to resolve this.. incursion. I have sent them on a quest to gather some necessary ritual components. If you wish to rejoin them, I will instill into this shield guardian the knowledge of how to find them. Simply follow the guardian and you will be reunited with them. Is that understood?"

Willow nodded.

"Good. Now if you will excuse me. I think I will pop off to the Infinity Market to see about acquiring a shield guardian for myself."

The shield guardian shuddered again and was once more its stolid laconic self.

Soon thereafter, Willow packed her equipment and enough supplies for a long journey through the endless caves and passages of the Underdark. She bade farewell to the deep gnomes and strode across the bridge in search of the rest of the expedition.

She followed the shield guardian for dozens of days, if travelling as far as she could before resting as long as was necessary could be called a "day". She eventually reached a region of smooth tube-like passages. A few days later she encountered Valerius Adeques and the warriors of the Gauntlet clearing the rubble of a cave-in. Valerius reported that he had been separated from the expedition by the cave-in which was caused by the passing of a gargantuan purple worm.

After clearing the passage the expedition encountered a group of seventeen dwarves coming from the opposite direction. The dwarves reported that they had escaped from troglodyte captivity and that they encountered the expedition a ways back. DM Note- At this point, I retconned the story of the dwarves they met last week to being escaped prisoners. This revised story ties in better with the upcoming troglodtye encounter. The players liked it much better.

Willow and Valerius, along with their entourage, continued on. They eventually found the remains of Thargus Forkbeard who had been slain by a drow's poisoned arrow. Thargus' bare bones had been picked clean of even the smallest bit of meat and gristle.

They finally caught up to the expedition on the following day. Virtue, Pain, Ront, and Feryl were crouched among some loose rocks and boulders observing the events in a large cavern ahead. Pain noticed the brilliant daylight of Valerius' sun-sword Dawnbringer and quickly motioned the paladin to dim the radiance of the blade. Valerius complied and rolled his eyes at Dawnbringer's subsequent protestation.

At the entrance to the Cavern

Valerius and Willow joined the others in the surreptitious reconnaissance of the events within.

DIVISION IN THE TROGLODYTE CAMP

The cavern beyond was as large, at least two hundred feet deep and four hundred feet wide with a two hundred foot ceiling covered in stalactites. On the right wall of the cavern was a low crater filled with warm water. Steam wafted from the water's surface. The water overflowed the banks of the crater and formed a small river, fifteen feet wide, that bisected the cavern. The stream disappeared into a passage on the left wall. The ground rose to a plateau on the far side of the creek while a small steep hill rose on the near side close to the entrance.

One had to struggle to keep from wretching at the horrible stench that emanated from the room.

Albino reptile-men, so-called troglodytes, were the source of the stench. They were arranged into two factions, each numbering around two-dozen, facing off on either side of the creek. They were shouting at each other in the strange growling hissing language of the subterranean brutes. The group on the far side held the high ground atop the plateau. Their leader was old and fat but held aloft a curved short sword of drow manufacture.

The group on the near side were led by a tall strong warrior that did all the talking. He kept pointing to a large bloated troglodyte lashed to two stone pillars atop the steep hill. He pointed back to the old troglodyte with the sword, then clutched his fist.

Brood Mother

The old troglodtye waved the sword around haphazardly and shouted back defiantly.

The disagreement seemed to stem from the sword. The tall warrior wanted the sword and was holding the female hostage until he got it. The older one refused to five up the sword and demanded the release of the hostage who was apparently a troglodyte of some importance.

THE PRISONERS
Meanwhile, Pain had noticed a small tunnel to the right. The tunnel was barely large enough for a dwarf of halfling to fit through and appared to have been recently excavated. Pain told the others and Willow sent Phwee-toop the owl hopping through the winding tunnel to see where it led.

After about a hundred feet, the owl saw a room filled with crates and captured loot, as well as supplies, carrying litters, and a ten-foot wide hole in the ground. About a half-a-dozen small chains were draped over the edge of the pit and were connected to a nearby wall. A troglodyte walked up to the pit and hauled the chain up hand-over-hand. At the end of the chain was a naked dwarf with bound hands and feet. The troglodyte disconnected the dwarf from the chain and carried the dwarf into another chamber. Willow reported what she saw through the owl's eyes and recalled her familiar.

Troglodyte Cavern

Valerius asked Pain to check the tablet of Garmin. The path to the worm nursery led through the cavern. They could bypass the cavern at the expense of over a dozen more days of travel. Valerius scowled and said, "To hell with that. We're going through."

He stood, held Dawnbringer aloft, and entered the cavern. The magic sword flared and filled the area with the light of day. The two troglodytes immediately ceased shouting at each other as everyone turned to face the interloper. A few nearest the entrance used their arms to shield their eyes from the shining sword.

Valerius addressed the troglodytes in Common, "We want no trouble. There is no need for violence. We will rescue the prisoners held in the pit and leave through that exit over there. If you interfere with us you will die. Do you understand me?"

The large warrior stepped forward and replied in broken Common, "You do not belong here Overworlder. This cave belongs to trogs. You will not pass!"

Valerius pointed his sword at the warrior, "Yeah, no. That's not going to happen."

Virtue intervened, "Look, look. We don't know what's going on here with all," the tiefling indicated the bound hostage, "...this. It's none of our business. But how about we make a deal? How about you let us pass and we kill those guys for you? Would you like to become the new chieftain?"

The Champion of Laogzed

The warrior stood as erect as he could, "NO! This is trog matter! Chieftain is chieftain and we mean chieftain no harm. I am Chosen One of Laogzed! I defeat the drow and take sword! Sword belong to me by right! We have brood mother ripe with eggs. The chieftain will give me sword and we will give brood mother back. We don't want chieftain killed. But we ARE hungry, so we will kill you and EAT you!"

THE MASSACRE 
The warrior shouted the order to attack and two dozen troglodtyes, some nearly as big as ogres, charged. Valerius, astride his celestial lion mount, rode into their midst while Ront charged the right flank. Pain nimbly moved amongst the troglodytes, never staying in one place, stabbing and moving on. Troglodytes quickly swarmed Ront and Valerius, clawing at the celestial lion and trying to take the paladin from his mount.

DM Note - I spiced up the troglodytes with a few "troglodyte brutes" - using stats for an Orog to make a tougher troglodyte. It didn't help much since they were mowed down by the second fireball, leaving one or two to mop up.

The Troglodyte Forces

Feryl and the Gauntlet warriors formed a rear guard and fired crossbows at any troglodytes that approached Willow.

Willow remained behind the rear guard and cast a fireball spell into the mass of troglodytes. Over half of them died outright. Willow's precision shielded Valerius, Ront, and Pain from injury.

Virtue remained just forward of the rear and directed the baby dragon Santaka to kill the brood mother. Santaka leaped onto the rise and engulfed everyone in fiery breath. She then cast her own fireball over the troglodytes eliminating all but the toughest even though her relative imprecision meant injuring her companions.

The battle was over as Valerius, Ront, and Pain mopped up the remaining opponents.

The two dozen troglodytes allied with the chieftain atop the plateau tried to retreat into the safety of an escape passage behind them. Willow took flight on her magic branch and cast a fireball spell into their midst. Another subsequent fireball destroyed any survivors.

THE LARVAE
Ront said to the others, "Ront getting sword." and began wading through the shallow creek that divided the cavern.

Suddenly Ront was beset by hundreds of tiny aquatic reptilian-fish - the larval form of troglodyte young. The creatures looked like a pale white reptilian head and a long fish-like tail. Each was as big as a man's hand. Its mouth was lined with dozens of tiny razor-sharp teeth. The creatures were attracted to the blood seeping from the wounds Ront sustained in the preceding battle.

Ront expressed surprise but the bits were little more than an nuisance. After Ront's initial shock, Pain asked the orc, "Are you okay?"

To which Ront let out a long sigh and replied, "No. Little fish are cleaning Ront. Ooh! That tickled!"

Ront left the stream and climbed the plateau to retrieve the drow short sword while the others explored the side caves in search of the captives.

Ront

CAPTIVES
Valerius, Pain, Virtue, and Willow and the others explored a passage to the right and found the chamber with the pit and supplies.

A troglodyte butcher came walking into the room to investigate the commotion and was quickly cut down. DM Note - I didn't even bother.

Valerius pulled the chained captives out of the pit, finding four dwarves and two drow. All were emaciated and weak. The two drow backed away from the Overworlders and escaped to the main passage. There they encountered Ront carrying his great sword in one hand and the short sword in the other.

They froze. Ront intercepted them and backed them up against a wall, growling. They retreated into the side chamber and were interrogated.

They were members of an expedition hunting for purple worm eggs. Their expedition had been attacked and separated and they were eventually captured by the troglodytes.

The dwarves, for their part, said they were a part of a larger expedition searching for purple worm tailings. The expedition had been captured but seventeen of them managed to escape through a tunnel they dug in the wall.

They gave the captives food and water. The drow refused their help and demanded to be set free. They were allowed to leave.

Ront examined the short sword. It had words engraved on it. He gave it to Valerius. The word were in a dialect of elvish used by the drow. They said, Oloth thu malla, "Darkness be praised". Ront wrinkled his snub nose at the idea of a short sword and gave it to Pain.

The next chamber contained fissures that emmitted scalding steam. A slab of stone nearby was used to butcher the dwarven and drow captives. A vein of precious gems could be seen surrounding the vents. Ront took the pick he acquired from Thargus Forkbear and chipped away a few gems. The fissue suddenly shot him with hot steam, burning the orc. Ront recoiled and said, "Screw that!"

DM Note- Chipping away gets a die roll. There's a 1-in-10 chance of getting scalding steam in the face. Every round you chip away some stones, you get 1d10x10gp worth of gems. On the first round I rolled a steam result. I then told Ront's player the odds. The player weighed the cost benefit and decided to walk away.

THE ROPERS

A dark passage led out of the prisoner cavern. They followed the passage until it opened into another chamber. Water dripped from hundreds of stalactitles hanging from the ceiling. The floor was likewise covered in stalagmites formed by the dripping water. There appeared to be no well-used path through the chamber. They carefully wound their way through many spires. Halfway through the passage Pain spotted what appeared to be the partially eaten remains of a humanoid figure. Before he could check it out he was grabbed by a tentacle and hosted into the air. Ront and Virtue were likewise hoisted aloft by strange tentacles.

They were drawn toward a large stalactitle on the ceiling. A single red eye glared at them as the tentacles moved them towards the large slavering maw of a roper!

Ambushed by Ropers

Valerius blinked and began rummaging through his backpack for a crossbow. Willow took flight on her magic branch and cast a fireball spell on the roper while shielding her companions from the blast. The inferno incinerated the roper's tentacles and everyone fell fifty feet to the ground.

Pain got up and activated his magic boots. He quickly climbed up the side of the wall and held onto a stalactite. He moved from stalactite to stalactite like a gibbon until he was close enough to attack the roper.

DM NOTE- 6d6 sneak attack damage. All ones! It was an epic Yahtzee! 

Epic Ones!

Other stalactites dropped from the ceiling revealing themselves to be piercers! DM NOTE- Piercers are essentially useless at this level.

Suddenly, a second roper extruded its tentacles and began to grab the party off the floor!

Virtue launched a fireball of her own, incinerating the tentacles. Everyone held aloft was dropped.

The first Roper extruded new tentacles and picked up some more victims. Willow cast anouther fireball with by-now predictable results.

Pain finally got another good attack on the first roper. DM NOTE- Natural twenty! Critical hit!

His sword pierced the rocky shell and the roper slid out of its casing. The meaty inside fell to the ground with a wet slap.

A final fireball from Virtue seared the second roper.

Ront stood up and began cutting off chunks of cooked roper, "Mmm, cave oyster!"

Pain investigated the humanoid body. It was a drow escapee. A nearby sack contained two spells crolls and a handfull of coins.

Ront choked on some roper meat and spat out a ring.

DM NOTE-  Gravity did more damage to the party than any encounter so far this entire campaign.

The passage eventually linked with the main cavern behind the plateau. The ground was littered with two dozen badly burned dead troglodytes. The smell was incredibly unpleasant.

Looking down to the left they could see the water-filled crater. It was swarming with tiny troglodyte larvae and water-orb mushrooms.

The party found six giant lizard mounts tied in a nearby grotto. At the rear of the grotto was a small concealed passage, barely large enough for a human to squeeze through.

A SCOUTING MISSION

Pain Grille'

Pain decided to investigate the concealed passage alone. The passage connected to an empty cave with two other exits. The passage to the left led into a room with a warm pool of water fed by a small waterfall  which Pain deduced was fed by the stream in the large cavern. The pool was filled with troglodyte larva like those found in the stream above. He left the pool and returned to the passage on the right.

The other passage crossed several fissures, some as wide as two feet. Glowing lava could be seen at the bottom of the cracks. Pain easily navigated the cracks in the floor but was surprised when a strange serpentine creature made of magma emerged from the nearest crack. The creature was little bigger than Pain himself.

Pain paused, uncertain how to react. The magma creature gave Pain a mischievous grin before spitting fire at Pain. Pain escaped and fled down the passage.

Pain encounters a Maga Mephit

Further down the passage Pain encountered another outlet for the pool in the adjacent passage. Some old zurkhwood planks were laid across the stream to make a makeshift bridge. He crossed the bridge and entered a room filled with old zurkhwood planks - the ruins of some kind of outpost that had long ago been scavenged. The passage ultimately reconnected with the main cavern and Pain rejoined the expedition.

The expedition rested in one of the side caves, away from the stench of the troglodytes, before continuing towards the Worm Nursery.

HANNE HALLEN

The expedition continues towards the Worm Nursery for several more rest cycles. Within a "day" of the nursery, they encounter a cave-in. The cave-in created a void and a huge pile of rubble. As they neared the cavern created by the void, a loud voice declared in Undercommon, "TURN BACK OR SUFFER A DEATH SO HORRIBLE YOU CANNOT IMAGINE! YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED!"

Pain spotted a young female drow hiding behind a large rock. He told her it was alright and that she could approach.

She stood tall and haughty, "Be warned, Overworlders! I am Hanne Hallen, daughter of Zhora Hallen, who is leader of the famed Dark Hunters! I am a powerful witch and I can spell your doom!"

Valerius waved her off, "Whatever. Let's go."

Ront gripped his greatsword, "Ront will KILL HER!"

Pain stayed the orc's blade, "Who are the Dark Hunters? What happened here?"

She defiantly replied, "The Dark Hunters scour the Wormwrithings for the eggs of the Purple Worm and return them to Menzoberranzan for use in powerful magical rituals! There was a cave-in. I survived with several of my warriors. Then we were attacked by troglodytes and my warriors were killed and captured. I alone managed to escape thanks to my powerful wizard spells!"

"Yeah, we saw some of your warriors. We rescued them after we killed all the troglodytes. They ran like frightened bitches," said Pain, bluntly, "Look, we're headed towards the Worm Nursery. You're free to stay here but you're also welcome to join us if you want."

The defiant performance of the teenaged drow gave way for a moment, revealing a glimmer of hope. She immediately regained the affectation of superiority, "I will allow you to serve as my entourage so that I may complete my mission! So be it!"

Pain rolled his eyes, "Whatever. Come on. You travel with her." The halfling indicated Willow.

Ront growled at the newcomer. Virtue mumbled something about killing at the first sign of... then trailed off.

Several miles later, the tablet of Garmin indicated that they were nearing their destination. There were no side passages. No entrances. Nothing to indicate the presence of the Worm Nursery. Suddenly, there was a massive tremor and the tunnel floor gave way beneath their feet! The expedition slid down a curving chute ten feet wide!

TO BE CONTINUED...