The ground begins to shake, knocking Shining Brow down the muddy slide. A noise pings in the minds of the group, as if a door opened. A voice rings out,

“Leave this place, for it is my domain. I will not tolerate incursions into my holdings. If you depart now, I shall let you take the river to the south and further into the mountain. If you stay, you shall be destroyed.”

The party takes stock of the situation, and Alabaster creates a duplicate of himself behind the creature.  Trusting the party’s earlier advice, he casts a curse through the duplicate. The creature shatters and disappears.  The scream pierces minds again, but it also seems to emanate from one of the tunnels to the east, accompanied by higher pitched shrieks. Alabaster quickly cast’s invisiblity upon himself, and his duplicate shouts a rallying cry, “All together now! This way!” He attempts to lead the party towards the east tunnel. Tygorr navigates the muddy slope and joins the group at the bottom of the rise, while Shazuu and Shining Brow move out of the muddy ground, and head towards the shrieks to the east.

Three crustacean-like monsters emerge from the darkness, they stand 10-feet tall to the shoulder, and tenticles dripping with icor spill from their mouths.  Mantis hears sounds from the tunnel leading from the riverside, and alerts the party.The party attacks, but one of the lobstrosities quickly grabs Shining Brow, poisoning and paralyzing him with its tentacles. The creature drags the tabaxi back through the caves, it’s fellows guarding it’s retreat.

Troglodytes begin to pour down the slope behind the party, but thinking quickly, Tygorr releases a fireball, destroying them utterly. The fire pours out of the narrow tunnel, singeing him, but he’s mostly unharmed. Shazuu calls upon his arcane knowlege, and takes a misty step, appearing next to the creature that captured Shining Brow. He smites the lobstrosity, which shatters its chitinous shell, kills the beast, and frees Shining Brow. Shining Brow shakes off the paralysis and keeps himself from drowning.  

The party decides that it’s best bet is to escape the mist creature, and begins to flee towards the sludge filled river. The mist starts to return, and the creature reappears.  It takes control of Tang Wu, commanding him to attack his companions. Mantis and Shining Brow begin to move downriver, but Tang Wu attacks Alabaster.  The group returns to assist Alabaster.

The party dissolves into chaos. Tygorr magically paralyzes Tang Wu with his wand. Shazuu grabs the frozen Tang Wu and begins to flee.  The mist reappears, and Alabaster’s powers seem to be ineffective. The creature hovers in place. Shining Brow abruptly tries to convince the party to leave the monk and flee downriver.  The party retreats as the creature hovers over the river, menacingly. Shining Brow incats a spell, and levitates Shazuu and Tang Wu to the ceiling. “Drop the Monk! He is lost!” he shouts to Shazuu. Mantis realizes that the current picks up, making his waterwalk ability potentially ineffective. 

Shazuu drops Tang Wu into the river, and Shining Brow abruptly ends the levitation spell. Shazuu falls to the river. Shining Brow repeats the proceedure, and levitates Tang Wu into the air. Tang Wu finally shakes off Tygorr’s spell of paralysis, but he cannot escape the levitation. Instead, he attacks from range, and throws a dart into Shazuu. Tygorr, having enough of this business, incants a complicated spell and Tang Wu dissapears with a *POP*, banished to another dimension.

There, the monk finds himself in a green, verdant space. Tang Wu comes to his sense immediately. He is convinced he has reached enlightenment, and has ascended to a higher state of being. This lasts for only a few seconds, as Tygorr’s spell elapses, returning the monk to the dirt and stench of the cave, no longer enchanted by the misty beast. Shining Brow tries to tell Tang Wu he must stay, or every that matters is doomed.  

The group again begins to retreat, and Alabaster uses the power of Tymora to control the water, creating a path down river.  The group moves quickly, but the spell eventually fails, and the watery path begin to collapse. Alabaster casts waterwalk on the party, and the group bobs to the surface.  The group begins to slide down the surface of the rapids until the rushing water slows. They head forward, for a time, slipping and sliding on the water, and below it. Bobbing like corks in the rapids. A gleam of natural light appears, and the river tunnel opens into a sea. Two pillars divide the river from this new body of water.  The cavern walls seem to stretch on to the horizon, beyond their vision, up into a blue sky.

They push the rafts into the water, and split the group among them. The current takes the two boats down river, if not very swiftly. They float for a while, and eventually turn a corner that opens up into a small bay. On one side, a black gondola rests near another beach. At the tiller, a large figure stands, dressed in black. A tense moment passes, as Shazuu believes the figure to be a drow. The group maneuvers the rafts nearer, ready to attack, until at the last moment they see that it’s not a drow, but instead a skeleton dressed in a black, hooded robe.

Mantis investigates, and as he draws near, the figure moves. “Pay me some coin, and ride my boat!” it shouts, in a now-familiar voice. The party considers, and eventually agrees. They pay the fare, and are taken to Skullport.

The ride is uneventful, and the party arrives at the Skullport docks some time later. They engage the services of a guide, and make their way to the Burning Troll Inn. They get rooms for the night, have some conversations with the other patrons, and rest. 

In the morning, several of them head to the Guts & Garters, as instructed by Durnan. Mantis asks the proprietor, Quietude, about the money that she ows Durnan, and the woman chuckles. Apparently, it’s some sort of code, for she offers Mantis services… provisions, porters, and passage to the surface, if need be. Mantis declines, and the party leaves Skullport behind them, taking Steamfall pass to Northeast, and eventually finding passage down.

The passage winds its way downward, and the air becomes warmer and more humid. The passage opens up into a large chamber, dotted with fungus of all types. Mossy paths run between patches of stout trillimac and a forest of towering zurkhwood whose caps scrape the 40-foot-high ceiling. Investigating the many passages exiting the chamber, the find an ettin to the north, harvesting fungus, and talking to itself. Instead of disturbing the creature, the group moves to the Southeast. Gardens of barrelstalk, bluecap, timmask, and trillimac fill the cavern. Between the garden patches meander paths that lead to and from the various exits. Choosing the exit to the west, the party is surprised as massive stalactites fall from the ceiling, piercing them as they pass! They rush forward, disengage themselves from the dangerous passage and move on.

Alabaster is concerned that his former adventuring party may be imprisoned in the room. He professes himself to be a master of stealth, and volunteers to scout the area. He casts a spell of invisibility on himself, and sneaks into the room on magically silent feet. Unfortunately, he grabs the door handle behind him and slams the door with a loud BANG. The drow inside must have been alerted, the party decides, so they take up defensive posture and wait. 

Alabaster, seemingly unaware, scouts the room. It’s immense, and the far end is setup as some sort of alter. A drow priestess stands over a captive, chanting. several other drow, and gigantic spiders, flank her as she chants, and guides hundreds of tiny spiders into the captives mouth and nose. The walls are covered in spiderwebs, and cocoons… many of them burst open from the inside, revealing mangles humanoid corpses. The drow are on alert. They scan the room while the priestess finishes her ritual. Alabaster continues forward, looking for his companions, confident in his abilities.

The drow scan the room, and eventually, examine the door. After one of them pulls it open, the fight is joined! A furious battle between the party, the drow, and the spiders erupts. Eventually, the party is victorious. After searching the now-silent room, Alabaster finds his companion in one of the burst cocoons, a victim of the spiders.

The fight was more than the party had thought that they would face, and their hobgoblin companion pantomimes that there are even more drow to the north. With this news, the part reconsiders, and heads back south to the windy caverns. Mantis takes the lead, and they head off into the web-choked passage. The halls are extremely loud, filled with a humming and shrieking of wind moving through the many side passages. After several turns and twists, they find themselves in a large cavern with a strange half-drow / half-spider prowling back and forth. The creature seems near-mad, raving at the walls, covering his ears at the noise, and shouting in our in the drow’s guttural language. Alabaster comes forward and translates his words:” Stop! Make it stop!” This gives him an idea…. He casts silence on the room, and the drow looks stunned. And he mostly ignores the group as they move through the room.

Alabaster decides to communicate, inviting the now docile creature with them. Some telepathic back and forth reveals that the creature cannot leave, for one he can’t fit through the door, and for the other he claims to be cursed. Alabaster polymorphs the drider into a mouse, gathers him up, and puts him into a pocket. 

The party contiues on to the South, and eventually comes upon a beach-like exit, overlooking a brackish slow-moving river– The Sargauth River, which is known to flow through Undermountain. As the party takes stock of their surroundings, Alabaster places the mouse on the ground, casts ‘remove curse’ upon it, then drops the polymorph spell. Unfortunately, the drider is unchanged physically. His ‘curse’ of madness, however, has been lifted and he attacks the group! The party is exhausted, but they manage to defeat him. The river heads east and west, and they sit to discuss which way to go.

The prisoners include three drow, a hobgoblin, a human, and a dead creature they identify as a grick. Shazuu begins to question the drow, killing one in the process. Mantis frees a human, but is grabbed by a panicked hobgoblin as he passes a cell.  Mantis then makes the same offer as he did to the human, asking for money for release from the cell. The group allows the human, named Geldax, to join the party.

“Prisoner Supply and Storage”

Past the holding cells, the group find space with several wooden tables.  Next to the table is a chest containing more sacks. Alabaster Aegeis is delighted to find his equipment in one of the bags, but is less happy when Mantis starts rifling through his stuff. As Alabaster re-equips, the group gives Geldax his weapons, and place the remaining sacks in the bag of holding.   They pass through another short hall to a second supply chamber. This contains a plain table, but the walls are covered with tools with a more sinister purpose. The torture instruments are cleaner, and in good shape. Shazuu hears the screams of voices in pain emanating from the next room, and charges through the door.

“Drow Torture Enjoyment Center”

Four drow females lounge in this opulent chamber, enjoying the screams coming from four other doors in the room.  Tang Wu once again charges in as more drow flood in from the other doors. Shazuu gets poisoned, and the fight begins to go poorly.  The drow drop darkness spells on the entire area. Mantis manages to find Shazuu and get rid of the poison. Shazuu’ s tiefling vision can see through magical darkness and begins to lay waste to his hated foe.  As the darkness spells begin to fade, the rest of the party finishes what Tang Wu began. Shazuu advances slightly further to scout, but returns to loot the drow. The group finds quite a few interesting items. (See the party treasure sheet).

The party finds the way forward blocked by a massive metal grate, sealed with heavy chains and multiple locks.  Shining Brow begins to work on opening them, but pauses when one of the locks speaks the words, “This section is closed”.  He continues, avoiding a trap, only to be confounded by a solid metal lock with no discernable mechanism. When he moves on to the next lock, he is struck by magical fear, and flees the gate.  Tang Wu pursues him. Mantis and Shazuu try to open the grate, but are unsuccessful. The party re-groups, and decides to go back to an earlier door. They pass through the hall of tentacles again, and move to a new, wide chamber with vaulted ceilings, and five dragon skeletons, set up like museum exhibits.  Unable to find the reason for this display, the group forges ahead, moving down a flight of stairs to a shrine. 

An altar stands in the center, with a mummified corpse.  The walls are covered in dwarven sculptures, and a cloak sits on top of the corpse.  When Tang Wu examines the cloak, it comes to life and begins to entangle and strangle him.  The party helps him fight back, but does as much harm to him as to the cloak. The cloak splits into three entities, attacking the party, but the group takes them down.  They find a pint sized clay flask with a script wrapped around it and some vintage coins. Finding nothing else of value, they go back through the hall of tentacles, and descend a stairway to the third level.

Shazuu opens a door with his boot, and the group enters a 30 x30 room.  In the center is a three foot tall pillar, with spigots on each side, fed by copper piping.  The walls are covered with frescos of dwarves in various scenes of work, sleep, and drinking.  Two dwarves hold copper mugs. Taking one of the mugs, Shazuu opens a tap, pours a mug of ale, and quaffs it. The smell of baking bread comes from the next room.  Shazuu investigates and hears noises…clacking footsteps. The new room is filled with four huge vats made of wood, copper, and stone. One of the back vats smells of something rotten.  As Shazuu approaches, an undead beholder rises from the vat. The party rushes in to join the fight. Tygorr finishes the creature with a blast of radiant energy. With no treasure evident, Mantis takes an empty barrel, and attempts to fill it from the spigots in the previous chamber, but chooses poorly, opening a different spout and releasing green slime, which begins to fill part of the room. Mantis flees the room with the party, slamming the door behind him.

The group moves on.  Beyond a new door is a passage with a steep grade.  Still walking in the lead, Mantis falls in a pit trap, forcing the group to open the trap door and free him.  Near the end of the passage are two more secret doors. They choose one, and it conceals a storage room containing a pyramid of beer barrels.  Finding nothing else of value, they return to the brewing rooms. As they pass through, a green slime falls from the ceiling, but misses the group.  The green mass of slime advances menacingly, but is so slow that the group saunters past it and continues on their way. After a bit more wandering, they discover a staircase leading down.

At the bottom of the stairs, a door opens into a long hallway.  A high slanted roof is lined with red tinted windows. More frescos of dwarves line the walls, and two massive dwarven statues stand on either side of a door at the end of the hall.  On closer inspection, many of the dwarven frescos have been replaced with stone tentacles, and as the group advances, the tentacles begin to writhe. Tang Wu finds a clear path down the middle of the hall, just out of the reach of the tentacles.  He leads them to a door in a side hall, which opens to a room featuring carved pillars, and a strange, metallic, box like creature. Tang Wu attacks, and the group destroys the creature, which disintegrates when beaten. 

The pillars in the room feature four angelic beings.  All four seem to be looking at a spot in the center of the room.  The group begins to search the passages around this room, and find more statues, including a lizard man, a mind flayer, the feathered armadillo they saw earlier, a nothic, troglodytes, an orc, a massive bear, several goats, and a wererat.  After discussion, they drag the nothic statue back to the angelic statues and place it in the middle. Nothing happens until someone notices an elvish phrase “Powered by elven magic…” When repeated out loud, beams shoot from the angels’ eyes, and it is no longer a statue.  Shazuu immediately uses his power to dominate the creature, and make it his servant. He promptly names it Crowley. Tang Wu repeats the process with a goat, and ties it to a rope.

Shining Brow has already moved ahead, and finds a cavern full of fog, and what look to be sarcophagi. Across the foggy room are two huge owlbears.  Dragging the goat and nothic behind, the group assaults the owlbears, and finish them quickly. Investigating the sarcophagus, Shining Brow finds a pot, which turns out to be a pot of awakening, to create awakened plants.  Mantis finds another secret door, leading to a secret crypt. Inside is a coffin carved with a handsome elf holding a cat. The nothic perishes at Shazuu’s hand.

Next time:

• The group continues their search for magical items.
• Durnan mentioned the “Arcane Chambers”, “The Willowood”, and “Selune’s Tears” in his letter
• Return to the Mirror of Wands when strong enough (Lvl 11)
• Return to the map room and figure out how to activate it

Tygorr and Tang Wu wake the rest of the party, and investe their surroundings. The doors are all unlocked, except for one, which is stuck.  It seems to have swollen in it’s frame, until it became stuck. After three failed attempts to open the door, Mantis, Tygorr, and Tang use a rope to pull it open, and are injured by a blast of water that erupts from the doorway.  The room beyond it filled with old furniture and books, all waterlogged and ruined. Mantis finds a 15 inch wand of unknown power.

The party decides to leave the room through a different door. The passage beyond splits left and right. One direction leads into darkness, but one seems lit, and voices can be heard in the distance.  Shining Brow scouts in the direction of  the lit rooms. He spies two rooms that are occupied. One contains a group of bugbears sleeping on pallets. A second room nearby has a group of humans eating hardtack, speaking in a language he cannot understand. After returning to the group, they decide as a committee to move along.  The group spends some time wandering the dark halls, finding themselves walking around in circles.

Next time:

• The group continues their search for magical items.
• Durnan mentioned the “Arcane Chambers”, “The Willowood”, and “Selune’s Tears” in his letter
• Return to the Mirror of Wands when strong enough (Lvl 11)
• Return to the map room and figure out how to activate it

The stairs go down quite a distance, and end in a passage leading to a room full of trash. Dwarven statues have been defaced and replaced with crude images of goblins. Hammering noises come from the halls to the north.  Mantis scouts ahead and discovers a huge hall filled with tents set up among the pillars that support the ceiling. The party sneaks past several groups of goblins, some working to build a stage of sorts.  The party emerges from the tunnels around the hall, and are met by goblin guards. With Mantis’s goblin friend Little Buddy translating, the group learns that this is a marketplace. The guards warn not to cause trouble. 

Next time:

• Wu has returned to the surface (PJ’s out for two weeks).
• The group continues their search for magical items.
• Durnan mentioned the “Arcane Chambers”, “The Willowood”, and “Selune’s Tears” in his letter
• Return to the Mirror of Wands when strong enough (Lvl 11)
• Return to the map room and figure out how to activate it

Mantis begins to scout ahead, but is confronted with a shimmering field covering the entire passage. The ‘field’ moves forward, and he quickly discovers that it is a gelatinous cube. The cube advances, and he immediately flees, yelling for the party to do likewise.  The group retreats, and Shining Brow tries to leave an oil trap behind them. As they flee, they also discovers that all of the doors have shut and locked behind them. Shazuu and Tygorr pick the gelatinous cube apart with their magic.  Eventually, it falls apart, leaving behind some small coins.

The group continues exploring, but several passages end in rock falls or dead ends. One of the dead ends terminates in a tall oval mirror, with carvings of wizards on either side. Mantis casts a spell which reveals the mirror can be activated by a wand held by an individual of sufficient power.  Unable to move forward, the group goes back to the north.

They find another mystery as they move north.  In an alcove not far from the hall, they discover a bas relief of a fat man playing a harp, with the words “Gaze on me with a bronze visage, and secrets I shall reveal.” Unable to solve the puzzle, the group moves on, although Shazuu begins to ask everyone he meets about a “bronze visage”. 

Shining Brow scouts ahead and finds two bugbears on guard.  Shazuu decides to immediately charge them, but the bugbears flee down a nearby hallway.  The party pursues, and blunders headlong into a room full of goblins. Mantis recognizes he can gain an advantage by sneaking around a back path, and loops around while the party begins to fight for their lives.  Shazuu destroys many goblins, but bugbear and goblin reinforcements quickly arrive. Mantis finally flanks them from behind, and the party finishes their foes. They don’t uncover any treasure, but they do find a black obelisk, surrounded by bones, dried flowers, and other offerings from the goblins.  Exhausted from their efforts, the party decides to rest in a tiny hut created by Mantis.

During their rest, the watch spots something outside the hut, but is unable to identify it.  After their rest, the group finds a secret door near their resting spot. Mantis scouts ahead, and rapidly returns after being spotted by a floating eyeball.  Tygorr recognizes it as some sort of arcane eye, or scrying spell. The group realizes that the mad mage Halaster may be watching them.

They move forward into a strangely shaped room. Shazuu is attacked by an invisible force… something like a whirlwind, which also hurls Mantis at his Little Buddy.  The group fights back, and quickly defeats the air elemental.

The party resumes their search for magical items.  The zigzag hallway leads to a corpse with ruined leather armor and a longbow. A secret door leads to a hallway full of dwarven statues.  Mantis meets a cornered were-rat, calms her, and unlocks a door blocking her passage. In turn, she warns of magical traps in a room ahead.  After she flees, the party reaches the door for the room she had mentioned. Peeking inside, the group sees a large were-rat lounging on a throne, and hears squeaks from either side of the room.  While the party argues about entering, Tygorr turns invisible and confirms the room is full of only danger, and sneaks out again.

The group backtracks to doors they had passed earlier.  They investigate a set of doors, both of which lead to rooms that may have once been barracks.  Stacked beds line the walls. In one of the rooms, Shining Brow finds a single skeleton laying on the bed.  Shining Brow casts detect magic, revealing a magic quarterstaff. After securing their first magical item, they follow the passages up a flight of stairs through a large room, into what appears to be a bath chamber.  The party turns some handles, and water pours out of dwarven sculptures.

Content

Next time:

• Wu has returned to the surface (PJ’s out for two weeks).
• The group continues their search for magical items.
• Durnan mentioned the “Arcane Chambers”, “The Willowood”, and “Selune’s Tears” in his letter
• Return to the Mirror of Wands when strong enough (Lvl 11)