The party backtracks to the intersection past the wall of bones. Mantis takes the lead and scouts ahead. He sees the glimmer of 5 eyes ahead before realizing they belong to a pack of Nothics. When the party catches up, Tygorr recognizes ‘Doug’, the nothic he had charmed. Tygorr greets him and quickly learns that a drow wizard lives behind the lone door in the room. While the party examines the random items on the shelves around the room, Tygorr speaks with, and convinces the band of nothics to leave.
Shining Brow opens the door, which leads to another corridor. There, they find a door with a mural of a tentacled stalactite, and Shining Brow find that he can’t open the lock. Mantis steps in, and on a hunch dispels any magic on the door. After that, it’s simple to pick the lock and open the door. Inside is a chamber containing a wooden table covered in a rough map of the dungeon. As the party enters, a disembodied voice says “Welcome to my parlor… Yes, yes come in!”
Mantis cautiously begins to negotiate with the voice, but after only a few moments Tygorr unshutters his lantern of revealing, and a previously invisible drow materializes in the corner. The party quickly, and without further discussion, attacks the dark elf. As the fight begins, Tygorr sees three previously invisible rat men hanging from the ceiling, just as they drop onto the party in ambush! The drow vanishes in a puff of mist, just as a werewolf enters the fray from the next room.
Shining Brow sees the drow in the hallway outside, and Mantis releases a fireball, which also catches Alabaster and Tang Wu in its radius. Shining Brow and Tang Wu corner the drow, and demands his surrender. Tang Wu grabs Shining Brow’s writst, and drives his blade towards the drow’s throat. The dark elf disappears again, just as the party finishes the lycanthropes in the chamber. They spend several minutes searching the area, but are unable to find him. They also search the map chamber, to find the table has been disturbed in the fight, and the map is useless. Under a chair, the group finds a bag the size of a book, a wand with the symbol of the Xanathar, and a large stone key. Runes on the key read “Meet me in the level lost, find my twin in slither swamp”.
The group moves forward, up a short flight of stairs to a new passageway. They decide to avoid a room containing two armored creatures with feather tusks fighting over a rusted metal helm, and proceed the opposite way. The tunnels seem familiar, and eventually loop back to the gate leading back to the forested level below. After activating and passing through the gate, the group emerges from the gate house into the forest once again.
They move to investigate the huge tree, and find a door. Mantis knocks, and is greeted by a wooden carved figure. The figure says “You have been expected. I am Halastree.” He leads the party into the tree and into a large throne room. An elven woman sits on a yellow crystal throne. A black panther with tentacles sits at her feet. She greets the group, and introduces herself as the Archdruid Wyllow, ruler of the Wyllowwood.
After thanking the party for defeating the cloakers, she offers to show them a path forward as a reward. The party agrees, and Halastree leads them to a tunnel named “The Umber Hulk Cave” which will take them to the swamps in the lower level. As the party advances into the cave, Shazuu is shot from behind with a bolt of lightning from a glowing ball. A voice from the ball screams, “Traitor! Oath Breaker!” As the group turns to help, Shazuu cuts down the creature, and the group turns back to the cave to head down towards the Level of the Lost.
For Next Time:
- Are there Umber Hulks ahead? If there are, we may be dead!
- Was anyone bitten by the were creatures, and what is their fate?
- Is Tang Wu cursed, or just touched in the head?
- When is a good time to leave the caverns of Undermountain?