Session 21 – Xibalba

Written by KoshcheiBessmertnyi

General Summary

The defeated humanoid is bound while the party attends to its own wounds. A search of the circular chamber where he makes his home reveals little of interest that was not seen earlier – the humanoids’ pockets were stuffed mostly with lint, though some strange bones, and a small reddish-copper ingot are discovered as well. Enkidu and Miletus confiscate the humanoids’ stone axes. The initial interrogation reveals that he speaks goblin, in which he converses with Enkidu, but every so often, he throws in incongruous words, of elvish and other origins, which, as he later avers, belongs to some sort of Underdark lingua franca which he calls “Undercommon” (Theobald and Miletus help to translate). He names himself Gierek (and his slain comrade – Gomulka), and claims to be a bugbear warrior of the Dire Wolf Tribe (so he knew Nugast, and confirms his status as a great shaman). He was taken years ago by the Darkness (a common euphemism for the local elves) to serve as a guardian of the passages to their realm, which he calls Xibalba.
While he assures his captors that he cannot escape owing to the web tattoo over his eye – a claim that later testing apparently proves true, he invites the party members to ascend the stairs of his guard tower, and peer out at the extent of the Xibalba domain. The tower window looks out over an enormous cave, perhaps 20 or so miles in length, and several hundred feet high. The middle of the cave is dominated by a long, thin lake, one that stretches almost to the opposite end. On the sides of the lake are huge stone pillars and stalagmites, covered with mosses, long, grey, tubelike pods, and glowing fungi that function as lights that makes the pillars look almost like illuminated trees. Miletus surmises that these structures are probably not natural – they feel like a specifically elvish type of terraforming. The cave ceiling is dominated by large, glowing carvings of (predominantly subterranean) animals – spiders, serpents, bats, and the like, that are arranged in an almost constellation-like pattern, and vary in intensity over time. There are other, smaller lights there also, which flicker on and off because of a great mass of creeping arachnids and perhaps other vermin occasionally made visible by these lights and the silken-silvery webs that dangle down. The lay of the land slopes down toward the far end of the lake, where there is a city. It is apparently divided into walled circles, and etched with canals. The skyline features a number of tall towers, but it is dominated by what are clearly visible as two step-pyramids at the center, near the water’s edge. The whole city is also somehow illuminated, and its lights also flicker and reflect on the dark waters of the lake.
Led by Theobald and Enkidu, the party proceeds to question Gierek about the realm. He relates that it is ruled by two groups of elves – the Guardians and the Auxiliaries, who occupy the two innermost circles of the city. The Auxiliaries are obviously a warrior elite, while the Guardians appear, from his telling, to be the administrators, and have higher status. The third, outermost (but also largest) circle is populated by non-elves, including goblinoids, orcs, gnolls, kobolds (who generally don’t come down here), and creatures Gierek calls the Deep Goblins, some sort of fish people, who apparently worship an enormous “Old One” that inhabits the lake, and perhaps others (Enkidu sees similarities between the fish people and a sea-dog legend about “Deep Ones” who live along the coast near a town called Saltmarsh). These people are collectively the Producers – they grow food (somehow), herd a kind of cattle, fish, engage in handicrafts and trade, and they are organized into ethnic-type wards, with its own elders and temples. Outside the well-guarded city walls are the dwellings of a certain “mongrel-folk”, who evince features like hooves, horns, and tails, and do not belong to any particular species. They are apparently despised, and assigned to do the most demeaning work, such as disposing of waste, and burying the dead. Beyond the walls are also pastures, and in the very back of the cavern, there are tunnels leading to mines where the elves produce an unfamiliar-sounding mineral. There are other realms if one continues past the mines, including ones belonging to the Deep Goblins, who are sometime enemies of these elves.
At this point, the party attempts to ask various questions. Enkidu enquires about his brother, and whether Gierek has seen him or heard of him. After being shown an image of him, the bugbear responds that there was a boy fitting that description who was brought in as a captive from above several years ago, and that he is likely being housed in the orcish ward (or the elders are probably aware of his presence). Apparently, orcs and goblins do traffic past this guard tower from time to time (a few weavers have just apparently come down a day ago, under guard, from the workshop above). Gierek relates that some of these people are prisoners, like he is, and are restricted from movement by magical tattoos, but, by and large, many of the Producers in Xibalba are satisfied with their lot: their lives are not materially poor, some grow wealthy, and all are governed in day-to-day affairs by members of their own species, may worship as they like, and maintain their own traditions. Glitterstem asks whether there are any people of his type (i.e. gnomes) in Xibalba. To this, Gierek’s answer is indeterminate, though he suggests that the Deep Goblins, who largely specialize in mining and metalwork, are most similar to him in stature.
The battle with Gierek and Gomulka has left the group weakened and exhausted, and they decide to rest in the tower as they ponder their next course of action. Some thought is given to returning to the top, but operating the elevator wheel seems to require a lot of muscle power, and one of the bugbears is dead. Ultimately, a consensus forms about pressing on to the city, especially as Enkidu wants to learn more about his brother. Each party member undertakes a watch as they rest. As best they can, they converse with Gierek, and Glitterstem engages him in a game involving the bones in his pocket, which they toss, but apparently with different expectations. Gierek appears to want to trade his ingot for Glitterstem’s dagger or coonskin cap (or to win them), and even though the trade is not closed, the bugbear’s comfort with the party noticeably grows. In the morning (or after they sleep, anyway), he pledges not to disclose their presence to his masters, but he says they don’t often pass by his tower anyway, and he doesn’t expect them back since the workshop was closed. Ultimately, since the party can’t take him along (he cannot leave), and since there is little desire to kill him, he is left alone.
Glitterstem attempts to detect some healing fungi, and finds one about three miles away, on the left side of the cave, against the cave wall. For that reason, the party decides to take the left bank of the lake (the right side would make for a shorter trip, though according to Gierek, it requires traversing a bridge that has a guardian near it). The terrain proves quite difficult and slow going, because of the uneven terrain and the pillars, and the party must exercise care not to attract the attention of the arachnids and other local denizens. Glitterstem successfully locates the desired mushroom, and, after Miletus climbs to the top of a pillar to survey the lay of the land, the group turns to seek out a place for a meal. Under the long, dangling pods hanging off a particularly tall pillar, they take nourishment. Peculiarly, everyone still seems a little hungry after eating their fill. Goltur the boar has outstanding problems. He devours several bags of Enkidu’s rations, and proceeds to eat the fungi that grow from the pods, until he falls into a heavy sleep. The party wants to continue, especially as they think staying close to this pillar (or maybe others) will negatively affect them in similar ways. Enkidu picks up Goltur, puts him on his shoulders, and with difficulty, the group presses on. Given the difficulty of the terrain, the weight of the animal, and the unfamiliar environment, Enkidu can’t guide the group as effectively as usual, and must rest frequently. The party has made it about a third of the way down before they begin to look for shelter, and fortunately, find a cave inside one of the pillars.

Report Date

02 Jan 2016