Underworld

Played on December 14, 2012
29 Eleint, 1479, Year of the Ageless One The sewers under Daggerford


“You look none the worse for what you’ve been through Sergeant Carric,” Gomorrah said.
Sergeant Carric of the Daggerford Militia stepped into The Coffer’s Secret, a small curio shop which stood across from the Happy Cow tavern. He still wore bandages a healer and priest from the temple to Chauntea used to bind his wounds. “I’m a bit sore, but can manage.”
“Good,” Gaerd said. “Because we’re going down to the sewers.”
After climbing down the ladder from the curios shop, the group found themselves in a large sewer tunnel. Normally it would be extremely dark in the sewers. Fortunately, Gaerd had purchased several containers of unguent of darkvision from Marlon Spellson, Daggerford’s resident wizard and maker of potions. Each container contained enough unguent to provide its user with darkvision for up to an hour.
Waist high murky water, reeking of filth, filled the middle of the tunnel. There were ledges, wide enough to walk upon on either side, provided one walked carefully on its slippery surface.
In one direction the tunnel had collapsed, while the other lead deeper into the sewer system.
The group made their way cautiously along the ledges to avoid stepping into the murky water.
That’s when they noticed faint light coming from around a bend in the tunnel.
Farther down, they spotted an old man laying on the ledge, his back against the wall. He was balding in places and had a long scraggly beard, although with his face turned away from Gaerd, it was hard to completely see his features. He was dressed in an old torn shirt and his pants were patched up in places and was covered in mud. A faint flickering torch, lay on the floor next to him. The torch looked like it was ready to burn out at any second.
The sewage continued in the area where the man lay. Everyone noticed that the water near the old man didn’t seem to swirl as would be expected. It also rounded another corner and disappeared from sight.
Gaerd moved closer to the old man who continued to moan as if in pain. When he reached the water’s edge, he called pon his power of levitation. He slowly drifted towards the man on the other side of the tunnel. From where he hovered, he couldn’t see any visible wound but the man sounded hurt.
Gomorrah made her way to the opposite side. Ivan followed, while Carric remained behind.
As Gaerd floated to within a few feet of the man on the ledge, he started to notice that the man had no visible wounds on him at all!
He was about to say something, when suddenly the old man jerked his head towards the drow. An evil grin began to spread across his face.
His feature suddenly melted away as his body grew in size. The torch on the ground also began to transform, turning into a wicked-looking morningstar almost as long as Gaerd was tall.
“It’s an Oni!” Gaerd yelled to the others as he ducked under the creature’s powerful swing. With its morningstar, the Oni was able to reach an opponent nearly ten feet away! Gaerd returned the attack with his own, cutting a deep gash across it’s chest.
Gomorrah moved back out of the creature’s reach, while Ivan struck it with a conjured magic missile.
The Oni roared in pain and turned to face the sorcerer. It swung it’s morningstar and struck Ivan, lifting the sorcerer off the ledge sending him hurtling into the water with a loud splash.
Gomorrah moved in, easily dodging the Oni’s reach while Gaerd cut the creature across its arm.
The Oni ignored the drow’s attack and struck Gomorrah. She flew back and landed in the water hard. Gaerd looked down. He couldn’t see either Ivan nor Gomorrah. He feared they may have sunk into the murky sewage and could be drowning.
Carric, armed with only a short sword, had no way of attacking the Oni from range.
“Help the others!” Gaerd yelled to the sergeant. He turned in time to avoid being hit by the Oni’s weapon. He lunged with his sword, twisting the blade around the Oni’s wrist which held the bloodstained morningstar. With a quick twist of his blade, the morningstar flew out of the Oni’s grip. Rather than catch it, which he could have don, he let the weapon plunge into the murky water below.
Roaring in rage and anger, the Oni’s form shifted once again. This time, it became a large gaseous cloud and flew under the levitating drow and into a side tunnel.
Gaerd swung his sword as it flew past, but his blade met very little resistance as he cut through the thick cloud that was the Oni.
He turned towards where the Oni had flown to when his attention was suddenly drawn to a large form that began to emerge from out of the sewer.
At first it looked like Ivan and Gomorrah where both emerging out of the water, suspended it seemed in midair.
To both Carric and Gaerd, the truth became quickly apparent.
Both Ivan and Gomorrah were inside a large cube of transparent ooze! Skeletal remains also floated inside the creature. It was hard to tell whether Ivan or Gomorrah were alive or not.
Gaerd wanted to chase after the fleeing Oni but his companions needed his help.
Carric trie to help free Ivan who was within his reach. But as he reached out with his arm, the creature suddenly engulfed him as well.
Gaerd landed on the ledge near where Carric was pulled in by the creature. To his relief, he noticed that the others, although trapped inside the gelatinous cube, were still alive. He could see them moving, struggling to free themselves. He struck at it again, careful to avoid hitting any one of his companions.
Gomorrah suddenly fell out of the creature and landed on the ledge nearby having freed herself. Carric, too, managed to extricate himself from the creature as he landed next to Gaerd. Only Ivan lay trapped inside the creature.
Each then struck at the creature, killing it instantly.
They then immediately pulled Ivan out of the large ooze. They placed the unconscious sorcerer on the ledge. Gaerd then took out a healing potion and administered it to Ivan who quickly regained consciousness.
“We thought you were dead,” Carric said to Ivan who sat on the ledge. Carric was slightly hurt while Gomorrah too looked like she was barely injured in the encounter.
“I nearly was,” Ivan replied. He looked towards Gaerd. “I thank you for the healing potion, but I’m afraid my wounds are far worse than the potion could heal.”
“You’ll need to rest for a day before you can continue,” Gaerd said. He turned towards the tunnel where the Oni flew into. He saw a large chamber where the sewer flowed into. Four large stone pipes allowed the sewage to flow out of the chamber. From one pipe, they could see faint light just beyond a thick set of rusted metal bars. He turned back to face Ivan. “Go up and recover. We’ll continue on ahead without you. Catch up as soon as you are able to.”
Ivan started to protest but Gaerd cut him off. “The unguents which allows us to see in the dark will not last beyond the hour. In your condition, I’m afraid you’ll simply slow us down. And we can’t give that Oni a chance to recover.”
The injured sorcerer knew the drow was right. The others helped him up. He then carefully made his way back to the ladder that led up to the Coffer’s Secret.
He looked back at the others who were busy searching the area before moving on.
A sense of dread began to fill the sorcerer from Waterdeep. Ivan couldn’t help but wonder if he would ever see them alive again.

Plot type

Chapter

Parent Plot

The Shadowblades