250205 Round the bend
General Summary
Well, my avid readers! We find ourselves in pastures new for this humble writer, as I have no notes for this part of the adventure or the next. Whilst I listened intently to my source, I could not get pen to paper due to losing my right arm in a printing press accident. Gruesome! You might say, and you’d be right. The following day’s Bugle was printed in red ink... Anyway, the regeneration spell has almost completed taking effect and I can now plumb the depths of my memory to see what facts I can tease out.
“Bugger!” said Drogon as he spied some standing water in the tunnel ahead. The path appeared to slope down into the water and the ceiling also dipped down. He knew the party would have to go through the water in order to continue. As the party’s scout he knew he’d have to continue to see what was what. He knelt down and peered into the gloom. He could see the path sloped back up onto dry land some seventy feet away and also that the tunnel became very narrow. Perhaps some five feet across.
Drogon called to the band to come to his position, and they duly arrived and looked at the problem. Thorg decided he was the one to test the water depth and get to the other side. As he put one toe into the water, a biting cold gnawed at him. So, with that, he cast Misty Step and appeared on the other side, completely dry and smug.
Luthiel, made of sterner stuff than our fearless Eldritch Knight, waded into the freezing water and found it to reach chest height at its deepest. The cave ceiling was a foot above her head as she slowly made her way through the dark still water. The intense cold began eating at her flesh and her legs were going numb. The cold taking her breath away as she bravely made it, shivering, to the other side. She found that her hands would not stop shaking, and her head ached with an intensity normally reserved when trying to shrink her intellect down to Jude’s level.
She let the others know she was safe and Jude went next, facing the same bone-searing cold and came out the other side feeling just as bad as Luthiel. She was followed by Griff, Sentinel and Drogon, all suffering to one degree of another. Leaving Kurog to bring up the rear. The narrow tunnel on the far side was forcing our band to be in single file. And they shuffled forward to make room for Kurog to join them.
It was then that one of the massive slugs that populate the Underdark, slimed its way towards Kurog now that he was alone. Sensing easy prey, or so it thought. The party on the other side could hear what was happening but could do little about it without getting wet and cold again, so they decided to a person, that Kurog had this and this was his chance to shine. They settled in with popcorn to watch the “Kurog solos an unfeasibly large Mollusc”.
Kurog readied himself, hefting his mighty two-handed sword and turned to face the threat. No coward was he to run away. That and he still believed he had a slight allergy to having water on his skin. Something the rest of the group constantly tried to disprove for the sake of their nostrils. She stepped forward preparing an epic swing, when the slug vomited up a greenish/brown slime all over him. The caustic effluent, burned his exposed skin, making him grunt in pain. The grunt turned to a chuckle, as a second slug appeared on the other side of the water and vomited on Thorg and Jude. It seems schadenfreude is a common cause of humour with this lot.
Battle was joined but, even though the slugs filled the passage way and so did the party, it was a fairly uneven flight. Kurog and his slug were out of range from most spells and so he took on the beast, standing toe-to-toe...well, toe-to-slimy-slug-sole.
The others quickly despatched their foe in time to see Kurog ready himself to deliver that killing blow. Sentinel was having none of this and could only imagine the interminable campfire stories to come. She snapped off a quick cantrip and blasted the slug, making sure that it had not been soloed by Kurog after all. In fact, she also stole the killing blow. Now, that was going to be talked about for a while.
Kurog waded through the water to join his friends, feeling the same effects as they had, but it did wash away a fair amount of the slug-vomit, so there was that. The party regrouped and healed wounds before setting off again down the narrow cave. Drogon headed off ahead to resume his sneaking scout duties.
Our Halfling-hero came upon a widening of the tunnel they were traversing and the space became more manageable. At one point the tunnel widened out further and something caught Drogon’s eye. The sides of the tunnel had a series of holes in the walls as if gnawed out. He could make out what looked like teeth marks scoring the edges of the cavities. The hollows were evenly spaced along this section of the cave, curious! The rest of the party caught up and set to examining the rock of the cave wall. The rock had a small amount of sparkle to it, so perhaps this was a food source for some as yet unknown monster?
With nothing more to be gleaned here, the team pressed onwards further into the tunnel. Drogon, yet again, taking the lead. He stopped when he reached another cave, this one also had a similar series of hollows in it but, unlike the other cave, this one was populated.
Biting into the walls were a couple of very strange creatures. They had three legs, three arms and a gaping, tooth filled, maw above a single eye. Their thick hide, resembled that of a reptile or drake and their toes and fingers were capped with brutal looking talons. Drogon observed them for a while, as did the rest of the group via the telepathic link. They were definitely the source of the hollows in the walls and they appeared to be chewing rock and sorting out gem stones. These could be seen inside the maws, swirling around with brilliant colours.
Sentinel headed up the Diplomacy argument and Jude was championing the Ultra-Violent side, as the party chatted quickly on how to proceed. It was decided the Sentinel was to try and converse with the monsters, so she cast Tongues and stepped forward with her hands held high.
It was clear very quickly that these three-legged monstrosities had some form of intelligence and were able to understand the words being spoken to them. The conversation went along the lines of the following.
“Hello, I am Sentinel and I mean you no harm. We’re a weary band of travellers and wish nothing more than to pass by and continue our journey. Please could you see fit to let us through your wonderous cavern so that we might be quickly on our way?”. Her eloquent prose was delivered with a measured beat and metre she reserved for when she was trying to be the most persuasive. She finished with a flourish and a bow. The rock-monsters were clearly impressed and so they replied loudly and with a very gravelly tone. “F*ck off!”. Yeah, Sentinel’s talents were clearly wasted here.
No matter what Sentinel asked, the answer was pretty much the same, until the monsters hinted at a boss. Sentinel switched tracks and began to negotiate with the rocky tripods. It soon became clear that they valued gems and that was what they were given to sweeten their mood. They agreed to lead the party to the Boss man, who or whatever that was and so, off they set.
The band was led to a huge open cavern, that was filled with creatures of three main types. More of the three-legged rock eaters, some fairly prestigious earth elementals and a large group of small humanoids. They were vaguely gnome-like in stature and features, but had very pale skin, like so many of the denizens of the Underdark. The band followed on to the middle where one of the gnome-like creatures declared himself to be Trosli Garnetgetter, one of the Svirfneblin or Deep Gnomes in Common.
The band tried in vain to elicit help from Trosli, but he did agree to let them pass without trouble for the price of a few gems. Never a group to give away treasure, negotiations included killing Drow, a lot of Drow. The Deep Gnomes hated the Drow for reasons I am sure they hold dear to their chests.
It is with some disquiet that this writer fears the team didn’t spend enough time quizzing these bad-tempered fellows. Such was the need for urgency, that once safe passage had been bought, the team moved on.
A Deep Gnome guide took them through various side tunnels and tight tunnels, leading them to what was described as the Shrine of the Kuo Tua. The Kuo Tua were the half fish and half humanoid creatures the band had fought at the pool. So, they now had a name to pin to these alien creatures.
The team reached a point in the tunnels where the stone began to show signs of being cut and hewn and a damp, salty smell was pervasive in the air. A strange green glow came from the lichen on the walls and the party was given to a feeling that they were under water as the light rippled off the walls.
They had reached the Shrine.
Report Date
05 Feb 2025
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