What Lies Beneath 2 - Southern Scouting

Soldiers of the Sword Coast    Mission Reports    Arc 5: South of the Swanmay    Underdark Endeavors      What Lies Beneath 2 - Southern Scouting

Operation Parameters

Date	1492 DR, 25 Nightal (25/11/2022)
Soldiers	Kenai, Ayula, Ilya, Torji
Status
Casualties	None

Objective

Scout out the southern part of the underdark

Observations

It seems as though the enemy is pushing north underground as well. They also have a new form of magic technology where they place a crystal in the chest of a humanoid. Not sure what this does but do not attack these individuals with magic as the crystal will explode and damage everything nearby. The individual likely responsible for this seems to have died but cannot be confirmed as there was no body left behind.

Follow up

Perhaps continuing to scout the southern areas of the underdark would prove beneficial in learning the enemy's intentions and slowing their advance

Preparation Details

Operation Details

Sylvern says there is a change of plans and that we need to head south to the new entrance that is by the southern outpost. Apparently the enemy is trying to push north through the underground but that they are likely encountering an issue and we need to know what that is. Our goal is to go south for several miles through the tunnel. Sylvern thinks they are tunneling around the area of the King's road. We go through the teleporter and begin heading west towards the tunnel. Eventually we find the entrance to the cave. The cave rapidly descends and we are informed that the previous party came from the north and has yet to go south. Torji notices the path that the previous party took using lizards. We start to head south and manage to move southwest. We move for an hour before Ilya hears movement up ahead. Torji notices tracks going back the way we came of bare feet and it seems as though they may be injured as the foot marks show that 1 may be limping . We move forward and get closer to the shuffling, noticing that there are multiple sets and they seem to be moving towards us. We round the corner to these things and can just barely make out 4 humanoid shapes in the distance. Ilya calls for them to identify themselves. The creatures light up, revealing themselves to be gaunt looking humans with a crystal embedded in each of their chests that is shifting hues but mostly bluish-purple. Ayula tries to speak to them but they don't respond. They begin to lunge forward and I firebolt one noticing that the crystal in their chest seems to absorb most of the attack. When we do enough damage to break a crystal, a flash of light goes off and the man disappears. Ilya got caught in some of the lights and was severely injured by different types of elemental damage. One thing of note is that these flashes gave off no noise. We defeat the creatures, but aren't able to recover anything and soon after we come into a hub of sorts for the cave with many different pathways. I notice one cave in the ceiling of this hub that could possibly have been dug by one of the drilling machines. We pick a downward sloping tunnel that is in the southwestern direction and begin heading down it. There was one other tunnel in the southwest that was evenly leveled but we chose against it for no particular reason. We move about a quarter of a mile before the tunnel levels out and curves sharply west where we find ourselves at a steep drop off. The drop off seems to be part of a larger gap and there is a ledge curving south that looks intentionally hewn that leads to another opening. We decide to cross the ledge, using rope and pitons. The ledge is 2-3 feet wide so it isn't much of an issue. We get to the other side and find our way into a cavern that gets specifically thin so we have to single file to get through it. The tunnel we are in looks somewhat widened with tools but is a natural formation. Around a corner we can see flickering light ahead. Before moving into the light, Ayula summons her fey and sends the bunny into the light. The bunny reports that it does see something but it isn't sure if the something is dangerous or not. We come around the corner and see a statue holding an orb made of glass with many different colors of light coming out of it. I cast detect magic and notice that everywhere this light touches has an aura of magic (no school). The orb itself isn't magical but is holding magic inside that seems to be evocation. The statue holding the orb looks like a hooded figure but the face is carved to be shadowed an unseen. There are two paths curving around this small room with the statue and one of the paths have coagulated blood in it that isn't fully dried. As Ilya and I round each corner, we are attacked by 3 more crystal humans and 1 undead. Ilya rushes in and attacks the undead that is likely controlling or producing these things. That same creature waves a hand towards a figure under a sheet and the figure rises, showing another undead creature, however the crystal seems larger and more powerful on this one. After a bit of fighting, the main undead creature seems to open a door and walk through it, disappearing from view. I run back to where the orb was and find the undead trying to mess with the side of the statue. I blast him with fire and in a last ditch attempt, the undead seems to just grab the orb and a flash of light erupts as it flashes like the other crystals, seemingly annihilating him and knocking me unconscious. Ayula heals me and we finish off the remainder of the enemies. We then check the working area of the main undead and I find some strange dust and some gold. We then heard footsteps from the tunnel further south so I collected the scroll and we fled back out

As we exited the underdark, we ran into a wolf made of shadow that offered us a potion for 200 gold. We agreed and gave gave it to Torji. We then made it back to camp relatively easily.