The Adventure Begins
From Lexicanum
Into Undermountain
By various means the soon-to-be members of the party arrived in Waterdeep and it being late, after a few ales settled in to the common room of The Safehaven Inn near the South Gate for a well-earned rest. Unfortunately rest was not on the agenda as their sleep was troubled by strange dreams of twisting passageways, vaulted ceiling and a strange sense of calling - a summoning almost. Weary from lack of sleep they headed down stairs for a breakfast of thick porridge with raisins and honey – though Fodor was tempted by the “Barbarian Special” of watery gruel!
Thorik mentioned to the inn-keeper about the strange dreams and he told them that others in the town had experienced them too only yesterday two guest staying had had them and that word was they were sent by the mad (and dead) wizard Halaster. Fodor asked where the visions were off and the innkeeper told them they were of Undermountain, the huge dungeon beneath the city. He also recommended that if they ever wanted a good night’s sleep again that they find out and do whatever the mad wizard wanted!
After breakfast they loaded up their gear and headed toward The Yawning Portal inn where they had been told was the easiest entrance into Undermountain. After payment of the entry fee, the innkeeper, Durnan, offered to lower them down, Thorik and Fodor accepted, but Silverbeard, eager to prove his prowess decided to climb – not realising it was 140 feet down! By the time he reached the bottom his hands were raw and bloody from the various slips along the way. The others had a much easier, and less painful, trip down!
In the chamber at the bottom the walls were covered in graffiti in numerous tongues, the ones they could read seemed mostly boasts or tales of woe! After a while, while Fodor lit a torch they took the southern exit, only to find the passageway bisected by a huge chasm. Turning back they went west to a room with many niches which had once contained mirrors, judging by the ornate framed and bits of broken glass. Fodor led the way striding confidently forward past the last two remaining mirrors . As he passed it, one lashed out with pseudopods – and their first battle in Undermountain was joined.
Silverbeard attacked with shield and hammer, noticing as he did that his weapons seemed to stick to the surface of the mirror, Thorik and Fodor also attacked noticing the same thing. As Fodor went down to a series of blows, Silverbeard tried to use his shield to prise the mirror off the wall – only to find it wasn’t actually a mirror put part of some strange creature squeezed into one of the alcoves. While Thorik dashed forward to heal Fodor, the creature forced Silverbeard back onto the mirror opposite, from which a ghostly skeleton warrior rose and transfixed the unfortunate dwarf on his sword. While Silverbeard gazed in horror at the blade on which he was impaled, a quick glance from Thorik revealed the skeleton warrior to be an illusion. He tried to convince his fellow dwarf of that, as he cast Cure Light Wounds on the barbarian.
As the healed Fodor and Thorik renewed their attacks on the “mirror” with renewed vigour, Silverbeard continued to stare in shock at the blade transfixing him as his lifeblood rained away. Under their renewed assault the “mirror” suddenly started squealing and begging for mercy! Fodor and Thorik stopped and looked at each other nonplussed. The creature babbled on, mewling piteously that it hadn't meant any harm, revealed itself to be a mimic called Squammulsh and that he was only hungry, he went on to say he wouldn’t attack them anymore and even that if they if they didn’t kill him he would work for them – if they fed him food and the occasional drop of wine!
Somewhat bemused the party agreed, and eventually persuaded Silverbeard that he wasn’t actually dying!
After some time they continued eastwards, finding where a rope-bridge spanned the chasm they had seen earlier. Rather than brave the rope bridge they headed north, past what looked like the mimic’s larder, and then along a corridor where Fodor ran into something resembling a large, darkly coloured worm or snake-like creature. Only this “worm” had a beak ringed by four barbed tentacles, which instantly lashed out at him!
Not liking the look of this eight foot long monstrosity, the Barbarian instantly took to his heels, calling on his friends to do likewise! Somewhat surprisingly his friends followed his advice, Silverbeard & Thorik lagged back a bit trying to lure the grick back to the mimic. While the two monsters battled things out, the party swiftly retreated to The Yawning Portal, their first expedition into Undermountain not quite as successful as they might have hoped!
Bridge of Darkness
While Fodor and Silverbeard headed into Waterdeep to sample the local hostelries, Thorik, feeling at a loose end, hung around The Yawning Portal. In the Common Room he met two more of The Called – Cidric, a paladin of Torm and his companion Zeb a gnomish sorcerer. The two adventurers were waiting to descend and, eager to once more test his mettle against Undermountain, Thorik offered to accompany them.They paid the fee and were lowered down once more into the depths, and began wandering the passageway, eventually finding themselves before a set of double doors. In true paladin fashion, Cidric flung them open, to reveal a bunch of gobbling generally larking abut and pretty much not guarding the area like they were supposed to be doing while waiting to pounce on weary adventurers.
Cidric called out a greeting unfortunately, as it wasn’t in goblin, the goblins assumed this was in fact some kind of challenge and reached for their weapons. Thorik drew his axe and joined the fray while Zeb launched magic missiles hither and thither until all but two of the goblins were down. The last two, looked at one another and took to their heels – the paladin in hot pursuit!
The goblins, still pursued by the eager paladin, fled through a pillared hall and down the corridor of mirrors. Thorik and Zeb, seeming less interested in pursuing the goblins stopped for a nice chat and a glass of wine with Squammulsh, but the mimic had little news to share other than that gricks didn’t taste nice!
Cidric pursued the goblins till they fled across the rope bridge and which point he stopped not liking the look of the rickety structure. When the other caught up he led the way northwards, deciding the goblins were a lost cause. As they headed through the labyrinthine passages Zeb felt increasingly uneasy with a strange sensation that they were somehow going wrong. An encounter with another grick did nothing to allay these feelings and eventually he persuaded the others to head back southwards and they found themselves in the pillared hall.
Zeb went to head for the southern exit but halted when once of the pillars transformed into a marble statue of a female warrior holding a stone sword. Recognising this as a caryatid column and also realising the threat this represented, Zeb backed away from the corridor and the column transformed back into a seemingly normal pillar.
They took the westerly corridor, which ultimately led them back to the rickety rope bridge. Not liking the look of it, Thorik shucked his armour and began warily crossing. While Zeb watched anxiously, Cidric decided to forego the bridge and lowered himself cautiously down the 20 foot to the bottom of the chasm which he began to cross. 20feet above him Thorik was making good progress when he was suddenly attacked by a hideous creature from above - a darkmantle! Before they could react, a second darkmantle dropped from the ceiling and attacked the paladin. Zeb unlimbered his sling and began shooting while Thorik tried to dodge the attacks and make his way to the far end and began struggling back into this armour – hampered by the fact the darkmantle had cast a darkness spell around him.
Down below, Cidric was successfully managing to defend himself from the darkmantle’ s somewhat feeble assault, seemingly more of an irritation that a threat, when he noticed a faint glow over to his left. Investigating, he found a body , the faint glow coming from the scabbarded sword at her side. Drawing the sword it lit the area with a faint bluish glow, bolstered th epaladin turned to face his foe – just as Zeb managed to down the darkmantle with a well-placed shot from his sling! Thorik was proving less lucky, preoccupied with getting into this armour the second darkmantle managed to attack and grapple him, settling round his face. As the dwarf collapsed, Zeb scampered across and using his dagger managed to prise the foul creature off. He then retrieved a healing potion from the cleric’s belt to restore him.
After Cidric had relived the body of the unfortunately adventurer of her worldly goods, he, with the help of the others, managed to clamber up and join them. The corridor they found themselves in was partially flooded with oily water and as they moved forward they were attacked by a dread! Though seemingly resistant to Thorik’s turning attempt, the undead was swiftly dealt with.
Fire and Fury
Thorik and Zeb led the way back to The Yawning Portal, meeting with a somewhat inebriated Fodor and Silverbeard. After a good night’s rest they returned once more, Silverbeard topping up with a few beers for breakfast.They headed back to the flooded tunnel, only to be attacked by three more Dreads. After a frenetic (and somewhat soggy) battle, the undead were sent to their final rest. Triumphantly, Fodor led the way forward, Thorik accompanying him, onto be confronted by a glowing green skull floating ahead of him, before he
could
react, burning rays of fire shot from the skull’s eye sockets and hit
him, somehow missing Thorik! The fires also managed
to ignite the oil-saturated water they were standing in!As the party dashed forward through the flames, the burning skull fled down the corridor away from them. The Party followed, until ahead of them they saw and shimmering wall of darkness. Not liking the look of this, they stopped and proceeded cautiously. Silverbeard rapidly discovered that there was no floor in the area of darkness and called a warning to the others. Zeb tried casting light spelI into the area of darkness, but it was instantly suppressed!
After some initial hesitation, Fodor took a run up and leaped forward! Fortunately he landed safely on the other side about 15 feet up the corridor. Unfortunately however, as he passed though the darkened area small rays of white coldness flared out hitting him! As Thorik tossed a rope across, they Party began experience all sorts of weird effects, apparently emanating from the darkness. Not only that but Fodor spotted what looked like a floating eyeball watching them from the edge of the darkness.
Suddenly Silverbeard became paralysed with fear, just as he was attempting to climb across! On the other side of the darkness, Fodor too was overcome with fear, taking to his heels and fleeing up the corridor. Zeb grabbed the rope that Fodor dropped, but before they could react further, a force pushed Silverbeard into the pit hidden in the darkness. Fodor meanwhile, was rapidly approaching the end of the corridor when the hideous carved face in the alcove at the end suddenly emitted an agonising high-pitched screech which drove the barbarian backwards, reeling in pain!
Meanwhile in the pit, Silverbeard suddenly found himself swarmed by hundreds of small floating eyeballs attacking him! Already injured, the dwarf soon passed out and Zeb, feeling the rope slacken called out in alarm. Handing over the rope, Zeb, went to have a look at the screaming face, being careful not to get too close, Fodor meanwhile, recovered from his fright, immediately leaped into action , dropping down into the pit he hoisted the unconscious dwarf up onto the floor above, where Thorik user his healing magic on him. Ignoring the eyeballs swarming around him, the barbarian clambered out after. Deciding they were in no condition to proceed, they retreated heading back to the passage where the oil was still burning and decided to rest.
Whitehelm Mausoleum
Early in the morning the burning oil sire finally extinguished itself. And next morning they were ready to set out and explore further. Cidric led the way, leaping over the darkness shrouded pit almost casually, and ignoring the eyeball swarm after swatting at one of them ineffectually with his longsword. Thorik followed suit, though Zeb found it harder going and had to climb down into the pit and up the other side. Fortunately the gnome was able to shake-off the effects of the assaults of the eyeball swarm as he crossed the area and they were soon all assembled on the far side. They then dashed past the grimacing stone face as it unleased its howl upon them, heading down the left hand corridor and out of range as quickly as they could.They headed south down a long passageway (ignoring a couple of smaller passages that branched-off westward), they headed down a wider passage that went east where they could see a glow ahead of them in what looked like a large chamber. A large, ornately fluted stone archway led into a high-ceilinged room. Directly opposite the entrance was the fist-sized area of glowing radiance illuminating a tiny inscription. The walls and floor of this room were splattered with blood. Six humanoid corpses lay on the floor, their bodies torn apart and eaten, but no sign of their killers remains.
As they entered the room cautiously, two horrible, misshapen creatures that resembled large floating brains with tentacles and sharp beaks glided toward them. Each had a bulbous body that seems to float in the air of its own volition. Ten long, spiny tentacles hung from the bottom of their bodies, twisting in the air like biting snakes as they lashed out in attack. After a short battle the loathsome creatures were slain. While Thorik searched the bodies, recovering a potion, a wand and a scroll as well as a masterwork silver dagger, Zeb examined the glowing light, determining it was some kind of portal – though not currently active. Cidric meanwhile searched a small room to the north , finding some more grell corpses and also found a bag containing several coins and a masterwork warhammer which Thorik soon claimed.
Heading on, Cidric stopped suddenly next to a couple of ladders bolted to the wall of the corridor, that led up to a dark, narrow shaft cloaked in cobwebs, just barely wide enough for a full-grown human to enter. Above him he suddenly spotted a pair of malevolent eyes peering down at him and a curiously elongated arm reached down and clawed at him! He clambered up into the hatchway finding himself in a crawlspace and began moving forward cautiously, sword drawn. Thorik and Zeb followed along, and eventually they ran into the source of the attack – a choker! A somewhat awkward battle in the narrow crawlspace ended in victory for the party . Exploring the rest of this area they found the half-eaten body of a Halfling from which they managed to retrieve a nice mithral shirt which Zeb claimed.
They headed back they way they had come taking a easterly passageway which led them to a massive chamber which had a roof that reached some 60 feet into the darkness. The stone floor was polished mirror-smooth. The north-eastern corner of the room was dominated by three long, bent steps rising up to form a large dais. Atop the dais was an altar carved from a single piece of stone. The top was smooth and unadorned, except at either end, where it rose into two sweeping arms, formed as candlesticks. Two plain, thick white candles sat in the sockets. Behind the altar, hung from a massive steel crossbar set on six massive steel hooks high on the wall hung a magnificent, 30-foot-square tapestry depicting a white dragon, rearing up menacingly. Cidric felt a real sense of unease in this room and backed off to the corridor, Thorik headed to investigate the alter, noting there were no symbols of any particular god present. As he approached closer The magnificent tapestry rippled and swayed as something emerged from behind it. Two animated human skeletons brandishing longswords rushed out to attack him. After a brief battle both skeletons were destroyed but the party barely had time to recover their breath when once more the magnificent tapestry rippled and swayed, and a human skull blazing with green fire swooped from behind the tapestry and hovers in the air above. Emerald fi re danced in its empty eye sockets, and it is looked at them with undisguised hatred and loathing. Then its eye sockets blaze bright, and rays of fire streak toward them.
The Horned Ring
As two more baneguards stepped out from behind the curtain launching Magic Missiles, battle was joined! Silverbeard, Cidric and Fodor, Raging, charged forward while Thorik clambered up onto the altar to get a height advantage. Zeb meanwhile tried to target the floating skull till he realised he had no spells left and that a wand of Burning Hands was probably not he most efficacious weapon against a skull that was already aflame, so he departed sharpish for the corridor outside! The battle was characterised by the flameskull being totally unable to hit anyone with his Fire ray attacked and floating about ineffectually as no one had anything that could target him. Gradually the tide of battle turned in favour of the Party as first one then the other baneguards was destroyed. The flameskull, seeing his servants destroyed, decided that discretion was the better part of valour and fled through a crack in the ceiling. As battle faded, Fodor came down from his Rage and collapsed dying to the floor, fortunately Thorik was nearby and cast Cure Minor Wounds to stabilise him. Meanwhile Cidric went behind the tapestry, finding the tomb of Bereg Whitebeard. The stone coffin was long empty, but behind a mirror on the wall they found some magic items hidden in a niche.As virtually everyone, apart from Zeb was wounded, they decided to rest- Cidric directing them to the room to the north of where they had fought the grell. They spent a more-or-less peaceful night and next morning they set off again wandering through the complex, until suddenly they felt a rumbling resonating deeply in the stone around them, followed by a roar not unlike thunder emanating from somewhere overhead. For a moment it sounded like the entire dungeon was about to collapse around them. Cidric dashed forward into a side room where he could see a staircase heading upwards. The staircase seemed to rock and roll in time to the deep rumbling, dust and then small stones began to fall and bounce down the stairs. More rumbles and groans presaged the arrival of larger stones which tumbled down, and then a grating sound as even larger rocks fell, blocking the staircase as silence fell.
As the others eventually arrived, Zeb recognised the stairway from his dream. Cidric was brushing himself off and pondering his bruises from the rocks that had hit him. Suddenly, all the fallen dust and rubble began to rise silently toward the ceiling and in a moment the way up the stairs was clear. After a moment’s consideration they decide to head upwards, only to be met by two blazing globes, that bounced out of the darkness above and burned their way towards them with a purpose that appeared malignant. Zed just had time to identify the two globes as living spells, before they were upon them!
Fortunately they Party were equal to the challenge and the living spells were destroyed with only minor wounds to the party. The way up the stairs was clear! At least it seemed that way, but as Fodor made his way upwards, he was confronted by a shimmering silver web of arcane energy. At the centre of the shimmering web was a blue-white glow which pulsed in a a calm nonthreatening manner, as if it was waiting for them to do something. As the others backed off, Zeb stepped forward, reaching out. The pulsing light tingled with an unexpected but pleasant warmth as he reached into it. His fingers brushed across a small loop of metal, which when he withdrew it was a horned ring, which again he recognised from his dream. With a sense that he had achieved what he had come to do - or at least this part of it, Zeb suggested they return to The Yawning Portal.
As they made their way back, Undermountain had one final unpleasant surprise for them, as they made their way back through the tunnel flooded with oily water, the flameskull appeared behind them and ignited it with his Fire ray! Fodor and Cidric were nearly killed, dropping unconscious into the fiery waters, but Thorik and Silverbeard managed to drag them out of the flames and onto the dry land where Thorik was able to administer healing.