Into the Dark

General Summary

12^th of Tyr, 634 Golden Era

Having rejoined with the rest of the tribe, Zilva called for a meeting amongst her mates to decide their next course of action. Kradom and Tehluk wished to travel to a new island to set up again, but Bon and Szomar, who shockingly agreed, wanted to strike back at the Silver Knights who had chased them from their home. During the discussion Zilva reached a conclusion, they would make for Kharalé, and there they would, with all of the other Viverri tribes, make a choice. A choice that would shape their own history, to fight or to flee.
Plan in place the tribe set forth into the tunnels. Now first I believe I must clarify what these tunnels are. Beneath the islands of the Sea of Sand are a complex and intermittent system of caves formed by the currents of the sand and the rain fall wearing away caves much like a karst. Many of the islands are connected by these tunnels that formed over millennia while some are not, and travel between islands can be solely underground of a combination of sailing on the sea above and cave travel. Some of these caves have been rumored to go so deep they pierce the upper layer of the Underdark, but this has not been confirmed as of yet.
Now back to the report. The tribe began their arduous journey into the caves as they traveled several miles through winding paths that narrowed, dropped, and forked. The Viverri used an odd system of symbols to mark paths with warnings or messages about what may lay at the end of them, and this was how they found their way. Upon examination of these symbols they appear to be related to a specific subsect of a druidic belonging to the Circle of the Desert. I will have to explore this connection further. I'm getting sidetracked again though. The tribe traveled many hours eventually reaching their first hurdle, a massive fissure at least 100 feet to the other side. Bon and Szomar were chosen to cross this gap and use the ropes they carried to hoist of the rope bridge that was hanging from the other side. The Viverri regularly made crossings for obstacles like these and left them in place, but like this bridge being dropped at one side after they passed, this was done to prevent anything in the caves from coming up after them since they regularly made their villages at the mouths of caves.
This feat was apparently nothing to difficult for either of these warriors and with ease they climbed, without any safety measures, 100 feet along the caverns walls until they reached the other side where they attached the ropes to the bridge and let the tribe on the other side pull the bridge up to their side. Finding themselves alone together Szomar asked if the "Grey Wolf" was really so powerful as to nearly kill perhaps the only person in the tribe besides Zilva that he respected and rivaled in battle. Bon told him what he truly felt, "If I stayed I would've died." As the silence hung between them Szomar laughed and merely remarked that he hoped that next time he could be there to fight him as well, and that him and Bon would need to train more, much to Bon's approval. This in my opinion is a fairly good representation of the relationship these two share, one of rivalry, respect, and comradery.
Once the bridge was up the tribe continued on their path. Many more miles of cave and hours of walking were ahead of them. As was common practice during these journeys, Gnunac was sent ahead with his scouts to survey the caves systems and act as an early warning for the tribe. However this time it seemed that it did not help. The scouts regularly traveled at least an hours walk ahead of the tribe, and it would seem that at some point between the scouts passing and the tribes arrival a had tunneled through their path. As the tribe reached the new tunnel vertically cutting through their intended path, with the scouts on the other side, Bon and Zilva made the choice to continue down the new tunnel made by the worm, and hoped it would reconnect with a tunnel they knew. It's a helpful piece of knowledge to know that while the purple worms maintain a hunting ground they rarely retread their own tunnels. So often the safest place to be is in their own newly made tunnels. Banking on this very knowledge Bon and one of Gnunac's scouts, , descended the new path with the tribe following suit. Gnunac went on ahead with his scouts along the intended route in an attempt to locate the tribe from his own end.
For hours they navigated the twisting path left by the worm keeping watch for signs of the worm's return or other creatures that had similar ideas on avoiding the danger. Fortunately they found no one else and the danger seemed to have been avoided. At the exact moment that thought had settled in their path came to an abrupt end. The cave they were in suddenly met a chasm and seemingly plummeted straight down into nothingness.
Within the cavernous abyss ahead of the tribe was a chamber they were familiar with. A massive room extending an unknown amount of distance above, below, and to the sides and home to a maze of pathways that stretch out into nothing, known as the Cave of Paths. This was a place they had been intending to arrive at, but at the same time this was an unfamiliar portion, and no one knew where their former route was or whether they would even be able to find it. As luck would have it there was a path within a short distance to their new opening and the tribe was able to make the transition, and with Bon and Ingra in front the tribe set forth into the dark hoping to find their way.
Gnolls are blessed with exceptional eyesight even in pitch black, but even still with their limited field of vision navigating the twisting paths seemed to be just as much about luck as skill. Minutes turned to hours as the tribe navigated the paths, some of which narrowed to only 5 feet across or expanded up to 20 feet, and it would seem very little progress was being made. In these tense situations many would find themselves somber or anxious remaining constantly vigilant, but children many times were conveniently spared from these feelings except for boredom. Pups began to play and chase each other in an attempt to entertain themselves on the monotonous journey when one came to close to an edge and yelped in fear as they slipped. They were caught and what followed was a tense moment of silence in the tribe. From the edges of their hearing something stirred in the abyss around them, and it steadily grew louder. Sensing the danger the tribe tried to move quickly but were assailed before they could make any headway. Exhausted, battle weary, and sleep deprived Bon still knew the danger approaching would mean death, had he not intervened.
This is the first instance of which Bon Kal Adagh admitted to me that he had what we know in the scientific and arcane community to be the gift of Psionics, a mysterious ability to influence ones surroundings without the use of the weave. It is unknown how he obtained this gift or if he was born with it.
The first sight of their foe in the dark was that of a massive swarm of stirges headed straight for the tribe near seconds before impact. Bon pulled on something deep within himself and conjured a barrier absorbing the brunt of the swarm's impact, saving the lives of nearly the whole tribe, who in all likelihood would have been knocked off the path and plummeted to their death. This feat was unlike anything Bon had attempted before and he was left bleeding from nose and with a searing pain in his head, but the tribe was saved the initial assault. Now the swarm of stirges, sensing their new meal, descended on the tribe to drink their blood. The tribe swatted away many of them, but they were outnumbered 10:1 when a call from ahead was heard. It was Ingra who had found a small amount of shelter. Bon gave the order and the village moved forward on the path as the warriors attempted to stave off the parasites. They came to a portion of their path where another larger path crossed over ahead rather closely and the tribe was able to bunch up underneath giving them at least some form of shelter from above. With only two sides to defend Bon and his warriors fended off the swarm as they prodded looking for cracks in the defense. However it was a battle of attrition, one they could not win.
Unbeknownst to Bon and the tribe the racket of the fight had helped Gnunac and his scouts locate them. To draw off the swarm they light torches and threw them into the abyss and as they hoped many of the stirges veered off to pursue lightening the strain on the tribe until they were able to kill off the final few stragglers. Now with an idea of where they were headed the tribe navigated their way up and after a couple of hours they found their way to the scouts. Reunited the tribe and scouts resumed their journey on their original route, and in a relatively short time they were able to find their exit to the cavern.
Soon after the tribe ran into a group of kobolds that were in dire straits. Their leader, Takrush, explained that they were hunters for their clan and had run into a group of troglodytes. The ensuing fight left the hunters tires and most importantly without crossbow bolts. Seeking to trade the kobolds offered one of the only things they had to spare, an odd looking javelin, to which Sentik noticed something odd about and urged Bon to make the trade. 20 bolts for a javelin seemed like an odd trade, but then again it was a strange meeting in a strange place. After partying ways the tribe continued on and one of the tribes 3 mages, identified the weapon as a Javelin of Lightning, quite the trade indeed.
Onward they went leaving their trader partners behind as they made their way closer to their penultimate stop. Many monotonous miles later the cacophonous sound of rushing sand alerted them to their proximity to their destination, the Telemt River, a massive underground sand river in the Sea of Sand that flows nearly the entire length of the desert from the north to southwest. This "river" is a major transportation method of the Viverri and the paths to its banks and the secrets of its traversal are closely guarded secrets. Emerging into a small cavern ahead of the tribe was the river, and eleven of their , and a creature which seemed to be eating them. Instantly on alert a few of the hunters loosed bolts in the creatures direction but the bolts simply connected and dropped to the ground. Startled and angry the creature hid behind the hulls of the boats and hissed at the tribe from its shelter. Bon recognized this creature as a Rust Monster, the bane of adventurer's and technology, and though they could be dangerous when provoked many in the Underdark consider them harmless or even keep them as pets. Bon made a quick decision and grabbed a handful of crossbow bolts, breaking their metal heads off, and attempted to confront and calm the startled beast. The beast while initially only barely not openly attacking Bon, began to slowly warm up to his presence as Bon soothed the creature with the help of his metallic "treats". He led the beast around the far side of the cavern away from the tribe and towards the tunnel the tribe emerged through, who had since vacated the entrance sensing what Bon was attempting. Once they were close enough to the opening the Rust Monster made a break for it fleeing into the dark tunnels.
With another crisis averted the tribe was now faced with another, what of the boats? Tehluk informed Zilva and the other mate-brothers the seven of the boats were still sailable, but four had been nearly stripped of all their metal. He could throw something together from the parts of the four and potentially make one usable agabas, but it would take many hours and would be an unwieldy beast barely fit for the sands. With limited options Zilva made the decision to load the boats to capacity and send as many down river as they could manage, while a small group stayed behind to assemble the makeshift boat. In the end Bon, Sentik, Gnunac and his scouts , , , , and Tehluk with two of his crafters and stayed behind as the rest of tribe packed on to their agabas and set forth on the last leg of their journey.