2022/10/12: Underdark Delving Part 3 Report
General Summary
Knight, Locke, Senal, Sunderfury, Zaran, Avalon, Rodger
We came in from the west, desired exit is south. There are actually plenty of exits farther into this cavern (and exits in all directions in this part), but we don't want to follow those yet.
Following the proper route, we came to a ~50ft. wide river with something dangerous in it. There was a suspicious bridge across it, and what appeared to be a drow ambush point in the ceiling. We elected to cover the ceiling with a Void fog cloud and fly or platform over well above the river. Then, as we got to the end of the room, spiderlike crustaceans (some variant of a cave fisher) tried to get us with a web ambush from a different spot on the ceiling. Unfortunately for them, they started by trying to drag Zaran away, and he's far too heavy for them. The ambush failed horribly and Senal and Knight hunted them down through solid stone into the ceiling. Knight and Senal easily killed the cave fishers and found a room full of dead creatures (eaten by the cave fishers) with some loot. And some cave fisher eggs. Rodger gave final rites to the dead. (Most of the dead were drow, some were dwarves.) We marked the spot on the map so we could get and properly use the corpses of the cave fishers. Nearly every part is useful!
Then we came back down to try to figure out why Zaran's elf rage ability (which puts him in an elf form) suddenly stopped working when he tried to climb up to the ceiling, and why his attempt at a light grenade spell just created a light effect. It looks like his magic has changed dramatically. He had to resort to a reduce spell to fit through most tunnels, after which he enjoyed riding on Sunderfury's shoulder as a 1.7 foot long pseudo-pseudodragon.
We carried on for the rest of the day. That evening, as we journeyed deeper and deeper, we encountered a lone adventurer. He had a scaly red cloak, a wizard hat, a golden staff with a ruby in it. He's pretty clearly a red dragon. Rodger was very nice and diplomatic. The "mage" said that he had finished retrieving something and was leaving. He also said the fish people and ant people are fighting, which is bad for everyone nearby.
We then reached the rift, a ravine several miles straight down. Avalon says the last time he was through here, it was an adventuring day to climb down and another back up. We skipped that and just walked across on a hovering stone bridge Locke summoned.
Beyond the rift, we found ourselves in a network of interconnected caverns littered with remnants of ancient protector golems. The area is strangely uninhabited. There's a layer of old grayish soot over practically everything. We decided not to stay the night there and moved on.
The next area had lots of brightly colored mushrooms, some of which were myconids that mostly seemed to avoid us. Senal burrowed us a nice little side passage and cave shelter in one of the walls, a little off the ground. We stayed there for the night.
The night was going nicely right up until a ghostly flaming dwarf appeared in the middle of the shelter, screaming about how we "won't take his things". Then, after a few seconds of careful luring and dodging of the main dwarf by Knight, a second dwarf possessed Sunderfury. Knight just managed to dodge the few swings the possessed Sunderfury launched his way. Locke promptly responded with a Holy Word that drove the second dwarf ghost out and made the first ghost appear more physical. Knight, tiring of dodging, exploded into Void tentacles and got the central ghost wrapped up in Void tendrils from the darkness. Senal took the opportunity to smite the entangled dwarf with her sword.
Rodger started up an incorporeal banishment with his staff, but it proved more effective against Knight than against the dwarf, almost sucking the former in while the latter took a solid stance and gave Rodger a rude gesture. Then Avalon shot the immobilized dwarf in the spine with blessed arrows, and the dwarf went from firmly planted to limp and flying towards Rodger's hoover. Knight managed to go solid and slide under the end of Rodger's staff just after the dwarf got sucked in. Then the dwarf's axe, fully physical, flopped down on top of Knight's face. Sunderfury decided to go back to sleep.
The next morning, after the usual training and memorizing, we set out once more. On our way, we heard the sounds of mass combat coming from a tunnel off our route. Avalon went scouting, and there's a huge cavern down there, partially filled with water. There's a kuo-toa city down there under siege by thousands of the yellow ants. The city is partially in the water and partially on a ledge that runs around the edge of the cavern. We don't have the resources or knowledge to open communications with either side at the moment, so Knight will be talking with the friendly group of kuo-toa to the northeast later and trying to come back to intervene here.
We carried on, following the map, and found ourselves in an area Avalon doesn't remember at all. It seems like a ruined/abandoned city. We passed through it without incident, now heading almost north and going upward. Suddenly, what looks like a graceful silver dragon appeared in front of us. She told us that there was a great evil ahead and that we needed to turn back. She might be able to hold it back, but we needed to leave. We considered this a lovely incentive to continue onward, because either she was genuine and could use the help (ha, as if), or this was a deceptive warning left by the cunning shadow dragon.
This region resembled old lava tubes, a largely slanted mess of winding natural caverns. We wandered past multicolored and luminous ferns, slippery lichen, and various other natural decoration. And then, as we crested a rise, we found ourselves facing a small army of monsters, as if they were just waiting there for us. A purple worm, four earth elementals, 24 skeletons (and not necessarily normal ones), two multicolored blacklight treants, and 28 ogres.
The two sides engaged. Knight shaped himself to flight form, charged the purple worm, and sliced it in half up its length. It promptly poofed away, likely a summoned creature. Then the rest of the party, back over the ridge, got blasted by a breath weapon from the shadow dragon we'd been hunting, temporarily reducing the party's levels by a quarter even with the glancing blows it managed. Avalon's keen hearing located the general area the dragon had relocated to. Senal charged off at Avalon's direction, but didn't quite find the right spot. Rodger followed up with a triangle of dimensional fields around her, reaching out in search of the dragon. He managed to tag the dragon just a bit beyond where Senal stopped. Locke, annoyed, cast Withdraw, followed it up with multiple anti-shadow and death ward effects, and went searching for the dragon. He found the spot Rodger had tagged, but felt nothing when he tried to touch the dragon.
Then the summoned monsters charged. Rodger got clobbered by an earth elemental. Avalon sword-locked with one skeleton and managed to parry another coming up from behind. A treant knocked Knight into the ground and dispelled some of the magic on him. The other treant smashed the dimensional field holding the dragon. And then the ogres came in, one whacking Avalon over the head while his swords were occupied and four more being reflexively shredded by Senal.
Knight irritably responded to his magic items being disabled by drawing another three swords and doing his best General Grievous impression. The strange treant didn't die, but each hit made it shrink and look less threatening, until finally it seemed to have become a simple (if still very strange) tree. The shadow dragon growled "My friend!" in draconic and flew over the party, spreading a wing buffet across all of them. Senal's reflexes and blade were ready for it. The dragon staggered to a stop on the far side of the party, bleeding badly. It verbally cursed at them, then teleported out, the summoned beings (which didn't include the treants) remaining behind.
The remaining intact treant claimed this was a sacred place that the dragon was defending against "the others". This is apparently an ancient place of rest for "one who fell to save all". There was some debate within the party about who was at fault for this vaguely friendly fire incident. The party was informed that the dragon is named Zarlask. Rodger healed the treant Knight had torn up.
Senal contacted Zarlask with Abram's Communicator. He agreed to talk if we backed off and he was allowed to retrieve his treant friends. He agreed to meet us at the entrance to his territory the next day. We spent the rest of the afternoon checking the intended path on our map, which led just along the edge of Zarlask's territory, and then set up camp near the meeting site and got a good night's sleep.
Rewards Granted
Magic shortsword, dwarven helmet, and dwarven axe, a dozen cave crawler variant eggs.
Character(s) interacted with
Created Content
Senal Romenil
Locke
Zaran
Sunderfury Ironspire
Knight of Darkhome
Kain
Report Date
12 Oct 2022
Primary Location
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Related Characters
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