the Depths

Our adventurers, Delirium, Scorpia, and Annabeth, went to the Church of Boccob to investigate the source of their terrible nightmares.

They met the head priest, Servant Germand, who sought their help with stopping these nightmares that have been afflicting people.

After being granted access to the lower levels, they explored the first level underground, which featured many rooms tailored to meet the needs of the daily lives of the priests in the Church.

They descended to the second level below and gained access to a long hallway with a coffin visible at the other end.

With the help of Nell, our adventurers discovered the secret of the hallway leading to the head priest's tomb. Then, after deciding to avoid the tomb for now, they fought off mummified hands and wizard zombies in the lower levels of the Church of Boccob.

After defeating the zombies, they alerted the priests about the dangers lurking in their church. Annabeth and Delirium went back to Hollywick to recover, while Scorpia opted to stay at the Church for her well-deserved long rest.

Nightmares, nightmares, nightmares. Delirium, Annabeth, and Scorpia, among others, experienced another night of dread and chaos: dead flesh, twisting vines, blood smeared across stone, and the gibberish rantings of a unicorn.

Reunited after a night of attempted rest, our adventurers crept deeper into the catacombs. They set off traps (which hurt!) and made their way across a spiked pit before encountering a drow mage and two skeletons. Annabeth cleaved right through the mage, and the skeletons stood no chance. They earned their loot: several art objects, gems, and money.

On the way back through the halls to return back upstairs, they encountered a tunnel carved into the side of the pit. Down they went, encountering vines that Scorpia fended off with fiery eldritch blasts until they encountered a humanoid creature made of vines, insistent on their destruction, only to destroy it.

After burning vines through twisted tunnels, the adventurers found themselves before an evil tree. It grasped and walloped them, sending them back to recover.

They regrouped, and Germand gave Annabeth a flask of holy water. When they returned to defeat the tree blight, Scorpia and Delirium kept their distance while Annabeth surged forward and threw the holy water onto the blight, destroying it. When the evil dissipated, Bellissima the unicorn appeared.

She revealed that drow and mind flayers have been working together. They sowed the evil seed that poisoned her lair. She has promised them a favor as a token of her gratitude.

After stopping the nightmares plaguing the town of Hollywick, our adventurers rested and met with various people who offered their aid in the coming times. Scorpia earned Sashanah's Talisman; Eldath came to Annabeth and offered her the power of storms; and Delirium met with Zsofia, a member of the Thieves' Guild who told her to seek out her contacts in the Underdark.

The next day, they visited various shops and sellers and managed their money and inventory in preparation for the Underdark ahead.

Scorpia, Annabeth, and Delirium were captured by Shoor, an elite drow warrior, and taken to Velkynvelve, an outpost in the lower Underdark near the Darklake, run by Mistress Ilvara, a high priestess of Lolth.

They met 10 fellow prisoners from various walks of life. Some of them seemed amenable to helping our adventurers to escape.

Annabeth learned about the southern passage that leads to the duergar Gracklstugh, or City of Blades, and the western passage that leads to the Darklake.

Scorpia peeked into the armory in the watch tower and located their stolen weapons.

Delirium became the object of mockery by the elite drow warrior Tolotel, who relished in ordering her around and reading aloud from her journal.

Annabeth, Delirium, and Scorpia schemed together to try and find a way out of Velkynvelve, but were interrupted when the drow came by with more tasks for them to do.

Jorlan relieved the guards of watching Delirium's group and let them run around in Ilvara's and Shoor's quarters unsupervised. Delirium stole a needle from Ilvara's trapped chest.

After everyone was returned back to the pen, before the adventurers could formulate a plan, Jorlan offered Delirium a chance of escape: he would leave the gate unlocked and slow the changing of the guard. They could all jump down to the webs below and then jump into the pool to escape. Anything to embarrass Shoor and Ilvara.

Seizing their opportunity, the prisoners went to the armory first to acquire their armor, weapons, and most of their common items that weren't distributed amongst the soldiers or stolen by Ilvara. Ront was the lookout for the north watch guards, who ended up seeing what the fuss was all about. They were quickly taken care of, but not before severely injuring Ront and calling more drow to their aid.

Just as the majority of the drow warriors were on their way to stop them all from escaping, Scorpia burned the bridge and severed their ability to capture them or shoot their weapons. Then, out of nowhere came four chasme demons and two vrocks who distracted the drow while everyone managed to follow Jorlan's plan exactly.

Sarith recommended everyone make their way to the Darklake, where they could acquire boats to travel elsewhere after, so they dashed away, making their escape!

The droning, screeching, yelling, and battle fades as you run into the shadows leading to the northwest. You and your companions are all running as fast as you can, and the darkness swallows you. Cold, damp air struggles to fill your lungs and soon you’re squeezing through thin caves where some of you have to crouch or else risk your head scraping against the rocks above.

Slowly, as the minutes pass along on foot and you start to feel some relief from the fear of immediate capture, the walls start to expand into a more open area. A cloying sweetness starts to tug at your senses, and the gloom eases into a soft dim light. The gray and brown stone glows with a faint purple glow that seems to come from nowhere.

Before you is a fork. One part of the cave winds to the left and another to the right.

“Where are we going now?” asks Jimjar in the quiet. “We can go to Blingdenstone.”

“I want to return home to Gracklstugh, and it is much closer!” Buppido says immediately. “I know you all want to return to the surface, and there may be ways to go from there.”

“The nearest settlement is Sloobludop,” says Shuushar. “I can return home and encourage enlightenment in my people. You may also be able to use boats to take you elsewhere in your journey.”

"I want to return Sprout to its home in Neverlight Grove," Sarith says.

After having escaped from Velkynvelve, our adventurers and the other prisoners decided to go to Sloobludop where they could acquire boats before traveling further into the Underdark in search for a way home.

They encountered a few obstacles along the way, starting with a small cliff that was easily overcome with Scorpia casting Spider Climb, and evolved into two patches of dangerous mold. The yellow mold was defeated by a rope and some of Derendil and Annabeth's strength. Only hurt Sarith took damage, inhaling some poisonous spores, but they were otherwise alright. The brown mold, which exuded an unnatural cold, was more of a challenge. Eldeth remembered that brown mold succumbs to cold damage. Initially stumped, they used precious water to freeze some of the mold and then ran through. Buppido took some cold damage, but they survived.

Just after the molds, the tunnel they were walking in caved in on either side, but it opened a new path. The path led to a fork of crumbling tunnel. One side was a dead end with more uneven rock, but the other led to a room. Just before they entered, a puddle transformed into a gray ooze and attacked the party, but they crushed and squelched it no problem. There was a lot of regular water on the floor, too.

As they turned a corner, they saw a drow skeleton hovering in the air along with a mace and some coins. Well, it wasn't hovering: Glabbagool the gelatinous cube had digested most of the drow, but spat out the remnants in an offer of piece. It was just curious about the adventurers and their world outside its own! Cordially stepping around for the adventurers to go ahead of it, Glabbagool happily followed after.

They found themselves entangled with a black pudding—no, two black puddings! Three! It was a challenge, and Annabeth took a lot of acid damage (along with her poor greataxe), but everyone survived just fine.

Glabbagool invited them to the "front door" of what was apparently a temple. Inside the room, there were kuo-toa worshipping the "Faceless Lord" and didn't take kindly to Shuushar's attempts at dissuading them from their faith. They attacked along with some other gray oozes, but the party defeated them.

After looting the bodies and acquiring goop, slime, and glue, the party now has to deal with the temple flooding that it's pouring in from another side tunnel.

After looting the bodies of the kuo-toa, the party decided to return back to the tunnel where the water was coming from. However, Scorpia misremembered the passage that they'd come through and accidentally fell into a black pudding. Derendil split the pudding in two with his claws, and one of the puddings nearly killed him. Luckily, the party pulled through, defeated the pudding, and revived him.

Delirium had the idea to swim up through the leaking ceiling to escape the temple. Scorpia swam with a rope and a spear and fastened it around a rock. Glabbagool heard Scorpia's telepathic desire to let the others know of her success, and it passed the information along so that everyone could scramble out of there.

Sarith and Shuushar confirmed that the river would lead them to Sloobludop. They began to follow it. Soon, they encountered a grove of mushrooms to harvest. They stayed there for a long rest. During the first watch, Derendil and Annabeth saw nothing. During the second watch, Delirium and Scorpia began to teach each other important languages. Derendil, hearing his mother tongue of Elvish, took the opportunity to recount his memories of home.

Sashanah appeared to Scorpia to return her talisman and also gave her a quest: to reach out to Themberchaud and let him know that Sashanah is an ally.

Delirium struggled with the terrible voice of Loviatar in her head, inspiring one harrowing episode of particularly deep fear. However, she also made sure to obscure the party's track and tried to use blood to lead their pursuers astray.

Buppido informed Scorpia that Themberchaud is the dragon that lights the forges of Gracklstugh.

After eight days of travel, the party was almost at Sloobludop. With just a little ways to go, Shuushar and Scorpia tried to cross the river, but they were ambushed by several kuo-toa. The kuo-toa kept throwing nets on the lot of them, calling out their intentions to capture them for the "Deep Father" "Leemoogoogoon." The party slayed each and every one, with Annabeth's lightning-storm rage dealing significant damage.

Just as they rested to recover their strength, a new group of kuo-toa arrived. Ploopploopleen, archpriest of the Sea Mother Blipdoolploop, believes the party is the answer to his prayers. He offers them a reward for helping him, and he will explain further as he leads them to the kuo-toa city.

Ploopploopeen announced that the adventurers were his god's answers to his prayers. His beloved town of Sloobludop has been divided. Kuo-toa turned away from the Sea Mother in favor of Leemooggoogoon, the Deep Father, including his own daughter! Bloppblippod has become an arch-priest in her own right, and she's been using her power and influence to sacrifice innocent people in the name of her god.

Ploopploopeen asked the adventurers to assist him by pretending to be sacrifices for the Deep Father. After swayed by his appeal for the good of his people and community (and the contents of his chest), they agreed, leaving Shuushar, Topsy, and Turvy behind.

Just as Bloppblippod went to sacrifice the adventurers, Ploopploopeen struck! Thus began a frenzied battle with kuo-toa on either side taking up their spears for the good of their god. After a series of devastating attacks of Scorpia's Cloud of Daggers and Ploopploopeen's lightning scepter, Bloppblippod cried out "Leemooggoogoon!", completing the ritual.

Fom the Darklake, a horrific monster standing over 30 feet high rose out of the lake! With oily long tentacles for arms and two hideous baboon heads, he cried his foul cry and began attacking the city. The sight was so terrifying that Delirium experienced a sudden urge to protect herself with a lucky charm: her thieves tools. The adventurers rushed over to Ploopploopeen's house to collect their friends (and the reward), but Eldeth fled to escape the town by boat, and Shuushar ran into the fray of confused kuo-toa to try and see what he could do to aid his community. Considering their resources and ability to find their way, they opted to take the land route to Gracklstugh.

After escaping the kuo-toa town, they began proceeding through a long tunnel. Four drow walked past them without giving any of them a second look. Delirium asked Sarith if they knew them, but all they did was make a confused weird face and suggested they pass on.

After long rest, our adventurers had nightmares. Delirium saw visions of spider webs and captured prey, Annabeth saw a palace of stairs and tunnels, and Scorpia saw a jungle surrounded by ocean with two towers, each crowned with a fanged skull.

They encountered grell intent on eating them, but after enough damage done, the horrible creatures gave up and retreated to their cave. The most injured grell did not survive a last minute attack from Scorpia's eldritch blast. They harvested a chunk of grell meat and 3 tentacles that they can use to make whips.

After their encounter with the grells, the adventurers encountered a stone giant who spoke of a secret cabal in the stone giants in Gracklstugh. Buppido challenged him, and narrowly escaped with his life after the giant crushed him with his greatclub, but his fear tempered his rage and Buppido came away very hurt but alive.

They traveled through more caves and were plagued by stirges, and before they could go much further they noticed Topsy and Turvy experiencing something bothering them just as they were crossing a very deep hole. Annabeth approached them to talk to them sincerely, but the two began an agonizing transformation into rats!