Lost Below

Phandalin

Two teams of heroes: the Dragonslayers and Our Party have been busy adventuring across the region, a friendly rivalry consistently won by the Dragonslayers until their success and angering the Cult of the Dragon brought overpowering attention to the small town of Phandalin.

During this time, the stories of others have also intersected this part of the world.

Travelers

The retired half-elf hero Daran Edermath, renowned in the Order of the Gauntlet, but now grower of apples, resides in a small house surrounded by his orchard on the north side of Phandalin. He is visited time-to-time by friends (and even enemies) of his past adventures and is always on the alert. He has taken both Tallon the Tall and Belcoria, of one of the parties under his wing of late - though the two have been away for a while, last seen heading into Neverwinter Wood.

Wizards

On this final day of the month of Marpenoth in the year of the Scarlet Witch, his breakfast is interrupted by a chilling sensation. He peers out his window to note two dark birds perched on his fence, which he initially takes as an omen of danger and death - but soon learns are merely the familiars (Loki and Thor) of two of the three students in tow behind an old friend; a wizard now residing in the Host Tower of the Arcane Brotherhood, far to the north in Luskan. Daran meets with Unirithor Seafoam while the students explore the orchard and nearby area.

The students relieve their travel-discipline with a bit of fun and play, and Mage Hand-picked sweet fruits, ripe in season. The slightly-older of the three, a human girl named Nass Lantomir, a Tiefling named Alyks Askaria, and a strange-looking fellow named Dex. While the girls played in the orchard and chased faerie-like insects around, Dex slipped into town on an errand assigned to him by one of the Masters, Idroxius Black.

Knights

The girls' familiars - the speckled raven Loki and the arctic weasel Zelennor, twitter excitedly as a Unknown and two riders gracefully swoop and approach from the skies above. Another of Daran's old companions, Thielicris Taarnak, visits with his daughter Runi - both father and daughter looking sharp and commanding in glimmering chainmail. While Thielicris (greeted as "Thee") joins Daran and Unirithor inside, the young Runi joins Alyks and Nass in the orchards.

Business

Mining ores from the nearby range of the Sword Mountains brings trade and supplies to and from Phandalin, and much of this through the Miner's Exchange run by Halia Thornton. Halia likely makes better money than any of the prospectors, and her dedication to the town fuels a strong will and often temper at those around her less focused on serious matters. Recently, this has been the ridiculous flaunting of wealth by the Dragonslayers and the fawning support of the foolish-and-cowardly Townmaster Harbin Wester. Harbin has showered these reckless heroes with feasts and festivals and wholly supported their restoration of the nearby Tresendar Manor, once a ruin and hideout for bandits.

The appearance of strange folk and spoken accents has become routine in the Miner's Exchange, and even a Hexblood such as Dex would not necessarily cause a stir, but on the side of caution, the wizard takes the Disguise Self appearance of a Wood Elf for his meeting. Halia has already been in contact with Master Black, accepts the payment from Dex and is explaining to him the compartmented box holding the ore samples requested - to better ensure proper delivery back to the Host Tower.

Dragon's Wrath

Several roof-fires on the southwestern end of town are the first events to raise an alert. Nass, Alyks, and Runi call to Daran as they watch from the stone wall separating the town from the orchards. The wizard, Runi's father, and the old half-elf emerge - but all three turn their gazes upward, lending the fires only a brief glance. Winds are shifting, carrying the smell of storm-air. Above, the clouds swirl and gather ominously, nothing natural in such weather. Then a rumbling sound that raises goosebumps - a sound like thunder, but not thunder.

Thielicris whistles for his griffon, taking Runi into his arms, instructing, "Follow Daran's instructions. Protect your new friends. I love you." He then mounts the griffon and takes to the sky, a blood-red lance forming to one side. Unirithor addresses Nass and Alyks, pointing first to the Tiefling, "Go find Dex - he went into town. Then return here and listen to him." As the girl runs off, he hands an amulet to Nass, "If things go badly, use this to contact the Host Tower. Daran will tell you where to go." He lightly pushes her toward their host, then vanishes, Invisible.

Halia stiffens suddenly, sensing something wrong. In absent-minded concern, she steps to the window, leaving her goods unwatched while on the table with a customer. But Dex also feels the oddness of the moment, standing to her side, taking in the billowing flames on rooftops. Halia utters a grand-daddy of a curse word, then merely, "Get your stuff and go. Find a safe place." She dashes out, taking charge of the confused residents of the town, directing and attending to reports offered.

Dex begins to head back toward Daran's house, carrying the drawer as a dark shadow rapidly washes over the town from the east. He turns and looks up, dropping the drawer and its stones: thick clouds billow above accompanied by a roar that would be more welcome if merely thunder. He then runs with little care, bumping into townsfolk in similar panic. His gaze looking back over his shoulder, he knocks over Alyks, her horns catching his jaw hard. Alyks snaps out of what seems to have been some sort of trance. She blinks, taking in her surroundings, as if only just arriving there, and then tells her friend, "We have to get to safety! And find Nass!"

Rushing northward, the pair of wizards feel a gush of wind rising just before blinding bolts of lightning cascade across their path ahead, scorching houses and town defenders where they stand. They look at each other and shout, "DRAGON!!!". While Dex pronounces the word with panic, disconcertingly - Alyks' eyes are wide with excitement and curiosity, as she calmly adds, "Blue, in fact", nodding smugly to herself. Smoke swirls all around following the beat of enormous wings. The Tiefling and Hexblood take shelter beneath a stone structure - a shrine of some sort, and wait. Later, they recall a calm voice assuring them that - for now - they are safe here.

Deputized by Daran, Nass and Runi flee to a secret tunnel into the hill beneath Tresendar Manor to the east, directing others to seek shelter with them. Nearly reaching the entrance, Runi winces as if struck in the neck by an arrow. As Nass checks on her new friend, the young knight rubs at her neck, tears in her eyes, looking to the sky, speaking, "Goodbye, father. To defend: this is the pact." She draws her sword as her tears dry, forming a face of conviction, motioning the people toward the entry. Lightning rakes the town from a dark form within the thick clouds, a dragon's wrath approaches. Dread fear strikes the hearts of both Runi and Nass, and they are forced to run headlong into the darkness of the tunnel - and beyond, away and away, gathering their senses only once realizing they somehow stumbled their way down a steep slope and into darkness.

Moongate Heroes

It is the night of the full moon, which means special attention as the watcher of the menhir (standing stones) at The Place of the Unicorn. Vaxz, a Druid originally from the Yuirwood, far to the east in Algarond, serving the Emerald Enclave, attends this sacred location - host to a Moongate in the light of Selûne at her fullest. In the few years of this duty, nothing has entered nor emerged from the moongate. But on this night, as the glamours glimmered, six travelers emerged. Even before taking them in, watching for a seventh, Vaxz squints at the forms beyond - catching the gaze of an ancient man that could be none but the Archdruid of Neverwinter Wood. A message comes to mind, an instruction from the highest authority of the Emerald Enclave, "follow them, but do not intrude upon their fate - yours is to seek and aid the horned ones."

The travelers move quickly, driven by some purpose - northward toward Phandalin. In the lead, a female high-elf knight with golden hair and black-scaled armor who seems to shine even in the setting sun of the cloudy day. She is flanked by three men, one enormous and wielding an axe that makes the trees hiss with irritation, one a smallish holy man of some kind - unarmed but for arm-bracers that glow softly, the third a mercenary with hilts of a pair of swords at his shoulders. The rear guard is uncannily keen, forcing Vaxz to keep a significant distance. One is near-impossible to make out, a form that seems to gather shadows as it moves. The other wears the leaf pin of the Emerald Enclave, a half-elf archer with a black-coated wolf companion. The fleet-footed wolf patrols as they move, forcing the druid further and further back on the journey.

(These are Our Party, and their events are recorded in Phandalin in Flames).

Approaching the town cautiously, Vaxz takes in the unfolding scene of disaster. The fires are seen long before making out the buildings themselves. The place is besieged by a force of the small dragonlings called Kobolds, while a dragon sweeps from the sky, over and over again - snatching defenders in claws and dropping them, scorching those below in arcs of lightning-breath, and sinking fear into mortal hearts.

Sheltering the Dragonstorm

Vaxz's senses draw his attention to a pair of horned humanoids cringing for shelter in a shrine to Tymora, the Goddess of Good Luck. The purple-skinned female's horns curl like those of a ram, a feather dangles from one and a fang from the other. The blue-skinned male's horns are intricate, almost like woven antlers. And their own luck is about to run out - unless it is their fortune in Vaxz coming upon them just as a Kobold ambush is launched. The fire-bladder bursts, dousing the pair in fire, each falling unconscious as the druid rushes toward them. He drops a Cure Wounds on Alyks, as the kobolds clamber toward the shrine to finish their attack.

A Fog Cloud follows, wholly obscuring the area and allowing Vaxz to stabilize (Medicine) Dex, the three of them escaping to a hiding-place as matters in the square grow intense.

(See the Phandalin in Flames scene - Halia vs. Harbin, Heroes taking down the Dragon, etc.)

Following the THUD of the dragon's death and the rallying of the Lords Alliance in clearing out the stray kobolds, Dex and Alyks desperately search for their missing friend Nass. Unirithor has been forced back to the Host Tower, having taken a mortal wound triggering a Contingency teleportation. Alyks receives a Sending from Zelenn the White, one of the Archmages of the Arcane Brotherhood. It instructs her to do what she can to find Nass, and advising that help is on the way - to look for a red feather in a hat.

Daran advises that he had sent Nass and the young warrior Runi into the caves beneath the manor, but none have seen them since. He notes Runi's father, a heroic griffon-rider, was killed by the dragon. Dex, Alyks, and (following the archdruid's instructions) Vaxz find the tunnel, then the cavern, then guided by the premonitions of the tiefling Divination Wizard, down into the Underdark.

Hours later, as the cavern opens up into a larger room, spilled with ancient ruins, Alyks calmly notes with some familiarity and a resignation to fate, that this is the place where they will be captured. She looses a one-use Fireball from her ring, destroying the goblin ambush she uncannily knows of -- and indeed alerting a Drow patrol that takes them prisoner. All possessions are taken away and peasant clothing provided.

Upon becoming locked into the holding cells of Velkynvelve, the three are reunited with Nass and Runi - and a motley group of other prisoners of the Drow. All the prisoners wear thick leather collars and belts locked with iron loops to a chain that runs only slightly loosely down their spine, easily disabling them with a swipe from one of the Quaggoths on guard duty. The front of the belt connects a chain to a wrist-band. The chain runs through a loop in the other wrist band. This allows the prisoner to reach out with one hand, but extending both hands pulls the two wrists close together. The binding makes Somatic spellcasting nearly impossible.

Shuushar, a Kuo-Toa (fish-person), claims to have been a prisoner the longest. He is a philosopher lost in mysticism and the others claim him to be a deathwish-pacifist, unwilling to defend himself.
I am aware my people are seen as cold-hearted and mad. I am not - my heart and mind were opened to wisdom.
You quarrel over ideas, but our minds speak a single language.
One must learn to swim in the same waters that drown the mad.
Behind the conflict, contradictions, and brokenness, the enlightened mind sees a concealed unity of oneness.
This moment is the only thing that is real - all else is memory or imagination.
Silence holds more majesty than any sound.
Jimjar is a jolly welcome-party all in one Svirfneblin skin (Deep Gnome) - an oddly upbeat fellow eager to gamble on anything and everything.
Eldath joins Jimjar in welcoming the newcomers, eager for anyone who might counterbalance everyone else who is clearly insane! She is a shield dwarf from Gauntlgrym (and proud of it!!) She is courageous to the point of being foolhardy, and she despises all the dark-dwelling folk. She was caught while pursuing the orc Ront, losing her bearings after battle-fury got the best of her.
Ront is an orc who fled a battle between his tribe and Eldath's. He grates on everyone else's nerves, is a constant bully and complainer about lack of food. He has a talent for pushing others' buttons and triggering anger.
Prince Derendil (physically a Quaggoth) patiently awaits his formal introduction from Jimjar, who explains the beast claims to truly be an elvish prince - eager to return to the surface to return to the Kingdom of Nelrindenvane (in the High Forest), but cursed by an evil wizard into this form.
Stool tiptoes over, releasing Rapport Spores that enable communication. No arms or even a face, but a disposition of wonder... from a mushroom.
You can do magic?? How did you do that?? Can I learn??
You've been to the surface? What's the moon like? Does the sun really hurt?
How do you know what to do with your arms? Do you keep growing more fingers?
Why do you wear clothes? How do you decide what to wear?
Do you eat mushrooms? Will you take me home?
Buppido is introduced, but interrupts to declare himself the deity "Diinkarazan", gesturing to a makeshift altar that may be used for offerings to him. He regularly reminds people their devotions can be placed there.
Last is Sarith Kzekarit, a Drow accused of murdering another Drow - his friend, in fact. Sarith's memories are faulty and he swings between despair at losing his wits and doing something terrible to entirely denying any wrong-doing and being unjustly imprisoned. Needless to say, he has no friends among the other prisoners.

Day One: No food, no water, no activity. As sleep time comes, Buppido cackles, "two to kanTHARoss". Asking what the heck that means, apparently the crazy Derro - Diinkarazan or whatever - has been doing this every night. Yesterday was "three to", the day before "four to." Kantharos was brutally murdered just before the prisoner group that included Buppido was being brought here. (His body made into a strange pose.)

Day Two: Water is offered. Food is provided, but it is spoiled. Those who vomit the food continue to starve. It ends with "time for kanTHARoss". Each morning in the Underdark the surface-natives awaken from frightful dreams - oily tentacles winding around them, being lost in mazes, shadows reaching toward them, wounds festering with maggots or spores, and are shaken in a cold sweat, jittery, throbbing headache, sometimes with a lingering buzzing in their heads. This is more crisp on the morning to follow...

Day Three: The prisoners wake to shrieks of fear and pain from the Quaggoth Den next door. A flash of energy streaks across the darkness outside the bars, and shadows move about on the fringes of the torchlight. The wraith of Kantharos confronts the Drow, with undead specters of the freshly-dead Quaggoths at his side. Things go badly until Ilvara, the Priestess of Lolth that is also commander of this outpost joins the battle, instantly destroying the spectres and quickly dispatching the wraith as well. Down a number of quaggoth servants, the Drow decide to employ the prisoners as replacement servants. Food, water, and assignments are given.

Duties include preparing and serving food, cleaning dinnerware and barracks, emptying chamberpots, hauling supplies, foraging for food on the cave floor, working the lift, and entertaining. Some duties help ensure access to food - even allow for stealing food to offer to the prisoners who remain starving. (And Ront is always starving!)

One prisoner is not held in the cell with the others, but remains chained to the wall of the kitchen. He is Womberwill Tomicarious Veuminorus, a Unknown, a fey faun with legs and hooves of a goat. A magic band on one leg is revealed to prevent his escape - but also to provide powerful healing. This allows the Drow to carve meat from his leg as part of their dinners.

Some prisoners are not trusted with the servant duties. Two of these are Sarith and Derendil, whose only reprieve from the prison cell is interrogation, where bodies are prepared for later ritual sacrifice on arrival in Menzoberranzan. They return to the cell with markings in their flesh and reporting being measured for - something later.

Day Four: Jimjar begins to try to organize efforts toward an escape plan, helping select important things to try to find and steal on the day's chores. These include items helpful in travel, not merely to escape - as well as spell components and to learn where gear may have been secured after the capture. On this day, Alyks is particularly successful as entertainment to the elites, surprising even herself. Her heavily-drunk watchers allow her to secret away a couple entire travel packs. In strong contrast, the duty assigned to Runi is "cleaning the skurguler", an ancient dwarven device of forgotten purpose, but functional in the pool beneath the waterfall in grinding up the waste. Something had caught in the teeth, and Runi not only successfully cleared the obstruction - but also did so without becoming eviscerated herself. As she completed the job, she noted a set of half plate armor long lost within the pool, which she hid in the shallows. It was coated with ages of calcium, giving it a fine pale sheen.

Day Five: On this day, the item scrounging takes on greater focus as locations of several needed items have been figured out. On top of this, the Drow and Quaggoths become distracted with an attack by a hideous Chuul, an enormous insect-like creature easily climbing along the cavern walls. At some point during the excitement, however, a dark deed has been done - for on return to kitchen-work, Vaxz discovers Womberwill the satyr has been murdered - beheaded and skin peeled back and pinned to the wall. Taking in the scene, he notices too late that the metal band around the now-deceased goat-man has slithered to wrap itself around his own ankle. But not chained to the wall, he is adopted by its powerful healing properties. As the evening inventory of stolen items is discussed, alongside gossip about the dark elf captors, the figure Jimjar introduced as "Mr Happypants" interjects.

Serving the Drow

Sarith opens up on hearing the discussion of the various Drow encountered in the course of duties. Apparently he is from the region and knows these caverns and guards well. The Drow matriarchy have put this outpost under the command of Ilvara Mizzrym, a priestess of the Demon Queen of Spiders and Mother of the Drow - Lolth. A junior priestess named Asha Vandree serves at her side.

The priestess oversees six elite warriors. The captain of the guard is her mate, a cousin of Asha named Shoor Vandree. Shoor is young and full of swagger, lording over the males after he replaced Jorlan Duskryn as captain. Jorlan's face became maimed and ugly in a battle with some ooze-creature and now considered hideous, Ilvara replaced him as her mate and captain. The remaining elite are named Balok (notably superstitious and now shaken after the wraith incident), Bemeril (picky about what he eats, looking for better options), Guldor (often drunk), and Honemmeth (who is fairly openly setting himself up to replace Shoor).

Sarith shares that there seems to be a delay transferring the sacrifices to Menzoberranzan because all regional patrols are combing the Underdark looking for a missing son of a noble family they call The Black Spider. (This is Nezznar Baenre, though that name means nothing to these characters. See Wave Echo Caves (Finale)). He also notes that while the Drow only keep most prisoners alive as slaves and spider-food, they will try not to let the others die if they will be valuable sacrifices to Lolth. (The valuable sacrifices being Alyks, Dex, Nass, Runi, Vaxz - as well as himself, Derendil, and Eldath).

The drow prisoner also knows where the prisoner's gear is locked away: in a chest in the chamber beneath the shrine to Lolth (which is also the quarters of the priestess, unfortunately!)

Day Six: The prisoners are left in the cells this day as the Drow try to decide how to handle the murder in the kitchen. Ront's rant over his hunger sends him over the edge in a fight with the quaggoth-bodied elf Prince Derendil. The orc gets the best of the white-haired creature, choking him into unconsciousness with intent to kill, when the dwarf Eldeth steps in and attacks Ront herself, unhappy with her enemy getting the best of anyone else. Eventually the conflict settles down with stern warnings from the guards aiming crossbows through the bars. Before the tense night of sleep, a single dark elf comes into the cell - Jorlan Duskryn, the ex-mate of the priestess Ilvara. Jorlan suggests the prisoners cause trouble for the outpost to make his ex and his replacement look bad. He leaves the door unlocked and suggests whatever mischief is done be finished by morning, where he will come to re-lock.

That night, Vaxz steps outside the gates and Wild Shapes into the form of a rat to scout (and dropping out of his collar and manacles). He finds rats gain no notice from any but the giant spiders, and successfully sneaks into the armory, noting the location of weapons and armor, including Eldeth's axe (a weapon not of interest to drow and too small for quaggoths). Continuing, he gains unfortunate attention of a giant spider and, running for his life, gets slashed by a spider-leg, transforming back to wood elf, but tumbling toward the waterfall. He catches strands of spider silk and is lost in the mists of the crashing cold water. Patiently, he then Wild Shapes into a giant spider himself, scurrying along the webs and into the chapel area. There, he finds the young priestess Asha in elf-trance on pillows alongside a large pet spider. He steals a bit of down from a pillow (a crucial component of the escape plans - Alyks casting Feather Fall). He peers into the room below, noting Ilvara in a trance of her own before a small altar, and chooses not to push his luck again.

The druid-as-spider continues to the guard barracks, seeking the keys to the collars and wrist constraints of the other prisoners. Each room has someone watchful until he tries one of the elite barracks, where the drunk Guldor is left on watch and has passed out. Unfortunately, to get to the keys he must transform back into elf-form - with no remaining Wild Shapes to use. He gathers the keys and steals a Piriwi Cloak of the (Dark) Elvenkind, wearing it and gaining extra stealth while being the perfect shape and manner of an elf-wearer, easily returning to the cell by seeming to be one of the drow.

The prisoners are freed of their restraints, and Nass casts Invisibility on Runi and Eldeth. Alyks and Dex use Disguise Self to appear as Drow, and Vaxz puts on the Piriwi in the same guise. Two head to the armory to gather needed gear while others adept in stealth and sneakiness to Ilvara's chamber to recover the confiscated gear. The priestess is not there, which is good - but also bad (where is she??) - and they regain not only their own things but some new items as well. These include Dex's Cloak of the Flayed, Alyks' Wand of Secrets, potions of healing, two more Piriwi, and fancy boots, which Jimjar claims. The wizardlings all get back their spell books and pouches of spell components. Vaxz's yew wand (druidic focus) is returned, along with Dex's ring (1 use: Wither and Bloom), Nass's amulet (1 use: Divine Loop), 24gp, 30sp, and a moonstone worth 20gp.

Ront is tactically released as a distraction vs. the guards - who appear to already be distracted, revealing what may have taken Ilvara's attention. Four bug-men demons fly in pursuit of a hideous bird-demon thing. These are wild with blood lust and deal out violence to any in their way or even nearby. This significant distraction offers a unique opportunity - and the group dashes for the bridge near the waterfall. Alyks casts Feather Fall on 5 and then 5 again, and all leap to the floor of the cavern.

Gently floating to the bottom, making their escape as the chaos above is further kindled by Dex having set fires before jumping off. Out of the commotion and blazes and demons above, there is a great SPLASH in the skurguler pool, where the orc Ront has cannonballed, emerging with a triumphant flex and bellows his name, "RONNNNNTT!"

The moment swirls and churns between piercingly vivid colors and the greys of darkness, motion forward and backward, as everyone's senses are jerked forward and in reverse. A premonition visits the group as they return to this moment, recalling only Nass holding her amulet and a hand to Sarith the dark elf, asking Dex, "Do you really want to save him?" As Dex nods firmly, all finally steadies, Nass fading away, with the hints of a well-known strangely-shaped room from the Host Tower surrounding her.

There is a great SPASH in the skurguler pool nearby, where the orc RONT has cannonballed, emerging with a triumphant flex and bellows his name, "RONNNNTT!" The group look at each other, blinking and a bit disoriented. Eldeth takes a step toward the orc, hefting her axe, and Vaxz considers use of the Entangle spell, but then both halt - unsure. Then everyone looks at Sarith, who seems the most confused of all of them, until Jimjar's voice cuts through, "Mates, we gotta move!" jutting a chin upward, as the lift slowly begins to descend. Attention turns from Sarith to the lift, and then to Ront, and a strange sense of taboo seeps into all, sparing the oaf - at least for now.

Ten prisoners then slink off into the northern tunnel, led by the dark elf Sarith, followed by Prince Derendil the quaggoth-elf, the warrior Runi, the wizards Alyks (cradling Stool) and Dex, the druid Vaxz, Jimjar the Deep Gnome, Buppido the Derro, Eldeth the dwarf, and trudging out of the murky pool - the orc Ront.

(Continued in Seeking Neverlight)