DAY 409 (17th Tarsakh)(April) cont...
And so we left the cavern and continued to follow the trail left by the troglodyte army. We arrived at a much smaller cavern that had a total of eight tunnels leading into it.
There was a door in one corner and a gravestone in the other. On the stone were strange runes, but Fenrir could translate them and told us that they said;
''
Posterity will ne’er survey
a Nobler grave than this:
Here lie the bones of Cassleray:
Stop, traveller, and piss!
''
Well, I wasn't going to, but Fenrir did. He said he felt a shiver run down his spine when he did so as some minor magical benefit was bestowed on him.
The door, meanwhile, was made from ironbound rock slabs. There was a hatch in it, but Fenrir used his ring of Knock. I listened at the door and could here something lurking within, so instead of just barging in Fenrir knocked.
The hatch opened and a crude earthen face looked at us, blinking in the light of our lanterns. 'Overworlders is it?' he said in Undercommon. 'What do you want?'
Well, it turned out this was an inn called the 'Eight Ways'. The man at the door was actually a 'slyth', a fairly gentle race native to the Underdark. He was the doorman, the place was run by an elderly dark elf couple. They didn't get much pass through trade, but today it was quite 'busy' apparently as there was another man in the common room and a group of five dwarves.
We got some drinks and sat at a table. Fenrir, smooth tongued as ever went and talked to the man and learned he was called 'Veets the Spelunker'. He looked a rugged sort and Fenrir detected a lot of magic on him. This area of the Underdark we were in at the moment was called the 'Darklands' he told us and he was exploring the area for his own reasons. I think he was mapping out the entire Underdark for his own amusement.
The dwarves were suspicious of us to begin with. They were on a mission from their town somewhere above this area called 'Boatmurdered'. They were looking for another group of dwarves that had gone missing while escorting a hunting party of men that had come down from the surface.
Fenrir talked with Veets some more, then hired him to take us to the troglodyte city. It was a few hours away, through one of the tunnels at 'Eight Ways'.
It took a few gold coins to get past the gate and into the Foreign Quarter. Here I should explain a little of where we now were. The troglodyte city was called 'The Pool of Organs' or just 'Pool' for short. The troglodytes of this city were called 'Pudlians'. The city was organised into seven districts, six for each of the Pudlian tribes and one at the entrance were non-Pudlians were allowed to come to trade. They distrusted all other races, but especially other lizard races and any other non-Pudlian troglodyte was killed on sight.
The smell in the Foreign Quarter was so bad that it made Veddic bring up his lunch. It was a haphazard and chaotic place, with the troglodyte warriors that guarded the main entrance the nearest thing to a town watch. They were only interested in squeezing coins out of visitors though and shining strange red and blue lamps in peoples faces for reasons I am still not clear on.
The Quarter was not overly large, no more than fifty buildings and it only took half an hour to see it all. A dark, gloomy, stinking place full of filth and strange looking Underdark races. I saw my first Derro, Koa-toa and Grimlock!
Unpleasant as most of it is, it's utterly fascinating!
The biggest building was up the back, it seemed to act as some kind of town hall where people could also sleep if they wanted to. I saw one or two more Slyths and some Duergar. I was happy to let Fenrir take the lead on this adventure as he knew more about what was going on than I did. This gave me lots of time to take in the architecture (this place is built on the ruins of... something) and talk to the natives.
Fenrir found a duergar lady called Brilmara who was willing and capable of talking to him although she was very grumpy. For a small fee she led us to a side cave where we could stay the night.
Veets was still with us and he was happy to join us for our evening meal (from Fenrir's magical supply box). Fenrir told him about what had happened in Westgate, the attack on the city and his mission, but Veets didn't really seem that interested. I don't think he has had much to do with the Overworld in years.
I was on watch when Fenrir went back out again late in the evening. Something must have been keeping him awake. He told me later he went to talk to Brilmara again and ask who was in charge of the Foreign Quarter.
In reply she had said;
'No one. It's anarchy here, chaos reigns in the FQ. The merchants that come here are usually pretty tough, as for people like me, we come in groups for safety, conduct our business and leave as quickly as possible.'
DAY 410 (18th Tarsakh)(April)
It has been a very interesting day of wandering around in the Underdark. Every new cave and tunnel is of great interest to me. It has been nice to let someone else lead the way for a while. This is Fenrir's quest so I've mainly been just letting him get on with it.
So, there are several tunnels that lead from the FQ, each one going to one of the tribal districts. They are guarded by dozens of arrogant and annoying troglodyte warriors.
We went to the nearest one. The tunnel was covered by a large iron portcullis with a pack of troglodytes lounging around in front of it.
'What do you want, toplander?' the said with cheeky laughs.
Fenrir could understand them with his magical helmet but could not answer back in the same language - Undercommon.
They merely laughed at his gestures and told him that he had a face that made them laugh. They shone those strange lamps on us, but seemed to be content with whatever it was that they saw.
As this was pointless we found a slyth who was willing to act as a translator and returned. His name was Drypp, he seemed a calm and gentle enough soul and was happy to act as a translator in return for food.
Back at the gate, Fenrir turned on the charm and tossed the guards a couple of gold coins. They still would not let us in, but one of them said this:
''
A few months ago one of the sacred beasts that we worship was killed by surface dwellers. Trophy hunters I heard, or maybe they were after the magic that's in 'em, I dunno. A band of dwarves and humans, the priests caught and killed most of 'em, but they got three or four still, in their dungeons. Waiting for the best day to kill 'em. Probably on Pool Night, big festival. In about eight days. They've probably got something horrible planned for 'em.
''
Fenrir decided after that he'd had enough of this smelly place and we all returned to the Eight Ways. Veets had already left by that stage so it took us about five hours of travel. We took Drypp with us, who loved the food that came from the magical ration box.
The dwarves were still there, so Fenrir talked to them some more. He then talked to Veets, and hired him to help us get into the tunnels and dungeons under the city.
In the afternoon Veets lead us down to a series of tunnels then used his magical pick axe to cast 'Stone Shape' multiple times and opened up another tunnel that he'd evidently dug a few days ago. It lead all the way to the Pool dungeons.
The tunnel led is through a lovely chasm as well. Veets had built a bridge over it and we stopped to admire the view. It was dark of course, but our lanterns illuminated a fair bit of it. Drypp was impressed too. I am learning about the slyth from him. Apparently they are peaceful folk, and consider themselves to be the caretakers of the Underdark. It is common for them to become druids and care for the nature that exists down here. I found myself getting along with him very well.
It was hard to tell, by now, what time of day it was, but I venture it was around midnight when we finally reached the end of Veets tunnel. Again he used his magic pick to Stone Shape the rest of the way and as he opened up an entrance to the dungeon for us he said;
'This is it, the Dungeons of Pool.'
No comments:
Post a Comment