(G380 26/01/2019 via Roll20 - AP, JF(GM)) WA53

(G380 26/01/2019 via Roll20 - AP, JF(GM)) WA53

DAY 416 (23nd Tarsakh)(April) cont ...

Although I was not at all happy about the battle that ensued I must say
that I did find it very thrilling. These creatures, evil as they are, were
not doing anyone any harm, they were just defending their homes. And here we
were slaughtering them.

As Fenrir swept the main hall with his eldritch blasts, myself and Veddic came
in from a side wing. There were guards, driders (dark elf spiders) and triders
(troglodyte spiders), priests and dark elf fighters. The elderly priests and
acolytes ran for cover but everyone else put up a good fight.

As he entered Veddic cast a Briar Web spell at the entrance that very effectively
blocked other guards from coming in from outside. The female cleric, we didn't
know it at the time, was none other than the Vicar of Laogzed, one of the most
powerful people in the city.
She cast a powerful Dictum spell that slowed down Fenrir and paralysed Veddic.
Guards attacked him, but their weapons mainly just clanged off his armour.
Although I was not happy about killing beings that were just defending themselves
I saw now that I had no choice so I turned into an ape and started ripping them
to bits. The Vicar tried some more spells on us, but in the end we prevailed,
killed the guards and fighters and made our way to a door in the south wall.

Here we cornered a terrified dark elf priest who told us where to find the
prisoners. Blasting and ripping up more guards as we went, with Veddic still
slung over my shoulder like a sack of potatoes we made our way back through
the main hall and to where we had been told to look.
Down another corridor we found the next step in our escapade - a set of
stone steps leading down to the dungeons.

(G379 12/01/2019 via Roll20 - AP, JF(GM)) WA52

(G379 12/01/2019 via Roll20 - AP, JF(GM)) WA52

DAY 415 (22nd Tarsakh)(April) cont ...

I waved at Fenrir to get his attention, but I think he was realising the futility of
this endeavour himself. I kept on thinking about what that dwarf merchant had told
us about just bribing our way in.
There were troglodyte shaman mixed in with the warriors and I pointed them out.
'Hold up a big bag of gold and get his attention for Silvanus's sake!' I pleaded.
Eventually we called a cease-fire and managed to talk to one of them.
'I will hear your parley,' said the shaman.

It took an hour or so and 700 gold, but we managed to get ourselves to the main
gate. From there we paid a gate guard to take use 'where we needed to be' he said
for the sum of 100 gold. I think in some ways the trogs that we hadn't killed
admired out strength and didn't take us slaying loads of them quiet as personally
as you might think. That and they loved gold above all things.
'You knock this door, go in - goodbye!' said the guard as he left.

The door was opened by a slyth who ushered us into his dwelling, down some
dark tunnels and into grotty eating area. His name was Kronthud and his
female companion was Thulmarra.
'So, you have entered the city illegally, how can I help you?' he asked.
Fenrir started by asking how he could get to talk to the 'Priests of
Laogzed'. Kronthud told him there was little chance of them meeting
with anyone from outside the city, let alone an illegal alien. If had
arrived as a guest of honour then perhaps, but like this, not a chance.
'I can gather information for you though,' offered Kronthud.

Fenrir paid 50 gold for a 'luxury suite' and another 100 for the information.
Kronthud went off to find where the prisoners were being kept, how heavily
guarded it was and how the priests were likely to react to a break out.

The 'suite' was marvelous, for something underground anyway, a large well
lit airy chamber with a small fountain in the middle. Stone benches with
soft silk cushions were arranged around the place.

Twelve females were sent for our pleasure. *CROSSED OUT*. I of course had
nothing to do wit them my sweet.
Later Fenrir went off with a female mindflayer (!), a slyth, a red skinned
elf (I think maybe she was a Genasi) and yuan-ti pure blood. To do I know
not what.
A female slyth, a svirfneblin and two tritons tried to lure me away
*CROSSED OUT* but I resisted and was very well behaved and *CROSSED OUT*
went to my room by myself shortly afterwards.

Your loving husband, Rol

DAY 416 (23nd Tarsakh)(April)

Dear Nia,

Just got a chance to finally jot down a few things after all the excitement today.
We started with a very nice breakfast, served to us by Thulmarra in our suite.
Eating so heartily in such a nice environment certainly made a nice change from
our resent experience.

Kronthud returned with information:

Where prisoners are being kept?    - Indeed under the main temple
Guard?              
- Temple guards
 - Trogs, paladins/blackguards and a high level cleric.
- Also Driders and Triders
Route to place?          
- It is in the middle of the main city and easy to find.
Map?             
- crude map provided - building in reasonably good conditions. heavily guarded all the time
How priests are most likely to react?
- This he did not know. They might try and keep it quiet, as such a breech of their
security would be very embarrassing, or they might call out the noble's warbands or they
might raise the entire population up in arms. There was no way of knowing for sure.

Kronthud also said that our slaying of over a hundred troglodytes at the main entrance had put a large price on our heads and that he would have to move us soon for the safety of all concerned.

Kronthud had also learned some details of the prisoners:

ALIVE- Lord Trant, a nobleman in his late 30s, well dressed and of an arrogant demeanour.
DEAD - Bob Bobbins, his half-halfling servant
DEAD - Yembrol Santez, a young nobleman.
DEAD - His servant
ALIVE- Caric Codswapper, a young nobleman.
DEAD - His servant, a female elf.
and Two Dwarves from Boatmurdered.

Trant, hmm, Trant, that name rings a bell, thought Fenrir. Then it dawned on him that it was none other than the Croamarkh son!

The final words of wisdom from Kronthud, 'You're best bet for leaving the city is back out via the bribery chain as quickly as possible before the priests make up their minds how to react!'

I have to say it did look like he thought we were all crazy and had no chance of success.

Well, be that as it may, we began our assault on the temple a few hours later. It was meant to be a scouting mission, but as you know, with Fenrir there is a 100% chance that a scouting mission will turn into an assault.

The Temple to Laogzed was built by the dark elves that were the original inhabitants of Pool. In fact, the most senior clerics of the Temple were still dark elves and driders the last remnants of their presence in the city.
The building itself is large and domed, with eight wings all sticking out of it like the legs of a spider. The main entrance was through the 'head' of the spider, a set of two tall doors that were guarded by six tough looking trogs in plate armour.

While me and Veddic lurked around the side of the temple (looking for a good place to enter via Stone Shape) Fenrir turned invisible and snuck in the main entrance, following a female dark elf cleric inside. The entrance was a wide corridor that lead to another set of doors that had a huge stone face carved on it. She tugged on the faces nostrils, it said 'enter!' and in she went. Fenrir followed behind her.
As the door closed though, Fenrir's cloak caught on it! He tugged and sadly ripped the thing. It send the door guards into a mild tizzy, but by then Fenrir was in the main chamber.

He wafted along as high as he could to the other side of the circular hall, keeping near the cleric he had followed. She then went through a door at the back. Just as he was wondering what to do, a drider below pointed up at him and cried, 'there is something up there!'
Fenrir sighed then contacted us with the magic stones. 'Just come on in lads, its all kicked off.'
Veddic rolled his eyes and waited for me to make a door for us so that we could also join the fun.

(G378 05/01/2019 via Roll20 - AP, JF(GM)) WA51

(G378 05/01/2019 via Roll20 - AP, JF(GM)) WA51

DAY 415 (23rd Tarsakh)(April) cont...

We waited an hour, far back enough from the fortress to be out of javelin range. Fenrir was himself, I remained as a monitor lizard and Veddic was a troglodyte.

Perhaps thinking things would be different after an hour's cooling off Fenrir approached the wall a second time, but was met with the same response.

A short while later he tried for a third time, trying to explain about wanting to talk to the priests about the sacred beasts and suchlike but again the answer was the same - a volley of spears and bolts.

Frustrated Fenrir started shooting at the drawbridge, attempting to bring it down.
Inside a bell rang, and the bridge was lowered. Twenty troglodytes charged out and were quickly killed by one of Fenrir's eldritch cones.

As more arrived we battled our way into the fortress. It was actually pretty horrible as we killed well over a hundred of the poor things. They died in heaps of charred flesh. The stink was indescribable.
We pushed on into the tunnel at the rear of the fortress, killing more of them as we went. In the tunnels they had poured barrels of something like alchemical fire onto the ground and as we approached they set it alight. Not only did it prevent our going forward, but it sucked the air out of the tunnel and filled it with smoke.

The trog defenders threw more jars of the stuff at us and we eventually retreated back to the fortress. Fenrir asked me to summon up some water elementals and we tried again to assault the tunnels. It worked after a fashion, but it wasn't long before the elementals were just clouds of scalding steam and once more we returned to the fortress.

We looted the bodies of the slain troglodytes and threw them into the chasm. It was grim work. Then we had a spot of lunch.

I must say my dear, it was all just horrible. We tried again and pushed through one of the flame barriers and into the tunnels beyond. We advanced a few dozen yards further in, only to be met by yet another, even bigger, wall of flames that extended thirty feet back.

We were still being attacked from all sides. From the front, from the back and from all the side tunnels we passed. It was a chaos of flames, smoke, blood and death.
Dozens of dead troglodytes lay all around us. It was time for me to say something.

(G377 24/11/2018 via Roll20 - AP, JF(GM)) WA50/2

(G377 24/11/2018 via Roll20 - AP, JF(GM)) WA50/2

DAY 413 (21st Tarsakh)(April) cont ...

Dear Nia,

Well we didn't make it into the main city today. Taking our time to come up with a plan seems like a good idea to me. We are spending the night in our little hide-away nook again tonight so I will just write this down before turning in.

First we checked out all the exits from the Foreign Quarter besides the way we came in. The south gate was guarded and carts full of barrels and bags seemed to rumble in and out of it. The east gate had strong stone doors. The north gate was kept open and guarded by a gang of squabbling troglodytes.

We spent the rest of the days nosing around in the FQ. I think the best advice we got was from a grumpy old dwarf merchant who told us that he had been into the main city many times and that - 'ye just bribe yer way in lads. Give a few gold to the first trog, then second trog, then the third. Keep dishing out the gold until you are there!'

Well anyway, I'm blowing out the candle now, night night my love, Roz.


DAY 414 (22nd Tarsakh)(April)

Dear Nia,

Today we attempted to get through the north gate. We didn't succeed. It started well enough, but got increasingly out of control. So, with Fenrir invisible, myself in the shape of a monitor lizard and Veddic shaped as a troglodyte using my Hat of Disguise we approached the guards.

Veddic started with a ten gold bribe, which was good, but when asked what tribe he was from he made a fatal mistake.
'I'm from the Gubblywub tribe in Waterdeep', he ad-libed.
Veddic hadn't been paying attention though as there is nothing the troglodytes of Pool hate more than troglodytes that are not from Pool!
'Seize him!!!!' cried their leader.

We then started fighting the guards, then random people from the FQ started fighting too, on either side or non. Random dwarves, old ladies, tough fighters and all manner of ragged guttersnipes.

Then a massive fireball, cast from a roof somewhere back in the FQ hit the gates, killing or stunning the guards, and blasting it to splinters. Half the population of the FQ then seemed to charge through them, for reasons I could not fathom.

We walked in, healing ourselves as we went, with gangs of desperate and half starved looking denizens of the Underdark streaming past us. When we got to the other end we saw it was filled with people. The FQ desperados being fended off by the gate guards.
The guards were out numbered and fell back. The desperados gave a cheer and advanced, but then a leaver was pulled somewhere and a huge rock rolled down in front of the gate, crushing several of them and effectively ending the invasion. Two poor creatures were trapped between the rock and the gate and were easily dispatched by the guards.

Fenrir sighed then ordered me to block off part of the passage with Stone Shape. So here we are now spending the night - quiet literally between a rock and a hard place!

Wish me luck my love, Rol.


DAY 415 (23rd Tarsakh)(April)

Dear Nia,

I am writing this from the central district of Pool, if you can beleive that, well fed and rested. It took a lot of bloodshed to get here though.

At six in the morning we got up and I used my Stone Shape spell to dig a wee tunnel around the big rock and into the next district. As I learned later this place is known as 'The
Shambles' and is a sort of slum area, full of half-starved troglodytes. There is a central tunnel, a large airy hall dug out and decorated long ago by dark elves. Off it it are a thousand smaller tunnels, dug by the trogs. It is very easy to get lost in the small side tunnels that go up and down and in and out in a completly random fashion.

Well anyway, Veddic sent a zombie he had recently created ahead first (I'm not kean on all this undead business at all!) and it was killed by the guards. It did give us time to pick ourselves up as we got out the tunnel I'd made though.

From here we battled our way through the main hall, troglodytes throwing spears at us from the galleries and upper windows all the while. It was a bit much though so we ducked into the side tunnels. Here the trogs of the Shambles left us alone and after a couple of hours I managed to navigate our way east to the next gate.
Veddic tried to disguise himself as a local troglodyte, but wheter it worked or not I don't know as they were very happy indeed to see us leave and become another district's problem!

The inter-district tunnel led us to a chasm about twenty feet wide with a fortified wall on the other side that had a drawbridge in the up position on the other side. There were arrow slits in the wall, but otherwise it covered the entire eastern side of the chasm.

Fenrir tried to parley with whoever was within, but was met with a cry of 'Begone!' and a hail of spears and crossbow bolts. Oh, some how I had missed it, but Fenrir must have purchased some sort of device that has the 'Comprehend Languages' spell on it as he can now understand what everyone is saying to him, although he had to use Veddic and his 'Tongues' spell to make a reply.

Despite all that, it only got worse from here.

(G376 17/11/2018 via Roll20 - AP, JF(GM)) WA49/2

(G376 17/11/2018 via Roll20 - AP, JF(GM)) WA49/2

[Now back to the dungeons under the Troglodyte city of Pool, with me (Rollo the Druid!), Fenrir the Warlock and Veddic the Cleric.]

[Actually, just in case a re-cap is required, here is a copy of a letter I sent to my wife before we went into the Underdark.]

Dearest Nia,

Just jotting down some notes here, in case something happens to me.

I'm staying out of it really, but I do wonder what it's all about.
Fenrir is working for Random, who is working for Cavu, who works for Gertrude the White.

I've never met Gertrude (knowingly anyway) but I do know she is a very powerful cleric of Illmater (I think) and is also an Oracle of some kind.

I know Cavu, I've met him a few times and somewhere in the back of my mind there is something about a difficult past
or a time, prior to his ressurection, when he behaved very differently.
(Oh yes, that's right, he was a bard called Banjax.)

I've just recently met Random, who has a thousand faces, but who is actually a teifling and also, I suspect, a bard.
He seems to be a cunning fellow, and if it were not for the fact that Cavu (and by extension Gertrude) seem to trust him I'd have nothing to do with him. He'd steal the sugar out your tea.

So what's it all about? From what Random tells me, Westgate has a vampire problem. The Night Masks leadership has recently been violently changed and replaced with a cadre of vampires and they plan to take over the entire city. We are part of the plan to stop it.

Random is doing a lot of things, sending ships here and there, sending messengers here and there. Their is another party called 'Barry's Gang' that are also given tasks to perform.

Fenrir fits into this, I suspect, as the 'inside man'. They want someone inserted into Westgate society to peform certain tasks and probably do some spying, possibly even infiltrate the vampires.
I wonder if they realise that Fenrir is just too unpredictable for this role? I also wonder if they realise that he has a lot of history with Demons and is possibly still beholdent to them?
(I mean surely? I know I wasn't around at the time, but there all that business with a fellow called Gillard De Rosen. Fenrir's uncle was burned at the stake! Cavu must know that Fenrir is a warlock. Gertrude ressurected him so she must have plans for him I suppose.)

Veddic is here, as far as I can tell, to peform the same task he had back in Waterdeep - namely - to keep an eye on Fenrir! If he does report back to his boss in Waterdeep then he keeps it quiet.

I have no idea what the ultimate goal is. To kill all the vampires? Tricky I think. Back in Damara we needed an army to do that! I think I'll just stay out of it for now and see what happens. Random seems to be the brains of the outfit. Fenrir just does as he's told. Probably a good thing.

Well anyway, it looks like we are about ready to go into the Underdark now, so I'd better sign off.
I'm handing this letter to Serten. He's been instructed to wait here for a few days and return without us if we do not reappear.

Hopefully all will be well though. If you are worried, use a Sending spell, or contact Random as he has one of Veddic's magic talking stones,

Your loving husband

Rol

[Letter Ends]

DAY 412 (20th Tarsakh)(April) cont...

Dearest Nia,

I am penning you another letter, just incase I die down here. Well, I hope I don't, but this place is so dark and horrible that it warms my heart to write as if I am speaking to you, so for that reason alone, here it is.

Anyway, this morning we went back to the 'lizardman room' to find that they had gone. From here we began going down corridors at random, trying doors and blundering about. I'm beginning to suspect that Fenrir doesn't really have a solid plan for what we are doing, but I'm happy to follow along and just do as I'm told. This is his expedition after all.

We skirted around an Earthmaw Trap, then entered another room full of living shadows that Fenrir easily blasted to shreds, with a little help from some of my crocodiles.

More tunnels led us to another room that contained six undead dark elves that we dispatched by the usual method. It was some sort of tomb, but we didn't linger long and passed through to another larger room that was where a great mass of troglodytes and their monitor lizard pets were camped.

Fenrir started blasting, killing many and causing the others to flee back up a rope ladder to wherever they had come from above. They didn't put up much of a fight and two of them surrendered, one of them that was too old to run and his young grandson I think.

They were very willing to talk and when asked how to get to the 'temple dungeons' the old one answered. 'There are three ways I know of...'

This seemed to boil down to:
1. Take the long dark ways, whatever they were.
2. Create tunnels up and to the north east, as the city was above us.
3. Head back to the Eight-Ways Inn and go back through the main gates.

Fenrir initially fancied going up to see if he could get to the city from underneath but gave up immediatly on that idea when he saw that a boulder had been rolled over the hole above where the rope ladder led to.

In the end we returned to the Eight-Ways.

DAY 413 (21st Tarsakh)(April)

Well, dearest Nia, it was gone midnight when we returned. The Eight-Ways was busy, there were six elves at the Inn and a big hairy minotaur!

We got rooms at the back and went to bed, but were all woken up when screaming could be heard coming from the main room. Fenrir, unusually cautious, had us all go into one room to wait and see what happened.
There was the sound of crashes, roars, screams for mercy, that sort of thing. I was itching to go help, but Fenrir thought it safer to stay put and await developements.
When it seemed clear that the rooms were not being targeted though we eventually did go down the tunnel to see what was going on, only to meet the minotaur coming charging the other direction in a berzerker rage.
It took a few swings at us, but Fenrir gave it some really powerful blasts and down it went.

All the elves and the innkeepers wife were dead. Only the innkeeper was alive although he was utterly distraught. The main room was a blood bath and no one knew what exactly had happened to set off whatever had happened.

Eventually we went back to bed and headed off to Pool in the morning. Fenrir offered to escort the innkeeper back to the city with us, but he replied saying he would make his own plans as to what to do next.

We arrived back at the Foreign Quarter in the afternoon. Fenrir took us to a shop that sold all manner of junk, but also magical items. The proprieter was a dark elf called Magrud the Bad. Fenrir didn't like his prices (1500 gold for a Potion of Gaseos Form!) so in the end we bought nothing.

Fenrir, still casting around for a plan I suspect, then hired an interpreter called Awa the Chitine, but then changed his mind and decided to get Veddic to prepare the 'Tongues' spell for the next day instead.

I tell you what, Nia old girl, I'm not altogether sure Fenrir really knows what he's doing. I'm not going to say anything though, I'm too busy recording everything I'm experiencing down here in my journal - I'm sure it will all work out fine!