(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!