Alert: May contain spoilers for the adventure “Descent Into the Depths of the Earth”

We have reached the city. The wall is black stone, and at least thirty feet tall, so I wouldn’t be surprised if the cavern is a mile high or more. The gate is bronze, covered with spikes, and decorated (if that’s even the right word) with faces that Ezekiel tells us are kinds of demons, and their rulers.

Guards stood by doors at the far end of the passageway, and we gave their leader our names, and the mercenary cover story. She told us to stay in the Ghetto of Foreigners unless we had express permission from someone to visit another ghetto, and when Ezekiel made noises like a cleric, she mentioned all the temples for “outsider gods” are along the Street of Lies.

Finally, they let us into the city. Erelhei’Cinlu. It’s……..big.

So the first thing that jumps out is that all kinds of people are here…and all kinds of non-people. Humans, trolls, kua’toa…and lots of things that Ezekiel says are from the lower plains. Most of the ghouls and bugbears aren’t wearing green cloaks, but it’s not universal. I think I even saw a lizard-man, in addition to the lizards that they use instead of horses down here. Some richly-dressed drow went charging by on beasts I don’t even know how to describe, and the whole crowd dove left and right to get out of the way. Good thing our group all dove the same direction.

The paint they use for the signs must be mushroom- or mold-based or something, and through the red lenses they almost seem to glow with an inner light. And that’s about the extent of the prettiness in the city.

It’s so crowded, we’re constantly clutching our bags and checking our pockets. Clatriel said something about scum, and Ezekiel said we shouldn’t jump to conclusions, because after all we’re Good and we’re here…but I don’t feel so Good at the moment. There’s a building where people do things Uncle Bern didn’t mention when he explained where babies come from. We know because the walls are basically glass. There are shops with torture devices, and I think I saw gambling games, and demons walking around without any armor on (let alone anything else). Clatriel told me to stop walking into her, so it’s just in the nick of time that a slave boy showed up to ask Ezekiel if he needed an inn.

The inn he led us to is the Crowned Button (meaning a mushroom with a crown on it), and the drow lady in charge is called the Captain. She is only moderately scary so far, so we’ve engaged three rooms (no private rooms are big enough for all of us, though I don’t like splitting up). Raven and I are in a room with Agnar and Mikael, who are getting along tolerably well given their awkward history. The wall by the door has a hole just bog enough to be detectable, so we should resist the urge to plan in here. (And I’ll be wearing my necklace of adaptation to bed…but I always do that.)

The bar in the common room is made of a single plank of bronzewood, so clearly the Captain caters to customers from the surface. There was another human couple, and a group of three humans, in the common room for breakfast (along with some drow and kua’toa). Mostly mushrooms on the menu, though. We avoided anything we weren’t sure what it was. The kua’toa table reeked of fish. They also served a kind of fermented drink, and Raven couldn’t quite identify the milk they used. Might be just as well.

There weren’t enough chairs together for us to sit as a group, so Lydia and Clatriel were across the room, chatting with the human couple. Ezekiel wanted to scan the room for alignment, so Aliana went up and talked to the Captain so everyone was too busy to notice him. I got worried when they started to arm-wrestle, but Clatriel contained herself, and it ended in a draw anyway.

Ez said the couple over by Lydia, Clatriel, and Oaklock were more Neutral than Evil, so he went over to meet them. Therema and Orin. Therema is much chattier than her companion, and likes the lack of bugs down here (Lydia thought of a witty come-back, but waited to share it with us in private).

They did give us some more info on the politics down here. The White Kingdom (the ones with ghouls) is to the east of here. They, and the squid-men, and the lurkers are always at some level of war with each other and with the drow. Sounds like there’s no shortage of things down here that need killing. I think our best bet is to keep our heads down and focus on the mission that brought us here, before we bite off more than we can chew again.

I think one of the waitresses was sizing me up, probably to gauge whether I would be easy prey, so I was quite ready when Ezekiel suggested heading to the Street of Lies…then instantly regretted it when we had to pass all the shops on the way. I didn’t lose breakfast, but it was touchy.

There were a few temples I recognized along the street, but nobody I felt particularly at home with. Heiron pointed out the temple of Ralishaz, and said he didn’t know Lydia’s horse had a temple. We spotted a building dedicated to the lobster lady of the kua’toa (no surprise, the doorway was wet).

Squeezed beside the temple of Xilcus sat a shack, even more roughly built than the other buildings (drow have no admiration for orderly architecture, it seems). The walls and floor seemed to be planks of fungus, while a real light – a warm, yellow light – leaked under the door. It didn’t look big enough to hold all of us, so the rest of us waited outside while Raven, Ezekiel, and Aliana investigated.

They took their time, and while they were in there, some drow children ran up, banged on the door, chucked a bag inside, and ran off, laughing hysterically. Thankfully, nothing blew up, although we had Mikael talk Clatriel out of doing anything rash.

Finally, the three of them rejoined us. Ezekiel was misty-eyed and radiant, not to mention contempletive, so Raven gave us the highlights as we headed back to the inn, since he said we got everything we needed for now.

The shack belongs to a very old man, named Telek. He came here long ago, a warrior from Keoland, but there are many dangers down here. Raven noticed he doesn’t have a green cloak, so he’s basically trapped in the little shrine he has built.

In his time down here, Telek has had much time to think about life and the universe, and he decided there must be a god that people don’t talk about…a God behind the scenes. He had a dream of a sheep, looking like it had been slain, perhaps, but he took that as his symbol and knitted a little relic to resemble a sheep (Raven said it wasn’t bad for a first try, especially considering all his materials were cast-offs).

The bags of garbage the children toss in contain enough edible things to keep him alive (and to feed his baskets of firebeetles, that provide the light) , and so he has lived for untold years, meditating on his God and providing a quiet reminder to this city…a reminder of what they would rather forget.

Ezekiel left Telek with enough rations for several months, and is determined to take him with us when we leave (we’ll wait and see how on earth that plays out). Aliana says many tears were shed.

Raven says we also got valuable intel about the politics down here. Apparently the Alserv are the strongest drow house (at least at the moment/recently), and their matriarch Eclavdra wanted to be Queen of the Drow. However, that fell through somehow, and lately the house has been serving the Elder Elemental God (who might be worse even than Lolth, for people who want to live quiet lives and mind their own business).

Telek gave us a token of House Alserv that we can use to request a meeting with them, on the hope that sharing a disagreement with the Spider Queen will let us help one another, at least to a degree. Heiron asks why the lady that we killed would want to help us, and Ezekiel said drow don’t value contracts the same way we do. Unlike devils, they only follow agreements as far as it benefits them, not according to the exact letter. So if Eclavdra thinks she can gain an advantage, she’ll use whatever tools are convenient. And she’ll betray us as soon as it works to her advantage, and expect no less from us. Not sure I like this whole idea, but we don’t have many options.

Back at the inn, Raven paid the Captain to send a message to House Alserv. The machine is set in motions, and may Ehlonna and her friends look kindly on us.

Find the previous entry here.