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. Continue reading →

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

We reached the Vault of the Drow about midday today (I would guess). I wonder if Tomlin would consider it a sight worth seeing. The entance starts by raising the ceiling, until you feel as though you’re walking through a ravine in some windless, midnight mountains. Then the walls fall away to either hand, and the whole expanse of the plain rolls away into the distance.

Rather than absolutely dark, there are points of light in the ceiling high above us. I suppose they must be crystals like we’ve seen before, but what powerful ones! In the center of the dome lies a purple orb, something like a weak moon, so that we can at least see to walk around, although not much more than that.

Ezekiel put the strange red cups or glasses over his eyes, and they stuck to his face. He says he can see just as far as he could outside, and pointed out a tower like a pillar, directly ahead, even before Aliana did.

I wish I could properly describe the look of this place. There’s lots more important stuff to write about today, but I can’t get over the colors, the feel. It’s like walking on an alien world. Ez passed the glasses around, so we could each take a look. (Heiron remembered I was somewhere, and let me have a turn.) The glasses really do transform the landscape. The colors…the fungi and lichen growing by the road seem to glow, while veins of crystals that weren’t powerful enough to show up in thr dark suddenly gleam with all kinds of colors. No…not all kinds…mostly cool, fungus colors: blue, mauve, purple, sickly green or brown. Some red and gold, but not like a flower-red…like a mold-red.

I can’t quite explain. Maybe it’s because there’s hardly a sound, except the echo of our footfalls. No bugs, no birds, not even the wind stirring leaves. It makes me think of the lady in that play I got to see one festival, the lady who prodded her husband into killing the king. She was so pretty…but after that scene, you couldn’t get out of your mind what she had done, the blood on her hands. (Clarence had nightmares after that play.)

Anyway, it’s quite the sight to see. Any other place, I’d say it was worth the trip. Continue reading →

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

We stayed at this campsite for a couple days so Master Oaklock could practice a technique with Heiron. I think they both enjoyed thinking about “normal” things for a bit. Heiron’s come a long way since we’ve known him.

Unfortunately, there’s bad news, too. Ezekiel asked Lydia to teleport back to Haven with a note (perhaps something to do with the node-gems, but he didn’t say so). She meditated for a moment, and told us that there’s some kind of arcane interference that won’t let her through. It’s hard to say if this place is shielded, like the dragon’s lair was shielded from scrying, or if we’re just too far underground for it to work. Lydia says the distance shouldn’t make a difference, since after all you can teleport between different planes of existence. Ezekiel took the opportunity to curse the demons who made him vulnerable to clerical magic…I think mostly out of professional courtesy. Master Oaklock asked Lydia to explain some things in more detail, and they spent quite a lot of time muttering in the corner, and borrowed one of my spare journals.

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We came across a pit with two bodies in it. Raven agrees with me that there was probably a loose cover over the pit at one time. The bodies were a human and a drow – the human wearing a cloak of the exact same bright green that we saw among the property of the squid-men.

Ezekiel asked Raven to climb into the pit to check things out, and he told us the two had been garrotted (within the last couple days), and plundered of their weapons, jewelry, and belts. By the number and size of footprints, it was a huge band of small, bipedal creatures. While I was scanning the surroundings for any such creatures, Ezekiel leaned over and raised the human to life. Continue reading →

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

We passed through an enormous cave, where we caught glimpses of windows and doorways opening off of ledges high above our heads. There must have been ramps or stairs somewhere…unless drow can fly, on top of everything else. On the cavern floor, on our level, we passed a half-dozen lizards – the size of horses, with tethers of their heads, and some kind of tackle lying beside them. They were eating fungus, so I guess some creatures find it palatable. Mikael wanted to make friends with them, but we didn’t want their owners mad at us, so we pursuaded him to move along.

I think Lydia is also homesick for some real food (though Ezekiel points out we’ve only been down here a few days). Rations are all fine and good (and Raven cooks them fantastically), but she was waving her fingers over her food to alter the taste or something (I didn’t know that was a thing). Raven tried some, and told us not to bother.

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The path ran down into water today. Fortunately, before we examined it for long, a fish man came flapping out of the darkness toward us. Imagine a fish body dropped onto skinny little frog legs, with little flappy arms. Happily, it was much smaller than the slime trail we crossed yesterday, so we didn’t mistake it for an abalath. Continue reading →

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

We walked all day with Driptz.

He sticks to the back, where the light isn’t so intense, even though Raven made him goggles out of some cloth. I think there’s more than one reason our kinds don’t typically get along too well.

The way is treacherous, sometimes cut by two foot terraces or steps, sometimes slicked with slime or something worse. We came across the corpse of something humanoid, but it’s hard to tell what because the skin is totally transparent. Mr. Drippy says an “abalath” can do that – they’re a fish with tentacles that change skin to be breathable underwater. Apparently that’s not so great if you’re above water. He says they can also mind-control you, and unlike normal fish they can slide around out of the water. Sure enough, a few yards from the corpse we found a slime trail wider than I am tall, crossing our path to duck into a side crevice. Drippy led the way in wiping the slime off his shoes after we crossed it. I have no more words for the creatures down here…the crazy crypto-zoology of the underworld. Continue reading →