The Underdark
This is a history, first of my Advanced Dungeons and Dragons Character, then of the adventures and misadventures of his adventuring group, the Heroes of Happenstance, as seen through his eyes. Glad to have you visiting.
 ALL MATERIAL IN THIS FILE IS UNDER COPYRIGHT BY ARIEL GOLD
 Back in Silverymoon, Kayna learned that her master was very sick, to the point of dying. She went to see him while the rest of us went about our own business. I don't remember if she told us right after she found out, or at some later time, but she learned that
she was Chesintra Thilofar's half-sister; they had a common father. She learned this from Chesintra, now undead, a gaping hole in her chest from Elminster's final attack--just before Chesintra killed Kayna's master.
While this was going on, Chantelle caught up with me. I was sulking, as usual. She told me that a gold elf ranger had stopped to speak with her in the street, and had told her to meet him in the forest outside of Silverymoon at midnight. I was worried about this, and when she asked me to go with her, I readily agreed. Turin tagged along too, when the time rolled around.
I bickered with the elf on Chantelle's behalf when we met him. He finally set his weapons down, and said that Turin had to stay, but since I worshipped Mielikki, I could go with him and Chantelle. We went deep into the forest, to the bank of a river. A full
moon was reflected there, and then we saw a unicorn running in the river. We were awestruck, and stayed there quite some time before returning to the city.
The next day in Silverymoon, we learned that there were drow in the city. Five males, one female priestess with an arm of metal. This did not reassure us, to say the least.
I finally made up my mind in another matter. I asked Chantelle if she could use a longbow. When she said yes, I gave her mine, and all my arrows. She looked at me oddly, obviously wondering why. All I said was that I wouldn't be using it again.
It seemed that our next task would be to rescue Chantelle's family--captured by drow in a raid, the one during which she was given charge of Laurianna. I thought that weapon-black might be helpful in braving the Underdark, so I asked Turin if he would contact the thieves' guild to see if he could procure it--as I had reasons to
wish to avoid the guild. I told him where to go.
Later that day we saw the gold dragon who was saddled with PoisonedBlade's presence go crashing to the ground in the forest outside of Silverymoon, barely catching the falling PoisonedBlade, and getting badly wounded in the process. We ran to see if we could be
of aid. I don't know why he fell, except I do not think it was his fault. PoisonedBlade pulled a doorknob out of her robes and attached it to thin air--then opened it, revealing a linen closet. We helped bandage the dragon's wounds, and I remember feeling something very ill, very dire ahead. Words echoed in my head, and I do not know where I heard them: "Enjoy life now. It might be a brief thing."
Kayna told us then that she had learned from Lady Alustrial that if she truly wanted to learn her heritage, she must do a task for one of Alustrial's sisters, a priestess of Elistraee, in the
Underdark. With two such tasks pressing in the Underdark, our path was fairly well decided.
Turin had already been in the forest, and he told me of the outcome of his encounter with the thieves' guild. They wanted him to steal a magical item from Lady Alustrial in exchange for the weaponblack. Not only that, but they were about to have a "talk" with him anyway, which is why he found them at all. He was a freelancer in a guild city, and they wanted him out. He chose to stay in the forest the rest of our time in Silverymoon, which is why he had been there when the
rest of us arrived.
As if the day hadn't been full enough, then Seabreeze Moonglory showed up, to have her monthly fight with her sister. It took some doing to convince her that PoisonedBlade had mended her ways, but they finally made up--though they continued to bicker in
the worst way. Most of our group went back to the city, leaving the sisters and Turin in the forest.
Lady Alustrial told us what little she had learned about Chantelle's family where they were being held in the Underdark. She said that if we did wish to attempt a rescue, she had hired a guide for us: a half-drow, half-moon elf professional guide and mercenary. His name was Darkaron, and he looked like a black-haired drow
. . . and he fought with two longswords. I disliked him from the moment I met him.
We picked up our horses and provisions and set out, encountering the drow priestess on the way--"Mistress Everhate," Darkaron called her. We continued on to the Spine of the World, where Darkaron used a magic ball of clay to turn the rock around a crack into
mud, creating an instant tunnel. As we entered, I took rear guard. At first the caverns were fairly well cut, obviously shaped by someone's hands, but after a few hours, they became more natural.
Our first stop was at a site being cleared by Priestesses of Elistraee as a safe zone. Alustrial's sister, Cuielue Veladorn, a high priestess of Elistraee, was there, and pulled Kayna aside, as we expected. Kayna told us that the task she had to do would require our help. The priestesses were trying to rid the local tunnels of a purple worm--a one hundred-fifty foot-long creature that, according to Darkaron, could swallow frost giants whole and had a poisoned tail barb that could kill even the hardiest adventurer. Kayna said the priestesses would give us rings to slow the effects of the poison.
To make a long story short, we killed it. The priestesses drove it into the tunnel where we waited. It swallowed Turin and Stargazer before we killed it, but we did kill it. I struck the final blow, and then cut as many holes in it as I could, as quickly as I
could, letting StarGazer out (Turin cut his own way out, proving that he really did know how to use his short sword).
When we returned to the site the priestesses were clearing, Cuielue pulled Kayna aside again while the rest of us (mercifully) got to bathe. (Purple worm juices don't smell so very good). Kayna learned of her heritage during that time, but declined to tell us of it. Also that night, Stargazer decided she felt comfortable
enough with a dagger that she'd like to carry one. When no one else could find one to give her, I tried not to sigh, put on my best smug smile, and with a flourish, pulled my concealed one out of my right boot. Everyone eyed me strangely, just a bit surprised. Stargazer took
the dagger, and I contemplated how naked I felt, being without a totally unexpected weapon for the first time in my memory.
We slept a space, and Darkaron led us onward. We traveled through rugged territory, but for all that we decided to lead the humans in our party, rather than light a lantern as a beacon screaming "dinner" to the rest of the Underdark. The passageways we traveled through twisted and turned in the most unlikely and unpredictable manner. It was chilling to realize just lost we would be
without our guide.
Along our route we came to a caved-in tunnel--one that we needed to pass through. Darkaron said he knew the general direction to go, and could almost certainly find us another path there. We had no choice but to trust him. Our second "night" in the Underdark came, and there were no more civilized places to stop. We decided
finally on a cave with a pink-ish glow from the fungus growing there. There was a symbol, visible even with infravision, by the entrance, but none of our party knew what it meant. Darkaron said it was a cave meant for enchanting drow weapons. There were no weapons there, which might mean the drow had just taken some away, and wouldn't be back for awhile . . . or it might mean they were just about to bring more. But we had no better place to stay the night, so we posted double watches and took our chances.
During the night, we heard wheels coming our direction. Darkaron went out to see what the disturbance was. It seemed that a group of drow merchants was expecting to find weapons here, already enchanted and ready to take back with them. Darkaron didn't know how we could convince them we hadn't taken the weapons. His only thought for getting rid of them without fighting was that perhaps if we gave them some of our surface weapons, they might find enough value in the novelty of the weapons that they would leave peacefully. I had nothing left to give. Stargazer gave up the dagger I had just given her. Chantelle was carrying a spare scimitar, and added that. The others gave, grudgingly, as they could. Darkaron looked at his longswords, debating, even speaking to one of them as one would a trouble-making child. I eyed him cautiously, and counseled him not to do it. He took the weapons and
offered them to the merchants. They finally accepted and went their way.
The next "morning" we set out again. That day we had to cross a very fast stream. We did so, noting that there was gold on the bottom of the stream. (Actually, Turin was most vocal about noting that). Also, as I watched, a large scale, obviously a dragon scale, though in the darkness not I nor any of the others could make out the color, floated by. Not a reassuring sign.
Things were only to get worse. Soon we saw a nice yellow light ahead, where there should be none. We entered a chamber with a waterfall pouring into a lake at one side and a huge pile of gold. A dragon's horde. We tried to retreat, but found ourselves blocked from doing so by invisible walls. We found ourselves face to face with a sapphire dragon emerging from the horde--it must have been a hundred thirty feet long, of which maybe forty feet was tail. I was parlayed by dragon-induced fear, until the dragon chose to release me from that grasp.
It told us it didn't like drow; it wanted to eat Darkaron. We protested that our guide was only half-drow, and we needed his assistance to navigate the Underdark. The dragon obligingly offered to eat only half of him. Then Zola stepped forward, offering the dragon
a gift if it would let us all leave in peace. She pulled out a small, oddly shaped black box, put it in front of her face, and did something to it. A bright light came from the box. The dragon startled, but before it could protest, Zola took a square of paper that emerged from the box and handed it to the beast. The dragon studied it as Zola explained.
Evidently, the box was somehow able to put the likeness of whatever it faced onto paper. Zola cautioned that it could only be used five more times.
The dragon insisted on testing it for himself, and put the likenesses of all of us on paper. He looked at it, sighed, and declared it to show "the snack that never was." Then the dragon let us go, on one condition: That if we were pursued by drow on our way back
to the surface, we lead them to it.
So we left, and backtracked. On the way, Zola told Darkaron that the black box had eaten his soul when it put his likeness on paper. He immediately stopped, turned, and prepared to go back after his soul. I didn't believe it, but I told him anyway, "We are already damned--what does it matter?" He responded it that it mattered a great deal, and set off that direction. Zola chased after him, explaining that she had only been teasing. When Darkaron accepted the fact, he informed her that it was not a very funny way to tease. In apology, she reached into her bag again and pulled out something small and round. She peeled a piece of what appeared to be clear paper off it,
offered the ball to Darkaron, and told him it was meant to be sucked on, not chewed. Darkaron sniffed it cautiously, let his lizard lick it to see if the beast could sense any danger to it, then popped it in his own mouth.
In all our backtracking, we could find no other passage leading in the direction we needed to go. Darkaron finally created an opening from our tunnel into a nearby one, in much the same manner as he had let us into the Spine of the World. The new tunnel we entered smelled smoky, and soon we could hear the sounds of mining coming from the tunnel next to us. Our tunnel led to a cavern so huge we couldn't see the bottom. We descended on ropes for about two hundred feet. There was a city at the bottom. Darkaron called it Dlorach Chall, and said the duegar lived here. He also said that we might be able to
pick up his original path from this city. The duegar were a brutal race, he warned, and Chantelle decided that she would just play mute during our trip through the filthy city.
In the city we had the misfortune to run into the drow priestess whom we had seen in Silverymoon once again. She wanted to know our business. When we refused to tell her, she threatened to destroy the duegar city. I knew she wouldn't do it--it would be no gain
for her family. Zola pulled something else out of her amazing bag--I never did see exactly what--during the talk with the priestess. The object made a "click" sound, and Zola told the priestess that it had poisoned her. The drow only laughed and said that her people were immune to most any poison. So I guess Zola's bag can't always get us out of trouble. At any rate, the priestess finally left, after having been humiliated by Stargazer casting a spell on her that made her laugh uncontrollably.
We did manage to pick up or intended path out of the city. However, that night a huge monster with many eyes and tentacles and mouths on some of the tentacles, attacked us. Darkaron called it a deepspawn. We killed it, but Chantelle was badly injured in the battle. The next night, a giant slug dripping acidic ooze tried to
make a meal of us, but we managed to run and escape it. When we were far away, we took a little more rest, then went on again.
We found a chunk of gold in our path, and tried to take it, but a huge man made of stone rose from the floor of the tunnel. We prudently decided to give it back. As we went on, there was another unknown symbol on the tunnel wall, and even Darkaron did not know
who had put this one here. Shortly afterward, we heard someone following us. I volunteered to go back and check on the noise. Several small, bald people with very large noses were there.
I unfastened my weapons belt and set it carefully on the floor, and then spoke to them in orc, that being the surface language we'd found most readily understood in the duegar city. They said that they would have to take us back to their city. I nodded, and asked if they would want to keep my weapons then. They said yes, and
after a moment, I decided to give them the dagger still hidden at the base of my spine. It was my oldest defense, and giving it up made me feel even more naked than the loss of the first one, but plainly, if we were going to a city, we would be too vastly outnumbered for it do to any good. When I handed it over, they looked surprised--if their expressions are anything like those of surface humanoids. I don't think they had expected me to be quite so honest as to hand over a weapon they hadn't even realized I had.
We walked back toward the rest of our party, I calling ahead in elvish, "Short, bald people. They're taking us to their city, they'll be taking our weapons." Darkaron had never before seen one, but from that description knew they had to be svirfnebli, the deep gnomes.
We were kept captive in a dark room in the city, until finally the svirfnebli leader came to speak with us. He wasn't quite sure what to do with us. We spoke--he and I--for a time, and finally he accepted us as trustworthy, partly on the basis of the fact I had handed over my hidden dagger. I told him of our journey and its
goal, and he declared that we must let the svirfnebli deal with the army of the house which had captured Chantelle's family--we'd have our hands quite full enough dealing with the nobles. Then he invited us to eat and drink with them. First, though, those of us who were still
wounded were healed.
We slept there that night, and in the morning were provided with two svirfnebli guides to take us to Menzoberanzan by the shortest route. We were only five hours away. Darkaron seemed grimly happy as we walked along. When I asked him why, he patted the hilts of his longswords and said he had relatives to "visit."
We reached Menzoberanzan, and it was a breathtaking dazzle of colored lights. Chantelle and I could not go in, though. We both had such hatred of drow by this point that we were too afraid of losing control of ourselves. Indeed, Chantelle was almost at that point already. Kayna and Stargazer went in, their hair colored
white-ish with chalk, and Turin went with, hiding under Stargazer's cloak. They found information in the form of a drow mercenary named Jarlaxle. We paid ten thousand gold for the information, but this is what he told us: The house that had Chantelle's family was house Everhate--the house of the priestess how had twice harassed us. It was headed by a matron, and she had three daughters, all priestesses. One of the daughters had a metal arm (surprise, surprise). The matron carried an amber tentacle rod which could create flame on contact. One of the priestesses was a child of only forty, and Jarlaxle warned that she must not be killed. We also learned that the next day was something called Open Day, when any race could visit Menzoberanzan without fear for trading and gawking.
Jarlaxle also said that Darkaron was related to house Everhate.
Kayna wanted us to avoid killing the
forty-year-old priestess. In fact, she threatened. But Chantelle and I could make no such promise. She finally gave it up as a lost cause. We slept in the tunnel overlooking the city, and the next morning, we went in. I kept the hood of my cloak pulled far down over my face--Open Day or no, I did not think an elf would get a warm welcome in the city of the drow.
We had directions to house Everhate. Along the way we saw what appeared to be an albino drow three times. The second time he dropped something, which Turin picked up. The third time he abandoned subtlety and practically yelled at us. His name was Alak Luren, and he was sent by Jarlaxle, with more information for us. We
went with him, and he explained. House Everhate's weaponsmaster was very dangerous, and we would certainly have to go through him to reach the priestesses. He also gave us a map of house Everhate, conditional on our promise to take him to the surface when we left. We agreed, but only if he would fight for us. So he came with us. He said that the slaves were in the basement, locked under Matron Everhate's command. The priestesses could be found in the tower with stained glass windows.
We went on, Zola hiding Chantelle under her cloak and trying to comfort the poor child. On the way, we saw a little drow girl with a surface flower in her hair, holding the hand of the Everhate priestess we had seen so many times. This was the young priestess?
Then a blue, floating disk drifted by, headed for house Everhate, with an almost-dead drow priestess on it. Everyone backed away in utmost respect, and she entered house Everhate. Only after she left did we finally go in. We gawked, very pointedly, and Zola asked permission of the guards every time she wanted to go up a floor. The rooms were more elaborate, and held more people, as we ascended.
The door on the fourth floor was guarded by nine drow, one of whom was Yeston Everhate, the weaponsmaster of house Everhate. He carried two longswords, and I wanted his blood so badly I could barely control myself. He told us that we were expected, and could now be attacked as "escaped prisoners."
We fought the guards, and I killed the weaponsmaster, though I almost died myself in doing so. Turin had a healing potion, which he grudgingly gave to me so that I was almost totally recovered before we went into the next room.
The room was under a darkness spell, making even infravision worthless, so that we had to resort to blindfighting. I was stunned by some sort of a monstrous blast, and then a metal arm dug into my shoulder and all the strength went out of me. Then I felt myself frozen almost solid by something, and I finally collapsed to the
floor. At that point I heard Alak's voice say, "Die, priestess bitch!" and blood rained down on me.
We were doing badly, and even from my helpless position on the floor, I knew it. Then there was a horrendous crash, and Darkaron's voice echoed from somewhere high up in the chamber: "I was paid to get these people in and out of the Underdark alive! And you're
not going to stop me, Mother." He launched into a long string of words I can hardly remember, except I know they started "I wish," and involved Matron Everhate's becoming very dead. The next sound I heard was a body thudding to the floor.
We won, after a fashion. But many of us were half dead, and Stargazer . . . was gone. Nothing but very small pieces on the floor. It seems that the same cold that almost froze me to death took her, and when she fell to the floor, her body shattered.
Also in the room was the small drow girl we had seen earlier, who smiled at us and turned her pendant with the symbol of Lloth, the evil spider goddess who held sway over Menzoberanzan, on it around, revealing the symbol of Elistraee.
Just when I thought things couldn't get any crazier, holes appeared right in the middle of the air, and two halfling-sized figures fell through, though excepting the size they looked more like elves. One announced himself to be Tasslehoff Burrfoot, and the
other was True Lockpicker. They called themselves kenders. Annoying though they were from the very start, we couldn't very well leave them in Menzoberanzan (which they insisted was a wizard's castle), so we took them with us.
The young priestess, Theliadera Everhate, helped us release all house Everhate's slaves, Chantelle's family among them, and we headed back towards the surface as quickly as possible, passing through the drow/svirfnebli battle on the way.
We soon discovered that kender were helpless but notorious thieves, who never stole, but "borrowed" too much for their own good. At one point Zola pulled out an odd metal device from her bag, fastened one wrist from each kender into each end of it, and hung the two
of them over her shoulder. Tasslehoff escaped immediately, but the female, True, remained caught fast.
Also on the way up, Kayna woke up one morning with the symbol of Bane etched onto her cheek, and no idea how it got there.
When we finally reached the surface, it was daytime. It took our eyes quite awhile to adjust to the sun again. Alak was riding in a bag of holding which he provided, so his pale skin wouldn't burn. The young drow priestess, who had never before had to deal with the sun, was also in bad shape. Zola pulled a strange, opaque bottle
out of her bag, and smeared salve from it on the young one's skin, saying that it would help to stop the sun's burning. Then Chantelle loaned her cloak to the drow, and the priestess was carried while bundled in it, so the sun couldn't reach her.
Tasslehoff left us then, finally convinced this was a new world to investigate. He even gave back what he'd stolen before he left. Zola finally let True free, once the small one swore she wouldn't even touch Zola's bag or its contents. I also warned True, after Turin found his knife in her possession, that if I ever found a hand in my belt pouch, it would be very bad, because my dagger would strike on its own, and I didn't know if I'd be able to stop it in time.
When we finally reached a river, we bathed again, being sorely in need of it. I went off alone to do so, as I always do. And saw a set of huge human-sized footprints, which looked fairly fresh. When I rejoined the group, I suggested that we might wish to move on as quickly as possible. We found a spot to camp a fair way from there,
surrounded on three sides by rocks. Yet that night, from the fourth side, a hill giant came running up to attack us. Alak said he'd handle it. He ran up to the giant faster than any elf ought to be able to, and--kissed it?! We finally understood when the giant fell over dead and Alak spat out its tongue. When Zola asked, he explained that magical rings gave him the ability.
The next night we camped in the fringes of the Moonwood. And I decided that it was time I tied up some loose ends. I didn't see myself leaving this group any time soon, and there was someone who still didn't know where I'd disappeared to. I had to go find Bolten.
When I started out, Chantelle asked if where I was going, and wanted to know if she could come. I thought about it, and decided there was no good reason why not.
The huge group we were in had made enough ruckus that we didn't have to go far to find him. I introduced Chantelle as my niece. I explained something of what had happened, in the vaguest of terms, and said that I didn't know when I'd be back. I didn't know how much was left to do.
Then Bolten filled me in on some odd happenings in the Realms that had begun while we were in the Underdark. He pointed out what I'd already noticed, that the stars were different. More, he pointed out specific constellations that were new: a dragon, an open book, and
woman's face with dragons for her hair. Neither of us knew what it meant, but I had a sinking feeling I'd be finding out.
Chantelle and I rejoined the group, and slept until morning.
Read the next section of Li's story.
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