Xorhaus and the Underdark(Recap from 1-6-23)

(Miresen the 24th of Sydenstar) Night: The party had a long, much needed rest in The Forest Inn after the combat at Stahlmasts Lair. Upon retiring for the night. Corin has a nightmare that he hasn't had in quite a while.

"As darkness descends Corin sees his younger self in a dark cavern unable to see being chased by a monster, Balok, of House Baenre, and his two friends Sorn and Nym both of House Baenre as well, taunting Corin as he ran naked in the blinding inky darkness. He could hear their laughter and jeers getting closer. As he ran away from the laughter he ran into boulders and stalagmites bruising and scratching him as he struggled to get away at all cost. He knows what happens once they catch him, in a panic he dashes onward until he feels the crossbow bolt pierce his flesh and the sickening numbness of the drow poison as it coldly spreads through his body then the darkness takes him completely the last thing he senses is rough hands grabbing his limp body and the laughter of Balok ringing in his ears…"

At that Corin awakes in a cold sweat, unable to sleep for some time is sat alone staring into the candle flame, before succumbing to a restless sleep.

(Grissen the 25th of Sydenstar) Over breakfast they plan their next steps, discussing going back to explore the rest of the lair. Getting an early start they make it up to the lair by the end of the next day. One they get there they find Rindar and Ishel along with the Kobolds have cleaned up a lot of the lair turning the steam trap into a wet sauna. They killed, cleaned and smoked the six Kuo-toa prisoners and stored the meat in the pantry. The “shark tank” was cleaned out and turned into a swimming pool. The Kryn Mage helped the Kobolds tunnel out Bedrooms for each of the adventurers and was able to bring furnishings through a portal from Den Kryn as a “thank you” for rescuing the emissary of the bright queen Rindar.



Sabrae was working on removing the explosive acorns from the poor Kobolds and ensuring they were clean, healthy, and well cared for. She still uses the drow poison on herself every day to stave off the memories of her past life as a Xhorhas resident and consecuted member of Den Tasithar. The Drow poison seems to numb those memories that seemed alien to Sabrea and caused her such inner turmoil. Roguun helped out by making lanterns for all the hallways and rooms.

Rindar asked for the party to accompany him and Ishel to Xorhaus to an audience with the Bright Queen. He then activated the teleportation circle and teleported the party to Roshana, the Capital city of Xorhaus. Explaining all that happened to the Bright Queen, she thanked the party for rescuing her Emissary and reassured them that the Kryn would NOT attack the Empire unless the Empire invaded the Dynasty first. She offers Kryn support to a joint effort to combat the Children of Malice if the Empire would agree to participate as well. They were then escorted around Roshanna and shown around Den Hythenos given some mushroom wine and hallucinogenic lichen pipe weed. Ishel, suspecting Sabrea is a reborn consecuted soul, contacted Den Tasithar who sent Phardrin Tasithar an Archivist to assess Sabrea as being a possible consecuted soul from Den Tasithar. The party returned to “The Lair'' and started their journey to the underdark.



(Whelson the 26th of Sydenstar) The party began the first day of their long descent into the darkness it was eerily quiet with no encounters during the descent, The party grew tired and as they start looking for a place to camp, "The cavern opens up into the long-demolished remains of deep gnome town. The shades of long-dead deep gnomes can be seen by the party as they camp in the ruins, with the occasional player witnessing visions of Drow atrocities as they slaughtered the inhabitants. The place has long been stripped bare of anything valuable, though a trinket was found in the rubble (An empty silver snuff box bearing an inscription on the surface that says "dreams" in deep gnome) with the party member who picked it up experiencing a vision of the slaughter of the boxes owner." That night, on the fourth watch, a war party of gnolls happens upon the party and attacks. The party make short work of them and found two of the gnolls had pouches of coins (75 gp)



(Conthsen the 27th of Sydenstar) The group broke camp and started off again into the darkness. Around lunch time a Drow patrol (elite leader, a junior priestess and 4 soldiers) approaches the party. The party hears the approaching patrol and surprises them. The party held the high ground, and with surprise, managed to wipe out the whole patrol, gaining vials of Drow poison, five hand crossbows, five quivers of poisoned bolts, 11 drow made short swords, two +1 shortswords, a +1 hand crossbow. After a day's travel through the caverns the party was searching for a secluded place to camp and saw an elevated gallery heading off to the right of the main trail. Corin saw human footprints heading off in that direction, two humans female, one male and one child (Corin had a particularly sharp eye when investigating).

As the party climbed to the upper sheltered levels of the gallery, they saw a tattered group of humans huddling in the dark. A female human that might have once had tan skin, but now is starting to turn a sickly pale. She has brown eyes and gray hair that is unkempt and falls loosely around her shoulders. She seems pretty healthy and strong, as she stands in front of the others bravely brandishing a three foot length of dark chain attached to a manacle locked on her right wrist. She had a deep, fresh scar across her face. A small child desperately clutched to her left thigh trying to hide behind her. The boy had dirty pale skin, blue eyes, and short, curly dark brown hair. His left arm appears to have been injured. He looks about 12 years old, scrawny and malnourished. Behind them was a young dark skinned girl wearing well-worn bits of ragged traveling clothes. She has dark skin and hazel eyes, with long messy brown hair. She is thin, malnourished, and looks tired and weak holding a Drow hand crossbow and a stone knife. Behind her also dressed in tattered rags of a low-ranking religious robe is a young androgynous man with pale skin and gray eyes. His long red hair, twisted into a crude braided ponytail. He leans on a crude staff made from mushroom wood, and suffers from exhaustion, he is weakened from his ordeal and looks very traumatized.

The gray haired woman who seemed to be the leader was named Jodie Walker, she was abducted from Hupperdook and introduced the others. The boy is Blake, he is very traumatized and doesn't speak, the young woman is Lexise Falcin, a Trapper from Shady creek run who was captured in the marrow valley. The young acolyte is Sabas Wyne, he was abducted from Hupperdook outside the small Sarenrae Temple. They were all held with a bunch of other prisoners in a Drow outpost called Velkynvelve. One day while they were dumping the chamber pots a bunch of demons attacked the outpost, A insect- like demon attacked the two guards knocking one off the ledge, while Jodie shoved the other one hard off the cliff, Lexise grabbed the guards crossbow and quiver as he fell. During the confusion Jodie and Lexise freed the other prisoners who split up in three groups each running a different way in hopes it would confuse the Drow pursuers. She confirms Yirna (the centaur girl) ran off with the group heading towards dark lake that was two days or so ago, it's hard to tell time down here she admitted.

The party camps for the night and debates what to do with the escaped slaves. They decided to escort the slaves to the deep gnome ruins where they had camped the first night's travel and let the slaves make their way back to the lair with a written note for Rindar to take care of them once they arrived.

(Folsen the 28th of Sydenstar) During the third day in the Underdark the party back tracked with the survivors as they get close to the place they camped the first night, they found another escaped slave a male pallid elf who if not examined closely, he looks similar to a Drow. Pallid elves are a subrace of elves distinctive by their pale skin, which is said to be as pale as the moon. The race became pale from living underground away from all light for a long time following the destruction of their home. He said he escaped a Drow raiding group and is trying to get back to his home. His name is Elion Pazorwyn he is an acolyte of The Moonweaver. He joined the group heading back to the lair. The group camped at the ruined deep gnome village. That night was uneventful with no further encounters.

(Yulisen the 29th of Sydenstar) Upon awakening the next morning the third day in the underdark, the adventurers bid farewell to the survivors telling them to stay on the trail up to the Lair and present the note they had written to Rindar (Who looks like a drow but really is a Kryn emissary and will see to the survivors needs) They parted company and the adventuring group had no encounters getting back to the camp area where they had originally found the survivors. The group set up camp and established watches for the night; there were no encounters just the eerie dripping of water somewhere far off.

The next two days the group fell into a routine of scrambling through darkened cavernous galleries and searching for defensible places to set up camp and perform watches. The group had no hostile or otherwise encounters.

(Grissen the 32nd of Sydenstar) On the seventh day of underground travel the group arrived at Velkynvelve outpost. The party camped in a small alcove a short way from Velkynvelve. And planned their next moves.