It was a brutal fight. But I arrived just in time to help Ka’tau and Turd in their struggle against the drow.
Discovering that a whole lair of them behind the big mysterious doors we had little choice. These demon summoning, baby eating, evil creatures would haunt us and the expedition, and settlements as long as they stayed present.
We went in and attacked.
We had to fight terrible spider drow hybrids monstrosities until we eventually reached their matriarch. She luckily was quite a pushover using this most beautifull blade I have in my possession.
The lair was cleared, and it was found that this place might actually make a very nice home. We closed the entrance ways to the various tunnels in this dank place, and spend some days building some houses. Some dwarves left to start a mining operation. But Ka’tau insisted on going on ever deeper, trying to find those disgusting goblins.
During our descend at some point we were faced with ice all over the tunnels, we tried to melt it, and we got the carts going slowly. The reason for this we soon revealed, going across a corner we got face to face with an ice deamon. Demons, are as bad as they come, so I went for it. Charged.. and killed it.
We decided to take a rest in a alcove in the rocky walls. Turd showed me some of his spells which I happeliy traded to some of mine. Us wizard getting together over magic really is a great sign. Ka’Tau had cast the spell etheralness earlier and we got out minds together to thing what was going when he had cast it. He told us that he felt like being torn apart as soon as he cast it. We decided that is most likely that the arrival of us.. all of our species in this universe somehow created in imbalance in the universe, and the planes are slowly, every so slowly drifting apart from each other. The material plane and outer planes drifting away the fastest. Whatever is going on with these boxes isn’t helping either.
The alcove seemed weird, and we went to inspect. Turned out to be a false wall, I went to in to investigate and found my best friend the beholder right after the wall. The beholder, a good friend of mine, asked me to hurt my friends, but I don’t hurt friends. Ka’tau and Turd however started attacking the beholder, it was awfull, I tried to help and then.. Stupid I was stupid again, but also clarity the beholder had taken over my mind forcing me even more than the sword that I’m holding forces me. Stupid but yet so free, torture and relief at the same time. I had no time to think about it, my actual friends were in danger. The beholder proved strong, blasting us with it’s eye rays, my heart fell into my stomach when Ka’tau was blasted into a ravine. Turd proved, that he was not only a great wizard, but also, underneath all that uptightness, that he was a good friend as well, and jumped over the cliff after Ka’tau. For a moment I stood in terror as my mind was torn from me again by the beholder, but then both of them teleported back up, and with some last ditch healing help from Terrance were able to defeat the beholder.
It was a day later that we finally arrived in at the mine that Ka’tau and Turd were hired to bring the dwarves to. We stayed there for a week, making houses, a shrine and an inn. Ka’tau didn’t seem very happy with the shire for some reason, but he left Terrance to take care of it while we ventured even deeper.
During our travels we were attacked by a band of orcs, it was a tricky fight in these narrow hallways, but we prevailed. The orcs however were strange, and twisted. Influenced by the demon god Baphamut, these demon twisted orcs, Tanaruk, now breed true and more of them arise every generation. The orcs were not perceptive to our tries at negation, they were brutal and cruel.
With the help of kutbeest we slowly moved forward and were able to get the drop on a shargaas orc, one of the more stealthy of his kind. He named himself Slithin, and after being surrounded by us finally wanted to talk. He agreed to take us to his leader, Firglan a giant orc heavily infused with demonic powers. Not wanting to fight with every creature we came across, especially since these orcs hold a key passage to the goblin settlements. Firglan asks us to take care of Duergar, their arch enemies, truly evil dwarves. We agree and get to take part in the festivies of the night.
Slithin leads us to the Duergar city, it has a big tower near it, the place their leader should be. We decide that hopefully when we cut of the head of the snake the rest will dissipate and flee. So we go in, invicible and flying to the top of the tower and attack. It was hard, really hard. They had machines, made for digging tunnels, that were terrible in combat. Both Ka’tau and Turd went down, I was facing down the last of the robots when it exploded and I was able to hang on by the skin of my teeth, doing some first aid on my friends. We hid in the tower and rested, as soon as we woke up we were surrounded by more of the duergar warriors.
Nothing that we couldn’t face in the end however.
The duergar had some fantastic tools, of especial note was a magical Warhammer and helmet allowing a weapon to be set on fire and using the gems on it allowed for fantastic spell casting.
Inside the tower we learn a lot more about the Duergar:
-the different casts of their warriors*,
-their goal which was to settle more outposts for their empire,
-their ethos: That their pockets are never full, the fight is never done, and their resolve is never shaken.
I had some slight hope that the rest of the city would surrender of flee when we warned them. But they answered our threats with attacks. We flew in and took out their soldiers, I checked for more soldiers, and I think in the meantime the rest must have fled as I did not see any of the women and children.
In the city I found a bag of beans. Hoping that it would result in a nice tree I planted one. However frogs came of out the ground and after a few seconds turned into creatures of all variaties** and a giant melee ensues everyone fighting everyone. 2 of them fled the rest (mainly demons) died to our blade and spell.
As we tried to get out of the city we were once again attacked by the duergar. Using my new helmet I was able to take down a bunch of them with a fireball
*duergar warlord, Xarborn, despots, mindmasters, caval rakoni, soulblades, steeders, hammers, screamers and stone guards
** a drow in robes, a demon of Tiamat, displacer beast, 4 legged large demon(howler), a githyjanki and an aberration with tentacles (margoth)
We go back to the orcs and finalize our deal. We discover that their leader has a lot of magical stuff on him, and I’m kinda happy that I decided to not challenge him directly.
We make a deal that we and caravans we support can travel through their area controlled by the orcs.
We once again set out, deeper and deeper into the underdark. We enter an area full of radiation, for us hardy adventurers it is hardly a slight. But the camp followers seem to suffer, we heal them every other step. I take it upon myself to draw one of the cards and we race as quickly through the area.
It is not long untill we reach the waterfalls that Ka’tau spoke of. The area that the Goblin women said she would meet us in their sendings.
We arrive earlier than they do and decide to rest for the night. It is a calming place, with a strong connection to nature. Ka’tau makes another effort to help me get rid of the sword in this place. We enchant the sword with holy energy, bath it in holy water and try to atone the sword. Sadly it is not enough and the sword remains as it is.
The next.. day? (in this ever dark place what is night and what is day is not clear), we get woken up by noise of a battle far beneath us.
Ka’tau wastes no time and summons a quatl to scout for us what is happening far down. She sees a horde of goblins fleeing from a phalanx of darkhuls, intelligent and armoured ghouls. Between them are clear leaders, some of them in bone armour and some with a very impressive crossbow. The goblins have some leaders of their own, but it doesn’t seem like they can’t hold their own. We decide to interfere!
The Coatl turns into an elephant and falls down in the middle ghouls, of which some immediately fall down the narrow ledge into the waterfalls. The ghouls are well trained unit however, they work together and as one they lift up the elephant and toss it down the waterfall, in which it disappears in a moment. We hurry down towards the battle and engange them, walls of fire and blades separate the goblins from the ghouls. With us on their side the goblins eventually manage to overcome the darkhul. The last of the ghoul however become invisible and flee the battle.
The goblin Ka’tau was communicating with is called Kakaloeki and has been promoted the priestress since last they spoke. She is the leader of this goblin group.
I stand eye to eye with my mortal enemies, I demand.. retribution, a dept to be paid, an apology.
As we learn about their culture it is decided that the most efficient way to settle this is for me to fight their champion one on one. If I can win I will show that half orcs are not to be trivalled with and they will accept our strength.
As I only later learned (Ka’tau was the translator}, not only will I be fighting for my honor. The goblin civilization is divided into city states, and rule over them is determined with battles in arenas. If I win this battle the city of Kakaloeki, trinkeleranthrupull, will also gain control over the other city.
We learn more about Darkhul, we fought half a centurion. And their empire is ruled by an emperor.
We get taken tot the goblin town and discover it has a thriving economy. We are able to buy many things through Ka’tau the only one of us that is a citizen. I make a deal with the goblins, if I win the battle, train the goblins they will reward me with a with a belt of fire giant strength.
It is a few days later when the battle is with the opposing champion takes place. It turns out to be a fire giant with a giant shield. The battle is a hard one, the creature is buffed with magical armour on top of its normal armour and is almost impossible to hit. It is an ridicoulsly hard battle, with me using a ballista several healh potions and going down to my last health. But in the end, I win! I decided to let the giant life as it is not it’s fault for being a slave in this place.
Winning the battle was great.. however.. I still felt sad. My nana was still gone.
I left the city on my own, wandering the tunnels until I ran into a peacefull pool, and spend the 2 days sitting in the water, relaxing, meditating. Finding my path.
The only way to get a part of the six bears back was not revenge, it was through living the best six bears life I could.
I started training the goblins from these town and learned them the ways of the six bears. Learned them our war doctrine. But also what is important to my people, to protect the weak. To stand fast.
We went on several training mission with the goblins, fighting against the darkhul invasions, getting rid of some of their supply lines, and taking back a stronghold. We lost some, but the ones that got through had a stronger bound that ever before. I hope they will take my teaching and let it permeate throughout their society. To not think of themselves as an individual anymore, but as a group.
Just the three of us go to an abandoned site which was rumored to have a teleportation circle in it. But when we arrive we see it is heavily trapped, and only just I don’t get forever stuck in some soevereign glue. We conclude that a lich has taken residens here and we flee from the place. But we send out some goblin envoys to see if the Lich is willing to sell the stronghold that is within goblin territory.
Meanwhile in the goblin city we make a temple for bahamut, and a trade outpost. After this is made we prepare for a large religious and magical ritual. Ka’tau to seek redemption from his god, me to ask for assistance in getting rid of the cursed sword. Ka’tau sees that he has taken some of the sight of his god with his actions, and in order to make up for it he sacraficese some of his sight as well, his eye is put on the altar.
Bahamut takes notices of this sacrifice and forgives Ka’tau.
Ka’tau casts a planar ally, and a servant of Ehlonna and Bahamut comes forward. They are willing to help to get rid of the cursed sword, under one circumstance. Deep in the deep under dark there is a magical forge, where magic items of legendary strength can be created. Orcus has sad sight on this forge and wants to create a wand that will enable him to make giant armies of undead. We have to stop him from getting his hands on the forge.
The stories of the forge sound similar to those stories we heard of a mysterious 7th box that has been openen. So we decided to kill 2 birds with 1 stone and go forth!
We send several caravans back to Soro to help the city. And we ourselves set out. The first step is a rumored location where there might be a teleportation circle. Something that could greatly help our travels.
We travel forwards and find the teleportation circle to be invested by mindflayers and their slaves. We find a way to bottleneck their armies, amiri being the cork while Turd sends out big magic spells to take down whole swaths of creatures.
As we get through to the main lair we see that an elder brain has taken over this area with a group of mindflayers guarding it. These creatures directly attack the mind and therefore both me and Ka’tau go down. But so do the mindflayers. In the end the battle is decided by Turd sending bolts of fire into the elder brain until it finally dies.
We take a night rest but in the morning we see that the place is overrun by scavenging Yuan-ti. We decide to retreat back to our temple in the goblin town for now, and come back later when we are better rested.
In the town we restock and buy a giant beetle as a mount. We teleport back to the teleportation circle, but find that the place has been taken over by a whole civilization of yuan ti. We quickly set up an illusion and try to fool them into thinking we are there gods. However the creature we talk to seems to not be their leader, just a commander and we are confronted by an actual undead demigod. I run forward and engage the creature and hit it with the divine powers I have only recently discovered and I smite the creature to the afterlife!. We set up walls and deal with the yuan ti in a systematic way, the smaller ones running away as we go systematically take all of them out.
Lore dump–
As we travel further we take some time to put our heads together to see what we know of the deep history of this place and with our separate pieces of knowledge combined we piece together the following.
Our enemy in this trial, Orcus, was once killed by the drow goddess Loth. The drow are very territorial, hate undead, and subject deamons to their will.
We get to know that once long ago a box with a piece of the guardian god was given to each of the slave races to take guardianship over once they were freed. The grandson of the dwarf that first got the box, Erol, was able to half open the box and turn into a forge with enabled him to craft items of great strength. Filled with greed, he and his clan split from the rest of the dwarves and dug deeper while the other dwarves dug their way to the old continent. The dwarfs that dug deeper, also known as the deep dwarfs or.. duergar, gave one hint in which direction they went: “Follow the route of the worm”. We think that this might indicate the path of a purple worm, as they leave a path of gemstones wherever they dig.
Furthermore we conclude that there might be some time dilation going on this in this deeper part of the underdark. This would explain why the civilization under ground seem relatifly civilized and present all over this endless maze.
–end lore dump
At some point we run into a giant cave filled with spiderwebs. Turd lets us fly through the web and we find that there are some humanoid still alive but cocooned by driders (drow/spiders). We can’t just let this poor creature be eaten so we decide to rescue it from this nasty creatues (which attack and we have to defeat).
It turns out that the humanoid was a druergar called Indy, an explorer who knows much of the underdark and how to navigate it. He is looking for an old Duergar city, which should be filled with riches. His uncle was already looking for it but has gone lost, so Indy is trying to find him as well.
With the help of Indy’s navigation skills we are able to safely travel for 2 weeks until we come across an ancient abandonded duergar city. Indy lets us know that might be magic items and a teleportation circle here, so we decide to check it out.
We try to enter the city via a side entrance but get ambushed by a mummy lord. However the mummy goes down after single round of dawnlight from Turd and one critical hit from myself.
We go via the secret entrance which is heavily booby trapped but eventually enter the city. The whole city is covered in bones. As soon as we walk besides them the bones come alive and turn into swarms of bones that attack us! It is a hard fight but in the end we manage to defeat them.
In the middle of the city is a big forge, as we enter it a deathknight turns out to stand guard over the place. Before we have time to negotioate battle commences. This enemy is quite strong, and he is wielding a strange weapon. That makes you forget about places. And when we finally defeat him he explodes, bursting our eardrums and leaving us deaf.
In the smithy/throneroom we find clues about a civil war that happened at some point within the first few duergar. They fought over “the crystal box” also known as the god-forge. In the end one group with the box cut themselves of of the other group and hid deep down in the underdark. The outer duergar in their fight made pacts with devils to win the fight. But even with this power they could not win, and eventually the devils demanded their due and the outer duergar fell apart.
We find a +1 hammer and a wand of magic missles but no other magic items and there is also no teleportation circle to be found. Ka’tau summons a coatl who heals us from our deafness.
When we try to get out of the city we are attacked by a skeleton fighter, quickly afterwards 2 skeletal knights on nightmares come flying towards us, a skeletal wizard, and a skeleton with bow. These were very strong warriors, way more than an average skeleton and a tough fight on their own. But this was not everything, Borak came as well. The High priest of Orcus.
It was a real hard fight, I go down at some point while fighting the death knights, but luckily Ka’Tau Heals me, fully reinvigorated I get back to the battle, just in time to get back to Borak who had just taken down both Turd and Ka’tau, I do my part heal them, and together we down Borak, hopefully once and for all.
From Borak we loot very strong magical armor. However, the armor is adorned with Orcus symbols all over, Ka’tau takes the risks and dons the armor.
It takes another couple of days, and finding some hidden pathways, but eventually we reach a giant cavern, the bottom filled with layered with feet of skeletons. In the middle there is a giant metal cylindrical pillar, there are multiple spider like metal creatures crawling all over the tower. As soon as we approach they seem to respond to our presence, all coordinated, as if they are controlled by a hivemind.
I yell at the tower.. and it responds.
A booming voice comes forth from the tower, demanding what we want.
It speaks about itself as “we” giving more indication that it is a hivemind. When we ask about the god forge they have it. Will not give it away, and will not trade it. When we say we are afraid of it’s safety they respond that not even the gods can find these place. That all the skeletons around us are all the enemies that failed. It is not impressed by the threat if a demon army.. we are skeptical. They are however willing to trade. Upgrading of constructing magic items for us for a price. I see the eyes of greed on my party members, and I must say I am tempted myself. However the tower is not done. It reveals that Indy, our guide’s, uncle part of the tower mind!
We decide to enter the tower and discuss exact prices. The tower is mainly hollow with inside on the floor a pedestal, and a dozen feet above it hanging from several cables is a big bright orb. The tower sides are layered with 4 levels to the top.
When we enter and try to discuss the price the tower springs a new thing upon us. Before anything it demands Indy, as payment. Indy immediately says no, and the tower turns all its robots to attack us. So much for a nice conversation.
I down some potions and climb up the walls to get to the cables and lay into them. The cable seem to power the robots, and taking them down will hopefully take down the whole construct. While I move around from cable to cable, Ka’tau and Turd face off against some robots that are hastily assembled. To make matters even worse cannons emerge from the side of the tower blasting us all! Ka’tau Turd and Indy fight bravely, but the cannons wreck them and Ka’tau decides to take a terrible risk. He opens his bottle of smoke.
In a matter of seconds the tower completely fills with smoke, blinding all of us.. except for the robots who don’t seem to be bothered at all! Just finding things to fight becomes a hurdle!. Ka’tau tries to climb up the walls but is followed by the robots, Indy turns invisible and seeks to find the right opportunity to strike and John hides behind a wall of force.
The robots that follow Ka’tau up also attack me and throw me off the wall. While in the air I quickly take another potion, and Fly away, towards the next cable to cut down.
Indy somehow manages to make a cut in the ceiling releasing some of the smoke at the top of the tower.
I hear Ka’tau fall down towards the center. I hear the wall of force go down, and things are getting dire. But right at that point me and Ka’tau find the final cable and break it! All goes dark! And there is still fucking smoke everywhere!
Eventually we are able to gather the bottle and the smoke and slowly we can see again. We find the half open Box and.. it does it magics, entices us and we open it further. A single body part remains.. a brain. Indy becomes completely overtaken by the thing and tries to take it, steal it and eat it! A small brawl ensues until we finally knock him out to protect him from himself. We are just starting to get our bearings when kutbeest notices that demons are approaching outside. We attack it, attempting to make sure it can’t report back. We fail and it flees. John and Ka’tau run back, we grab our stuff. And as Kutbeest tells us of demons flying in, Turd teleport us away.
Minutes later, Indy who has been left behind by Turd, is face to face with a balor..