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• Aros – Lightfoot Halfling, Rogue
  • Rubber Ducky of Inspiration
• Galiena Erenaeth – Half Elf, Celestial Warlock / Druid
  • Dearbhán – NPC, Fairy Dragon (Galiena’s pet)
  • NPCs:
    • Waesyn Oakenpath – Human (Fighter)
    • Balgun Sternrest – Elf (Ranger)
    • Darko Wintersage – NPC, Undead Wizard (Flame Skull)

• The party has reached the mouth to Darken Pass

• As they stand at the mouth of the cave; from deep within they hear a rhythmic banging sound, repeating time and time again – and Waesyn and Balgun confirm they hear it as well
• Aros begins examining the mouth of the cave for traps but finds no indication of any
• Balgun expresses his displeasure of going into this stirge-infested cave again
• Galiena turns to Balgun. “Do you possibly know what that sound is?”
• Balgun shakes his head. “When the ship I was on shipwrecked here… it wasn’t far from the coast, just over that way,” he points, “most of us, who survived walked up the river and found this cave, and hid in here from the storm that had crashed us here.”

• He goes on to explain, “I heard a similar sound when we came to the cave… but we never truly got to explore just what it was. Something frightened the stirges in the cave – and,” he shivers at the memory, “hundreds, if not thousands, of stirges suddenly came flying out of the mouth of the cave. I got separated from the others who I had walked up the river with, as we fled from the stirge infestation.” He pauses again. “There were so many that it blacked out the night completely. I couldn’t see anyone. When I finally found a place to hide in the woods and I’d escaped the stirges… I waited until day to come to see if I could find the others. I waited and waited. But day never came. As I am sure you discovered, some kind of cloud lingers over the island, so dense that it blocks all forms of sunlight. I couldn’t find any tracks of them – we’d all scattered and crisscrossed over one another’s path… I just began walking and looking for towns. I eventually found a small fishing village called Eventide, and from there went south to Chalice, to see if any of the others from the ship I was on were there. The gentleman in Chalice, told me to try Felhorn or Greenhaven. I went to Greenhaven, no evidence of them – then to Felhorn – again, no evidence. I simply stayed in Felhorn because … I don’t know. It reminded me of the village I had grown up in.” He looks at Korra, and adds, “Then I saw you that day you came down in a dress… and you took my breath away.” (DM Note – All the way back in Session 5!) He shakes his head, the thought of that night he’d seen Korra come down the stairs brushing away the darker memories he’d recalled only moments ago.
• Galiena smiles at the comment, then mutters, “I hate stirges.”
• Balgun laughs. “I think we all do.”
• The party quietly makes their way into the cave; and see, immediately – the inside of the cave is about 20′ wide inside; however, the depth of the cave bleeds far back into almost complete blackness with no natural light penetrating it
• “It’s pitch black in here,” Aros grumbles
• “I can see a little,” Galiena whispers
• “As can I,” Balgun also whispers
• “I can’t see a damn thing,” Waesyn says aloud, his voice echoing against the constant clanging sound coming from deep down in the cave
• The others look at Waesyn who shrugs and asks loudly, “What? What did I do?”
• Galiena reaches into her bag and pulls out Darko
• Darko immediately shouts, “Seriously? What is it with you people? Why are we in a dark cave? This might be the one time I am glad I don’t have a nose to smell things. You guys take me to the most horrid places. You do realize, before I got cursed into this thing that I am now, I used to be a highly civilized wizard? Sure, I worked for Razathorn… then Brenmoon… not a great track record for being the best people in the world… but still, I was well educated and did not go to places like this…”
• “We find you very … illuminating,” Korra says, playing up to Darko’s ego
• “Well, I do light up the room,” his hollow voice seems pleased with himself. “But still, why don’t we ever go to nice places? Say, like the beach?”
• Galiena sighs, “I am not a fan of the beaches on Eaglerock. There’s too many Sahuagin out there.”
• “Yeah, all sipping up that taste of immortality, increasing their numbers exponentially,” Darko says
• As the party begins to move slowly, deeper into the cave, Waesyn comes to stand next to Galiena and says, “Why do you keep an undead thing with you?”
• “I can hear you,” Dark remarks
• “Stop listening,” Waesyn mutters
• “Hard not to hear you,” Darko grumbles. “At your volume, I am sure the whole cave is aware of our presence.”
• “I am quiet,” Waesyn snarkly replies
• Galiena looks at Waesyn and shakes her head
• Waesyn whispers, “Sorry.”
• Galiena explains, “Like we said. We found Darko like that and learned that someone had murdered him. So we want to help him find out who did it and why, so that he can pass on peacefully and doesn’t come back as a vengeful spirit of some kind.” (DM Note – Darko mentions he was murdered all the way back in Session 18!)
• As the party ventures deeper into the back of the cave; Balgun confirms, he has found several mice drained of blood, which seems to be what the boy, Grotte Stonespring, has turned into and has changed his feeding habit to (See Session 45 and Session 48)
• They reach the back of the cave, which then slants nearly 60 degrees downward as a slope, slick with water, moss, and other, unidentifiable, but odorous things

• Waesyn unfortunately slips, going down, while the others are OK – but Waesyn (it’s unclear if it was intentional or bad luck) grabs Balgun on the way down as a means to stop himself from falling, and pulls them both further down the slope – which, they quickly realize is much longer than it seemed, since it went so deep into the dark
• Balgun is able to grip some stone, and stops at 70′ down the slope; but Waesyn, having fallen on his back and wearing chainmail armor, his screams go on even as he vanishes into the pitch black below

• Galiena looks at Darko, “Can you go down there and make sure he’s all right?”
• Darko heaves a hollow echoing sigh and floats down, plunging Galiena and Aros into darkness; but with Darko’s light, Galiena is able to see Waesyn is standing up, and brushing himself off – he’s covered in whatever is all over the floor that’s so odorous
• Waesyn shouts upward, “I meant to do that! I wanted to get down here quicker!” he lies
• Galiena hush-yells, “Stop yelling!”
• Galiena turns to Balgun, who is further down, hanging onto the side wall for balance. She whispers, “What is this slippery stuff?”
• “Guano,” Balgun explains. “Excrement from the stirges that live in this cave. That’s why it stinks so bad. The people of Greenhaven actually will come out to this cave, or just outside of it, from time to time to harvest the guano for their fertilizer for their apple orchids.”
• Aros blanches. “Well, that makes them seem less appealing.”
• Galiena then spots several smaller figures moving towards Waesyn in the dark, which he doesn’t see since he’s facing up the slope and they’re coming from behind

• Aros decides he needs to slide down the cavern to get to Waesyn in case he needs help and attempts to use the slick stone floor as a means to simply slide down – and he gets about nine feet, before he trips over a pebble, sending him head over heels, tumbling down the guano covered floor
• Balgun turns to Galiena, “Is this how all of you usually do things?”
• Galiena looks over at Balgun, “I’d be lying if I said no. But, this is actually going better than expected.”
• “I see,” he says. “So Ramgor and Kavium were not lying about that part.”
• At the bottom, Aros sees four dwarves approach him and Waesyn and growls, “What are you doing in our cave?”
• Aros calls up the cave, “Mommy!”
• Balgun up the slope turns to Galiena, “Is he calling for you?”
• Galiena shakes her head and sighs, “Yes, little boy! Where have you gone? I am looking for you!”
• This now reveals to the dwarves that there are two others on the slope
• Using her rope kit, Galiena makes her way down – until she spots some small stairs on the side, that are dwarf size – and she makes it down (Natural 20!) and Balgun follows her making it successfully down as well
• The dwarf is shouting at Aros and Waesyn, “What are you doing in our cave? Stop calling for your mother!” At that moment, Galiena and Balgun arrive
• The dwarf looks, “Is that your mother and father?” Galiena looks at Balgun who is smiling.
• “Yes, we’re his mother and father,” Galiena replies
• “Who is this one?” he points to Waesyn with his sword drawn.
• “He’s our other son,” Galiena replies.
• “He looks human. You’re a half-elf and he’s an elf,” he gestures to Galiena and Balgun. “How come this one has round ears?”
• “Dominate gene, I guess,” Galiena shrugs. “Human side.”
• “He’s strong,” one of the other dwarves is heard saying. “We could use him…”
• The one appears to be the leader looks at Aros. “He’s a halfling. Look at his furry feet.”
• “He’s adopted,” Galiena responds.
• “So I ask again, what are you doing in our cave?” the dwarf asks
• “We’re looking for a boy who came in this cave,” Galiena replies
• “You found him,” he points to Aros
• “No, I mean another boy, one who can, they say, fly,” Galiena explains
• “Oh, the ‘bat-boy’ is who you’re looking for,” the dwarf chuckles. “In that case you’re going to need to go way deeper into the backs of the cave. It’s full of stirges, you know.”
• “We’re aware,” Galiena responds
• “We can escort you part of the way,” the dwarf grumbles. “Just don’t interrupt our business.”
• “I have no intention of doing so,” Galiena swears
• The captain calls for one of the other three dwarves, “Ruughar, take them to the divide and tell them how to get to the bat boy.”

• As Ruughar leads the party, he remains silent, clearly upset that he has to lead them to the divide…
• As the party follows Ruughar, they enter a large, wide, dark, cavern, where the clanging sound is perhaps loudest
• Aros tries to look around and sees others – dwarves, halflings, humans, and elves – all with picks in their hands, picking away at the cold, dark, stone – and that’s when Aros catches the glint of steel thanks to Darko’s light, along the ankles of several of the people
• He tugs on Galiena’s sleeve and draws her attention to it
• They’re slaves.
• She whispers, “There’s nothing we can do about that now. We will need to come back. Let’s find the boy and go from there.”
• Ruughar turns and scowls, “What are you two whispering back there?”
• Galiena smiles, “Our halfling son is just nervous from the noise.”
• Balgun tries to peer into the darkness to look at the slaves, but none dare look over their shoulder and simply keep working.

• Looking around, they see several other mysterious looking dwarves who seem to be barking commands in Dwarvish – but no one in the party speaks Dwarvish
• Aros coughs and clears his throat, “Mister Ruughar, sir, what are they doing?”
• Ruughar turns and shouts, “What? Them? Mining for metals. To make weapons and armor and the like. Why, you’re probably wearing some fine craftmanship from the metals they’ve been mining for.”
• “Are they your friends?” Aros asks
• “More like… employees,” Ruughar replies with a bit of a snide tone to his voice
• “What’s an employee?” Aros asks
• “What’s a… boy, have you never worked in your life?” Ruughar grumbles
• “That’s probably my bad, as a mom,” Galiena coughs
• “You should get your boy working,” Ruughar barks, “otherwise he will never learn the lesson of hard work and expect everything to be handed to him. He will never learn the value of anything and probably turn into some kind of thief.”
• Aros looks at Galiena, who looks back at him. She clears his throat, “Once we find, the ‘bat boy’ as you call him, I will be sure to get him working on my farm.”
• Galiena whispers to Aros, when Ruughar looks away, “Don’t you think it’s weird that he’s not the least bit freaked out by Darko. He’s made no mention of him.”
• Ruughar leads the party into what seems to be a village, barely put together; it becomes clear that this is not their main home, but a make-shift village while they harvest the metals in the area
• It’s here that it becomes clear why they’re not bothered by Darko, or necromancy, as Aros spots, what is clear a dead dwarf, continuing to work, through some form of metallic body, being controlled by the same kinds of dwarves seen in the mining pit…

• Aros noted, the dwarves commanded these ‘dead servants’ like automations… he’d heard of Artificers who were capable of such things… but never mixing the dead with the mechanical pieces…
• Ruughar finally arrives at the front gates of the hamlet, where the cave begins to slant downward, and approaches the two guards. The party can overhear him saying, “Yeah, the tall one looks muscular and useful, but he can barely walk… slid down the entrance, the entire way…” the two guards laugh. “The little one… I think something’s wrong with him in the head… he’s a halfling… but acts like a human infant… the elf bow slinger, seems like we could use him… the girl… something wrong with her too, seems very flighty… anyway, they’re after the bat boy….” Again the guards laugh. “Yeah, I know. We will see. Anyway, I was told to direct them towards where to find him.” Ruughar turns around and gestures for the party to come forward.
• Ruughar takes them just outside the town’s “wall” – and points and says, “This is the Divide. See how one way veers to the left, the other to the right? That’s why we call it the Divide.” He turns and looks over the party, “I haven’t lost you yet right?”
• The party collectively shakes their head “No”
• “Good,” he sighs and turns back towards the Divide. “What you want to do is stay to the left. You will follow it down, down, down. Oh, and beware of the rock-drops. And when you get to the underwater lake, watch out for the stinky-fish.”
• “Rock drops and stinky fish,” Balgun sighs. “Got it.”
• Ruughar then says, “And should you live through the rock-drops, stinky-fish, and the bat-birds, and make it all the way back – just tell the guards to fetch me. My name is Ruughar if you’ve already forgotten it. And I will escort you out through the city and back towards the entrance. Assuming your friends don’t die trying to climb out.”
• Ruughar then returns to the entrance, speaks to the guards – and Galiena catches as he does, while she can’t understand dwarven she catches the names “Razathorn” and “Lord Brenmoon” as Ruughar points to Galiena, before leaving the guards and vanishing into the hamlet
• It’s at this point, Galiena turns to Darko. “What can you tell us about what we saw back there?”
• Darko reveals, “Those dwarves – they’re known as the Duergar – how they became the way they are is unknown. Some say they traveled so far down that something below changed them, sometimes the story is they were victims of the Illithid that changed them… however, they tend to always side with evil… so it’s strange they let us pass through… and those in the mine, were not there of their own will… the Duergar wearing those skull masks, barking commands, were also the ones keeping them enthralled with a spell… I assume, something like Command and telling them to dig as the command… inside the village, I spotted some mechanical Duergar … that were clearly did – and the mechanical part was somehow tapped into their mind, or providing some kind of… pulse, to keep them in this undead state to continue working on fixing the hamlet… some dark necromancy there… I am still puzzled why they didn’t enslave the lot of you…”
• Aros mentions, “Maybe go back to the guard and verify that Ruughar told us the truth as to which path to take?”
• Galiena nods and walks back to the guard, clearing her throat, she asks, “Ruughar had mentioned a few things… he mentioned rock droppers… and stinky fish… can you explain what those are?”
• The first guard looks over at the second and sighs. “Ruughar was right,” he mutters. “Well, rock droppers – it’s exactly what it sounds like. Rocks that drop on people. That’s how they feed. And the Stinky fish? They’re down by the lake down there. They sometimes come up here and try to capture some of the… employees we have… but we always fight them off.”
• “Do these stinky fish… do they carry tridents?” Galiena asks
• “They do. And other fish weapons, but they’re no match for steel,” the first guard says, brandishing his sword.
• “Yes,” Galiena smiles, “I’ve heard wonderful things about Dwarven Steel.”
• “Yes!” the first guard seems eager to talk about their work. “Nothing beats Dwarven Steel! Especially Dwarven Steel from this mountain! We forge the best steel in Eaglerock!”
• Galiena then smiles, “My little boy, he kept talking when Ruughar was giving directions – and I missed which way we should go.”
• “Left,” the first guard explains. “That’s where the rock drops and stinky fish, and then further down the bat birds and your bat boy, you’re looking for. To the right, it’s a very, very, very long path – that eventually leads near the sea – and you can go out that way, it’s just… a bit of a swim.”
• “Right,” Galiena nods
• “No, left,” the guards says. “You really are bad at listening.”
• Galiena is about to explain she’s acknowledging the instructions given but leaves it at that
• The guard adds, “Also, because of the bat birds – the floors are covered with guano. If you bring some back, we will pay you for it. We use it for fertilizer and the mages uses it for spell components.”
• Galiena nods, “Thanks,” and walks back to the others. “As far as I can tell, seems like Ruughar was telling the truth.”
• The party begins venturing down to the left, and as they make their way down – they come to a decline that has a slant downward – Galiena slips, and instinctively reaches for Aros, and pulls him down, and the two of them slide into Waesyn, so the trio go sliding down, while Balgun stands there, “Is this how all of you always move down the caves? You guys really do always do this, don’t you?” Critical Fail for Galiena

• From the fall, Aros, Waesyn and Galiena, find themselves covered in guano
  • DM Note – For fun, I had them roll a percentile dice – I had Galiena do hers at “Advantage” because she’d critical failed, to see how much of their body was covered in Guano…

• Waesyn who is only covered in 16% looks at Galiena and remarks, “You are really covered in guano. Are you trying to harvest if for the dwarves?”
• Galiena shakes her head, “No. I just happen to hit a lot of the heavier spots.”
• Balgun transverses down the cavern safely, keeping his distance from the other
• At the bottom of the cave, they can hear the dripping sounds of water; and they know from Balgun, that there’s a river on the surface nearby, which is where this water may be dropping down from high above the stone. However, Galiena, covered in guano can’t see (Critical Fail) and as Aros tries to lead her to some of the water he can hear, she also manages to trip over one of the stalagmites (Critical fail) – and Balgun watches in wonder, as this woman who had stolen his breath away so long ago, now covered in guano and falling all over the place, could be so pretty and not be full of scars… he looks at Waesyn who shrugs back at him. Waesyn helps her up and mutters, “You are stinky, like a child in a diaper at Annie Longstocking’s!”

• Galiena makes it to a small pool and is able to wash off the guano, and Aros and Waesyn also wash off the guano
• Inside the watery cave, they find out that this is where the “rock droppers” are – better known as Piercers. Galiena, who still has guano in her hair, gets some in her eye as she fires the crossbow and hits Aros

• One of the Piercers manages to land in Aros’ shoulder, which Waesyn helps defeat, and the party races through the rest of the cave, avoiding the other piercers in the room
• The party moves through the next tunnel for some time before coming to a massive underwater lake that is about 60′ wide from the looks of it… a passage is on the right and left, around the lake… it is a thin passage… and on the other side… movement…

• Scooting along the path on the left side of the lake – Aros spots a trap – it looks like a bear trap – but using the jaws of shark for the clamp. He successfully disarms it and hands it to Waesyn to carry in his bag.
• They’re now able to get a better look…

To Be Continued…