The Mysterious Castle of Aaryglynn

[That_American_Idiot]

This is a dungeons and dragons (5th edition) campaign I am running. Each chapter covers a session that was played. Obviously the lore has been changed in some cases, but it's all for the greater good of telling a compelling story on the diverse and great world of Valhalla.

As for the player characters, I have left their name bolden at the end of the first chapter with a bit of backstory for easy referencing later, in case any one needs it reading along. They all started at level 3.

This is a reposted thread as I originally posted the story in the wrong forum. Each chapter is a grab bag of how well written it was. The middle and closer to the end I was experiencing some heavy burn out from having to prepare for sessions, take notes of events that happened, and then write up a new chapter every week. I made sure to give a strong ending, however, so if you are interested at all but don't want to commit the time, I recommend reading the final chapter where the party fights Pelloth and his Drow Chainfighters!

Prologue: Character Introductions and Embarking on a Voyage

Spoiler Alert!

The discovery of new wellsprings seemed to have slowed. It was either that, or enemies of the Moon Tribe held the mythical water's powers in secrecy. Either way, Aquilla wanted more information. She looked to the island of Haukeland, far north of Ticalla Jungle across the Bitter Sea. To her knowledge, there was no inhabitants of the island, and there very well may be a wellspring there. Gathering a crew of her greatest scouts, she also advertised this voyage to any looking for an adventure. With the trusty Brave Arrow as her captain, the other twelve Mohican tribesmen, and a band of six adventurers who took the offer, the Nipahak set sail during the second month of Heyannir.
Their voyage was to last exactly ninety days, returning during the second month of Haustmanudur. Or, at least, their supplies would run out in ninety days. It was also ill-advised to cross the Bitter Sea during the months of Rannveig, the season after Haustmanudur.
The Heyannir, on the other hand, was kind to them. Sunny and bright, the wind working in their favor as they met no storms. Making it to the mainland beach after six and a half days of sailing with no complications to speak of.
Along the way, the crew spent their time introducing themselves. The Mohican's explaining their ability to easily conceal themselves in the wilderness and fury they use to fight. Brave Arrow further explaining his uncanny ability to track nearly anything, and how he can contact his ancestors for guidance. The Mohican's joined the Moon Tribe after being brought to Valhalla, and now defend the tribe as if it were their own. Gladly taking up this mission to scout an uncharted island in the name of Aquilla.
However, not all who embarked on the Nipahak had a prior allegiance to Aquilla. A band of six adventurers have found themselves on this ship for one reason or another.
Chancho Von Beef is a half-orc who used to live in Bleakwoode, working at his families butcher shop. He was quite proficient at the job, skilled enough to attract the attention of Balinor, god of beasts and hunt. Balinor made a deal with Chancho that if he joined his hunt, he would be granted divine power. Chancho, wanting a change of pace, accepted and became a paladin. Wanting to return home to inform his family, he found a horrific sight as an evil entity known as Carvin' Marvin laid waste to his family and their land. Too weak to avenge his family now, Chancho set out into the world to become stronger, promising to return home one day and take revenge.
Varen Aedran is a high elf who grew up on Valhalla desiring to be a story book hero. He spent his whole childhood training under different mentors, gaining skills on infiltration and fighting. While most certainly looking and acting the part, he never learned how to properly socialize with anyone. Able to play the part, but never able to remember his lines. One day, returning to the city of Sinya Ashra after a day of training in the woods of Ekstrom, he saw a frightful scene of a woman riding a steed known as a gryphillin being ambushed by anubian wolves. Jumping into action, he fought off the pack. He found out later that the woman was the elven princess Kyntela Gwyn, and she had became quite thankful, writing him a love letter. Not knowing how to react or what to do in this scenario, he forced himself onto this voyage in hopes that being trapped on a ship/island with a small crew would teach him how to better socialize.
Cardinal Damien Blackwell is a fallen aasimar who was a up and coming cleric for the congregation of Olladra in Crumland. He, however, believes the church tricked him to do an exorcism he was not ready to perform. Ready to free a small child of a horrible fiend, the demon jumped out of her and entered his own body, leaving him horrifically disfigured. Returning to his congregation to inform them of the news, he was excommunicated from the church. Worried about the trickery of his congregation, he wishes to ensure they cannot gain anymore power in this land by securing wellsprings from their grasps.
Alzaren Marqarim Nilfyr is a half-elf born of an elf from Feylund and a half-elf from Valhalla. His family were all druids, living in a off the map village deep in the forests of Ekstrom. His father would occasionally leave to visit the city of Valgrind, becoming quite fond of it. Whenver he would return home, he would share tales of his time there. Alzaren always remembered his father discuss a man named Lorde Foog the 2st, for his father hated him. One day, his father left and never returned. Alzaren always wondered what had happened to him, swearing Lorde Foog the 2st was to blame. Regardless, he had to stay in his village to defend it from unnamed beasts that would attack. With the war on Valhalla becoming more dangerous every week, the village always needed a watchful eye. This role would be taken over by his younger half siblings. When he felt confident they were capable of defending the town, he left to go find what happened to his father.
Minster Ping does not understand how he ended up here. The last thing he remembered was being in the basement of a wizard on his home world. He was attacked by an animated suit of armor from behind, knocking him unconscious. When he awoke, he was standing in a volcanic land full of poisonous gas. He was able to survive due to his new body, that made of metal and wood. He was now a warforged, and he had been trained in combat as a barbarian. He vaguely remembered fighting for a red king with large wings, and his troops of creatures known as Moltarn. After coming back into sentience, he decided to wander off not wishing to fight on someone else's command. The volcanic wasterland he wandered seemed to last forever, but he eventually found the sea and wished to set sail, going far off from where he came.
Lorde Foog the 2st is a red tiefling who found poverty in Valgrind due to his similar appearance to kyrie who served Utgar. As an urchin, the only way to keep money in his pocket was to perform, becoming a bard. He eventually became lucky enough to pick a nobles pocket, becoming quite rich, but also quickly having to go on the run after being found out. Now he seeks to get as far away from Valgrind as possible, joining this mission without the slightest clue of its goals.
The entire scouting party stepped onto the shores of the island around the evening of their sixth day. They looked around uneasily. They had arrived, but the hard part had not started. Unsure of what they would meet on the island, all they knew was an epic adventure was about to begin.

Chapter 1: The Other Scouts

Spoiler Alert!

With it being evening when they hit the shore, Damien Blackwell suggested they start setting up camp. Brave Arrow noted how there was some sunlight left in the day and they should investigate the surrounding area to ensure this is a safe place to leave their ship. He and three of the Mohicans traveled the eastern beach while Damien, Ping, Alzaren, and Chancho searched the western beach. Lorde Foog and Varen stayed back at the ship with the other Mohicans and helped set up camp.

Meeting up in the middle, just north of the ship, Brave Arrow and the other party confirmed that no threats seemed to be around their barren beach. There were not many trees as the ground had moist grass from the sea breeze. Even if there was a threat, it would have a hard time sneaking up to the boat without much cover to hide behind. A mile long perimeter was set as the two scouting parties found a very peaceful quietness where they had set up. Damien and Alzaren even found boar tracks leading away from the beach letting them know wildlife did live on the island.

Not wanting to waste any daylight upon returning to the ship, Ping got the idea to fish. Even though he does not require any food to survive, the thought of catching fish with his own hands was a satisfying challenge to take up. He recruited the help of Chancho and Foog. Jumping knee deep in the water and waiting for his prey, he quickly found no fish but crabs instead. Less than a dozen hid among the rocky sands. Foog stepped into the water to attempt to serenade them with his lute, but the crabs were not too keen of this performance quickly fleeing from the horrid song about buttering and boiling them. Chancho and Ping wanted to chorale those that did not flee Foogs song. Able to pin down two and lead them to the shore, Ping saw his opportunity and took his shot. Quite literally. Loading his blunderbuss and loading it with a lead shot to maximize the bullet spread, he took aim and fired. One of the two crabs exploded on impact, leaving no useable meat, while the other ran away just in time, attempting to take a swipe at Ping as it fled.

Meanwhile Varen was testing a spell to see if it would help with their mission. He used Guiding Hand to try and find out two important facts. The first being if there was a wellspring on the island at all. If there was, and the island was mapped out, a ghostly guiding hand would float five feet away from him acting as a compass to the wellspring. Upon casting the spell, a hand did in fact appear, letting him know that a wellspring did exist on this island and that this supposedly uninhabited island had a map of it in existence. He reported this to the party.

Alzaren and Damien quested Foog around the campfire right before bed that night. Damien wanted to make sure there was no hard blood between the two, as Alzaren suspected Foog of killing his lost father. Foog, however, was able to keep the truth hidden. Claiming he never met Alzaren's father, a lie that Alzaren and Damien did not pick up on. With those two feeling better about their new ally, everyone drifted off into sleep.

Awakening bright and early the next morning, Brave Arrow gathered enough bullets, gunpowder, and rations to last them forty five days. He left eight of the Mohicans behind to guard the ship while four joined him and the rest of the party. They set off, following Varen who used his guiding hand to lead the way. They were also able to follow the boar tracks and successfully spotted the beast, but did not wish to interfere with it so early in the morning.

Continuing on, the prairie quickly turned forested as they made their way deeper into the island. Now they were about an hour away from the boat when the trees became decently dense. With nice clear skies, and the forest not slowing them down, they made great progress on their first day of travel.

During their adventuring, though, they came across a suspiciously large pile of berries on the ground. It was not hard to figure out who put it there, as an elf was poorly hiding up in an adjacent tree, ready with a bow and arrow to hunt any game that dare touch it. He saw the group approaching and called out to them, speaking in elvish.

"Who goes there, I do not recognize you as part of Ullar's great forces. Whose flag do you bear?" Only Chancho, Varen, and Alzaren understood his words. Varen spoke up, although nervous to do so.

"We come with the Moon Tribe to find the wellspring on this island. You, you're a member of Ullar? I lived in Ekstrom and have a connection to Kyntella, the elven princess. Me and my party mean you no harm. What is your name good elf?"

"Cico," the elf replied. Varen's words surprised him. This elf was traveling with Aquilla's forces in search of the wellspring, and yet he was connected to Kyntella Gwyn. Suspicious indeed, but a friend of Kyntella could not mean any harm. As long as he stayed with Brave Arrow's scouting party, Cico would not get in the way. Plus, he noticed how this elf, Varen, lead the party. A ghostly hand seemingly guiding him. They could trail them to see what they know. Surely they had a better way of finding the wellspring and Ullar's own scouting party. Cico also noticed this scouting parties numbers. Only eleven total. With the amount of vipers spread across this island, Cico could easily gather troops and surround the Moon Tribe's scouts if need be. For now, he let them pass, trailing them from behind.

"And a warning to you, Varen and the Moon Tribe. This island, is not uninhabited as you've been told. Bugbears known as the Horned Skull Brutes ravage the land, killing anything they see. They do not back down. If they spot you, they will stop at nothing to end you. Be vigilante and tread carefully." Cico told the party as they passed.

Their first day on the island under their belt, they had traveled a decent ways. Setting up camp in the woods, much more cautious now that they knew of the dangers. They set a routine watch throughout the night, having different party members account for different shifts. But overall, they did not see or hear any dangers. Completely unaware of Cico and his ally Talasrit watching them from the trees above.

Chapter 2: Meeting a Local

Spoiler Alert!

The party of scouts traveled deeper into the forest of the island, following the ever helpful guiding hand that Varen is able to conjure. The hand promising to lead them to the wellspring that brought them all the way across the Bitter Sea.

The weather was nice as they traveled that day. Light clouds helped block out even more sun from scorching their skin as they traveled through the trees. A nice breeze hitting their backs. After a full days worth of traveling, the sky began to become dim. The only thoughts worrying the adventurers was how quite the island was, and how similar the trees appeared to be. Unsure if the guiding hand was leading them straight, or around and around in circles, they decided to set up camp and rest for the night.

Varen took the first watch claiming the island was just as still and quiet as it had been during the day. When he awoke Ping, however, this became a different story. Despite not being able to see very well, Ping had a good ear on this particular night. A crunching of leaves and snapping of twigs approached the camp across the way. Not knowing what to do, the barbarian let out a fierce scream that awoke everyone as he rushed forward eager to defend his fellow scouts.

Jumping behind a tree for cover, he pulled out his blunderbuss and aimed at the humanoid shape approaching the camp, lit up from the dim light of the fire.

"Who goes there?" Ping commanded, not truly caring for an answer as his blunderbuss let out a large crack. The bullet colliding with the shoulder of the foe approaching the camp. Lorde Foog the 2st was quickly up on his feet to shout an insult at the approaching figure. He was always prepared to mock anyone who stand against him. Varen began to sneak around, hoping for a chance to strike unseen.

But the humanoid only had one thought, kill! He rushed straight towards Ping who was hiding behind the nearest tree. Raising its morningstar into the air, but the insult of Foog left it unbalanced in its mind as the weapon collided with the trunk of the tree, just over Ping's head.

The Mohican's were now up on their feet, handaxes ready to shred the poor soul apart. Surrounding it in seconds and hacking it to unrecognizable bits of gore. The battle was easily won, but meeting a local of the island left every one feeling uneasy as they finished their rest. Hopefully, in the future, they could avoid coming across these savage and unrecognizable creatures.

Chapter 3: Doubt Creeps In

Spoiler Alert!

The sunlight greets the party to another great morning. The clouds, again, light and fluffy just further blocking out any sunlight the canopy of trees is not able to. It makes the traveling much easier as the group of scouts can cover even more ground when the sun is not beating on their skin.

Varen in particular is pleased that the forest appears to be getting denser the further in they travel. "If the forest is noticeably denser, we surely can't be walking in circles," he reassures the party as they follow his guiding hand. The casted spell acts as a compass, leading the scouts directly to the magical wellspring on the island. Aquilla will be quite pleased with their fast progress.

On their journey, Alzaren the druid is able to spot a doe that is hidden in the brush. Informing Varen, they decide to stop and hunt. It has been the only other living being on the island they have seen since the bugbear that raided their camp the night before. This may be a rare opportunity to increase their rations.

Varen crouches and advances close while Alzaren wildshapes into a buck to offer a distraction. Chancho, seeing the danger Ping may pose to the hunt if he spotted the beast, decides to distract their trigger happy friend from letting his blunderbuss ring out. He's able to provide enough time for Alzaren and Varen's plan to work. The doe spots the buck, Alzaren, and believes the area is safe. All for the rogue to sneak behind and quickly end its life with a single strike of his rapier.

Brave Arrow steps forward to harvest the body. Teaching some of the less educated scouts how to let nature provide for them, and leaving no meat behind. Venison is able to feed the eleven adventurers their meals for the rest of this day and all of tomorrow. Brave Arrow even attempts to extract other parts of the animal, showing that everything it can provide them is useful. He's able to extract a couple of bones. An inspired Lorde Foog wishes to extract the does tail as a sort of charm, and successfully dissects it from the body.

Varen takes this time to climb a tree and note the surrounding area. Fear begins to fill him as his head breaches the upper canopy. His eyes befall an endless blue sky and a sea of green carpet spread out in every direction around him. No mountains to be found, and even the ocean has disappeared from the horizon. The only thing that surrounds them on this already quiet island is more trees. Descending to share the news, the party realizes they have lost track of the days they've spent following the guiding hand through this forest. No other landmarks can guide them. They truly must put their faith in the magic of their rogue and pray it leads them true, but doubt begins to creep into the back of their minds.

Attempting not to let the unsettling thoughts get to them, the party decides to travel until the light of day can no longer lead them. It pays off as they get an additional half days worth of travel in.

That night provided them the toughest challenge on the island yet. A terrible thunderstorm roared in out of no where. The lightly clouded day before showed no sign of the storm approaching. With only Damien having a tent, the others had to find shelter through their natural surroundings. Alzaren and Varen, accustomed to living in forests their whole life, easily found protection in trees. Lorde Foog was inspired by their bright ideas, but he had none of the skill to actually follow them up. He ended up sleeping at the base, quite unprotected. Brave Arrow and his men could scrounge up shelter through the forest floor, proving makeshift blankets of leaves, mud, and stone just able to fit their bodies. Chancho was able to persuade Damien to let him stay in the tent. Lorde Foog and Ping had a rough night, unable to find suitable shelter. This, however, did not stop them from having a good rest despite all odds. No one stayed on watch that night. Visibility was already hard enough as is.

While the party never knew they were being followed by two Aubrien Archers, Cico and Talasrit, the elves had lost track of the party thanks to this storm. They figured they would be able to travel at a much slower but stealthier pace behind the party of scouts, and catch up to their camp as they slept. This worked for a couple of days, but the storm washed away all marks the party had made throughout their day.

The next day, the party still decided to follow the guiding hand of Varen. They did not have many other options to put their faith in. The hand guided them through a pair of Horned Skull Brutes. Damien took quick action against them, sending a powerful radiant bolt at the one, marking him in a slight white light. The two then charged him, but having to sprint made them easy targets as they ran into the party's range. The rest of the group was quickly able to dispatch them in six seconds flat. Chancho not even quick enough to act before they were both slain. They discussed, over the corpses, the annoyance these locals could create for them when they had no idea where they lived on the island. For all the party knew, they could be heading towards the a large camp of the goblins. They agreed to interrogate the next bugbear they came across for more information.

But until then, they had no choice but to carry on. Another day of travel was finished, but again they wished to keep going until the sun had fully set. The fear of being lost has really began to eat away at their psyche. That evening, they decide to still cast guiding hand, but head straight north instead of the slight north eastern direction the hand was guiding them in. After another four hours of travel, the sun had set, and the guiding hand seemed to be pointing the same direction. Not a single noticeable change. Their can be only two conclusions, their destination is much farther away than they realized, or some sort of magic is messing with them.

With their minds full of concern, sleep came harder for them that night. But they still managed to all rest up ready to tackle tomorrow's journey in a bit of a different way.

Chapter 4: The Ambush

Spoiler Alert!

Upon waking the next day, the party knew what must change. Clearly, this wellspring is much farther than they originally anticipated. Without much discussion, they knew that Varen's guiding hand was leading them true. The doubt they feared the night before seemingly gone.

This time, however, they picked up the pace. Rushing through the forest at a quickened pace, they were making great time, but their eagerness led them right into a sticky situation.

Varen suddenly came to a halt. There was snarling to their northeast. A low rumble that could only be coming from one creature as it anticipated a nice slaughter. That's when Brave Arrow noticed the snarling to their southwest, and Ping hearing some coming from the southeast. They had found themselves right in the middle of an ambush.

Huddling in a defensive circle and waiting for the brutes to show their ugly mug, they had no idea how many there were, or how closely they were being watched. The Mohican River Tribe got in a firing line, waiting in silence for any disturbance.

Ping was much less patient. Walking over to Brave Arrow and grabbing a piece of uncooked venison that he still had from the doe. Ping walked out of the safety of the circle and placed it on the ground, hoping to attract the bugbears out of hiding. Brave Arrow decided the meat needed to be further, picking it up and tossing it nearly 20ft away near a tree.

Meanwhile, Varen immediately began to crouch and stealth around the trees, trying to find any enemies to their northeast before they spotted him. His efforts paid off as he spotted on of their legs poking out from behind a tree about 30 feet away. He gestured over to Chancho and Foog and the three began to advance, ready for a fight.

The Horned Skull Brute, sensing the incoming danger, exploded out from behind cover rushing Chancho who was ready to catch its attack with his shield. Varen was then able to sneak behind and deal some massive damage into the creatures backside as Foog shouted words mocking words psychically cutting the foe down.

While that happened, Brave Arrow and Ping had found a new opponent. The snarling that was coming from their southeast was indeed another bugbear. Ping had found him as he let his guard down trying to receive the meat. This, however, did not matter in the end as two Mohican's guns, Brave Arrow, and Damien's guiding bolt quickly slew it before it was able to put another dent in Ping.

This only left their western flank open as a bugbear charged from the southern area, and a second snuck up from the north. The stealthier one was able to put a heavy blow onto a poor unsuspecting Mohican, but Chancho, Varen, Foog, and Damien were able to quickly respond fighting off the two brutes and defending any more damage to the team.

With triumph almost assured, Damien shouted out, "Restrain the last one! We'll interrogate him tonight!" Chancho was able to smack the butt of his battleaxe into its skull dropping it to the ground unconscious. More discoveries were sure to be found upon it waking up, but that would have to wait for the moment as the day of travel was not done yet.

Chapter 5: Revelation

Spoiler Alert!

Damien rushes forward feeling for a pulse on the unconscious creature. Chancho stands over it with a smirk. After a second, the cleric confirmed the bugbear was no in danger of dying. "You really knocked his lights out," he said looking to the half-orc. "No point in waiting around for him to wake up. We'll tie him up and carry him with us. Don't want to waste any daylight."

Damien unpacks his 50ft coil of rope and starts to hogtie the brute. Varen silently steps forward and helps out. His long fingers able to easily work the knots. The pair had never bound another humanoid before. They were confident the ropes wouldn't slip off him while they traveled, but unsure if they would be able to hold the savage once it had woken up. Regardless, they couldn't afford to waste more time and continued on with their travel.

Ping struts over, confident he could carry this prisoner with one hand. His barbarian strength failed to live up to this gloat as he found the beast much heavier than expected, even though the brute was shorter than him. Chancho was able to help out, and the two made a wonderful pairing. The party still wished to travel at a faster pace, desperate to get out of this forest. Ping and Chancho were able to keep up with this pace even with their extra weight.

In the midevening, the horned skull brute finally began to come to, halting the party again. Ping quickly placed the body near a tree and tied the remaining rope around its trunk for extra protection. The second he tied off the knot, the creature shot up snarling an aggressive phrase in goblin to his captors. A phrase, that no one was able to understand. Becoming wary that they may not be able to interrogate the creature, Ping speaks up.

"Do you speak common?" he asked. The ugly fur covered beast let out a menacing grin as it flexed every muscle in its body and bursting free of it's hemp bindings.

Leaping to its feet, it wrapped its large hands around the throat of Ping, unknowing that the warforged had no need to breath. Its grip strong enough to dent the metal plating around Ping's neck seriously pissing his off. Chancho does not hesitate, swooping in with his battleaxe in both hands. Stepping up behind the creature and slashing it all the way from its right shoulder to its left hip. The creature tries to cling on to life, but quickly releases its grip of Ping and slides down the front of his body before laying heavily bloodied and unmoving on the ground.

Damien lets out a terrified scream rushing forward and touching the creature, sparing it from dying with his clerical abilities. He slowly turns to the party, still slightly in a panic,

"Should we spare the creature? We weren't able to interrogate him at all."

"Well, none of us can speak its language," Alzaren points out.

"It may speak com-" Damien began.

"Really? Cause when I asked he just broke free and dented my beautiful neck!" Ping roars in anger. "He deserves to die, slowly!"

"I don't know about that," Damien retorts. "I think we should just make it quick, put it out of its misery."

"Chancho already did, but you saved him Mr. Cleric." Ping yelled again.

"Now now, that's not fair!" Alazaren stepped forward in between the two. "Damien did what he thought was best! He didn't know if we wanted to interrogate the bugbear and acted quickly! Now, while it's still unconscious, we can just end this whole thing right here."

"HE DENTED MY NECK! I'm going to need more metal to repair it! And if you haven't noticed, this island has a whole lot of nothing on it!"

While the two argued, Damien snuck over to Varen and whispered under his breath. "Just knock an arrow and put it down." Varen did so silently. The argument between Alzaren and Ping came to an abrupt stop as an arrow flew between them skewering the brute in its ear and ending it for good. They both looked over to Varen who simply stowed his bow and retrieved his arrow.

"There, I did it." He said slightly unsure why everyone's eyes were on him. "Okay...let's, uh, keep going then." Without another word from the party, they travel one last hour before the sun sets.

The night was peaceful, and so was their next day of travel. Back to an utter silence befalling the entire island making them feel eerily alone. No one keen to speak until Alzaren notices the forest is beginning to thin.

Within a couple of hours, the trees entirely disappear as they emerge from the other side of the forest into a vast and flat prairie in front of them. Maybe it was the fact that the island was so quiet today, or maybe it was the fact that they could not see anything over the flat plain, but this almost unsettled them more than the never ending forest. Varen's magic hand still pointed onward, however, and it had successfully lead them through a forest. No need to mistrust it now. They continued until the sun set yet again, on a completely silent day.

Still nothing stood out on the plains. They began to set up camp when Brave Arrow suggested not lighting a fire. It might attract the attention of anything stalking the grounds. The majority of the others agreed, even though it would make watching the camp for safety difficult.

Before bed, however, Chancho and Damien asked their gods why this island was so strange. A never ending and quiet forest, and now an almost completely flat prairie that showed no sign of life. Chancho focuses on his divine sense to see if they were being tricked by an unseen foe, but was unable to detect anything. Damien had a hard time praying as he still was unsure of which deity to worship after Olladra. They both turned to the druid, who may have some insight on the unusual nature of this island. Alazaren meditated for about ten minutes, but could not connect well with the wild. Feeling very unsettled, they finally drifted to sleep.

They could not rely on Varen and Ping keeping watch that night. The two made a great pair as they both needed less rest than the party in order to feel energized. Ping could not see in the dark without a fire, so Varen had to wake up Damien. The other members of the party took turns keeping watch. Damien woke Alazren, and Alzaren woke Chancho. Regardless, the night was just as quiet as the day that had lead them hear.

Feeling discouraged the next morning, Varen still cast his guiding hand and the party followed his lead. Before mid day, however, the parties mind set completely changed as on the horizon, at the top of a rare hill, stood a castle. The guiding hand point directly ahead.

Chapter 6: A Hollow Welcome

Spoiler Alert!

Elated with joy, a structure on the horizon, Lorde Foog rushes forward. The rest of the party races after him not wanting to be separated. In less than fifteen minutes, they found themselves at the outer wall looking up at the structure. Varen looks up trying to gauge how tall the walls are, but as he looks up to the top of the wall, the sun rises and blinds him for a split second.

Before them stands a large wooden door, reinforced with metal beams. Before messing with it, Damien suggests that they walk the perimeter of the wall. They find it strangely quiet as they walk. Although, on this island, if the castle wasn't quiet it would be more strange. The walls start to head down a steep hill, but the walls stay just as high and sturdy as they were around the door. Heading down the hill, they eventually end up at the lowest point, almost completely around the opposite side of the castle as the door they had found. Here lies a dry stone cylinder poking out of the wall. A rusted metal grate covers the top half of the tube, leaving enough room underneath to crawl under. The entryway was very tempting, but Damien was a voice of reason suggesting they should finish their walk around the perimeter and at least try the door first.

Thus they walk on, heading back around the castle and going back up a steep hill. The climb was definitely more enjoyable when they were going down it. Regardless, they finished their loop ending back at that door. Chanco kept his eyes open as they walked looking for any signage or banners around the walls, but found none. Damien did a more thorough investigation around the doorway, but there wasn't a hint to who presides in the fortress.

With seemingly nothing else to distract them, Damien builds some courage and steps up to the door. Blessing himself in case danger were to come, he raised his fist and knocked three times. The rest of the party standing thirty feet behind him. He waits half a minute to absolutely no response. He then cracks his knuckles, his palms a bit sweaty, and then attempts to push the door open. It does not budge. With no handle on the outside, and no keyhole to the door, they were unsure why the door stood its ground so sturdily.

"Let's just go around to that grate!" Chancho says turning to head off.

"Wait, I want to try this." Varen pulls a crowbar out of his bag. "Chancho, pry it open."

Chancho grabs the bar and shoves it in the side of the door. After exerting immense strength into it, there was no reward. He then tried to shove the crowbar underneath and pry it upward. The door does raise and clunk back down with his effort, but it does not seem to fall off its hinges. With Chancho quite exhausted, and no one else stepping up to try, Damien speaks up.

"Maybe the door speaks common. Bard, get over here!"

Lorde Foog does not entertain this idea. "No, my talents are used better elsewhere. I'm saving my voice for the court inside."

With that, the party heads back down the hill along the wall to that stone cylinder. Foog, Damien, and Chancho climb up into it and duck under the grate. Varen was a bit stunned by this. Silently investigating the grate to ensure that it will not slide down and trap them after stepping inside. He was fairly positive it was just a rusted grate bolted into the walls and climbed up himself.

Damien looks around. Brave Arrow and the four Mohican's as well as Ping had dumb sun reliant eyes, unlike the others. Sighing, he casts light on his clothing illuminating himself. He then treks forward into the stony moss covered tunnel in front of them.

There was an immense amount of stone bricks that made up this place. The moss all around giving a sickly green palate to go alongside the cold blue and gray bricks. Only a few feet forward, there was a side room. No door in its entryway. Damien and Varen step inside finding an abandoned space with broken down crates of wood. A staircase stands on the opposite side of the room. Over half the stairs are rotted away. A wooden platform stands up seeming fine. Damien gets almost underneath it inspecting it with his eyes.

"Varen, you reckon I could boost you up there?" he asks. Varen steps forward grabbing his crowbar again and jostling it underneath the platform. CRACK! It comes crashing down. Varen leaps back, but Damien is flattened by it becoming part of the crash. After the dust settles, he finds his legs pinned underneath it, but other than that he's fine.

"Thanks for the warning," he says flatly.

"No, I don't think you can boost me up there." Varen says looking up to where the platform was, rather than helping Damien out. Chancho comes running in.

"What happened. Damien? You good?" He walks over and simply tosses the wooden plank aside and gives Damien a helping hand up.

"There's no door." Varen points. The other two follow his gaze and sure enough where the platform used to stand is more bricks on the wall. "Boost me up."

"Why? There's nothing there." Damien asks confused.

"Sure, I can get you up there," Chancho says stowing his weapons.

"Guys! There's something in the hall!" Foog shouts into the room.

Chapter 7: The Sewer's Entrance

Spoiler Alert!

His darkvision allowing him to see the small creature as it turned the corner at the end of the hall. Without waiting for the others, Foog marched forward. He was determined, and yet hesitant. The thought of being caught by the creature that disappeared around the corner was not very appealing to him. As he spun around the corner the creature had disappeared behind, he couldn't see anything. His vision did allow him to see partially in the pitch blackness, but without proper light it would be hard to spot something that was hidden. Refusing to take another step forward, he slowed his pace and waited for Chancho, Ping, and Damien to race past. Varen even snuck up beside Foog ready for a surprise attack against the upcoming foe.

This hall had lost its connection to the outside world. Sunlight no longer helped them. This was particularly brutal for Ping, Brave Arrow, and the Mohican tribesmen, who could not see in the dark at all. Damien decided to help them out, casting a light spell that clung to Ping's metal body.

The second hall, the one the creature disappeared into, was at the end of the first hall. It opened up on the right side and was considerably shorter than the entrance of the sewer. Three steps lead them slightly down before a massive room opened up on their right. Varen and Ping, however, were curious about the hallway that opened up on the left side of the hall, opposite of the open room.

Varen stuck his back against the wall and peered down the hall. A crossroads was on the brink of his vision. Then Ping stepped forward, taking stealth out of the equation. He brandished his blunderbuss and took aim. The light cantrip not enough to reveal the crossroads to him, but he ensured the other party members they could explore the large room. He would defend this hallway. If anything made a sound down there, he would blast it away. Varen, disturbed with his head being in the line of fire, quickly backpedaled to explore the big open room with the others.

They hesitantly all advanced into the open room. A long stone archway hung above the entrance. None of them could see the backwall from this side of it. Rotten wooden crates lined the walls. Dense cobwebs hung all over the ceiling. Some of them stooping down and catching some of the crates.

Slowly moving forward as a unit, they examined the room. Varen was insistent on checking the areas in between the boxes and the walls. The creature they followed may have been hiding there. Foog, on the other hand, was curious about the crates. None of them seemed to hold anything, and their condition was abysmal. He tapped one with his foot as he walked past. All that seemed to happen was making the spider whose cobweb connected to the side of it a little miffed as his home was rustled.

Damien and Chancho had their eyes set on the back wall of the room. A chute, big enough for a humanoid to easily fit into, was in the center of the wall. The only issue was it was crammed with more rotten boxes and crates. Under the chute was a large rusted grate, at least ten feet in diameter if not more.

As they began to investigate a loud crashing sound rang out to their left. Everyone in the sewer turned their heads to see Varen crouching behind two destroyed boxes. He quickly looked around the room before silently standing and casually walking over to the chute in the wall pretending to investigate it. After a second, all the heads turned away from Varen, returning their focus to other aspects of the room. Varen could feel the pressure lift off him as he let out a sigh of relief.

Chancho, Foog, and Damien were all curious about this large rusted grate on the ground. Chancho grabbed ahold of the bars and began to tug with all his might. Foog, not wanting to look useless, feigned helping him in this feat of strength. He did not wish to cut his precious lute playing hands on rusted metal, but he figured he could humor the half-orc by pretending to help out. When the grate did not budge, Damien had a brilliant idea. He grabbed a wooden piece of debris and imbued it with light. He then held it over the grate and dropped it, watching it fall a good five feet before splashing into a stream of sewage. It's light still visible through the water, it didn't reveal much more than the dirtied water. The plank did show that the stream was moving. Not fast, but after the plank rested on the bottom, it was nudged slowly along with the water.

Varen, meanwhile, was examining the chute more closely. It appeared to make a pretty drastic incline, almost straight up, and it was completely blocked up with more boxes and crates that were in various states of disrepair. Not daring to touch even a single one after what happened the last time he did so, he decided this was no way forward and turned back.

Ping entered the room confused.
"Damien, my light went out."

Without a word Damien stepped back and touched Ping's chest. His body began to glow once again. The humans flocked Ping, attracted to him like moths around a lamp, joyful to see again.

As this happened, the party silently, yet unanimously, agreed that this room had nothing for them. They would have to progress down the hall on the opposite side. Varen was the first to reach its entrance. Yet again, he pressed his back up against the wall and peered around the corner, the thought of the disappearing creature still on his mind, and yet again Ping threw stealth out the window. He stopped right outside the entrance way of the tunnel and raised his blunderbuss yet again.

"Men, formation!" The Mohican's raised their arquebus's and followed Ping's aim. With five guns trained down the narrow hall, Varen became quite fearful that he was in the line of fire. He took a step back and bumped right into Chancho's shield. He looked fearfully into Chancho's face, thinking Chancho was pushing him forward. He let out a hard gulp before stepping in front of Ping and the tribesmen quickly venturing down the dark hall. He reached the crossroads and saw he could either go straight and hit the end of the hall, or to his left and go further down some stairs to what appeared to be an actual sewer. He wished to stop and wait for more members of the party to make his decision when he heard Ping give a command.

"If you hear any sounds down this tunnel, open fire!" Hearing this, Varen quickly ducked around the corner starting to venture down the stairs.

Ping slowly marched forward, now realizing Varen was no where to be seen. He ran ahead reaching the crossroads and yelling, "VAREN ARE YOU OKAY!" as he rounded the corner. Poor Varen could hardly take another second of this as his heart nearly skipped three beats.

"Ping, please. Don't scare me like that!"

"I didn't see you down the tunnel. I thought they got you," Ping said innocently enough. His gunmen quickly catching up. He turned to face them. "Defend that hall! If you hear anything, fire! Varen and I will check where these stairs lead." They all nodded in agreement before raising their rifles and aiming down the hall.

Varen and Ping advanced down the stairs, leaving the humans at the top with no light. Damien and Chancho soon followed these two. At the bottom of the stairs they saw a much more streotypical sewer. Two concrete walkways on either side of a dirty stream. Its flow very similar to the one Damien dropped a stick into. They looked down the wide cooridor, seeing it continue on until the edge of their vision.

Chapter 8: Echoes

Spoiler Alert!

The party started to trek down the unending corridor. Their darkvision letting them see in the blackness, but the tunnel just kept going on and on and on. They left the four Mohican tribesmen near the stairs to watch their rear, even though none of them were given a light. Ping had commanded them to shoot if they heard anything weird.

The sewer was quite stereotypical. Two stone walkways on either side of a brown stream. As they continued down further in, they came across a smaller tunnel opening in on the right side. Damien quickly looked down, but just saw a wall. Continuing further, about sixty feet later a new tunnel opened on the left.

Varen leaned forward, pressing out his ear to hear any strange sounds, but as his body shifted, his foot hit a slippery patch on the edge of the walkway and he fell headfirst into the water. He was able to prevent any water from getting into his mouth and nose, however, before he was dunked in. His head breached the surface and he scampered up onto the other side of the walkway and tried to dry himself off to the best of his ability in this cold damp place.

A tiny brown rat followed the party on the narrow pipes off the side of the paved walkway. Nobody knew at first that it was Alzaren, who hung back near the start of this tunnel and wildshaped into the beast before catching up. The party was highly entertained by the behavior of this rat, however.

Another sixty feet forward, they saw yet another narrow tunnel branching off to the right. The larger tunnel they traveled through was also blocked off in front of them. Even more strange, large rocks near the rubble casually moved.

Varen stepped forward and peered down the branching tunnel. He then turned his head, a little closer to the moving rocks than the rest of the party, and noticed the rocks were not rocks at all, but large rat shaped creatures. The two rushed forward, one gnawing on Varen's leg as the other ran up to Damien.

Chancho stepped up, blocking the rat's path to Damien and executing it in one blow of his battleaxe. As it's head fell apart from the body, sparks flew out of the creatures neck and then it became still. Foog rushed forward.

"I've got it from here!" He raised his lute and looked for a rat to fight, but only saw the tiny brown one that was strangely following them. The party was sure this was Alzaren at this point due to it's behavior. It had seen the enemy and jumped into battle. Damien pointed across the water to Varen who was actively screaming with the giant rat biting his leg. Thankfully, it had only gotten ahold of his pants and not any skin! Foog again readied his lute and began to strum, calling the beast a dumb rata. It flinched and let go of Varen as its mind was insulted by an unknown force.

Varen raised his rapier to finish it, but the critter ran, seeing the incoming attack and slipping away before Varen could comprehend. Varen, however, did not take kindly to this as he quickly rushed after it. It may have been able to slip away easily, but it could not go very far in that time! He swiftly and quietly caught up. The creature was none-the-wiser. Like a toothpick going through a sandwich, Varen made a precise peirce into the smooth hide of the beast before, it too, fell over dead.

Damien had taken notice that these giant rats were different than any he had heard of, although without a proper light source it was hard to see any details in the darkness. He leaned forward to get a closer look, the corpse a centimeter from his face, and then it happened again. A spark flew out of the body and zapped him between the eyes. He screamed and stepped back agitated.

"You there, druid. What is up with this thing?" He pointed down at the rat Alzaren. The beast looked back up at Damien. It could understand him in this form, but the rat had no way of speaking back. Alzaren picked up a tiny pebble on the ground and tried etching a message into the stone. His little rat feet worked as great hands, but at the end of the day he had never wrottem a message while he was a rat, and the tunnel was still pitch black. Darkvision was not enough to read his scribbles.

Chancho had enough of this tom foolerly as he jumped into the water to cross, heading off to the tunnel Varen chased the giant rat into.

"Hold on, that rat just sparked and you're just going to leave!?" Damien asked.

"Yeah, it's dead," Chancho simply said before walking away.

"Did you smite it when you killed it?"

"No."

Damien thought he was about to lose his mind. First the giant rat sparks, then he argued with the druid who refused to come out of his rattish form, and finally the paladin was just walking off as if it were a normal Tuesday. Finally Foog stepped forward handing Damien a candle. With his tinderbox he lit it. Foog, Damien, and Alzaren finally got to see the corpse clearly for the first time.

It wasn't a beast at all. This giant rat was a construct. It's smooth body looked like heavy armor. The light shone off its metallic body. Ruby eyes looked at them from the decapitated head.

Suddenly gunshots rang across the entire cavern, four back to back. Brave Arrow knew at once that those were the sounds of his men's rifles. Then after a few seconds, the unmistakable sound of a Mohican war cry echoed up the tunnel. Everyone turned and rushed back the way they had came.

Chapter 9: Rescuers

Spoiler Alert!

Varen took no hesitation in rushing to the rescue. His movement mixed, with dashing and a cunning action, ensured he shot back up the sewer tunnel like a bullet. The rest of the party trying to keep up behind him.

The elf rogue found the end of the tunnel and the stairs that lead up to the exit. Peeking around the corner, he saw the Mohican's fighting more of those giant rats. The only issue is the Mohicans could not see in the dark, so they swung at their feet wildly. Getting ready for his moment to strike, Varen was about to leap in when the barbarian Ping exploded out of the tunnel screaming at the top of his lungs and wielding his blunderbuss. He screamed up the stairs in a rage. but by the time he had made it to the top, he was unable to act anymore.

Varen leaped behind him, staying in his shadow, and finishing the last of the metal rats with one precise poke of his rapier. The pair looked around at the damage. Three of the four tribesmen had scratched up and bleeding legs.

"We did what you asked commander," the one said looking to Ping. "We stayed in the hallway and waited for sound. That's when these critters bit our back! They must have come from the entrance."

Just then Damien's voice carried up the staircase. "Is anyone injured?" The three tribesmen limped down the stairs meeting him at the bottom. The cleric performed a prayer of healing that closed up their wounds. Chancho, the paladin, waiting in reserve. Brave Arrow finally caught up.

"Well, I'm glad you are all okay. Maybe it is best if you travel with us. Your no good as guards if you can't see."

"Yes, I will be your light!" Ping exclaimed, his body shining from Damien's light spell. "But first, these creatures are interesting to me. I would like to have one's head!" He raises his maul and smashes one of the giant rats heads. It squishes like a pancake.

"Uh, do you need some help?" asked a timid voice behind him. Ping turned to see Varen and his rapier.

"I suppose a blade would do this job better," Ping agrees. Varen sticks the tip of his rapier under a dead rats chin and flicks up. It cuts the head clean off, making it fly upwards in the air. Varen catches it with his open hand and offers it to Ping.

"What do you want with this anyways?"

"I can absorb it into my body." Ping says confidently. The party is very confused. They've never worked with a warforged before. "But that will have to wait! The whole process takes some time."

The party proceeds back down the length of the tunnel, about one hundred feet, making it to the end where the rubble has caved in part of the sewer. Uncharted tunnels lie ahead of them, but that will have to wait for another chapter.

Chapter 10: Float Down the River

Spoiler Alert!

Continuing on, the party comes across a narrow tunnel that seems to be their only way forward. They jump down into the sewer water and continue on, coming across a left turn. Around the corner, about 30 feet in front of them, is the entrance to a new room. This one unlike the tunnels they've been traveling to.

The first odd bit about it, is the fact that the room was illuminated by a dim green light. Funneling in, the room opens up. In front of them, the water continues. A second stream crosses it in the middle of the room. Looking to their right, they see a small opening halfway up the wall. A waterfall flows out of it, appearing to be the starting point of the second stream. There was a staircase that lead to a walkway on the far end of the room. The walkway was made of metal grates and Damien notices a very strange bag on the walkway. Varen and him head off to the stairs to investigate.

Meanwhile, still wading through the river, Ping, Chancho, and the Mohicans see large wooden crates slowly scraping their way through the current. They float up to the party and rest on them. The current wishing them to move further, but the party acting as a dam. Ping leans down to pick one up, finding it shockingly heavy. Heaving all of his strength into this crate, he is able to get it out of the water and smash it to pieces against the raised paved floor of the room.

The crate crumbles, and rising out of the debris is another mechanical rat. It looks up at Chancho, the half-orc that stands directly in front of it, but before it can even gather a thought, Chancho raises his axe and decapitates the construct. He then stares at Ping.

"Really, right in front of me?"

"Men, get out of the way, let the crates flow by." Ping commands his Mohican friends. They all clammer out of the waterway and let the three remaining crates float past. However, the noise has seemingly awoken them. Frantic scratching can be heard from inside each of the rotten wooden prisons. The party holds its breath in anticipation as the crates float further on.

As the crates entered the tunnel the party entered the room from, a distinctive cracking sound bursts out. The Mohicans turn quickly, jumping into action and quickly attempting to deal with the now free rat. The other two crates still hold their prisoners inside, but the rat that broke free is attempting to help them out. The tribesmen jump back into the water, heading into the tunnel and pumping the creature full of bullets. Ping and Chanco rush back to help. Chancho hides behind the wall of the room, reaching an arm into the tunnel and executing yet another rat as it explodes out of the crate. Ping rushes to the front line, aiming his blunderbuss at the metallic shell and blasting. Shocked, he watches the bullet ricochet right off its armored plating. In retaliation, the rat sinks its metal teeth into his shin. Two Mohican's do not hesitate to use the distraction to finish the final one.

Up on the catwalk, Varen and Damien step onto the grate where the strange bag lay. From up here, it is much easier to see that it's a body bag. The waterfall in the wall almost directly under their feet as they crouch down to investigate further. Damien cuts the bag open and sees the pale face of a humanoid. Based on the pointed ears, it is most likely an elf or half-elf. His throat was slit, and a cut goes down his sternum. The skin peeled back on the chest to reveal the inner organs and bones. Damien, with his occult background, knew this was most likely part of some ritual, however, he is a spiritual cleanser. Not a doctor. Looking at the organs and bones themselves, he could not gather if any were taken or rearranged in any way. Another oddity of this body bag was the dried blood on the outside of the bag. They must have caused his injuries right before bagging him.

Varen continues further up the walkway to find a cage. It was about six feet tall and twenty feet long, going across the length of the wall. The iron bars were horribly rusted. The door closed and the hinges rusted shut. Dried blood all over the floor. He spotted three dead rats in the far corner. Wanting to check them for wounds, he uses his mage hand to pick one up and carry it closer. The rat appeared to have died of natural causes, but it was still strange.

With the floating crates all smashed and their innards dealt with, and the catwalk thoroughly explored, the party chooses to continue onwards. Heading straight, following the river they had been rather than choosing to go up the waterfall, or follow the waterfall's stream. Going onwards, they return to the similar looking tunnels they have been traveling through. With a sigh of boredness over seeing the same tired sight, they walk on.

Chapter 11: Mushroom Carpet

Spoiler Alert!

Onwards they march. The tunnel leading them to a sharp right turn and back into the stream of sewer water. They emerge into a familiar looking tunnel. To their right, rubble blocking the way. To their left, an open passage way. Following the path laid out before them, they then find themselves in another tunnel, looking the same as the rest. This time, both ends of the tunnel are open, but they choose to turn right as the guiding hand has been pointing vaguely in that direction.

On to the next chamber, something new catches their eyes. The paved bricks in this part of the sewer are covered in tiny brown mushrooms, no bigger than a thumb. Not a centimeter of the ground is left unveiled. The mushrooms appear on both sides of the stream, but not in the water itself. Varen and Brave Arrow step forward and lean down, inspecting closely.

"Stand back, do not disturb them!" Brave Arrow commands suddenly. "I've seen these before. If you touch them, they'll release a irritative fume. If it makes contact with your skin, it'll sting."

Varen notices the guiding hand pointing down a tunnel. A bridge made of wooden planks rests across the waterway, mushrooms growing on top of it. If the bridge wasn't there, they could simply walk through the water and continue up that tunnel.

"If we go under the bridge, anything under our noses would be submerged." Chancho observes jumping into the water.

"I'm not submerging myself in poop water," Damien retorts, disgusted at the thought.

"Well then, what do you purpose?" Foog scoffs. "I say we just suck it up and take the swim."

"Give me a second, I'm thinking!" Damien takes a moment to ponder. "I got it! We can lift the bridge and flip it upside down. That way we can walk across the top and not disturb any mushrooms."

"There's no break in the fungus, though. See how they grow up the sides of the planks? If we picked up the bridge, those ones would surely release poisonous gas." Brave Arrow points out.

"Well, we have rope. What if we tie a rope around the bridge, go over to the other side of the chamber, and pull? It's just some wooden planks, it's not like it's bolted down. We could even use mage hand to handle the rope so we don't get too close," Damien continues.

"Brave Arrow? How long do the fumes last?" Varen stutters.

"Hmm, not too long. We'd have to wait for them to clear, but it is a beige smoke so we could see it when it disappears."

"This is a waste of time. We don't even know if anything worthwhile is down that tunnel. You, goofy elven scout, you say your magic hand is telling us to go that way? Go check it out yourself and let us know!" Foog argues.

Varen tenses up. Foog is right, he's used to scouting ahead and protecting those who are in danger. He's trained for this, and he's fully capable of exploring alone. Plus, the bard is quite intimidating and doesn't seem to enjoy listening to anyone. What could he possibly say to change the tiefling's mind? Without a word, Varen crouches down into the water and walks under the bridge, heading into the tunnel.

The next room is a fresh sight. Still a sewer, but instead of the same tunnel they've been traveling up this whole time, this is more of a room. The water still flows down a cut out in the center, and their are still wooden plank bridges, but the room intrigues Varen.

"This is something new, guys!" Varen shouts back through the opening he came from. As soon as he's done, he hears a loud splash in the water. Spinning around, four metallic rats rush around a corner of the room, one dashing up the waterway.

Brave Arrow and his men hear the excitement and do not hesitate. Rushing through the water, under the mushroom bridge, and exploding into the room with loud battle cries. The rest of the party follows suit. Chancho in particular is pleased to see more of these critters. They've been so fun to tear apart in the past.

Varen takes the loud noises and appearance of his other ten companions to slink into the shadows. Brave Arrow lets out a fierce attack with his hand axe, finding one deathreaver's weak point and trashing it before it can even think to run.

His men surround two of them, and alongside Chancho, are able to start laying down some hurt on the constructs. Foog is even able to sneak in with a dagger and plunge it into the side of one. Varen finally loops around and skewers one this is rapier, ending it instantly.

With only two rats remaining, and both heavily damaged, they turn to run, disengaging with their opposition entirely. Brave Arrow, however, is able to quickly catch up to one. It scatters away from his first swing, but he's able to still catch it and finish the job. The last rat, however, is proving to be very slippery.

The party members chase it, but every time they swing a weapon down, it skitters out of their reach. Others attempt to use ranged weapons like Damien's crossbow, Foog's dagger, and the Mohican's rifles. All the projectiles bounce off the hard exoskeleton of the machine. It continues forward, running out of the room. Getting further and further from the party. Varen and Brave Arrow are the only ones who can keep up with it at this point, and even Brave Arrow soon falls out of melee range. In one last ditch effort, he throws a hand axe that hits the creature critically. Splitting it's armor like a shell of a tree nut. It slumps over dead. The party lets out a collective sigh of relief. It's companions would not be called today.

Chapter 12: The Dining Hall Incident

Spoiler Alert!

With the last construct dead, the party loosens up, checking their surroundings to this new room. Behind them, on the far end of the room, is another waterfall pouring more sludge into the stream. While the others approach to investigate further, Varen notices another tunnel around a wall leading back up towards the chamber with the mushrooms. He quickly sneaks off to see where it leads. Sure enough, after poking his head around the corner of the tunnel, he sees the room with the poisonous mushroom carpet. This tunnel leading straight through the water. They could have avoided the mushrooms entirely and not had to partially submerge their heads in sewage if only they had continued straight. Knowing Damien would not be pleased to learn of this passage, Varen decided to keep it a secret as he snuck back to the party.

Chancho and Damien were looking up at the waterfall. Damien wanted to know if there were any hidden passages behind, but wasn't up for touching the water himself. Chancho was looking up to where the water came from. About three fourths of the way up the wall there was an opening where the water was pouring from. As Varen joined up with them, he suggested climbing up onto Chancho's shoulders so that he could see if there was anything in the opening. Quickly scrambling up, he peered into the tunnel, but found it cold and damp. He could crawl through it, but he would be on his hands and knees fighting a current of disgusting water. He could not see how far it went on. Disembarking his teammate, the party collectively turned and began to follow the passageway the rat was trying to escape to.

Within half a minute, they turned the corner and dropped silent. Before them was the wall of a building. Purplish hazy light seeped through the stained glass windows. A grand door right before them with spiderweb strained glass above its archway. Knowing it would be dangerous to all travel in a pack, the party sent forward four scouts. Varen, Damien, Chancho, and Alzaren, who was currently still a rat. The others waited around the corner in the next room.

Damien slowly crept up to the front doors, peering into the tiny window laid in them. What immediately caught his eye was the 10 foot giant spider statue in the middle of this chamber. It's eight eyes locked on the front door, still. Then, movement on his right peripheral caused him to hunker down some more. A dark skinned elf was walking across the chamber, his back mostly to the door as he went from the right to the left. Damien slunk back to the party.

"Drow. And a giant spider, although it appears to only be a statue," he whispered.

"How can you be certain?" Varen asked.

"I know a good for nothing dirty chinner when I see one."

Varen and Alzaren became quite uncomfortable. Damien's racism towards elves was never well hidden.

"There's a path along the outside. Should we follow it?" Chancho asked pointing down either side of the wall. Sure enough, there was a stone laid walkway. Almost like one you would find through a park. It was about twelve feet wide and sandwiched between the luxurious stonework of the building, and the rough wall of the cavern. "Here, I'll check this side," Chancho said heading off to the left. Without a word Varen went off to the right. Damien stood in the middle, weighing his options.

"At least Chancho's not an elf," he whispered following the half-orc. Alzaren the rat joined him at his feet. He wasn't paying too much attention.

Varen didn't even notice he was alone until he was well on his way around the side of the manor. Peering through windows and scouting out the interior of the building. The most prevalent thing he noticed was the lack of a true light source. The whole building was shrouded in that purplish dim light. The first window he peered revealed a long narrow hallway that seemed to go on forever. He next got a look into a bedroom, a drow sleeping on one of the many beds. It did not look too comfortable. Then he came across the kitchen. Dirtied pots, pans, and utensils cluttered the cabinet space. The next window down was a dining hall. It was grand, like one you would find in a castle where the king would hold meetings with his trusted advisors. It appeared to have not been used in a long time.

Meanwhile, Chancho, Damien, and Alzaren were having their own discoveries. Chancho found a very similar hallway. Narrow and long, never seeming to end. Although, he had no idea of the identical one on the opposite side. Eager to find another entrance, Chancho dashed forward.

"What are you doing!?" Damien shouted in a hushed voice, wanting to keep his voice down, but needing to yell at Chancho for foolishly running forward past two windows. "There could be guards!"

"Oh, right..." Chancho halted and slowly crept up to a window. His heavy armor making tons of noise as he peered inside. He too saw a dining hall, but this one was far from empty. In fact, he instantly locked eyes with a drow. The dark elf stared back at him, a fork full of orange mush halfway up to his open mouth as he sat there frozen, staring at the half-orc outside the window. Chancho slowly raised his finger up to his mouth in a "shhhh" motion before continuing on down the pathway.

Seconds later, Damien hears a door burst open behind him. Turning around he sees a drow standing near the front doors. The cleric nudges the druid with his foot.

"Listen here you damn half-elf, I'm sick of you refusing to come out of your damn rat form. Change back and help me get rid of this guard or I swear to Kelemvor that I will stomp the wild shape out of you!"

Without a word, Alzaren shifts back to his humanoid form before sprinting forward. Using his entire movement, he closes the distance between himself at the drow, stopping five feet in front of the underlings and staring him dead in the eyes.

Chapter 13: Overpowered

Spoiler Alert!

Writers note: Alzaren's player could not attend the session. Since Ping was missing from Chapter 12, and he was able to make it to Chapter 13, I replaced Alzaren with Ping so that Ping was the one staring the drow dead in the eyes where we had left off.
Ping licks his lips with anticipation, he's not sure how he got here, but a drow stands before him. His killer instincts kick in as he raises his gun, but just then the door to the manor bursts open and five more drow come rushing out. They surround him and start shouting in a deep voice. After a moment, they stop and start again, but this time their shouts aren't as guttural. Ping picks up a new language, this one more elegant. Even the shouting can't seem to ring as powerfully. Finally, they stop a second time and pick up with yet a new language. Not a word of it made sense to him, but based on the tone, he could tell they weren't saying, "Oh come join us for tea inside." He slowly raised his hands to the side of his head to show surrender, but none of them seemed to notice as he slowly twisted the gun in his palm so that the barrel aimed at the forehead of the drow right in front of him.

One drow steps around Ping and stares at Damien sixty feet down the cavern. He starts shouting commands, but Damien also does not understand a word that he says. He turns over his shoulder and starts talking to Chancho.

"It's a drow, I think it's speaking that disgusting chinner language," Damien hisses before turning back around and slowly advancing. Once he reaches halfway between where he was and the drow, he turns invisible on the spot. The drow is taken aback, as he twists his head to directs a new companion to join him. A second drow joins him by his side and they raise their shield making a wall in the walkway. Not much space was left between them and the wall.

Chancho rushes forward, ready to talk.

"What's the matter?" he askes innocently enough using his knowledge of the elvish dialect.

"Drop your weapons and surrender!" The drow commands. They shift in their boots a little, knowing an invisible foe is in front of them as well as this large half-orc in heavy armor. Plus, their negotiation piece is not cooperating.

A drow steps forward to take Ping's blunderbuss. He retaliates by pulling the trigger and critically hitting the drow in front of him straight in the forehead. It stammers for a second and lets out a scream of rage. It wasn't enough to end him and now he wants revenge. He lunges forward and swipes Ping's legs out from under him. As Ping unwillingly kneels, the same drow puts him in a headlock. A second drow grabs his left arm, the third is trying to wrestle the gun out of his hand, and the fourth lifts its sword and stabs downwards pentrating Ping's armor. His wooden and metal body seems unaffected by the poison coated on the sword though.

Knowing they could overpower the drow with the help of Brave Arrow and the four Mohican's in the last room, Chancho remembers how they communicate in battle. With a loud war cry. He inhales a large amount of air, but dust gets caught in his throat as he ends up just wheezing for breath.

Meanwhile, the invisible Damien creeps closer to the clot of drow in the way. If he can only sneak through, he could rush off down the cavern to get the party.

Meanwhile Ping finds himself in a real bad spot. As he's spun around to stare at Chancho, the drow behind him still has him in a headlock. The two drow on either side of him press their swords to his neck in a X formation. The fourth drow tugs at the gun in his hand trying to pry it free from his grip, and the fifth and sixth drow act as a wall between him and his companion.

Those two drow finally smirk, seeing over their shoulders that Ping is in position. They step aside to reveal him to Chancho. "Drop your weapons and surrender, or your friend dies," they ask again.

As they step aside, Damien sees his opportunity. He sneaks right through the center of them, and starts working his way across the wall behind hte drow crouched down trying to get the gun out of Ping's hand.

Feeling like he's out of options, Ping wonders if he can at least knock one drow out. He willingly lets go of his gun, hoping the drow flies backwards and slams into the wall. The drow, however, smirks as he spins the gun around his finger and holsters it in his belt in one smooth motion. As he quickly stands up, Damien is forced to press himself still against the wall behind him. Moving a centimeter could be enough to alert this now standing drow.

"Fine," Chancho thinks to himself as he finally takes a good deep breath. "I'll bring the thunder." His fingers tingle as he imbues his axe with a thunderous smite. The second he strikes, a sound wave will boom across the whole sewer system. Help will be on the way in less than a minute. He takes a step forward and the drow immediately react.

The two drow with swords pressed to Ping's throat cut into him. Thankfully for the warforged, his has no blood to pour, so the otherwise fatal slit just damaged him. The two drow acting as a wall raise their shields, ready for Chancho's attack. They deflect his blow. His axe never found its mark and thus no thunderous boom followed.

Acting quick in reltaliation, the one drow stabs Chancho, finding the chink in his armor. In an instant, the poison on his blade activates in the half-orc's blood knowing him completely unconscious.

The two drow shout something to their compaions, Damien and Ping do not know what they say. They all start looking around frantically. Then the drow who took the gun feels something move behind him. He slams backwards, pressing the invisible Damien up against the wall. With the help of a second companion, they quickly grapple the invisible foe.

Without hesitation, the drow split apart. A pair grabbing one of the three intruders and dragging them to the front door. Once inside, the doors creak closed. Half the party is captured.

Bonus episode During this entire combat, Varen sneaks around the outer walls of the manor, peering in windows as he goes. In one he sees a dagger made of some green metal in a display case. In the next, a longsword in a display case. The next, a grand bedroom. After that, a training hall with dummies for the drow to practice on. Two drow were in there practicing when he looked in. The final room he looked in had a stone bowl and a journal written in elvish on the table, and a large ritual looking circle on the ground. he could not make out what the book said from the window as the journal was upside down and the window a bit fuzzy to see through. He was way too far to hear any of the battle going on near the front of the manor.

Chapter 14: Brown Bear Battering Ram

Spoiler Alert!

Soon the unconscious Ping and Chancho are dragged inside the manor beside the still invisible Cardinal Damien who has to sit back and watch as the grand entrance way engulfs them. Purple and white tiled floors, stone nests with stone eggs lining the walls, and of course, the massive 20ft spider statue in the center of the room. They are dragged before the mighty statue and two of the drow drop Chancho, beginning to turn to a door on the left side of the hall.

Suddenly the wooden door they just came through explodes into a pile of splinters. A brown bear charges forward, it's teeth grabbing one of the drow on Damien and crunching into its arm. Before the drow can take a defensive position and swarm the brown beast, four tribesmen come rushing in. Their handaxes high in the air as they let out war cries. Charing straight for the drow, they're almost evenly matched in numbers.

The two drow who were about to leave jump straight back into the action, clashing with their new foes to defend their estate. The drow holding the invisible Damien have no choice but to drop him and raise their shields to defend themselves from the bear. Damien takes this opportunity to crawl underneath the bear and behind his allies to safety. He drops invisibility once Brave Arrow comes running in, choosing to bless himself, the bear, and Brave Arrow. The final two drow cross their swords over Ping's neck, both shouting in elvish to drop their weapons or the warforged gets it. Only Alzaren in his brown bear form understands them.

Without hesitation he leaps over Chancho's body and tackles one of the guards, pushing him away from Ping. The other, however, has a stronger grip refusing to let go of the prisoner.

Though the entranceway was large, it could barely hold this battle without feeling cramped. Six different parties clashed. Sometimes the drow would be surrounding an opponent, and others they would find themselves flanked. A tribesmen fell, but Brave Arrow quickly avenged his death with two critical strikes. He knew they would be outnumbered soon as his men were looking weary. He dove to the floor and shook Chancho awake. The poison still in his system, but the paladin did not care. It was time to kill the vermin.

Even Varen soon found himself at the front door of the castle, seeing it shattered in pieces. Peaking inside he saw a massive battle. He selected a target and cast True Strike, giving his bow and arrow a nasty advantage against an unsuspecting drow.

Though the fight was less than a minute, the end came with heavy casualties. All six of the drow were dead, and so were two of the Mohicans. Alzaren the bear had been poisoned and taken heavy damage, but his wildshape did not break form. Ping was still unconscious, teetering on death. Damien reached out a gentle hand and cast Spare the Dying. His teammate would not succumb to the darkness today.

Chapter 15: The Welcome Committee

Spoiler Alert!

As the healers Chancho and Damien cleared up any poison and rejuvenated their hurt comrades, Foog comes strutting up to the entrance. Late to the party for a reason he refused to share, he instantly started looting the bodies of the fallen drow. The necklaces they wore stuck out to him in particular. A purple gemstone was laid by an iron border and iron links. He started taking all the necklaces from the drow, putting them around his own neck.

"Do you guys think the curse stacks with each necklace? Am I about to be super cursed?" he joked. Not many were entertained by his usual Foog routine, too exhausted from the adrenaline crash of escaping narrow capture.

While Foog looted the necklaces, Chancho had found something more interesting. A fork was left in a drow's pocket. He looked down at the motionless body, this was the guard who spotted him through the window and alerted the others. It was a good thing he was dead now.

Dead bodies were searched, but most people quickly found the same articles on each person. Ping was not interested overall and began to search the entranceway. The spider statue on the far end had not moved an inch, but Ping was convinced there was something more to it. Along either of the walls were elaborately carved stone nests full of stone eggs. Their color was not impressive, just normal stone, but the craftsman work that went into them for this many was a mystery. He tries to pick up an egg, but finds it cemented into the nest. So he does what barbarians do best. He grabs his maul. Lowering it to an egg like a golf club, he swings back and breaks it free from the stone nest. Holding the egg in his hand reveals its shocking weight. Only one thing to do with this. He walks around to the backside of the spider statue and throws it, like a shotput, into the statue. A loud crunching sound gets everyone's attention. Ping begins to laugh as the egg was now embedded deep into the statue. No way anyone would be able to get that out. The comedy coming from his own logic, thinking a puzzle needed to be solved, and ending up with a very silly situation.

"Ping, what are you doing?" Damien sighs, his healing magic just finishing up. He walks over to the statue. The statue must have some religious significance to the drow. After thinking about it for one second, he knows who it represents. Lolth, the Queen of Spiders. One of the most influential deities of the Underdark. Every action she takes is for malice's sake. Not even her minions are safe from her torture. She lusts to corrupt other elves and humans into servitude in order to weave as much chaos as she can into the world. He explains this to the party. "And this is why elves are no good. Worshipping monsters like this," Damien finishes. Varen and Alzaren staying silent, feeling uncomfortable as they continue to examine bodies.

Foog and Varen in particular noticed the armor the drow warriors wore. A nice pair of studded leather. An upgrade for Varen, and Foog had some klephtic tendencies that made him want the armor immensely after finding out it had worth to Varen. They both begin to doff the armor off of two different corpses. Varen quickly realizes it will go faster if he had assistance, turning to one of the Mohicans who gladly helped. Foog was greedy and wanted to do it all himself. At least, that's how it went for twenty seconds or so. He soon realized, yet again, that Varen was out doing him and he swallowed his pride turning to the closest ally to ask for assistance. Brave Arrow was mourning his lost men nearby.

"Excuse me, Brave Arrow. I seem to be needing some help acquiring this armor. You wouldn't mind, would you?" Brave Arrow turned to him, his eyebrow raised. Though he was in the middle of prayer, Foog did have a certain persuasive tone to him that all bards seemed to own. He got next to Foog and began to help. Just a couple seconds later, Foog realized that the armor he wore currently was actually better than the armor he would be stealing from this guard. Upon doing so, he stood up and walked away, leaving Brave Arrow to continue alone. Brave Arrow realized quickly that his men could use the armor, being a slight upgrade to what they have got.

Meanwhile, at the other end of the hall Damien and Chancho wish to continue to explore. Behind the spider statue was a set of double doors. Damien presses his ear up to the wood, hearing a creaking sound from the other side. It was one long creak, as if a door was slowly being opened or closed on the other side. He let Chancho know. Chancho instantly hid around the corner, raising his battleaxe waiting in anticipation for anyone to step through this door. Damien unlatches the two doors and pushes them open, quickly ducking around the corner, peeking out to see what awaits them.

A long hallway lay behind the doors, and even better, a row of three more drow were walking up it. Upon seeing the intruder they slow their advance and form a rank. Shields raised and walking forward slowly. Damien doesn't know what to do about this, expecting them to have just rushed forward ready to attack the lone cleric. He whispers his findings over to Chancho who tries to get the other half of the parties attention by tapping his shield on the wall. They, unfortunately, are too absorbed in retrieving the armor to notice. Ping, however, is near the situation and quickly steps over. Seeing the guard he, but what else, takes out his blunderbuss and waits for a more drastic move.

Then the doors on either side of the hall burst open. On the right side of the hall, a door near the side of the spider statue flies open and two drow file in, quickly surrounding Chancho. On the left side, a door near the front entrance, actually right behind Varen who was still working on doffing the armor of the drow warrior, opens and three guards fill in the available space. A fourth drow wait in the doorway, ready to rush in the second they claim some victories. The three guards in the hall, hearing their accomplices bursting their way inside, finally rush forward. Chancho, at the very least, is able to use a reaction to surprise one of the drow that steps through the double doors, licking him with the blade of his battleaxe.

The battle with the original six captors made quite the explosion of noise in the normally silent dwellings of the castle. This awoke two separate warriors from their slumber. They quickly rocketed to their feet and set off finding every warrior on the underside of the castle. They were supposed to meet in the hallway behind the entrance hall, but upon gathering the forces and hearing Damien open the door, two of the three groups were forced to sneak around to the other doors into the entrance hall and wait to be in position. Once the three separate groups were ready, they burst in for an ambush. The results were beautiful. Now having nine warriors surprising the two split groups of adventures.

Those two groups were Varen, Alzaren, Foog, Brave Arrow, and two Mohican River Tribesmen near the front entrance of the castle fighting four drow and Damien, Chancho, and Ping behind the spider statue fighting five drow. Surely victory would be assured, but their surprise only lasted a couple of seconds before resistance was met.

Varen, Alzaren, Foog, and the tribesmen in particular made mince meat of the drow warriors. Since they had funneled themselves through a doorway, the six party members were easily able to surround and flank them, dispatching them with relative ease. Varen in particular was able to get some good damage in on them with all the flanking. Able to stab any drow that turned away from him swiftly in the back.

The drow did not go down in seconds, but overall the group of four was rendered quite ineffective as they were picked off. Their poisoned weapons didn't help too much, as they were only able to poison one Mohican tribesman who just backed up and allowed Brave Arrow to step forward in his place. Without anything flashy, this group of adventures vanquished the four drow and quickly set off to the back of the room to help their allies.

Ping, Chancho, and Damien on the other hand were finding themselves in quite the predicament. Even though Damien was with his front line fighters Chancho and Ping, they were not able to form a rank with the surprise factor of the drow. Chancho was almost completely surrounded, his back quite literally to a wall. Ping was stabbed once and the poison took hold immediately. His constitution failed him as the poison side effect kicked in knocking his unconscious. Damien, the cleric, found himself also surrounded. At least he wasn't up against a wall though. The two remaining on their feet took a different approach. Hold off as long as they could before the other half of the party could come and save them, and hold off they did. Though taking some serious damage, neither went down. Soon reinforcements were on the way. With an influx of allies, flanking the drow warriors became quite easy.

However, from all parties involved, exhaustion began to creep in as the drow always seemed to be able to just barely block an attack or dodge out of the way. Dispatching the remaining five took longer than any participated, but with enough battered strikes and cantrips cast, every single drow lay down dead. The party looked around close to their limit, but they hoped the worst of it was over. Now, they figured they were free to explore the castle to their hearts content.

Chapter 16: Exploring the Underground Castle Part 1

Spoiler Alert!

The last battle with the drow left the party exhausted, but they yet again felt more powerful. Their skills had sharpened once again as spellcasters gained new spell slots and martial classes gained extra attacks.

Spinning on his heels, Chancho looks at the unconscious Ping. Concerned that he was dying, Damien was about to cast Spare the Dying on him, but Chancho holds up his hand to stop him.

"It's okay Damien, the poison did this to me. Just need to shake him awake." Chancho got onto a knee and put both of his large hands on the shoulders of the warforged. He shook firmly, but not enough to scare frighten him. Ping slowly opened his eyes, his blunderbuss naturally raising with him as he holds it under Chancho's chin. A second passes before he realizes its his friend and he stows his weapon.

Varen was already on the other side of the room, his priorities were set straight. He was just about to doff the armor of that drow when they were so rudely ambushed and attacked. Damien soon follows, picking up where Foog and Brave Arrow left off. The studded leather would do both of them wonders. The party hung around the grand hall while they waited. Chancho took this time to heal the two Mohicans left standing. After doing so, he checked every single body of the drow, ensuring they didn't have anything valuable on them. All of them worse the necklaces with the purple gem and Chancho did Foog a favor by tossing them all over to him.

Chancho found two interesting things in his search. One drow had a small vial of an inky black liquid. He quickly guessed this was drow poison, used to coat their swords. The last drow he checked had a key. He pocketed it, telling Damien.

By the time he was done with that, Varen and Damien were very closed to doffing their own armor, ready to put their new pair of drow studded armor on. Once they had upgraded, the party split yet again.

Varen went off through a door on the right side of the hall. Chancho and Damien went through the double doorway behind the spider statue, where they had originally seen the three drow guards form ranks and advance slowly. The others stayed behind in the grand hall, setting up a make-shift base of opporations in case they needed to fall back or regroup anywhere.

Varen carefully opens the door of every room, checking its contents and ensuring no more drow would threaten them. He first finds a common bedroom, filled with five beds, a couple of dressers, and a weapon rack. The room next door was almost identical, if not mirrored. He wandered and found two bathrooms, a spiral staircase to an upper floor, the kitchen, a dining room that he saw through the window. While next to the kitchen, this one looked unused for quite some time. Varen secretly had a goal in mind though. Through a window he glanced at a display case with a glowing dagger. He desired it dearly and just needed to find the room it was being kept in.

Damien and Chancho on the other hand went straight down that hall behind the entrance chamber. It was a large wide hallway, glorious in its own way. Two long black rugs were on either side in the center of the hall. It was a long walk to the other end, and a closed door met them there. Chancho put his hand on the doorknob, about to twist it when a loud CRACK rang out behind him. The sound seemed to echo down the hall and sounded as if a wooden table was just splintered in half. He spun around and Damien had vanished. The black rug was also gone as a large black hole overtook its place.

"HELP!" He could hear Damien yell. He slowly approached the hole and peered inside. About ten feet down Damien was lying on his back, his clothing tangled in a large spider web. He struggled for a second before breaking free and standing. Chancho worked fast, pulling a metal chain from his bag and lowering it down for Damien to grab ahold of. For Chancho's strength, Damien was quite easy to lift out of the hole. Once in safety, the two took a moment to catch their breath.

"We should probably warn the others that the rugs are booby traps." Chancho suggested. They turned to look at the other end of the hall, the end they just walked from. They saw a dead drows corpse next to the other rug, its hand resting on top it was so close.

"Or what if we..." Damien said smirking at Chancho. Without another word the two ran back to the other rug like giddy school children. Damien grabbed the arm of the drow and started to drag it onto the rug, careful not to step on it himself. Much to his disappointment, nothing happened. He bolted upright and looked at Chancho puzzled.

"Wha!?"

The drow's mysteries and tricks to their home were just starting to be discovered. There was still much to understand.

Chapter 17: Exploring the Underground Castle Part 2

Spoiler Alert!

Disheartened by the lack of a second hidden pit, Chancho and Damien return back up the hall they've become so acquainted with. Past the pit trap to the door at the far end. There, a small corridor awaits, almost in a T shape. A closed door at all three ends.

"Um, excuse me." The two jump as an awkward voice speaks up behind them. They twist around startled. Varen stands behind them, completely silent in his approach. "I, uh, wanted to see a room down here." He squeezes past them, all the grace of his silent approach from behind melted away by his terrible social skills as he advances around the two, stuffing himself into the door and heading off to the right. Chancho and Damien just give each other a confused look before splitting apart. Chancho heading to the left, and Damien heading straight.

Chancho opens his door to discover a training room. Plenty of weapon racks and practice dummies. A wardrobe rest by the door. He quickly glanced inside. A foul stench of sweat stained clothing hit his nostrils. Coughing, he quickly shuts the doors and heads off to see Varen.

Damien found the master bedroom, or at least that appeared to be the case. He investigated the room quickly, finding a journal left out on the top of a desk. Hoping to get some insight on this castle, he glanced inside. Sadly, the scipt was nothing he was able to read. It was at that moment he heard a timid voice behind him yet again.

"Um, excuse me, Damien. Can you, uh...can you check some magic stuff?" Varen stumbled through the question.

Damien follows him out to the final room in this set, the one Varen originally went into. There were two display cases. A green dagger on the far right and a faintly glowing longsword on the left. A suit of plate armor between the two cases. Chancho was already in the room, his hands trying to rip the helmet off the armor display, but to no avail. It didn't budge an inch. Damien raised his eyebrows.

"You need me to detect if these weapons are magic?"

"No. I assume they are, I was wondering if the cases were trapped," Varen says.

Damien stepped forward looking at the display case with the dagger.

"Well, it has a lock, so we must pick it."

"I already did," Varen confirmed.

"Then what are we-?" Damien puts his hand on the case about to open it.

"WAIT!" Varen shouts, the first time his allies heard him yell. "What if," he mimes opening a case, "activates the trap?"

"Ah, I see. You need help from the arcane and you asked the magic man. Of course I can help here!" Damien raises his hand above the case, putting on a grand show that detecting any traces of magic was a hard task. Varen clearly thought he was the best for this job, but his magic did not come from the arcane. His magic was divine, but if arcana mumbo jumbo is what Varen wanted, Damien was sure as hell going to give it to him!

"Oh, yes, I'm feeling a connection!" Damien gasps, playing it up. "This case has some magical thread tied to another object in the room!"

"Oh my gods I knew it," Varen whispered under his breath. Damien wordlessly walks over to the other case. Chancho taking a step back from the armor to the opposite wall of the room to observe. Damien's hand is thrust out a couple of inches above the other case. Silence falls as he fits in the groove.

"Oh my! This case shares that thread! It's tied to the suit of armor!" He points dramatically at the suit. "If we open both of the cases at the same time, the armor will come loose and Chancho will be able to grab it!" At this point he is fully pulling ideas out of his ass. He has no proof of that working, but he does know the three furnishes are connected in some way by magic. If this works Varen and Chancho would be in utter disbelief!

The other two step forward, Damien's right hand touches the longsword case. Chancho's hands form around the helmet again. Varen's right hand rests on his case.

"Now it has to all happen at the same exact time," Damien instructs. "Not a single delay. I'm going to count us down from three. Three...two..."

"Wait wait, are we going on one, or are we going on now?" Chancho chimes in, his palms starting to sweat.

"I'll say three two one now, we go on now," Damien clarified. "Ready? Three...two...one...now!" Almost in perfect sync all three members perform their part. The cases open, no magical explosions erupt, and the armor is now unlocked from its display. Giddy with excitement, Chancho wastes no time at all starting to remove it from the stand. Plate armor was a massive upgrade compared to his chain mail.

Varen pockets the dagger, he doesn't have time to learn its properties now, but the thought of attuning to it made him excited. Damien knew that he felt lacking in the melee department after his last encounter with the drow. This longsword would do him wonders, and the fact that it clearly glowed because of some magic also helped. Though he never quite taught himself how to use a longsword...that would be a path he crossed later.

Varen and Damien start to leave but Chancho stops them.

"Wait, I don't want to be caught with my armor off by some enemy. Could one of you help me to speed up this process?"

"I can do it, Varen won't be of much help." Damien shoots a vile side eye at the elf. "What you can do to help out is study this book I found in the master. I think your kind wrote it." Damien passes him the journal that he snatched from the master. Without a word, Varen takes the book and slinks out of the room. Damien helps doff Chancho's armor.

Once that is done, there's not much help Damien can provide to speed up the process of Chancho donning his new set of armor. With that, he leave and finds Varen pacing up and down the long hallway with the hidden pit.

"What are you doing? I asked you to translate that book."

"Oh, uh, I was seeing where guiding hand would go." The ghostly hand that lead them here still rotated around Varen. Not many had paid attention to it until now, when the action seemed to cease. "I can't tell if it's just horizontal, or if it will point up or down if we're above or below the wellspring. When I stand here it spins around my body rapidly, which it's never done before." He stood in the center of the hall, next to the edge of the hidden pit.

"Well surely it must be above or below us then." Damien looks down into the hidden pit. The spider web at the bottom covering the floor, but when he fell in he distinctly remembered stone underneath his boots when he was able to stand. "It must be above us. Have you seen an elevator? Stairs? Anything?"

"Uh , that way." Varen sheepishly points off at some wall. Damien sighs and walks off, the other direction. "It's fine, I'll find it myself!"

After ten minutes of donning his new plate armor, Chancho was satisfied with the results. It fit his body so snuggly. Not knowing what to do with the chain mail, he set it under the covers of the bed in the room, building it to look like a person asleep.

Once again, these three scouts were going their separate ways to discover even more. Damien found a ritual chamber. A large tomed book sat next to a stone basin on a table. The basin had dried blood in it. Of course, he couldn't read what the text said. On the other end of the room was a large elaborately carved ritual circle, ten feet in diameter. Ancient runes carved around the circle. He couldn't quite read them, but his religious background in the occult gave him enough context to realize they were thanking the soul for feeding Lolth.

As he left the room, he ran into Chancho. They traveled together to find a map room. Finally, a map of this island and it was so thoroughly marked. Haukeland, not as deserted as they originally thought. The map has seven clear markings. A castle, where they must be. A lighthouse nearby, maybe a days worth of travel away. To the left of the castle, a plateu. Northwest from there large sand dunes on the water. To the southeast of the castle was just a signpost. No words written on it. Much further southeast from that point a beach. Finally, south of there a grouping of three houses. Damien made careful notes before Chancho rolled up the map and stowed it in his pocket. Damien was also able to find enough equipment to make a pack of cartographers tools.

Varen explored many of the tiny rooms he hadn't seen yet. Nothing much of note was found, other than two exquisitely crafted daggers that he added to his inventory. Feeling satisfied with his exploration, he went off to the mess hall. The three large tables had plenty of unfinished half eaten meals left over. At the far right wall of the room, a strange device sat. A stream of purple energy flowing between the two legs of the device. Two nozzles were pointing at each other, the energy, almost like purple electricity, seemed contained within. Varen sat at a table and opened the journal from the master bedroom.

After reading for roughly two or three minutes, a loud clanging sound occurred behind him. He jumped to his feet startled, spinning around to look at the magic device. It was quiet now. It had sounded as if a metal object had fallen from the ceiling and hit the floor. Varen cautiously approached to see a metal frying pan on the ground. He picked it up and looked at the magic device. It was about ten feet away, but the pan still could have been assosicated with it. Like a frisbee, Varen tossed the pan into the stream of energy. It vanished without a sound. Waiting for a second, he went back over to the centeral table and opened the journal again. That's when Damien kicked down the door.

"Oh Varen, finally got around to that assignment huh!?"

Varen tried to scoot his chair to face away from the cleric. Damien approached not letting his get any peace and concentration. After a couple of seconds, shattering porcelain was heard. The two looked back over to the device. Vegtables, plates, bowls, pans, and silverware were being ejected from the lightning.

A vein in Varen's head bulged as he got up and grabbed a chair. Walking over anger and determined to the device, he threw the chair. It hit on of the stands with a nozzle and bent it. In an instant the energy stopped flowing between the two stands and fizzled out. The stream of vegtables and other items stopped flowing out. He turned to Damien and said,

"Maybe we should meet up with the others."

Meanwhile, Chancho was off on his own adventure. Finding his way to the kitchen, ne noticed a strange device sitting on the counter. Not knowing what prompted him to do it, he picked up a frying pan and tossed it between the two circles. Nozzles shot out a quick beam of purple light and then the pan was gone. He began to look around the kitchen some more, but suddenly another flash of light occurred and his gut was hit with a large metal object. He lost his breath for a second as the frying pan clattered back to the floor. Without a word, he straightned himself out and then decided to have a little bit of fun.

Turning his back to the device, he walked to a kitchen counter and started grabbing everything that was left out. Pans, dishes, and unchopped vegetables. He started tossing them over his shoulder not looking but hoping the device would zap them. He did this until there was nothing left. When he turned back around, the device seemed to have broken. A pile of stuff laid between it, but it has stopped zapping them. Assuming it was his fault, he slunk out of the kitchen and went back to the entranceway to meet up with the party as whole.

Once everyone was gathered, Brave Arrow spoke up.

"We've made a discovery." He then pointed to the floor. Carved into the stone at the base of the spider statue was the inscription in elvish, “In order to conquer the seasons above, Lolth must taste your loyalty.”

Chapter 18: What a Drag

Spoiler Alert!

Varen starts to probe at the statue inquisitively. The mystery of the riddle bringing him back to the days that he would probe a building to find the best way in. It, unfortunately, did not lead him to the answer.

Damien had another idea. Dragging a body of one of the many dead drow over to the statue, he picked it up and put a particularly bloody part of the body onto the pincers of spider statue. There was no reaction. He then decided to pierce the pincer into the skin of the statue. Again, sadly, there was no reaction.

"Well I think we should have a rest," Varen said, eager to explore the glowing green dagger in his belt and what it was capable of. Damien, who had a similar magical weapon of mysterious property, agreed.

The party split apart, going to different bedrooms they had found around the base floor to take a short rest. They had decided that leaving the underground castle would be giving up the ground they had already claimed. Varen was in his own room, Chancho in the room across the hall, and Damien and the others flocked to a common room with a fair share of beds. Chancho fell asleep while Varen and Damien pulled out their magic weapons and began to examine them.

Twenty five minutes pass before the walls of the rooms begin to shake and rumble, almost like an earthquake was happening. A loud scraping sound could be heard. This instantly awakens Chancho from his sleep and he pokes his head out of the bedroom door. To the left, in the entrance hall, the pedestal the spider statue rests on was beginning to raise, the spider itself going with it. Varen was studying his dagger, looking for the arcane secrets of it, but the rumbling got to him after a couple of seconds as he just had to know what was going on. He breaks concentration on the blade to poke his head out of the room. Chancho is standing in the hall looking at something, and Varen soon saw what. Damien, on the other hand, refused to break concentration on his longsword and made Ping and the two Mohicans go investigate the source of the sound. They soon reported back with what they saw. Damien demands they go back and wait for something to happen.

After about three minutes, the spider statue was completely lost in the ceiling. A large stone pillar where it stood, but the rumbling didn't stop and the alter kept raising. Another two minutes after that it finally stopped. Varen and Chancho approached. Ping went to go fetch Damien who was quite salty in having to break concentration over the sword.

Once they all met up in the lobby, they didn't have a chance to talk as the rumbling started up again. This time, the pillar was going down, back into the floor.

"That's an elevator," Chancho spoke, horrible realization hitting him. The party instantly became tense. Elevators don't just move on their own, they are summoned. More creatures were coming right down to them and they only had five minutes to react.

"We need to get all these bodies out of here," Varen said, looking around at over a dozen corpses in the entranceway.

"We can throw them in the pit," Ping says pointing down the hall where Damien had fallen into a hidden pit.

"Good idea. I'll drag the bodies to the back of this room, you drag them to the pit." Varen said. Ping, Chancho, Brave Arrow, and the two Mohican River Tribesmen helped Varen in this frantic process of hiding the bodies. Damien was still salty over the sword and refused to help. He was still in a short rest state and refused to put in any action that would erase those benefits from him. He elected to watch the pillar descend and see if any foes came down with it.

It was the most frantic three minutes of their life. They dragged bodies unendingly, each body needing to be taken about one hundred feet or so to stash it in the pit. The party who helped out made an assembly line, quickly dividing up parts of the journey. One of the last bodies moved was one of the dead Mohicans. It was agreed they would return the bodies outside for a proper burial.

"Wait, weren't there two of your men?" Chancho asked Brave Arrow. They only saw the one body. Another one of the Mohican's flushed, tears in his eyes.

"Well, I heard throw bodies into the pit, so I threw bodies into the pit!" Sure enough, they went to check and one there lay the other body, tangled in the web ten feet down. Varen steps up.

"Chancho, you and the Mohicans go take the one body to the front. We'll get this one." He grabbed a bundle of rope out of his bag, tossing the end of it to Brave Arrow and Ping. "When I say ready, pull me up." He dangled the other end into the pit, climbing down. He lightly places his feet in the web, careful not to get wrapped up. After tugging on the body for a second, it was clear that he wasn't going to be able to rip him out with his strength alone. Taking a dagger, he cut the web around the body. Upon freeing it, he slung the body over his shoulder and found his own feet stuck. Stowing the dagger and grabbing his rapier, he was able to cut himself out without much struggle. The second his hands were touching the rope, he shouted.

"Okay, pull me-!" In an instant he was in Ping's arms. The feat of strength seeming to be no challenge for the barbarian at all.

Time was still ticking as the rumbling and scraping hadn't ceased yet. They scrambled to get the body to the front and out the front door. Finally, with it laying next to the body Chancho was in charge of, the party could rest and await what came down the shaft.

They all gathered in the front, waiting to make a break for it if need be. They were sure that enemies would be standing either around or on top of the spider as it remerged from the ceiling, but once the statue itself was visible again, they could see no foes. They let out an annoyed but relived sigh and immediately went back to restart a short rest.

"You know," Damien leaned over to Varen. "Your plan was stupid. The room was still covered in blood and the front door is in pieces thanks to Alzaren's bear battering ram. Only a chinner like yourself would think of a plan so dumb." With that he stormed off back into the common bedroom.

As they all settled down, this time in the same room, the rumbling stopped. Finally it was over. And then it started again six seconds later. It continued for about thirty seconds, and then it stopped again.

"****, we should have waited," Varen swore under his breath.

A minute of agonizing silence passed. Nothing seemed to change. Chancho had his ear pressed up to the door attempting to hear anything through the silence. Then, the rumbling started up again. The party quite annoyed at what they don't understand, Chancho went across the hall to watch the statue alone.

The statue was firmly in the ground, where he was used to it. It started to raise yet again, back towards the ceiling but it was clear this process had just started. He stood with his back leaning on the door, watching. After a couple of seconds, the door on the opposite side of the room opened and two drow warriors stepped in. The three humanoids stared at each other, in utter disbelief of what they were seeing.

Chapter 19: Solving the Elevator

Spoiler Alert!

The drow break the awkward pause first, getting side by side and raising their shields. They march forward towards the intruder of their home. Just a minute before they had found the pile of bodies of their comrades thrown in a pit. They were able to follow the streak marks of the blood that lead from the entranceway down the hall. Chancho, outnumbered two to one, ran back to the common bedroom where his companions had started to rest.

Bursting through the door and slamming it behind him. He pressed his body up against it. "Guys, there's two more."

Damien let out a long annoyed sigh. Varen sheathed his dagger, breaking concentration on it again. "We have to do something!" he agreed.

"Yeah, I have some aggression I want to take out on something," Damien agrees stowing his own magic weapon. "Lead the way."

Chancho, Ping, and Damien sneak around to the back of the room. Their plan was to distract the drow and have Varen sneak around to another entrance and backstab them. However, as they all advance into the entrance hall, the come to a terrifying discovery of disappearing drow. The elevator was raising back towards the ceiling, but there were no drow on top.

"They might be invisible," Varen suggests shyly.

"Alright, everyone stand back." Damien takes fifty feet of rope out of his pack and starts to spin around the room. The rope was long enough to hit the walls of the room. If anything was invisible, the rope would be disturbed. He kept a careful eye out, but did not see the rope disturbed by things that weren't there.

Brave Arrow spends his time looking around at the dried sticky blood covering the floor.

"Based off Chancho's story, the drow came through this door." He points to a fresh pair of footprints in the door. The others would not have noticed as there were many sets of footprints all over the floor. "And Chancho says they marched up to here." He points to the last spot Chancho saw them. "Then they turn and end here." Brave Arrow reaches the front of the spider statue, which was about ten feet off the ground by now.

Varen rushes to the pillar, trying to climb it. It's a sheer wall though, the edges smooth from scraping against the floor to raise. "Ping, give me a boost!" The poison in the barbarians veins saps his strength. Damien watches them struggle, pulling out his grappling hook.

"Here, use this." Varen takes it without a word and quickly throws it, wrapping it around of the spider's leg. He's quickly able to climb up to it. As he gets both of his feet up on the moving alter, a javlin comes soaring up and over the statue. He just stops and stares, watching it arc over the spider, and fly down the other side clattering against the floor.

"They're not up there," Ping confirms running around and picking up his javelin. Varen still approaches carefully, poking his rapier around searching for the invisible drow. He can finally confirm, they aren't up here. But that leaves the party scratching their head. Where could they have disappeared to? They switch their attention to trying to solve the mechanisms of the elevator instead. Clearly, it can be summoned under some condition.

They look around the part of the room the drow had walked through. Chancho investigating the stone nests and eggs on the ground. They're all fimrly cemented into place. Must be something else. Damien looks out for a hidden lever or button, but can confidently say there are none.

They thing back to the riddle before the statue, engraved into the floor. “In order to conquer the seasons above, Lolth must taste your loyalty.”

"So we've already tried smearing blood on the spiders mouth, as well as piercing an arm on its pincers. That hadn't worked." Damien starts.

"And the statue was already rising when the drow weren't in the room. They came through that door," Chancho continues.

"Nothing in the dining hall seemed to be suspicious, other than that food teleporter that we broke," Varen follows up.

"Then there must be some other bloody area that way." Damien walks through the door the drow had come in through and continued up the narrow hallway. He checked each door, reminding himself of the rooms they had visited. Near the back of the castle was the ritualistic room. This had to be it. A basin with remnants of dried blood was on the table, a book of tomes dedicated to Lolth's teachings beside it. A elaborate ritual circle carved into the floor five feet behind the table and an empty fireplace adjacent.

"Here goes nothing." Damien pricks his finger and lets a tiny amount of blood drip into the bowl. A weird chill hits the back of his neck and the base of his head. Very feint, as if there was something more to it that hadn't been unleashed yet. Without another word, he spun around and walked into the center of the circle. Time stopped.

A holy light raised up from the ground and the familiar voice of his newly devoted god spoke.

"Cardinal Damien Blackwell, what is this? Swearing your allegiance to a new goddess already? I'm disappointed."

"Kelemvor, please, I don't know what to do! We've been stuck in this castle for what feels like weeks." He starts to cry, completely overwhelmed.

"Fear not, you're not damned yet, but for a cursed being like yourself this path would be an appropriate punishment. Be careful of the mistress of cruelty, queen of spiders." With that, Damien backs out of the circle and time resumes. He quickly spins and explain what just happened to Ping and Chancho.

"I don't follow a higher being, what happens if I do this." He pricks his finger on the end of one of his javelins. Yet another drop of blood enters the basin. He turns and enters the circle.

Time doesn't stop, but in a single second Ping's brain is overdriven with memories of a life before his warforged body. Something he had no memory to up to this point. Overfilling his brain with an entirely different life, he fell forward, out of the circle and into Damien's arms.

"What happened?" Damien asked, concerned. "This isn't my first body. I...I don't remember."

"I'm not touching this at all," Chancho said backing away to the corner of the room.

Damien focuses in on the other element of the ritual, this empty fireplace. Although, he hadn't noticed until looking in, it wasn't so empty after all. Two specks of purple embers, small enough to be dust, were caught in the hearth. Damien leans in and picks one up.

"Woah, my finger feels funny." Ping suddenly looks at his hand. A strange feeling in his index finger. "Give that to me." Damien puts the speck in the palm of Ping's hand. It slowly starts to creep its way up his palm, up to his index finger, heading for the tiny wound he used to pour a drop of blood into the basin. The tiny purple speck almost acting like mercury.

"Ping, get that off of you! We don't know what it will do." Damien grabs it and throws it back into the fireplace.

"Fine. Let's see what will happen if we add a little more. The book says it wants to make us suffer, right?" Chancho nods his head, able to read a quick excerpt from the book. "Then let's suffer." Ping pierces the palm of his hand with a javelin, a large splatter of warforged blood. Damien, standing near the fireplace, notices a large glob of purple flame, almost like an piece of lit charcoal, form. But there was no heat from it, just a sickening negative energy.

Ping, on the other hand, had a weird feeling in his mind. It raised from the base of his head going over his crown, stopping just at his forehead.

"Do you hear that chittering?" Ping spins around, searching for the sound that plays in his mind. Damien starts to freak out, Ping was descending into madness quickly.

"I think I'm close guys, just a little more blood," he squeezes some more out of his wound. The chittering turns to a soft feminie cackle in his brain. The tingling feeling engulfing his forehead. He takes a step towards the ritual circle. Damien dives across the room, grappling him before it's too late. The demon inside his body yells out for a second as his voice booms and a subtle wind is whipped up around them,"

"Stop!" Damien commands in a voice not quite his own. "This heresy is not the way. She wants to control you, convert you to a monster like these ghouls living in the dark."

The words themselves didn't hit Ping all too hard. The booming voice, however, was familiar. Reminding him of a friend from before, in those memories. It was enough to snap him out of it. The aura of the room calmed down as Damien cured his wound. The clump of energy in the fireplace disappearing with Ping's open wound. The chuckling in his head dying off back to just a tingle on his neck.

"We'll find another way." That's when Brave Arrow walked back in. A thick sticky liquid on his handaxe. He scrapped it off into the bowl.

"Maybe one of her followers has to contribute to the price."

"No, there's something more." Damien takes a second to look back around the room, the pieces all in place. "The one who contributed blood has to step into the circle. Ugh, I'm going to kill that elf. Why did he think it was such a good idea to throw those bodies into the pit!? Ping, come with me we have to get one of those bodies."

They navigated their way back to the pit. A pile of bodies lay inside. Near the end of it, they were piled so high they were almost half way up. Ping dropped down and easily grabbed a body. The poison in his body evaporated while everyone looked around for the mechanism of the elevator. He easily tossed it up and then climbed out of the pit.

Dragging the body back to the room, Ping held the head over the bowl and Damien made a cut in its throat. Not much blood came out, but it seemed to be enough to satisfy the fireplace which emitted a more positive aura. They tossed the body into the center of the circle and suddenly the rumbling of the elevator seemed to shift.

Sure enough, when they went back to check on it, the pillar was descending back into the floor. Finally, they could progress further into the castle.

Chapter 20: A Tactical Regrouping

Spoiler Alert!

The elevator comes to a slow stop, the pedestal and the spider statue about six feet off of the ground. The party had never seen it stop here before. Then, like an elevator, the stone wall of the pillar in front of them began to seamlessly and noiselessly slide open revealing the inside of the pillar hollow. Two drow stood at the ready. The drow had hoped to warn the others, gather reinforcements, but now their only choice was to defend their homes. They rush out, quickly being dispatched by a backstab from Varen, a couple of blows from Chancho's battleaxe, and a crossbow bolt from Damien.

"Well, that takes care of that," Chancho says wiping the blood off his blade.

"I think we should leave to rest," Varen says under his breath.

"Yes," Damien acclaimed much more prominently. "We clearly won't be able to rest here. And with a rest I will be able to learn this magic weapons secrets, as well as recover my magic, but first..." He leans down to the freshly slain drow, severing its hand and part of its forearm with his longsword. "We'll need this for later." The rest of the party who did not observe the ritual stared at him, disgusted.

Their journey back through the sewers was much quicker than their initial trek in. The robotic rats all laid motionless and slain. The labyrinth of tunnels didn't seem as daunting anymore.

They find a nice spot about two miles away from the castle to lay low for the day. Brave Arrow, the two Mohicans, Chancho, and Ping properly respect their two fallen comrades. Damien and Varen learn the secrets of their magic weapons they found in the drows home. Damien had secured a +1 longsword, and Varen had found a lesser death dagger, capable of dealing additional necrotic damage to any it pierces. In addition, there were charges in the weapon that would make the bite of the blade sting even more, but it did not appear the charges would ever be replenished, so Varen would have to use them carefully.

It was soon deep evening, the sun was getting low but not ready to set yet. After a long rest and the relief of seeing the fresh air again, the party headed back towards the castle ready to end this.

The walls were much less forebading now that they knew what lies within them. The front entrance much less scary now that they knew the drow would not want to peak outside in the day. Maybe they wouldn't have to journey back through the sewer.

Damien, now remembering he had a grappling hook, attached it to a rope and handed it over to Varen. Varen had scaled the sides of buildings before, it was always one of the easiest ways to break in. Cresting the top of the wall, he found a courtyard in between the castle and the wall. This wall they've been seeing was nothing more than a barrier around the actual building. Varen found a ladder and climbed down, heading over to the door. Unbarring it and swinging it inward, he takes a step out and looks at the party, bowing in the end.

The party finds the courtyard peaceful, and empty, just like the island outside of its walls. The door to the castle itself looks just as intimidating, if not tougher, than the one to the outer wall. Of course, it was locked and probably barred shut from the inside. Ping steps up taking his maul.

"We have them on the ropes, why not just bust our way in?" Without waiting for an answer he starts to smash the mallet into the reinforced wood. It shutters and lets out a horrible clap, but overall doesn't seem too damaged. He gives it a few more swings. The door was tough, that's for sure, but he could tell that it would eventually shatter.

"They're, uh, probably waiting for us on the other side..." Varen said after a few minutes to not much progress. "We might be able to take them by surprise if we go back through the sewers." The thought of drudging through that disgusting waterway again wasn't the most appealing, but it was ground they knew well enough. They wouldn't be at too much of a disadvantage given their surroundings.

"Wait, shouldn't we at least check the backside of the castle?" Damien suggests. They abandon the front door and immediately head to the back where they find a shed. Opening it up reveals a staircase that heads directly into...the sewers!

"Well, I guess our options are either through here or through the front door," Damien sighs as he starts descending into the rancid smell. Even worse is where Damien realized they were, the room adjacent to the entrance on the other side of the wall. This wasn't much progress at all.

Before he dropped inside, he noticed something that shouldn't be there, a movement. Looking closely, he saw the source was another one of those mechanical rats. It didn't seem to notice him at all at the top of the stairs. One crossbow bolt was able to keep it quiet.

"Bad news, they're expecting us," Damien said turning to the party as they filed in behind him.

"I'll scout ahead," Varen said jumping down into the room and sneaking around the corner. The rats weren't trying to hide, and if Varen found a group of them he would alert the party to quickly dispatch them before they could gather more. Otherwise, any lone rats never saw the rogue sneaking up behind them.

The constructs did very little to slow the party down as they journeyed back up the waterway. Only two times was someone bit before the rat was destroyed, and these constructs were definitely not made for combat. It was a bit strange, the machines didn't seem to want to run away like they had before. Whenever they spotted an intruder, they would go in defense mode attempting to tear them apart with their pointed teeth. The party came across a dozen or so, but their experience was starting to show as most of the rats were killed in a single blow.

Once they fought their way back through the sewers, Varen decided to scout ahead yet again before they just blindly walked at the underground castle. Lucky for the party, it was the right call. A single drow guard stood beyond the broken down door, waiting for someone to turn up the hallway that Varen now peered through. The guard was about fifty feet away from him.

Knowing his mage hand is invisible, Varen decided to pick up and throw some stones around the place, watching for the guards reaction. He hoped the guard would walk forward, into a more advantageous spot where he could be backstabbed. This had the opposite effect however. As stones and pebbles were thrown around, making little clattering noises in front, and to either side of the guard, he became more and more paranoid. Soon he starts slowly backing up. That's when Varen noticed the elevator was primed and ready to ascend, it's door open waiting for someone to head inside and push it's singular button.

"****, this isn't good." Varen turns to the party who were waiting a couple feet back from the corner. "Damien, if this fails you better call back that elevator." Without another second of hesitation, Varen sprints forward, hoping to cut the warrior off before he's able to make it in the elevator. He was too late. The second the drow saw the figure running at him, he ducked inside and mashed the button. The door slid close and the elevator began to rise. Damien roars past Varen like a lightning bolt heading deeper into the castle.

"Wait, we should scout ahead!" Varen chases after him. Chancho and the others get to the rising pillar. If Damien is able to complete the ritual, they would be ready.

Damien's theory wasn't wrong. Even with just the hand and part of the forearm of the drow, he was able to squeeze a tiny amount of blood out. Since it was a drows blood, that's all he needed. He tossed the arm back into the circle and the negative energy from the fireplace shot out and engulfed it. He knew the elevator was coming back down.

Varen and Damien rushed back just in time. The door should be opening any second. Chancho, Damien, Ping, and Varen awaited for it. As it slid open everything seemed to happen at once. Varen and Chancho jumped forward, Varen's dagger going low and Chancho's battleaxe going high. The drow was clearly freaking out, his finger mashing the button hoping to close the doors before it was too late. Damien also jumped in, the door already closing as he had to slip his way inside. As he slid in, he bumped Varen knocking the dagger out of his hand. Chancho's battleaxe, however, still connected. It wasn't enough to kill the drow as it unsheathed his sword and slashed Chancho in retaliation. He could feel the poison work into his system, but he refused to let him knock him out. Another swing with the battleaxe and it was over.

He let out a sigh and pressed the button. The elevator did not stop moving.

"Don't worry, Damien can get it to come back down," Varen assured him.

"No I can't."

Varen turned, startled to see the cleric standing there. He knew someone else had slipped in, but he thought it was Ping who knocked him around as he jumped in.

"DAMIEN! I told you if this fails you better call back the elevator! Why are you in the elevator!"

"I wanted to make sure the drow was dead, I wasn't going to leave it to a chinner. Thank goodness Chancho was here, you're clumsy ass dropped your dagger at the worst time!"

"I dropped my dagger because you bumped into me!" Varen never being this loud before. True anger emanated from him. But that wasn't the only thing emanating in the elevator. A sense of dread hit all of them.

"Um, guys, I think the master of the castle is waiting for us," Chancho said. They knew they wouldn't stand a chance alone, and their friends would be ten minutes behind them, having to wait for the elevators journey.

Meanwhile, on the ground floor...
Ping shook his head, stunned. The elevator door was closed. It was starting to raise again. He took a gathering of his surroundings. Everyone was there except Chancho, Varen, and Damien. Damien must have pushed him out of the way, Ping was supposed to end up in the elevator not Damien. Fear raced through his mind. He had five minutes, no less than that. The elevator would not stop. He had to get his friends out of there.

Maybe he could smash the door down. He gave it one mighty swing with his maul. No use, that was solid stone. It wasn't too far off the ground and he was a tall boy. He jumped up and grabbed the ledge of the alter, pulling himself up next to the spider statue. This appeared to be the only other way up. Then a horrible thought crossed his mind. What if he would be crushed by the ceiling. Ah surely not. The spider statue had to fit, so should he...right? Not taking a chance he grabs a javelin and throws it straight up. He hears it collide with something up in the hole. That's too risky for his liking. The javelin tumbles back down and he grabs it before jumping off the elevator. It's about twelve feet off the ground now. He's in a full panic.

Maybe he can hang on to the side of the pillar. He lodges the same javelin into the stone and hangs on with all his strength. Looking up, he sees the pillar is a perfect fit with the above hole. This is not going to work...but what if he jammed it.

He drops down and runs to a nest of stone eggs. He starts dislodging them. One, two, three. That should be enough. He chucks them up with all his might, attempting to knock the spider statue askew. The precision he needs to do this is immense, and he's unable to think straight in such a mindset. He attempts this until the spider statue was completely engulfed into the hole. That doesn't mean it's the end, however. He still has a few minutes.

He runs down the hall to the hidden pit with dead bodies. He can do the ritual. He already performed it once with Damien, he didn't need to understand religion to do this. He jumped down into the pit, completely slipping on the pile of bodies stacked up and falling down into the web. He didn't have time for this. Ripping his way out of the web, he climbs the pile back up, taking a body off the top and tossing it over the ledge. From there it was not difficult to climb out himself. He rushed back into the ritual room and did everything he remembered doing alongside Damien. It seemed to work as the elevator started up again, but was it too late?

Chapter 21: Lolth's Priest

Spoiler Alert!

Ping waited in agony at the base of the pillar, hoping to see his friends again. He knew the elevator had never stopped moving, that was a good sign, but a small part of him wondered if it truly was too late. To his relief, and the relief of Varen, the elevator opened its door in the underground castle.

As the elevator rose closer and closer to its final destination, Varen, Damien, and Chancho could feel a pit in their stomach. They were convinced the master of the castle awaited them at the top. There was no further point in delaying.

Cramming eight people into the elevator made it quite cramped, but they would need all the fire power they had. Varen, Damien, Chancho, Foog, Ping, Brave Arrow, and the two Mohican's rose. A long and silent five minute ride followed. Varen read the love letter from the elven princess, vowing to return to her. Damien prayed to his god, hoping the strength of his divinity would outshine these heretics. Chancho knew a true test of strength awaited, proving if he would be able to avenge his parents back home.

The ascent began to slow down. With a shudder, the pillar came to a halt. The stone slab slowly slid open revealing a room wreathed in dim light. Purple crystals chained to the wall, illuminating it. A drow in purple robes stood on a balcony nearly one hundred feet in front of them. Two tough looking guards stood at the base of the winding staircases, each leading up one side of the balcony. They wielded whip-like chains. A blue light illuminated from the stone table before the priest. He looked up at the elevator, disappointment across his face as he straightened up. Surely he knew this would happen.

He raised his hand, a small glint in his palm. Damien knew at once what was about to happen. A holy symbol, one dedicated to Lolth. He raised his own in quick response, Kelemvor's blessing roared out of it affecting Brave Arrow, Ping, and Chancho. The people in the front must rush him, break the concentration on his spell, but before they could move a ball of locusts appeared in front of them, It grew rapidly until it engulfed the inside of the elevator. It was like being trapped in a razor sharp snow globe. Piercing specks whipped around them. Not only that, but it was hard to push forward. Even with running as they could, most were just barely able to escape. The other more unfortunate souls against the back wall of the elevator had a harder time pushing out, taking even more damage as a result.

Damien was one of those poor souls. As he rushed out, he heard agonizing screams. The two Mohican's had hardly made it five feet out of the elevator before collapsing, instantly dead. This did not dissuade the cleric. He had to keep pushing forward, for those it was not too late to save.

Breaching the sphere of locusts, a wild site hit the aasamir's eyes. The chain guards had multiplied. No, two had hidden themselves away and had only just revealed themselves. One had it's chain wrapped around Chancho, restraining him. The other three were fighting Varen, Ping, and Brave Arrow in a one on one. Damien was about to tip the scales. Meanwhile the priest stood at the edge of his balcony, silently glaring down and casting crackling bolts of energy down.

With the help of a spectral weapon, Damien cleared the drow off of Varen. The elf proved himself quite useful, unlike his dark skinned brothers. They systematically fought their way closer and closer to the boss. First assisting Brave Arrow, then Ping, and finally turning their attention to Chancho and his aggressor.

As they crowded around the last chain fighter, a haunting but deep voice spoke from the balcony.

"Lolth, show brother Leskah your power." The priest had raised a staff into the air. A solid black bolt of energy erupted down from the ceiling blasting it, like lightning to a copper rod. The priest seemed unaffected as he lowered the staff pointing it at his last warrior. It shot forward, guided towards the amethyst in his necklace. It latched itself onto the gem and began to glow.

"Hurry!" Varen shouted as Chancho slaid the foe. This, however, caused the energy to burst out. A poison gas covered the area around the drow, leaving half the party gasping for fresh air. The drow may be dead, but thanks to Lolth's power he almost took half the party down with him. Chancho in particular was only able to stay on his feet due to his relentless endurance.

When the gas settled, all eyes turned up towards the priest. He had made his way to the top of the right staircase, as if he was about to come down. He halted, however, a little surprised to see the intruders still on their feet.

Varen rushed forward, death dagger in hand. With such a predictable attack, the priest dodged out of the way, but Damien and Chancho used the distraction to heal up the others.

"Insolent fool!" The priest raised his holy symbol and sprayed Varen with a toxic gas. "You may have killed all our followers, but if Lolth has no worshippers I am dead!"

"Then Lolth better prepare to be forgotten." Varen jumped onto the banister and quickly kicked his way behind the priest, the lesser death dagger stinging his skin. The priest let out a hurtful scream, but it was just a stab. Nothing he couldn't handle. That is until the barbarian rushed in behind him, a maul cracking against his spine. It did not take long for the bard and the paladin to follow. The cleric stayed back, casting support and damage towards the tussle, his spectral scythe even joining in on the flank. Even outnumbered and surrounded, the priest kept his cool.

"That's enough!" He again raised his staff to the air and Lolth blessed it with her power again. He lowered it and tapped his own amethyst necklace. The gem began to supercharge with divine energy. This immediately scared off Varen who leapt back behind a pillar.

"What's the worry Varen? He's no where close to death!" Chancho roared. He, and the rest of the party flanking the priest, were under the impression that the amulet only released it's energy upon the owners death. In which case, the priest showed damage but still stood confidently on his feet challenging the party. A few more attacks went his way, until the divine power exploded outwards. Chancho and Foog were shocked, blasted with another wave of godly gas and knocked unconscious. The barbarian, however, didn't hear the bell. He fought on with full fury, rage pouring through his arms and unleashed through his maul. Damien had some serious work to attend to, and he acted quickly.

Rushing up the stairs and laying his hands on Chancho, he was able to stabilize him. Spare the dying did its work on Foog. Chancho, however, was still unconscious until Brave Arrow, the party member he had formed the closest bond to, rushed forward uncorking a potion of healing. With the extra boost, Chancho was able to return to his feet, ready to smite.

Varen decided to stick further away. Rushing behind cover and coming out only to take a pot shot with his bow. The lesser death dagger dealt massive amounts of damage, especially with his teammates so close distracting the boss, but he couldn't risk being caught by a wave of divine energy like the others.

"I've had enough of your ramblings heretic! It's time for you to back down!" Damien roared, a vortex of spirits surrounding him. The priest was caught completely off guard. The radiant guardians passing through him burning his skin with holy energy. Fear hitting him for the first time as his body began to betray his collected composure. That's right, fear! He could use that against them.

Lolth's holy symbol beamed down on the cleric. Before he could react, a red light flashed. Before he could tell what was happening, Damien swears he saw dark blotchy fuzzy balls of shadow be dragged out of his body. Before him a figure was forming, a figure he knew all too well. The fiend from the botched exorcism. The one that had disfigured him, disgraced him. Possessed him partially. He turned to run, frightened of him fully forming. Ping seemed to be fleeing as well, clearly battling with his own demons.

Chancho and Brave Arrow, however, were a team through and through. Comboing off one another and showing the true strength of a reliable axe. The priest was on his last legs. A wicked and hysterical smile crossed his face. The many wounds in his body bled out. Surely Lolth would not abandon him now. If he were to die, she would ensure he takes these nonbelievers with him. Raising his staff one more time, he awaited for her power. An uneasy emptiness came.

No. This wasn't the end. He just needed some more time to pray for her power. Even if he could just take out one filthy surface dweller, the death of his followers would not be in vain. He refused to let Lolth's last follower die like this!

Swiveling on the spot his eyes set on the back door of the balcony. In his throne room he could have a second of peace to pray. He just needed a second. He aimed his focus and a sphere of darkness emerged! It engulfed those who were not frightened.

Those left standing were clueless to what had happened. They were betrayed by the senses. They had become very accustomed to relying on their darkvision in this dimly lit castle, but now blackness glossed over their eyes.

Varen backed up. He had seen the holy symbol raise, this must be nothing more than a spell. Surely the darkness could only go so far. Brushing his way past the stone table where he first saw the priest. He used it as a guide to get him out of the darkness. Sure enough, when he emerged, he saw a sad sight.

The priest pressed his body up against the door. His hand on the handle about to push it open. He looked small and weak, clearly clinging onto his life with the last of his strength. So enshrouded in fear of survival he never saw the rogue sneaking up behind him.

One stab of the lesser death dagger was probably overkill, but after such a hard battle it felt good to let out some aggression. Varen sunk it deep into the priests spine. He let out a gasp of shock, briefly clinging to the door for dear life, before sliding down it. A blood stain following his fallen corpse.

The darkness evaporated. A cheer was raised. Damien and Ping no longer felt the urge to run. Foog was healed and helped to his feet. The wellspring must be near.

They pushed forward into a grand throne room. An inky black abyss below them as they walked across a stone bridge. The throne surrounded by elaborate opaque purple stained glass. The floor itself at the foot of the throne was also purple stained glass. Two staircases on either side of the throne lead downwards, into the castle. Varen's guiding hand showing it to be the true way.

Descending the stairs was strange. It was like they entered a new part of the castle. One not built by the drow. A small room lit only by the sparkling water at the far end. A pedestal with a golden amulet await. The amulet had a complex carving engraved into it.

A circle split into quadrants. The top left containing a snowflake. The top right, a flower. The bottom left a sun, and the bottom right a leaf. The Wellspring of Seasons had been discovered and secured.