Saralas: Session 39

• We are in the underdark
• Resda has extinguished her torch and we are leading her
• We keep moving forward, eventually the passage turns back on itself to the west and comes to a fork.
• One route is partially collapsed, though we could probably try to shift some of the rubble and make it through. The other route appears clear. Saralas thinks not messing around with the semi-collapsed cavern is preferable.
• We continue and find the passages meet up later, and continue on the path. We've only gone about 100 feet through these winding tunnels.
• We continue through the tunnels towards the fungal wastes. We travel for hours and come to a cavern filled with fungus. The ceiling is very high, we can't see the top. Saralas keeps an eye out for Grell.
• He sees ochre jelly, oozing yellow slime blobs. They come toward us. We are in combat.
• These things appear to be immune to fire, though arrows and short swords work. Slashing appears to go straight through them, cutting them apart but not hurting them.
• We dispatch them. Looking around the cavern we can see there are several other oozes that have hidden themselves in nooks and crannies amongst the glowing mushroom.
• We also see there is an exit on the other side of this cavern.
• Karthos seems conflicted as he stares at the corpses of the jellies.
• We continue to move towards the exit. Near the exit we find a skeleton, and an adventurer's pack. The skeleton is picked clean.
• Korag looks in the pack, finding 2 rations, 6 torches, and 125 gold.
• Karthos investigates the mushrooms. Being unsure if they are safe, he declines to pick any, and we move onward.
• We travel several more hours, carefully and quietly.
• We come to another cavern, lit with wild mushrooms, and partially flooded. In most places we can see the bottom of the cave, but in other places we cannot. We can't be certain that nothing is lurking in the water.
• As we investigate the cave, we see the figure of an old human man appear, skipping across the rocks as if he's heading somewhere in quite a hurry.
• We let the man by without calling out to him, and after he's gone make our way through the cavern.
• We make our way into the next cavern, more glowing mushrooms. It's quite beautiful.
• As we are traversing the cave, a sudden warm wind starts blowing through the cavern and our feet become cold. The wind is coming from the west.
• The mushrooms are releasing spores.
• We start moving quickly towards the exit.
• Hot wind increases, feet get icy cold with frost, air is filled with spores, and is getting thick and foggy.
• We drop prone and start crawling. The air is icy cold but clean. I suggest we keep moving.
• Pearl, Korag, and I make it out safely. Karthos and Resda follow but they are coughing. I think they inhaled some of the spores.
• Pearl casts lesser restoration on them.
• We can't really tell what time it is but we are finding ourselves getting tired. Do we want to consider resting? We search for a place we can defend, eventually finding a blind cave with a narrow entrance. The cave is empty, dark, nothing really to see.
• During Korag's watch he hears a snuffling sound from the larger cavern. After about 20 minutes he can't hear the noise any more, whatever it was must have passed us by.
• Our characters know that we shouldn't mess with the water in the underdark, but the map shows a large lake.
• Upon leaving the cavern we notice tracks in the gravel outside the entrance. They appear humanoid.
• Saralas checks the tracks, it looks to be 'normal sized' humanoids between 6 and 12 in number. They appear to have had prisoners or injured with them, as some of the tracks appear quite healthy, others appear like the creatures were shuffling, stumbling, or dragged.
• The tracks lead toward the lake in the direction we need to go.
• We travel for several hours, the tracks in front of us. Eventually we enter into a cavern with the amazing effect that everyone with dark vision loses it. Resda doesn't appear to notice.
• Karthos casts detect magic. As soon as the druid castes it, a huge fireball erupts, doing 9 damage to the entire party.
• Meanwhile Korag checks, there is an edge to the effect. From the edge of the effect we can see into the cavern. Korag tries to detect magic and detects nothing.
• I think, trying to remember if I've heard of this. But not specifically, I just know that in the underdark things happen, all sorts of things.
• We light two torches, shining a beacon that can be seen for a long ways. The light of the torches is unaffected. We cannot tell if we are through it or not because of the light drowning out our vision.
• As we travel, we can see there is a split in the cavern. The tracks go in one direction, but it's not the direction Wodna's map indicates.
• We continue to follow Wodna's map. Our torches go out, it's still pitch black. We light two more. The cavern narrows substantially, and as we step through the narrow area we realize we can once again see in the dark.
• We could head two ways now, one looks narrower, and shorter. A second looks longer but wider with more room to move.
• While we are discussing this we hear a human scream in the distance. We can't easily place where it came from.
• Pearl starts down the smaller path. We follow. Along the way we pass the large cavern, and see a faint glow down that cavern. We pass it by.
• We've entered into a narrow cavern area. We keep moving in the direction of the lake.
• Eventually we come to an area with a bridge over a chasm, maybe 30-40 feet deep. At the bottom is exposed lava. The bridge looks rickety. The lava is glowing.
• I go to inspect the bridge. I see there are lava monsters down in the lava. They do not seem to notice me. The bridge is extremely rickety and looks unsafe. I am at risk of being seen.
• I back off and report what I've seen. We debate what to do.