Previous Next

Secret Tunnel, Secret Tunnel

Last week, the party began their long trek down the mountain. Cayosin and Shanky began their trek with new eyes - or rather, with an absence of eyes, having offered them to Regina along with their souls. They dark and terrible powers1 they received in exchange for their pact helped soothe the lingering pain in the empty holes where their eyes used to be. Only slightly unnerved, the party followed the tunnel dug2 by the Unnamed Monk. It led most of the way down the mountain, nimbly dodging all manner of obstacles on the surface.

Before the party could reach Undermountain3, their progress was interrupted by a dense net of webs that blocked the tunnel. They immediately set the webs on fire, which cleared them away quickly. However, as they moved further into the tunnel where the webs used to be, they were surprised to find webs magically regrowing behind them. Their progress was halted again when the floor of the tunnel simply stopped existing, and was replaced with even more webbing. With Aedan's tremorsense, augmented by clearing away more webs with fire, they could make out the outlines of a deep pit in the middle of the tunnel, which resumed on the other side. At the center of the pit, a strange, densely twisted mass of webbing lurked ominously. The more mobile members of the party made their way to the other side of the pit, triggering the strange mass of webbing to climb up to attack. Lester recognized it as a living spell, a strange creature borne of wayward magic and animated with a semblance of life.

The party was split up across the pit, but they worked together to drive back the living spell without undue damage. However, with its metaphorical dying breath, it collapsed the tunnel ceiling. The party reacted quickly4, and managed to run away from the pit to avoid being trapped and crushed. Their rapid escape led to a quandary, however - half the party was on each side of a massive pile of rubble. This proved to be no issue at all when Aedan teleported through the rock, stuffed half the party into a Bag of Holding, and teleported back with the bag. Reunited5, they continued down the tunnel.

After a further period of travelling, the party noticed the air was getting extraordinarily hot, and the tunnel ahead seemed to have a strange orange glow, revealing at last that Mount Derenor was secretly a volcano. Ahead, the tunnel expanded into a vast room that gave off an incredible heat, preventing most of the party from safely traversing it. Ione and Brand, protected by their resistance to fire, went on ahead to scout out the room. They found a vast underground pocket of magma, with a magically reinforced bridge arching over the pool to connect to the tunnel on the other side. The room was about a thousand feet across, which posed some difficulty for the whole party to traverse the passage.

After some discussion, the party decided to have each member cross one at a time, escorted by Brand and Ione. Ione's healing would allow everyone to stay safe as they crossed. Aedan was the first to cross, but as the three started making their way over the bridge, the magma parted to reveal a vast, monstrous head watching them. The head was swiftly followed by a titanic arm that swept across the bridge, knocking all three off of the bridge. Fortunately, Brand and Ione could fly, so they were totally unharmed. Aedan could teleport, so he was only engulfed in magma briefly, which could be much worse. All three returned to the party so they could figure out how to get past the colossal creature together...

  1. Seeing better, talking better, and eye lasers.
  2. For a generous definition of "dug", since the monk's method to construct the tunnel was to punch rock until it broke.
  3. As a reminder, Undermountain is the name of the nation ruled by King Garrun Ironforger, the least disputed King of the Mountain.
  4. In game, at least. Out of game, there was a surprising amount of discussion before the "get as far away from the collapsing tunnel" plan was agreed upon.
  5. And relieved to have definitive proof that Aedan wouldn't betray the party once he had half of them under his complete control, presumably.
Cayosin Ione Aedan Craggles Lester Shanky Taito Brand
Previous Next