Out of the Underdark!

1489
Year of the Warrior Princess
Hammer 10 to Hammer 13

Escaping with Riddick, the party stops for a few minutes for a short rest. They have been weaving in and out of hallways avoiding patrols. There is the odd fight once in a while, but they make short work of the Drow. Luckily, most of the armed guards and war priestesses are off in combat against the top-side forces. Ducking into a room to retrieve some of Riddick's possessions, Jax perceives that many of Riddick's vestments are enchanted with traces of conjuration and transmutation magic. The effect is while Riddick remains in the Underdark he is able to be sensed by Lolth's minions. The closer to Drow settlements he is the stronger the magic is. Not only are Riddick's possessions enchanted, but so is Riddick himself! To this the Justicar lays out a daring plan: They will split the party in two, with the Justicar leading a "dummy" force away from Riddick. To aid this, Landon will change clothes with Riddick. Since both are Drow and have a similar builds, he could pass for Riddick at a short distance. Going with the Justicar and Landon are Lucius (who has a very strong friendship wit Landon), and Lief, one of the groups two leaders/healers. This configuration gives both parties their best shots at getting out of the Underdark. The Justicar gives Hannibal an ancient map that leads to a portal not much more than a days long journey from here. This portal was enchanted by members of the Justicar's race long ago and is only know to a few. That you now are trusted by the Justicar to this degree makes you feel good indeed.
You bid each other farewell and the Justicar leads his group away. They are to travel by secret way to Skullport to meet up with Elladon's forces that are rumored to have mustered there after liberating it from the Drow. You head the opposite way down into the sewers. The sewers served you well getting into the temple, now you will try your luck with them leaving the city. Everyone jumps down into a large pipe that empties into the waste system just above the main sewer lines. In this area is a Drow patrol that was sent there to look for you! Neither group is surprised, and during the early part of the fight, Riddick fights as though he is killing Lolth herself! After killing several soldiers and a handmaiden of Lolth, Solomon pulls out a grate leading downward, and Riddick covers up the hole with some trickery, to buy some time.
You travel on for sometime, trying to lose the patrols that are certainly attacking you. Eventually you end up running into a patrol, and a combat ensues are you clear the area of them so you can continue onward. The flame that burned in Riddick's heart before has now gone cold. He is noticeably tired, but his hatred of the Drow compensates him greatly.
You are close to leaving the Drow areas, when you run into what must have been a large fight. There are many Elves and Knights of Corymr that have been slain along with many Drow. There are several Drow left, and they seem to have some prisoners in a deep pit below them. The prisoners look to be wounded and the Drow are enjoying themselves as they throw rocks down trying to injure their captives. As you burst onto the scene, the Drow pull back from the pit and ready their weapons. Some are armed with spears, the rest with short bows. The battle is not as swift as it should be as the Drow use the pit and the bridge it crosses to their advantage. Jax seems to run into problems as he becomes the target of the arches for several rounds. Solomon takes joy in pushing one of the bowmen into the pit, where the prisoners descend upon them. After the combat, you aid the men and surface elves. They tell you that the fight took place here as their team was a large reconnaissance force sent to gather intel and perhaps meet up with your group to aid you. They were stopped here by a drow regiment on its way to the main battle. You tell them your plan and invite them to join you on your escape from the Underdark. Among the survivors is a stout Dwarf who goes by the name of Azten Anlagg. Azten is a servant of Kelemvor, and was sent by the priests of that church to aid the armies against the drow. Azten is also an expert in the Underdark, rivaling even the knowledge of the Justicar.
After several hours, you come to a very isolated and creepy place, even for Underdark standards. The group moves cautiously to the back of the cave and come upon the inhabitants here, two Hookhorrors and a Beholder! They look to be playing with some drow corpses, when the Beholder espies you. He shouts: "Come join the fun! These Drow fools tried to take me on and lost, will your luck be better?" Hannibal expresses gave concern about the forces arrayed before his party. Solomon tells him to grow a pair as he leaps into combat! Krux also seems to be filled with a blood rage, and against all wisdom, he rushes past the hookhorrors and directly attacks the beholder! The rest of the party then mobilizes to support the front lines. The elven gods must have been gracing the party at this point as none of monsters could land a blow! Once they figured out how to combat the group it was too late! Thanks to Solomon and Krux, the monsters have been defeated.
Jax examines the portal and senses that it is safe to use. They travel through it and land close to Neverwinter! Out of the Underdark at last! Jax uses some of his contacts to get hold of a teleportation circle that takes you to the wizard's college in Waterdeep.
One thing you have noticed is that many able bodied men are missing, gone to fight the Drow with Ellanzo and the Army of the Sword Coast. Crime in around the large cities as well as the countryside has increased but order still prevails for now. Walton Barrue, Lord of the Mercchants Ward, is trying to make political hay over this to weaken Ellanzo politically.
Also of concern is that Hannibal's Rod of the Guardian went off while he was in the Underdark. The rod was given to you by the King of Cormyr as a gift when you departed his land several months ago. The rod has three parts. Any one part can be used to alert owners of the other two that something bad has befallen. Leif, Hannibal and Brolgar each carry one part. The part that went off was one possessed by Brolgar. He was traveling with Elladon's army. The message that came to Hannibal was: "Ambushed at Skullport, Drow army here, numbers are immense. We are trapped. We are trying to escape with Ellanzo while his army buys us some..."
After a few days, the elves and men of Cormyr leave for their homelands after thanking you for saving them. Azten sees that your numbers have been diminished by the group split in Menzoberranzan, and is willing to aid your efforts against the enemies of order until some of your members return. You welcome the aid.


Exp. Gained: 2755

Into Menzoberranzan

1489
Year of the Warrior Princess
Hammer 10

The Justicar leads you to the outskirts of Menzoberranzan where you need to decide where to go from here. Several opinions have been discussed such as climbing up the tall slopes outside the city to recon it or just walking right into the city dressed as merchants of some sort. Hannibal pointed out that they have no wagon and nothing to sell, so that idea was scrapped. At last it is decided to travel underneath the city by way of the sewers. Landon it turns out was sent down to the sewers many times as punishment, so he knows his way around a bit. Climbing up into a pipe filled with Drow sewage tests the will of the party, but everyone makes it. Some are feces drenched such as Lucius, other like Brother Krux manage to leap up and about so only small smudges can be seen on his royal githzerai robes.
Inside the pipes the party moves on for an hour or so and then come upon an isolated band of Duergar, or dark dwarves. They turned out to be slaves that were tasked with the maintenance of some of the sewer routes. Hostile at first, Lucius and Hannibal were able to come to terms, and even barter for some directions. The key was Lief, who bound and healed some of the wounded so they could escape and not slow down the Duergar as they fled. The leader of the band told Leif he was owed a blood debt by the Duergar clan.
Using the information from the dwarves, the party locates and breaks into the bowels of Lolth's temple. All is eerily quiet, it seems that most of the temple staff are either assigned to Drow war bands or preparing for the ritual that the group must save Riddick from being sacrificed. Sneaking up several levels they use an old artifact of the Justicars to walk around silently. They move about the temple for a good distance when the heroes encounter 4 Drow guards outside a room patrolling it along with a giant spider! A silent combat ensues with Hannibal giving hand signals to everyone during the fight. They win though the guards and open up the room finding what appears to be a wizened, and dead Riddick on the floor. Surrounding him are 4 Drow hand maidens of Lolth! Another silent battle erupts and the party spills the Drow blood freely on the floor. After the combat they examine Riddick to find that the Drow was actually Riddick's father, Malaggar! He is dead, but they shove him in a magical bag that is large enough to hold the body until they can get him to a healer.
The only direction left is up, so the group ascends some stairs and peek around a corner to see a long hallway. In this hallway are many slaves, heads dropped in servitude, as they stand next to the walls to do the bidding of the Drow clergy. Past the hallway is a balcony, where they can see Riddick suspended on some type of device! They form a plan: Jax is going to summon Phantom Steeds, and they will use the steeds to ride past the hallway, onto the balcony, free Riddick, and fly on to safety! Unfortunately, Jax mumbles the last few of the words of the ritual, and the Phantom Steeds are less then stellar. However, that does not stop the group, and they charge down the hallway! Taking extreme delight in the ride is Solomon, who sticks out his mightly blade as he rides, ending the lives of many miserable slaves to Lolth. Once out on the balcony, the party battles with two very tough priestesses above a large courtyard filled with frenzied Drow. During the fight the priestesses of Lolth call on her for aid, but she cannot deliver it, as she is in a dreadful combat with Corellon Larethian, the primary god of all good aligned elves. The heroes view the armies clashing though a portal the Lolth tried to use to come back and aid the priestesses. The deities were fighting above their respective armies, with some lesser Elven demi-gods fighting against large demons from Abyss. Surrounding them were Elves of all allegiances, and leading the elves of Myth Drannor was Elladon, his knights wearing the colors of silver and blue, his banner waving the breeze, and covered with the blood of many foes. The vision ended quickly and they were back to fighting the clerics of Lolth. Jax and Leif were called in to remove Riddick from the foul device he was attached to. After many rounds they were able to free Riddick, slay the clerics and make their way back through the temple in all of the mass confusion. It would only be a matter of time before order was restored and they were hunted. The party ran for several minutes, and then barred a door behind them. They were close to the sewers when Riddick was finally roused. He looked around and was astonished to find his friends there! He thinks he knows about where the party is inside the temple. He asks them to make a quick stop for his gear then then they can flee the temple area. The party will need to quickly decide if this delay will be worth it or not. As they quietly and quickly discuss it, horns are heard above them and below them.


Exp. Gained: 4028