The crew dented and broke up some flying cutlery & cookware in an abandoned kitchen, raided a wizard's bedchamber for some blank books, and then—following Halleth's lead toward one of the 4 "Fine Fellows of Daggerford" adventurers that murdered him on the floor above—cleared out a slavery operation run by Yek the Tall, saving 8 humans and half-elves. D-Con removed Yek's Circlet of Human Perfection, revealing that Yek was actually a goblin. The treacherous miscreant had lied to us about keeping slaves. I stove his head nearly in with the haft of my axe and left him to the bugbear's entertainment for justice. We do not abide depriving peacable humanoids of their right to be free.

The freed men and women were healed and fed (wish I could cast goodberry), then escorted back to the lift up to the Yawning Portal. We're keeping the priesthood that patronizes the place quite busy with basilisk-victim depetrifying and fattening up starved slaves and the like.
The adventurer Copper Stormforge (NE male shield dwarf scout), formerly of the Fine Fellows of Daggerford did not fare as well and perished while in the torture devices of Yek the Tall. Technically. Cause of death: pissed-off revenant's holy justice.

Our ecletic crew continued to explore the Arcane Chambers of the second level, finding a lot of trash, but also a mage named Rizzeryl (NE drow mage, male and of no house.) & quasit familiar (that I split in twain like all demons should be), a pack of wererats (don't look at me, I want'd to put them all down. 'Twas Geran that insisted on removing the curse on the trio caught in his hypnotic pattern.), but also some half dozen rust monsters, and a zombified beholder.

Destroyed the nests of three Manticores, the Troll used to feed them, and uncovered a lot of dead adventurers. 11 of them got stoned by a basilisk, so we sent a map and word with a Tormite priest to find them some help. Took a bath and a good night's sleep in the Yawning Portal before we moved to the second level.

Second level so far was a shady goblin market for "found items" that fell off of a cart. It's run by Yek the Tall, a goblin that used a magic doodad to turn himself human. Yek's a bully; rules with bugbear hired muscle and fear. I don't like him, but he's not a fan of the Xanathar and he's neutral to Bregan d'Arthe. Might be a good place to unload found items. I'll include this intelligence in my report to the Bregan d'Arthe intelligence officer.

Halleth says we're getting closer to the adventurers that murdered him and threw him in that pit. That is going to be an interesting conversation based on that pulverizing Hal gave that worm on the 1st level. Note to Self: mind the splash zone next time.

Sold a lot of our salvage at market. Purchased a poisoner's kit (-50g), vial of alchemist's fire (-50g) (troll repellent), and most of a burglar's pack (-11g) to expand our denied entry and countermeasure options. Worst case, I can use the ball bearings for shot in the company-issued handgonne. Similar calibre. I think.
Long Rest, Blessing of Corellon d100= [[97]] Dani remains female

The shopkeeper is an oni. What the hell? Thankfully, Geran decided to respond to this new threat by casting greater invisibility on Dani and then retreating to shoot from cover. Between D-Con's defensive magics and Dani being invisible, the oni never scored a wound on either of them before they destroyed it. Geran and Tigre talked our way out of the mess with the hobgoblin captain of the watch, who didn't take kindly to one of the bugbears feeding goblin children to an oni.

As we began to hunt through lower Skullport looking for a trail to follow the IronEye clan and retrieve Azrok's dagger, we ended up in a tavern brawl with a deurgar and spectator that work for the fish (Xanathatr's guild) and as we emerged from the back door of the Black Tankard, we were accosted by a dozen Thayan warriors. We neutralized them and continued out of Skullport until we regrouped on the edge of town and prepped to descend to the 4th level.

It's your standard evening of dungeoneering. a half dozen gricks, Halleth the Revenant killed one of the guys that killed him, carved up a flesh golem and bandits and a chopped down an animated statue of a sauhagin holding a box with a withered heart just before acid fell from the ceiling and melted it. That's all standard stuff right?

Oh and D-Con decided to sit in every throne or chair he saw. One dropped a magic wand on his head. Another dropped like 100 skulls into the room. Couple others were just old chairs. He got crossways with some kind of bad juju elder rune, but was able to decurse himself like right away. I guess the rune should've been a "Keep out" sign cause there are three hungry manticores sitting on the other side. Sheesh. On the bright side, we did find a couple handfuls of coin, a half dozen semi-precious gemstones, and some disguise kits that are in resale condition. It's not a vast fortune, but it will pay rent!

Descending into the fourth level, we encounter a pair of ettin and a tunnel of piercers. We meet a mad human calling themselves The Alchemist. They offer us potions of their invention in exchange for materials gathered from elsewhere in Undermountain and a warning about drow posted to the east.
The party avoids a conflict with a number of Xorn and close in on this remaining force from House Aruvyndar when we encounter a room with a half dozen ropers.

Long Rest; Blessing of Corellon d100 = [[09]]. Dani wakes up male.

More mop up duty. A room with a cold rune and nothing else within. Put down a zombified beholder and a Xanathar Guild-run pit fighting ring. They didn't have two coppers on the lot of them. Guess they were betting for chores.

A hallway full of petrified statues, one of which was a damn mind flayer and D-Con went and woke it up. It messed with my head something awful, but never got close enough to really do more than give me the nastiest stun I've had in ages. A bunch of other unfortunate souls were reverted back from stone. Some goats, a wererat, two Bregan D'arthe junior operatives. So green behind the ears they were still carrying their equipment from Menzobarrenzan. Oh also restored a pretty tough lizardman and an orc warband leader that looked like he knew the score.

We got them back to the Yawning Portal and connected with folks from around the city that could help get them home. Did you know there's four or five orc or half-orcish shaman in Waterdeep? There are even some merchants that have frequent trade with the lizardfolk from up near the Saltmarshes. This city is full of interesting characters.
Long Rest; Blessing of Corellon d100=[[17]] Dani wakes up Male.

So. many. kobolds. How do they all fit in such tiny rooms. It's like they never end. We finished camping 3 hours ago and we already are headed back to fortify and sleep. Didn't even find any coin or salvage. Definitely not our best day.

Tahn'kai found his way back to the surface and took off. Where to, he didn't say. No note or anything.
On our way to the stairs to the third level, we came across a fellow in a different armor design. Glowing blue lights on this one. Calls himself Gizmo. No magic spears for this guy; he shoots lightning out of his hands. Maybe I should put these reports in a book called "That's Not Something I've Seen Before." Volo's probably already used that title.

As for the third level, the first three rooms were an unremarkable catacomb, some tunnels, and a dead end with some rot trolls and a pack of grick with a grick alpha. I mean I'd never seen leperous trolls that spread disease, but I'm not a troll doctor either.

A little further in, we found and took down a room of quaggoth and a quaggoth thonot, which is some kind of psionic quaggoth? He had a few nifty tricks, but D-Con figured him out just in time.

The new guy—Gizmo—was holding rear guard with Phash and signalled something was moving in the tunnels to his southeast. Turns out it was a draegloth. It was fast, mean, big as an ogre, with four arms and a lot of legs. Talk about your Underdark horror stories that I would've been happier thinking were just made up. All the benefits of a daemon, lots of the benefits of drow, and they do not go down without a real fight.
We got one killed before the other two could close the distance, but it takes some doing to put a pair of them down.

Close combat with several drider, a number of phase spiders, and a whole hallway of quaggoth. Nothing of note to report.

Discovered a dozen or so Drow all of one House (House symbol not identified yet) had desecrated a temple to Dumathoin and using it as a temple to the Spider Queen. This was obviously the source of all of the driders and who the quaggoths and phase spiders were protecting. The priestess, mage, and house captain evacuated via teleportation magic, but we cleared the rest of them, including the yochlol she summoned.

After resting we searched the nearby areas, finding a vein of pyrite along with some chunks of ore in one of the Quaggoth rooms and the house drow elites had some weapons in good enough condition for resale.
We unfortunately also found 4 prisoners who were likely killed in their cells while we were in the combat in the next room. We did find Myra Moonshadow, a sun elf wizard locked in another room, but uninjured. She seems a little too interested in the ancient history of the drow's flight into the Underdark. Geran and Aidan are unnerved by her. I'll stay wary too.
Long Rest; Blessing of Corellon d100 = [[43]]. Dani wakes up male.

The crew pushes in to cut down the Auvrandyr drow priestess of the spider queen, slaying several of her drow retainers and capturing the house captain of her guard in the process. Dani thought leaving the traitorous Marta Moonshadow caged was no bother to Dani, but Geran and the others insisted on trussing her up and taking her with the other prisoners.

While clearing the remainder of the abandoned dwarven buildings where Auvrandyr had made camp for the invasion of Skullport, we discovered a strange room with some kind of magic fish on the wall. Geran solved the puzzle and collected a Elemental gem (emerald / water). In yet another building, we freed a captured drider (who has happily joined us since we have already accepted Norreed into our company) and a drow cook named Rizryn. Now that he is houseless (and seeing his two compatriots die quickly when they attacked D-Con), the cook decided signing on with Bregan D'arthe sounded like a great idea.

Bringing our coterie of followers and prisoners of war, we continued water walking down the Sargauth River, courtesy of Aiden's ritual magic, when we discovered three middle-sized ships full of Zhentarim Thugs and Zhentarim Martial Arts Adepts attacking Skull Island, a section of Skullport held by the Xanathar's Guild's Thugs.
Enemy of our Enemy and all, we chose to take down the ships rather than allow the Xanathar's Guild a stronger presence in the town.

At last count, one boat was burning within a wall of flame, another had begun to spew keelboats full of Zhent thugs to attack us, with some faerie fired and others incapacitated from Geran's hypnotic pattern, while a trio of other thugs were dealing with Aiden in Giant Octopus wild shape. Things are not looking good for the Zhent's assault, despite one ship's worth of keelboats landing on the shore and readying to assault the fortress wall.
Gained 1 potion of healing

The group finishes a rest and moves deeper into the next caverns, where they discover swarms of kobolds, including some turned to vampire spawn. A long and tiring fight ensues.

Vampire sapped my strength and stamina, leaving me gassed for the rest of the day. Halleth, Geran, and Aiden extracted me from some of the worst of it. Nasty close quarters scrap with undead. Surprised we took no casualties.
Long Rest, Blessing of Corellon d100 = [[64]]. Dani remains Female

After the evening's rest in the secured cove of the late sea hag coven, we embarked down the River Sargauth towards Skullport. Some avaricious ghosts of treasure hunters swarmed us, which was not an issue until one of them possessesd D-con temporarily. That was a bit more hassle. In the chaos, the sun elf mage Marta Moonshadow ran off. Based on the three House Auvrandyr drow guards we found looking to ambush us where she left the river, we can only assume she is now with them. We took two of those guards prisoner and will add them to those we plan to turn over to Bregan d'Arthe's lieutenants.

Aidan began to follow the trail of prints the Auvrandyr pair and the mage left, which brought us into the southern edge of the space where Auvrandyr has begun mustering troops for the invasion of Skullport. Marta was walking under her own power, but it's unclear if she was a spy, captive, or both.
We've cleared a half dozen giant spiders set as sentries and exterminated two handfuls of troglodytes stationed to lie in wait. Danifae is covering D-con's flanks from Trogs and spiders while he used Haste and a Steel Wind Strike to cut down two squads of Auvrandyr troops in seconds. He is efficient when he is determined. The patrol's officer is a bit tougher, but still didn't last a core of seconds in a duel.

One of the more interesting evenings we had on the first few levels of Undermountain. Geran's Hypnotic Pattern put 3 of 5 Barlguras into a stupor, allowing us to focus on one of the demons and destroy them without taking much in the way of injuries. In a chest that was rigged up and hidden in the ceiling, we found a modest treasure in coin and valuables hidden by the pirate captain the riddle downstream mentioned. The Captain was a mouldering skeleton, so we're going to keep an eye on his legacy for him.

Down stream, we discovered a coven of Sea Hags. All three were civil, even if they did not extend the gifts of Hospitality, but we shortly learned that they had been predictably deceptive in their true answers. They had not eaten a humanoid in quite some time as they'd sworn, but we did find a young lad of about twelve, Devlin Stormshore, chained up in a room they obviously used as a larder. There was a nasty, foul-mouthed and poorly-mannered little goblin there. I didn't catch his name, because he resumed hurling verbal abuse and casual cruelty at the lad Devlin and Aidan of all people executed the mean little creature on the spot. Imolated him while the little bastard was manacled to the wall. I didn't know he had it in him.

The hags came rushing in behind with their pet giant crab familiars, obviously intent on preventing our emancipating the boy. Another Fantastically timed Hypnotic Pattern from Geran and we were able to destroy them one at a time with great ease. They'd amassed another modest collection of treasure, though guarded by the figurehead of a ship that screamed bloody murder at us for taking it. The coins and gems seem just fine.

Gained 1 potion of water breathing
Long Rest; Blessing of Corellon d100 = [[37]]. Dani wakes up male.

Cleared out bandits, bugbears, goblins, grells, a trio of brain puppies, and similar nuisance monsters. Personal effects indicate a number of the goblinoids were employed by the Xanathar. Recovered a passcode for a Xanathar Shield Guardian at the Stairs access to 2nd level. Passcode is "Sylgar." The name of his goldfish? Everyone knows that.

D-Con and Dani allied our group with a revenant of Halleth Garke. Friar Garke was a 5th level priest of Waukeen, but was betrayed by a fairly amatuer adventuring party. Stole his holy symbol and weapons, broke his limbs, and pushed him into an abandoned well. Unprofessionally grisly, cruel, and left behind one very pissed off loose end. Halleth has been a huge help as rearguard, sentry, and protecting our flanks.

Approaching Skullport, the party encounters an invasion by Zhentarim thugs and martial artists against Skull Island, the harbor defenses of Skullport. Aided by Aidan & D-Con's waterwalking, we surprised the invaders, taking many of them hostage. They were turned over to Bregan d'Arthe aborad Jarlaxle's ship.

After dropping off the prisoners of war and reconnecting the three bregan d'arthe members recovered to the garrison around SKullport, we resupplied and recuperated a short while before moving back into the caves.
Purchased a Shield from the Bregan d'arthe armory. (-10g)

Cleaned out a chimera nest, recovering a small pile of coin. Encountered the posted guards of the hobgoblin Legion of Azrok. His captain and partner, Lurana, promised 1,000gp and free passage through their desmense if we hunt down duergar thieves of Clan Ironeye who stole Azrok's dagger of blindsight. They were last seen stopping in for resupply at a tavern called The Black Tankard before heading deeper into Undermountain.
The next morning, the party shops at the "Gob Gobbler" the trading post for the Legion of Azrok. D-Con and Geran note that the proprieter, Kinrob, received a delivered parcel. Geran figured out that the bundle was an infant goblinoid. D-con and Aidan spirited the bundle away, but the shopkeeper noted the missing lunch parcel and confronted Geran & Dani as he shapechanges back into his true form as an oni!
Long Rest; Blessing of Corellon d100 = [[82]]. Dani wakes up female.

We cleared out a House Auvrandyr torture center / pleasure room adjacent to where the priestess was performing her sacrifices, taking two females of House Auvrandyr prisoner. Their gear is forfeit as is those of their family and warriors that we killed. Both women gave us information to secure their safe-conduct to Skullport and being ransomed rather than executed.
We learned that there is a sea hag coven on this level and that House A intends to invade Skullport. We'll need to reduce their forces further to prevent the attack giving Bregan d'Arthe a fourth front to fight on in Skullport. Moving on, we then cleared Driders from a hallway, one who dropped Dani into unconciousness for a few seconds. They hit hard. Where this tunnel intersects the river, we found a puzzle scratched into the rock. It indicates if we walk up the Saurgath River, we can find pirate treasure, but downstream is Skullport.

Heading northeast, we have discovered a small tunnel where a ritual summoning was performed. Several Barlgura guard the treasure. We moved in to engage them.

This place is a maze and I feel like we definitely have been through this room once already. I'm going to have to map this out. Spent a lot of time killing things that I thought we'd killed before, but maybe there's just a LOT of them.

Past the hallway of ropers, the party meets Darribeth Meltimer, a Chondathan mage. After a short discussion, it becomes clear she has been down here too long and has become a little bit mad, discussing everything with her toad. Aidan and DCon begin to suspect the toad familiar is not what it seems. DCon destroys the quasit-in-toad-shape with a burst of magic missiles. Though this traumatises the poor mage a bit, it does allow the party to convince her to return to the surface. A visit to the Hospice of St. Laupinn, a temple of Ilmater, and a donation from DCon provides a greater restoration for Danibeth, restoring her sanity.
Dani sponsors Daribeth's coach fare back to Amphail to find her wife and Daribeth gifts Dani a rope of climbing in return.

Returning to the caverns we prowl through until we are ambushed by a pair of House Aryvndar sentries and a number of quaggoth. The sentries make good use of their innate spells, but we win through, moving in to destroy the outpost on the other side.

Long Rest; Blessing of Corellon d100 = [[10]]. Dani wakes up male.

The crew dented and broke up some flying cutlery & cookware in an abandoned kitchen, raided a wizard's bedchamber for some blank books, and then—following Halleth's lead toward one of the 4 "Fine Fellows of Daggerford" adventurers that murdered him on the floor above—cleared out a slavery operation run by Yek the Tall, saving 8 humans and half-elves. D-Con removed Yek's Circlet of Human Perfection, revealing that Yek was actually a goblin. The treacherous miscreant had lied to us about keeping slaves. I stove his head nearly in with the haft of my axe and left him to the bugbear's entertainment for justice. We do not abide depriving peacable humanoids of their right to be free.

The freed men and women were healed and fed (wish I could cast goodberry), then escorted back to the lift up to the Yawning Portal. We're keeping the priesthood that patronizes the place quite busy with basilisk-victim depetrifying and fattening up starved slaves and the like.
The adventurer Copper Stormforge (NE male shield dwarf scout), formerly of the Fine Fellows of Daggerford did not fare as well and perished while in the torture devices of Yek the Tall. Technically. Cause of death: pissed-off revenant's holy justice.

Our ecletic crew continued to explore the Arcane Chambers of the second level, finding a lot of trash, but also a mage named Rizzeryl (NE drow mage, male and of no house.) & quasit familiar (that I split in twain like all demons should be), a pack of wererats (don't look at me, I want'd to put them all down. 'Twas Geran that insisted on removing the curse on the trio caught in his hypnotic pattern.), but also some half dozen rust monsters, and a zombified beholder.

Destroyed the nests of three Manticores, the Troll used to feed them, and uncovered a lot of dead adventurers. 11 of them got stoned by a basilisk, so we sent a map and word with a Tormite priest to find them some help. Took a bath and a good night's sleep in the Yawning Portal before we moved to the second level.

Second level so far was a shady goblin market for "found items" that fell off of a cart. It's run by Yek the Tall, a goblin that used a magic doodad to turn himself human. Yek's a bully; rules with bugbear hired muscle and fear. I don't like him, but he's not a fan of the Xanathar and he's neutral to Bregan d'Arthe. Might be a good place to unload found items. I'll include this intelligence in my report to the Bregan d'Arthe intelligence officer.

Halleth says we're getting closer to the adventurers that murdered him and threw him in that pit. That is going to be an interesting conversation based on that pulverizing Hal gave that worm on the 1st level. Note to Self: mind the splash zone next time.

Sold a lot of our salvage at market. Purchased a poisoner's kit (-50g), vial of alchemist's fire (-50g) (troll repellent), and most of a burglar's pack (-11g) to expand our denied entry and countermeasure options. Worst case, I can use the ball bearings for shot in the company-issued handgonne. Similar calibre. I think.
Long Rest, Blessing of Corellon d100= [[97]] Dani remains female

The shopkeeper is an oni. What the hell? Thankfully, Geran decided to respond to this new threat by casting greater invisibility on Dani and then retreating to shoot from cover. Between D-Con's defensive magics and Dani being invisible, the oni never scored a wound on either of them before they destroyed it. Geran and Tigre talked our way out of the mess with the hobgoblin captain of the watch, who didn't take kindly to one of the bugbears feeding goblin children to an oni.

As we began to hunt through lower Skullport looking for a trail to follow the IronEye clan and retrieve Azrok's dagger, we ended up in a tavern brawl with a deurgar and spectator that work for the fish (Xanathatr's guild) and as we emerged from the back door of the Black Tankard, we were accosted by a dozen Thayan warriors. We neutralized them and continued out of Skullport until we regrouped on the edge of town and prepped to descend to the 4th level.

It's your standard evening of dungeoneering. a half dozen gricks, Halleth the Revenant killed one of the guys that killed him, carved up a flesh golem and bandits and a chopped down an animated statue of a sauhagin holding a box with a withered heart just before acid fell from the ceiling and melted it. That's all standard stuff right?

Oh and D-Con decided to sit in every throne or chair he saw. One dropped a magic wand on his head. Another dropped like 100 skulls into the room. Couple others were just old chairs. He got crossways with some kind of bad juju elder rune, but was able to decurse himself like right away. I guess the rune should've been a "Keep out" sign cause there are three hungry manticores sitting on the other side. Sheesh. On the bright side, we did find a couple handfuls of coin, a half dozen semi-precious gemstones, and some disguise kits that are in resale condition. It's not a vast fortune, but it will pay rent!

Descending into the fourth level, we encounter a pair of ettin and a tunnel of piercers. We meet a mad human calling themselves The Alchemist. They offer us potions of their invention in exchange for materials gathered from elsewhere in Undermountain and a warning about drow posted to the east.
The party avoids a conflict with a number of Xorn and close in on this remaining force from House Aruvyndar when we encounter a room with a half dozen ropers.

Long Rest; Blessing of Corellon d100 = [[09]]. Dani wakes up male.

More mop up duty. A room with a cold rune and nothing else within. Put down a zombified beholder and a Xanathar Guild-run pit fighting ring. They didn't have two coppers on the lot of them. Guess they were betting for chores.

A hallway full of petrified statues, one of which was a damn mind flayer and D-Con went and woke it up. It messed with my head something awful, but never got close enough to really do more than give me the nastiest stun I've had in ages. A bunch of other unfortunate souls were reverted back from stone. Some goats, a wererat, two Bregan D'arthe junior operatives. So green behind the ears they were still carrying their equipment from Menzobarrenzan. Oh also restored a pretty tough lizardman and an orc warband leader that looked like he knew the score.

We got them back to the Yawning Portal and connected with folks from around the city that could help get them home. Did you know there's four or five orc or half-orcish shaman in Waterdeep? There are even some merchants that have frequent trade with the lizardfolk from up near the Saltmarshes. This city is full of interesting characters.
Long Rest; Blessing of Corellon d100=[[17]] Dani wakes up Male.

So. many. kobolds. How do they all fit in such tiny rooms. It's like they never end. We finished camping 3 hours ago and we already are headed back to fortify and sleep. Didn't even find any coin or salvage. Definitely not our best day.

Tahn'kai found his way back to the surface and took off. Where to, he didn't say. No note or anything.
On our way to the stairs to the third level, we came across a fellow in a different armor design. Glowing blue lights on this one. Calls himself Gizmo. No magic spears for this guy; he shoots lightning out of his hands. Maybe I should put these reports in a book called "That's Not Something I've Seen Before." Volo's probably already used that title.

As for the third level, the first three rooms were an unremarkable catacomb, some tunnels, and a dead end with some rot trolls and a pack of grick with a grick alpha. I mean I'd never seen leperous trolls that spread disease, but I'm not a troll doctor either.

A little further in, we found and took down a room of quaggoth and a quaggoth thonot, which is some kind of psionic quaggoth? He had a few nifty tricks, but D-Con figured him out just in time.

The new guy—Gizmo—was holding rear guard with Phash and signalled something was moving in the tunnels to his southeast. Turns out it was a draegloth. It was fast, mean, big as an ogre, with four arms and a lot of legs. Talk about your Underdark horror stories that I would've been happier thinking were just made up. All the benefits of a daemon, lots of the benefits of drow, and they do not go down without a real fight.
We got one killed before the other two could close the distance, but it takes some doing to put a pair of them down.

Close combat with several drider, a number of phase spiders, and a whole hallway of quaggoth. Nothing of note to report.

Discovered a dozen or so Drow all of one House (House symbol not identified yet) had desecrated a temple to Dumathoin and using it as a temple to the Spider Queen. This was obviously the source of all of the driders and who the quaggoths and phase spiders were protecting. The priestess, mage, and house captain evacuated via teleportation magic, but we cleared the rest of them, including the yochlol she summoned.

After resting we searched the nearby areas, finding a vein of pyrite along with some chunks of ore in one of the Quaggoth rooms and the house drow elites had some weapons in good enough condition for resale.
We unfortunately also found 4 prisoners who were likely killed in their cells while we were in the combat in the next room. We did find Myra Moonshadow, a sun elf wizard locked in another room, but uninjured. She seems a little too interested in the ancient history of the drow's flight into the Underdark. Geran and Aidan are unnerved by her. I'll stay wary too.
Long Rest; Blessing of Corellon d100 = [[43]]. Dani wakes up male.

The crew pushes in to cut down the Auvrandyr drow priestess of the spider queen, slaying several of her drow retainers and capturing the house captain of her guard in the process. Dani thought leaving the traitorous Marta Moonshadow caged was no bother to Dani, but Geran and the others insisted on trussing her up and taking her with the other prisoners.

While clearing the remainder of the abandoned dwarven buildings where Auvrandyr had made camp for the invasion of Skullport, we discovered a strange room with some kind of magic fish on the wall. Geran solved the puzzle and collected a Elemental gem (emerald / water). In yet another building, we freed a captured drider (who has happily joined us since we have already accepted Norreed into our company) and a drow cook named Rizryn. Now that he is houseless (and seeing his two compatriots die quickly when they attacked D-Con), the cook decided signing on with Bregan D'arthe sounded like a great idea.

Bringing our coterie of followers and prisoners of war, we continued water walking down the Sargauth River, courtesy of Aiden's ritual magic, when we discovered three middle-sized ships full of Zhentarim Thugs and Zhentarim Martial Arts Adepts attacking Skull Island, a section of Skullport held by the Xanathar's Guild's Thugs.
Enemy of our Enemy and all, we chose to take down the ships rather than allow the Xanathar's Guild a stronger presence in the town.

At last count, one boat was burning within a wall of flame, another had begun to spew keelboats full of Zhent thugs to attack us, with some faerie fired and others incapacitated from Geran's hypnotic pattern, while a trio of other thugs were dealing with Aiden in Giant Octopus wild shape. Things are not looking good for the Zhent's assault, despite one ship's worth of keelboats landing on the shore and readying to assault the fortress wall.
Gained 1 potion of healing

The group finishes a rest and moves deeper into the next caverns, where they discover swarms of kobolds, including some turned to vampire spawn. A long and tiring fight ensues.

Vampire sapped my strength and stamina, leaving me gassed for the rest of the day. Halleth, Geran, and Aiden extracted me from some of the worst of it. Nasty close quarters scrap with undead. Surprised we took no casualties.
Long Rest, Blessing of Corellon d100 = [[64]]. Dani remains Female

After the evening's rest in the secured cove of the late sea hag coven, we embarked down the River Sargauth towards Skullport. Some avaricious ghosts of treasure hunters swarmed us, which was not an issue until one of them possessesd D-con temporarily. That was a bit more hassle. In the chaos, the sun elf mage Marta Moonshadow ran off. Based on the three House Auvrandyr drow guards we found looking to ambush us where she left the river, we can only assume she is now with them. We took two of those guards prisoner and will add them to those we plan to turn over to Bregan d'Arthe's lieutenants.

Aidan began to follow the trail of prints the Auvrandyr pair and the mage left, which brought us into the southern edge of the space where Auvrandyr has begun mustering troops for the invasion of Skullport. Marta was walking under her own power, but it's unclear if she was a spy, captive, or both.
We've cleared a half dozen giant spiders set as sentries and exterminated two handfuls of troglodytes stationed to lie in wait. Danifae is covering D-con's flanks from Trogs and spiders while he used Haste and a Steel Wind Strike to cut down two squads of Auvrandyr troops in seconds. He is efficient when he is determined. The patrol's officer is a bit tougher, but still didn't last a core of seconds in a duel.

One of the more interesting evenings we had on the first few levels of Undermountain. Geran's Hypnotic Pattern put 3 of 5 Barlguras into a stupor, allowing us to focus on one of the demons and destroy them without taking much in the way of injuries. In a chest that was rigged up and hidden in the ceiling, we found a modest treasure in coin and valuables hidden by the pirate captain the riddle downstream mentioned. The Captain was a mouldering skeleton, so we're going to keep an eye on his legacy for him.

Down stream, we discovered a coven of Sea Hags. All three were civil, even if they did not extend the gifts of Hospitality, but we shortly learned that they had been predictably deceptive in their true answers. They had not eaten a humanoid in quite some time as they'd sworn, but we did find a young lad of about twelve, Devlin Stormshore, chained up in a room they obviously used as a larder. There was a nasty, foul-mouthed and poorly-mannered little goblin there. I didn't catch his name, because he resumed hurling verbal abuse and casual cruelty at the lad Devlin and Aidan of all people executed the mean little creature on the spot. Imolated him while the little bastard was manacled to the wall. I didn't know he had it in him.

The hags came rushing in behind with their pet giant crab familiars, obviously intent on preventing our emancipating the boy. Another Fantastically timed Hypnotic Pattern from Geran and we were able to destroy them one at a time with great ease. They'd amassed another modest collection of treasure, though guarded by the figurehead of a ship that screamed bloody murder at us for taking it. The coins and gems seem just fine.

Gained 1 potion of water breathing
Long Rest; Blessing of Corellon d100 = [[37]]. Dani wakes up male.

Cleared out bandits, bugbears, goblins, grells, a trio of brain puppies, and similar nuisance monsters. Personal effects indicate a number of the goblinoids were employed by the Xanathar. Recovered a passcode for a Xanathar Shield Guardian at the Stairs access to 2nd level. Passcode is "Sylgar." The name of his goldfish? Everyone knows that.

D-Con and Dani allied our group with a revenant of Halleth Garke. Friar Garke was a 5th level priest of Waukeen, but was betrayed by a fairly amatuer adventuring party. Stole his holy symbol and weapons, broke his limbs, and pushed him into an abandoned well. Unprofessionally grisly, cruel, and left behind one very pissed off loose end. Halleth has been a huge help as rearguard, sentry, and protecting our flanks.

Approaching Skullport, the party encounters an invasion by Zhentarim thugs and martial artists against Skull Island, the harbor defenses of Skullport. Aided by Aidan & D-Con's waterwalking, we surprised the invaders, taking many of them hostage. They were turned over to Bregan d'Arthe aborad Jarlaxle's ship.

After dropping off the prisoners of war and reconnecting the three bregan d'arthe members recovered to the garrison around SKullport, we resupplied and recuperated a short while before moving back into the caves.
Purchased a Shield from the Bregan d'arthe armory. (-10g)

Cleaned out a chimera nest, recovering a small pile of coin. Encountered the posted guards of the hobgoblin Legion of Azrok. His captain and partner, Lurana, promised 1,000gp and free passage through their desmense if we hunt down duergar thieves of Clan Ironeye who stole Azrok's dagger of blindsight. They were last seen stopping in for resupply at a tavern called The Black Tankard before heading deeper into Undermountain.
The next morning, the party shops at the "Gob Gobbler" the trading post for the Legion of Azrok. D-Con and Geran note that the proprieter, Kinrob, received a delivered parcel. Geran figured out that the bundle was an infant goblinoid. D-con and Aidan spirited the bundle away, but the shopkeeper noted the missing lunch parcel and confronted Geran & Dani as he shapechanges back into his true form as an oni!
Long Rest; Blessing of Corellon d100 = [[82]]. Dani wakes up female.

We cleared out a House Auvrandyr torture center / pleasure room adjacent to where the priestess was performing her sacrifices, taking two females of House Auvrandyr prisoner. Their gear is forfeit as is those of their family and warriors that we killed. Both women gave us information to secure their safe-conduct to Skullport and being ransomed rather than executed.
We learned that there is a sea hag coven on this level and that House A intends to invade Skullport. We'll need to reduce their forces further to prevent the attack giving Bregan d'Arthe a fourth front to fight on in Skullport. Moving on, we then cleared Driders from a hallway, one who dropped Dani into unconciousness for a few seconds. They hit hard. Where this tunnel intersects the river, we found a puzzle scratched into the rock. It indicates if we walk up the Saurgath River, we can find pirate treasure, but downstream is Skullport.

Heading northeast, we have discovered a small tunnel where a ritual summoning was performed. Several Barlgura guard the treasure. We moved in to engage them.

This place is a maze and I feel like we definitely have been through this room once already. I'm going to have to map this out. Spent a lot of time killing things that I thought we'd killed before, but maybe there's just a LOT of them.

Past the hallway of ropers, the party meets Darribeth Meltimer, a Chondathan mage. After a short discussion, it becomes clear she has been down here too long and has become a little bit mad, discussing everything with her toad. Aidan and DCon begin to suspect the toad familiar is not what it seems. DCon destroys the quasit-in-toad-shape with a burst of magic missiles. Though this traumatises the poor mage a bit, it does allow the party to convince her to return to the surface. A visit to the Hospice of St. Laupinn, a temple of Ilmater, and a donation from DCon provides a greater restoration for Danibeth, restoring her sanity.
Dani sponsors Daribeth's coach fare back to Amphail to find her wife and Daribeth gifts Dani a rope of climbing in return.

Returning to the caverns we prowl through until we are ambushed by a pair of House Aryvndar sentries and a number of quaggoth. The sentries make good use of their innate spells, but we win through, moving in to destroy the outpost on the other side.

Long Rest; Blessing of Corellon d100 = [[10]]. Dani wakes up male.