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.

Clearing the last of House Arvryndar from the Troglodyte Warrens, The party proceeds down into the Maze Level.
Long Rest; Blessing of Corellon d100 = [[55]]. Dani wakes up female.

Through the next doors, the crew discovered a shrine to Eilistraee and Danifae spent a few moments in prayer. Placing a sword in the statue's hand, it began to dance, then pointed to the East by southeast. Dani, D-con, and Aidan were given a minor charm from the statue, the ability to cast bless (1st level) once.
Setting our path in that SxSE direction, we began to clear rooms. In a Ballroom, they encountered two mutated drow, science experiments crossed with giant spiders. Hideous things that could turn to vapor, but died easily enough.

The next hallway led to an encounter with four drow guards, one of which, Sornssnozz, turned on his compatriots, telling us he was a plant by House Freth. He also warned us of an ambush by three phase spiders in that same room, so he's already proved valuable.

Sorn is working with a House Freth Assassin and has agreed to introduce us so we can ally together to wipe out the rest of House Aryuvndar on this floor... include Matron Mother Aryuvndar. He says she has an enormous number of demons and elites guarding her. It is sure to be a challenge.

But first he showed us into a very nice guest quarters and dining room that had clean, working plumbing. I have missed certain creature comforts from Waterdeep while stalking these hallways. D-con, Geran, and Danifae are already hatching a scheme to turn these guest quarters into our forward operating base for the rest of our delving into Undermountain.

Story Award: Vadd Narkoz Guard Captain Hrogar invites you to a private ceremony within the central hall of Glip Dak, a massive Netherese building of exotic stone. There he and other officers thank you for your service and discretion, awarding you the title Vadd Narkoz, "Strong Warrior", in this private proclamation. The hobgoblins of Glip Dak acknowledge you as a worthy and trusted ally.
For future Glip Dak modules, the adventurer has advantage on Charisma checks when interacting with Kroth Magg soldiers and guards.

Story Award: In Your Debt You successfully brought back the entire missing adventuring party. All four swear to repay their debt to you.

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.

Combat in the Hall of the Dark Seldarine resumes, with Aidan and Dani holding back the retrievers and giant Lizard mounts while D-con temporarily disappears. After he joined us again, we finished off the last combatants in this room, including a pair of drow elites, a yochlol, and two more retrievers guarding the doors to the south.
(Seriously, Gary. I know we're a very strong party but this is a bit much.)

Aidan dashes back to the prisoners' cage where one of the halfing entertainers has been struck down by it's drow guard. The blessing of the Earthmother grants him the ability to revivfy this poor halfing and give her a second chance at life.

In the next vestibule, we discover another pair of retrievers, another priestess, more elites and a mage. The priestess casts silence in the doorway to foil attempts at counterspelling, but Dani throws the last of her necklace of fireballs into the room, which but one or two of the dozen occupants were able to avoid the full brunt. The priestess' concentration falters and we push in to clear this up.

It takes using about half of our healing potion stores, Dani's Righteous Rage to keeep her fighting when she should've dropped, and every spell the casters had available to finish this room. D-con, Aidan and Dani are all on the verge of collapse from their wounds.

Long Rest; Blessing of Corellon d100 = [[37]]. Dani wakes up male.

Defeating that last remaining guards, we engaged the matron mother of House Arvryandar... but must continue to press the fight if she is to be ended.

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

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!

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.

Starting Wealth (10g), This is your life, (18gp)

XGE's This is Your Life

Born in Menzoberranzan to House Melarn. Matron mother only had two children (a boy & girl set of twins) by Danifae’s father (a cartographer that was attempting to map the Upperdark) before he was torn apart by a hook horror in the tunnels... conveniently just a few days before Matron Melarn took her position upon her mother’s death (apparent suicide).

As a child, others saw my twin & I as different. We had few other friends. As we grew, we learned the requirements of our deadly society. My devotion to my people—and to Selvetarm, Dark Seldarine god of war—lifted me in combat, making me powerful and dangerous.

In my first century of life, there were 11 influential events.
36 I made an enemy of a svirfneblin Sorcerer, though I was blameless in the affair. I left him alive, but grievously injured, as a warning to others who would make a similar attempt.
87 In my first true House war, I was (1) knocked out and left for dead. I awoke hours later and still do not remember the battle.
93 While on a hunting party, we frizzed a zone of faezeress, and found ourselves brief sojourners in the Feywild
63&55 While regaining Matron Mother’s favor after my blunders, I spent two years training. I still have the 18 gp I earned as a youth.
50 I befriended a captured adventurer, a Dragonborn cleric that was sold to us as a slave. His stories of the surface confused me.
25 It was in my 60th year when I fell in love with a friendly soldier of another house. Nothing became of it.
16 It was about this time that my father died. My brother was bequeathed most of his weapons and armor, but I did receive a single [simple weapon. ]
07 Tragedy befell our House when my aunt was killed in battle and my mother grew angry lashing out at all of us.
02 My relationship ended. Matron Mother did not approve of how the match would appear to the council. She said the loss of her mother and my aunt in a decade left our house too poorly positioned for such an arrangement.
07 He did not take the news well. He disappeared without a trace... I cannot prove it was my mother’s doing.

It was in my 111th year that I was afflicted with the “Blessing of Corellon.” The surface elves may revel in any who can alter their gender like their god, but I found it terrifying.

I fled to Bregan d’Aerthe and Jarlaxle told me my reputation was lost amongst the council. I’ve worked for him for 12 years now.

Assigned to guard duty for Junior, JB's experiment? Kid? Golem creature? Who knows what the hell D-Con actually counts as. Beats me, but Parts is a member of Bregan d'Arthe, so he's okay. Good spellslinger and handy in a fight.
He wanted to go meet a contact for a bottle or two of Zzarr down at the Yawning Portal Inn and I didn't mind that. But then he goes and promises some folks—that he just met!—that he'd venture into Undermountain with them. Couple might know what they're doing, like the archer and the genasi. The tiefling is completely wet behind the ears.

I mean, this is not too inconvenient since I had a contact I needed to check on in Skullport, but I was expecting 8 easy and boring hours of drinking ale. Messing around in an insane arch-wizard's tower? That's dumb, and worse if that insane arch-mage is Halaster Blackcloak.
Anyway, I paid our money to Durnan, the Yawning Portal's owner. Like you haven't heard of him. You better believe I used my expense account! ...so our strange crew was lowered in a big tub on ropes and pulleys to the first level of Undermountain.

First thing down there, one of them found a one-way secret door to the north side and left an unscouted passage behind us. This is going to get bad. Then Parts the wonder-boy falls through a door when trying to open it with his Thieves Tools. A door with stacks of plates on the other side. The racket is an alarm and within a minute, there's a doppleganger and some human bandits running around in cast off vampire spawn clothing. Not very convincing and they all died pretty fast, but a nuisance all the same. Pulled a few usable items off of them, but no real treasure.
How's Parts follow up with an encore? Decides to sit down in an ancient alabaster throne carved like snakes and gets poisoned half to death. I was thinking this was going to be a looong night, but I might have just been pulled into active dungeoneering duty for a few days or a week.

The party regrouped with D-con & Phash, offloaded some of their loot at the goblin market, then began to explore further. We found and slew a gargantuan gelatinous cube, discovered a decomposed wizard's apprentice in a room filled with 20,000 gallons of water (and recovered his glass wand arcane focus, which sold for 25g.)
Just above that room we then discovered the headquarters for a group of Xanathar's toughs lead by Shunn Shurruth (a LE male drow cursed with the eyes of an arachnid.) Shunn, Dani & D-con parleyed, agreed no quarrel is needed and Shunn offered us a finder's fee of 50gp each if we recover and bring him a stone key from some wererats that stole it from him.

Moving through the tunnels, we came on a tunnel with more gricks, another grick alpha, a pair of carrion crawlers, and flesh golems. Beyond it lay an altar to Dumathoin, the dwarven god of secrets and mining and in the chamber beyond that one was a library occupied by 4 more flesh golems and a flameskull.

Hand-to-hand combat in the narrow hallways of Muiral's Gauntlet continues. Destroyed a handful of retriever demons, a couple drow, and several demons, including a Marilith. House Ayruvandar has far greater numbers of combatants than we'd been lead to expect.

We find mirrors that make shadow copies of our party members. A brief struggle disables the nasty contraptions. Exploring the corridors, we eliminate two or three dozen goblins and bugbears, then track down a party that had been charmed, knocking out the blackguard that held them entranced. The Thayan wizard ran through a portal, but we couldn't make it work. I'm sure that's not the last we've heard from them.

We recovered a bronze mask shaped like the visage of Halaster Blackcloak. (50g) Keeping it with us in case it's useful later.

We secured the drow mage and 3 wererats, setting Phash to watch them. D-con squared her away, then tucked away the mage's spellbook. Hallath was still pacing, frantic in his desire to cross the hall, but unable to pass Aidan in giant constrictor snake form. Once ready and we'd removed the magic wards on the door across the hall, we moved in to find nothics. We started with cleaning them up, then a trio of awful things that Hallath called gibbering mouthers.

Around the corner, four more nothics and a daemon called a mezzoloth were torturing a human named Rex the Hammer. Rex had the grave misfortune of being cornered by a daemon, and the worser misfortune of being the evil idiot that broke Hallath's legs before throwing him into that pit. Aidan cast heat metal on the mezzoloth's trident, hampering it from torturing Rex, but Hallath did his fist of vengeance thing and killed the 3rd "Fine" fellow of Daggerford. "Aiden beats trident. Revenant obliterates Rex." Sounds like rules for a card game. A fun one.

Geran seems to be getting more and more bothered by Halleth's "effectiveness" in his justice. I'm hoping our former-acolyte can locate and wrap up his business with the last of his killers quickly, move on to his peace and rest with Waukeen, and Geran will let the matter rest too.

Don't get me wrong. Geran is really growing on me. I got no issues with his bow-work, his lock-work, or his stories; he's just, well... more of a rule follower than the rest of us. I'm not wild about dragging every jaywalker or litterer back up to the Yawning Portal so they can get a jury trial in a year or whatever. That's a lot of talking and paper justice. It doesn't do anything. Revenant justice seems to be as direct as Drow justice and as thorough.

I've come to respect Hallath and will miss him. He's a decent sort with more integrity than a lot of folks. More dedicated to the Lady of Trade than most folks are to their pantheons, too.

Oh, my. I've written all of this and didn't even talk about the otyughs in the privy or the time Aiden theew a fireball. That was... a situation, alright. Shame I ran out of room on this page and can't give all the shitty details what a pity

We finished off the Nycaloths guarding the exit to the 10th level, but not before Nocreth disappears in a cloud of smoke. I don't know if he was banished or summoned to some other duty, but I was really counting on him to watch my back. (Dan M. left the campaign.)*

As we entered the level now called Murial's Gaunlet, we found hallways of broken mirrors guarded by a drow skeleton that had lost it's arcance ability, but was still attempting to use a wand of the warmage. Long deceased adventurer or wayward student of the arcane arts wandered down from the magister's school? we couldn't tell...

Then around the next corner, we found a temple to the Spider Queen guarded by three banshees. Undead banshees dropped most of our group with their screams, but the righteous fury of Ellistraee kept me on my feet until the last of them withered under arrow shots and eldritch blasts. I don't think I'll hear right for weeks.

Geran and Aidan discovered two deceased adventurers here and returned them to life. It's amazing they made it all the way down here equipped as they are. Takes a lot of luck to survive using rough leather armor and mass produced, market-grade weapons. Servicable for hunting your typical humanoid bounties or working caravan guard duty, yeah, but for delving into somewhere like Undermountain? Insanity.

Opening the door into the halls of Dweomercore, we meet the headmaster's bouncers, summoned Vrocks, Cannaloths, and a Nycaloth.

The Dean of the Dweomercore school sets a bargain with Geran. If we exterminate a handful of barbed and bone devils, he will show us the way through the school to the next level.

These devils are comparatively easy when considered against dealing with that disembodied arm and it's high level magic. It's nice moving through a level so quickly.
D-con "gets an inkling" that the Xunderbrok room is on this floor. But come on, the Melairkin were dwarves. They never hide just one thing.

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.

Clearing the last of House Arvryndar from the Troglodyte Warrens, The party proceeds down into the Maze Level.
Long Rest; Blessing of Corellon d100 = [[55]]. Dani wakes up female.

Through the next doors, the crew discovered a shrine to Eilistraee and Danifae spent a few moments in prayer. Placing a sword in the statue's hand, it began to dance, then pointed to the East by southeast. Dani, D-con, and Aidan were given a minor charm from the statue, the ability to cast bless (1st level) once.
Setting our path in that SxSE direction, we began to clear rooms. In a Ballroom, they encountered two mutated drow, science experiments crossed with giant spiders. Hideous things that could turn to vapor, but died easily enough.

The next hallway led to an encounter with four drow guards, one of which, Sornssnozz, turned on his compatriots, telling us he was a plant by House Freth. He also warned us of an ambush by three phase spiders in that same room, so he's already proved valuable.

Sorn is working with a House Freth Assassin and has agreed to introduce us so we can ally together to wipe out the rest of House Aryuvndar on this floor... include Matron Mother Aryuvndar. He says she has an enormous number of demons and elites guarding her. It is sure to be a challenge.

But first he showed us into a very nice guest quarters and dining room that had clean, working plumbing. I have missed certain creature comforts from Waterdeep while stalking these hallways. D-con, Geran, and Danifae are already hatching a scheme to turn these guest quarters into our forward operating base for the rest of our delving into Undermountain.

Story Award: Vadd Narkoz Guard Captain Hrogar invites you to a private ceremony within the central hall of Glip Dak, a massive Netherese building of exotic stone. There he and other officers thank you for your service and discretion, awarding you the title Vadd Narkoz, "Strong Warrior", in this private proclamation. The hobgoblins of Glip Dak acknowledge you as a worthy and trusted ally.
For future Glip Dak modules, the adventurer has advantage on Charisma checks when interacting with Kroth Magg soldiers and guards.

Story Award: In Your Debt You successfully brought back the entire missing adventuring party. All four swear to repay their debt to you.

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.

Combat in the Hall of the Dark Seldarine resumes, with Aidan and Dani holding back the retrievers and giant Lizard mounts while D-con temporarily disappears. After he joined us again, we finished off the last combatants in this room, including a pair of drow elites, a yochlol, and two more retrievers guarding the doors to the south.
(Seriously, Gary. I know we're a very strong party but this is a bit much.)

Aidan dashes back to the prisoners' cage where one of the halfing entertainers has been struck down by it's drow guard. The blessing of the Earthmother grants him the ability to revivfy this poor halfing and give her a second chance at life.

In the next vestibule, we discover another pair of retrievers, another priestess, more elites and a mage. The priestess casts silence in the doorway to foil attempts at counterspelling, but Dani throws the last of her necklace of fireballs into the room, which but one or two of the dozen occupants were able to avoid the full brunt. The priestess' concentration falters and we push in to clear this up.

It takes using about half of our healing potion stores, Dani's Righteous Rage to keeep her fighting when she should've dropped, and every spell the casters had available to finish this room. D-con, Aidan and Dani are all on the verge of collapse from their wounds.

Long Rest; Blessing of Corellon d100 = [[37]]. Dani wakes up male.

Defeating that last remaining guards, we engaged the matron mother of House Arvryandar... but must continue to press the fight if she is to be ended.

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

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!

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.

Starting Wealth (10g), This is your life, (18gp)

XGE's This is Your Life

Born in Menzoberranzan to House Melarn. Matron mother only had two children (a boy & girl set of twins) by Danifae’s father (a cartographer that was attempting to map the Upperdark) before he was torn apart by a hook horror in the tunnels... conveniently just a few days before Matron Melarn took her position upon her mother’s death (apparent suicide).

As a child, others saw my twin & I as different. We had few other friends. As we grew, we learned the requirements of our deadly society. My devotion to my people—and to Selvetarm, Dark Seldarine god of war—lifted me in combat, making me powerful and dangerous.

In my first century of life, there were 11 influential events.
36 I made an enemy of a svirfneblin Sorcerer, though I was blameless in the affair. I left him alive, but grievously injured, as a warning to others who would make a similar attempt.
87 In my first true House war, I was (1) knocked out and left for dead. I awoke hours later and still do not remember the battle.
93 While on a hunting party, we frizzed a zone of faezeress, and found ourselves brief sojourners in the Feywild
63&55 While regaining Matron Mother’s favor after my blunders, I spent two years training. I still have the 18 gp I earned as a youth.
50 I befriended a captured adventurer, a Dragonborn cleric that was sold to us as a slave. His stories of the surface confused me.
25 It was in my 60th year when I fell in love with a friendly soldier of another house. Nothing became of it.
16 It was about this time that my father died. My brother was bequeathed most of his weapons and armor, but I did receive a single [simple weapon. ]
07 Tragedy befell our House when my aunt was killed in battle and my mother grew angry lashing out at all of us.
02 My relationship ended. Matron Mother did not approve of how the match would appear to the council. She said the loss of her mother and my aunt in a decade left our house too poorly positioned for such an arrangement.
07 He did not take the news well. He disappeared without a trace... I cannot prove it was my mother’s doing.

It was in my 111th year that I was afflicted with the “Blessing of Corellon.” The surface elves may revel in any who can alter their gender like their god, but I found it terrifying.

I fled to Bregan d’Aerthe and Jarlaxle told me my reputation was lost amongst the council. I’ve worked for him for 12 years now.

Assigned to guard duty for Junior, JB's experiment? Kid? Golem creature? Who knows what the hell D-Con actually counts as. Beats me, but Parts is a member of Bregan d'Arthe, so he's okay. Good spellslinger and handy in a fight.
He wanted to go meet a contact for a bottle or two of Zzarr down at the Yawning Portal Inn and I didn't mind that. But then he goes and promises some folks—that he just met!—that he'd venture into Undermountain with them. Couple might know what they're doing, like the archer and the genasi. The tiefling is completely wet behind the ears.

I mean, this is not too inconvenient since I had a contact I needed to check on in Skullport, but I was expecting 8 easy and boring hours of drinking ale. Messing around in an insane arch-wizard's tower? That's dumb, and worse if that insane arch-mage is Halaster Blackcloak.
Anyway, I paid our money to Durnan, the Yawning Portal's owner. Like you haven't heard of him. You better believe I used my expense account! ...so our strange crew was lowered in a big tub on ropes and pulleys to the first level of Undermountain.

First thing down there, one of them found a one-way secret door to the north side and left an unscouted passage behind us. This is going to get bad. Then Parts the wonder-boy falls through a door when trying to open it with his Thieves Tools. A door with stacks of plates on the other side. The racket is an alarm and within a minute, there's a doppleganger and some human bandits running around in cast off vampire spawn clothing. Not very convincing and they all died pretty fast, but a nuisance all the same. Pulled a few usable items off of them, but no real treasure.
How's Parts follow up with an encore? Decides to sit down in an ancient alabaster throne carved like snakes and gets poisoned half to death. I was thinking this was going to be a looong night, but I might have just been pulled into active dungeoneering duty for a few days or a week.

The party regrouped with D-con & Phash, offloaded some of their loot at the goblin market, then began to explore further. We found and slew a gargantuan gelatinous cube, discovered a decomposed wizard's apprentice in a room filled with 20,000 gallons of water (and recovered his glass wand arcane focus, which sold for 25g.)
Just above that room we then discovered the headquarters for a group of Xanathar's toughs lead by Shunn Shurruth (a LE male drow cursed with the eyes of an arachnid.) Shunn, Dani & D-con parleyed, agreed no quarrel is needed and Shunn offered us a finder's fee of 50gp each if we recover and bring him a stone key from some wererats that stole it from him.

Moving through the tunnels, we came on a tunnel with more gricks, another grick alpha, a pair of carrion crawlers, and flesh golems. Beyond it lay an altar to Dumathoin, the dwarven god of secrets and mining and in the chamber beyond that one was a library occupied by 4 more flesh golems and a flameskull.

Hand-to-hand combat in the narrow hallways of Muiral's Gauntlet continues. Destroyed a handful of retriever demons, a couple drow, and several demons, including a Marilith. House Ayruvandar has far greater numbers of combatants than we'd been lead to expect.

We find mirrors that make shadow copies of our party members. A brief struggle disables the nasty contraptions. Exploring the corridors, we eliminate two or three dozen goblins and bugbears, then track down a party that had been charmed, knocking out the blackguard that held them entranced. The Thayan wizard ran through a portal, but we couldn't make it work. I'm sure that's not the last we've heard from them.

We recovered a bronze mask shaped like the visage of Halaster Blackcloak. (50g) Keeping it with us in case it's useful later.

We secured the drow mage and 3 wererats, setting Phash to watch them. D-con squared her away, then tucked away the mage's spellbook. Hallath was still pacing, frantic in his desire to cross the hall, but unable to pass Aidan in giant constrictor snake form. Once ready and we'd removed the magic wards on the door across the hall, we moved in to find nothics. We started with cleaning them up, then a trio of awful things that Hallath called gibbering mouthers.

Around the corner, four more nothics and a daemon called a mezzoloth were torturing a human named Rex the Hammer. Rex had the grave misfortune of being cornered by a daemon, and the worser misfortune of being the evil idiot that broke Hallath's legs before throwing him into that pit. Aidan cast heat metal on the mezzoloth's trident, hampering it from torturing Rex, but Hallath did his fist of vengeance thing and killed the 3rd "Fine" fellow of Daggerford. "Aiden beats trident. Revenant obliterates Rex." Sounds like rules for a card game. A fun one.

Geran seems to be getting more and more bothered by Halleth's "effectiveness" in his justice. I'm hoping our former-acolyte can locate and wrap up his business with the last of his killers quickly, move on to his peace and rest with Waukeen, and Geran will let the matter rest too.

Don't get me wrong. Geran is really growing on me. I got no issues with his bow-work, his lock-work, or his stories; he's just, well... more of a rule follower than the rest of us. I'm not wild about dragging every jaywalker or litterer back up to the Yawning Portal so they can get a jury trial in a year or whatever. That's a lot of talking and paper justice. It doesn't do anything. Revenant justice seems to be as direct as Drow justice and as thorough.

I've come to respect Hallath and will miss him. He's a decent sort with more integrity than a lot of folks. More dedicated to the Lady of Trade than most folks are to their pantheons, too.

Oh, my. I've written all of this and didn't even talk about the otyughs in the privy or the time Aiden theew a fireball. That was... a situation, alright. Shame I ran out of room on this page and can't give all the shitty details what a pity

We finished off the Nycaloths guarding the exit to the 10th level, but not before Nocreth disappears in a cloud of smoke. I don't know if he was banished or summoned to some other duty, but I was really counting on him to watch my back. (Dan M. left the campaign.)*

As we entered the level now called Murial's Gaunlet, we found hallways of broken mirrors guarded by a drow skeleton that had lost it's arcance ability, but was still attempting to use a wand of the warmage. Long deceased adventurer or wayward student of the arcane arts wandered down from the magister's school? we couldn't tell...

Then around the next corner, we found a temple to the Spider Queen guarded by three banshees. Undead banshees dropped most of our group with their screams, but the righteous fury of Ellistraee kept me on my feet until the last of them withered under arrow shots and eldritch blasts. I don't think I'll hear right for weeks.

Geran and Aidan discovered two deceased adventurers here and returned them to life. It's amazing they made it all the way down here equipped as they are. Takes a lot of luck to survive using rough leather armor and mass produced, market-grade weapons. Servicable for hunting your typical humanoid bounties or working caravan guard duty, yeah, but for delving into somewhere like Undermountain? Insanity.

Opening the door into the halls of Dweomercore, we meet the headmaster's bouncers, summoned Vrocks, Cannaloths, and a Nycaloth.

The Dean of the Dweomercore school sets a bargain with Geran. If we exterminate a handful of barbed and bone devils, he will show us the way through the school to the next level.

These devils are comparatively easy when considered against dealing with that disembodied arm and it's high level magic. It's nice moving through a level so quickly.
D-con "gets an inkling" that the Xunderbrok room is on this floor. But come on, the Melairkin were dwarves. They never hide just one thing.