🔓63. velkynvelve

session 63 • february 19 2023 • 2,215 words

🌙 NIGHT 17 • 📅 MARPENOTH 6

📌 The High Road (Phandalin -> Waterdeep)

New Status Quo

As the party lays, defeated and chained by the drow, Ilvara inquires with Soren if the "human" really is Nezznar; Soren explains the Circlet of Human Perfection, which Ilvara rips off to reveal Nezznar's drider form. She taunts Nezznar's monstrous form in disdain, lashing Nezznar brutally with her scourge when he tries to respond--"you have no right to talk to me."

She turns her attention to Soren next, inquiring about his relationship to Nezznar--Soren responds with "former slave". Ilvara notes that she's heard a lot about him from Nadhiir, which causes Soren to freeze and haltingly hope that Nadhiir was of use to her. She says he "once was".

Ilvara questions Soren on why he betrayed Nezznar to her--he stammers about wanting to be useful to her. She further questions him on his comment about "ruining the iblith", Soren cites that Ilvara had mentioned wanting to sell the "iblith", and that he only tried to heal Sildar because he wanted to spare her the expense. He elaborates that Sildar is the most "malleable" of the iblith and that it was a pity he was killed. (Soren is holding back tears)

Ilvara cuts Soren with a spectral dagger for getting ahead of himself and presuming he can interpret her will. She threatens his life if he does so again and comments on Nezznar's lack of training.

Ilvara then goes to Will and gives him the rundown about expecting complete obedience. Will nods and gets cut by the dagger as well, she demands a verbal response which he complies. The drow bag Glitter up like takeout.

We get picked up, chained with magic-dampening steel and blindfolded. Ilvara goes through our stuff and finds Soren's ceremonial dagger--gifted to him by Nezznar after it was used to kill Rizoyn--and inquires about Nezznar actually doing sacrifices to Lolth. Soren confirms this which amuses her. She asks if they worked out for him and Soren points out Nezznar's current state, which further amuses Ilvara.

Slave Cart Slave Cart Slave Cart!

We get packed into the cart like potatoes, get chained to the center of the cart. The cart is pulled by giant lizards and heavily guarded, with drow riding in the cart with us and surrounding it. We are apparently high profile prisoners :)

Will squeezes Soren's hand and Soren withdraws it with hostility.

Hugh eventually wakes up and thinks that he's gone blind because of the blindfold. He screams, leading the drow to whack him, knocking him out again. The drow hurriedly stabilize him and worry about "accidentally killing the prisoners". He wakes up an hour later and screams again but this time the drow just shush him.

We travel for the rest of the night, and are not given any sleep or food.

📌 The Underdark (Unknown)

🌑 DAY 18 • 📅 MARPENOTH 7

Though still blindfolded, we notice from air quality and sound that we have begun to travel underground. Soren notices that the air is strange and denser, almost reminiscient of faerzress but slightly different.

Soren pays close attention to the guards' conversations and learns their names as follows:

Ilgo (guard)

Jysszar (guard)

Vorn (guard)

Syrrann (guard)

Calraen (guard)

Kelnet (guard)

Jeven (guard)

We also learn the following names as individuals who were left behind to guard the outpost.

Alya (???) -A priestess who holds sermons

Shoor (???) - The guards think he is too full of himself and that they can take him in a fight

Nadhiir - Soren hears his brother's name being thrown around; the guards wonder what will happen when Nadhiir sees Soren in chains.

Soren warns Vorn, the seemingly most approachable guard, that Nezznar has been kept up for days and that it would piss off Ilvara if he died. Vorn goes and snitches to fucking Ilvara, who comes over and questions Soren about his warning, before asking what Soren was doing, parading his former master around in chains with iblith.

Soren lies that when Nezznar lost to the party, he pretended to be an ally of the iblith in order to eventually get rid of them. Ilvara notices something off about his story and asks why he didn't immediately return to Menzoberranzan, and though Soren tries to say that he would eventually do so, she doesn't believe him and lashes him with her scourge. She calls him an untrained mutt as Soren vehemently apologizes and thanks her.

Ilvara admits that she doesn't want to kill him because he has a special buyer, which astounds Soren, though he is unable to ask more about the subject. Soren receives a good night's sleep as a reward and gets begrudgingly bandaged by the drow.

🌑 DAY 19 • 📅 MARPENOTH 8

Everyone begins to gain levels of exhaustion from their lack of sleep (except Soren :smugren: )

We overhear the drow talking about the Labyrinth, which we will be traveling through in order to get to our prison. They puzzle over how Ilvara can navigate it, musing over how she can "read the runes" and figure out the ever-changing passageways.

🌑 DAY 20 • 📅 MARPENOTH 9

We have to ditch the cart due to terrain and the prisoners are forced to walk. We are commanded to stop at some point suddenly when we are ambushed by a pack of ropers, which the drow make short work of--displaying their combat prowess since we struggled with one.

The drow complain about having to carry a body :( Sildar my beloved.

As we rest for the day, Vorn approaches Soren to ask what it was like serving House Xorlarrin, musing about how it must have been amazing. Soren asks where Vorn is from--Eastmyr. Soren admits that he's from the Stenchstreets; that serving in the ruling families is like navigating a different world, like a dance where one misstep meant you would be begging for death.

Vorn is adamant that if a slave fucks up that means they deserve to beg for death. He says there are no place for mistakes in the drow world and that he aspires to be more than a guard or servant one day. Soren wishes him luck but is rebuffed for just being a lowly slave.

📌 Velkynvelve

🌑 DAY 21 • 📅 MARPENOTH 10

We eventually reach a portal / outpost and travel through it, arriving far away somewhere in the Underdark. After a few more hours of travel, we arrive on a wooden platform that rises when Ilvara gives the command--an elevator of sorts.

Our blindfolds are taken off and we find ourselves in an outpost built into the side of a ravine and into the stalagtites: the drow outpost Velkynvelve. Soren sees the area is crawling with quaggoths--monstrous creatures that serve as drow slaves. We are told to strip and brought to a prison cell where we see a menagerie of strange creatures (whose names we eventually learn).

• RONT — Hulking orc, stiffly sitting on the stone floor. The other prisoners seem to be giving him a wide berth.

• DERENDIL — Imposing-looking hulking creature known as a quaggoth, a demonic creature often enslaved by the drow. It’s sitting cross-legged near a wall.

• BUPPIDO — A ragged little old derro who looks sort of like a shriveled, stunted dwarf.

• STOOL — Smol creature cowering, kinda shivering, behind Buppido, but also curiously peeking at us. It looks like a little mushroom with four legs.

• TOPSY AND TURVY— Two little figures huddled together, partially hidden by the large black rocks and crystals that protrude from the wall. They are clearly gnomish, but look far more sullen than the surface gnomes.

• JIMJAR — A gnomish male, watching the party with bright eyes and great interest. He whispers something to one of the gnome children, who shoots him a withering stare.

• SARITH — In the deepest parts of the cave, sits a drow male against the back of the cell. He's watching you with furrowed brows and a small scowl on his face.

• ELDETH — A red-headed dwarf, her hair the only splash of color in the dark cell. She has her arms crossed, and stares warily at the approach of the drow and the party. She sits a little straighter when her gaze lands on Hugh.

• SHUUSHAR — A half-fish, half-man creature, which the party is intimately familiar with as a kuo-toa, the amphibious, insane creatures of the Darklake.

• TOR — A sun elf male muttering to himself in a corner

• NONAME — A human girl cowering in the same corner, on her knees

• THURMOND AND GRYMUS — Two duergar sitting close to each other, seemingly siblings. They don't seem impressed by the party.

We are forced into the prison, wearing nothing but our underwear and still in spell-dampening shackles. Sildar's body is dumped into the prison as well, albeit it seems well-preserved--presumably having had Gentle Repose cast upon it.

The Goon Squad

After we get situated in the prison, Ilvara comes back with a female drow (Alya), a male drow (Shoor) and Nadhiir, who is badly scarred and missing an arm. Soren gasps his name, and Nadhiir calls him pathetic and a disgrace for ending up imprisoned.

Ilvara tells Nadhiir to shut up, and then mocks us, letting us know that we would be departing in a tenday to get sold in Menzoberranzan. She then implies fun times with Shoor before dragging her goon squad away from the bars.

Nadhiir lingers by the prison but leaves before Soren can speak to him.

New Friends

Will takes the blanket from one of the nearby cot/bedrolls to cover Sildar's body and prop him up. Soren retreats to a corner and quietly observes the situation.

Ront

An orc, introducing himself as Ront, comes up to Hugh and tries to intimidate him / the party by establishing himself as the "boss" of the prison, demanding that when food comes, he gets to eat first. Hugh is not intimidated and becomes dead set on befriending the orc for his future escape attempt, raging and grappling Ront, who breaks free.

As the two scuffle, a built, powerful-looking drow (whom we call the Weaponsmaster from hereon) comes out from one of the guard towers and tells us to shut the fuck up, threatening Ront with spiders--which seems very effective, as Ront seems terrified of spiders.

Eldeth

The red-headed dwarf, Eldeth, approaches Hugh and admits that she also tried to fight Ront as soon as she got here. Eldeth says that she is from Gauntlgrym. The dwarves share a moment of camaraderie, and Eldeth is especially excited when Hugh mentions working on a plan of escape, as Eldeth seems desperate to escape from the Underdark.

Hugh introduces Droop to Eldeth, who seems cordial enough to him and tries to comfort him. She also greets Will, but grows wary when the party says they trust Soren. She maintains that Soren must have been the one to get the party captured and that all "underscum" are treacherous by nature. The group disagrees but Eldeth is vehement.

Jimjar

Will is stopped by an eccentric gnome named Jimjar, who tries to bet a belt buckle that he can flip a button into a nearby spiderweb. Will is cautious about interacting with the seemingly-insane gnome and leaves, so Jimjar goes to bet Hugh a hunk of cheese that "if you hold a goblin's nose shut while it sneezes, it'll explode".

Hugh amends the bet to be "a hunk of cheese AND a favor" from Jimjar if he loses, and a pair of pants from Hugh if he wins. Jimjar agrees.

Hugh happily takes the bet after Droop consents, and they prove Jimjar wrong, winning a hunk of cheese which they split. Droop gives a bit of his cheese to Soren, who snaps at Droop to leave him alone :( Droop is sadness, even when the party reassure him that Soren is just pretending so that the drow don't know how close he is to the party.

Noname, Tor and Shuushar

Will approaches the human female and sun elf male in the corner, in an attempt to reach out to the "non-Underdark"s of the prison. However, the human female begins begging for her life in a drow-variant of Undercommon, and the sun elf starts talking about how "they touched him here", pointing to his brain.

Shuushar, the kuo-toa (also a race known to be insane) comes over and gently chides Will for scaring the two of them. He introduces himself as Shuushar the Awakened.

Will leaves very quickly.

Prince Derendil

Will is stopped by the quaggoth in a corner, who claims that he is an elven prince from an elven kingdom in the High Forest, which Will grew up close to but never heard of the kingdom. Derendil speaks in fluent urban elven, which lends to his point, though Will is still doubtful.

Will promises to help him, which makes Derendil greatly friendly to Will, to the point of defending him from Ront's blustering.

Nezznar

Soren goes to Nezznar, who is absolutely furious at Soren for betraying him to Ilvara. Soren stays stony-faced throughout this exchange, maintaining that Ilvara would have found out and punished Nezznar regardless.

When Nezznar tries to bluster more, Soren coldly reminds Nezznar that he had "never survived a day outside of his House's marble walls", and that if Nezznar wanted to escape and survive in the wilderness of the Underdark, that Nezznar needed to keep Soren--and by extension, the party--alive.

Soren points out that Will is strong, and that they needed him whole for the escape attempt--trying to dissuade Nezznar from outing Will's identity as an aasimar to Ilvara. Nezznar is still reluctant, so Soren points out that Nezznar had often drunkenly shit-talked the Mizzryms, and that Soren would out all of it to Ilvara if Nezznar outed Will.

Nezznar tries to argue that it was his word against his, but Soren points out that "all I have to do is make them mad enough to take it out on you".

Nezznar reluctantly agrees. :)

Jimjar comes up to Nezznar and tries to bet him to spin a silken top hat for him, but Nezznar threatens to kill him, scaring him away.