Edge of the Underdark

Scribe Notes

Summary

Adventure: Edge of the Underdark
GM: Paul Schmidt
Season: Winter 799 WK

Party

Sabrina Namer Elf/Valkyre Female (Leader)
Turf Namer Elf Male
Naiden Necromancer Human Male
Scratch ??? Human Male
Vychan Adam-Jones Earth Giant Male
Basalic Earth Human Male Scribe
Flamis Fire Human Female
Kryan Illusionist Human Male
Neroc Necromancer Human Male

Employer: Cuculain of Greyhawk
Mission: Find out what the drow’s plans are for the surface.
Plane: Greyhawk
Places visited: Greyhawk City; Gnome city in the UnderDark; Iren-Kithic - Drow city in the Underdark; The Skillet - Efeeti town in the Plane of Elemental Fire; City on the surface that had been taken over by the drow; City of Midrick
Major NPCs encountered: Lord Ebonhand; Shriek - a goblin; Matriarch of House Melshak; Lawfakir; Dr Stephanopolois; Trusty Jack
Original Scribe Notes: Media:Snwi9903.zip

Adventure Summary

1st Frost ‘99 - Day 1

Spent 26 days at the Guild having potions and scrolls done

27th Frost - Day 27

Went to Greyhawk City

1st Snow - Day 31

Reached entrance to Underdark. Encountered trolls in mushroom forest.

5th Snow - Day 35

Encountered and defeated large beholder. Obtained it’s treasure

6th Snow - Day 36

Found large underbground city, ex-dwarven, now populated by undead. One end contained two magical pillars which kept the undead away from that section. They are also an Earth place of power. Here resides an old red dragon on a large treasure pile. Nearby is a lava stream which is a fire place of power.

10th Snow - Day 40

Finally left the old city and encountered petch who told us how to get to the gnome city. On the way we reached a starway down a cliff. The minerals there distorted earth magics.

11th Snow - Day 41

Reached the gnome city. Stayed with the gnomes for some time while new spells were learnt and some training done.

12th Ice - Day 72

Left the gnome city with the plan to find a drow trading party and hijack them.

14th Ice - Day 74

Reached a kua-toa trading post. Various trading parties are here, including illithids, human, and drow.

15th Ice - Day 75

Go after one of the drow parties. Attacked by illithid on a rock bridge over a lava stream. Later on, we got directions from a bunch of duager riding giant spiders.

17th Ice - Day 77

Ambush drow party who are members of House Tormentor in the drow city. Have to fight off a summoned demon.

19th Ice - Day 79

Reach the city of fire giants located on the shores of a lava sea. Cross the sea and encounter an efreeti who wants a fire opal retrieved from the drow city. On the other side of the sea was an old male drow wizard who helped us maintain our drow illusions and also gave us stones that would help us speak drow. He also wants the House Matriarh of House Tormentor slain.

22nd Ice - Day 82

Arrived at a drow settlement where we obtained a goblin called Shriek. Stayed there overnight.

23rd Ice - Day 83

Bought two gnomes off a drow trading party. Later on, reached drow guardhouse and managed to pass through into the city. While we were there, we achieved the following:

captured the steward of House Tormentor
fought and defeated the house wizard of House Tormentor
looted the House Tormentor vaults
captured the Matriarch of House Tormentor
captured the Matriarch of House Melshak (a rival house)
looted the House Melshak vaults.

The House Melshak Matriarch was released and the House Tormentor Matriarch turned over to her. In the Melshak vaults was the fire opal the efreeti was looking for. We also discovered that the drow are using a large orray in the centre of the captured surface city to change the conditions at the surface to match those of the Underdark. The vaults contained notes and a model of the orray.

29th Ice - Day 89

Returned to the shore of the lava sea where the wizard and steward were released. The fire opal was turned over to the efreet. In return he conveyed the party to The Skillet where we were healed and rested.

Candlemas - Day 91

Arrived back at the gnome city and used a summoned xorn to reach the surface. Two party members had to be retrieved from an evil temple near the surface. Had an interview with the regent of the area. It was his city that the drow had captured. Currently there was a dark dome over it that was slowly expanding.

3rd Thaw - Day 94

Arrived in Greyhawk city and reported to the Wizard Lawfakir. Discovered how the orray worked.

5th Thaw - Day 96

Back to the regent and organised an army to invade the city once the dome was brought down.

9th Thaw - Day 100

Entered the domed city and made our way towards the centre. City populated by drow, formorian giants, and undead.

10th Thaw - Day 101

Reached the centre where the giant orray was. Had a large battle with drow and formorians. Sunlight spells were used to cause the orray to fade away and the dome to vanish. It is believed that the orray is still present and may reappear someday. The secret to permanently destroying it is said to lie in the underground dwarvish city which is directly below.

12th Thaw - Day 103

Returned to Greyhawk City and thence to the Guild.

The Unabridged Basalic

It was the day of the Guild Meeting but before the actual meeting itself that Flamis was approached by Adam-Jones. The party he was in was in the plane of Greyhawk and were investigating some incidents with drow. They were after some extra firepower. Since they were likely to be going underground, an Earth mage with reasonable ranks in Tunnelling would be useful. So Flamis and I agreed to join them. We didn't leave immediately though. One of their party, Axis Dragonmage, was unable to continue owing to other commitments this session but there was enough time for him to put useful spells onto scrolls for us. So we ended up with 8 Rank 13 Quickness scrolls, 10 Rank 16 Enhance Enchants, and 6 Rank 6 Opening spells. All this took 26 days and cost 20,000sp. Sabrina put the money up front. She also borrowed Axis' crystal ball. During this time we were briefed on what was going on. The party had been employed by the paladin, Cuculain. About seven years ago, the drow had been behind an uprising by the giants. The giants moved into elven lands while the drow attacked the capital city and surrounded it with some sort of dome. The elves fled the city. Meanwhile the giants infested the countryside but were beaten back. A few were still about causing trouble. The reason the giants were beaten back was because of a special race of orcs who were dedicated to liberate people from oppression. They had special abilities such as harder blows, cannot be disarmed, and form weapons out of nothing. At the moment they're against the drow. Our job was to find out what the drow were up to and give them a good 'cleansing'. The drow are skilled fighters and use poison. They don't like the light, use magic as talents, and most of them are pacted. The principle Colleges are necro, mind and celestial. Their society is matriachial and any battle with them is likely to be 'difficult'. The original party had already gone down the entrance where the fire giants had arrived from and had reached the bottom. Down there was a doorway leading to a temple and the entrance to the drow levels. The only treasure left down there was too dangerous to get at. The party had ran into trouble at the temple and had to return to be de-cursed. 27th Frost Finally made our way over to Greyhawk City. Once there, Flamis tried a Flamesight ritual. The first attempt produced the image of a desert, while the second was an image of a corner of a drow city in a cavern. She then tried her Contact Other Selves ritual. To our surprise there seemed to be two of them about. One was definitely malignant and the other 50/50. Spent a few days looking around Greyhawk City. 1st Snow Set off towards the entrance to the UnderDark, through the entranceway that the fire giants had come out of. It took four days to get there. 4th Snow Reached the entrance and headed down to the point where the party had already been. A wall was placed over the entrance to the temple and we carefully went through the double doors and into the lower levels. A ward on the other side was bypassed but, strangely, it seemed to slip around the counterspell. The walls of the passage were granite with embedded pyrites. A faint reddish glow could be detected ahead. As we progressed there were limestone deposits appearing but they didn't seem to be natural. Soon we could see the lava flow ahead and the path continued on alongside it. Two hours later the rock was mostly flowstone and there were more steps. The surface was also rougher and also more slick. Finally we reached a huge cavern containing several fungi and toadstools with eight or nine other entrances. I looked for tracks and detected several that were troll. It appeared that they were harvesting the fungi. Scratch went hunting and found three trolls. It looked like they were 'spaced out' from the effects of the mushrooms. One was snoring in the stream. The other two followed Scratch back to where we were. Scratch slipped and the troll leapt at him. Sabrina and Adam charged in. Adam head-butted one troll and knocked it over. Meanwhile Flamis hosed the other one with dragonflames. Finally we managed to dispatch both of them. The poisons were purged from the remaining troll and he was put under a charm. He knows where the drow are but their caverns were a long way from here. They don't trade with the drow preferring to stay out of their way. Their troll village is on the way but it is possible to go around although both of the alternate routes are more dangerous. One goes near a dragon and the other he wasn't sure about. All that went down there never came back. Finally we found a small defensible cavern to heal up and rest. .2. 5th Snow We followed the troll in order to bypass the village, going the way that no one had returned from. A while later we reached an area of flowstone that was more artificial with scalloped walls and artificially joined pillars. It was soon established that those pillars were hollow but, without breaking one open, it was impossible to determine what was inside. No magic was detected. An hour later we reached a large flowstone cavern. Flowstone steps led down into it and another set went up from the other end. In the centre was a large sinkhole at least 100ft deep. A slight cold airflow was flowing down into it. We made our way down by rope. Unfortunately Adam slipped. He would have made a large dent in the floor but, he was able to shrink himself into a cage which Scratch was able to catch. The troll was allowed to return to his village. Down below it was a mixture of granite and flowstone. Everything was scalloped and smooth. Five tunnels ran off from this area. We headed down one. The tunnel twisted and turned as well as getting smaller, much to Adam's discomfort. Finally he hopped back in his cage. At the end we found a single pillar and two uncut emeralds in the wall. I estimated they were worth several hundred silver pennies. However it was decided to leave them alone in case it was a trap. The other tunnels were found to be identical except there were no gemstones or they had been removed. There seemed no other way out of here until a crack in the floor was discovered. Inside we discovered a space with three trolls inside and they weren't happy. Shortly we found the stopper over the hole. I created a tunnel down to the chamber and the trolls panicked. One of them was ripped to pieces. Sabrina managed to calm them down and discovered that they are afraid of 'it', a large round creature. Just as we got the trolls out, we saw a light floating above. Then a note floated down with just one word on it 'Surrender'. One of the fleeing trolls fell over with its head missing. Also Naiden started stripping, obviously charmed in some way. The rest of us backed off into one of the tunnels, just as a 12' diameter beholder floated down into view. It was a much bigger one than the one I had heard about from Aqualina and probably much more powerful. What followed was one of the strangest battles I had ever witnessed. Sabrina cast several counterspells on herself then charged out on Ajax. Meanwhile Scratch rendered Naiden unconcious. He then joined the fray by having Adam throw him towards the beholder. No spells would work in the anti-magic field so it was down to range weapons, even though it was well out of suitable arrow range. However, somehow, both Scratch and Sabrina were able to attack it with their weapons even though they weren't in range. Turned out that they had acquired some strange items that allowed them to attack from outside the time stream. Scratch then sailed past the beholder and landed on the edge of the sinkhole above. His hump was beginning to melt from the beholder's disintegrate ray. As Sabrina and Ajax closed with it, it fired beam after beam from its eyestalks at them which they were resisting. Adam launched Turf at it. The beholder turned its attacks onto Turf but Turf was very resistant. Turf then landed on the beholder and took out its anti-magic eye before being knocked off, landing on the ground near Scratch. The beholder aimed its disintegrate beam upwards and carved a hole in the ceiling. We could hear the sound of rushing water from above. Sabrina attacked it again and it bit back. Meanwhile Flamis started climbing the walls of the hole, with a tiny statue of Adam, as the water started pouring in. I followed, carrying Naiden. Just then the beholder, looking rather battered by now, went thin and wispy and headed for the hole. Sabrina hit it with a mattock but it disappeared up the flow of water. She then used a special dagger to remove the charm from Naiden. Sabrina - "I'm suffering from Beholder Interruptus" Finally the water stopped flowing. Scratch sent a Wizards Eye up to have a look and discovered the beholder was holding back the incoming flow with a Wall of Force. The cavern it was in used to be a large lake surrounded by a pebble beach. On the beach was a pillar of rusty metal with a magical aura. Remains of healing potion vials were scattered nearby. We tunnelled our way in, emerging on the beach. Two Quickness scrolls were used on us and a good thing too. Suddenly two large snake-like monsters, GTN: Behir, erupted from beneath the pebbles, one on either side of our group. One blasted us with lighting, the other missed. Sabrina went to attack but, as it tried to coil itself around her it was stricken by arthritis. The other behir went for Scratch and was also stricken as it attempted to curl around him. I managed to score some good hits on the one around Sabrina while she extricated herself. Then a wound appeared on Ajax. The partially regenerated beholder had decided to join in the fight. .3. The only place that the beholder could be was one of the holes on the far wall. Unfortunately there were so many holes that the entire wall looked like a certain variety of cheese. My instructions were to try and locate the beholder so I drank my last ten point potion in order to recover some of the damage I had taken. Meanwhile the behir were starting to back off after being dragonflamed and pummelled. I decided to take a guess and cast the widest Tunnel possible at a random spot in the wall. It was very serendipitous that a rather surprised beholder was revealed. Turf tried to leap on Ajax to join in the charge but Ajax stepped sideways. As Sabrina charged in a scroll floated in front of the beholder that was being rapidly read. It suddenly vanished but reappeared above the lake, flying backwards. Then, it dropped out of the sky and into the lake. A short while later the water in that area started boiling and a message appeared on a rock near the shore. It wanted to negotiate. We decided to allow this. As it appeared above the water, I checked it's aura and discovered it was innately honourable. It offered us our lives and its own. It didn't have any maps but could describe a path to the drow city. It also believes that the nearby red dragon is dangerous. It has a small treasure pile, which we could make use of, and promised not to harm us directly or indirectly for at least ten years. So we had a look at the treasure and retrieved the useful items. I went for a set of drow half-plate armour. The rest of it consisted of troll bits, rotting food, clothing and some other stuff. Scratch also removed the horn off the dead behir. Some of the others want to have a go at the dragon but finally conclude that is too foolhardy.

6th Snow

Rested nearby then headed off towards the dragon's lair in order to have a quick look. The tunnel we were in appeared to have been carved out of the rock by the beholder and was just wider than it was. Partway along was a niche where some healing potions rested. Scratch took them. The tunnel then widened, presumably to allow the beholder to turn around. Beyond that the tunnel went uphill before stopping at a dead end. Here, the rock wall was very thin and a couple of peepholes were drilled. Beyond the thin wall was a large cavern. A reddish glow, presumably lava, was at the other end. The edge of a dragon's tail could be seen on a basalt ledge in front of the flow. Flamis said that the place felt like a fire place of power however, when we tried to DA into the cavern, we couldn't. There was an anti-magic sphere in the place centred on the dragon. So we decided to pull out and leave the dragon alone. I have no idea how the next encounter came to be as I was sure we had retraced our steps. But, somehow, we found a room off the tunnel that had not been there before. It contained a broken chair and table and, beyond the closed door, a flight of steps lead downwards. Scratch attempted to locate the beholder but couldn't. Beyond the stairs was an open area that was definitely dwarven and very old. This chamber was 60' across with elaborate stonework cut into it. Arrowslits were carved high on the walls, presumably designed to allow archers to fire on anything in the chamber. Flamis sensed a fire place of power nearby while Naiden detected quite a lot of undead including some greater undead. Scratch used a Wizard Eye to look further down the chamber and saw an identical set of stairs on the far end and two ramps on both sides going up to recessed gates. Undead were pressed against the gate to the left. From what Sabrina and Turf could establish, there were dragon wards all over the place which were shifting reality making us think we were moving away from the dragon's lair when we were actually going around it. The others described it as some sort of convergence effect. Adam tried looking through the nearby wall and the view kept changing. So we pressed on, making sure we were roped together. Finally we emerged in what appeared to be an underground dwarven city. A red glow could be seen to one side. We could walk away from the glow but then we heard scraping sounds from all sides, except for that direction. All we could do was to head towards the glow otherwise we would have been facing hordes of undead. Also, in that direction, both Adam and I could feel an Earth place of power. The undead consisted of a mixture of ghouls, wights, spectres, etc. Nearly all of them were dwarvish in origin and all looked as if they were struggling uphill if they headed towards the glow and the dragon. So we headed off in that direction. Finally we saw the red dragon but it had a peculiar sheen to it and it was very still. Just then we realised it was a statue. The statue was magical with the nature being protection against horrors, presumably a virulent form of undead. Nearby were two intact buildings and two very large electric blue coloured iron pillars. Around them the ground was moving. This was the Earth place of power. Behind the buildings came a scratching and crumping sound. This was the real red dragon, shifting on its large pile of treasure. Also we could see the cavern where we had originally looked in, through a one-way transparency. The dragon we decided to leave alone. Instead we went for the buildings. One of them had the symbol of the Tree of Life - a symbol of White Necromancy. A necromantic ward was in the doorway but that was quickly bypassed. Inside were several books, written in ancient dwarvish. Most were crumbling but at least one was preserved and, as far as we could tell, had to do with the anti-undead branch of necromantic magic. The other building was empty. Afterwards Turf made stew. Just as he finished the job, heavy footsteps were heard marking the arrival of the dragon. It polished off the stew then emitted a flame burp, thanks to the chili Flamis had put in it. We then killed the draft horse Sabrina had 'stored' and the dragon dipped it in the lava stream before consuming it. Finally it wandered back to its treasure. Near the fire place of power, the lava, Flamis did a Flamesight ritual to determine the way out. What she saw was a large set of bronze doors, not very far from here, located somewhere beyond the dragon. .4. Naiden thinks it'll take a week just to peruse the book and at least a month to learn the spells within it. However the others are rather leery of taking the book out of the chamber in case the dragon objects. Fortunately it doesn't have any reaction to Naiden studying it. While he's doing that the others examine the bronze doors. They have several runes carved into them which generates an anti-horror field. The protection would break briefly when the doors are open. So Flamis does a pre-cog vision on what would happen. She saw the doors open into a large open space and, as we leave, the dragon patters over and sniffs at us. Since we've reached the center of what was causing the convergence magic, the pillars, then we shouldn't have any trouble leaving. After some discussion it is decided to stay here for a while to give Naiden time to assess the book. 7th Snow During the day the dragon wandered over and looked at Turf expectantly. So Turf and Flamis made more soup which the dragon ate with gusto. After finishing that it was still hungry. So they tried feeding it an old suit of plate mail. It ate that too. Fortunately Sabrina had a large pile of stuff, most of which that was on the ex-pack horse so we managed to satisfy its hunger. It would repeat this performance at least once a day. 9th Snow Finally Naiden announced that the book was worth studying so we decided to try and leave. The dragon sniffed at us as left but made no move to impede us. Scratch opened the doors but, as we tried to exit, the dragon blocked Turf's progress then nudged him towards the kitchen. So Turf prepared a large meal which used most of our supplies. Flamis - "You realise I'll have to get more tandoorii. I've nearly run out" Basalic - (grins) "Oh goody!" While it enjoyed the meal we made a break for it. Just after we closed the door there was the sound of scratching then silence. Scratch was convinced that was a polymorphed cat. So we continued down the passage heading south. A while later we reached a stream which was flowing in via another northbound passage. We followed the stream until we found a place to camp. While we set up someone noticed that there was a purpleish tinge to the mana. 10th Snow We progressed on. By late afternoon the stream had enlarged into a brook as we entered an enormous cavern. Light was provided by glowing fungi on the walls and roof and the stream, along with several others, poured into a large crevasse in the floor. Several pillars ran from floor to ceiling. Naiden could hear a regular tapping sound so Scratch sneaked ahead to investigate. A short while later, he returned and motioned us onwards. We discovered a group of small humanoid creatures - GTN: Petch. They told us that they trade with the gnomes and they don't like the drow. The drow city is an extremely long way from here but they travel all over the place. The gnomes live down the hole. There is also a different, and much larger beholder, lurking somewhere further on in the maze of tunnels down there. The gnomes don't like the drow either. So we got directions to the gnome city. The petch told us that we were to cross the crevasse then travel down a stairway to the passages to the gnome city. The crevasse was 50ft wide. While the others argued over how to get across, I threw a rope over and lassoed a stalactite. We then used the rope to cross. It then took us another twenty-five minutes to reach the stairs. They were steep, narrow, and went straight down for 300ft. They then zig-zagged down the side of a 500ft high cliff. Soon we reached a gap in the stairs. So Adam and I created Walls of Stone to bridge the gap. To our surprise, the walls extruded from the cliff face instead of just appearing. So we DAed them. The duration was permanent and there was a brownish tinge to the mana in addition to the purple. So Adam decided to try an experiment and, with his permission, he put a Trollskin on Scratch. Immediately Scratch began to grow. We immediately came to the conclusion he was turning into a troll, both physically and mentally, especially when he tried to attack me just because I was the nearest one. Scratch then jumped off the wall. Sabrina flew after him on Ajax while Turf used shadowwings to follow. The rest of us continued down the stairs. A short while later we encountered another gap. Again Adam and I attempted to create Walls. Unfortunately my spell went awry and I turned into a statue. Adam had to carry me down the stairs. Meanwhile Sabrina and Turf landed near where Scratch had impacted. At this stage he was a splattered mass of organic tissue that was slowly coalescing. Any healing potions he had, including the Waters of Healing I lent him, were smashed and absorbed into him. While Turf continued to help heal Scratch, Sabrina flew back up to see how we were doing. Finally the entire group was on the floor. There used to be a necromantic ward here but it was now dissipated. There was no brown in the aura, just purple. Sabrina was able to dissipate my petrification but several bits of rock were still stuck in my body. I could have them removed but, according to Turf, they meant I was in permanent contact with Earth. Once Scratch was totally regenerated and the trollskin had worn off, we camped. 11th Snow Nearly five hours into our trip and the surrounding rock was now mostly basaltic and the walls were warmer. When someone drew mana, flecks in the rock glowed. When I looked I saw an interesting purpleish mineral. So I picked up some loose rocks. A while later a voice said "Who are you". When we identified ourselves and why we had come, a section of the wall slid away and half a dozen gnomes were revealed. One was a full earth mage, the others had a mixture of earth and illusionist magics, probably intrinsic to the species. We told them that we were looking for information to help bring about the downfall of the drow. Finally we were taken to the gnome city which was basically caves built into the caverns. The streets were marked with different gems for identification. Scratch wanted valuations of each one. Finally we were taken to their Council. We told them that our cover story was that we were trading in hallucinogens but we were here to find out what the drow were up to. The drow have somewhere between 15 to 24 trading houses. The traders were the least homicidal and perverted of the bunch. If we were to pose as part of a trading house we would have to stay in certain areas and wear the badge. Even that wouldn't keep us out of trouble. Besides trading only occurs at trading areas and one of the largest ones was nearly two weeks travel away. Only the junior branch members travel. Another interesting point was that trading drops off when the drow are 'up to something' and that happened recently. The drow city was located several weeks away to the northeast and has an estimated population of 2,000 drow and 18,000 slaves. Some drow have attacked on driders, a cross between drow and spider. Also the drow are raising vampires which have difficulty in going gaseous. The gnomes had created continual light pebbles that only go out when removed from underground. Also their crossbow bolts were hollow tipped made of fragile gems. They can be filled with poison gas or some black vicious anti-drow stuff that is created from a mushroom race called myconids. I asked about the minerals and were told that they interfered with conjuring/summoning magics but enhanced everything else. They turn into haematite when taken above ground. Crystals of it grow near the drow city. The wall that the stairs are on is saturated with earthblood which enhances earth magics. Down further from the drow is a race locally known as illithids and seems to be the local branch of the Calimar. They usually keep to themselves. There's a pool of aquatic 'fishmen' on the way to the drow. They may or may not attack depending on their current whim. It was decided to stay with the drow for a period of a month to allow some of the party to learn new spells, including Naiden and Flamis. Adam had earlier obtained a piece of the 'Oarth Stone'. When the gnomes found out about that they insisted that he hand it over. After some argument, he did. During our stay I spent much of the time exploring the local area and sampling the local brew which turned out to be very strong. On the fourth day several gnomes were missing and 'waves' causing distortion of distance were passing through. On the third week the gnomes had managed to create a portal to the Elemental Plane of Earth. That was what they needed the Oarth Stone for. The portal was marked by a whirlpool in the wall. .5. During our time in the gnome village, Turf did a summoning and another Guild adventurer joined our ranks. This was Kryan the Illusionist. Kryan demonstrated his abilities and when he put Scratch inside a maze spell, Scratch discovered he was on a place called the Border Etherial. To us he was invisible, but Scratch could dimly see us as if through a thick curtain and everything was reduced to shades of grey. Sabrina tried to generate a doorway that would take us home. A multicoloured door did appear that lead us onto the Astral Plane. Fortunately it was two way. The Astral Plane basically consists of a bright, well-lit, greyness that extends in all directions. The only thing that relieved the greyness were distant spots of colour. Once through the doorway, we discovered we were floating and we could travel in whatever direction we wanted just by thinking about it. The other feature that was immediately noticeable was what looked like a large tree rising from below and disappearing far above. Kryan tried to send an illusionary animal to investigate but became possessed by something. Fortunately it was easily dispelled. Meanwhile Naiden and Sabrina went to investigate. They discovered it was something called Yggdrasil, otherwise known as the World-Tree. Adam though this was extremely interesting and decided to nibble at the bark. Immediately he was beset by one of the Tree's guardians who thought Adam was a Frost Giant from a place called Jotenheim who was attempting to kill the Tree by ringbarking it. Fortunately owing to some quick fast-talking, combat was averted and we retreated back through Sabrina's door. Lots of plotting and planning went on. Flamis suggested we enter the city as "out of town drow". Turf speaks drow very well. Scratch and Naiden are the only other two that have even a smattering of the language. Finally the plan is hatched to hijack a drow trading team.

12th Ice