Ellu'kha and her companions had stumbled into a village recently raided by goblins and drow. According to the words of the interrogated dead, they had kidnapped the duke in the name of the Absolute and were taking him to Moonrise Towers.
Their tracks had come from the goblin camp near the temple of Selune where her group had taken out several "True Souls" of the Absolute several days prior. Perhaps they had gone back there with the duke in order to transport him to the Towers. There were only two ways there, afterall — through the underdark, or through the mountain pass.
They were heading to the underdark anyway to find a way to Moonrise Towers. Perhaps they could rescue this duke!
On the way back to the temple of Selune, a strange whispering sound called to Ellu'kha as they passed through the goblin village.
Curious, she followed the whispering back down into the alchemist/necromancer's seller and found a room they hadn't found the first time they were there. Inside was a book — a hideous book with a face embedded into the leather. It was whispering to her.
It was clearly an evil book, but Ellu'kha couldn't help herself. Not with Gale watching her, waiting to see what she did with such a book. She could handle some magic; she could show him that!
She picked it up, and started turning the pages, fighting the malevolent forces clearly within the book with ease as she flew further into its innards... until finally, she couldn't glean anything more. It had taught her to speak with the dead. At least she now no longer had to use scrolls to perform such a feat.
Quickly thrusting the book into her backpack, they continued on to the temple.
As they journeyed, Wyll suddenly stopped her... he was worried about his father. Apparently, the duke that had been kidnapped, was actually his father. He had been disowned by the man, but that didn't mean that he didn't care. He needed to know his father was alright.
Ellu'kha told him that they would figure out what had happened, why he had been taken, and get him back... safely.
They approached the remains of the goblin camp, as quiet and dead as how they had left it, and stepped inside the temple.
Traversing the corridors and finding their way back to the goblin-lady-leader's private room, they followed the path and were soon back in the ancient temple remains far underground... the entrance to the underdark.
Fluorescent mushrooms of all colours brightened the darkness and lit the many pathways they could take. There were minotaurs in the distance, that they would have to fight, and so many skeletal remains to loot.
They silently crept through the immediate region, completely out of their comfort zones as they wandered the dark. A sword plunged into a stone caught Ellu'kha's eye and they hurried towards it, to see what it was and why was it plunged into the stone.
It was an enchanted sword, quite powerful too, and it required great strength to hoist it out of its home. Ellu'kha had a strength potion on her which enabled her to retrieve the blade. She admired it for a few moments before stashing it in her pack — one of her companions could surely make use of it.
Continuing their silent trek through the underdark, they stumbled into a Zhentarim stash. The crime syndicate they had recently befriended. None of them were around, and there was a broken elevator against a giant rock. She wondered how long this had been down here... then stopped wondering and started looting.
There were so many scrolls, jewellery to sell, weapons to sell... hopefully they came across a vendor soon because Lae'zel, Ellu'kha's packhorse, was becoming quite loaded.
Ellu'kha squinted her eyes. There appeared to be bright, vibrant mushroom-men walking around a ledge just yonder. Perhaps they were a friendly people who could give them some direction in this very unfamiliar place.
The group hurried over to them, then stopped.
The mushroom-men were telepathic and spoke directly to their minds. They were in mourning, they had just been attacked, sprouts had died, what did these outsiders want?
Ellu'kha convinced them that they were no threat, then the sovereign of the mushroom people wished to speak with them. They were protecting a gnome. Grey dwarves had broken the peace between their two races, had stormed through their home and killed their brethren, all in pursuit of this gnome they were protecting. There were more grey dwarf invaders by the lake. They were a rot that must be killed.
Could Ellu'kha and her group cleanse this filth, the rot of the grey dwarves? Yes, Ellu'kha nodded, they could.
Before they continued on their trek through the Underdark, they found a dwarvish woman in this mushroom village who was happy to trade with them, all the while complaining about her missing husband... and then they stumbled upon a mindflayer.
He didn't seem like others of his kind though. At first he offered to help her extract her parasite, but then he dove into her mind and discovered the painful truth — that this parasite was both magically and physically unable to be extracted, not without her death. By all rights her whole party should have transformed by now, but the parasites were held in some kind of stasis. It was possible, with the right alchemical concoction he could communicate with the larvae, but there was not much else he could do. He was sorry.
Ellu'kha asked where they might find the ingredients for this concoction. If nothing else, it would be curious to communicate with the cursed thing. The mindflayer directed them to the southwest of the Underdark where a cleric named Lenore should be. She should have the ingredients.
Back near the dwarvish vendor, Ellu'kha's keen eyes discovered something behind a locked tangle of vines. No one batted an eye as Gale unwove the tangles and allowed them passage, and within lay the corpse of a drow.
That wasn't so surprising, the Underdark was their realm after all. What was interesting though was a book he had on his corpse. Beneath the false enchanted words of the book, a glimmer of secrets shone out. Lore and history of a long lost Adamantine Forge.
If they could find it... the weapons they could make! Swords and bows the likes of which no one had ever before seen! They would be formidable indeed.
She tucked the book into her pack for future reading and they left the mushroom village.
Just outside of the village, they heard a distant moaning. Hoping that she wasn't about to walk in on some mushrooms entangling themselves together, just as she had walked in on a bugbear and an ogre, Ellu'kha cautiously moved towards the sound.
In a crop of bulbous explosive mushrooms, a dwarf trembled. If he moved, they were going to explode. He had no idea how he got into this predicament, but unless he could get his bag and the invisibility scroll inside he was going to die!
Gale quickly summoned a magical hand and carefully brought the dwarf's dropped backpack over to him, careful to not antagonise the explosive mushrooms.
They rescued the dwarf just in time for as he appeared by their side at the edge of the explosive crop, every mushroom exploded in a glorious blaze of fire and fury.
He thanked them profusely for their help, and now he had to get back to his wife, quickly. She was a trader with the mushroom people and would've been missing him and wondering where he was by now.
She was indeed, Ellu'kha nodded. As they had met her and she had mentioned him.
With the remains of the explosive mushrooms at their backs, they swept further through the Underdark and came across a gigantic sussur tree. This was just what they needed to finish the blacksmith apprentice's plans!
As soon as they could, they would return to that goblin village, dive into the blacksmithery, and play around with the forge to see if they could recreate the blueprints.
For now though, they had some grey dwarven invaders to take care of for the mushroom people.
Until next time! 😊
and are from the game: Baldur's Gate 3