Umara's Correspondence 3: Firenewt Inspection

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Dear Ms. Redfang,

After being given the warning from Aloysius about exploring the underdark, we made a quick stop in town to purchase more rope for the expedition, and then headed back towards poor Farmer Dan’s property to explore the dark hole that originally occupied by the mindflayer. Fire newts had taken root underneath the land and could cause havok if not taken care of.

The farm had been claimed by some relatives of the poor man, a couple and their small children. To our dismay they had filled the hole entrance because they wished to till the land that it resided on. I tried to explain that we would need the hole excavated to enter back in to the ground in order to protect their newly acquired lands and offered to teach them proper crop rotation in order for their help to do so, but the woman did not want to cooperate, but also did not bar us from working.

Before we (and by we, I mean Dren and the children) began the excavation Enna discovered a sulfurous smell coming from the well. In riding the bucket down she discovered the well opened to a large cavern and pool, but she could not see an end nor find a bottom to the pool so we brought her back up and the small crew got to work moving the dirt. After a short amount of time they began to find large rocks that were blocking the entry to the hole. Dren did his best to shift the rock, but after reaching a stalemate, I used the power of thunderwave to shift/break the rocks away.

We were able to move slightly down the hole but Enna became trapped by a rock and once we freed her we discovered that the hole led to the same cavern that the well opened up to. We failed to be agile enough to make our way down the rocks with much grace, but we did move forward to a larger cavern that was filled with glowing lichen and beetles.

A few of the newts seemed to be camped in the area. We tried to negotiate with the newts through Dren’s rudimentary understanding of their bastardized draconic. This was a useless tactic because as soon as we told them to warn their brethren and leave the area instead of us having to kill any of them, they attacked and we were forced to kill them. They did give up some information that they were drawn to the area because of a large, warm rock that they seemed to worship.

In the same cavern we discovered a dead Drow, who carried jars of interesting slime material and a journal detailing their travels through the underdark. We collected their wares and informational documents and foraged ahead. The tunnels lead deeper down to a cavern where the newts seemed to be farming a seaweed-like material. They were patrolled by armed guard and what seemed to be large, feather-less chicken. We were able to scare the farmers away and take down both the incredibly strong chicken and guard detail. When we descended down into the chamber to investigate, the seaweed and muck seemed to have incredible healing properties. Licking our wounds, Enna went ahead to scout a higher area and discovered their egg clutch and the fallen body of a former Haven Shield adventurer, Oswald. She was able to collect her writing and a sentient rod that both seemed to be very magical and rude. Oswald seemed to have notes of his companions Fredrick and Nessiery who had been know as the Pride of Rolach. They had been exploring the underdark and were trying to discover more about the field that surrounds Wodesville. There was no sign of his companions.

Moving deeper down we were able to sneak down to the largest cavern we had yet to encounter. The rock that the newts had spoken of earlier was placed in the middle of the cavern and newts appeared to be warming themselves on it. It was so humid and hot in the cavern that it had created it’s own weather system with clouds drizzling down a fine mist within the area. The group decided to try and draw the leaders out and take down the armed guards in hopes that the rest of the newts would leave the area on pain of death. Their leader seemed to be a shaman of some sort, we did not understand their mode of speech. They fell quite quickly and their common folks seemed to disperse. In approaching the large rock they seemed to worshiped, Enna decided to smell the rock. When she got that close it broke apart and was some sort of living being of magma and stone. It was a touch and go fight for a moment but we were able to put the being into a solid state and the newts were driven further into the underdark.

Investigating the cavern seemed to lead to a deeper crystalline structure, but impossible to scale safely. We also discovered a large piece of the protective crystal from Wodesville that delved deeper into the earth. We cleared out the homes of the newts for any valuable items or information and then made our way back, after many struggles, to the pool that lived underneath the well. In making camp and starting a fire, because we needed a rest or else we would not be able to escape the cavern, we drew the attention of Urgak who rescued us from the well and brought us back to Wodesville. We reported back to Aloysius with our findings and he was able to identify the rude rod as Grenoff. All and all it was very successful and I believe we might have a lead on more information surrounding the magic field around Wodesville.

Sincerely,

Umara Besorus