D&D 5E [IC] Uller's Out of the Abyss

Humiliated. Demoralized. Dominated. Beaten and shackled and dumped in this fetid pit, separated from your home and family and deposited deep under the earth in a drow slave pen. A fate worse than death that you wouldn't wish upon your worst enemy (well...except maybe that one guy)...

The cold metal shackles and collar remind you that you are not going anywhere anytime soon. You are not alone. At least a score of other prisoners are here with you in this cave outpost your captors call Velkenvelve.

A cruel priestess who the other drow call Mistress Ilvara of House Mizzrym is the apparent leader. Over the past several days you've met her several times, robed in silken garments and flanked by two male dark elves, one of whom has a mass of scars along one side of his face and neck.

Mistress Ilvara likes to impress her will with scourge in hand to remind you that your life now belongs to her. "Accept your fate, learn to obey, and you may survive." Her words echo in your memory, even as you plot your escape.

The first thing Surana is aware of is the pain. A dull thumping in her head. A burning throb in her cheek, likely broken. Shackles cutting into her wrists and ankles, forcing her into an uncomfortable position on the cold, wet floor. The next thing she becomes aware of is the smell...like an open sewer. In the open spaces of her homeland, such foulness is uncommon so it hits her like a club. Then she remembers...her moment of triumph, her plans for the future stolen by wicked and honor-less elves that ambushed her in her sleep. She never even had a chance to put up a fight. Once they got a hold of her...there were just too many of them...and then sleep took hold and the world faded as they laughed and mocked her in their alien tongue. The world is a terrible, hopeless place...maybe leaving it would just be better...

But now...as she begins to awaken in this new place...there is a flash of light in her mind, like something entering it...

"It wakes?" comes a voice...completely in her head. That startles her into full wakefulness. She looks around. She is in a dark cave. Dim purplish/bluish light enters through an iron gate casting strange shadows. She can't see the source of the light. She sees two dark elf guards just outside the gate talking for a moment and then they depart onto a walkway over a shadowy chasm and then disappear out of her sight.

Inside the cave she can see many forms...perhaps 10 or more other creatures. Some are of races familiar to her. Several are not but it's hard to make out details in this light and her senses have not fully returned. Everyone is huddled on the floor, some sleeping, some sitting. A few are talking in low voices she can't understand. Most are silent. Next to her is what appears to be a lump of stone, shaped like a seat or a stool of some sort.

"I stool?" the voice comes again. Surana is startled. "I stool? That my name? I stool!" the lump of rock begins rocking back and forth and coming toward her a bit...at that point she realizes it is a creature of some sort and it is talking to her in her head!

"Ēl sīla lūmena vomentienguo" comes another voice from behind her. This time NOT in her head. Surana becomes aware of a hulking form next to her. It sits against the wall and is shackled in the same way she is, only with much larger and thicker shackles. In the dim light it is hard to tell but it looks almost like a combination of a great cat and a creature she has only heard of in tales of distant lands...a bestial human-like creature that is called an 'ape'. The creature is clearly speaking to her but in a language she can't understand...or can she? As she focuses on it, the "I stool! I stool!" voice changes from an almost childlike babbling to an eloquent dialogue (but still in the same "voice" which is not Surana's).

"I see the little fungus has taken a liking to you. It came with you and has been pretty quiet ever since. Too fearful to talk to anyone else, I think." He reaches out and pats 'Stool' gently and seems to smile. The voice pauses when the beast stops speaking. An apologetic expression crosses it's feline like face.

"I do apologize. I'm being rude. I am Derendil. Prince Derendil of Nierindenvane (he says this expecting you to recognize it). In High Forest?" (Nope, you've never heard of it) "No matter...I'm afraid my frightful appearance is startling. But fear not! I am friendly. At least I think I am..."

Derendil goes on to explain that 'Stool' is a young intelligent fungus called a myconid. It 'speaks' telepathically and is able to translate what others say but only those it likes...and it appears to very much like you! Derendil also speaks common (with a heavy and strange accent) and switches between that and his 'native' tongue as he speaks to you.

He explains (and Stool confirms) that you were brought into the slave pen a few hours ago with some others from the surface. The drow seem to be conducting raids on surface settlements near here (relatively speaking) and bringing captives to this place (Velkenvelve, they call it). It seems to be a sort of staging area and everyone here is awaiting to be transported elsewhere to be sold as slaves or sacrifices to their "spider god". Stool was brought with you. He (it?) says it got seperated from it's "fungi pod" (it doesn't have the right concept for a parent) after some great hook armed beasts attacked (it fills your head not with words, but horrible images and emotions of great fear and sadness). It has been wondering alone ever since. When the drow raiders stopped to rest after capturing you, the ones dragging you leaned you against it and it got frightened and tried to 'run' so they grabbed it. Derendil explains that myconids are valuable for use in various spells and rituals because of their telepathic nature...Stool's future is likely as an ingredient in a potion or component in some vile ritual...(Stool shudders. "Home! Want to find home!" it says...)

Derendil tells you that his brother, who wanted his crown, hired an evil wizard named Terrestor and that wizard cursed Derendil and changed him into this beastial form. He was driven from his home. He wandered into a cave and was quickly captured and brought here. The drow say he is a 'quaggoth' and treat him as a lowly slave. They have lots of quaggoth's in the outpost to work as servants and guards but since he has trouble 'behaving in a civilized manner' they shackled him and threw him in here where he can be better controlled, "Plus the other quaggoths don't like him very much, I think," he says.

"But soon I will be one of them. I'm losing myself...the beast is taking over and soon Derendil will be gone" he says and begins to sob...(such a huge strong beast blubbering is a pathetic sight). Stool moves over and leans on him "Don't cry. Sad." comes into your head.



Surana is left alone with her thoughts. Several hours pass. She observes guards being changed out and a meal is brought...a thin tasteless and cold mushroom broth with chunks of some mystery substance. It is barely satisfying and doesn't seem at all nourishing. Occasionally prisoners are taken from the pen and put to work doing menial and degrading tasks, or sometimes just to beaten for apparently no reason at all.

Eventually it is Surana's turn along with a handful of other poor creatures. "And bring that thing with you!" the guard orders pointing to Stool. She and Stool and a the others are walked across the catwalk and into the central guard "tower" This is a gigantic hollowed out stalactite. The slave pen is a cave in middle of an enormous cavern wall. There is a ledge that goes off to the right that ends at another gated cave where the quaggoth 'servants' are kept. The catwalk to the guard post stalactite crosses over an enormous and thick spider web. In the gloom below Surana makes out the forms of several spiders the size of a human and some smaller ones. Lots and lots of spiders...beyond the web, in the dim light of the cavern, she can see nothing.

Surana and the others are quickly ushered through the guard room and through a door to the left (don't worry...I'll post a player map later) and across another catwalk. More giant hollowed out stalactites with doors in them (or 'hanging towers') can be seen, as well as a waterfall coming out of the cavern wall and falling past the webs to what must be a pool a hundred or more feet below (judging from the noise). This second catwalk comes to a much larger ledge that connects two other hanging towers and a number of gated caves.

There, waiting for the slaves and their soldier escorts is a young looking drow female, dressed in fine silken robes over a barely concealed svelte elven body. Next to her is the scarred drow warrior that was with Mistress Ilvara when you first arrived. There are three other drow warriors beside them.

"I am Asha of House Vandree, second to Mistress Ilvara of Mizzrym. This is Jorlan Duskryn, the lieutenant to Captain Shoor Vandree." Her words are biting...but not directed toward you. They are clearly directed toward Jorlan and he does little to hide his contempt and some obvious emotional pain. Asha smirks cruelly.

"It is our task to train you today to be obediant slaves. Listen well and you will be rewarded." All the drow laugh at this obvious lie.

The next several hours are a blur of pain and humiliation. Trying to obey results in beatings. Trying to resist results in beatings. Trying to do nothing results in hideous beatings. All the while, Asha reclines against the wall...sitting her pleasantly shaped form atop Stool...using him literally as a stool. The creature pathetically takes it and keeps it's "voice" silent.

Eventually you are dropped back into the slave pen. Exhausted, hungry, thirsty, angry and hopeless. Thus begins a sort of routine for you. Sleeping (barely and uncomfortably), "training" and menial tasks such as cleaning, emptying chamber pots, cooking the gruel broth for the other slaves, etc. This will go on for some time. Asha stops interacting with you at all, mostly it's just the common soldiers supervising you. Their boredom is obvious and their willingness to break it by looking for excuses to beat you is all too clear (and frequently exercised).

Prince Derendil and Stool remain with you when they can, each looking to you for some hope and offering what little comfort they can...

Surana sat up slowly, every bit of her aching. She reached a shackled hand up to gingerly touch her chin, immediately withdrawing it as pain seared across her face. But she didn't have long to dwell on the pain before something began...speaking?...to her.


After enough nights in this disgusting pit, Surana was beginning to lose hope, even with the company of Prince Derendil and Stool. Without weapons she was at the mercy of the drow, but the drow didn't seem capable of mercy--or anything but malice, really.

Except perhaps one. She wasn't sure, but Surana could swear she saw pain in the scarred drow's face when that vile creature Asha had barbed him. A lack of loyalty among ranks was as good as a gaping hole in armor, just begging to be exploited.


After a week or so, the boredom afflicting the guards began to seep into Surana's consciousness as well. She was accustomed to fighting, to hunting, to action. Anything would be better than this hopeless waiting.

She looked over at Stool, reaching out a hand to absent-mindedly scritch under his chin--wherever that might be. She grinned wistfully. "You know, little Stool, I used to play the drums, up above. You look sort of like a drum..."

Jorlan starts when Surana makes an insulting comment about Asha. He turns back to her "What did you say?" Surana repeats her insult. Jorlan's face is a complete blank. She has no idea whether she upset him, amused him, angered him...

Later that 'night,' when Surana mentions to Stool that she used to play the drums, it starts to say something about music and family, but it doesn't seem to have the words for it. It moves closer to let her pat him. As she starts rapping out a rhythm, Drum starts to shuffle and sort of dance. Images of strangely lit cavern vistas and bountiful fungus gardens start to flood into Surana's mind. A whole city of mushrooms invades her consciousness. She walks its streets and sees its sights. To her surprise, Drum starts to 'hoot' in time to her drumming...almost like it's singing! Feelings of great joy start to ripple through her mind and in her waking dreams she begins to walk the paths of the underdark, paths that lead from this myconid city.

But then...it starts to turn. The paths become confused. A feeling of being lost overwhelms her. Longing for home, missed family, sense of security lost. Then images of hooked armed monstrosities leaping out of darkness. Rending, tearing, crushing, horror! Surana's mind reels...



When Surana comes to, Drum and Derendil are over her. "You're okay. You're all right," Derendil says. "You might want to...here...for the drool...a little running down your face. That's it."

"Drum sorry. Drum miss home. Drum have gift." Surana notices something drop out of Drum's body...a dark shard of stone. "Fire shard! Sharp shard! Stab wicked elves." She picks it up...it's a shard of flint. About the size of a dagger and just as sharp. As Surana looks it over and comtemplates where Drum got it, how did it hide it and why it suddenly gave it to her, the gate to the pen opens.

"Drop those three to the spiders! They'll never make it. Bring the rest in here." More prisoners are being brought in...

Surana looks at Drum with gratitude and surprise, putting the flint in her pocket and holding a finger to her lips in a silent "shh" gesture.

"We don't know who we can trust yet, Drum," she whispers.

She sits quietly, back to the wall, to watch the new arrivals acclimate.

You are have been dragged and prodded for quite some distance. Probably several leagues as the crow flies (or as the purple worm burrows?). It's all a blur, a waking nightmare. Throughout the ordeal you were both relentlessly mocked and tormented by your dark elf captors. Among your fellow captives are two humans and an elf that were badly injured when they were captured (there are a few others as well...8 total). They were dragged along, tormented, prodded. As the ordeal went on, it became clear they were not going to survive without healing magic. When you suggested to your captors that you help them, you were just laughed at.

Now you have arrived at the drow outpost. You are herded into a basket/lift inside a large cavern and hoisted up up up above a canopy of spider webs into what looks like a fortification hanging from the walls and ceiling, with "towers" made of giant stalactites. More guards and quaggoths await you at the top. You meet with Mistress Ilvara and the other drow as described above. Then you are herded through the guard tower and toward the slave pen. That's when the drow officer (Shoor) orders the three injured to be tossed to the spiders. You watch in horror as they are uncerimoniously tossed over the edge. You can't see them because you are not right at the ledge but you do see a half dozen or so giant spiders converge on their helpless victims. You are shocked at just how quickly the spiders move on their webs and you notice that their victims didn't even scream...maybe they welcomed the release of death?

Once inside the slave pen you (along with 3 other prisoners, one human, two gnome-like) are shoved to the floor. The pen has several other prisoners in it. Most don't even move or make any effort to help you. After a time, you begin to gain your senses and start to take measure of your new surroundings. You see Surana, Derendil and 'Drum' (ooc: like I said, what ends up in this thread is 'public' so I'm not going to spend time reintroducing every one).

Among the captives that came with you are two small ill-mannered looking creatures, similar to gnomes but gray skinned with just wisps fo white or gray hair. They call themselves svirfneblin (svirf-NEB-lin) (ooc: you can make lore checks to see if you know anything about 'deep gnomes'). These two are named Topsy (a female) and her brother Turvy (perhaps twin?). Topsy does most of the talking, has an irrepressible curiosity and a spirit that, while easily crushed, is almost always light-hearted, optimistic, yet indignant. Turvy on the other hand only mumbles incoherently, laughs with a smile that is missing several teeth and requires Topsy to translate (even to fellow gnomes).

Topsy explains (to anyone who will listen...repeatedly...gods you don't want to hear it again) that she and her brother were out gathering mushrooms from their family enclave in Blingdenstone (a svirfneblin town of some sort) only to be captured by these rude drow-folk. She really does not think it proper just to put people in sacks and drag them far away from their homes in such a cruel manner and she wants to talk to whoever is in charge right away to straighten this whole thing out. Turvy mumbles his agreement and seems to make some sort of joke that only he and his sister understand.

Within a few moments of arriving in the slave pen she starts in again about it when a voice interrupts from those that are already present. "I bet you 5 silvers Mistress Ilvara throws you to the spiders before you're free of this place."

Topsy immediately stands up and indigently declares "I'll take that bet! It ain't proper, no sir! Betting on your own life! But if she throws me to the spiders, good luck collecting!" At that point the source of the voice comes forward, another gnome. "Then I guess it's double or nothin' that I can find a way to collect!" At that point they begin chatting back and forth in their own language and sometimes in common. It doesn't take long before Topsy and Jimjar (the gnome that started the bet) are bickering and probably cursing at one another. Jimjar eventually skulks off into the corner...his hopes having risen to have some of his own kind here only to find himself re-isolated from them. You have no idea (even if you speak gnomish) what the source of their bickering was...

Eventually they settle down and begin minding their own business. Jimjar eventually approaches Orsik and Klep (and possibly Surana if she introduces herself to them) and begins conversing with them both about how they came to be here. He shares his own story, relating that he never felt at home in Blingdenstone and struck out on his own. He claims to have down quite well for himself until one day he was ambushed by these hated dark elves (he uses the deep gnome word for them, like a curse word and he spits). During the course of the conversation he tries to lure Klep into a bet...one gold coin on whether the daily serving mushroom broth will be hot or cold. "Don't worry...I know you are good for it...I'll take cold." (ooc: Let me know if you take him up on it or not).

Eventually Klep and Orsik are subjected to the same "training" session that Surana was...this time it is with Ilvara and Jorlan (the scarred drow). Ilvara is overtly cruel and degrading to Jorlan, even in front of the slaves. Jorlan does little to hide his contempt for the situation or Ilvara. Afterwards they start to fall into the routine of menial tasks, training, beatings and sleeping.

[MENTION=6801671]itcomeswithamap[/MENTION]: Surana, while working in the kitchen making the mushroom broth (and she is aware of the potential bet described above) she learns that supplies are running low. The usual resupply patrol is several days overdo. This patrol most likely takes newly captured slaves back to the drow citadel (and probably rotates drow manning the outpost).

Klep is shunted into the slave pen with a sound warning, he got caught snapping the kitchen broom in half without provocation. The half-orc sulks at his wounds and stares at the cylinder in his hands made of thin air combined with nothing. He is certainly troubled, if not frustrated. Not yet willing to surrender to despair. To anyone who bothers to show interest, he will whine like a mourning widower.
" The demon elves stole Klep's dulcimer. Without a song, Klep has no soul. No eyes to open when Klep wakes tomorrow."
Klep listens to Topsy and Turvy's story, relating to it profoundly as he introduces himself. "~Blingdenstone...Blingden~stone~" He chimes to himself in the company of the deep gnomes, as if in his own world. "Sorry, Klep was chased from tribe in Sword Coast above for questioning chieftain's thirst for holding captives, very sad, but also funny if Klep think it. Not sure if Klep need laugh or cry... the captured half-orc laughed anyway, his deep throat chuckle echoes for a moment. After a small pause, and Jimjar making a couple of interesting gambles, Klep nods and squeezes the Svirfneblin's hand, thinking the mess hall was on the way here."Klep take dark gnome on that wager, of course Klep only eat warm food, your money is Klep's! -So these Drow-folk, Topsy ,they just kidnap any innocent soul they can find, yes? What do they do to them?.


"Ready? Klep try again:
— 'When I fled to the high moor,
Hunting all that I lived for
The Drow-folk home has giveth me
Stronger shackles than before'
Sing now with Klep—
"Ek het nog droom o' Sword Coast sands
Ek het nog droom o' sun-baked lands
Ek het nog droom when down below
We toil away with blistered hands...'"