Upgrade your account to a Community Supporter account and remove most of the site ads.
Rocket your D&D 5E and Level Up: Advanced 5E games into space! Alpha Star Magazine Is Launching... Right Now!

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="Lazybones" data-source="post: 443907" data-attributes="member: 143">Broc: don't worry, everything from this point on is pretty much my own creation, using the unkeyed areas on the right side of the level 1 map.  I tweaked a few areas as well to suit the story; given that Undermountain is so changeable as it is I'm sure Halaster might have redone some areas over the course of 20 years.  wolff: yeah, it's always bittersweet when I slaughter an NPC, <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f600.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":D" title="Big grin    :D"  data-smilie="8"data-shortname=":D" />  but Fenrus would not have kicked as much @$$ as he did without your suggestions; thanks again.  Everyone else: I only got two replies to my little contest, and no one won despite the extra hint I gave last week.  Oh well.  We'll find out what happens in Undermountain soon enough (I can promise a MAJOR twist coming up in that plotline, heh heh), but first we take a little side trip: * * * * * Book VI, Part 29The heavy portals swung open, slabs of black iron that had to have weighed thousands of pounds each.  They were decorated with crude, seemingly unfinished designs of twisting, writhing figures in bas-relief, faces and limbs and bodies melted into the metal of the doors.  Delem noted them, no longer horrified by what they represented, and strode into the long hallway beyond.  His metal-soled boots clacked loudly on the polished black marble of the hall, announcing his coming to the shadowed forms along the sides of the long corridor that marked his passage with dark looks.  Uneven flares of jagged flame shed a fitful illumination, highlighting the scars that crisscrossed his bare torso.  He was now lean, muscular, his body more defined than it had ever been in the past, and he exuded a sense of barely contained power as he strode with determination toward his audience.  His powers had grown.  He didn’t know how long he’d been here; he knew enough to know that time flowed differently than he was accustomed in this place, and familiar units like days and tendays and months—years, even?—had lost all meaning here.  Some times it felt as though just hours had passed since the last time he had been here in this hall, and at others, just a few heartbeats later, it seemed that an interminable eternity had transpired between that point and time and the now.  That was his only reality, anymore; the Now, the Present Moment.  Everything else was fleeting, unreal, here in a place where even his own memories could not be trusted, where even his most private thoughts could betray him.He was there, in his great throne, watching as the sorcerer approached.  The place wasn’t quite crowded, but there were numerous demons and other creatures from across the Planes in attendance, some of whom watched his entry with interest, and others that barely noted him before returning to their own private conversations.  He walked into the vastness of the audience chamber, into the huge circle, a full ten paces across, that formed a spiraling design that formed the ensign of the Prince whose palace this was.  Delem barely noticed the design, either, although it was formed of solid gold inlaid into the floor, a quantity sufficient to buy a kingdom, where he was from.“You summoned me.”The Prince made a subtle motion, and the different voices throughout the chamber grew silent, and all attention focused upon the man.  The attention didn’t bother Delem, not with him seated there facing him.  “Yes, Delem.  I have been watching the progress of your training, and I am pleased.  You have interested me... almost so that I would keep you here, at my side.”Delem did not respond.  It was a familiar game that the demons played, to dangle a reward before a victim, and then to jerk it back.  He didn’t have to feign his nonchalance; he truly no longer cared what whims the demons subjected him to.  He saw it, of course, and was pleased.  “But such is not my desire.  Look there, Delem—do you see that portal?”  He indicated a small door sunk into one of the walls to the side, almost invisible in a deeply shadowed alcove where the light from the flame plumes did not reach.  Delem looked, saw, and nodded.“Beyond that door lies a gateway to another place upon this layer, and that place in turn wards a planar gate.  The gate is of no use to us, as it only functions to transport one to their plane of origin.  If you can defeat the guardians of that gate, you are free to use it to return to Faerûn.”“That’s it?” Delem asked.  “No catch, no conditions?”The Demon Prince laughed.  “I have given you the conditions, Delem.  You must pass the guardians to find your escape.  Everything else is up to you.”Even though this was just another variant of the same game, Delem could not fully stifle a tremor of excitement as he walked across the hall toward the indicated door, aware now of the stares fixed on his back as he departed.  He knew that the demons would be watching every step of his progress, and knew that they were likely watching for entertainment, to watch him fail.  In all probability the guardian was some terrible being that he could not possibly defeat, or the “gate” just another trap that would transport him into some terrible new danger.  Yet as he reached the door and pushed it easily open, there was that faint glimmer inside him...Beyond the door was a translucent shimmer, a transport device.  Delem was familiar with them, as they were a not uncommon means of movement within and between the many and varied layers of the Abyss.  He took a breath, called upon his power, and stepped inside......and found himself in a large natural cavern, a vast bubble enclosed on all sides by crumbling black rock.  The air was stale and hot, hot enough to make breathing almost painful, and sizzling pools of liquid lava broke through the surface of the floor at uneven intervals, filling the chamber with a ruddy light.  He had emerged at the top of a broad ledge, with a natural stone stair leading down to his left down to the cavern floor.  He paused to cast a minor spell upon himself to shield himself from the oppressive heat, which was already causing his head to swim, and thus protected headed down the stairs.  The place was even hotter along the floor, with wisps of steam rising from cracks in the rough black rock, but cocooned in the shelter of his spell Delem paid the quirks of the environment little heed.  He knew that if he spent and amount of time here, the environmental effects would begin to overcome the protection of his spell, but he didn’t intend to wait around for that to happen.  Looking around for the “guardian” that he had to face, he quickly crossed the chamber, careful not to stumble on the deep cracks and keeping his distance from the crumbling edges around the lava pools.  He saw a dark opening in the far wall that seemed to lead into another chamber, and after a quick examination, darted through the narrow space.  The next chamber was dark, and only fractionally cooler than the place he’d just left.  He called upon his innate powers once more, summoning a series of dancing lights that he sent out to explore the limits of the place. The room was only about twenty paces across, but penetrated deep into the rock ahead of him, sloping gradually upward across a series of jagged terraces.  As the lights approached the edge of their range he thought he saw another opening at the far edge of the highest tier, so he headed in that direction. It took a goodly amount of time to make his way up the slope, and by the time he clambered up to the highest terrace his hands were cut and bleeding from the sharp edges of the rock.  He’d had to renew the dancing lights several times to illuminate his way, but even so he crawled the final stretch in darkness, letting his memory and his ravaged hands pick out the best course. As he reached his destination, though, and stood, he saw a faint glow coming from what indeed was another exit, a narrow crack in the back wall of the cavern.  Cautiously, he approached the opening. There was a fairly steep chute that led down to what looked like another chamber perhaps twenty feet below his current location.  The glow seemed to be coming from someplace down there.  He started down, but made it only a few feet before he heard voices from below, and froze. “What are wasting time for here, anyway?  We should be looking for him...”“The oracle said that we had to stay here, to defend the gateway.  Otherwise the demons might be able to break through into our world...”Delem smiled wryly to himself.  Either he had been lying, or the speakers below were misinformed.  Either way, he wasn’t going to let them stand between him and his goal.  There was something familiar about the voices, however, something that nagged at him as he slowly crept down the chute.The slope was steeper than he thought, however, and the heel of his boot slipped as he sought purchase, causing him to slide down a lot faster than he had intended. He landed at the bottom of the chute with a jarring thud.  He came up quickly, though, his power flowing into him at his call.  This final room was smaller than the first two, but still a good thirty paces or so across.  The glow he’d seen earlier was coming from a massive stone archway that stood independent of the surrounding walls, the half-circle of stone filled with a shimmering aura that obviously marked the gate that he had spoken of.  But before the gate, turning as one to face him at his sudden entrance, were the guardians of the portal. Four familiar faces.</blockquote>

Verification