Trudging through sewers was not what I had in mind when I said I wanted to go on an adventure.
I can’t decide if it’s madness or brilliance to set up your base of operations in such a place. Obviously you won’t get many unwelcome visitors but you also have to deal with…this. Lucky for us the muck only lasted a short time before we turned down a corridor towards a cleaner and drier part of the underground tunnels. There was even a small tattered bedroom inset in the wall here. Maybe this was once a lookout’s post or something. Unfortunately it looked like it hadn’t seen use in a very long time and there wasn’t anything of value.
As we made our way deeper into the dark tunnel system we came upon a small band of goblins who’d taken up position in a room adjacent to a set of stairs leading down. It was very dark, which made it very difficult for me to see what was happening but as we were fighting several of the goblins that attacked us one of them attempted to run. I assume he was trying to alert anyone who was downstairs. Luckily he was stopped before he could warn anyone else of our presence.
Carefully we descended the stairs down to the lower level. It was at this point we heard a familiar voice on the other side of a door. It was Krentz, the leader of the group of thugs that attacked Yagra at The Yawning Portal. It sounded like he was barking orders to others but they sounded panicked. With no sign of Floon and nowhere else to go we decided we needed to confront them to try to figure out where he went so we burst into the room to surprise them. However, there was no Floon and it seemed like Krentz and his henchmen were trying to barricade another set of doors on the other side of the room. At this point I had so many questions running through my head that it was hard to think straight. As soon as they noticed us though they turned their attention, and their weapons, toward us. We had no choice but to defend ourselves.
During all this my suspicions about Greemus being associated with Druids were confirmed. With a wave of his hand and a small plea he made hundreds of vines appear as if out of nowhere and grasp at Krentz and the others. I wonder if the others in this little troupe have equally powerful forms of magic. Krentz and his allies refused to yield, even against such powerful magic, and died trying to prevent us from finding our charge. We could only hope we weren’t not too late.
We pushed further into this labyrinth of corridors and came upon a disturbing scene: Floon’s limp body lay across a table and a Half-Orc stood above him, a ball of intense magical fire hovering above his outstretched hand. At the far end of the room, sitting in what looked like a throne, was a figure cloaked in black robes that held a monstrous creature that looked like a brain with legs. I could not believe my eyes. I had read books with all manner of fantastical creatures but nothing could have prepared me for standing in a room with one. Had it not been for the others moving forward to try to rescue Floon from the edge of death, I probably would have turned and run back to the city.
There was a brief scuffle as we attempted to get Floon to safety and the Half-Orc mentioned what I think was a name, Nihiloor, when referring to the cloaked figure. Before we could intervene further however, Nihiloor produced what looked like a stone sphere then used it to create a portal and vanished. Floon was on the brink of death but we managed to tend to his wounds enough that he could slowly walk back to The Yawning Portal to be reunited with Renaer and Volo.
After all that Volo tried to stiff us on the payment. I couldn’t believe it. Someone so famous, and I assume rich, says he doesn’t have the money to pay us. I think he could sense we weren’t interested in his “owing us one” and he produced a set of documents. Turns out he had a deed to a large property here in the city called Trollskull Manor that he signed over to us in lieu of the gold payment he promised. He also gifted each of us a signed copy of Volo’s Guide to Monsters. This place better be nice for all the danger we were put through.