Game Summary #1 (10/17/715)
Each of the young Drow Males began their journey with a private audience, summoned by their House’s appointed male representative, speaking on behalf of their Matron Mother. Expectations were laid out with the cold precision of a dagger's edge and each knows failure of this task is not acceptable. Xar’Zin, Szordin, and Jevan emerged from their meetings with confidence and composure. Only Nin’Tzar was humbled—his pride bruised by a sharp lesson and a taste of nonlethal punishment.
The task that they were given was to work together and retrieve a mysterious item. Their destination is a huge body of water known as the Dark Lake. Once there, they are to find a vessel, believed to be long-abandoned, drifting in the shadows of the cavernous lake. Within the vessel is the item that they seek, a staff known only as The Tempest—its name alone promising danger, power, and prestige. They are then to return with the staff to the Xarxes Pub. Their reward for this task is their freedom from their Houses.
The party met up at the infamous Xarxes Pub in the shadows of Menzoberranzan. Amid the hiss of whispers and clink of goblets, introductions were made and plans set in motion. Escape from the city would not be easy, but Xar’Zin revealed knowledge of two lesser-used tunnels with notably lax patrols. One appeared unguarded. The group seized the opportunity to leave without notice.
Though the tunnel seemed deserted, two guards eventually emerged from the gloom. Rather than fight, the group paid their way in coin, slipping past the city’s grasp into the wild dark of the Underdark, while easily avoiding a potential situation.
The journey had barely begun when a swarm of glowing insects descended upon them. Quick thinking and even quicker feet allowed the party to evade the worst of it, sustaining little more than scratches, the group pressed on. After a while, the waves of exhaustion were beginning to mount, and they dared not rest so close to the city in a main corridor used for travel. They pushed deeper, seeking refuge away from prying eyes.
Then the group stumbled upon some holes and out came the rats.
Not ordinary vermin—these were death-touched scavengers, drawn to the scent of warmth and blood. The ambush was swift. Jevan and Xar’Zin, caught off-guard, fell quickly under the rats’ vicious and surprising assault. Szordin and Nin’Tzar rallied together in the darkness. Through grit and guile, they dispatched the creatures.
Breathless, bloodied, but alive, Nin’Tzar called upon his magic, healing their fallen allies, Jevan and Xar’Zin. The Underdark offers no kindness to the unprepared, and a clear lesson was learned
Weary and wounded, the party group decided that they would not be able to push on and needed to rest, unfortunately, it would have to be the tunnel they were traveling in, hoping this was a tunnel not frequented. There, with Szordin keeping watch in the silence of the deep, they took their first uneasy rest as a team—survivors of their first trial, and aware that far worse lies ahead.
Game Summary #5 (10/28/715)
We return aboard the Grendel, where the party four cunning male Drow and the surface gnome Linli are deep in conversation. The mood is tense but hopeful. After successfully completing the bizarre task, she wanted either Basilisk eggs or a live Basilisk for her Basilisk companion, Bilsbi to mate with. The Drow was able to secure her permission to search the Grendel for their true goal: a powerful staff known as The Tempest.
Linli proves to be more than just a curious bystander. She offers crucial intel about a GemStone Guild led by two influential figures Tex and Silver Eye, and even hints at powerful surface-world players like Magister Arbados and Lord Garou. Clearly, this gnome knows more than she lets on.
With permission granted, the group begins their search of the Grendel, combing through every deck with careful precision. Their efforts are rewarded with a handful of coins and a magical +1 dagger, but the real prize lies deeper. In the dark belly of the ship, the Drow discover The Tempest Staff, humming with arcane energy.
But their victory is short-lived.
From the shadows, a massive guardian, a stone elemental, erupts into being. The thing appears to be bound to the staff, drawn to it like a predator to prey. A brief, chaotic skirmish ensues, but the group manages a daring escape back to the upper deck, staff in hand. Through some quick experimentation, they realize the creature only awakens when the staff is nearby. A useful, if unnerving, discovery.
Now armed with the Tempest, they risked so much to find, the party faces a critical choice: return to Menzoberranzan and present The Tempest Staff to their houses for reward and recognition, or vanish into the shadows, perhaps to the surface, or to the enigmatic City of Sshamath?
Linli throws another curveball. She claims to know a way into Sshamath and offers to travel with the group. In a surprising twist, the Drow entrust her with leadership, making her the group's primary decision-maker and naming Vesz’zt subleader.
As the group seems to be aligning around a new plan, Linli reveals her true motive: she needs to return to Menzoberranzan to find and eliminate someone and states that this task is important to her. This declaration catches everyone off guard. After all, the group had been leaning toward avoiding their dangerous homeland entirely. Now she’s asking them to trust her, to go back into the very city they were trying to escape.
The session ends with the party standing at a crossroads, deep in discussion. Which path will they choose? Will loyalty, ambition, or revenge guide their next steps?