Session 26

The session begins as the group escapes the Black Swords base, following the miner who was attempting to climb the wall. The miner stops after he reaches a good distance from the base and leans up to a tree. He comments "I wasn't expecting to see a fight over there"

Athtar responds "Neither did we."

He greets the group as Sully.

He asks the group what they did to upset the Black Swords that badly. Benjamin explains the situation and the warrant, and the mishap of the bomb situation.

Pete mentions he needs to change his look.

The group also discusses the map that Pete found and the markings on it. Sully mentions he can give the group directions to the mines. He doesn't know if it will be safe. He also mentions that the swords are guarding the entrances so nobody gets in and out. He mentions they're preparing seige weapons and have camps outside the entrance and are rotating guards.

Sully mentions that they found something down in the mines which is when the company started paying attention to the mines. A passage with strange writing and markings that looked very old. He also mentions the sound of rushing water and a very deep hole.

Pete recalls the sound of rushing water in the cave they came from initially and relays this information.

Sully informs the group of how many miners are in the cave, how many can fight, and what weapons they have between them. Notably 4 muskets for 10 miners, they all keep a 6 shooter on them and the pickaxes for melee.

The group agrees that the back entrance via the cave they found is the better idea.

They head back to the underground lake and find their boat where they left it. The boat, however, only has room for 3 people.

The group opts to tear the boat apart and build a raft from its parts. Athtar successfully directs the team to pull the boat apart and puts the raft together in half a day. With that, they're ready to travel down the river. Salayc steers the raft to avoid bumping into the walls. Benjamin's torch lights the way.

The first hour of travel is uneventful until they hear the sound of roaring water. The river begins to pick up speed. Benjamin looks to see if there's a place to stand at the side of the river

chaos ensues as Pete tries to lasso stalactites to hold the raft. He unfortunately gets pulled into the river as the raft goes over the waterfall. Everyone else manages to hold on and stay on. Pete manages to get himself back to the raft

Unfortunately, the raft hits the side of the cave and is damaged to the point of breaking, though it is still usable.

Looking ahead, the river splits around a large stalactite, one side has what seems like a glow and Salayc directs the raft in that direction.

There don't appear to be hidden creatures in the water, but there are stalactites hanging from the ceilings and stalagmites from the floor. There is a shoreline that Salayc attempts to direct the raft towards.

With some help from Athtar, Salayc manages to change the heading of the raft to follow the shoreline. Benjamin attempts to stop the raft by using Helpful Steps to place a ladder in the way of the raft. The raft ends up crashing into a stalactite and is destroyed. Athtar, Pete, and Pete manage to avoid getting hit by the stalactite, but Salayc gets hit.

The group manages to grab onto Benjamin's ladder and climb onto the shoreline. To the group's right are various patches of glowing mushrooms. To the left is another cavern leading deeper into the mountain.

The group decides to explore the mushroom cavern. Salayc recognizes these as patches of mind hammer mushrooms. He notices the small skeletons of animals in the base of each mushroom patch. The mind hammer mushrooms emit a psyonic screech to any creature within the patch as a defensive mechanism.

AS the group discusses where to go, Athtar notices a small squid-like creature clinging onto a stalactite. It has a toothed mouth facing down toward the ground. He recognizes it as a Dark Mantle. Athtar has seen their aquatic variants on the ships. They are only found in the highest layer of the underdark and are otherwise uncommon. They have the uncanny ability to create an effect akin to the darkness spell, used to hunt prey.

The group opts to head the other way they saw. The cavern immediately splits into two paths. On the path to their left, they see many webs. The group opts to head the other way.

Eventually the path forks again. They continue along the same direction instead of forking. They emergy out of the cavern and back into the mushroom cave. They do see another two dark mantles on the ceiling. They lock onto the group and attack.

They manage to clear out all the