Part Seven: Meet the new boss..

"It's only a model."

After returning to Underwatch following a triumphant battle against a godsdream ore golem and drow geomancer, the party receives a heroes welcome as they approached the town with the newly freed dwarven slaves. The locals and the captain of the guard praises the party and invites them to a banquet that evening in their honor, hoping to learn more of their adventures.

While passing the town gates, a dwarven maiden looks at Quinn with an overly serious look, or rather at something on his person. The rest of the party goes about getting cleaned up and getting their items repaired.

Underwatch is a large circular town with thick dwarven crafted brick walls. In the eastern half is a over sized watchtower that houses an ale tavern on the ground floor, with an inn above that, followed by a worshipping temple primarily dedicated to the god Moradin (but also having other religious houses), and finally at the top a dwarven watch area fitted with heavy dwarven artillery.

Underneath in the tower's basement is a large furnished banquet hall, where the head figures and the party gather that evening to exchange stories and have dinner. The food is an excellent feast with a giant sized roasted boar and ever flowing cups of dwarven ale. Revah, being the discerning elf, preferred wine and less offensive meal choices, and quietly whispers his distaste to himself.

Later while Quinn is weaving the tale of what occured in the shallows, the dwarven lady who met his eyes at the gate earlier, bluntly interrupts him. She demanded to know where he obtained the armor he arrived in, claiming it belonged to her missing husband, Hamilston.

Quinn stopped his story and thought for a moment. Then the paladin told them about finding a body that had been laid to rest in the giant mushroom patch. He was probably killed either by the myconids, or possibly the drow.

Also at the table, a small group of the enslaved dwarves, who were also being honored, seemed to be nervously looking at each other. Riardon notices the dwarven companions giving one of thier elders an imploring look.

Finally, Zurik, a dwarven cleric and one of the freed slaves spoke up.

 He told the tale of how the party of thirteen dwarves ventured down into the shallows, at first wanting nothing but to raid the drow treasury in a thirst for revenge and gold. After they had their rogue sneak ahead to the drow common room (which connected to the small treasure chamber) he discovered the dark elves at war with a wrackspawn from the deep. While the dozen or so drow finished off the abomination, the dwarves noticed there were more approaching. Originally they were going to loot the treasury, but they also knew about the torture dens of the underdark. That was where the wrackspawn took the essences of all manners of creatures, leaving behind thier weapons, armor and other material goods, having no interest in them.

Ultimately the regiment of the drow house guard fell and the dwarves swooped in managing to finished off the last of the now wounded wrackspawn. They then pressed further, hoping to find the infamous torture den.

Moments later, they got their wish. They come across a large cavern with various bodies of creatures and humanoids scattered about. However, they weren't alone.

A large, malevolent muscular humanoid floated in the air hovering in a dull purplish glow. It had a head, but the face had no physical features. It also appeared to have feathered wings that were once removed, leaving nothing but scarred stumps. Also constantly orbiting its body was long lengths of chains, infused with horrid spikes. It appeared to be pulling the souls out of recently slayed foes. Realizing immediately they had made a terrible mistake, the dwarves ran in terror. Only one escaped.

They heard a maniacal laugh in their heads as they realized they'd been spotted by the dreaded angel of torment. A blackness out of nowhere seemed to fervently consume them.

When they awoke, they found their legs hobbled in some twisted homage to some underground lord. They didn't know why they weren't dead, maybe another regiment of drow 'rescued' them. However, while they were at least glad to be alive, they were still in a dire predicament. Soon after, some dark elves handed them over to the ogres and gnolls as mining slaves.

Zurik finally drew the conclusion that Hamilston had made it away from the angel and the drow, but met his end above in the shallows, probably searching for help or a way out. The cleric stood for a silent moment and then finally whispering an apology to the widow, saying it was their fault for being so greedy and he might still be alive if they hadn't strayed from their original plan.

In that somber moment, the dinner came to a conclusion, and everyone went their seperate ways. The party being exhausted, turned in for the night.

Sevah dreamed.

The young deity was in a battle with the primordial dragon, fiercely fighting in the vast underground caverns. Garash reared around and impaled the god in the legs with his horns into the ceiling. The pain was unbearable and would have instantly killed any mortal man. However, Torog simply smiled and seemed to exhibit a dull ecstasy.


He laughed at Garash's foolish attack, and while he was still pinned, began to slash with his weapon. The dragon roared fiercely, but knew it's life was coming to an end. As he lay dying, Garash cursed the young god, forever making his wounds never to heal.


In a malicious rage, Torog begins tearing down cities into the Underdark. With one seemingly effortless gesture, a giant bleeding hand reaches up and slowly pulls down the town of Underwatch.

Sevah bolted upright in his bed after the horrific images, and looked down upon his hands, realizing he hadn't removed all the debris of the godsdream rock. In the morning, the elf ranger told his companions and the dwarven captain about his vision.

The rest of the party loaded up on supplies and equipment ready to head back to the Underdark while Japeth spent some time in the tower temple researching the deity Torog, or as he's better known "The King that Crawls" to those afraid to usher his name.  He learned the deity is very "hands on" when it came to doing his bidding, having no true avatars or minions. The only creatures he may rarely usefor his biddings are the occasional angel of torment, as witnessed earlier by the dwarven adventurers.

Interested in the torture dens and what may lie beyond the locked door, the party set out, returning once more to the Underdark shallows.