The party walk to the edge of the pit and dismally realizes it falls all the way through the massive island. However, Seveh notices a sewer outlet embedded into one of the side cliff faces. The adventurers lowered themselves slowly down using a large amount of rope, until they could safely traverse to the sewer exit.
As the last party member set foot into the exit, the foul stench overcame their senses. Miscellaneous garbage and litter was thrown about the large tunnel. No sign of the drow was in view, however there was a door at the far end of the sewer way. Also in the far ceiling was a large rusted metallic iris door, with various slimes and oozes slowy dripping down. As the party cautiously pressed on, they heard a rallying cry, and footsteps stormed down stairs and the the door at the far end begun to open. Ki-Amar jumped across the foul smelling waters and bottle necked the attackers from above. After a few footmen fell to the swordmage and his companions, the footman captain closed the door and barked out the order "Flush 'em!"
Immediately the metal iris in the ceiling begun to grind open, and a disgusting mass of sewage and filth plopped down and filled up the far end of the room. Some of the party member lost their footing and fell prone. As they begun to regain their composure, the recently dropped mass begun to writhe and wiggle, slowly coming to life.
A large disgusting mass begun to take form and attack the party, flinging filth and excrement at the adventurers. Riardon threw a flaming sphere at the wretched elemental, while Ki-Amar held his position stopping any guards from entering into the fray. After some more immolating attack and splattering blows, the sewer elemental was slain. Now the party turned their attention back to the congested doorway.
A few more guards stood between the adventurers and the topside. With deftly placed blows and a few more unleashed magic missiles, the stairway was now clear and accessible.
A the top of the stairs, the party found themselves in a circular room filled with crates and storage containers. They pressed on and found another set of stairs leading even further up. As they lumbered towards the surface, Sevah heard another rally cry coming farther ahead. They took their places in another circular storage room and waited patiently for the attackers.
As the half a dozen troops poured into the surface storage room, the were met with arrows and blades that lay hidden in ambush and quickly dispatched. Amongst the carnage, Sevah spies a stairways that leads even farther up, into a tower connecting to some upper walkways. The ranger leads the party upstairs, hoping the high level approach will avoid further contact from more, large groups of the patrolling guardsmen.
Atop the tower walls, Sevah spies a few lone watchmen standing their post at various intervals. The party figures they can quickly take out the guards, however, something sinister catches the ranger's eye. At the end of the large walkway above, at the final tower in the center, three robed figures appear to be completing a ritual of some kind.
Sevah ducks down in wait, as the rest of the party members finish ascending the stairs. As they hunker down out of sight of the guards and ritual casters, they feel a massive rumble beneath their feet. A loud crashing, crumpling sound is heard in the distance as a bridge falls into the abyss below. Stalagmites collapse and burning brazers tumble into darkness as their flames flicker and wink out of existence.
Riardon confirms that the fortress and the hovering island are now moving laboriously through the large underdark cavern.
The ranger stealthily approached the first guard in the upper walkway. The let a pair of arrows fly, and soon the rest of the party caught up and finished off the lone watchmen from his post. As a few other watchmen scurried over from the other towers, Riardon noticed the robed figures didn't move, but nearby a large patrol group was pouring out of a trapdoor on the roof.
The last of the watchmen fell easily, being outnumbered and outmatched.
As the party prepared themselves for the last onslaught of patrolmen, Quinn saw a familiar figure trying to open the front gate of the central tower. He started to run down and confront the dark elf, when he witnesses a large disfigured shape hurl itself from the top of the tower. With a fluid horrific motion the wrackspawn demon seizes the drow by his head with one talon like hand, and lifts him effortlessly off the ground. Then a large scalpel looking blade hidden in his other hand impales the dark elf and he lets out a final dying yell. The towering wrackspawn demon tosses the lifeless drow body aside and fixes his murderous gaze on Quinn.
The rest of the party finishes dealing the patrol above and start to attack the robed figures. As they start to do damage, the realize with each hit, the fortress and the island start to sway and lurch. Not certain if they should press and finish off the drivers, they realize that the robed figures are using arcane magic to keep them adrift with the aid of some magical runes embedded on the floor.
Riardon claims if they slay them, he should be able to take control of the tower being a practitioner in the arcane arts. Quickly the party dispatched the enemies atop the tower and have control of the fortress, with the exception of the wrackspawn below. As fast as possible the adventurers run down the final tower stairs hoping to meet up with Quinn.
At the bottom of the stairs lays a horrific scene of dismembered bodies and an crudely made operating table. Various limbs hang from chain hooks while scalpels and cleavers line the wall, stained with blood and rust. In the center of the room on the floor, pools of blood and waste slowly empty into a clogged, covered drain. Sevah noticed one of the butchered bodies had a symbol of a drow house matriarch, barely recognizable.
Despite the nightmarish surroundings, the rest of the party go through the room and the tower gate, pressing on into the courtyard to meet up with Quinn.
The paladin takes a wicked piercing stab that seems to penetrate his plate armor as he looks like hes about to stumble. Quickly he lays on hands and his grievous wounds start to close, although he's not too certain how much longer he can trade blows with this monstrosity. Soon he hears the war cry of a half orc barbarian from behind the wrackspawn and watches and a huge heavy flail comes down smashing the wrackspawn surgeon into the side of it's head. Suddenly, the blows from the wrackspawn don't seem so heavy, and Quinn musters up the courage to stand his ground. Ki-Amar trades barbs and gets the demon's attention while Brother Japeth delivers some much needed healing to the paladin. Within a few rounds, a final arrow streaks from Sevah in the tower above, shattering the wrackspawn surgeon in the back of it's head as it collapses before the feet of the mighty Quinn.
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The party gathers together and decide to have Riardon remain atop to steer the fortress, unsure of where the cavern leads them. They also decide to investigate the surgeon's lair and try and make some sense of this madness.
While the island fortress slowly hovers in the caverns of the underdark, Sevah thinks they should investigate the drain in the surgeon's chambers, noticing it probably leads down below into more unexplored sewer chambers. Also among the bloody debris and remains, Brother Japeth finds a procedural manual. After reading through the contents, he finds a chapter on safely removing the extra appendages four of the party members acquired recently.
With the help of the tome and surgical instruments, the cleric removes the troll arms and carrion crawler tentacle from the party members. While they offered a boon in combat, they realized any return to the civilized would have been near impossible. After an extended rest, they decide to continue down into the remaining, unexplored sewer drains.
After stifling back gags and the mage securely at the helm of the fortress, they open up the drain and climb down rusted ladder into the unexplored depths. Below they find themselves standing atop a rusted metal grate surrounded by the rotted decayed remain of the wrackspawn surgeon's victims. They also come to the conclusion they aren't alone among the refuse. Ghostly blue lights flicker from around the corners as Sevah spots the spirits of the deceased looking for vengeance upon those in the area. As the party press forward to meet the wraths head on, an enveloping darkness swallows the paladin's light source. With light still behind them, the wraths are easily dispatched although the darkness continues to creeps towards them, extinguishing any light in comes across.
Soon, a large mass of perpetual dark energy and flailing tentacles emerge and attack the party, trying to consume any light sources and hope for survival in the foul smelling sewers. While the battle ensues, more wraths glide through the walls below and take up positions trying to steal the life of the adventurers. Althought being pushed to their limits, the party in triumphant in the skirmish.
Meanwhile, atop the central tower, Riardon the mage spies a white flying creature in the far far distance in the cavern. He pull the fortess down to a crawl, barely moving forward hoping to avoid any contact with whatever lies ahead. After a few held breaths, the white colored dragon vanishes from sight. He begins to slowly propel the hovering fortress forward some more. After a few hours he notices what appears to be some sort of makeshift dock in the side of a cliff. He also notices some lit brazers, seeming to match the ones the party encountered earlier on the bridge. He directed the fortress towards the docking area, and soon the fortress ship had a mind of it's on, slowly but gently guiding itself foward.
Below the party had finally found an obscene amount of leftover treasure, although they had to rifle through the bodies in the sewer to find them. They came away with pouches of unwanted coin, soiled yet useable armor pieces, and some weapons, once polished up, seeming to give off a magical hue.
This was their first encounter with a torture den in the underdark, one of Torog's many. They were basically constructed for a homage to the king that crawls, who relishes in the cries of the tormented and bathes in the cries of anguish. A dread feeling overcame the party when they realized this was one of the tamer ones, as it was closer to the surface than the others. What lies further down below caused them to question the wisdom of continuing on.
Riardon parked the fortress at the cliffside docks with little effort on his behalf. They walked off the rotting planks and onto solid ground for the first time in a while, slowly overcoming their motion sickness. Near the dock entrance, Sevah noticed a campfire that had burned down to it's embers. Among the makeshift campsite were what appeared to be more wrackspawn, yet these seemed somehow devoid of their previous spry lives. The ranger let an arrow fly and and it hit one square in it's sleeping chest. Riardon picked up two more of them and dropped them off the cliff, into the abyss below, certain they'd never survive that fall.
As the party engaged the remaining wrackspawn, Quinn notices a puncture mark in the back off the wrackspawn's head. They also didn't seem to fight like the previous wrackspawn they encountered, seeming uncoordinated and lifeless.
After slaying the witless guards, the party searched the camp area. There was another dock nearby, complete with lit brazers, and also there was a large iris opening door, flat on the ground in the ground nearby. It seemed to pull away into four equal parts when unlocked, and inside was a rusted ladder mounted on the side descending into darkness.
The party took a quick rest, then slowly descended into the darkness below, climbing down although they weren't certain what was ahead.
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