Jinx : OOtA 1

I always knew coming to shore was an iffy proposition. Land lovers are like a whole different species. But we (various crew) were drowning our sorrows as we said goodbye to our great captain. I had a friend I'd met before in Luskan and he was supposed to meet me there again. I had looked forward to it but didn't really care. Instead I got into a serious drinking contest.   When I woke up in the dark, I was disoriented. There was enough light to make things out but nothing looked right. I went to rub my eyes and realized I was chained to a rock wall with a bunch of other people. They were all in their skivies and I looked down and saw I had been stripped of all my belongings and clothes too. I found out soon enough from the talk from other prisoners around me that we were in the underdark and were to be sold as slaves by the Drow. I tried to remember what had happened the night before but drew a blank.   With the aid of a few sympathetic guards, several of us were able to escape. With part of an old crappy thieves' tool set a sympathetic guard left behind, I was able to free as many of us as possible and we took off. Jinx Most of my companions were dwarves though there was a gnome. I was the tallest person there. It made me feel conspicuous. There were people of a sort I had never come across on the sea. There was a Derro for example.   I used the tools to break into a guard post and we found some makeshift weapons and a lot of spider silk.   I realize I've made it sound easier than it was. There were a lot of problems for people trying to get down from the webbing. There were Etterkin or some such creature after us. I had started out with Misty Step so I didn't have any trouble getting down but one poor dwarf got caught up in the webbing that was dropped into the river and nearly drowned. That turned out to be Huldir. Boy was he a grumpy one.   After we had been gone a day or two, a human joined us. He had overtaken his Drow captors and never had to suffer the humiliation of having no clothes and being chained to the wall. He was a human and at least as tall as me.   The human was a ranger and knew how to find food. One of the people who had helped us escape wanted to head towards a Kuotoa town and it was the closest so that's where we headed. We were fugitives and we didn't have a lot but we had a few Drow weapons and a holy symbol and other bits and pieces we hoped to sell in the Kuatoa city. One of the dwarves, a cleric of all things, found some geodes along the way. We were able to trade that stuff in before we got to the Kuotoa town. The Kuotoa back in the prison had suggested the closest town was Sloobludop and so we were still heading there but met a small encampment of fishermen who traded some things with us. I finally got some clothes to wear though everything was too short and too lose.   We found a potion of greater healing and a couple of other things as we kept going. I started getting to know the other people I escaped with. Saureth was a Drow and he was the one I trusted least naturally. I kept thinking he was helping us to set up some kind of trap or something but I was wrong. Jarzak was the gnome and he was a wizard. Gael was the human ranger. There were four dwarves with us. Menrin was a Druid. Huldir was a gloomstalker ranger and can see well in the dark. Thorand was a cleric. The other dwarf was a female named Eldeth. She had ginger hair. The cleric dwarf seemed to take a real shine to her. She was always really helpful and would literally give people a hand up. There were two Dero with us, Bupido and Stool. Stool was really friendly and sweet. Bupido was a little weird and I heard him muttering a couple of times. He seemed knowledgeable but Thorand was suspicious of him and I was too. We lost a couple of people who had escaped with us. One morning we awoke to find that Saureth had been murdered in his sleep. It was murder and it was done ritualistically. We didn't know what to think at first but then Stool was killed the same way a couple of nights later. It was Thorand who caught Bupido. He wanted us to hold him captive but we were right in the middle of something exciting. Thorand tied him up and left him to help us.   We had spotted something up on this ledge; we saw 4 hook hoor eggs. I don't know why we wanted those eggs so much. We had to fight a grown Hook Hoor and I remember Eldeth letting us climb over her to reach it. She was a good sport. The excitement of having a pet got to some of us and we wanted those eggs. Gael, Menrin, Huldir, and I all got an egg. After the excitement was over, we went back to get Bupido but he had escaped. Thorand took it hard.   Not long after that, we found treasure. I could see into this hole that led us to a crypt where it looked like there might be treasure. I am by nature, or upbringing, a rogue, good at sneaking and stealthing and have no qualms about taking things from people who are dead or people who don't need the stuff. Gael was just as intent on getting into that crypt as I was. Jarzak found a necklace of fireballs. There were about four chambers in the crypt and we got a bunch of loot but nothing was as exciting as the sarcophagus that Gael and I pryed open. Laying right on top was a sword, a beautiful sunsword, but more than that, it was a sentient sword with a name; Dawnbringer. She was mine. Huldir wasn't too happy about me having a sun sword because he can lurk around in the dark without anybody seeing him.   We got a whole bunch of good stuff. It made me forget all about Bupido the crazy killer Dero. None of us had ever seen fesswris before, it looked like any other fungus. Even Gael didn't know what it was but it was growing all over the walls of the crypt and when Jarzak cast something, I think it was misty step or feather fall so others could come down to the chamber where Gael and I were, the fesswriss made his magic go haywire and he cast a fireball instead. It was terrible. Eldeth was killed. We were all upset but none of us more than Thorand. Menrin cast some Druid spell for healing and instead of healing, it produced a unicorn! It was the first time I ever saw a unicorn and it was in the underdark.   I was really sad about Eldeth but we got a lot of great treasure. It was better than anything I ever found pirating. We continued on our way to to that Kuotoa town even though that guy hadn't survived a fall. Karzak disappeared one night and we knew he hadn't been killed or anything because he took his stuff with him. We still don't know why. Maybe he felt guilty over Eldeth.   We now had plenty of coin and gems and other treasures but we still didn't have food.   Gael was finding Ripplebark which is a fungus or a mushroom that's edible.It looks horrible but it actually tastes great once you roast it.   It seems strange but there were times when our small group of strange runaways laughed loud and long over things like Hook Hoor eggs. Gael decided to sit on his egg, thinking it would help it hatch faster. It is still a picture I conjure up when I need to laugh. Huldir is another Dwarf. He too is a ranger. He's very loud and likes to act like he doesn't care about anything but I've come to know him a little and know that he cares about a lot of things. He crafted armor for me that has resistence to petrification. He spent a lot of time and effort and I consider it a great gift. He and Thorand liked to go back and forth with each other insulting and carrying on but in a brotherly fashion. It reminded me of my shipmates. Menrin though had the ability to make me laugh like I never have before. He had a fresh look on life it seems and he always got my jokes.   We had to take comfort from each other and humor to get us through. We had started out with quite a number of folks. We were now down to just Gael, Huldir, Thorand, Menrin, and me. We had lost over half of our group.   I suppose I was closest to Gael but it was only natural because he was human and I am Elf and most of my crewmates were human or half human at least. I was just getting to know some of the others when they left or died. Jarzak disappeared fairly early on. I mean he was there, but not there. I think that him killing an innocent person, Eldeth really upset him. We would see him again but he was never part of the party afterwards.Jinx: The Underdark gets darker. We lose a dear friend