Under the Dark 1

 

Objective

Explore the southwest tunnels in the underdark and uncover information about the enemy.
 
 

Observations

-The enemy has a strange system that is a metal box on a rail, it travels through the tunnels very quickly and can transport things.
 
 
  -The Southern Darkness does not extend to the tunnels underground.
 
 
  The enemy has harnessed the crystals in the cave as a source to power their contraptions.
 

Follow up

We need someone to check out the the railway and see where it goes.
 
 
  Also, someone should determine if the crystals the enemy are using are grown or natural.
 
 
  There is a giant crystal spider somewhere down there. It moves. Not sure where it went, someone should investigate.
 

Preparation Details

We received a map, thankfully a couple of us knew where we were going already.
 

Operation Details

We got a map.
 
 
  Hour long walk between outpost and cave.
 
 
  The cave entrance was covered in snow. We melted the snow and descended.
 
 
  The map was leading us southwest to the crystal caves.
 
 
  We lost track of time in the endless darkness.
 
 
  We arrived at a sort of junction with many branching paths.
 
 
  We traversed the most downward path for 25 minutes.
 
 
  We found the altar room and continued south into the crystal tunnels.
 
 
  Crystals could be natural or gardened by the enemy. We suspect they are gardening the crystals, but someone more skilled in geology should check it out.
 
 
  I cast detect magic in the crystal tunnel.
 
 
  Detect magic results: Crystals seem to glow a little brighter, the light they give off is magic itself. I see pulses of magic up and down the path, like a wave from crystal to crystal. Divination magic is projecting in both directions. Spying on us? Other magic from schools I don't recognize are present. Some necromancy, some evocation, very weak, barely detectable. After a minute I see more magic. Pulses of various magic. The magic is bouncing back and forth from one crystal to another, like a wave. Waves of energy moving down the line. We're walking towards the source.
 
 
  The divination magic is especially concerning, there is a chance the enemy is using the crystals to spy on people walking through the tunnels.
 
 
  As we get 2-3 miles into the cavern we'd see on one of the embankments the form of a spider made entirely out of crystal.
 
 
  Spider description: Large spider the size of a person. Almost indistinguishable from the crystals around us. We thought it could be a statue.
 
 
  We stepped closer. The spider did not move.
 
 
  There were a couple glowing bars 300 feet ahead of us, I scouted out further with the group behind and made myself invisible.
 
 
  We entered the room with the glowing bars and explored a little. There was a big metal rail. The crystals around us began pulsing visibly and quickly. There was the screeching of metal. Some sort of metal contraption rode the rail towards us. It crashed to a halt. It looked like a vessel of some sort, vaguely pill shaped. Some sort of mechanical transport.
 
 
  I hid on top of a nearby rock. The others were right next to the metal thing. One of my teammates threw a rock at the thing.
 
 
  There were many dead bodies in this thing. A soup of viscera.
 
 
  I approached and gave Ilya oil and tinder and told her to set it on fire. She tried and the soup came alive and started attacking us. It wanted to eat Ilya and make her part of the corpse soup.
 
 
  We did manage to set it on fire then it was flaming corpse soup
 
 
  We fought the soup and it died. The transport went away.
 
 
  We explored a half an hour walk down the southern tunnel, but didn't find anything and turned back.
 
 
  The giant spider statue was gone when we returned.
 
 
  On the way back, we paused to investigate the junction room we had previously been in. There was a vertical shaft going upward goes into the darkness. I cast fly on Ilya and myself and we went up to investigate. We flew up for a few minutes and the magical darkness above encroached.
 
 
  We went back to camp after.