The Winding Path
Our party discovered, upon leaving the tomb, that their companions seemed to split into two different groups. One group seemed to retrace their steps, heading back towards the more well-traveled portion of the Underdark. The other group headed deeper along the path. After a brief discussion, Ku lead the party, with Dave just behind him, towards Darklake, and hopefully towards their companions.
The traveling was short. They’d gone maybe a mile before a loud, echoing sound like bone on stone filled the air. Two large beasts, over 8 feet tall with heads like vultures and large hooks where paws would be, scurried across the path, running down into another side tunnel. Two gnolls, tall, dumb looking hyenas on two legs came running behind the beasts, laughing and giggling in their high pitched voices.
The Hunt
After a brief fight, the party killed one of the gnolls; the other ran back the way it had come. It took only a few minutes before the party found him, with several more companions. The fight was bitter, and Ku fell to a gnoll attack. While Dave, Deirdre, Androgina, and Anadar dispatched with the gnolls, one grabbed the fallen Ku, and took off full tilt into the tunnels.
The party was quick to give chase as soon as they had finished off the remaining gnolls, but by then, the gnoll with Ku had a decent lead on them. Deirdre stayed behind, collecting arrows and ensuring that the Gnolls were dead. Dave and Anadar took off, ignoring a side passage until they came to a T in the tunnels. Androgina rushed past Dave and Anadar, leading to the left, unknowingly returning them to where they’d already been. Dave took off after Androgina, thinking they knew where they were going. Anadar, losing his light source, but recognizing the area they’d just been in, called to Dave, causing him to switch direction, and rush after Anadar as they ran into the darkness.
Deirdre finished collecting arrows, and snagged Ku’s dagger, tucking it into her belt. She rushed into the darkness, coming to the side-passage that Anadar and Dave rushed past. While she looked down the passage, a shadowy figure rushed past. Quickly, she rushed down the passage after the dark figure. Her sudden arrival was enough to get the attention of Dave and Anadar, who were about to rush off a side-tunnel. Dave rushed forward, and with a mighty swing of Dawnbringer, took the head off of the Gnoll.
Unfortunately, they found Ku had died of his injuries while being pulled by the gnoll.
The Horrors Nest
Androgina, meanwhile, got lost in a side tunnel. Thinking it was a shortcut, somehow, they rushed headfirst down the narrow path, only to hear the pounding of bone on stone again. Realizing this must have been the path that the hook horrors had rushed down, Androgina quickly changed direction, and began trying to retrace their steps, and find where their party-mates had gone.
Luckily for Androgina, the gnoll that Dave killed had been the final gnoll in the cave system. Thinking it easy to try and call out, they amplified their voice with a simple cantrip. This worked, although it could have lead to their death. Once the party was reunited, they took a moment of silence to remember their fallen comrade.
A Lament of Ku
Ku found himself, lost, dead, in a white area, with rails on the ground, and white benches. A sign hung in the distance said 9 3/4. A kindly old man appeared. His long flowing beard was thick, and his eyes were half-hidden by half-moon spectacles. He sat down with Ku, and had a long conversation, lost to the ages. He seemed to get on a large steam powered device, and moved on.
Or so it might have been.
