Northward from the demons and celestials is a very strange place. Flesh covered walls and strangely warm hallways are a vibe unlike the others. There are signs of struggles and HOLY CRAP! They’re attacked by some kind of beholder-spider with machete arms. The struggle is real and Digin is felled yet again, though the helpful Sniffles props him back up so he can take another beating.
Wandering around…the odd trap…abandoned laboratory with hints of ghastly experiments. Find a drider statue…Oh wonderful! Drow! They’re always fun. Find some stores of oil…find rooms full of undulating flesh and sticky tendrils that might be trying to digest the party…roll out the barrels! Flaming barrels burn away enough stuff that they rush to a hallway and then find themselves engaged in combat with strange lamprey worms. Fight the worms and press onward into a Draw stronghold.
A sure sign that the party is getting panicky is their willingness to parley in the face of so much experience. Parley leads to interesting information brought to the fore. This drow captain is in conflict with the driders that experiment on him and his kin. But, the driders are chosen of Lolth, so direct action is inadvisable. Still, if the party will slay his transformed brother and investigate hi untrustworthy ally to the south, he will arrange for them to escape eastward – through a fiery realm ruled by an imprisoned red dragon of exceptional heft and concentrated evil. Great.
The group sets off and encounters flesh eating mosses and angry plants. They are waylaid by a drider sorcerer and resort to chucking around barrels of agent orange to quell the masses of dangerous plants. They get Digin to break down the door while shielded by silence and manage to conduct a long-range war of attrition with the monstrosity on the other side of the door…sitting in a metal bowl, suspended by chains over a lake of lava, fed by a river of molten rock. Finally Digin goes to hack it down and the threat is ended. The group skedaddles…not wanting to be caught by drow or drider at the scene of the murder. They retrace steps and return to debrief the drow captain.
They depart the following day to try and suss out the guilt or innocence of a particular naga, but it is decided that simply killing her and then claiming she was betraying the drow is a much faster mean to an end. Digin ends up chopping her in half with a single blow…so that is that. The report is delivered and the paranoid drow is relieved to know he was right all along. On that note, they are escorted eastward and informed that should they return, they will be seen as invaders and dealt with accordingly. Whatever. Eastward ho!
Into a huge fiery cavern complete with lava dolphins in a river of flaming rock, fire giants, salamanders, flaming dwarves, slavery, smithing, combat and who knows what else. The invisible flying party skirts the action by heading over all of it. They eventually find their way to disused hallways that are trapped with nearly lethal traps that lead to other trapped hallways and a bewildering number of angelic statues, most of which are trapped. One route leads to the back of a cage complex that houses a number of mutant wyverns. Some subterfuge and a tiny bit of luck and they ‘re into another maze of hallways and traps. They get ambushed by a host of odd floating spider vultures but manage to kill them all. Time for a nap!
After a day or two, the humidity levels start rising and they enter into an even larger cavern, formed by some inrush of water that destroyed the walls of the corridors and sank much of the flooring. The place is big, but the eagle eyed Sniffles thinks there is land to the east. They start moving southward to see if they can get around the shore when there is an attack by rock wurms that draw the attention of a massive green dragon that comes over and does its level best to kill them all, starting by landing on Digin and crushing the hirsute hero beneath it. He axes it a question and it decides the answer is death.
The dragon’s demise is observed by watchers in the waves and when the group makes its way to the swampy shore they saw before, it is clear the dragon lived here. It is also clear that the water level is rising. They find and release a caged creature that informs them that the balance of power has titled with the death of the dragon and the rising waters are a sign that the devil-kraken is starting an assault.
Ain’t nobody got time for that. They were promised an exit to the east and to the east they want to go. Some more exploration by flying eyes and it appears there is a mist coming from the ceiling – that turns into droplets – that turns into a waterfall pouring out of the ceiling, at least two miles above the water below. Quick! Deploy the pitons and prepare to hang out on the roof, like a bunch of deranged bats!
Fingers grabs rock hammer, spikes and a rope and worms his way up into the waterfall. Eventually he locates a fairly flat bit of rock slab that the party can sit upon. The night passes slowly and uncomfortably, but no one falls to their doom. Light is visible at one point and the group’s spirits are lifted. Another day of digging and levering out stones that plummet miles to the water below and…and…and…they’re out! Standing in the bottom of a lake bed, ringed by mountains with no idea where they are, but they know where they aren’t! They aren’t trapped in there anymore!