Throk finished explaining the underdark region we were in as he recovered from his acid burns. The area is called Gracklesnark pass, and it is mostly a vast cavern that takes days to cross. The tunnel we were in was one of several branches that led out of the pass and without a guide or personal experience they can be very hard to locate. There are of course places of extreme danger as well as likely many areas of hidden treasure in the region for the daring to find. Maybe if I didn’t have a direct purpose for being down here, I would be more interested in those. For now, it is on to the Great Forge as safely as we can.

He immediately hit our first problematic area. The tunnel we were using to get to the opened to the pass at a field of toxic mushrooms. Throk indicated it would take a while to cross the mushroom and we would need to hold our breath as we did so due to the spores being highly hallucinogenic and toxic. Additionally, there are some mushrooms in the field that scatter their spores explosively when disturbed. He indicated that at a safe pace it would take about three minutes to walk through. That was doable for me, but everyone else seemed uneased by the prospect. He started walking and Phelenia, Ronin, Olrok, and I followed. Zephyr said he would need to run rather fast through to hold his breath for the trip not be impacted by the spores, so he stayed behind.

As we walked Olrok suddenly grabbed me and yelled to watch out. I was about to step on one of the explosive spores. However, in yelling he inhaled some of the spores lingering in the air. A couple steps later he stopped holding his breath and started to wander off course. Phelenia and Ronin were struggling to hold their breath and had to keep walking so they could escape the mushroom patch before they too were affected. I grabbed my rope and managed to lasso Olrok. I tried to pull him through the patch, but he reacted violently. He started struggling against me, screaming and flailing his hands wildly while screaming of demons. I struggled against him for nearly a minute, but I was beginning to feel the compulsion to take a breath. Throk arrived, having been sent by Phelenia and Ronin, and helped me pull Olrok, but I had to let go of the rope so that I could run out of the mushroom patch before I became a hallucinating mess as well.

I sprinted out of the mushroom patch, avoiding any exploding mushroom more by luck than by spotting any. I took a couple deep breaths and then turned to run back in and help Throk. To my surprise, Throk had already covered half the distance with Olrok. The pale sort-of-troll managed to pick up the half-orc and carry him. Olrok was in too bad a mental state to use his axe and only was managing to beat on Throk with his hands. It probably hurt, but the troll healing would make quick work of anything Olrok was doing.

Thork put Olrok down near Phelenia, Ronin, and I, but he did not calm down. Instead, Olrok became angry and panicked, calling the four of us demons. A magical tendril lashed out from him and struck Phelenia across the face. We dogpiled Olrok and while Throk held him down I maneuvered the loose dirt nearby to cover up his entire body except his head. Throk pulled an elixir out of his bag and fed it to Olrok. Olrok started to calm down a bit and we breathed a sign of relief. Until Throk said that the antidote to the spores killed half of the people that consumed it. We ended up waiting two hours to see if Olrok pulled through.

In the end the half-orc was tough enough to withstand the cure and was both confused and apologetic when he came to. I feel a little responsible for what happened as he wouldn’t have breathed in any spores if I had spotted the exploding mushroom before nearly stepping on it. Still, he could have pushed me instead of saying anything. Zephyr managed to make it through okay. He arrived as I was piling dirt onto Olrok. Apparently, he intentionally set off some of the explosive mushrooms in advance with his sling and used them as safe zones; hoping as best he could from cleared spot to cleared spot.

I didn’t get a good look at Gracklesnark Pass until Olrok was recovering and it is hard to describe. I can only see bits of it at a time: the area nearby with my darkvision and glowing sections of far-off light. It mostly feels like we are walking through the night sky. Some sections of the pass that are rather well lit with green fungus and there is a distant area of glowing red crystals that Throk says is where we will stay tomorrow.

Throk was a simple but talkative guide. He explained the various areas that we passed by almost oblivious to the danger that they represented. There was a large underground mountain contained in the pass. At the top was supposedly an altar to a forgotten god that would reward you with some sort of boon for making it to him…although the shadows creatures that haunt the mountain and bird monster at the top are meant to test those that try to reach him. There was a soundless cliff that got no further description. The lack of any further information on it when I asked Throk about it made it seem even more ominous. There was a haunted spire, and at the point where we passed closest, we could hear children singing in our minds. Most of the songs were about killing and eating flesh, which I could appreciate, but they were doing it for fun and not just for food. Finally, there was a deserted village that was rather mundane except for being occupied by demons and us not having any magical weapons to hurt them with. It is good to have a guide.

We arrived at a cliff that dropped into a small valley of massive glowing reddish crystals. The crystals ranged from twenty to over a hundred feet tall and seemed to radiate warmth without truly effecting the temperature in the area. Throk said we would be safe here if we did not harm any of the crystal animals. That was fine with us, the animals probably tasted terrible anyways. It was nevertheless odd to see red a red crystal fox run by with a red crystal rabbit in its mouth.

We set up camp by the largest of the crystals. This one was special in that there was some sort of winged lady preserved in the crystal. Throk says she is called the crystal lady and she had been there for as long as people can remember. Several animals were also encased in crystals around the large central one and I did a small prayer to them. When I did so, I felt a celestial presence. It felt like Zhatkeenmora, but weaker and slightly different. I shared that with the rest of the group, but even Phelenia did not know what that meant.

I was on watch when several crystal wolves started approaching our camp. The did not seem like they were hunting and Throk told us not to hurt the animals so instead I woke up everyone so we could be prepared to defend ourselves if needed. The wolves spread out around the base of the large crystal pillar and became howling in a sort of song. It was quite pretty and it felt like it was calling out, asking me to join in. I shifted into my jaguar form, found a spot in their circle around the pillar, and roared. It was very different from the wolf howls, but the addition seemed to cause a change within the pillar. The crystal lady stirred. She started shifting inside the pillar and then stepped out of it towards me. Ronin joined in the music on his lute and the lady looked back and forth between the two of us. I could only do my roar, but Ronin was a trained bard and managed to harmonize with the wolves...which resulted in the crystal lady walking over to him.

I watched the two of them intently. The lady made musical notes and Ronin told everyone to shut up while he repeated the notes. This went on for several minutes; the lady making notes while Ronin concentrated and repeated them back and everyone else watched the two of them with confused looks. Eventually Ronin figured out the language of the music that the lady was using and he was able to communicate with her. The lady would make notes, Ronin would repeat in common what her musical language meant, and then he could reply back in music.

The lady was Sarimora and she was an archangel trapped in the crystal by a demon lord a long time ago. She said she had limited time outside the crystal and gave us instructions on how to free her. There is a cavern in the shape of a dragon’s maw to the northwest. Inside there is a pick. We will need to find it and use it to crush the heard of the cave’s guardian. After giving us the information, Sarimora said her time was up and she started walking backwards to the crystal, almost against her will. It wasn’t until she was back in and beyond our reach that we thought to ask if we were looking for a pickaxe or a musical pick. Ronin, Zephyr and Phelenia assumed musical. Olrok, Throk, and I thought pickaxe. I also know of a dragon maw cave on the surface that is only a couple days away from Keatinstown. It is supposedly not a safe place, but I have never heard of a guardian being there.

We continue to travel safely through the underdark. I am more and more grateful for Throk with each passing day. This place would be downright impossible to traverse safely without his help. I told him as much and he said that this trip is going better than expected. He anticipates we will reach the Great Forge tomorrow. He also said that he usually loses a quarter of the people that he is hired to guide. It would have been nice to know that upfront…but it still has seemed to work out.