Hey, Everyone!
Last time on "Mell tells you about her D&D adventures": Mary Windfiddle was travelling as a security escort for lord Dwendel and his family. The party was attacked by a giant worm which didn't seem to be interested in eating anyone but rather stole some of their employer's treasure and went back to its tunnel. By demand of lord Dwendel, the adventurers went in after it to retrieve the stolen fortune.
The tunnel was slimy and dark. The walls were covered in some kind of goop, probably secreted by the worm. The floor went slightly downwards but almost horizontally. It wasn't too difficult for Mary and her companions to walk inside.
There were three other adventurers. The two human men didn't like each other ever since their journey began. The first was named Jared and had a big sword and even bigger self confidence. He was always talking about the things he'd killed and the women he'd… Mary didn't want to know about that part so when he would start bragging she usually excused herself and went to read her books.
The second human was called Aurum and he carried a guitar strapped to his back. At first Mary was apprehensive towards him. Being raised by a bard family, she was expecting to be asked to sing and dance at every possible moment. However, Aurum didn't seem to be the singing type, at least not without a few pints of beer beforehand. Not unlike Jared, though, he was boastful. He always talked about his adventures and partners, and about every little quirk they had. Mary prefered her book characters, thank you very much.
The third adventurer, Bruno, was a dwarf. Mary had seen him a couple of times outside of Pamagos' guard quarters, probably seeking work for hire like her. He was strange even for a dwarf. His hair and beard were white but his face was young. So far during the journey, he was mainly keeping to himself, tinkering with his armor and weapons, although one time he started listing all his brothers and sisters and it was a looong list. He was also raised in a mine so walking down the worm's tunnel was like second nature for him.
And so, the four-person party went underground. At the beginning Aurum was lighting the way with a neat spell that Mary felt a bit envious of. She wasn't able to produce light yet, if she were to be left in the darkness, she'd be as blind as a bat.
After a while Bruno stopped them. The echo of their steps, he said, indicated that after the next turn the tunnel was widening into a cavern. Aurum extinguished the light and in the darkness they began hearing the sounds of a distant talk. The humans lined up behind Bruno, the only one who could see now, and continued their way.
The cavern turned out to be quite big, with several other slimy tunnels leading away. There was a small fire lit in the distant end. Around it there were several dark dwarves (Duergar, Mary remembered the name she'd read in a book once, the dwarves that were tortured by a dark entity and lost their souls) and, for her surprise, a light elf. They were arguing, the elf seemed scared and was talking of leaving the caves and going "back", the dwarves threatened him with "what happened to Ugarhos". The elf looked at the wall, pale faced. There was an ominous reddish-brown splatter there, a few feet up, as if something huge had flatten someone against the rock.
Soon, the strange group parted ways. The elf and most of the dwarves went in one direction. One of the dwarves, who was especially angry at the mention of Ugarhos' fate, remained. He took lord Dwendel's treasure chest and, murmuring and cursing, started dragging it away into another tunnel.
Mary's party followed him from afar.
This is where I'm going to make another break, y'all. This adventure is turning out to be longer than expected, and it's just the first one.
I hope you like reading those 😁 But even if you don't, I sure liked writing them 😅
Next time on “Trouble Under the Road”: what happened to lord Dwendel's chest? What was in it? What did the adventurers do with that Duergar dwarf? And, last but not least, is Mary capable of murder?
See you then!
Take care and be well!