It felt strange to return here. If Sekkar could call any place "home" in these tunnels that would be this village with the name he had to spend some time to pronounce clearly (Loopdilploop did not roll off the tong, but he learned). As crazy as kuo-toa were (and they were, all of them) they strangely felt ... appropriate for the place, for the Underdark, that was insane, to begin with, and Sekkar appreciated that consistency.

It was also good to return not as a suspicious outsider but a hero of a sort and he used the momentum to learn as much as he could about the attack and what to expect in the place the group was trying to reach - that Gravenhollow library. Someone had to hear something - there is nothing like the tunnels for whispers and rumors. Even if fish folk did not understand what they heard, they might have heard something. And speaking of fishing - gods and demons! - only now the lizardman realized how much he missed the quiet trade! When he was not talking to one kuo-toa or another, he was lost fishing with the others or alone, it did not matter.

Derendil was less lucky in his acceptance among the villagers. At least at first (maybe at a second too), but eventually, the words of those the group saved and his own unobtrusive manners won some of them over. So much so, he was allowed to fish (in the role of raw power for pulling nets, mostly, but that was the beginning). Derendil, though, was less seeking approval of kuo-toa but tried to pursue something very strange for a quaggoth - learning a language. And not just any language but elven. Sekkar could not help him in that, and Derendil sheepishly tried to talk to all others. Except Kirin (the wizard confused quaggoth the most). And he was careful with bothering Pax. But Kaylyn and Rhayna could hear his much improved "Mára arinya" every morning as well as see that hopeful look of the dedicated pupil on his face. Derendil was not the brightest scholar by far, but compensated some lack of intelligence with a stubborn eagerness.

Kaylyn followed along quietly. She was still troubled by the condition of Pensive. At the first opportunity once they had made their escape she asked Rhayna to heal Pensive. When that was done most of her discomfort had passed. She did not offer to use the helm of teleportation again, preferring to walk at this time. It was not an easy trip but the thought of another mistake with the helm was not welcome.  So far no one had blamed her for not reaching their intended location but she did not wish to try again at this time.

Rhayna's daily use of the increasingly-invaluable Greater Restoration prayer bead does indeed restore Pensive, but it is still several days into the journey before the faithful pseudodragon seems fully aware and alert. Kaylyn is relieved to have him back in mental health, but can tell his enthusiasm for scouting ahead is beginning to wane slightly.

Pax finds rest but little comfort in the village, and certainly nothing in the way of aid for studying. Even when strong and prosperous, the kuo-toa spend little thought on anything beyond hunting, fishing and the latest god of their own creation. Now survival was paramount to them, and so Pax waited patiently for the next opportunity to make use of her small arcane library. Hmmm, the library. Perhaps this Gravenhollow would provide a better environment...

While fishing with the kuo-toa, Sekkar learns that the village elder, Guarapah, was killed during the initial illitid invasion, and takes the news with his usual emotionless tacit acceptance. But still he manages to turn the bittersweet reunion with the kuo-toa to his advantage by gleaning useful information about the surroundings. The terrain hadn't changed much, and the memories of it came back easily enough, but the conditions had changed with new horrors stalking the tunnels and the corruption of the faerzress. The kuo-toa were familiar with the region but knew nothing of the library of Gravenhollow. Certainly they took no thought for such things as libraries, but apparently not having ever discovered the entrance, or been 'invited' to visit, as Yantha suggested was required in order to locate the site.

Kirin mutters to himself as he run with the group about experiments and results that would align with his visually confirmed.  Upon stay at village, Kirin will find a corner where he just think to himself, making notes about what he saw as well as explore the village. (This was village that was attacked right by two headed demon lord?) He'll collect samples of the soils and water from where he heard about the emergung demon lord came from.

(No, this is a different village. The first one was called Sloobludop, which you escaped from when Demogorgon showed up, just before you were about to be sacrificed. That was on the southern/eastern side of the Darklake. You are now far to the northeast, on the shore of a much much smaller lake, and this village is called Loopdilploop.)

Kirin heard in passing about the appearance of a demon lord at a kuo-toa village at the edge of a lake. This one doesn't fit the description really, but since everyone is rather distracted with their own thoughts, the elf wizard does some investigating anyway. The water seems to be potable, although it has a fishy smell. But there is a faint residue of demonic ichor even here. Probably not enough to suggest the presence of a demon lord, even after a great time, but possibly contaminated by the presence of lesser demons at some point between here and its source. Evidently the demonic incursion of the Underdark is quite ubiquitous, and it further strengthens Kirin's theories. However he is still at a loss to explain how so many demons could have emerged in the Underdark in such a short space of time, possibly all at once. Perhaps the library of Gravenhollow will offer some insights...

Pax does move around and check in on each of the group members, making sure they're all whole and ready to move on. Pax walks up to Kaylyn in the later part of the next day after they've had sufficient rest. 

"Well sister. I believe its time we gave that busted hunk of junk on your head another shot. Shall we bid this fishy place goodbye and try once more to get to the library?"

If the others agree, this time Pax prepares properly for battle. She summons the dark shadows around her, cold sparkling in the swirling mists and has the tentacled rod in one hand, ready to engage any unexpected enemies. 

It would be a simple matter of following the instructions given by Yantha Coaxrock, the Blidgenstone gnome wizard met in Mantol-Derith, combined with Sekkar's new information about the surroundings, to make their way through the tunnels to Gravenhollow - about four days' journey. Attempting to teleport to the flumph cloister would half the distance, but any closer and the disruption from faerzress might make the teleportation more erratic and unpredictable..

Pax mutters, "Oh, I mean, we can just walk from here. Nevermind then, lets leave the helmet alone for now. We may need it to get out of a tight spot later...everybody ready for a 4 day hike?  Nice and easy like?"

After leaving the illithid's compound, Rhayna is clearly distracted, more than she is usually distracted with things to discover. Something changed her, and now her mind is obsessed with something, and she doesn't understand why, thought it does feels natural. She chucks it to her new found spore druid powers. On the long way to the kuo-toa's village, she hopes that at every corner they make, she is able to find a deceased body, but finding none, she just gets more frustrated. She also finds that it is strange that she is not able to switch her thoughts to something else, even by trying her hardest. Once the party arrives at the village the oppressive obsession eases slightly, it could be due to new sights that lure her mind. After the party starts to get comfortable in the village, something occurs to her. She smacks herself for forgetting something so important, and runs to Kaylyn.

"I totally forgot that Skriss contacted us before we arrived at Mantol-Derith. She warned us about Demogorgon in Menzoberranzan. I will try to contact her, perhaps check her status." She waits for approval before sending the message. “Should we tell her our current location?”

"Nice." Sekkar nodded. "Easy." Another nod. "For the worm food. Have you ever heard of purple worms? Most tunnels here are their pathways. They hear the sound of the prey or feel it, maybe, and then they come through anything that is on their way - rock, water, sand, they don't care. And they say it's the worm's territory around that place we are going to. We will have to be very, very quiet." Some part of Sekkar was even curious about the future adventure, but the realistic side did not allow to forget the dangers they were about to encounter. And  faerzress... That stuff is bad on a good day. He did not want to even think about "corrupt faerzress".

Sekkar patted Dawnbringer (lately it became a habit) and said out loud not sure if to Pax or to the sword: "Guess we are doing it anyway." He was ready to dive into the tunnels.

Pax considers this, "I wonder perhaps if I should doff my armor for the next part of this journey. It will do me no good if consumed by a purple worm, and may harm us all if it summons one. Thoughts?" 

Pax's armor was more of a piece of art, Apocalypse Survival style (Sekkar could even appreciate it) but it worked and taking that down... "I'd keep it on. Before we reach the worms, there can be - will be - many others who would try to eat us. The worm might also try to sting or crash you before swallowing. Heard of people fighting their way out of warm stomach... Legends, sure, but if there is a chance, armor makes chances bigger? Muffle clinging with some cloth if you must, but I sat, keep it on."

Arriving in Loopdilploop eases Rhayna tension somewhat, but it may in part be due to the number of dead kuo-toa that she discovers scattered around the village. It seems the mind flayers may have invaded on several occasions, each time slaying those who resisted them, and capturing others to use as research to save their dying Elder Brain before disappearing. This probably was taking place for some time before Orcus intervened, after which the focus seemed to be on raising corpses as zombies, with only a few live specimens captured. And so Rhayna finds many corpses that have yet to be cast into the slow-moving stream that flows out of the lake, and although most are destroyed zombified fishfolk, she does find a few untainted by undeath.

Rhayna prepares her carefully-worded message to Skriss, being sure to keep it to twenty-five words or less...

((As before, in the interests of keeping things moving, I'll continue the narrative. However if anyone wants to act on anything I've just posted, I'm happy to backtrack a little))

Having completed what they can at Loopdilploop, the group depart on their four-day voyage. Pax spends the first few hours fretting over her armor, constantly stuffing rags into various joints and glancing around furtively whenever the chain links scrape together loud enough to hear, until the annoyed glances from the others convince her to either desist or walk separate from the group. Deciding against the latter, Pax calms down and makes do as best she can. But although their travels frequently pass through what are clearly worm-tunnels, they do seem to be rather old, and probably haven't seen the passage of a purple worm in years.

On the second day the frequency and size of the faerzress patches starts to increase noticeably. There is also an increasing amount of strangeness about this already strange phenomenon, such as tiny crackling sparks of lightning throughout one patch, or a faint but distateful smell emanating from another. Perhaps it was there before and just not noticed, but certainly it is becoming more pronounced. Whether geography is a factor, or whether it is increasing over time throughout the Underdark is difficult to determine.

Later on the same 'day' of travel, some demonic screeching is heard. It gets louder and louder until finally a small group of dretches led by a balgura comes gibbering down the tunnel toward the group. The demons are easily dispatched by the now-formidable adventurers, but Sekkar, Rhayna and Kaylyn recall encountering a similar set of demons not far out of Velkynvelve, when travelling with the orog Blurg. It seems so long ago.

After two days the tunnel meets and skirts around a rather large lake of lava (larger than Yantha's description of 'small' would have suggested, although Kaylyn isn't surprised, having viewed the memories herself). The lava bubbles away under a soaring dome, the top of which is not visible. The cloister of flumps that is supposed to be here is not visible, but each member of the group senses the most tender of touches on the mind, so soft that it would have been unnoticeable if it wasn't expected. Who knows how often throughout the journey there might have been other occasions when these gentle watchers had marked their passing and supped on their thoughts.

The third and fourth days pass uneventfully, aside from the ever-increasing amount of faerzress, which starts to almost occlude vision through the now-branching and irregular tunnels. In fact the way becomes so difficult, even for such skilled navigators as Kaylyn and Sekkar, that the only explanation seems to be the interference of some kind of magic. When the group find themselves passing the same crystal formation for the third time, they realise that further advance appears futile.

It is just at this moment of frustration that a sound is heard echoing through the tunnels. Singing! To hear such melodic tones in a place such as this feel most unusual, and yet the sound continues to grow. The thought that this might be some kind of audible illusion is briefly considered, but between Kirin, Rhayna and Pax, this possibility is soon eliminated. The words of the song gradually become noticeable, and many different language of both the surface, the Underdark and yet stranger realms begin to be recognised. As the sound grows yet nearer and clearer, a figure appears in view - not a humanoid, but something that walks closer to the ground - but its nature is obscured by the thickness of the faerzress...

Pax casts Invisibility on herself and steps away from the group slightly. She squints her eyes and tries to ignore the sound, hardening her mind for some sort of mental assault.

Before leaving Loopdilploop Rhayna casts Sending to Skriss. "Apologies for delay. What is your status? We are fine. Reports of demons on the surface. Left Mantol-Derith, and now in Kuo-Toa Village."

Afterwards, Rhayna tries to be helpful in cleaning the village, but her interest is really on the dead fishfolk bodies that seem to litter the village. She is disappointed to find that most of the bodies have already been zombified. She is surprised when she finds the first body untainted by undeath. She concentrates for a moment, then she casts Animate Dead on the first specimen. She is delighted that, with her magic and some of her own spores, she is able to animate the dead body of a Kuo-Toa. Soon, she has two more following her for a while. When someone asks. "Ohh them? They are just here to help clean up the village of all these desecrated bodies... Nothing to worry!!"

Faerzress was even worse than Sekkar expected but he would trade a meeting with a purple worm for crazy magic any day (maybe not any magic but this one was a familiar evil). For him, the "why" and "where from" were not that important, it was just an unpleasant part of the environment one had to endure.

Even with a backup of a firing squad of mages behind, the idea to simply walk to the figure and say "hello" did not feel right. Sekkar pulled the hood up and slowly moved toward the figure.

Stealth: 25

Perception: 14 (+11 for terrain?)

Kaylyn is tired.   It took a few days for Pensive to get back to somewhat normal.  But even that normal is back to when he was more cautious and less adventurous. Pensive no longer flew ahead with Sekkar but spent most of his time near Kaylyn.  He could be persuaded to scout ahead but he would share fear with Kaylyn,  enough to know he wasn't pleased.   He didn't share these emotions with the others..

As the singing is heard she becomes very interested as she believes she hears Celestial and dwarvish,  elvish and even draconic.   

Kaylyn takes out her flute and starts to play along with the song, the beauty of it filling her heart.

As the figure approaches she let's the flute go silent.

"Greetings.  What is that song I hear?  It's lovely."

Pax and Sekkar both disappear from view (at least from the view of those who lack magical sight) even as Kaylyn's fluting joins the strains. The mystery singer seems to respond favourably to Kaylyn's harmonies, and begins weaving in subtle descants and counterpoints that heightens the beauty of the music even further. The final cadence completes just as the figure appears in view, a horrid reptilian creature with eight legs - a basilisk! And yet it walks forward with its head bowed low, its hazardous eyes harmlessly facing the ground.

Anyone who knows anything about basilisks knows they are little more than mindless monsters, and yet the beautiful singing that has preceded this creature gives pause to even the most restless members of the group, at least long enough for the creature to offer a greeting. Without looking up it says:

About time you lot arrived! Lovely playing by the way - I thank you. Come! The library bid me guide you to the gates, and I’ve waited too long for you already.

Without any further pleasantries, the basilisk turns and waddles back the way it came, eyes remaining downcast...

Sekkar was definitely one of those "who knows anything about basilisks", and only (relatively) cold blood allowed him to stay still while Kaylyn carelessly walked toward the monster. However, a talking (and singing?!) basilisk was something quite new to the lizardman. The one that was consciously trying to avert his deadly gaze - too. He followed the creature still cautiously in the shadows. Even if that obviously magic-touched (it had to be, normal basilisk do not behave this way) creature was benevolent, better safe than sorry.

Why cautious part of the group was quietly observing the situation from afar, Derendil, by contrast, got completely lost in the music. Right now he reminded himself from those days when he involuntarily thought of himself as an elven prince - different posture, face expression - everything. "We are honored to join you," said Derendil in his best prince impression. In Elven too as if the language he so much longed for returned to him. He walked by the basilisk with the dignity if not of the royal, then at least of a man, not the half-animal.    

When the beast is revealed, Pax has a flush of relief that she is hidden. When it talks she sighs. Of course....another pointed lesson. Even a basilisk can be a good guy.  She remains invisible as she follows, just to one side of the group. Anticipation at seeing a library is a surprisingly strong emotion that tingles in her skin as she thinks about getting to sit within a magical library and read books. Her older brother would roll his eyes, but her mother would probably grin and feel the same way. 

"Intelligence is a woman's game...." she'd once told her, "...men lack the patience or....will, to sit still and simply learn." 

She glanced over at the scholar with them. Her mother was not all that worldly....but her words still made Pax grin as they followed the beast.