Mixed grell

With the threat of Pefirra banished from this world, we spent some weeks overseeing the construction of stately Goat Manor. The deep gnomes were, as expected, both skilled and efficient in their stonework. As Viggo’s fame grew, more seemed to rally to his banner (although he doesn’t actually have a banner, which could be a bit of a problem). Several of the refugees also committed to stay with us and build a new settlement in the Upperdark, at least until the war above at past. Many more, however, grumbled at not having been returned to the world above. It is a matter we need to attend to soon, I think.

In the meantime, we decided to scout out more of the passages to the west—both to secure a larger buffer zone of enemy-free territory around the mine, but also to try to learn more of the foes around us. Our next target was a nest of grells, a particularly odd species of squidy-parroty-like-hovery-things.

To be honest, I don’t remember much of the fight, perhaps because I spent part paralyzed by their squidy-parroty tentacles, and partly because Viggo and I later celebrated our victory with the first batch of gugundy from our new brewery. The gugundy was, we realized the next morning, a little strong (although quite useful as an industrial solvent).

Among the treasures that we obtained in defeating the grell (and their even more peculiar overlord) was a scrying mirror. That, in turn, gave me an idea….

We knew vaguely of a distant city of kuo-toa fish-creatures, which was marked on the maps we had obtained. We knew too that the forces of darkness had used the underdark both to move their troops and to trade in slaves. We certainly believed the kuo-toa to be in league with our other enemies. But beyond this we had little reliable information.

We could seek to infiltrate the City of the Glass Pool, but that seemed risky in the extreme. None of us, after all, looked like fish or could breathe water.

Instead, however, we could capture one of the enemy, let him or her escape, and then scry their movements from afar. With luck they might reveal something of the tunnels ahead, the plans of the enemy, the slaving routes, and even the distant kuo-toa.

Thus we decided to set out to catch us some slavers…