Game summary for March 28, 2026, Whispers Over Waterdeep campaign, Pathfinder Roleplaying Game, for Expeditions-R-Us. Session included: Aeryn Loxandra (Moon Elf Bard played by Brooklyn Alexander), Auspina Padu (Catfolk Magus played by Catiana Dupuis), Mason Thien (Half-Elf Ranger played by Shane Minton), Nico Storm (Human Slayer played by Scott Minton), and Zethas Bach (Shield Dwarf Cleric played by Zach Bates). Game Master for this session was Charles Plemons.
They sat within the Yawning Portal inn and tavern, located on Rainrun Street in the southern part of the Castle Ward of Waterdeep, the City of Splendors. The Yawning Portal’s taproom was similar to most any tavern they had visited across the Realms, with one notable and terrifying difference. A great stone well, forty feet across and surrounded by a low, foot-wide stone wall, occupied the center of the establishment.
All around, patrons sat on stools, benches, and chairs at bars and tables, drinking, eating, and making merry. The famous owner, Durnan the Wanderer, cleaned mugs behind the bar. The Well of Entry plunged into darkness. At the bottom of its 140-foot depth lay Undermountain, a massive, sprawling, multi-level dungeon built long ago by the Mad Mage, Halaster Blackcloak. It was said to contain more wealth and treasure than any other location in all of Faerun. It was also said to be the largest graveyard in all the Realms.
For years, the desperate, the greedy, the curious, and the foolish had been lowered down this well into Undermountain in search of fame and fortune. Every now and again, someone succeeded. A far greater number were never seen again. None of them were novice adventurers; they had crossed blades with many horrors and foes, but Undermountain was something new, and it was terrifying.
They were here on a rescue mission.
Four days earlier, a group of foolish youths had paid for passage down the well into the winding death trap below. Two days later, only one returned, a young man named Ossan Gralhund. He had been badly injured and nearly mad with panic. Their wizard had died first, her skull crushed by an ogre’s club. Their rogue had attempted to disarm a trap and had been disemboweled before their eyes. The remaining three had tried to return to the Well of Entry, but creatures erupted from the darkness. Some kind of giant insects or worms rushed them, tentacles flailing. The cleric died fighting, but their swashbuckler, Randal Cassalanter, was snatched up and carried into the depths.
Ossan alone escaped and made his way back to tell his tale there, in the Yawning Portal.
The tentacled creatures matched the description of carrion crawlers, massive worm-like monsters that could paralyze with their tentacles. They often collected and cocooned paralyzed victims to feed their spawn when they hatched. There was a very good chance Randal was still alive.
Randal was a minor relative of the immensely wealthy Cassalanter noble family. The family had hired them to locate and rescue Randal, or to bring back proof of his death. Upon his safe return, they would be paid ten silver trade bars worth 155 gp each. If they returned only proof of his death, they would receive half that amount.
Undermountain was everything it was said to be and worse. The sheer scale was staggering, with corridors, hallways, rooms, alcoves, niches, and more crisscrossing in a maze of manmade labyrinth that occasionally merged with natural caverns. Many passages were tight and cramped, while others stretched across vast distances beneath the earth. Legend held that there were more than half a dozen additional levels and numerous sublevels plunging deep below.
Much of the complex lay empty, yet there were many signs of life. Creatures scurried in the darkness when their light approached. Screams and the sounds of battle echoed through the stone corridors. Messages were scrawled across the walls, and bones of all manner of creatures lay in niches or scattered across the floor. They thought, and hoped, that the notes and crude maps they had scribbled as they moved through the dungeon would be enough to guide them back out again.
Their first hour in the depths had been uneventful, but that ended when a colony of stirges, parasitic bloodsucking creatures resembling a cross between mosquito and bat, set upon them. Their sharp, needle-like proboscises bored agonizing holes into flesh before the party managed to drive them off. They lost some time tending to those wounds.
They had now reached the place described by Ossan. Signs of a struggle were evident. They needed to do two things: assess the surrounding terrain to understand the dangers nearby and track the missing noble.
The team used their extensive knowledge of dungeoneering as well as expert survival and tracking skills to ascertain they were on the right path. They confirmed carrion crawlers were at play and were able to plan things well enough they caught the crawlers in their lair completely by surprise.
The blood trail had led them to a chamber where the ground gave way beneath their boots—soft, saturated, alive with writhing pale larvae. The smell was overwhelming. But something was wrong. They spotted the creatures before they struck—long, segmented shapes clinging to the ceiling, tentacles twitching as they oriented toward a single point… the cocooned noble ahead. Randal Cassalanter hung there, barely conscious, bound in filth and webbing. The creatures were not feeding. They were waiting.
Auspina found herself falling through some of the gunk on the floor and getting minorly harmed by the acidic sludge in which swam some very young crawler spawn. Nico charged across the room and cut down a carrion crawler with a single swing. Auspina and Mason moved to examine the noble, and Zethas hit the other crawler with his axe only to have the blade bounce off! Aeryn moved in and slipped her rapier between the chitinous plates, harming the monstrosity. Auspina accidentally poked the man in his eye but did confirm he was alive! The battle raged on, and Auspina cast magic missile and killed the remaining crawler. Zethas cast trial of fire and acid and destroyed a huge clutch of crawler eggs. However, the flame and acid cracked the floor and triggered the room starting to collapse!
The party freed the man, confirmed to be Randal, and got him on his feet. They scrambled to shore up the walls, used ropes and planks to cross fissures, and finally got out before the room fell in!
The passage opened into a low, silent chamber. Bones littered the floor—humanoid, mostly, though not all. They crunched underfoot and shifted slightly, as if unsettled by their presence. A faint, dry clatter echoed a moment too long after each step. In the center of the room sat a massive treasure chest. Its lid hung open. Gold coins spilled over the edge, catching the dim light. Polished gems and bits of jewelry glinted invitingly from within—untouched, undisturbed.
Nothing else moved. And yet… something felt off. A skull near their feet slowly rolled to one side.
Skeletons rose up from the bones to attack, and some of the bone limbs grasped and grabbed at the party’s feet. Auspina was shocked to discover the treasure chest was a giant mimic! It got hold of her and began crushing the life from her. Mason rushed to her aid as Zethas channeled positive energy to damage the skeletons. Nico fell back and swapped to his bow, which eventually took down the mimic!
They had gotten turned around while fleeing from various monstrosities. They thought they were heading in the right direction down a parallel corridor. They came upon a room filled with filth, the stench nearly overpowering.
Rising up from a heap of dung and rot was a blob of flesh. It stood on trunk-like legs, with numerous long, flailing tentacles writhing about its mass. Its mouth gaped wide, filled with jagged teeth. Dancing around it, giggling, were hideous green-skinned goblins.
Aeryn struck the otyugh blind, and the team moved in to engage. The goblins landed several blows but were overcome quickly. The blinded otyugh was very ineffective and cut down by the team in a few moments as well.
They had returned to the Entry Well. Several inches of sand covered the floor of the roughly square room. Broken and dented shields hung on stone walls covered with chalk and charcoal graffiti. The ceiling loomed a mere 10 feet above them, as it did in the hallway leading south, but a 40-foot-diameter hole in the ceiling formed a chimney that rose more than a hundred feet.
Some of the graffiti read as follows:
In Dwarven: “Durembar Ironshanks was here and killed more orcs than he could count.”
In Elven, written beneath it: “That means eleven.”
In Common: “Beware the she-wolf and her night hounds. They killed Sarth.”
In Common: “You came here unbidden, now you will die in this midden.”
In Common: “Beware the eastern passages. The Metal Mage has made them his home, and he is not to be trifled with.”
From above, a bucket was lowered for their return trip, the fee set at 1 gp per person. High overhead, the murmur of patrons drifted down the well, eager to see who had lived, who had died, and to hear tales of the dangers below.
The group took hold of the rope, and one-by-one, they were hoisted to the top and to the safety! With their mission successful, they were paid in bars as promised!
