A Never Ending Story
I hear Daylee throwing a statue onto the ground and the sounds of a bronze griffin coming to our aid. Directly after I hear a cracking skull and a slurping noise. Who is that? I can’t see anything because of my fog cloud.. Good intentions, suboptimal use Mr Flamel!
My Dwarven Thrower misses, and I panic: 2nd failure in a row! I loose concentration and the fog cloud dissipates. It seems that Daylee’s skull was opened, and her brain devoured!
Calyx casts a wall of fire, whereafter I am pushed into this flaming wall because Grond slips (This is not my day!) and we see a group of mind flayers and orogs approaching.
Scarecrow and Calyx are taken by this group. I can’t let this happen! With a leap I dismount from Grond, cast haste on myself, walk to Calyx in between the orogs’ legs, and try to pull our mirror from Tassagrin out of my bag. Then I see Calyx reaching to me with a strange look in his eyes “Go on with life without me…”, my engagement ring falls onto the ground. I fetch the mirror, scream for Tas, and we teleport into Tassagrins shop in Skullport. Calyx is now enveloped in grey smoke and starts fading.
“Help me Tas!” I shout in exclamation. Tassagrin tries to revivify: no result.
“No, no!! I’ll protect you from this evil!” and I am convinced my magic should work, but it is without effect. Calyx suddenly hands me a letter, his brown Bag of holding with green lining, and his Staff of the Woodlands with a broken amber as a token that the bond with Ropi is released. Calyx fades with a soft windblow leaving nothing behind but despair.
Madness
I feel hopeless, angry, defeated by an unknown entity taking Calyx away from me. Tassagrin tries to support me, but can’t give me the warmth I felt with Calyx close by. With tears gulping on my cheeks I’ll explain to Tas what happened deep in Undermountain with the mind flayers.
I need to be alone, pull a short rope out of my pocket, and climb in my personal space to be in my own safe space. It doesn’t give me comfort: I see Calyx’ face reflecting in a silver plate, I can feel his warm hand touching mine, see him playing with his Staff. I feel my connection with Grond disappear. I am all alone.
After an hour, I climb out and Tassagrin tells me she’s accepted as new headmistress of Dweomercore, the Wizard Academy. She feels unsafe in Skullport with the rise in influence from Zhentarim among merchants and buyers. I wish her all the best, get permission to walk through the Wizard Academy later and leave her to pack her things.
I walk to Guts & Garters, the tavern where we used to stay with the Never Evers. It is relatively empty. I order pints of wyrmwizz to lift my spirits. “Calyx, why are you sitting on a steed!” I react to seeing Calyx in a smoke-brown painting in the inn. I blink and he’s gone. Again.
Later that day I see Turbulence and Violence walking down from their rooms. I’ll tell them the tale, and we all feel devastated. They try to lift my spirits by sharing good stories from our past. Doesn’t help.
Drunk, depressive, and devastated I walk to my room and sleep in for the day. After a tasteless breakfast I’ll try out the local casino: I should still be able to use my intellect to win some money in gambling, right? And indeed! I’m still too smart for the locals, win some games, cash out, but it doesn’t give me joy. The people on the streets look sad or shady as well. This is not my place anymore.
I decide to rebuild Grond with scrap metals I find in and around Skullport. At least a companion and some work that relieves me from my sorrows. In my room, I open the Bags of holding from Calyx and Valentine. There is so much stuff in the room that sets me back in time. I remember:
- Ladrangielle with her Circlet of Blasting every time I look in the mirror
- Borac with Sunny, the sword that provided me with such a power
- Zeph, mischievous Zeph, with the magical Flute I crafted and which he played so beautifully
- Valentine, the traitor tiefling with Tearulai, who seems to know it all
- Enola, trying to balance Valentine’s character, the kind sister with her Stone of good luck
- Calyx, dear Calyx, with his Staff of the Woodlands pointing up whenever needed. I miss him dearly!
I’ll sort my inventory quietly on importance, the items to remember my fallen party members by, some good alchemy flasks from the Golden Cauldron, things to sell, and my platinum, gold, silver pieces, and a small mountain of copper pieces we found on the island where an aboleth almost drowned Calyx. Hmm, I remember that in a hurry we did not loot the dead creatures properly and did not investigate the island. I have to do that later!
Later that day I see some bards in the inn. Together with Valentine and Turbulence we craft a song about the Never Evers while I buy them beer and a night’s stay. Cheap labour and lifting spirits!
We're the Never Evers, a group of brave adventurers Heading into the dungeon of the mad mage We've got swords and spells and armor on our backs As we journey deep into the unknown We're the Never Evers, we don't know what we'll find But we're ready for whatever comes our way We'll fight and we'll conquer, or we'll die trying We are the Never Evers, on our way Verse 2: The air is thick with danger as we descendInto the depths of the mad mage's lair We've faced monsters and traps and all kinds of foes But nothing could prepare us for what's down there
I feel I can’t finish the song yet and we go to bed early. I pay the bards some coin to use this song in their repertoire.
The only way is: up!
With nothing to keep me here in Undermountain, I decide to go back to Waterdeep and report to the Golden Cauldron, the most influential alchemy, inventors and tool crafting guild in the Greater Sword Coast area.
My first stop is the Yawning Portal. It seems to be more quiet mid-day than I remembered. I get some Hommlet Golden Brown Roasted Turkey, my favourite, and hear that the magical items buyer is leaving Waterdeep. I have to sell some items quickly!
Luckily, I get some good amounts of platinum (860 PP) for some items:
- Tome of Clear thought, very rare, used = 500 PP
- Wand of magic detection, uncommon = 50 PP
- Wand of the war mage, +1, uncommon = 50 PP
- Arcane grimoire +1, uncommon = 50 PP
- Skull from Otto’s castle second level (lvl 7) = 10 PP
- Spellbook Thirza = 100 PP
- 2x Drow poison à 5 PP/bottle = 10 PP
This should be celebrated! With my pockets and Bags of Holding bulging from platinum I decide to participate in the Undermountain Pubquiz later that afternoon. Some fake “adventurers” who have been at level 2 (babies), to Skullport (scumbags going to level 3 only), a single wizard who tried to go into Dweomercore and was rejected (ha!), and some people who actually took “Undermountain studies” as a minor in their Waterdeep magical academies (knowledge without gains, worthless…) couldn’t win from my experience! I’ll give a round for everyone and collect my price money. A bard, definitely better dressed than the ones in Skullport, tries singing to my victory, but I ask him to finish the Never Evers song with me!
Verse 1: We're the Never Evers, a group of brave adventurers Heading into the dungeon of the mad mage We've got swords and spells and armor on our backs As we journey deep into the unknown Chorus: We're the Never Evers, we don't know what we'll find But we're ready for whatever comes our way We'll fight and we'll conquer, or we'll die trying We are the Never Evers, on our way Verse 2: The air is thick with danger as we descend Into the depths of the mad mage's lair We've faced monsters and traps and all kinds of foes But nothing could prepare us for what's down there Chorus: We're the Never Evers, we don't know what we'll find But we're ready for whatever comes our way We'll fight and we'll conquer, or we'll die trying We are the Never Evers, on our way Bridge: But as we enter the final chamber We're faced with a horde of mind flayers Their tentacles writhing, their psionic power surging We stand no chance, as they devour us whole Outro: We were the Never Evers, a group of brave adventurers But in the end, the dungeon claimed us all We gave it our all, but it was not enough Rest in peace, Never Evers, heroes one and all
It is beautiful and sad. But with new guests coming into the Yawning Portal we sing it again, and again, and again..
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