Session 4: Into the Underworld

We rejoined Munta at her boat once we’d arrived she set off muttering about the wasted time she had spent in her failed research. In private conversation we had wondered why it had taken her so long to just try directly experimenting on the roaches rather than researching the ecology so much.

She expertly guided the boat down the tunnels of the underground river which seemed all alike to us. We kept a torch lit so we could see in the darkness but the people who live here have a different form of site where dark is light and vice versa.

Centipede attack

Much of the trip was uneventful but after a long time we heard a scuttling in the dark.

Although we weren’t sure what is was at the time a giant centipede of many metres length swam under the boat and displaced Yarold from the boat attacking him with its fierce jaws. The wound it caused burned Yarold’s flesh. His companions drove off the centipede, trying to engage at range rather than fight it directly. With the creature retreating Yarold was pulled back into the boat.

A lament for centipedes

Munta prepared a poultice for the venom affecting Yarold. As she did so she told us that the centipedes had once been magnificent creatures but that they had been manipulated and mutilated by the Roaches and were now mindless vessels of their will.

It was clear to us that Munta had a much deeper understand of the insects and people of the underworld than she had fully shared with us. She said that it was possible that a few centipedes remained unaffected by the roaches.

With Yarold’s wound treated we discussed where we should start our journey. Munta told us that at the centre of this area of the underworld was Udarava’s Stair, a huge stone staircase that could take us back to the Day Lands.

We decided that we had come to find out more of what the roaches were doing here and therefore there was no need to be close to returning to land above so quickly. Instead we would continue with Munta to Blind Elephant’s creche where she planned to resupply.

The Rock People

The creche turned out to be empty though to Munta’s confusion. Searching nearby we found a large talking stalagmite (although we discovered that they disliked that name and preferred to be described as Rock People). She (the Rock People talked about sisters and brothers so gender seemed to matter to them) was called Noodey and was entranced by surface dwellers and therefore was happy to talk to us despite once again telling us that other underworld dwellers disliked Day Landers and how weak and blind we were.

Noodey wore what seemed to be an ornate headdress and asked us questions about the lands we lived in. She was intrigued by Day Lander goods and offered to trade for items.

Tahleela traded her hair for crystals that give you the same vision as the rock people. Grogrun traded his straw hat for a memory pearl that Ye Sing was desperate to try.

The Rock People seemed able to move over the rock as if it was a human skating on ice. Noodey explained that her mother the river had stopped flowing and her father Blind Elephant had moved to the chamber of another Rock Person and was using the water flowing in that chamber for himself.

The rock folk elders were described as being married to underground rivers and therefore Blind Elephant was conducting a scandalous affair which his children were embarrassed by.

From our more mundane point of view we knew that the roaches had been blocking and rearranging underground passages so it seemed likely that the flow of the river had been diverted for some other purpose. We offered to investigate the situation on behalf of Blind Elephant’s creche.