30 Hammer, 1372

Dear Master Zorthaster,

We have made it out of Manzassine Prison and are beginning to get into the heart of the underdark. It is a fascinating place with strange creatures and an alien richness unique unto itself. I am already thinking about lectures for the students Woven Tower based on what I am learning here.

We had a harrowing time escaping the prison, even with nearly all the inhabitants dead or escaped. The green, murky gas (oorga gas we learned from Dalis) lingered in several rooms. Fortunately, the Hero's feast we had eaten earlier in the day provided us with complete protection from its poisonous effects. Even so, we ran across several terrible and powerful traps on our way out. One of these resulted in Shane's death. It was in a room filled with oorga and the halfling didn't even have a chance to avoid it. We had ourselves linked together with a rope so we could make our way across the room without getting too turned around, when Shane, in the lead, fell dead from a magical trap. We guessed that it was a glyph or some such thing inscribed on something in the room. We collected his body and found our way out as quickly as we could. In our search for a way out, we discovered a secret door that lead out of the prison. We traveled through this passage for the remainder of the day before we were convinced that we really were out of the prison. I was completely exhausted and moving slowly when we finally called it quits for the day. I set up the magnificent mansion and was very relived to collapse into a chair and let the servants of the place care for our needs. We did not rest long, for Primula called us all together as soon as possible for the raising of the halfling. It lifted everyone's spirits when Shane was with us once again. We caught him up on events over supper, but I did not linger over the meal. I was in bed and sleeping as soon as I got enough to eat and could politely excuse myself.

My sleep was interrupted by a very strange dream concerning Dalis. In the dream, he and I were playing cards and drinking tea. He looked up at me and said "Good, you are finally paying attention." He appeared to be ready to say something else when chains burst through his body and pulled him away from me. It all happened so quickly. I couldn't do anything to aid him. I slept fitfully the rest of the night and woke early to find Xan already awake and restless. Xan and I talked about Dalis and Xan told me that he noticed that the drow wore a chain necklace around his neck. From the necklace hangs a key.

As the others awoke, we drew them into our conversation. My suspicion is that Dalis is cursed in some way that links him to the fearful spellbook that he carries. The key and the chain around his neck are likely part of the problem. I think that we are going to need to rescue him from this curse, but as yet, I do not know how to go about doing so. I am almost certain that anything we attempt will be seen by Dalis as an attack on him. Based on how the book itself responded when Primula struck the other drow, the book itself may perceive the attempt as an attack and respond in some way. If the curse is related to a dark bargain he made with an evil outsider, our rescue attempt may go very badly if we do not have a way to quickly break the curse. I have been racking my brain, trying to remember every little thing I have heard about with respect to powerful curses and dark, unholy alliances. So far I have come up with a few possible strategies, but nothing in which I am completely confidant. I want to have confidance that we can break the enchantment before we risk confronting Dalis and the book. The price of failure, I'm afraid, would likely be very high.

Later in the morning, after we all prepared ourselves for the day and enjoyed another one of Primula's heros feasts, we set out, deeper into the mysterious depths of the underdark. Our first surprise of the day was an encounter with a mindwitness, a terrible variation of a beholder. We were lucky that the monster failed to see us in the darkness, but I was able to react to its presence by hitting it with a sunburst. That blinded it and gave us enough of an edge to quickly locate it and destroy it. Happily, we had encountered it before it had been able to find its prey. It had been searching for a being of a race completly unfamiliar to me. Ffflla Flowstone, a slith had been hiding from the mind witness in the form of an ooze. She introduced herself as an underdark guide and explained that she was on her way to take a contract with the head of Manzassine Prison. She and her companions had run into the escaped prisoners and suspected that her job offer was no longer available. It was shortly thereafter that they ran afoul of the mind witness. The monster had killed all of her companions after hunting them through the tunnels.

We offered to hire Ffflla to guide us to our destination. She agreed to take us as far as Jungantown and to help us find a guide from there to the drow city. She had no interest in going to Miramydra. It was nice to have a knowledgeable underdark guide. As we walked, she and I talked a great deal about the deep wastes, the area that, according to Ffflla, we were now traversing. I learned about many of the races that inhabit the deep wastes, including the Jungans whom she called "thorn- back thugs". They are tall, gruff, and spiney, but they can be dealt with if you approach them from a position of strength. The Gaurzam Dai, another underdark race, may once have been related to dwarves. Unlike their more well known kin, they have always remained deep underground, as, they claim, the Deep Mother intended. When I aksed Oskar about this, he told me that Moradin is known as the son of the Deep Mother. He knew nothing about a race called the Gaurzam Dai though.

Late in the day we reached a crossroad in the deep wastes. Here we found a band of Nowyr, traders and oracles. Ffflla warned us that they could be tretcherous, but that the Mother Oora, the oracle, might be very useful to us. We offered a pile of gold and gems for an audience with the oracle. Mother Oora agreed to see us and spoke very sternly to Ffflla before saying anything to us. Actually, she really only spoke to Primula, as males are not worthy to speak with the oracle.

Mother Oora called us the "friends of time" and, amongst the ramblings, told us to seek the hermit Bithra and to "free the dreamer and gain an ally." there were lots of other words, but that seemed to be the gist of the reading. I suppose that it was worth the expenditure of funds to get the lead to Bithra. Especially since Fflla says that she can lead us there. I am almost certain that Dalis is the "dreamer" and that he needs to be freed from a curse. This prophecy just seemed to confirm that. I hope that Bithra might have a lead on how to do it. We shall see. I'm not completely convinced that the part about Bithra was connected to the part about the dreamer, but that tends to be the way it is with prophecies. Still, the 3,600 lions woth of gold and gems we spent on the oracle was an awful lot. And, since we have expended far more resources than we have gained in treasure down here, I'm starting to think that when I finally get a chance to give some lectures in the Woven Tower, one of the myths I will debunk is the idea of coming away from an underdark adventure with loads of treasure. Maybe adventurers go into the underdark with loads of treasure but it does not appear as though we are going to come out with it.

As we were leaving the Nowyr, we were nearly run over by a large band of fleeing Mawogs. They are short, strangely shaped people who were armed primarily with spears. We learned that they were being pursued by an illithid hunting party. Evidently, the owners of Manzassine were out in force to reclaim their missing prisoners and stock up on new mind slaves. I put up a wall of force to give the mawogs a few extra minutes to flee. We quickly headed down the tunnel after Ffflla, heading away from the Mawogs and their pursuers.

The slith lead us on for quite a ways past the cross roads before we found a safe place to stop. Since I had, just that morning, figured out how to cast the spell screen, I cast that before setting up the magnificent mansion. In the morning, even if the illithds or others found our tracks and have laid a trap for us, they sould not be able to see us as we leave the mansion and make our way further into the deep wastes. But that is a concern for tomorrow. Tonight I will discuss underdark cultures and customs with Ffflla, chat with Mr. Tusgrin about the planes, enjoy a nice meal and sleep the night in a soft bed.

Sincerely,

Cedar