Journal of Rollo Lavius 2

Entry #456 - City Hobgoblins

(G456 19/06/2021 via Roll20 - AP(GM), JF, KT) WA88

[Back in the Underdark, young Reinward is about to have an unexpected adventure. This account is translated from the original Undercommon.
Note that Shooh Oak is a Slyth druid. She is a native of the Underdark and her second name 'Oak' is rather like an Overworlder calling their daughter Ruby. Note that Slyths can turn into puddles of mud and move around as such, any time they like.]

DAY 503(18th Flamerule)(July)

Letter from Shooh Oak to her brother:

Dear Wynstone,

Peace be upon you.

I hope you and your family are well. I continue my work of finding hobgoblin mines and doing my best to prevent the destruction that they cause.

As you well know it is just gone 800 days since the wanton foolishness and aggression of the hobgoblins destroyed our home and cast the remains of our tribe to the four corners.

The 'summer' months as they call this time of the year in the Overworld often brings the surface dwellers down here into our Underdark, and this may account for the strange encounter that I recently had, which I will now relate to you.

Chauntea, blessed Earth Mother, had guided me to an area west of the troglodyte city of Pool. I was below it, in the ancient tunnels carved by the drow in times past, following behind a gang of hobgoblin tomb raiders.

They had been tunnelling upwards, close to where the Eight Ways Inn is located. I found their mineshaft abandoned and dangerously unstable. The shaft led up to directly below a room of the in so I discombobulated and entered through a crack in the floor.

Here I found a young human sleeping. I roused him and warned that he should leave the room as floor was unstable. He heeded my warning, but as he stepped onto the floor from the bed the floor collapsed and we fell down into the shaft.

It was a fall of a hundred feet, down into the small cave I had come from, and the hobgoblin mineworks fell down on top of us as the shaft collapsed in on itself. I slithered out of the rubble though, then pulled out the human and found that he yet lived. His name was Reinward.

Once he was revived and I had explained what had just happened he asked about getting back to the Inn.

'There is no way back up that way my friend,' I told him. 'Not after all the rock just came down. But I know a way back to the Eight Ways. We'll need to go through the Hobgoblin City of Marek E'sith though.'

It was half a mile to Marek, that network of sewers that the Hobgoblins call a city. I took him to the entrance and told him;
'Follow this canal, it bends and turns, but it leads to a tunnel that will take us up to the Eight Ways. I have my own modes of travel, but if you keep to the shadows the hobgoblins will not cause you much trouble.'

This proved to be incorrect. I had hoped the young man would be able to skulk through the city without much incident, but I had forgotten that humans do not know the ways of the Underdark and attract danger like magnetite attracts rust monsters.

At all times I was ready to step in if need be, but as he bumbled around, at each moment I hesitated, never sure what chaos might be provoked next.

At least, as he walked up the tunnel to the first Hobgoblin gate house he had the sense to pull his hood up to hide his white skin. There is not much light in the city, but the water (if you can call it that) in the canal glows with phosphor and gives off a dull green illumination.

Initially things looked promising as young Reinward moved silently around the guardhouse and into the city. We had not reckoned on their being an ankheg fight in the street beyond though, which had drawn a big crowd as they baited the two beasts that were chained up at either side of the road.