A coffee drinker guidebook to Waervale

A coffee drinker guidebook to Waervale is a book for the initiates of Underdark to possibly achieve a safe and fulfilling journey to the Underdark and more specifically the town of Waervale.

This special journey begins at Ulrok, on the northern section of the city where the visitor will find a shaft descending to the Ulrokian entrance to the Underdark, perhaps the last place they will ever see the light of the sun. The gate itself to the Underdark is easy to access, any dagger or sword will do to open the steel gates to the Underdark. The gate itself leads to a hallway, the nature of its destination very clear, the descending slope an unequivocal hint of where it leads. But the clever readers of this guidebook must not be deceived by this hallway, for it does not lead to our eventual destination, the enlighten reader knows that behind every dark corner of the world lies a deceit, an ambushing enemy and unfortunately timed birthday surprises. And in this case when you reach the end of the hallway, the traveler will find, if they are observant enough, a secret door to Waervale and the knock of heartbeats will open it to future Visitors and continue downward to the Underdark Canal system.

The Underdark Canal system is an important trade route that connects the multiple gates between the surface and the cities of the Underdark, providing fast and ‘secure’ transportation system between the two. There are several ‘branches’ or docks that connects the two worlds on our way to Waervale. The trade goods that exchanges altitude between the surface and the underground varies very much and they all serve a purpose in the city of Waervale, and they're all paid very handsomely in forms of Underdark gems and golds. They sell grains to help feed the populace, black powder to assist in the mining operations and other things, dead and living bodies for the undead labor of the city, raw materials from the surface like wood and all kind of other shady goods, involving shady people and possibly children (Possibly as part of the merchandise and some time sellers).

The journey through the Underdark Canal system begins at a cavern for the readers, dark and wide it’s a clear evidence of the nature of the Underdark, and through this cavern flows the river which will give access of the canal to the Visitors. But before we proceed through the river there are some safety precautions.

* Any light source is encouraged to be blacked out.
* Silence is encouraged despite the beauty of the Underdark canal which in time to time tends to cause sounds of admiration or yells of dismay from the traveler.
* The Visitors are heavily encouraged to NOT submerge underwater or bathe their feet or any other kind of limbs in the canal water, the result of such actions varies time to time, from immediate death to being devoured to sudden chills.
* The Visitors are encouraged to bring their own transportation system to traverse the canal system. The journey itself will take days to weeks depending on the speed of paddling, cruising or any other kind of propulsion system might one use during the journey. The time cycle can be counted and recorded by the cycle of moss light on the wall of the caverns, a common sight in the Underdark. Each cycle (Each dimming) is approximately 2 hours.

After days of travels by different manners of propulsion, you will eventually reach The Hub. A Transportation Hub where every canal converges before the goods transported reaches the city itself, a multilevel building it reaches the roof of the cavern which is built in. Several guards can be seen patrolling the area protecting the hub.

when you reach The Hub your journey is almost over, and there you will be able to find the tunnel to the Town of Waervale itself. But a notice of warning: Any kind of interaction with the guards is not encouraged by the writer, any kind of interaction with the city officials is not encouraged, in fact, any kind of interaction with anyone is not encouraged. Even more, if you are right at The Hub and considering entering the city, you should reconsider the decision.

If you have not reconsider the decision and walked forward to enter the city, then what you will see is an underground city, with its own market full of goods from the Underdark itself and various good brought from the surface, but unfortunately, nothing special in terms coffee goods. An industrial district bristling with workers (Voluntarily or involuntarily) and a residential area.

The city welcomes any kind of new residents to their city, be it a Duergar, an Orc or a Human. And they are given residence and labor. The Moss cycle rules the daily life of the citizens, directing them from home to work, work from any kind of entertainment they manage to find and back to home. Any kind of dissent or complaint is heavily discouraged by the town guards and the city officials. And constant explosions inside the city caves for the mining purposes hints great wealth in form of minerals and gems.

Every now and then the city will ring a bell, apparently a sign to summon the townsfolk to the administrative building in the backside of the cavern, to be addressed by the city officials for many different reasons whenever they deem necessary.

The Visitors are heavily encouraged by the writer to not participate in this reunion of city residents, to not participate any kind of ritual or “Cleansing” and heavily encouraged to not follow any kind of instruction of any kind from beings with psychic powers. In fact, the writer once again encourages you to leave the town immediately and return Aboveground, using any method available.

Candid, an avid coffee drinker.

10th of Zeoln, 1625

Addendum 1: The canal to Waervale is partially blocked due to an explosion at the first dock between Ulrok and Waervale.

### The coffee drinker’s perspective on the recent history of Waervale

According to the previous members of the underground town, the relatively new city of Waervale seems to have been founded by a number of refugees, dissenters and struggles to try to start a new life, away from the violence and oppression that seems to be the common thing in the Underdark.

Ruled by a council of elected members, they attracted new citizens using rich materials incentives only possible by the rich mineral resources in the area.

Everything seems to have been going great for the new town, prospering, attracting new citizens and away from the danger of the Underdark when the Undead horde approached their immediate area, and the brave council members of Waervale took for themselves the mission of finding a solution to this new undead menace, and for the good of the town they ventured outside to find what can help them from the undead.

Here is a short excerpt from the interview with the escapee from the Waervale, before the rise of the Headmaster.

"Council left. They were actually just hand-picked people. They lived with everyone. It was said to be a classless society, no wealthy, no poor. Everyone was given an equal share of gems to their name upon joining. Each worth a fortune above, but it was a way the society showed that each person who joined was equal. The money was simple, and if you took guard duty or swore yourself to stay for 4 seasons, you would get more income"

"Well, we were there for probably about a season, and the ground became cold on your feet - that's how we know when the season gets rough towards what you sun dwellers call winter. Things were good, people were happy, then there were expeditions outwards, several of the leaders decided we needed allies to withstand the undead that plague this land. They went out and ventured. Only one was seen again, but all were said to have returned. That is what we found out. There were daily calls, volunteers to pledge to the new leader. Everyone who pledged was never the same. We left the first chance we could by putting the guards to sleep with herbs"

What exactly they found is still a mystery for us, but these individuals, mindflayers and their leader the ‘Headmaster’ have changed the Waervale society beyond recognition.

The promise of peace and solidarity is gone, the bright future promised in the mutual benefits of all citizens is replaced with the unflinching loyalty for the Headmaster.

The writer has seen personally the little love this new ruling caste has for their citizens; collateral damage is casualized, the hard work is the only option for its citizens and voice of dissent is squashed fast and effectively.

The most alarming nature, however, is the psychic link they seem to share, the escaped witnesses swear it started slowly at first, one by one citizen started to act differently (something the writer would describe as brainwashed), the exact nature of what has changed is not really clear, but they assure the changed individual in question are noticeable by small marks they all bear in the back of the neck. It has caused alarm among some citizens to cause concern, and especially when the entirety of the council disappeared shortly after, only to be replaced by this ‘Headmaster’.

Another excerpt from the interview

“We don't know how or why, but they just became completely devoted to their tasks. They would miss spending time or celebrations, everything became how to work harder and they seemed to WANT to work all the time. It was a change I saw coming but others did not. We left shortly after”...

"Goo substances..." "Our friend one day had some sort of rash on her neck, it looked like tar at first glance. It eventually went away but she would not let us look at it and eventually stopped talking to us afterward"

"We traveled with Stina, she came to that place with us"

From the outside perspective, the secondary nature of this links is more interesting if not alarming. They seem to be able to communicate telepathically with each other, or at least with the ruling class, an effect reinforced by the use of some native goo substances made in the Underdark, allowing them to give orders to individuals far far away, and even to undead.

Exactly how this telepathy and brainwashing works and to what level is not known other than it is possibly related to the ritual they periodically impose on the citizens, and also the behavior effect it has on the linked members is fussy at best. But during an interview between the writer and a ‘captured’ member of the waervale militia, some light was shed on this mystery.

Following are the entirety the interrogation that took between the Writer and the Interrogated in question:

Writer: Undercommon "Hello! I have a few questions before you ascend! And i dare say, more cooperation will mean a faster ascend!

Guard: groans "Where are my eyes".... "what do you want"

Writer: "What do you know about your superiors?! The ones with the tentacle faces and all that"

Guard: "They are kind and generous and incredibly powerful. With them, we will succeed"

W: "I see! I see! Succeed in what?"

G: "In the ultimate goal. Forever darkness"

W: "How many of them are there?"

G: "Eight, nine, ten.....Maybe more"

W: "Did you ever see the headmaster? How does he look like?"

G: "Nobody has ever seen the headmaster and came back."

W: "How are they going to achieve this Forever Darkness?"

G: "Remove the sun for it brings weakness"

"Steal everyone's heart and minds, so they can be strong"

"and then eliminate the masters, so nobody will suffer again"

To what extent this is true or credible is not knows, even the possibility of removing the sun is laughable if not disturbing.

Little is known about these so-called tentacle-faced telepaths that form their ruling caste in Waervale:

They are called Mindflayers from the little information this writer could gather from the libraries of the Twined City, little is known of them, other than what they are capable of, and that they are not native to clyath, they seem to have appeared during the time of the First Empire, but their exact origin is unknown.

The Escapee from Waervale indicated that the current objective of the Headmaster is to build a Narbondel;

"They were working towards a Narbondel, something to tell time instead of the moss. The moss as you guys probably have figured out is only active for 6 or 7 days and needs to be replaced. It's a good way to keep track of a week, but very tiring to replace everywhere there is light."

This is everything for now and thus conclude this chapter.

Candid, 1st of Katib, 1626.