Halls of the Undermountain King

## Campaign Summary

**Halls of the Undermountain King** is a four-part campaign that ran in the third quarter of 2021, DMed by Liz Drake. Its point of departure is the Yawning Portal in Waterdeep.

The campaign sees the return of Varya and Lorcan from Escape from Carceri, who are joined by three new allies. Living in a mansion near Whim Street in the Sea Ward of Waterdeep, these established heroes are messaged by Durnan, the proprietor of the Yawning Portal, hoping for their help with solving why the tavern patrons were 'acting strange',

This takes the heroes to the Yawning Portal Tavern, and down in to the Undermountain, where not all is as it should be...

## Plot

The adverturing party all awoke in their fancy mansion on the day of the Shieldmeet festival, in the Sea Ward of Wterdeep. Within their rooms, which faced either the sun rise or the sunset, each character slowly realised that there was noise coming from downstairs, specifically the kitchen.

Thundering down the stairs from their individual and player created rooms, the adventuring party came across 5 giant rats feasting on the contents of their cupboards. Varya, immediately concerned for her beloved Mug, stormed in first and initiative began. Being quite hardy, these rats of Waterdeep took some attention, but were disposed of fairly quickly. They had gotten in through a window in the kitchen that head been left open. Fortunately, following the battle, Varya ensured that it was tightly locked.

Dusk, having not only been awoken by the sounds of downstairs, but also by the smells of baking coming from Bready Steady Bakery in the courtyard outside the mansion, decided to get his favourite cupcakes. But these were not any ordinary cupcakes. These were, infact Bready Steady cupcakes, which glowed in the box given to dusk by Bill the baker. Dusk promtly stashed these away in his room for safe keeping, as the group remembered they had an order to pick up from Eileen's Exotic Emporium.

The group headed out throught the cobbled streets of Waterdeep, and saw the beginnings of the Shieldmeet festival being set up. Pushing past various performers and merchants, they happened upon a group of 3 kids playing a game in a small alley near the market square. The kids names were Betsy Brimstone, a tiefling. Cobble Brickton, a young dwarf and Lil Nigel, the tortle, who was wearing a Wizard of Waterdeep tshirt. The group overheard that they were pretending to be heroes and villians. Cobble stood on a milk stook with a baguette in hand and shouted 'I am Sir Lord Bibbledeboop!', to a joyful retort from Betsy. Lil Nigel stayed silent through the kid's game, then hid in his shell when the adventuring party began interracting with them.

Questions asked by the kids to the adventuring party included: How old are you, Have you ever died.

Varya, who was not good with kids hastily left, followed by the rest of the group as they got to the market square. The market was bustling, with festive bunting along with a Shieldmeet Festival jousting Tourney.

The group went into Eileen's, to retrieve items they'd already paid for:

* Dusk collected Slippers of Climbing **-** that had tassles and pom poms on the end, shaped like a spider
* Heimlich collected the Instrument of the bards, which Eileen had gone to the trouble of giftwrapping in sheet music.
* Ember collected her Amulet of the devout, which was emblazened with the symbol of Araleth.
* Lorcan collected Nature's Mantle Cloak for Cato, which took Eileen a moment to find.
* Varya had to go in to the back to collect her Gauntlets of Ogre Power as Eileen could'nt lift them on her own.

Other items available to the group included

* potions of healing
* various non magical clothing items, including Deusk's recently discarded old shoes.
* A Parasol
* Cloak of billowing (which Heimlich purchased)

After a short rest, the group headed back out to tfind the Market Square extremely busy. Ember immdiately recieved a message from Durnan via the sending spell, requesting for help with the patrons of the tavern acting strange.

They quickly noticed that the mainstreets were too busy to get through, as actors pretending to be jesters, nobles and knights on horses were arriving for the tourney. The group found out that Waterdeep Borough Council has messed up the organisation of this festival, which was causing a backlog down every street.

Varya and Lorcan decided to make a scene, attracting the attention of a guard called Jeff, who was staing next to Bather's Bath Hous and Good Whiff's perfumary. While considering to barge through the crowds, the group eventually decided to go throug the back streets instead. It became quickly apparant the Dungsweeper's Guild had become overwhelmed as there was a lot more rubbish than usual.

The group eventually saw the Yawning Portal, down an alley which was piled high with bin bags. As they picked their way through, 2 of the bags began shifting and the group found themselves facing two shambling bin sacks.

After the fight, the group saw some posters lining the walls, that stated 'MISSING - Went down the Yawning Portal never came back'

The people in the posters were:

* Yonsef Brightmoon, Tiefling, a rogue by all accounts
* Terry Greatshoe, Bard
* Agatha Mantlebrim, Paladin of Tempus.

Cautiously, the party went into the Yawning Portal taven, and saw that Durnan was facing away from the bar with a dishcloth in one hand and on the bar corner, a burned-out spell scroll. Dusk decided to steality steal this and passed it to Heimlich, who politely took it. Gradually the group realised that Durnan and the other patrons were stuck in a loop. Deciding that it must be to do with the Undermountain, the group decided to descend. Dusk tried to return back to the house to collect his cupcakes, but found that upon exiting through the hfront door, he appeared in another doorway, Detect magic revealed that nothing arcane was affecting the area. So the group hopped in the half barrel on the winch and were lowered slowly by Ember, who flew odwn after them. Dusk, with his new shoes, was able to stand upside-down on the underside of the bucket as it descended, but quickly had to hop off.

As the party's feet landed, they found that they had landed in a custard-like substance, which still resembled the sandy floor that they were used to seeing. Looking around, the rooms they were used to seeing had changed. The stone of the walls had melted candle appearance, and objects like barstools, tankards and barrels were lodged within the walls. Even the doorway's stones had tilted.

The group found themselves walking into a new room, which wasn't there last time they visited. There were massive golden framed portraits on the walls, and they could hear a string quartet playing. Each painting was done in a skilled hand. Some of them even had a pair of googly eyes.

* The first was a goblin with a pearl earring. And googly eyes.
* The next, was the head and shoulders of a Drow, who had armour and a lance.
* The third was a bugbear in a Henry the 8th kind of pose
* The fourth looked like Agatha Mantlebrim, on a summer swing
* The fifth was Terry Greatshoe wearing a ruff.

Varya decided to retrieve the paintings from their frames, and put them in her bag. As the group continued along the red carpet, they quickly realised that they were not getting any closer to the door at the other side of the room. They eventually realised that they could walk around the carpet, and eventually got to the next room. Varya, on a slight home decor spree, decided to take a corner of the carpet.

The next room was shaped like a collosseum. With 4 sets of stairs, a door at the top of each flight, with a different coloured gemstone above it. But inbetween the stairs was a void, a dark nothingness. At the bottom, in the pit, there were painted plinths, each painted in the colour as, and with a corresponding glowing gemstone to the doors, apart from the column on the other side which had no glow. The string quartet had vanished and the group heard on the layered sound of hundreds of whispers.

Going near the doors, Ember and Varya heard the sound of metal on stone dragging on the floor. Thuds, then two creatures emerged smashing through 2 of the 4 doors. These creatures had no facial features, were huge and had maws where their stomachs should be. They each carried sledge hammers and were an altered version of Tomb Tappers. One was dressed like a butler, the other wore a robe, covered in googly eyes, and had a green gem lodged in it's forehead.

**TO BE CONTINUED**

## Player characters

* Ember, played by Rebecca Hare
* Varya, played by Hannah Raymond-Cox
* Dusk, played by Pav Christodoulou
* Lorcan, played by G McDermott
* Heimlich, played by Jon Scholey

## Trivia

* This campaign begins on the day of Shieldmeet. Shieldmeet is a celebrated day in Waterdeep, it is a festival which falls upon the calendar once every 4 years.
* The character's mansion was modified to suit their every requirement. For example, Varya's room has an extended ceiling, Dusk's room is placed near Bready Steady bakery.
* The characters venture to the market square in Waterdeep to a well-known magic item store 'Eileen's Exotic Emporium' - run by Eileen, an eccentric Flamingo Aarakocra, an acquirer of exotic items.
* The characters encounter a young Tortle called Nigel, who is wearing a Tshirt for the production from the Windfall in Waterdeep campaign.
* The kids the group meet near the market square are the reason why they later face a knight named Sir Lord Bibbledeboop, as the King had taken this memory from their consciousness when they rested in Undermountain.
* The guard named Jeff and the shops he stands near to are a Chaucer reference.
* The party discover many of the inhabitants of the kingdom have an affinity for Googly Eyes, placing the eyes on their clothes and even the tails of peacocks.

## Twitch Clip Archive

* Meet the King!
* The Party is Giving the Beholder a Bad Case of Pink-Eye
* Not Creepy At All...
* Everything is Fine... Everything is Absolutely Fine
* Welcome to Fineville
* Missing Adventurers - Now Portraits
* "Went Down the Yawning Portal and Never Came Back"

## Media

A typical scene from Halls of the Undermountain King.Halls of the Undermountain King - IntroTitle sequence for Halls of the Undermountain King.