What Lurks Below

*This page contains an overall plot summary for the What Lurks Below in-game campaign, to help players who may have missed sessions or be joining mid-way.*

#### **Chapter 1 - Just Keep Digging**

When contact is lost with the Sternstone Mine in Dun Morogh, a band of Ironforge mountaineers is dispatched to check on the miners. After several days with no word, the Tinker’s Guard together with the Order of the Silver Hand are sent to investigate. Arriving at the mine, our heroes find the mountaineers embroiled in combat with a heavy Trogg presence. At the first opportunity, the mountaineers uncharacteristically flee leaving the party cut off. With no other option, they enter the mine – a place the Troggs seemingly refuse to follow.

As they descend through the eerily quiet excavations, a sickly-sweet aroma begins to be noticed, growing stronger as they descend. They soon encounter a Trogg blighted with what they believe to be some kind of infection. Once the Trogg is dispatched it becomes clear that it was, in fact, already dead and that some form of growth had overtaken the body and was using it – though for what they could not tell.

Delving deeper the party comes across a pair of Dwarven miners afflicted by the same condition, and deeper still a mountaineer – all overtaken by the growth. With the combined expertise of the party it is determined that the growth is some form of fungus – an observation that seems to be backed up by thread-like growths found along the walls. These threads are traced to the deepest part of the mine, where they seem to emanate from a deep crack in the rock. The paladins of the Silver Hand aid Sister Terrasha in using the power of the Light to cleanse and purge the growths.

As they return to the surface, the body of the infected Trogg emits a dense cloud of what appear to be spores. The cloud is cleansed, but not before samples are taken for analysis back in Ironforge. At last, the party emerge into the light of day once more, but cannot help but reflect on the fact that of a team of over a dozen miners, only two have been accounted for…

#### **Chapter 2 - Into the Ice**

The mountaineers who fled Sternstone Mine are finally tracked to a cave in central Dun Morogh. The Dwarven mountaineer Brynwa Stouthammer is assigned to lead a contingent, including Silver Hand paladins amongst others, to see whether these Dwarves were infected with the fungal blight and, if so, whether they still pose a threat.

Entering the cave, the party find signs of a makeshift camp along with the journal of Mountaineer Bargrim, one of the missing company. It soon becomes clear that the mountaineers were exposed to the fungal spores and, having witnessed the miners’ fates, have fled to the cave to isolate themselves. Passage deeper into the ice cave is blocked by a hefty barricade and a dire warning to leave it alone. "We must not get out" are the last words written by Bargrim.

Brynwa orders the barricade dismantled (because some Dwarves just never learn, eh?) and the team enters the cave itself. As they explore the cave, they soon encounter fungal blighted mountaineers and promptly lay them to rest. Venturing deeper, they are set upon by ice worms but manage to fend them off.

Bargrim it seems, fared better than many of his company, but ultimately met a grisly end as the rest of the mountaineers were turned. Nearby the group discover the leader of the company, Mountaineer Blackfist, who had succumbed to the spores. Putting him to rest, and fending off the ice worm matriarch, the group descends further into the cave.

The fungal growth covers the walls deeper in the cave, causing the party to speculate that this infection must have been here longer. At that point, a Gnome can be seen amongst the threads – indeed the fungus seems to be growing through him. Before the party can investigate further, the paladins end the Gnome’s suffering.

With the infection seemingly too advanced to purge, and any attempt to seal the crack in the frozen floor likely to bring the tunnels down around them, the party decide to collapse the cave behind them instead.

Speculating on the age of the infection, Brother Guigon studies a map and traces a trajectory between Sternstone Mine and the cave in which they stand – a trajectory that seems to point to one place. Gnomeregan.

#### **Chapter 3 - Down Down to ~~Goblin~~ Gnomish-town**

When a request is received from a cadre of Alliance forces to access the lower levels of Gnomeregan, Catelyn and Coltron of the Tinker's Guard agree to guide the expedition. The group arrive just as the excavation team finally gains access to the Arcane Investigatorium, an area of the Engineering Labs dedicated to the fusion of tinkering and magic.

Fungal-controlled troggs were soon encountered as the group ventured inside, only to be promptly overwhelmed by some kind of void force. A strange voice was heard calling out to "seal the way" as the troggs retreated behind a rockfall. The alliance expedition then turned its attention to the void presence which was the primary goal of their sojourn.

#### **Chapter 4 - Let's Go Home**

A Tinker's Guard recon party led by Morwenna Longwatch, and ably assisted by Tima (a curious Mechagnome), descends to the Arcane Investigatorium with the goal of pursuing the fungal troggs and finding out the extent of the problem within the city.

Having repaired an old Alarm-O-Bot to warn the forces left behind should things go poorly, the team sets off to excavate the tunnel the troggs collapsed behind them. Soon beset by spiders, Coltron drives one off whilst the plucky gnomes kill\* the other. De-webbing the excavator, the gnomes open up the tunnel and move through.

On the other side, they find several dead leper gnomes, a dead fungal trogg, and another collapsed tunnel - this one evidently blown up by the lepers. Surmising that the lepers are fighting a war against the fungal troggs, the team try to find a way around a partly-closed blast door when trogg noises are heard from within the collapsed tunnel. Coltron and Catelyn stand guard whilst Mouse rewires an unexploded charge. Tima undergoes an accidental size adjustment, allowing her to slip beneath the blast door and release it from the far side as the troggs burst through. As Tima frantically tries to lower the blast door, a lucky boulder detonates the charge wiping out the troggs, the tunnel and almost the gnomes.

With no choice but to venture deeper, the party emerge into the old nutrient farms where Gnot, the famous gnomite brand, was produced. Strangely, the farms still seem to be running and it isn't long before the party is attacked by leper gnomes.

The team put down the lepers, but not before they can sound the alarm, drawing the attention of Mekgineer Radblast and his spider tank. Mouse makes short work of the tank with a well-placed shot from a sticky launcher, covering the mechanical in gnomite. Radblast leaps out, only to be tackled into the Gnot by Coltron who promptly secures him with some no-questions-asked handcuffs.

Finally having some breathing room, the team look down below to find an area completely overgrown by the fungus. Dozens of pod-like growths adorn the walls, whilst infected dwarves and troggs roam aimlessly about. Some of the infected can be seen carrying unconscious gnomes to the fungal hyphae, which promptly grow around and through the little bodies encapsulating them in more pods. With their objective finally located, the gnomes have no choice but to retreat. The journey was not an easy one - they need medical attention and more firepower. Hopefully the prisoner can shed a little more light on things.

\*Mouse stomped on it. A lot.

#### **Chapter 5 - Are You Alive?**

The Tinker's Guard and their mechagnome allies, reinforced by a squad of infantry under Sergeant Spannerwhack and a S.A.F.E. team under Technician Twistspring, return to Gnomeregan in an effort to remove the fungal infestation from the city and rescue any gnomes they can.

Teleporting down to the nutrient farms in the lower levels, the gnomes fall under immediate assault by infected troggs and dwarves. The combined gnomish forces manage to hold off the infected until the S.A.F.E. team can assemble their heavy flame turret, which makes short work of the remainder.

With the infected defeated, Spannerwhack's forces take up covering positions as the S.A.F.E. team and the guard rappel down into the central chamber. Investigation reveals cracks in the floor, through which the fungus seems to have grown. As the S.A.F.E. team begin burning the fungal threads from the walls, it becomes clear that the gnomes within the pods are linked together somehow - or at the least share mutual pain.

Mouse finally fits the puzzle pieces together, deducing that the fungal hive is collecting gnomes and integrating them with itself. The gnomes speculate that this may be the hive's way of increasing its processing power, and would explain why no dwarves or troggs were found 'podded'. Or, as Tyler put it: "An integrated consciousness growing by adding the most powerful minds it can find. As one adds storage to increase the digital side of one's memory, this thing adds gnomes."

The gnomes locate a pod containing a leper gnome, and Mouse cuts it down, but the leper dies instantly. Whilst a long shot, the guard decide to leave the pods in place in the hopes a more specialised medical team might be able to extract them. Mouse begins to investigate the crack in the floor\* when a huge fungal trogg attacks. The guard fend it off, but at the cost of Twistspring and her S.A.F.E. team.

Forced to flee into a ruined tramway by the cloud of spores from the trogg's corpse, the gnomes soon find their way to the Manufactory, and are shocked to encounter functioning bots within. An intelligent mechanostrider referring to itself as VG-68 greets the party and, upon hearing Boris Buggywhip's old command codes from Mouse, is willing to talk.

The bots were ordered to defend the Manufactory by Boris, a guard captain, as the Gnomeregan forces retreated during the Fall. The bots have successfully defended the area ever since. Tima and Tyler are fascinated by the bots, whose self-improvement directive appears to have led to the development of genuine intelligence after multiple iterations.

As the gnomes probe further, VG-68 reveals that the manufactory bots even experimented with integrating biological components, but that the experiments failed due to the only organic parts being available being sub-optimal (Leper Gnome). Ultimately, the bots reveal that they have encountered the fungal infestation too, and confirm that it originated within the mines of the deep levels as the gnomes had suspected. VG-68 explains that the infestation began to spread into the lower levels through structural damage caused by the cataclysm, and that the same earthquakes collapsed the tunnels leading into the deep levels.

Armed with this new information, Mouse and Catelyn establish a teleport link between the manufactory and the surface and the gnomes retreat to consider their next move.

\*by sticking her head into it.