Fire in the Hole

**Fire in the Hole** is the 5th session of the New Dawn Memories campaign. It is part of the Return to Sender story arc.

# Synopsis

The party continues to fight their way through the dungeon beneath the Underways, as they realize that the voice that was calling to them is an ancient, chained monstrosity.

# Development

## Part 1

Moash manages to flee through the gateway just as it was closing, leaving the rest of the party behind.

After trying to feed the awakened mimic, Kilijan proceeds to explore the northern part of the dungeon. The party comes across various rooms littered with traps. Thanks to the instructions the voice in the dungeon offered to them, they manage to evade most of them.

However, a barrage of oozes that are constantly being thrown at them makes it hard to fight their way all the way through.

Meanwhile, Lorkhan talks to Silis in the Penthouse and then decides to disguise himself as Moash and go back to the entrance of the dungeon. On his way, he meets Daniz, a male dragonborn guard of the same rank as Moash. They talk for a bit, and Lorkhan offers him to come with him to find and plunder Mirabel's treasure. Daniz immediately accepts.

Marin, a human male guard captain, sees them and orders them to go help out at the museum. As Daniz and Lorkhan pass the museum, they decide to go straight to the hole instead.

A group of commoners is yelling at the guards there, while a couple of guard spellcasters try to mend the giant manhole cover, which has broken into two pieces.

Lorkhan telepathically causes the commoners to start a fight about their favorite team of Chvokarra, which leads to a brawl between the fans of the two teams from the Underways.

Daniz and Lorkhan use the brawl as a distraction and climb down the stairs into the hole. As they reach the bottom, they hear the walls trembling and a figure running towards them. It is Moash who just escaped the dungeon while the walls were closing in.

As Daniz sees him, he puts his hands on Lorkhan's chest to keep him away from the creature that looks exactly like him, he tries to warn him to stay back. His words are, however, cut-off by Lorkhan's dagger pierced into his throat. Daniz falls to the ground and the hallway glares up in a white light, swallowing Moash.

Lorkhan loots Daniz's body and proceeds to enter the dungeon, where he hears the rest of the party arguing about what to do next. Above him, the manhole is closed after a powerful spellcaster mends the cover and closes with it the hole once more.

## Part 2

Lorkhan enters the dungeon through the illusionary wall and meets with the rest.

As they proceed through the corridors, they fall victim to the never-ending waves of new oozes coming their way. One by one, they fall unconscious, until only Weneon manages to rescue them from the last two remaining oozes.

Weneon then gathers all of them into a corner and stands guard, waiting for the party to recover.

After the short rest, the party continues to explore the dungeon more carefully than before.

Learning from the voice, which has become weaker as the room became colder, about how the oozes won't stop coming, they find the nest of the oozes. However, the newly created brighter oozes seem to be gathering for an all-in strike near the nest.

As the party continues to follow the voice, they see before themselves a gargantuan, ancient, red dragon chained to four columns and the ceiling in a room.

## Part 3

With an army of oozes at their trail, the party decide to trust the dragon and shelter in his room. The dragon is trying to recharge his breath weapon, but to no avail. Lorkhan, who is exhausted by all that has happened, is assisted by John to get into the dragon's lair. Mycha, trying to encourage the dragon in his attempt to relight his breath, only manages to disturb his concentration.

The rest of the party examines the room. Kilijan studies the chains for a bit and realizes that they are from dwarven descend, and therefore made to last.

Mycha decides then on a different approach and marches into the corridor the oozes are coming from. The dragon yells at him to stop sabotaging his attempt to burn them in the hallway. Mych pours oil at the entrance while the oozes are running towards him. He then sets the oil on fire and takes cover.

The dragon, seeing this, breathes in the flames Mycha conjured and his breath weapon recharges.

As he blows his sulfuric fire onto the oozes, melting them away into a charcoal crisp, the dragon falls to the ground exhausted, revealing his collar that ties him to the ceiling and the inscription on the collar saying: "Ye who dares to touch him, I will personally blow up: Property of Bambara."

Kilijan offers one of the healing potions he has to the dragon and pours it into his mouth. The dragon regains consciouns for a bit and tells them that he hadn't seen a party like them in a long time. "Heros I used to eat!" he explains with a smirk.

When Kilijan asks him what this Neverwinter was he mentioned earlier, the dragon tells him to look around. Kilijan, looking the at the reliefs on the walls, suddenly realizes that he is looking at a depiction of the skyline of the northern Sword Coast and Mount Hotenow he's only seen on maps.