Down and up again

Thay

As the Wilderness above finally invades the, literally, last bastion of civilization in the captured province the household and surviving civilians and the few soldiers who remain manage to escape downwards into the Underdark with Tiger and a host of horrid man-beasts on their heels.

As they pass through a narrow tunnel opening up into a larger cavern they experience a sense of dizziness and it is only afterwards that Zárisse manages to find the time to deduce that they somehow passed under the dimensional barriers. Their pursuers seem incapable or unwilling to follow then past this point.

Indeed the theory that the element of Earth is not involved seems to be mostly correct.

They make their way across a large, shallow lake and find what seems to be a small campsite on the farthest shore. It is fairly old but at least it indicates that it is possible to go somewhere from here.

A period of rest follows where the more intrepid of the refugees scout out the nearby tunnels and look for the ones that seem to lead the most upwards.

This is easier said than done and so they must first travel deeper down into the darkness before they slowly begin the long, slow journey towards the surface again.

While en route they encounter a settlement of gibberlings that take offense at the trespassers and a desperate running battle ensues and both sides take large losses only partly replaced by the zombies and skeletons reanimated by Zárisse's magics.

Adventure Kids lose their resident sneaky guy, Troy and many of the civilians are slain as well. Nestor and Fandamm are injured but survive.

Finally escaping the gibberlings the march upwards resumes.

A Displacer Beast is encountered and driven off by Zárisse.

Eventually the survivors realize they are moving in tunnels made from worked stone. By now they group has spent some 6 weeks in the underdark and so is fairly ragged and supplies are running short.

Cheered by this they press on and encounter a band of Duergar who are not happy at all to have foreigners on their doorstep. Fortunately they are not bent on taking slaves but rather send our protagonists on their way along with some insults and directions.

And so, finally, after 2 months of wandering in the Underdark the surviving members of of the band reach the surface, on a mountainside in northeastern Thay.

They make yet another difficult journey down the mountains which are now in the grip of winter. Despite the cold and narrowly surviving an avalanche all are happy to breathe moving air and see the sky again.

Finally they make it across the border to Thay proper. Home at last.