The party pushed on through the darkness, but before long the abyssal soldiers could be heard struggling through the tunnel behind them. Tense, close-quarters battle ensued, with Magnus, Keen, and Ara holding the soliders back while their friends pushed further into the dark. As they scrambled over a partially collapsed wall of earth and around a corner, the three of them were caught in a cave-in. Whisper frantically dug into her bag, finding a Pearl of Force which she used to excavate a sphere of empty space around her trapped party members. The bubble would only last so long though, and Sirlius began shifting quantities of earth using Eldritch Blast. At last, the trapped adventurers were pulled free – bruised, filthy, and short of breath, but otherwise unharmed.

With the immediate danger behind them, the Froghat Club took in their surroundings. They were well below the surface of El Zikrin. The hand-dug tunnel pushed through a collapsed wall into what looked like the ruins of a much older city; much of the first story of the buildings remained intact, pushing up into the cavernous vault. Ara was struck with an odd sense of deja vu, though he was certain he had never been below El Zikrin before, the layout of the streets and the architecture seemed somehow familiar.

Not far from the escape tunnel, Keen found the doorway of one of the ancient storefronts slightly ajar. Inside, they found the proprietor of the Juus Apothecary, a rail-thin, gangly elf named Junus Junusson. He had made his way here through his escape tunnel when El Zikrin was invaded, and had been hiding out ever since. He told the party how the Abyssal soliders had begun appearing from the beams of green light throughout the city. The Haystacks had been completely overrun and the winery abandoned; only in the Seller’s Quadrant and Home’s Quarters was their any resistance.

Asking after Gulë Bluestone, they learned the old mage was indeed a resident of El Zikrin; he had been living in the Knife and Lantern, a large tavern in the Seller’s Quadrant on the town square, and working for the Skink. Though the Knife and Lantern was by this point the last pocket of resistance in the Seller’s Quadrant,The party resolved to make their way there to find the this Gulë, Archivist of the Whisper King and get what aid they could.

The apothecary supplied the party with a few potions, and warned them that the Abyssal invaders had begun constructing something in the center of town; they would find their way above ground hotly contested.

Ara realized that he could lead the party through these underground ruins towards the spot where the Knife and Lantern now stood, and this they decided to do. The odd sense of deja vu had never left the monk, though, and it only increased the further into the ruins they travelled. Before long he realized that the feeling was more than deja vu – something was pulling at him, pulling his consciousness away from this place. Though at first he resisted the compulsion, he somehow knew what it was: El Zikrin of old, the great Elven city, once of the Pentopolis, was calling to him from the past. Though he did not understand why it was happening, Ara realized this could be a singular opportunity to discover something of his own past, and the legacy of the Fists. The party resolved to wait for their friend, and found a defensible spot in the darkness. Ara submitted to the calling, and vanished…

Arcane Mining Levels: S-Tier

Backstory Status: Interloping

Apothecary Rating: Totally Legit

RP Rating: Awesome!