2 - All the way down

As you were searching the room and got attacked again by one of those spidery-humanoids, the floor collapsed under the sudden action and you all got swallowed into this dark abyss.

Rocks falling, hitting you. The worrisome sound of weapons falling with you. Dust. Lots of dust, earth and small rocks.

The fall appears to last forever, and stops brutally as you hit what appears to be the ground in a pitch black cave. Rocks continue to fall all around you and you pray whatever god you have that you don't get crushed by one. It seems that there is a pool of water somewhere around as you receive splashing water more than once. At some point, after what seems like an eternity, all this chaos stops leaving you in an overwhelming silence.

What do you do?


For the falling damage, you only took half if your save was over 15. If your AC is 15 or more, you reduce the damage taken by 2. That's 9 for Mee'haïl and 3 for Sedror who apparently is pretty comfortable with such fall ;)

You take a moment to recover from the sudden fall and things get less fuzzy around you. You can hear water flowing near you and feel the resulting moisture in the air and on the ground. This pitch black cave make it sound like a large river, but your experience tells you that it probably only is a minor watercourse. On the ground, beneath the dirt that fell with you, you can discern the weak glow of some kind of luminescent moss here and there.

Mee'haïl, as you get back on your feet you stumble on something that was standing just before you and that you easily identify when you touch it : the hard and cold material, its shape and relative sharpness... One of the axes that fell with you actually planted right at your feet, missing your leg by a foot or two!
You have not heard from your companions yet and start wondering if you were the only one who survived ...

Mee'haïl
The flickering flame spread its light on your surroundings, revealing a cluttered cave full of rocks, dried up bodies and broken skeletons that all went down with you. A quiet underground river springs in that room and flows out through a corridor that seems to be the only easy way out (the other one being above you).
The greataxe at your feet was in rather good condition before it got broken in the avalanche. It can still function pretty well as a battleaxe if you want to take it, or you can look around for another weapon in better shape. The strange, golden alloy apparently stands the test of time so well that you would be able to determine its age based on its condition. Some dwarven runes and decorations still clearly appear on the handle.

None of your allies are in sight, and the complete silence of this room seem to indicate that no living creature is nearby.


Sedror
While you remained in shock after the fall from which your magic seems to have done a good job protecting you, a familiar voice arose. Your barbarian companion is somewhere around, and you easily locate him when he lights a torch up. He's down what looks like a small underground river, hidden behind a very large rock that would have killed you instantly if you landed ten feet further than you did.

Thanks to his darkvision, Sedror is able to discern most of the room's features. Obviously there is a huge, rough opening above him as this is how you two got here. There is a lot of dust in the air that reduce both visibility and breathability, but he can barely see the ceiling of the cave you were in when everything fell apart, which gives him an approximation of the total height of that opening.

This lower cave is very different from the ones you went through above. The most obvious thing is how to walls and ground are left unfinished : while the entrance level was well finished, with a very regular floor and well built ceiling, this one has was either a very recent (at the time) mine or got abandoned quickly.
There is a kind of bio-luminescent moss on the ground, a slow underground river near Sedror and rocks of every size scattered across the room. Most of the dwarven bodies fell down with you, and some of them ended up under the aforementioned rocks. Sedror can't seem to find your attackers, so either they are waiting for an opening to jump to your face or they are under one of the rocks.

Even if you two just met, finding a known face comforts you greatly. It is not you alone against the darkness of this underground place anymore.

As Mee'haïl takes a moment to rest, you both have some time to explore you immediate surroundings. The cave is smaller that the one above where you were when things fell apart, but bit nonetheless : about 50 feet across and 15 feet height. An underground river slowly flows out of one of the walls and leaves through a large passage on the opposite side of the room. You didn't venture into that passage, prefering to gather your strengths before you leave that relatively safe place. An uncommon moss the ground in patches and emits a weak, green light when there is no light source nearby. It takes about a minute to light up when you put the torch away.
As you inspect the room you discover, horrified, Tianni's arm and broken weapon protruding from beneath a huge rock, as well as the strange spider humanoid's legs. She apparently fought the creature during the fall and probably wasn't able to dodge what was coming from above. Bard is nowhere to be found, maybe he managed to get off the collapsing ground in time...

You took some time to rest, bandage your wounds and search the room. The sun is probably getting low outside.
Now would be a good time to get moving...

There are two obvious ways out of this cave : the one through which you came down here, and the tunnel along the river. As you two were exploring it, you didn't find any hidden passage or similar thing.
Given the height of the fall and the fact that the walls may probably be rather unstable due to the recent collapse you estimate that, while you'd have a chance to succeed, it would be a pretty hard climb. On the other hand, walking along the river seems pretty easy but leads to unknown territory...

The river flows from the wall to the north. The opening from which water flows is rather small, but a powerful stream comes out of it and turns into a tranquille river as its bed gets larger in your cave. This happens frequently in mountains when water finds a small crack in the stone and slowly enlarges it to the point where it can drain a small river out of its probable lake. Impurites in the water confirm you that it indeed comes from the surface, or at least somewhere that have green moss and fish bones.

Mee'haïl walks down the tunnel, along the underground river. The sound of splashes made when the river hits one of the recently fallen rocks covers his advancing. The light of his torch draws frightening figures on the walls, and Mee'haïl fears to meet one of the spider inhabitant of this underground complex as he is in no shape to face one of them right now.
Down the tunnel, Mee'haïl discovers a lake with clear blue —maybe lightly glowing?— water. At its centrer, the water seems to escape through an unseen hole forming a great and probably rather strong vortex. The cave here is rather large, enough so that Mee'haïl can't see it entirely with the light he is carrying. Small rodents flee from this sudden light in their habitat.
A broken bridge made of stone stays right in front of Mee, from which he guesses that there must be at least two other tunnels coming to this lake (one of each side). A large, purple murshroom sits at the top of the eastern part of the bridge, and it looks like fungi of many size, forms and colors are growing in this very favorable environment.

You climb up the wall and end up near one end of the collapsed stone bridge. There are several of those big mushrooms of various colors to be seen close by, and patches of moss here and there that probably is the same bioluminescent moss that you saw in the cave you come from. As you continue to follow the western wall, a tunnel appears and goes north: it is made of raw stone, just like the rest of the cavern, but has some steps carved out of stone to help with to variations of height. Some go up, some go down, but the general feeling is that is that is goes down slowly.

Upon better inspection you identify the large and colorful mushrooms in the room as several kinds of fungi, and the big purple one clearly is a Violet Fungus. Known quite well among cave-dwelling species, the violet fungus is a small to medium sized plant creature. They resemble giant mushrooms, ranging from light pink to deep purple in color. Their most distinctive and dangerous feature is their venomous tentacles that cause the rotting of almost any tissue they come in contact with. They are known to have a symbiotic relationship with shrieker fungi.
And while they are barely sentient plants, they are able to move and can be deadly when they feel threatened.

The fungi are not blocking the way, they are just minding their own business here and there. I'll add them on the map the avoid confusion.

Mee'haïl carefully avoids the colorful fungi, slowly walking into the northern passage. A rather large tunnel continues that way, almost made of raw stone with no decoration or any kind of finishes other than irregular steps.
As the barbarian leave the lake's room behind him and goes up some stone stairs, he overhears a voice. Not really a voice, actually, and more like stifled sobs that echo on the raw walls. The tunnel turns right and continues to go down, and it seems like the noise comes from that way.

Mee'haïl continue to go down the dark passage, looking for the source of that sound. The tunnel turns right but doesn't go very far from there. Just down the stairs, you see a yound girl with dirty clothes curled up in a ball and hiding her face from you as she does her best to remain silent and motionless — but the sobs and hiccups make that task really hard.

Yes of course Mee'haïl, the young girl is human. She looks at you with a mix of terror and desperation in her eyes.

Mee'haïl the girl clearly is terrified but when she hears your gentle voice and very, well, human attitude, she can't help but to run at you and grab your leg, letting her cries fill the small passage. Boooooohooohoooohooooo hu huuuuuuoooww. They hurt meeeeeee! They took us at night and brought us heeeeeere... THEYATEJOSHUAAAAAAA!!! She finally yell in an unsettling mix of terror and madness. Then she continues to cry, squeezing your leg with her little girl's arms, unable to talk because of her sobs.

Sceen, the steam is rather shallow, but jumping to the other side would be almost impossible as it is about 25 feet wide. An option would be to use the broken stone bridge, but even if you don't really know what it is you identified that the big purple thing that stands on its edge is a Fungus creature of some kind and that they can be dangerous if threatened. You'll need to get creative if you want to pass to the other side.

Akra also spots the Fungus creatures, and Dro is able to identify them more precisely :
You identify the large and colorful mushrooms in the room as several kinds of fungi, and the big purple one clearly is a Violet Fungus. Known quite well among cave-dwelling species, the violet fungus is a small to medium sized plant creature. They resemble giant mushrooms, ranging from light pink to deep purple in color. Their most distinctive and dangerous feature is their venomous tentacles that cause the rotting of almost any tissue they come in contact with. They are known to have a symbiotic relationship with shrieker fungi. And while they are barely sentient plants, they are able to move and can be deadly when they feel threatened. (repost from earlier)
There seem to be a passage on your left, but it isn't easily accessible and you'll need some climbing to reach the other side.

Mee'haïl, the girl is genuinely terrified but your presence helps. She smiles at the perspective of seeing the sun and probably running away from this horrific place. Will you take me back home? Mommy and Daddy probly are very worried that I'm not home! I will so be scolded...

@Everyone: you all heard the young girl's voice. Unless you want to poke the Fungi or explore some unexplored part of the cave, feel free to narrate what you are doing. I've updated the map so that you see all of the lake's area.

That passage goes downwards but seems to have collapsed recently. It doesn't go far beyond the light from your torch.
Was there a question in that sentence? There isn't much more to say than what you wrote. I moved your charcter on the map and revealed new parts of the cave accordingly.
I will answer any question you may have, of course.

Oh ok, I got it wrong. Well, let's fix this.
You'll end up pretty close to Dro and Akra, unsee from them as far as you can tell.

Mee'haïl, the girl is calming down, putting all of her faith and trust in your ability to bring her back to the surface.

Oh yes, I am sooo hungry! I've escaped the monsters when we entered the cave, but without light I've been all by myself since that moment. I thought I was gonna die aloooooone! she adds before bursting into tears again.

Akra, Dro, Sceen, the nearby fungus is slowly wobbling toward Sceen. It is about 4 feet tall and bright pink. None if its current features let you think that he's attacking you, but your not sure why he'd come that way.

You already did, right here : https://gamersplane.com/forums/thread/10536/?p=514142#p514142

OK, you three will have to tell me how you get to the other side of the lake. There's a massive mushroom on the opposite side of the broken bridge where some of you may have wanted to try they athletic skills, and water in form of lake or river on most of the other ways.

Mee'haïl, the girl takes a bit and spill it out. Is that even food?! Then, she realizes that you are doing your best to help and eat the damn thing. It take her a good five minutes to eat the adult sized ration, but after that she smiles and grab your hand.
Thank you so much for this meal. Let's go home now, mister... What was your name again?

Dro, Akra, Sceen, you three manage to reach the other side of the lake by foot and hear that you got closer to the little girl's voice. You can now almost understand what she's saying.

Well let's say you all meet as Mee'haïl is getting in motion with the little girl. RP the encounter if you want, or simply summarize it.

You currently know of two ways out of this lower level : the collapsed floor (from where Sceen came) and the abandoned stairs (from where the Dro and Akra come).
Which one do you want to use?

You follow the wood elf to go around giant fungi, along the river and finally see her rope. Mee'haïl, you can't help but see your paladin friend's arm under one of the boulder, and the dried puddle of your own blood.
Going up is a rather mundane task for you folks, but is way more difficult to Mee than it would usually be because of his injuries.

The adventure continues in the next thread.