The Upper Excavation

The Upper Excavation

History/Lore:

The upper excavation is the only current destination to have been visited by 3 parties, and it is quite possible, that there will be a 4th party to visit the infamous cave system. (This was written on 07/09/2021 at 7pm EST) Little Nothing is known of the cave system before the great flood, at least to us. Yet, the 3 parties that have currently visited it have many stories. As such, I will now list the parties that have visited the site and then tell of their adventure and findings.

Appearance:

Let us assume we are looking at a map of the "Upper Excavation" from a bird's eye view, as it is a map. For simplicity we will than break the map into 9 quadrants. (top left, center left, bottom left, top center, the center, bottom center, top right, center right, and the bottom right) The entire left side of the map is only accessible through extremely tight passageways. These passageways are only easily accessible to small creature and creatures that lack a skeleton (i.e roaches, centipedes, snakes, etc.) As such the left most region of the map is only consisting of 2 caves. The center bottom of the map would be directly in front of the entrance and would consist of a forked path. The center, center of the map would consist of a cave that is slightly lower in elevation compared to the surrounding caves. This results in the room’s floor being filled with 2-5 feet (0.8-1.8 meters) of water. The center, top of the map located a big ant hill and its southern quadrant is separated from it by a 10ft wall. Another ant hill separates the top, center quadrant of the map from the top right quadrant. The top right quadrant consists of a sleeping area that was utilized by the necromancer. The center left area of the map consist of a large aquifer. The aquifer consists of sea water, and a lot of dead bodies that the sea water has drawn down to the caves. The bottom left of the map if a series of cave passages ways. (This description leaves much to be wanted, my apologies for that)

Parties sent to location:

The 1st party:             Camille Sophia Lazarus, Mars the Asura, Friday, Riddniss, and Khazrel

-         “Exploring the Upper Excavation”

The 2nd party:            Friday, David, Kyrat Von Hill, Amarin, and John Firehands

-         “Exploring the Upper Excavation Pt 2”

The 3rd party:             Bhelroth, Mist, Riddness, Khazrel, Gerry, and John

-         “Cleaning Up the Mess”

Discoveries of each party:

The 1st party: The first party found out that the maggots were not innately hostile; there was brightmoss in the cave, indicating that there might be a source of it around; there where hostile ants in the caves; there was a necromancer in the cave. They killed said necromancer, along with his zombie; They found a small camp of druegar. And engaged them, resulting in the dispatching of the druegar; They acquired the necromancers spell book and donated it to our library, where the legendary spell book sits to the day; They also found a mysterious document that is written in 10 different languages. It is called "Tunnel Riddle" in the official Ironkeep library archives.

The 2nd party: The Second party found out that the ants are only hostile if you get directly in their path; They found a Giant Centipede. (The Centipede of “The Upper Excavation”) They did not kill it; They found that the cave is a series of circles; they found that the zombies in the cave arrived via the great flood; They were the 1st party to create a map of the cave system. Said map can still be found in our town’s library.

The 3rd party: The third party found out the most interesting and perhaps the most important information. They killed the “Centipede of The Upper Excavation”; They found a way to travel further down the cave system, through the ant hills; They made first contact with a subterranean civilization of mushroom humanoids.