Session 16: The Underrun

Queensport Shantytown → City Sewers → Cobbler’s House

TONE: Low and smelly. Classic dungeon-under-the-city with a warm
ending.

DM NOTE: Sessions 15 and 16 share nearly identical notes in the
source material — both describe the same sequence of events. It is most
likely that Session 15 is prep notes reused as a Session 16 recap with
minor changes. Run this as one cohesive arc across both sessions,
splitting it at a natural midpoint.

Grumpy

The dwarf is Grumpy — and he actually goes by that, with a sort of
defensive pride about it. He is a former Germonian court advisor who has
been watching Snow White’s court deteriorate for fifteen years. He is
blunt, loyal, and not actually as grumpy as the name suggests — more
like someone who gave up on politeness and found it liberating.

He leads the party through the back alleys of the
shantytown to a solid, respectable house. His wife — who does
not give her name — serves them tea without being asked and does not
comment on the state of their boots. ‘Right,’ Grumpy says. ‘Here’s
what’s happening. And here’s why it’s worse than you think.’

DM NOTE: Grumpy knows: Snow White is aware of the Dagon debt and has
decided the way to survive it is to pay it willingly. She intends to
offer Sable. He has been trying to find allies outside Germonia for
months. He finds the party’s arrival with Sable both alarming and,
reluctantly, hopeful.

The Underrun

The Underrun is Queensport’s sewer system — built by the same
architects as the city, which means it is better-designed and more
extensive than any sewer has a right to be. It smells extraordinary. The
party navigates by Grumpy’s sketched map.

Encounter: Otyughs

COMBAT: Otyugh (MM p.248) × 2 — HP 114, AC 14, Multiattack (Tentacle
Slam +6 2d6+3 + Restrain + Bite +6 2d8+3 + DC 15 Con or diseased). These
are hungry and unpleasant. Tactics: one restrains, one bites. They are
not coordinated enough to be truly dangerous to a competent party, but
the confined sewer space limits movement and makes AOE risky.

Beyond the Otyughs, the Underrun leads to a junction beneath a
cobbler’s house. The cobbler and his wife are already in bed — they do
not stir when Grumpy knocks the floorboard three times, which opens a
trapdoor.

The Brownies

Four brownies live in the cobbler’s walls — Gimble, Pip, Thatch, and
Wren. They are the Seelie Court’s ground-level network in Queensport:
small, efficient, and slightly contemptuous of larger creatures’
inability to fit through walls. They can contact Corster Fre.

The trade: a fox figurine and a saddle (the party has both). Pip
takes the fox figurine and vanishes through a crack in the wall. ‘Three
days,’ Gimble says. ‘Maybe two if nothing goes wrong. Nothing usually
goes wrong when we run messages. It’s everything else that goes
wrong.’

Sable is left with the cobbler and his wife, who agree with the
particular unquestioning competence of people who have been doing
dangerous things quietly for a long time.

• Navigating the Underrun: 200 XP

• Defeating the Otyughs: 450 XP

• Contacting the brownies and securing Sable’s safety: 300
  XP