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You met at sea, in the sailing vessel Trisha's Waist, on your way from the far continent back. The voyage seems cursed, as wind and tide and storm were all against you. In the first weeks of the voyage, a full half of the food stores flooded, and some of the fresh water reserves were contaminated with sea water. Despite the help of the casters on board, much of the food and water was lost, and had to be thrown overboard in an attempt to drop weight and hasten the journey. Illness began to break out, which claimed nearly a third of the passengers and crew. Those passengers with seafaring experience or skills were put to work, and some that didn't were as well.

The ship finally arrived at Pavis in a ragged state, battered by storms, out of spare parts, listing to the leeward side, depleted of food and water, and desperate for port of any kind. Pavis allowed it to dock, even with the famine and plague, out of seafaring courtesy and out of fear of angering the sailing gods.

Pavis has been under the siege of famine and plague for months growing ever longer. The unseasonable weather has spoiled the last three years of harvests, and the treasury has been rapidly depleted attempting to purchase food stores from other cities and kingdoms. Even the treasury is approaching emptiness, and the king, Edward the Fool, has used what credit he has to continue ordering shipments, even into terrible debt with all he owes. The elven kingdom of Sagewood has sent messengers to collect the debt they are owed several times, only to be rebuffed by an obstinate and unwise king. To make matters even worse, the food shipments themselves aren't all making it into the city. Rumors of bandits of some kind, or some monster or creatures, attacking the food shipments and absconding with them, are either true, or fewer shipments have been sent than is indicated.

With Demon Fever (DC 18, 1d6 Con, 2 saves to cure) ravaging the city, most of those people with either good sense, bad fort saves, or nature skills have set up a sort of tent city just outside the outer wall of the city. The weather is very cold, so people have been burning fires from whatever they have they can burn to stay warm. A food line has been the focus of the tent city, as every day another cart of food is supposed to be making its way into pavis, with a portion of it being unloaded in the tent city for distribution. The line moves slowly, and leaving the line (an entire party leaving the line) surrenders one's place irrevocably, and several people have been injured or killed over line placement disputes. The group of you are adjacent to each other in the line, which has moved a few places each day for a week. Your food is exhausted (as indicated by your required con checks) and the fires are burning low. You can have one or two of your number away from the line at a time, though if the whole group of you leaves the food line you may be able to get your place back, depending on how you go about it.

The game will start early in the morning, before sunrise. Torches burn along the food line and the tent city, to keep the night spirits at bay. The sky is sour and angry, with the moonlight showing harsh clouds and a find mist of ice and snow falling to earth. The ground and the air are cold, but for now it isn't windy, and in the stillness you keep a little more of your warmth. City guardsmen slowly patrol up and down the food line, keeping their eyes open for robbers, thieves, or night spirits.

Down into the darkness

Our intrepid heroes, pushed by hunger, cold, and the sudden appearance of the elven army to besiege pavis, found refuge in a hidden cavern underground, in what they determined was in fact Old Pavis, an ancient city reclaimed by the earth. Down into the city they went, where they sought out and killed dangerous Ankhegs, which they butchered and cooked and feasted upon.

Dala gave a votive pennance to the goddess Nihilan, whose ruined lost temple they took refuge in. Nihilan acknowledged this pennance with the gift of an undead attendant for a few hours, who saw to cleaning up the temple for their use.

Imoak, fearless in the face of the gods, stole from the temple several magic items, which invited Nihilan to chastise them with a brief curse of darkness.

The group scouted the surrounding area as they continued to feast upon their fallen, and now jerked, enemy beast meats. Numerous items, some made of mysterious substances, were recovered from the lost city of Old Pavis.

At night, strange visitations occurred, with a lost spirit seemingly from ancient times, and a magnificient Fey Animal, Rrerrin, King of all Cats, claiming to lead them, but perhaps his intentions are other?

Investigation of a hole in the floor of the temple that was made during the battle revealed a deep cavern, at the bottom of which was an ocean of mystical Earth's Water, the source of breathable air in the underworld.

Shortly thereafter, a calamitous rockfall smashed the city in half, collapsing it all into the deep underground watery abyss, our heroes included.

The fell into the Earth's Water ocean, unharmed by the fall, and at no risk of drowning, as the mysterious Earth's Water seems somewhat breathable.

What will they do next, in the deepest darkest reaches of the earth?