Dungeon Crawl

The Spindle of Shadows

Descend into the deadly Underdark to sabotage a drow war-host's magical loom before it opens a permanent gate.

About this adventure

The cliff-city of Hollowmere seals the dark beneath it, but the ancient sanctified stone is cracking. Miners vanish, cattle disappear, and a cold green light bleeds from the deep wells at night. While the city's cowardly rulers deny the threat to prevent panic, the salvation of the surface falls to a small, deniable band willing to descend into the lightless expanse. Far below, a drow matron named Velzra Xun'dahl has united three feuding dark-elf houses under the Spider Queen's banner. Driven by a famine of faith and an ancient prophecy, she is racing against an approaching stellar conjunction to raise the Spindle—a massive arcane loom weaving a permanent gate between the Underdark and the surface.

Prologue

The stone beneath your feet vibrates with a low, unnatural hum. High above, the cliff-city of Hollowmere clings to its precipice, oblivious to the cold, greenish light that now seeps up from the abandoned wells. The ancient seals, meant to keep the deep tunnels closed forever, are fracturing. From the cracks, a scent of ozone and ancient dust drifts upward, carrying with it the faint, rhythmic scraping of something vast and many-legged. You stand at the edge of the descent. The authorities have turned a blind eye, paralyzed by the fear of mass panic, leaving the fate of the surface to those willing to brave the dark. Ahead lies a yawning chasm of black rock and forgotten shadows. There is no turning back, for what is climbing up the deep shafts will not stop until the sun is blotted out.