Disclaimer: The Forgotten Realms are not mine. The plotline is.
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Bhindax Hune looked over his shoulder at the rest of the merchant caravan. He glanced over the pack lizards with their cargoes of silks, spices, spell reagents and travel supplies for handlers, guards, scouts, the caravan's mistress and the passengers. He looked at the novice noble priestess with her own guards and hangers-on and stifled a groan for the hundredth time since setting out from Maerimydra. They simply made far too much noise than was desirable or wise for traveling through the wilds of the Underdark.
At least he was unlikely to attract the noble's attention or anything else's for that matter. Like most of the males in Orlzz'Hune, Bhindax favored the most nondescript clothing and gear that could blend into a rock face over the bright silks and cloaks that more cosmopolitan drow enjoyed and tended to be a bit plain in the face. His weapons also reflected someone who traveled in tight cramped spaces. A light crossbow with quarrels lay tucked against his travel pack and a pair of curved kukris, the house weapon of choice, lay sheathed across his lower back out of the way and close at hand.
Bhindax heard something in the Lolthite's luggage clang loudly and winced. At this rate, he reflected, every predator in the area would be hunting them. To make matters worse, the priestess lingered under the impression that she knew the best way to Menzoberranzan, that she knew the what to expect along this or that stretch of tunnel and that she was sure that they were all wary for no good reason at all. Bhindax knew how glad he was not to be in the same vicinity of the zealot very often, but now he had new to report to Mistress Torleny Hune. For a welcome change, the caravan's leader rode at the front of the convoy rather than in the middle with the traveling priestess. "Pack mistress," Bhindax called softly as he jogged up to her riding lizard. "Possible trouble ahead."
"What is it?" the lean female growled as she glared down at him.
"Fissures in the tunnels ahead," he answered quickly so as not to worsen her mood. "Looks like recent, natural breaks in the stone and the tunnel does not look stable. Some dust fell in front of Malzin while we were examining the rockface." Bhindax looked carefully at Torleny and suggested, "We should either hurry through and hope it does not collapse or take one of the alternate routes around the questionable area."
"How much longer will the side route be?" she asked, resigned.
Bhindax relaxed a little. Torleny was not going to snap at him this time. "Five, maybe seven cycles of Narbondel."
"Damn." The senior scout waited patiently for the convoy mistress to reach a decision. She sighed, "We will..."
Whatever else Torleny said was lost in the sudden, thunderous crash that resounded through the tunnel. The passage became choked with dust. Bhindax swept his cloak's hood over his face to keep the worst of the dust out of his nose and felt his way to the tunnel wall. He could feel continuing vibrations through the stone and suspected that most of the tunnel ahead was now clogged with rubble. "Who is not ambulatory?" Torleny shouted after the echoes had died down.
Coughing, Bhindax went about locating the two scouts he had assigned to the front of the caravan. Malzin, a small, stocky drow, sat on his rear facing the collapsed passage. The novice scout's face was ashy pale with shock and he was covered in dust but otherwise seemed unhurt. "Where's Yinthra?" Bhindax asked the shaken younger scout sternly.
"S-she thought it was safe to go through," Malzin stuttered. He looked at the rubble in front of him and shivered. "She said we were being cowards before Lolth's clergy."
Under the rubble then, Bhindax thought, good riddance. He would not miss the conniving glory hound. The senior scout shooed Malzin back to the main lizard train with orders to steal a bit of food and stay warm. Bhindax padded back to Torleny to give her the news.
Upon hearing his report and assessment of the to blocked passage, the caravan mistress swore, "By the Dark Mother! Seven cycles of extra travel you said?" At the scout's nod, she continued, "We will need more supplies then. Go find us some."
Bhindax raised his eyebrows in surprise but otherwise stayed composed. "Buy, steal or no preference?" he asked calmly.
"Whichever is fastest, male," Torleny snapped. We will continue on ahead. Catch up to us when you can."
"Allow me to give my people marching orders and I will be off then," Bhindax bowed to the female and went to go give new scouting positions to make up for the late Yinthra and make sure Malzin had a watcher.
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A few hours later, Bhindax had the caravan's roomiest haversack over his shoulders, a few days worth of rations and a good deal of distance between himself and the merchant train. Most intelligent denizens of the Underdark, he knew, preferred to live in heavily defended cities against invaders, monsters and whatever else might lurk in the total darkness and silence of the wilds. Personally, Bhindax felt that the lack of ambient noise bothered the city dwellers the most. Sound and vibration could carry father than light and were far more likely to attract unwanted attention. He had spent years learning to move in the graceful silent lope that characterized the movement of the best Underdark scouts and guides.
He also supposed that the tunnels would seem a labyrinth to anyone unfamiliar with the caverns or the way most Underdark maps were laid out. While conversant in reading trails and charting courses through the dark passageways, Bhindax held a slight edge over most other guides he knew. The scout could always tell, with certainty, which was the fastest or safest path to take or which would be the best combination of the two. Bhindax could almost always find something if he knew what to look for. Orlzz'Hune's highest ranked priestess called it a gift from Lolth. Scuttlebutt when he had been much younger said that his knack was more likely due to his mother messing around with one of House Oblodra's males. Wherever the talent came from, it never grew to the point that it attracted the attention of Menzoberranzan's third ranked house and simply remained what it was.
Bhindax used the talent now to find the safest, fastest path to more supplies. He jumped through two different portals, one with designs he had never encountered before. Fortunately due to a charm called a churkei, he could pass through unwarded portals without incident. The token, when waved at a dormant portal, would either assume the shape of the key needed to pass, say the phrase required by the magical doorways or light up the right places to push to open them.
The scout squeezed through a couple of very tight passages that left new scuffs on his leather armor and clothing. His path sense brought him to another portal and he waved his churkei at it. The veins of quartz around the slate rockface lit up with a faint green light in three different spots. After a little trial and error, Bhindax got the portal activated in a trickle of sparkling motes and stepped through the magic doorway.
He found himself in a place with too much light to be the Underdark. The air felt frigid and something white crunched softly underfoot. Bright though it was, the drow could still see reasonably well. The scout took a guess that the sun had not risen, but that a very bright moon bathed the cold, wet white stuff in soft light. He looked around at the mixed forest of bare trunks and branches and needle leaved trees laden with more snow. Two sturdy, bare trees formed an arch above him and the doorway of the portal he had just come through. Bhindax surveyed the steep slope he stood on and decided to climb up one of the taller fir trees and gain a better assessment of his circumstances.
Squinting against the glare of moonlight on snow, he could see a small group of smoke columns rising above the treetops, far downslope and a few leagues away. Bhindax took a guess that a surface settlement lay in that direction. Such a place would be easy enough to sneak in, procure supplies and sneak out without anyone the wiser for his visit. If only that priestess didn't eat quite so much, he thought idly as he climbed down the fir tree and started off in the direction of the smoke, Next monster we come across we should ask her to get rid of it by herself.
Bhindax loped silently over the snow, trying to keep to the trees and painfully aware that his black and grey cloak, while perfectly suited to blending into the surrounding stone of the Underdark, stood out in stark contrast to the surrounding snow. He took the precaution of skirting around the edges of the clearings he came across until he came to a particularly long and wide clearing devoid of any trees whatsoever on a fairly steep slope. The scout decided to chance the crossing and started out over the snowfield.
As he got two thirds of the way across the clearing, Bhindax's sharp ears caught the sound of something big cracking on the slope far above him. The cracking sound was shortly followed by a sound not dissimilar to rushing water. The scout could feel vibrations in his boots and made a snap decision to abandon stealth for speed and find cover quickly. He ran for the nearest stand of fir trees as the vibrations got worse and the rushing sound became a roar attached to a massive wall of white bearing down on him. That realization firmly in mind, Bhindax swung up into the trees as soon as he got within reach of their needly branches, hoping to gain enough height to ride through what sounded remarkably like a horizontal cave in.
Then snow overtook him and all went dark.
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