Episode 38 - The Drowned Sanctum

Previously on All Drow, All the time, the heroes turned their attention to Clan Stonewater’s most urgent crisis: the Deepflow, the sacred river beneath Hammerhand, had gone silent. Charged with descending into the Drowned Sanctum, the party set out to discover what halted the waters and restore the lifeblood of the city before the citizens suffered.

While Nick Beardless detoured to the Embla Museum to investigate his duergar ancestry, the rest of the party ventured into the winding, stone‑hewn tunnels below Hammerhand. Where the river once thundered, they found only slick, wet rock and an unsettling quiet.

Deep within the sanctum, they reached a vast chamber filled with stagnant pools. Each one was defiled by thick, sickly‑green mucus, glistening like snot. The dwarven runes carved around the basin flickered weakly, their ancient glow smothered by the corruption.

Then the slime began to churn.

From the center of the largest pool, a massive shape rose, tentacles unfurling as an aboleth emerged from the depths. The battle carried the party from slime‑pool to slime‑pool as Wynter repeatedly cast Purify Food and Drink, burning away the corruption one basin at a time.

At last, the aboleth fell—and with the final pool cleansed, the sanctum trembled.

The Deepflow erupted back to life, bursting upward with pent‑up force. Water surged through the chamber, threatening to sweep the heroes deeper into the Drowned Sanctum and toward a very literal end befitting its name. Only Ary, newly transformed and “water‑strong” after the aboleth’s touch, stood firm against the rising torrent as the party escaped.

Three tasks of the Anvil Circle were now complete, with only one remaining:

Clan Ironchaser

Elite scouts had vanished in the Whistling Caves. A labyrinth of wind‑carved tunnels filled with eerie harmonics and deadly pressure pockets. The task was clear: find the scouts or recover their stone journals detailing the creatures they encountered in the Underdark.