Maternity leave

Labyrinthine network of natural caves and narrow tunnels with multiple intersections, filled with pestilential sulfur fumes. The client entrance is a hole in the ceiling of the southernmost cave. Overhang opening onto the underground river in the western part. In the northernmost part, just before the stone bridge lies a dead wyvernling being gnawed at by two reptilian rats.

• → Intersections. Roll a d6 at each intersection

• → Runes. Simple and rough symbols carved by the clients to help them find their way back.
• → Sulfur fumes. Limits visibility to just a few feet for normal sized characters. Smaller sized ones can see just fine as the vapors rise to the ceiling.
• → Hole. Leads to a small cavern, then to the Bright Outside. Rope ladder attached to a stalactite. A breeze carries mysterious and frightening smells from the surface world.
• → Opening. River (see B) some 30 feet below. A small rocky islet (see C) is visible in the middle of the current. It can be reached with some rope and risks.
• → Dead wyvernling. Maybe two weeks dead. Didn't have a thick enough hide to resist the scrounger-rats (see below).
• → Reptilian rat. Foot long rat-headed lizards with razor-like teeth. Recently slain. Known to some as a scrounger-rat. Killed by weapons.

SCROUNGER-RAT. Live in packs and in partial symbiosis with wyverns, gnawing off their excess carapace. Normally, the wyvern would protect her hatchlings from them, but she is currently unable to do so…

HD 1 (1hp), ARM none, ATT bite 1, ML Δ4

15-foot-long natural stone arch, gleaming with moisture, disappearing into the sulfur fumes. Tumultuous underground river flows from east to west about 30 feet below.

• Are the hosts noisy? All the clients but Sigrid are concealed behind a huge rock at the end of the bridge, ready to attack the first to arrive on their side of the bridge (Hulda: arrows; Thunberg: wind spirit spell)
• Are the hosts cautious and silent? All the clients but Sigrid are arguing behind a huge rock at the end of the bridge. 3-in-6 chances to hear them quarrel in whispers: some of them want to move ahead, others want to wait for Sigrid to report back.

Note: Sigrid is scouting the labyrinth of geysers (see D)

• → Moisture. Unless crossing slowly or on all fours, a DEX check is required (disadvantage if heavily armored). Failed? Fall into the river (see below).
• → Sulfur fumes. Thicker and stagnant. Hard to see past the end of one's outstretched arm.
• → Underground river. Anyone falling or trying to cross into the water must pass a STR check or end up on a rocky islet (C). Impossible to swim against the current (except perhaps for aquatic species...)

Surrounded by turbulent waters, rougly pyramid-shaped, with a small beach of black sand on the north end.

• → Turbulent waters. Anyone falling into or trying to cross at the islet must pass a STR check or be swept away by the river, which disappears further down a siphon.
• → Siphon. To survive the siphon, characters need to pass a CON check (with disadvantage if armored) or drown while being tumbled and carried away. If successful they are spat out into the Bright Outside, at the foot of a waterfall overlooking a small lake, whose banks are home to a community of irascible fisherfolk. At your discretion, finding the way back to the Hub may be an adventure in itself, or it may be as simple as asking the fisherfolk, who will insist on taking all the character's possessions (actually Dungeon, Inc.'s property) as payment.

FISHERFOLK. HD1 (4hp), HP4, ARM Δ4, ATT fishing spear d6, ML Δ8

• → Beach. Annoying crabs crawl over an ancient, half-eaten corpse. 1 damage if the body is touched, unless they're dispersed (with an open flame, for example).
• → Corpse. Probably a client from a previous expedition who drowned. Still has a purse (30 gp and a gem worth 100 gp) and a magical dagger (leaf-shaped blade of antique green metal, ivory handle engraved with ancient runes, ignores armor).

Maze of narrow passages, boiling puddles everywhere. From time to time, a desperate squeak can be heard among the bubbling noises and sinister cracks of superheated rock.

Note: if they're still alive, Thulda, Ninbulf, Thurnberg join Sigrid and try to ambush or delay the hosts, while Smirnul goes to inspect the nest

• → Boiling puddles produce scalding geysers at random intervals. Every 5 minutes of fictional time, roll Geysers Δ6. If it downgrades, geysers erupt and inflict the die's result as damage to the hosts. It is obvious that pressure is building inside. If the risk die fizzles, the geysers shake the caves and cause rocks to fall (DEX check or d6 damage), after which the die resets to Δ6.
• → Squeak. From the 5 surviving wyvernlings lost in the labyrinth who try to escape the scrounger-rats. As long as the characters are in the labyrinth, and at least one wyvernling is still alive and alone in it, roll 1d6 every ten minutes of real time and consult the table below:

WYVERNLING. Two-week-old baby wyvern. Cat-sized. Cannot fly. Quite aggressive, yet playful little pest. Follows for a while anyone who feeds it.

HD 1 (3hp), ARM none, ATT bite (no damage, just annoying and painful), ML Δ4

High-ceilinged cavern with many stalactites. Greenish fog of sulfuric fumes slowly escaping through a large hole in the ceiling. Smells: animal musk, rotting meat, sulfur. The wyvern lies half-conscious, in the northwest of the cave, on a pile of rotting carcasses, its tail coiled around six hatched eggs.

If attentive: the strange sound of castanets can be heard from time to time.

• → Hole. A large access shaft opens out into the cruel light of the Bright Outside some 60 feet above.
• → Half-conscious. She's dying. The hosts might attempt to heal her (she's a a valuable company asset!). If they use a healing spell or make her drink a healing potion, the wyvern eventually recovers. This earns the whole team a +1 modifier to their employee of the month roll. If they don't heal it but do let their supervisor know that the wyvern is ailing, a team is sent back to save it.
• → Six hatched eggs. No, contrary to the rumors, they're not made of gold… They have a golden tinge however, and could be fashioned into a fetching (but fragile) helmet.
• → Castanets. Smirnul the gnome is here, his teeth and knees chattering in fear, hidden by his chameleon spell. He tries to sneak back to the clients entrance at the first opportunity.