Role

Chapter 4

It quickly became clear that the "training" was either a joke or a plan
to get the detachment killed. The nuances of survival in a cavern
environment were glossed over. Tactics for fighting Drow and Duergar,
Cavefishers and Displacer Beasts were barely mentioned.

Most of the training was memorizing runes, instructions on how to make
maps, and a relentless pounding into their skulls that at least one of
them must remain alive and return with the information. Even a Nestless
one could tell that they were being sent off to die. Still he did his
best to learn what he could.

He learned how to eliminate scat in a smooth walled cavern, so as to
leave no trace. (Take it with you.) He learned what to do in the event of
a Fisher attack. (Run like hell.) He learned what to do if facing a Drow
torturer. (Try to swallow your tongue.) He memorized runes that looked
like squids, runes that looked like eyes, runes that looked like spiders,
runes that looked like nothing more than scratches.

Maps, maps, maps. How to determine depth by dropping a pebble down a hole
and listening for it to hit bottom. (Also, you must never drop anything
down a hole, lest you alert the whole of the Underdark to your presence.)
How to determine which of a pair of forking tunnels leads to the surface
and which leads deeper by feeling for the faintest of air currents on
your wide-open eyeball. (Also, how Duergar will build fires to change the
currents and lead the unexpecting deep, deep to their doom.) How to gauge
the rate of decline by the speed at which a rivulet of water descends.
(Thin spots in the veil can make water flow more slowly, quickly, or even
uphill in the Underdark.)

Shit.