[Intro]
Beneath the city streets
Deeper than the sewers run
Deeper than the forgotten dead
Something still watches on
[Verse 1]
Down where damp stone breathes the cold
Through tunnels carved by fear and woe
Six shadows crept where no light fell
Where even echoes died and dwelled
Torches trembled on the walls
Coated in violet pulsing slime
Every breath grew thick and tall
Weighted down by stolen time
[Verse 2]
Scratched runes bleed into the rock
Of experiments no name can lock
Flesh laid bare beneath the knife
To feed an ancient rabid life
Beneath a rug rot ate away
A trapdoor groaned on rusted hinge
Like some great buried jaw astray
Slowly opening beneath them
[Verse 3]
They descended one by one
Into the dark that time outran
Weapons drawn, each nerve pulled tight
Each step woke something blind and quiet
Viper moved without a sound
Black scales swallowed every shadow
Breath as steady as the ground
Predator before the arrow
[Pre-Chorus]
Not a whisper
Not a sound
Only the dungeon
Breathing now
[Chorus]
Oh… within the Gaze of the Depths
Eyes awaken through the pain
Oh… within the Gaze of the Depths
Flesh becomes the watcher again
And somewhere in the endless dark below
Xanathar still sees it all
[Verse 4]
Practiced fingers found the lock
Stone lid cracked without a knock
Green mist poured out cold as grave
Slid through scales like poison wave
Ranger screamed but far too late
Sickness coiled around his spine
Something old and full of hate
Woke inside the dragonborn
[Verse 5]
Hours bled into the dark
Viper trembled, hard and stark
Veins burned white beneath his hide
Something fought to get outside
Joints swelled red, skin split and tore
Cleric prayed with broken breath
Every hero stood still and raw
As golden eyes opened in his flesh
[Chorus]
Oh… within the Gaze of the Depths
Eyes awaken through the pain
Oh… within the Gaze of the Depths
Madness crawls toward the heart again
And every blink within the crushing dark
Is Xanathar’s endless hunger
[Verse 6]
He saw a thousand sunken halls
Oceans made of floating eyes
Dead cities drowned in spore and gall
Gods that never learned to die
The eyes whispered through his bones
In a tongue no tongue can name
Eating sanity like flame
While the dungeon beat its heart
[Bridge]
“If those eyes reach his heart”
Beroth breathed, white as death
“There will be nothing left of Viper
Just a tyrant made of eyes”
No one spoke. No one breathed.
They all understood at last
They had not come here to kill a monster.
They had come here to save their friend.
[Verse 7]
Circle closed around their own
Cleric prayed, rogue held his blade
Fighter dared the dark alone
Ranger watched the shadows fade
Beroth traced the glowing runes
Across the dust and broken stone
While Viper screamed and tore the room
And the walls beat like a bone
[Final Chorus]
Oh… within the Gaze of the Depths
The eyes weep black and bitter tears
Oh… within the Gaze of the Depths
Light burns away the ancient fear
One by one within the crushing silence
The watching eyes decay to dust
[Verse 8]
They withered like frostbitten fruit
Pupils dimmed and turned to ash
Fell like dead leaves on the stone
And at last the screaming passed
Viper collapsed, breath ragged thin
No trace remained of that strange gaze
Only six friends, alive again
And the dark that still watches always
[Outro]
(Instrumental Solo)