OOC:
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“Little Alice fell
d
o
w
n
the hOle,
bumped her head
and bruised her soul”
― Lewis Carroll, Alice in Wonderland
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As Klep, Surana and Orsik are talking, the cell door opens. Jorlan, two drow soldiers and two quaggoth's enter. The quaggoths are dragging the limp form of Prince Derendil. One of the drow soldiers follows with what looks like a grungy sack over his shoulder. He droppes it with a thud. The sack moans. The other drow leads in two othe prisoners about as different as can be. One you can't miss...a large muscular orc (named Ront), the other a young female dwarf (Eldeth Feldrun). Both are still very groggy from the effects of drow poison, but able to move.
Jorlan gives the three of you a smile...maybe more of a smirk...as the others exit. He pulls the cell door shut, locks it and leaves without a word.
Derendil is hardly recognizable. His face is swollen, his fur and even some of his flesh is torn away in several places. One of his hands is broken and his other arm is dislocated. He's breathing though. But he is not conscious.
As Eldeth and Ront begin to gain their senses Eldeth looks over at him and says in dwarvish "You fool. We would have made it if you weren't so damn noisy." The orc opens one eye and mutters in orcish "You ran from Iceshield. You ran from shadows. You ran from dark sissy elves! All you do is run. Your stubby legs can't even out run a slug!" Eldeth comes back with more insults and Ront still more until they are both shouting at each other in their own languages. Then another voice comes out of the the darkness..."shhhhhh....brother, sister...you cannot win here. Peace!". A figure that has been keeping to himself in the shadows for the last several days comes forward. The drow have mostly left him alone, which seems odd. He appears to be a humanoid of sorts, but his features are very...fishlike. His name is Shuushar and he is a koa-toa. He is able to calm down Ront and Eldeth in a surprisingly short time. Ront goes off to find a corner to sulk and Eldeth, glancing at him angrily moves to the sack and opens it up...A roughly handled (though not too badly damaged) halfling emerges. After looking around at all the strange faces around him he smiles grimly and says...(ooc: [MENTION=36150]Herobizkit[/MENTION]...what do you say? You (as well as the drow) heard Surana rallying her friends to join together to escape...so you can include that in whatever you say). As he steps out of the sack, he subconsciously picks up the length of rope that was used to tie it shut (add 5' lentgh of silk rope to Bertrem's inventory).
Shuushar is very strange to all of you. He is from a town called Sloobludop (SLOO-bloo-dop) which is near a place called Darklake. He abandoned his people and sought a life of solitude in the Darklake, which is more like a maze of pools, streams and wells than a single lake. The drow captured him weeks ago but he didn't resists. He just accepts whatever life sends at him. He never blinks, which is disconcerting. And whenever he is talking, he wanders about aimlessly...like a fish in a pond.
Ront and Eldeth were captured by the drow after a battle between their people. Eldeth was part of a scouting party from a place called Gauntlgrim that was ambushed by the Iceshield orcs. In the ensuing chaos both fell down a deep deep hole. In the darkness, injured and lost they at first kept their distance from one another. But when a strange worm creature attacked the orc, the dwarf helped the orc fight it off. They realized then that they had to work together to escape. The climbed up and up for many hours and as they finaly returned to where they had fallen from...the drow were there and they were both taken captive. The drow had already captured the halfling so they don't know where he came from.
Klep, when you speak to Drum, it "sneezes" musically at you. A few moments later you hear it in your thoughts...At first it is very strange. But once it does, you are able to also understand others that are "friends" with it, even when they speak to you in languages you don't understand.
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OOC:
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to be clear, this second part is for Erevan, Evandur and Ezraen
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The long dark road is all you have known for days, perhaps weeks. There were more of captives like you, but most didn't make it. All that is left is are the three of you from the surface and a fourth that was picked up along the way. He reminds you of a dwarf, particularly of the tales you've heard of gray dwarves (ones that live deep underground) but he insists he is not a dwarf at all but a 'derro' and a sort of manifestation of a god in the living world. He calls himself Buppido.
You came upon him in the middle of a good sized cave. He was just sitting there and acted as if he expected the drow patrol. He gave no resistance..."all part of my plan" he assures you when you have moments to talk to him. The drow patrol is lead by one named Sarith Kzekarit. A junior sort of officer as far as you can tell. There is also a young mage named Nildus Mizzrym that seems to be out to prove himself to his leaders. There are no females in the group, which from your knowledge is strange. Male drow tend to be looked down upon and not typically allowed to do much without a female directing him.
Erevan is able to partially understand the drow when they are speaking. He can't understand everything. But over time you are able to piece together three things: You've been captured as part of an effort by a noble house to secure favor with their demon god. Captives such as yourselves are particularly useful for sacrifices. Others are intended to be sold as slaves...but none of the others survived. You are going to some outpost where you will wait until another patrol will take you to their city. But members of the patrol are looking forward to a chance to return to the city and be replaced. Third, Sarith (along with another drow that is not present...one named Jorlan) has lost favor with their god. Nildus seems to derive great pleasure from this and constantly mocks him and reminds him he better succeed in returning with prisoners that are pleasing to the Queen of Spiders.
As you go along, your dreams become worse and more intense. It is clear Nildus and Sarith experience them as well as Buppido. Buppido seems absolutely unpreturbed by them, though ("all part of the plan" he assures you).
The patrol is within a few hours march from the outpost when you stop to rest. You are kept constantly drugged so thoughts of escape are impossible and your memories are groggy of events but from what you can recall, the four of you (Erevan, Evandur, Ezraen and Buppido) are sitting among some rocks. You can hear the drow talking. Things get quiet for a while...which is not uncommon, the drow typically want to remain silent. But as you were sitting there this time, after about 20 minutes suddenly there is an outcry of alarm from the drow. You vaguele recall Bupiddo rejoining you...but you don't remember him leaving...The blue/violet fire lights the area. You stand and shuffle to get a look and you see Sarith, covered in blood, standing over Nildus's body. His face has been completely flayed from his skull. Another drow patrol appears to have just arrived to see this scene...bols from several handcrossbows fly into Sarith and you...darkness...You awaken later to find a new prisoner among you...Sarith.
OOC:
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Edit: In my rush I forgot the questions!
For Bertrem:
1) You find yourself to be a bit of an afterthought to the drow. They enjoy torturing you and making you do menial tasks but they often forget you are around. What do you do to take advantage of this?
2) Which of the PCs and NPCs introduced so far to you most attach to?
3) Describe something memorable you do?
For the others:
You have another hour of resting then about 4-6 more hours to get to the outpost. More drow have joined you so escape seems hopeless but they are fairly overwhelmed with the murder of Nildus. Many of them are just keeping their heads down while others seem overjoyed at an excuse to torment Sarith. The leader of the newly arrived patrol is Shoor.
1) Do you interact with any of the NPCs (Sarith, Buppido or Shoor)?
2) Do you do anything to try to take advantage of the distracted drow? (again, escape seems unlikely at this point)
3) Describe something memorable you do...you can include when you arrive at Velkenvelve, which will be shortly)
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