Child of Chaos -- The Continuing Adventures of Thundina Planeswalker. June 29 update

Before we begin this tale of Thundina Seong, let me give you some background on what to expect in this thread.

SPOILER WARNING: This is the module Expedition to the Demonweb Pits, set in Eberron, more or less. There will be module spoilers. Underlying the story is the game as its being played. I first e-mail to the other players the dramatization of the session before posting it here.

This tale is how Thundina envisions it, which means she is the primary protagonist. In reality, it is much more of a team effort than is being portrayed here.

This is the tale of Thundina, but she does not have plot immunity. I write this story because she is an interesting character. Should she fall in battle and be replaced by another PC, this tale will conclude.

This is the sequel to the story hour The New Adventures of Thundina Seong!. It is loosely written that she has also done other adventures, mostly solo, but nothing has become canon. The New Adventures were the Expedition to Castle Ravenloft, but I will keep this thread free of spoilers for that adventure. Where I can't avoid spoilers, I will put the spoilers into a sblock.

Updates will be made approximately every Thursday or Friday, after the weekly session which is the basis of the story.

Prologue: Discontinuity

Thundina looked over the great city she and Talor had just arrived in front of. Tendrils of fog rapidly retreated from around their feet, withdrawing over open water. Thundina and Talor stood on a roadway and Thundina cocked her head to one side and mused, “That looks an awful lot like Thronehold.”

Talor shrugged, “Never been there.” He continued looking over the ancient city and muttered to himself, “Do I want to enter such a place? Was that really all built by humans?”

“Yeah, I’m sure it’s Thronehold,” Thundina said. “I have some friends here. Or, at least I have some buyers here. Let’s go cash in.”

A horse and wagon team rumbled down the road towards Thundina and Talor. Thundina dove to the side, pulling Talor down and out of the way. The driver screeched a curse at the pair as he rumbled past. The man had a strange accent and Thundina had never heard that particular curse before, but the feelings were obvious. Thundina resolved to remember that one for an appropriate time. She bounded back to her feet and offered a hand to Talor.

Thundina and Talor walked through Thronehold, Thundina leading the way but randomly wandering the town. Talor asked, “What are we looking for?”

“Umm,” Thundina began. They turned a corner and she spotted the insignia of the Lightbringer’s and beamed, “That. The Lightbringer guild hall.”

Thundina walked up to the entrance to the guild hall where a guard stopped her, “Halt. What business do you have here?”

Thundina dug in her pack and pulled out the charter of her previous adventure, “Thundina, adventurer. Mission complete.”

The guard saluted, “Go right on in then. You know the way to the commander’s office? I’m sure he’ll be eager to debrief you.”

“Umm, let’s just say, totally theoretically, that I’ve never met the commander.”

A meeting was arranged and Thundina swaggered into the commander’s office. “Welcome back to Thronehold, Thundina. I hear your mission was successful.”

Thundina nodded and pulled out the Sunsword, “Primary mission, retrieval of the class eight artifact sword. Secondary mission, locate the previous expedition.” Thundina pulled out the documents and trinkets from her fallen companions. “The secondary mission, while completed, was not the rousing success of the primary. I regret to say that I bring news of both the death of all members of the LGEF 2.1727 and all other members of LGEF 2.3017 forces. I can prepare a more full report on the undead destroyed.”

“Excellent work. The Lightbringers are pleased at the recovery of the sword, although we mourn the brave men and women who had to give their lives for the mission. I would expect that you’ll receive a promotion, class five, at the least. Do you have a residence in town yet? Take some time off, and we’ll contact you once we have a new mission lined up.”

Thundina shook her head, “No, no, I’m done with the Lightbringers. I signed up for the mission on the promise of good pay and because I was getting tired of Thronehold. I’ve had enough of the undead for a good long while, so I’d be pleased to see that mission completion pay and be on my way.” Thundina paused a moment before adding, “After Ashlyn’s death, I began carrying her holy symbol and amulet. I feel a calling from them. I can’t really explain it, but I feel it. Might I keep them?”

The Lightbringer commander spoke once more, “We don’t have much gold on hand, but I will send word to the armory to expect you. Ashlyn had no next of kin so her gear would return to the guild, but you should carry it for a while longer; a reminder of the friendship of the Lightbringers. You will always be welcome here and we hope that some day you might assist against the undead threat again.”

Before the meeting formally concluded, a six foot tall creature made entirely of metal knocked on the door and entered. “Commander Thykon, sorry to interrupt, but that priority report you had asked for regarding the disturbance in southwest Karrnath is compiled. It does not directly affect our mission, but I think we should continue to monitor it.”

“Thank you, Shield. Could you take this message to the armory for me as well.”

Once Shield had departed, Thundina looked at Commander Thykon with wide eyes, “Was that an iron golem who could speak and said, ‘I think’? I’ve never heard of such a thing.”

Thykon looked serious, “Shield is a war-forged, one of many in the Lightbringers. We recruit them highly for their resistance to many undead attack forms. I’m surprised someone as accomplished as you are had never encountered, much less heard of, one. It worries me. Certain undead are known to damage the mind. The way you’re clipping your speech also concerns me, I think we should have a cleric examine you to be on the safe side.”

With no clerics with the right spells prepared that day, Thundina and Talor looked through the Lightbringer armory and selected enough equipment that the treasury could then match the rest of the bonus reward for the mission. They promised they would come back the next day for the examination and went and found an inn. Thundina ordered the most lavish meal the inn could produce and thoroughly enjoyed herself before retiring for the evening.

The next day, Thundina and Talor visited the Lightbringer guild hall again. The priestess Vos introduced herself and explained that the spells necessary would have somewhat of a casting time, but could check both over at the same time. She then began the invocations to the Sovereign Host while sitting between Thundina and Talor.

Vos finished her spell and asked the pair to wait a moment and exited. She returned with another Lightbringer in a robe who introduced himself as Thidin, a wizard. He was going to be doing a follow-up as well. Another hour of waiting for Thundina and then Vos and Thidin consulted on their respective results. They called in Commander Thykon before they would tell Thundina the results. She paced while waiting for Thykon to arrive.

He arrived, conferred with his two magic users before facing Thundina, “I don’t fully understand what Vos and Thidin are saying, and I don’t think they fully understand either, but the consensus is that you aren’t precisely the Thundina who we sent to the village of Barovia. You are Thundina, we’re not accusing you of being a shape shifter or doppelganger or anything of the like, but you’re not the same. It’s like you’re from a slightly different but parallel Eberron. Talor too bears indications that he’s from this parallel Eberron, but that is more difficult to confirm because he was not a sworn Lightbringer.”

Chapter 1: Reformation

“Damn it, where did all my money go?” Thundina swore. “I’m broke!”

Talor chuckled, “Oh, I don’t know. Possibly the lavish feasting, the fancy clothes, or the unwise gambling.”
“I didn’t gamble. Much.” Thundina declared. “At least I’m not in debt. I guess I shouldn’t say broke, really. I have more in cash then when I first left home, but after that rich Lightbringer’s reward, it doesn’t feel like much.”
“It has been a fun time, but this isn’t exactly why I followed you out of Ravenloft you know.”
“Excellent then. We shall find a new job. That’ll solve my money problem and you can get more great piles of stuff. I think I heard that the Karrnath Royal Swords were looking for experienced adventurers for a scouting mission in the Nightwood.”

Thundina and Talor took a boat across the Scions Sound towards Korth. Thundina thought just how far she had come since the last time she was watching Thronehold fall away behind her. She was now an accomplished undead hunter, and had once been considered a possible lord of Ravenloft. When it came to moving around a combat zone, she was now so confident in her own abilities that practically nothing could obstruct her. She had befriended the paladin Ashlyn and when she fell in darkness, Thundina took up the paladin’s holy symbol even though she really couldn’t use it, but there had been times when it felt like it was doing something.

At the Karrnath Royal Swords headquarters, Thundina and Talor found the lieutenant in charge of hiring. Lieutenant Thomas asked Thundina and Talor to demonstrate some skill to prove they were experienced adventurers before he laid out the mission. “There have been unusual dark elves spotted in the Nightwood. These aren’t like the ones from Xen’Drik. What little we know is that they worship some spider goddess and absolutely hate the sun and the sky. They have been raiding out from the wood and poaching the king’s bounty. Disperse the raids, and find the source. Seal it if possible, report back if it is not possible to seal. Understand, that this will primarily be a speculative job. Any spoils you capture will be yours to keep in its entirety; we will have the appropriate paperwork drawn up shortly. Their poaching has reached an unacceptable point and this needs to be put to a finish immediately, so we are sending you out as soon as tomorrow. There is one other person whom we will be sending with you, the juggernaut Scyther.”

The lieutenant took Thundina and Talor to a scribe who handed them the papers for the spoils and signed them onto a contract for the expectations of associates of the Karrnath Royal Swords. They were told to report to the headquarters an hour after dawn the next morning to begin the mission.

[sblock=Ravenloft spoilers]As the sun set, Thundina felt a strong pull from Ravenloft. Someone was holding the vigil of the Mountain Fane; the vigil which Thundina had held and which had made her a candidate to be the Lord of Ravenloft. Now, she was losing her connection to the land; she was losing the protection of the land. She needed to get to the fane to defend it, but she was far from it and did not know how to return there anyway. She pulled her legs to her chest and sat up all night long, feeling the connection ebb away until at dawn the connection totally snapped and she could no longer feel Ravenloft anymore.

When she met Talor the next morning, he commented, “Thundina, you look terrible. What happened to you last night?”
“I couldn’t sleep at all. My connection to the Mountain Fane was broken,” Thundina replied. “I do not feel the land like I used to. Something happened there, but I do not know what.”[/sblock]
The third member of their scouting group was waiting for them at the Karrnath Royal Swords headquarters. The juggernaut Scyther hulked around the courtyard, a war-forged made of adamantium. He stood six feet tall and rumbled as the introductions were made. “Salutations,” Scyther said. “It is a pleasure to meet you.”

“Really? How nice!” Thundina gushed, “It’s great to meet you too.”
“No. I am incapable of feeling pleasure, only the duty to bring justice,” Scyther rumbled. “It is simply a phrase I have learned is appropriate upon first contact.”

The newly formed party set out north from Korth, along the Orien trade road. The plan was to take the road north for a couple days to near the northern edge of the Nightwood and then work to the southeast from there. Each night the party stopped at a House Orien travel house to spend the night.

For the first two nights, the travel houses were devoid of any other travelers, but the third night a tall human already occupied the house. Though not muscular, the man was beautiful with bouncy golden hair parted in the middle. He had blue eyes and gleaming, pearly white teeth. He had a strong jaw line and his lips shined with a hint of glitter. Thundina nearly swooned at the sight.

The man seemed to breathe a sigh of relief as he saw who was entering the house. Scyther spoke while Thundina continued to simply look on, “Salutations. We intend to be staying the night here as well. It is a pleasure to meet you. I am referred to as Scyther.”

The man nervously spoke, “Hello. I am Boris. Did you happen to see any drow in the on your way in? They were chasing me before I took refuge here.”
“Negative,” Scyther rumbled. “It is our mission to find the elves who are trespassing in these woods and eliminate the threat they pose. Please describe what you know of their movements.”
“They’re out to the east, and then I ran into here. That’s all I know.”

Thundina approached the resident and gave him a great smile, “Hello. If you don’t want to talk to the golem, you could talk to me. My name is Thundina. What are you doing out here?”
“My name is Boris, and my business is my own,” he responded. “However, I would be interested in getting some revenge on the drow. Can I be a part of your party?”
“Absolutely. Just so long as you can be a contributing member.” Thundina said. “I’ve had a dead-weight in a party before, that’s not going to happen again.”

Boris made a small set of Dancing Lights and Thundina said, “That’ll do. Welcome to our little party. Just see Scyther over there for a contract.”

Once Boris was signed on to the expedition, Scyther began looking intently at Boris. Thundina asked, “Scyther, what are you doing?”

Scyther replied, “Confirming the absence of a poisonous heart. Negative.” Scyther then turned towards Thundina and Talor and added, “Negative. Negative. There is none here with a poisonous heart.”

Thundina sighed exasperatedly, “Why does everyone assume I’m some sort of evil outsider?”
Talor had a better insight, “Shouldn’t you have scanned for a poisonous heart before signing Boris to the contract?”

Boris had a response to the detecting as well, “Of course I don’t have a poisonous heart. I may be a bit self-absorbed, but I have a heart of gold.”
Thundina’s ears perked up at the mention of a golden heart and she thought to herself, “Say a pound for the average human heart, that’s worth about 50 gold pieces from the raw weight. Something to keep in mind if something happens to him, but not worth killing over. Ah, but Scyther would have a heart of adamantium and that’s worth a lot more per pound. I must determine how much adamantium makes up a war-forged heart.”

Night fell and Scyther sat near a door, blocking it with his mass. Thundina and the others were getting ready to turn in for the night when a thin high elven voice floated through the night, crying in elven, “Prepare to be burned sun-loving fools.” Lightning rumbled ominously in the night.

When Thundina looked out a window of the Orien travel house she saw four large ogre zombies shambling through the woods opposite the house. Boris obviously saw them too because he began chanting and then a line of fire sprang up along the road, next to the zombie ogres. The thin elven voice ordered the zombies, “My pets, withdraw from the fire. It’s time for you all to die.” The elven voice, quieter, began chanting a spell of her own.

Thundina, Talor, and Scyther moved out of the travel house and into the garden. Talor poured flights of arrows into one of the zombie ogres standing back from the fire’s range. Thundina and Scyther waited with weapons at the ready for something to brave the fire to attack. A large fiendish spider sprang into existence near them as the elven chanting died down. Thundina lashed the spider and Scyther smashed the spider and it vanished in a puff of blue smoke.

Thundina looked into the darkness, past the fire. She could not see who was summoning the horrors, all she could see were the zombie ogres keeping back from the fire. The elven chanting culminated again and a hell hound appeared near Thundina and Scyther. It poured fire with black smoke curling up from its mouth. The fire washed over Scyther but Thundina nimbly danced away. The pair leveled their full attack routines on the hell hound turning it into blue smoke as well.

With covering fire of Magic Missiles from Boris and magical missiles from Talor’s bow, Scyther resolved to take the fight to the enemies in the dark rather than wait for the Wall of Fire to burn out or for more magic from the elf to be sent across the line. Scyther charged through the Wall of Fire heating up to a bright red glow before slamming into the closest zombie ogre. Scyther’s scythe, augmented by the force of the charge, cut the zombie in half in a single blow.

Talor began drifting further from the travel house to find the best shot. He glanced over his shoulder and spotted a drow hiding in the shadows behind the house. He shot a flurry of arrows into the dark elf which then screamed in pain and stumbled from its hiding place. Thundina was then able to see it as well and moved to engage it. It was so distracted from having been shot by Talor that Thundina was able to line up devastating blows. A second drow came out of hiding to flank Thundina, both drow raging, hammering blows on Thundina. She dodged most, but a few slipped past her defenses.

Scyther continued his rampage through the zombie ogres. The hidden elf summoned another minion, a medium sized spider which on its own could not bite through the thick adamantium skin of the juggernaut. In frustration at being unable to blast the war-forged with spells, the drow attacked Scyther with a dagger. Scyther quickly locked onto the spell caster and cut her down; a dagger being no match for a scythe. The Magic Missile fire from Boris then finished off the last of the zombies.

Thundina downed one of the drow fighters facing her and then began the duel with the second. She cautiously circled it to avoid the wild swings, before ripping its footing out from beneath it. She then drove the tip of her guisarme into the chest of the dark elf, pinning it to the ground while it bled out its life blood.

A search of the defeated elves did not turn up much in coinage, but much of their equipment glowed when Boris looked with Detect Magic. More interesting than the valuable spoils, which Thundina were certainly interested in, was a diary and a note found on the female drow among the zombies.

The diary of Lithara described the worship of Lolth and the political and social life of the drow. The goddess Lolth was on the move. Lithara was investigating the Rule of Three of Sigil. Thundina had never heard of a place called Sigil and most certainly had never heard of a Rule of Three, but if it was important to this raider, it would probably be important to her as well. Thundina resolved to learn more of the Rule of Three of Sigil. The note on Lithara described a portal to the Prime Material Plane and that it would connect Sigil’s market place to a set of caverns. The party followed the broken tree limbs marking the zombie ogres’ path back through the woods and to a cavern.

The party entered the cavern and saw three pillars in the middle of the room. Two reached all the way up to the ceiling forty feet about while the third was broken off to form a plateau halfway up. A thin elven voice called from the darkness, “Foolish light-lovers will perish now. Charge!” Two drow riding giant lizards rounded the pillars.

Thundina charged at one of the drow on a giant lizard. Talor provided some fire, injuring the drow before concentrating on the other. The drow dropped its bow once Thundina had engaged it in melee and drew a spiked chain. In a shocking turn about, the drow’s chain wrapped around Thundina’s leg, tripping her. Thundina was able to return to her feet, but not before she took a blow from the chain. She tried to yank the drow off his mount, but could not get a firm hook into the drow. Frustrated by that difficulty, Thundina jumped up to the drow and simply drove the guisarme through the drow.

On the other side of the room, the other drow was tripping Scyther and lashing him. Scyther took the blows stoically and continued his advance, eventually connecting a solid blow on the drow, snapping its spine.

With the battle completed and the drow looted, Thundina climbed the broken pillar to look around. As she reached the top, two flashes of light resolved into large, winged, feathery, demons. The two vrock circled around the pillars. One engaged Scyther while the other reached the undefended back line of Boris and Talor. Shrieks from the vrock delayed Thundina’s entry into the battle from above. Spores from the vrock landed on Scyther and Boris, burrowing their way into the skin.

Boris and Talor slowly retreated from the vrock in front of them throwing everything they had at it on their way back. An intense blossom of fire buffeted the vrock, caused by Boris calling upon his strongest magics. The vrock vanished in a puff of blue smoke from the magical assault.

Thundina leapt from the pillar, falling in behind the vrock. Scyther cut great swaths from the vrock from its front while Thundina precisely jabbed vital spots from behind. Thundina then drove her guisarme into the vrock’s back, into the spot between its wings, the guisarme biting deep into the demon. The creature fell to the ground, lifeless and motionless, and most importantly, not blue smoke.

Boris complained that the spores continued to burn, even after the demons were dead. Talor’s expertise regarding evil outsiders such as demons made him think that the spores could be cured, but would need a divine spell. The spores sprouted into vines which covered both Scyther and Boris, but no longer pained them. Each ripped the vines out as best as possible, cleaning themselves up as they could.

Deeper in the cavern, a set of carved steps led down to a small altar with a pair of pillars. Activating the altar took the party away from the cavern into the middle of a bustling urban marketplace. Thundina caught sight of Talor and exclaimed, “Talor, what happened to your left eye? It’s all red!”

Chapter 2: Rule of Three

Thundina stopped a passerby and asked, “Um, excuse me, could you direct me to the Oarsman?”
The passerby looked Thundina over, “New here, eh? The Oarsman is in the Lower Ward.”

Thundina rejoined the party, “Let’s get to the Oarsman, find the contact, and finish this job. The Oarsman is over in the Lower Ward.”
Boris said, “Great. Where is the Lower Ward then?”

Thundina looked around. Seeing no signs pointing to the ward, Thundina had to shrug, “Guess I forgot to ask that.”

Boris broke off from the party to query other locals. Thundina continued to look around, glancing up along the buildings. The sky was bright but without sun, moon, or stars providing illumination. An arc across the center of the sky reached down to the horizon. Following the horizon and the arc Thundina realized that they were standing on the inside of a ring and the arc was the far side.

Boris returned, “I think I made a friend. He kept calling me ‘chum’ in the local vernacular. The Lower Ward is through the Hive; that way.”

A large crowd of red robed monks blocked the direct path, flaying themselves and any who even thought of pushing through their mass. Thundina pulled the party to a nearby alley to lead them around the red obstruction. Midway down the alley, hundreds of tiny voices echoed in their minds.

“Listen, listen!” The voices squeaked. “Demons are triple liars but the angels are liars too. Listen. Victory for you and defeat for the spiders.” Hundreds of rats scampered in the alley; all facing the party, watching intently. “We are many as one. Why aren’t you responding? Are you listening? Listen. Tell us you don’t trust the angels and we’ll let you pass.”

“I don’t trust anyone; not angels, not you,” Thundina snapped. “Get out of my head.”

Talor muttered, “I don’t have anything against angels in particular, but don’t have any great love for them either.”

The rats disappeared into a myriad of holes in the walls and trash in the street. With a moment the alley had gone from teeming with rats to absolutely deserted. The party proceeded to the Lower Ward without incident from there.

The Lower Ward smelled of sulfur, a pungent acridic odor. Demons walked and slithered the streets of the Lower Ward with occasional lantern archons flitting through. Blue skinned creatures with clouds of white hair floated serenely by. Talor pointed them out as dabus; creatures of Sigil.

A trio of tieflings eyed the party at the entrance to the Lower Ward. One swaggered up to the party, sniffed, and smirked, “Hey newbies. Can we be of assistance?”

Thundina scoffed, “We have business at the Oarsman. Thank you very much.”

The tiefling who had approached chuckled but let the party pass. After wandering a short while the party found a building shaped like a boat with oars protruding from it. They had found the Styx Oarsman.

The inside of the Styx Oarsman was filled with demons and drow, all busily paying no attention to what anyone was doing. Most tables were filled with evil denizens drinking with several devoted to a card game Thundina did not recognize at a glance. Over at the bar, a six-armed female demon made drinks with great speed and showmanship.

Boris wrinkled his nose at the interior, “Ugh. What a seedy place. We should have sent only Talor in because someone as handsome as me has no business here. Let’s find this contact and get out of here.”

Thundina said, “You all do whatever, but I feel like getting a drink.” She walked over to the marilith bartender. Boris followed while Talor and Scyther moved away from the door and tried to stand inconspicuously in a corner.

The marilith bartender hissed, “What can I get for you?”
Thundina took a quick glance to see what other patrons were drinking before replying, “What do you have that’s good.”
“The demons have their favored drink, but it probably wouldn’t do for you. Tieflings often have ale. So, what’ll you have?”

Boris butted in, “Ale sounds good. How about we get that.”

The marilith bartender fetched the two ales and set them on the counter by Thundina and Boris. Thundina leaned in to ask the marilith, “Do you know anything about how to reach Eberron, the Prime Material plane?”

The marilith shook her head, “Sigil has portals to everywhere. Beyond that, I do not know.”

Thundina tapped her fingers on the bar, thinking for a moment before leaning in again, “I’ve heard of a rule of three of Sigil. What can you tell me about it?”

The marilith took a sharp intake of breath and narrowed her eyes, “If you know of him, you should be able to find him. I have no intention of getting involved in any of his business.”

Thundina took her tankard of ale over to an empty table near the door and gestured Talor and Scyther to sit as well. She then said, “Get this, the Rule of Three isn’t a thing, it’s a person! He might be our contact here. Next idea, when the barmaid next comes around, ask her if she knows the Rule of Three.”

A short while later, a voluptuous young lady bounced over to the table, “You folks doing alright? Can I get anything more for you?”

Thundina placed an order for three ales. After the barmaid bounced away, Scyther said, “There are four present at this table, why then did you order three drinks?”

Thundina got a puzzled look on her face, “You don’t drink so we only need three.”
Scyther rumbled, “True, however it would have been proper to inquire as to whether I would care for a drink.”
“Of course, friend juggernaut. Would you like something to drink when the barmaid next returns?”
“No, I do not require potables nor would I have been able to enjoy imbibing inebriating substances. Thank you for thinking of this one though.”

The barmaid returned with the ales and set them on the table, “Three ales, that’ll be three silver please.”
Thundina paid over the silver and said, “All those threes. Do you know the Rule of Three?”
The barmaid twirled her blonde hair idly, “What is the rule of three?”
“A person we are supposed to be meeting here. Is there someone who is waiting around?”
The barmaid shook her head, “No one has asked me to watch for visitors. I don’t understand the bit about a person being three rules.”

Thundina dismissed the barmaid and turned back to the party, “Well, I’m just about out of ideas. We need to find our contact here, I think it’s this Rule of Three guy, but I don’t know how.”

Scyther rumbled, “What if we simply stood and declared our intentions; announced our interest in arranging a meeting with Mr. Rule of Three.”
Thundina threw up her hands, “If you want to do that, be my guest; just don’t do it at this table.”

“Affirmative,” Scyther rumbled and moved over to another empty table. He sat down and then immediately stood again and faced the common room.

Thundina put a hand up next to her eyes and in a hushed voice said to Talor and Boris, “He’s actually going to do it! Hasn’t he ever been in a place like this? Don’t draw attention to yourself and you probably won’t get randomly stabbed.” Thundina glanced around quickly, “Not that I’ve ever been somewhere quite this bad, but that makes the point all the more poignant.” Thundina eased herself down the bench, closer to the door.

Scyther in a confident voice rumbled, “We desire an audience with Rule of Three. If anyone could assist with arranging an introduction, we would be most grateful.”

All eyes in the room instantly snapped to Scyther and one of the yugoloths playing cards threw his cards down in disgust, stood up and glared at Scyther, “Sit down, shut up, and go yourself. No one here has any interest in helping a nobody like you.”

Scyther stared back at the yugoloth, “That is an anatomical impossibility.”

The two stood staring at each other a moment longer with all the patrons of the bar watching and whispers of bets being placed beginning to circle when an impeccably dressed wispy scholarly githzerai weaved through the crowd and dropped a few coins as he passed. The assembled demons and drow took the more immediate profit of scooping up those coins and lost interest in the impending confrontation and even the yugoloth settled back to his card game.

“Did someone, a person, an individual say my name? I heard someone calling for me, myself, I, and I came. I am Rule of Three.”
Scyther then said, “Yes, sir. My friends would like to meet you.”

At the table Scyther made introductions before Rule of Three asked, “What is the purpose, meaning, intention for you wishing to see me, myself, I?”

Thundina took out the note captured from the drow priestess, “We’re looking for a contact that was said to be here. We had heard that the Rule of Three of Sigil is intriguing and we want to know more about the portal to Eberron the drow are using.”

Rule of Three spotted the note Thundina held, “May I see that parchment, scroll, note? What happened to the drow who previously carried this?”
Thundina shrugged, “She had a little accident. We’re here now instead.”

“We should retire to me my booth, table, nook to discuss this further.” Rule of Three led the party to a private booth in the back of the Oarsman. “Yes, I can help you return to home, Eberron, the Prime Material Plane and stop the threat there, here, everywhere.”

“Excellent,” Thundina smiled. “How do we stop the drow from menacing Eberron?”

“I will need you to do three errands, tasks, quests. The first is to visit the Tower of the Prophet in the Ladies Ward, open the Eye, and ask it how to blind the Spider Queen.”

Thundina waited a moment before asking, “You had mentioned three errands. What are the other two?”

The wispy scholar replied, “Let us first hear the prophecy, revelation, foretelling. It may have an effect on the two.”

“That’s all well and good, but why are you needing us to get the prophecy from the Eye?”

“There has been some misunderstanding, misconception, discord and I have been barred, forbidden, prohibited from visiting the Tower of the Prophet. I am a great foe, enemy, adversary of Lolth, I assure you. There have been rumors, meetings, plans that Lolth is planning something big. The drow are stirring, rousing, agitating everywhere from Eberron, to Sigil, to the Demonweb Pits.”

“Once we have the prophecy, will it directly tell us our next step?”

“Perhaps, maybe, possibly. I have this booth, table, nook permanently reserved; I will be waiting for you here.”

The party departed the Lower Ward, dominated by demons, and traveled to the far side of Sigil and the Ladies Ward, dominated by angels. The shining yellow stone tower of Tower of the Prophet gleamed and drew the party’s attention. Two sword archons stood guard at the entryway below a single stained glass window. Inside a single golden sphere whirled in the middle of the room, surrounded by worshippers. Shrines to Bahamut, Pelor, Heironeous, and the Sovereign Host stood in the four corners of the room.

Three great bear-like angels stood beneath the golden orb, arms raised in reverence. One noticed the presence of the party and approached, “I am Humbert. How can I serve?” As soon as he got near the party he froze and the helpful smile faded from his face. “No child of chaos may be in the presence of the Eye.”

Thundina scowled, “Fine, we can find our own way.” Thundina walked out of the Tower. When the rest of the party did not immediately follow, she sat on the steps and thought of the experience from earlier in the day.

Boris came storming out, sat down beside Thundina, slammed his fist on the ground and protested, “If mummy were here, they would have never dared.”

Thundina who was now lying on her back looking up at the arc flatly said, “What do angels know? We already have a prophecy, victory for us and defeat for the spiders if we do not trust the angels. Angels are liars.”

A bright light shone out of the stained glass window on the Tower of the Prophet. The light held steady for several minutes before fading away. Scyther and Talor came out of the tower, blinking heavily as though they were having trouble with their vision. They walked as if in a daze; Scyther held a scroll with glowing runes. Thundina took the scroll and read through it. The flowery script was certainly beautiful, but she had difficulty understanding what the prophecy was recommending. The party returned to the Lower Ward and once more found Rule of Three in the Styx Oarsman.

“Excellent, well done, good work,” Rule of Three said as the party returned. “My I see the prophecy, revelation, foretelling?” Scyther let Rule of Three read the prophecy from the tower and Rule of Three interpreted the first stanza, “This sounds like Thoss, the old elven bow of legacy, legend, myth. To find it, you will need to visit, sojourn, vacation the Beastlands. Your first step will be to hum, sing, trill the hymn, chant, paean of the All Father on the only tree in the Hive Ward.”

“Great,” Thundina said. “I guess we’ll be back once we have the Thoss. In the meantime, we have a little shopping to do.”

The spoils of the drow were appraised and identified. Most items were sold in the Marketplace Ward, but Thundina kept the Ring of Protection from the drow cleric. The gold was divided up and the party split up on their shopping sprees. Thundina found a very pretty green crystal for her guisarme. Scyther begged for five days to have an enchantment cast over him so Thundina found herself without much to do.

She spent the first couple days walking the streets of the various wards to learn her way around the city. She would pass the artificer who was working on Scyther and also see Talor watching over the juggernaut. Eventually Thundina found her way to the library of Sigil.

A birdman perched on a shelf inside the entrance watching over all the library’s patron with a bow at the ready. Thundina approached the birdman to ask, “Is there usually trouble around here?”

The birdman squawked, “Very rarely. We have the rules of the library you need to follow, and there won’t be any trouble.”

Thundina read the plaque with the rules of the library, “Rule 1, books do not circulate or leave the library. Rule 2, books do not get damaged, dog-eared, marked, arcane marked, divine marked, psionic marked, psionically copied, or handled roughly. Rule 3, in the library there shall be no violence, running, shouting, eating, drinking, chewing gum, being happy, or having fun. Crying is permitted so long as rule 2 is not violated. Silence is available upon request. Any questions may be directed to Goldfeather.”

Boris wandered in to the library as well. Thundina researched Lolth and the Demonweb Pits and Boris research Sigil. A few books they requested, they were denied access to due to the extreme rarity and value of those books. Only the patrons who had contributed to the library would be given access to those books.

Finally the party all rejoined and located the only tree in the Hive Ward. Talor who had been practicing the tune hummed the key to the portal. The party found themselves on a huge branch fifty feet across. The party followed the branch back to the trunk of the tree. Steps carved into the bark allowed the party the choice to climb up or down. After her experiences in Ravenloft, Thundina favored climbing.

While the party climbed, a squirrel-man was scampering down the tree. It carried a shield, a spear, and a large nut but stopped when it spotted them to chitter in a high pitch, “Food?”

Boris took out some rations and gave them to the squirrel-man. It stuffed the rations into its mouth and then chittered, “I’m Almvig. Where do you want to go?”

Boris looked back to his companions and indicated he didn’t know what to say. Thundina whispered, “We’re looking for Thoss, the elven bow.”

Boris relayed that to Almvig but Almvig didn’t know about any elven bows or even elves. He chittered, “Go to Odin?”

Thundina nodded, “Does Odin possess much knowledge and wisdom?”

Almvig chittered, “Oh yes, Odin is knowledgeable. Climb a year. Food?”

Boris gave Almvig more rations and Almvig again quickly stuffed the rations into his mouth and then chittered, “Portal to Ysgard at end of this branch. You want Ysgard?”

Thundina put one hand to her head, “That doesn’t sound right. Where are we?”

Almvig chittered, “Yggdrasil.”

Thundina thought a little more, “Not the Beastlands?”

Almvig chittered, “Oh, Beastlands. Two weeks. You want Beastlands?”

“Yes, please take us to the Beastlands.”

Almvig chittered once more, “Food? I guide you to the Beastlands.”

Boris handed over rations once more and the party plus Almvig set out for the branch which led to the Beastlands. The two week climb to the Beastlands branch passed uneventfully. At the end of the branch, a portal took the party to a heavily forested land. The vast forests extended as far as the party could see.

Chapter 3: The Beastlands

The branch narrowed as it extended away from Yggdrasil. Almvig chittered and nodded, “See glow? That’s the Beastlands.” There was a glowing portal out near the end, where the branch narrowed to just a few feet across. Scyther led the party across the branch, followed by Thundina, Boris, and Talor. As Scyther stepped through the portal, the release of the juggernaut’s weight caused the branch to sway. Thundina and Talor kept their balance easily, but Boris was flailing wildly, trying to maintain his balance. Thundina reached out to steady Boris, but he had already fallen. Thundina and Talor watched Boris fall from view; past branches and wisps of clouds.

Thundina looked to Talor shocked, “Can we rescue Boris still? I can’t fly.”
Talor shook his head, “Even if I could catch him, I’m not strong enough to lift another in flight. I think he’s gone.”
“I ought to be sad, but I never really knew him. He never opened up to me. Did he ever tell you about his history?”

Thundina and Talor crossed through the portal in silence and arrived in a clearing in the middle of an extensive forest. A game trail led out of one the clearing in one direction with trees visible as far as the eye could see in every direction. They had arrived at night, the moon directly overhead providing a dim light.

Although no one was particularly tired, the party decided that it would be best to set up camp for the night and start the exploration of the Beastlands at dawn. Talor gathered wood and started a small fire for cooking and keeping beasts at bay. The fire burned down over the night, but the night did not end. The moon had barely moved across the sky but everything the party felt indicated they had otherwise camped for a full night.

The party decided that the path represented the greatest likelihood of finding people who could direct them to Thoss. A rustling in the bushes shortly down the path caused the party to halt. A huge displacer beast stalked closer to the party with several normal displacer beasts following in its wake. Two of the displacer beasts broke into a dash ahead of the huge displacer beast and began running directly at the party in a hunting stance.

Thundina stepped forward to engage the two displacer beasts running ahead. She took up a defensive position and forced them to slow down. She thought she had judged the range of huge displacer beast, but suddenly it was lashing, overwhelming her defenses. Thundina was bleeding heavily from the tentacle rakes.

Talor shot one of his acid-fountain arrows into the melee, this time he managed to hit the ground with the arrow in the way to activate it. The spurt of acid hit the huge displacer beast and one of the others. The displacer beast yelped and jumped away from the acid fountain, but the huge displacer beast held its ground. Talor finished his volley of arrows into the various displacer beasts and Scyther charged into the fray and engaged the huge displacer beast. Scyther’s initial strikes missed due to the displacer’s blurring and blinking, but he was able to draw the beast’s attention away from Thundina.

From farther down the trail, an armored man riding an unusual creature kicked his mount into a charge against the huge displacer beast. The man wore shining fullplate, but the helmet was unattached and floated just above the armor; the helmet, and presumably the armor, was empty. A well crafted hunting horn hung at his side, but he primarily wielded a ranseur against the displacer beast. The mount was just as unusual; a bipedal dinosaur with somewhat short forearms and a large rack of antlers.

The unmovable wall of Thundina’s guisarme and the harassment of Talor’s shooting was simply too much for normal displacer beasts who turned and fled into the woods. The greater displacer beast quickly decided that Scyther didn’t taste good and was too spiky anyway and it too fled into the woods. Thundina had maneuvered herself to next to the mounted warrior as part of the flow of combat against the displacer beast and she looked up at the rider to thank him for his assistance when he pulled out and trumpeted on his hunting horn. The sound of the horn affected Thundina and Talor at a deep level, filling them with the dread of the hunted, the need to escape from a dangerous predator, and the hopelessness with knowing that one is overmatched and soon to be tracked no matter how one might flee. Thundina snarled like the cornered beast and attacked.

With Scyther, who appeared unaffected by the horn’s call, supporting Thundina in the face of the hunter, the hunter dropped his ranseur and directed the dinostag away. He unslung his longbow and fired a shot back at Talor. Talor called out what he know of the hunter; it was a dangerous fey called a wild hunter. Talor reached into his magical quiver for his cold iron-tipped arrows and returned fire on the wild hunter.

Thundina gave chase to the wild hunter and his dinostag. Scyther was just behind, but his chase ran into a ram from the dinostag. The ram temporarily slowed Scyther but he closed the gap anyway and slashed at the hunter. The wild hunter attempted to flee again and Thundina attempted to pull him from his mount, but the wild hunter’s expertise at riding foiled Thundina’s attempt completely. Once the wild hunter had gotten out of range of Scyther and Thundina, the hunter and Talor traded fire again.

Again Thundina and Scyther chased down the wild hunter. The wild hunter prepared to flee again. Scyther’s charge had all been about setting up a feint. Scyther’s backswing then punched through the floating helmet of the wild hunter. Thundina then swept the wild hunter off his dinostag. The stag maintained its previous orders to dash across the battlefield. It looked around a moment before it fled from the battle without its master.

Talor came up to Thundina and Scyther, applying a wand of Cure Light Wounds to himself. He began tapping Thundina with the wand as well and she kept on asking him to keep them coming.

After that encounter, the party had a very nice walk through the Beastlands. The night air was warm and filled with the pleasant scents of night blooming flowers. Small animals scuttled through the brush without disturbing the party. The moon slowly inched across the sky making it difficult to judge the passage of time except by the slow build up of fatigue from walking.

The trail became indistinct as it ran through a clearing. In the middle of the clearing a gnarled tree slowly, slowly walked down the lane. The tree’s spear-like branches moved independent of any breeze and stitched hide covered its main trunk. Weird lichen could still be seen under and around the hide. A snarling, slathering wolverine crept alongside the tree. The party approached the clearing and spotted a face on the tree. The tree creaked, “Demons?”

Thundina shook her head, “No. We haven’t seen any demons around.”

The tree creaked, “Kill demons.”

“Sorry,” Thundina said somewhat confusedly, “If you need help with demons, maybe we can come to some arrangement. Do you know about Thoss?”

The tree slowly advanced and creaked once more, “Demons!” It then threw a small stick projectile which harmlessly bounced off of Scyther.

“Right,” Thundina said with resolve. “You’re insane. Don’t much care for fighting plants, but I surely will take down your rabid dog.” Thundina charged at the wolverine and stuck it with her guisarme. Talor finished off the wolverine and began firing at the tree.

Scyther rumbled into the clearing and up next to the tree. The tree retreated before the juggernaut and raised its two largest branches. The minor bushes and all the grasses in the clearing began writhing and grasping; entangling Scyther but Thundina danced free. She closed in on the tree and began hacking away at it. Talor, also free of the entangling brush, continued to pelt the tree with arrows. The arrowheads were having very little effect on the tree, but the electrical charges the arrows carried were hurting the animated tree.

Scyther struggled against the brush before saying, “There seems to be an error. My motor skills are not responding in the expected manner.”

The tree looked at runes scribing on its arm and Called Lightning at Thundina, but missed by several feet as Thundina nimbly dodged away from the bolt. The runes on the animated tree’s arm faded as the bolt terminated in the ground. The shrubbery reached out for Thundina again. It latched on for a moment before Thundina wiggled free to advance on the tree again. Scyther broke free of the entanglement and cut off the tree from the other side. It’s nature depleted, the animated tree moaned more, “Demons. Kill demons!” Scyther broke the tree apart like a piñata ready to burst. Thundina collected the coins and precious gems which were the prize.

The party continued down the trail. Thundina wondered, “Do you think there will be a great wizard at the end of the trail? What other quests will we have before we find Thoss?”

The path terminated in a quiet glade. The moon overhead seemed brighter and the glade was full of a quiet reverence. The plant life around the edge seemed a deeper shade of green. A pocket lake filled the middle of the glade with a small island rising from the calm blue water. Talor shifted into his winged form and flapped out to the island while Scyther and Thundina simply waded their way across.

A bow hovered upright, slowly rotating, a moonbeam highlighting the bow. The bow looked like it was made of a stag’s antler, shaped into a bow. A deep pile of offerings of flowers and nuts surrounded the bow. Talor reverently approached the bow, and swapped his bow for the hovering bow. Scyther then picked up Talor’s old bow, “Waste not, want not. I am in need of a ranged weapon.” Thundina returned to the shore and made a small wreath of flowers to add to the pile of offerings.

A stone archway on the far side of the glade was decorated with a single tree carved into the stone. Before taking the portal back to Yggdrasil, the party did a quick check on their rations. “Right, we’re going to be in some trouble if its two weeks back as well,” Thundina observed. “I pretty much used up all my rations on the way here, especially once I began having to share.”

“Perhaps we can take a day or so to do some foraging before making the return journey,” Talor suggested. “If the two of you can assist, perhaps we can speed up the foraging.” Talor described the general plants to look for and what part of each of those plants would be the edible and nutritious portion. Talor gathered some fruits and nuts while also trapping small game. Scyther reported in, “I have acquired the consumable flora you specified.”

Thundina had to simply shrug, “I couldn’t find anything of what you described.”

Talor replied, “How about right there?”

Thundina looked around, “What? Where?”

“Here,” Talor said as he dug a tuber out of the ground. “I don’t understand, Thundina. In the Castle Ravenloft, you could notice any oddity in the stonework or the locking mechanism of a chest, but out here, you can’t what you’re looking for even if you were to trip over it.”

The party crossed through the stone arches and found themselves back on the branches of Yggdrasil. A squirrelman crouched on the branch, waiting. The squirrelman introduced himself as Fastmunder and said that he was to be the party’s guide. He chittered, “Did you bring the offering?”

Talor took out a ration’s worth of fruit and nuts and a piece of small game. Fastmunder ate the fruit and nuts, but handed back the small game. Talor sighed, “I guess I’ll be having extra meat with a meal.”

Thundina said, “How long have you been waiting?”

Fastmunder chittered a reply, “A day or so. Since my brother Almvig was caught by the evil branch.”

Scyther rumbled, “Fear not noble squirrel, he died for a noble cause.”

Thundina queried Fastmunder about the nature of the evil branch, but the squirrelman avoided most specific responses, repeating that the evil branch was very dangerous. Thundina and the party reasoned that since the evil branch did not appear to be an immediate threat to their mission of stopping the drow and did not sound as though it was a part of the drow plot the evil branch could be dealt with at a later time. The rest of the climb back to the Sigil branch passed uneventfully and the party soon found itself back in the Hive Ward in Sigil.

The party returned to the Styx Oarsman and to the booth in the back where Rule of Three had previously been seated. He was still there, in the same corner and appeared to even have the same cup of wine.

Rule of Three greeted the party, “Welcome back, about time you returned, blessed day.” Rule of Three went from looking conflicted to looking happy as he spotted Thoss. He warned party on Thoss, “Do not display it, do not show it, that is to say, it might offend some creatures here.” He offered a greasy blanket with which to cover Thoss.

Rule of Three then continued, “The next step, move, procedure is to visit the Demonweb and get a report, an account, a record from Lyssandra. She is a drow who has no love of Lolth. As well, please deliver this to her.” Rule of Three placed a satchel of books on the table. “Once we know what she has learned, Lolth’s plans will fail, fall apart, that is to say, bear no success.”

Thundina then asked, “Where will we find Lyssandra? I have no desire to wander Lolth’s domain asking for a drow which opposes the demon goddess. On that point, how can we move about the Demonweb?”

Rule of Three explained, “Lyssandra lives near the Ironwaste portal. However, the Demonweb changes, modifies, alters. In the Demonweb you will need to imitate other servants, fight other creatures, and that is to say, combine stealth and strength. I have some scholarly friends, acquaintances, compatriots who know much about the planes and may be able to give you further advice, recommendations, that is to say, strategies. Is there anything further you need?”

Thundina considered a moment, “That’s all well and good, but aren’t you forgetting something?” When Rule of Three did not answer, Thundina prompted, “How do we get there?”

“Ah, my apologies, regrets, that is to say, I’m sorry. The portal to the Demonweb is accessed by crushing a spider’s egg at the guildhall of weavers.”

From the Rule of Three, the party went to a fine darkwood house in the Lady’s Ward. The door was answered by a gnoll dressed in a fine outfit who spoke very formally, “Good day. May I help you?”

Thundina said, “Yes, Rule of Three sent us to speak with some scholar at this residence.”

The gnoll bowed, “Please, come in.” He directed the party to a waiting room with a nice table and a roaring fire. “I will inform the masters of your visit. If you will wait here a moment.”

Shortly after the gnoll left, two large hound archons, one male and one female, in silver-threaded robes entered. The male hound archon spoke, “My name is Kimmit and this is Gbimizola. Please come with us to the next room where we can better speak of what you wish to learn and the appropriate donations.”

They all gathered around a table in the next room and the gnoll butler brought wine for each person. After a few sips, Gbimizola said, “Knowledge is expensive to acquire and whatever excess profits we make from sharing what we learn we then use to fund charities. We can tell you about the portals of the Demonweb for a donation of 400g, the creatures which roam the Demonweb for a donation of 750g, or the nature of demon lords like Lolth and her enemies and allies for a donation of 500 g.”

The party huddled a moment to discuss what information would be most useful and cost effective to buy. As they had turned, Kimmit spoke, “Is that Thoss I see you are carrying? Certainly a powerful bow, but information about it is hard to search out. We happen to know some and for a donation of 2300g, can share with you this specialized knowledge.” Gbimizola excused herself to check on Argent the butler.

“Do you have money?” Thundina whispered to Talor.
“A little,” Talor replied.
“Well I’m flat broke. How much exactly do you have?” Thundina asked.
“I don’t know that telling you is really all that wise for me. You’ll just spend it all.”
“Oh come on, I wouldn’t do that.”
“Yes you would. Anyway, it’s 900g.”
“The gems we have from that tree creature from back in the Beastlands are worth about 2300, so what do you think we should ask about?” Thundina said.
Talor replied, “I want to learn about Thoss. The portals and the demon lords then sound like sound investments. I can probably identify most creatures we encounter.”
Thundina nodded, “That’s basically what I was thinking. We’re set then.”
“Just one problem,” Talor sighed. “You’re spending all my money.”

Kimmit described the properties of Thoss and the way to bind the weapon. His description of the portals did not elaborate beyond what Rule of Three had already told the party for free, which made Thundina somewhat frustrated, even more so when Kimmit offered to say more but only for a further donation. The only worthwhile secrets Kimmit shared, in Thundina’s opinion, was the description of the aspects of Lolth and details of Lolth greatest demon enemy. Talor too must have found that interesting because he asked, “Should we attempt to ally with Graust in opposing Lolth?”

Kimmit looked shocked, “Graust is a demon lord; a ruler of the Abyss on the River Styx. Alliances with demon lords are an unholy thing.”

“Easy for an angel to say,” Thundina said indifferently. “Life is more complicated for those who have to go out and act.”

As Gbimizola saw the party out at the end of the meeting, she said, “One piece of free advice, beware of the ten-thousand spider swarms in the Demonweb.” She closed the door without further explanation.

With all the information they needed for the next leg of their quest, there was only one thing left to do. Thundina smiled as she looked pulled out her wish list; she was going shopping.

Chapter 4: Pinch of Spider Eggs

The day of shopping was beginning to wind down. For Thundina it had been a very successful day of shopping. Lots of little purchases were adding up to drain all the income from the Beastlands adventure but the sum was a shoring up of defenses. Talor had joined Thundina and both were now on their way over to the artificer shop where Scyther was receiving some upgrades.

When Thundina and Talor arrived, Scyther was standing at ease outside the shop.

“Are you going to stand here overnight?” Thundina asked Scyther.
“Affirmative,” Scyther rumbled. “I intend to be present when the artificer returns in the morning. That is the most efficient course of action.”
“Well, suit yourself. We’ll be at the inn having dinner if you change your mind.”
“I do not require sustenance. There is nothing I need from the inn.”

Before Thundina and Talor could leave, a dark portal with brightly flashing edges opened nearby. A tall man in gleaming platemail stepped through and glanced around. Behind him the spinning darkness closed again and the portal winked out. He carried himself like an experienced combatant but wore a tabard with a red dragon emblazoned on to it; the symbol of Dol Arrah. He faced Thundina’s group and pulled off his helmet.

A look of relief crossed the cleric’s face and then replaced by a smile. Thundina recognized the young man standing before her. She bounced forward and gave him a hug, “Jessuf! What are you doing here? Shouldn’t you be in Barovia running your barony?”

Jessuf broke the embrace but still held Thundina’s shoulders, “There’s been some trouble in Barovia,” Jessuf said with some melancholy. “Romann has gone crazy. Ravenloft called to him and he answered the darkness. Cyron warned me that Romann was moving against me, but that he would support Romann over me. Romann is the Lord of Ravenloft now.”

“How did you come to Sigil then?” Thundina asked.

[sblock=Ravenloft spoilers]“Deep under the Castle Ravenloft there is a portal which can take one anywhere you wish to go. Romann and Cyron had overcome what defenses I had managed to raise and my first thought was that I should find you and Talor. The portal brought me here, and here both of you are.”[/sblock]
“What do you intend to do now that you’re here?”

“Raise some forces to reclaim my barony. Thundina, Talor, my friends, will you assist me to reclaim what is rightfully mine?”

“I’m sorry Jessuf,” Thundina said. “I have no intention of ever returning to Ravenloft. I crave change and that would be a return to my past.”

“I kind of like Romann,” Talor muttered. “Plus, I gave my word that I would complete this mission, and I can’t break my word. Good money on this mission.”

Jessuf appeared to deflate some, “Then I do not know what I’m going to do. I have no prospects and if you’re unavailable, I have no other friends.”

“Then come with us!” Thundina said.

“A cleric would be really good to have,” Jessuf whispered to Thundina, “I wouldn’t have to do all the healing then.”

Jessuf nodded, “Tell me more about the mission.”

Scyther drew a parchment out of his pouch, “The contract of the company. Since members of this expedition have vouched for you, we can dispense with the normal interview. The objective of this mission is to determine the nature of the dark elf menace to Karrnath and stop it. Investigations so far have revealed that the nature of the plot greatly exceeds Eberron. You will need to sign your name at the bottom. If you cannot write, you may give a unique symbol in its stead. If you cannot read this contract, it will be read to you. If you do not speak common, say so now and Comprehend Languages will be provided.”

Jessuf read over the contract and signed on to the expedition. Another person, a dwarf, heavily armored, approached the party with a somewhat dazed look, “Scyther, Thundina, Talor, I have been looking for you.”

Surprised at this stranger knowing their names, Thundina asked, “Really. Who are you then and why have you been looking for us.” She put her hand on the magical scabbard she carried and eased herself into a fighting stance. If he proved hostile, she could have her guisarme out before the stranger even knew what kind of weapon was being brought to bear on him.

“I was ducking down an alley, taking a short cut when I began hearing voices in my head. I could swear it was a swarm of rats. They told me that I needed to find you and join you and if I didn’t, they’d kill me.”

“That sounds completely crazy,” Jessuf scoffed. “How do we know he isn’t lying; how do we know we can trust him.”

Almost in a whisper the man said, “Demons are triple liars, but angels are not to be trusted either.”

“Man, you’re my kind of crazy,” Thundina said. “Okay master dwarf, tell us who you are so we can sign you up.”

The dwarf introduced himself as Gorrin Ungar, a cleric of Dol Dorn, initially from the Mror Holds in Eberron. Years ago his brother had vanished and recently Gorrin had learned that his brother had made it out to the planes. Gorrin’s attempt to Plane Shift had left him a little lost and his brother’s trail had gone completely cold.

After hearing Gorrin’s story, Talor whispered in Thundina’s ear again, “A second cleric would also be really good to have. A spare!”

Scyther took out another contract and repeated the speech he had just given Jessuf for Gorrin and had Gorrin sign on to the adventuring party. Scyther remained at the artificer’s shop while the rest of the party returned to the inn where Thundina and Talor had taken residence. Over dinner, they swapped stories of their adventures. Thundina and Talor talked about the Beastlands and Yggdrasil. Jessuf’s adventures were exploring his domain in Castle Ravenloft and turning out the remaining undead inhabitants. He spent weeks poring over the ancient arcane tomes in the library and located and looted another treasure room.

After another day of shopping and sight seeing in Sigil, Scyther’s upgrades had completed and the party was ready to venture into the Demonweb. Near the Weaver’s Guild, Talor spotted a shop giving spider egg samples and pointed it out. Talor, Thundina, and Scyther took several eggs each and then looked to Jessuf and Gorrin.

“Seriously?” Jessuf asked. “Why would I want spider eggs?”
“Just take them,” Thundina said. “It’ll all become clear in a moment.”

By crushing a spider egg at the entrance to the Weaver’s Guild, the party members found themselves transported to a chamber of webs. Long, white strands woven together formed a floor which then curved up and over creating walls and a ceiling as well. The chamber was a wide spot in a tunnel with four pedestals set in a circle in the middle. Hundreds of bones with their marrow sucked out littered the ground around the pedestals with tufts of hair mixed in with the bones.

Thundina approached each pedestal in turn to take a closer look. The first pedestal was inscribed with an iron pyramid. Near the base, she found a gold ring with strands of red hair. The inscriptions on the other pedestals were a bronze star on one and a blue square on another. The pedestal nearest to where the party arrived had no inscription. Jessuf concentrated to Detect Magic and reported that the three inscriptions were magical, but the ring was not.

The party look to each other, as if asking which direction to go. Thundina offered, “We need to go the Ironwaste and the pedestal with the iron pyramid is nearest that exit, so maybe it’s a signpost with the iron pyramid meaning Ironwaste.” The party agreed with Thundina’s evaluation and Thundina breathed a sigh of relief when no one brought up that there were only two exits from the chamber, but four pedestals.

After traveling approximately an hour down the spider web passage with no points of interest, an elven voice called from ahead, “On whose authority do you walk the web of our goddess?”

Talor gruffly called back, “We have an important mission to deliver these books.” His call sounded unusual. The spider webs muffled and distorted his speech.

The elf responded, “Very well, continue forward.” The party advanced until they could see a patrol of 5 drow. As the party drew nearer, the drow captain sensed something was wrong and suddenly called out, “Halt! Drop your weapons.”

Thundina felt her bloodlust rising and responded, “Like hell! You drop your weapons.”

The whistle and thunk of crossbows firing greeted Thundina’s challenge. The bolts mostly harmlessly bounced off Scyther. Scyther, Jessuf, and Thundina charged at the drow. The drow captain gestured to one of the drow in the back of the line and the tunnel became dark. The light from Scyther’s scythe and Jessuf’s armband provided just enough light to see, but the shadows of the darkness made it difficult for Thundina to take precise aim.

The drow captain and the other drow holding the front line attempted to pull back through the others. Their withdrawal was not well orchestrated and each left themselves wide open to attack. Scyther and Jessuf both took advantage to strike critical hits, killing the drow on the frontline. After a fiery burst from Gorrin and arrow flights from Talor, the drow patrol was completely destroyed before they could regroup from the loss of their captain.

The bodies were laid out and arms and armor stripped. The captain carried an iron pyramid the size of two fists. Jessuf instructed, “If you can gather all the items together, I can check for magical auras.”

Gorrin interrupted, “All the armor is magical, plus the captain’s sword, periapt, one of his potions, and most interestingly, the iron pyramid.”

Jessuf shook his hands towards the sky, “How do you know all that already?”
“I was concentrating on Detect Magic while you all were gathering the armaments,” Gorrin said.

“Do we go back to the pedestals now that we have this iron pyramid?” Thundina asked.

No one spoke in favor of taking the hour walk back, especially since no one knew if the pyramid by itself would take them to the Ironwaste, or even if the pyramid was the portal to the Ironwaste. The party continued through the tunnel of spider webs until the path led to a rock cave. Scyther halted the party, “Hold positions. This is a suspicious cave. I will detect if there is any evil in there.” Scyther concentrated a moment before announcing, “The stone is evil. The webs are evil. This entire plane is evil, I cannot get any better reading of the area ahead.”

Jessuf riley commented, “If there is a spider in the cave when there hasn’t been any spiders in the webs…”

No sooner had the echoes of Jessuf’s words died away and the party stepped into the cave than a flashing set of claws dropped down from above the party and grabbed Thundina. The creature scampered deeper into the dark, dragging Thundina along.

Thundina screamed, “A freaking spider is trying to eat me here!” Easier than waiting for rescue, Thundina knew that most large creatures relaxed after making an initial grab. A quick burst could surprise them by using their own size against them. Thundina attempted to drop through the grasp of the hairy legs, but the spider held firm. She thought, “I guess I’m going to have to do this the hard way, breaking free rather than slipping free.”

The spider’s grip on Thundina tightened and several legs raked across her armor. The pain was excruciating, but Thundina realized it could have been worse if not for the diamond crystal she had attached to her breastplate just before leaving Sigil. The spider’s lair was in a darkness Thundina could not see through until she saw the bobbing lights from Scyther and Jessuf. Once she could see what she was fighting, Thundina kicked the spider and dropped to the ground. She dodged past the spider’s other claws and into the safety of the party.

Jessuf was the first to the spider’s lair. He spotted the creature and shouted, “Flame Strike!” A column of holy fire lit up the darkness briefly. The flames rolled over the creature singeing it slightly.

Right behind Jessuf, Gorrin too spotted the spider and shouted, “Flame Strike!” A second column of holy fire, slightly more intense than the first, burned the creature. It attempted to recoil but this time could not find a safe place and the fire burned it. It waved its legs and fixed its beady eyes on the two clerics.

Scyther charged into the spider and yelled, “Flame Strike!” as he swung his scythe. The scythe plunged deep into the spider hurting it more than the spells had. The spider retaliated by grabbing Scyther. The spider squeezed Scyther and there was a horrible crunching sound as the spider dented Scyther’s adamantium body then raked him leaving long gashes across Scyther.

Talor passed Thundina and whispered as he went, “Actually it’s a chwidencha, not a spider.” He shot at the chwidencha as best as he was able with the darkness concealing the fight.

Jessuf called upon Dol Arrah to infuse him with Divine Power and then eased his way towards the chwidencha. He carefully positioned himself such that the full power of the spell would be taking effect right as he reached the chwidencha and without leaving himself open to a stray attack. Gorrin simply brushed past Jessuf positioning himself in the narrow passage and attacking the creature with his longsword. Jessuf was mostly speechless as he was cutoff and could no longer reach the battle.

Thundina watched the clerics charge into battle while still nursing her wounds. None of it was life threatening, but several of the wounds would need treating before returning to battle. Thundina bound some of the smaller wounds and then looked to the two clerics to see if either was intending to do his magic to more fully heal her; both were concentrating on attacking.

Talor took aim at the melee again. His first shot met with a clank as the arrow lodged in Scyther. He muttered a soft, “Oops. Hope the second shot is better,” and launched another arrow. That arrow struck home, piercing the chwidencha’s eye and into the brain.

Thundina searched around the creature’s lair as Jessuf and Gorrin argued about tactics. She was able to interrupt them when she found a small silver cube in the rubble in the corner of the room. Gorrin confirmed that cube was magical.

Scyther reported, “I am need of further repair. I have utilized all my magical repair for the day. I am capable of continuing for now, but we are reaching a dangerous level of operation.”

That prompted Thundina, “I need some healing too. Something like four Lesser Vigor should be right.”

Jessuf said, “Just a moment, I need to find the appropriate wand.” While Jessuf searched his pack, Gorrin was administering the Lesser Vigor. Jessuf was in shock, “Are you trying to make me redundant? Everything I bring to the party, you’re bringing as well.”

Talor spotted his arrow still sticking of Scyther’s back. He went over to Scyther and brushed the arrow away saying, “There’s a chunk of spider claw on you back. Let me get that for you.”

Thundina whispered to Talor, “Actually, chwidencha,” and she winked.

Jessuf was still ranting, “Alright, do you have one of these?” He pulled out a cornucopia from his pack. “A fruit a day which is empowered with a powerful spell.” Gorrin was forced to concede that this was one thing he could not do, but he wondered what today’s fruit of the day was. Jessuf reached in and pulled out a bunch of grapes.

“Ah, grapes. A Heroic Feast for any who is pure of heart,” Jessuf proclaimed. He gave a grape to Gorrin and took one for himself.

Thundina asked for a grape. Jessuf said, “I’m sorry Thundina, but I do not think the grape will be of benefit to you.”
“I know that, and you know that, but does the grape know that?” Thundina said. “I think I’m smarter than a grape, why don’t you let me try one anyway.” Once Jessuf had given her a grape, Thundina held it, looked at it and said, “Alright grape. Here’s how it goes, I can be good. Enough. Understand?”

Once she had consumed the magic grape, Thundina’s skin took on a healthy glow and she felt very refreshed. She raised an eyebrow to Jessuf and smiled. Scyther asked for a grape as well.

“Oh, yes,” Scyther rumbled. “Very nutritious. It is right to give thanks to Dol Arrah for this feast.”

“I didn’t realize warforged would benefit,” Jessuf said. “I’m sorry I didn’t offer sooner.”

“A normal warforged would benefit,” Scyther answered. “However, your initial supposition was correct, I do not derive any sustenance from this. It is the nature of being a juggernaut.”

“Then why did you say it was very nutritious?”

“It would be very nutritious. It was a simple observation on the humanoid quirk.”

The rocky cave passage opened back into a web tunnel. Another hour of walking and the party encountered a pair of drow females. They shouted a challenge to the party in what must have been abyssal. Scyther shouted back, “Speak in common, not that monstrous tongue.”

The drow shot at the party with hand crossbows and the party charged down the tunnel at the drow. When the party made it into melee range, one of the drow stepped back and filled the area with Web. The other morphed into a large spider and attempted to attack the party. She landed several blows against Scyther but pretty well failed to get through the hardness of his body. The two drow turned and fled through the webbing, unhindered, while the party was entangled. Gorrin started a fire with a burst effect which burned slowly burned away all the magically summoned Web. By the time the fire had cleared the passage, the two drow were long gone.

The passage opened up into another large chamber further down the way. The ceiling seemed to have been torn apart and looking out of that hole, Thundina saw webs in all directions. The chamber was an intersection of passages with a silver circle on the floor. As Thundina approached the circle, she heard a screeching from above. A large plant-like bat was clinging to the ceiling near the hole. Talor mentioned that it was a spore bat and highly territorial. The bat demonstrated its territorial intentions by fire a black ray at Jessuf then fading into a camouflage tone making it more difficult to see.

The battle with the spore bat was a matter of trading arrow fire with black rays. Jessuf took a total of three rays in the chest before he ran back down the passage, looking very nervous and pale. Right before the arrows caused the bat to explode in a puff of spores which stuck to the web, the bat attempted to enervate Gorrin. As the black ray touched Gorrin, his armor flared with a pure white light which canceled out the ray.

From down the passage Jessuf shouted, “Dol Arrah curse you. You even absorb negative energy better!”

----------------------------
Chapter 5 will be delayed due to the game taking a one week vacation.

Chapter 5: Dealings

Jessuf returned to the party, a pale white. The encounter with the spore bat had left him heavily drained and weak. The party considered its resources. Scyther was battered, but okay on the whole. Jessuf however insisted that he needed to call a rest and the next order of business was then if their current location was safe, the chwidencha lair was safe, or if retreating all the way back to Sigil was the wisest course of action.

The conversation continually went in circles, no one able to make any solid arguments in any way. Eventually Gorrin had an idea, “I can consult the gods to learn if it would be safe to make a camp here so that Jessuf may recover.”

Gorrin cast forth a pair of sticks inscribed with runes relating to the Sovereign Host and the Dark Six. As he threw the sticks he firmly said, “Will setting up camp in this location be safe and wise.” Gorrin immediately looked up as the sticks came to a rest, “The worst possible prediction. Certain woe if we remain.”

The party trekked back through the spider webs. At the set of pedestals, the party crushed spider eggs and returned to Sigil. Thundina looked through the purses from the drow patrol. The random purses provided nice returns, but Thundina could only gape at the captain’s purse. He had gold like any other patrol member, but he had more platinum coins than gold!

The party provided Jessuf a monocle and he began Identifying all the various pieces of magic the party had found. The Iron Pyramid could take the bearer plus five others to any other pyramid marked with an iron pyramid. The Silver Cube was a single use planar access key for shifting to another dimension. Jessuf attempted to explain what that meant, but it went right over Thundina’s head.

Scyther requested one additional day for additional repairs and to find an artificer who carried Repair Light Damage wand. Thundina had the gambling itch again and headed down to the Lower Ward and the Styx Oarsman as a place where she knew some action was happening.

At the Styx Oarsman the tables were busy even at the early day. Thundina strode through the bar pausing by the various tables where cards were flopping and demons and tieflings were tossing coins into piles in the middle of the tables. Thundina watched one table in particular where the players were dealt cards, tossed their bets into a pot on a Lazy Susan, and exchanged cards attempting to assemble an army, a political alliance, arcane might, or other victory conditions before making a move for power. The winner of the hand would take the money and a fresh hand would start.

A tiefling with a thin beard which ran to a point on his chin hissed at Thundina, “What are you looking at? This isn’t a spectator sport.”

Thundina quickly glanced over the piles of money in front of the gamers to confirm that the stakes were right and then grabbed a chair from a nearby table. Thundina spun the chair around and took a seat, “Deal me in.” She pulled out a pile of gold coins and a lesser pile of platinum as she took her seat.

The first hand Thundina lost horribly. The same with the second. The winner would claim the entire pot so having the weakest hand was no worse than having the second best, but it did say that she hadn’t quite caught on to the strategy. In a way, simply losing like that was a relief; it meant the other gamblers weren’t trying to hustle her into bigger stakes by making her overconfident.

To Thundina’s right a skeletal demon hunched over his coins. The skin glistened red and he always picked at his cards and coins very carefully as if trying to avoid touching them for too long. A single horn on the back of its head confirmed the creature to be a babau. It would furtively pick up and toss back cards, sometimes Thundina even missed the exchange. One thing she noticed, it was always trying to achieve Puppet Master, a powerful political hand. The single-mindedness of the babau was leaving lots of arcane suited cards available. Thundina won her first hand with a Wizard School, a decent arcane suited hand but which more owed the victory to everyone else still having terrible hands.

Over the next hour Thundina won back what she had lost while picking up the ebb and flow of the game, but couldn’t push into a net profit. Thundina came close when she had sculpted the nearly unbeatable Warlord’s Army only to have her hopes crushed by the tiefling revealing an Overlord’s Wrath.

“Ooh, that’s rough,” a voice from behind Thundina startled her. Thundina turned to see a young man in very extravagant clothing. He wore a fine silk shirt slightly unbuttoned. A mithril mesh peeked out from under the silk shirt.

Thundina waved out of the next hand, “Are you trying to distract me?”

“No, that was not my intent,” the well-dressed man said. “It’s just that you’re very beautiful. Would you have lunch with me?”

“Hmm, I’m not really winning anything here, so, sure.”

Thundina and the stranger moved over to a booth and placed orders for lunch. Thundina asked the stranger, “So what’s a nice guy like you doing in a place like this? I was expecting a tiefling or the like in here.”

“No, no, I’m human. My name is Gryfalcon,” he laughed. “I’m currently traveling around. Sigil is a great central hub for basing out of to visit other planes. I get a taste of each place and them I’m off again. What about you?”

“I’m currently on something of a quest,” Thundina replied. “Resupplying before setting off to the Demonweb Pits, or the Demonwebs, I always get those confused.”

Gryfalcon nodded knowingly, “The pits are beneath the Demonwebs.”

“Right. Oh, my name is Thundina. Have you heard of the Iron waste Portal?”

“The Iron waste Portal is part of the Demonwebs. How to get there, I cannot say. The webs change at the will of Lolth and any directions I give you would be obsolete already anyway.”

The food arrived and temporarily suspended the conversation. While eating, Gryfalcon asked, “Please do not take this the wrong way, but you have something of a mercenary look to you; a well paid, high-level mercenary.”

Thundina could only shrug, “I do well enough. I have expectations of plunder rights and I am at the point where I can be picky as to what missions I take.”

“Your current mission must pay well. Planar travel is my area of expertise and I would like to offer my services to you for your mission.”

“It’s mostly a speculative adventure.” Thundina looked into Gryfalcon’s eyes and said, “You’re a real sweet guy, Gryfalcon, but, I’m sorry. I’ll keep your offer in mind, but we’re not looking to expand the team at this point.”

“Before you go, beautiful lady, I have a present for you,” Gryfalcon said. He handed Thundina a silver sphere and when she looked confused he explained, “It’s a portal key. It will take you where want to go.”

Thundina gave Gryfalcon a kiss on the cheek, “Thank you.”

Thundina rejoined her friends and the rested and restocked party returned to the Demonwebs. The chamber the party arrived in bore a certain similarity to the previous portal location with the four pedestals and the gnawed bones scattered everywhere, but the exits looked to be slightly off from where they had been before. Jessuf insisted that this must be a different place and that using the iron pyramid to locate the previous portal chamber would be of great value. Once he was able to assure the party that he had a sufficient vision of the other chamber to use the iron pyramid to locate that chamber instead of a random iron pyramid pedestal, the party allowed Jessuf to activate the iron pyramid. When the party did not find themselves in a new location, Jessuf sheepishly announced that although the exits were different, the pedestal was the same.

A very short distance away from the pedestals, the spider web passage suddenly changed to a stone path ahead. A thick black velvet curtain veiled the entire path. Scyther, at the head of the party, strode up to the curtain and grabbed it before Thundina could stop him.

“Wait, let me check for traps,” Thundina called. “Curtains imply a certain level of civilization and civilization implies traps.” She inspected the curtain, careful to not touch it. She looked up, “Yep, trapped.”

“So can you disarm the trap?” Talor asked.

“Nope,” Thundina replied. “I could bypass it, but there’s no point to that. The Alarm has already been triggered. Whomever set it, already knows we’re here.”

The chamber past the black curtain held many barrels and crates piled along the far wall. Thundina wanted to see what treasures the storage room might hold, but reconnaissance had to come first. Three other black curtains covered other exits from the room. Behind the first, a large bed dominated the room. Thundina let the curtain to the bedroom fall back to look behind another.

Behind the second curtain a large chamber stretched forth. A large red circle was drawn on the floor with a pentagram draw inside. At the four cardinalities around the circle, a series of dots marked locations where a magic user would stand while using the circle. Past the circle, at a stone table reminiscent of an altar, a drow woman with long white hair wearing a gauzy spider silk robe stood next to a tiefling man with a pointy tail. Neither seemed to notice the intrusion, but an unblinking three-eyed cat sitting on the table watched as Thundina and Scyther stepped into the make-shift summoning chamber.

Without looking up from the table, the drow woman spoke, “If you’re going to come into my home, come in and don’t just stand there. What business do you have in the Webs?”

“Pardon us,” Thundina replied. “We are looking for the Iron Waste Portal. We seem to have gotten a little off track.”

“You are not looking for the Iron Waste Portal, although that is just a little to the south of here,” the drow woman said. “You are looking for Lyssandra. I am Lyssandra, and this is my companion Bon Amejdos.”

Thundina carefully skirted around the summoning circle to approach the stone table. Lyssandra laughed, “You do not need to fear the circle. It is inert at the time.”

Thundina shrugged, “Smarter to avoid anyway. Walking through such decorations tends to give one bad luck at one’s next trial. We have a delivery from Rule of Three for you.” Thundina looked back at the rest of the party, “So who has the satchel?” None volunteered the satchel from Rule of Three and ultimately Thundina realized, “Oh, I have it.”

“So this is who Rule of Three has found to take on this task. You will have great difficulty surviving past the Black Gate,” Lyssandra said as she took the satchel from Thundina and gave it to Bon Amejdos with instructions to sort the books and place them on the bookshelves. He began placing the various tomes Rule of Three had sent onto the shelves around the edges of the summoning chamber.

Lyssandra handed back to Thundina a sealed letter, “Please convey this back to Rule of Three. It is the response he has been expecting.”

Once out of Lyssandra’s home, Thundina began turning the letter over and over, inspecting the parchment and wax seal. She held it up to the light emitting from Scyther’s scythe and eventually handed the letter to Jessuf saying, “Could you sniff this for magic please?”

Jessuf concentrated a moment before announcing, “Yes, there is a spell on the letter. Presumably to prevent anyone from trying to sneak a peek, although I cannot be certain of that.”

Thundina appeared to be considering what tricks she knew to open a magically trapped letter when Scyther asked Jessuf for the letter. Once Scyther had the letter, he put it in his mouth and the letter disappeared.

“You will not be opening this correspondence for it is not addressed to you,” Scyther rumbled. “It is in a safe place for now.”

Thundina sulked back to Sigil and to the Styx Oarsman. The party found Rule of Three in his same booth with a very similar drink as ever before.

“Greetings, salutations, welcome,” Rule of Three welcomed the party. “Did you bring the letter, message, communiqué from Lyssandra?”

Scyther presented the letter to Rule of Three. The scholarly githzerai opened the letter and read. He addressed the party then, “You have completed the three tasks, errands, quests I had previously asked of you, however this letter represents a change of plans, modification of intentions, alteration of hopes. The Demon Queen must be hunted in her own web. Can I ask of you further assistance?”

Talor spoke up, “What’s our stake in this?”

Rule of Three pulled out a small sack and placed it on the table. As it settled, a few diamonds tumbled out with far more gleaming inside. He said, “Friends, compatriots, associates, these would be my payment for further services.”

“Alright,” Talor said, “I think we can accept your terms. What are these new plans?”

“The letter represents an offer of alliance, assistance, help from Orcus, the Prince of the Undead. One of his minions, through various contacts, will give us the time of the Demon Council, a map of the Demonwebs, and the key to the Pits. These three gifts he will give to us, he knows me well. Meet the bone devil Dawnat Sanp in the city of Zelatar at the Sign of Black Heart.”

“How do we get to Zelatar and how do we get back?” Thundina asked.

Rule of Three replied, “There is a portal outside of the Oarsman. As you climb, ascend, rise, think of a platinum piece. Do you require, wish, need anything further?”

As the party departed the booth of Rule of Three, he paused Talor a moment to whisper something in Talor’s ear. The party made the climb outside of the Styx Oarsman and found themselves on a windy, foggy plane. Ahead of the party, a large city gleamed of silver. The city was surrounded by baked mud all around. A road wound for two hundred yards out from the city to where the party had just entered the plane. Demonic travelers waited along the road so that they could enter the city with other demonic guards riding fiendish mounts watching over the procession. Thundina recognized none of the creatures and could not even think of how to begin to describe them.

Another demon, a large frog-like creature, paced the side of the road. Where it encountered weakened demons, it slapped shackles on the wretch. Those which resisted, it branded as well. The demon spotted the party and smiled an evil, terrible gaping smile, “You just came through the one-way portal from Sigil. You are my slaves now.”

“Screw that,” Thundina said. “We have important business and we will not be sidetracked by the likes of you.”

“You are my slaves,” the demon repeated. “Resist, and I shall brand you. It would be a shame to mar such a pretty face.”

“I have a better idea. You answer some very simple questions for us, and we let you live.”

As if on cue, Scyther rumbled, “Vile creature of darkness, I would gladly smite you where you stand. Say the word, and I promise you a swift death.”

The demon paused a moment as it sized up Scyther. While the threat put a seed of doubt into the demon’s heart, it was not swayed. It shook a set of shackles and took up a battle stance.

Thundina took that opportunity to charge while the demon was full of bravado and bluff. It had left itself wide open and another such opportunity might not open again. Behind her, Scyther followed as well. Jessuf muttered a few words and grew to a large size, full of Righteous Might and Talor applied an oil to Bless Weapon for his bow. A column of holy fire roared over the demon as Gorrin called down a Flame Strike on the creature.

The demon turned to the guards and began pointing at the party while yelling something. It narrowed its eyes and created a Blasphemous noise. Scyther, more construct than living creature, ignored the blast and continued his assault against the demon. The guards on the road began laughing uproariously and pointing at the melee. They shouted back and began shooting into the melee. Each guard shot at the nearest combatant whether that was a member of Thundina’s party or the slave master demon.

Thundina came out of her daze and moved into a flanking position on the demon. Weakened from the Blasphemy, Thundina’s strike merely glanced off the demon’s armored hide.

Scyther forced the demon to swing wide and leave itself open to a devastating blow. Scyther then channeled into his swing all his determination and resolve to make the attack strike true. His scythe buried deep into the demon’s chest, so deep that the tip of the scythe was sticking out the back side. Scyther pulled back his scythe, drops of ichor spraying. The demon looked down in shock at the sucking hole in his chest and tried to say something. No sound, only a bubble of ichor bursting from its mouth. It collapsed from the shock of the massive damage.

Talor raised his arms to show the guards that he was no longer making a ruckus. He also told the party, “Break it up?”

One of the mounted guards rode over to Talor, dismounted, and the two of them chatted in the harsh tongue of the Abyss. The demon produced a paper and pointed to a part of it. Talor then signed where the demon was pointing at which time the paper was torn horizontally with Talor keeping one of the pieces.

“So what was that all about?” Thundina asked as the party reformed.

“Quickly, the demon we just fought, a hezrou by the way, offered blood and gold if the guards would assist him. Clearly they did not accept his offer, but they did tell us all to break it up,” Talor recounted. “And then this. I kind of said that Scyther was a minion. Because one of my ‘minions’ killed that hezrou, I was given all his property, which is what this form is. I wonder what possessions I now hold.”

Jessuf looked over at the huddled demons in shackles and said, “I can think of something that is now yours. The question now is what are do you intend to do with them?”

Talor looked somewhat surprised, “Oh, I hadn’t of that. I don’t know. What do you guys think?”

Thundina said somewhat disgustedly, “They’re your problem. Do with them as you wish, but I have no intention of becoming a slave driver.”

Scyther added, “They are evil creatures and normally I would advocate their destruction, but I am incapable of calling for the death of helpless creatures, this is the will of the gods. I do not like the idea of freeing them, but I believe that releasing them is, again, the will of the gods.”

Talor spoke with some of the chained demons in Abyssal before reporting that they considered it right that they had been enslaved because they were weaker than the hezrou. Talor shook his head and asked, “Did the hezrou have a key to the shackles? I don’t think we can keep them, we have to set them free.”

Scyther rumbled, “There was no key. Perhaps we can bust the chains?” Scyther began straining against the chains on one of the captives.

“Um, hello!” Thundina exclaimed. “Why don’t you let me deal with this? This is kind of my area of specialty.”

“No, no, we got it.” Talor said and began assisting Scyther with yanking the chains apart.

Thundina rolled her eyes and began picking the locks on the other captives anyway. Scyther and Talor did succeed in busting apart one set of chains in the time it took Thundina to release all the rest.

Once all the captive demons were freed, Thundina addressed the huddled demons, “Freeing you was a pretty big favor to you. I want you to know, I collect on my favors. If we ever meet again, it had better be when I am calling in one of those favors.”

Talor whispered to Thundina, “I don’t think any of them speak Common.”

“Oh,” Thundina said. “Could you maybe please translate that into Abyssal then?”

“Sure,” Talor agreed and spoke to the demons in the harsh tongue of the Abyss.

The party joined the procession of creatures moving towards the city. From the body language and laughter of the guards by the road, they were still highly amused by what had happened to the hezrou. The party passed a legion of demons camped outside the city but the party passed by the army with nothing more than some ribbing between Thundina and Jessuf about the nature of camp followers likely to be found there.

Talor was muttering something under his breath to himself as they walked to the city. Thundina finally asked Talor what he was muttering.

“Life is fleeting but death endures,” Talor replied. “That the password we need for when we meet Dawnat Sanp, well, the Common translation of it at least.”

Closer to the city, Thundina couldn’t shake a nagging feeling that she was being watched. Her shoulder blades itched and she had been in enough rough parts of town to know that itching shoulder blades meant to be extra cautions. Whenever she turned around though, no one was creeping up; there was nothing unusual there. She unconsciously reached for the Dol Arrah holy symbol that had once been the paladin Ashlyn’s holy symbol. As soon as she grasped the symbol, the feeling of being watched went away. It dawned on Thundina, openly displaying symbols of the Sovereign Host might not be the smartest idea on a chaotic evil plane ruled by a demon lord. She mentioned this thought to Jessuf and Gorrin while moving her symbol into a pouch.

The party passed under the gates to the city. On each side of the road, a gnarled, very withered white tree stood. As the party passed by the trees, the branches on the trees began to hiss like snakes and even lash out at the members on each side of the road, striking like snakes as well. Gorrin took a pretty heavy battering, but Jessuf suffered far worse. By the time he was able to react to the sudden attack, he was bleeding heavily.

Scyther charged at one of the trees crying, “Wretched trees. It is my duty to stand between you and the holy clerics.”

The rest of the party scampered further into the city and turned to watch the battle between Scyther and the tree he attacked. Both trees began writhing and screeching. The one next to Scyther clawed at him, scratching deep furrows into the adamantium body. The other broke off one of its large branches and hurled that branch at Scyther. The branch punched clean through Scyther in a blow that would have killed any living creature. After that, Scyther made a tactical withdrawal towards the party. Both trees broke off branches and hurled them skyward in an arc towards Scyther. Scyther was able to sidestep the incoming branches.

Vrocks circling overhead had been beginning to descend towards the commotion. A lamia came galloping along the wall and shouted, “By Graz’zt’s command, throw down your weapons!” She descended a set of stairs and her presence seemed to calm the writhing trees.

Thundina sheathed her weapon and waited for the lamia. She had no intention of surrendering her weapon, but she wasn’t looking to pick a fight right there after seeing the damage Scyther had suffered. One by one, Thundina’s other companions also sheathed their weapons. Talor looked shocked as he realized that Thoss, the demon slaying bow was probably attracting attention.

The lamia reached the party and demanded, “Why did you attack our trees?”

Scyther bristled, “The trees attacked us first. We were acting in justifiable self defense.” Scyther activated his belt of repair to staunch the oil leaks while discussing matters with the lamia.

The lamia continued, “There is a one thousand gold fine for attacking the trees, and I will need to see your papers.”

Talor hustled forward, “I’m in charge here. Yes, yes, who would we pay the fine to? Here are my papers, I’m a property holder.”

The lamia replied, “I can collect the fine, as can any other Graz’zt representative. You will need proper papers for traveling in the city. Get those from the Graz’zt signatories. I recommend that you hire a guide for your first couple days here. And, I will need to see the papers for the rest of you as well.”

To each party member the lamia repeated the need to for traveling papers. She raised her eyes some at the papers Thundina presented; the Lightbringer mission certification.

“I come from a barbarian family,” Thundina said. “What can you expect?”

Once Talor had paid the fine for Scyther attacking the tree and the lamia had returned to patrolling the wall, the party took stock of the damage the trees had inflicted. Jessuf and Gorrin huddled to discuss the most effective means of healing. Both reflexively reached for their holy symbols but stopped themselves before calling on the Sovereign Host to send magic into Zelatar, eventually settling on the wand of Lesser Vigor. Scyther handed Thundina the wand of Repair Light Damage he had acquired in Sigil shortly before they had departed.

“Really, do you think light repairs can fix you?” Thundina asked.

“A single light repair is insufficient to fix this hole, but each casting should close the hole a little until it is fully repaired,” Scyther said.

Thundina repeatedly tapped Scyther with the wand, drawing its magic out to repair him. Slowly Thundina did see Scyther’s wounds closing and repairing. By the end, Thundina had used thirteen charges from the wand, surprising her regarding how much was required to repair Scyther.

The party began wandering the chaotic streets of Zelatar looking for the signatories building or the Sign of Black Heart. Eventually the party encouraged Talor to ask around. Most demons refused to talk, but one large hezrou agreed to give directions. Talor conveyed back to the party the directions given by the hezrou, “He says we need to go down Bonebreaker Alley to get where we want to go. I recommend we not, I believe he is lying. Let’s move on.”

The party attempted to continue down the street when the hezrou bumped up against Talor. Talor said, “He wants to know what’s wrong with the directions he gave…”

Scyther approached the hezrou and matched it in aggressive body language and began staring at it. The bristling spikes on the juggernaut and the well armed party backing it up was enough for the hezrou to back down and leave the party alone. That however still left the party wandering through the town without direction.

Thundina had an idea, “Talor, why don’t you let me borrow that mask of yours so I can try asking for directions? I think I would have a better chance interacting with the demons than you in this plane.”


Talor protested, “I don’t know if I want my mask so close to your mouth.”

After a brief argument, Talor relented and let Thundina borrow the mask with the warning not to mention that Dawnat Sanp was a minion of Orcus because Graz’zt and Orcus hated each other. “Talor!” Thundina exclaimed. “Don’t you ever wash this mask?”

She then caught the attention of a nearby hezrou patrolman, “Hey. You. Where is the Graz’zt Signatories?”

The hezrou responded, “You should hire a guide to take you around the city. Leave me alone.”

“Well, I don’t see any guides for the offering. I think you would make a fine guide.”
“I’m already employed as a city guard for Graz’zt. I’m busy.”
“We’re talking extra money on the side here. What do you say?”
“How much are you offering?”

Thundina tried to size up the hezrou but couldn’t get an idea of what would be an appropriate offer so she had to resort to, “What would you expect?”
“Two thousand, for the day,” the hezrou demanded.
“We’ll give you fifteen hundred,” Thundina countered.

“Do you take me for a cripple!” The hezrou said indignantly.
“Cripples make fifteen hundred? I should have moved here years ago, all healthy persons must be swimming in gold.”
“Forget it,” the hezrou said. “Move along now.”

The hezrou continued his patrol and Thundina returned the mask to Talor. “Well, it was worth a try. I think he was upset that we offered him a job that would normally be cripples’ work.”

Talor took the mask and reattached it complaining, “Ach, Thundina, your smell is all over this. That chaotic scent makes me dizzy.”

A tiefling in a threadbare shirt approached the party hacking, “I hear you need a guide.” Ever couple words he would pause to cough.

“Yes,” Thundina said. “Are you alright?

“My name is Dagger Slim, and I can guide you for 400 per day. Yes, I’m fine.” The tiefling spit on his hand and held it out to seal the deal. Thundina motioned to Scyther to shake Dagger Slim’s hand.

“You seem to have a pretty bad cough,” Thundina said. “I don’t want you dieing on us before the day is over.”

Scyther, Jessuf, Gorrin, and Thundina each contributed 100 gold to pay for Dagger Slim’s services. Scyther had put forth the idea that since Talor had paid the fine for the trees, he should be exempt from paying a share on the guide. Thundina didn’t wish to start a major fight in front of the newly hired guide, but promised Scyther there would be a discussion on who owed what before all was done.

Dagger Slim led the party down streets to a swirling portal he claimed linked to another of the three planes of Azzagrat. The party followed him through the portal and on to the Graz’zt signatories building. There Dagger Slim asked, “Well, was that all then?”

“Nope,” Thundina replied. “We have other places we need to visit after this. You’re coming in with us.”

Once inside Dagger Slim asked, “Where else will you be needing a guide to?”

Talor replied, “We need to meet Dawnat Sanp.”

Dagger Slim shook his head, which brought on a fit of coughing, “Never heard of a Sanp. Can you tell me why you want to have that meeting?”

Scyther rumbled, “He is a minion of Orcus.”

Dagger Slim’s eyes went wide at that and he dumped out the money the party had given him to be a guide, “I ain’t dealing with anyone related to Orcus,” and scampered out of the building as fast as his hacking cough would allow.

The party faced three lines in the Graz’zt signatories building; a short line with extravagantly dressed people of all shapes and sizes, a long line with finely dressed people, and a medium line with poorly dressed people. The party discussed which line would most likely be the right line for them. Talor wanted to choose the shortest line while Thundina wanted the long line with the adequately dressed people. Thundina ultimately recommended that Talor speak to the end of each line to find out what that person was doing.

At the end of the shortest line one of the dog-like gnolls stood. Talor asked him about his stay and what business had brought him to Zelatar. The gnoll barked, “I’m here as an emissary of Yeenoghu. Whom do you serve?”

Talor answered, “I don’t really serve anyone. I’ve worked closely with the druidic council before, but I haven’t been in contact with them recently.”

The gnoll pointedly turned away from Talor and put on a good show of ignoring him. Talor joined Thundina at the long line, “Okay, maybe that wasn’t the right line. The guy in front of us is a giant so you don’t need me to translate, why don’t you try talking to him?”

Thundina approached the giant and began the small talk, “Have you been waiting here long?”
The giant shrugged, “A couple minutes.”
“This is the line for papers for merchants, right?”
“Correct.”
“We just got out of the slave trade. No future in it.”
“If you just left the business, why do you need papers?”
“We’re not leaving right away. We have some other business here that needs attending to as well.”

Thundina and the giant made a little more small talk before Thundina let the conversation lapse and turned back to Talor, “I think this is right for us. We can pass as merchants, and I don’t like the looks of that other line. Say, where is Scyther, Jessuf, and Gorrin?”
Talor replied, “They’re trying the other line. They seem happy there, but I agree, let’s be merchants.”

Once Thundina and Talor had purchased their merchant’s papers, they reviewed the charter rights they had been granted. They were pleased to see how it looked like the charter set them as a higher class than most others and thus in the right in disputes and made provisions for protecting the merchants retainers and chattel. The two discussed which category their other three party members were more accurately a part of.