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Lamentation of Lolth - Chapter X
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<blockquote data-quote="hippocrachus" data-source="post: 3609633" data-attributes="member: 14148"><p>~ Interlude ~</p><p></p><p>Kaus'beyod was not a big dwarven city by any standards and the populace was strongly anything but; it was only a "dwarven" city because of who governed it, a hoary veteran from Citadel Felbarr who ventured into the Underdark and claimed a piece of land as his own.</p><p>A bastion of the goodly races, Kaus'beyod attracted those few adventurers, merchants, and passing soldiers that needed shelter from the darkness beyond. It was here Calenthang decided to return so often between his visits to the wild to gather intelligence on nearby surface raids and drow contingents in the tunnels. It was here a lone Harper agent contacted the elven warrior.</p><p>Calenthang was immediately impressed with the half-orc. Clearly more powerful than he, Calenthang didn't bother getting offended when Jhul sat down at his otherwise empty table.</p><p>"Daggerdale" was all the Harper had to say for Calenthang's ears to perk up. "Drow" made his eyes narrow and set him on his course for the realms above. A land he had not visited in a little under two years.</p><p></p><p>~ Ambushed ~</p><p></p><p>Calenthang grinned as the three dark elves came around the bend in the tunnel, chatting silently in their rapid handtalk. The wood elf could make out a few of the words they exchanged with eyes that had finally adjusted to the lightless Underdark. He understood that one of the three, clearly the leader, was breaking off from the others, unknowingly leading them right in front of the hidden hunter.</p><p>Drow are not as easy to fool as some of the lesser races wandering in the World Below, as Calenthang learned in his first few weeks there, but drow are arrogant; they never expect to be hunted by <em>iblith</em> and they never expected the copper-toned elf to be magically invisible.</p><p>The hunter’s grip on his sword tensed as his prey came closer.</p><p></p><p>A surface elf, the most hated of all the races, appeared before the dark elf just as a hand closed over its mouth and an impossibly sharp sword slid into its ribcage, behind the sternum.</p><p></p><p>The drow elf was dead before Calenthang removed his sword from its chest and as she, for the scouting elf was definitely female, fell to the cavern floor with a muffled thud, the hunter ran to the adjacent rock wall and quaffed his remaining potion of <em>invisibility</em> with no time to relish the kill.</p><p>The two dark elves that held back set into motion as soon as they saw their former leader hit the ground, stunned by how quickly she was dispatched. One fired a notorious hand crossbow just as the fleeing murderer winked out of existence.</p><p>Calenthang circled around to his original position after avoiding the poisoned dart and crouched against the stones, again waiting for his prey to come to him.</p><p>The heavily armed drow flashed a command in their intricate sign language at the archer, who might also have been a spellcaster. The archer signed back just as quickly something meaning a “lack of knowledge” or a “lack of memory.” They locked glares.</p><p>A wizard, then.</p><p>The fighter moved forward and checked the pulse of the dead woman. He started to shake to let his companion know she didn’t make it, but his head was plummeting into the darkness before he could finish the gesture.</p><p>Visible once again, Calenthang had nowhere to hide and his enemy was already taking advantage. A small dart stabbed into the hunter’s shoulder and he could feel his limb starting to go numb. The hardened warrior shook-off the effects of the drow poison, pulled out the dart forcefully, and bore-down on the wizard who wasn’t expecting him to remain conscious.</p><p>The mage cast a barrage of energy missiles at the approaching menace and one, two, three they pulsed into Calenthang’s body, doing little to slow him down.</p><p>The sword made by Shevarash’s faithful, made extra potent against dark elves, slashed a deep gash into the wizard’s abdomen. He stared down in horror as so much of his insides were bared and couldn’t concentrate enough to cast another spell, this one to transport him far from the faery elf that carried such a cruel blade.</p><p>Calenthang finished him with another downward slash and left his heaped remains untouched. Let the carrion crawlers sort it out.</p><p></p><p>~ Reunion ~</p><p></p><p>Calenthang reached the surface two hours later than he had intended, a few hours before dusk, but was ultimately glad for the dark elven obstacle from earlier that morning because the setting sun was at once a welcome sight and a painful endeavor. His eyes were made for the surface however, and he soon blinked the stars away.</p><p>With quite a distance yet to travel, Calenthang set a pace he could maintain well into the next morning, leaving him plenty of time to think on the things that passed and that were sure to come.</p><p>It was odd enough that the drow had posted a guard at one of thousands of entrances into the black labyrinth below, but the slain female, a generic priestess of the demon-spawn Lolth, didn’t put up much of a fight in the hunter’s view. Perhaps she was not as powerful as he thought, what with such a small retinue of bodyguards. Certainly not worth the two hours of patient study Calenthang invested before drawing the three drow from their camp to slaughter. He stuck a feather in his metaphysical cap all the same; proud to trample on Lolth’s clergy.</p><p>Dusk came and went and the trees had thinned behind him hours ago, and it was then that he noticed the soft indentations spaced around the trail of some equestrian animal and its owner. Arrogance made the drow less careful on the surface. Arrogance gave their tracks away as sure as an ogre’s lumbering stride.</p><p>The dark hunter, bane of the Underdark denizens, rose from his crouched inspection and hurried across the plateau at a sprint, after the drow raiders. Not knowing or caring who or what their intended target was, just meaning to spoil their plans.</p><p>After a few miles, the tracks seemed to slow, seemed to have shorter spaces between them. They had found their quarry…but by the close-set pattern of the other sets of tracks, the quarry was just as aware of the drow as they were of it.</p><p>Calenthang narrowed his eyes in consternation and kept moving, straining his ears to pick up even the slightest sounds of battle. They couldn’t be far now.</p><p>The view over the next rise shed some light on the situation. Only miles from bustling Daggerdale, a lone rover and his pet mule were fending off a small party of dark elves, the animal putting up as much of a fight as its owner. Calenthang knew few that could hold-off four drow raiders, but he didn’t know any drow raiders that could hold-off one Calenthang. So he charged into a skirmish for the first time in two years and not for the last time did he revel in the blood that sprayed across his face when he opened the spine of the first raider he came to.</p><p>The first raider crumpled to its knees and the other three, all showing gashes here and there the wanderer must have produced, one even with an arrow jutting from its thigh, turned red eyes to the wood elf. Calenthang’s vision went black as he was engulfed in a magical globe of <em>darkness</em>, but the trained warrior just barked a laugh and killed with his eyes closed.</p><p>In the end, Calenthang knew who he fought beside. His former ranger companion always fought with measured grace, never letting ego or emotions get in the way.</p><p><span style="color: Sienna">“It has been a long time, friend Sielwoodan.”</span></p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="hippocrachus, post: 3609633, member: 14148"] ~ Interlude ~ Kaus'beyod was not a big dwarven city by any standards and the populace was strongly anything but; it was only a "dwarven" city because of who governed it, a hoary veteran from Citadel Felbarr who ventured into the Underdark and claimed a piece of land as his own. A bastion of the goodly races, Kaus'beyod attracted those few adventurers, merchants, and passing soldiers that needed shelter from the darkness beyond. It was here Calenthang decided to return so often between his visits to the wild to gather intelligence on nearby surface raids and drow contingents in the tunnels. It was here a lone Harper agent contacted the elven warrior. Calenthang was immediately impressed with the half-orc. Clearly more powerful than he, Calenthang didn't bother getting offended when Jhul sat down at his otherwise empty table. "Daggerdale" was all the Harper had to say for Calenthang's ears to perk up. "Drow" made his eyes narrow and set him on his course for the realms above. A land he had not visited in a little under two years. ~ Ambushed ~ Calenthang grinned as the three dark elves came around the bend in the tunnel, chatting silently in their rapid handtalk. The wood elf could make out a few of the words they exchanged with eyes that had finally adjusted to the lightless Underdark. He understood that one of the three, clearly the leader, was breaking off from the others, unknowingly leading them right in front of the hidden hunter. Drow are not as easy to fool as some of the lesser races wandering in the World Below, as Calenthang learned in his first few weeks there, but drow are arrogant; they never expect to be hunted by [I]iblith[/I] and they never expected the copper-toned elf to be magically invisible. The hunter’s grip on his sword tensed as his prey came closer. A surface elf, the most hated of all the races, appeared before the dark elf just as a hand closed over its mouth and an impossibly sharp sword slid into its ribcage, behind the sternum. The drow elf was dead before Calenthang removed his sword from its chest and as she, for the scouting elf was definitely female, fell to the cavern floor with a muffled thud, the hunter ran to the adjacent rock wall and quaffed his remaining potion of [I]invisibility[/I] with no time to relish the kill. The two dark elves that held back set into motion as soon as they saw their former leader hit the ground, stunned by how quickly she was dispatched. One fired a notorious hand crossbow just as the fleeing murderer winked out of existence. Calenthang circled around to his original position after avoiding the poisoned dart and crouched against the stones, again waiting for his prey to come to him. The heavily armed drow flashed a command in their intricate sign language at the archer, who might also have been a spellcaster. The archer signed back just as quickly something meaning a “lack of knowledge” or a “lack of memory.” They locked glares. A wizard, then. The fighter moved forward and checked the pulse of the dead woman. He started to shake to let his companion know she didn’t make it, but his head was plummeting into the darkness before he could finish the gesture. Visible once again, Calenthang had nowhere to hide and his enemy was already taking advantage. A small dart stabbed into the hunter’s shoulder and he could feel his limb starting to go numb. The hardened warrior shook-off the effects of the drow poison, pulled out the dart forcefully, and bore-down on the wizard who wasn’t expecting him to remain conscious. The mage cast a barrage of energy missiles at the approaching menace and one, two, three they pulsed into Calenthang’s body, doing little to slow him down. The sword made by Shevarash’s faithful, made extra potent against dark elves, slashed a deep gash into the wizard’s abdomen. He stared down in horror as so much of his insides were bared and couldn’t concentrate enough to cast another spell, this one to transport him far from the faery elf that carried such a cruel blade. Calenthang finished him with another downward slash and left his heaped remains untouched. Let the carrion crawlers sort it out. ~ Reunion ~ Calenthang reached the surface two hours later than he had intended, a few hours before dusk, but was ultimately glad for the dark elven obstacle from earlier that morning because the setting sun was at once a welcome sight and a painful endeavor. His eyes were made for the surface however, and he soon blinked the stars away. With quite a distance yet to travel, Calenthang set a pace he could maintain well into the next morning, leaving him plenty of time to think on the things that passed and that were sure to come. It was odd enough that the drow had posted a guard at one of thousands of entrances into the black labyrinth below, but the slain female, a generic priestess of the demon-spawn Lolth, didn’t put up much of a fight in the hunter’s view. Perhaps she was not as powerful as he thought, what with such a small retinue of bodyguards. Certainly not worth the two hours of patient study Calenthang invested before drawing the three drow from their camp to slaughter. He stuck a feather in his metaphysical cap all the same; proud to trample on Lolth’s clergy. Dusk came and went and the trees had thinned behind him hours ago, and it was then that he noticed the soft indentations spaced around the trail of some equestrian animal and its owner. Arrogance made the drow less careful on the surface. Arrogance gave their tracks away as sure as an ogre’s lumbering stride. The dark hunter, bane of the Underdark denizens, rose from his crouched inspection and hurried across the plateau at a sprint, after the drow raiders. Not knowing or caring who or what their intended target was, just meaning to spoil their plans. After a few miles, the tracks seemed to slow, seemed to have shorter spaces between them. They had found their quarry…but by the close-set pattern of the other sets of tracks, the quarry was just as aware of the drow as they were of it. Calenthang narrowed his eyes in consternation and kept moving, straining his ears to pick up even the slightest sounds of battle. They couldn’t be far now. The view over the next rise shed some light on the situation. Only miles from bustling Daggerdale, a lone rover and his pet mule were fending off a small party of dark elves, the animal putting up as much of a fight as its owner. Calenthang knew few that could hold-off four drow raiders, but he didn’t know any drow raiders that could hold-off one Calenthang. So he charged into a skirmish for the first time in two years and not for the last time did he revel in the blood that sprayed across his face when he opened the spine of the first raider he came to. The first raider crumpled to its knees and the other three, all showing gashes here and there the wanderer must have produced, one even with an arrow jutting from its thigh, turned red eyes to the wood elf. Calenthang’s vision went black as he was engulfed in a magical globe of [I]darkness[/I], but the trained warrior just barked a laugh and killed with his eyes closed. In the end, Calenthang knew who he fought beside. His former ranger companion always fought with measured grace, never letting ego or emotions get in the way. [COLOR=Sienna]“It has been a long time, friend Sielwoodan.”[/COLOR] [/QUOTE]
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