Shadows Rise and Shadows Fall - Chapter 6
Shadows Rise and Shadows Fall - Chapter 6
OOC Notes:
Exp is 2000.
Loot:
Red dragon bookends (1200gp)
Three spellbooks
Scroll of Clone
6 potions (room 13)
4 potions (room 13)
1 potion (room 13)
Jar with red dragon flesh in liquid
This Week’s Adventure:
The carnage of the battle only really hit me after it was all over and we searched the site. We spread out to search and tried to avoid being overwhelmed by the smell of burnt flesh.
Bolo used an earth elemental form to enter the cave, and at one point came out holding two odd objects each the size of a basket. They were githyanki eggs that had somehow survived the earthquake. I didn’t really spare it much thought – the next step seemed simple enough to me, but Bolo thought otherwise. He was determined to somehow save them. He didn’t seem to clear on what he would do with them yet, but the earth had spared them and he was resolute in his belief that there was a reason for it.
The whole thing was so much nonsense. There were very real consequences to keeping those around let alone trying to raise them. Consequences I don’t think Bolo considered carefully. But this was his choice, not mine; his mind was set, and since I saw no obvious threat to Celene or us, I let him walk his path without argument even though I thought it folly. Dravot however was not satisfied and continued to press Bolo to consider the ramifications of this act if not for the eggs than for those in their vicinity of the planned home – the Land of Black Ice. Fortunately the battlefield was large enough that I could search other areas and be spared the noise.
It wasn’t long before we had gathered anything of use and departed the site. The elves were on board the brig and starting to feel better as we made ready to head for the camp. I was looking forward to our next move – an all out assault, but my mental planning was stopped short when Dravot’s head suddenly snapped up in alarm. He paused a moment then said “I’ve just gotten a message from the Land of Black Ice. A powerful spellcaster just assaulted the town and left.”
And here it had been such a fine morning. Feh.
Scorch had the means available so we decided to teleport to the village. The elves could pilot the brig back to the camp with some quick instruction, and they would be safe there. I felt bad that I was not seeing them to safety, but I knew that splitting our group now could be disastrous. So they went on to camp with the earth elementals to guard them and we went to the Land of Black Ice.
I wasn’t sure what I was expecting to find, but this wasn’t it. The Owl’s workshop was on fire, the roof half missing. Various people were under different enchantments. Hraldrin was feebleminded, drooling on the ground. Ember was asleep and The Owl was paralyzed. It was about then we noticed that nobody had been killed or hurt, just enchanted. Aethramyr said something about being grateful for small favors, and I agreed completely.
It turned out the attacker was Venn. The Owl told us he came to get his spellbook and several other items he had hidden away without her knowledge. He barely said a word while there and seemed distracted and distant. We had left Venn in the care of the dragons with the Theerpart still in him, and that was the last we knew of him.
I contacted Lord Gelban on the scale, and after some moments he responded.
“Lord Gelban, what do you know of the wizard Venn that we left in the dragons’ care? What has happened?”
I could almost hear Lord Gelban’s mental sigh. “How is it that any more you find out about these things just as I do?”
I smiled inwardly, pleased at the implications of that. Lord Gelban went on. “We had successfully removed the… package from him two weeks ago, and he was recovering. He was under guard, just in case. He woke up, tapped into some unknown power, and stymied the guards watching him and left. The package, however, is still safe. I am uncertain how he cast the spells that he did. Know that no one was hurt in his escape however. He was careful it seems about that. The Interdiction on travel has weakened some of the defenses around the demi-plane and he was able to depart more easily than he would have otherwise been.”
I related the events that had occurred to Lord Gelban. Since we had not recently been in contact, I also took time to update him on our recent efforts, which he received with both eagerness and approval. And I suspect some small measure of surprise.
In turn, he updated me on other matters across the continent. The reds have pulled back, and the greens are now the predominant threat. No city is currently occupied by a dragon force, save Greyhawk and the Greyhawk dragons have only tried to keep some kind of order there. The Scarlet Brotherhood seems to have completely abandoned Greyhawk but whether that’s due to the dragons is unclear.
Lord Gelban had little new information on Rauxes unfortunately, but I warned him that it may be a subject of keen interest soon. I hesitated to speak more openly but warned him there may be great evil spawning there soon. Lord Gelban took that in and said he would attempt to investigate and learn more soon. He also informed me the Silverring has gone back to sleep. I was slightly disheartened by this but at least now the Gilden was back with us.
We decided to spend the night in the Land of Black Ice. I had hoped to spend it at the elven camp but it seems events were set against that. In the morning, we planned to move the battle to the Astral and assault the githyanki outpost. We did not speak of it openly, but there was no need – we all knew where our path led.
But that was hardly the end of the day’s surprises. I can only speculate that Bolo has been profoundly shaken by his meeting with the Great Ash, and in his reflections on that event has taken his mind to new levels of consciousness. And in this mental reverie, he reached a conclusion: our group was just not weird enough. This must be what happened. What else could it possibly be? What else explains it? Perhaps it’s a matter of balance – somewhere, things are very, very normal, so there must be some concentrated strangeness to balance the scales. Bolo had gone to find his parents who were out walking, and when he returned, there was a large lion with him. Not that most lions talk, or had the touch of the celestials. After all, a normal lion wouldn’t be weird enough now would it? The lion’s name is Lone Tooth. He was sent by Ehlonna (or was it Beory?) to help Bolo. I just nodded, dumbstruck.
Somewhere in the vastness of the prime, there is a very, very normal place. I wonder what it’s like.
In the wee hours just before sunrise, magical alarms were triggered. Two creatures approached the sunken bowl of the village, walking openly not attempting to hide themselves. We converged on them carefully, and over the dawn breeze I could make out words as they whispered to each other. I couldn’t understand the words, but I recognized the language.
It was githyanki.
They dropped their hoods and stopped. One was githyanki, of some rank, with a silver sword across his back. The other was githzerai. I wasn’t sure what brought these two racial enemies together but I was sure it had some significance. Since they were clearly here to talk, that’s what we did.
The githyanki said “We are messengers of Zeth’rrr of Tu’narath, General of the Shadow Void.”
The githzerai added “I am part of a group called the Sashal-khou.”
They paused looking at each other a moment, choosing their words carefully. The githyanki chose to speak first. “Not all githyanki willingly follow the Queen. Many would see their races rejoined and the fight pressed against the Mind Flayers – the true enemy. We have… sympathizers within the Queen’s structure. You are the first chance we have seen to possibly throw off her yoke. General Zeth’rrr has an interest in our organization. I take a great risk by telling you that he secretly sponsors it. He has asked each of us to attend this meeting that you would know the sincerity of this message. You will no doubt wish to employ divinations to verify what we have said.”
We made no pretense of courtesy – we exchanged thoughts quickly and silently over the scales. Magic was used and unsurprisingly, they were what they appeared to be, and seemed to be telling the truth. Or at least the truth as they knew it.
Their purpose came to me as they spoke, clear as crystal. And from the reactions of my fellows, they saw it precisely as I did. Some gith wanted to revolt but they could not. They see in us a way to break free, and they are taking it. The obvious question was: could they be trusted, or were they leading us towards a trap. Fortunately this obvious question had an obvious answer, predetermined from the moment the conversation begun. I knew we would end up allying with them. I knew we would trust them. I also knew they would likely betray us later, and that we would deal with that when it happened.
The githyanki started again, and I realized something. While all of this was obvious to me, it wasn’t obvious to him. He was still in the act of carefully proposing, of skirting words, of picking phrases. “Simple divinations have revealed you plan to assault the astral fortress soon. Perhaps you would even succeed. But if you do this, the Queen will be prepared for you. She will be entrenched in the city and you will have to overcome great resistance. We can offer you little in the way of direct battle power, but we can give you information. We can offer ways you can prepare yourselves for the assault. Should you attack, you would have to root out the Queen in the Palace of Whispers, and She would be surrounded by her black mages and cloaked in the power of the One in the Void. We can offer you a way past some of these defenses.”
A simple “Go on,” from me was enough to indicate our interest in his proposal. Truthfully I just wanted to know the particulars – what, where, when. But he believed we needed to be convinced, so we just let him go on.
“The Queen has become… erratic.” This in itself was a great ordeal for him to say. “She seeks the remaining part of the One in the Void which was taken from her a hundred years ago. Or was it two? One of our order stole one of the eyes. He took it to another outpost on the astral, and surrounded it with a storm that none could penetrate.”
I looked back coolly and said “Karloth?”
The gith both stopped in their tracks. “You have heard of him?”
I raised an eyebrow and shrugged then motioned for them to go on. The last thing I wanted was them to know we knew anything more about it. An artifact of great power hidden in Ruun-Khazai right under our noses was one thing, but we didn’t need them to know it was here.
The gith were confused but went on. “In any case, the Queen seeks this lost eye to further Her power. The Queen…. She did not always devour the strongest of our race. While She has made it dogma, some remember that this was not Gith’s intent when she liberated us.”
I asked about the Queen’s allies – we already knew that she was working with others of late, but I was hoping for more details. They told us of a seer who is friendly to their cause. She has told them that the Queen was visited by “The Long Black Being” – a creature from the spirit world, a foul malfeasance. Perhaps it was a creature of the abysss, or perhaps the Shadow King, I’m not sure. He brought a plan and allies – mercenaries. While the gith have worked with the slaad before, they had never seen ones like these before. They do not know what the goal of these creatures is, but the alliance has made her bold, perhaps foolish.
“We can think of only one motive the Queen would have for cooperating with these allies. One thing that would make her risk this: immortality. Even in Her current form, she is vulnerable. She would seek to become the first god native to the astral. Were She to locate the missing eye, She could activate the power of the One in the Void. We do not know if this would make Her a deity or just give Her the power of one. But every gith would be Her unwilling slave if this were so. We are not happy as She is now. Were this to happen….”
This was interesting but our minds were clearly focused on the implementation of such plans. Dravot asked “Where is her phylactery?” The gith were slightly surprised, not so much at the question so much as his directness.
They replied “There are several false ones and they are moved frequently. We are not sure which is the true phylactery. Her ghost knights guard them all and they move within Tu’Narath. She could not bear to have it far from her.”
I asked “Have the Queen’s plans changed given the destruction of your forces on the Prime?”
While they answered, they were certainly speculating more than answering from direct knowledge. “We believe the Queen was not expecting this level of resistance. We are unsure if She will be willing to commit more forces and use more violent methods. But we are worried about how many gith will die in such an attempt. This is why we come to you. We would spare githyanki lives. Were you to assault directly, you might succeed or you might fall. But surely many gith would die in the process.”
“And what of the elven souls being stolen?”
“We are not sure exactly what happens or how this is done. We believe the Queen has tapped into the power of the One in the Void and uses the usurp… the souls of your people to re-infuse her dark servants. The souls do not return after the servants are destroyed, but nor do we believe they are released. We have heard a phrase from one or two who have returned from the Void Chamber – ‘The bargain must be kept.’”
If the gith noticed us all shuddering, he did not inquire about it.
“Very well,” I said. “How do we do this thing? What is your plan?”
The githyanki were again surprised. I think they expected to have to do a great deal more talking to persuade us to help them. But we were all resolved to it, so it was time to get to the details.
“The General of the Shadow Void is one of us. He is a very powerful member of the military and responsible for the defenses that surround the outpost. A city of this size cannot be completely closed – materials are needed etc. There are ways that the General can sneak us into the city and into the palace. This would spare gith lives and prevent damage to the city.”
Dravot said “We understand the general idea. What exactly are you ready to do for us?”
The gith laid out the specifics – we would approach the outpost and use the signaling device on the brig to tell their people of our presence. They would escort us in past the defenses and into the palace. I must admit that I was looking forward to a direct assault on the city, partly in vengeance for the destruction sown in my homeland. But after hearing them detail some of the defenses, I was quickly warming to the idea of sneaking in.
We would need disguises while we were on the brig. The brig can be moved to the astral via a special gate. There was one at the command post we destroyed but the pieces are buried in the earthquake. The gith agents promised to send people to activate it for us, and we could then sail the brig into the astral and to the outpost. How close we arrive would depend ultimately on how damaged the gate is.
And with that it was done. We agreed to meet them at the battle site in some few hours. We made our preparations and then returned to the elven camp. Fortunately, the elves we rescued had arrived safely. I updated Aran’gel and then we set off on the brig back to the scene of the battle.
When we arrived, the githyanki were already present. The githzerai we met the prior night was there along with two new githyanki. While the githyanki were very nervous, the githzerai was the very essence of composure. Bolo went back into the cave and began removing the arc-shaped sections of the gate from the rubble and the githyanki went to work.
In an hour, the gate was assembled and ready. There were some problems with the connecting bolts that held the pieces together, but Aethramyr somehow magically fashioned one to replace a broken part, and the gate became operational. The bolts turned into a liquid metal, and then space blurred within the archway revealing a off white landscape filled with billowing cloudy shapes.
We established our disguises with various illusions or shape changing, and then slid the brig into the archway. We emerged on the far side, less than an hour from the outpost by Scorch’s reckoning. The astral was as strange as ever, and time felt slowed down, sped up, and standing still all at the same time. I was disturbed by the sounds the last time I was here, but this time I realized what it was – there was no echo. I can’t say as I missed it but here we were, back again.
We sailed peacefully through the astral as we glided silently to our destination. After a time we noticed defense patrols – they paid little mind to us – we seemed proper and we were already inside their outer perimeter. It wasn’t long before we came into sight of the massive outpost – I estimate it was half the size of Dyvers. We could make out many floating defensive outposts around it orbiting slowly in the astral sea. As instructed, we signaled and waited. Soon we were directed to one of the floating towers and the ship was boarded and inspected. From the speed of the inspection, the guards were clearly under orders not to look too closely.
We were directed to the General’s Tower – a large building in the city proper. In the yard below were hundreds of githyanki troops training. Even from above I could hear the clashing sounds of swordplay and practice. The parapets were lined with the skulls of mind flayers, and the hatred of the illithid hung in the air. We landed at a small private dock and were quickly escorted in to see the General.
The large tower was very austere, the only decoration being several tapestries depicting battles with the illithid. (After our inventory of Ruun-Khazai, we were quite familiar with the type.) We were led to a circular chamber with a mosaic of a fearsome red dragon and war banners lining the walls. Two githyanki stood in the room. One wore black armor, and had a black gem in place of one eye, with a raven on his shoulder. The other had deep vermillion robes embroidered with black symbol.
The armored man stood forward and said “I am Zeth’rrr, General of the Shadow Void, Warmaster of the Githyanki.”
We nodded and said little. I had no doubt that they were aware of who we were, or at least as aware as they cared to be.
There was some brief conversation that followed. I recall particularly the robed figure remarking of the Queen “She is restoring the essence of the dead god so she may steal it. And She is committing abominations that I cannot abide. She takes githyanki eggs and breeding stock and creates the duthka gith. It sickens me.” I recall this clearly because it put a name to the half dragons we had seen but also because it was then I realized that this creature was no githyanki but a red dragon disguised. Apparently the worms have had their fill of the Queen as well. I balked at the notion of helping the reds, but it seemed our interests were aligned in this.
The General added, “As for the Queen’s defenders, there are many protections. The undead mages are even greater in power within the Palace. The place itself is enchanted with the voices of the whispering dead – the weak willed may find it difficult just to walk those halls. There are many powerful beings under her control including some of the undead. You are not safe in the assumption that you can defeat everything you encounter within the palace. There are also several failed breeding projects and several that are in motion – you should avoid these. She is served by a collection of Ch’rai – undead wizards. Greatest amongst these is Zan’krast, a powerful sorcerer with no legs.”
[Originally, Wizardru said “with no arms or legs”. And someone piped up “I’m guessing he has the still spell feat.”]
Time was against us and I was beginning to feel more exposed the longer we waited. “So how do we enter the palace?” I asked.
“There is one main entrance, and you will not breach that. However in the courtyard there is a statue of the great one, the liberator. Stand before it and place your hand upon it and speak her name, and you will be transported into the citadel. My forces can escort you that far, and I will arrange a gap in the patrols for you to slip through. After that, you will be on your own. You should know that teleportation is possible within most of the palace, however the moment a living creature who is not githyanki enters the palace, the Queen will know. They will all know. I know you have little faith in scrying magic but you have used it at need. There is no barrier against such things in the palace, however the Queen will instantly know should you do this. Be aware.”
Dravot asked, “What of our captured friends, and what of retreat? Will the Queen flee?”
The General was prepared with an answer. “I have heard that you have inquired about the astral flotsam. They will likely be kept somewhere in the palace but it’s hard to say where. As for flight, the Queen has too much invested in this place. She will not flee. She cannot. But know that the Queen is no mean threat. She is powerful. Your best chance is to locate her and separate her from any others.”
The General turned to the dragon. “I understand you have one more piece of information they would consider valuable that even I do not know.”
“Indeed,” the dragon answered. “I know where the phylactery can be found. It is hidden in the library. It is concealed by magic but fleshlings of your power should have no difficulty finding it once there. I also tell you that the Queen bears the Sceptre of Rueiworeu. It is a powerful magic item, symbolic of the bond between the gith and the dragons. Be wary of it. I cannot tell you of its specific power but it is to be feared nonetheless.”
The gith and dragon had little else to say, and we had little else to ask. The General did seem to have good motivations for wanting the Queen removed, but I still had no doubt that there would be some kind of reversal of this good faith before we left this plane. Doubly so when one considers the red dragons, some of whom no doubt want vengeance for having Lord Gelban snatched from under their snouts. But that was for later. We were escorted out, and shown to the Palace of Whispers. The General’s people did their job well for our journey was swift and unnoticed. The statue sat as described, surrounded by a vast necropolis of mind flayer bones and skulls. As we approached the statue, the voices began whispering…
The statue was hard to miss. It was a hundred feet tall if it was an inch, and made from what seemed to be a single block of polished obsidian. Gith stood, her great sword pointed downward, the point teen feet from the ground over a circular symbol. We stood upon it and spoke her name, and appeared in the palace.
Strangely, there were no guards here. The room was dark but Dravot remedied that. It was an unfurnished obsidian chamber and there were five portals leading out. But each one flowed with astral ectoplasm. The viscious fluid flowed down the portals and we were unsure what would happen if we touched it.
But now inside the palace, the whispers were much louder, much closer, much more maddening. Oddly the echo-less quality of the astral was diminished here, but that seemed a poor trade for the wailing voices, continually hissing, moaning, and biting at us. We each needed a moment to steel ourselves, but we all shook off the powerful voices and focused on what we came to do. Bolo spotted a concealed doorway, and since it was the only thing that was not covered in flowing ectoplasm, we opted to try that.
The next room we found was nearly unremarkable, save that it had a strange egg in it. It was eight foot tall, five foot wide, and reminded me of the Cuckoo or Egg of Coot. A silvery light glowed from the interior, but there was no sign of its purpose or function. Another room had a set of spellbooks and some other minor items. We covered several rooms in succession, not yet finding any defenders nor any sign of our quarry. Valanthe proceeded with her usual skill and care and we moved from chamber to chamber, secret door to secret door for a time.
But that couldn’t last. We slipped out of a yet another secret door (still doggedly avoiding gooey portals). The room beyond was quite large. Eight pillars surrounded an octagon set into the floor. On it was a column of silvery light with motes of black energy. Inside the column was a grey slaad. Surrounding it were eight figures. Six were githyanki warriors, standing silently. One was a githyanki with no legs, bobbing in the air. He bore a red cloak and a staff capped with a flickering diamond. The eighth figure was a beholder, with four mechanical arms protruding from the underside of its belly, the metal forming a protective armor around it.
If we’re going to start somewhere, I guess it may as well be with the most powerful sorcerer guard the Queen has.
