Eccles
Ragged idiot in a trilby.
Yvgeny's 8th letter
F.A.O. His Eminence Pietr Orik,
C/o the Temple of Ilmater,
The Triad’s Road,
Temple District,
Trailsend.
Your Grace,
I will start with a departure: Apparently, Khondar Axewielder’s soul refuses the return to the flesh. He died at the same time as I was close to death, after the attack on the spellcasting thieves detailed in my last missive. I therefore can safely say that I owe this dwarf my life, as he was the one that prevented the killing blow by the rogue who had recovered the talking sword, ‘Slayer.’ So I am now indebted to the Rudenheims: I will not rest until I discover who, ultimately, was behind the invasion by the ogres on the Rudenheim stronghold. I owe Khondar and the other dwarves that much, at least.
Now, onwards with the description of our movements to date. I will resist the urge to rush to new disclosures on Shades (yes, Shades; I am certain the Crusaders have come across some!), but will maintain the chronological order of our progress. Hence, after some time spent recuperating, we continued our exploration of the corridors, rooms and tunnels surrounding the hydra’s cavern. No more two-legged foes were to be found, here, but worse was to follow…
We were proceeding along a fairly straight tunnel, searching for traps, so eyes were to the floor. Unfortunately, it was for this reason that we totally missed a writhing mass of tentacles that shot through the air from some dark ledge, ahead of us, across a stream to our right. It wasn’t until these tendrils had attached themselves to Stedd and Miles that I could make out a form shaped like a stalagmite from which these tendrils were emanating. Not having any idea what it could be (I must do something about my lack of education!) I cast a shatter spell at it, which it ignored. Halbrinn then tried his ‘Visions of Death’ spell, which appeared to take hold for a moment… Until a technicolour spark grounded itself from the creature to the wall of the cavern. Symptomatic of a magic-resistant creature, I later learned from my more learnéd colleagues!
Now, the two of my friends that had become entangled were being dragged to the maw of the creature, slowly but surely. By now, Miles had stopped struggling and I heard someone say, ‘the strands sap your strength.’ Filled with revulsion at the thought of someone being eaten alive while helpless, I knew I had to try and prevent Miles’ fate. I therefore picked up his sword that he had dropped, knowing that it had the ability to transfer a jump spell to the wielder. What I didn’t know was that I would waste precious seconds whilst the staff I had strapped to my back had an argument with the sword! Finally, I managed to overcome the reticence of the staff by promising to drop the sword as soon as I had completed the jump.
So I jumped to the ledge, dropped the sword by Miles and, mostly to appease it, used the staff against the beast before me, damaging the creature but once or twice, so thick was it’s hide. By this time, Adamo had arrived on the scene cursing his magic’s lack of effectiveness, but trying several ingenious tricks in an effort to put the creature off munching into Miles. Finally, having pushed my luck for some time, the creature managed to strike me with too many blows for my constitution to cope with, and I felt myself weakening. I managed to get some strength enhancing magic back upon me, but knew it was just a matter of time… And so it proved, as I was hit again, and felt my muscles turn to water. I fell, watching with utter helplessness as it dragged me towards it… Ilmater! Now I know what Halbrinn’s fear spell is like. This was probably the nightmare scenario uber ales, for this little orphan: Helpless and bound, and shortly to be eaten! Adamo helped matters somewhat by binding the creature and myself in magical webs. This did nothing for my equilibrium, but somewhere in my panicking mind a cool space appeared: The webbing had fouled the beast’s tentacles, so I would not be hit by more of the things!
Then, a hill giant appeared and began tackling the creature (a Roper, as you may have guessed, your grace). This hill giant was Halbrinn in disguise, I heard shouted to me. I was picked up bodily by the giant-Halbrinn and lobbed to the far side of the stream, where Miles, Stedd and Adamo were already safe. However, now Halbrinn had to extricate himself, and unfortunately he could not. Again, I was frustrated: Totally helpless, with only my voice able to make an impression on the outside world… My voice would have to suffice, then. I heard talk, directed at the beast, concerning an exchange: We bring it food; it releases Halbrinn. Remembering that there were diverse bodies of the rogues of our previous battle, I added that there was considerably more flesh available, if the thing was prepared to parley with us, rather than eat Halbrinn. Incredibly, it seemed quite intelligent; although very likely evil, it’s overriding imperative was to eat, not kill. It held Halbrinn hostage until Stedd brought back sufficient rogue carrion to placate it, then it released the gnome (still in giant’s form), and took to snacking on the meat. We made our excuses and left; although the way was now clear to pass the roper, we felt disinclined to continue past it, in case it double-crossed us.
Litters were created for Miles and myself, and then we returned to where Khondar lay. We applied a little more preparation to the body, and then returned with him to the Rundenheim dwarves that we had recently saved. Additionally, we had two prisoners that had been taken in our recent battles with the sorcerer-rogues. The one I had saved had died of his injuries, but we also had a cook and an alchemist.
The Rudenheims were all cold fury when we brought Khondar’s body and the two prisoners before them. They insisted that at least one of the prisoners would be theirs to do with as they would, so we had to choose which prisoner would survive. However, the survival would be short-lived, as our prisoner would be marched back to Daggerdale for trial, and then likely hanging. Clearly, no one would be a winner here, excepting harsh justice. I, as a citizen of another country, could hardly interfere, although I pleaded as hard as I could for clemency for both our captives, from the dwarves. They were having none of it; twenty years of slavery at the hands of the ogres and their allies had quite removed their empathy. Which, to be honest, your eminence, I quite understood. Hence, although he was unlikely to have much information of use, we chose to ‘free’ the cook. It was more likely that I would have a chance of persuading Daggerdale’s law enforcement that this misbegotten chef was of little consequence.
However, the chance was removed from my grasp before my hand had even closed. Adamo, tired after a long day’s exertions, chose poorly in his entrapment spell to ensure the chef did not depart by stealth. He shut the unfortunate in an unused room, newly filled with the black tentacles from the spell I have described previously… But he ‘forgot the footnotes,’ so to speak. On opening the door in the morning, we were greeted by a charnel house, as the tentacles had ripped the chef limb from limb. Oh dear, Ilmater, what can we do for magicians who forget their own power? What we certainly can’t do is ask their victims questions that may narrow down our areas of investigation. Ay, me! So, I preyed a prayer for the unfortunate cook, and for forgiveness for my complete lack of ability in preventing the deaths of two prisoners in my care. Then, we set about preparing properly for the things to come by taking two days out to fully recuperate: restoring strength lost to the Roper tentacles and allowing the wizards to exchange spells.
Choosing an alternative route to the Roper, we came upon a corridor that took us to a door, with no other deviation. The door held no surprises, opening fairly easily into an octagonal room, perhaps 30 foot across. The room contained two statues (of famous Rudenheim dwarves, judging by the nameplates on the pedestals) and, additionally, two doors.
Halbrinn checked each door in turn, finding no traps of the first one, which opened onto a blank wall of stone (again!) The second door was also untrapped (apparently) and it also was phoney… However, on opening the door, we heard a grinding of stone from behind us. The door was trapped in an unconventional manner; awakening both the stone dwarf statues, which (naturally) moved to attack us! No one died in the ensuing battle, but I thanked Ilmater that I could prey for a small measure of his might—I never have considered breaking stone with bare fists a particularly edifying skill (as Stedd and his bloodied knuckles were finding out!) Fortunately, Adamo’s earth elemental made life considerably easier, and allowing Adamo to redeem himself for the fiasco with the chef!
After the battle was concluded, a little more exacting search turned up a secret door, which, after more exhaustive searching by Halbrinn, turned up no traps. A short staircase was discovered on the other side of the door, which was promptly traversed, bringing us up to yet another door. Halbrinn searched again: No traps.
Feeling a slight prickling feeling, I offered to check what was on the other side of the door. My sixth sense was definitely warning me of danger though: I told the rest to cover or extinguish any light sources. No light could be seen from beneath the door we were in front of, so I chose subterfuge, and opened the door a little, taking a quick look into the dark.
In the moment I had, I saw a humanoid person performing some strange, archaic kata. This creature had sharp ears and quick reactions: In mere moments it had flipped away from the doors out of the range of my sight, shouting a warning to others in the room that I could not see. Its easy grace in that movement indicated to me that this person had his own night vision, but I resisted the urge to conclude that this was a demon-spawn thief, or even one of those Monks I had met in Scardale (Ilmater, preserve me). Its shadow-kicking display reminded me of no combat style I recognised at all…
I closed the door and warned the others that we were about to battle monks who could see in the dark, so light spells would be useful. I lit a bullet-stone, myself, with my own in-born light ability. Then, with Stedd and I in the lead and Miles just behind, we charged through the door and into the room. I threw the bullet I had at where I guessed was the room’s centre, such that it landed just beyond the range of my night vision. What should have been either a bright glow, or no light at all resolved to become a mystery: The light just dimmed until it became as a candle flame seen from afar. This was not what normally happened, even in magical darkness! I had no time for pondering, however. The variable light was confusing my darkvision, so I chose to skirt around the borders of the room, leaving Stedd and Miles to charge, without care, into its centre.
By Ilmater’s grace, I bumped into a form hanging on the wall on the instant I turned away from the room’s centre. I felt chains binding the creature, so assumed from this that this being was a prisoner of the other monkish occupants. Unbelievably, the chained person (one Vorin, a monk of some variety) was still conscious and was able to direct me to the locks on his chains. I attempted to grab a chain, with the intention of breaking it, but succeeded only in injuring myself slightly. Knowing Halbrinn to be skilled in the area of picking locks, I called for the diminutive but useful gnome, that he might free the captive. Additionally, I called for Adamo to locate an enemy who had escaped, in order to prevent reinforcements from making our position worse. This he succeeded to do, filling the corridor the escapee had used with webs by pinpointing the sounds of the fleeing creature.
I cast a healing spell on Vorin, which he supplemented with some healing power of his own, while I went to the edge of the webs and cast a spell to create obscuring mists. This I hoped would cover the webbing (these creatures may see in the dark; they can’t see through thick fog!) and us, in case any of the monks were using poisoned weapons, like those of the Long Death tend to. I then went back to the wall to supported Vorin, while Halbrinn (once again in pixie form) unlocked one of the chains. Halbrinn had trouble with the second lock, so I bashed the chain it was attached to, using divine might to enhance the blow, and succeeding in shattering a link. Halbrinn then cast knock on the remaining lock, allowing Vorin to fall free. The human was wearing very little to cover his modesty, but he did indeed have some skills as a monk, so required only his battle sense for armour. However, I gave him some additional help in the form of a faith-shield spell.
I then moved off to start fighting—I was itching for combat by now—when I came face to face with a hound archon, as summoned by Adamo. The celestial was mostly unchanged, so I saluted it, then felt my way through the mists to the wall of the cavern. By now, I could just make out the form of Miles. Miles appeared to be holding his own: He was wearing Khondar’s boots (trust Miles!), and the boost in speed had made him a veritable hazy spectre in the gloom; the monks surrounding him could barely touch him!
I could not see Stedd, but I could hear him; he appeared to be addressing one of our enemies as if he knew him. Stedd confirmed this later; the leader was apparently someone by the name of Vorkan, erstwhile minor monk in the Old Order school that Stedd had belonged to (until it disappeared, that is!) With a snatch of insight, I connected this with the crimes supposedly perpetrated by the Old Order exiles: Clearly this group of monks had infiltrated that previously trustworthy cadre, and clearly these monks were not averse to killing if necessary. Ha! I shall take some delight in informing the Daggerdale watch that the Clearwater Crusaders have solved their little murder mystery, and, additionally, clear the Old Order’s name into the bargain. Olé! But that was not the end of the revelations…
I heard a noise from my right, and then someone called: ‘They don’t stay down, they have some form of regeneration!’ On the instant, I preyed for a curse. These creatures were in no way natural: They could see in the dark, they could naturally suppress light and they regenerated… Demon-spawn of some sort, surely! In moving in the direction of the call, I saw Vorin struggling with a multitude of enemies (all looking the same, which is normally a wizards spell). On quizzing him later, he swore that the person either had the natural ability to duplicate his form, or cast the spell so rapidly that Vorin did not hear an incantation, or see the hands move in any gesture larger than an opening of the hand and spreading of the fingers.
My curse was no good against multiple targets, so I simply resorted to the bound-hand stratagem, and released a volley of jab-kicks, sweeps and spin-kicks, allowing me to keep the spell. Vorin matched my kicks with punches and kicks of his own, and eventually, with all the images dissipated, we put the creature back down again. I was all for releasing my spell at that moment, but Vorin forbade it, saying a prisoner would be more useful. Marvelling at his pacifism (and his force of will!), I directed him to my backpack, telling him that he would find rope in there. I then rushed off to find more targets, only to hear an oath sworn from behind me: Apparently, the creature had returned to life and disappeared before Vorin’s eyes, taking my 50 foot of silk rope with it! By the Triad, I will get that rope back!
The battle was over shortly after this, with most of the creatures simply disappearing before our eyes. Stedd managed to kill his enemy, Vorkan, describing the death as like watching the smoke rise from green wood when it has just been set alight: More evidence that these creatures were in no way natural. Your grace, it is my conjecture that these creatures are infiltrators from the lands of Anauroch: Shades! Clearly, I have no expertise in such matters, so I will present the evidence for your own digestion. These creatures: -
Suppress light, rather than negate it by powerful darkness spells. The more of these creatures there are in any one place, the greater the suppression of the light. Killing the creatures lessens the suppression of the light.
Can see in the dark. These creatures appear to be mostly humanoid. They have dusky skin, though, much like the peoples of the southern lands: Chult for example. They do not have any visible anomalies to their form that would indicate some form of cursed blood (i.e. they do not appear to be tieflings).
Can regenerate, or have a form of heightened natural healing, which allows them to return from unconsciousness. They do not survive death however: Once killed, they disappear in wisps of a sooty-black miasma.
Appear to have some form of natural magical ability. This manifests as the facility to create multiple images of themselves, and to teleport (even when bound, proving that it is a natural ability, not a spell).
Can become invisible. Miles ‘saw’ this power manifested, although I did not, so cannot vouchsafe its authenticity. It may be that this was simply a spell, although Miles would certainly know the difference between spells and inborn abilities.
As an addendum to the above list, I can add a natural affinity for murder and torture, judging by the testimony of Stedd, and our finding Vorin chained to a wall. Apparently, Vorin is not only a monk, but also a paladin of Torm. He had suffered weeks of pain, being brought close to death, only to use his own healing powers to restore himself, then to endure further torture. It is evident from this that these creatures are depraved and evil, and therefore, I must look further into their activities.
This list of abilities matches some of those described for Shades in the Service’s Rogues Gallery, your eminence; I even believe there is a Shade on the last Public Enemy list I looked at. If these creatures are Shades, it behoves me to find out as much as possible, for Damara’s sake; it may be that my new quest fits perfectly with my continuing work for the motherland. Which, I pray, is a sign from our god that our work is running true to his Path for us.
I will write again promptly, your eminence. With Ilmater’s resolve, I will uncover the truth about this new evil on Daggerdale’s border.
Yvgeny.
Ilmater save the king.
F.A.O. His Eminence Pietr Orik,
C/o the Temple of Ilmater,
The Triad’s Road,
Temple District,
Trailsend.
Your Grace,
I will start with a departure: Apparently, Khondar Axewielder’s soul refuses the return to the flesh. He died at the same time as I was close to death, after the attack on the spellcasting thieves detailed in my last missive. I therefore can safely say that I owe this dwarf my life, as he was the one that prevented the killing blow by the rogue who had recovered the talking sword, ‘Slayer.’ So I am now indebted to the Rudenheims: I will not rest until I discover who, ultimately, was behind the invasion by the ogres on the Rudenheim stronghold. I owe Khondar and the other dwarves that much, at least.
Now, onwards with the description of our movements to date. I will resist the urge to rush to new disclosures on Shades (yes, Shades; I am certain the Crusaders have come across some!), but will maintain the chronological order of our progress. Hence, after some time spent recuperating, we continued our exploration of the corridors, rooms and tunnels surrounding the hydra’s cavern. No more two-legged foes were to be found, here, but worse was to follow…
We were proceeding along a fairly straight tunnel, searching for traps, so eyes were to the floor. Unfortunately, it was for this reason that we totally missed a writhing mass of tentacles that shot through the air from some dark ledge, ahead of us, across a stream to our right. It wasn’t until these tendrils had attached themselves to Stedd and Miles that I could make out a form shaped like a stalagmite from which these tendrils were emanating. Not having any idea what it could be (I must do something about my lack of education!) I cast a shatter spell at it, which it ignored. Halbrinn then tried his ‘Visions of Death’ spell, which appeared to take hold for a moment… Until a technicolour spark grounded itself from the creature to the wall of the cavern. Symptomatic of a magic-resistant creature, I later learned from my more learnéd colleagues!
Now, the two of my friends that had become entangled were being dragged to the maw of the creature, slowly but surely. By now, Miles had stopped struggling and I heard someone say, ‘the strands sap your strength.’ Filled with revulsion at the thought of someone being eaten alive while helpless, I knew I had to try and prevent Miles’ fate. I therefore picked up his sword that he had dropped, knowing that it had the ability to transfer a jump spell to the wielder. What I didn’t know was that I would waste precious seconds whilst the staff I had strapped to my back had an argument with the sword! Finally, I managed to overcome the reticence of the staff by promising to drop the sword as soon as I had completed the jump.
So I jumped to the ledge, dropped the sword by Miles and, mostly to appease it, used the staff against the beast before me, damaging the creature but once or twice, so thick was it’s hide. By this time, Adamo had arrived on the scene cursing his magic’s lack of effectiveness, but trying several ingenious tricks in an effort to put the creature off munching into Miles. Finally, having pushed my luck for some time, the creature managed to strike me with too many blows for my constitution to cope with, and I felt myself weakening. I managed to get some strength enhancing magic back upon me, but knew it was just a matter of time… And so it proved, as I was hit again, and felt my muscles turn to water. I fell, watching with utter helplessness as it dragged me towards it… Ilmater! Now I know what Halbrinn’s fear spell is like. This was probably the nightmare scenario uber ales, for this little orphan: Helpless and bound, and shortly to be eaten! Adamo helped matters somewhat by binding the creature and myself in magical webs. This did nothing for my equilibrium, but somewhere in my panicking mind a cool space appeared: The webbing had fouled the beast’s tentacles, so I would not be hit by more of the things!
Then, a hill giant appeared and began tackling the creature (a Roper, as you may have guessed, your grace). This hill giant was Halbrinn in disguise, I heard shouted to me. I was picked up bodily by the giant-Halbrinn and lobbed to the far side of the stream, where Miles, Stedd and Adamo were already safe. However, now Halbrinn had to extricate himself, and unfortunately he could not. Again, I was frustrated: Totally helpless, with only my voice able to make an impression on the outside world… My voice would have to suffice, then. I heard talk, directed at the beast, concerning an exchange: We bring it food; it releases Halbrinn. Remembering that there were diverse bodies of the rogues of our previous battle, I added that there was considerably more flesh available, if the thing was prepared to parley with us, rather than eat Halbrinn. Incredibly, it seemed quite intelligent; although very likely evil, it’s overriding imperative was to eat, not kill. It held Halbrinn hostage until Stedd brought back sufficient rogue carrion to placate it, then it released the gnome (still in giant’s form), and took to snacking on the meat. We made our excuses and left; although the way was now clear to pass the roper, we felt disinclined to continue past it, in case it double-crossed us.
Litters were created for Miles and myself, and then we returned to where Khondar lay. We applied a little more preparation to the body, and then returned with him to the Rundenheim dwarves that we had recently saved. Additionally, we had two prisoners that had been taken in our recent battles with the sorcerer-rogues. The one I had saved had died of his injuries, but we also had a cook and an alchemist.
The Rudenheims were all cold fury when we brought Khondar’s body and the two prisoners before them. They insisted that at least one of the prisoners would be theirs to do with as they would, so we had to choose which prisoner would survive. However, the survival would be short-lived, as our prisoner would be marched back to Daggerdale for trial, and then likely hanging. Clearly, no one would be a winner here, excepting harsh justice. I, as a citizen of another country, could hardly interfere, although I pleaded as hard as I could for clemency for both our captives, from the dwarves. They were having none of it; twenty years of slavery at the hands of the ogres and their allies had quite removed their empathy. Which, to be honest, your eminence, I quite understood. Hence, although he was unlikely to have much information of use, we chose to ‘free’ the cook. It was more likely that I would have a chance of persuading Daggerdale’s law enforcement that this misbegotten chef was of little consequence.
However, the chance was removed from my grasp before my hand had even closed. Adamo, tired after a long day’s exertions, chose poorly in his entrapment spell to ensure the chef did not depart by stealth. He shut the unfortunate in an unused room, newly filled with the black tentacles from the spell I have described previously… But he ‘forgot the footnotes,’ so to speak. On opening the door in the morning, we were greeted by a charnel house, as the tentacles had ripped the chef limb from limb. Oh dear, Ilmater, what can we do for magicians who forget their own power? What we certainly can’t do is ask their victims questions that may narrow down our areas of investigation. Ay, me! So, I preyed a prayer for the unfortunate cook, and for forgiveness for my complete lack of ability in preventing the deaths of two prisoners in my care. Then, we set about preparing properly for the things to come by taking two days out to fully recuperate: restoring strength lost to the Roper tentacles and allowing the wizards to exchange spells.
Choosing an alternative route to the Roper, we came upon a corridor that took us to a door, with no other deviation. The door held no surprises, opening fairly easily into an octagonal room, perhaps 30 foot across. The room contained two statues (of famous Rudenheim dwarves, judging by the nameplates on the pedestals) and, additionally, two doors.
Halbrinn checked each door in turn, finding no traps of the first one, which opened onto a blank wall of stone (again!) The second door was also untrapped (apparently) and it also was phoney… However, on opening the door, we heard a grinding of stone from behind us. The door was trapped in an unconventional manner; awakening both the stone dwarf statues, which (naturally) moved to attack us! No one died in the ensuing battle, but I thanked Ilmater that I could prey for a small measure of his might—I never have considered breaking stone with bare fists a particularly edifying skill (as Stedd and his bloodied knuckles were finding out!) Fortunately, Adamo’s earth elemental made life considerably easier, and allowing Adamo to redeem himself for the fiasco with the chef!
After the battle was concluded, a little more exacting search turned up a secret door, which, after more exhaustive searching by Halbrinn, turned up no traps. A short staircase was discovered on the other side of the door, which was promptly traversed, bringing us up to yet another door. Halbrinn searched again: No traps.
Feeling a slight prickling feeling, I offered to check what was on the other side of the door. My sixth sense was definitely warning me of danger though: I told the rest to cover or extinguish any light sources. No light could be seen from beneath the door we were in front of, so I chose subterfuge, and opened the door a little, taking a quick look into the dark.
In the moment I had, I saw a humanoid person performing some strange, archaic kata. This creature had sharp ears and quick reactions: In mere moments it had flipped away from the doors out of the range of my sight, shouting a warning to others in the room that I could not see. Its easy grace in that movement indicated to me that this person had his own night vision, but I resisted the urge to conclude that this was a demon-spawn thief, or even one of those Monks I had met in Scardale (Ilmater, preserve me). Its shadow-kicking display reminded me of no combat style I recognised at all…
I closed the door and warned the others that we were about to battle monks who could see in the dark, so light spells would be useful. I lit a bullet-stone, myself, with my own in-born light ability. Then, with Stedd and I in the lead and Miles just behind, we charged through the door and into the room. I threw the bullet I had at where I guessed was the room’s centre, such that it landed just beyond the range of my night vision. What should have been either a bright glow, or no light at all resolved to become a mystery: The light just dimmed until it became as a candle flame seen from afar. This was not what normally happened, even in magical darkness! I had no time for pondering, however. The variable light was confusing my darkvision, so I chose to skirt around the borders of the room, leaving Stedd and Miles to charge, without care, into its centre.
By Ilmater’s grace, I bumped into a form hanging on the wall on the instant I turned away from the room’s centre. I felt chains binding the creature, so assumed from this that this being was a prisoner of the other monkish occupants. Unbelievably, the chained person (one Vorin, a monk of some variety) was still conscious and was able to direct me to the locks on his chains. I attempted to grab a chain, with the intention of breaking it, but succeeded only in injuring myself slightly. Knowing Halbrinn to be skilled in the area of picking locks, I called for the diminutive but useful gnome, that he might free the captive. Additionally, I called for Adamo to locate an enemy who had escaped, in order to prevent reinforcements from making our position worse. This he succeeded to do, filling the corridor the escapee had used with webs by pinpointing the sounds of the fleeing creature.
I cast a healing spell on Vorin, which he supplemented with some healing power of his own, while I went to the edge of the webs and cast a spell to create obscuring mists. This I hoped would cover the webbing (these creatures may see in the dark; they can’t see through thick fog!) and us, in case any of the monks were using poisoned weapons, like those of the Long Death tend to. I then went back to the wall to supported Vorin, while Halbrinn (once again in pixie form) unlocked one of the chains. Halbrinn had trouble with the second lock, so I bashed the chain it was attached to, using divine might to enhance the blow, and succeeding in shattering a link. Halbrinn then cast knock on the remaining lock, allowing Vorin to fall free. The human was wearing very little to cover his modesty, but he did indeed have some skills as a monk, so required only his battle sense for armour. However, I gave him some additional help in the form of a faith-shield spell.
I then moved off to start fighting—I was itching for combat by now—when I came face to face with a hound archon, as summoned by Adamo. The celestial was mostly unchanged, so I saluted it, then felt my way through the mists to the wall of the cavern. By now, I could just make out the form of Miles. Miles appeared to be holding his own: He was wearing Khondar’s boots (trust Miles!), and the boost in speed had made him a veritable hazy spectre in the gloom; the monks surrounding him could barely touch him!
I could not see Stedd, but I could hear him; he appeared to be addressing one of our enemies as if he knew him. Stedd confirmed this later; the leader was apparently someone by the name of Vorkan, erstwhile minor monk in the Old Order school that Stedd had belonged to (until it disappeared, that is!) With a snatch of insight, I connected this with the crimes supposedly perpetrated by the Old Order exiles: Clearly this group of monks had infiltrated that previously trustworthy cadre, and clearly these monks were not averse to killing if necessary. Ha! I shall take some delight in informing the Daggerdale watch that the Clearwater Crusaders have solved their little murder mystery, and, additionally, clear the Old Order’s name into the bargain. Olé! But that was not the end of the revelations…
I heard a noise from my right, and then someone called: ‘They don’t stay down, they have some form of regeneration!’ On the instant, I preyed for a curse. These creatures were in no way natural: They could see in the dark, they could naturally suppress light and they regenerated… Demon-spawn of some sort, surely! In moving in the direction of the call, I saw Vorin struggling with a multitude of enemies (all looking the same, which is normally a wizards spell). On quizzing him later, he swore that the person either had the natural ability to duplicate his form, or cast the spell so rapidly that Vorin did not hear an incantation, or see the hands move in any gesture larger than an opening of the hand and spreading of the fingers.
My curse was no good against multiple targets, so I simply resorted to the bound-hand stratagem, and released a volley of jab-kicks, sweeps and spin-kicks, allowing me to keep the spell. Vorin matched my kicks with punches and kicks of his own, and eventually, with all the images dissipated, we put the creature back down again. I was all for releasing my spell at that moment, but Vorin forbade it, saying a prisoner would be more useful. Marvelling at his pacifism (and his force of will!), I directed him to my backpack, telling him that he would find rope in there. I then rushed off to find more targets, only to hear an oath sworn from behind me: Apparently, the creature had returned to life and disappeared before Vorin’s eyes, taking my 50 foot of silk rope with it! By the Triad, I will get that rope back!
The battle was over shortly after this, with most of the creatures simply disappearing before our eyes. Stedd managed to kill his enemy, Vorkan, describing the death as like watching the smoke rise from green wood when it has just been set alight: More evidence that these creatures were in no way natural. Your grace, it is my conjecture that these creatures are infiltrators from the lands of Anauroch: Shades! Clearly, I have no expertise in such matters, so I will present the evidence for your own digestion. These creatures: -
Suppress light, rather than negate it by powerful darkness spells. The more of these creatures there are in any one place, the greater the suppression of the light. Killing the creatures lessens the suppression of the light.
Can see in the dark. These creatures appear to be mostly humanoid. They have dusky skin, though, much like the peoples of the southern lands: Chult for example. They do not have any visible anomalies to their form that would indicate some form of cursed blood (i.e. they do not appear to be tieflings).
Can regenerate, or have a form of heightened natural healing, which allows them to return from unconsciousness. They do not survive death however: Once killed, they disappear in wisps of a sooty-black miasma.
Appear to have some form of natural magical ability. This manifests as the facility to create multiple images of themselves, and to teleport (even when bound, proving that it is a natural ability, not a spell).
Can become invisible. Miles ‘saw’ this power manifested, although I did not, so cannot vouchsafe its authenticity. It may be that this was simply a spell, although Miles would certainly know the difference between spells and inborn abilities.
As an addendum to the above list, I can add a natural affinity for murder and torture, judging by the testimony of Stedd, and our finding Vorin chained to a wall. Apparently, Vorin is not only a monk, but also a paladin of Torm. He had suffered weeks of pain, being brought close to death, only to use his own healing powers to restore himself, then to endure further torture. It is evident from this that these creatures are depraved and evil, and therefore, I must look further into their activities.
This list of abilities matches some of those described for Shades in the Service’s Rogues Gallery, your eminence; I even believe there is a Shade on the last Public Enemy list I looked at. If these creatures are Shades, it behoves me to find out as much as possible, for Damara’s sake; it may be that my new quest fits perfectly with my continuing work for the motherland. Which, I pray, is a sign from our god that our work is running true to his Path for us.
I will write again promptly, your eminence. With Ilmater’s resolve, I will uncover the truth about this new evil on Daggerdale’s border.
Yvgeny.
Ilmater save the king.
