Clearwater Crusaders - City of the Spider Queen (Updated 17th June)

[Kayne]

Miles' Journal - Part Sixteen

Ches 4th - We set off early after collecting our purchases from the Temple of Lathander (good thing about temples devoted to the morning lord is that they open early), leaving Halbrinn behind to fetch our purchases from the Thayans (bad thing about Thayans is that they are lazy good for nothings who sleep in late). After a couple hours we reached a hamlet that I had passed through a few times as the road to Clearwater runs through it. The settlement has been utterly destroyed, with everyone slain, some in appalling fashion, we found a baby nailed to a wall! The drow will pay in blood for this atrocity.

Following the raiders trail we traced them back to an ancient set of crypts set against a cliff face in the foothills of the Desertsmouth Mountains. There are two old crypts and a huge set of stone double doors leading into the cliff face. Seeing no reason to disturb the crypts as we could find no evidence that the drow had either, we left those well alone and investigated the doors finding them to be barred. Adamo, Yvgeny and Vorin took it upon themselves to open the door. I sat back and watched as they shoulder charged the door over and over, eventually getting it open (and no doubt bruising themselves nastily in the process).

Beyond the doors a corridor led away into the darkness and we headed inside cautiously, and then VERY cautiously as the first thing we spotted were the bodies of five drow arranged around a doorway. On inspecting the corpses we noticed that some had been killed by bludgenoing weapons, the rest by quarrels. Investigating beyond the door that that had died at we discovered a completely empty five chambered crypt. Very bizarre.

Continuing on our way down the corridor it turned to the right and we then had another door to deal with on the left wall. Adamo opened the door and stepped into the room, only for a brace of golden lions to appear from nowhere and tear into him! Yvgeny acted fast and dragged him out of there, with our conjurer throwing up a wall of stone to seal off the room and prevent the lions from continuing their assault. While Yvgeny tended to the wizards wounds I checked another door a little further down the corridor to the right and nearly died as a black cloaked figure with a hideous skeletal visage passed out of the door (or through it) and leapt into me. I could feel my blood running cold, but I summoned every ounce of strength I could to fight the effect and emerged thankfully unscathed. Having seen this, the group were unanimous in leaving that door well alone!

We headed down a long set of steps and emerged into a roughly hewn cavern, the walls of which were lined with niches filled with bones. Intent on investigating these Adamo nearly got ifected with yellow mold for his troubles, and we hurried onward into another cavern. this one though was empty save for a large and very strangely insectile statue in the middle of it. Yvgeny recognised the figure as a depiction of Jergal, an ancient God of the Dead! Needless to say I don't think there was one of us who did not leave an offering at the statues base in appeasement as we passed... right into a Roper! The damn thing had sited itself squarely in the middle of the tunnel leading out of the statues cave, and it easily grabbed Yvgeny and Vorin as they marched right into its tentacled clutches. Thankfully I had gotten very close to one of these in our last encounter with one, and I had seen a few flaws in its impressive chitinous armour. I ran at the beast and somersaulted over it. landing behind it and with the benefit of the burst of speed given me by my boots tore it to bloody ribbons with a few well placed sword strikes in its back.

Picking up our priest and paladin out of the mess that had been the Roper, we headed on through a large and surprisingly empty cavern and then we spotted a side cave littered with piles of equipment. Greed getting the better of our common sense, we headed in and got ambushed by a demon of some sort (Yvgeny knowing all about fiends and such later told me it was a Maurezhi, a vile form of Tanar'ri). It's ambush did not do it much good though as it didn't pick its target very well, its attacks having little effect on me, and my swords doing considerable damage to it. Before it got another chance to try and wound me, Pavel (shapechanged into Troll form) walked up behind it and tore it limb from limb as though it were a ragdoll.

That done, we searched through the equipment piles, finding many magical items that we placed in the groups bag of holding to sort out later on, and continued down the corridor into a large room with a hole leading downwards. Here we fought two drow (finally some sight of them) and their pet, a giant spider. While the rest seemed to be intimidated by taking on the darkelves, Pavel and I were extremely efficient in exterminating them all. It was at this point that Halbrinn arrived having finally caught up to us, and he had the wands we had ordered with him. We headed back to the large empty cavern and decided to rest up, right up until Pavel noticed that one wall of this cavern was illusionary, at which point we decided to split up. Adamo would use his magic to identify the equipment we had taken thus far from the demon and the drow corpses, and Yvgeny would remain on guard with him, while the rest of us explored this new section of the crypts.

Once the wall had been proved to be illusionary, it was easy to disbelieve in it and we headed down a short corridor into a cave with two massive demonic spiders (called Bebiliths apparently). Halbrinn immediately unleashed his scare spell, thankfully killing one of the beasts straight away as the other proved to be a tough opponent to put down as its claws tore armour apart, ripping asunder my elven chainmail and vorins mithril shield and breastplate! Pavel and Vorin eventually killed it, but my lovely new suit of armour is lost. I am forced to rely on the heavier chain shirt I had been using before getting it, a good thing I didn't sell it on.

Pavel again spotted an illusionary wall and passing through that we did battle with a pair of strange creatures that shifted between drow and spider forms. Steeled for a tough battle after dealing with the bebiliths, these were no match and I finished off both of them.

It was then, as we were looting the bodies that Pavel spotted yet another illusionary wall! We passed through it... right into an ice storm spell and a group of four very well armed and armoured drow including a wizard and cleric. It was a tough fight and Pavel and myself were nearly killed during it, but in the end we killed all of them bar the wizard who managed to fly away. I got taken down by a lightning botl just before that though, and was later woken by Yvgeny and a woman called Deirdre.

It appears that whilst I was unconscious there was a collossal misunderstanding which led to the rest of the group fighting a pitched battle against Deirdre, her Dire Lion companion and a human sorceror she was travelling with called Geoff. It seems Lord Morn (or more likely Respen) had sent them here to aid us. In the ensuing fight her Lion was killed and Adamo very nearly was also, though he was thankfully saved by Yvgeny before he succumbed to his near fatal wounds. Once we had gotten acquainted with each other, we decided to press our attack down the hole to the next level of the crypts...

 

[Kayne]

Miles' Journal - Part Seventeen

Ches 4th (continued) - We got our asses handed to us to cut a long story short! Adamo, Vorin and Deirdre killed in the attack and Geoff fled from the carnage that a drow ambush, backed by a trio of strange skinless undead creatures inflicted upon us. To be sure a lot of the blame for the fiasco can be placed on Adamo's impatience (he went ahead without us having devised any kind of actual plan of attack), and also the confusion that Deirdres inset swarm spell caused to our side as it had no effect on the undead. When I realised the scale of the disaster that was unfolding I got spells cast on me to render me invisible and able to climb and headed down the shaft (the hole led down to a short corridor ending at a vertical shaft some 70' deep). Using my teleport ring I was able to retrieve Adamo's corpse, and I teleported away as Vorin was fighting a last stand, leaving him to die (which frankly he deserved for heading down into the fight against instructions not to). The only thing is that I didn't end up at the top of the shaft, or even outside the crypts where I had thought to teleport to... no, I ended up in a dwarfhold. In the pitch blackness I stumbled into a pair of guards, and was promptly arrested, questioned and imprisoned, then questioned again, then left for the night in a damp cold lightless cell, who knows where!

Ches 5th - The dwarves restored life to Adamo during the night as I had told them yesterday that he could verify my wild story about how I ended up in their halls. They subjected the both of us to a barrage of spells and instructed us that we could not lie and to recite our tale again. In actual fact I felt no such compulsion to tell the truth, their magic failed, but I felt my return to Daggerdale would be best expedited by indulging in a little honesty. In short order the two of us were kicked out of the dwarf hold and instructed that the nearest human city lay some distance away. On checking through our things which were returned to us, we noticed that all the mithril items we had in the bag of holding (which Adamo is usually entrusted with carrying) were gone... payment it seems for his restoration. We flew (thanks Adamo) along the rough directions that we had been given until we came to Darromar, the capital of Tethyr. My spell had indeed sent us astray, we were hundreds of miles from my homeland.

Darromar though astounded me. I had always thought that Dagger Falls was a big settlement, and not really understood the difference between a town and a city. I know now my error in thinking. A neighbourhood of this place could have swallowed my home town whole. Truly if Zhentil Keep, home of my sworn enemies, is built to such a scale, and I have little doubt but that it must be, then my self appointed mission to eradicate the Zhentarim and their minions seems nigh on impossible. I could see that Adamo was impressed with the place, but to a much lesser degree than I. I assume the sight of such a vast settlement isn't that new to him. We searched the city on foot until we found a shop selling scrolls and were able to purchase a teleport scroll powerful enough to transport the both of us. Adamo did the honours and we vanished, reappearing in the main square of Dagger Falls and making our way to the Inn the Crusaders generally stay at, startling our comrades who I assume had given us up for dead. I then set off to report to Respen who was impressed to see that Pavels information about my untimely demise was wrong. I think I have gone up a little in his esteem for this feat, especially once I informed him of what had actually happened. Having said that he was very unimpressed with our groups progress thus far, as the drow have continued their raids during the past couple days. I was summarily dismissed and told to get on with the job.

Ches 6th - After a group consensus we have realised that we need to upgrade our equipment to deal with threats below, as our initial foray pointed out more than a few shortcomings with the groups abilitys. We traded in our excess items to the Thayans and with the funds gained, I paid for a couple items to enhance my effectiveness. Nightvision Goggles as being blind in the underdark is the same as being useless, and Gauntlets of Ogre Power to enable me to carry more and hit harder. They will take several days to make. Respen was less than impressed with our group spending such vast sums in the Enclave but could provide no local wizard who could do the work instead. I would rather not have to give money to the Red Wizards cause, but I will not let that stand in the way of me doing my job which is to wipe out threats to my country.

Ches 7th - Nothing much happened today, spent a fair sum in the Inn on good food and drink. Paid for a bath also.

Ches 8th - The only notable thing that happened today was that Yvgeny got poisoned in an assassination attempt. We know that there is an assassin in town stalking him, sent by some people he annoyed ages back in Scardale apparently. However, with no more information than that we are unable to track him. Thankfully the poison was easily overcome.

Ches 9th to 12th - Resting up in Dagger Falls, the party is spread out to an extent, with Halbrinn owning a house and staying there, and Yvgeny despite the threat to his life, staying in his rooms above a bakery. On checking with Respen we learn of several people in town seeking us for fair means or foul, but none approach us.

Ches 13th - Went to the enclave and collected my items from the Thayans. Good workmanship, though it pains me to admit it, the wizards produce quality work. There has been another attempt on Yvgeny's life, as he was shot by several arrows in a street after dark. We still have no clues to his attackers identity to go on though. He has gained a bodyguard however, a Mystran cleric by the name of Aeron Corynian, aparently sent from Shadowdale to aid us in stopping the drow (our neighbours have had battles with the dark elves in the past and no doubt wish to send aid to our cause so that our struggle does not also become theirs).

Ches 14th - We set off early this morning, back to the crypts which we discover have been extensively trapped in the past tenday while we rested and re-equipped. We made very slow progress through the crypts, led by Halbrinn and myself and we systematically disarmed them, right up until we ran into a wall that wasn't there before, blocking the entrance to the cave with the hole in the floor. What is worse is that the wall then came alive, and grabbed hold of Halbrinn and I and proceded to beat the snot out of us. A mimic no less, and a very large one at that as it completely filled the corridor. We struggled for some time, Pavel assuming troll form and trying to aid us but to no avail and he ended up getting stuck himself. Adamo summoned a creature of some sort (I've given up trying to identify the monstrosities he conjures, but I no longer fear them, despite how bizarre they are), but that proved to be no help either. Finally a rope was thrown to us by Yvgeny and Aeron and with their help pulling on it, I and then Halbrinn were pulled from the creatures clutches. No such luck for Pavel though as he was absorbed and I presume devoured by the creature. So much for my first command, eaten by a wall! At least I am consoled somewhat that Respen didn't trust him, so I am unlikely to get too much said about his demise. Still it doesn't look good on my record.

We then retreated, leaving the mimic to its grisly feast and backed up to a better position, waiting for Aeron to re-memorise his spells as he claimed knowledge of a spell that could dismiss the creature to another plane of existence (Adamo having deduced that this particular mimic was fiendish in origin and thus not native to Faerun). That done we headed back to confront the creature only to find that it had gone. We entered the cavern it had been guarding, and noticed that the hole had been covered over with boards, which Halbrinn discovered to his cost had been trapped, as his clumsy attempt to determine if there was a trap triggered a fireball. At this the mimic sprung its trap, pouring off the ceiling of the corridor to seal us in the cavern. Adamo summoned lightning firing flying creatures to battle it, they seeming to have some effect while Aeron tried to dismiss it, finally succeeding on his third attempt, sending the infernal creature back to whatever hell it came from. Given that we had depleted a lot of our spells, we rested to prepare to attack down the hole at full strength.

 

[Kayne]

Miles' Journal - Part Eighteen

Ches 15th - While we were preparing our attack strategy for dealing with those at the bottom of the shaft, Adamo went ahead (having rendered himself invisible and intangible, clearly his magic is becoming very impressive) and scouted out the cave below. It would seem that it is a large double chambered cave, facing onto a vast web filled chasm, and that the guard below is considerably less then we faced last time. As he was down there, we were joined above by a man called Grim, a professional hunter and killer of drow (most fortuitous!). He has been hired by Respen and sent to aid us, in much the same way that Deirdre and Geoff were. I can only hope he proves to be more useful than they were.

We launched our attack, flying down the hole (I used my alter self spell to give myself bat wings, which I have to admit I am rather fond of how they look on me, even though I find having them a little disconcerting, I value my humanity), and catching those below by complete surprise. In very short order we annihilated three drow, one undead spider and one of those skinless undead creatures that on closer inspection seems to have been made from an elf corpse. This was thanks in a large way to Adamo summoning one of his enormous snake monsters which crushed the life out of two of the drow.

No sooner had we looted the bodies though than we had to deal with a counter attack, as about a dozen drow swarmed up the webing in the chasm and assaulted us. The battle was fast and fierce and I regret that I was forced to flee from it to heal myself up, as else I would surely have succumbed to my dire wounds. We eventually prevailed however, only to have to confront another denizen of the web... a MASSIVE spider, easily 40' across which easily overran us, forcing us to gather up our wounded and beat a hasty retreat up the shaft and away. I dare say we didn't stop running till we got back to Dagger Falls!

Knowing that my sudden return would not go unnoticed by Respen I decided to make my report before I was summoned to do so. Alas my strength failed me, the spiders bite it seems carrying a virulent poison of some sort, and I was taken to a room in the guard barracks (which apprently I've been entitled to claim as mine for some time, being of officer rank) to rest. I used my healing wand to see to my open wounds, but sent for a cleric to deal with the poison coursing through my veins. I am told one will visit me tomorrow.

Ches 16th - Indeed in the early morning a cleric of Lathander was brought to my bedchamber, and for a tidy sum in donation to the Morninglord, my strength was fully restored. Making my way back to the others I learned that they had again ordered supplies that would take time to make, and also that Adamo and Hilbrinn were both busy scribing new spells into their books and would remain so for a few days. I returned to the barracks, and as I outranked the drill instructor, took over his lesson, putting a group of guards though a tougher than normal training session. though I got shot plenty of nasty looks for their added ordeal, there wasn't a man amongst them who didn't thank me for the additional training.

Ches 17th to 23rd - I spent these days training up Daggerdales guards in how to deal with assassins, including methods of hunting and searching for them. I was surprised in how well they took to the lessons and I think several of them could prove an effective unit if teamed together to ensure that agents of other powers cannot roam our town with impunity. I shall have to put the idea to Respen sometime.

Ches 24th - My comrades business in town finally concluded, we set off this morning back to the crypts. Once there we find that the drow have not wasted the time we gave them, and have retrapped the doors. I aided Halbrinn in getting them open, only to find that the ever resourceful drow had conjured up a stone wall across the corridor just beyond the front doors. Adamo sumoned an elemental (finally a creature that was more or less recognisable) to smash the wall, but it only made a hole, which then required a couple hours of work with a pickaxe to widen out to make an entrance large enough for us to pass through it.

Once we reached the traps, we decided against disarming them, instead flying across the caves and completely avoiding them this time around. When we reached the cavern with the hole, Halbrinn used a new spell to encase himself in an indestructible ball of energy and rolled himself down the tunnel to the shaft, setting off every trap along the way, to no effect to him. I have to admire our gnome at times like this, he is possessed of a certain mad genius that commands respect! However his idea didn't go entirely to plan as he set off a large trap that dropped a wall into the tunnel behind him, the impact of it sending him in his energy ball plummeting down the shaft to the cave below. Adamo summoned up a lava creature of some sort to get rid of the wall, by melting away the mechanism it was attached to. However it was unable to fly, so Yvgeny took hold of it and using his new spider climb slippers climbed up the wall to allow the creature to do its work, getting badly burnt in the process. With the wall dealt with, we headed down the shaft to provide aid to Halbrinn, only to find that he didn't need it, having used the ball around him to pin a skinless thing against one wall of the cave (the gnome had changed shape to an Ogre to give him the strength to do this, it is a form he has taken before). We quickly destroyed the undead, and then lured the giant spider in to attack us, which it did. We were ready for the beast this time though, and annihilated it over a protracted battle involving chasing it through the webs, in the process also dealing with another drow party who were moving up through the webs to attack us. Halbrinn who spotted them also dealt with the problem in timely fashion by fireballing them, destroying them utterly!

During the battle with the spider though I had been bitten a few times and we thus retreated back to the cavern on the chasm edge to rest until such time as Aeron could restore my strength. I spent about twelve hours lying helpless, barely able to to breathe such was my debilitated condition as my companions rested and stood guard over me.

Ches 25th - I was healed up by Aeron's spells early on and once Yvgeny had woken (he had stayed up all night on watch, only going to sleep once I was healed!), we readied ourselves to continue our assault downwards. Adamo used a spell to fortify our current position with a stone wall so that we have a more secure place from which to launch our forays and also to retreat to. He plans to further improve the defenses at this cave but does not want to exhaust his spell choices in doing so. I am once again fighting fit and very thankful to be so. Spending better than half a day lying utterly unable to move was maddening, thankfully my weakened state made it easy for me to sleep, indeed I could do little else!

We (meaning Yvgeny and myself) launched a sneak attack down at the cave that the drow keep attacking us from, but a sentry escaped our initial onslaught and a pitched battle broke out as we were joined by the other Crusaders and the escapising sentry alerted about a dozen drow including a skinless undead. The drow all wore white tabards emblazoned with a black skull design, probably some form of house heraldry and Yvgeny cannot recognise any religious significance about it, and he would know of these things.

The battle was fierce with Adamo using up a fair amount of his prepared spells (always a good gauge of how intense a fight was as our conjurer tends to be, how to word this, tactically conservative, in his use of magic). I took some serious wounds as the drow attacked in ranks using polearms. However, I was able to annihilate the drow comander using my boots to move swiftly behind him and slash him to ribbons with my blades.

We then set to exploring the nearby chambers docovering that this was a sentry post of a sort, carved into the side of the chasm. The only other dizen being a fire being that tore through us as it appeared when Helbrinn triggered a trapped door and it appeared in our midst with no warning. I give praise to Mask for having the fortune to travel with well prepared companions, as Aeron, having learnt from dealing with that mimic to expect extraplanar creatures on this quest had a dismissal spell in mind, and used it to great effect to send the creature away. I then collapsed to one knee, my wounds being very grevious, indeed I was fitging to remain conscious. however, with the creature gone, I took out my healing wand and had restored myself to full health in about a minute or so.

We decided to rest up before continuing onwards, and so after looting the many bodies of our fallen foes, and taking a lot of stuff that I'm sure we can put to better use than they did from them, we headed back up the web to our secured position.

 

[Kayne]

Miles' Journal - Part Nineteen

Ches 26th - Our rest was interrupted near the end of second watch by a drow attack usiong a lot of spells to back their assault including a vast illusion that thoroughly fooled me into thinking that half of the area we were camped in was actually a think jungle! We were beset by a well co-ordinated, if overly eager group, comprising a drow blackguard no less, a large displacer beast and two of those skinless undead elf things, plus a cleric and a wizard (who remained invisible throughout the battle), both of whom managed to escape when we turned the tide. their companions were not so fortunate, though we were hard pressed to beat them and again I was nearly felled in battle. These attack on us are escalting in their ferocity it would seem.

I have to wonder, and I know I am not alone in the group in doing so, as to why the drow continue to hurl themselves at us again and again. there must be more to this than us stopping them raiding Daggerdale, as by my count they have now taken a few dozen losses thus far, which must weigh heavily on the mind of whoever is directing these assaults. Perhaps it is wounded pride that drives their continued onslaught now, but I do not believe so. clearly they feel that some objective will be fulfilled by dealing with us and freeing up the route back to the surface. Quite what they hope to gain from sacking villages and slaughtering peasants though is beyond me. I know only that I will not permit them to do so, the people of Daggerdale have suffered enough. If their continued peace and safetuy means I must slay every drow under this part of the world than that is what I shall do!

That done, we decided on a tactical withdrawal to Dagger Falls to rid ourselves of the bulk of the equipment we have taken from the drow we have slain in the past few days, in this ongoing tit for tat struggle. We took the liberty to destroy all of their traps on our way out, Halbrinn using his forceball to "hamster ball" himself through them all without any effect to himself. I have no idea what a hamster is, but Halbrinn claims they are a sort of rodent. He did not elaborate on what a ball has to do with one of these creatures and I'm not sure I want to know. the place made safe again, we headed out of the crypts, into the evening outside... and the icy rain which was bucketing it down as though some divine power for a joke had dropped the Moonsea itself on us! Halbrinn immediately teleported back to his house in Dagger Falls without so much as a seconds hesitation, and the rest of the group all seemed to have some means or other to stay dry (well apart from Yvgeny who didn't seem to mind the rain at all. By Mask these Damarans are a strange bunch, he was actually smiling and making comment about how mild the weather was!). I on the other hand got soaked to the skin and was thoroughly miserable by the time I got back to my room in the barracks.

Ches 27th - Adamo spent a large part of the morning and early afternoon casting a spell to identify the various items we had gathered and we then took the stuff we didn't want (which was a lot of it!) to the Thayans, getting a lot of money in return, most of which we then spent there on various improvements to our equipment. I paid a princely sum for the enchantments on my chain shirt and protection ring to be enhanced to better protect me in the frequent battles I am fighting, as I am sick and tired of being taken out a fight so quickly as has been happening increasingly often of late.

Ches 28th to Tarsakh 7th - Rest up as my items are upgraded, and the rest of the party take the time to improive themselves or in Halbrinns case his house, adding a new room to it for the purpose of a dedicated room to teleport into he says. After ending up in thetyr on my only attempt at teleportation I can appreciate his foresight in building a place that will be easy to visualise. I made a customary report to Respen and there learned a couple interesting things. The skinless undead elves we have been fighting are named Quth Maren and are formed by a powerful ritual. I also learned that the drow wearing the white tabards are not servants of Lolth, but of a rival drow deity called Kiaransalee. Otherwise known as the Revenancer, this bitch goddess makes Lolth seem positively nice by comparison, and it seems her minions have designs on the surface for whatever foul reason. On informing the Crusaders of these details i can say that our resolve now is doubled, we will not stop until we have eradicated her followers and stymied whatever plan it is they are devising.

Tarsakh 8th - We trudged back to the crypts early this morning to continue in our quest, arriving at about noon to find that the doors had not been closed and locked this time. Perhaps the drow have realised the futility of trying to keep us out. they had filled in a stone wall though to try and block off the acess to the caves below, but we easily got past that. We made our way down to our usual campsite and found our way blocked by another stone wall. We then decided to rest up until tomorrow when Yvgeny can open a hole in the wall (as he did the one above) with one of his spells, he only having memorised the one of them today.

Tarsakh 9th - We woke up, readied ourselves and Yvgeny cast his spell to no effect! It was then that Grim and I noticed that the part of the wall that the drow had added (the rest having been put there by Adamo a while back to strengthen this position), wa sin fact an illusion. Yvgeny however was convinced that the wall was real and punched it to prove the point, his fist passing through and hitting the web that filled the space... and setting off the fireball trap attached to it, roasting himself and Grim, though the rest of us escaped unscathed, which is more than can be said for the small army of skeletons on the far side of the wall who were blasted to shards by the blast. No doubt they had been left there to slow us down in the event we dispelled our way through the illusion, web and trap so that drow from below could get up the webs to attack us while we were still occupied.

Halbrinn then set off to recon the webs in the chasm, discovering that the guard post we had cleared out not long back was still vacant and then he found a tunnel further down in the chasm. We headed down but lost track of Halbrinn on the way as he was invisible and we were travelling in a zone of silence (courtesy of Yvgeny) to mask the sounds of our armour clinking.

We entered the corridor in the side of the chasm and headed along it a short way until we saw a large octagonal room with black walls and a high ceiling. It was then that we saw Halbrinn as he unleashed a fireball at the other doorway leading out of the room, appearing as he did so, and we were stright into a battle with several spellcasters. The air was filled with the tang of unleashed sorcery as a half dozen of them faced off against four of us (Aeron and Adamo hanging back in case we got attacked from behind, as we are bear the bottom of the chasm and we really didn't want to end up getting surrounded in this corridor). Though powerful in magic, they were clearly inexperienced in combat, and we slaughtered them in short order. It was then, as we were about to behead the corpses (to prevent them being turned into Quth Maren, that a voice boomed out telling us to stop. So we stopped.

The source of the voice turned out to be a drow wizard, who introduced himself as the Archmage of Szith Morcane (a nearby drow town it seems and the likely point of origin of these attacks on the surface). He proposed a pact of sorts. If we ensure that we leave his home (this area of the caves) alone and stop others from interfering with him also, then he will withdraw his support for the cult of Kiaransalee who it seems are the power in the town. In effect this would remove arcane spellcasters (or most of them anyway) from the ranks of the cults defenders, making our job much easier. On behalf of Daggerdale I agreed to his terms and I will see to it that the Crusaders comply with them, even Grim who has a near fanatical hatred of the drow will leave this one alone. We were also unable to loot the fallen wizards, his apprentices it seems, though he wasn't that angry at their demise, referring to them as "having been lacking". Clearly schooling is vicious in drow society!

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Right thats us brought bang up to date now, will teach me to get so far behind! Lets have some comments from our readers (if we have any)!!

 

[Eccles]

Yvgeny's 11th Letter

F.A.O. His Eminence Pietr Orik,
C/o the Temple of Ilmater,
The Triad’s Road,
Temple District,
Trailsend.

Your Grace,

It appears the drow problem in Daggerdale is more extensive than at first thought. It seems, your grace, that the Dagger Falls secret service has allowed a major entrance to the Underdark to go overlooked, as judging by the number of drow and their fiendish pets we have encountered, there is a major dark elf outpost less than half a day’s ride from Dagger Falls!

We have taxed the magic output of the town to its limit, trying to get weapons built that can penetrate the hides of some of these foul beasts, and the drow themselves just brush off the most potent dweomers that Halbrinn and Adamo can throw at them. I had not realised just how inherently magical these dark elves are, to be able to resist the potent spells of the Crusaders’ two mages, that have until recently brought low all before them. Clearly, we will have to rely on more than just the Weave, if we are to continue pursuing this quest.

Speaking of such, your grace, the Crusaders are now in possession of an additional cleric, a representative of the church of Mystra, who styles himself as Aeron. As you may have guessed, your eminence, his chief interest is in magic, but this does not preclude his ability to heal. Having but a single Path to follow, his abilities to ablate, cauterise and suture via prayers to Mystra are pre-eminent in our group, and very impressive! Additionally, he seems to be in possession of one of the most powerful Disruptive maces I have ever witnessed: With but a single blow he has felled at least three of these grisly, acid-dripping drow undead I have previously reported, and swiftly dealt with another. I do declare, I’m a little jealous!

So, I will now return to the chronology of my previous reports, your grace, for your own interest in my discourse is obliging me to be less than brief. Ilmater help me, but I’m sure Pavel would describe me in sentences that include tiresome and windbag!

When my dialogue last left the Crusaders, we were yet again ensconced in Dagger Falls, so that we might enjoy a small respite before returning to the Crypts to the south, and the drow. We were there some several days, allowing us Miles, Halbrinn and the rest time to requisition magic items, and upgrades to existing equipment. I spent some time at the ‘church’, your grace, developing a liking for the ‘delicious pastries’ that our wonderful alchemists have managed to cook up!

However, it was during this time that I managed to get poisoned! Not by the pastries, you understand, but by the dark and mysterious stalker that has dogged the Crusaders for many tendays now. Not content with making my broth a thing of fear, this shadowy assassin then proceeded to ruin my morning devotions by shooting me full of bolts, as soon as I had recovered enough to venture outside.

Quite literally, your eminence, I had just stepped outside my front door, when up popped this black-clad sniper and tagged me! He was rather more nimble than I, too, for before I could break down the door of the house on whose roof he had set up a nest, he had sprung across to the roof of my own dwelling. Needless to say that now he had a clear shot he tagged me again. At this point, your eminence, I feel no embarrassment when I say that I ran, fearing that the next snipe would hit me in a spot too tender for me to remain conscious.

I hid in an alley some distance down the street, but had just completed a spell for some minor curing when, out of the shadows at the end of the cul-de-sac, the dark assassin appeared again, crossbow twanging and again hitting me in a sensitive area. At the time, my first thought was that this was a powerful mage-spy, and I was as good as by Ilmater’s side. With the benefit of hindsight, however, it occurs to me that he would surely have killed me with magic if that were the case. Additionally, I noticed that his form was coalescing, like he had stepped through a portal, I guess. Now, however, I think it was more like he had stepped out of the shadows, as if his medium of transportation was the shadow itself. Could this be, your eminence, one of those Shadowcloaks that we have heard legends tell? It is either this or, Ilmater forbid, one of those dread Nin-jaa from Kara-Tur!

Whatever he was, he was also loading his crossbow for the coup-de-grace, and out of the darkness not more than ten foot from my side, a dusky shape was looming: a shadow familiar! At that point, I ran again, but this time towards the temple district, knowing that the temple of Lathander was nearby, and hoping that the shadow would know this. By the time I had reached Lathander’s temple, I was exhausted, although I had managed to lose my undead pursuer. Being very weak and fatigued, I had the Lathandrian clerics heal me to a point where I could heal myself, then, taking some of the heads of the crossbow bolts I had been shot with, I made my way to our own Ilmateran enclave.

After talking to Miles about this shadowy rogue, we came to the conclusion that it was the same assassin that we had met on the outskirts of Clearwater, when we were undertaking our vampire-slaying mission. The pair of us went to Respen to get further advice, but the discussion went mostly nowhere. Getting an inkling that he was rather more familiar with me than even I expected, I informed Respen that I was a member of the Damaran secret service. Indeed, he then revealed that he was fully aware of this, and had been liasing with you regarding my mission for some time! It certainly was a relief to have this confirmed, your grace!

Respen then offered to provide me with more information on the shadow rogue, but his quid pro quo was more than I was willing to pay. Your grace, I am convinced that Respen was attempting to recruit me, although there was certainly room for plausible deniability. After politely refusing, I was shown the door, but heard just enough from the waiting room to be certain that Miles was briefed. And that should be sufficient to ensure that we have the measure of this creature.

I was obliged, for the remainder of the Crusaders’ stay in Dagger Falls, to request a bodyguard of Sir Dundragon. He could not spare a guardian from his knights, although I believe my request amused him highly! He did, however, manage to find a useful conventionally armoured cleric, which is how the Clearwater Crusaders managed to meet up with Aeron.

Aeron Corynian, a priest of Mystra as I have previously mentioned, has been brought in from outside Daggerdale to bolster the domestic magic trade. I am sure this is a political and commercial decision: Respen has made no bones about the fact that he doesn’t trust the Thayans. He certainly doesn’t like the fact that the Crusaders have been pouring gold into the Thayan’s purses, that we might requisition items to aid us in our quest. Respen has even gone so far as to privately request that I make my disapproval of the Thayans more vocal, to curb Miles’ desire to trade his shirt to the Thayans for every more powerful enchantments for his swords. This did amuse me, your eminence, for obvious reasons!

Finally, after all the new magical items had been completed, we loaded up with the usual victuals and water, and departed Dagger Falls for the drow crypts again.

This time, the tunnels between the crypt entrance and the dropshafts into the Underdark were bristling with traps. I was one of the first to discover just how busy the drow had been whilst we were away: Leading the group past the locked doors of the crypts proper, I was suddenly confronted by a number of skeletons, who burst through diverse of the doors along the main crypt tunnel. Animated purely to set off fire traps, these lowly undead caused more than their fair share of mayhem! Fortunately, there were not a great deal of them, so, although a little singed, we all managed to progress past the doors and into Jergal’s cave once more.

We traversed the cave, noting that the roper remained motionless, but passing the corpse with extreme care nonetheless. Our circumspection proved prescient: Although the roper had not been reanimated, Dierdre’s dire lion companion had been! I can safely assure you, your eminence, an undead dire lion is just as little fun to combat as a living one, but we destroyed the thing without too many problems, thank the Triad.

Our next travail was versus more of the abovementioned traps: many darkness spells interspersed with arrow traps and other unkindnesses. Halbrinn, fortunately, was the equal of all of these. Indeed, he made such good progress that he did not pause until he was at a new door that had been positioned at the end of the tunnel leading to the first of the dropshafts… This was to be a fatal mistake! Although Halbrinn was in ogre form, he was helpless to stop a pseudopod from slamming out of the wall by the door and attaching itself to him; Miles was similarly afflicted. Then, woe! The ‘door’ and part of the ‘wall’ resolved itself… Into a huge mimic!

Halbrinn and Miles were totally helpless, neither being able to remove themselves from the sticky arms of the fell creature, and were being beaten mercilessly by those arms to boot. Adamo, fearless of such otherworldly creatures as only he can be, set about hurting the creature with magic. However, even he blanched when a whirlpool of mana dissipated against the thing with scant effect. Muttering strange words, he tried again, this time conjuring more conventionally, if I can say such, an odd creature from beyond, to help wrench our fellow Crusaders from the beast's glue.

I was certain this was not a creature native to the Home Plane, which Adamo confirmed almost on the instant: It was a hellish mimic, in all senses of the word! Straightway, I prayed for protection from evil, that I might get closer to the summoned creature without suffering an attack from it. However, I could not attack the thing myself, or I would break the spell; I saw little point anyway, as we had no strategy to defeat a beast like this. I was limited to throwing a rope to Halbrinn, and beseeching the others to help tug our stuck comrades free in that manner. I could see that Miles’ attempts at hewing the beast were having little effect at best, the wounds closing almost as soon as they were inflicted.

Miles seemed to grasp that attack would not be an option; he, too, tried to wriggle free. Pavel changed his form to that of a troll, and strode forwards to aid his government colleague, throwing a punch at the mimic. Alas! His strength was not enough to drag his fist free, and in moments the creature had made good its advantage: Pavel, too, was stuck to the things adhesive hide. Finally, Aeron and I managed to combine to pull Halbrinn free; Miles, too, escaped mere moments later with the indirect aid of the creature summoned by Adamo (it distracted the mimic while Miles performed a miracle of contortion), which left Pavel-troll still mired. Try as we might, however, we could not free him, and the weaker he got, the more thoroughly glued he became, until it was useless. We watched with a sick horror as the body of the troll began to be absorbed into the mimic. We could watch no longer. We were not sure whether Pavel would continue regenerating his troll body or not, but there was nothing we could do to rescue him, so with a prayer for the mage, we retreated.

As we found a safe place, Aeron settled down to pray. Knowing now that we were dealing with a creature from the Lower planes, and still having some grace left with Mystra, he set about praying for a Banishment spell.

When we returned to the environs of the first dropshaft, however, the mimic had gone, and Pavel with it. Knowing that it had likely shifted its form, we decided to descend the dropshaft before it could react to us, Adamo telling us that it was quite slow moving so we had a little time. Unfortunately, the drow had covered the dropshaft entrance with boards, so we were forced to waste precious seconds whilst we dealt with traps.

The need to hurry overcame Halbrinn’s natural steady-handedness, unfortunately. A fireball trap lit up the cavern, and we all ducked for cover… Just in time to see the mimic ooze like Faerun’s largest drop of molasses from the ceiling of the tunnel behind us! Now, we were trapped. Adamo sacrificed a couple of strange flying creatures to hold the mimic at bay. These ‘arrow hawks’ crackled with electricity, which the mimic didn’t like one bit, but they were not robust enough to survive for long…

Fortunately, Aeron solved the problem with the last of his three banishments, returning the foul being to its own dimension in a clap of inrushing air. I do not hesitate to admit, your grace, that I offered a prayer to Mystra, as well as to the Triad, for this particular deliverance!

At this point, we decided it behove us to rest, to regain our strength, physically, spiritually and magically. We posted double guards as we rested in the cavern by the still-covered dropshaft, and fortunately were not pestered as we slept (hardly surprising considering the ‘guard’ the drow had posted!) When we awoke, Aeron and I performed our devotions, and Halbrinn, Adamo and Miles all pored over their various texts. After eating a morsel, and drinking some water I declared myself ready, and the group returned attention to the dropshaft.

With synapses refreshed, Halbrinn made short work of the remaining snares protecting the lid, and it was cautiously lifted.

No further hindrances were encountered, save the existing traps that we once again bypassed, and we soon found ourselves in the vicinity of the second dropshaft. More circumspection was now required than last time we were here, and I made sure everyone stayed well back from the pit this time. The bat that was used as an early warning system was dealt with via a silence spell cast on its cage, allowing us to descend the shaft without triggering the alarm. However, at this point, Adamo took it upon himself to scout ahead; methinks he was of a mind to make up for his over-impatience last time we were here. Churlishness was all cast aside, however, when he returned with detailed information on the layout of the cavern before us, and the guards to be found there. Ilmater, but the greatest scout-spy could have done no better!

Whilst Adamo was gone, another representative of the Daggerdale government, who had monitored us for some time to ensure we were who he was seeking, approached the rest of the Crusaders. This agent, again known by Miles (who doesn’t he know?), was a drow-hunting specialist. At last, Respen seems to be taking this drow incursion seriously! The drow-hunter is known as Grimm (let’s hope he lives up to his name, at least from a drow-perspective, anyway!) and he does indeed seem to have an uncanny nose for sniffing out drow.

By now, Adamo was back. We made short introductions, Adamo explained what was before us, and we made a plan of attack. A swift lightning raid down the dropshaft resulted in all the guards being dealt with swiftly and ruthlessly: Several drow and a pet, and one of the drow undead, which Aeron blasted to dust with a couple of swings of his holy mace. However, there was cause for concern: A huge chasm ran along one edge of the cavern we now found ourselves in. The concern came from the fact that it was filled with webs the strands of which were as thick as my arm, which clearly hinted that this cave could prove to be the larder of the Spider from Hell… Can you guess what happened next, your eminence? Yes, we were attacked, first by a large group of drow, which we beat with some difficulty. Then, the piece de resistance! The Spider from Hell turned up. Your grace, it could easily have spanned the floor of the inner sanctum of the temple of our beloved God, there in Heliogabalus. It was the largest, most evil specimen of spider I have ever had the ill fortune of laying eyes on. Its very existence was an affront, but I was too weak from drow-battle to seriously challenge it. For which I may actually be thankful, for the weapons of my comrades, even as enchanted as they were, were unable to make a telling mark on the creatures hide. We can also thank the Triad that we had prepared ourselves for drow poison. Diverse of the Crusaders were protected from the worse ravages of the spider’s bite by delay poison spells that Aeron and myself had doled out before we attacked. Seeing that the battle was not moving in our favour, we beat a retreat before more drow could pour over the lip of the chasm and overrun us.

We decided to protect our position at the top of the drop shaft, it being eminently defensible. Miles would start suffering the effects of spider venom a goodly number of hours after I would, Aeron’s delay poison spell being more powerful than mine. Therefore, it was decided that I would benefit from Aeron’s single spell of poison curing. I examined Miles wound, but was sure that the huge dose of venom delivered to him would quite overwhelm my healing skills. It was therefore decided that we would stay in place and get some rest, allowing Aeron to recast his poison neutralisation spell as soon as Mystra was ready to grant him more prayers. Then a nightmare came upon me, which quite altered our plans.

The Crusaders were asleep, myself amongst them, with Miles on watch. Suddenly, an image forms in my mind of a house; in the bedroom a man and woman sleeps. The view of the bedroom then changes, showing the same house, but seen from outside at ground level. Smoke is pouring through the front door, and through the downstairs windows. The door swings open, and out of the flames a young child runs through, hair and clothes burning, skin scorched almost black. Then an arrow flies into his throat and he tumbles like a rag doll to the ground, eyes glazed. The scene switches, and we are back to the Crusaders… Who are now also corpses: bristling with the short, dark arrows, the likes of which we have seen many times too often in the past few months. At this point, the dark figures that had been only shadows on the edge of my vision resolved themselves along with an amorphous white head, which hovered over them, gloatingly it seemed. At the same time, a similar silver head formed over the bodies of the Crusaders, and a grating, hideous laughter, accompanying an overwhelming sense of triumphant evil, drowned out my thoughts. The soulless, taunting mirth became a swirl of white noise and I cried out, waking in that moment, and startling Miles, who was still on watch.

With such an overwhelming sense of foreboding, I quickly woke all the Crusaders, and advocated an immediate return to Dagger Falls, informing them of what I had experienced. They took the warning at face value, and we left the crypts of the drow within the hour, and were back in the town by daybreak.

Our time back in Dagger Falls has been spent much like the last: The requisitioning of magical aids that would help defeat a massive, evil spider, and other useful items that may stave off the raw number of dark elves that appear to have taken up residence so close to Dagger Falls.

Fortunately for us, Halbrinn and Adamo have achieved a gradation in their ability to weave mana into dweomers, and have thus mastered some of the more difficult spells in the grimoires we had recovered on our journeys. I, too, have noticed an enhancement in my abilities, and those of Miles. Truly, his skill with the twin short swords is amazing. A shame that the blades are nearly always buried to the hilt in someone who certainly has no wish to appreciate his swordplay!

Finally, I have also received another visitation from my Celestial spirit guide, although I do not recall much of the content of my dream. My Celestial friend called upon me during the night of Ches 20th and I remember two things from this meeting. One, that my guide’s name is Amenhotep, and that I have mastered the rudiments of the Celestial dialects. Two, that I have achieved another step along the path to entering the ranks of the Triad’s footsoldiers: My health is such that I am now immune to common diseases. Clearly, it behoves me to put this to good use: I have agreed to visit the Ilmateran mission in the slums, that I may help the clerics there to ease the suffering of those that are afflicted, but cannot afford the healers of the church of Lathander.

I will write again soon, your eminence. Now I hear brother Shadwell knocking at the door. It is time I got back to doing things that the priests of Ilmater do best.

At least, for a while.

Yvgeny.

 

[Eccles]

Yvgeny's Reports
Twelfth Letter

-----------------------

To His Eminence Pietr Orik,
Temple of Ilmater,
King’s Palace Square,
Heliogabalus.

Your Grace,

Glad to hear you are back safe and sound in Heliogabalus! Hope your time spent visiting the provinces has proven that faith in Ilmater is still strong, and the Motherland is continuing to bounce back from the invasion. How goes the Bloodstone revival? To be honest, I’m missing the old homeland, but the Crusaders still have drow to deal with, and plenty of them, so my tour of duty is by no means over.

In my last missive, we had just fought a battle with a fiendish giant spider, and had lost. After our trip back to Dagger Falls for improvements, we returned to the crypts for another try at the beast. First, of course, we had to beat the multitude of traps the drow had set. This time, the traps were defeated by our cunning mages, using magic instead of tools, for reasons of speed.

Adamo suggested we use the bag of holding to ferry each member of the Crusaders over the traps, with a flying mage doing the carrying. First, of course, we had to part with our dimensional spaces, because, as Adamo pointed out, putting a dimensional space inside a bag of holding has ‘unforeseen circumstances!’ So, one slightly claustrophobic and disorienting (the bag felt both large and small at the same time, your eminence, I swear it!) trip later, and I had bypassed the drow traps. In a matter of minutes, all the Crusaders had made it past the traps and we found ourselves in the environs of the first dropshaft.

On descending, however, we found that the drow had set additional traps in the short corridor between the first drop shaft and the next. Now it was Halbrinn’s turn for that little spark of mad genius that gnomes are especially famous for: Creating an impervious sphere of magical force around himself, and trundling it like a rodent in a wheel, he blithely rolled off down the corridor, triggering carefully crafted traps, left, right and centre! By the Triad, the gnome has a gift for the sublimely ridiculous, and no mistake! Our mirth came to an end very suddenly, however, when we saw that he had set off one trap too many. A hinged section of the ceiling swung down as Halbrinn rolled over a pressure plate in the floor, and it executed its purpose exactly as per spec: Halbrinn was pushed straight down the second dropshaft, and the rest of the Crusaders were separated from him.

On the instant, I set about damaging the hinge mechanism, climbing to it via my new slippers of spider climbing. Adamo quickly summoned a magmin, however, to heat the hinge, so that it may break more easily. The magmin couldn’t reach the hinge, and I had no time to cast a spell for protection from fire, so I offered a prayer to Ilmater and lifted the beast with my bare hands unguarded. Which was painful, I have to say, and also set light to my judogi! Fortunately, the magmin melted the hinges on the block with some speed. The cube of stone dropped the last few inches to the floor of the tunnel leaving about an eighteen-inch gap between it and the tunnel roof, which was just enough for the rest of us to clamber over. I followed a few moments after the others, after smothering my flaming jacket and arrived just in time to see one of the skinless drow creatures get blasted to dust by Aeron’s mace. Halbrinn, now in ogre form, ended his resilient sphere spell and accused us of spoiling his fun by destroying his undead elf! Apparently, he had been bumping it around the cavern with great abandon! By the Triad, I’m glad this gnome is with us, as he lightens the tone of these grim proceedings without even trying!

Still, we had a rematch with the Spider from Hell to look forward to so, girding our loins, we set about picking defensible positions, while Adamo attracted the attention of that fiendish abomination by hitting its webs with the flat of his sword. Sure enough, with an audible clacking of mandibles, the spider ventured forth, and battle commenced.

This time, our weapons could touch the beast, although it was still difficult to make a serious impression on the thing, so huge was it. Again, many of the group were protected by spells that delayed the effects of poison, but the going was still hard, and by no means were the Crusaders sure that we would defeat the Hellish thing. Fortunately, the beast decided matters for us, scuttling back to the chasm edge and away over its webs before we could do for it utterly. However, we were not about to give up our advantage, so those that were able followed it, into the heart of its silken maze. I was the first to approach its nest, so, naturally, I was the one it chose to counterattack. I had just turned my head for a second to admire Halbrinn’s handiwork in fireballing a group of drow that were creeping up from below us, when the damned Spider from Hell decided it would go down fighting! By the Triad, it was touch-and-go whether I would survive, for it charged me twice as I retreated; once more would have finished me off. Fortunately, I just made it back to the cavern and my comrades distracted it before I received the telling blow. This time, it did not survive or escape the onslaught, but curled up and died right there on the edge of the webs where it first made its appearance. And good riddance; by the Triad, most definitely are the Crusaders well shot of that thing!

We now chose to use the following hours to consolidate our position, and allow the fighters to rest. Adamo had a plan for reinforcing our position at the top of the dropshaft by creating magical walls of stone. This was done, permitting only a small opening in our enclosed area, so that enemies would not be able to swarm us.

I had been suffering reoccurrences of the nightmare I had had on the previous occasion the Crusaders were here. To prevent current events from paralleling the dream, I chose to stay awake until all three watches had been completed, sheer willpower and constant prayers to Ilmater allowing this vigil to be completed without sleep overcoming me. Then I rested while my comrades made our little enclosure as safe as possible, Adamo casting his wall of stone spell, and the rest shoring up the gaps to make the wall look as solid as possible. I got the requisite amount of sleep required to allow me the energy to memorise my spells, then we set off again, with Adamo using his magic to scout ahead and uncover any drow guards that might want to halt or report our progress.

When Adamo returned, he did indeed report drow guards, in a cavern some distance below the one we were in. The cavern was non-natural, which suggested the ingress of a more extensive complex that should be investigated. Deciding that now was the time to use our stealth abilities and magic, Miles and I decided we would pool our skills and see if we couldn’t take the guards by stealth. With this in mind, I cast a silence spell, and Miles used one of his own to give himself a pair of leathern wings, that he might glide down as I climbed, my spider slippers helping me avoid sticking to the webs and my elven cloak hiding me from sight, almost completely. Miles trumped me by casting an invisibility spell, which I thought might hamper communications. Miles proved me wrong, however, when we alighted in the vicinity of our target cave: Chalk writing suddenly appeared on the wall, which was Miles giving me instructions! If you don’t mind my saying, your eminence, sometimes he is just such a smart-arse!

Our lightning strike attack was mostly successful, with Miles carving into one of the guards whilst I kept close proximity to quieten the screams, my silence spell still being in effect. However, it proved that Miles had struck just seconds too early, for I had not had time to circle round behind the pair and thus block the escape of the second, uninjured guard. As the first guard fell, the other ran screaming through a short corridor into a room just beyond, his shout of alarm coming sudden and loud as soon as he left the area my spell encompassed.

Suspecting the worst, I took a quick look down the corridor, and was rewarded with a volley of bolts and arrows: The drow had a trap of their own! I spotted several snipers and a magic user of some sort, so I quickly whipped out a pastry, and lobbed it into the centre of the room. Within seconds, a good thick cloud of smoke had mostly obscured the vision of the archers, and I sent a prayer to Ilmater as I heard my comrades not too far away. So with the spells of Halbrinn, Adamo and Aeron, and the battle prowess of Miles, Grimm and myself, we beat our foes in this battle, although it did take some doing. I can safely say that Grimm did indeed live up to his name, as regards drow, in this battle. He carries a hand-and-a-half sword, but in this melee he swung it like it was no bigger than a short sword, carving into the dark elves like a man possessed! Apparently, his deity of choice is Hoar, which worries me, your eminence! Looking at the drow remains after he had finished with them worried me even more! Clearly this is a man with a major grudge, which I hope won’t jeopardise the continuing mission. I may try to sway him into reducing the bloodlust a little, but judging by the fact that he cut every drow’s throat after the fracas was over, I’m not sure I’ll have a lot of luck.

After all the bodies had been checked for useful items and gold, we continued to search the locale for clues as to just what these drow were doing here. About all we could turn up was the fact that the drow we had just killed wore a uniform that suggested a common purpose: White tabards with a black grinning skull decorating the centre of the chest. I cannot shake the feeling that I should recognise this, but neither Aeron nor I could name any ecclesiastical significance. Still, I took a sample, that others on the surface may examine the image and enlighten us.

After a short while further, the Crusaders came upon a group of cells with stout wooden doors. All were firmly locked, and either nothing or an obvious corpse occupied all but one. This possibly occupied cell held a covered shape, and it was not obvious whether the occupant was alive or dead. Deciding it behove me to at least check, I tasked Halbrinn with the opening of the lock, which turned out to be rather unfortunate. Before the door was opened, Halbrinn triggered an insidious conjuration trap, and brought forth some species of man-lizard, all wreathed in fire! This creature (Adamo describes it as a salamander) made short work of both Halbrinn and I, before being banished back to the plane of fire by Aeron’s well-timed spell. Ilmater’s Tears! What a vicious trap to have on the outside of a cell door! I sincerely hope that all drow do not consider it standard practice to ensure prisoners and slaves are warded so tightly: My work here may never be done, your grace!

So, we returned to our redoubt, that we might recuperate after the salamander attack. However, our rest was not to be. During the latter part of the rest period, our enemy, literally under the cover of a complex illusion incorporating jungle flora (truly, your grace; I do not jest!) set about removing our presence from their caves once and for all. I was positioned somewhat to the rear of the point of attack, and seeing no clear path to the melee, chose the long way around by climbing the wall nearest me, and thence the ceiling. Hearing the shout that invisible spell casters were about to make life interesting, I quietly cast a spell for purging such enhancements, then put up the hood on my cloak and all but disappeared from sight myself.

My carefully crafted plan came to an end whilst I was halfway across the ceiling. Somehow, a Blackguard had managed to get past our front rank, and was about to make life interesting for Adamo. I dropped from the ceiling, implementing a Catfall Twist to land on my feet as close to the evil knight as possible, that he may not be permitted a hefty swing of his sword as I fell. Drawing in my ki, I launched a power punch that connected solidly, but clearly this anti-paladin had plenty of favour from his dark god, for he shook himself like a hound and threw off the muscle-locking spasm. Then he growled, and launched his blade with all his spite behind it in riposte, and by the Triad that hurt! Fortunately Adamo had recovered, so before the hell-favoured knight could follow up the blow, he was weakened by an immaculately aimed spell of strength drain. Halbrinn wrapped up the Blackguard, quite literally, with one of his resilient spheres, effectively taking the anti-paladin out of the fight. The spellcasters left the scene soon after this, and the remaining creatures (the ubiquitous skinless undead and a displacer beast) did not last long under the onslaught, without magical back up.

Now, the Crusaders decided it was time to leave. After again destroying diverse traps via Halbrinn’s sphere spell, we removed to Dagger Falls to report our current situation and to sell some of the plunder we had in our almost overflowing bag of holding. By the House of the Triad, I am beginning to sound as mercenary as the rest of the Crusaders! I think it may be time for penitence, your grace: Perhaps a contribution of a thousand gold pieces to the church and some flagellation might purge me somewhat! The journey back was wet, which Miles complained about bitterly, along with the never-ending supply of drow we seem to be wading through. This last point was well made your grace. It seems odd that so many Underdark drow are this close to the surface; even the all-seeing eyes in the Daggerdale government didn’t seem to be expecting so many. I personally think the Crusaders are on to something very big. Time will tell.

As has become typical in the last few weeks, our return to Dagger Falls has become an excuse to go shopping in the marquees of the Thayans. I took an opportunity to check out the church, which now feels very much safer. The reason for this was explained to me: The church has now become hallowed ground. No wonder I get such a warm feeling when I go there; I thought it was just the contents of the pastries!

However, our time in Dagger Falls was not entirely wasted, as we found out that the white tabard/black skull combination is typical of subjects of the dark elven goddess Kiaransalee. Now I am sure I do not need to elucidate for you, your eminence, the fact that this goddess is at least as bad as Llolth, even if not as powerful, having both vengeance and undeath in Her portfolio. This almost certainly answers the question of why the drow continually attack us: their dogma demands it! I think this is likely to be a long and bloody campaign, your grace, but it is one I am bound to, so I must keep my faith that I am doing the right thing.

It is now several days into our sojourn in Dagger Falls and we are due to leave once again for the crypts and the drow. In the meantime, I have learnt that the actual name of the acid-dripping drow undead is quth maren. The process in which they are created is truly appalling, involving the flesh of a living drow being turned to acid whilst he or she still lives. I cannot begin to understand this race, your eminence, but rest assured that I will do everything in my power to impede this barbaric activity. It matters not that the crime is perpetrated against evil creatures; Ilmater, I am sure, would judge the prevention of the process more important than the moral bent of those who suffer such a crime against life. By the Triad, wouldst that I could lead a crusade against these degenerate Kiaransalee worshippers! Ay, me! But I have other tasks to hand.

I will write anon, your grace. For now, I must return to my fellow Crusaders, that we might venture forth once again. Events, I sense, will come to a head soon, but I cannot foresee the path that the Crusaders will take. Oh, well. No time for auguries now, for I must depart.

Yvgeny.

Ilmater save the King.

 

[Kayne]

Miles' Journal - Part Twenty

Tarsakh 9th continued - With this new pact in place, we left the archmages chambers and rejoined Adamo & Halbrinn. We headed back up the chasm to our secured area and rested up as several of us had taken some serious wounds from all the spells slung about in our battle with the apprentices. I am thankful for my healing wands, I was back to full fitness in under a minute. Definately worth the money I paid for them!

Whilst we were resting, Adamo scouted ahead further down the chasm after rendering himself both invisible and intangible. He returned having dicovered a large cave where it seemed a small market was being held. From his descriptions of the beings he saw there, we were able to determine that a trio of duergar were selling to a mixed group comprising drow, koa-toa and a tall hooded figure with tentacles hanging out of the hood. An Illithid no less, if the stories of these dread creatures are to be believed. The news of the presence of one of these creatures shook our morale a little I must admit, as I'm sure none of us wish to have our minds enslaved... or eaten!!

Still it was decided that it looked like the cavern was a truce area, and that we should seek to profit by trading for information about this part of the underdark. Making our way down the chasm we entered the cavern, getting a few glances from those there (though the Mind Flayer was nowhere to be seen by then, thankfully). Indeed the pair of drow that were present backed away and made for an exit out of the cave. We then got a few nasty glares sent our way from the duergar, who were obviously not keen that our arrival had scared away potential customers. As I speak the undertongue (picked it up when I was fighting the Zhents, helps if you can speak the language they use to trade slaves to the drow, especially since those slaves were more often than not Daggerfolk!) I had to convince the grey dwarves that we intended to put some money their way to assuage them. We bargained for information and found out that there is a temple devoted to Lolth at the bottom of the chasm, and that it has recently been overthrown. We also purchased a map of the lower caves that clearly marks the locations of Szith Morcane and this temple on it.

After a short debate, we decided to bypass Szith Morcane entirely and hit the temple instead as that seems to us to be the likely headquarters of these Kiaransalee fanatics who have been the cause of the attacks on Daggerdale. I feel we are closing in on victory and a resolution to this foray into the depths now.

We headed down the webs and arrived at the entrance to the temple whioch seems to be warded with a magical field of some sort. Aeron and Yvgeny refer to this as a "forbiddance effect". It took several attempts for all of us to get through it and we then found ourselves in a pitched battle with several Quth Maren and a pair of Vampires. Thenkfully with some quick thinking on the part of Aeron we used a spell of daylight to incapacitate one of the vampires (the other fleeing what to them must be a strange effect, I mean how likely is it that they have ever encountered sunlight before, living as they do in these deep caves and tunnels) which was destroyed when it could not escape the light. The Quth Maren we made short work of.

Pressing onwards we checked out a couple more chambers finding a trio of coffins (which we smashed to splinters to render them useless), and a chained up and barely alive drow female. I donated a healing potion and freed her as she might have proven useful. She said her name was Dessa'sik Morcane, and from what was left of her clothing it is clear she was a priestess of Lolth. When asked how the Kiaransalee cultists were able to take this place from Lolth's followers she said that Lolth had fallen silent. I do not know what this means, and neither Yvgeny nor Aeron had any inkling either, and Dessa'rik would not further elaborate beyond that she had no spells. She has been used as a food scource for a trio of vampires she says are lairing here, so one down two to go it seems! I hate vampires!

Leaving her to recover herself, we headed up a side tunnel and into a large chamber and a fierce battle with a pair of vampire drow and worse, a pair of vampire drider clerics!! We were unable to defeat these opponents, indeed it seems that the chamber we were battling them in was enchanted in some manner to thwart our efforts, as none of Adamo's summoned monstrosities could lay a blow on these villains. We had no option but to retreat after exhausting ourselves. Still none of us lost our lives, but annoyingly neither did any of them. We retreated all the way up the chasm to our secured cave to heal up and replenish our spells ready for a second crack at them. As we retreated I noticed that Dessa'rik had taken the opportunity afforded to her, and made good her escape. Still a badly wounded and weakened priestess with no spells is no threat to the surface or to anything in the depths for that matter. Still I am sure that Respen would chastise me for letting her get away.

Tarsakh 10th - We healed and tooled ourselves up fully, expecting a fierce battle when we returned to the temple, and made our way down to the entrance. We suffered a loss straigth away as try as he might, Halbrinn could not get through the forbiddance barrier and thus we were robbed of our ingenious gnome. As if that was not bad enough, seconds later a Blade Barrier spell was dropped on the group, scything through several of us (though I thankfully was able to throw myself clear of it), and as we recovered from that we were atttacked in a narrow corridor by a drow cleric in heavy armour, one of the remaining vampires and one of the vampiric drider clerics. Adamo bougth us a respite against any further reinforcements arriving by sealing the door at the far end of the corridor with a stone wall, neatly entombing the drow priestess in it (though not for long, as she was soon freed from the other side by her compariots). With her gone, we forced the drider to flee into mist, and dusted the vampire. Two down, one to go!. We grabbed a quick break for healing ourselves up, and then headed down a side corridor to head back to the cursed chamber we had fought the stalemate in yesterday (Yvgeny says the curse is an "unhallow effect". Honestly these priests have an effect for everything it seems. While possible to remove it, it would be a costly procedure to do so, so we will just have to fight at a disadvantage).

The drow were waiting for us, and a vicious battle broke out as we tried to storm our way into the room, and they hurled themselves at the doorway to prevent our entrance. Their numbers included a half dozen Quth Maren, a pair of drow priestesses in identical garb, the last remaining drow vampire, the two drider vampires and a drow Blackguard (the same one we had slain a while back resurrected and wanting revenge. Definately a vote in favour of destroying the bodies of the foes we fell to prevent them being returned to life or unlife and used against us in the future). The battle was intense to say the least, with us eventually prevailing in the doorway (killing the Blackguard, one of the priestesses and most of the Quth Maren in the process) and storming the room to finish off the vampire and one of the Driders. Adamo resorting to unusual tactics had contained the other Drider with an Evards Black Tentacles spell, and one of the priestesses managed to flee the carnage. Grim would have run her down, but was needed to help finish off the remanining Quth Maren as none of us were in a good way after such a fierce fight.

We stripped the bodies of anything of use, and tossed them into the still functioning Blade Barrier, which tore them to shreds, surely they cannot be restored from fragments? We also took the liberty to torch the two webbed nests of the Driders in the room, to deny them their "coffins" to rest in. That done, and us quickly healed up, we set off after the priestess before she healed herself up and returned with reinforcements. We headed down a corridor, finding several doors (one of which led into a bedchamber that can only be described as decadent), and then we found an octagonal room with four pillars and a fifteen foot tall flat-topped pillar in the rooms centre. Atop the pillar was a throne made from bones and skulls and a drow female sat in it. We were immediately attacked with a flamestrike directed at Aeron and Grim. I then activated Slayers jump power and leapt at her, but to no avail as I mistimed my charge and flew past, my blow having no effect, indeed she did not even move to fend it off!

Though I will swear to my dying day that she was as real as I am, Aeron shouted out that the woman was an illusion. Not convinced I launched myself at her again, while my comrades were similarly puzzled by his claim. Still we kept getting hit by spells launched from some unseen source as the woman was clearly making no moves or sound of any kind, she did not even acknowledge our presence. I decided to try and find where our real adversary was, but to no avil as my blades cut nought but air. then as Aeron was slammed down hard I was grabbed by Adamo as he summoned up a dimensional doorway and he pulled me and our fallen cleric to safety as the group broke and fled, we reappearing in the cave we usually rest in. There we awaited the others, and were soon joined by Halbrinn and Yvgeny. Grim, alas did not make it back, but I have some comfort in that he died fighting drow, it is how he would have wanted to go out... well not quite, I imagine in his ideal death there would have been a mountain of dead drow piled up under him before he was finally taken down. We decided on a full withdrawal back to Dagger Falls.

When we got back to town I tried to contact Respen but he wasn't ion and I got short shrift from his clerk, a new figure at the desk who did not know who I was. I retired to my room in the barracks to rest.

Tarsakh 11th - I made my report to Respen who was less than thrilled with our progress and Grim's demise. He was also not impressed with the pact we have made with the drow archmage, but I suspect that has more to do with his being an elf than any matter of state. Clearly it was to our advantage to make such an alliance of convinience. He told me to check out the Old Mans Drum, a new Inn on the east side of town to seek out a replacement for Grim to bolster our numbers, as the Crusaders are most effective a six man unit.

I made my way there directly and met up with Stedd! It seems he is back in town, having had no luck in trying to track down the members of his monestary. After catching up with his recent doings (which he has little memory of oddly, and he has gained a truly ugly scar down the right side of his face since last I saw him which he must have noticed me looking at, but he didn't tell and I didn't ask about it), I asked him to take up arms with the Crusaders again, given our need for his kind of skills in the group. To my delight he has agreed to rejoin the group. By Mask it will be good to have my old fighting partner back with me, and an original member of the group to boot.

 

[Eccles]

Yvgeny's Reports
Thirteenth Letter

---------------

To His Eminence Pietr Orik,
Temple of Ilmater,
King’s Palace Square,
Heliogabalus.

Your Grace,

Although it has been a while since my last letter, it seems the Clearwater Crusaders have made little progress in our quest. We have discovered our drow quarry are a cult of Kiaransalee, but new revelations have shown that drow loyal to Lolth are also embroiled in the morass of Underdark politics being enacted mere miles from Dagger Falls. I fear it will take months, if not years to get to the bottom of what is happening, but these are the tasks I have agreed to undertake, so undertake them I shall.

Returning to the narrative that I finished (in Dagger Falls, as usual) at the end of my last report, I will begin again with our return journey to the Underdark. This time, walls of stone, a fairly typical spell that both wielders of magic and clerics alike can cast, blocked our way. Now, Adamo and Aeron were both still in Dagger Falls (cooking up some new magical item between the pair of them most probably), so it was down to me to get us past the walls. Not being of a mind to make a commotion whilst we were short two members short, I used my one and only memorised spell of stone shaping, which opened a hole large enough for Miles, Grim, Halbrinn and I to squeeze through.

Halbrinn performed his usual sleight of hand on the traps, and we arrived in the vicinity of the first drop shaft without further ado. However, we were stymied again just short of our goal by another wall of stone. This was the one that Adamo had constructed, but further blockaded by the drow: They had filled in the opening we were using as a doorway, completing the enclosure. Suspecting that a trap of some sort could be waiting for us on the far side, the Crusaders decided that we would wait until I could recast my spell of stone shaping on the morrow, so we would not give advance warning to any concealed foe.

After some hours spent resting, I tested the Weave, and again found the link provided by our God. I therefore prayed again for the stone-shaping spell, and went forth to break apart the sections of stone added by the drow to Adamo’s wall… Only to find that the spell had not affected the accursed rock! So bewildered was I that when Grim and Miles pointed out that the stone wasn’t real, I attempted to prove them wrong by punching the wall, before my normal good sense told me to trust their judgment. The trap, therefore, was hidden before our very eyes, for my fist triggered a fireball spell as soon as it passed through the illusory stone. My reactions were quick enough to respond to the bead of flame before it exploded, but those Triad-accursed drow had thought of that, and my defensive leap away was brought up short, literally, by the webs that had been spun across the opening to catch the unwary in the full blast. I guess that my general stupidity had at least prevented Halbrinn, say, from catching a face-full of fire, and only my arm received a roasting (another judogi ruined!) but it was mostly of scant recompense.

Grimm had got caught in the blast of flames along with me, so I therefore used a curative spell to salve his burns and my own. The additional benefit of setting off the trap was that the fireball destroyed some badly positioned waiting skeletons on the far side of the wall. Thanking Ilmater for small mercies, we continued, once all the webs had burned away.

We moved swiftly down the dropshaft, dodging any traps that had been reset, and made our way to the webs’-edge cavern, still unmolested. Halbrinn scouted ahead, under invisibility and fly spells, and reported back that the first cavern down from our current position had not been repopulated, and that there was another cave even further below. At this point Aeron and Adamo turned up, but unfortunately were spelled-out. It was decided that they would keep to the rear of the group, and provide what assistance they could through magical equipment. After we had agreed strategy, I cast my silence spell and Grimm, Miles and I descended after Halbrinn, who was still flying and invisible, followed a little after by Adamo and Aeron.

We reached the chasm without incident, but as soon as we entered a tunnel cut into the wall a short distance from our point of ingress, a flash of fire told us Halbrinn was in trouble. Rushing into the room he occupied, we were confronted by several drow magic users. However, they had no muscle to back them up, so we used the tried-and-tested tactic of rushing them to spoil their spell-concentration: They were quickly bested, but a booming voice stopped us before we could perform any rituals to ensure these creatures would not be raised as undead.

The voice belonged to the master of these mages, none other than an arch-mage of the local Underdark town. The appellation of the mage was that of the town itself: Szith Morcane. Apparently, we were a test for his students (a ‘test’ where failure results in death? Only the drow or the Thayans could be so callous!) He offered us a deal: That we cease our depredations versus his cadre of magicians in exchange for him withholding support for the clerics of Kiaransalee. I assumed that the support was grudging at best (the spellcasters being exclusively male, whilst the clerics are female-only; the battle of the sexes is fierce when drow are involved, your eminence!), but the advantage would be useful. The rest of the Crusaders agreed, although I didn’t like the look in Grimm’s eye. The drow mage also requested that we did not molest the people of the town, which the Crusaders happily accepted. The pax was therefore declared, and although I chafe at the thought, Miles was quite determined that we honour the agreement. Considering we are so close to Dagger Falls, I would say that I am not surprised at his zealousness and the contract is only binding if the drow honour their side as well. We did also attach the caveat that no further attacks would be expected on the peoples of the surface, to which the mage responded that none would come from ‘his people’. This tied up about as many bindings as we could connect to the agreement, so with that, we left the cavern and retreated back to our ‘haven’ to recuperate. After our period of rest, and then of prayers, Adamo sent himself out on a recce, using spells that made him almost undetectable. Apparently he has a ring that disrupts the energies given off by the body, rendering him invisible to the dark vision of the drow. I’m sure some technically minded gnome mage must have come up with this clever device, and I can certainly vouch for its effectiveness, your eminence, for he did disappear completely from my sight as soon as he put it on. I must ask him whether its effectiveness continues even after you have interacted with your enemy, for if it does, it could be a potent weapon against all denizens of the night that rely on darkness to cover their nefarious activities.

When he returned, he reported the location of a populated area where barter was occurring. However, the buying and selling was being done by a number of denizens of the Underdark, and some of the more unsavoury judging by his descriptions: grey dwarves, drow, some amphibioids (‘Kua-Toa,’ supplied Miles) and some skinny humanoids in cloaks and hoods. Adamo seemed fairly unfazed, so he went to take a second look but when he came back he was less cheerful. He said that the cloaked figures had an aristocratic bearing compared to the others, and also seemed able to sense Adamo’s presence.

When he described this last, with the rejoinder that ‘they appear to have tentacles for beards’ I was certain he was describing Illithids! Now as I’m sure you are aware, your grace, these unholy creatures can stun you with the power of their mind, and pick the thoughts from your head with but a moment’s concentration. Naturally, I was loath to get too close, and Grimm just looked like he was keen to meet the drow personally, so I argued that we should go around the marketplace, which won qualified agreement. However, as we descended to a different part of the web, the arguments of Miles and Adamo became more persuasive; we needed any information we could gather, despite the risk.

Adamo did take pains to mention that the majority of sellers were duergar, and he gave a meaningful glance at the staff strapped across my back. Between us, we managed to wrestle the thing into the bag of holding, although it was certainly not happy to go. Finally, I managed to drop the thing in, promising to use it should we be waylaid by duergar or derro with the intention of doing us in. By the Triad, that is one bloodthirsty staff! It is such a shame that its creator couldn’t have put a similar amount of skill into creating a staff that reduces strife. We then changed direction, this time heading towards the marketplace.

On entering the marketplace, we approached one likely group of duergar stallholders, only to be greeted by surly looks and non-committal grunts when Miles asked them for information: Apparently, we had scared away their drow customers. I’m not sure whether we scared away the Ilithids, too, but there were none to be seen when we arrived at the market, for which I offered a prayer of thanks to Ilmater, Torm and Tyr. I think I will need to do some research on ways to safeguard the mind against such creatures: I am certain aasimar and Illithids are not compatible species, and I certainly do not wish to be a mind-thrall to such a creature for the rest of my days!

Offering the duergar hard currency mollified them somewhat, and we got various useful items of information and a map of the local environs. The information, your eminence, concerned the two drow factions that have emerged in Szith Morcane. The ‘new’ drow (the Temple and Faith of Kiaransalee, I assume) are more powerful than the ‘old’ (drow of the goddess Lolth) and there are fewer females around. Now both you and I know, your grace that Lolth is a major power, and that Kiaransalee is purely a demi-goddess. It behoves me to find out how the Church of Kiaransalee is usurping power from ancient and evil Lolth, (Kiaransalee’s superior, I believe), who has a presence on more than one Prime. Perhaps this is the reason: Her concentration has been diverted by politics away from Faerun. Whatever the cause, I am sure that you and I will not be complaining, your grace!

As to the map, I could not read it (without the use of a spell, of course) but Miles seemed to be managing fine. He said most of the major landmarks were shown, including the town we were approaching (Szith Morcane) and a temple. Taking his word for it that the barter was not totally in the dwarves favour, we decided to head straight for the temple.

On arriving at the temple, we were presented with another fairly typical cave mouth, well chiselled this time but otherwise apparently non-descript. I was standing on the wall of the shaft we had descended, just outside and to the left of the cave mouth when Halbrinn, who had crept in first, shouted that there were undead to fight. I swung like an acrobat from the side wall, but just as I entered the cave, dark bolts of energy seemed to fly out of thin air striking me in mid-flight. From the tang of ozone that I smelt as I flew backwards, I knew this was not a localised spell (i.e. one cast directly at me) but from an area spell, probably a Forbiddance. That was the limit of my thought on the matter, however, as I was now falling through the air on the way to very hard ground some distance below!

I reached into my backpack and withdrew my silk rope (thank the Triad for these handy haversacks that bring your desired item to the top as soon as you reach your hand in!) that I might fling it against the webbing and arrest my fall. As it was, I fell amongst some stray strands of the web, which I grabbed at with my free hand, bringing me up short. Still, I was a goodly way from the battle, and had to attach my slippers of spider climbing to the web I was holding before I could unstick myself. Then, I clambered aboard the webs and raced back at top speed.

The battle was fairly short, as we were well prepared. Facing a brace of the Quth Maren and some drow vampires, a daylight spell was already in effect when I arrived back on the scene, although some of my comrades had managed to get caught up in the same type of filament-fine strands that had arrested my fall. With the daylight doing for both vampires (one fleeing, the other exploding into a cloud of dust when it could not escape) the rest of the Crusaders swiftly destroyed our remaining foe.

We then took the opportunity to make safe our immediate location, smashing a selection of coffins we found to render as many vampires homeless as possible. We also found a drow female, in chains, who had been used as a moveable feast for the vampires, it seems.

With the help of Miles, who acted as translator, we found out that the name of this drow was Dessa-sik-Morcane. Not only this, but also she was able to provide enlightenment on how the Faith of Kiaransalee had seceded from the Church of Lolth. Being a cleric of the Spider Queen, she had first hand knowledge that the goddess had fallen silent, and was not answering prayers! By the Triad, I didn’t dare hope that Lolth had suffered deicide, but it did give me optimism that a major power in the Underdark would not now be able to stop the Crusaders from performing our allotted task. Moreover, any additional quests that we may execute as opportunity arises (such as freeing slaves) would now have a better chance of being undertaken.

I thanked Ilmater for this blessing, but then it was back to the work at hand. After releasing her, the drow priestess provided information on our foes. Apparently, there was one more vampire to fight, as well as the one that got away in our initial skirmish. It was not long before we found these vampires, and more! A short journey down a corridor from the cell where the drow was chained, the Crusaders opened a door to be confronted by our quarry. I was first, and was sprung upon by the two vampires, who struck at me with speedy swords, then darted back out of range of my fists. I hurled a curse at them, and then converted one of my memorised spells to a curing spell. My fists thus charged with positive energy, I advanced upon one of the two vampires and hit it a glancing blow, but my curing spell attacked its link with the negative energy plane, as was my intention, and it was the vampires turn to shriek a curse at me in the glottal tongue of the Underdark! ‘Eye for an eye’ I called back, but then did a swift double-take as two driders descended from the ceiling! By the holy House of the Triad, these things are exceptionally ugly! Worse, we soon discovered that these driders were vampires, too, and additionally that the room had been unhallowed. This became clear when Aeron and I attempted a joint turning attempt, only to find the vampires laughing at the puny glow from our holy symbols, dimmed by the evil force that pervaded all around us. Adamo’s summonings were similarly defeated; their attacks striking against the dark shields of the vampires, who were clearly Protected by the unhallowing.

The fight was not well set up. We had been ambushed right in the doorway, and were blocking the swing of each other’s weapons. I had taken some injuries, so extracted myself from the battle, and retreated back the way we had come (the drow priestess had already disappeared, but I had no time to consider this). Using my wand of curing at regular intervals, I managed to find a second corridor (the configuration of all temples are similar, your grace, even those of evil drow goddesses) and managed to locate, through sound and guesswork, a side door into the combat arena across from my comrades. I fired off a wand of searing light, but succeeded only in attracting the attention of a drider as the spell fizzled around it (note, your eminence: drow undead still keep their resistance to magic). Adamo, who was all out of mana, sounded the retreat, so I called to a dazed Miles, who had managed to get further into the room than the rest, that there was another exit available. He made good his escape, with me in close attendance, and drow and drider just behind. I received a painful slap as I slammed the door behind me, but I still managed to wrap my silk rope around the handles before our foe could punch the doors open, and it held them at bay whilst we made good our escape. Ilmater! Another rope lost. Oh well, at least this time it was sacrificed to save lives.

When Miles and I met up with the Crusaders again, we all retreated the goodly distance back to our secured cave, that we might salve our wounds and our pride. Admitting the fact that his summoned creatures could not touch our enemy within the area of the unhallow, Adamo sat down to plan a spell list that could be used to our best advantage, with hindering spells to limit the movement of drow being top of his agenda. Halbrinn’s illusions would still be effective (within the confines of the drows’ resistance to magic) and Aeron’s spells would still work, as would his mace. I would concentrate on support spells and healing, allowing Grimm and Miles to do the wet work.

With our strategy thus decided, we settled down to a fitful rest, I being thankful that my ring of Sustenance had by now energised, allowing me to take but a few hours sleep before being ready for action once again. It has also given me time to write this missive, your eminence. Now, we make our final preparations before trying again to destroy these vampires.

Pray for Ilmater's grace, if you will your eminence, that I might strike a blow for the Triad, for Damara and for the King. I will write anon, if I live.

Yvgeny.

Ilmater save the King.

 

[Eccles]

Miles' Journal - Part 21

Tarsakh 12th to 13th - Rested up back to full health to save wasting charges from my wands (which I bought another of, can't be too careful, and besides I had exhausted one of them), and then went out to try and find this assassin who has bedeviled Yvgeny on more than one occasion.

Tarsakh 14th - My days of tracking and stalking finally paid off, though not in the manner in which I wanted as I got lured into a prepared ambush doubtless meant for Yvgeny. However, while I am not sure how he would have survived it, I was able to duck and roll out of a room that the assassin darted into and I followed him, only to find that he had vanished, and that the room was greased. It was then that a trio of demonic snakes appeared and tried to grab me, and a creature that looked like an insane burning child popped into being too, and set everything alight. Not wishing to end up as a charred husk, I rolled out of the room into the alleyway, which was then blocked off by a wall of ice!! Clearly this assassin is either a wizard, or has the services of one at his disposal. As my opponents closed in on me I darted past them with a burst of speed from my boots and cast my alter self spell to give me the bat wings I am fond of, soaring up and out of the ambush. I lost the assassin though and worse was to come.

I flew across the town to try and get hold of Adamo, reckoning who better to combat a mage who can summon creatures than another mage who can do the same. In my haste to gather allies I neglected to consider the effect that seeing a bat-winged figure flying over the town would have on the people of Dagger Falls and a mass panic broke out. Nor was this helped when the Innkeeper at the Red Rock Tavern (where Adamo normally resides when in town) was terrified by my appearance and set his ogre bouncer on me. I swiftly dispatched the thuggish creature, and left money for his burial as I again took off to fly to the Old Man’s Drum, hoping that Stedd would be there. He was there, thank Mask, and we headed off (on foot this time) back towards where the ambush had been, as there was now a sizeable fire engulfing that part of the town (no doubt caused by the fire child thing). We met up with the rest of the Crusaders there (and Yvgeny's overly fanatical paladin superior, who was eager to carve up a demon that had been sighted. Thankfully I had dismissed my wings before entering the Old Man's Drum).

Working together we did manage to contain the fire, though Halbrinn broke our Bag of Holding in the process as he tried to scoop up far too much water in it at once from the local river, and the thing burst. With that under control, I went to make a report to Respen about the unfortunate occurrences, but instead was confronted by Duke Braille, the erstwhile commander of Daggerdale’s army (what there is of it), who ranted and raged at me for some time, dropping the words "court martial" and "death sentence" into the tirade. He wants me transferred to his command, like the pigheaded idiot could even understand how I wage war. The man is a total irrelevance, given a title with no meaning and an army that couldn't stop a Zhent raiding force, let alone an army. For my part I followed protocol, saying "Yes Sir", and "No Sir" as and when needed.

After a short argument with the Crusaders about whether we should go to fight the Drow, or stick around for judgment on my case, I retired to my room, the argument unresolved.

Tarsakh 15th - I woke this morning to receive a puzzling package. On opening it I found that it contained a generous severance pay, a backpack and a confusing note. It seems that I have been removed from the official lists of government paid employees, in effect made redundant, yet I am to be retained on salary to be doing what I have always done. As an aside I have been transferred to Duke Braille’s command... so I guess I'll just carry on reporting to Respen then.

I gathered the Crusaders together, and after trying (and failing) to buy a Portable Hole from the Thayans, we settled on a new Bag of Holding. We then headed off back to the Dordrien Crypts. The trip was uneventful, and the only thing of note was a skeleton surrounded by ash outside the crypt doors. We couldn't make anything out of it though, so we just ignored it.

It took us several hours to get back down through the crypts and the chasm to the Temple, but that damn forbiddance effect meant that fully half our group was unable to enter this day, so we decided to explore Szith Morcane instead. We do so, finding out that rather than an actual town as such, Szith Morcane is actually a vast cavern, dotted with farmsteads and many, many huge fungi (probably grown as crops in the underdark). Our travel through this area was peaceful save for a short fight with a pair of Underdark Squid (at least I think that is what they were), as we walked along the shore of a lake. I managed to kill one, but the other escaped with severe wounds. After a bit more uneventful exploring, we headed back to our secured area and rested.

Tarsakh 16th - Getting up early, we headed back down the chasm to the temple and Adamo opens up a new passage into the temple. It seems that the drow had anticipated this though, as they had used walls of stone to alter the corridors inside. Aeron dispelled the forbiddance, and also the Unhallow effects, in effect leveling the playing field. Making our way to the large chamber we had battled in before and been forced to flee from; we launched our attack on the remaining Kiaransalee cultists. Pitched against us this time was the drow vampiress, a drow priestess, a vampiric drider, a pair of Quth Maren and a nasty surprise as the drow had turned both Vorin and Grim into undead minions and used them against us.

No quarter was asked or given as battle was joined, and the fighting was fierce. Thankfully none of the Crusaders fell in battle, and we saw to the destruction of all our foes save for the vampiress and priestess, both of whom fled. We set off after them through the temple, the place was littered with exploding skull traps and other deadly magics, but very little of this fell sorcery had much effect save to slow us, and even then not by much. After some searching, we located the vampiresses hidden sarcophagus and using sunlight spells, utterly annihilated her. The priestess escaped us again!

On looting the complex and the numerous bodies we found many items of interest, in particular the equipment from both Grim and Vorin which their undead selves had for the most part retained. I won't easily forget Vorin, something of his soul lingered in the undead he had become, and he kept demanding to be destroyed even as he fought me. I was responsible for leaving him to die the first time, and I put him down this time also. We also found a very disturbing letter, pertaining to what the drow are up to. I feel it is vital to get this back to Respen as soon as possible. In the interests of having a copy of the letter, I have transcribed it into my journal below:

Daughter,

Our Dark Lady favours my efforts, and my research proceeds well. Within five tendays, perhaps six, all will be ready for the Day of Great Vengeance. The Spider Queen is dead; we have already brought low the Spider-kissers and seized our rightful place in the realms of the dark. Now the Day draws near when we shall avenge ourselves upon those of the day-blasted lands, too, and achieve that ultimate triumph denied us so long ago.

While I prepare my Great Revenance, it falls to you to make ready the way. Harry the surface-dwellers, hunt them in their woods and fields, and take the measure of their strength. Do not concern yourself with putting them on their guard; our Lady desires their blood, their fear, and their dreadful anticipation of our ultimate act of revenge. With each slaying we grow in her favour and sow the seeds of our coming victory.

If they come against you in Szith Morcane in irresistible strength, slay as many as you can. Withdraw from the fight if you must, and bring Zedarr with you, but as for the rest - they are to stand and die for the glory of the White Banshee. The battle for Szith Morcane will come to nothing when our Great Revenance comes to pass. If anything, our final vengeance is made ever sweeter by each fleeting, false hope our enemies entertain before it falls upon them.

Work great slaughter for our Lady's dark glory, my daughter. Soon I will come to you from Maerimydra with such dark and terrible might that all Faerun will tremble before us.

Mother

It would seem that the raids the drow launched upon Daggerdale are but the first stage of a much more insidious plan to do harm to the folk of Daggerdale (and indeed by the sounds of it, everywhere else!). With this in mind, we headed back to Dagger Falls to find a festival in progress as the town will be hosting a meeting of the Dales council in a few days. The guard I questioned on the gate we entered town by, said that the first few dignitaries had already arrived. The group split up upon entering the town, and myself and Stedd headed to the Old Man’s Drum, paid for our rooms and went to bed.

 

[Eccles]

I think it worth mentioning that I had a great deal of fun running the session and a half where Miles dropped the ball in Dagger Falls, and the town nearly burned down, whilst the entire population became terrified by the idea that a demon was loose and flying above their heads.

The party summoner was arrested, the clerics were immediately hired to go demon hunting, and the whole party went firefighting.

To my immense disappointment, Miles immediately confessed all his sins to his superior, who was incredibly sarcastic at him. I'd had high hopes of running a couple of sessions of 'Hunt the demon', with Miles' player madly trying to hide the evidence!

The scene with the Bouncer was terrific. A huge number of failed spot checks, and the belief that a 12 foot wingspan could be hidden beneath his cloak meant that the entire conversation went something like this:

"Aaargh! Demon!"
"Ug... Gronk Stop it!"
"Back off, you ugly stupid damn brute!"
"Gronk not stupid"
<hackslashslay>
"Aaargh! Murderous Demon!"

Pity the CR2 ogre bouncer (which the rest of the group was pretty fond of) up against a level 10 or 11 assassin dealing 40+ damage in a single blow...