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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Kayne" data-source="post: 1169084" data-attributes="member: 13153">Miles' Journal - Part TwentyTarsakh 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.</blockquote>

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