Daeron’s Journals 42
**Notes to follow**
My dearest Aldar,
Not that the time difference will exactly matter to you, but it has been some time since I have written in my journal. I think the deaths of Naidaushas and Cajeroth affected me more than I had realized, for I seemed to lose spirit in our quest for a time and pressed on by sheer stubbornness – the wolf who will not release the bone, perhaps. Now, I find my spirits have risen a bit, so I think I can finally write. *
The morning after our battle with the Kuo-Toan king, Father Baer spoke with the shades of Naidaushas and Cajeroth. I was happy to hear that Naidaushas’ goddess would let him return, but Cajeroth’s shade stayed completely silent. I do not know if Garios has decided to keep Caj with him (as reward or punishment) or if Caj himself decided that he had failed in his mission and that he would not return. I only know I had to go and tell his wife that she is now a widow and inform my people that one of us has gone to Arvandor long before his time. I will not speak of his funeral. He has passed into the west, and I hope he finds the peace that eluded him in life.
With this sad errand behind us, we returned to the Underdark and began our long trek to the Sunless Sea. Our journey was a somber one, and, though it took several days, it was largely uneventful. The long tunnel that we had traveled through opened into a strange, fluorescent cavern, stretching well beyond our sight. There seems to be a glowing mist all about us in the cavern, and it is fairly easy to see long distances. Though the others tell me it is somewhat difficult to see through, Nai and I do not seem to have this problem. It must be related to our elfsight. As we struck directly out from the tunnel’s entrance, we began to hear the sound of water, and, within a couple of hours, we stood on the shores of the Sunless Sea. It is a gloomy place, where no wind blows, and its stillness is quite eerie. I do not look forward to sailing upon it.
Having found the Sea, we began to decide on our various goals. Ultimately, of course, we must destroy the aboleth’s machine, but we all feel that we cannot simply enter Great Shabaoth without some preparation.
We decided that the first order of business would be to secure the flux point, in order to provide for an expeditious retreat if necessary. We decided that then, we would investigate the illithid city to the north, to see if we could somehow strike a bargain with the wretched creatures in order to have their aid in assaulting their aboleth masters. After this, we remained undecided. There is some interest in exploring the Sunken City which is marked on our map, as apparently elves lived their once (perhaps Rockseers?), but I am uncertain of this course of action. We shall have to see.
We returned to the tunnel we had entered by and began to travel along the cavern of the Sea, following the wall in order to avoid becoming lost in the mists. We discovered the next tunnel which was marked on our map, and we decided to see if it was useful as a place to hole up and camp, in case we needed a retreat point. To our surprise, it turned out to be some kind of tomb, and, after avoiding its traps, found the central chamber. A hideous undead monster rose from the grave, and we prepared to do battle, when, suddenly, it was revealed as an illusion. The caster of the illusion was a young woman hidden behind the tomb itself, and we attempted to calm her. We thought she might have been one of the mages that the aboleth had captured, but who had escaped. It was indeed, for it was no less than Jeleneth! **
This revelation absolutely stunned me. Here, after all the months of questing, was she in whose name we had started out. My mind reeled back to the day when five of us had set forth as her guardians, preparing to make a routine delivery to Thurmister. She seemed not to know us, but we slowly helped her to recall the time when she had not been under the ground. I felt a pang of shame, for I had loathed every step in the dark, and mourned the lack of sun and wind, and now I stood before she we had set out for, and she had had the same for far longer, with no choice in the matter.
Once we got her calmed down, clothed, and fed, she told us a bit of her ordeal. She had escaped some time previously, and she had been living by her wits and by the few spells she had memorized. I told her how pleased Aldrin would be to see her, and her face clouded. She barely remembered him, and, in that moment, I felt great sorrow for Aldrin. How long they had loved, I could not say, but it seemed these months in the dark had all but pared that love away. Worse, Jeleneth expressed little desire to return to the surface, but, rather, expressed desire to go with us on our quest, to gain vengeance for what had happened to her. I felt more pain, for had not Arlen walked that path? There is too much darkness along it.
We took Jeleneth back to Millburne, for I hoped that being on the surface and seeing Aldrin might ease her heart. My hoping was in vain, though, for it only seemed to steel her resolve. She felt she could not remain in comfort while others quested beneath the earth against those who would enslave it. She told us that, while she had not gained any more power for magic, she had learned many skills at remaining stealthy and still. We purchased her what she needed to work the magicks she knew, and we purchased her the best arms and armor we could. I prayed to the spirits that this would be enough to protect her. It grieved me greatly to find the woman we had worked so hard and sacrificed so much to rescue, only to have her join us in mortal danger. Still, I felt I could not deny her road, as much as I wished I could. Ultimately, she had to choose the road she would walk.
We returned to the cavern of the Sunless Sea and continued on our trek to the Flux Point on our map. I sent Palantirion off to scout, and he returned with warnings of giant men. As we knew the Flux Point rested in a fissure that was sacred to Surtr, the demon god of the fire giants, this was not surprising. Upon scouting, however, we found that they had a prisoner. We decided to intercept the giants and free their prisoner, in order to find out who he was and whether the giants were bound up in the slaving plot of the aboleths. I cast a spell of invisibility upon myself, and along with Xanthius, who is almost as stealthy as an elf, I moved ahead of where the giants were reported to be, using the cloak of flying. Xanthius and I hid amongst some boulders, preparing to attack the giants while the rest of the party came up behind them. Sadly, the party is not very stealthy, on the whole, and they were heard. The giants prepared to attack them, and Xanthius and I were forced to make our move prematurely.
I have never fought a giant before, except for the trolls we’ve met. They are amongst the most terrifying combatants I ever hope to meet. These were skinned black as coal, with flaming red hair and beards, and their swords were as long as I am tall, if not bigger. Xanthius fired arrows at them to attract their attention, but the fire from them seemed to have little effect. I darted in and freed the prisoner, who turned out to be a tall half-orc with dusky skin and silver hair. I was startled by this, guessing almost at once what it meant, but there was no time for talk, and I decided that any ally at that moment was better than death. As the rest of the party ran to meet us, Xanthius traded his bow for the Kuo-Toan trident and attacked. I am not certain what got into our brave scout, but it proved a costly mistake. As I began attacking two of the giants, the third ended Xanthius’ life. As all three turned to me, and their blows began hammering through my stoneskin, I began to wonder if giants weren’t more than we could handle. Luckily, with the whole party, and with the help of the half-orc, we were able to overcome the giants without further casualty.
To the surprise of all of us, the half-orc knew almost all of us by name. He is called Silvermane, and it seems that he has been following our legend for some time. He is somewhat brusque in his tone, but he seems to have a keen tactical mind, and he has been proving invaluable as a warrior. He explained that the giants were preparing some kind of ritual to Surtr which would involve sacrificing large numbers of magical items to the dark god, including his own equipment. We agreed to help him and a rather cunning plan was devised.
The next day, while Father Baer was returning Xanthius to life, Zerai turned into a fly. Using some of his psionic magic, he traveled into the giants’ lair through the Ethereal plane (an option not open to us in the past) and scouted. Zerai spotted over a dozen giants, including their Priest, their King, and the King’s son, a group of trolls, and some hound-like creatures which I can only guess are fire breathing hellhounds, fitting pets for fire giants. HE also spotted huge chests, which were assumed to contain the items to be sacrificed. After some quick discussion, he headed back in, and using his power to become Ethereal, actually went into the huge chests where the magic items were being held. He then began teleprompting out pieces of Silvermane’s equipment, recovering a suit of armor and a large scythe. Since we wanted to drive the giants off in order to gain control of the flux point, it was decided that we had to disrupt the ritual. We discussed our options, which have grown as the party has gained in might. Another cunning plan was devised, and we prepared to go into action to stop the ritual, which was to be cast the next morning.
I can only imagine what the giants must have thought as Silvermane, Xanthius, and Heric attacked the entrance to their lair. Perhaps they were impressed by the blasts of ice magic Heric sent against them, or perhaps they thought it folly that such a small group was attacking them. In any case, it was all a diversion to keep the guards busy. As that was occurring, Father Baer, Zerai, and I were traveling through the Ethereal plane, into the giants’ lair. Once we were in position around the priest, we launched into action. In a matter of instants, Father Baer struck the priest with a spell of harming – the same one which had brought Cajeroth low. I then struck a tremendous blow with my sword, charged with the power of an icy grasp. Zerai then touched us both, and we all three teleported away. And that was that. Their priest was dead, and the ritual was ended. We had made a precise strike with a strong plan, and we had been victorious. I am not certain how Naidaushas felt about our plan. I know that it tasted a bit like assassination to me, but it seemed like a plan that would end the threat with a minimum of damage to our party, and I feel it was justified. ***
The main problem came not from without but from within. Before we went in, Father Baer made some comment about his desire for glory, and it enraged Xanthius greatly. He announced he was returning to the surface and leaving the group. I was able to calm him down, but he remains uncertain of what he will do. I know he is frustrated and wishes to return home. In truth, I do not know how my sanity would survive here without him. No sooner had we returned to the group than Father Baer then enraged Silvermane by stating that the half-orc had not earned any respect yet. To my surprise, Xanthius now stepped in to play peacemaker. I took Baer aside and got him to agree to watch how he spoke to others. We are all equals down here, after all. ****
Our intention was then to wait, for we hoped the giants might leave, or split their forces. Scouting, however, showed that only a few giants and some trolls left, presumably to go and fetch another priest. We noticed, however, that the King and his son seemed to stay apart from the others, with only a small Honor Guard. We began to discuss attacking this smaller group and seeing if we could destroy the giants’ leadership. Once again, we prepared a plan, loaded ourselves with spells to protect and enhance us, and made sure we had an escape route, either through teleports or through the Ethereal plane. Thus prepared, we launched our assault. When we arrived, however, we found the King was trying to conduct the ritual, and so we hastily finished our preparations and emerged from the Ethereal plane.
Once again, we did extremely well with a well-organized plan. Our warriors held back as Heric and I launched a volley of spells of lightning and frost and Zerai aimed a number of psionic pain upon the King. Then we pressed our attack, our warriors working together well with our spellcasters. The King began to enter a terrible rage, such as I used to see K’rrg do, and the stones he threw at me hurt badly, but I leapt in and delivered grievous blows to him, thanks to Shard’s being enhanced by a spell of keenness. As Zerai blasted him one more time and Heric launched a spell of lightning from the side of the battle, the King fell dead. Several other giants quickly followed. The King’s son surveyed the battle and yelled something in giantish which Silvermane later told me means “Surtr, destroy our enemies.” With this, the giant sacrificed himself by falling into the lava fissure. We quickly dispatched the remaining members of the honor guard (I saw Xanthius stab one twice in vital places with his trident), but, by then, we noticed the lava beginning to rise. I realized, with a start, that the statue of Surtr was, itself, the Flux Point, but we had no time to explore this concept. I used a detect magic spell to figure out which pieces were the most valuable from the pile of magic items, and we grabbed them, then teleported away from the rising lava.
Back at camp, we examined the booty. There was a mirror, which created an evil duplicate of Xanthius when he looked into it, but this doppelganger was dispatched, and I shattered the mirror. Too late the others suggested some possible good uses for It against our enemies. Ah well. Sometimes Wolf is too strong on me for my own good. There were some other useful items, including a necklace which creates a bubble of air around its wearer’s neck (very useful for exploring underwater, if we decide to seek the Sunken City), a Rod which apparently can disrupt the powers of magic-items, and a huge potion bottle with strength enhancing magic.
The most surprising find was a longsword called Finslayer. We know this to be its name, for it told us! It is intelligent, and it speaks into one’s mind, much as Zerai does. Apparently it is a weapon designed for slaying the Kuo-Toa, but it also says that it is fairly useful against drow and aboleth. We are, as yet, undecided as to who would wield it. I, for my own part, am satisfied with Shard, and I hope one of the others can wield Fin just as efficaciously. @
So that is our tale, to date, we are most likely going to wait and see what happens with the giants now, or if they all perished in the rising of the lava. Thereafter, we shall find out if we can ally with the illithids and convince them to rise against the aboleth. Let us hope so. We need help if we are to be victorious. Thankfully, we at last seem to have some measure of teamwork, something that we have been sorely lacking in. Pray for us, nephew. This next leg of the journey seems very dark to me.
Your loving uncle,
Daeron
* When we ended the session with the Kuo-Toan king battle, neither Naidaushas’ nor Cajeroth’s players were planning on playing their characters again, but they hadn’t full decided. Since neither of their players were able to make t to the next session, we roleplayed it as if they’d both decided not to return, so we did the whole return to the Tauremar and the funerals, and we figured we’d simply ret-con if one of them did decide to come back. As it is, Nai’s player decided to keep playing Nai, so we ret-conned that. But that was why I originally didn’t write a journal for that session. And then I just fell out of the habit.
** And you have never seen a more surprised party, let me tell you. It caused all kinds of discussion, and Daeron did a lot of reflecting and we had much telling of war stories from the campaign. Fun session, actually.
*** Justified? It was beautiful! Worked like a charm!
**** Keeping the party from killing itself is much harder than fighting giants, believe me. We are a very, very dysfunctional family.
@ Though if no one else CAN wield Fin (due to alignment), I may take a level of ranger at 15th level and suck up the experience bonus, since I could then fight with a longsword in either hand and cast a keen edge on each one before battle. Hmmmmm…
