SLEEPING WITH THE ENEMY
From the diary of Grimm Grakka, discovered by explorers on the plane of Carceri in the year 1500 DR (Year of the Rampaging Tarasque)…
1375 DR (Year of the Lich Queen), Midsummer:
After defeating the Cagewright sorceress and her half-golem minions, we were feeling pretty sure of ourselves. None of the cultists we had encountered so far had given us much of a fight, and I must admit, we thought ourselves nigh invincible. That was our first mistake…
Our luck still held at first. Tilly had gone to explore one of the empty chambers we had found, the one with the small niches carved in the walls. I was watching his back when I noticed something strange in the room. There was a rectangular shimmer in the exact center, floating in mid-air. As I stared at it, my eyes automatically adjusted into another spectrum, and I could see that it was a doorway of some sort…an invisible one! I’ve made no secret throughout this journal that I’m no expert in magic. This time was no exception. I called Dalthon over and told him what I saw. He cast a spell which allowed him to view invisible things, and then he nodded immediately. “It’s called Mordenkainen’s Magnificent Mansion,” he said, explaining that it was a powerful spell which allowed the caster to create an extra-dimensional dwelling that could not be entered by any save that caster and whomever he designated. Well, it didn’t take a genius to figure out that this meant we had another wizard of some sort to deal with. I called the others together, and gave them the situation. It was Gunther who came up with the solution…
Rusty’s young apprentice had used his so-called anti-magic field to good effect on several occasions, and this time was no exception. No sooner had he approached the enchanted portal, than it vanished, leaving two very surprised death slaad and their Cagewright master standing before us. The Cagewright, as it turned out, was a creature known as a shadar-kai, one of a race of fey beings from the Plane of Shadow. In retrospect, the battle that followed was rather one-sided. Though the Cagewright proclaimed that he only wanted to be left in peace, that did not deter him from setting his two pets upon us. Their fatal mistake, however, was failing to realize that they all still stood within Gunther’s field. Death slaad are capable of wielding powerful magic, so I’m told, but when those abilities are negated, they are forced to rely on tooth and claw. Likewise, our own magic was equally nullified, but as it turned out, our “teeth and claws” were sharper than theirs. The shadar-kai was also a spell-user, and he had even fewer resources to fall back on than his minions. To say the fight was brief would be generous…
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Our second meeting with the deformed and deranged Cagewright demodand known as Dyr’ryd occurred shortly after our encounter with the shadar-kai and the death slaad. Tilly was on point, as usual, and had come upon an ancient hall, decorated in the yuan-ti snake motif we had become so familiar with. Though adept at stealth and concealment, Tilly was nonetheless spotted immediately by the fiend. Surprisingly, the psychotic creature invited him to come in, as if he might be inviting someone to lift a pint. Tilly wisely declined. We knew what this monster was capable of, and we wasted no further time on diplomacy. My team, like a well-oiled machine, struck fast and hard. Still, even though we were prepared for trouble this time, Dyr’ryd gave us a run for our gold. He/they immediately summoned reinforcements in the form of another kelubar. Then began the tiresome, though brutally effective routine of conjuring acidic fog, followed by a poisonous, killing cloud. Separated and slowed, we still tried to maintain a coordinated offensive. Gunther was able to dispel one set of the mists, but of course the demodands merely replaced them. It was a pitched battle, with both Dyr’ryd, and our own front-line fighters being knocked flat time and again. Still, with the priests providing healing magic, and Dalthon providing covering fire, we finally took the upper hand. I felled the summoned kelubar, and then a coordinated effort by me, Ike and Kiko finally brought down Dyr’ryd himself. Our vengeance was rapidly becoming satiated…
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Perhaps it was the relative ease with which we had defeated our opponents up to this point that lead to our over-confidence, and our inevitable misstep…
We ultimately found ourselves in some sort of ancient, yuan-ti temple. There was a high balcony overlooking the main temple area, in the middle of which rested a large, black stone egg carved with ancient runes. Several of the runes were glowing. Other than the egg, what drew our immediate attention were the live occupants of the unholy sanctuary. The first was a lovely, elven woman, dressed in a mithral chain shirt and carrying a beautifully crafted bow. She stood right beside the egg. The second, standing on the balcony, was a male drow. He was dressed all in black, adorned in the web motif the drow seemed to find so stylish. He was armed with a pair of rapiers. Both bore the silver cage pendant of the Cagewrights. I suppose, by this point, the Cagewrights had become weary of warning us away, offering us promises of power, or threatening us with unending torment. This pair simply attacked us without speaking a word.
Not surprisingly, they were not alone. A pair of farastu demodands lurked in the shadows of the temple. The woman was first on the offensive, but I was a fraction of a second faster. As she knocked and drew her bow, I managed to disarm her, but she was nimble, I’ll give her that. Quick as a flash, she somersaulted beyond my reach, recovered her weapon, and took up a new position. Her accomplice was not so skilled, nor so lucky. Apparently, he was some sort of sorcerer, as he immediately conjured up a large, disembodied hand and attempted to use it as a shield. He then leaped from the balcony, and squared off against Kiko. His first mistake. Using his unorthodox fighting style, my friend quickly moved inside the drow’s defenses and carried the fight to him. This allowed Ike a chance to flank the drow, and the rest, as they say, is history.
This did not sit well with the elf maid. She shrieked something about us killing her true love (if you can imagine that), swore eternal vengeance, and then vanished. Dalthon later told me that she had plane-shifted. I can only assume, in retrospect, that she went to Carceri. More’s the pity. In the meanwhile, I busied myself with the farastus. It was at this point that Dalthon shouted out a warning to Ike that someone invisible was sneaking up on him. I turned to look, and sure enough, there was a human male, wielding a short sword, creeping up behind the goliath. Dalthon acted rapidly, spearing the would-be assassin with that magic missile spell of his. As he stumbled, I was able to disarm him, and then finish the job. He was a non-descript man, though a snappy dresser. He too wore the Cagewright amulet. This place must have been a hive for all who had escaped Cauldron’s destruction. In any event, we mopped up the farastus and celebrated yet another victory.
We searched the room completely, decided to leave the mysterious egg alone for the moment, and found no exit from the chamber, hidden or otherwise. So, we reasonably assumed that we had rooted out the last of the Cagewrights, and cleaned out their final hideout. We would give the place one final sweep in the morning, but first, we decided to rest. Dalthon thoughtfully provided a camp site by conjuring up an extra-dimensional pocket that we could reach by climbing a rope into mid-air. Thus, we took our ease, confident in our accomplishments. Thus, we sealed our fate…
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As I recall, Gunther, Ike and Rusty were asleep. Dalthon was meditating, and Kiko and I kept watch through the small, invisible window looking down into the temple. Abruptly, we were falling. All of us landed on the floor unceremoniously in a heap. On the far side of the chamber stood an odd assortment of beings. One was tall, hairless with large eyes and four arms. Though we had never actually seen one alive, we recognized it as a spellweaver from the many corpses we’d discovered when we found the soul pillars. Surrounding the creature were several shifting duplicate images of itself…a Mirror Image spell. Nearby stood a woman, scantily clad, with a multitude of intricate tattoos covering her exposed skin. A pair of small horns sprouted from her forehead, marking her as not entirely human. Flitting about this unlikely pair were three undead shadows. Better and better. Finally, behind the entire group, lay a dark-haired woman, to all appearances dead. We later discovered that this was Embril Aloustinai, the long-missing high priestess of Cauldron’s church of Kelemvor.
Before we had a chance to compose ourselves, the shadows attacked. Tilly and I were their first targets, and as they reached out to touch us, we could both feel our strength, our vitality being slowly drained away. At the same time, the spellweaver conjured a huge, disembodied hand, similar to the one that the drow had conjured. This one, however, was far more aggressive. It flew towards Dalthon, and seized the sorcerer in a death-grip. Dalthon of Redgorge was not so easily captured, however. He spoke only one arcane word, and vanished out of the spell’s grip, only to reappear several yards away, smoothing his robes.
Kiko was the next target of the shadow creatures, but as I have often observed, for a man who fights with no weapons, that monk is one of the deadliest warriors I have known. With his bare hands, he struck, and ripped, and tore at the ephemeral substance that comprised the shadow, and sent it shrieking back to whatever hellish plane had spawned it. Perhaps drawing inspiration from my friend, or perhaps not wanting to be out shown by an unarmed, unarmored dervish, I took the offensive on my own shadowy opponent, and dispatched it quite handily, then did the same to its final brethren. It was at this point that the tattooed woman entered the fray. She calmly approached me, but when she moved, it was like water…fluid and smooth. I immediately realized where I’d seen movement like that before. Kiko. She was a monk as well, and carried no weapons, just like my friend. If she had even a close measure of Kiko’s skill, I might be in trouble. I knew I had to bring her down quickly. I struck, sure I could not miss at such close range, but just as my weapon reached her, a tattoo of a scorpion on her back seemed to shimmer, and somehow my strike went wide. Impossible, I thought, but when I tried another tactic, trying to trip her feet from under her, the same thing occurred. Her tattoo almost seemed to move fractionally, and then I just…missed. By this time, Tilly had joined the fight, and moved behind the woman, intending to flank her, and disembowel her at the same time. He fared no better than I. I must admit, at this point, I started to become slightly concerned.
The spellweaver was not done with us. It sent the hand to grapple with Dalthon once more, while simultaneously discharging a spell upon my comrades and me that seemed to suck every ounce of moisture from our bodies, leaving us weakened and addled. This left the woman monk unchallenged, and she took that opportunity to dart towards Gunther and begin attacking the young dwarf in earnest. As she did so, her hands curled into claws, and a tattoo of a tiger on her right arm, flared with light. Every place her hands struck Gunther, wide rents, like slashes appeared in his skin. I must hand it to the young priest. Though not a soldier, he was still a warrior born, able to keep his head about him and his composure, even under extreme circumstances. He quickly backed a few steps away from the woman, and then threw out his arms to hurl a spell at her. It was a force wall, and with it, he managed to seal the monk into one corner of the chamber, rendering her completely ineffectual.
Dalthon was able to free himself once more from the crushing grip of the spell-hand, but this time he did not reappear. He had been gravely injured, and needed a respite to tend his wounds. Kiko recovered first from the horrid spell of the spellweaver, and he charged the creature, striking in a blinding flurry, but managing only to disperse one of the illusory images. I regained my senses next, and joined my brother. However, having fought against wizards who had employed this trick before, I tried a different tactic. Closing my eyes, so as not to be distracted by the images, I struck blindly at the spellweaver, and was successful. The creature realized its danger, and it lashed out at us again with its magic, once more using the wilting spell. It was too much for Gunther. His wounds at the hands of the monk were grievous, and the magic of the spell rendered him unconscious. I shook off the effects of the spell as best I could, and struck again, this time taking the spellweaver off his feet. Tilly wasted no time. He leaped atop the creature and buried his sword in its throat. The battle was over…or so we thought.
As I looked around to survey the damage, I saw Ike. It was then that I realized that the goliath had not participated in the battle, though he had stood in its midst the entire time. In fact, he had not been harmed at all by any of the spellweaver's magic. Now, he was serenely walking towards Embril’s body. As we watched, he set his weapons aside, leaned down and gently lifter her into his arms. Then, in a flash, they were both just…gone.
Behind Gunther’s wall of force, the monk was laughing. Then she calmly sat on the floor, folding her arms over her chest. I turned to Rusty, and asked him to dispel the barrier. When he did, the woman calmly told us that she surrendered. It was a surrender that I did not accept…