Within minutes, a malnourished and unkempt human enters the room and interrupts the discussion of Agar’s vision. The man stops to look up, and he stands there dumbstruck as he grips his clamshell tray hard enough to turn his knuckles white. “You’re.. you’re human!” he manages to sputter in a creaky voice, seconds before he breaks down and begins to cry. His tray sags before him, but painfully honed instincts keep it upright.
“Hush, now,” Velendo drops down into the water and wades over to comfort the man. Kuo-toa fingerlings frolic and splash around his feet as he moves. “It’s okay. Come over and tell us about yourself.” With an arm around the slave, Velendo steers him over to the group.
The skinny man looks up at them through straggly hair, his pale eyes terrified and unbelieving. “My name’s Dougal. I’ve been here for years. My ship was raided when these monsters came out of the sea. We were all taken, and there were some who had been here long before I ever arrived. Are you here to save us? Or are…” His mouth twists as he realizes that the group could be in league with the kuo-toa, and his mouth shuts like an animal trap.
Malachite shakes his head. “No, we aren’t allied with them. How many of you are there?”
He gulps, tears still streaming down his chapped face. “Less than thirty, although there were almost a hundred when I first was brought down. The Master here stole me from the Palace when he fled, and now I’m the only human I see. All the rest are still in the pits beneath the King’s palace.” He looks sick. “I don’t know how many are left. We were dying quicker and quicker; used in demon summonings, or as sacrifices to their heathen goddess, or even given to the ghouls as treats when they come to visit.” The man shudders. “That’s the worst, for they wouldn’t kill ‘em first. And there be only a handful of dogs left, too.”
Tao bristles. “Dogs?” Her eyes narrow into slits.
The slave nods in agreement. “They try to capture humans and dogs both. I think the ghouls like to eat them, perhaps, and the gogglers find ‘em a treat as well. They’ve been saving most of the beasts for the ghouls to eat, though. They say it’s only polite.”
Tao looks furious. “Okay,” she hisses, “now I’m mad.”
Nolin studies the man. “Do I recognize your accent?”
“P’raps. I’m originally from a place called Eversink where I’m a sailor for House Clearwater. Have you heard of it?”
Nolin looks amused. “You could say that. We know House Clearwater quite well, and we’re friends with Lady Sharala herself. Look, we’ll try to free your friends. Anything you can tell us…“
Dougal looks at Nolin as if he’s insane and twitches in anticipation of the expected blow. “Ahh, not to contradict you, your lordship, but Lady Sharala ha’ been dead for fifty years. In fact, that be the name o’ the ship I sailed on.”
Malachite smiles distantly. “Times change, friend, and many things change with it. Lady Sharala is now alive and well. If we can, we’ll introduce you.”
A webbed foot slaps on wet coral, and suddenly Dougal’s body language changes completely as he tries to blend into the shadows, unnoticed. The silhouette of Monitor Thoobel appears in the tunnel opening above them. “I hope the food is agreeable, and the slave is jolly?” he burbles. “He is my favorite. I selected him myself when the palace offended my sensibilities.”
“Oh, yes,” agrees Mara, as she looks at the food Dougal had brought. She eyes the raw eel with an unreadable expression, and gracefully announces, “The food is perfect.” Smiling blandly, she takes a bite. Nolin and Velendo have already tucked in, along with several of the dwarves, and Nolin smiles his honest appreciation.
Thoobel nods and dismisses his slave with a wave of a fin. The Monitor splashes over, reaching down once or twice to caress the fingerlings as he traverses the room. He pauses as he walks past Mara.
“Are you going to eat those?” he asks, gesturing at the few remaining leeches that Mara had plucked from her legs. Stone Bear’s raven glances up, squawks, and takes to the air.
“Err… no.” Mara grimaces as Thoobel reaches down, only to pop the swollen leeches into his mouth one after the other, clearly savoring their flavor. “We were… saving them for you.”
“So kind!” His bulging and watery eyes gleam in the gray light.
Velendo clears his throat. “Monitor, we have a number of tactical questions for you.”
“But of course. Let us begin by describing the area.” He lays out a map. Thoobel eagerly describes the approaches to the Glass Pool, and the area itself. On a map, he shows where the wall surrounds the plaza, and where in the plaza the Glass Pool itself lies: right in front of the Royal Palace.
Velendo shakes his head at the poor tactical position. “How strong are Blel-Plibbit's guards? How do they compare with the guards that recently attacked us?”
Thoobel grins widely, almost splitting his face in two. “He has about 4000 trained soldiers, compared to about 1500 of my own. Only a few hundred are elite, though. Blel-Plibbit are approximately 60 whips, the clerics of the Sea Mother. The whips obey her whims. Working together, all can create lightning, but the may also favor acid or drowning miracles as well.”
Malachite frowns. “How many whips do you have?”
“Only a handful. But my troops are fervent, because we are truly blessed by the Sea Mother. When the moment comes, the false king’s Whips will fail, and their power will become our own.” He leans forward and whispers, breath fishy-cold in Malachite’s ear. “I have seen it.”
Splinder the dwarf keeps a straight face, but his thought reverberates over the mind link. “We’re screwed. I know a fanatic when I see one. I’m not expecting any miracles predicted by this piece of walking seafood.” Thoughts of agreement silently echo between each adventurer’s head.
Malachite continues smoothly. “Of course. What about Blel-Plibbit himself?”
“He is an utter coward, and not fit to be consort to the Sea Mother. He is the only powerful priest which she creates, unjustly raised above all others, and he prefers to flaunt his power with mostly water-based spells.” Thoobel’s large eyes flash. “He always travels with at least two trained whips, who may or may not be assassins. He always had at least four Claws near him, powerful warriors, and a monitor to watch his religious adherence. That was once my job,” he waves a webbed hand, “but I saw the truth.”
Velendo tries to smile. “Most certainly. Are there undead in the city actively working with Blel-Plibbit? Have your own forces come up against actual undead during their rebellion?”
“There may be. The White Kingdom typically has an ambassador. The mindflayers often do as well.We have not fought undead, however.”
“Mindflayers,” thinks Malachite in disgust. “Squidheads.”
“Do Kuo-Toa have any unusual resistances or vulnerabilities that we should know about when fighting Blel-Plibbit's forces?”
Thoobel’s chest puffs out in building fury. “No! Kuo-toa are the true inheritors of the earth, which has been stolen from us by you surface folk, driven away by your cheating lies. We are perfect, and some day you will drown in the juices from your own treacherous black hearts!” He pauses in mid-rant, as if hearing some distant voice, and his angry maw twists into a friendly smile. “But not today, of course. Today we are allies.” All traces of his sudden anger are gone.
Mara and Malachite both try to detect evil, to no avail; minor divination spells are still disrupted from Imbindarla’s death.
Velendo tries to continue. “Err. Yes. Are there any unusual physical or magical defenses/traps around the Glass Pool itself?”
“It is always guarded, both by guards and by the power of the Sea Mother Herself. She watches carefully for blasphemy or disrespect. She will ignore you, however, as she ignores slaves; you are not kuo-toa, and thus beneath her notice.”
“Well, that’s something. Monitor Thoobel, would you be willing to donate troops to the fight?”
“But of course! My troops merely await my word. Now, Blel-Plibbit knows that I have you, but doesn’t know if you are alive or dead. I could – ”
And once more, Agar keels over in a trance. His head makes a dull “clunk” as it hits the stone.
To be continued…
