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Message: <blockquote data-quote="(contact)" data-source="post: 1149" data-attributes="member: 41">27-- An Appointment of No Small Worth, and a Dirty TrickUpon their return, the group can report a total of one and one-half score drow slain, and Taran presents a sack full of left hands to prove it.  This seems to shock and impress the town leaders, who ask the party to remain in Mistledale, and offer to grant them a small plot of land and a house near the town's fringe.  Two days later, as the group is finishing their small herb garden and repairing the dilapidated roof, they are called before the town council for a more formal meeting.Haresk Malorn and the worthies of Mistledale, after a series of lengthy speeches lauding the party's recent victories, make Taran an offer.  They propose that he take the title and rank of High Protector of Mistledale, a position charged with the training and organization of the Riders of Mistledale, and securing the defenses of the town.Due to some confusion as a result of the language barrier, Taran forgets to ask what happened to the previous Lord Protector, and agrees to the terms.  He jokingly appoints Thelbar and Gorquen his Low Protectors and bounds off to review his troops and chew them out in Isenthanian, his native tongue.A few days pass as the party settles into their new home and takes Faerunian language lessons.  Taran teaches his Riders some basic Isenthanian words and phrases as well, specifically "no" and "hell, no".  The men love him.Thelbar uses the time to study the archer-golem, and learn more about the red-robed wizard it was taken from.  The wizard was from a nation called Thay, a cruel magocracy where the strongest become wizards, and all others are slaves or worse.  The red-robed wizards of Thay are known as merchants of magic, and they have conclaves in most large communities.Through his studies, Thelbar is able to determine the control mechanism for the archer-golem.  After some discussion, the group decides that the golem should be put to use guarding Mistledale.  It is the perfect sentry against drow assaults; it never sleeps and cannot be misled by spells.Several days pass in relative peace, but soon bad news filters in to the community.  A nearby farmhouse was raided during the night, and the drow who did it kidnapped the farm's children.  Two young girls and an infant boy were taken.  Taran promises to find them, and punish these raiders.  A young Rider of Mistledale by the name of Keltie volunteers to accompany the party, claiming that the children were his kin.Keltie is formally introduced to Thelbar and Gorquen, and is briefed on the group's standard tactics in battle.  The four adventurers gear up for a short overland trek, and leave Mistledale with the dawn.  After searching the farmhouse in question, the kidnapper's trail is picked up.  The party finds what they had expected; a small band of drow, moving toward the farm light-of-foot, and leaving encumbered.  The drow seem bent on putting as much distance between themselves and the farmhouse as possible."These night-elves are running fast," Taran chuckles.  "Our last raid really put the fear of steel into them.  I won't have any trouble following this lot.  When we hit 'em, we'll want to be fast and merciless-we don't want to frighten them, in case they try to kill the children."The party follows the trail, and discovers that it leads deep into the Cormanthyr forest, well within drow territory.  Undaunted, the party remains focused on the fleeing dark elves, bloody murder on their minds.As the twilight hours deepen the forest's shadows into almost night-like conditions, the track of the drow leads into a human-style building, set amongst the trees of the deep Cormanthyr.  The party doesn't hesitate, but Taran does take a minute to confirm that no trap awaits them either inside nor lurking near the house, before slipping into the building.  Dust covers the floors and walls of the place, and there is no furniture.Taran scouts forward, easily discerning the drow's movements in the thick dust.  The trail leads into a back room of the house, then through a door.  When the door is cautiously opened, it reveals, to the group's surprise, a narrow set of stairs that sinks deeply into the earth.  There is no trace of the musty smell that might be expected from a cellar in these humid conditions, but a burst of dry, cool air washes over the heroes as they take the first steps down into the darkness.The stairs descend far deeper into the earth than might be expected, apparently leading into some sort of dungeon complex.  Taran lights a torch, and passes it to Keltie, then signals the group to follow his lead.  So anxious is the party to punish these drow raiders, that they do not notice how little these stairs seem to resemble the sort of craftsmanship that built the rest of the home.  In fact, it is a pity that no dwarf travels with the group, for he might have noticed that the stone walls of the stairway are cut whole from underground stone, not the mud and rock of forest earth.The long descent ends at a doorway, which is unlocked.  The doorway opens onto a huge underground chamber, much larger than the party's light source can fully reveal.  As the group moves cautiously forward, more of the strange space is revealed.  This room is massive, and in its center sits a three-tiered ziggurat, a full one hundred feet square at its base, with nearly twenty feet in height at each layer.    Strange patches of glowing multicolored faerie fire provide an eerie illumination throughout the area, and Keltie extinguishes the torch.Thelbar does a few quick calculations, and determines that the ceiling of this room is taller than the depth of the stairs he just descended!  He casts detect magic and turns back to the door he just left, only to find that the door is gone!  Worse yet, the entire room radiates magic, causing Thelbar's detection spell to seem overblown and indistinct.Without question, the drow have led the group through some sort of teleportation portal and into a vast underearth complex somewhere.Taran returns from a flying scouting mission and reports that the room has several normal doors, and one set of larger double-doors at the opposite end.  The ziggurat has no obvious entrances or even a means to ascend it, but the party decides to find a way to reach the top nonetheless.  Flying magic and levitation spells provide the means, and once there, the group finds the top empty save for a stone shrine adorned with the unholy symbol of Lolth, the spider queen.The group settles in to wait and see what kind of traffic comes through this room.  Several minutes pass without any movement, then Keltie spots a trio of dark-elven women dressed in some kind of ritual regalia moving perpendicular to the party's position, apparently making for a doorway opposite the one they just exited.  Keltie and Gorquen ready missile weapons, and Taran flies up toward the ceiling, hiding amongst the shadows there.  The three heroes still at the top of the ziggurat release magic missiles and arrows into the priestesses, and as the drow women fall to the ground or fumble for their holy symbols, Taran swoops down into their midst, and finishes them.The party searches their bodies for treasure or intelligence, and finds little, save that the house-marking these clerics have tattooed is different from the drow of house Jaelre the party fought on the surface.  Thelbar postulates that the party has been teleported far from their previous location, and most likely even into territory occupied by house Jaelre's enemies."Well, you gotta admire their tactics," Taran says gleefully.  "It's two birds with one arrow; if a band of adventurers are  cutting a swath through your ranks, teleport them into your enemy's lap.""What do we do now?" Keltie asks, looking a bit concerned.Taran looks at him evenly.  "We kill our way out of here, Keltie.  That's what we do."Thelbar adjusts his spell-component satchel.  "Followers of the Spider Queen do not deserve to live.""Battle is honor, young sir," Gorquen states, placing her hand on Keltie's shoulder.  "Ishlok's name be praised.""Her name is exalted amongst all things," the two brothers reply, by rote.The group settles into a marching order, with Taran scouting ahead and Thelbar sandwiched between the other two fighters.  Taran receives a darkvision spell, and uses his message ability to send back whispered commentary on his findings, allowing the group to prepare for whatever lies ahead.The rooms that the priestesses exited are searched first, and appear to be the living quarters for three clerics, with nothing unusual about them (if you think of erotic sculpture depicting scenes of torture as usual, that is).  The group makes haste to follow the clerics' lead and explore the doorway they were headed to.Drow generally aren't used to being surprised by hidden surface-dwellers.  After all, those roles are normally reversed.  The spectre of humans springing out of the shadows and decimating their ranks with spell and sword is not something most drow warriors have ever imagined having to face.In a dark and light-less world populated by giant floating eyeballs with death rays, squid-headed humanoids who possess terrible mind-control powers and giant, translucent fish that plot to enslave all living things, a rational being could forgive these drow for not preparing for a band of stealthy surface-dwellers committed to a massive and overwhelming first-strike.Not that Lolth is likely to do so, when she receives their souls.Of the fifteen drow warriors in the chamber next to the ziggurat rooms, a full third of their number fall to spell and sword before the remainder are even able to draw their twisted rapiers, or level the exquisite polearms that are their hallmark.  They regroup quickly, and form a makeshift spear-hedge, attempting to force the invaders back.  Several of the more nimble drow manage to win their way to the back of the party's formation, where Thelbar is raining magical death upon the drow spearmen.Thelbar proves harder to hit than might be expected, and after he becomes invisible, the drow are completely befuddled.  The dark elf fighters are outmatched, and while they have shown that they have the courage to fight in the face of sure death, it is a moral victory at best.</blockquote>

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