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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Wraithdrit" data-source="post: 1067287" data-attributes="member: 10820">Mytrym stepped up to the bound and gagged prisoner. He nudged her with a boot and frowned. “She’s alive but unconscious.”Amador strode over and saw the drow woman had obviously been beaten. For a moment he thought that it was probably for the better.Mytrym asked, “Can you heal her? I would but I am out of energy.” The paladin looked at the surface elf, expect him to object.Amador frowned but nodded, “Alright, how much?”Mytrym figured he had better not press his luck, “Just enough to get her conscious. We don’t know who she is.”Delorian listened from near the entrance to the room. He was watching the corridor, just in case something else came after them. He glanced down at the corpse of Plickit and frowned. This Randal Morn fellow had better not give them any grief about his aid dieing so easily. It had all happened so quickly, no one could have prevented the Thri-kreens death.Tanerus was sitting in the corner of the room. He had found a small lock box on the corpse of the dead drow priestess. His picks were scattered around him, and the box was perched in his lap. He held three picks in his mouth while both hands manipulated picks in the lock of the box. With a snap one of his picks broke in half. The halfling cursed and stood up, letting the box fall to the ground, “Oh that’s pointless! Stupid box.” He considered kicking it, but realized it might have something breakable in it. As Amador cast a gently prayer of healing over the drow’s hostage the drow woman’s eyes fluttered open. She coughed and then focused on those around her. Quickly she shoved herself back into a corner, “Who… who are you?”Mytrym, his shield strapped to his back, his holy symbol tucked away, and his sword in his hand, spoke softly, “We don’t mean you any harm. My name is Mytrym.”Amador nodded, “Who are you? Why were you being held captive?”The woman lifted her head a bit, and huffed, “My name is Naria, the Morcane and I share no love. They ambushed me.”Amador frowned. She was not telling him much. “Why?” His voice was almost a growl. It did not trust the drow woman any further than he could throw her. Undoubtedly her heart was as black as her skin.“I’m a follower of Eilistrae.” The womand held up her bound hands, “Now if you would be so kind as to set me free…”Mytrym reacted first, “Not so fast… how do we know you are a follower of Eilistrae.”The woman smiled at the aasimar paladin. “You don’t. You have only my word. I can not prove my faith in the dancing mistress.”Tanerus walked over, having listened from a few feet away. “So why are you here then?”Naria looked over at the halfling, “I’m headed down toward Szith Morcane.” When the words got her nothing but blank looks she explained, “It’s a drow outpost near here.”Amador nodded, “Why?”“The dancing mistress wishes that I find the cause of a disturbance in the Weave. It is coming from somewhere in the Underdark. Probably the other side of Szith Morcane, but until I get to the outpost I won’t know that.” She held up her hands again, “Now if you don’t mind…”Amador and Tanerus both looked to Mytrym. He shrugged, “She has no ill will toward us that I can detect.” Tanerus nodded, “Good enough for me.” He drew a dagger and cut Naria loose. The drow nodded her thanks and rubbed at her wrists.“Now you know why I am here… care to return the favor.” She looked at the motley crew in front of her, “You are not all really the Underdark types. But you look too smart to be just random adventurers blundering into the depths of the Underdark for treasure. Besides, you bested the Morcane, meaning you have some wits about you.” She smiled at her own light jokes.Mytrym was the first to volunteer. “A drow is collecting items that belong to other races.”Tanerus frowned, “More specifically, one belonged to me, and I want it back.”Amador followed it up with a question. “Do you know anything about a drow doing this?”Naria shook her head, “Sorry, lots of drow collect things, especially powerful things. It could be for any variety of reasons.”Delorian finally piped in from near the door. “Your path seems to lead into the Underdark further, just like ours. Perhaps it would be best if we traveled together.”It was Naria’s turn to frown, “I’m not sure that is wise.”“There is safety in numbers,” pointed out Delorian, “Even down here.”Pointing at the dead drow around Tanerus observed, “You are obviously not very popular down here or they would not have gone after you like that.”Naria finally nodded, “Perhaps you are right, we might be able to aid each other.”Tanerus looked around the room, “What I don’t get is why these drow are here.”Amador nodded at the supplies, “Obviously holed up after returning from a successful raid on Dagger Falls.” Naria shook her head, “No, that doesn’t make sense, this is a smuggler’s hideout. And that,” she pointed at the dead drow priestess, “Is one of the Morcanes.”Mytrym asked, “That is the second time you have said that, who or what are the Morcane.”Naria blinked then nodded, “The Morcane are the family in charge of Szith Morcane, a drow outpost near here.”Looking a bit confused, Amador asked, “An outpost for what?”Naria shrugged, “Nothing really. Not anymore. It used to a major trade route outpost, now its nothing more than a minor military outpost of a larger city far to the south and east.”Delorian shrugged, “Sounds like the next logical place to look for this ‘collector’.” Naria stared at him a few moments, as if trying to figure out what a shade was doing with the surface dwellers.Finally she spoke again, “Besides that… these are not raided supplies from the surface. These are food stores… Rothe sausage, mushroom flower, mushroom ale… like your hard tack, these supplies are the necessity for a drow group fleeing something. There is enough here for almost two weeks.”Tanerus shook his head, as if trying to clear it. “So you are telling me, some of the Morcane family, a prominent family of drow, has fled their own hold?”Naria nodded. “Exactly. If you don’t mind, I’ll take that spell component pouch.” She pointed at the corpse of the dead drow mage. The heroes all exchanged wary glances then finally assented. Naria quickly emptied out the only component worth anything to anyone not a spellcaster, “You can have this diamond dust. Its not required for any spell I know and he was your kill.” She handed over a small pouch of crystals. The heroes all looked in disbelief at the drow lass. She had just willingly parted with something worth hundreds of gold. Maybe she was not lying about being a follower of Eilistrae after all.Next she walked to the small lock box. “You don’t mind if I get my things do you?” Without really waiting for a reply she cast a quick arcane spell and then knocked on the lock. With an audible click, the lock opened, as did the lid to the box. Naria lifted out a single bag and left the box, brimming with gold, platinum and silver service set, on the ground. From the bag she pulled a pair of bracers, a headband, and large cloak. She donned the items and nodded, “I’m ready.”Delorian nodded down at Plickit’s corpse, “Now what about him.”Tanerus frowned, “Oh, yeah. I think we need to take him back to Randal.”Amador nodded, “Only thing we can do, really. I don’t have the components to bring him back. I suppose it would be bad manners towards Randal were we to just leave him.”“So we go back to Dagger Falls then.” Tanerus grabbed up his belongings and what he could carry of the drow’s loot.Naria looked alarmed, “I think I’ll just wait here for you…”Mytrym shook his head, “That would be unwise. More could come following these. You would be safer with us.”“In a human town, I think not. Though… I suppose I could disguise myself.” She sighed, “Fine. I’ll go with you to Dagger Falls.”</blockquote>

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