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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Wraithdrit" data-source="post: 1148005" data-attributes="member: 10820">The ‘Ledge Room’Underdark, off the Szith Morcane chasmMarpenoth 6th, Half an hour later… Marcus examined the small metal coins in his hand. The strange elven script stamped on them was obviously some dark saying of the drow. But the metal it was stamped into was what interested him. Platinum. He tossed the coins onto the pile the others had created in the upper ledge room. The pile was fairly impressive. The carnage had been impressive. Now that the fighting had paused the realizations that they had managed to pull off the first stage of their attack started to permeate into Marcus’ thoughts.They had moved quickly from the ledge down to the barracks opening. The sentries inside had no hope of survival. Delorian traveled through the shadow plane to the other side of the entry room. The silence object he carried had kept the explosion that rocked the room in front of him from reverberating through the rest of the barracks. Mytrym and Plicket’s silence objects kept the sound from the chasm. There was a little vibration in the stone, but not much. Will’s fireball had been bright, hot and deadly. The quick assault by the rest of the group had finished off what remained of the sentries and their undead cohort.Marcus was not going to forget what happened next. Not for many, many years. Thievery was one thing, but what they had done…it was slaughter. Pure and simple slaughter. With the silence spells covering their sounds they had easily moved room to room. One room held a meditating mage. He never made it out of his bed. The group was on him so fast that he died without lifting a weapon. The next room was a larder or dining room of sorts. It had been empty. The following room had several drow that were resting from guard duty. Mytrym had been the first in. Only one of the drow was ‘awake’. The rest were in something between a slumber and a meditation. Mytrym was on the one before anyone could do much to aid him. The silence spells were holding well, and the sleepers never heard the fight. As Marcus stepped in and looked at the sleeping forms, he realized what had to be done.So did Mytrym, and he obviously did not like the idea. He looked around at the helpless opponents and closed his eyes. Muttering something covered by the silence spells, the paladin drew a knife and cut deep into his own hand. As he stalked out of the room he pressed the knife’s hilt into Marcus’ hand. The work was quick, bloody, and horrible. Not even monsters deserved to die like that. Two had waken as the knife bit into flesh. They had no chance to fight back, and their silent screams would echo in Marcus’ eyes forever. It had to be done. These monsters were killing his own people. Dagger Falls should not have to pay the price, should his resolve to follow through fail.When it was over he cleaned the blade and handed it back to Mytrym in the hallway. The paladin did not even look at the knife. It slid into its sheath, and they moved to the next room. Something had tipped off its occupant though. When Mytrym stepped through the door, a drow officer, suspended horizontally from magical slippers hooked to the wall above the door, had attacked him viciously with a twin bladed sword. If the paladin had not been the recipient of one of the Shade Prince’s stoneskins, the attack may have been more crippling than the spell that still made the paladin take every step pained. The group had quickly rallied and the officer’s body was soon on the floor. Delorian was handed the slippers. Never know when a shadow stepping, wall climbing monk would be helpful. The other officer that shared quarters with this one had died up in the ledge room. Marcus already had her slippers on. The last room had been empty. So they gathered together again and set the silence items to one side. Will had suggested they take time to gather their spoils quickly. That was when it happened.The drow female that was traveling with them, Naria, was caught in the middle of a lie. She was obviously distraught at the death of the second officer. When Will questioned her, she lied and denied it. Upon searching the room, a letter was found. It was addressed to Naria. Mytrym read it first, and turned and handed it to her. He had said that she should read it first but made it clear to her that the others would read it next. She handed the letter to Will and admitted that the dead officer was her cousin before walking off. Marcus had to wonder whether the drow female and the aasimar with drow blood would end up being an asset in this land or a hindrance. Time would tell, he was sure.The letter made some things a little clearer. The spider queen is apparently silent to the drow for some reason. In her absence, a sect of the drow goddess of undeath had stepped in to power in the nearby drow city. The influence had spread to this outpost, and it was they that are responsible for the raids on Dagger Falls.That would explain the carnage of the Lolth worshippers that Will’s arcane eye had seen in the temple complex near the bottom of the chasm. Will thought it also explained the undead drow that were helping the attackers. The ‘flayed’ ones are probably priestesses rendered useless by the silence of their goddess. It also explained why the original drow the group had encountered outside of Tethyamar two weeks prior had never cast a healing spell on her wounds.Finally finished collecting the loot together the group moved to the ‘inverted tower’ that Will’s arcane eye had scryed earlier. There were a pair of guards, probably magic users, by what Will had learned in the attack on Dagger Falls a week prior. Marcus grew excited as they began to infiltrate in towards the archway leading to the tower, and the guardroom beyond.Will put a hand out and stopped him. “Wait.” He cast a quick spell and narrowed his eyes on the doorway ahead. “A spell on that archway.” He turned towards Amador. “Can you dispel it?”Amador nodded, “Of course.” He whispered a prayer to his deity and a soft shimmer surrounded the doorway.Will frowned, “Still there.” He lifted his own hand and muttered a few syllables. The doorway once again shimmered, but the frown on Will’s face was obvious that the enchantment had withstood yet another dispel attempt. Naria whispered from the back of the group, “I could try.” Everyone looked at her. They knew that her spell casting prowess was no where near Will’s. He had specifically studied multiple types of counterspells in his career, and was very adapt at countering spells on the battlefield. Naria was inexperienced in comparison, to say the least. Will broke the strange silence with a nod, “Can’t hurt.” He stepped aside.Naria shrugged and whispered, “I have multiple dispels prepared, I’ll use them all if necessary.” Will nodded and the young diviner lifted her hands and muttered a few words. The shimmer showed around the arch, then faded slowly. Amador smirked, “This is a bit pointless don’t you thi-“Will interrupted him as he put a hand on Naria’s hand as she brought them up to try again. “You did it. Its down.”Naria smiled, a truly bright smile, the only one she had really had since the group had met her. She shrugged, “Beginner’s luck?”Will grinned, “I’ll take it.” He turned to the others, “Lets do it.”Marcus and Plickit began stalking quietly forward. Delorian waited till they got halfway to where they were going and then he stepped through the shadows as he had planned. Invisible, he stepped out of the shadows hanging from the ceiling between the two sentries at a door. In his hand a small crystal globe held the last of their silence spells.One of the sentries cocked his head to one side. “Did you hear that?” he asked the other sentry. The response was a disheartened grunt followed by, “No, you’re hearing things.”A moment later, the second sentry frowned, “Yeah, I heard it that time.” He started to turn towards the door.Delorian dropped the globe, and as the crystal shattered without a sound, the silence effect enveloped the small room. Marcus and Plickit appeared and attacked. One of the sentries got the door open. Two more sentries were within. Things happened fast. Too fast.One of the sentries rolled out into the tower, out of the area of the silence spell. He cast a spell, that Will heard from were he was. Will growled, “A fly spell… go!” Amador and Mytrym rushed forward around the corner. The drow on the other side of the silence were dieing, and the one that was trying to get away had not expected more to come at him from behind. When one of Amador’s arrows plunged into him, the sentry grunted loudly.Mytrym was on him in a flash. His sword hacked at the man quickly. As the sword buried into the man, he cried out pain. As his body fell under the combined blows of the group, his dieing grunts of pain echoed up into the four story tall inverted tower. Without anything in the room but stone, the huge area acted like an echo chamber, echoing the man’s dieing pains over and over again.</blockquote>

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