As Adizar’s eyes took in the cavern
below he just had time to see the drow sentries behind the horrific form that
slammed into him. The creature although the size and stature of a normal drow
appeared to have been skinned – bones showed through in various places and even
in the limited view that darkvision afforded exposed muscles glistened with
seeping blood. Blood that - a second later spattered all over Adizar, burning
caustically into the exposed areas of the tiefling’s flesh.
Warning his comrades as he
dropped to the floor and drawing his blades the tiefling attacked the creature
only to find in dismay as his blades bit deep that the creatures caustic blood
spattered painfully over him again. Aerlyn, reacting immediately - dropped into
the sinkhole using her ring of feather fall only to be attacked by a
wraith spider the size of a large dog. Behind the half-drow sorceress Arnelius
too reacted swiftly dropping down the hole and tumbling as he landed. Yellyond
grabbed the rope and began climbing down. At this point the party noticed the
other drow in the cave – three guards and another with no armour – a
spellguard. The spellguard, retreating behind the three drow fighters cast
several magic missiles as the party continued to confront the skinless
monstrosity.
Eventually - as Dalgarth
joined them with his patented climbing method - Aerlyn’s spells and Adizar and
Arnelius’ swords finally defeated the foul creature only for the drow
spellguard to cast an ice storm. As the giant hailstones clattered down
– Aerlyn retaliated with a cone-of cold that dropped the three drow guards and
Yellyond began casting Kilgore’s firebolts at the retreating drow
spellguard. The firebolts finally dispatched him, - his body dropping out of
sight - but not before he’d used his wand of lightning bolt against
Yellyond and Aerlyn. Yellyond & Aerlyn identified the skinned creature as a
Quth-Maren
As Dalgarth and those with
wands began the process of healing, Adizar made himself invisible and went see
where the spellguard had fallen. A huge chasm was in front of him – some 30ft
wide and going in depth far beyond the range of his darkvision. The wall of the
chasm below him was covered in enormous spider webs, the stands of which were
as thick as his arm, below him he could see occasional dark shapes flitting along
the webs. As his friends joined him and they contemplated the vista in front of
him Adizar could see a gargantuan spider moving slowly on the web. After
pondering their next action for a while, the party decided a strategic
withdrawal was appropriate and headed back to the maurezhi cave to rest up.
Several hours later as the
party rested, Arnelius heard voices in the corridor. Quickly waking the others,
they were confronted by two quth-maren moving down the tunnel. Arnelius cast a
scroll of protection from energy as he and Adizar to attack the
undead. The quth-maren turned their horrifying gaze on the rogues - as
his eyes met that of the skinless horror, Arnelius felt the fear of death
permeating his soul, rallying himself he shook off most of the ill effects and
continued his attacks – his tiefling compatriot was less fortunate and cowered
before the undead monstrosities. Aerlyn and Yellyond began casting spells.
As he fought with the
skinless ones and Aerlyn and Yellyond protected Adizar with their
spell-casting, a group of drow warriors charged up the corridor, three of them
made the grave mistake of charging past Arnelius who with his combat reflexes
dropped them with attacks of opportunity.
As the quth-maren and the
remaining drow were despatched! From the passageway beyond two beams of searing
light hit Adizar - obviously there was a cleric out there! Aerlyn,
spotting the cleric of Kiaransalee amidst another group of warriors cast an orb
of cold at her, the cleric, blinded, retaliated by casting a flame strike and
a column of flame suddenly descended from the ceiling and struck the party.
As the party charged this new
threat, the blinded cleric called for the warriors to get her out of there! It
was to no avail as the party quickly disposed of the remaining threat. One of
the drow warriors, gravely wounded, was stabilised by Yellyond and taken back
to the maurezhi cave for interrogation.
After some persuasion, the
female warrior agreed to talk in return for her life – she told them that the drow
outpost was called Szith Morcaine. Normally a small quiet trading post, it had
recently grown from an influx of refugees from the city of
After some deliberations the
party decided to disguise themselves as drow and attempt to infiltrate Szith
Morcaine. Climbing down the sinkhole Aerlyn & Yellyond managed to bluff
their way past the guards. Adizar, the only one who couldn’t speak undercommon,
held back in all of this. Reaching the chasm they noticed one of the
vertical strands had been woven in the shape of a ladder and began to descend.
As they descended, led by Adizar, they noticed that some strands of the web
appeared smooth and well worn while others appeared sticky. Coming to an
intersection in the webs they decided to take the right hand path which led
directly to a nearby cave.
As Adizar, neared the mouth
of the cave a voice called out in undercommon – unable to understand or respond
the disguised tiefling doggedly moved on to the cave mouth only to find himself
attacked by two drow guards armed with glaives. As combat ensued, one by one
the other members of the party arrived. Seeing they were outnumbered the guards
cried for help as the party cut them down. As the two guards fell, the party
could see another group of drow, accompanied by two of the hated quth-maren
approaching from the room beyond.
Arnelius and Adizar swiftly
deployed forward taking up defensive positions in the narrow corridor that
joined the two rooms, Aerlyn however had other ideas and rushed forward,
casting a cone of cold as she did so. As the spell hit the drow the two
quth-maren sped forward and slammed into her. As Dalgarth cast a flame
strike at one of the drow - killing him instantly - Arnelius and Adizar
moved to help their friend against the quth-maren, while Yellyond cast a kilgore’s
firebolt. The two quth-maren redoubled their assault on the unfortunate
half-drow who collapsed in a heap on the floor. Arnelius and Adizar
concentrated their attacks on the remaining drow troopers swiftly despatching
them, Dalgarth moved forward to cast a cure spell on the fallen Aerlyn as
Yellyond swift casting stretch on her blade used it as a reach weapon to
attack the quth-maren – thus avoiding the acid splash damage as she hit the
undead. The drow support troops removed Arnelius and Adizar concentrated on the
quth-maren flinching as they were spattered in acid blood as their weapons bit
deep – in short order the quth-maren were despatched.
After briefly resting for
healing and stripping some excellent looking short bow arrows from the
troopers, while Adizar cautiously watched the short corridor at the end of the
room, the party moved on. A wide corridor led north and south from this room –
to the south a short staircase led down. The party decided to head northwards,
coming to a wide hallway with three doors. The first doorway led to an empty
barracks, however behind the second door two drow officers attacked Dalgarth as
he opened the door. A brutal doorway fight ensued but the drow proved little
match for the party especially with Arnelius and Adizar working their
well-rehearsed tumbling-flanking-sneak-attacking routine while Yellyond and
Aerlyn backed them up with spells. The drow officers despatched a quick search
of the room revealed little of interest save a letter from one of the officers
to his cousin that reflected on the apparent abandonment of her clerics by
Lolth.
The third doorway too held a
surprise, as Dalgarth opened it and an ice storm was released in the
corridor. Within the room drow spellguard, alerted by the combat next door - hasted
and with fire shield and mage armour already cast, was waiting
for them. As the party deployed, again he cast ice storm. Dalgarth cast
a sonic lance at the drow, which damaged him badly, and then Adizar moved in to
finish him off. A search of the room revealed a couple of spell books and a
pouch containing six pearls.
Two other doorways in a short
corridor leading away from the main one led to empty rooms, one a mess hall,
one a barracks after which the party decided to head down the stairway they’d
seen earlier – which led to a cell block. As the bulk of the party congregated
around the foot of the stairs, Adizar began checking out the cells - perhaps
emboldened by their recent victories - he neglected to check for traps for the
first time ever. Unfortunately, the tiefling swiftly paid the consequences for
his inattention, as a noble salamander appeared next to him and launched a
fusillade of attacks. As Adizar collapsed, dead and smoking, to the ground, the
salamander moved forward to confront the rest of the party running into an orb
of cold from Aerlyn. Arnelius tumbled into a flanking position and sneak
attacked, Dalgarth cast Aid (Mass) and Yellyond attacked with her sword.
Faced with such a furious onslaught the summoned creature didn’t last long.
Staring disconsolately down
at the fallen figure of Adizar, the party member’s thoughts were interrupted by
a loud banging from a cell a couple of door along an a voice in badly accented
common calling on them to free him from this damned cage! Arnelius, after
carefully searching the cell-door for traps swiftly picked the lock to reveal a
half-orc who introduced himself a Jared Swiftfoot - an Uthgardt of the Sky Pony
Tribe. Eager to revenge himself on the drow who’d imprisoned and tormented him
he offered to join the party.
After recovering the
barbarian’s equipment from a nearby store cupboard, the party moved back to the
entrance to the barracks and once more surveyed the chasm and the great web
that spanned the cliff-face. Deciding not to venture deeper into the chasm as
yet they made their way more-or-less horizontally along the web till they
reached the entrance to another cave. Dalgarth, not willing to trust to his
sense of balance, air-walked alongside his comrades.
Beyond the entrance to this
cave a short tunnel ended in a carved archway beyond which a large hexagonal
pit 30-foot across lay. Across the pit another doorway could be seen, however
there seemed no way to get there. Dalgarth swiftly ferried his colleagues
across the gap and moved through the short corridor he found there. As he did -
two lightning bolts crashed into him. Arnelius, standing behind the cleric,
managed to evade the bolts, and Jared charged through finding two drow
spellguards in the room beyond. As he smashed into one of the drow with his
greatsword, two further lightning bolts slammed into him from a side-room where
two further spellguards had been waiting.
As the rest of the party
deployed into the room and Dalgarth healed himself, Jared slew one of the drow,
the other disappeared so Jared charged through into the ante-chamber, as he did
so a lightning bolt hit him as he passed under the archway that connected the
two rooms.
As Jared engaged the
spellguard in the other room who retaliated using his poisoned spiked chain,
the spellguard who’d disappeared cast a fireball at Arnelius and
Dalgarth, becoming visible as he did so. Arnelius evaded the damage
successfully, but Dalgarth took the brunt of the spell, the drow’s victory was
short-lived as Aerlyn cast an orb of cold at him and a second later
Dalgarth crashed across the room and finished him off with a single blow from
his axe. Arnelius meanwhile tumbled through the archway evading the lightning
bolt as it arced down and confronted the other spellguard. The spellguard
cornered by Jared cast a magic missile against the Barbarian but scant seconds
later the barbarian’s mighty blade ended his life. The remaining drown vanished
and despite valiant attempts from Arnelius and Dalgarth managed to flee. While
Dalgarth provided healing to those wounded; Arnelius and Aerlyn swiftly
searched the room beyond the antechamber finding that it was some kind of
ready-room for the guards.
Mostly recovered from the
combat the party retreated back and considered the hexagonal pit – some
distance below Arnelius spotted a door and after receiving a spider climb
from Aerlyn went to investigate. Behind the ordinary looking door he
found a pulsating blue mist. Unsure, he climbed back up to consult with his
arcane colleagues, who proved of little assistance. Climbing back down, he
decided to brave the strange blue fog and passed through the doorway in the
narrow passageway beyond he could see nothing, not even his hand in front of
his face so he began feeling his way along the stone walls, however could find
no way to exit this corridor.
Leaving this room he climbed
further down to another door, finding an identical corridor with blue fog.
Below that, near the base of the pit was a final door, somewhat more ornate
than the others, opening this door however a gust of wind blew out
forcing him backward. Before it did he had time to see some king of
throne-room. Retreating back to consult with his colleagues, they decided that
this room might prove more interesting than the blue fog and after receiving spider
climb from Aerlyn they began the descent led by Jared.
When Jared arrived at the
bottom the door was still open, but the mysterious wind described by Arnelius
had ceased, gripping his vicious greatsword, the half-orc swung into the room.
He had time to see an elegant drow sprawled on the throne who nonchalantly
waved a hand at him. Jared found himself unable to move, despite his great
strength. The drow spoke “If someone with more brains that this illiterate
half-breed would care to come in perhaps we can discuss matters in a more
civilised fashion”. Somewhat nonplussed Arnelius and then the others came into
the room.
The drow introduced himself
as Solom Ned’razak, the archmage of Szith Morcaine and, after freeing Jared
from the hold person spell brought drinks for his guests. After some
discussion as the archmage proposed an alliance of sorts. As a male drown he
had little love for the spider-kissers of Lolth of the undead-loving fanatics
of Kiaransalee that had replaced them. He undertook that if the party removed
the representatives of House T’sarren, whom he described as “bloodsuckers”,
from Szith Morcaine, it would create a power-vacuum in the outpost that he would
be more than able to step into at which point he would ensure that the drow
raids would cease – at least from here. After some deliberation the party
agreed an alliance and Solom told them they were free to use the entranceway to
his “
After reporting in to Randal
Morn and some minor re-supplying the party decided to head back to Szith
Morcaine. Aerlyn teleported them into the entranceway to the
As they arrived at the
entrance to House Morcaine the party felt a strange sense of foreboding as they
crossed the threshold, Dalgarth and Didagi shook of the feeling, but Aerlyn was
unable to overcome it and when she tried to step across the threshold found
herself damaged by whatever magical effect was in operation. Yellyond climbed
past the struggling half-drow.
Those across the threshold,
still disguised as drow, could see four quth-maren regarding them - although
the undead made no move towards them. As Aerlyn continued to struggle to cross
the threshold, Dalgarth, taking advantage of the situation attempted to turn
the undead – to little effect. The quth-maren suddenly leaped into
action - two of the quth-maren disappeared down side corridors, while two moved
to attack Dalgarth and Didagi. As the combat ensued, Aerlyn made a final
attempt to enter the cavern, the cumulative effect of the damage she’d taken was
too much however and she slumped in unconsciousness – fortunately Arnelius was
able to grab her before she fell off the web into the raging torrent below.
Yellyond subsequently poured a cure potion into the unconscious sorcerer.
After a vicious little melee,
the two quth-maren were destroyed, but the party had no chance to recover as
the other two quth-maren, accompanied by two drow guards re-appeared. As the
guards entered the room they gazed at Dalgarth and Didagi who for a second felt
as if someone was trying to crush their will, fortunately both shook off the
effects and Dalgarth retaliated by casting a Holy Smite. Aerlyn,
drinking another potion, giving up for the moment on trying to enter the cave
moved out of the way to allow Arnelius to enter as the two drown guards charged
and baring their fangs, slammed into Dalgarth. The dwarf felt the cold hand of
undeath on him as the very life-energy was drained from his body. One of the
quth-maren moved forward and spat a gob of acid blood at Didagi, the other
hissed impotently blinded by the dwarf cleric’s Holy Smite.
As the combat ensued the drow
vampires slammed again and again into the dwarf cleric draining him till he
collapsed in a heap. Arnelius and Didagi engaged the creatures but found their
weapons did little against the vampire’s damage reduction and concentrated on
the two quth-maren when they could. Yellyond fared slightly better using her
spells where her blade failed her, as Arnelius darted across the cave and
stabilised the dying dwarf using a wand of cure light wounds.
Outside the cave, Aerlyn,
popping her head up meercat-like, decided to take a hand, casting orb of
cold after orb of cold into the undead. Unable to defend against the
sorcerer’s cold spells and the duskblade’s scorching rays, eventually
both vampires fled the scent in gaseous form. The remaining quth-maren
were swiftly dealt with, and Dalgarth further healed with a cure moderate
wounds potion from Yellyond, but the party, severely battered, felt unable to
continue their assault on House Morcaine and joining Aerlyn on the web,
teleported back to Dagger Falls.
Retreat To
Dagger Falls
After resting for an evening
the party resolved to try an other assault on House Morcaine and gathering
around Aerlyn prepared to be teleported. Focusing on the entranceway where the
vampires had been encountered, Aerlyn cast the spell. For a moment as the
mystical energies swirled around them all seemed well, then suddenly , with a
wrench they found themselves back in the house in
Ambush & Spiders
As fireballs and poisoned
arrows rained down on them, Arnelius moved to engage the group of drow who were
blocking their retreat. Aerlyn & Jared both went down – victims to the drow
poison, and Yellyond using dimension hop got onto a nearby roof and
confronted two of the archers, Dalgarth after casting a holy smite at
one group of drow was kept busy darting about the battlefield keeping his comrades
alive with healing and using his wand of neutralise poison. Eventually however,
once Aerlyn and Jared had been resuscitated, the tide of battle turned in the
adventurer’s favour and the drow all fled or were slain.
Somewhat battered and bruised
after surviving the ambush, Yellyond started stripping the bodies of valuables
while Arnelius went to examine the crypt entrance, finding that the secret
lever used to open the door had been removed and there was no apparent method
of ingress. Aerlyn resolved the situation by casting knock and the party
once again entered the Dordrien crypts. This time, knowing where they were
going, they avoided all the side chambers and headed straight to the lower
levels. As they left the cave with the statue of Jergal someone commented on
the roper that had attacked them in this passageway previously. Arnelius
looking around the corridor noticed something odd. The walls off all the caves
and indeed the passageway in which they stood were full of carved niches where
the bodies of the dead were laid, however along a 20ft stretch of wall to the
east there was no graves at all – just smooth rock. Moving over he ran his
fingers along the rock to discover it was an illusion – and he informed the
others. Jared, enjoying the novelty stuck his head through the seeming solid
rock wall, however he didn’t enjoy the bite from the huge spider-like creature
that snapped at him as he did so.
The party swiftly deployed
into the cave, Arnelius using accelerated tumble moving much deeper in
than the others spotted another huge spider scuttling forward from the
rear of the cave. Jared, stepping up to the foe engaged the first spider
as Aerlyn, Dalgarth and Yellyond moved to position to cast spells. As the
spider-creature attacked them with their fearsome jaws and claws, Arnelius and
Jared noticed huge rents and tears appearing in their armour as the creatures
claws hit them. Eventually as the spellcasters hit the creatures with spell
after spell and Arnelius and Jared’s blades spun in their dance of death the
two huge spider-creatures were slain.
Having
disposed of the two spider-demons, Yellyond and Jared began searching the cave,
when Yellyond discovered part of the back wall was illusory. Beyond the
illusion they found a passageway leading to another cave, where by a wrecked
campsite they found the bodies of 3 drow one of whom was a cleric of Lolth and
all of whom showed signs of combat with quth-maren – although the cause of
death was unclear. Searching the area, Yellyond located a small strongbox
hidden in some rubble nearby and Jared found a wand near the body of the
priestess. After Arnelius opened the strongbox and the valuables within were
retrieved, the party moved on - heading down the passageway past the maurezhi
cave.
Kicking In
the Front Door
Yellyond
paused at appoint where the passage swung to the left towards the cave with the
sinkhole that led to Szith Morcaine.
Peering cautiously round, she could see drow archers manning the wall
that restricted access to the cave. Pulling back she notified her colleagues in
a whisper. After a prolonged whispered consultation about how to proceed, it
was decided to try a frontal assault and Jared charged forward towards the
tempting gap in the wall. He also charged forward into a hail of arrows, and
more significantly a lightning bolt as the invisible arcane spellguard standing
behind the gap used a wand against him. His way through the gap blocked, Jared
swerved to the side as his colleagues thundered after him, as he did he peered
into the cave he could see massed ranks of drow sentries led by an officer and
accompanied by several wraith spiders and at least two quth-maren. As the
battle joined in the corridor, Jared decided to try going over the wall, as he
did so he discovered that there were small steel spikes embedded in the
stonework, as second later as it surged through his system, he discovered the
spikes were smeared with poison - just before he slumped to unconsciousness.
As
poison-tipped arrows rained around them, the party retaliated as best they
could – Yellyond moving to try and help Jared, Aerlyn casting spells and
Arnelius using his bow. The drow spellguards began dropping fireballs on the
party which added to the confusion, while one of the quth-maren moved up and
began spitting acid blood. The other quth-maren issued a command to the wraith
spiders who began scuttling up the walls. The drow officer issued a command to
one of the troopers who turned and disappeared down the sinkhole. The lead
spellguard went down to combination of Arnelius’ arrows and Aerlyn’s spells,
while the wraith spiders crawled up over the walls and across the roof of the
passageway, dropping down to block the retreat. As Aerlyn cast an orb of cold
at it, the quth-maren used his horrifying gaze on her - causing the half-drow
to cower in fear. Arnelius then launched a flurry of arrows at the undead
finally slaying it. Having poured a potion of neutralise poison into Jared,
Yellyond used dimension hop to get Aerlyn out of the combat and then engaged
the wraith spider next to her. The wraith spider retaliated - managing to get a
lucky bite in, doing strength damage to the duskblade. Arnelius, finally
deciding that this plan wasn’t working, used accelerated tumble to get past the
spiders and reaching into his Heward’s Handy Haversack drew out a scroll of
remove fear to help Aerlyn. As Jared and Yellyond dealt with the spider,
dodging the arrows from the guard, the second drow spellguard ran forward to
pick up his fallen comrade’s wand.
Yellyond, calling on the others to follow retreated up the corridor, Aerlyn
guarded by Jared and Arnelius, cast a cone of cold through the gap in the wall
to cover a retreat. The spell took out the last spellguard, two sentries and
the last wraith spider. On her next action she withdrew, followed by Jared and
Arnelius just as two misty forms began to appear next to the drow officer from
the sinkhole. On regrouping the party teleported back to Dagger Falls to
reconsider their actions.
Going In
The Back Door
After a night’s rest Aerlyn
suddenly remembered where Ned’razak, had told them it was safe to teleport to –
the entranceway to the Inverted Tower - gathering her comrades together, after
Yellyond returned from getting supplies for breakfast, the party swiftly found
themselves back in Szith Morcaine. Swiftly disguising themselves as drow they
made their way down the web to the entranceway to House Morcaine. This time,
the hallway appeared empty and once by one they party made their way through
the Forbiddance taking various amounts of damage. Arnelius, in the lead stood
watching warily, but even his acute senses could not detect the invisible
Hezrou that appeared in front of him and attacked. The nauseating stench
of the demon assailed the party and Arnelius and Aerlyn were incapacitated,
Jared and Yellyond engaged the demon and Dalgarth started casting spells. Under
this furious assault the demon swiftly succumbed.
The demon disposed of, and
Aerlyn and Arnelius recovered, Dalgarth got out his wand and began curing his
comrades. As the party stood around, Jared kept a wary eye on the entranceway,
as two vampire drow nobles suddenly changed through, slamming into him and the
cleric. As the party rallied to face this new threat – Yellyond drawing her oil
of silversheen - the vampires struck again, slamming into the cleric and
the barbarian who struggled as the force of unlife ravaged through their bodies
again draining them. As Yellyond moved to aid their colleagues and joined the
fray – Arnelius drew his recently acquired wand of searing light and
used it against the vampires again and again, feeling huge satisfaction as the
rays burned into the hideous undead. Unfortunately, only he could see this. As
the battle continued and Dalgarth and Jared continued to lose levels, Aerlyn
stepped forward and cast greater disrupt undead at the first vampire and
then retargeted the ray at the second one as the first fled in gaseous form. As
Jared and Yellyond’s attacks also struck home - this vampire too fled leaving
the party victorious. Dalgarth used his scroll of Restoration to restore
Jared.
Moving swiftly on, lest more
reinforcements arrived, and led by Jared, the party took the left hand exit. At
the rear of the party Aerlyn handed Dalgarth a scroll of Restoration
which the cleric used on himself. In the passageway beyond, a doorway on right
led to a large empty chamber - manacled to one wall was an unconscious drow
female wearing the insignia of House Morcaine. Ignoring the drow, the party
moved through to an antechamber where three coffins lay. Dalgarth using detect
undead identified that two of the coffins were full, and Yellyond using her
recently acquired knowledge of undead, set about the grisly task of sending the
vampires to their final death.
The
Temple of Kiaransalee
Moving on, this time led by
Arnelius, the party discovered a room that had been converted in to a temple to
Kiaransalee, a single vampire noble guarded the temple – or so they
thought!
As Dalgarth and Yellyond
deployed into the room behind Arnelius, two driders, both bearing the fangs and
red eyes of vampires, dropped from the ceiling and attacked. This time, used to
dealing with the undead, the party tactics were smoother.
Arnelius stepping back drew
his trusty (though unfortunately cursed) wand of searing light and began
blasting away. Yellyond, swift casting blade of blood attacked one of
the driders while Dalgarth engaged the other, while Jared, raging again focused
on the drow noble. Once Aerlyn joined the combat casting greater disrupt
undead and orb of cold the vampires were quickly reduced to gaseous
form. Yellyond, quick thinking, ran back to the other room with the coffins
drawing another wooden stake and finally disposed of the last vampire noble,
leaving the others to ponder the tangled mass of webs on the ceiling to
identify where the drider vampires might have retreated to. Asking Didagi for a
torch, Aerlyn cast a spell and huge dragon-like wings suddenly sprouted from
her back! Flying up to the high ceiling she burned away the webs supporting the
cocoons in which the vampiric driders lay once on the ground Yellyond swiftly
staked the two driders. Pausing briefly to recover and administer some healing,
the party returned to the drow captive in the guardroom. After Dalgarth healed
her and neutralised the effects of the drugs she’d been administered, the
discovered she was Dessa sic-Morcaine, the last surviving cleric of the old
ruling House who had not been transformed into a quth-maren. Dessa, although
furious at having been rescued by surface-dwellers, pleaded to be released to
seek vengeance against the T’sarren. There was some vigorous debate about
what to do with her, but much to Yellyond and Aerlyn’s disgust Arnelius
completed healing the drow and freed her. Clutching the spear Arnelius had given
her, Dessa ran off screaming she would slay the T’sarren in Lolth’s name.
Battle
Against the T`sarren
The party followed the
rescued drow at a distance, but it wasn’t long before Dessa ran into
some of her former sisters. As Jared watched interestedly as the drow
took on the quth-maren, Yellyond checked out the passageway beyond discovering
to large rooms – through the open door of one she could see an ornately
decorated room as hear a rasping breathing, like a giant cat was curled up
there. Moving back up the corridor the combat had taken a turn for the worse
for Dessa as a flame strike hit her as she combated the quth-maren. At
this the other members of the party decided to take a hand – as Dalgarth cast spiritual
weapon, Arnelius tumbled past the quth-maren and Didagi unlimbered his
bow. Beyond, the quth-maren, Arnelius
found himself with two drow clerics, moving forward he began taunting the
nearest one. The cleric retaliated by casting slay living giving the
rogue the opportunity to attack – which struck home causing the spell to fail –
as a consequence the cleric did not survive long against the rogue’s flurry of
attacks.
As Dessa Dalgarth and Didagi
began to nibble away at the quth-maren a new threat emerged up the
corridor – a drow warrior clad in full plate – blackguard - accompanied by a
displacer beast. Aerlyn and Yellyond moved to face the new threat – Aerlyn
casting a cone of cold as she did so. The drow blackguard staggered as the cone
hit him, but the displacer beast seemed unperturbed and loped forward to attack
the sorcerer. The drow blackguard, recovering charged forwards and knocked
Yellyond down, then struck her several times as she lay helpless. Next to her
Aerlyn was faring little better as she dropped under a continued assault from
the displacer beast. As the sorcerer crumpled next to her, Yellyond reached
across and poured a potion into the half-drow.
Up the corridor, the
quth-maren continued to be whittled away while Arnelius turned his attention to
the other cleric. Yellyond, reeling under the attacks from the drow cast
dimension hop first on Aerlyn then herself. Jared and Didagi were preparing to
join the fray, when a blade barrier suddenly manifested in the place they were
standing - a new threat had joined the party - female drow richly clad
accompanied by two quth-maren.
Jared and Didagi extricated
themselves from the blade barrier, Aerlyn cast a dispel magic to remove
the effect. Dalgarth and Arnelius dispatched the last of the clerics and
quth-maren. The drow blackguard and his displacer beast companion moved
forward to attack as the female drow cast a flame strike. As the
blackguard engaged Didagi and the displacer beast attacked Jared, Aerlyn
launched a series of orb of cold spells at the drow who swiftly fell.
The female seeing this, having moved forward, reached down and collecting his
body vanished. The displacer beast and the two quth-maren withdrew, leaving the
party to lick their wounds.
After a frenzied bout of
healing, Arnelius searched the rooms nearby and recovered some treasure from a
chest under one of the beds. Feeling able to move on the party decided to
pursue the female vampire. Moving down the corridor to the wide hallway
Yellyond had scouted earlier, the party were greeted by the displacer beast and
the two quth-maren. Jared immediately rushed to charge the displacer beast
while Didagi, after manifesting one of his powers, charged at one of the
quth-maren. Didagi unfortunately felt his will fail him as he met the
horrifying gaze of one of the quth-maren and cowered back from the undead. The
other quth-maren began slamming at him with her acid-blood drenched fists - as
she did so the room was filled by a coruscating green light.
Arnelius joined Jared in the fight
against the displacer beast, but the conditions made it difficult for him to
tumble to a flanking position, and the beasts blurry form proved distressing
difficult for them to hit – although Jared did manage to land one telling blow!
Aerlyn and Yellyond began casting spells at the beast until a gaseous form
manifesting in the corridor next to them, distracted them. As the female
vampire (Dorina T’sarren) appeared, Aerlyn cast a greater disrupt undead
which caused Dorina to screech and immediately launch a series of slam attacks
on the drow sorcerer. As the melee combat in the main hallway continued, the
vampire laid about her, a great mace in one hand and using her free hand to
slam her opponents. Yellyond and Aerlyn retaliated with yet more greater disrupt
undead and searing light spells respectively till the vampire
resumed its gaseous form and fled.
Arnelius finally managed to
dispatch one of the quth-maren and Didagi freed from it malign influence began
to assault the other all the while suffused with an eerie green glow. Jared
finally managed to despatch the displacer beast with another critical strike
and the beast lay dead. A second or so later the second quth-maren joined it.
After Jared swiftly searched
a room nearby finding the corpse of the drow blackguard laid out on his bed,
the party braved the double doors at the end of the hallway, unfortunately
triggering the glyph of warding as they did so - and a flame strike
descended on them hitting Arnelius, Aerlyn and Yellyond. In the room beyond was
a throne made on bone atop a 15ft high column. As Aerlyn examined the column,
from tables around the room Didagi collected a few knick-knacks while Arnelius
and Yellyond located a secret door.
Beyond the secret door lay a
stone sarcophagus sheathed in copper. On examination Yellyond determined the
sarcophagus lid was sealed by three copper bands riveted it to the base.
Calling Jared to aid her she prised open the first copper band, as they did so
the door of the room slammed shut and the room was filled with whirling blades
of force as a blade barrier went off! Arnelius managed to open the
door again to see the bodies of his comrades being slashed by the whirling
blades. Aerlyn quickly dispelled the blade barrier but it was too late – Jared
and Yellyond lay bloodied and slain on the floor.
Recovering what they could of
their comrades remains, the surviving members of the party opened the
sarcophagus (after Arnelius had checked it to ensure no more taps were present)
and disposed of the last remaining vampire. From her corpse, as well as some
treasure, the party retrieved a letter outlining the T’sarren plans to launch
the “Great Revenance” from Maermydria within 5 or 6 tendays to destroy the
surface dwellers.
Returning to The Inverted
Tower, they advised Solom Ned’razak that they had disposed of the T’sarren. He
rewarded them with 10,000-gp worth of gems and reiterated his promise to stop
the attacks, but he advised he could only maintain that position until T’sarren
reinforcements might arrive. After dining with the Archmage who over dinner
told them more of House T’sarren – and specifically of Dorina’s mother Irae, a
Hierophant of Kiaransalee who led House T’sarren, and most rarely an albino
drow which along with her viciousness had led to her being known as the White
Banshee. After the meal, Aerlyn used a scroll of greater teleport to
take the party to Hillsfar where the loot was disposed of and Yellyond raised
from the dead – Jared’s spirit satisfied that his vengeance against the drow
who had captured him was complete refused to return once more to the land of
the living.