Time passed. Firiona had been devoting considerable time to the Darksea Magic Academy. That school was now educating a goodly number of students, employing a quality faculty and generating substantial revenue. Lately she had also been researching the properties of a strange new substance she had obtained, apparently some sort of drug known as baccaran.
She had been staying late in the lab for the last four days, and had just called it quits and headed home, when she received it: an alarm spell had been set off in the Academy! Quickly, she teleported to the academy, where the night watch reported to her. She spelled up and began searching the area. After checking various rooms in the Academy, she soon discovered that a number of magic items were missing from their storage room. This shouldn’t have been possible in view of the defenses Firiona had put in place around the vault.
Shortly afterwards, Lou was summoned and met with Firiona. He couldn’t explain it either. Even Arnold, expert rogue that he was, found nothing to explain the disappearances. However, he realized that another expert rogue might have been able to disable the magically-treated adamantine walls and thus find a way into the vault, by teleportation, etherealness or the like. After lengthy discussion, a plan came together: a stake-out.
Arnold and Green Arrow hid in the tunnel connecting the vault with one of the academy workshops, leaving the secret trap door in the vault open. Additional guards were stationed outside the vault. That evening, the guards began nodding off, when suddenly a creature popped in and out of sight. The guards saw it!
From the description the guards gave of the creature, it appeared that they were dealing with an ethereal filcher. But no ordinary filcher could have gotten into the vault. "Must be a high-level rogue," said Arnold. "A rogue filcher! I wonder: is it working for someone? Filchers don’t usually go into this line of work." Green Arrow recalled that there were tunnels under Darksea. "Maybe it’s hiding out in the tunnels, or maybe it accessed the vault from a tunnel. Did they ever get sealed off, or better yet, put under patrol?" The group decided to consult with the Darksea public works department in the morning.
Next morning, they were advised that in fact the tunnel system under Darksea had been largely mapped out and sealed off. Unfortunately, due to financial constraints during the early days of the town’s resettlement, the tunnel system had never been regularly patrolled. It had, however, been mapped. Careful examination of the map and consultation with a public works surveyor revealed that a branch of the tunnel system ended about 60 feet from the basement of the magic academy. Further exploration of the tunnel system revealed – filcher tracks! And on top of it all, several thefts from shops located in the north end of Darksea had also been reported. "We never did follow up on the tunnel system heading north out of Darksea," the public works department head noted. "Better keep up the stake-out," observed Arnold.
As it turned out, that very night the filcher showed up again–and this time it was caught in a dimensional anchor trap specially prepared by Firiona!
Firiona, with Lou, Arnold and the headmaster at hand, began to interrogate the creature. She cast Rary’s Telepathic Bond on the group, allowing communication with the filcher. "You won’t be harmed," Firiona began, "but I want the stolen items returned." "I am sorry," the filcher’s thoughts came back, "but I gave most of them to my friend."
"Who is your friend?" asked Firiona. "He is powerful, I work for him!" the filcher answered. "Who is "him"?" demanded Firiona. "If I tell you, will you let me go?" replied the filcher. Firiona said that she would, but that the creature must tell them where its lair was and then promise not to return to Darksea. The filcher agreed.
"He’s not like you," the filcher continued. "He meets me sometimes when I give him things. Sometimes at my home, more often near his home." Firiona promised to call it even if it revealed where both were. "He will be mad if I tell!" complained the creature. "I’ll be mad if you don’t tell!" said Firiona. The filcher, intimidated by Firiona’s response, decided to comply with her request. "There are tunnels that connect here and my place and my friend’s place," it said.
When showed the map of the tunnels under Darksea, the filcher said, "Not here! Farther away!" Further questioning revealed that the filcher had come from far beyond the north end of Darksea, through a long cavern and many tunnels. The creature provided a detailed description of the tunnel system leading to his lair and to that of his "friend", who was obviously his boss.
"How much of our loot is in your lair?" asked Arnold. "Only little things," answered the creature. "Big things my friend wanted." "Why did you come here?" Arnold continued. "My friend wanted to know who lives here now and wanted me to get him things." Firiona next asked, "What kind of creature is your friend?" "Hard to describe," said the filcher. "Ugly like you but very big mouth. Has claws though, not like you."
Satisfied, the adventurers let the creature go, after once more exacting a promise never to return.
The next day, a plan was formulated. Tunnels under the magic academy were to be filled in, and regular patrols of the remaining tunnel system under Darksea were to be instituted. Firiona, Arnold, Lou and Green Arrow commenced an investigation of the tunnel system in order to locate the filcher’s lair and that of its "friend". Green Arrow recalled that the tunnel system extended under the Quarrytown district, in the far north of Darksea, and that they had discovered the tunnels during the original Darksea exploration but had not followed them. He suggested that they begin there.
The four adventurers, together with two guards and a wheelbarrow, set out to Quarrytown. Entering the tunnel system, they advanced about five hundred feet when the tunnel suddenly expanded into a huge chamber, about four hundred feet long and a hundred feet wide. Arnold and Green Arrow set out to explore the chamber, and found large numbers of dead spiders, many of very large size. One corpse in particular was of a type not seen before: a huge spider-like monster, but with a humanoid head. Searching the chamber for signs of magic, Firiona detected multiple faint auras coming from under the huge corpse. Arnold probed under the corpse and found a mummified human hand, which appeared to be the source of the auras! The hand promptly went into Lou’s bag of holding.
Several hours’ exploration later, after coming to a fork in the main tunnel out of the spider chamber, the party located the filcher’s lair and recovered the creature’s loot. They sent much of the loot back to Darksea along with the guards and the wheelbarrow, then continued along the main tunnel. A second fork led left along a level course, or right heading upward. The party took the left fork. About three miles later, they reached a sheer cliff face, with a carved stairway heading downward. A difficult two hundred foot descent led to the cliff base. Green Arrow suggested returning to the previous branch not taken, but the rest of the party wanted to continue along the present path. And so they did, eventually reaching an underground gorge. Arnold climbed up the walls of the gorge while the rest of the party proceeded along the narrow bottom path.
About one hundred yards down the gorge, the party suddenly heard the sound of clinking chains. Coming toward them were four chain devils, led by a horned devil and accompanied by a hellcat. Devils on a hunting trip!
A fierce battle ensued, in which the party dispatched the hellcat, killed one of the chain devils, drove the others away, and finally slew the horned devil leader of the group. The party recovered a sizeable booty, including magical spiked chains, magic rings and a pouch of fine gems.
After the battle, the party decided to follow Green Arrow’s suggestion and return to the previous fork in the tunnel. Taking the right fork this time, the party entered a completely dark section, requiring a light spell by Firiona. A steep, rocky section was trapped, and the party set it off, suffering serious damage. This section emerged into a chamber in which a greater abyssal basilisk lurked! Fortunately, Green Arrow’s skill with the bow quickly destroyed the monster. Unfortunately, Arnold found an alarm which he was unable to disarm . . . .
A steep stairway at the far end of the chamber led to another upward-sloping tunnel, a spiral stairway, and another short tunnel. Here the party set off another trap. Lou and Firiona failed to resist the poisonous sufferfume vapors and were seriously impaired. Yet another trap awaited the party at the end of the tunnel: a fusillade of poisoned darts. Arnold, Green Arrow and Lou were struck by numerous darts and suffered serious losses to their dexterity. But at last, the party reached a door at the end of the tunnel, safely opened it, and found themselves in what could only be the entrance hall of the stronghold of the filcher’s friend.
The room, about forty feet long by thirty feet, with rough stone walls and a smooth stone floor, was lit with a few continual light torches but otherwise bare. Except for the sets of chains mounted on the walls at various points. One of which was attached to an old man.
Arnold, now invisible, searched the room for traps, finding nothing. He went to the old man and announced himself, then asked if he was hurt and needed help. "Captured," the old man said feebly. "So long, finally here." He asked to be unchained. Arnold, sensing no bad motive, promptly unchained him.
That was when the slaadi emerged from two secret doors and attacked!
Two slaadi, one green, one blue, charged the party. Not fast enough to prevent Firiona from getting off a maximized sonic orb as well as a quickened acid ball at the blue slaad. Unfortunately, the blue slaad proved immune to sonics, but still took heavy damage from the acid ball. The green slaad hit Arnold, apparently being able to see invisible objects, and forced him to retreat. Green Arrow’s arrow of death hit the green slaad, as well as a second arrow, but failed to fell the chaotic monster. Lou summoned a celestial griffon to aid the party, while the blue slaad slashed Firiona. The old man stood aside, watching.
Firiona responded to the blue slaad’s attack with a polar ray that froze the monster into icy oblivion. The green slaad jumped to the ceiling and cast greater darkness, turning the room black and forcing Green Arrow to hold his action. Lou began to chant, inspiring courage in the rest of the party, as the summoned griffon charged at the green slaad, darkness or no. Arnold made no further move from his place of retreat, but then, after Lou and the griffon flew up to the ceiling, he flanked the green slaad and brought in down with a well-placed backstab. As the party recovered, they heard noises in the dark, and tried to locate the old man they’d rescued.
The old man had vanished!
After several failures, the party succeeded in dispelling the darkness and casting daylight in the room. But as soon as the light appeared again, so to did another pair of slaads, spoiling to fight.
Firiona shape-changed into a planetar, while Green Arrow quaffed a potion of haste and Lou cast harmonic chorus on Firiona. And then another foe appeared. This one was another slaad, but no mere blue or green slaad he! This was clearly a deadly enemy–a death slaad. And not only a death slaad, but one wearing the same clothes as the "old man" whom the party had just liberated!
Thinking quickly, Firiona cast banishment, hoping to drive off some or all of the chaotic extra-planar creatures. The blue and green slaads were sent back to their home planes. The death slaad struggled to remain in place, but . . . he failed! With a wail, he too disappeared, driven off to the chaos of Limbo.
The battle won, the party expeditiously explored the death slaad’s underground compound. The room beyond the entrance hall was a well-furnished chamber filled with luxury items, fine furniture and expensive artworks. A sleeping chamber, a meditation room, a work room and an armory/treasury filled with booty (including some of their own items) appeared to complete the lair. But Arnold, always searching for things hidden, located a secret trap-door in the ceiling. This time, he also found the burnt-othur vapor trap that protected what lay beyond, so Firiona dimension door’d herself and Arnold into the upper room, where Arnold successfully disarmed the trap.
The upper room proved to be the most important find in the compound. A locked chest contained various powerful magic items. More significant was the large leather-bound atlas, written in an unknown language. Lou cast comprehend languages, and determined that the atlas, written in slaadi, included maps and descriptions of a large portion of the Underdark, running beneath the Yatil Mountains, Barrier Peaks, Lortmil Mountains, Crystalmist Mountains and Hellfurnaces–a length of about 2500 miles! The atlas showed the locations of twelve major drow cities, including the infamous stronghold of Erelhei-Cinlu, the Vault of the Drow, as well as forty-seven smaller settlements and outposts, and all known adits to the Underdark in the area covered.
There was also a table in the upper room, scattered with papers. Several letters were written in Undercommon and addressed to an "Uuishmuefzea"–apparently the name of the banished death slaad. Lou read these letters as well. The letters indicated that the death slaad had been working with an unnamed drow faction, and had been providing them for some time with information on the state of affairs in Darksea. One of the letters congratulated the slaad for having set up an organization in Darksea!
Clearly, this information was of major importance to the Enterprise.
A second trap-door at the far end of the upper chamber concealed a spiral staircase going downward into darkness.
Having taken everything of value from the death slaad’s lair, the party decided to destroy what remained, to discourage the slaad from reclaiming it. Firiona quickly shape-changed into a red dragon and flamed the complex. The party then headed down the spiral staircase, which proved to connect with a passage in the Underdark that eventually led to the cliff the party had previously descended via the stairs carved into it. The remaining journey back to Darksea was uneventful, and the party returned to report to the local agency of the Enterprise. They all then took some well-earned leasure time, while Firiona began to enchant some of the group’s weapons.
About a week later, a stranger with a strange tale arrived in Darksea, together with a griffon. And not just any griffon.
Edward’s griffon mount.
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