XXXIX. Meanwhile, Back at the Underdark

While Edward’s followers and cohort were heading to the Mistmarsh, Green Arrow and the others were receiving new instructions . . . . 

"Your mission, should you decide to accept it," said Tisiphone to Green Arrow and the others, "is to infiltrate the city of Erelhei-Cinlu." She paused while the party absorbed the significance of the mission. "I see that you recognize the name. Yes, the city of Erelhei-Cinlu. Also known," she declared portentously, "as the Vault of the Drow."

Tisiphone continued. "Once you have reached the city, you will establish identities, come and go as needed, gather information as opportunities permit, and await further instructions. You may encounter some of our agents once you have reached the city, but it is more likely that you will have to establish yourselves without aid. Do you accept the mission?"

After considering the implications of what they were being asked to do, the party eventually agreed to undertake the mission. "I knew it!" Tisiphone exclaimed. "You were all highly recommended for the job. The Director herself has the highest confidence in your abilities."

And so the party began its mission to the dreaded Vault of the Drow. Each of the adventurers prepared for a very long underground journey. Trade goods were secured and stowed (in the always-useful portable hole). Magic items were obtained, scrolls scribed, potions brewed, maps studied. It turned out that one of the portals on the Plane of Mirrors opened into a cave near Lake Spendlowe, which was relatively close to the Hellfurnaces and an adit to the Underdark.

Elana arranged for an ally (and fellow Enterprise agent) to accompany the group. His name was Arimir, he was partially descended from an air elemental, and he preferred to fly rather than walk.

Finally, the party was ready to set out. Using the mirror, they transported via the Plane of Mirrors to the cave, then proceeded from there into the Hellfurnaces over the next several days. In due course they reached the Underdark adit, without serious problems (merely a few scattered orcs and goblins).

They had forty miles or more of underground travel before them.

An everburning torch supplied sufficient light for the journey before the party. They had entered a primary passage, varying in width from twenty to thirty feet and in height from about fifteen to twenty feet. The passage’s surface was rocky in places, smooth in others, level in some parts, inclined more or less steeply elsewhere.

Their first day of travel proceeded relatively smoothly, marked only by encounters with two huge rust monsters, which were nevertheless easily dispatched, and a hapless hezrou demon, which only inflicted minor damage to the party with its unholy blight before falling to Green Arrow’s archery. After about six miles, the adventurers rested for the night.

An uneventful day followed, ending in an area large enough for Firiona to cast Leomund’s Secure Shelter for the evening camp. Next morning, after about ten hours’ travel through about sixteen miles of more or less inclined sections of the passage, the party reached a wide chamber. In the midst of the chamber, they noticed what appeared to be a large box.

The adventurers gathered around the box. Arimir, hovering above the box, decided to take a shot at it, in case it were trapped or otherwise dangerous. Arrows flew from his bow into the box, but didn’t set off any trap.

Instead, the "box", and the surrounding floor, came to life, reached up, and slapped Arimir right out of the air! He landed with a thud among the rest of the party. Instantly he attempted to get back on his feet, but lost his balance. The creature slapped him again for serious damage before the air-being was able to fly up to the ceiling, where he cast greater invisibility on himself.

The rest of the party had been knocked off balance by the strange creature as well. Miae also couldn’t regain her balance and suffered minor damage from the fall, so she stayed prone and drew her magic rapier, "Snoopy." Before she or the others could act, the creature reached up, hit Arimir again for more damage, and grappled him!

Green Arrow was able to get to his feet, but his attempt to fly up to the ceiling and crawl out between the ceiling and the top of creature failed, as he was unable to tumble through the narrow space. The creature slammed him for serious damage, but was unable to grapple the elven archer due to his ring of free movement!

Elana, Lina and Firiona, magic users all, were able to get to their feet. They all had the same idea: cast dimension door and escape from the creature. Which all three succeeded in doing.

Arimir, hearing the girls successfully escape the creature, attempted to do the same thing. Despite being grappled by the creature, he to was able to cast dimension door, and escaped. Miae was not so fortunate, failing again to find her balance. She remained prone, but quickly pulled out a potion of spider climb and quaffed it. But the creature seized its opportunity to seize Miae, successfully grappling and injuring the half-elven rogue.

Three arrows from Green Arrow’s bow struck home, heavily damaging the monster. Then in quick succession, empowered, maximized and empowered sonic orbs from Elana, Lina and Firiona blasted the weird creature into oblivion.

Miae was none too pleased at being left in the grasp of the monster while the rest of the party attacked it. "Thanks a lot, team," she snapped. "Good thing I’m not as breakable as that monster!" She healed Arimir anyway. The party searched the body of the monster and the surrounding room, finding a substantial stash of coins, gems and magic items. They all sat down and rested for a while and have lunch. Lina and Firiona cast shapechange and assumed human female form.

"What in the world was that thing, anyway?" asked Miae. "I think it was called a trapper," replied Firiona. "Not the most common monster these days. This one must have been here for ages, by the size of it."

The passage became a rough, steep incline downward. Portions had steps cut into the floor, which made it somewhat easier to proceed. About three and a half hours later, the party came to the entrance of a wide chamber, about one hundred feet across and about twenty high. The floor was somewhat rough, with what appeared to be excavation marks. Green Arrow quickly cast shield on himself and quaffed a potion of invisibility, then entered the chamber to look around. Miae followed behind him.

The walls of the chamber were streaked with deposits of minerals. And not just minerals. It seemed that the chamber was dug out of a vein of precious metals, interspersed with gems!

Miae began to appraise a large deposit of green gems. Meanwhile, Arimir and Lina entered the chamber, followed by Elana and Firiona. Lina cast false life on herself as a precaution.

The green gems proved to be emeralds, and Miae, Green Arrow and Elana began to pry large specimens out of the east wall of the chamber. But as soon as they began to do so, a voice called out.

"Put those gems back immediately!" it demanded. The party turned toward the voice, and confronted an elder xorn that had just emerged from the wall!

"Excuse me, but are these yours?" asked Green Arrow.

"As a matter of fact, they are," replied the xorn. At which point the party quickly put the gems back, with profuse apologies. They had no desire to tangle with a large and powerful creature at this point in their journey.

"That’s better. Now, if you wish to pass, the toll is one thousand gold pieces per person." Elana thought the toll rather high, and attempted diplomatically to get a reduction, but to no effect. "There are no innocent travelers here. Pay up or leave!" insisted the xorn.

Green Arrow, Firiona, Miae and Lina promptly got out their purses and paid the fee demanded of them. Elana, however, continued trying to play with words, then attempted to sneak through anyway, without paying. Her was was blocked, however, by the sudden appearance of seven more xorn.

Despite the reinforcements, Arimir continued trying to bluff the fee down. The xorns were having none of that. "For you, two thousand gold!" they exclaimed.

Firiona had had enough. "Dude, cough up," she advised Arimir. At last, the elemental scion backed off and produced the required fee. Elana likewise handed over her payment. "Wise decisions," said the elder xorn. "Now head on out and keep your hands to yourselves." And with that, all the xorns disappeared back into the stone around the chamber, and the party went on their way.

After a couple of miles of smooth passage, the party reached a stream about ten feet wide crossing their way. They managed to cross the stream without difficulty, then sat down on the other side to rest. Firiona identified the ring they had found among the trapper’s treasure as a minor ring of spell storing. "Nice!" Firiona exclaimed.

Continuing onward, a few miles later Elana suddenly felt a burning pain on her arm. She looked up to the tunnel ceiling, and saw it was covered with a dripping, evil-looking substance for about fifty feet. Green slime! Thinking quickly, Firiona shapechanged into a juvenile gold dragon, then breathed fire twice to kill the slime. Miae cast restoration on Elana to heal the damage she had taken to her constitution.

Several hours, two deep crevasses and a sinkhole later, the party reached a large section with smooth side openings, then entered a chamber about ninety feet wide. As a precaution, Green Arrow cast shield on himself, then quaffed a potion of invisibility and flew ten feet upward toward the ceiling. Firiona shapechanged to planetar form, while Lina took the shape of a pit fiend again. Miae turned invisible, then used Snoopy’s power to bless the rest of the party. Elana and Arimir cast greater invisibility. Arimir flew upward, joining Green Arrow.

Now spelled up, the party entered the chamber. Green Arrow cast dancing lights in front of each of the openings into the chamber. Suddenly the floor erupted in a fountain of dirt and rocks, and a huge delver emerged. The beast had red eyes and immediately assaulted the party. However, the adventurers were not caught by surprise. Elana quickly got off a sonic orb at the creature. Arimir’s cone of admixed cold/electricity blasted it for more damage. Miae readied a heal critical wounds spell in case the battle went badly. The delver’s return attacks went wide.

As the battle continued, Green Arrow sent a hail of arrows into the monster’s stony hide. Elana’s greater shout blasted the creature as well as the ceiling above it. Lina charged at the monster and attacked it, wounding it slightly with her weapon.

Arimir attempted to send another admixed cone at the monster, but to his dismay, the creature resisted the spell. In return, the creature swung at him, striking for heavy damage. Arimir felt a burning pain from the creature’s attack, beyond what seemed possible from an ordinary blow–as if his natural goodness itself were under assault. But then Firiona put an end to the threat with three solid blows to the monster.

Or at least, she thought the threat was ended. But another threat soon took its place. A few miles further down the passage, there suddenly emerged the huge bulk of a fiendish purple worm. Lina’s quick reaction, however, saved the party from further exertion. Being in pit fiend form, she was able to cause enough fear that even a huge purple worm was compelled to turn and flee!

A mile further along the passage, Miae suddenly signaled the party to halt. She detected magic–there was a magical alarm in the area. Elana quickly dispelled it, but unfortunately for the party, it had already served its purpose . . . .

The passage widened into a wide chamber about eighty feet long. About half way along the chamber, a passageway branched off to the party’s left, sloping upward. As the party entered, they suddenly found their minds assailed by some powerful force. Miae and Lina fell to the blast, but the others were able to resist it. Battle immediately began! Green Arrow immediately turned invisible, then flew up about fifteen feet, close to the ceiling of the chamber. He called out, "I see two holes in the ceiling!" One was about thirty feet from the chamber entrance to the party’s right (that is, east), the other about seventy feet to the party’s left, past the side passage. Arimir likewise flew up toward the ceiling. He attempted to spot magical or invisible objects, but saw nothing. Hovering near the ceiling, he readied an orb of electricity.

In planetar form, Firiona used her true seeing ability, but, like Arimir, saw nothing unusual, nor in particular any secret doors. In case anything were lurking above the ceiling, she hurled an acid ball into the eastern ceiling hole. Nothing happened.

Sudden movement in the side passage drew Arimir’s readied orb. It struck something in the passage: a troll, heavily armed and armored and looking to fight. But the orb merely illuminated the advancing figure, without doing any harm at all! It was as if the orb’s magic had no effect on the creature. Elana’s orb of sound with sonic might likewise dealt no damage to the troll. After casting the orb, Elana proceeded to the western ceiling hole and looked up, ready to deal with anything that might be lurking above.

Since magic didn’t appear to have any effect on the troll, Green Arrow decided to see if arrows would do the job. Four feathered shafts struck the troll, doing some minor damage to the regenerating monster. It backed up to a bend in the passage and gave an evil trollish look at the party. Aramir immediately cast wall of force to seal off the side passage, then demanded of the troll, "Who cast the anti-magic field in this tunnel?!" Unfortunately, he asked the question in common, which the troll did not understand. As if it would have answered anyway!

Firiona cast greater invisibility on herself, while Elana, looking westward into the side tunnel, used true seeing, which only showed the tunnel receding into the distance, gradually sloping upward and veering to the right.

Flying, Green Arrow landed near Elana, while Arimir went to pick up Miae and Firiona went to pick up Lina. The troll continued backing up in the tunnel.

Suddenly, Elana felt her mind assailed by a powerful mind blast! She was able to resist its malign influence, then turned around to confront a mind flayer, and apparently one with sorcerous powers, for it had teleported behind her before attacking! Worse, the flayer had a familiar with it–a stirge! The stirge instantly attacked Green Arrow, who was caught flat-footed. The elven archer felt himself suddenly muddle-headed and felt foolish and stupid. Elana was able, however, to fly upward using her magic boots, and from above to cast greater shout. It proved insufficient, however, as the mind flayer’s resistance defeated her spell.

The now dim-witted Green Arrow flew full-speed toward Firiona. Arimir’s see invisibility revealed the mind flayer and its stirge familiar, whom other party members couldn’t see. He quickly put Miae down and called out, "Over there! Get those monsters! Mind flayer and stirge!" A greater dispel magic cast by Firiona failed to knock down the mind flayer’s magical enhancements. However, the flayer’s greater dispel did succeed in bringing down the wall of force, allowing the troll fighter to burst into the chamber and head straight for Firiona! Elana’s greater dispel, aimed at the troll, did succeed in negating some of the creature’s magic. Having cast, Elana then headed toward the troll, intending to aid Firiona.

She needn’t have worried. Muddle-headed as Green Arrow was, he was still sufficiently astute to fire an epic arrow of death at the troll. Unfortunately, the monster saved against the arrow’s enchantment. Unfortunately for the troll, Green Arrow still had four more arrows, and all of them hit, one drilling it right between the eyes! The troll collapsed to the chamber floor, stone dead.

Arimir and Firiona flew into melee against the flayer, but only Arimir did any damage, and that minor. The flayer in turn backed into the side tunnel, then cast a spell that Firiona was able to recognize as a suggestion. "Suggestion to whom?" she wondered. Her wonderment was cut short as the stirge attacked and grappled her. But her question was answered when Elana attacked a new target: a beholder, who had joined the battle under the flayer’s suggestion, anti-magic eye ray in full force! Elana managed to hit the beholder with four hits from her two whips, but the beholder took only minor damage.

Speeding toward the flayer, Green Arrow quaffed a potion of invisibility and disappeared once again. Arimir, meanwhile, repositioned himself, then shot at the beholder, striking with one arrow. The beholder in turn moved back, but kept Firiona within the area of its anti-magic field. Firiona responded by leaving the anti-magic area and continuing her advance on the flayer. But as she did so, the stirge remained attached to her back and began to drain her of precious constitution. The flayer, alarmed at the direction of the battle, teleported to the hidden tunnel above the beholder.

The battle raged. Green Arrow stepped back and awaited Firiona’s next action. Arimir and Elana continued to target the beholder, striking the aberration with multiple arrows and deafening the monster with a greater shout. Firiona stabbed at the stirge on her back, wounding it but failing to dislodge it. The flayer sent a telepathic warning to the beholder to move into the main chamber, then cast true seeing, locating its invisible enemies. The flayer swiftly flew up into the eastern ceiling hole, taking damage in the process from Firiona’s attack.

The beholder was now exposed to Green Arrow’s fire, and his arrows, even magic-suppressed, were augmented by Arimir’s cone of cold/electricity and proved fatal to the aberration. Arimir then flew into the western side tunnel and waited. Firiona followed him, now in planetar form.

The mind flayer had had enough, and, true to its nature, abandoned its fallen minions. It teleported away from the battle, rescuing its stirge in the process, and was not seen again.

The battle was over. As it ended, Miae and Lena, now freed from the effects of the mind flayer’s mental attack, regained their senses. Miae cast restoration on Firiona, restoring her to full vigor.

The party, now back at strength, searched the remainder of the mind flayer’s stronghold, locating the troll’s quarters, the flayer’s treasury (emptied of treasure, apparently, by the fleeing mind flayer), and a hidden switch in the flayer’s quarters. The switch opened a secret door that led to a chamber in which was located a teleportation circle. "Looks like that flayer’s flown," observed Green Arrow.

Gathering what loot remained in the complex, the party rested briefly, then proceeded on their way back into the main passage.