250226 Religious tolerance
General Summary
It’s not often that a writer gets to follow an infamous group, such as The Band of Tomb Robbing Assassins, for as long as I have and I have to say I am still stunned to this day as to how they ever became famous at all. Perhaps it is just the comedy of the hapless actions that lead them down a spiral of ineptitude and blind luck. Or perhaps there actually is a plan behind the utter chaos. Time will tell.
With an audible pop of displaced air, Jude reappeared exactly where she had been when she had touched the greenish-black stone statue of Blibdoolpoolp. Sea water dripping from her normally pristine armour, she had to pick bits of seaweed out of her underwear, all oblivious that the rest of the band were staring at her as she performed this action. She looked up, blushing as she fixed her leg plates back into place. She had some explaining to do about the previous two minutes.
She waded back into the water, and this time she wasn’t attacked by the leech things swimming around. She finally reached the south part of the pool and told her compatriots all about her meeting with the Sea Mother and the task she had sort of committed them all too ( See The Daily Bugle #86458 “Jude: Interview with a Damp Higher...Being”. They had to go and find this shoal of Blibdoolpoolp’s Elites in The Vault; a place they knew nothing about. However, they did know someone that might know its location. And with that, the party walked away from the Shrine heading to talk to their new fishy friend who would still be under the influence of the Geas spell.
They got to the door that the charmed Kuo Toa had been guarding, but he was no longer there, so they knocked on the door and asked to speak to him. The Kuo Toan eventually appeared and seemed a bit worried that he wasn’t where he was supposed to be, but proceeded to answer all of their questions.
The Vault was a cave in the Drow city of Erelhei-cinlu, not far from where the band currently were. The helpful fishman pointed it out for them on their map and then pointed out two other locations on the maps and named the two cities; Menzoberanzan and Khor. Whilst Menzoberanzan was still a populated and functioning Drow city, Khor was not. It had been abandoned centuries ago and was in ruins, a place of evil. He also explained what the bowls were for at the Ziggurat. It was expected that you paid a tribute and could collect shells, crab claws and lobsters from the other bowls.
The team wandered back to the pool and Jude retrieved crab claws for all, as these tokens were actually passes for the Kuo Toans, along with a secret hand action that mimicked lobster pincers. These two items would allow them to converse with any Kuo Toan and be recognised as a friend. She also picked up a lobster, and she took her prize to the Offering Pool they had found earlier. She threw it into the pool and received a nod from the watching Monitor.
Sentinel glanced sideways at Jude, wondering if she had a new god to worship. A slightly damper one. Sentinel tried to be subtle as she glanced at Jude’s neck, trying to ascertain if she had grown gills or was perhaps now scaly. Jude didn’t seem to care as she was too engrossed in finding out about this new religion. Dear reader, don’t panic she hadn’t converted, although she had spent a long time in the presence of Blibdoolpoolp hadn’t she...
The group decided to take a long rest to recharge and recuperate before they tackled the next part of their adventure. Primarily, how to get the hell out of this Shrine. They woke in the morning, feeling refreshed, and left back into the green glow of the Shrine of the Kuo Tua.
They headed north with an aim to find the High Priest of the shrine, Va-Guulgh. They soon came to an open chamber that would lead to the personal rooms of Va-Guulgh. It was guarded by ten huge Kuo Toa that soon fell to the charms and wit of the band’s one and only Sentinel, bard of bards. Griff looked on and saw that they really, really wanted Sentinel to just stop talking and they caved. One of the guards led the party onwards to another set of massive guards, truly impressive fishman specimens. Sentinel pushed Jude forward, telling the High Priest’s guards they should let us through as she was one of them.
They were finally led to the High Priest’s throne room, an opulent chamber full of things that the fairly austere Kuo Tua would find “nice”. On a low dais, towards the back of the room, was the throne of Va-Guulgh. On either side of the throne was a statue of Blibdoolpoolp, with three of the largest Kuo Tua the band had seen to date, by each statue.
Sentinel engaged in conversation with the High Priest and the team discovered a few tasty tidbits. House Noquar were religious fanatics and desired violence over anything else, their house symbol was a Nightmare. Noquar killed the Kuo Toans without a thought and Va-Guulgh was sick of it. The team had been told by their Fishy Geased Friend that there were two Drow prisoners here. Va-Guulgh denied this and said there was only one, a merchant called Duros, who was being held in the dungeons below. He has tried to cheat the Kuo Toa and was destined to be sacrificed to the Sea Mother. He was of House “Faffhomlin” and their symbol was a comet.
Va-Guulgh looked at Jude and was able to see that she had been “touched” by the Sea Mother. It took a few questions to get to exactly how. To Sentinel’s disappointment, Jude hadn’t grown gills but she had been blessed with the ability to breath under water. The price paid was she was under a Geas by the deity to do no harm or allow to be harmed any Kuo Tua. Seeing as they now had their crab claws and knew the mystical pincer symbol, that shouldn’t be an issue.
Va-Guulgh explained that he was always glad when others killed the Drow, as they could not risk open warfare with the dark elves. They openly traded, but it was always fractious with skirmishes happening often between the two races. He was more than glad to let the team go and visit the soon-to-be sacrificed Drow merchant. The band thanked the priest for his time and headed down to the dungeon area with a guide leading them.
They found a series of cell blocks with various creatures inside. Oddly, one of the cells contained a group of Undead, their glowing eyes peering back at Drogon as he looked inside. They found the unlucky Drow merchant, Duros, and he stood and came to the door to converse. He was very talkative as he knew his time was nearly up and wanted any chance at freedom. The band agreed to speak to the High Priest on his behalf if he gave them the information that they needed.
There was a lot of pleading but not a huge amount that the team didn’t already know. He did enlighten them on the symbol on the Drow map they had for the Kuo Tua. He also told them a bit about Khor. It was mostly ruined but there were people there, ruled by a renegade Drow called Juron Kassah. He had no house and didn’t follow Mab (Matriarch of House Tauntor therefore, they might not be Lolth worshippers either.
With nothing more to be gained, the band ascended the steps back to the Shrine level and returned to the High Priest. None of them felt like petitioning for the life of the Drow but they did ask as Jude was staring. A promise is a promise, she asserted. If they could provide an alternative then Va-Guulgh was open to freeing the merchant. Even Jude didn’t like that, so they decided to leave it and let the Drow die.
The priest came up to Jude and whispered into her ear. “If you wish to see the other Drow, you may. But only you as you’ve been sanctified by the Sea Mother herself”. Jude agreed and was led off by the Chief Whip to another opulent chamber that contained a female Drow. As soon as Jude entered, she felt her connection to her magic disappear. The female Drow stared at Jude and demanded to know to whom she was being subjected to now. Jude raised an eyebrow at the haughty tone and asked the same question back.
The Drow was Lady “Dereneel”, High Priestess of Lolth and didn’t want to be rescued by any lower being such as a human and especially not a human that worshiped a different god. What Va-Guulgh was doing with such a high value captive they could only surmise, one thing for sure is that they could never let he go and tell her house where she had been. A quandary for sure. The conversation didn’t really go anywhere. Jude walked out of the room and was presented with two tokens that had been in the possession of the Drow. One was a token of House Noquar and the other was a finely made and gem-studded spider. A token of the priesthood of Lolth perhaps?
As she returned to her group of friends, Jude shared her conversation with the others through the mind link. Everyone was up-to-date. The High Priest urged them all to go to the shrine area and join the other faithful, as the ceremony was about to begin. Seeing as there had been no bloodshed yet, and the very large Kuo Tua made it clear they had little choice, the band went and sat on the edge of the huge pool looking at the Twenty foot statue of Blibdoolpoolp. They were joined by about a thousand pilgrims, all chanting in praise of their beloved Sea Mother.
As they watched, the High Priest led a procession into the ziggurat from the north and the water began to froth. From the south another procession appeared, this one had Duros, tied and resigned to his fate. Huge water elementals appeared at each corner of the pool and bore witness to the prisoner being brought into the pool. The leeches swarmed the Drow, as he was held under the water. Whether he drowned or died from exsanguination was unclear, and honestly no one wanted to debate.
There was an almost overwhelming feeling of wrongness and evil pervading the whole chamber, an alien feeling, a disturbing one. The sacrifice had been accepted. The team stood and walked out of the north exit and followed the path back into the Underdark. All solemn and quiet, but all very glad to be out of the insanity of the Shrine of the Kuo Tua.
Report Date
26 Feb 2025
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