250319 A rose by any other name
General Summary
There are times, most learned of readers, when there are just too many things going on for this lowly writer to capture and document. So, I asked Steve, a wizard I know, to help with a combination of Mirror Image and Simulacrum. So far, I am just critiquing myself and myself and myself for hours and endless edits. This sentence took six seven eight hours to write.
“Bugger!” said Drogon as he huffed and puffed trying to keep up with the pace the merchant band of Half-Orcs had set. They moved at a fair clip along the dark, gloomy passage way. Slowly, the group slowed down letting the Half-Orcs run ahead, oblivious of their invisible charges. Both the Half-Orcs and the Band were glad to be the other side of The Black Gate. Such a huge fortification to be found so deep underground.
The Drow certainly had reason to hate the sunlight and those that dwelt there, that hatred had fermented to a new level over the millennia it seemed. Perhaps, the band should seek to understand and begin to pity the Drow. To make peace and even join these misunderstood dark fellows of all elven-kind in their dark exile.
Kurog grinned as he shook the blood of his latest Drow victim off his mighty war axe, another dark elf corpse to add to the piles around the room. Sentinel impassionate as always, surveyed the scene of carnage and nodded to herself and the dead dark-kin. Griff gagged on the smell of burning Drow meat and ozone, as his spellcasting ceased its crackling death. Jude’s rictus grin always showing the two sides at war within herself, one half crushed at the loss of life and the other revelling in the violence against the Drow. Thorg and Drogon walked amongst the bodies on the ground, stabbing those that showed any sign of life.
Oh sorry, I’ve done it again. The timeline is a little mixed up. One second, let me rewind two hours, ever patient reader. Where was I? Ah yes, peace and understanding. As the band ground their pace to a halt, they took stock of their location and predicament. Breathing? Tick. Ok that was a good place to be. They then set to debate on how they might enter the city, many ideas were discussed including the use of good ol’ grease paint and fake hair so as not to rely on magic to alter their appearances.
The problem was that there were too many variables with those that were not Elfin in nature. Jude offered to be a prisoner and was a little dismayed to see the excitement is everyone’s eyes at the thought of gagging her. In the end, they settled on becoming a mercenary band with the use of disguises and proceeded to walk down the passageway, Drogon always scouting ahead.
After a couple of hours, Drogon heard the distant sound of combat, so he signalled the others to halt as he sneaked up the road to investigate. He came across a scene of nine Drow engaged in hand-to-hand fighting with three Dragonborn Paladins and it looked like the Dragonborn were doing a very good job at more than holding their own against the overwhelming numbers before them.
The band quickly caught up, and without pausing or waiting for the others, Jude strode into the room and began to lay into the Drow that were attacking their potential allies. The Dragonborn were bellowing their war cries with draconic roars. The Drow never stood a chance, and true to their nature, they started to run away when they saw that the tide of battle had turned. However, they had taken their toll on the Paladins as one lay dead and bleeding on the rocky floor.
The leader of the Dragonborn, Va’ark, thanked the band for their assistance and a conversation ensued. The draconic humanoids explained that they were elite guards of the Theocracy of Chark, or at least they once were. They had discovered a Drow spy, Callistra, had managed to get her claws deep into the Theocracy and had been manipulating them for some time. Jude’s ears perked up at the mention of her home and she asked how Chark was, and if The One was still the major religion. The Paladin leader took some offence at this, exulting about the greatness of The One and that there was no other god.
Jude rolled her eyes and remembered why she had had to run from her home in the first place. It was zealots like this that had made it such an unsafe place to live if you were a cleric of Lathander, or any other god apart from The One. (See The Daily Bugle #8765, “Jude Ellstar’s flight from the Chark”)
It turned out that these guards had been exiled before they could reveal the truth, but not before they had tortured and killed Callistra. They had taken it upon themselves to pass through a portal they had found in Chark and it had led them here, to the Underdark, where they had been killing Drow ever since. Va’ark, it seemed, had led his team on a trail of self-sacrifice and destruction. His original group had been some ten Elite Paladins of The One and now they were but two.
They had found a token on Callistra and her two minions and all three were different. Va’ark showed them to Griff, who quickly ascertained that Callistra was of House Eilserv. The second was of the Fighter’s Society and the third was as yet unknown, that of a mummified hand. During the horrific torture of Callistra she had also revealed that House Eilserv was a “Heretic House”. Did that mean that they didn’t follow Lolth, as did the other Drow? Was there a plan within a plan?
He showed the group a map, which Griff copied quickly, of their journey. It was clear that they had entered the Underdark at a much different point to our Band. One much closer to their current position. Of note, they had fought their way through the Shrine of Koa Tua, after killing the mad ferryman at the river. Jude was shocked at the thought of these killing machines, slaughtering the peaceful and wonderful Koa Tua. Then wondered why she thought that. No matter, one to ponder later.
On their journey, the Dragonborn had come across a secret garden, but had passed through without hindrance as there had been nothing there to slaughter. He showed the adventurers on the map where it was. It was a mere half day’s travel back down one of the side tunnels, away from The Black Gate. Their new ally mentioned that the Eilserv token had glowed as they reached the garden. He was happy to give the band the tokens, dismissing them as trinkets. He was impatient to carry on his holy war against the Drow by marching further north and killing any and all he found, even though they were now but two. The band were all too happy to let these religious zealots carry on with their mission, as they had already decided to head back to investigate the garden. Each group bid the other well, and offered healing and food, but both seemed reticent to accept the help of the other. With a final roar, the Dragonborn marched onwards, north into the gloom.
For once, and I have to say beautiful reader very strange it was, the whole group agreed on the next course of action. Jude was so surprised that she carried on arguing anyway, as if they had all had differing opinions on the direction to proceed.
They walked back south down the passageway. To aid their adventuring, Griff cast Detect Magic and Sentinel had True Seeing. As Griff had the tokens out, he noticed that the mithril ones were all magic, including the now glowing and hot Eilserv one. Sentinel noticed a glowing green line in the rock ahead, probably signally a doorway. She took the token from Griff and as she neared the green lines of the doorway, it glowed brighter and brighter. The doorway revealed itself to all, when Sentinel touched the token to the rock and through it they could all see a beautiful garden. Well, nearly all.
At the centre of the garden was a square, sunken area of stone and in the centre of that, was a beautiful white marble statue of a naked female. Luthiel sighed at the continued objectivity of female kind, but even she was mildly entranced. The garden had swathes of the most exquisite flora and the floral scents where amazing. The sky was starlit and a huge crescent moon hung there, lighting the whole area. It was a true oasis in this perpetual darkness, a welcome sight for the weariest of eyes. At least it was for all but Sentinel, she was at the font and had taken a step inside but was locked still and couldn’t seem to move. Her eyes wide and her mouth open to a silent scream.
Sentinel backed out of the garden quickly and was unable to tell the group what it was that had her so spooked. It was clear that she was scared out of her wits and unable to mentally function. Now the group was supportive and understanding, but they had all backed a little way from Sentinel. It was clear that she had pooped in her britches. Jude tried to console the terrified bard, but was dry heaving between each word and gave up, just patting her on the back.
It took Sentinel a few moments to get herself under control and clean herself up. She was then able to tell the others what she had seen. There was no garden at all, but a desert plain under a purple sun. It was clear that this was a gateway to another plane of existence. In the centre, was not a statue at all but a Demon. It was then that they all heard a melodious female voice in their heads. “I need your help, come to me”. Now it has to be said again, that Jude pointed out that demons are pathological liars, they just cannot help their nature.
“Who are you and what do you want?”, the team shouted out to the disembodied voice. The voice called to them to come closer and hear her. Jude and Drogon moved into the room, neither particularly scared by the thought of a demon. The Voice carried on asking them to help find her lover’s eye. The Eye of Graz’zt no less, that of a Demon Prince. The Lord of Desire, the former lord of the Drow.
The demon revealed her name to be Selusa and Graz’zt was her consort and master. She revealed that Eilserv had failed her and she needed more people to help her gather the missing parts of her lover. Eclavdra, the matriarch of Eilserv was in possession of the Hand and the Sword of Graz’zt but had failed to find the last piece that would free the Demon Prince, the eye. He wanted to be free to reclaim his rightful place as Lord of the Drow and to wreak revenge on Lolth, his former lover. So, this was the heresy of House Eilserv!
All the time the demon was talking, Drogin and Jude got closer to the statue, as they did they saw that there were symbols marked on the ground that glowed gently at each point of the square. A flamberge sword, a mummified hand, a diamond and a stylised demon. Where these the four artifacts that were needed to free The Demon Prince Graz’zt? Selusa revealed that the eye was most likely in his old Temple, now a temple to Lolth in The Vault.
Drogon noticed a trapdoor in front of the statue and pointed this out to Jude. They worked together to detect magic and traps and found both on the trapdoor. With a degree of skill and luck the magic was dispelled and the trap was no longer detected. The voice urged Drogon and Jude to ignore the door and leave it alone. It was nothing to do with them and they should walk away. Jude smiled, if a demon told you not to do something then you should just go ahead and do it in her book.
She turned to open the door and found Drogon sitting on it with his arms crossed, refusing to move. Jude knew a charm when she saw one and cast Greater Restoration on the stout fellow. He immediately felt that sitting on the trapdoor was actually very unsafe and he needed to move quickly to get off of it. She and Drogon turned again to the trap door but this time they found Luthiel standing there arguing about why it would be such a bad idea.
Jude started to argue but then realised why it would be such a terrible idea to open that door and started to agree with Luthiel. During this time, Drogon sneaked his way to the trap door, opened it and slipped inside, leaving the others to argue up top. Instantly, Drogon was no longer part of the mind link, he had left the plane the others were in. The rest of the band had now entered the “garden” along with a fully recovered Sentinel. Kurog spotted Drogon entering the trap door so decided to follow him.
For those that are new to our serialisation of the adventures of the Tomb Robbing Assassins, you might not know that Kurog is bigger than Drogon, a lot bigger. Whilst the female demon hadn’t seen Drogon, she definitely saw the hulking half-orc, and she transformed into her real form. That of a huge red beautiful female demon, with bat-like wings and very long claws.
Whilst this was going on, Drogon found himself in a square room with a mirror on one wall and in a corner was one of the Deep Gnomes holding a bowl. Drogon could see “through” the mirror and see an opulent office. Drogon tried to throw a copper piece through the mirror but it bounced off. The ever-curious Drogon continued to fiddle with the mirror until a female figure appeared and he was caught.
“I have heard of you, what are you plans?” she asked. Drogon was compelled to answer and told her everything he knew. Although he tried not to. The figure was almost certainly that of Eclavdra and she laughed as Drogon told her they were all trying to thwart her plans for domination of the sunlit lands and the Underdark. She asked Drogon to help her beat Queen Mab, as she needed deniability and couldn’t outright fight her. Queen Mab is the matriarch of House Tauntor. She invited the whole party to come dine with her, once they enter the city of Erelhei-Cinlu. Drogon was then freed of Eclavdra’s mind and headed back up top.
However, up top things had turned to violence. The team rallied and Kurog and Thorg stepped forward to face the demon, hitting her with huge force, forcing Selusa to fly up out of reach. Griff began hunting through his spell books for just the right spell and didn’t notice that Jude had turned to him and cast a spell. She had banished Griff from this plane. Luthiel, also under the influence of the demon, buffed and healed Jude.
Now, Jude remembers this very clearly and she still has to go to counselling due to the mental trauma. Kurog saw that Jude was concentrating on her spell and laid into her, screaming that he has wanted to do this for some time. His grin wide as the axe bit into Jude. At first it looked like she was going to keep her concentration but it fell at the last, dropping Griff back into this plane again. Later Jude pointed out that this was ok, but why had the rest of the band formed an orderly queue, taking tickets to give the order they were all going to hit her.
With Griff back in action, he cast sleep on the demon, which promptly fell to earth, freeing Jude and Luthiel from her charm spells. The band then quickly surrounded the downed succubus and smashed her to oblivion, watching her fade as she died.
They were left with a lot of new information, no loot and a grumpy cleric. So, what was new. Griff pointed out that in theory he could actually loot Jude as she had been the enemy, but her raised eyebrow dissuaded him.
Until next week my friends. Until then be safe and try not to lose any limbs or contract any diseases.
Report Date
19 Mar 2025
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