Luthiel's Diary 7
General Summary
Ugh, seriously, you guys will NOT believe what just happened. I am SO beyond mortified, like, I could literally just disappear into thin air right now. How am I ever gonna face the others again?! Except, okay, the priestess and the halfling don't even seem to care about what they did, which is kinda weird. They're just, like, totally unfazed.
Seedra keeps saying it's NBD and that it happens to everyone eventually (thanks for that, Seedra, NOT!), and then she went on and on with these super embarrassing stories about the others doing totally cringe stuff when they were magically controlled, but still! It's just stuck in my head, you know?
OMG, you guys are NEVER gonna believe the day I just had. So, like, we ran into these other surface people today (well, from the surface, anyway - "normal" is SO not the word). We heard this major rumble in the hallway and it turned out to be a bunch of darkkin totally going at it with these three dragonkin. Part of me was like, "Let them fight it out and maybe they'll all just disappear," but NOOOO, the crazy priestess had to go charging in, so of course, the rest of us had to follow to, you know, stop her from doing something totally insane.
We ended up taking out a couple of darkkin (apparently we were Team Dragonkin for some reason?), and then the rest just bailed, like they always do. One of the dragonkin was already dead (meh, no biggie), but then Seedra started chatting with the other two. The convo was, like, totally not Mensa material, TBH. Turns out they're these super religious fanatics from Chalke (which I've seen from Lauraliel, but never actually been to). Apparently, these Chalkans are all obsessed with this new religion worshipping "The One," who they think is the ONLY real god. It's kinda like Averaigne, but, like, way bigger? Findarian from Lauraliel was telling me they've been having major drama with the Chalkans because of it - unlike in Averaigne where everyone's scared of the fey-woods, the Chalkans actually want to, like, destroy them. Which is why I was even in Lauraliel in the first place, to see if this was a problem and if we needed to send backup.
Anyway, these dragonkin had been kicked out of Chalke. Apparently, they were part of the royal bodyguard or something and found out the king was being controlled by this darkkin named Callistra, who's from House Eilservs, just like the creepy ones we found in the Fire Giant King's Halls. So, they offed Callistra, but then got exiled for it, so they ran to the underdark to get revenge. They'd fought their way all this way, even through the gross fishman shrine (I mean, props for getting through all that, I guess, but SO dumb when you could just, like, walk around it like we did). They started with twelve of them and now there were only two left. My opinion of both Chalkans and dragonkin? Not exactly improved. They're still totally obsessed with The One and were planning to just keep fighting darkkin until they, like, died. I saw Jude practically vibrating with annoyance, and Seedra had to give her this look to chill out (and the half-orc just kinda raised his axe, LOL). Apparently, she's got some history with The One. It all feels kinda Azurite-y to me.
The only halfway interesting thing they said was that they found this secret door in a side hallway when their silver Eilservs token started getting warm. It opened up into this "beautiful garden." They didn't find anything to kill in there, so they just LEFT. Seriously?! What is WRONG with their brains? Who finds a garden after being in this dark, gross place for days and just walks away?! It kinda made me wonder if maybe we've got the wrong idea about darkkin if they have gardens. Maybe it's full of, like, super poisonous plants or something, but even poisonous plants can be kinda pretty in a weird way, which I totally don't see darkkin appreciating.
Anyway, the priestess was all "Let's go investigate!" and Seedra was too, which is, like, a major shocker when they agree on something. And OBVIOUSLY, I really, really wanted to see this garden myself. Seedra somehow convinced the dragonkin to give us the tokens, and so we went, and pretty soon the token in my hand started to feel all warm and tingly. Seedra did some crazy spell on herself so she could see through illusions. The door totally opened when she touched the token to it, and we walked into the most beautiful and peaceful garden EVER! Okay, maybe not ever, but for the last couple of months, it was totally amaze. There was this statue of a girl in the middle, naked, DUH, so the two fighter guys and the creepy wizard were all ready to go have a perv-fest when suddenly Seedra just froze, like, totally unable to talk, and just started slowly backing towards the door. I was, like, "OMG, what's wrong?!" and went to help her when this super calm voice in my head was all, "It's okay, come on in!" So I turned around and went in. And then everyone else followed me, LOL. The halfling went straight up to the statue and started checking out the symbols on the base (an Eilservs dagger, a gem, a gross withered hand, and a demon) when Seedra finally managed to squeak out that nothing we were seeing was real, but she had no clue what anything actually was. And the whole time, the voice in my head was just going on and on about how everything was fine and I needed to help her, whoever "her" was.
Then, like she could read my mind or something, Seedra blurted out that this wasn't a garden at all, but a sandy desert under this weird purple sun, with these super pointy mountains in the distance. The statue in the middle of the "garden" was actually a demon in disguise, which I guess was where the voice was coming from. At this point, everyone seemed to hear the voice asking them to help her. Jude started grilling the statue/demon, who said her name was Salusa and she was the girlfriend of Grazz't, some demon lord who was locked up. She was looking for the Eye of Grazz't, this gem with crazy powers that was one of three things (along with his hand and sword) that would set him free. Apparently, Eclavdra, the head of House Eilservs, was supposed to be finding them for her, but she thought Eclavdra was totally shady. So, yeah, it looks like House Eilservs doesn't even worship that gross spider-lady Lolth, but this equally gross Grazz't (I mean, if darkkin worship him, he HAS to be gross, right?). Meanwhile, Drogon the halfling found this secret trapdoor, but instead of opening it like Jude wanted, he just sat on it! Jude went to move him, and the voice in my head told me to stop Jude, so I totally stepped between them and told her it would be, like, super rude and dumb to open it. And then Jude, like, totally agreed with me, which was weird. Suddenly, Kurog the half-orc showed up and tried to open the hatch, and the statue turned into this scary demon and attacked him, telling me and (get this!) Jude to attack him too! Jude actually banished the wizard guy, and then Kurog hit her with his axe, and then the wizard reappeared, and I had to heal Jude. In all the chaos, it's, like, totally not surprising that I didn't notice the halfling was gone. That seems to be a recurring theme for some reason.
Anyway, Kurog, Seedra, and the creepy fighter guy actually took out Salusa pretty fast, which at first was a total bummer, and then suddenly my head cleared and I realized she had been, like, totally manipulating me and wasn't my friend at all! She even made me act mean to my actual friends (well, Seedra at least, like, I'd rather die than be seen with any of the others - oops, bad choice of words). Anyway, the halfling came back out of the trapdoor and told us what he saw - he found a mirror and this darkkin lady appeared in it and started asking him questions. We're pretty sure it was Eclavdra, and Seedra thinks the halfling is totally under her control now, but then again, she also thinks the priestess is controlled by the fishman goddess, so she's kinda always expecting the worst. But I've gotta admit, the more I hang out with Seedra, the more I realize she's actually pretty smart, even though she's young, and she's usually right about this kind of stuff. But then I remember I was totally being controlled by the demon too, so I can't really blame the halfling for being under Eclavdra's control either.
So, we all went down into this little room under the trapdoor. Seedra hung a curtain over the mirror so no one could spy on us, and she convinced the half-orc that we couldn't take it for his "throne room" because it was too big and fragile. He was SO not happy about that. We didn't find anything behind the tapestries, but under the carpets, there was this summoning circle. The gnome holding the bowl was way more talkative now that Salusa was (hopefully) gone. He was super weak though, so we did some magic to heal him. He said his name was Aurum and he'd been kidnapped months ago and kept there against his will. Turns out he's actually part of Trosli's gang! He said Salusa was the "Interlocutor of Grazz't" and that the bowl (which felt super magical and totally evil to my second sight) was used to summon Grazz't when it was filled with blood. He also confirmed that Salusa used the mirror to talk to this super evil darkkin who could even cast spells through it (majorly bad news for the halfling).
We didn't find anything else in the room (the wizard seemed totally bummed about the lack of treasure) and left. Seedra used her truesight to look around and saw this figure coming towards us from far away. Figuring we were probably on some layer of the Abyss, she was all, "We need to get out of here, like, NOW!" We argued for a sec, and then the figure got way closer. We could see it was this tall, black demon dude with a huge sword, and suddenly everyone (except the priestess - I couldn't tell if she wanted to fight him or add him to her personal fan club) decided that leaving was a fantastic idea. We practically dragged Jude with us, reopened the door, and booked it. Seedra took one last look back and saw the demon make a new demon girl (or maybe the same one again?) appear out of nowhere and put her back on the statue base. Totally bad news, and definitely a good call to leave, I think.
Aurum was SO grateful for us saving him from certain doom, and Seedra totally guilt-tripped him into leading us close to the darkkin city (which he called the Vault) in return. He did, and took us through these tiny little side corridors for, like, two whole days. I thought the big hallways were bad, but these were even WORSE, knowing there were miles of rock above me and I was crawling through this tiny space with a smelly half-orc in front of me and this creepy human behind me trying to, like, grope me every chance he got. Eventually, we got back into one of the main hallways before I was seriously about to take out one of his eyes with my heel, and Aurum told us the Vault was just around the corner and this was as far as he was going for us, or anyone.
We thanked him and wished him luck getting back to his gang, and after a quick stop to fix our disguises and practice our fake stories, we headed into the Vault...
The entrance was this long canyon with caves on the sides that had all these weird movements in the shadows. I remembered the spiders we met before and totally got the chills. Above us, the full-on amazingness of the Vault opened up, and maybe it's just 'cause I haven't seen anything more than, like, forty feet above me for what feels like forever, but it totally took my breath away. The Vault must be miles wide, and the ceiling is at least a thousand feet up. It's covered in this stuff that gives off this dim light in these totally unreal purple and lilac colors. One huge patch shaped like a crescent moon was this radiant amethyst, and it made these little specks of red and turquoise light sparkle in the ceiling like stars. Under our feet, the path was made of crushed blue crystal that shimmered and shone in the weird light. This was SO one of those places where the Shadowfell is, like, right up against reality - it was the stuff of strange dreams and total nightmares all mixed together.
We snapped out of our staring and tried not to look like total tourists. The path ahead split into three - one went around either side of this little hill, and the third went up the hill to this dark and creepy tower on top. We were trying to decide whether to go up to the tower or just sneak around it. We're disguised as Lady Xyaxia, this Drow noble from House Despana (that's Seedra) on a trading trip from Menzoberanzan, with me as her assistant (we're both on these summoned lizard things), so we didn't want to stop if darkkin nobles wouldn't normally do that, in case it blew our cover. The priestess did some spell to see if avoiding the tower would be good or bad, and it said it would be bad, so we decided to try the tower. As we got closer to the crossroads, we saw this sign by the road to the tower that said in elvish, "All visitors proceed for customs checks," so we figured we probably counted.
We rode up (or walked, in the case of the others) and into the tower. There were some guards there who told us to leave our "mounts" there and go up to the tower where the bailiff would check us out. Seedra was SO smooth as she just tossed the reins of her lizard to the wizard and ordered him to take care of them. If I didn't know her better, I'd say she's actually enjoying playing this role. I am too, except for having to bleach my gorgeous hair and make my skin look all dull. I'm SO glad no one from back home can see me right now.
Anyway, the rest of us went up to meet the bailiff, who said his name was Xanthus. He didn't even question Seedra's story about being a trader from House Despana in Menzoberanzan, although he did say that even for a super religious house like Despana, the Vault was pretty into Lolth worship. Seedra totally played along about being glad Lolth was getting her due here and then gave Jude a death glare when she started to open her mouth to say something. Xanthus wanted to know who her "entourage" was, so she introduced me as Kaelkotha, also from House Despana, and the others as these half-orc mercenaries named (and this is where I realized Seedra totally hadn't thought of fake names beforehand) Kurog and Magyar. The halfling was (barely) disguised as a gnome, and she called him Aurum. Then she said she had a slave downstairs named Griffin and then, her imagination just totally gave up, a human mercenary named Gertrude. I saw Jude practically having a meltdown at the thought of being called Gertrude for the next few weeks, and Seedra just gave this amused little smile. The bailiff gave Seedra this list of rules to read, most of which we'd already broken and all of which were punishable by death, and warned us that we (as "Drow") had to wear our House tokens all the time in the Vault. The non-Drow all had to wear these bright green cloaks, which he gave us, and also these special goggles for anyone who didn't have darkvision. Then he just let us leave! Outside, in the weird light of the Vault, we realized the green cloaks glowed super brightly. So much for sneaking around.
We left the tower and took the road at the bottom of the hill that went across the Vault. From the road, we could see groups of slaves (totally obvious in their bright green cloaks) working in fields and these groves of giant mushrooms that were everywhere. At one point, a bunch of young Drow on lizards came racing down the road past us, totally looking like they were out causing trouble.
We soon got to these super fancy and otherworldly walls and the city gate. The guards waved us over and asked what our business was. Seedra was all snooty and the guard was immediately all respectful while she totally pumped him for info, pretending it had been centuries since she'd been there. His name was Uthkar, and he told us that since we had "slaves" with us, we couldn't use the "Way of Nobles" to get to our "mother-house" but had to use the "Way of Merchants" instead. She didn't dare ask where House Despana was in case it seemed suspicious. We did find out that the slave market was in the main city square, the magic-y area was north of the commercial district, and there was a place to stay in the East Gate District - he mentioned this place called the Succubus' Teat, which we'd seen when we spied on the assassin, although he suggested this other place nearby called the Libertine Arms was less gross.
Feeling like we'd gotten all the info we could without looking totally clueless, we rode in under the scary black gates of the city of Erelhei-Cinlu.
Report Date
26 Mar 2025
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