"Crim" ??
"Crim" ??
Physical Description
Body Features
As a tiefling, she has horns and a tail; the horns are thorny, white and curl backward, while the tail is covered in blue fur.
Facial Features
Crim's eyes have pearl-colored irises, but do not possess visible pupils (as is common with some tieflings). Her hair is long, wavy, and blue.
Identifying Characteristics
Physical quirks
Crim is ambidextrous, but favors her right hand for casting and her left for physical weapon use.
Special abilities
Apparel & Accessories
Crim's clothes are made of simple red and brown cloths; her shirt is actually made from the blanket she was found in, though she prefers not to admit this.
Mental characteristics
Gender Identity
Crim places no particular interest in gender unless it can bring her an advantage, though has no qualms about being female.
Sexuality
Crim has little to no interest in sexuality; while she can appreciate beauty, she doesn't really see a point in it beyond how she can use it as information.
Education
Crim has only a basic formal education, having grown up as a street urchin. However, she has a large amount of practical experience with various topics, and is talented at ingratiating herself to others in order to learn from them or avoid punishment.
Mental Trauma
Crim has near-crippling brontophobia; whether natural or called forth, any thunder or lightning will almost certainly send her into a panicked state, abandoning all attack and defense to curl in on herself until the storm passes.
She also has an intense hatred for the person who injured her tail, and experiences nightmares of the event from time to time.
Personality Characteristics
Motivation
Crim wants to know who she is, why she has the power she does, and how to use the first two to protect her surrogate family (her party). As a stepping stone to that, she wants to establish a place that can act as refuge, laboratory, library and living space all at once; in other words, an arcane sanctum.
Savvies & Ineptitudes
Crim is an up-and-coming alchemist, and has gotten quite a bit of experience in using ingredients gathered in the field to create her potions. She is also quite knowledgeable about arcana and topics related to fiends.
Despite there being some carryover between alchemy and cooking, she is hopeless at meal preparation; a fact only exacerbated by the fact she likes her meat somewhat burnt. This often results in food that is not only subpar, but burnt; thus, she relies on rations or Hestan to get her food intake.
Personality Quirks
When eating meat, she prefers it burnt to at least some degree.
Social
Contacts & Relations
Has a twisted yet solid student-mentor bond with Princess Dandelion, her Archfey patron.
Family Ties
While she has no biological family to speak of, Crim has settled into a "big sister" role in regards to her party. Her former gang members, while not forgotten, are viewed more as cousins than siblings.
Religious Views
While she hasn't met any Guardians herself (yet), Crim has a healthy respect for supernatural beings of immense power; serving an Archfey does tend to inspire that. Regardless, while she does not worship any directly, she admires the good-aligned Guardians.
Social Aptitude
She is very much a people person, and takes a decent amount of pride in being able to strike up conversations with almost anyone.
Mannerisms
Likes to snap her fingers to activate her fire magic.
Hobbies & Pets
Crim has a pet mouse named "Nibbles", raised and trained while growing up in the orphanage near River Haven.
Wealth & Financial state
Having come from nothing, Crim clutches at every copper she can, knowing full well the difference money can make. However, when she finds something she deems valuable, she spends a large amount of gold quickly. Thus, she tends towards two extremes; swimming in coin or flat broke.
Kind yet manipulative tiefling girl. Having grown up an orphan without a real name, she thirsts for knowledge of all kinds, her identity being one of many pursuits. More than that, she yearns to fully understand and master the power within.
View Character Profile
Alignment
Neutral Good
Age
Unknown
Date of Birth
Unknown, presumed 1470 DR
Birthplace
Unknown, presumed near River Haven
Children
Current Residence
None
Gender
Female
Eyes
White
Hair
Blue
Skin Tone/Pigmentation
Fair
Height
5 ft 6 in
Weight
??
Founded Settlements
The Perils of Accounting
12th of Mirtul, 1492 DR
Didn't quite finish the story last time, and what with the two-headed orogs yesterday I haven't gotten around to it until now. So, let us continue...
The group discussed what to do, and a plan was formed: bring the former slaves and the fire snake to Gracklstugh, offer the fire snake as a potential replacement (but NOT slave) for their red dragon, and have the former slaves assist in rebuilding the city from Themberchaud's attack. As it turns out, we were even able to get them organized as a Builder's Guild, with one of our Lords' Alliance friends as the Head of the Guild and the former Hall of Sacred Scrolls as their guildhall. Should make the Alliance happy with us. But that came a bit later.
Going back to just after the beholder's death, we decided to "liberate" its treasure along with its captives. One of the captives helpfully informed us of a small side-room filled with statues and "that odd machine". Upon investigation, we discovered hundreds of intricately made, but ultimately worthless, foot tall statues. We also found a captive duodrone, which was experiencing...I suppose the closest thing to it would be a nervous breakdown. Seems the insanity pervading the Underdark has begun affecting constructs along with flesh-and-blood. Nevertheless, we were able to use one of the small diamonds that the beholder had in its treasure hoard (sorry, get to that in a bit) to restore its sanity. We released it, and learned that it was part of the Modron March that the others we'd met months ago had belonged to. It also told us that there was something called an "Orderer" some distance to the south. None of us knew what it was referring to, but since we were going to be headed in that direction soon, we decided to have it accompany us.
Anyway, going back to the treasure hoard. Remember the huge relief of the beholder in the ceiling? Within the pupil of the central eye was a vertical tunnel leading into a large treasure room. It wasn't the massive pile that Themberchaud had lazed upon, but it was no small thing, either. Over a thousand platinum pieces, and 15,000 gold pieces, plus a small assortment of magic items. We also found a small ledger, which gave us some bad news and worse news (and some neutral news, just to round things out).
The bad news was that the beholder was in huge amounts of debt with the Black Network (Zhentarim). It was all in there, clear as day; the beholder had borrowed the money in exchange for finding and delivering magic items to the group. However, once it got the items...it kept those too. Eventually, the Black Network realized that they wouldn't be getting any returns on their agreement; they broke off their business deal some eighteen months prior and hired an adventuring party to slay the beholder and deliver its collection to the Network. However, it seemed that most of the adventurers had been killed, with Shedrak and the two knights being bent to the beholder's will. Knowing all this, if we wanted to, we could've kept the treasure and not said a word to the Zhentarim...but such a prospect would have been foolish, given that the group was assisting our Underdark expedition. I did the calculations, and if we wanted to pay back the beholder's debts, with interest, and give the Black Network the "fair share" of treasure they desired for the expedition, we would have to give them the entire content of the treasure vault, excluding the gems and a single magic item.
It was a hard thing to swallow, but we knew the Black Network could make our lives very miserable if we crossed them. So we decided to keep one magic item (a robe of stars) and allocate the rest for giving to the Zhentarim. But that was merely the "bad" news. The "worse" news came next.
So it turned out that the slaves that Karazikar had were sent as "payments", from a few different sources. The largest one by far, however, was marked with a special symbol. Upon showing the symbol to Jorlan, he confirmed that it was a drow noble house (which I'd suspected), and that the symbol in question was of the DeVir house. Given that the house had long been annihilated, it could only have been one member of the house in particular.
Vizeran. Vizeran DeVir.
The neutral news was that the gemstones (split between diamonds and opals) were gifts from a dragon whose name none of us recognized (it looked like the words "Two" "Tank" "Common" mashed together, which doesn't make any sense).
Anyway, that was all of the treasure we could find (the hammer of banishment had not survived its fall of over 100 feet), but there was one last surprise. One of the former captives brought me a set of scales that Shedrak had stored in his sleeping area; they were made of silver, and suspected to be a magic item, but neither the beholder nor any of its captives had known how to use it. But when I touched both of its dishes, thinking to myself that I wanted to use it...
I rose into the air, and the scales in front of me. My hands flew out to my sides, hands upturned, as if to catch something. The colour washed out of everything around me (or so it seemed; that part didn't happen to any of those watching), and all I could see were the scales in front of me. I saw the dishes of the scale wobble, and a symbol formed in each of them; a green eye surrounded in thorns in the left dish, and a red gemstone at the center of a blue flame in the right dish. I couldn't explain why, but suddenly I felt like putting as much weight as I could on the left dish. As I thought this, I saw the left dish dip down as the eye glowed brighter; and as it did, the flame seemed to dim and flicker. And with that, both I and the scales fell back down.
I'll spare the suspense, and reveal what I've deduced since; somehow, that magic item "rebalanced" the Warlock and Sorcerer aspects within me. My Warlock abilities skyrocketed, but my Sorcerer abilities dipped extremely low as a result. No wonder the beholder or its captives couldn't work it; only someone with such a divided self could make use of the thing.
Anyway, with that done, I opened a teleportation circle leading back to Velkynvulfs, ushering the freed slaves through in groups of ten, followed by our expedition, with me last. We distributed people, treasure, and whatnot as described above, and went to deliver the eye to Vizeran. With our first two reagents collected, he began the first steps of the ritual, giving me some tutelage in magic as he did, as the process took the rest of that day and all of the next. I'll admit, I did learn a good amount, but I could never ignore what we found in that ledger.
We departed on the 10th, in search of the next reagents; eight angel feathers, each from a different angel, and the heart of a goristro (a powerful type of demon). Our destination was the Great Maze, which delighted our modron companion (we neglected to mention them to our archmage patron). And so we've been traveling.
But I don't spend my nights idle. Having the Aspect of the Moon within myself means that I have eight extra hours per day to plan. And so I'm beginning a plan that I know Tanebi won't approve of, but hopefully the rest might understand. I don't blame him, honestly, because it's exactly the kind of underhanded dealing that often lands individuals in so much trouble. Nevertheless, the plan must be made.
Because Vizeran must die.
The Eyes Had It
10th of Mirtul, 1492 DR
Where I last left off, we'd collected a purple worm egg for use in the ritual intended to rid the Underdark of its demonic infestation. We decided to take it straight back to Vizeran, rather than risk it while we went after the beholder. It cost us a couple extra days, but it was a worthwhile investment; we managed to convince Vizeran that use of the teleportation circle was vital to the completion of our mission. Thus, he allowed me to know the activation procedure. Still, something's bothering me; that teleportation circle is right outside of the tower. More convenient than miles away, true, but why not put the circle in his own tower? It would make more sense practically speaking, not to mention in case of emergencies. A topic worth thinking about for later.
In any event, we then sought out the beholder that Vizeran needed the central eye of. Jorlan and I pooled together every tip and trick we could think of in regards to beholders; that central eye, so vital to our ritual, was so important because of its antimagic power. This very same power makes them a nightmare to confront, and more than one overconfident caster has been killed or enslaved by an eye tyrant they underestimated. Our basic strategy boiled down to having Tanebi be our aerial distraction, while the rest of us peppered the aberration with projectiles. Such was the plan, anyway.
Along the way we encountered some aggressive trolls (my fire spells came in handy there), a friendship of eleven flumphs (friendship = pack, for reference), and a few lost dwarves that we were able to send along to Gauntlgrym. On the fifth day, we arrived at Karazikar's lair.
The place was a large series of vertical shafts connected by tunnels gouged out of the rock, with the shafts being filled with numerous rope bridges that connected the various tunnels. Looking up, we saw a massive relief of a beholder; its main body over the largest central shaft, with each additional eye atop the smaller side shafts. Impressive, and hopelessly vain; definitely a beholder's lair. On the way in, we noticed various humanoids, all wearing odd crowns that looked as if most of them had been painted. But we had little time to ponder this as we were met by the "Herald of Karazikar", Shedrak, a mage with ten eyes tattooed into his bald head. He asked what business we had with his master, and I babbled something vague and flattering that could get us a personal audience (tough to keep track of the lies sometimes, especially when I don't intend them to last long).
Thankfully, it worked enough to get us up to the top of the central shaft, where a large platform had been built. Here was the beholder, in the flesh, flanked by two knights that looked as if their armour had been splashed with white paint. The herald announced us, and the knights took notice, but the beholder didn't seem to much care; he was absorbed in manipulating some sort of large painting that seemed to alter based on some combination of movements and intention on the part of the beholder. Intriguing as it was, the beholder didn't seem particularly happy; one of the humanoids with crowns made a harsh (yet accurate) observation, and the beholder levitated a small hammer over to it, bonking it on the head and banishing it from existence for a full minute.
Eventually the beholder grew impatient enough with the painting that it slammed the thing down and turned to us. It asked us if we'd come to make a donation (we had not) or to "moderate" its captive audience (we had not). We then mentioned that we'd been searching in the Underdark for something, and the beholder asked if we were here to join its "stream" of thought (we certainly had not, but we pretended otherwise). Hestan attempted to do a martial arts performance with his crescent blade to ingratiate us, but the beholder accused us of "secretly being trolls", and attacked along with the mage and knights.
It shattered the wooden platform with a command word, giving us only a few moments to safely jump to a rope bridge. We made it, but so did the beholder's minions; being able to fly, it was in no danger itself. Tanebi's spectral wings unfurled and he flew at the beholder to keep its attention off of us. I engaged in a short magical duel with the mage (which the beholder called "Swiggins" rather than Shedrak, but who knows why), while Jaaski and Hestan fought off the knights in white paint.
It was a mess of a fight, not helped along by the fact that once the battle began to tip in our favor, the beholder began attempting to disintegrate the rope bridges, indifferent to its minions falling to their death as long as we did, too. Shedrak was slain, and I grabbed up his mage's pouch before it had a chance to fall from the bridge. The others slew one of the knights, and another failed to get clear of a falling rope bridge in time. Soon, the beholder was the only one left.
It became desperate, and caught a couple of us with a nasty surprise; it bounced some of its eye rays off of mirrors embedded into the cavern's walls, catching us from angles that we weren't able to react to in time. I was pulled right off of the bridge by the beholder's telekinesis ray, and once I was I didn't dare try to break free; if I had, it would've been 100 feet straight down. Thankfully, the rest of the group was able to combine their efforts to save me; Jorlan and Hestan pelted the beholder's body with arrows, and just as its concentration broke, Tanebi swooped in and caught me, bringing us both back to the bridge.
The beholder then, seeing that it would not be the victor if things continued, tried to flee. However, we were able to bombard it with enough arrows, bolts, and thrown weapons that it not only didn't escape, it died looking like a pincushion. Using its eyestalks, we were able to heave it onto one of the remaining rope bridges to retrieve its central eye. It was probably a more tension-filled moment than the actual battle; one errant flick of the knife, one shake of the hand holding it, and all that effort would have been wasted. Nevertheless, we retrieved our prize, storing it in the glass jar that Vizeran had supplied to us. I collected the ten eyestalks for myself, knowing that they would come in handy at a later time. We knew we couldn't leave without..."appropriating" the beholder's treasure hoard, though a greater issue faced us as we saw the faces of those humanoids with strange crowns. Looking between us and the slain beholder. And then BOWING to us. All one hundred of them.
The question arose: what would we do with those hundred people the eye tyrant had enslaved for so long?
Purple Egg Purloiners
26th of Tarsakh, 1492 DR
Continuing from last time, we'd finally made it to the library. And since the matter of getting rid of the demons was rather pressing, I didn't get to indulge my obsessions and stay there a month like I would be tempted to. We met Vizeran (and his death slaad bodyguard), and he revealed to us that he had a plan. I said last time that I'd get into it this entry, and thus I do.
The demons were summoned into the Underdark thanks to a botched ritual conducted by the Archmage of Menzoberranzan (a useful political tidbit, given we'll be going there eventually). The summoning crushed a good portion of the City of Spiders, and the conjured demons eventually left to rampage elsewhere. Hunting down each and every demon would take far too much time, not to mention there are still several demon lords wandering about. Thus, Vizeran seeks to make use of a ritual to force all the demons together in one place, have them battle each other until only one remains, and then swoop in and finish off the weakened fiend. A simple yet elegant ritual, I must admit; while the demons will be sent back to the Abyss rather than killed, it still brings us back to status quo, which is certainly preferable to losing a chunk of the Material Plane to the Abyss.
To form an alliance, he offered us a few magical items and to tutor me in matters of the arcane; in exchange, we must collect the reagents needed for the ritual, which he will perform upon completing all preparations. His tower, Araj, will be a temporary base, and we can treat it as such provided that we keep it a secret amongst ourselves; apparently he was exiled from the City of Spiders long ago. Keep that in mind, I'll come back to it later. Anyway, we agreed, given that we wouldn't get very far without the alliance.
In order to concoct the ritual, we need seven reagents and details on the original ritual to find the optimal way to undo it. To save us time and attention, he decided to give us two objectives at a time, the first of which were:
The intact and unhatched egg of a purple worm; for channeling great physical power
The central eye of a beholder; to overcome magical forces and resistances
With a good idea where to find each, he sent us towards the area of the Underdark known as The Wormwrithings, where purple worms are known to make their nests. Along the way we encountered an umber hulk (which none of us remember much of, though I did manage to collect its eyes) and got chased by an adult purple worm (and avoided being eaten). On getting close, we heard a loud voice ring out, warning us to turn back and come no closer. Naturally, we disobeyed. The culprit turned out to be a young drow girl, Hanne Hallen, using minor illusion magic. She'd been separated from her mother's egg-hunting party, and was starving. We gave the poor girl some of our rations and water, and promised to help reunite her with her mother if possible. Grateful, she led us into the purple worm egg chamber.
That promise turned out to be rather easy, given that her mother and their party arrived from the other side of the chamber. Hanne called out to her mother, and ran over to her. Unfortunately this caught the attention of a purple worm, which burst from the chamber floor to rid the place of the threats to its eggs. Thus, both our groups fought the thing.
Despite the small hiccup of one of us being swallowed briefly (astounding as it sounds I don't remember who it was, but I'm somewhat sure it wasn't me), we emerged victorious. Though the drow were mistrustful, Hanne eagerly told her mother how we'd rescued her and shared our food. As a further peace offering, we helped them get their own purple worm egg before our own. Hanne's mother, Zhora, repaid this second point by showing us how to collect uncut gems from the worm's gullet (which our two groups split evenly). She told us that for saving her daughter, we could call upon her as an ally in Menzoberranzan and she would repay us however she could. Tanebi was delighted for the gratitude and to reunite mother and daughter; not to sound horrible, but I found having a drow of Menzoberranzan in our debt the greater prize.
Anyway, we've decided to bring our egg back to Araj rather than risk it while fighting against a beholder. Hopefully the return trip will be a good investment; I've been hoping that Vizeran can share the sigil sequence with the teleportation circle near Araj to expedite matters.
Before I go, though, I need to get this off my chest (and a good thing only I can decode these entries, because this might endanger our alliance). Vizeran is incredibly knowledgeable and powerful, and his experience is a boon beyond what we could've hoped for.
That said, I don't trust him.
Make no mistake, I'll learn everything I can from him. Every scrap of spell knowledge, every secret of arcane talent, I will listen to with my full attention. I will make that knowledge my own, and grow stronger from it. However, I'm beginning to prepare for his inevitable betrayal. I can tell that he intends to use this ritual to further his own goals, though what those might be I haven't a clue. He's good at hiding it; under normal circumstances I wouldn't have been able to pick up on it. But he's been twisted by the demonic madness too, much as he doesn't want to admit it. I've warned the others that we shouldn't trust him too much, though I suppose I'll need to get some kind of proof before I can make my case more earnestly.
Archmage Ally
17th of Tarsakh, 1492 DR
Things keep getting more and more interesting. Not that I expected different, but it's getting hard to keep up with some things. Picking up from last time...
It's a good thing I write this journal in cipher, because that egg hatched into a perfectly normal red dragon. That fact alone would make us a target to most magical talents, whether they wanted to take the dragon for themselves or kill it. That said, I'm not about to let them do either. The dragon may be a bit pushy and strong-willed, but she's got a thirst for knowledge (especially knowledge about magic) that I can certainly respect. We've decided that the five of us (Jaaski, Tanebi, Hestan, Jorlan, and myself) should be the only ones who know about the dragon. It's not just random wizards or cultists that would be after us; if Gracklstugh found out about our new addition, they'd take her for themselves, and that whole cycle would start anew (not to mention they'd want us dead for taking the egg).
Besides that, we got some rest and went back the next day to sort out the rebuilding and what we could collect from the dragon's remains. With Jaaski's help, I was able to collect the draconis fundamentum and a good amount of blood, along with three claws and five fangs. The eyes were no good, though that was to be expected; even a dragon has certain parts that decompose quickly, and that's without whatever Abyssal corruption was rampaging through its body. Speaking of, I was a little bit worried about that when all of us were altered by the dragon's death throes, but it seems that the magic that it expelled was untainted by demonic essence. So far, at any rate.
After that, we decided it was time to continue on toward the library of Gravenhollow. We determined that it would be a shorter trip from Gauntlgrym than Mantol-Derith, so we returned to its teleportation circle so that we could begin the journey from there.
During the first week, one of our number went missing for a time (we ended up finding them, having fallen down a short crevice and being knocked out), and we fought a trio of barlguras. We triumphed, but to my great worry, the last one did not dissolve into ichor like the others. That does not bode well for the Underdark; my assumption is that it indicates the demonic incursion is slowly warping the place to be more like the Abyss. In a worst case scenario, the whole of the Underdark might very well be absorbed into one of the layers of the Abyss...
Anyway, the second week started off much better; we managed to find Amarith Coppervein, a missing member of the Emerald Enclave that Sladis had been looking for. She'd gone a bit mad thanks to the demonic influence, making her own zoo with a rust monster, fire snake, and winged kobold. We managed to restore her sanity, and get her to let the "exhibits" go free (though only after we made very sure that the rust monster had enough iron to keep it from following us). She decided to accompany us until we made our next trip to Gauntlgrym.
The week was not to end without incident, however; one of our group was grabbed by a shadow demon. Upon pursuing it, we were led into a trap by other shadow demons; we managed to overcome them, but again there was something left behind by the demons. This time it was only one of their horns, thankfully, but the fact that it wasn't a unique occurrence is very troubling.
Only two days later, we managed to find a small cottage just sitting in the middle of a moderately-sized cavern. Its occupant, who appeared to be a Floof like Jaaski, came out to greet us, and during the course of conversation asked if it could travel to Gravenhollow with us. We cottoned on quickly that something was off, and we were able to out the individual as an arcanaloth; a type of fiend that belongs to the yugoloth category. It attempted to force the issue by surrounding us with a contingent of undead servants, but we still refused, and a fight ensued. We won (and the yugoloth dissolved into ichor, which could be both good and bad in the long run). We decided to toss the cottage, and found to our amazement that the interior was far larger than the exterior; after all, it had two basements underneath it. Though we had to contend with a few trapped spellbooks, we were able to collect a large amount of loot both magical and mundane, and resumed our trek to the library.
Three days out, Ghazrim's ring began to glow, and a number of Giant runes began to float around it. One of our number was able to translate; they read "Only the light of knowledge may illuminate the truth." This was a good sign, but the best was yet to come. On finally catching sight of Gravenhollow itself, with its massive columns and stone doors, the crystal that we'd been gifted by the Stonespeaker Hgraam began to shine with a weak grey light, and its whole surface became covered with Giant runes. These read: "In ages past, we spoke of the Dreamlands. Long have I been waiting for you, and hoping. Now, my dear friends, you will understand, and the circle may close at last."
At first I didn't understand those words. But the "Inner Circle" (the same group who keep the secret of our red dragon companion) was invited in, and we explored the place. Now, let me state that I have seen a few libraries in my time. Some were small caches of secret knowledge, while others were vast storehouses of information. Gravenhollow could have held every library I've ever known and more within its halls; unlike the cottage from before, this truly was a place whose interior far outweighed its exterior. And as we explored, we saw echoes. Echoes of all the visitors of the library. Some who had visited long ago, or some that had yet to visit. For Gravenhollow knows those who enter its halls regardless of time, and the past can meet with the future. Hgraam had come to the library as a young man, centuries ago, and had met with our echoes. Then, when we entered, we met with his echo, closing the circle of information.
Suddenly I understood. I understood why Hgraam had looked at us like old friends when we first met him. I understood why Grazzt had sent us away, unharmed and uncorrupted, from his Palace of Pleasure (for we met his echo in the library as well). You could imagine my unbridled terror when we met with an echo of me, unsure of what I should ask or what I should say. The other me said nothing, and winked at us, but...something seemed different about her. Me. I don't know.
In our studies, we found lots of information, and witnessed several visions of what had caused the demonic incursion. I'll get into that more next entry. The more pressing matter is that while at the library, we met with a drow archmage called Vizeran DeVir, closely followed by his death slaad bodyguard. He said he wanted the same thing we did; to banish the demons back to the Abyss and prevent the Underdark from becoming lost to demonic madness. And so, we decided to hear him out, traveling with him to his mage's tower.
We'd been in the library for the better part of a week, but mere hours had passed for the rest of our group outside. Talk about disorienting. Regardless, Vizeran teleported us near his tower, and we went in to discuss the terms of alliance. Since this entry is getting rather long as is, I'll pick up there next time.
The Wyrm's Wrath
25th of Ches, 1492 DR
A sage once told me that the worst curse isn't given by fiends or fey, but friendly folk. It is the blessing "may you live in interesting times". And the times only seem to be getting more and more interesting.
After the capture of Velkynvelve, we decided to replenish the nearly-empty armory by striking up a deal in Gracklstugh. Using the settlement's teleportation circle, I brought Jaaski, Tanebi, Hestan, Jorlan, Blinks, and myself along. But once we arrived, we found ourselves in another mess. Errde Blackskull, leader of the Steel Guard, had been arrested under suspicion of conspiracy to commit treason. We were able to get time to talk to her, and it turns out that without the red dragon egg, things only got more desperate for the Keepers of the Flame. They attacked the Gray Ghosts more viciously, who retaliated more viciously, until finally both decided that the Steel Guard were hampering their feud too much for their tastes. Thus, the accusations against Errde. Oddly, however, the Council of Savants, the group that represented the derro's interests in Gracklstugh, put forth their own accusation. Since they didn't have anything to gain that we could tell, it seemed quite suspicious. Thus, we made a trip to the Hall of Sacred Scrolls to investigate.
On the way, we were accosted by derro gone violently mad. With no way to talk them down, we were forced to dispatch of them. At that point, we noticed that despite the group that had harried us, the derro dwellings seemed to be deserted. We hurried to the Hall of Sacred Scrolls quicker, with Jaaski cowing the Hall's sentries after she'd more or less roared at them. We entered, and the doors slammed shut behind us. I lit up a flame in my hand, and that's when we saw it.
Blood. Blood everywhere, splashed without pattern or purpose. We were in some sort of atrium, and beyond lay the quarters for the thirty-six members of the Council. Several of the doors (thirteen in total) bore a symbol that looked like this.
Y
Those that did held rooms beyond that were undisturbed; pristine, even. In one we found an odd book, with a collection of names within it. Page after page of names were listed, and near the back was some sort of symbol. Whatever it was seemed to affect Jaaski; she seemed to shake it off, but the experience worried me all the same. After what we found later, I wonder...
The rooms without the mark bore signs of struggle, as if their occupants were dragged out of them, kicking and screaming all the way. The rooms held no blood or other bits within them, though, nor any treasure; possibly they were needed for a ritual, given what we saw later.
Even without any obvious treasure, it was clear that these derro were living in extreme comfort; I know wizards with less opulence than those ash-skinned maniacs. What's more, the area within the Hall of Sacred Scrolls was far greater than without; I spoke that it was likely the Council had created a demiplane to house their Hall, and that they had at least enough magic power to be able to create such, which made them dangerous.
With no other way but forward, we continued past the living quarters to a set of double doors.
Past them was a large area that looked as if it was where all of the derro came to worship some sort of Guardian. Which one, I couldn't say, given that strewn everywhere were corpses, treasure, and blood atop the whole thing, with only the central pathway clean enough to travel on. So, not a lot of context clues. Ahead of us were a dozen derro, dressed in robes. I assume they were members of the Council in name, but cultists in deed. They spoke of a ritual, and how Demogorgon would come to "bless" both them and the Wyrmsmith. Then, to complete their ritual, they told us we were going to become the final sacrifices. Jaaski mocked them with vigor, and much to my surprise, it actually seemed to harm them somehow. There was little time to examine the situation, however, as that spurred them to attack us.
It was a tough fight, but thanks to the strength of my comrades (and a few well-chosen fireballs from yours truly), the cultists were dead. Hearing sarcastic applause behind us, we turned to find a thirteenth derro approaching, holding a small statuette resembling a two-headed dragon. He said that we were too late, that things were already in motion; the usual claptrap. Once more, Jaaski hurled an insult that seemed to actually cause him harm (I suspect psychic damage). The fight against him was much quicker; upon his death, we felt the earth beneath us begin to rumble. Jaaski rushed forward, slicing the derro's head off, but it didn't stop the rumbling. Confused, she picked up the statuette, upon which we found ourselves transported outside the entrance of the Hall, the sentries' bodies slumped next to the door. Overhead, we heard a roar of rage and pain. We looked up, and there we saw the results of the cultists' ritual.
Themberchaud, now with two heads and driven mad. He began attacking the city, using his breath weapon to blast the area or clawing some of the structures. Tanebi, having been trained in knowing how to battle dragons back at his monastery, took us through the surprisingly simple procedure. First, we needed a way to take away the dragon's air superiority; either by blinding it and thus forcing it to land, restraining it so that its wings couldn't catch the air, or crippling its wings and forcing it down to ground. What with the two heads and not nearly enough rope at hand, we decided on the third option. Secondly, we needed to be mindful of magic spells, though without knowing much about Themberchaud's magic aptitude, we weren't sure what spells to expect.
Since Tanebi was the only one who could fly under his own power (making me wish even harder for wings), he volunteered to act as a decoy, pulling the dragon towards us so that we could get Jaaski on top of it to attack the wings. Using my Stone of Controlling Earth Elementals, I called forth an earth elemental, using its strength to aid Jaaski in her temporary flight. The plan worked surprisingly well; Tanebi displayed the emblem of Bahamut on his shield to get Themberchaud's attention and then brought it to swoop over us, whereupon the earth elemental threw Jaaski up with all its might as she jumped with all of hers. Though she stumbled a bit on the landing, she otherwise made it onto the dragon flawlessly.
Jaaski began hacking away at the wings, but the unsure footing made it difficult for her to aim a solid strike, and both she and Tanebi were summarily bathed in the dragon's fire breath (the two heads made it possible to breathe both forward and backward). Out of reflex she called for some magical health; on hearing that, Themberchaud turned one of its heads toward us, and wheeled around to swoop on us. He began to build up energy to carpet us in flame, but Jaaski refused to let him do it, slamming her axe so deeply into one of his wing stems it almost severed the bone. The injury sent the dragon plummeting like a rock, and Jaaski was thrown off as it crashed down. With Tanebi coming down to land, he and Jaaski took up positions near the heads of Themberchaud, letting us bring up the rear. But the back of a dragon is no safe zone, and he began to slam his tail around, with both Hestan and the earth elemental taking solid hits. The dragon wasn't shy about using his magic, either; he cast magic missile from his wing phalanges, and eyebite from both sets of eyes. Unfortunately, with the fireballs I'd used on the cultists earlier I wasn't able to counterspell any of the dragon's magic, so we took quite a beating.
The battle was incredibly hectic, but a few highlights were: Hestan using his pact magic to slam so much force into the dragon to knock it flat, Tanebi smiting with enough power to punch through the dragon's body, Jorlan peppering its wings with a tight cluster of arrows, and even Blinks, our faithful blink dog, risking life and limb to put a stop to the mad dragon, hopping onto its back and biting into the wounds that Jaaski had left. But by far the best strike was the last; Jaaski slammed her axe into the dragon's ribcage hard enough to shatter a few of its ribs, then slashed through the breakage to rip his organs to pieces. The dragon let out a bellow of pain, and let out its last breath, scorching all of us. Jaaski told us that at the moment the life left its eyes, she glimpsed a hint of gratitude. Perhaps, in those final moments, Themberchaud truly knew freedom.
His last breath changed all of us. I could feel its magic clinging to me like sweat, but unlike sweat, it seemed to draw something out of me. Something...buried, that not even I knew I had. I'm still sorting it out, but I haven't had time to experiment with it yet. Jaaski's change was far more noticeable; her senses had been amplified so much as to be like the dragon's, granting her a sort of blind-sight, and her eyes began to flicker with a glow, as if her irises had become blue flames. Hestan and I both gained patches of scales on our skin; on his forearms, and on my neck. His change was similar to Jaaski's, in that his senses seemed to have been sharpened, but no blind-sight that I know of. Jorlan had a lock of his hair turn blood-red, and he found himself able to speak, read, and write Draconic, which seemed to be quite the startling experience (there may be more, but again, little time to experiment).
After the corrupted dragon's death, the city had been saved, though fires still raged. Jaaski summoned her bonded winter wolf, whose name escapes me, and it set off to help quell the raging flames. The rest of us headed out to stop the fires and tend to the wounded, where we encountered Gartokkar of the Keepers of the Flame. While the Keepers were grateful that the city had been spared, they regretted the loss of their Wyrmsmith, saying that they had no idea how the city's forging would continue without him. Which was a problem for us, given that the whole reason we came to the city was that we were hoping for weapons and armor. Tanebi vowed that we would look for some sort of replacement in our travels, though they didn't seem all that comforted, and left with all the air of heading to a funeral, giving a vague assurance they'd talk to the Deepking about a trade agreement.
With the evidence in hand, we were able to prove that the cultist faction of the Council of Savants were behind the ritual to warp Themberchaud with Abyssal magic. With a little...clever interpretation of facts, I was also able to convince them that they'd also been the ones to end up with the missing red dragon egg, which they'd used in their ritual (though in all fairness, they absolutely would have if they'd managed to get the egg). Thus, Errde Blackskull was released and cleared of all charges.
The Steel Guard, unlike the Keepers, were astoundingly accommodating given their leader's release. Errde thanked us eagerly, and when she heard of our need for weapons and gear, she gave us some of the Steel Guard's own equipment (though she also vividly swore us to secrecy). With at least one problem solved, we took our gear with us towards the teleportation circle, and made preparations to return to Velkynvelve. I was so sure we were done with our trials for the day.
I should have realized my folly; the day wasn't even over yet.
In all the chaos of the fight, and its aftermath, I'd forgotten that Blinks had been right on top of Themberchaud as the dragon breathed his last. He entered the teleportation room with us, balancing an orb of magical energy on his nose. The orb looked like flames, and there was a gentle heat radiating from it as it rose up into the air. There was a rustling that came from Jaaski's bag of holding, and when she opened the bag to examine it, the orb flew inside. There was a rummaging, and then the bag disgorged the red dragon egg that was held within.
I swear I felt my heart stop when the egg, almost glowing with heat, began to rattle.
I hurried through the preparations for teleportation, and took us all to Velkynvelve. Hestan and Tanebi brought the shipment of supplies through, closely followed by Jaaski holding the dragon egg, and then the rest of us after her. Hestan and Tanebi took the supplies over to the armory while the rest of us rushed to the commander's quarters, trying our best to conceal the dragon egg that was in the middle of hatching. We slammed the door behind us, and the egg began to rattle more violently, cracks appearing in its surface. A tense few minutes later (during which I began recording this), Tanebi and Hestan joined us, trying to find out what was happening and what to do. It was at that moment a small snout burst through the egg, and I saw a newborn dragon for the first time.
I've recorded the rest elsewhere, but to finish this out, we now have an addition to our group. What the rest of the Wolf Pack will make of this I don't know, but for better or worse the dragon at least seems to defer to Jaaski. We're heading back to Gracklstugh tomorrow to see what we can collect from the dragon (I'd like the blood and draconis fundamentum for their potential in elemental energy, myself, though there's more that can be used). I have no idea what we're going to do about the dragon.
Though a small part of me is excited to find out.
A Dragon's Request
28th of Mirtul, 1492 DR
I'm getting so bad at making regular entries; it's been longer than it should since my last one. In my defense, quite a lot has been happening lately. Now, where was I?
After we left Vizeran's tower, we made our way toward the Great Maze in search of our next reagents: eight angel feathers (for extra difficulty, each needs to be from a different angel), and the heart of a goristro (a greater demon).
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