[And now back into the Underdark with Fenrir and Reinward, who have entered the Lair of Queen Arachnia and are doing a deal with the 'The Descendents of Addar'.]
DAY 506(21th Flamerule)(july) cont ...
It was late in the afternoon when they had their next audience with Gardex Jur'Heer, the leader of the Descendents of Addar. He said this:
''
Now pay heed to my words, lesser beings. I am too old to repeat myself. The Queen is of great power, and unaided you will not be able to enter her citadel and defeat her.
There are three lords, and each of them holds a magical key. You will need all three of them to enter the citadel.
- Dark Lord Vengariss is a vampire, he was once my great-uncle. He has many undead warriors guarding him.
- Lady Petal-Ash is a liche and mistress of illusions.
- Lord Amber is an undead wizard and cleric of Kiaransalee. He is the most powerful of the three.
To defeat her, you will be greatly aided by performing the three trials of Ghaunadaur.
If you wish to do any of the trials you must first pray to Ghaunadaur at his temple. We have among us a priestess of Ghaunadaur who can guide you in this, but to put is as simply as I can for your dull wits the trials are of the Body, the Mind and of Pride.
In the trial of the Body you must sacrifice a limb, or an eye. The greater the sacrifice the larger the reward.
In the trial of the Mind you must lose yourself to madness.
In the trial of Pride you must suffer some great humiliation or injury to pride.
If all the trials are completed you will become almost invisible to her, or so I am told.
''
Several times Reinward tried to be funny, by saying 'Pardon?' and 'Can you repeat that?'. It did not go down well.
Fenrir and Reinward then discussed their next move. They considered visiting the magical shop, but decided not to in the end as the rumours were that it was guarded by two devourers and 'something else even nastier'.
They thought of the Earth Node (or possibly a portal) and whether it was worth investigating as a possible escape route if needed. Fenrir did remember that the Node he had used to get to Pedestal has been two-way, but in the end, they realised they would have to go back to get Veddic and the others anyway, so in the end they decided to just get on with the main task at hand.
Xama Niriwin, a priestess of Ghaunadaur was summoned by Jur'Heer. She was blind in one eye and badly burned. She wore a gold mask over her face and appeared to be fairly off her rocker.
Reinward, who always liked to annoy people when he first met them, (perhaps making sure everyone disliked him from the start saved a lot of time later on, I don't know) made a joke about her withered left hand. 'Is that your strong hand?' he asked. She looked straight through him.
After an hour or so of preparation they all head off to the ruined castle of Dark Lord Vengariss. Xama Niriwin led the way, keeping to the back alleys and turning undead away when required to do so.
She waited at the entrance while they snuck in. Using their various invisibility magics they made it all the way to the castles central hall where Vengariss dwelled.
The Dark Lord was on his throne, accompanied by his two daughters and protected by two score of skeletal warriors. They were deciding which of their captives to drink from first - there were two dark elves and a dark dwarf.
Reinward attempted to sneak into the hall, and managed to make it past some of the guards before he was detected. One of the daughters, a vampire and a bard, cast Daylight and the rogue's location was revealed to all as it dispelled his Deeper Darkness magic.
At this point Fenrir, who had been floating up in the rafters, started raining destruction down on the guards, destroying four with his first blast.
Vengariss took up a large crossbow and fired at Reinward, who then re-cast Deeper Darkness and tried to hide again. But again, the bard cast Daylight, again revealing Reinward's location, lurking amongst the skeletons.
The rogue, angry at his stealth plan failing, ran up behind the bard and stabbed her in the back, a magically-aided strike that sent her down onto the floor. As she tried to turn into gas and escape, Reinward attempted to shoot her in the heart, hoping that a crossbow bolt would be the same as a stake. He missed her heart though and she was able to escape a moment later.
Meanwhile Fenrir had blown all the skeletons to bits and had finished off Vengariss to boot. The wily old vampire turned into a gas though, and made his escape through a crack in the floor.
Not having any great desire to go hunting around the castle for the vampires' coffins they searched the hall instead and found the magical key that they needed as well as some other valuable treasures.
The vampire's 'food' skulked out of the hall.
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