[And now back into the Underdark with Fenrir and Reinward, who have entered the Lair of Queen Arachnia and have finally gather the three keys required to enter her Citadel.]
DAY 509(25th Flamerule)(july)
Fenrir and Reinward had lost track of what day it was down in the Underdark, but by my reckoning it was the morning of the 25th of Flamerule by the time they returned from Lord Amber's castle.
The Descendents of Addar were jubilant of their success - in there own understated way. Xama Niriwin was so happy (again, in her own way - she wore a gold mask after all so it was not always easy to tell) that she wanted to take them to meet the Vicar of Ghaunadaur.
The vicar lived in the ruins under the Descendents castle, in a sinister crystal cave full of slimes. The vicar was a sort of blessed Black Pudding that had gained intelligence and could take a rather blobby sort of human form.
He talked a sort of ancient Undercommon and offered to increase their strength against Queen Arachnia in exchange for completing his trails. Here they are again for the benefit of the reader:
""
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.
""
The Vicar went on to explain further:
The first boon will grant you immunity from any damage that Queen Arachnia does to you. The second boon will make you undetectable to her, and the third will give you a death touch ability that can be used only on her.
Fenrir decided to go for all three.
The first thing the Vicar did was shake Fenrir by the hand. Fenrir offered his left hand and the Vicar covered it in slime. It was painful, but Reinward was more horrified than the warlock to watch the limb slowly dissolve into nothing.
Next Fenrir drunk a special potion that drove him insane for a short while. When he more or less came to his senses he found that he had a strong urge to steal everything around him - in short - he had developed Kleptomania.
He also was clicking and twitching a lot, but had no other detrimental effect down here in the Underdark.
Finally he agreed to have his nose chopped off. The Vicar splashed his face with some slimy acid and off came his nose and a good bit of his cheek flesh as well.
Reinward did not fancy any form of bodily mutilation so he decided to drink only the Potion of Madness. His brain clouded, he felt like he was living in a fog - but apart from that the only negative effect was that he could not always remember where all his things were. He had been afflicted with Absent Mindedness - and had gotten off lightly!
'Right,' Fenrir said. 'Now that that is done, find me a cleric to cast Regeneration on us!'
'If you do this, then all the blessings will be lost,' explained Xama Niriwin.
'You must wait until the Queen is vanquished.'
'Fair enough,' replied Fenrir cheerfully, fingering his now ruined face.
After returning to the Descendents castle they received further aid, mainly Healing Potions, from the Dark Elves, virtually everything they had they offered to them, so desperate were they to see the back of Queen Arachnia.
Fenrir and Reinward ate and rested for a while, then Niriwin took them to the entrance of Queen Arachnia's Citadel. The three keys fitted into the three locks at the main gates and the ancient stone portals swung open to admit them.
The Citadel was deathly quiet, seemingly unguarded, and choked full of dust and cobwebs. Eventually they reached the Inner Sanctum.
The door to the Sanctum could only be opened by magic, so they had to resort to Fenrir using a knock spell.
The large chamber's floor had a big green glowing circle in the middle of it. On the far wall was a large purple portal. The Queen knew that something or someone had entered her Sanctum but she could not see them until Reinward stepped forward and said,
"Hand over the crown! Or we... or face the... um..."
Whatever big speech Reinward had planned died on his lips as she threw a spell at him. Whatever it was did not harm him though as he was protected by the blessing of Ghaunadaur.
As Fenrir floated into the chamber Reinward acted as a human lure. She cast spell after spell at him. He crouched, ran, ducked for cover. The spells had no effect though, as the blessing held strong.
As Reinward ducked and dived, Fenrir got closer, until, with his one good hand he was able to sneak up on the Queen and give her a poke.
The Death Touch of Ghaunadaur worked instantly, and the Queen was destroyed.
'Felt too easy,' observed Fenrir as he began to seek out treasure. He had spoke a little too soon though as a large contingent of Vampires entered the chamber from the southern doors.
'Well done, my friends,' called out Lord Bloodworm as he entered. 'I...'
Bloodworm was the second person to have his speech cut short that day though as Fenrir started landing Walls of Fire all around them. This fight was more of a challenge for them, but not by much. The Vampires turned into bats and started flying up and over the firewalls, but were then picked off by Eldritch Blasts. Reinward was even able to stab a couple of them. One by one they 'poofed' into Gaseous Forms and drifted down into the cracks in the floor.
'Hopefully they are all miles away from their coffins and will actually die,' mused Fenrir. He wasn't accounting for how cautious immortal undead can be though.
I should imagine they had a contingency plan considering that Fenrir had defeated them twice already.
As they continued the looting of the chamber their last and final visitors arrived. It was Sir Lorric, Jane and 'Pastry' the man that had been a prisoner of the vampires.
After greeting them, Sir Loric explained:
'Reinward, Jane, Pastry. All three of you bear the Stigmata of Ilmater. Any one of you can enter that portal and claim the crown. Now I don't know what's though there, but I do know that it is not a decision to make lightly. The crown is very powerful, but it will not rest lightly on the wearers head.'
Reinward gulped.
'So who will it be?' asked Sir Lorric.
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