Early Morning, Kelehess 1st
Chasing Dragons
The scions continued their pursuit of the two dragons, their captive Grenwigne and the chasing brother Erig. Over roots and wet leaves, down a corridor of autumn trees, some fared better than others along the slick riverbank.
Kaylan
Just then something skidded down the tree slope and nearly crashed into the group, a woman of auburn-red hair with fine clothes and a somewhat noble demeanor. She carried a Phoenix symbol close, somewhat of a bold proclamation of Kalindian faith considering the kingdom they were in. She called for a halt, recognizing Giers, who in turn thought she also looked strangely familiar.
In a stunning acrobatic display, Takeshi did a forward flip over the woman's head, intent on catching his dragon quarry and racing on ahead. The others initiated conversation, slowing a bit, but as the caboose lumbered over, Hulda lifted the girl over her shoulder and carried on. The cleric was, to say, speechless. Isabella offered a diplomatic apology, but after all they were in the middle of a chase.
The Screaming Cave
Takeshi was the first to come across a massive jut of metallic stone piecing the forest floor and forcing the river to part around either side of it. It was overgrown and mossy, with a cave like a mouth angled up into the frigid night sky. Erig was just running in, as Grenwigne screamed from somewhere deeper.
The ranger threw down a green longsword as a marker and scrambled inside, just as the others rounded the riverbend. Giers took up the ranger's sword and was the next to reach the threshold, just in time to hear a tremendous clatter and fall.
Have a Nice Trip
The agile ranger seemed to lose his grace in the dim light of the entrance, which sharply dropped down a thirty foot slope. His feet went out from under him and he rolled painfully down to the bottom, into a dimly lit main line tunnel stretching into blackness. Grenwigne's screamed carried down somewhere in the black.
He slowly rose as the others caught up to him.
Welcoming Committee
The scions didn't get much farther when they were confronted with rust-skinned, warty goblinoids in drab leathers, each marked by a black hand with a red eye in its palm. Takeshi recongized them immediately from his Warden studies as Hobgoblins, children of the dark god Invidious (Envy), given as a gift to Superbia (Pride). They were known for their superior fighting prowess to the normal goblin and their militaristic structure.
The Speaker, their sergeant, stepped forth, two archers at his back, and weathered the groups threats and insults well. He had a bit of an accent given his fangs, making it hard to properly ennunciate each word, but his insults and taunts spoke well-enough. Soon the group was faced with a fight.
A Massacre
What resulted was a massacre. The arcane, martial and divine might of the scions proved more than a match for both archers, and nearly overcame The Speaker had not reinforcements arrived after a calculated yielding of ground. Even with fresh hobgoblin troops, Hulda's hammer, Takeshi's arrows, Portia's shuriken and and the sting of magic overcame them.
Very Well, Indeed
Mid-way through the fight, a smooth, sultry voice commended the group in the dark. Though challenged to show herself, the voice could only laugh. To her, it seemed, this was all just a game. She also passingly mentioned that the scions had no business with The Hand of Doom, though what exactly that was remains a mystery.
Clipping Wings
Giers, meantime, had entered a deadly melee with The Speaker, trading blows, insults and threats in kind. The hobgoblin landed a hard blow, but likewise the paladin. It looked as if eventually the ethrey would prevail, that is until the military-minded Takeshi quickly downed The Speaker with an arrow into each eye. He fell back, dead.
Behind The Curtain
Hulda had decided to let her brother have his duel, instead investigating a strange pair of red eyes she'd glimpsed off behind the paladin. Realizing there was a piece of wall missing, instead replaced with a curtain with plaster to give it the texture of cave wall, she wound up her hammer and struck through. She caught only air.
A Drow!
Portia followed after the half-giant, passing the curtain and coming into a narrow corridor. What she saw gave her a start, and ended up both arousing and alarming Giers, disgusting Isabella, and perhaps infuriating the rest. A voluptuous elf with ebon skin and flowing white hair leaned foward, one hand on her knee and the other pressed over her lush lips. She was dressed in constricting leathers that left little to the imagination, painfully tight so that they dug red and bruised, and she balanced on shiny black stilettos. A drow!
Pain and Pleasure
She launched a devastating necrotic attack against the group, within a range of a hundred feet! The injured group worked their way down into the corridor then, attacking the drow that would quickly become known as The Dominatrix. She proved unbelievably agile in heels, dodging and cartwheeling even as the bogart initiated her own sort of wheeling attacks.
The few times The Dominatrix was hit caused her extreme ecstacy in her pain, the dark elf getting off on it right in front of them, and many of her moves were evocative of a street-corner slut. Isabella called her as much, though never managed to land an attack, perhaps so distracted by the beauty and the wretchedness.
Poison Spiked Trap
The Dominatrix lured Giers down steps, which proved to actually be a false floor. Before his wings to launch him over the obstacle, his armor weighed him down a twenty foot drop onto poisoned spikes. The snare nearly claimed him, then, but for the grace of Kalinda as channeled through Kaylan and the sturdy pulley system provided by Hulda's thick frame and a rope.
Into the Dark
Portia flipped down the stair railing, still intact, and into the next room, entirely pitch black. She made some exploratory attacks, but only ever ended up catching shadows. The Dominatrix landed an attack in the dark, the click of her heels the only real tell, but always managed to turn or wheel out of retribution's reach.
It wasn't long before Takeshi made a mighty leap over the pit and joined Portia, followed by the unsure wizard. Isabella had fallen in the river earlier and only by Gier's reflexes avoided drowning. This time, she stumbled and fell for the pit, but the magic of her feyleaf sandals saved her, teleporting her to the other side in an expediture of fey magic.
Prison
Isabella's light-enchanted antlers shed some of the room, revealing VERY bloody floors, in fact so bloody they looked painted dark red. Portia cracked a sunrod and the entire room was exposed, a wide, low-ceiled room whose only distiguished feature was the fenced-in prison. Within linged a twig blight and triffid guard, two fey like the ones from Green Chapel. There was also a wooden door off to the side, next to which The Dominatrix lingered.
Portia, Takeshi and Isabella attacked. The drow was at a loss in bright light, without the shadows as her ally, and began taking more serious hits, down to the point she was nearly spent. She never once wavered, enjoying every bit of agony with as much enthusiasm as giving it.
Toss, Toss
Hulda took Kaylan and Giers, tossing them both over the spiked pit and into the next room with a slight smile. Giers assured Kaylan that the half-giant was quite good at this sort of work, after which she agreed to be tossed. They both landed in the prison and were about to attack when things went from promising to menacing.
What A Way To Go
Portia landed a brutal strike against the drow, sending her to the brink of unconsciousness, and she stumbled back. Yet instead of passing out, she fell into the wall behind her and activated a stone panel in the wall beside the door. Suddenly stone gears lurched and grinding wheels started. It turned out the low ceiling, looking like a great, slanted slab, was also stained blood-red. It began to crush downward, in fact a crushing cieling trap. The panel also triggered an iron portcullus which blocked Hulda from leaping over the pit and entering the room herself.
The drow fell on her ass and grinned, remarking how terrible a way to go this would be, then how she always used to love watching past victims in their last few moments alive when she'd been where Hulda was now.
Kalinda's Wrath
Tired of this drow and her wickedness, Kaylan brought the fiery judgment of Kalinda upon her. The drow burst into flames from the toes up, slowly consumed in divine fire until her leathers, hair and flesh blacked and fell off. It was a horrible way to go, one that wiped The Dominatrix's smile as she discovered pain not even she could handle.
Portia or Bust
As the ceiling continued its quick descent, it fell into the hands of the rogue to get the scions out alive. She fiddled with the panel, looking for a way to deactivate the trap, but her efforts proved futile. With the desperate pleas of Giers and Kaylan behind him, Portia turned her attention to the wood door. Giers has already tried to spear it, the weapon proving quite useless in the situation. However, with some lock picks and a little finesse, the door opened for the bogart and the group scrambled out.
It should be noted that Takeshi did attempt to save the prisoners, until he recognized them of the same breeds of fey that tried to kill them in the chapel. He might have pulled out a twig blight, but it was the same species of monster that had bit his balls not a day ago and sent him into a poison coma. With a slight bit of regret, he scrambled out last before the everything in the prison was crushed dead.
Hulda's Second Love
Hulda, meantime, had rushed up the corridor and back into the main line, looking for another way in which to unite with her brother and friends. She wedged a sunrod into the bindings of her hammer, allowing her to see a large swath of the main tunnel. The light revealed a wandering Erig, momentarily blinded by the light, then revolted to find of all the people to meet in the dank dark he found Hulda.
Pleasantries aside, he explained that he'd tried the length of the main line, having come to a locked door he couldn't open. He swore people were watching him and thought his outbursts and blind stumbling an amusing game.
They passed a wall-less guard room along the way, situated between the crossroads of a south wing, a continuation of the main line, and a north wing. Given their bearings, Hulda judged the worth wing off the main line to be the best place to look for the rest. Not far down the hall, the half-giant heard a commotion. Erig began calling desperately for his sister.
The Torture Chamber
The four scions cleared the prison just in the nick of time, elated to be alive. They took a few moments to catch their breath and check to see if anyone was hurt. It was then they heard a small applause.
They turned to find themselves in a circular torture chamber. Devices of agony lined the walls, maidens and racks and dangling shackles. A great well overflowing with hot coals sat in the middle, stabbed with dozens of hot pokers.
The Torturers
Three bugbears, monstrous goblinoids looking like half-grizzlies, held their pokers in their teeth as they clapped with massive claws. Likewise a stunningly handsome dark elf male with silver hair down to his waist, dubbed The Pretty Boy in midnight armor and sporting to mirror-like swords, clapped as he leaned against the wall. Perhaps the most please of the lot was The Lady of Chains, a drow female dawned in leathers similar to The Dominatrix, but who also wore an uncomfortable leather mask that covered the northern hemisphere of her head, but allowed a perfect view of her twisted smile. She swung a spiked chain with deadly promise.
Behind the bugbears, sobbing and bloody, was Grenwigne, half-way in an iron maiden.
The sight was enough to launch the scions into the attack. Takeshi fired his arrows, truly wounding The Lady of Chains, who retaliated with a violent set of strikes of her own as she teleported through the shadows of the room to lash three scions. Portia fired shurikens at one of the bugbears, who looked almost sheepish as they planted into each nipple harmlessly. It was enough to prompt it to go after the boggart, the other two choosing Takeshi and a third Giers.
Big Entrance
Giers heard Erig calling Grenwigne's name and cried out for him. Suddenly the wooden door into the room exploded and Hulda burst in, foot first. She wasted no time swinging her mighty hammer around at the unsuspecting Pretty Boy, catching him in his beautiful face and nearly taking his head off in the process. The drow male had little time to react, managing one blow against the half-giant with his swords before the urias finished him.
Kaylan Drowbane
Again Kaylan grew tired of the despicable drow and conjured the divine light of Kalinda to vanquish another fallen of the light. The Lady of Chain's head reddened, bulged and blistered before her brains seeped out her cranial orifices as a pink foam. Thus was Kaylan Drowbane, slayer of dark elves, who would likely prove their nemesis in whatever paths she crossed them.
You Smell Barbecue?
The bugbears were another matter, tough, hardy creatures that could weather blows by the score. Each was nearly as big as Hulda. They stabbed with their fiery pokers, piercing shoulders and chests, setting half the scions on fire, and downing Takeshi before being taken down themselves.
Grenwigne Freed
As the last of the fighting commenced, Giers managed to free Grenwigne from the contraption. She fell into her arms, riddled with shallow holes that would become telling scars across her body for all her remaining years. Erig took his sister as the paladin went back into battle, scooping her up and leaving the room.
A Moment's Rest
Thus within a doorless torture chamber, the group found a moment's peace. The darkness of the drow complex yawned beyond, echoing sometimes with dark laughter, other times more screams, and even twin roars.
Experience: 319 each (1414 thus far)
Magic: Duelist's Dagger (Portia, off The Dominatrix), Acrobat Stilettos (off The Dominatrix), The Mirrorblade (Takeshi, off The Pretty Boy), Spider's Armor ( off The Pretty Boy), 1 Potion of Healing (Takeshi)
Unclaimed Loot: Hide Armor x3, Leather Armor x 2, Longbow x 2, Quiver of 30 Arrows x 2, Glaive
Claimed: Spiked Chain and Chainmail x 2 (Hulda)
Money: 60 gold pieces, 20 silver pieces (300gp, 120sp total): 50gp, 20sp each
NPCs:
Speaker (dead)
Twig Blight Prisoner (dead)
Triffid Guard Prisoner (dead)
The Dominatrix (dead)
The Lady of Chains (dead)
The Pretty Boy (dead)
Monsters: Hobgoblin Archers, Hobgoblin Grunts, Hobgoblin Sergeant (Speaker), Drow, Bugbear Torturers
Traps: Poison Spiked Pit (level 1 elite), Crushing Ceiling (level 3)
Places: The Screaming Cave
Organizations: The Hand of Doom
Drow: Descended from the illustrious elven princess Mauve, warlock queen of Alistar, the drow were once elves of light and beauty. However in a bid to save humanity from slavery, they lost to the superior might of higher elves. Their punishment was an endless darkness as they were locked away in great Vaults deep underground. Buried alive with only their magic to sustain them, they scratched an existence off fungi and condensation.
Thousands of years in the soundless, lightless Vaults slowly drove them mad and sensory depraved. Their skin became ebon, their hair bleached white, their eyes glowed luminescent. They grew lustful, cruel, strange and twisted. Some turned to false gods of nightmares, beings from other dimensions, and even demons for worship. Others forsook all religion and vowed to live only for the moment, only for themselves, for all their endless years.
After the fall of their jailer, Mauve's father High King Gloriandel, the magic of the Vaults lost enough potency for the queen to break free. She and her elite scoured the underworld cave systems, digging and blasting new ones in their search for the rest of their kin. So was born the Underdark, a twisted labyrinth of caves, caverns, pools and pits. After a hundred years of searching, and nearly every Vault found, she took a new name, The Mab, and established the drow kingdom under the unwanted stretches of the West.
Quick Note: If more than one person wants any of these items, we'll roll 1d100's and the highest number wins. The Duelist's Dagger I'm giving to Portia and The Mirrorblade to Takeshi, though.
Duelist's Dagger
The favorite weapon of a backstabber.
Level: 3
Price: 680 gp
Weapon: Dagger
Enhancement: +1 attack rolls and damage rolls
Critical: +1d6 damage, or +1d8 damage if you have combat advantage
Power (Daily): Minor Action. You have combat advantage against the next creature you attack with this weapon on this turn.
Special: For Portia's purposes, consider all her improvised weapons to have these enhancements and characteristics. The daily power still can only be used one time between extended rests and does not transfer into a daily power for each improvised weapon.
Acrobat Stilettos
These enchanted stilettos aren't only a dream to walk in, they actually enhance your acrobatic skills.
Level: 2
Price: 520 gp
Item Slot: Feet
Property: Gain a +1 item bonus to Acrobatics checks.
Power (At-Will): Minor Action. Stand up from prone.
The Mirrorblade
This sleek longsword, polished and reflective like a mirror, suddenly becomes two identical blades with startling speed.
Level: 3
Price: 680 gp
Weapon: Longsword
Enhancement: +1 attack rolls and damage rolls
Critical: +1d6 damage
Power (At-Will): Minor Action. Split the weapon into two identical weapons, one in your primary hand and one in your off-hand. You can spend another minor action to recombine the weapons into one. If you have the Quick Draw feat, you can split or recombine the weapon as a free action.
Spider's Armor
This black leather armor is favored by those who want to move like a spider along the cavern floor.
Level: 3
Price: 680 gp
Armor: Leather
Enhancement: +1 AC
Property: Gain an item bonus to Athletics checks and Stealth checks equal to the armor's enhancement bonus.
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