Wandering Wolves: What Waits in the Dark (2-3)

Olarune 8 - Olarune 27, YK 1000

With the foulspawn and Emerald Claw destroyed, the Wolves decided to look around Grentonn a bit, determining that the people there had known about the Emerald Claw, but had been unable to speak out, since all of the women and children had been held hostage in the apartments. They had decided to descend into the mine when a lone figure, badly mutilated, stumbled up to them. William recognized him by rank, and told them that he was most likely Maresh's second in command. He was missing an eye, an arm and a large amount of skin from his back, and seemed mostly crazed. But he muttered at them with such intensity that they didn't interrupt.

"We came. Grentonn. We came. Jhorash'tar. No match, no trouble, savages against our blades, our discipline, but then we came. Grentonn. Things! Foul things! Even then, the foul things fell. They fell, they fell and did not get up, and we chased. We chased, they fell, we chased, and down, down into the mine."

"Maresh went. Yes, with half our number, he went. Pursuit, he said. Cut the head off, he said. I stayed, my men and I, we stayed to protect. Failed. More foul things. More death. Failure. But not death. Not for us. They took us. Proud blademarks, terrified dwarf miners, they took us. Found Maresh. Found our comrades. All prisoners. All flesh. All brains. All blood."

"Dark. Dark and cold. Slimy. Wet. Screaming. Bones cracking. Flesh tearing. Screaming. One of us gone. Down the gullets. Then the dark."

"Oh, but the light. The light. More terrible. It would come. Pale and gray. Twisted and cruel. Spoke in our minds. Promised us pain. Tore our flesh. Ripped our forms. Called it art. Took my eye. Took my arm. Worse for others. Days? Weeks?"

"Maresh, the others. They live. Some of them. Most of them. They live. Torture. Conversion. The Cult. They live. I tried. I tried. Maresh. Made me go. Ordered me. Blademark, he said. Duty, he said. Reinforcements, he said. Grentonn, he said."

"Wandering. Alone. Dark. Creatures everywhere. Eating the mushroom walls. Drinking foul Khyber piss. Lost. Alone. Found the mine. Found it. Found you. Save them. SAVE THEM!"

And with that, Gunther closed his one remaining eye and dies, his duty fulfilled, despite the madness that threatened to overtake him.

Since the elevator had been sabotaged, the Wolves had to walk down the path, which took a few hours. When they got to the mine, they found it abandoned, but a smaller shaft lead to a secondary mine, which had Khyber dragonshards partially excavated from the walls. This mine was a site of slaughter, with a couple of dwarf miners and a dozen Emerald Claw lying dead on the ground. Bloody but abandoned weapons and torn armor revealed that there were other Emerald Claw here, but they were gone. Bloody footprints and trails of dark blood lead back down into Khyber.

The Wolves found that the caverns of Khyber were disorienting and tricky, even for experienced adventurers like themselves, and after a day of travel, they had doubled back on themselves and found themselves very close to where they had begun. They set out again, marking the walls with chalk, and were able to find their way deeper into Khyber.

The sunless Khyber, filled with distant alien sounds and monstrous civilizations lurking just out of sight, began taking a toll on the Wolves. They were unable to rest for more than a few hours at a time for fear of enormous patrols of monsters. They came face to face with a band of Foulspawn on their second day of travel, and moved stealthily to engage them, as they were unable to go around them. William drew their attention as the rest of the Wolves moved quietly into position.

The Foulspawn Hulks and Berserker moved in to attack William, and the Seer blasted the Deneith with a warp orb, dazing him briefly as the Hulks and Berserker moved in to attack.

Luggoth charged in to engage the Hulks with William, who smashed one of them with an appalling crunch. Brand broke from cover to surprise the Seer, as Pel continued to quietly maneuver for position.

Luggoth swung his storm of blades as William attacked with bodyguard's link, and the two of them were wearing one of the Hulks down, as Brand and Lysander continued to focus their attention on the Seer. None of them paid much attention to the Berserker, who was mostly attacking his allies in his blood rage.

The Hulks, however, were battering William fairly badly, but William killed one of the Hulks, allowing Luggoth to concentrate on the other one. Meanwhile, Brand and Lysander finished off the Seer, and Lysander healed William with a majestic word.

The Wolves turned on the Hulk and Luggoth finally dropped him with a howling strike, at which point they all focused on the Berserker, and Luggoth landed another killing blow.

The next day, they snuck past a city full of Kuo-Toa, but in their passing, they discovered that they were worshiping a familiar looking idol that they called Xulo. They had begun to get the hang of Khyber at this point, and though they were all a bit short-tempered and weary, they traveled uneventfully for two more days, sneaking past a band of Quaggoth slavers on the way.

On their sixth day of travel, they were beginning to realize just how far Maresh's lieutenant had come in his battered condition. They also ran into a Duergar trading party, which looked formidable, and potentially hostile, more so when William tried and failed to intimidate them. Fortunately, Lysander offered arcane words of friendship and convinced them to deal as well. The Wolves bought a map of portions of Khyber for 1,000 gp in gems, one which pointed them toward the lair of the Mind Flayer Neshyk.

The next day brought them face to face with a huge river of magma, with giant chunks of rock floating in it. They guessed that they were probably under or very near the Fist of Onatar, the volcano they had seen on their way in to the Mror Holds. The Wolves were somewhat daunted by the notion of trying to cross it, but using some rope and some athletic skill, they were able to get across without any major burns or serious trouble.

After crossing through Foulspawn territory, guided by Lysander's instincts, they found the cave of madness, which had been marked on the map. The haunting memories of his time as a vampire ate at William, while Lysander's mind was cast back to bad memories and guilt he hadn't thought of in decades, memories from times before many of the Wolves had even been alive. Luggoth, meanwhile, saw himself becoming the very monster the Lords of Dust wanted him to become, murdering not just Jaela Daran but hundreds of worshipers of the Silver Flame. Pel and Brand, though beset by madness of their own, managed to shake it off enough to guide the others through the cave. They were all shaken, but they had survived, and now they had only the final gauntlet to pass, the lair of the Purple Worm that lived just outside of Neshyk's home.

As they walked through the tunnel carved out by the Worm, Brand and Whitehearth nearly made enough noise to wake the beast, but the Wolves were able to cross, untouched, and enter the darkened lair of Neshyk.

They found a cavern outside of his lair and outside of the Worm's hunting ground, and after William used his dragonmark to set a protective ward, the Wolves took their first long rest in ten days before venturing in to rescue Maresh, the other Deneith and the dwarf miners.

Neshyk's lair was completely dark, so the Wolves drew immediate attention when they entered with their lights. They quickly found themselves battling the guards at the entrance, a pair of Hook Horrors and a handful of blind Grimlocks.

Pel opened with a massive flame strike, which blasted one of the Hook Horrors and furiously lit up one of the Grimlocks. Luggoth charged in to attack another Grimlock, and Brand followed up to help him, as did William, who smashed the Grimlock with an appalling crunch before moving into his reign of steel stance, swinging precision blows at the Grimlocks as they gathered around him and began smashing him with their greataxes.

The cave was arranged in such a way that William had managed to bottleneck the opponents, and thus he was the target of all of their attacks. One of the Grimlocks forced its way past William, although not without suffering a punishing blow from Vendetta, but he retaliated with a painful axe swing into Brand.

As Luggoth began his storm of blades, furiously slashing at one of the Grimlocks, Brand used his own luring strike to help, and William drew all the remaining Grimlocks to him. They continued their vicious assault, badly wounding William, as the Hook Horrors grabbed Whitehearth and Pel and tried to drag them over to where they were.

Brand finished off one of the Grimlocks as one of the Hook Horrors picked up Whitehearth and flung him into the back of the cavern, making him a target for the Grimlock guards who had been hanging back, even as the other sunk both of its hooks into Luggoth's shoulders.

Luggoth tore himself free of the rending hooks and went into Oakhammer Rage, knocking the Hook Horror down, and Whitehearth rushed in to begin biting and clawing at the downed Hook Horror.

As Pel and Lysander focused their healing efforts on the bloody William, Luggoth finished off one of the Hook Horrors as Brand continued to focus on the other one, and William continued to attack the Grimlocks surrounding him. As William finished off another Grimlock, Luggoth continued to rage away at the remaining Hook Horror, but it was Lysander who killed it, finishing it off with one his trademark bardic insults so devastating it could stop a monster's heart.

With the Hook Horrors down, the Wolves were free to help William with the remaining Grimlocks, and they made relatively quick work of them. Brand finished one of them, and William cut down the last.

With the battle over, and nothing emerging from the stone slab at the end of the chamber, the Wolves took five minutes to rest before William, Pel and Brand combined their efforts to lift it out of the way.

In the next chamber, they found the Deneiths, the dwarves and the Emerald Claw survivors stuck to the wall with sticky, viscous slime. Lysander recognized it as a Mind Flayer birthing chamber, but saw that they hadn't been implanted, and reasoned that they must not have had any mind flayer tadpoles to use.

There was one Deneith missing amongst the prisoners, and that was William's Uncle Maresh. One of the Deneiths pointed to a tunnel off to the side, which he said led to the Mind Flayer's lair, where it had been tormenting Maresh for some time. With an angry William in the lead, the Wolves headed down into the tunnel.

The tunnel opened into a larger chamber, still dark and covered in slime. At the back of the room, they could see a massive pile of the slime, but they didn't see any Mind Flayer. Instead, they saw more Grimlocks, a pair of Chuul, a Grell and a Destrachan. They recognized some of these creatures, but not all of them.

The Wolves made short work of the Grimlocks, but found the rest of the guards to be a bit tougher. In addition, when they engaged the guards, the Mind Flayer made himself known, dropping the chameleon skin provided by his magic ring to begin attacking.

William got tangled up fighting the Chuuls, while the Grell and the Destrachan moved around the battlefield, blasting with psychic lightning and sonic pulses respectively. Lysander used his taunting decoy on the Mind Flayer, which enraged it, and it closed in on him and grabbed him with its tentacles, beginning to drill towards his brain, intent on devouring it.

Meanwhile, William was suffering from an onslaught by the Chuuls, and the Grell was doing its best to keep others away from its master the Mind Flayer. Fortunately, the tide began to turn as the Wolves focused their attention, and Pel healed William, allowing him to come back and kill both Chuuls with assists from Brand and Luggoth.

Lysander managed to break free of the Mind Flayer, but still found himself its target, as it blasted him and Pel with mind blasts, and the Grell fired psychic lightning at the one it had seen as his master's prey. The Mind Flayer moved in and grabbed the now blinded and dazed Lysander once more, but Pel swept in to heal his friend and attack the Mind Flayer, even as the Destrachan launched a sonic pulse that nearly hit the changeling.

The Grell unleashed a psychic storm, bloodying Whitehearth and William and cutting half of the Wolves off from their allies. However, Pel was able to attack the Mind Flayer again, knocking it off balance, although it managed to maintain its grip on Lysander, drilling into his head even though Lysander turned invisible.

The Wolves were beginning to worry for Lysander's survival, and the Destrachan and Grell were still in the fight. Then William charged the Destrachan, which had been staying out of the fray, and launched a vicious chop at it with Vendetta. The Grell began using his venomous mind attacks on Pel and Brand, who were attempting to free Lysander from the Mind Flayer, and Luggoth was frustrated, stunned by the sonic attacks of the Destrachan and the mental assaults of the Grell and the Mind Flayer.

Brand used his dimensional bond to link himself with the Mind Flayer, who responded with a vicious mind blast that hit Pel particularly hard, but he was forced to release Lysander by the attacks focused on him. His tentacles began flailing as he moved again toward the bard, who announced that "this is not how my story ends!" before firing his bow, launching an arrow directly into the Mind Flayer's brain. The aberration dropped dead to the slimy floor of the cave.

William, meanwhile, managed to hit the Destrachan again, hard enough to daze it, and Brand and Whitehearth moved in to finish it off. The Grell tried to flee, but the Wolves gave chase and relentlessly pounded it with attacks. Finally Lysander, once again displaying his arcane-influenced skill with words, stared malevolently at the aberrant creature and ordered it to die.

William found his Uncle Maresh in the pool of slime at the back of the cave. Maresh was in bad shape, missing portions of his arms, skin from all over his body and one of his eyes. Pel did what he could to heal him, but some of his deformities remained, needing healing beyond Pel's skills.

After taking a long rest in the Mind Flayer's abandoned lair, the Wolves, with the Deneith guarding the Emerald Claw as prisoners, traveled back through Khyber and arrived in Grentonn.

They knew something was wrong when they found that the secondary mine had been cleared of bodies, and there were fresh ones there, the bodies of a dozen or so dwarves, mostly women and children murdered by blade. The Khyber dragonshards were also entirely gone.

When they rushed to the surface, the Wolves found that Grentonn had been the site of slaughter. All of the dwarves were dead, and it appeared they had been poisoned while eating some kind of feast. After investigating, they discovered that Caela d'Orien was missing, not amongst the dead.

They also found Yentil d'Sivis, the gnome, murdered in his office, but he had left a note to foil his murderer. In his hand, the Wolves found a note that read: "Bloody Tyrant - Stormwreck Bay - Olarune 27." Lysander had heard of the Bloody Tyrant, and believed it to be a ship in the Bloodsails fleet out of the Lhazaar Principalities.

Maresh was devastated by what he saw as a failure in his duty, but William was adamant that they get his uncle back to Korth as soon as possible. Brand realized that they could go after Caela and get Maresh and his men (and their prisoners) back to Korth, and he opened a linked portal to send them, along with the body of Maresh's lieutenant, back to General Karlach.

Then they got on the trail of Caela d'Orien. The map they had been given by the Duergar gave them a shortcut through Khyber, and they reluctantly descended into the depths again. The journey took a day and a half, and was no less stressful, but they managed to get out onto the shores of Stormwreck Bay in time to see Caela rowing out to meet the Bloody Tyrant.

The Wolves jumped into the water and swam out to catch the boat before it could weigh anchor and depart. They climbed aboard the deck to find that it was crewed mostly by elven pirates, although a human captain and an ogre bosun were amongst the crew as well. The Captain called "to arms" and the battle was on!

William drew the ogre, many of the pirates and Caela to him before slashing at them with Vendetta and adopting his reign of steel stance. Caela responded by swinging her sword at everyone around her, using her swordmage talent to mark Lysander and then teleporting clear of the fight. Lysander responded by sending disturbing visions to her and the pirates, sliding Caela right to the edge of the ship, where she managed to grab hold before going into the water.

Brand quickly activated his dimensional bond to avoid losing Caela, who was one of the targets of Pel's flame strike, which also hit the ogre, the captain and one of the pirates. The Pirate Captain swung at Brand, nearly killing him after the attacks he had suffered from the other pirates, and the dwarven first mate who had come up on deck joined with the ogre in attacking William. Another dwarf, a dark mage, had come up on the deck as well, and began firing his magic at Pel, although for that he suffered a vicious cut to his neck from Vendetta.

Luggoth moved in to attack the Pirate Captain as Caela dropped into the water, extinguishing the fire on her body. Lysander healed Brand, who teleported into the water to chase down Caela, as Pel moved in to help William with the ogre with blade and healing magic.

Caela and Brand battled in the water, and Brand noticed that she was using an ornate arcane blade. He wasn't sure, but he believed it to have some significance for House Orien. Lysander, meanwhile, leaned over the edge of the boat and used his saga of vengeance to assist Brand, allowing the Orien scion to finish off the murderous renegade from his house.

With Caela dead, and the Wolves doing significant damage, the Captain called for a halt to hostilities. The wary Wolves agreed to let the pirates go in exchange for Caela's body and a ride to the shore.