Alturiak 1, 1489
Dre'zel my love,
After examining the dead wraith, Drakareth’s, makeshift ice-crypt, which contained nothing else but the soaked and crumbling remains of old and now illegible spellbooks, we made our way back to the Netherese tower to rest.
Once we arrived, Vellynne pointed out that the arcane power of the tower seemed to have dimmed and concluded that the tower needed to recharge before resting there again would replenish their spells. Talyth decided to cast Greater Restoration on Vellynne so that she could rest and recover the spells we would need in the morning. No longer racked by hunger, Vellynne quickly fell asleep.
Taimen summoned Princess Skullcrusher before resting with Talyth, and everyone else who could, inside Talyth’s Tiny Hut. Unable to rest, Duke Ulder and JoJo stood watch, with Talyth’s gift of darkvision, over the passages east of the tower with the Shield Guardian, periodically devouring more rations when their hunger grew uncontrollable. Inside the hut, Talyth also relented to her hunger periodically, eagerly waiting for Vellynne to wake.
After an hour, JoJo cried out an alert just as the cavern floor erupted, knocking him and Duke Ulder prone. A young remorhaz emerged from the hole, glowering over its fallen prey with its wing-like head-fins flaring and its wide maw brimming with jagged teeth. But JoJo rose quickly and cut into the monstrosity with his mundane blade, scalded by the hot fluid that squirted from its body before it withdrew into its burrow. The Shield Guardian pummeled it as it descended.
Leaving the Tiny Hut, I shot down from the edge of the hole, sinking two arrows into the remorhaz before Rowan was by my side and cast Erupting Earth into the hole, churning the stone around the monstrosity. Its many legs twitched briefly, many no longer attached to what was now crushed shell and pulp.
The immediate danger averted, we hesitantly returned to rest, fearing a visit by its progenitor.
After two more hours, Duke sounded an alert as a cold mist materialized next to him, transforming into the familiar giant hyena. Duke Ulder’s cape billowed as he leaped away from the hyena’s blood-drenched jaws and blasted it with his eldritch wand. JoJo slashed Orenea back and forth into it, but the blade seemed to do little damage, and the hyena let out a terrifying cackle as it pounced on JoJo, biting him in the neck and raking him with its claws. Crankily emerging from the tower, Taimen smited the creature with her trident. The Shield Guardian stomped it twice as I made it out of the tower and blasted it with my eldritch wand, only for it to dissipate into a mist and quickly float up to the ceiling and drift east until it was out of sight.
After another hour, I felt fully recovered and climbed onto the Shield Guardian, where I helped watch over the passages east. JoJo began to look uneasy, and I thought he must have sensed something approaching, but he kept feeling at the bite on his neck and eventually asked us to bind him, saying he felt off. JoJo requested to be bound, saying he felt off. I commanded the rope of climbing to bind him, but Taimen warned that if JoJo transformed into a vampire, that rope would do little. Glancing at him casually, she assured him that he wasn’t undead. I put away the rope after Talyth examined him and confirmed that he was fine, but just to be safe, she excluded JoJo when she recast the Tiny Hut.
Soon after, I began to smell something unexpected. It was your sweet, familiar fragrance. Immediately, my imagination went wild. I struggled to be cautious, knowing that this foul place could play tricks on the mind. And yet I wondered if you could be here, among the drow we had heard about.
Following the intoxicating aroma, I stealthily climbed down from the Shield Guardian and headed east, dismissing JoJo’s questioning. When I reached the iron golem head, the sweet smell changed until it reeked of rotting flesh. Slumped against the iron head was an unconscious drow warrior. I recognized him as a member of House Vronus, though I could not recall his name. The side of his torso had been smashed in, his ribs crushed, as if from a large blunt object, but there was no blood. Suddenly, the drow opened its eyes in recognition and, with its dying breath, muttered, “Son of Friz'ac…”
Questioning the blinking golem, it confirmed that there had been no other drow and no battle in the cavern.
The warrior’s exquisitely crafted armor and weapons indicated he was a member of the elite guard. The armor was beyond repair, but I strapped the two shortswords to my belt next to the others. Then I dragged the drow back to the tower, where JoJo noticed bite marks on the drow’s neck, similar to his own. Just to be safe, I asked JoJo to behead him. When Talyth examined the body, she confirmed that the warrior had been dealt a mortal wound before being drained by a vampire, but there was no risk of it turning into a vampire.
After four more anxious hours, Vellynne awoke in good spirits and, after quickly studying her spellbook, cast Remove Curse on Talyth, JoJo, and Duke Ulder, and their hunger immediately dissipated. Talyth recast her Tiny Hut so they could rest inside it.
At my request, Taimen accompanied me back to the iron golem, and we learned from it that the drow came alone only a few hours before I found him.
Vellynne offered to cast Speak with Dead, and using it, we asked the head five questions:
Q1: “Who are you here with?”
A1: “Other drow.”
Q2: “Why are you here?”
A2: “The Arachnomancer seeks glory.”
Q3: “What attacked you?”
A3: “I don’t know, but it had many teeth.”
Q4: “How many of you are here?”
A4: “We were five.”
Q5: “What location does your Arachnomancer seek?”
A5: “The heart of the city we were driven from.”
The head fell silent, and we placed it in the Bag of Holding.
Another eight hours passed while Talyth, JoJo, and Duke Ulder rested. When they woke, they all felt fully recovered.
Vellynne was speaking with Professor Skant, who I overheard mention that the mythallar is an incredible artifact that might resemble a small sun, but was, in fact, created by Netherese mages three thousand years ago and can only be attuned to by up to eight creatures, and that the city of Ythryn was ruled by the Arcane Octad, a group of eight mages, one from each magic school.
We followed Vellynne’s Arcane Eye southeast, past the iron golem head, the shadow cavern, and Drakareth’s lair, until we reached a cavern with a large remorhaz hole in the floor. Then Vellynne stopped us with an expletive. “It’s gone,” she said. “I don’t understand why,” she continued, pointing to the passage south, “but there’s something beyond, to the southeast, and it disappeared. There was something in the ice. Something big! It did not have a weapon, but it had tentacles.”
Vellynne sent her owl down the passage and quickly reported that it was stuck and unresponsive, faced down but hovering.
Duke was determined to explore the passage, agreeing to let us tie a rope to him. I followed thirty feet behind him as he went sixty feet south and then turned east. The rope grew briefly taut before falling slack. Pulling on the rope, it came back empty. The ends weren’t damaged, indicating the rope had been untied. I signaled for my companions to join me.
Fearing that Duke Ulder had been mentally dominated, Talyth sent her Shield Guardian down the passage. When it returned, it told Talyth that it saw Duke Ulder holding his hands up against a wall of ice to a massive creature behind the wall.
Talyth sent the Shield Guardan to retrieve Duke Ulder, but he proved too evasive. Then we heard Duke Ulder beckoning us to join him, assuring us that “it’s friendly.”
At Talyth’s command, the Shield Guardian began pummeling the wall until the ice cracked, and the Shield Guardian told Talyth that the thing was gone.
When we arrived, Duke Ulder was holding his head. Looking up at us, he said that the thing had withdrawn further into the ice. As we watched, the small stream of water that flowed through the crack in the ice froze.
Before the thing could return, we gathered Duke Ulder and Vellynne’s owl and rushed past the chamber to a passage further south, before turning west, ignoring the passages leading east and southeast. Vellynne’s owl seemed to be performing normally, but Duke Ulder was still holding his head and looked slightly confused.
The passage quickly opened into a larger cavern, its icy floors, walls, and twenty-foot-high ceilings polished to a mirror-like sheen. The endlessly distorted reflections were disorienting, and we were all struggling to get our bearings when Rowan was bitten in the neck by a large gnoll that appeared out of nowhere and cast no reflection.
Transforming into its true gnoll-vampire form, it raked Rowan with its claws. Taking aim in the disorienting cavern, I blasted it with my eldritch wand, and Talyth blasted it with a Guiding Bolt. Leaping on Princess Skullcrusher, Taimen charged the vampire gnoll, smiting it through the heart with her trident, splattering its blood all over the mirrored walls. What remained of it quickly withered.
In the silence that followed, we heard a scraping sound from a northwest passage. Taimen detected undead coming from the lone cavern beyond.
Entering the cavern, we found a humanoid creature wearing a gold mask and wrapped in white linen trapped behind a wall of ice. Fixated on Taimen’s trident, it began tapping on the ice wall. Taimen began smashing the ice until enough cracked for the mummy to break free. It gathered the soaked scrolls at its feet and began heading south.
“He's concerned about his books,” Taimen shared, “but he isn't looking for a fight.”
In Loross, Vellynne asked where it was going, and it croaked, “The archives. I’m off to the archives. I’ve shirked my duty for almost two thousand years. I must attend to…” and it wandered off.
We all agreed to follow the mummy, assuming it knew the way to Ythryn.
After following the mummy south for fifty feet, the wide passage opened into a stunning arboreum.
A grove of frost-covered trees filled this fifty-foot-high cavern, the floor of which was a mixture of earth and ice. By some magic or miracle, the trees were alive, their canopies thick with frosty leaves, their branches bearing purple pears that hung plump like ornaments from their branches. A low wall, broken in several places, threaded its way through the grove, which was surrounded by five other exits.
Without pausing, the mummy continued through the grove to an exit to the southeast. A remorhaz tunnel sloped up to the northwest.
As I determinedly followed the mummy, I noticed eyes upon us; a beautiful creature made of wood and leaves strode through the branches, trailing us.
Peaking out from behind a tree, the dryad reached out a hand in a gesture of greeting, “Hello, I’m Hathowyn.”
Taimen tried to convince the mummy to wait for us, but it ignored her attempts and continued southeast until it was out of sight. Taimen commanded Princess Skullcrusher to follow the mummy.
Glancing at Talyth and me, Hathowyn said, “You are not like the others.”
“Did you see the other drow?” Talyth asked. “Were there others who looked like us?”
Hathowyn pointed to a withered tree, its branches plucked clean. And as she gestured, we saw her burnt and withered hand. “Yes, they were here,” she said. “They took from my grove with my permission, and when I objected, they attacked me.”
Reaching out with an armored tentacle, Taimen laid hands on Hathowyn, restoring the dryad’s hand.
“Such kindness,” Hathowyn smiled. “The dark elves have passed through here, although they beat a hasty retreat coming back from the direction that mummy just went. They first came from the southwest two days ago. And then just hours ago, the five of them came back, bruised and battered. One of them looked worse for wear.” The dryad’s expression tightened, “He sampled the fruit he took from my grove.”
She went on to explain that she grew the magical fruit and welcomed us to it, and that the drow with the massive torso wound went north. She was not sorry to learn that he was dead. She added that other creatures had come from the city, strange, shambling, small things with one eye. “They have taken my pears,” she said, “but they have done me no harm. They have kept to the cave to the south.” She explained that the Netherese mages bound her to this grove, tasking her with keeping the trees alive. Then she shared that Auril had been there!
Hathowyn offered us her pears, promising they would do no harm. Duke was the first to eat a pear and enjoyed it. Talyth, JoJo, Taimen, and Rowan followed in kind. Accepting a pear, I was charmed with the ability to cast a Lightning Bolt.
Taimen asked if she wanted anything from us—seemingly out of kindness and not suspicion—and she asked that we purge the caves of the drow that harmed her and her grove, explaining that none of the other creatures bothered her.
Taimen said that Princess Skullcrusher said they found the city, adding that the mummy hussled over a bridge where a massive creature lay slain. Taimen commanded her steed to return.
Taimen, Duke, JoJo, and Talyth explored the cave to the south, where they found four hunched creatures with spiny backs and sharp claws, each one staring from its single, unblinking eye.
The four nothics circled my four companions, who blushed, one by one. Then they turned to Talyth and me, and I saw that they bore wounds similar to Hathowyn’s.
Taimen said they don’t want to let us into the city and that the creature on the bridge was a Tomb Tapper.
The nothics insisted that Iriolarthas commands them to defend the city. Duke Ulder tried to convince them to overlook their commands, but they were not swayed by his guile.
Taimen said that the nothics wanted to fight the drow, and we ultimately agreed to help hunt them down. Rowan cast Pass Without Trace, and with the four one-eyed aberrations following behind us, I led the way from Hathowyn’s grove through the southwest exit.
We stealthily followed the icy passage as it twisted and turned westward for at least one hundred feet. Rounding a bend, I saw a light and signaled for everyone to stop while I scouted ahead.
I hid at the edge of the darkness before a side passage that emitted a dim blue light from the north. Further west, the passage opened into a large cavern where a low wall enclosed a five-foot-high, curved platform, all of the seamless black stone indicating Netherese design. Icicles clung from the twenty-foot-high ceiling above the wall. Resting on the platform was a frost-covered statue of a human wizard, gazing out from atop a three-foot-high stone pedestal. Beyond, a domed, circular building was embedded in the south wall, encased in ice. Faintly glowing glyphs shed dim light throughout the cavern.
Carefully observing the area, I noticed an eye among the icicles, confirming my suspicions that more piercers awaited. Returning to my companions, I quietly relayed what I saw.
Vellynne sent her owl to scout the side cavern and reported seeing a tremendous, giant-sized spear with a faintly glowing obsidian tip.
Hearing this, JoJo was eager to find the spear, almost as if he had been charmed. Despite our reservations, he insisted on checking out the cavern. As he approached, he was hit in the chest by two poisoned crossbow bolts from beyond the wall.
A drow warrior appeared from behind the wall, cocked his hand crossbow, and shot JoJo again before sounding an alarm, “Yilsebek! Humans! Humans in the tunnels!” before running around a bend.
“Yilsebek!” I muttered, recognizing the name of Yilsebek Dalambra, the Head House Mage of House Vronus, who always sought to undermine my father when he was First Prime of the House. “Revenge will be mine!”
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