Previously: Chapter 90: House Call
The Infiltration
Thistlethorn and Relic both make it through the arcane gate first, hoping to surprise the guards in the entrance chamber, but realize soon that they are prepared for any intruders, and have also been alerted by the casting of the gate. Penny casts greater invisibility on herself in order to avoid being targeted, while Kal runs through the gate hoping to strike down the drows before they can alert the rest of the lair.
The shadowblades are ferocious adversaries, managing to nearly bring down Thistlethorn and Berry before Kal brings them back. Thistlethorn summons a bear totem to give the whole party a buffer, while the shadowblades summon a demon to aid them, while casting the room into darkness. Penny manages to dispel the darkness, evening the odds. When one of the shadowblades fall, the other one realizes that he is outnumbered, and attempts to escape. The party finishes him off as he is running for the entrance of the tunnel, and he falls to the floor among the glyphs protecting the entrance.
The party quickly goes through the belongings of the drow, while also listening for movement at the two doors leading further into the lair. Penny sends Riff to search the guard who died in the tunnel, finding a key in his pocket, which he brings back. They see immediately that it doesn’t fit any of the locks on the doors leading further into the lair, but keeps it just in case.
Penny is continuing to listen at the door as Kal helps Thistlethorn and Berry heal up. They all hear heavy footfalls approaching one of the doors, before retreating and walking away. Using Riff’s eyes, as he can get closer to the ground, Penny tries to look under the door on the other side, as they hear footfalls approaching there too, spotting a large construct sentinel who walks along a path on the floor, getting close to the door, before turning back, with the door on the other side of the hallway opening up to it, and then closing behind it.
Using the Bozuuth, the Sentient Coffee Pot, they take a brief short rest, while trying to ascertain the pattern of the sentries roaming the hallways, finding that they do not seem to be on a fixed timer, but at the same time more or less confirming that there are two of them. They decide that they want to take them out fast, one at a time when they have the upper hand, and so Penny lockpicks one of the doors, and when the sentry gets close, and then turns around, they spring the trap, quickly opening the door and attacks.
Penny uses the Wand of Wonders to cast a spell at the sentry, managing to get the most perfect spell out of it by slowing it. The rest of the party attacks with all their spells, as Berry runs forward to attack, and then retreating, the sentry too slow to get in a good hit. With Relic’s firebolts, Thistlethorns thorn whips, Kal’s spear and Penny’s shots from Harmony, they manage to take it down before it manages to cast off the spell it was charging up. The party quickly moves on to the next door, and does the same to the other sentry, not managing to cast slow on it, but catching it by surprise, allowing them to take it down before it manages to harm them. The sentry explodes into a flurry of discarded parts, littering the hallway.
The party looks through the littered pieces, finding two magical tablets that were embedded within. Relic knows this to be part of what is controlling the sentries, as they are bound to one or two amulets, allowing the wearer to give them commands. There also appears to be a metallic pattern on the floor which the sentries used as a path for patrolling, leading onwards through another locked door. Penny tries to lockpick it, managing to get it open after some guidance from Thistlethorn. Within they find a large circular chamber, much like the entrance, but this one is dominated by a large statue depicting Vuthul. There seems to be an inscription on the base of the statue, but the party doesn't recognize the language. There are some offerings at the base as well, including a very pretty rock which Thistlethorn really wants to take, but she decides against it.
The next door ahead seems to be too tough of a challenge for Penny, so they decide to backtrack in order to try the other side, but even with another guidance from Thistlethorn, the lock seems to be too difficult to bypass. At first the party thinks they might be stuck, and have to break down the doors, but Relic remembers suddenly that the sentries seemed to just have the doors open to them. He tries to pick up one of the enchanted plates, but it does nothing, but when Penny picks up the head and holds it close to the door, it opens without issue, allowing the party to continue.
The room on the right seems to mirror the room on the left, with a large statue of Vuthul dominating it. There seems to be no offerings on this one, but there is writing on the base, this time in elvish:
“Through Rot and Ruin, only Decay remains eternal”
They look around the room, and find a hidden chest behind the statue. Remembering the key one of the guards was carrying, they take it out, and sure enough it fits perfectly in the lock. They open the chest, finding a cache of a couple of healing potions, some gold, rations, a potion of necrotic resistance, and a cloak of elvenkind. Seems to be some sort of getaway cache in case whoever was holding it needed a quick escape. They take the belongings with them, and carry onwards towards the center.
The next chamber, after another hallway, reveals a large armory filled with all kinds of weapons and chests full of armor parts. One of the chests appears to be locked, so Penny goes to work on it, while Thistlethorn looks through the rest. Berry, Kal and Relic watches on, making sure they aren’t surprised, but they were looking in the wrong direction, as Thistlethorn is suddenly accosted by an animated armor that bursts from one of the chests she was looking through, and another one appears near the one Penny is working on. Luckily, the party is tougher than they look, so even if they are caught by surprise, they quickly manage to disable the armours. In the chest Penny was working on they find some gold, a spellscroll of silence and a couple of vials of drow poison.
After taking a few daggers with them, the party continues onwards, using the head to bypass the doors, they find a smaller chamber with a door leading to what presumably is another circular chamber, as well as a hidden door to their left, leading further into the lair. They first want to check out what is within the sealed off chamber, so Penny goes to work on the door. She finds it to be easier than the large doors, but requiring a smaller key, so it’s probably not something that can be easily accessed anyway. She manages to get through it, and is immediately attacked by Nezznar who appears on the other side, but it is soon revealed to be an illusion, meant to frighten away anyone daring to enter. Luckily, the party has partaken in a heroes’ feast, so they are immune to the effect.
Penny opens the door fully, revealing the chamber within, lit by red braziers. On a dais towards the back, a statue of a woman is surrounded by hundreds of lit candles, with a lone black rose lying at her feet, and a lock of white hair in one of her hands. The party assumes that this is Nezznar’s daughter, or at least a depiction of her. They wonder where she might be, but come to the conclusion that she is surely dead, otherwise there wouldn’t be a shrine to her. Penny wonders if they can use this somehow to defeat Nezznar, or maybe even bring him over to their side. Thistlethorn decides to take the lock of hair with them, on the off chance that it is Nezznar’s hair, to use in a scrying.
Back to the secret door, they cannot find any mechanism or way of opening it. No loose rock, no markings, and the wall is completely smooth, other than the slight crack revealing where the door opens. Penny suggests using the phrase that was on the statue they found a couple of chambers back. Relic repeats in elvish what was written, and suddenly the door opens up.
The Inquisitor
Revealed within is another hallway leading to a staircase going up. As the party stealthily make their way over there, Thistlethorn uses a charge on her staff to cast pass without trace. The stairs leads to another curved hallway, and they can hear voices in both directions. To the right, they hear laughter and shouting, like someone is having a party, but to the left they can hear a heated discussion going on. Getting closer, they recognize one of the voices as that of the inquisitor they faced in the abandoned wizards tower in Equinfjord, the one Zeerith identified as Faelrin Volnar. Down a long and steep staircase they can hear parts of the conversation.
Faelrin: “You overstep, priestess. That shrine is his, and you will not desecrate it. You know the consequences if Nezznar returns to find his sanctuary defiled!”
Priestess: “It is a blight upon this place! Vuthul’s will demands sacrifice, not sentiment. His obsession with a dead child weakens him—and all of us.”
Faelrin: “Nezznar’s obsession is none of your concern. If you provoke him, it will be your own ruin. I will not have Malice’s plans jeopardized because of your arrogance.”
Priestess: “Perhaps Nezznar is the weakness. Perhaps his shrine is only the beginning.”
They can hear that Faelrin seems to be walking away annoyed, but remains within the chamber, and begins to mutter, almost like a prayer. The party decides to sneak past the stairs, seeing if they can find something useful further ahead. They come to a set of double doors, leading to a large storage room filled with crates and barrels. As the telepathic bond is close to expiring, Relic takes the time to renew it with a ritual, while the rest searches the crates for valuables, finding some more of the dried mushrooms they have come to love, as well as a batch of healing potions, some master crafted weapons and some more drow poisons. Thistlethorn finds some fine silk robes, while Penny discovers a small bag of illicit narcotics, which she pockets without anyone noticing.
Continuing down the curved hallway, they come to another set of stairs leading down to the large chamber, with two sets of double doors, behind one of which they can hear movement and sobbing. Realizing that Faelrin and the priestess below don't appear to have noticed them, they decide to use the opportunity to catch them by surprise. They sneakily stealth down the stairs to ambush them, with Relic firing off a fireball, after which Penny uses another charge of the wand of wonder, filling the chamber with a layer of grass, but nothing else. Thistlethorn summons a draconic spirit to help, and manages to get a panther out of the bag of tricks. Penny uses her wand of wonder, becoming invisible in the process, while Kal uses a reverberating jump through the priestess and Falerin, alerting the rest of the chamber due to the noise.
The party all hears footfalls and shouting coming their way, so they prepare as best as they can. Penny manages to stun Faelrin with her instrument, as Kal knocks out the priestess, hoping to interrogate her after the fight. The rest of the drows comes swarming in one by one, but they are easily dispatched by the party and their help. The center of the chamber is dominated by another massive statue of Vuthul, who almost appears to be watching down on the fight happening at his feet.
Faelrin, the inquisitor is badly hurt and sees his allies fall one by one, so he decides to try to get away by running up the stairs, but Thistlethorn grows a vine out of the grass, which attacks and grapples Faelrin, who is dragged back into the chamber, unconscious at first,but soon bleeds out from his injuries. The remaining drow soldiers attempt to retreat, but Penny, Kal and Thistlethorn all intimidate them to stand down, as they don’t want anyone else to be alerted. They tie them up, along with the priestess, whom they also shackles with the shackles that prevent teleportation. Then, they all hear another familiar voice.
Vuthul
The large statue of Vuthul begins to animate, and speak, saying hello to Penny in particular, and how he has missed her. The party is tired of the evil god’s bullshit, and so they tell him bluntly that they cannot wait for him to be gone for good, as he has caused them too much trouble. They also question his motivation of destroying all magic, but Vuthul chides them for listening to his misguided “children”, clarifying that he simply wants to remove magic because it goes against the natural order of decay, which he is the god of. The three drows who are bound look upon the statue with awe, having clearly never seen or met Vuthul before, but he simply passes his hand over them, and they all fall over, their life drained from them. Kal wants to know why he did that, and he replies that he cannot have weakness in his ranks. Those he killed was captured and surrendered, making them worthless.
Vuthul says that he looks forward to seeing the party, either when they release him, or when they destroy him, either way, he “will win”. The party questions the logic of this, but pledges to take him out, to which he laughs, before returning to the neutral pose, as Vuthul retreats. They start to discuss what this might mean as they search the bodies, seeing that they have to end him, but wonder what he meant by the fact that he would win no matter what. On Faelrin they find some rations, a dagger of poison, a couple of keys, as well as some coins, but before they can continue, Thistlethorn holds up a hand as she hears footsteps coming from the hallways above. She walks over to the staircase, seeing a thin drow woman peeking around the corner, who begins running away as soon as she realizes she’s spotted. Kal and Penny both give chase, managing to catch her before she gets too far.
The drow holds up her hands in surrender, not wanting to fight, asking in broken common what they are doing here. The party says they were hoping to find Nezznar, but have taken out the ones they found. The woman, Phyrrae, asks if they actually killed Faelrin, as he has cheated death several times before. Worried, they make their way back towards the central chamber, and sure enough, Faelrin is moving again, slowly making his way across the hall. The party quickly subdues him, but Phyrrae grabs one of the daggers Kal picked up earlier, jamming it into Faelrin’s remaining eye, stabbing again and again, and then chops at his neck until she tears his head off, throwing it away, saying it’s the only way to make sure.
Phyrrae continues, saying that she is being kept against her will as Nezznar has her sister captured. She leads them to one of the locked doors they found earlier, where they heard sobbing, with Phyrrae hurrying them on to open it by calling for whoever is within. The party hears the name Soreni. Within, they find a young drow woman who looks clearly malnourished and beaten, who immediately embraces Phyrrae, but is cautious of the new visitors. Soreni speaks to the party in elvish, asking if they are her to kill them, but the party calms her down, saying that they don’t want to harm them. Soreni thanks them, saying that she has been kept here for a long time, with Nezznar leaving about a week earlier to look for something “important” in Xar'theris. She has been poorly fed, and wants to leave, before Nezzanr can continue to “use” her. Thistlethorn is innocently confused by how Nezznar uses her, but the party tells her to cool it. They agree to help the drows escape, but hopes they can help them in return by telling their friend, Thervan, what they know of Nezznar and his dealings. They happily agree to this, as they want to be safe.
Behind her, they see a bed chamber belonging to Nezznar, as well as a writing desk filled with letters and maps, as well as a chest that appears to be locked, but Penny begins working on it, as Relic goes through the desk, finding a hidden compartment with a diary. Soreni tells them to be mindful of the owlbear blanket, as it will attack them if they get too close. The chest contains a wand of binding, as well as some potions and gold, with a cloak of billowing for good measure. The letters appears to be from Malice, mocking Nezznar for his feelings for his daughter, and his diary is him reflecting on his dealings since before the party even came to Wave Echo Cave.
Satisfied that they have taken what can be found, they decide to move on, making sure to discover any secrets hidden in the lair before leaving, as they realize that Nezznar won’t make an appearance on the account of his god most likely warning him to stay away. Behind the other locked doors they find a dark chamber populated only by a single casket. Within, they see the body of Malice, floating in some kind of fluid, looking peaceful. They soon realize that this is one of her clone bodies, so the party decides to make sure not to allow her to use it. Relic stabs her through the chest with the Arachnostaff, while Penny cuts off her head just to be sure.
The rest of the lair seems to be empty, but the party refills their bag of colding with supplies from the kitchen, and Relic finds a single diary in the chest of the drow house captain, containing a list of allies Malice has control over, among them Bamin of Maplemere, the mayor of Rivergrounds and the count of Cantalos. Disturbed by this, they take the book with them, making sure to show it to Thervan. They go to the top chamber of the lair, containing a teleportation circle which Relic commits to memory. While there, they ask the sisters if they know anything about Nezznar’s daughter that they can use, but they have only heard rumors, that she died long ago, but she definitely wasn’t a “nameless”, as some of Vuthul’s followers are, those who renounce their name to be more attuned to the cause. The priestess Faelrin spoke with was nameless for example. In the end, the sisters are unable to give much help to the party concerning the daughter, but they might help in other ways.
To her horror, she sees that the drows on the boat have found the corpses of the scouts, and are beginning to prepare to head into the lair to check. Working fast, Thistlethorn runs to the forest nearby, making owl calls to attract Argus and Ira, telling them to get into the bag of holding, as she wild shapes again to a rat, running towards the entrance, as the other drows begin to enter. She manages to deceive them into thinking she’s just a normal rat, and rounds the corner as they find the corps in the cave. She hurriedly returns to the party, telling them that they have company and have to leave, and that she saw a matron mother and another inquisitor on the way. Relic wastes no time, using the circle to teleport to Thervan, as Penny sent him a sending while they were waiting for Thistlethorn to return.
Safe
Waiting on them in the wizards quarters in Ravenhill Castle is Thervan, who greets the party and the two drow women who tagged along. Speaking in undercommon, he welcomes them to the castle and bows to them. He gestures for them and the party to follow, showing them to the apartment the party borrowed earlier, telling the drow to wash, change, eat and rest, and to call upon him when they are ready to talk.
Nezznar takes the party back to his office, where Bertram is waiting. He congratulates the party on their success in infiltrating Nezznar’s lair, but is disappointed to learn they did not manage to find and kill him. Both he and Thervan are sure that they can use the daughter somehow to lure Nezznar out of hiding, goading him to make a mistake, but they have to find him first. Thervan asks if they are going to go for the item (knife) first or if they wish to go for the key. They think the smartest would be the knife, but they will need some time to rest and recuperate before they head there. Thervan offers to plane shift them to the underdark when they are ready, and arranges for another apartment in the castle to keep them safe until they leave.
The party takes the rest of the day to peruse the city and prepare as best they can for the next part of the journey, finding the knife, and hopefully, ending Nezznar for good.